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Related
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Addar Cultural & Conference Center
Located in the heart of the old city of Bethlehem and the up-to-date facilities, ad-Dar Cultural and Conference Centeris a unique place for local, national and international concerts, theatre, film screenings, performances, conferences and encounters.
Al Rowwad Children’s Theater Comes to Vermont!
AL-KASABA Theatre and Cinematheque
AL-KASABA Theatre and Cinematheque in Ramallah is a non-governmental cultural specialized organization established in 1970. It aims at the activation of cultural life in Palestine, and enhancing the cultural exchange between local, Arab and International cultures, through the production of its own theatrical work as well as through hosting art performances, activities, and training courses in most fields of art.
Al-Rowwad Center
Al-Rowwad Center is an Independent Center for artistic, cultural, and theatre training for children in Aida Camp trying to provide a "safe" and healthy environment to help children creativity and discharge of stress in the war conditions they are forced to live in.
ASHTAR
ASHTAR for Theatre Productions and Training - a non-profit NGO that was established in 1991 in Jerusalem, to launch the first theatre-training program directed at school students. . . In 1995, it inaugurated its second base in Ramallah and prepared it for the service of its aims and programs.
Defence for Children International - Palestine
DCI/PS is dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as in other international human rights instruments - and to facilitating the creation of an environment which is aware of and respects children’s rights.
Handala Project
The Handala Project is about art and activism. "At first he was a Palestinian child, but his consciousness developed to have a national and then a global and human horizon. He is a simple yet tough child, and this is why people adopted him and felt that he represents their consciousness. " -- Naji-Al-Ali
International Center of Bethlehem
Dar Annadwa Addawliyya -- The ICB is a Lutheran-based, ecumenically-oriented institution serving the whole Palestinian community. The programs of the Center serve the entire community from “the womb to the tomb”, with an emphasis on children, youth and women. Through empowering the local community, developing human resources, cultivating artistic talents, and facilitating intercultural encounters, the ICB actively promotes the building of Palestinian civil society.
Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre Foundation
The Khalil Sakakini Cultural Centre Foundation is a non- governmental, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of arts and culture in Palestine. The Sakakini Centre was founded in 1996, and is located in Ramallah in a restored traditional mansion. The Sakakini works in three areas: The visual arts, Palestinian identity & narrative, and holding regular public activities such as: Art exhibits, concerts, literary events, film screenings, children’s activities, & lectures.
KinderUSA
KinderUSA is dedicated to: Providing assistance to children and their families of both manmade and natural disasters, as well as to victims of armed conflict without regard to race, religion, or political affiliation. Conducting our humanitarian missions with complete impartiality and neutrality irrespective of political and economic realities. Our current focus is on the forgotten children of Palestine.
Middle East Children’s Alliance
The Middle East Children’s Alliance is a non-governmental organization, working for peace and justice in the Middle East; focusing on Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Iraq.
Mosaic Foundation
The Mosaic Foundation is a charitable and educational organization founded by the spouses of Arab Ambassadors to the United States. The Mosaic Foundation is dedicated to improving the lives of women and children, while fostering cultural, educational, and professional dialogues between the peoples of the Arab world and the United States.
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund was established in 1991 by concerned people in the U. S. to address the medical and humanitarian crisis facing Palestinian youths in the Middle East.
Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund
The Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund was established by a group of individuals whose goals are to improve the living standards of the children of Palestine in the refugee camps inside Palestine.
Palestinian Child Arts Center
The Palestinian Child Arts Center, or PCAC, is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in 1994 in the Palestinian city of Hebron. Its activities primarily involve the intellectual development of Palestinian children, and to reinforce a positive role for the child within Palestinian society and culture.
Palestinian National Theatre
The Palestinian National Theatre (PNT) is a Palestinian non profit cultural institution which strives to create and to develop a unique cultural life in Jerusalem, by way of producing and presenting artistic, educational and entertaining programs that reflect the aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Palestinian Theater Photos
Steve Sabella Photography, online gallery
Playgrounds for Palestine
Playgrounds for Palestine is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to building playgrounds and recreation areas for Palestinian children living under military occupation.
Popular Art Centre
The Popular Art Centre (PAC) is a Palestinian NGO, founded in 1987 during the first Intifada by EL-Funoun, the Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. The aim was to provide a forum for local dance groups, musicians and artists. The PAC quickly became the leading cultural centre in the West Bank.
Promotion of Popular Theatre in Development
Civil Society Development And Capacity Building - (2004-2006) -- Popular Theater is a unique educational approach that started with the work and writings of Brazilian artist and educator Augusto Boal. Popular Theater is a highly dynamic, provocative, interactive tool intended to increase awareness, initiate change, or modify attitudes and actions.
Qattan Centre for the Child, Gaza
On Saturday 1st October 2005, the Qattan Centre for the Child in Gaza finally began providing its cultural, recreational, training and information services to children up to the age of fifteen, as well as to their parents and carers. The Centre includes a free comprehensive library featuring more than 82,000 volumes, children’s learning materials, an information technology unit, an exhibition centre and halls for training and recreational events.
The Freedom Theatre
The members of the "Freedom Theatre" Association wish to announce that we intend to rebuild the children’s theatre in the Jenin Refugee Camp which was established by Arna Mer Khamis and was destroyed by the Israeli Army in 2002.
Yabous Productions
In 1995, a number of artists, culture enthusiasts from East Jerusalem decided to create a body to adopt the development and patronage of performing arts in East Jerusalem, thus Yabous Productions was born.
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| A Palestinian
boy shows off to his friends his collection of tear gas canisters and rubber bullets,
after the departure of Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron, Saturday,
Aug. 23, 2003. |
'We're
trapped ... books free our minds'
By Conal Urquhart, The Guardian, December 11, 2005
Nadeen cradles her folder. She carefully lays it on the
table and takes out four books, a notebook, a pencil and what looks like a passport.
The 'passport', she says, contains a list of the books she has read recently.
She enjoys holding the books and turning them around in her
hands and pointing out characters.
Nadeen Hawareen, aged seven, from Ramallah is one of thousands
of Palestinian children who are offered lessons, books and activities by the Tamer
Institute. She has been taught to use the books to trigger her imagination. She
can paint what happens in her books or act out scenes with her friends.
Tamer was founded in 1989 during the first intifada, when Palestinian
children needed an education despite school closures and curfews. The Israeli
army, surprised by the Palestinian protest, took brutal measures to regain control,
breaking the bones of stone throwers and closing Palestinian areas.
Jehan Helou, the institute's director, said: 'Local communities
and civil society tried to find ways of compensating for the closure of schools
to ensure that a generation did not grow up illiterate. It tried to be informal,
in contrast to the traditional style in schools, and to encourage the seeking
of knowledge through reading, creative writing, drama and art.'
more..
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| Palestinian
girls look at an Israeli soldier while waiting for permission to get into the
Ibraheemi mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron April 21, 2005 |
How
to suffocate a people
By Lynda Wafi and Saud Abu Ramadan, Middle East Times, August 14, 2003
Raed Zeid, a six-year-old Palestinian boy from the village of
Toura Al Sharqeya, west of the northern West Bank town of Jenin, used to carry
his schoolbag and walk to the adjacent village of Nazlet Zeid, where his elementary
school is located. He ignored Israeli bulldozers and workers building the security
fence between the West Bank and Israel.
