Randa Abdel-Fattah’s new novel for young people, Where the Streets Had a Name, is an engaging family story deftly that weaves together every iconic element of Palestinian disenfranchisement — land titles, checkpoints, curfews, the general frustrations of daily life — along with jokes, arguments and repeated stories which keep people going. Lost olive trees and the profound and irrevocable sense of time and haunted belonging, are in place by page 20. And they all ring very very true. Naomi Shihab Nye reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Wisdom and laughter in a child's view of Palestine
Using what they call the “simplest language,” the Eltiqa Group for Contemporary Art seeks to challenge the harsh obstacles of life in their native Gaza: “we color life for the others.” In the past month some of their work has reached London as part of a new exhibition organized by the UK Palestine Solidarity Campaign in association with the A.M. Qattan Foundation. Occupied Space 2008: Art for Palestine brought together over 100 works not only from Palestinian artists, but from those across the globe from Algeria, Tunisia and Jordan to the UK to China. Isabelle Humphries reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about "Occupied Space 2008" adds Palestinian color to London's art world
In April 2003, the 21-year-old Tom Hurndall was shot in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. The Israeli authorities absurdly claimed “that a Palestinian gunman wearing fatigues had been shooting a pistol at a watchtower and had been targeted by a member of the Israeli Defense Force [‘IDF’].” His mother Jocelyn, the author of the harrowing memoir, My Son Tom - The Life and Tragic Death of Tom Hurndall (with Hazel Wood), travels to Israel. At the Soroka Hospital in Beersheva she recognizes her comatose son “despite the bandages surrounding [his] dreadfully swollen head, covering [his] eyes.” Raymond Deane reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about "My Son Tom": Mother continues the solidarity that Israeli bullets cut short
A Country of Words: from the Refugee Camps to the Front Page is a remarkable Palestinian memoir, exceptional because of its abundance of compassion, humor and humility. Its author is Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based Arabic-language daily al-Quds al-Arabi who also wrote The Secret History of al-Qa’ida. Individuals have their own lives and create their own narratives, and for Atwan, his story begins in Palestine. Atef Alshaer reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Book review: Abdel Bari Atwan's "Country of Words"
In his new feature film, Laila’s Birthday, director Rashid Masharawi paints a bittersweet picture of life in the West Bank city of Ramallah. There, Masharawi’s main character, Abu Laila (played by the legendary Palestinian actor Mohammad Bakri), struggles to make ends meet as a taxi driver while attempting to get a license to work as a judge from the bureaucratic Palestinian Authority. EI’s Maureen Clare Murphy reviews. Read more about Film review: Absurd humor succeeds in "Laila's Birthday"
Israel’s one-sided war on the Palestinian people continues unabated while mountains books on the subject are being written, published, read and sometimes reviewed. EI contributor Raymond Deane assess whether two new volumes on Israel’s occupation, Neve Gordon’s Israel’s Occupation and Saree Makdisi’s Palestine Inside Out, present a radically new perspective or have the potential to influence public opinion in the right direction. Read more about Book review: Israel's occupation, inside out
No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list — and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel's surprising best seller contradicts founding ideology
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"
