10 May 2010
The Houston Palestine Film Festival is proud to bring Houston another year of great films and thoughtful discussion with its fourth annual film festival. This year’s program encompasses a wide range of films that highlight the unique strength and struggle of the Palestinian people. Read more about Fourth annual Houston Palestine film fest opens this week
8 May 2010
On Sunday, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood will accept the Dan David Prize at Tel Aviv University and her portion of the $1 million payout that goes with it. Meanwhile, a mere 40 miles away, students in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip will still be struggling to find the ways and means to continue their educations. Kristin Szremski reports for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Defying appeal from Gaza students, Atwood set to accept Israeli prize
3 May 2010
GAZA CITY, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) - Football is the world’s most popular sport, boasting more than an estimated 2 billion fans. And despite its isolation from the world through Israel’s four-year-old blockade, the Gaza Strip is no exception. When a football match is on, tea and shisha cafes are packed with people gathered around the TV sets. Read more about Under siege, Gaza organizes its own World Cup
30 April 2010
From the very first page it is evident Palestinian author Adania Shibli’s new book Touch will be a different sort of journey, one that cannot be immediately defined, if at all. Patricia Sarrafian Ward reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book review: a different sort of journey in "Touch"
26 April 2010
The new book The Pen and the Sword — a collection of five interviews with Said conducted between 1987 and 1994 by David Barsamian, the founder of Alternative Radio — serves partly as a memoriam for Said himself and for the generation he represented. Robin Yassin-Kassab reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book review: Edward Said's commitment in conversation
19 April 2010
Despite Israel’s attempts to spin its 2008 Gaza invasion, global public opinion of Israel has sunk to an all-time low. In his latest book, “This Time We Went Too Far,” Norman Finkelstein argues that Gaza marked a turning point in public opinion reminiscent of the international reaction to the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa. Ziyaad Lunat reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book Review: Norman Finkelstein's "This time we went too far"
16 April 2010
One of a filmmaker’s primary roles in any inquiry is to illuminate the topic of the narrative through entertainment, information, posing challenges or any other kind of engagement. Simone Bitton’s Rachel, a new documentary about the death of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, struggles to do this. Jimmy Johnson reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Film Review: Simone Bitton's investigative documentary, "Rachel"
15 April 2010
Sometime early this decade the Israeli army issued a military order banning Palestinian musicians from using simile and metaphors. This order also prevented them from singing about anything but the occupation. Ok, that’s not actually true. But if your only contact with Palestinian music was through the documentary Checkpoint Rock you could be forgiven for coming to that conclusion. Jimmy Johnson reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Film review: Missed opportunities in "Checkpoint Rock"
13 April 2010
Edward Salem’s is not a conventional documentary in the sense that it doesn’t offer any one or series of narratives for the audience to follow. Impunity is instead best appreciated as a profound ethnography on the coping mechanisms of a people under siege and in the aftermath of the massive destruction of Operation Cast Lead. Jimmy Johnson writes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Film review: Uncovering truth and humor in Edward Salem's "Impunity"
13 April 2010
Michel Khleifi, the celebrated director of Wedding in Galilee, turns the camera inward in his 2009 feature film, Zindeeq (the meanings of which include “atheist” or “freethinker”), featured at the opening of the annual Chicago Palestine Film Festival this Friday. It is Khleifi’s first feature film in 14 years; his most recent film was the 2003 documentary he filmed in collaboration with Eyal Sivan, Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel. The Electronic Intifada’s Maureen Clare Murphy reviews. Read more about Film review: Surreal struggle in Michel Khleifi's "Zindeeq"