Every day, he crossed on foot vast areas of land that were being
leveled and razed by the Israeli army, and passed Israeli army machinery. He was
indifferent to what was happening.
One cool, sunny morning, Raed left his home as usual and started
his morning walk to school, but when he returned, there was a big fence separating
him from the solitary house that was built in line with the Jewish settlement
of Shakid.
Despite international opposition to the security wall, Israel
has continued to build it between the West Bank and Gaza. The wall is not situated
on the 1967 borders between the occupied territories and Israel; it has been constructed
where a vast area of Palestinian property has been confiscated and villages isolated
from the Palestinian community.
That day, Raed did not know what to do. He searched for a gap
in the fence, but there was not even enough space for a cat to cross. He grabbed
the fence with his small hands and shook it as hard as he could, but still it
was there and his home unreachable.
Nael Zeid, Raed's father, said that discovering the fence
left a psychological impact on his child. He has lost concentration in class,
and fear crosses his face when he sees armored vehicles and Israeli troops working
on the fence. more..
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Amid continued IOF escalation, the number of victims rises in Gaza
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, ReliefWeb 5/5/2008
The number of victims killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has increased amid continued escalation of its attacks on, and incursions into, the Gaza Strip recently. According to Al Mezan Center’s monitoring and documentation, the IOF stepped up its human rights violations and committed breaches of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) systematically in the Gaza Strip.
According to Al Mezan’s statistics, 69 Palestinians have been killed by the IOF in the Gaza Strip since the start of April 2008. Of them, twenty were children and one was a woman. This brings the toll of Gazans killed by the IOF since the beginning of 2008 to 316; including 62 children and16 women. During the same period the IOF carried out 30 incursions into the Gaza Strip. During these incursions, 127 Palestinians were detained; 17 of them are still under detention. more.. e-mail
Bishara’s wife delayed at border crossing
Sharon Roffe-Ofir, YNetNews 5/5/2008
Rana Bishara delayed for several hours at Jordan River border crossing while en route to Israel, questioned by Shin Bet investigators. MK Zahalka files outraged complaint accusing security agency of taking out frustrations on ’innocent woman’ - MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad)
filed a complaint against the Israeli Port Authority on Monday claiming the wife of former MK Azmi Bishara, Rana, was detained at the Jordan River Crossing for several long hours." If the Shin Bet is frustrated it has been unsuccessful in imprisoning Bishara, it has no right to exact revenge on his wife and children," said Zahalka. Rana Bishara, who currently resides with her husband in Rabat Amon, was on her way to visit relatives in Israel. She and two of her children were let through the Jordanian side of the border but upon their arrival at the Israeli side, Bishara was informed she was being delayed as a person in contact with a recognized threat against national security. more.. e-mail
Return to Haifa’ repackaged for Israeli theatres
Middle East Online 5/1/2008
A Jewish couple raises an abandoned Palestinian child. Decades later the boy’s two mothers meet, and, after an agonizing and high-octane exchange, they tentatively embrace.
The scene is charged with symbolism, heightened by the fact it comes from an Israeli stage production of a Palestinian novella, and is performed by a Jewish and Arab cast to mark Israel’s 60th birthday.
"The Return to Haifa", a provocative new play by one of Israel’s leading theatres, explores the personal suffering behind the decades-old Middle East conflict, from both an Israeli and Palestinian perspective.
"What’s so special about this production is that it gives an arena for people of both sides to listen to each other’s narratives," director Sinai Peter said ahead of the opening night in Jaffa, south of central Tel Aviv.
Through the stories of two couples and one child, the play evokes sympathy. . . more.. e-mail
Six family houses searched in night time incursion to Kufr Qadum village
International Womens’ Peace Service 4/28/2008
Date of incident: 27. 04. 2008 - Place: Kufr Qadum, Qalqilya District - Witness/es: family members, municipality - Description of Incident: Shortly after midnight on Sunday the 27. 04. 2008 the Israeli army entered Kufr Qadum village with at least 25 vehicles. Soldiers entered and unsuccessfully searched six family houses for weapons. A young man was detained for about two to three hours before being released. IWPS volunteers interviewed one of the effected families, who gave the following account of the event: Soldiers with painted faces came to the house of the family after midnight. Initially they ordered the family of eleven, including nine children aged between 2 ½ and 16, to leave the house during the search. The father successfully refused, arguing the small children were afraid and cold. The army then forced the family to stay in one room instead, while proceeding to search the rest of the house. more.. e-mail
Ahrar center appeals for ending administrative detainee’s suffering
Palestinian Information Center 4/28/2008
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Ahrar center for prisoners’ studies appealed to all international human rights organizations to urgently intervene to end the suffering of Mahmoud Al-Musalima, 48, the second oldest serving administrative detainee in Israeli jails. The Ahrar center explained that Musalima, who is held in the Negev desert prison, is suffering from hypertension and severe stomachache. Fuad Al-Khafash, the director of the center, stated that the Israeli military courts extended Musalima’s administrative detention 14 times under many pretexts, most notably that he poses danger to security in the region. Khafash pointed out that that the detainee, who was previously detained for 10 years in Israeli jails, had been deprived from meeting his five children for 15 years, where most of them became university students. more.. e-mail
Nafha: ''Occupation forces kidnapped 250 Palestinians in April''¯
Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 4/26/2008
Media Office of the Nafha Society for Defending Detainees Rights and Human Rights published a report on Saturday stating that Israeli occupation forces kidnapped 250 Palestinians since the beginning of April. The Society added that 90 of the kidnapped residents were from Nablus, and the rest were from Hebron, Bethlehem, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilia and Salfit. The Society said that soldiers kidnapped 40 children and two women in April. The two women aged 20 and 28 are from Hebron and Balata refugee camp in Nablus. 11 of the kidnapped children are from Nablus, 10 are from Tulkarem, 6 are from Hebron, 3 from Salfit, 2 from Qalqilia, one from Bethlehem and one from Jenin. The Society added that soldiers also kidnapped a political analyst identified as Ali Jaradat after breaking into his home in Ramallah, and also kidnapped Hazim Dweik, the son of the detained head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. more.. e-mail
STC: Incarceration conditions of Palestinian children in Israeli jails shocking
Palestinian Information Center 4/26/2008
LONDON, (PIC)-- Britain-based Save the Children organization revealed facts described as "shocking" related to incarceration conditions of Palestinian children in Israeli occupation jails, pointing out that the most disturbing phenomenon observed by international organization was that Israel arrests children and issues sentences against them harsher than others. According to the organization, the IOF troops kidnapped 6,000 Palestinian children since the beginning of the Aqsa Intifada eight years ago, and there are currently more than 320 children detained in Israeli jails, adding that the IOA detains on average about 700 children every year. Greg Ram, the deputy director of international operations of the organization, underlined that the Israeli measures represented by the arrest of Palestinian children even for simple reasons deprive hundreds of them from enjoying their natural rights. more.. e-mail
