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Darwish
wins top Dutch prize Palestinian poet wins Prince Claus prize for impressive body of work, lifelong achievement. THE HAGUE - Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish has been awarded the Dutch Prince Claus prize in recognition of an "impressive body of work" written while in exile, the royal foundation said on Wednesday."In his work, he manages to highlight the consequences of forced migration and also shows the power of beauty in difficult times," the Prince Claus Foundation said in a statement. Darwish, 62, is one of the best known contemporary Arab poets. Born in Palestine in 1942, he fled along with his family following the creation of Israel in 1948. He returned briefly to Israel but was forced to leave in 1970 because of his political views, spending 26 years in Lebanon and Russia before finally settling in the West Bank town of Ramallah. The foundation said that its choice of laureate for the 100,000-euro (135,000-dollar) award, was part of an effort to "highlight the positive effects of migration and asylum policy." more.. More about Poetry from our Archives..
Knesset Committee Removes Dr. Tibi For One Week IMEMC - The so-called “Ethics Committee” of the Israeli Knesset decided to remove member of Knesset (MK) Dr. Ahmad Tibi, from participating in Knesset sessions for a week for strongly denouncing Mk Anastasia Michaeli of the “Israel Our Home” fundamentalist Party, and for writing a poem attacking her. ... Knesset panel bans Israeli Arab MK for reciting controversial poem Ha'aretz - 17 Jan 2012 Is AIPAC Persuading Americans to Break the Law? Palestine Chronicle: 16 Jan 2012 - By Clive Hambidge Habituation writes James Austin M.D 'means that repeated stimuli yield a decreasing response.' Conversely and importantly he goes on, 'Sensitization implies that responses increase when stronger stimuli are repeated.' For in this understanding, 'we are addressing the basis of the freshness of vision of the artist or poet; focusing on the possible ways to relieve the depressed person held in the grip of a dreary grey world', or indeed a Nation, Palestine, gripped by the dreary politics “free of law” of an increasingly violent Israel. Moreover, “some people habituate consistently; others do not.” (Austin). It is crucial then that we, the right minded, faced with propaganda “habitually” spewed forth by the State, organs of the State and influencers of the State like American Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to become “Enmeshed in a propaganda system of awesome effectiveness.” (Chomsky), in “locutions” pernicious and with a distinct narrative of...more “International Zionism Is Strangling The World”: Interview With Jonathan Azaziah Intifada-Palestine: 15 Jan 2012 - by Kourosh Ziabari Jonathan Azaziah is an Iraqi-American Muslim poet, activist, analyst, writer and journalist from Brooklyn, New York, currently residing in Florida. His articles, poems and music predominantly deal with international Zionism and the cruel effect that it has on... more Two poets from medieval Spain Jerusalem Post 5 Jan 2012 - The great medieval Jewish poets of Spain are part and parcel of our Jewish heritage. The Resurgent Mizrahi Voice Jerusalem Post 4 Jan 2012 - Poet Almog Behar epitomizes the move of some Israelis to embrace their Middle Eastern roots. [uruknet.info] "Educate through action": poet Remi Kanazi on triumphant UK tour Uruknet December 26, 2011 - The first night of his UK tour is over. We are standing outside a jammed Kenyan bar, which for some reason doesn't serve food. Palestinian-American performance poet Remi Kanazi just wants to find somewhere to eat after his opening show. But he's too nice to break up the group, so we go... [uruknet.info] The Nightmare is Now Israel's Too Uruknet December 19, 2011 - There is a hint of poetic justice in the events of the last week. It may not be politically correct to relish in this justice, but it is only natural. Extremist Israeli settlers have recently turned some of their manic wrath on their own government alongside the ever escalating violence against the... No Freedom in the Land of False Prophets – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 2 Dec 2011 - By Lillian Rosengarten I ask, how can Israel finds freedom as occupier? Two occupations and a faux Museum Sits on desecrated tombs. They call it Museum of Tolerance, I call it Ethnic cleansing, killer of those deemed inferior. False prophets, destroyer of 800,000 olive and citrus plants, subjugation. Collective abuse, Gaza fishermen attacked likes vermin by Israeli killer boats. Apartheid! Word we dare not whisper, write or speak. Condemned by true believers, the Zionist story makes one shutter. I’ve heard the racist words before, when Jews were driven from their homes and vilified. Now I hear it all again from a big Rabbi contender for The Jewish Heroes competition. Asked how Jews should treat their neighbors he said: “The only way to fight a moral war is the Jewish way. Destroy the holy sites, Kill men, women children and cattle.” I remember another time, “No Jews Allowed.” Germany nearly succeeded....more Mahmoud Darwish memorial opens in Ramallah 11/27/2011 - RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Officials opened a new installation commemorating famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in Ramallah on Sunday, a press statement said. Prime Minister in the Ramallah-based government Salam Fayyad told those gathered: "I don't doubt this will become one of the most important monuments in Ramallah," the release from his office.... Poet Denounces MK Danon for Hinting at Assassination of MK Tibi PNN - PNNOn Sunday, Israeli poet Eitan Kalinski condemned Likud Minister of Knesset Danny Danon for saying he would put his fellow Knesset member Ahmed Tibi, of the Ta’al party representing Palestinians in Israel,... [uruknet.info] Alice Walker: "Going through Israeli checkpoints is like going back in time to American Civil Rights struggle" Uruknet November 24, 2011 - American Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alice Walker, was a juror with the Russell Tribunal on Palestine which took place in South Africa this year. A prolific writer of novels, poetry and short stories her books, fiction and non-fiction, have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. While she is most well-known for "... Palestinian poet: "We teach life, sir" Voltaire Network 20 Nov 2011 - Rafeef Ziadah is a Canadian-Palestinian spoken word artist and activist. Her debut CD Hadeel is dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fly kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names if their villages in Palestine and still hear the sound of Hadeel (... In Defense of History, and Gilad Atzmon Palestine Chronicle: 21 Nov 2011 - By Sarah Gillespie Herodotos is an historian who trains you as you read. It is a process of asking, searching, collecting, doubting, striving, testing, blaming, and above all standing amazed at the strange things humans do. -- Poet and translator of ancient Greek, Anne Carson, Nox (2011) Gilad Atzmon’s intellectual expedition into the daunting terrain of Jewish identity politics has always evoked a storm of controversy. Still, when I first met Gilad, it was hard not to suspect he was exaggerating the extent of abuse he received from various UK pressure groups. Primarily, it’s not easy to wrap your head around the notion that a person can plausibly be branded as ‘a racist’ when they tour the world with a gypsy violinist, a black drummer, a Jewish bass player and a token English white boy on piano. However, as I began to understand the full complexities of Gilad’s arguments –...more Rosengarten in Gaza: I was far more afraid of Israel than of Hamas Intifada-Palestine: 19 Nov 2011 - by Philip Weiss on October 17, 2011 11 Lillian Rosengarten Lillian Rosengarten is a New York activist and poet, who was on the Jewish boat to Gaza that was stopped by the Israeli navy in Jan. 2010. Last week she returned... more Remi Kanazi – This poem will not end apartheid Mondoweiss - Shifting Ottoman Conceptions of Palestine: Part 1: Filistin Risalesi and the two Jamals Salim Tamari, Jerusalem Quarterly File 11/10/2011 Autumn, 2011 "You have now become one nation on earth, Ottomans all–no difference between Arabs and ‘Ajam; "No generations will divide you, and no religions will come between you. "Brothers together under our glorious constitution, joined together by the Unionist banner flying high. Popular poem published in Beirut on the eve of the declaration of the 1908 Constitution."1 Ahmad Qadri, the Arab physician who was a founder of the Literary Forum in Istanbul in 1909, (and later in 1911 of the Young Arab Society in Paris) records an episode, in his Istanbul diary, which shook his faith in the continued unity of the Ottoman regime and its ability to maintain the loyalty of its Syrian and Arab subjects. He was taking an evening stroll in the imperial capital with his schoolmate and friend Awni Abdul Hadi days after the proclamation of the new constitution of 1908. The city was teeming with excited crowds discussing the dawning of the new liberties, and the end of the Hamidian dictatorship. The two Arabs, a Damascene and a Nabulsi, both considered themselves loyal Ottoman citizens. They came upon an animated speaker drawing a large audience. He was Sari Bey, a young charismatic officer who was singing the praises of the new constitution to the crowd. Then he made a sudden shift and began attacking the supporters and lackeys of the old regime, including “the Arab traitor Izzat” and the “Arab traitor Abul Huda.”2 The reference was to Izzat Pasha al Abed, the Sultan’s private secretary, and Shaykh Abul Huda al Saidawi, a religious scholar, who were part of Abul Hamid’s inner circle.3 It had become customary in this period to portray Abdul Hamid’s Arab advisors as monkeys in the oppositional press of Istanbul.4..... more.. e-mail Palestinian Literary Café Organizes Evening of “Mahmoud Darwish, the Poet of Palestine” PNN - PNNOn Wednesday, the al-Bireh municipal library hosted the fifth gathering of the Palestinian Literary Café for an evening of poetry titled “Mahmoud Darwish, the Poet of Palestine.” Palestinian poets old and young,... Egypt protesters post their wills on Twitter, Facebook LA Times 19 Oct 2011 - Anticipating more military violence after the killings of Coptic Christians, protesters show their determination to remain defiant to the end. In keystroke bursts of poetry, defiance and humor, Egyptian activists are posting their wills on Twitter. Taha Muhammad Ali, One of Israel’s Great Poets, Dies Tikun Olam - Taha Muhammad Ali: one of Israel's greatest poets For many years, I was a graduate student in Hebrew literature and studied at several of this country’s best programs as well as the Hebrew University. But I never came face to face with Palestinian literature. And some... Poet Taha Muhammad Ali dies in Nazareth 10/3/2011 - BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Celebrated poet Taha Muhammad Ali died in Nazareth on Sunday aged 80 years old. Muhammad Ali was born in Saffuriya village, north of Nazareth, in 1931. He fled to Lebanon with his family in 1948 when the village was captured by the Israeli army. The family was never able to return.... Syrian uprising sparks revolutionary art boom Jerusalem Post 2 Oct 2011 - Young men and women across Syria are creating revolutionary poems, chants, cartoons and films which provide expressive outlet to protest. 'Looking into the Silence to Find the Answers' Palestine Chronicle: 2 Oct 2011 - By Felicity Arbuthnot – London 'When words fail us, we need to look in to the silence in order to find the answers.' -- May Ayres. Sometimes a poem is a soul on a page, sometimes a scream. May Ayres sculptures are also both. “God’s Wars”, her first solo exhibition since 1985, in a historic East London church: “presents meditations on war and peace, selected from her ‘War of Aggression’ series, which has been created out of anger over the last seven years.” Only the obtuse would ask where the title came from for these searing “ceramic pictures”, displaying towering compassion for the battered, broken, degraded victims - the face of indescribable barbarity generated by the “we pray together” Bush and Blair’s “Crusade.” “Demonic Principles”, is the tooled up US soldier, standing over a piles of small, naked forms, buttocks facing the viewer, feet twisted, each body seemingly foetal curved,...more Talking With Alice Walker on Palestine Dennis Bernstein, CounterPunch 9/30/2011 "People Everywhere Deserve to be Free of Fear" Alice Walker is Pulitzer Prize winning poet, author and activist. She participated recently in the U.S. Boat to Gaza, which was a part of the Freedom Flotilla, to break the Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip. Last year, a flotilla was attacked by Israeli commandos and a number of people were killed and wounded. Walker’s boat was stopped by Greek authorities before it could traverse the eastern Mediterranean to Gaza. DB: I want to start with the recent attempt by the Children’s Museum of Oakland to prevent Palestinian kids from showing their art. You wrote a very moving piece on your web site. It was very personal. Could you just briefly outline what you wrote and your response to this censorship? AW: Well, I was basically saying that the children need to have exposure of their art because it will be a wonderful way to help them heal from the trauma of being bombed and watching their friends, and sometimes parents, die. And it’s unconscionable that any adults, especially in this part of the world, and lo and behold in Oakland would want to deprive these children of a venue in which they could expose some of their grief and some of their pain, and of course, some of their art. And so I just very strongly urge all of us to go to see this art. I’m not sure where it will be shown.... more.. e-mail Arab Spring poet and blogger tipped for Nobel Prize nominations The National 29 Sep 2011 - Speculation is rife that a Syrian poet and a Tunisian blogger could take home the prestigious prizes for literature and peace when the 2011 Nobel Prize season opens next week. To the Oppressor – Poems Palestine Chronicle: 28 Sep 2011 - By Aalia Shaikh His Lost Treasure (Dedicated to all children who have lost their innocence in conflicts and wars) He sits on the ground, playing with marbles They have lost their sheen, like the irises of his eyes A hollow is seen in their place Going deep, into his soul The Hollow is the space where his treasure was The marbles are soon forgotten Like a leaf wafting in the autumn air Looking for his treasure, he goes out in the overcast garden The skies are over laden with the smoke from copters Bombs drop frequently The booms are heard far-off and near As if in a surreal lacuna Kaleidoscopic lights emerge from them And he finds himself in a vast field of snow So white, so barren, but seeping Red Graves dot the landscape of his vision Piercing his sight more than the sun’s rays An old man passing...more Savir's Corner: Alone together Jerusalem Post 27 Sep 2011 - Indian poet wrote: “I am alone, you are alone, let’s be alone together.” This phrase sums up current positions of Israel, Palestine. [uruknet.info] "God's Wars." Uruknet September 26, 2011 - Sometimes a poem is a soul on a page, sometimes a scream. May Ayres sculptures are also both. "God's Wars", her first solo exhibition since 1985, in a historic East London church: "presents meditations on war and peace, selected from her War of Aggression' series, which has been created out of anger over the... A Night in Tunisia – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 26 Sep 2011 - By El Habib Louai The feeling is not anymore the same Dear brothers and sisters I do not blame Furious, angry crowds poured out From every single side to cry out We simply cannot anymore yield To your orders we are a shield This certainly should be the end Of postures that decline to bend Of greedy crooks that stench Of bellies full of other’s lunch Of hands imbued with blood Of trampling feet of a squad Our tears froze on their grips As they tore our hair in snips We cuddled against each other To keep our wounded warmer You may all stand still and watch From a hill sitting on a bench As deriding fools from a House Painted in White, grim and souse This is the end of a hidden detriment Lay men sustained long in sentiment Hurriedly tossed in times of amnesia As a tune flowed...more Wrongdoers from Kofroana – Poems Palestine Chronicle: 25 Sep 2011 - By Pande Manoylov The Wrongdoers from Kofroana To Abas Abdelkarim You are all around and everywhere, All over the white world And in the red hellebore, Expatriated. Yours is the darkness, The star glow, The firefly lanterns, The dream of Jaffa and Kofroana… The day in Palestine Is for the conquerors, For the gluttonous eyes In the oasis of death. You are to “be blamed”, Palestinians! And who is to blame for your pain, Who is to blame for your grief, For the blood that’s been shed, my friend? ***** Offspring Battering the wings Among the palm leaves To the oasis In Gaza, A bird Was moaning For the killed offspring. Wounded by a grenade, The Bedouin, Before handing his soul To God, But one thing whispered to the bird: - Do not cry, sweetie, Yours is also an offspring of Palestine! ***** Lamentation When I was a kid, Walking The alley...more Anemones' Dreams – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 19 Sep 2011 - (Dedicated to the people of Palestine) By Nick Nash Dotted on a barren hillside, a group of flowers live, Spread in bright red families, they are always active. In the cold of winter they rise to life, defying every odd, And remain in place, for the native race, and those from far abroad. For time untold, the group had lived in the sprawling meadow, Outside of ancient town Bil'in, from