on cultural resistance and anti-normalization

day two of the palestine festival of literature was far less dramatic than day one, thankfully. of course, this is because it was held at the khalil sakakini cultural center in ramallah and not at the palestinian national theatre in al quds (though it is scheduled to return there for the closing night’s ceremony). when [...]

wwjd?

so palestine is buzzing about pope benedict xvi’s visit. all i can say is that i’m staying as far away from al quds and beit lahem as i can until he leaves. my friend from beit lahem came to spend the weekend with me and on her way out of town thursday night she told [...]

only on the stage is there justice for palestinians

palestinian children in gaza put on a theatrical performance last week of a war crimes tribunal against the zionist entity for the massacre it committed in gaza. the play entitled murder of children was performed in gaza city by the young journalists club and was written by ghassan radwan. unfortunately one audience member seems to [...]

on education as liberation

friday morning a friend of mine had to make a delivery to nablus for work and offered to drive me down to beit lahem afterward so i decided to go back with him. my friend who i went to visit is a graduate student at al quds university in the european studies program. she has [...]

gaza & zionism

dr. mads gilbert was on grit tv with laura flanders this week. the interview is excellent on a number of levels–for his specificity about war crimes he witnessed by israeli terrorists while working in al shifa hospital in gaza, for his analysis of the situation on the political level. i can never get enough listening [...]

on the right to education

in palestine there is something called the right to education campaign. the strongest such campaign exists at birzeit university, the flagship palestinian university. the birzeit campaign is the only one with its own website that updates people on news related to the right to education on their campus, elsewhere around the country–including in 1948 palestine–and [...]

on the criminals who escape prosecution

there was some really disturbing reporting on the situation of the tamils in sri lanka the past few days. here is an update from david chater on al jazeera: i wish that al jazeera posted not only their reports in the field, but also the discussions that follow the reports live in the studio. because [...]

when the war criminals are also the judge & jury

check out these two reports from al jazeera on the plight of tamils in sri lanka. the first is by imran khan and the second by harry fawcett. it is striking how much the situation of tamils trapped under the shelling of the sri lankan army looks just like palestinians in gaza trapped by the [...]

on the jewish state

the other night kamal santamaria hosted a discussion of “obstacles to peace” in al jazeera’s “inside story” with david mack, mustafa bargouthi, and israeli terrorist shmuel sandler. the discussion is an interesting one, though i wish al jazeera would change the framework of their discussions to include concepts like justice and ideas like the one-state [...]

on prisoners and martyrs

yesterday was palestinian prisoners day, but it did not feel like it. or did it? under normal circumstances i would have gone to one of the demonstrations. instead, i spent the afternoon with the jaber and karaki families in their house in the sa’adiyya neighborhood of the old city. there were many people in the [...]