Gaza’s children use art to resist occupation
Yousef Joudeh, Palestine News Network 4/23/2008
Gaza - The children of Gaza are using their drawings and paintings in another attempt to reach out to the world. Supported by the Ministry of Education, school students of all ages gathered at the Ministry’s headquarters in Gaza in the presence of high ranking officials and dignitaries to open their Art Exhibition. The children’s paintings and drawings expressed the pain and suffering felt by Gaza’s students as a result of the Israeli siege. The paintings also expressed the different effects the siege has had on people’s lives, the problems they face, their sorrow and anger, and their hopes for the future. One of the paintings showed a mother holding her slaughtered child. Others showed children demonstrating and demanding the opening of borders, an ambulance driver riding a donkey stamped with the Red Cross sign with a wounded child on its back,. . . more.. e-mail
Israeli Army invades Marda village, mass interrogates youth, arrests two
International Womens’ Peace Service 4/22/2008
Date of incident: 22. 04. 2008 - Place: Marda, Salfit District - Witness/es: Family members/IWPS team members - Description of Incident: At approximately 3 am on Tuesday, 22nd April 2008, the Israeli Army and Israeli intelligence service, the Shin Bet (aka the Shabak) entered the village of Marda with at least 16 military vehicles. They broke down the door of a house located next to the village’s schools, taking over the top floor of the house and the roof, confining the Palestinian family of six (3 adults and 3 children) to the lower floor. Over the next several hours the military and the Shabak invaded numerous houses through out the village, throwing sound bombs at some of them and randomly detaining young boys and men between the ages of 14 and 25 for interrogation at the occupied house. IWSP team members arrived at the village at 9am, after receiving a call from one of the village leaders. more.. e-mail
Reconciling conscription
Shahar Ilan, Ha’aretz 4/21/2008
At the end of 2000, the ultra-Orthodox Degel Hatorah daily Yated Ne’eman published a flustered apology: "Unfortunately, in the Friday edition an ad appeared that has no place in Yated Ne’eman," it read. The problem was neither immodesty nor leavening, as the paper clarified: "The ad was sent by a group that seeks reconciliation between the secular and the religious," the paper explained, shocked at itself. "We apologize to readers for the mishap. Steps have been taken so it will not recur. "And what is so dangerous about reconciliation? "We must clarify," the paper wrote, "that any Jew who believes in the 13 Articles of Faith can never acquire a friendship with those who deny faith in the Creator of the world. . . We can never forget nor can we reconcile with secularism, which moved hundreds of thousands of children from religious education to an education of forced conversion from Judaism through deception and corruption. more.. e-mail
Provocative new play evokes sympathy for Jews, Palestinians
Reuters, Ha’aretz 4/15/2008
A Jewish couple raises an abandoned Palestinian child. Decades later the boy’s two mothers meet, and, after an agonising and high-octane exchange, they tentatively embrace. The scene is charged with symbolism, heightened by the fact it comes from an Israeli stage production of a Palestinian novella, and is performed by a Jewish and Arab cast to mark Israel’s 60th birthday. "The Return to Haifa", a provocative new play by one of Israel’s leading theatres, explores the personal suffering behind the decades-old Middle East conflict, from both an Israeli and Palestinian perspective. "What’s so special about this production is that it gives an arena for people of both sides to listen to each other’s narratives," director Sinai Peter told Reuters ahead of the opening night in Jaffa, south of central Tel Aviv. more.. e-mail
Israeli forces storm home of former Palestinian minister near Hebron
Ma’an News Agency 4/14/2008
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli forces stormed home of imprisoned former Palestinian minister and Hamas-affiliated lawmaker Nayif Rajoub in the southern West Bank town of Dura, west of Hebron, on Monday, witnesses said. Rajoub’s family said heavily-armed Israeli soldiers surrounded the house at 1am, throwing stones at the windows, smashing several of them. Rajoub’s wife, Umm Hudhayfa, told Ma’an that the soldiers forced the family into the street and ransacked the house. The soldiers confiscated green Hamas flags, 1,500 Jordanian Dinars, 3,000 NIS, and her children’s savings. Rajoub, the former minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs, was detained by Israel in June 2006, and has been imprisoned ever since. He was elected in the Hebron district in the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections. more.. e-mail
Two houses in Marda village searched by Israeli Army, 14 year old boy detained for six hours, beaten
International Womens’ Peace Service 4/14/2008
Human Rights Report No. 343 - Date of incident: 14. 04. 2008 - Place: Marda, Salfit District - Witness/es: Family members/IWPS team members - Description of Incident: Around 4 O’clock in the afternoon of Monday April the 14th 2008 the Israeli Army entered the village of Marda with several jeeps. They set up a checkpoint in the centre of the village and searched two family houses, detaining a 14 year old boy from one of the houses. According to the mother of the first house, six children aging between 4 and 16 were alone at home, and to frightened to open when several soldiers were banging at the door. The mother of the house, who was visiting relatives living near by, was notified by the neighbours and came to open the door from the outside. The soldiers then immediately stormed into the house, searching the house and taking the children to the roof for about 1 ½ hours. more.. e-mail
Right-wing? I call it Zionist
Lily Galili, Ha’aretz 4/15/2008
We met in order to find out whether an immigrant photographer sees Israel differently from a veteran photographer - its landscapes, its people, the light and the color of the new country. The question is valid, as many of the hundreds of photographs that David Rabkin displays on his Internet site are devoted to this country. . . Rabkin’s goals are identical to those of Moshe Feiglin, the leader of the right-wing Jewish Leadership Movement, now a part of the Likud, with which Rabkin identifies. Feiglin’s book was Rabkin’s entry ticket into Israeliness and since then he has been there. However, Feiglin’s Jewish Leadership is just one circle of belonging. There is also the Ma’of group of Russian-speaking intellectuals from the radical right; there is a group of bloggers that numbers among its members Larissa Trimbobler, Yigal Amir’s wife and the mother of his child; there is the Jabotinsky Circle, more.. e-mail
Rabbi Metzger: Abuse stems from distortion of Kabbalah
Neta Sela, YNetNews 4/14/2008
Chief rabbi addresses child abuse affair in Jerusalem, says ’this is horrifying proof of what unsupervised Kabbalah studies can lead to’ - The disastrous results of unsupervised Kabbalah studies have reportedly led to a series of child abuse
cases, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger said Saturday. Speaking during a Great Shabbat (the Shabbat which immediately precedes Passover) sermon in Jerusalem, Rabbi Metzger noted that Kabbalah studies by those who have yet to fully internalize the six books of the Mishnah and have yet to turn 40 years old have not been prohibited for nothing. Even then, he said, this must only be done under the guidance of a famous rabbi with superior knowledge in mysticism. "If, as a result of studying practical Kabbalah, this person’s mind has been disrupted, and if it is true that this ’rabbi’. . . " more.. e-mail
Falashmura dream of aliyah fades as deadline approaches
Anshel Pfeffer, Ha’aretz 4/11/2008