a time quite long ago. Spread out among the many valleys, they adopted every village, The family living near Bil'in, felt their role a privilege. In December dawns the darkest month, with nights both dark and cold, And when hope among their village fades, they take a step that's bold. To remind the humans whom they watch over, to never give up love, They slowly change to full crimson shade, with blessings from above. And then the coming of warming...more Persian Jewish Von Trapp offers new spin on penitence Jerusalem Post 6 Sep 2011 - All-female Middle Eastern ensemble "Divahn" performs liturgical and secular poetry, goes on tour across the US. Emily Henochowicz posts sardonic ‘love poem’ to a country that ‘stole’ her eye and is gripped by fear Mondoweiss - Powerful stark theatrical expression coming from Henochowicz. Note the radical-ness of her posture juxtaposed to her natural expression in I Miss You Palestine . There's no ease here. She's raw, determined and goes in for the kill-kiss. No victim. Israel stole her eye, not her heart, she's... Just a Word – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 4 Sep 2011 - By Mhara Costello 'Terrorist' is just a word, one I wish I'd never heard When it’s used to vilify, without the need to question why Only fools would swift condemn, that which has not befallen them Until you know what lies behind, the actions of a tortured mind Thank your God for sparing you, the suffering others have lived through Where are the cries of just demand, for Arabs driven from their land? Blame the victim, turn the cheek, praise the bully, kick the weak! Mock the man who truth does speak Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, greed, corruption, torture, lies! Blair invasion, sly persuasion, annihilation, massacred nation Keep on running, karma’s coming! Money talks, truth walks, oil spills, greed kills Tide is turning, London’s burning! Bombs will fall and blood will flow, as sure as my own name I know Until corrupt dictators go, brutal, rotten, to the core Their...more [uruknet.info] Iraq snapshot - August 23, 2011 Uruknet August 23, 2011. Chaos and violence continue, Turkey vows to continue bombing northern Iraq, the US government announces they are okay with that, The Young Turks keep their audience informed, an Iraqi poet is remembered, the country's president attempts to get the government beyond Political Stalemate II, and more.... Israel’s 'Jews first, democracy second' law and its racist authors Uri Avnery, Redress 8/13/2011 “The People demand social justice!” chanted 250,000 protesters in unison in Tel Aviv on Saturday 6 August. But what they need – to quote an American artist – is “more unemployed politicians”. Fortunately, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has gone on a prolonged vacation, three months. For as Mark Twain quipped: “No man’s life or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” As if to prove this point, Member of the Knesset Avi Dichter submitted, on the very last day of the outgoing session, a bill so outrageous that it easily trumps all the many other racist laws lately adopted by this Knesset. “Dichter” is a German name and means “poet”. But no poet he. He is the former chief of the secret police, the General Security Service (Shin-Bet or Shabak). (“Dichter also means “more dense”, but let’s not dwell on that.) He proudly announced that he had spent a year and a half smoothening and sharpening this particular project, turning it into a legislative masterpiece. And a masterpiece it is. No colleague in yesterday’s Germany or present-day Iran could have produced a more illustrious piece. The other members of the Knesset seem to feel so, too – no fewer than 20 of the 28 members of the Kadima faction, as well as all the other dyed-in-the-wool racist members of this august body, have proudly put their name to this bill as co-authors. more.. e-mail Dichter's Law Palestine Chronicle: 12 Aug 2011 - By Uri Avnery 'The People Demand Social Justice!' 250 thousand protesters chanted in unison in Tel Aviv last Saturday. But what they need – to quote an American artist - is 'more unemployed politicians'. Fortunately, the Knesset has gone on a prolonged vacation, three months. For as Mark Twain quipped: “No man’s life or property is safe while the legislature is in session.” As if to prove this point, MK Avi Dichter submitted, on the very last day of the outgoing session, a bill so outrageous that it easily trumps all the many other racist laws lately adopted by this Knesset. “Dichter” is a German name and means “poet”. But no poet he. He is the former chief of the secret police, the “General Security Service” (Shin-Bet or Shabak). (“Dichter also means “more dense”, but let’s not dwell on that.) He proudly announced that he had spent a year and...more American-Jewish poet Phillip Levine named U.S. Poet Laureate Ha'aretz - Phillip Levine, born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, has authored 20 collections of poems, is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. Doctors claim Netanyahu’s father-in-law enjoys preferential treatment in hospital Ha'aretz - The 96-year old poet was hospitalized at the Hadassah's intensive care cardio ward for a month, while the average time a patient is hospitalized in that ward is less than four days. Facing the World and Facing Ourselves Dr. Lawrence Davidson, Intifada-Palestine 7/18/2011 Part I – Facing the World It was the Scottish poet Robert Burns who, in a 1786 poem, wrote “O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us, it would from many a blunder free us.” That gift is now ours in the form of modern polling technology but, alas, Burns underestimated our abilities to turn a blind eye to its revelations and continue our blundering ways. Here is a recent example. The respected polling company Zogby International recently conducted one of its periodic “Arab Attitudes” polls measuring, among other things, the popularity of the United States in the Arab Middle East. This one was conducted between the middle of May and the middle of June, 2011 and involved 4,000 face-to-face interviews in six countries: Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The results are not pretty. As reported by Al Jazeera, “The United States’ popularity in the Arab world has plummeted to levels lower than the last year of the George W. Bush administration.” The best the U.S. and the Obama administration could do was a 23% approval rating in Lebanon. In Egypt the approval rating was but 5%, which constituted a 30 % fall from the last survey two years ago. For those paying attention to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, the reason for this awful performance is not difficult to understand. James Zogby got it right when he attributed the results to, “disappointment in the failure to meet the high expectations created by Obama’s election in 2008.” He continues, “those expectations appeared to rise further after Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo, where he pledged to seek a ‘new beginning’ between the U.S. and the Muslim world and expressed particular sympathy for the plight of the Palestinians.” The speech led most Arabs to expect rapid improvement in the two areas they consider the “greatest obstacles to peace and security in the Middle East”.... more.. e-mail Mengele's handwritten manuscripts to be sold YNet News, 18 Jul 2011 - Archive of Nazi doctor's writings, journals, poetry and autobiography set to be.... My Bali: My Palestine – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 18 Jul 2011 - By Lillian Rosengarten Here in Bali trees are 'living beings' for nature, religion and man is one. Frogs and dragonflies live in harmony with all creatures and man. A reddish sun rises on the mountain slope ans brings life to all elements of nature. Light in Bali, like no other in the world reveals the forces of nature. The magic of Bali is the night time encounter of the divine in the form of moon, mountain, sea and trees with the worshipping faithful. It is the magic of Bali at it's highest. As light turns from red to orange to deepest blue, as mountain fades into darkness, I think of my Palestine imprisoned in the paranoid face of Israel starved of life and dragon flies. Olive groves and orchards once bloomed on your land, fishermen now dead. Sunlight hides behind Israeli shells No creature to soothe your piercing screams your...more Thousands of pages from Dr. Mengele’s journals to be auctioned in U.S. Ha'aretz - Nazi doctor’s autobiographical details, stories, poetry, philosophical musings, transcriptions of conversations he had, and political and historical remarks are expected to be sold for between $300,000 to $400,000. Bahrain puts freed poet under house arrest AlJazeera 14 Jul 2011 - Ayat al-Qurmozi's unexpected release comes against a backdrop of halting government-opposition talks in the Gulf state. Israeli government approves plan which will 'eliminate Palestinian identity' Middle East Monitor (MEMO) 7/5/2011 MK Ahmed Al Tibi: 'Israelis lack confidence in the veracity of their own historical and cultural narrative.' The Israeli government has approved the formation of a committee to "Judaise" the names of Palestinian towns and historical sites. According to one Arab member of the Knesset (parliament), this is "part of a project to eliminate Palestinian identity". MK Ahmed Al Tibi claimed that such a move indicates that the Israelis lack confidence in the veracity of their own historical and cultural narrative. "On the one hand, the Israelis are trying to Judaize Jerusalem, the Galilee and the Negev, eliminating the Palestinians' memory with the Nakba revival law. On the other, they are changing names into Hebrew," he said. The suggestions include changing Jerusalem/Al Quds into Yerushalayim; An-Naserah/Nazareth into Natzaret; Yaffa/Jaffa into Yafo; and Al Bahr Al Mayet/the Dead Sea into Yam Ha-Melah. They will not, claims the MK, succeed in reinforcing the Zionist narrative at the expense of the Palestinians'. "As the prominent poet Mahmoud Darwish said, 'This sea is mine... This humid air is mine.' The minister who came up with the idea of forming the committee, Yisrael Katz, will go as he came, but An-Naserah, Yaffa, and Al-Quds will remain in the conscience forever; they won't take their names and go away." The Israeli government agreed to form a special ministerial committee following the suggestion of Katz. It has been delegated to transcribe the names of towns, junctions and historical sites across 1948-occupied Palestine (Israel) into Hebrew, so that names will be identical in all languages, based on the Hebrew names. The Hebrew spellings will appear on official maps, road signs and text books. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his full approval of the idea, describing the step as "blessed" and very important. [end] e-mail Mass celebrates poet Said Akl on the occasion of his 100th birthday Daily Star 4 Jul 2011 Lebanese poet and writer Said Akl was honored on his 100th birthday during an official mass in Bkirki Monday. Jordan valley settlements double in size Dimi Reider, +972 Magazine 6/29/2011 The government and the Zionist Federation casually double the size of the Jordan Valley settlement project, to very little attention from Israelis or the international community. Israel’s de-facto annexation of the West Bank’s only bridge to the rest of the Middle East takes a giant leap. The other day, Haaretz financial daily The Marker ran the following item: "The settlement department of the ZIonist Federation is pushing forward a new plan, set to be confirmed soon by the Agriculture Ministry, under which the agricultural areas allocated to the settlers [the reporter uses neutral mitayashvim, rather than the politically charged mitnachlim - DR] of the [Jordan] valley will grow from 35 dunams [~0.25 acres] to 80 dunums in the nearest of future – an overall addition of 130%. ? The water allocation for the valley farmers will also from 30k cubic meters to 51k cubic meters per year. "The settlement department said that this would allow the absorption of the second generation of the veteran settlers [mityashvim] of the Jordan valley and bringing in new families to the agricultural communities [yishuvim, rather than hitnachluyot]. The head of the settlement department, Yaron ben Ezra, said that the annual agricultural produce of the farmers of the Jordan Valley – not including Palestinian farmers – reached NIS 458m in 2010." The report then goes on to wax poetic about how much recycled water the “farmers of the valley” are using. One rather awkward paragraph suddenly informs us that 21 hitnachluyot, i.e. West Bank settlements, were set up in the valley since the Six Day war, but the entire piece so thoroughly depoliticised you would think the errant trivia par is talking about some other place.... more.. e-mail Author Alice Walker to take part in Gaza flotilla, despite U.S. warning Palestine Note 24 Jun 2011 - Haaretz- The celebrated poet and novelist Alice Walker has reiterated her intent to participate in the upcoming flotilla to Gaza, despite a warning by the United States State Department, which advises citizens against joining the attempt to break Israel's naval... Author Alice Walker to take part in Gaza flotilla, despite U.S. warning Ha'aretz - The celebrated poet and novelist wrote a special piece for CNN, outlining her intention to bring letters to the people of Gaza 'expressing solidarity and love.' [uruknet.info] Interview: Alice Walker on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the struggle for justice Uruknet June 19, 2011 - Celebrated American author and poet Alice Walker will later this month be among 38 people aboard the Audacity of Hope, the ship sponsored by US Boat to Gaza as part of an international effort to break Israel's maritime siege of Gaza. In a conversation with Ali Abunimah, Walker speaks about her thoughts on the... Nakba: They Will Return Tikun Olam - Nakba I’m shamelessly ripping off a deeply moving photo-poetry collage by Patrick McManus, one of my Facebook friends, which I came across in my online wanderings. The poem exquisitely echoes the photograph: Abu Salma: We Will Return (1951) Beloved Palestine, how do I sleep while the... Interview: Alice Walker on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the struggle for justice Electronic Intifada: 17 Jun 2011 - Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada Celebrated American author and poet Alice Walker will be aboard the Audacity of Hope, part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, set sail this month. Ali Abunimah interviews for The Electronic Intifada.more On “the Issue of Character” and Empire Dissident Voice: 15 Jun 2011 - Late last month, poet, musician, and self-termed “bluesologist,” Gil Scott-Heron exited the hologram and returned to the source… to begin chanting, eternity will not be televised. In an earlier era, Stephen Spender feted the following tribute to those who fell resisting Francisco Franco’s fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. His lines of verse serve as an apt epitaph to all those souls who devoted their art and labor to the ceaseless struggle against the perennially risen, death-besotted forces of coercive power: “The names of those who in their lives fought for life,/Who wore at their hearts the fire’s center./Born of the sun, they traveled a short while towards the sun,/And left the vivid air signed with their honor.” At present, in contrast, the dismal air is signed with the scandalous tweets of a congressman’s undergarments and the concomitant, predictable howling from the hectoring ghosts of U.S. Puritanism,...more [uruknet.info] On "The Issue Of Character" And Empire Uruknet June 13, 2011 - Late last month, poet, musician, and self-termed "bluesologist," Gil Scott-Heron exited the hologram and returned to the source...to begin chanting, eternity will not be televised. In an earlier era, Stephen Spender feted the following tribute to those who fell resisting Francisco Franco's fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War. His lines of verse serve... Bahrain woman gets year in jail for critical poems Daily Star 12 Jun 2011 A 20-year-old woman who recited poems critical of Bahrain's rulers -- and later claimed she was beaten in jail -- was sentenced Sunday to a year in prison as part of the kingdom's crackdown on Shiite... In verse and prose, Benghazi liberates speech Daily Star 11 Jun 2011 Freedom of speech is the name of the game in Revolution Square in the Libyan rebel capital, where new publications have blossomed and women recite poetry in public. Where Are the Israeli Poets? Dissident Voice: 28 May 2011 - Where are the Israeli poets? Those who would search their dreams For memories lost or Denied Those who would look inward To see the archetypes of shadows Fleeing In the night Or who would search the rocky landscape of the mind To see those whom they have chased away Where are those who would survey the scrubgrass And the pale horse And the winter moon And the olive trees Planted a thousand new suns ago By those who are no longer But whose sweat lingers in the soil Are there no Israeli poets? Are they afraid? Of looking inward If only in a dream On a barren moonlit landscape While wandering the winding paths Stepping on the rubble on ancient villages Which are no longer But villages whose souls still weep For the familiar voices They may sometime hear In the distance When the wind is rightmore "Shifting Sands" anthology a hit and miss Electronic Intifada: 26 May 2011 - Asa Winstanley The Electronic Intifada Published by Whole World Press and edited by Osie Gabriel Adelfang, Shifting Sands is a collection of essays, prose and one poem by Jewish activists and writers. Asa Winstanley reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Shifting Sands: Jewish Women Confront the Israeli Occupation Manufacturer: