on creativity in gaza

there is an amazing slideshow on the bbc website of palestinians building mud brick homes given the fact that cement and other basic supplies are banned from entering gaza (click this link to see the rest–the homes are beautiful). djallal malti reported on this for afp:
All of Amer Aliyan’s hopes of rebuilding his life are [...]

on art imitating life

take a look at the above illustration. it was drawn by a young girl in gaza. the image shows an israeli terrorist as the grim reaper murdering a palestinian. and there are many more such drawings where that one came from. it is not because palestinians are educated to hate israelis as some people (read: [...]

never forgive, never forget

okay so i lied. just one more post before my weekend begins. i listened to flashpoints in the service on my way down to ramallah. and i just gotta say: i fucking love nora barrows-friedman. there is really no other media outlet like flashpoints in the united states. and not just because of what the [...]

on eviction

tomorrow is the eid al adha holiday so i have the week off from school. i left my house yesterday morning to head towards beit lahem, but i decided to spend some time in al quds so i could visit with a friend, see an art exhibit i had wanted to see, and go book [...]

الشهداء

a dear friend wrote to me today to share with me a new mural they are putting up in deheishe refugee camp. these are all students who are using their own money to do so. no sponsorship from any political–or any other kind of–organization. this is a mural of the martyrs of deheishe of which [...]

duality; or what it means to destroy a culture

Whenever I’m in Jordan I find myself confronted by thoughts of dual occupation. Of two wars. Of two significant refugee populations. And of the two powers most responsible for these problems: Americans and Zionist Jews (of course originally we can blame the British too). This map that appeared on Palestine Think Tank accompanied by an [...]

cleavage points

I have been studying Arabic again. I’m not taking a class now, but I’m trying to be diligent about working through a book every night and studying the vocabulary and grammar lessons. I find language textbooks extremely frustrating. I particularly loath Arabic textbooks that use transliteration. I was using Speak Lebanese by Maksoud Feghali earlier [...]

films, films, and more films

I made it to Beirut after spending a week in Sham and Halab. It was great seeing more of Syria, but it was insanely hot and difficult walking around during the day. Halab is beautiful with so many parks and green spaces in the city (picture to the left is a view of Halab from [...]

Bourj al Barajneh Opening & Exhibition

Please join us for the opening of our new children’s activities center
& for the exhibition of Lebanese artist Randa Mirza’s “Abandoned Rooms”
Friday, August 10th at 6 PM
Bourj al Barajneh refugee camp
For more information & directions please contact Fadi fadi_dabaja[at]hotmail.com
bourj al barajneh opening

The more things change…

Guerrilla Girls @ Istanbul Modern Originally uploaded by marcynewman.
For the past few days my intention was to write a follow-up post to my week in Turkey because I wanted to describe the amazing things I saw in Istanbul on my second (sunny, non-snowy) day walking around [...]