GONDAR - Walelah Alemo last saw her granddaughter four years ago. She knows the child now has an Israeli name, but she doesn’t know what it is. Alemo also doesn’t know where in Israel her son lives with his family, or what he does for a living, but says she just wants to join him and her brother and sisters who also live in Israel. Alemo is a widow raising five more unmarried children. For the past five years, the Alemo family has lived in uncertainty in this northern Ethiopian city, where they came hoping to immigrate to Israel on a permit for Falashmura. But now, two months before Israel plans to stop the Falashmura immigration, the family’s chances seem smaller than ever, along with another 12,000 Falashmura waiting in Gondar. Many say they don’t understand why they are not being allowed to move to Israel. They seem to have made peace with their situation, although they believe they will eventually get to Israel. more.. e-mail
West Bank security crackdown masks growing bitterness
Middle East Online 4/8/2008
NABLUS, West Bank - After seven years of hiding from the Israeli army in the narrow streets of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Abu Islam has traded his rifle and mask for an oven and an apron. The 39-year-old veteran of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a group loosely tied to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah party, now runs a bakery in the centre of town thanks to an amnesty agreement. But like many in Nablus, which saw fierce fighting during the intifada, Abu Islam doubts that the latest Palestinian-led security crackdown will pave the way for peace with Israel. He asked that his full name not be used. "The day the Israelis withdraw from the West Bank Hamas will take over. . . The people are under so much pressure now that the situation could explode at any time," he says, handing bags of warm flatbread to customers. It will be the kids, the 18- to 20-year-old guys who have no work," he adds. "No one will be able to control it when it happens, not the security forces, not anyone. " more.. e-mail
Palestinian child’s day 2008
Defence for Children International/Palestine Section, ReliefWeb 4/6/2008
more.. e-mail
Rabbi linked to systematic child abuse flees to Canada
Uri Blau Yair Ettinger Jonathan Lis and Ofra Edelman, Ha’aretz 4/7/2008
Rabbi Elior Chen, the spiritual authority behind a group accused of systematically abusing children in a Jerusalem family, has fled to Canada with one of his supporters, Haaretz has learned. Chen is supposed to meet the other members of the group in Canada, where the family of one of the members lives, according to a friend of Chen’s who is familiar with the group but doesn’t belong to it. The friend said Chen fled with Joseph Fisher, whose name was not mentioned in an indictment filed yesterday against the mother of the children suspected of being abused by Chen’s followers. The remand of the mother was extended yesterday until April 14. Jerusalem police and the state prosecutor’s office are considering the possibility of issuing an international warrant for Chen’s arrest. During a search of his home Thursday, police found evidence that appears to link the rabbi to the abuse, including journals that document the violence. more.. e-mail
Gazans eat endangered turtle termed ’as good as Viagra’
Reuters, Ha’aretz 4/5/2008
GAZA - A rare giant sea turtle caught on a beach near Gaza City was slaughtered and eaten by Palestinian fishermen who said its blood was an aphrodisiac, among other therapeutic qualities. As the turtle’s throat was slit on Thursday night in front of a crowd, one fisherman said a sip of its blood was "as good as Viagra", referring to the popular drug used to fight erectile dysfunction and impotence. Children were later seen using a part of the shell as a surfboard. Based on a description of the turtle’s size and shell, Yaniv Levy, an Israeli expert on sea turtles, said he believed it was the endangered Leatherback turtle. Leatherbacks normally weigh between 300-500 kilograms (661-1,102 pounds), he said. "It’s very rare. We don’t know a lot about the Leatherback’s population in the Mediterranean. more.. e-mail
State helpless in face of skeletons in haredi closet
Yael Branovsky, YNetNews 4/3/2008
In spite of efforts by welfare officials, local rabbis, state authorities are unable to curb rampant child abuse in ultra-Orthodox families - One harrowing case after another, yet welfare officials stand by helpless: Faced with a string of heart wrenching cases of child abuse in the haredi community, even state officials now concede that they have only been able to reach this closed community on rare occasions, and often too late. One recent, disturbing case, for instance, in which a Netivot mother had sexually abused her son, only came to light when the son began to attend boarding school and molested a fellow pupil. The social workers who handled his case quickly realized that the child had no idea that what he was doing was wrong. Dalia Lev-Sade, director of community services at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, stated in an interview with Ynet that seeing as the haredi community is so sequestered, haredi children enjoy less exposure to societal conventions of right and wrong. more.. e-mail
Palestinians celebrate Easter despite Israeli restrictions on freedom of movement and worship
Palestine News Network 3/23/2008
Bethlehem / PNN - On Sunday morning hundreds of Palestinian families gathered to hunt for Easter eggs and break the fast of Lent together. Many from Bethlehem were denied Israeli "permission" to attend services at East Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Some held the perception that, "All Latin’s received permission. "Regardless of being denied the freedom of worship, the celebrations went on for the sects of Palestinian Christians who follow the western calendar. After a month without animal products, the main menu for breakfast is cheese, milk and the hunted eggs. They are colored in heating pots of flowers, tied with string, creating remarkable patterns. Children and adults race through the gardens planted with flowers, beans, cactus and wild grass in search of the hidden eggs. The yearly tradition continues with some families not arriving home the night before. more.. e-mail
Interview with a female detainees imprisoned by Israel
Ali Samoudi - Jenin - Translated by Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center 3/9/2008
One again, the world celebrates the International Women’s Day while dozens of Palestinian women and mothers are still imprisoned by the occupation, stripped of their fundamental rights of even hugging their children. Detainee Qahira Al Sa’dy, imprisoned in Telmond Israeli prison voiced an appeal to every Palestinian woman to act for the "support of all detained women, for the pain, sadness and anger of the imprisoned women who are suffering and dreaming of a day when they can hug their children once again." Qahira voiced an appealed to the conscious of women around the gold, to aid the Palestinian women who are still suffering, chained, surrounded and attacked under the occupation." The whole world is celebrating the International Women’s Day, where is the support to the Palestinian women, living under occupation and stripped of their basic rights by an occupying force which is encouraged by the international silence", Al Sa’dy stated. more..
Stories of the in-between
Elias Farkouh, Al-Ahram Weekly 3/6/2008
Ard al-Yambous (Land of Limbo), Elias Farkouh, Amman: Al Mouassassa and Al Arabiya and Azminah, 2007. pp233 Elias Farkouh Elias Farkouh’s novel Ard al-Yambous (Land of Limbo), which is on the shortlist for the 2008 Arabic Booker Prize, is a work that "combines the structure of the autobiography of a specific man with the biography of exiled man in general," according to the citation by the jury for the award. It is a novel "that discusses the power of time and the vulnerability of the human being in a fresh and original language, using a number of different voices." Born in 1948 in Amman, Jordan, in his novel Farkouh recounts fragments of his own autobiography, giving details of his movements between Amman and Jerusalem as a child, and his relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Mariam, against a background of exile and war. more..