Whole World Press Part Number: Price: $16.00more Spanish poet honors unsung Warsaw Ghetto heroine Jeruslalem Post 26 May 2011 - Irena Sendler, who saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, wins Spanish poetry prize. Making Room for a Palestinian narrative: A response to Mishy Harman Joseph Dana 24 May 2011 - TEDx Ramallah was an event which highlighted the ability of an occupied people to maintain an active and vibrant culture. Authors, entrepreneurs, musicians, poets and filmmakers harnessed the power of new media in order to show the world that Palestine is not just a place of... Gaza flotilla is the Freedom Ride of this era Mondoweiss - “If we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that theycan stop a nonviolent campaign by inflicting massive violence." --1961, Diane Nash, Freedom Ride organizer Alice Walker, one of America’s premier writers, poets and... Gazan rap group pay tribute to Vittorio Arrigoni 5/14/2011 - International Solidarity Movement - The Gazan rap group DARG Team have recorded a song in memory of the International Solidarity Movement activist Vittorio Arrigoni who was kidnapped and murdered in Gaza last month. The song entitled ‘Onadekom (Calling You)', samples a popular resistance song, taken from a revolutionary poem written by the Palestinian Tawfiq Zayyad in 1966.... Related: DARG Team Facebook page The Exiled – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 13 May 2011 - We have triumphed over the plan to expel us from history. -- Mahmoud Darwish By Roger Sheety You will not find What you’re searching for, She said. Life is in the searching Not in the finding, I said. I will never go back, She said. You will never leave, I said. On the way Was the ignorance, The forgetting, The remembering. On the way Were the schoolyard taunts: “Arab,” “terrorist,” “Savage.” On the way Was the nightmare And the awakening. We were the ones Pushed into the sea. We were the ones Washed upon alien shores. And History was Turned upside down. And the invader Became the victim, And the native became The alien and the stranger. And the thief Became the defender, And the victim The wanderer. And yet we remain, Wherever we are: The living proof Of your Big Lie, The living truth Of your denial. And so...more Vittorio Knew the Risks, and Accepted Them Palestine Chronicle: 9 May 2011 - By Daniela Loffreda Over ten thousand people joined together on Easter Sunday April 25, 2011 to pay homage to Vittorio Arrigoni in his home town of Buciago, Italy. The bittersweet moments were celebrated first in a religious ceremony by the Archbishop of Jerusalem Hilarion Capucci and then it was followed by a lay ceremony by fellow humanitarians, activists, associations, friends and one of the most tenacious women I have ever seen, Egidia Beretta, Vittorio’s mother. Music and poems were the backdrop to unity, pride and solidarity. Humanity radiated everywhere. Just like Vittorio would have wanted. We flew in from Italy, Spain, Ireland, Germany, The UK, France and Palestine, drove in and even cycled in to celebrate the life of a man whose biblical presence has fated us to our consciousness and to our divine calls for a better world. His signature closing statement, “Restiamo Umani” “Stay Human” took shape as...more Erasure – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 6 May 2011 - Erasure – A Poem Translator's note: My father Abdul Karim Sabawi never published this poem before although he did publish countless of books of poetry. He said this one he kept in his heart like a blade that pierced him and released a bitter poison of doubt that he too would become part of a nation ethnically cleansed and driven into extinction. By Abdul Karim Sabawi When you were parched We quenched your thirst With our blood Now We carry your burden Disgraced We cry in shame When asked Where do you come from? Dishonoured we die If only the stray bullets From the occupier’s guns Were merciful That they pierced through our legs It only they tore through our knees If only we sunk in your soil Deep to our necks If only we got stuck And became the salt of your earth The nutrients in your fertile soil...more Artistic unified action on May 15 Palestine Monitor - Around May 15th, art , music and poetry will commemorate the Nakba in Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah, Haifa and Amman. - Press release / 2nd-col-1st-article , Non-violent resistance , International solidarity , Palestinian civil society , Youth , Culture , Right to entry , Gaza , Nakba Artistic unified action on May 15 Palestine Monitor: 5 May 2011 - Around May 15th, art , music and poetry will commemorate the Nakba in Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah, Haifa and Amman. - Press release / 2nd-col-1st-article , Non-violent resistance , International solidarity , Palestinian civil society , Youth , Culture , Right to entry , Gaza , Nakbamore Artistic unified action on May 15 Palestine Monitor: 5 May 2011 - Around May 15th, art , music and poetry will commemorate the Nakba in Gaza, Nablus, Ramallah, Haifa and Amman. - Press release / 2nd-col-1st-article , Non-violent resistance , International solidarity , Palestinian civil society , Youth , Culture , Right to entry , Gaza , Nakbamore Palestinian Festival of Literature Outro: Poems, Flames, Tears and Rap Palestine Monitor - Violence erupted in Silwan last night, interrupting but not stopping the final day of the Palestine Festival of Literature. Reportedly started by an Israeli shooting a young man's face , the streets of tumultous Silwan rose up in rock-throwing protest. The road to and from the tent... Palestinian Festival of Literature Outro: Poems, Flames, Tears and Rap Palestine Monitor: 21 Apr 2011 - Violence erupted in Silwan last night, interrupting but not stopping the final day of the Palestine Festival of Literature. Reportedly started by an Israeli shooting a young man's face , the streets of tumultous Silwan rose up in rock-throwing protest. The road to and from the tent was cut off by burning tires. But as two cars carrying settlers tried to pass, a small group of young boys pelted the car with rocks. "It sounded like someone was beating the cars with bats," said an eye-witness. Only few minutes later, the air was thick with teargas and the people attending the literary festival fled to the Solidarity Tent . For a little over an hour, Israeli soldiers launched teargas at festival attendees, performers and guests. As the situation quieted down, people returned to the tent. With a significant interruption in the program for the event, speakers choose to carry on with the...more Iraq is a US colony ruled by an Islamic regime, Saadi Youssof Uruknet April 20, 2011 - Renowned Iraqi poet Saadi Youssof said on Tuesday he doesn’t feel he belongs to Iraq anymore and added that Iraq is currently a US colony ruled by an Islamic regime. Youssof cherished the British nationality he holds and said that there’s nothing that links him to Iraq but the memories of his childhood "I... The Eyes of Gaza – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 18 Apr 2011 - By Heathcote Williams Ariel Sharon's Body's been in a coma Lasting for five years. Hell’s gates are narrow. Until he can fit through them, He must wait his turn. Here are some haiku For an old war criminal With no IQ left. If they’re read loudly, At a million decibels, He may register The hatred that all Killers attract – however Right they think they’ve been. The sonic blast could Open hell so his huge corpse May squeeze through at last. The Palestinians Killed by Ariel Sharon In the Sabra camp And in Shatila, While he floodlit their dwellings, Could watch him shoved in. Two thousand could watch, With those killed in Quibiya – Forty-eight mowed down By Sharon’s death squads – They could peer from a distance To see his trapped soul, Squirming and heaving, Snarled up in tubes. Then others, Who lived in Gaza And had their houses...more I'd Rather Not Talk about It - A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 15 Apr 2011 - By Sam Hamod (For Palestine) I really didn’t want to talk about Ali losing his leg to an Israeli shell last week, or Samira, scarred still in the hospital her body napalmed from a fast moving jet, but as I said, I’d rather not talk about it, but it seems there is nothing else we can talk about except, maybe the Zaitoun* trees, the tanks and bulldozers made short work of them, but their stumps remain, gravemarkers some say, but they say, they’d rather not talk about it between muffled sobs their women knot their hands, shake their heads, their scarves wet from tears, but even they say, they’d rather not talk about it, and as for me, I’d feel the same, but as a poet, I have to give them voice, even though they say, they’d rather not talk about it, I want to, and I want u to...more Poets among new faces on Israeli banknotes Jeruslalem Post 11 Apr 2011 - Rachel the Poetess, Leah Goldberg, Shaul Tcherinchovsky and Natan Alterman to grace the new notes, approved by the government. The Dos and Don'ts of Palestine – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 11 Apr 2011 - By Remi Kanazi don't call it genocide we don't want to offend anyone if we offend them they'll never listen to us we have to be reasonable 1,400 is just a number no names no death we want peace and negotiations don’t mention Zionism if you mention Zionism they’ll call you anti-Semitic and people will believe them don’t cite Palestinian sources no one will believe you I won’t believe you trust Israeli sources don’t ever be angry if you’re angry they’ll call you angry if they’re angry everyone will call them understandably emotional we have to be pragmatic pragmatism is not a euphemism for concessions although it may feel that way don’t mention Allah or martyrs it reminds them of Al Qaeda and 9/11 it’s not your job to fix their ignorance don’t talk about refugees boycott or a one-state solution if we want to win we have to compromise...more Satyagraha – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 9 Apr 2011 - By Abdul Karim Sabawi - Gaza I testify, There are no weapons more lethal than yours No men and horses mightier than yours And of all those who have occupied my land Yours is the darkest, most dreadful occupation You choose to kill But killing is a parasite It will eat away your spirit Take aim Kill Until you're exhausted I am not like you I wont allow you to stain my soul And to seduce me into killing you Three things stop me My beliefs*, values and heritage I am not like you Ignorant Arrogant of your ignorance Why not ask the sea waves Ask the sand where did the past invaders go? Visit the museums, The size of your head is no different to theirs Neither is the size of your shoes Nor will your fate be any different I am not like you Raised in isolation In...more All Our Futures – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 9 Apr 2011 - By Francis Oeser (For Ramzy Baroud & Nahida Izzat) In Nagasaki all the clocks stopped at 11.02. Today, folk are still dying – a long time for the vast disintegration caused by mankind’s cruelty in 1945. Now, Nagasaki, rebuilt, gleaming and busy shows few signs of the carnage. Nature and memory quietly bury ruins. No one buries ruined Biet Daras. And, now that Mohammed Baroud lies with his son under Gaza earth - all the others too – now they are gone, those who could remember, who will mourn our terrible loss as nature and memory are cruelly buried by strangers’ bull dozers and foreign distortions? I am well-built, without much blemish. So are my children (but beautiful!). You, who look away preoccupied and embarrassed, must see our scars from so careless a world of bombs and lies! Although the clocks stopped in Palestine in 1948, the world will go...more Remember – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 7 Apr 2011 - (In memory of Juliano Mer Khamis) By Remi Kanazi our paths never crossed work mind ideology daily I’m sure artist teacher director advocate intellect father son funny man much more 5 bullets casings on the floor blood painting the pavement masked gunman gone people chattering fingers pointing Israeli media and politicians sharpening knives won’t let him rest five minutes before digging in for points serving an agenda he fought daily won’t let his kids process breathe mourn break down gasp for breath don’t know what runs through someone’s veins before that trigger is pulled what excuse what idea allowed oxygen to enter that motion wanted to meet you shake hands share coffee say keep working it is appreciated it is loved it is felt now rest in peace rest assured your memory will be a theater open nights until justice is served freedom is brought and a stage is set...more Where Are the Palestinian Poets? – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 4 Apr 2011 - By Francis Oeser (An answer to W. J. Martin ) Where are the Palestinian poets who'll tell us all dreams, dreams of quiet olive groves, villagers' meetings, the rich quiet of rain on straw grass and dust? Where are the Palestinian poets, brother Arabs, progeny of Homer, Shakespeare, Lorca whose dreams enrich us all, dreams opposing hate and war, the vicious greed of Israelis and the blind-eyes of the world? Poems about hooves thumping hearts too, of golden olive oil and the laughter of children, those who dig in our minds in sweat-tinged soil, of the joy of making of the family of man in places both ordinary and sacred where a close hug negates languages of confusion? Where are the poets of hope, bringing us this precious land and its active people in odes, sonnets, magic speech and children's songs of hope, prosperity and peace? Shouts will go up when...more Ma'an programming to expand into poetry 3/31/2011 - DUBAI, UAE (Ma'an) -- The first steps in an expansion of Ma'an News Agency programming into the regional arts was made Wednesday, when MNA Chief Editor Nasser Lahham met with Lebanese journalist and poet Zahi Wehbe. New programs would aim to introduce Palestinian viewers to artists and poets from across the Middle.... Where Are the Israeli Poets? – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 30 Mar 2011 - By William James Martin Where are the Israeli poets? Those who would search their dreams For memories lost or Denied Those who would look inward To see the archetypes of shadows Fleeing In the night Or who would search the rocky landscape of the mind To see those whom they have chased away Where are those who would survey the scrubgrass And the pales horse And the winter moon And the olive trees Planted a thousand new suns ago By those who are no longer But whose sweat lingers in the soil Are there no Israeli poets? Are they afraid? Of looking inward On a barren moonlit landscape While wandering the winding paths Stepping on rubble on ancient villages Which are no longer But villages whose souls still weep For the familiar voices They may sometimes hear In the distance When the wind is right - William James Martin contributed...more The poet of the piano Jeruslalem Post 29 Mar 2011 - Classically trained pianist Orit Wolf will take the stage at TA Museum this week in an exploration of the life and work of Frederic Chopin. Life on Hold - A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 29 Mar 2011 - By Nahida Izzat With my roots uprooted Swinging like a pendulum Exile…home… exile… home…exile… Where my culture is not celebrated But threatened with extinction Torn between two paradoxical worlds My tortured soul exists In a state of permanent suspension Life on hold With my heart torn apart I dangle in between the realms of Earth… heaven… earth… heaven… earth… My body is here but my soul is far away Running after my beloved’s mirage I am endangered of annihilation Frayed between two impossible worlds My tormented core wavers In a state of permanent suspension Life on hold With my memory shredded into pieces I hang in the hue of non-existence Past… future… past… future… past… My brain is working But my mind has gone missing I am forcibly pushed towards insanity Worn out between two dream worlds My agonized being lingers In a cosmos of thirteen dimensions In a state...more A Confession – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 26 Mar 2011 - By Samah Sabawi I stand between my shame and relief I breathe... The missiles missed this time Truth is, they didn’t’ miss entirely Someone's house is destroyed but not that house I know so well Someone’s family is grieving but not the one whose name I carry I linger… between my shame and relief I breathe… I… breathe… I tell myself ‘this flesh, torn and scattered, is not flesh I have ever embraced’. I soothe myself, ‘Nor are these small lifeless hands the ones with a crayon I’ve traced’ I…breathe…this time. The missiles missed, those whose names are engraved on my lips This time They didn’t stop those hearts beating in my chest They live… I breathe… But I must confess Every time the bombs fall on Gaza I search for answers Where did they strike? Which street did they blow up? Which neighborhood did they destroy? Which lives did...more Young Jews are turning to Palestinian solidarity, Beinart tells a Pittsburgh temple Mondoweiss - An anonymous friend from Busboys and Poets reports from Pittsburgh: Peter Beinart spoke to a crowd of about 250 at Pittsburgh's temple Rodef Shalom Thursday evening , on the topic, "Is the Love Affair Over? Young American Jews and Israel." The moderator was delighted to observe that "... Manning Must be Tortured to Make an Example of Him and to Intimidate his Supporters Dissident Voice: 15 Mar 2011 - ( The article below is from a speech given by Kevin Zeese in support of Bradley Manning at Bus Boys and Poets in Washington, DC on March 13, 2011) His cell is six feet wide and twelve feet in length. It has a bed, a drinking fountain, and a toilet. At 5:00 a.m. he is woken up. He will not be allowed to sleep again until 8:00 p.m. If he attempts to sleep at any time from 5 AM to 8 