It is inspirational to find Palestine richly meditated in poetry. Two new poetry collections provide a robust testament to that — One collection is by the Palestinian-American poet Sharif S. Elmusa, Flawed Landscape, and the other is made of selected works by various poets edited by Remi Kanazi, Poets for Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Palestine in verse: "Flawed Landscape" and "Poets for Palestine" reviewed
Premiering in March 2009, the Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival will showcase films about Palestine and by Palestinian directors. Educating through the screen arts, the film festival amplifies the voice of the Palestinian people as a nation and a diaspora. This film festival is an independent and non-sectarian organization. Read more about Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival call for submissions
Jackie Salloum’s invigorating new documentary Slingshot Hip Hop portrays the story of three aspiring Palestinian musicians from the rap group DAM as they develop their talent in their bedrooms and take it to standing-room-only crowds throughout historic Palestine. Maureen Clare Murphy reviews this most recommended film for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Film review: "Slingshot Hip Hop"
In his foreword setting the historical and political context for the book, a useful and important document in itself, Jonathan Cook describes A Doctor in Galilee as “a key text for scholars, diplomats and journalists.” This it certainly is, but it is a very great deal more. It is, in fact, a work of literature of the highest quality. Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book Review: "A Doctor in Galilee"
Sixty years after the dispossession of the Palestinian people, Poets For Palestine, a unique collection of poetry, spoken word, hip-hop, and art has been released. Unifying a diverse range of poets who have used their words to elevate the consciousness of humanity, this book aims to bridge a younger generation of poets with those who, for decades, have cultivated and strengthened the poetic medium. Read more about Book release: "Poets for Palestine"
Dr. Sami greeted the journalist at the ticket office. “Welcome,” he said. “Please come this way.” He began a tour of the zoo, first heading north up the zoo’s main avenue, past the dry fountain, the restaurant, and a dusty playground. At the top, he introduced Ruti, his prize giraffe. Read more of an excerpt from Amelia Thomas’ new book, The Zoo on the Road to NablusRead more about The zoo on the road to Nablus
“The moment I stepped into the camps here in Lebanon, I thought I was in Palestine,” Arab-American filmmaker Jackie Salloum said after a 6 August nighttime screening in the Shatila refugee camp of her documentary, Slingshot Hip Hop. “I hope people living in Beirut come to see the film,” Salloum said anxiously before a previous screening on 5 August in the Burj al-Barajne refugee camp. Read more about Slingshot Hip Hop comes to Lebanon
Because its contributors — sociologists, historians, legal experts and cultural critics — work from within an activist perspective, the new volume Thinking Palestine should be read closely by serious pro-Palestinian activists wishing to sharpen their conceptual tools in the ceaseless battle against Zionist propaganda. Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book review: "Thinking Palestine"
My journey began, unexpectedly, in a Nazi concentration camp, Majdenek, outside what was once a Jewish town called Lublin. During my last visit, I was moved by a group of visitors who had probably lost relatives there. They planted small Israeli flags on the ground outside. I was confused by this image, pondering how that blue and white flag has become so blood-drenched since its creation. I began to wonder about the next stage in the tragic history of that period — the creation of Israel and its consequences. Jane Frere writes about the motivation behind her exhibition Return of the Soul. Read more about The Nakbah Project: A nightmare of shattered lives
Accounts by Western travelers coming to the “Holy Land,” later used by Zionists to justify their colonization, also compelled Raja Shehadeh to provide a counter-narrative, in Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape. “The accounts I have read do not describe a land familiar to me,” Shehadeh writes, “but rather a land of these travelers’ imaginations. Palestine has been constantly reinvented, with devastating consequences to its original inhabitants.” Lora Gordon reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Taking you home: "Palestinian Walks"