Leviev: Zionism is bankrupt because of ’new American religion’
Anshel Pfeffer, Ha’aretz 3/5/2008
Businessmen Lev Leviev - who, in addition to being the richest person in Israel, operates a 100-school educational network in Israel, the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe - does not accept secular Jewish culture and believes that Zionism is bankrupt. In a wide-ranging interview with Haaretz Magazine that will appear on Friday, Leviev also said that a prime minister who is prepared to negotiate over Jerusalem is betraying the Jewish people. "The moment you ask a child in Israel what Yom Kippur means to him, and he answers the Yom Kippur War, or a fun day on a bicycle - then I don’t know if that is Zionism or whatever you call it, but it has certainly become bankrupt," said Leviev. "And for that we are to blame, first and foremost, the moment we try to import the new American religion, and concentrate only on the new things..." more..
Expats’ Kids enlisting in IDF at rising rate
Yuval Azoulay, Ha’aretz 3/3/2008
Private Asaf Aris left Israel at the age of 2 and moved with his parents to Michigan, in the United States. On visits to relatives in Israel he would see soldiers standing at hitchhiking posts, and made up his mind to emulate them. Now he is part of an encouraging trend presented by the Defense Ministry: The number of children of expatriate Israelis who return to Israel to serve in the Israel Defense Forces is rising constantly. Moreover, 70 percent of these young people choose to remain in Israel after their discharge, and 30 percent of their parents return in their children’s wake. Defense Ministry data also show that 90 percent of the children of expatriate Israelis volunteer for service in combat units, and that the latest pilot’s course includes a man and a woman who immigrated from the U. more..
Historian recants theory that Jews killed Christian child in ritual murder
Adi Schwartz, Ha’aretz 2/25/2008
A Jewish historian over the weekend published an edited version of his book on the killing of a Christian child in the Italian city of Trento in 1475, denying that the Jews implicated in the murder were in any way involved. In the new edition, Bar-Ilan University Professor Ariel Toaff writes: "Jews were not involved in ritual murder, which was an entirely Christian stereotype." "There was no relationship whatsoever between the so-called ’ritual of blood’ and ritual infanticide," Toaff stated. Toaff caused controversy when he wrote in his 2007 book that he did not rule out the possibility that the murder was carried out by Jews who intended to use the youth’s blood in a Passover ritual. The remark sparked a huge backlash from Israeli and foreign historians who said his claims were unsubstantiated and demanded its immediate removal. more..
Rejoining the Diaspora
Ofri Ilani, Ha’aretz 2/21/2008
Every Passover, about 10 Israelis who had lived in Paris for some time would gather at Eyal Spielman’s apartment in the Fourth Arrondissement. "Secular Israelis also want to feel some kind of connection to the sacred texts, or at least to their childhood," says Spielman, who had an apartment rental business in Paris and says he served as a linchpin of the Israeli community there. However, he feels these celebrations actually emphasized the Israelis’ alienation and anomie. "It really is a poor man’s feast. Several people, some of whom don’t know one another, sit around and celebrate the holiday out of some undefined longing. These are people who have tried to assimilate in France, and some of them live with a French partner, but they definitely are not French, nor are they Israeli." more..
Beit Hakerem - The last secular holdout in Jerusalem
Tamar Rotem, Ha’aretz 2/21/2008
It took about a decade for the small north-Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamivtar to change its skin. Now, after most of its well-to-do secular households have been replaced with ultra-Orthodox families, the metamorphosis seems almost complete. For Yael Bar-On, the decision to leave was made four years ago, when it came time to enroll her 6-year-old son for elementary school. That presented a problem, because by then, the Bar-Ons were among the few remaining secular families in the neighborhood. "The population of young couples with children had slowly disappeared," she recalled recently. "Only the older residents remained. The neighborhood’s kindergarten and its secular schools just kept losing students." Increasingly, the families replaced those who departed came from Ramot Eshkol, the Haredi neighborhood to Givat Hamivtar’s west. more..
Palestinian-produced film addresses with children’s rights
Ma’an News Agency 2/10/2008
Ramallah – Ma’an – A Palestinian media corporation called Klakit has completed the production of a short animated film called "Life is Better," designed to highlight the fight for the rights of Palestinian children. The movie is 22 minutes long and deals with children’s rights according to international law as well as the Palestinian law on children of 2004. The movie consists of 13 scenes including a three-minute song. The screenplay was written by Saleem Dabbour, and was voiced by Palestinian actors. The soundtrack was composed by Basil Zayid. The movie was produced by the Palestine branch of Defense for Children International in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF. It took five months to produce the movie. UNICEF will fund the production of 5000 DVDs of the movie to be distributed in the Palestinians territories. more..
Study: Soviet immigrants outperform Israeli high-schoolers
Or Kashti, Ha’aretz 2/10/2008
Children who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union outperformed their Israeli-born counterparts in high-school matriculation and college admission requirements, according to a study carried out by Nir Fogel for the Central Bureau of Statistics. The study also found that students from the western republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States outperformed those from other republics. Between 1990 and 2004, about 1. 14 million people immigrated from the CIS to Israel. Although these immigrants are generally portrayed as a homogenous group, "there are considerable social, economic and cultural differences among groups of immigrants," said Fogel. For the purposes of this study, he divided them into four groups by geographic origin, "based on geographic, social and cultural considerations. more..
Viewpoints from Sderot and Rafah
BBC Online 1/24/2008
On one side of the Gaza-Israel border lies the southern Israeli town of Sderot where 22,000 residents live within easy range of the unguided rockets fired by Palestinian militants. On the other are the 1. 5 million Palestinian inhabitants blockaded by the Israeli army, though since Wednesday able to reach Egypt thanks to militants who blew up border defences. BBC News website readers from either side describe their experiences. HAVA GAD, SDEROT, ISRAEL Hava has lived in Sderot for 11 years. She is married with three children.
I moved here because I was looking for a small, quiet and wonderful place for my children to grow up in. That’s what it was like here then. It’s still wonderful, just the rockets have changed everything. It started to change seven years ago, but the rockets weren’t so dangerous as they are today. more..
Troubled high-schoolers realizing potential as policemen
Vered Lee, Ha’aretz 2/3/2008
Son-of-a-bitches, stool pigeons, negative human beings. There are the words used by Malassa Ambao, 16, from Ashdod, to say what he once thought of the police. He sneaks sidelong glances: "Let’s just say that, in the neighborhood where I grew up, people don’t like cops." He arrived in Israel at age 6 from Ethiopia; in junior high, he almost dropped out of school. Now, after spending a year in the police studies program at Na’mat’s Kanot Youth Village, he is an outstanding student. "I have friends who were sent to institutions because they had police files," he explains. "I didn’t want to turn out like the other kids in the neighborhood, who, at age 15, drop out of school and start working. I wanted to make my mother happy and proud of me; so I decided I wouldn’t be like the others, that I’d get my matriculation certificate." more..
Kazakh tycoon visits West Bank city
Yisrael Bardugo, YNetNews 2/3/2008
City of Betar prepares royal welcome, complete with red carpet stretching all the way from main highway to city hall, for Kazakh tycoon Alexander Mashkevitz - Residents of the predominately ultra-Orthodox town of Beitar Illit in the West Bank awoke on Sunday to a festive sight, as their entire town was primed for a lavish celebration. The main roads leading into the town were blockaded by police, a lush red carpet covered the town all the way from the main highway into Town Hall, and a children’s choir decked in bright, sparkling clothing stood ready at the town’s entrance. What triggered this festive atmosphere? "No, the Messiah has not yet arrived, he is still on his way,"¯ municipal worker Yehuda Deitsch assured a local resident who marveled at the sight of the children’s choir while still dressed in his floral pajamas. more..