PM, he will be made to sit up or stand by the guards. He will not be allowed to exercise in his cell, not even pushups – for his own protection, too dangerous, say his jailers. If he tries, guards stop him. He has no clothes as they were taken away the night before. He is forced to sleep naked with a scratchy smock over him that itches throughout...more Tonight my soul: A Palestinian love poem 3/15/2011 - Jayne Qumsieh - Tonight my soul got very drunk my love / In every cup, my sorrows I try to rid of. / But I have reached my 100th cup now / And my anguish still lingers somehow. / I live an over dosage of gloomy feelings / To this life without you, I just find no meaning / To inescapable drinking.... National poets to appear on new series of banknotes Jeruslalem Post 10 Mar 2011 - Bank of Israel announces new list, including Alterman, Tchernichovsky and Rachel, more than a year after shelving original suggestions On March 15 the ‘angry young men’ of Gaza will work to end division Mondoweiss - “ Write down, I am an Arab ” wrote the late renowned Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish, in the opening lines of his controversial poem boasting about and promoting then-declining Pan-Arabism. Toward the middle of the poem, he writes, his anger obviously amounting, “Patient in a country/... The new Egypt: Leaving women behind Palestine Note 8 Mar 2011 - Basma Atassi, Al Jazeera - Marwa Sharaf el-Din, an Egyptian law PhD candidate at Oxford University, will be in Tahrir Square this afternoon to perform Zajal, a popular traditional form of Arabic poetry. "Do I have... The New Egypt: Leaving Women Behind IPS Marwa Sharaf el-Din, an Egyptian law PhD candidate at Oxford University, spent part of International Women's Day in Tahrir Square this afternoon to perform Zajal, a popular traditional form of Arabic poetry. Permission to Engage – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 7 Mar 2011 - By Eugene Sigaloff Those twangy voices, American voices, Voices like billiard balls, Voices like crew cuts: “Request permission to engage.” “Roger that … You are free to engage.” Voices like bullets. Permission to engage is granted, Permission granted to “light ‘em all up.” Men below, unaware of the killing machine above them, Are appraised by dual minds, Kindly minds, Minds that love their dogs, Agonize if doggie’s paw has a boo-boo, Go weepy if doggie should “pass away,” And scornful minds, Minds that jeer the “enemy” when properly instructed, Us and them minds, Minds that have been drilled to lose all feeling, all pity: “Keep shoot’n, keep shoot’n, keep shoot’n, keep shoot’n.” They run, they scamper, they fall, they slide: Death as pratfall; The “fuck’n pricks,” They die in disarray, comically: “Oh yeah, look at those dead bastards!” “Nice.” Legs cannot outrun remorseless bullets, Flesh cannot thwart implacable steel: Hearts...more A revolution against neoliberalism? Abu Atris, Al Jazeera 2/24/2011 If rebellion results in a retrenchment of neoliberalism, millions will feel cheated. On February 16th I read a comment was posted on the wall of the Kullina Khalid Saed ("We are all Khaled Said") Facebook page administered by the now very famous Wael Ghonim. By that time it had been there for about 21 hours. The comment referred to a news item reporting that European governments were under pressure to freeze bank accounts of recently deposed members of the Mubarak regime. The comment said: "Excellent news … we do not want to take revenge on anyone … it is the right of all of us to hold to account any person who has wronged this nation. By law we want the nation’s money that has been stolen … because this is the money of Egyptians, 40% of whom live below the poverty line." By the time I unpacked this thread of conversation, 5,999 people had clicked the "like" button, and about 5,500 had left comments. I have not attempted the herculean task of reading all five thousand odd comments (and no doubt more are being added as I write), but a fairly lengthy survey left no doubt that most of the comments were made by people who clicked the "like" icon on the Facebook page. There were also a few by regime supporters, and others by people who dislike the personality cult that has emerged around Mr. Ghoneim. This Facebook thread is symptomatic of the moment. Now that the Mubarak regime has fallen, an urge to account for its crimes and to identify its accomplices has come to the fore. The chants, songs, and poetry performed in Midan al-Tahrir always contained an element of anger against haramiyya (thieves) who benefited from regime corruption. Now lists of regime supporters are circulating in the press and blogosphere. Mubarak and his closest relatives (sons Gamal and 'Ala’) are always at the head of these lists. Articles on their personal wealth give figures as low as $3 billion to as high as $70 billion (the higher number was repeated on many protesters’ signs).... more.. e-mail Radio host Netiva Ben Yehuda passes on at 83 Ha'aretz - Ben Yehuda was also a poet and author who wrote of her former experiences as one of the only women to command a Palmach platoon. Dylcia and Cisco on Panthers and Independistas Dissident Voice: 28 Feb 2011 - This February 26, 2011 episode of Freedom is a Constant Struggle features Dylcia Pagan and Francisco Torres. Dylcia Pagan is a Puerto Rican freedom fighter and Independista, who spent nearly 20 years in Federal prisons on charges of seditious conspiracy for her role in the underground wing of the Puerto Rican independence movement. One of 11 Puerto Rican political prisoners granted clemency in 1999 by President Clinton, she was paroled to Puerto Rico, where she has continued to struggle against U.S. colonialism nonviolently. Born and raised in New York City, Dylcia studied psychology, political science, and Puerto Rican studies at Brooklyn College where she founded the Puerto Rican Students Union. Her culture and politics are expressed through painting, ceramics, poetry, writings, and film. She has participated in the production of a video about her life and compañeros in the struggle; and while in prison, she helped direct a documentary about...more Essay: Egypt: The Cultural Revolution New York Times 19 Feb 2011 - The poems and songs of Tahrir Square directly challenge the official worldview propagated by the Mubarak regime. Remi Kanazi & Laila El-Haddad: What the Egyptian Revolution Means for Palestine Palestine Note 17 Feb 2011 - GRITtv - "It's a reimagining of the middle east, what is possible," says poet Remi Kanazi of the revolution in Egypt, and Laila El-Haddad notes the direct impact that the Mubarak regime had on Palestinian people,... A ‘generation of giants’ reshapes Egypt and the broader Middle East Mondoweiss - We published part of the this poem in a post about the student BDS movement. It certainly deserves to be posted again in a different context. From Verse , a poem written by Nizar Qabbani in the wake of the 1967 war: 19 We do not want... Egypt-born writer Chedid 'dies in Paris' 2/8/2011 - PARIS (AFP) -- The Egyptian-born poet and novelist Andree Chedid, the grandmother of French rock singer Matthieu Chedid, died in Paris on Sunday aged 90, her publisher Flammarion said. She was born into a Lebanese Christian family in Cairo in 1920 and was educated in Egypt and Paris before taking a degree in journalism at the.... Franco-Egyptian poet Andree Chedid dies at 90 Palestine Note 8 Feb 2011 - BBC - Over 50 years, Chedid created a body of work which included novels and drama, winning the 1979 Goncourt prize for literature for Time And The Body. Born in Cairo of Lebanese Christian descent, she... At Night, Protest Gives Way to Poetry Palestine Note 7 Feb 2011 - New York Times - It was a few minutes after midnight on Sunday, when an unaccustomed rain washed Cairo’s somnolent streets, as Ahmed Abdel-Moneim walked with friends across a bridge that was a passageway to a... Small Concessions and Poetry Readings As Egypt Protests Enter Third Week PNN - Cairo – PNN - In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, demonstrators entertained each other with poetry readings and dancing and at least one wedding while the Mubarak regime, reeling from two weeks of unprecedented... Al Jazeera: Egypt's 24-Hour Revolution Palestine Chronicle: 5 Feb 2011 - By James Gundun – Washington, D.C. Somewhere Gil Scott-Heron must be reveling in the scene at Tahrir Square. African-Americans may not be pouring into U.S. streets looking for a brighter day, but millions of Egyptian spirits have brought Scott-Heron’s prophetic words to life. “You will not be able to stay home, brother,” he predicted 41 years ago... “You will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out... The revolution will be brought to you without commercial interruption... NBC will not be able to predict the winner at 8:32 PM... The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat... The revolution will be no re-run... The revolution will be live.” However, even Scott-Heron’s vision may not have seen Al Jazeera coming when he titled his classic poem, “The Revolution Will Not be Televised.” For those watching Al Jazeera’s 24-hour live feed of Tahrir Square, Egypt’s revolution is televised....more We Are All Egypt! Palestine Chronicle: 4 Feb 2011 - By Susan Abulhawa Rightly proud of their history, Egyptians like to announce, especially to other Arabs, that Egypt is the world’s mother. The Arabic version is far more tender and poetic 'Misr Um el Dounia'! Light-hearted banter will often ensue between Egyptian and non-Egyptian friends when that statement is brought into the conversation. Today, I think every Arab will concede that, indeed, Misr Um el Dounia! The culture that is a pillar of history itself is, once again, unfurling a new era and, as one revolutionary protestor said, “the world before January 25th is not the same after January 25th”. With such spectacular passion, courage, endurance, and undaunted will, the people of Egypt are ushering in a new world order in the Middle East. Everyone, apparently except Hosni Mubarak, knows that Hosni Mubarak is finished. But his ousting is not merely the end of one Arab tyrant. The awe-inspiring unity...more Moment of Reckoning for Arabs Palestine Chronicle: 4 Feb 2011 - By Aijaz Zaka Syed – Dubai The magic of poetry is invariably lost in translation. Yet I must share these extraordinary lines by Faiz ahmed Faiz, South Asia’s revolutionary poet, with the readers, written for extraordinary times like ours. It’s as though he had those marching on Egypt’s streets today in mind: Hum dekhenge Lazim haike hum bhi dekhenge Woh dinke jiska waada hai Jo loh-e-azl pe likha hai Hum dekhenge Jab zulm-o-sitam ke koh-e-garaan Rui ki tarah ud jayenge Hum mehkumoon ke paun tale Yeh dharti dhad dhad dhadkegi Aur ahl-e-hukum ke sar upar Jab bijli kad-kad kadkegi Hum dekhenge Jab arz-e-khuda ke Kabe se Sab buth uthwaye jayenge Hum ahl-e-safa mardood-e-haram Masnad pe bithaye jayenge Sab taaj uchale jayenge Sab takht giraye jayenge Bas naam rahega Allah ka Hum dekhenge Lazim haike hum bhi dekhenge We shall see Certainly we, too, will see/ We shall see the day...more Mahmoud Darwish’s 'Journal of an Ordinary Grief' Andre Naffis-Sahely, Words Without Borders 1/26/2011 Mahmoud Darwish’s “Journal of an Ordinary Grief”, Translated from the Arabic by Ibrahim Muhawi, Archipelago Books, 2010 Every artist, particularly if they happen to be a good one, is in a sense posthumous; and as soon as their tongue is safely lifeless, every tribe lays claim to what part of their work suits their particular purposes; “he or she” they say, “belonged to all of us.” The more I read of Darwish, who was quite possibly the modern apotheosis of the Arabic language, the more I consider how appalled he might have been of the public spectacle engendered by his death: the indecisions as to where he would be buried, the cortčge of politicians filing past his coffin, the plans for a memorial, the days of mourning; who wouldn't be mortified? To most of those who knew him, Darwish was humble, shy— but alert to the duplicity of responses he inspired in his readers: "You have to be crafty with formulation in order to safeguard your existence. For this reason you prefer poetry to crossing rivers. Then critics living in ease will accuse you of being a traitor to the national cause. And your enemies will accuse you of anti-Semitism." Penned during Darwish's house arrest in Haifa prior to his exile from Israel in 1971, Journal of an Ordinary Grief is the first of his prose works to attempt a portrait of the artist as first and foremost a poet, and in the second place as a Palestinian. What is a Palestinian without a country, or even a physical memory of that country? Many of the lines in the Journal struggle with this paucity of means. As he puts it in “The Homeland,” the second chapter in the book: “the map does not constitute an answer, because it is very much like an abstract painting. And your grandfather's grave is not the answer because a small forest can make it disappear.”.... more.. e-mail Deliberate Damage – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 25 Jan 2011 - By Eugene Sigaloff 'Light 'em up,' says the lifelike puppet. 'That's good,' says the satisfied puppet master, 'It looks as if it walks and talks on its own, Using words like these, Catchy words like these— Disengaged to prevent regret, Disengaged to prevent despair— As if it actually thinks on its own; From its platform in the sky it can aim and fire, It can fill soft heathen bodies with burning metal, “Lighting them up” like Christmas trees, Flesh incandescent, Flesh sizzling like a Sunday roast, Blood spreading like the leaves of poinsettias, Blood and flesh decorating the heathen streets, It can do this so un-traumatically, Without pain or strain, With a virtual inner buzz, A virtual inner glow of exhilaration; This puppet has learned well, This puppet is proud, This puppet is almost human.' And the puppet master, Thinking he was more than a puppet, Went to a self-congratulatory...more Iraqi poets praise, warn Tunisians 1/21/2011 - BAGHDAD (AFP) -- The society of Iraqi poets hosted a raucous gathering on Friday in central Baghdad to express solidarity with Tunisians, and bitterness at the turn of events in their own country." We want to express our solidarity with the people of Tunisia, to support humanity and justice," said Saleh Zamel, the master of ceremonies.... Goldstone Report Weekender: Weiss profile; Ratner on Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish; and Siegman discusses ‘delegitimizing Israel’ Mondoweiss - As you probably know by now, our book The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict has hit stores. Media attention has started to pick up, so even if you can't make it to Busboys & Poets in DC this weekend... Gaza conversation at Busboys and Poets in D.C., this Sunday Mondoweiss - I know it's early but this Sunday at 9:30 a.m., there will be a number of good speakers at Busboys and Poets in Washington to talk about Gaza and the Goldstone Report. Notably Phyllis Bennis of Institute for Policy Studies and Laila El-Haddad, new author and... Prominent Palestinian poet dies in Cairo 1/15/2011 - CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Palestinian poet Salah Ad-Din Al-Husseini, known as poet of the Palestinian revolution, died on Tuesday in his home in Cairo. Palestinian ambassador to Egypt and to the Arab League Barakat Al-Farra announced death of Al-Husseini that afternoon, enumerating his merits as a prominent nationalistic poet. In a statement released in Cairo.... Palestinian poet Salah al-Din al-Husaini dies PIC 14 Jan 2011 - Palestinian poet Salah al-Din al-Husaini (Abu Al-Sadeq) died in a Cairo hospital, aged 76 years, after suffering from acute pneumonitis. Wild Woman Laments – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 10 Jan 2011 - By Lillian Rosengarten What is this strange, strange world where children die? Question the killers, dark wars. Suffering everywhere. Callous indifference deadened in pursuit of blood on the ground of Palestine stolen from the living. Little screams on still faces. I cannot hear you! Speak to me please! Hundreds of thousands of children, stench of burnt flesh Life without value as missiles slam Smoldering in the moonlight. I am bursting through my skin, dismembered, I am nowhere I am everywhere. I am your murderer lost soul of deception nailed in a coffin of hate. I am your mother stooped in grief. I am your father’s vacant eyes. I am the children. When death stretches its arms to me I sink into the earth covered in moss and wildflowers. Remember the spring of our years before a troubled twilight Lifted its tentacles to crush you in a sea of tears? Once...more Tata's Lovesong – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 5 Jan 2011 - By Jehan Bseiso I Maktoob: It is written. Where? In a big book in the sky. II Tata, my grandmother, would only tell the story in staccato: “1948. Falasteen. Orange blossom fields. Salt. Blue Gaza waters. “ Tears in her long black lashes, “And when my father died, his horse wept in the funeral”. III Inhale: Sikes-Piko, Exodus, memory, shrapnel, black September, blue ribbons on bloodied chests, allahu akbar. Exhale: Settlements, walls, katyushas, mahmoud darwish, Che Guevara’s lips, Jerusalem, Maryam,Kuffieh. IV The artist explains to the BBC camera: “This is post-post-post modern. It’s actually Andy Warhol, meets Baudrilliard with a hint of Jalal Al Din Rumi. The theme is...keys, as in, existential symbols. Imagine. These people left with their keys around their necks. It’s 3 dimensional: denial, delusion, deference. The photos are taken from maximum empathy angles.. you feel what they feel.” The woman stares at the BBC camera, says:...more The Unexpected Sound of Christmas: Palestinians and the Bagpipe PNN - Bethlehem – PNN - To an outsider, Palestinian culture can be recalled with a few recognizable