On Saturday evening Barbara and Grant invited me to a prayer meeting. Before going there we drove over into Israel to pick up an American woman, Joanne. On the way back we passed a group of Palestinians standing at the side of the road. ‘Stop!’ Joanne cried. ‘I want to witness. Stop! Stop!’ Barbara rammed on the brakes. ‘I’ve got some leaflets with me,’ Joanne explained. ‘Whenever I see Palestinians I give them leaflets so that they can learn about the word of the Lord.’ She brought a sheaf of papers out of her bag and opened the door. I jumped out after her, keen to witness this ‘witnessing’. Joanne was thrusting her leaflets into the hands of the Palestinians, speaking to them in English about the love of Jesus. Read more about From the Mouth of the Lion's Den
Let me begin by stating that any successful academic boycott imposed upon Israeli institutions of higher education will assuredly have an impact on the academic freedom of Israeli scholars and teachers, at least in terms of its expression beyond their national borders. Is this acceptable? After all, other teachers and scholars who obviously have a stake in academic freedom, will have to cooperate with the boycott if it is to have an impact. As one of those academics, my answer to this question is that it is not only acceptable but absolutely necessary. Read more about Why an academic boycott of Israel is necessary
Yasmina Khadra is the pseudonym for Mohamed Moulessehoul, a former Algerian army officer who decided to write under his wife’s name to avoid army censorship. He was in Sydney last year for the Writers’ Festival, at which he spoke about his novel The Swallows of Kabul. It was set in Afghanistan, but he confessed that he had never been there before, and I couldn’t help but wonder how he described the land and the atmosphere of oppression. Reading The Attack, I wondered the same thing. While there is little description of surroundings, and Khadra is a very capable writer, I doubted he had ever been there. This doesn’t weaken the book so much as emphasise that his narration is an outsider’s voice. Read more about Book review: "The Attack: A Novel"
PACBI is pleased to announce that in a letter that appears in today’s Guardian, the 94, including the renowned author John Berger; UK musicians and song-writers Brian Eno and Leon Rosselson; filmmakers Sophie Fiennes, Elia Suleiman and Haim Bresheeth; documentary maker Jenny Morgan; singer Reem Kelani; writers Arundhati Roy, Ahdaf Soueif, and Eduardo Galeano, call on their colleagues not to visit, exhibit or perform in Israel. The letter comes after the August 2006 statement issued by Palestinian filmmakers, artists, writers, and other cultural workers calling for a cultural boycott of Israel. Read more about John Berger and 93 other authors, film-makers, musicians and performers call for a cultural boycott of Israel
“The ideology that Avigdor Lieberman subscribes to that is an ethnic cleansing ideology. Someone who believes that the only way to solving the problems in Israel/Palestine is by expelling the Palestinians from Israel and any territory Israel covets. I think the problem with Avigdor Lieberman is not his own views but the fact that he reflects what most Israeli Jews think, and definitely what most of his colleagues in the Olmert government think but don’t dare to say, or don’t think is desirable to say for tactical reasons. But I do think that we should be worried about Lieberman, not as an extreme fascist but rather as a person who represents the mood of Israel in 2006.” Read more about A rare voice: An interview with author Ilan Pappe
Katie Barlow’s documentary Visit Palestine was one of the most riveting films to be featured in this year’s Chicago Palestine Film Festival. In the film Barlow follows Irish human rights activist Caoimhe (pronounced Cueeva) Butterly during her stay in Jenin refugee camp in 2002. Among her extensive involvement in the Jenin community, Butterly worked with local volunteers shortly after the 2002 massacre, unearthing the bodies of over sixty civilians who had been killed in the incursion. Butterly’s willingness to risk her own safety to intervene in and witness the ongoing assault on Palestinian civilian life gained her the respect and trust of Jenin residents, as she was welcomed into the homes of several families. Read more about Film Review: "Visit Palestine" and gain an insider's view
The artists of Palestine will step out of a dream and into reality as the launch of the project to establish International Academy of Art Palestine takes place on Thursday, December 7, 2006. “Art is of vital importance in national identity-building. It helps to build bridges, plays a part in social development and inspires people to reflect on their situation. This is why the opening of the Academy in Ramallah is such an important occasion,” said the Norwegian Minster of International Development, Erik Solheim. Important for IAAP is maintaining the collective Palestinian memory, history and identity by offering the local population and the international community new images of Palestine and Palestinians. Read more about Launch of the International Academy of Art Palestine
“People don’t know anything about us. That’s why we’re doing comedy,” New York Arab-American Comedy Festival co-founder Dean Obeidallah explained at the Festival’s opening night at the Gotham Comedy Club on 14 November 2006. Following sold-out shows in previous years, the 4th Annual Festival extended to six nights, featuring two stand-up comedy nights, a short film night, and three sketch comedy theatre nights (to which a fourth show was added and sold out as well). The week kicked off with a press conference held by the New York Foreign Press Center of the — no joke — U.S. State Department. Read more about Jihad, hummous and airport security: It's the Arab Comedy Festival, of course!
Suzanne Klotz is the creator of Thy Kingdom Come — Pocket Guide to the Holy Land, a vividly coloured book of captioned drawings that portray Israeli-occupied Palestine as she saw it between 1990 and 1995. To describe this work is in a sense to add a fourth lens to the view of the Israeli occupation and the associated war crimes being committed to perpetuate it, because the book is the artist’s vision of images seen through the naive eyes of an imaginary American tourist woman and her little daughter who arrive in the Holy Land excited to explore it. Read more about Artist Suzanne Klotz's Indispensable Guide to the Holy Land
IBRAS Arab American Theater Collective is preparing for an event at the New York Theatre Workshop featuring plays and playwrights focusing on Palestine, and is seeking plays and playwrights to contribute to this event. Founded in June 2001, Nibras is an Arab-American theater collective built upon a shared passion and united by a common heritage. Our mission is to create a network for Arab-American theater artists to share their talent, experience and passion by staging imaginative and articulate productions that increase the positive visibility and creative expression of Arabs and Arab-Americans. Read more about Plays on Palestine sought for new Nibras theater project