Palestinian Sources: Israel transferred 120 Palestinian prisoners to administrative detention
Najeeb Farraj, International Middle East Media Center 2/2/2008
Palestinian humanitarian law organizations stated on Saturday that Israeli Authorities have stepped up policy of administrative detention.
The detention policy is used by the Israeli army against Palestinians, the army under this policy refuses to give charges or reasons for the detention; claiming that there is critical information obtained, and revealing it to the detainee or their lawyer could risk the source of the information.
In the past two weeks the Israeli army invaded the West Bank Palestinian communities at least 70 times, during those invasions Palestinian sources reported the Israeli troops kidnapped at least 130 Palestinian civilians, among them seven children.
Currently there are 900 Palestinian detainees under the administrative detention, the UN deemed this policy as illegal.
Translated by Ghassan Bannoura IMEMC News Room more..
For all the excitement, little has changed in Gaza
Catrin Ormestad, Ha’aretz 2/2/2008
RAFAH, Gaza Strip - There it is, a feeling of change. Gasoline vendors with jerry cans are lining the streets of Gaza City, huddling in the rain, and pick-up trucks loaded with fuel canisters, Cleopatra cigarettes and sheep are returning from the border. Some of the cars roaming Gaza’s roads have Egyptian license plates. Our driver Muhammad lighted another cigarette as we headed south. Before the border breach, he would make a pack last several days, but now cigarette prices have plummeted. The once crowded area by the Rafah border terminal, where the Palestinians used to wait for days and weeks and months in order to cross, is now deserted. Two Hamas border guards briefly glanced at my Palestinian companion’s ID and let us pass, and we continued along the Philadelphi Road. Where Israel Defense Forces jeeps used to patrol before the disengagement, kids are now biking, and donkey carts are making their way back from the border. more..
Mashaal: Schlait is alive and in good condition By
Jerusalem Post 2/1/2008
Captured IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schlait is alive and in good condition, Hamas’s Syria-based leader Khaled Mashaal was quoted as saying Thursday. In an interview set to be published Friday in the Italian weekly Panorama, Mashaal said that Schlait’s captors were treating him "according to law."
The Hamas leader went on to say that he was "astonished" as to why Israel so worried about one soldier when in Israel, about 12,000 Palestinians are detained, including women and children. [end]
B’Tselem: Israeli attacks on human rights workers "systematic"
Ma’an News Agency 1/21/2008
Bethlehem – Ma’an – The beating and arrest of a human rights worker by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday were a part of "a policy of systematically harassing human rights defenders," the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem said on Sunday. B’Tselem fieldworker Issa Amro was assaulted, then detained by the Israeli military while filming a group of Israeli settlers while they attacked a Palestinian home. Witnesses told Ma’an’s reporter that four women and two children were also injured when settlers pelted Palestinian homes with stones in Hebron’s Wadi Abu Hussain neighborhood. "Although a large force of soldiers and police were present," B’Tselem said "they did nothing to protect the Palestinians and remove the settlers. Two B’Tselem workers were filming the incident from across the street, where they stood along with a number of Palestinians and international activists. more..
Book Review: The Scar of David
William James Martin, Palestine Chronicle 1/21/2008
The Scar of David, by Susan Abulhawa, is about a scar and a man named David who bears the scar, and another scar -- the scar worn by Amal, the protagonist of the story, whom we follow from childhood and who also incurred a scar on her lower abdomen as the result of the exit wound of a rifle bullet from an Israeli soldier who shot her in the back as she walked to her home in the Jenin refugee camp. Of course, it is also about other scars -- the scar of the land:Now, that ancient village with its walls made of secrets and trees planted in blood, looked inanimate. Around Jerusalem and in the West Bank, settlements on every hilltop -- with their manicured green lawns and red roofs metastasizing into the valleys like an earth rash -- contrasted cruelty to the crumbling Arab homes where sewage from these settlements drained and where settlers often dumped their garbage. more..
Israeli settlers attack Palestinian family in Hebron, wounding 12
Ma’an News Agency 1/12/2008
Hebron – Ma’an – 12 Palestinians were injured and four detained in the West Bank city of Hebron after Israeli settlers invaded and attacked a private Palestinian home on Saturday. Witnesses said that 70 settlers from the Kiryat Arba colony broke into the Abu S’eifan family home, beating the residents with clubs and other objects. Jamal Abu S’eifan said that the family attempted to defend itself before Israeli soldiers arrived, deploying tear gas. Abu S’eifan said that this only made it easier for the settlers to attack. According to Abu S’eifan, three children were injured. He said the Israeli military blocked Palestinian ambulances from reaching the house. more..
CBS reports drop in ultra-Orthodox fertility rate
Shahar Ilan, Ha’aretz 1/13/2008
The total fertility rate in the country’s ultra-Orthodox community has dropped sharply in the past several years, according to figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The fertility rate in the Haredi community of Beitar Illit dropped from 8. 9 children per woman in 2001 to 7. 7 children in 2006, a decrease of 13. 5 percent. In Modi’in Illit, another ultra-Orthodox community, the total fertility rate fell from 9 to 8 in the same period. Even after the drop, these communities still have the highest fertility rates in Israel. The total fertility rate is the average number of children born to each woman in her lifetime. It is a predictor of future fertility and does not refer to the size of the average family, and is considered the single best measurement of fertility trends. This is the first time since the reduction of government child allowances that data on fertility rates in the Haredi community have been released. more..
Rabbi: Segregate male and female teachers
Kobi Nahshoni, YNetNews 1/8/2008
Beit El’s rabbi, Shlomo Aviner, calls for segregation of sexes at work orientations, seminars; explains, ’We must behave as we teach our children to behave’ - Female and male teachers must be separated at the workplace, according to Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, the rabbi of the settlement of Beit El, north of Jerusalem. "Those who educate our children in schools where the sexes are segregated must practice what they preach," he said. Aviner made the remarks in his weekly article in a synagogue pamphlet entitled, "With Love and Faith." Some of the questions the article dealt with included: "Is it acceptable to hold orientations with both male and female teachers? Co-ed workshops? One teachers’ lounge for both sexes? Field trips or work seminars with members of both genders? " In his response, Rabbi Aviner said that "a major rule in the Torah is that men and women must keep very far from one another. more..
Ex-IDF chief Moshe Levy hospitalized in serious condition after stroke
Eli Ashkenazi, Ha’aretz 1/1/2008
Former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Moshe Levy was hospitalized Tuesday in serious condition after suffering a stroke. The 72-year-old Levy, who headed the IDF from 1983-1987, was brought to Haemek Hospital in Afula, not far from his home at Kibbutz Beit Alfa. His wife and children are at his bedside. Levy suffered a similar stroke several years ago. The former IDF chief was born in Tel Aviv, and was given the nickname "Moshe and a half" due to his immense height. In 1954, he was drafted into the IDF and began his service in the Golani Infantry Brigade. He later transferred to the paratroopers, where he took part in IDF counter raids in Sinai during the 1950s, in response to Palestinian terror attacks. During the 1956 Sinai Campaign, Levy served as an operations officer in the paratroopers, and was dropped behind enemy lines. more..