motifs: the keffiyeh, the olive tree, a plate of hummus, or a Darwish poem. On the... The Palestinian National Anthem(s) Shadi Al Haj, Palestine Think Tank 12/24/2010 “Kimi ga yo” Japan and “Mawtini” Palestine! "Kimi ga yo", (in English “The Emperor’s Reign“, with these words begins the Japanese national anthem, as a matter of fact, the world’s shortest national anthem (15 words). A poem to praise the Emperor, written in the Heian period and a melody chosen in 1880 to replace a previous unpopular one were the reason for a controversy in democratic Japan until the passage of a law which gave it recognition as Japan‘s national anthem in 1999. Anthems the way we know them rose to prominence in 19th century Europe and they are either “Marches“ or “Hymns” in their musical style while in Latin America, operatic styles can be found. The Palestinian national anthem has its own interesting story. After a short web-based search I was surprised with the amount of confusion and controversy surrounding it. I spent a few hours searching the “painfully-confusing” Internet presence of the so-called “Ramallah government” and the “Gaza government “ as well, linking from these places, I ended up on some websites where it was even confusing to know where I was. I found almost nothing regarding the Palestinian national anthem on those web pages.. It seems to me that YouTube and Wikipedia have space to preserve our national story, while both respected Palestinian governments are busy innovating their Internet cockfighting over Legitimacy. And to bring you closer to the reality behind my irony, I need you to listen to the official Palestinian national anthem which is the recognised Palestinian National Anthem.... -- See also: YouTube: Palestinian National Anthem more.. e-mail Cast Lead – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 23 Dec 2010 - By Helen Aouad Groups of gulls holding fast to an old sea while bangs undo their sky must ask themselves: Wherefore is disaster new? Sky—let’s look—is recoupable so lulling water lays to rest the time till swells swell back to what they were paralleling drier blues above. Glossing over depth gets wet wings airborne homing inland plain white smoke weeds their gyral course higher sharing air with winning tops never mind which side the dreidels fall on—never mind day or night making room: Willie Peter spoiling twilight dislocating dawns that hollow what was left of what was meted out square on a lip of land looking west unacknowledged though not about to slip off just because near or far away networked lives in paltry atonement stop us asking how a moral army’s oeuvre— —set to print as such wouldn’t raise the stakes of justice for those faring afterwards who may...more Israel's bank-note makeover gets ugly LA Times 21 Dec 2010 - Politicians, poets and women's activists all have opinions about who should appear on new bills. Some are using the debate to settle old scores. When Israel decided to redesign its bank notes, it ran into some trouble: No one, apparently, fit the bill. Wasted Journeys: Anti-Racism in Israel Palestine Chronicle: 20 Dec 2010 - By Seraj Assi In his 'Telephone Conversation' Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka reflects on the absurdity of racism allowing his poetic muse to render it ironic, sarcastic, cynical, satiric, ridiculous, beautiful and nasty. The speaker of the poem is a dark West African man who is searching for a new apartment. He tells the story of a call he made to a potential white landlady. The narrative rapidly moves from discussing the price, location and amenities of the apartment to a conversation on the speaker’s skin color. As the conversation progresses, the speaker confesses: But self-confession. “Madam,” I warned “I hate a wasted journey- I am African.” No great imagination is needed for reimagining the poetic space of Telephone Conversation in the spatial reality of Arabs in Israel. Nor to grasp the absurdity of the letter signed of late by the Israel's municipal chief rabbis urging Jews to refrain from renting...more I Wish – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 7 Dec 2010 - By Nadeem Fayaz I wish I could take to the streets with a million men behind me Chanting words of freedom, peace and honesty Be the image that defines our generation, the event that changed history Those British that marched in the name of humanity Be the living revolution from these shores far from the siege But changing the lives of those children far from at ease I wish I could take to the streets with a million men behind me And tell those world leaders, 'the revolution has started' They will quiver on their thrones and behind their bold statements we will know What they are most frightened of is us, for they will speak amongst themselves "The people have spoken, the people have taken to the streets!" And there are a million more behind them No more settlements, no more wall, 'free my people' is the call The...more Poet Najwan Darwish Reads for New York City Crowds PNN - New York City – PNN - Americans and Palestinians alike thronged to the Alwan Center of the Arts in New York City to hear the Palestinian poet Najwan Darwish read a selection... To Gaza with Humble Apologies – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 3 Dec 2010 - By Lillian Rosengarten I am a Jew symbolic of the carnage of Gaza. I will walk on the ravished desolation of destroyed lives places where Apache helicopters fired yet another missile on to crowds reduced to charred remains. I wonder how to make contact for I am ashamed. What justifies the brutal rampage of terror and murder? Now in Rafah where entire neighborhoods are reduced to rubble Where Israeli tanks and bulldozers made in USA Add an extra 2000 families left homeless. They flee on donkey carts piled up with nothing to nowhere! No food, no water, no money, flattened neighborhoods from the reign of terror. Where has hope gone? Where are the olive groves I love so much? Does anyone remember the Nazis sixty years ago? I am going to Gaza and wonder. How can it be that arms will be outstretched to welcome me? Will they see my...more The Syrian poet Adonis talks about the power of poetry Palestine Note 2 Dec 2010 - The National - The poet known as Adonis - whose work marked a great transformation in 20th-century Arabic poetry - has just had breakfast. Now, smiling indiscriminately, he settles into a chair in the basement cafe... 'My political party is my poem'An evening with Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti. Uruknet November 26, 2010 - In today's fast-paced culture poetry readings can seem a little old-fashioned. But the faithful fans of Mourid Barghouti who recently gathered in Doha, Qatar, to hear the Palestinian poet were treated to an evening that was anything but quaint. The author holds a unique position in the Palestinian diaspora. His book, I saw Ramallah, is... Where Are You From? – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 11 Nov 2010 - By Dr. Abdel-Qader Yassine Where are you from? You ask... I am a gypsy, a wanderer, born of pain and affliction. Look at the map of the world, voyage across in a glance. Doubtless you will not find a land, where my fellow county-man has not drifted. Yet, You would not find P A L E S T I N E... I am the mystified soul of a sleep-walker, who at the full moon, strolls across the cliffs of endless desires at the foot of reality. Where are you from? You ask. I am from the land Where History was born. Jericho celebrated its 10 000th birthday last month. It was in Jericho that MAN first settled... It was here, 2000 years ago, A bare-footed Palestinian named Jesus preached to Mankind: "Know Ye the Truth... And the Truth shall make Thee Free..!" Where are you from? You ask. I am...more 'Victim' – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 9 Nov 2010 - By Lillian Rosengarten Dedicated to the memory of Paul Celan. 'You were my death: you I could hold when all fell away from me.' Dare we whisper of racial hate, cruelty that feeds voraciously Righteous moral certainty ready to taint the earth with blood Yours and mine in the name of nationalism. Ugly word reminds me of “uber mensch.” Do you remember once our well made clothes were warm and stylish, party dresses decked with bows, ribbons in the hair, families who loved, houses filled with flowers and the stuff of life. Things everybody knows, or wants to know . Before the yellow star took it all away, shopkeepers and bakers, professors. poets, doctors and artists, students and teachers, homosexuals, gypsies, lovers Dare we whisper how hate tainted the earth with their blood As the world looked on. Racist oppression, cruelty, righteous moral certainty ready to strike. In the name of...more Gaza Poet Prevented From Travelling To Abu Dhabi IMEMC - 4 Nov 2010 - Thursday November 04, 2010 - 10:53, On Wednesday, Egyptian authorities prevented a Gaza poet from travelling to a poetry competition in Abu Dhabi, arguing security concerns. Egyptian authorities restrict travel of Gaza poet 11/3/2010 - GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities prevented a Gaza poet from traveling to a poetry competition in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Suleiman Al-Hazeen, from An-Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip district of Deir Al-Balah, was accepted to be one of 7,000 contestants in the "Prince of Poets" competition hosted by the Gulf.... Weimar in Jerusalem Palestine Chronicle: 25 Oct 2010 - By Uri Avnery – Israel In Berlin, an exhibition entitled “Hitler and the Germans” has just opened. It examines the factors that caused the German people to bring Adolf Hitler to power and follow him to the very end. I am too busy with the problems of Israeli democracy to fly to Berlin. Pity. Because since childhood, precisely this question has been troubling me. How did it happen that a civilized nation, which saw itself as the “people of poets and thinkers”, followed this man, much as the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper to their doom. This troubles me not only as a historical phenomenon, but as a warning for the future. If this happened to the Germans, can it happen to any people? Can it happen here? As a 9-year old boy I was an eye-witness to the collapse of German democracy and the ascent of the...more Palestine, I Hear You – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 23 Oct 2010 - By Lillian Rosengarten Palestine! You call to me with whispers of pain. You speak of lost poets, children who cry for lost parents, lost teachers lost childhoods, dreams torn from their roots, mangled in a desert gone dry. In this place, water is poisoned, air putrid from the blood belly of war There is no escape, only sleep ravished by nightmares or death. I want to hear your poetry and tell you mine. I want to look into your eyes and see myself in you. Down! Down beneath the graves I hear your cries Muffled in a shroud of deception. You don’t exist. Israel, you are no longer my Israel. You punish those you call Arabs, dirty Arabs. Sad peoples of Palestine spit on and defiled, kept behind a wall. Oh ghetto of Israel, I ache for the reviled proud Palestinians, our brothers and sisters. But most of all I...more Palestine, I hear you Mondoweiss - Palestine! You call to me with whispers of pain. You speak of lost poets, children who cry for lost parents, lost teachers lost childhoods, dreams torn from their roots, mangled in a desert gone dry. In this place, water is poisoned, air putrid from the blood... Mahmoud Darwish street inaugurated in Jericho Palestine Note 13 Oct 2010 - Washington - In honor of Jericho's 10,000th anniversary, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad unveiled Mahmoud Darwish Street on Monday, Ma'an News Agency reported Wednesday. Mahmoud Darwish was a Palestinian poet... Natan Zach: 'I would participate in the next flotilla' Jeruslalem Post 5 Oct 2010 - Award-winning Israeli poet wants to bring "poets from around the world" to break blockade on Gaza; MK Regev asks to remove Zach's poem from schoolbooks. Poet Zach: Israel apartheid state YNet News - Leading Israeli poet says he wishes to join Gaza flotilla; 'if I were better.... Not in the NYT: Israeli poet says Israel is apartheid state Mondoweiss - Once again, the Israeli discourse shows itself to be far more open than the American one, why? Because of diaspora Jews' presumed responsibility to guard Israel from all criticism in front of the goyim. Here is Israeli poet Natan Zach, quoted in Ynet : Israel is an... All We Ask – A Peom Palestine Chronicle: 4 Oct 2010 - By Sam Hamod (For Our Brothers and Sisters In Palestine, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia) We want very little a sip of fresh water, a small piece of bread, perhaps an olive again, if the trees have not been smashed, a door my key will fit, so I can go home, quiet, so there are no more drones, and when you come by, in your heavily laden uniforms, every now and then a smile, and from Allah, a bit of sunshine, even some rain, just small things, not much a bit of fresh air, without the smell of gunfire, rockets or phosphorous, just a sky clear of jets and rockets, so that we may see a sun that wanders off late in the afternoon and a moon that whispers, we shall sleep now, praying, tomorrow will be a better day - (c: sam hamod, 2010) Sam Hamod is a poet...more Abbas, it is not yet time Nasser Lahham, Ma’an News Agency 10/2/2010 On the presidential plane, President Mahmoud Abbas sat among assembled journalists and said this would be the last time we traveled with him. We were all silent. At 32,000 feet above Turkey, a stream of questions came after the stunned silence, but he was reticent to answer. I looked to his advisor, Akram Haniyeh, searching for a clue, but his body language revealed nothing, anything he knew was concealed. Regardless of the validity, or invalidity, of the desire or unwillingness of the president to step down, his resignation will be blow to his people. In relinquishing office, Abbas will gain on a personal level, as will his family, and the TV channels that attacked him will sing his praise. Poetry will be written for him from London to Qatar, and he will be honored in Arab capitals, Europe, and Africa as a hero who stepped down against US imperialism. Statements will be issued in Gaza and Damascus, while leaders in Ramallah will celebrate a new opportunity to rule. But Palestinians will suffer. If Abbas is looking solely at his personal interests, he should resign now. He will be honored like Arafat, and will enter the history books for his resolve against the US and Israel. more.. e-mail The Salesman – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 15 Sep 2010 - By George Polley A manufacturer's rep at a cluster bomb trade show explains on camera how these weapons are designed to avoid civilian targets and focus only on military ones seen from thousands of feet above. He looks into the camera's eye and says in all seriousness, like a man delivering a sermon that “these weapons are very effective,” and are for sale to anyone with cash and the proper credentials”, as if the transaction is the kind of behavior that ordinary, sensible people engage in every day. Canisters filled with violence are marketed like the latest model toaster, very effective in providing toast, and without the cleanup the older models required. And they do provide toast ... in a way. What does this say about us as a species, as a people, as individual men and women, parents and grandparents? What does this say about you, about me? - George...more Jamais Vu! Palestine Note 1 Sep 2010 - Salvador Dali once said "that the first man to compare a woman's cheek to a rose was obviously a poet, the first one to repeat it was possibly an idiot." Much of our political, social and... Letter to Cordoba Center on Behalf of a Former 'Slave' Palestine Chronicle: 30 Aug 2010 - By Mark Gonzales Prelude: I. The three century old remains of 20,000 African men, women, children former slaves were discovered after the clean up of the World Trade Center's collapse. II. Between twenty and thirty percent of all stolen Africans brought to America as slaves were Muslim. A Letter on behalf of Cordova Center by one such “slave” Bismillah Is an unspoken song on the tongues of the forgotten ever wonder where will you pray when your skin has abandoned you or what religion is your skeleton A note for Manhattan city residents & Mr. President: if cemeteries have zip codes, air mail this poem to my mother courtesy of a masjid wings holding my father’s tear. New York: have you forgotten cities are built not by steel but bones that breath is turquoise colored accessory of skeletons wearing mahogany skin as Friday prayer best Bedstuy bones have a Project...more The Power of Storytelling Wajahat Ali, CounterPunch 8/20/2010 Creating a New Future for American Muslims In 7th-century Arabia, the storyteller was valued more than the swordsman. The audience sat on the floor surrounding the gifted orator as he captivated the eager listeners with beautiful poetry narrating their history. In the 21st century, the art form may have evolved to include motion pictures, TV shows, theater productions, novels, and standup comedy, but they all serve the same function: storytelling. Ideas and principles are most effectively communicated and transmitted when they are couched in a narrative. Stories, whether they concern the etiquette and biography of prophets or the trials and tribulations of America’s founding fathers, inform and influence a cultural citizenry of its values and identity. Stories of the Prophet Muhammad most effectively communicate the Quran’s eloquent exhortation to tolerate and embrace diversity: “O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise [each other])” (49:13). The Prophet’s cordial diplomacy and communication with the Christian, Abyssinian King yielded one of the first alliances of the young Muslim community. Furthermore, the Prophet displayed unconditional love for his diverse companions, who comprised the gamut of Arab society including former slaves, orphans, widows, wealthy dignitaries, and non-Arabs. Similarly, the story of a biracial man with an Arabic name and a Kenyan father elected to the highest office in the land reminds the world that indeed America can live up to its cherished principles of freedom and racial equality, and her citizens are capable of reflecting a magnanimous and egalitarian spirit bereft of prejudice. more.. e-mail Poets, artists, activists visit embattled Beduin village Jeruslalem Post 22 Aug 2010 - Over a hundred people show solidarity with residents who have seen their community dismantled by the Israel Lands Administration four times over the past month. Trimming: A Poem Palestine Note 5 Aug 2010 - The following is this week's message from the Israeli group Peace Now : Israeli soldiers use a crane to cut trees on the northern side of the border fence on Tuesday. [Lutfallah Daher / AP] TRIMMING The army... A poem for my mother Mondoweiss - Jenny Grossbard, 25, lives in New York. This piece first appeared on her blog, Overcoming Zion , ten days ago , with the title, "The Metro-West Jewish News." At the peak of his absurdity, the author writes: "Jewish anti-Zionists are in love with Jewish powerlessness, because so many... Jerusalem Palestine Note 24 Jun 2010 - JERUSALEM - "What now?" asks the final line of Lea Goldberg's poem on the heavenly and earthly Jerusalems. Those of us in the earthly metropolis know that the dualistic divide isn't representative, and that there are... Tales of a City by the Sea – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 23 Jun 2010 - By Samah Sabawi Gaza in its 43rd year of Israeli occupation The landscape constantly changes Only the sea remains the same Salty… Fluid… Mysterious... Moody A consistent presence amid the chaos Its whooshing waves whisper tales Of occupiers that have come and gone Crusaders, tyrants and warlords Riding on their horses Riding on their Tanks Riding on their F16 fighter jets Always riding through Leaving their footprints And part of their history Leaving their artifacts and ruins Leaving fire and debris Always leaving… Only the sea remains A cure for the trail of broken lives left behind A landmark untouched by human greed and destruction Oblivious to war occupation and aggression Defiant to the rules of man It embraces the shores of a battered city It makes a mockery Of those who try to break its spirit Those who think they can contain Its one and a half million beating...more In photos: Paris square named after poet Darwish 6/15/2010 - MaanImages / Omar Rashidi --The first public square named after the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish outside of his homeland was unveiled Tuesday in the French capital with a plaque with the poet's name and a line of his verse: 'We love life when we find a way to it'According to the Palestinian Authority news agency.... PHOTOS: Mahmoud Darwish Square dedicated in Paris Palestine Note 14 Jun 2010 - Washington - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë inaugurated on Monday "Mahmoud Darwish Square," named for the late Palestinian national poet, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported . Poet Mahmoud Darwish [Wikimedia Commons] The Council... Palestine – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 13 Jun 2010 - By Heathcote Williams Israel is the colostomy bag Of a dying empire, America. It's emptied out each day onto Gaza. Everyone can then settle down To relax and enjoy A continuous firework show Which costs three billion dollars a year. There are cluster bombs, Thermobaric missiles, Depleted uranium shells, And white phosphorus, All carefully choreographed To light up Palestine’s sky. These novelties are regularly dispatched To a clientele hungry for pyrotechnics From the Pentagon Incendiary Company; Though it has a poor safety record As its products routinely kill Anyone who gets too close. Resenting those who stage this spectacle Of flying limbs, and spurting blood And tiny corpses with napalmed flesh – Gaza residents occasionally Strap home-made fireworks To their own bodies; leave Their open-air torture chamber – This coliseum of exploding sewage – And put on a display for their captors. - This poem was contributed to PalestineChronicle.com.more Gaza Burning – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 10 Jun 2010 - By Jehan Bseiso No matter flag. No matter medicine. No matter civilian. No matter international community. No matter your international waters. No matter your sanctions, no matter your rhetoric and foreign policy. Only 62 years status quo, Everyday Nakba, Subsidized settlements, Even more walls- Matter. Children on the ICRC bus, visiting their Baba’s in your prisons- Matter. Food and medicine rotting at every border- Matter From the shadows, the silent majority watch water go on fire. - Jehan Bseiso contributed this poem to PalestineChronicle.com.more Rachel Corrie Returns - A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 4 Jun 2010 - By Richard Jones If you once thought that when you crushed her bones and stopped her mouth with sand and stone murder would bring silence, then think again. If you once counted on distance in time and space to wear away the memory and in its place leave blank acceptance, then think again. If you once believed that your great lie could hold back the tide until by virtue of its growing old it could be taken for the truth, then think again. See how proudly she breasts a merciful sea, defiant of your tanks and jets and mines, laden with the best in all of us, full of love for Palestine. - Richard Jones is an American poet. He contributed this poem to PalestineChronicle.com.more A massacre is not a massacre Electronic Intifada: 3 Jun 2010 - I don't write poems but, in any case, poems are not poems. Long ago, I was made to understand that Palestine was not Palestine; I was also informed that Palestinians were not Palestinians; They also explained to me that ethnic cleansing was not ethnic cleansing. And when naive old me saw freedom fighters they patiently showed me that they were not freedom fighters, and that resistance was not resistance. Old Land – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 3 Jun 2010 - By Jo Neace Krause To be born in Gaza is to feel your body even in sleep picked at by an ancient wind To be spotted on your bed like grey debris, the twisted leg of history washed up on the beach in front of a crowd with flashlights searching your ears for the last dangerous words you might have overheard. While in your cool dreams, under the high galleons of morning a sailor like yourself filled with risky love of the deep, runs down on down some steps folding on and on beneath your feet like the fat meals laid down in the stomachs of tourists, carried laughing and chatting in taxi cabs, that rise as topaz dolphins do, leading the way through waves of opal joy. Oh, to have your own spot on this earth! To have it pure in character as a theme park to have all truths fall about you like the stopped hearts of sun sucked apricots, dropping between the sugary lips of some wild and haughty mouth. Oh, to be only among your own kind, though someone calls to you from the haunting shadows of Jerusalem's long and bloody throat: Hey, smiley-face the whole world suffers for you. But bait your rat traps with what you want, We chew our own dark crust of hope. - Jo Neace Krause lives in West Virginia. She has published in the Yale Review, University of Windsor Review, Exquisite Corpse, Other Voices, River City, University of South Carolina... West Bank teacher wages peace through poetry Palestine Note 25 May 2010 - Washington - Karen AbuZant is an American living with the "love of her life" and their five children in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Karen is a Seeds of Peace delegation leader, a former nurse... Record... I am a Palestinian Beware of My Wrath Uruknet May 22, 2010 - This video is to show the plight of the Palestinian Arabs who have been occupied for over 62 yrs by Zionists. This Poem to show People that we will not go down with out a fight we will not give up and we will continue and our children will continue to return to the land... Palestinian 5th graders talk politics and poetry with Palestine Note Palestine Note 19 May 2010 - By Sarah Harlan Washington/Tulkarem - A class of fifth-grade girls at the Fatmeh Al-Zahara Girls School in the West Bank city of Tulkarem have written a remarkable poem about what it means to be from Palestine.... The return of the colonial: Laor's "The Myths of Liberal Zionism" reviewed Electronic Intifada: 19 May 2010 - Israeli new mandarins have to try to sell settler-colonialism to Western states with populations that increasingly regard Zionism's spiritual core and physical reality as somewhere on the spectrum between mildly embarrassing and overtly revolting. It is those mandarins that anti-Zionist Israeli poet Yitzhak Laor meticulously vivisects in The Myths of Liberal Zionism . Palestinian football drama for social change Palestine Note 18 May 2010 - Bethlehem, West Bank - In Bethlehem's Manger Square, under a full moon, two lovers recite Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish's words of affection and longing. Where they stand, shadows cast on the stones of Christ's birthplace... Award-winning musician jailed for 25 years for raping sisters, 6 and 10 Ha'aretz - Ephraim Yegudiev, poet and lyricist for the Israel Andalusian Orchestra, sentenced after his wife informed police of sex offenses. Defying the Universe – A Poem Palestine Chronicle: 12 May 2010 - By Samah Sabawi Are your loved ones trapped behind the wall Do they need the army’s permission For their prayers to reach the sky For their love to cross the ocean And touch your thirsty heart Are your loved ones trapped Do you yearn to be in your family home And when you call them Do they always say “we are well, alhamdollelah” Does it surprise you That they are whole But you… you are broken Must they always worry about you Urge you to have faith in your exile Must they pity you For not breathing the air Of your ancestors’ land Must they always comfort you Even when the bombs are falling Do you ever wonder who is walled in Is it you, or is it them And when it finally dawns upon you That their dignity sets them free Do you feel ashamed of your liberty Are...more Organizations, Artists Thank Gil Scott-Heron for Heeding Call to Boycott Israel WAFA - NEW YORK, May 8, 2010 (WAFA) – More than 50 organizations and artists from eight countries have written to legendary political singer and poet Gil Scott-Heron to thank him for his decision to drop Jenny Tonge: A ’Woman of Substance’ Felicity Arbuthnot, Palestine Telegraph 5/5/2010 Politicians with backbone are a rarity. (UK) Liberal Democrat M.P., Jenny Tonge (The Rt. Hon., The Baroness Tonge of Kew) has one. Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, does not. Jenny Tonge is a doctor by training, married to a consultant neuroradiologist. Her positions have included Senior Medical Officer for Women’s Services in the large, multi-racial, London Borough of Ealing. In politics, she has been the Party’s spokeswoman for children and for health. After her daughter was killed in a electrical accident, in 2004, she retired as an M.P., in order to help care for her two young grandchildren. However, made a Peer in 2005, entitled her to address issues of concern in the House of Lords. Background. In January 2004, she was sacked as children’s’ champion, by the then leader of the Party, Charles Kennedy, for saying of Palestine suicide bombers, in the hopelessness of the remnants of their land: "If I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself." Refusing to apologize, she pointed out that: " ...having seen the violence, humiliation and provocation that the Palestinian people live under every day and have done since their land was occupied by Israel, I could understand ..." Her statement echoed the haunting words of the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. In his "State of Siege", he poignantly tiptoes between despair and what Western and Israeli governments label "terrorism." Darwish walks in the shoes of one with only his being remaining.... more.. e-mail Artists thank Gil Scott-Heron for heeding boycott call Electronic Intifada: 7 May 2010 - More than 50 organizations and artists from eight countries have written to legendary political singer and poet Gil Scott-Heron to thank him for his decision to drop Israel from his current tour. The letter, facilitated by Adalah-NY, highlighted the parallels between the South African apartheid that Scott-Heron crusaded against decades ago and the Israeli system that currently subjugates Palestinians. Haniyeh: US conditions remain obstacle to unity 4/23/2010 - Gaza - Ma'an - Egypt's refusal to re-open the unity file is based on stubborn American conditions which ultimately prevent Palestinian unity and weaken the national position, de facto government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is clinging to the US conditions, Haniyeh stated during an address to commemorate the death of poet and Muslim Brotherhood member Abdul Rahman Baroud, who was killed in early April. Haniyeh's statements come as US Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is set to arrive in the region, in what officials say will be his latest attempt to kickstart the peace process. Some analysts have said the trip could include some succinct ultimatums for Israeli behavior over the issue, though most remain skeptical." They are talking about the arrival of Mitchell to the region to activate the negotiations and we wonder what negotiations they talking about," Haniyeh said. Palestinian poet Nahid Ar-Rayyis dies in Gaza 4/13/2010 - Gaza - Ma'an - Palestinian poet and former Justice Minister Nahid Ar-Rayyis died in Gaza on Tuesday, aged 73, after being hospitalized for deteriorating health. Known for his poetry depicting Palestinian political struggle, Ar-Rayyis was appointed deputy of the Palestinian Legislative Council under the leadership of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in 1996. Ar-Rayyis was born in Gaza in 1937, and graduated from the University of Cairo in 1958. He volunteered with the PLO's armed group and was later a leader in Beirut. Upon his return to Gaza, he was appointed adviser to the Supreme Court, then PLC deputy. Later, Ar-Rayyis was appointed Minister of Justice. In addition to writing poetry, such as Songs to Palestinians cities, Ar-Rayyis was a published literary critic, authoring Palestine in the Critical Period. Hamas and its parliamentary bloc extended its condolences to Ar-Rayyis' family, and mourn his passing. Band revives Warsaw Ghetto fighter's poetry Ha'aretz 13 Apr 2010 - Israelis to perform poems of Wladyslaw Szlengel, known for satirising the Nazi regime, as well as wealthy Jews. MIDEAST: 'Poetic Justice' in Jerusalem IPS OR AKIVA, Israel, Apr 12 (IPS) - President Barack Obama has made plain he means to deconstruct Israel’s 43-year-old grip on East Jerusalem. But, for all Washington’s pressure, Israel seeks to tighten its hold on the occupied part of the city. Band revives Warsaw Ghetto poet's poem Ha'aretz 12 Apr 2010 - Israeli band to perform poems of Wladyslaw Szlengel, who was known for his satirical poetry which subtly criticized the Nazi regime as well as wealthy Jews. Sinan Antoon: "I think of myself as a global citizen" Electronic Intifada: 7 Apr 2010 - Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi-born poet, novelist, filmmaker and assistant professor at New York University. His novel I'jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody and his collection of poems The Baghdad Blues are written with great sophistication and a haunting sense of irony. Similarly, his 2003 documentary About Baghdad captured the terror and exhilaration of Iraqis after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and the early months of the US occupation. The Electronic Intifada contributor Dina Omar interviewed Sinan Antoon about his work and experiences. Saudi poet challenges and inspires Palestine Note 28 Mar 2010 - Hissa Hilal is a journalist, wife and mother of four, and a poet whose verse is "setting her conservative Arab homeland alight," BBC reports. Saudi woman dressed in an abaya and niqab Hilal keeps dress norms,... PPH calls on poets of the world to help save Palestinian culture and heritage PIC 23 Mar 2010 - The Palestine Poetry House (PPH) called on poets of the world on their annual day to support the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice using their poetry.. Soundtrack to the struggle: Rafeef Ziadah's "Hadeel" reviewed Electronic Intifada: 23 Mar 2010 - Like stones thrown from the palms of Palestinian youth, Rafeef Ziadah's lyrics are relentless in the way they shower audiences with the multiple layers of resistance and diaspora. Ziadah's debut album, Hadeel , unleashes a tapestry of fierce poetry infused with an eclectic selection of beautiful sounds. Ahmed Habib reviews for The Electronic Intifada. Artist of the Month: Remi Kanazi 3/21/2010 - This Week in Palestine - By Sophie DeWitt - Seven months pregnant, Remi Kanazi's grandmother was forced to flee her home in Jaffa in 1948. Himself a refugee since birth, Kanazi was born in Western Massachusetts in 1981 and grew up in the United States, disconnected from his Palestinian identity. When he moved to New York four months before September 11, he had already begun to rethink his place in the world. That event, as was the case with so many Arab Americans, helped shape his future path. Kanazi found himself overwhelmed with anger and frustration, which sent him on a reading frenzy - learning all he could about the Middle East, especially Palestine. Recalling stories