Israeli mallrats
Yael Branovsky, YNetNews 12/30/2007
Study by National Council for the Child finds Israeli children love the mall, are electronically savvy. Study also finds rise in single-parent families, birthrates, school violence. - To find Israeli youths, just head in the direction of the nearest mall. A study conducted by the National Council for the Child found that 82% of Israeli teens consider the mall their "ultimate pastime"¯. Half the youths surveyed would rather eat at a restaurant or curl up with a good book. 56% of Israeli youngsters participate in extra-curricular activities, mainly in sports teams of various kinds. The study, appearing in the council’s annual publication out Sunday, also found that Israeli youths are anything but techno-phobes; 93%of youths polled have at least one computer in their home, and 70% surf the net daily. Cell phones also naturally abound, with 80% of Israeli youngsters owning at least one cellular phone. more..
The Israeli army attack school boys near Hebron
Ghassan Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center 12/27/2007
The Israeli army invaded the village of Sourif located near the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday midday and clashed with local school boys. Local sources said that several military jeeps stormed the village and started to provoke the local school boys as they were leaving their school. Soldiers detained some of the children and beat them up.
Witnesses said that in response to the soldiers’ actions the children threw stones and empty glass bottles at the invading troops, soldiers in their turn opened fire using live rounds and tear gas, medical sources reported no injures.
Soldiers left the village shortly after. [end]
Gaza crowds mark Hamas’s founding
BBC Online 12/15/2007
The rally came amid high tension between Hamas and Fatah Enlarge Image At least 300,000 people have turned out in Gaza City for a rally to mark 20 years since Hamas was founded. Waving green flags and banners, crowds of Palestinian men, women and children filled a large square for the event. Analysts say the turnout is seen as a vital test of support for Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June from its Fatah rivals. In a defiant website statement, Hamas’s leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, vowed the group would not renounce violence. Speaking from Damascus, Syria, he said Palestinians were capable of mounting a new uprising against Israeli occupation, like the intifadas of 1987 and 2000. Defiant "Whoever thinks that Hamas has reached a dead end is wrong," he added, in his anniversary message to the militant Islamist organisation’s website. more..
Troops demolish a Palestinian home in Jerusalem
Maisa Abu Ghazala ā€“ IMEMC, International Middle East Media Center 12/12/2007
Israeli bulldozes belonging to Jerusalem Municipality demolished on Tuesday a Palestinian home in the Old City of Jerusalem and attacked two brothers while attempting to evacuate their furniture from the house before the bulldozers leveled it. The house belongs to Zainab Ibrahim Kabaja; the army surrounded the area during early morning hours, and soldiers violently attacked and clubbed Omar Kabaja, 13, and his brother Ali, 20, as they tried to evacuate family belongings and furniture from their home. The two brothers were handcuffed, blindfolded and were dragged on the ground before they were transferred to an Israeli police station where they were detained for several hours. The demolished house was 40 square meters and included one bedroom, one kitchen and one restroom. It provided shelter to Zeinab, her husband and their ten children. more..
Susan Abualhawa: Of Arabs at Annapolis
Palestine Chronicle 12/7/2007
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Lebanese family returns to South from Israel
Daily Star 10/31/2007
TYRE: A Lebanese family returned from Israel, the National News Agency correspondent in the southern coastal city of Tyre reported on Sunday. Abir Boueiri, 34, and her four children returned to Lebanon through the Naqoura border crossing. The Boueiris, like hundreds of southern families, fled to Israel after its withdrawal from the South in May 2000. http://www. dailystar. com. lb Tags: Israel Printable Version Send to a friend [end]
Measles strikes Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community
Yuval Azoulay, Ha’aretz 10/9/2007
An outbreak of measles in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox community has taken 40 victims, mostly children, the Health Ministry says. Two Londoners, who were guests at a wedding about six weeks ago, may have been the carriers of the contagious virus. Measles is spread through the air (contact with fluids from an infected person’s nose and mouth, either directly or through a sneeze), and is highly contagious. Symptoms include high fever, coughing, runny nose, inflammation and a rash all over the body. M st of the ultra-Orthodox families refrain from vaccinating their children against measles despite Health Ministry attempts to persuade them to do so. "Many families don’t inoculate their children for religious reasons and adamantly refuse to consider it," a senior Health Ministry official said. more..
Police apprehend 3 kids for spraying swastikas
Avi Cohen, YNetNews 9/20/2007
Three children admit to spraying swastikas, Nazi slogans in Holon Police officers arrested three children from Holon on Thursday evening over suspicion they had sprayed swastikas in the city. One of the children, aged 12, told officer he sprayed swastikas to vent his rage at the discrimination he had felt in Israel since he emigrated with his family from the former Soviet Union, seven years ago. The other two suspects are aged 12 and 16. Police launched a hunt a week ago after swastikas and Nazi slogans, including ’hail Hitler,’ were found on a handful of buildings across the city. The 12-year-old said he had initiated the spraying spree and confessed he felt guilty for what he did and decided to stop his practice. more..
Military cadet filmed doing Nazi salute
Eitan Glickman, Danny Spector, YNetNews 9/16/2007
Star pupil at military academy in Haifa posts videos of himself on Youtube, goose-stepping in IDF uniform, reaching sister Nazi salute - A star pupil at a military boarding school in Israel shocked peers and educators when he published videos on the web of himself performing and teaching Nazi salutes in an IDF uniform. The cadet was an outstanding senior at the Beit Biram High School, a branch of the renowned Reali High School in Haifa whose alumni include an impressive number of former generals, defense ministers and IDF chiefs of staff. In the first video, the cadet is filmed by himself, in full military uniform, goose-stepping to the Nazi anthem. In a second video, he is joined by a friend, also in uniform. A third video shows him teaching his eight-year-old sister to perform a Nazi salute, in response to the girl’s request to watch a children’s film. more..
Local comic makes it off the drawing board
Suzan Crile, Daily Star 9/19/2007
BEIRUT: Comics have come a long way over the years. In the days of Tintin and Archie, they were regarded as a silly hobby for young children. In the past decade in particular, though, the medium received new degrees of validation as comics became more stylized, less rigidly formatted and in some cases more adult. What was once looked upon as the most nerdy of hobbies now often provides popular culture with its visions of cool. Given that comics have come so very far, it’s hardly a surprise that they’ve now "arrived" in Lebanon. Last week saw the release of "issue zero" of "Salamander," a brand-new comic magazine being published and distributed in Lebanon. Five Beirutis started the project. Recognizing that the country had yet to truly catch on to comic book culture, Omar Khouri, Tarek Nabaa, Hatem Imam, Lena... more..
Palestinian woman sent to Jordan
Maisa Abu Ghazalah, International Middle East Media Center 9/10/2007
Within the space of twenty four hours Dialaia Basheer’s life was changed – instead of going to Jerusalem to visit her daughter in hospital she ended up in Amman. This happened when Israeli soldiers at the nearby military checkpoint of Al Zea’im detained her and forced her to leave for Jordan because she did not have a permit to enter Jerusalem. Dalia’s husband, Sa’eed Awad, was told by the Israeli authorities that she would be granted a permit if he agreed to become an informer for Israeli intelligence. If not Dalia would be either abducted and deprived of seeing her children or forcibly deported to Jordan thereby breaking the family apart.
A’wad told the Palestine News Network that last July despite the fact that their daughter was being treated in the Al-Maqased hospital in East Jerusalem he chose to make his wife to travel to Jordan rather than see her abducted. more..
No Jews and Arabs, just Hebrew and Arabic
Akiva Eldar, Ha’aretz 9/11/2007
When my oldest granddaughter, Tamar, 5, and her father, David, want to communicate without Mother understanding, they speak Arabic. With her friend Bana from Beit Safafa in southern Jerusalem, old Tamar speaks half Arabic and half Hebrew. Tamar and Bana met last year at the bilingual preschool run at the Max Rayne Hand in Hand School for Bilingual Education (Yad B’Yad). On Sunday this week, they met again at kindergarten, in a class run by Sabrine Salman and Natalie May Raphael. The class had 30 children, about half Muslim and Christian Arabs, and the rest Jews, some observant. Some of the children are from mixed couples. Some come from East Jerusalem, and some are Armenians from the Old City. The Hand in Hand school was founded 10 years ago by the Hand in Hand (Yad B’Yad) Association, which runs three bilingual schools in Israel. more..
Three generations of boys, guns and ants
Jim Quilty, Daily Star 8/29/2007
BEIRUT: It’s an intriguing way to start a screening. The movie was "Wassat Beirut (Central Beirut)," a 10-minute, black-and-white film shot in 1992 by Rachad al-Jisr and Akram Zaatari. Scrambled Eggs’ frontman Charbel Haber, this evening in electronic improv mode, provided musical accompaniment. It was an appropriately discordant start to Sunday evening’s session of short films, the most intriguing line-up presented so far at Ne a Beyrouth’s Festival of Lebanese Film. The film was the first of a triptych of works that are at once disparate and oddly related. "Wassat Beirut" looks in on a group of little boys playing a game of militiaman - effectively hide-and-seek with some kids armed with toy guns. As they scatter to hide within the architecture of Downtown Beirut, the camera becomes as preoccupied by its location,... more..
Israeli vacationers take wrong turn, end up in Jericho
Efrat Weiss, YNetNews 8/19/2007
Family gets lost on way to vacation resort in Tiberias, ends up in Jericho. Car pulled over by Palestinian police, handed over to Israeli police at checkpoint - Liat and Dudu Dror are unlikely to forget this summer’s holiday. On Sunday, the couple and their three young children, on their way from Jerusalem to a resort in Tiberias, took a wrong turn at the Almog junction and found themselves in the West Bank city of Jericho. The family car was pulled over by Palestinian police officers. The couple alerted the Israeli police and 20 minutes later, they were joined by an Israeli police car, which escorted them back to safety. "We were going to drive to Tiberias through the Jericho bypass road. We turned left at Almog junction and saw a checkpoint"¦ the soldiers asked us where we were from, we told them... more..
Hamas TV’s Child Star Says She’s Ready for Martyrdom
Dion Nissenbaum, MIFTAH 8/16/2007
Gaza Strip — Saraa Barhoum picked at the buttons on her pink bellbottom jeans as she twisted on a chair inside the bustling new Hamas television headquarters. The afternoon light bounced off the sparkly outlines of butterflies on her frilly top, and a colorful hijab framed her 11-year-old face. Saraa wants to be a doctor. If she can’t, the young star of Hamas television’s best-known children’s show said, she’d be proud to become a martyr. Saraa says little Jewish girls should be forced from their homes in Israel so that Palestinians can return to their land. With the show’s producer helpfully offering written tips during an interview, Saraa didn’t get into how she hopes to die for her cause, be it suicide bombing, fighting the Israeli military or some other way. more..
Palestinian children call on Hamas and Fatah to settle their differences
Ma’an News Agency 8/15/2007
Gaza – Ma’an – Hundreds of children held a press conference in Gaza city on Wednesday in an appeal to Palestinian officials to settle their differences and to provide Palestinian children with a stable, conflict-free future. They called on Hamas and Fatah to end the current crisis which is damaging to the Palestinian cause. Fourteen-year-old Hasan Anshasi requested that the international community support the Palestinian children. He also called for the opening of the crossings between the Gaza Strip and Egypt under the supervision of independent Palestinian sides. Thirteen-year-old Dunya Maqousi asked decision-makers and media outlets to support Palestinian children. [end]
Reform Movement publishes blessings for sex change operation
Shlomo Shamir, Ha’aretz 8/15/2007
The Reform Movement recently published an expanded manual for the inclusion of homosexuals and transgender individuals, including a list of three blessings to be said on the occasion of a sex change operation." I believe that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) Jews in our midst - our children, our relatives, and our friend - are in great need, as are we all of spiritual support," said Union of Reform Judaism President Rabbi Eric Yoffie in the manual’s Statement of Purpose. The 500-page Kulanu: A Program for Implementing Gay and Lesbian Inclusion contains among other things services for same-sex commitment and marriage ceremonies as well as advice for the inclusion of GLBT individuals in the community. The original edition of Kulanu was published 10 years ago, and was considered at the time to... more..
PRC spokesperson derides Israeli inability to release Corporal Shalit
Ma’an News Agency 8/12/2007
Gaza – Ma’an – The spokesperson of the Popular Resistance Committees, which were involved in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Abu Mujahid, said the group has struck a devastating blow to the Israeli intelligence and security bodies by managing to detain the soldier for over a year. Abu Mujahid scorned the Israeli inability to obtain any information on Shalit from any one of the Palestinian factions. At the same time, Abu Mujahid accused Shalit’s family of failing to exert enough pressure on Israel to enable his release. In an exclusive interview with Ma’an, Abu Mujahid expressed his sentiments to Shalit’s family. He said, "You are failing your son, you are failing your duties to him, you value human feelings, but your government ignores them and deserts your children in the middle of a battle without making any attempt to free them. more..
Israelis buy rescue insurance for their globetrotting young
Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem, The Guardian 8/12/2007
It should be the trip of a lifetime, but for many young Israelis their travels in the Far East and South America end up in drug-induced or spiritual collapse. Now an Israeli insurance company is offering a unique policy to parents to cover a professional search team, repatriation and psychiatric rehabilitation for their missing children. About 50,000 Israelis a year go trekking after their military service and before university or work. The Israeli charity War on Drugs estimates that 90 per cent take drugs at least once on their travels. Some two-thirds go to the Far East and about a third to South America. The charity estimates that each year 2,000 travellers suffer mental illness brought on by drug abuse or spiritual confusion and between 600 and 800 are admitted to psychiatric wards. more..
Co-existence summer camp
Tova Dadon, YNetNews 8/8/2007
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