from his grandparents and parents, Kanazi began to reformulate and articulate his own views on Palestine. Then came the first transformational encounter he had as an emerging artist: seeing Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, featuring Palestinian American poet Suheir Hammad. Olive Oil And Tears Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, Desert Peace 3/15/2010 "If the olive tree knew the suffering of its owner, its oil would turn into tears" -- Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish The olive young leaves and flower sprouts are denser than ever before. It promises a great season not only of bountiful agricultural harvest but of bountiful harvest on the activism front. It is true that, as the Palestinian poet stated, if the olive tree knew the suffering of its owner, its oil would turn into tears. The Israeli apartheid forces have been uprooting olive trees in Beit Jala the last few days. They have also intensified their repression and attempts at intimidation of activists (with help from Palestinian collaborators). But it is also true that the apartheid system is facing grassroots activists everywhere despite all these tactics. Today we joined the demonstration in Beit Jala as we did not have a competing event at Ush Ghrab. The lack of an event here in Beit Sahour happened because the popular committee decided collectively (over 15 people) to put the actions before the local forces to decide on how (and if?) to support the popular resistance. Yet, we did go to Ush Ghrab in the morning and an Ashkenazi white man wearing a blue shirt entered as we were meeting and drinking coffee, fiddled with his backpack, for a few minutes, then left. Later, as we were leaving, we notice the Israeli army on the hill and the same man with the blue shirt “briefing” them. Soldiers uprooting olive trees were confronted in Beit Jala and later landowners with help of other locals and internationals went back and replanted these trees and rebuilt a bulldozed children’s playground in Beit Jala.... more.. e-mail First They Came for the Mosques, but I Was Not a Muslim Palestine Chronicle: 2 Mar 2010 - By Dallas Darling When Israeli Defense Forces responded with tear gas, rubber bullets, and arrests towards neo-nonviolent Palestinians who were trying to prevent Jewish extremists from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, it was mindful of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s poem: “First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a communist.” Pastor Niemoller was a German minister who witnessed disappearances and atrocities during the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. By the time he tried to speak-out and criticize the Nazi’s, though, it was too late. He, along with millions of Communists, Socialists, Gypsies, Jews, Pacifists and other opponents of nazification, was sent to a concentration camp. The al-Aqsa Mosque is located at the south end of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The mosque commemorates Prophet Mohammed’s night journey to heaven on horseback. It also contains the minbar, or pulpit, that was commissioned by Saladin around 1190. At the time of the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, the city was divided, but Israel seized all of it in the 1967 Six-Day War.(1). Since then, the al-Aqsa Mosque and Temple Mount have been a source of conflict. Recently, Palestinians also clashed with Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Hebron near the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Their march against Israel’s plan to renovate two holy sites in the occupied territory was declared illegal. Israeli troops fired tear gas and stun grenades wounding several demonstrators. Although Jews and Palestinians revere the Hebron heritage site,... ‘At the end of every sentence you say in Hebrew sits an Arab with a Nargilah’ Mondoweiss - 25 Feb 2010 - Yesterday I did a blogpost quoting from journalist Noam Sheizaf’s blog . I saw Sheizaf in Israel last month and he told me a line of poetry with political resonance about the connection of Israelis to Palestinians. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, and well, I... Jenny Tonge: A 'Woman of Substance' Palestine Chronicle: 24 Feb 2010 - By Felicity Arbuthnot – London "Unrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, Ages of hopeless end." (John Milton, 1608-1674.) Politicians with backbone are a rarity. (UK) Liberal Democrat M.P., Jenny Tonge (The Rt. Hon., The Baroness Tonge of Kew) has one. Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, does not. Jenny Tonge is a doctor by training, married to a consultant neuroradiologist. Her positions have included Senior Medical Officer for Women's Services in the large, multi-racial, London Borough of Ealing. In politics, she has been the Party's spokeswoman for children and for health. After her daughter was killed in a electrical accident, in 2004, she retired as an M.P., in order to help care for her two young grandchildren. However, made a Peer in 2005, entitled her to address issues of concern in the House of Lords. Background. In January 2004, she was sacked as children’s' champion, by the then leader of the Party, Charles Kennedy, for saying of Palestine suicide bombers, in the hopelessness of the remnants of their land: "If I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself." Refusing to apologize, she pointed out that: " ...having seen the violence, humiliation and provocation that the Palestinian people live under every day and have done since their land was occupied by Israel, I could understand ..." Her statement echoed the haunting words of the late Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. In his "State of Siege", he poignantly tiptoes between despair and what Western... The uninvited ghosts that populate Israel’s art history Robert Fisk, The Belfast Telegraph 2/8/2010 The Palestinians celebrate their lost land with poetry and art, but always it is a place of lost oranges and olive trees and snug village houses; of Arab men, leaning on ancient wells beside classical ruins, proving that Palestine was not, as the popular Zionist narrative would have us believe, a land without people. So — on the principle that I always try to consume one art gallery in every town in the world in which I set foot — I stepped into the Tel Aviv Museum of Art this week to take a look at how the Jews of Palestine saw their would-be homeland before the 1947-48 Arab exodus. The Tel Aviv art museum is a blessed relief, an inquiry, amid the propaganda of Zionist super-virtue, into the Jewish dream and the Jewish nightmare — and one which even acknowledges the Arabs of Palestine, albeit sometimes unconsciously. Historical parallels are obviously dangerous. The Arabs of Palestine did not undergo the pogroms of eastern Europe or the Nazi Holocaust, but their calamity is no less real; and their ghosts — uninvited, no doubt — move persistently through the museum’s galleries, the finest collection of which is David Azrieli’s, the Canadian-Israeli designer and philanthropist. Azreili was himself a refugee — from Poland in 1939. He arrived in Palestine just in time to fight in Israel’s war of independence, the very struggle which created the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees. There’s a chilling moment in Ziva Koort’s introduction to the collection when she remarks that paintings by Moshe Castel, Sionah Tagger, Marcel Janco and Ludwig Blum “portray the Arab as native to the place, deeply rooted in its landscape... the artists of the 1920s — viewing Arabs as exemplifying a local, indigenous way of life — presented them as picturesque... in environments that could also usually be readily identifiable as local landscapes with oriental characteristics”. more.. e-mail Israel turns down bid to teach Palestinian poems in schools Ha'aretz 14 Feb 2010 - The Education Ministry has decided not to publish an academic paper recommending that high school students study both Jewish and Palestinian poems about Jerusalem in their literature classes, even though the journal to which it was submitted had previously accepted the paper. ... Palestine's 'Acceptable' and 'Unacceptable' Faces Palestine Chronicle: 13 Feb 2010 - By Stuart Littlewood – London 'O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!' A few weeks ago, on the annual Robert Burns Night, these immortal lines from 1786 were being recited all over the world, but probably not in Palestine. The leadership there aren’t blessed with the gift of seeing themselves as the rest of the world sees them… a bit like the Israelis that way. The consequences for the Palestinians are tragic. Fatah especially would do well to learn the lines off by heart. The next two go 'It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion!' The poem addresses a louse, which seems appropriate enough. We’ve heard a great deal about Fatah spreading security chaos, almost provoking a civil war, then collaborating with the US to recruit sinister battalions of “security” thugs with orders to crush all opposition, silence dissent, destroy Hamas and the welfare structure it provides, and force Palestinians to bend to Israel’s will. This vile scenario is topped off with unjustified arrests, torture and lack of due process. It sounds like Fatah’s brave “security” forces have been trained in terror tactics by the Gestapo and are working for the enemy. Who is the enemy these days? Palestine’s external enemy we know about. But the ‘enemy within’ is always more dangerous. Since I first visited the Holy Land nearly 5 years ago I have tried to keep my promise to tell the story of those wonderful people... Palestine's 'Acceptable' and 'Unacceptable' Faces Palestine Chronicle: 13 Feb 2010 - By Stuart Littlewood – London 'O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us!' A few weeks ago, on the annual Robert Burns Night, these immortal lines from 1786 were being recited all over the world, but probably not in Palestine. The leadership there aren’t blessed with the gift of seeing themselves as the rest of the world sees them… a bit like the Israelis that way. The consequences for the Palestinians are tragic. Fatah especially would do well to learn the lines off by heart. The next two go 'It would from many a blunder free us, And foolish notion!' The poem addresses a louse, which seems appropriate enough. We’ve heard a great deal about Fatah spreading security chaos, almost provoking a civil war, then collaborating with the US to recruit sinister battalions of “security” thugs with orders to crush all opposition, silence dissent, destroy Hamas and the welfare structure it provides, and force Palestinians to bend to Israel’s will. This vile scenario is topped off with unjustified arrests, torture and lack of due process. It sounds like Fatah’s brave “security” forces have been trained in terror tactics by the Gestapo and are working for the enemy. Who is the enemy these days? Palestine’s external enemy we know about. But the ‘enemy within’ is always more dangerous. Since I first visited the Holy Land nearly 5 years ago I have tried to keep my promise to tell the story of those wonderful people... Zionism Laid Bare Kathleen Christison, CounterPunch 2/3/2010 A Review of Shahid Alam’s "Israeli Exceptionalism" The essential point of M. Shahid Alam’s book, Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, comes clear upon opening the book to the inscription in the frontispiece. From the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi, the quote reads, “You have the light, but you have no humanity. Seek humanity, for that is the goal.” Alam, professor of economics at Northeastern University in Boston and a CounterPunch contributor, follows this with an explicit statement of his aims in the first paragraph of the preface. Asking and answering the obvious question, “Why is an economist writing a book on the geopolitics of Zionism?” he says that he “could have written a book about the economics of Zionism, the Israeli economy, or the economy of the West Bank and Gaza, but how would any of that have helped me to understand the cold logic and the deep passions that have driven Zionism?” Until recent years, the notion that Zionism was a benign, indeed a humanitarian, political movement designed for the noble purpose of creating a homeland and refuge for the world’s stateless, persecuted Jews was a virtually universal assumption. In the last few years, particularly since the start of the al-Aqsa intifada in 2000, as Israel’s harsh oppression of the Palestinians has become more widely known, a great many Israelis and friends of Israel have begun to distance themselves from and criticize Israel’s occupation policies, but they remain strong Zionists and have been at pains to propound the view that Zionism began well and has only lately been corrupted by the occupation. Alam demonstrates clearly, through voluminous evidence and a carefully argued analysis, that Zionism was never benign, never good—that from the very beginning, it operated according to a “cold logic” and, per Rumi, had “no humanity.” Except perhaps for Jews, which is where Israel’s and Zionism’s exceptionalism comes in. more.. e-mail A Review of Shahid Alam's "Israeli Exceptionalism" Zionism Laid Bare Uruknet February 3, 2010 - The essential point of M. Shahid Alam’s book, Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism, comes clear upon opening the book to the inscription in the frontispiece. From the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi, the quote reads, "You have the light, but you have no humanity. Seek humanity, for that is the goal." Alam, professor of... PA ministry to publish anthology of ex-prisoner’s poetry 2/1/2010 - Bethlehem - Ma'an - The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Detainees Affairs announced on Monday that it would be releasing an anthology of poetry by former Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Abu Laban. The anthology entitled "The Liberty Chant" is a compilation of work Abu Laban composed during his sentence, and includes "Forgotten Days Behind Bars," "The Patient King of Death," "My Homeland Voice," and "Take me, a Stone in your Hand. "Other poets have contributed to Abu Laban's anthology, which includes brief biographies written by the ex-detainee's friends. The introduction, written by Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe, describes the establishment of education programs in prisons and the development of poetry, deeming it part of Palestinian national history. Publishing "The Liberty Chant," Qaraqe writes, is a vital part of preserving Palestinian prisoner literature. Leonard Cohen receives lifetime achievement Grammy Ha'aretz 1 Feb 2010 - The 75-year-old poet was not the only one honored, with Michael Jackson receiving a posthumous nod., "They Did Not Hang My Son Today" Uruknet January 28, 2010 - Setareh Sabety has posted a poem - They Did Not Hang My Son Today - in honour of Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, two young men hanged in Tehran before dawn on Friday after being convicted of counter-revolutionary activity. Rahmanipour's father has spoken of how he only learned of his son's death from the... Two chances in NYC to hear reports from the Gaza Freedom March Mondoweiss - 14 Jan 2010 - There are two great chances to get report backs from the Gaza Freedom March this upcoming week: And also this Sunday, January 17, 5:00 pm at the Brecht Forum : Join Democracy Now’s Anjali Kamat, The Indypendent and poet Remi Kanazi for a special fundraiser and discussion... Pakistani poets pay tribute to Palestinian resistance PIC 9 Dec 2009 - Noted poets of Pakistan while rendering their verses at a function stressed the need to highlight the cause of Palestine’s liberation before the world.. [uruknet.info] IRAN ~~ THE REVOLUTION BETRAYED Uruknet I will start this post with a poem written over 26 years ago..... The Revolution Betrayed © Steve Amsel The Shah is dead - Long live Khomeini, The Shah is dead - Glory to the people, We rejoiced with you on your victory, The foreign intruders have finally vanished. Almost five years have passed, You should have so much to... POEM: I return crowned with a laurel 12/1/2009 - Ma'an's Arabic site receives and publishes short story, essay and poetry submissions, which are occasionally translated for our English readers. The following is a submission from the Palestinian poet Munir Mezyed. I Return Crowned with a Laurel Dedicated to this troubled world. . . Saturated with selfishness and hate. . . How great to be honest at a time when honesty is a sword hanging over the necks of the truthful"¦ How great to light a candle at a moment of darkness But the greatest is to be human in inhuman times"¦ A lover at a time when hate is beats its drums. . . For the first time I see myself facing death With the language of love and heaven. . . My love Death is a very hungry cloud Hovering. . . searching for prey I can not resist itshungry, deadly claws My hell meets my heaven in my sorrows Threatening to ignite the fire. . . PASSINGS: Yang Xianyi, Ali Kordan, Alan Kim Kurumada LA Times 24 Nov 2009 - Yang Xianyi, Chinese poet and translator, dies at 94; Ali Kordan, Iranian interior minister dismissed in credentials flap, dies at 51; Alan Kim Kurumada, longtime assistant director, dies at 64 Yang Xianyi 'Egyptians should read in Hebrew, to know what the enemy is plotting' Ha'aretz 17 Nov 2009 - A gigantic storm has been brewing among Egyptian intellectuals ever since Egyptian poetess Iman Mersal permitted one of her books to be published in Hebrew ("An Alternative Geography," translated by Sasson Somekh, Hakibbutz Hameuhad publishing house). How, they demand, could any Egyptian writer cross the lines, defy the writers association's orders and destroy the bases from which the war against normalization with Israel is being waged? ...
Celebration for the life and work of our late great poet Mahmoud Darwish PNN, Palestine News Network 3/8/2009 Dubai/ - The Dubai International Festival 2009 was a great night, reported all sources. "We cannot lose sight of the words and wisdom of our Palestinian poet, not only the national poet, but a teacher and artist throughout the Arab world," said a guest at the Darwish memorial in the United Arab Emirates. We lost Mahmoud this summer, a funeral whose tragedy came close only to that of our late President Yasser Arafat. "This land deserves life," was just one sentence spoken among hundreds at the Dubai activity. No one was a stranger to Darwish who sang and recited, celebrated his wisdom and beauty. Tears flowed freely as they did at his funeral in Ramallah’s Al Muqata, Presidential Headquarters: no shame here. His poetry and letters, his ability to say what we all are trying to impart ourselves, made a night worthy of what the name suggests. more.. e-mail
Jerusalem campaign launches contest of science and literature Palestinian Information Center 3/5/2009 BEIRUT, (PIC)-- The popular campaign for the celebration of Jerusalem as the capital of Arab culture 2009 announced the launch of Jerusalem prize in two fields, the scientific research and literature. The prize for the scientific research will be devoted to research papers on humanitarian, social, religious, archeological, architectural and economic sciences. The contest organizers said that research papers submitted should stick to the methods of scientific research and documentation and be characterized by new additions in areas relating to Jerusalem. With regard to literature, the participants should compete in literary work in the areas of poetry, novel and critical studies which address the Palestinian cause especially the aspects related to the city of Jerusalem. The two first place winners in both fields will receive a prize of $10,000, each while $3,000 would be allocated for the second place and $2,000 for the third place. more.. e-mail
African American poets sing praise of Abu Dhabi’s KALIMA Middle East Online 2/11/2009 ABU DHABI - A number of American poets expressed their admiration for KALAMA, a huge translation project launched by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH). Award-winning Remica L. Bingham was delighted to hear that her poetry will be translated into Arabic. “What an honor, to be placed among the likes of some of the world’s most influential and important voices. What a joy, to know a vast body of readers will make their way to the page and find your words waiting in their own tongue!" said Bingham, who is a native of Phoenix, Arizona. "What better communion is there than the intersection of eager readers discovering work that once was nearly unimaginable and eager writers granted a burgeoning, new voice!” she added. “The KALIMA Project is historic in its undertaking and its magnitude. more.. e-mail
Visual art and written word intersect with Mahmoud Darwish Osama Awad, Palestine News Network 2/7/2009 PNN exclusive -- Passport is the new exhibit in Ramallah honoring the late Mahmoud Darwish. Visual artists painted to the written work of the poet who died in summer 2008. The title "Passport" was chosen, says the Suraj Gallery, because the show combines work from Palestinians inside the Green Line, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. "Passport" artists are all separated by the confines of occupation. To bring the largest number of student viewers possible, organizers at the Birzeit University gallery in Ramallah are also taking the exhibit. Ramallah’s As-Siraj for Culture, Arts and Theatre is using the exhibit based on the work of the Palestinian national poet to explore the intersection of the traditions of poetry and visual art. "Passport" is also exploring the differing experiences of its artists depending on where they come from, opening discussion of ones relationship to Palestine. more.. e-mail
Poets for Palestine Mary Rizzo, Palestine Think Tank 12/10/2008 It’s that time of year, when we give, if we can, something nice to people we love. The past few years on Peacepalestine, and not only at Christmas, I’ve suggested books, and this time, it’s not going to be any different. The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan was one of the best books possible to read for an understanding of Palestine/Israel history. Joe Sacco’s Palestine, a graphic novel, does for the Nakba what Art Spiegelman did for the Holocaust, and it is a book with images that stay imprinted on the mind for days. This year’s suggested book takes some of those things and combines them with a few new elements in a completely different format. Poets For Palestine, (Edited by Remi Kanazi, who you can see on Palestine Think Tank performing two of his poems), is a collection of poetry and artwork that is an emotional tour de force. more.. e-mail
Palestinian journalist and writer Ayid Amr dead at 49 Ma’an News Agency 12/6/2008 Bethlehem – Ma’an – Renowned Palestinian journalist, writer and poet Ayid Amr died of an apparent heart attack. He was 49. The Union of Palestinian Writers and Poets and the Palestinian Ministry of Education sent condolences to the Amr family applauding the deceased as "one of the pillars of Palestinian journalism," who greatly influenced the Question of Palestine. Amr recently published The Wolf, a book of short stories that look at the image of the wolf in historical, religious and mythological contexts. He also conducted several studies about Palestinian heritage, culture and literature, as well as participated in several conferences at local, Arab and international venues. Amr was known for documenting oral Palestinian history, literature and historic battles. His last position was Educational Editor at Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadidah. more.. e-mail
Deir Al-Ghousoun dedicates Ramadan night to Darwish Ma’an News Agency 9/19/2008 Tulkarem – Ma’an – The Deir Al-Ghousoun Municipality north of Tulkarem organized a Ramadan festival to commemorate 40 days since the death of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The head of the municipality, Ahed Zanabit, praised Darwish’s works. "The municipality will establish a cultural center and it will be named after Darwish," he said. Palestinian poets will present original poems at the festival. [end]
Palestine’s first classic car show PNN, Palestine News Network 8/28/2008 Ramallah - Under the auspices of Dr. Mashhour Abu Daqqa, Minister of Transportation and Communications, the Palestinian classic car exhibition and contest is being described as "a great success. "The gathering, held in Ramallah on Saturday, was the first of its kind. The Ministry of Transportation, the Motor Sports Club and the Amateur Classic Car Club organized the event. Over 100 cars were part of the massive parade that drove through the city streets at noon. The convoy of cars was swarmed by crowds as it continued to the square at the Cultural Palace where the tomb of the late great poet Mahmoud Darwish rests. A variety of types and colors of cars, in all and different models, assembled in the exhibition of classic cars to tell the history of the issue of homeland and the people. The event also stressed a commitment to return legitimate rights and freedom to the Palestinian. . . more.. e-mail
Among best Arab writers in one just 14 years old Bethlehem, Palestine News Network 8/17/2008 PNN - The well-known and widely famous Mohammad Mafouz gave 14 year old Yasim Shamalawi the news. She is from the northern West Bank city of Nablus and was selected for the prominent position of one of the Arab world’s best poets and writers. It was via an internet forum that the voices calling for her came, called "Word and Work. "She is now among the best 1,000 Arab writers. Mahfouz is the amazing Egyptian writer who gave praise to the abilities of Shamalawi. He called on Arab officials to "be careful with her unique talent. "She, at 14, is the youngest Arab writer to win such prestigious attention. Shamalawi writes short stories and poetry, the most well-known of which focused on Palestinian children. This young child, a 14 year old girl, has given yet another voice to the Palestinian cause as we have just lost our most prominent: Mahmoud Darwish. more.. e-mail
Tens of thousands attend funeral for Darwish Hossam Ezzedine, Daily Star 8/14/2008 Agence France Presse - RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank: Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered for the state funeral on Wednesday for Mahmoud Darwish, the towering Arab poet who gave voice to their bitter decades-old struggle. Darwish, considered the national poet of the Palestinians and the author of their 1988 declaration of independence, won a number of international prizes and is widely considered one of the Arab world’s greatest writers. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presided over a ceremony attended by senior officials, Arab Israeli parliamentarians and dozens of foreign dignitaries at the Muqataa, his headquarters in the Occupied West Bank town of Ramallah. "The story of our people is your story Mahmoud, and by our meeting it was made more complete and more beautiful," Abbas said in a eulogy. more.. e-mail
VIDEO / Mahmoud Darwish - The death of a Palestinian cultural symbol Avi Issacharoff and Jack Khoury, Ha’aretz 8/14/2008 RAMALLAH - Midway through the first eulogy for the Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish, delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatma began to tear up. As she stood at the back of the hall at the Muquata Wednesday, she was visibly gripped by sorrow. "I’m crying because I feel our hope has died," she told Haaretz. Fatma, an Israeli, decided to come bid farewell to the man who had become her cultural hero. "He was a symbol of our homeland, and now we feel there are no symbols left. He spoke to our emotions, as a nation, and now he’s gone," she said. As Abbas’ speech went on, more and more mourners broke down and wept. Even Abbas’ longtime secretary, Intissar, began to cry. It is doubtful that Mahmoud Darwish, who died last weekend at 67 following heart surgery at an American hospital, knew he would be so honored in his death. more.. e-mail
Towns and villages across Palestine open centers of condolance for Palestinian Poet Ma’an News Agency 8/14/2008 Qalqilia – Ma’an – The governorate of Qalqilia city and directorate of culture is one of many municipalities who have organized sites for Palestinians to offer their condolences to Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, who was buried in Ramallah on Wednesday. In Qalqilia it is the hall of the chamber of commerce that has been set aside as a place of remembrance, where Palestinians who could not attend the poet’s funeral can leave flowers, or messages. Governor of Qalqilia Rabih Al-Khandaqji received condolences along with the area’s head of security Faysal Beshtawi, the head of the chamber of commerce, local representatives of all political factions and security systems. Crowds of Qalqilia residents, employees and security personnel attended the event. more.. e-mail
10,000 honor poet Mahmoud Darwish in Ramallah Ma’an News Agency 8/13/2008 Ramallah – Ma’an – A river of some 10,000 people bearing the body of poet Mahmoud Darwish arrived at the Cultural Palace just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. Another 3,000 people gathered at the Cultural Palace on Wednesday morning. More joined them, marching from the presidential compound in central Ramallah. Darwish was buried in on a hillside overlooking the city. As the coffin was lowered to the ground, a small regiment of Palestinian security officers had to restrain a crowd struggling to look at the grave. Earlier, President Mahmoud Abbas and other notable Palestinian figures addressed Darwish’s official funeral in the presidential compound, the Muqata’a. Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, died in a Huston, Texas hospital on Saturday following open heart surgery. He was 67. more.. e-mail
Gaza Artists commemorate Darwish Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 8/13/0200 In commemoration to Palestinian intellect and poet, Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian artists lit candles on Tuesday in the Unknown Soldier Square in Gaza in respect to the life, work and character of Darwish whose poetry symbolized the ongoing Palestinian struggle and determination. The artists expressed their deep sadness and sorrow over the departure of Darwish who became the symbol of culture is his remarkable intellectuality and poems. Palestinian caricature, Abu Al Noon, stated that Darwish will live in the hearts and minds of all Palestinians. Abu Al Noon added that Darwish always called for the unity of all Palestinians and factions and that he was extremely saddened by current internal conflicts and divisions. "You memory will forever live in our hearts and minds", Abu Al Noon said, "You magical poetry will light our path of freedom". more.. e-mail
Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish laid to rest in Ramallah Rula Shahwan, International Middle East Media Center News 8/13/0200 Thousands of Palestinians and internationals attend Darwish’s funeral on Wednesday in Ramallah, after his body arrived from the USA with a special Emirates airplane, then with special helicopters from Jordan at around 11:00 am. After several hours, the Israeli authorities agreed to open the Beituniya checkpoint point in the central West Bank in order to allow Palestinian citizens of Israel to travel to Ramallah for the funeral of poet Mahmoud Darwish. A Palestinian member of Israeli Knesset, Muhammad Baraka contacted Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai and the Israeli cabinet coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, Yousif Mishlib, calling for the checkpoint to be opened. Darwish was laid to rest at 14:00 in the front yard of the Cultural Palace in Ramallah, which will be named after him. more.. e-mail
Ras Beirut’s English-language poetry scene finds a new place to express itself Special to The Daily Star, Daily Star 8/13/2008 BEIRUT: Let it be known that the whir of espresso machines will not deter young poets from reciting their latest work. The Beirut-Type Writer open-mic poetry series, a monthly gathering of amateur poets, last week convened for the first time at its new venue - Cafe Younes, just off Hamra Street. Jason Iwen, a former creative writing professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB), started the series four years ago. Since that time it has become a popular outlet for English-language poetry in Beirut. Iwen’s departure from AUB two years ago saw Michael Dennison replace him both at the university and as the organizer of the poetry series. Founded at Makhoul Street’s Bluenote Cafe, Beirut-Type Writer made the move to the new Cafe Younes last Wednesday. Dennison believes the shift will help attract a wider audience and some new poets. more.. e-mail
Funeral for Mahmoud Darwish expected to be largest since Yasser Arafat Palestine News Network 8/12/2008 PNN - Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE, has used a private plane to transport the body of the great Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish from Houston, Texas to the Jordanian military before being taken by a Jordanian helicopter to Ramallah for tomorrow’s funeral. He will be buried on a hill. This is expected to be the largest funeral since that of the late President Yasser Arafat. Current President and Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad respectively will be in attendance along with thousands of others at the Muqata, the Presidential headquarters in Ramallah on Wednesday. Atallah Khairi, the Palestinian Ambassador to Jordan, told Agence France Presse that the body would arrive at ten o’clock tomorrow morning, Wednesday, at the Jordanian military airport aboard a plane from the United Arab Emirates allocated by the King. more.. e-mail
Palestine prepares to bury poet Mahmoud Darwish Ma’an News Agency 8/12/2008 Ramallah – Ma’an – Palestinians will bury a national hero, the poet Mahmoud Darwish, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend Darwish’s funeral, which is predicted to be the largest since Yasser Arafat’s in 2004. The funeral ceremony and procession are expected to be a massive outpouring of affection and grief for a man who gave voice to the triumphs and suffering of his people. Darwish’s body will arrive in Amman, Jordan, at 10am, and his funeral will be held later in the day in Ramallah. Darwish, the Palestinian national poet, died in a Huston, Texas hospital on Saturday following open heart surgery. He was 67. These are the details of the schedule:- Darwish’s body will arrive at Marka airport in Amman at 10am on Wednesday. An official reception and farewell will take place. more.. e-mail
Preeminent Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish dies at 67 Ma’an News Agency 8/9/2008 Bethlehem - Ma’an – Preeminent Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died on Saturday after open heart surgery in the United States, medical officials confirmed. Darwish underwent a successful open heart surgery on Wednesday. The operation took place at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Huston, Texas, in the United States. Darwish’s condition then took a downturn on Saturday due to complications related to the surgery. Darwish was born in 1941 in a village called Al-Barwah, near the city of Akka, in the north of what was then Palestine. The village was destroyed by Zionist forces in 1948. After being detained several times by the Israeli army, he was forced into exile. Darwish composed the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence which was announced by Yasser Arafat during a meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algeria. more.. e-mail
Renowned Palestinian Poet, Mahmoud Darwish, dies in Houston Saed Bannoura, International Middle East Media Center News 8/10/0200 Mahmoud Darwish, a renowned Palestinian poet, one of the intellectual figures known as the voice of the Palestinians in Diaspora and under occupation, died on Saturday evening at age 67 at the Memorial Hermann hospital in Houston -- Texas in the United States. He underwent an open heart surgery and Thursday and remained in a critical condition until he died on Saturday. Darwish is a Palestinian cultural icon well respected among the Palestinian and Arab people and well-known among international supporters of the Palestinian cause. His poetry is considered the voice of all Palestinians, the voice of resistance against the occupation and the voice that rejects infighting. His works were translated into more than twenty languages and he also won several international prizes. The IMEMC expresses its deep sadness and sorrow over the departure of the great poet, the man, and the intellectual figure. more.. e-mail
Mahmoud Darwish postal stamp released Ma’an News Agency 7/29/2008 Ramallah – Ma’an – The Palestinian ministry of telecommunications and information technology announced on Tueday the issuing of a new postal stamp bearing the image of the renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The stamp is being produced to honor the work of Darwish and in appreciation for the major role he has played in keeping the Palestinian question alive all over the world through his poetry. Undersecretary of the ministry, Sulaiman Az-Zuhairi, said in a press conference in Ramallah in the central West Bank, that the name of Darwish has always been connected to revolutionary poetry and "poems of the stolen homeland. " Darwish’s poetry has received international acclaim and won numerous literary prizes. His work has been translated into at least twenty-two different languages. He is also well-known for his political activism and was involved in the drafting of the. . . more.. e-mail
Hassan Nazzal gives seminar and reads poetry at Jenin summer camp Ma’an News Agency 7/26/2008 Jenin – Ma’an – The Department of Culture at the ministry of education in Jenin organized a cultural conference and poetry readings for students affiliated with the summer camp at the boys school in Jenin on Saturday. The cultural event was held in cooperation with the school’s administration. The Palestinian poet Hassan Nazzal talked about his poetry, and about life at a poet. He stressed on the importance of continuous reading, writing and language skills, in both literature and prose in order to to express oneself through the written word. Nazzal finished is presentation to the students bt reading some of his poems to the group. [end]
Abdelwahab Elmessiri (1938 - 2008) In Memorium Palestinian Information Center 7/7/2008 Abdelwahab Elmessiri passed away on Thursday the 3rd of July in the Palestine Hospital in Cairo at the age of seventy. There is a befittingly poetic resonance about the name of this hospital - the place of his final struggle - when one considers that Elmessiri had devoted almost his entire intellectual career to the defense of the Palestinian cause. Over the past few years Elmessiri had been fighting a prolonged battle with a form of brain cancer that ultimately cost him his life; what the cancer could not do was to rob him of his intellect! Elmessiri remained fully engaged as a thinker until his very last breath. In an intellectual career spanning over more than thirty years, Elmessiri managed to write over 50 books and scores of articles on a diverse range of topics ranging from Zionism to Postmodernism, Secularism, Muslim Political Thought, Palestinian Liberation Movements, the Intifada, Palestinian Poetry and English Literature. more.. e-mail
Hip-hop for Palestine represents in New Orleans Mai Bader, Electronic Intifada 7/7/2008 On 14 June 2008, a wide coalition of grassroots organizations -- including NOLAPS (New Orleans, Louisiana Palestine Solidarity); INCITE Women of Color Against Violence; New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival; and the Third World Coalition of the American Friends Service Committee -- held a historic event called "Liberation Hip-Hop," which commemorated the 60th year of the Nakba, the dispossession of the Palestinian people. Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts center was filled that day with folks from different backgrounds, ages and religions. Speakers and audience members from around the US and across the world got together to link their struggles and build an alliance against the injustice they all face. Addressing the standing-room-only crowd, local spoken word artist PoeticOne introduced Jordan Flaherty from Left Turn Magazine and Darryl Jordan from the Third World Coalition of the American Friends Service Committee. more.. e-mail
Life of famous Lebanese poet celebrated in London Middle East Online 7/5/2008 LONDON – A lecture dedicated to the life and works of the famous Lebanese poet Gibran Khalil Gibran will be held in London on Thursday the 24th of July 2008, organizers of the event said. The lecture, which marks the 125th anniversary of the poet’s birth, will given by Professor Suheil Bushrui (University of Maryland, US), Director of theKahlil Gibran Research and Studies Project. Gibran was born on January 6, 1883 in Bsharri, a mountainous area in Northern Lebanon. His best-known work is The Prophet, a book composed of 28 poetic essays which remains world-renowned to this day. Gibran’s poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages, while his drawings and paintings have been exhibited in many capitals of the world. Although Gibran’s most famous work was written in Arabic, he also has English pieces which he wrote in the United States. more.. e-mail
Palestinian poet: History laughs at both victim and aggressor Reuters, Ha’aretz 7/3/2008 Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish said on Wednesday his new works blend sarcasm and a deep sense of hope in their treatment of the decades-old conflict with Israel. Darwish drew thousands of Palestinians to a rare public reading in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday night. The crowds unable to get seats in the city’s Cultural Palace watched him on outdoor screens nearby. Newspapers said millions abroad watched him live on al-Jazeera. Darwish toldthat his new poems reflected a sense of hope, and were also laden with a necessary sarcasm. "Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile," Darwish said in an interview. "The sarcasm is not only related to today’s reality but also to history. History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor," Darwish said in an interview. more.. e-mail
Mahmoud Darwish recites poetry in Ramallah Ma’an News Agency 7/2/2008 Ramallah – Ma’an – Renowned Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish participated in the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Ramallah’s municipal council, held Tuesday evening. The hall of the Culture Palace in Ramallah was packed with poetry lovers who came to listen to Darwish’s recitation. There were so many in attendance that organizers had to erect giant screens outside so that those unable to fit inside the hall would be able to see the recitation. [end]
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish wins Moroccan award Ma’an News Agency 6/28/2008 Bethlehem – Ma’an – The Moroccan House of Poetry is awarding its "Al-Arkana World Poetry Award" to the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish this year. Darwish, a Palestinian refugee from the north of what is now Israel, will receive the award at a ceremony and poetry reading in the Moroccan capital, Rabat on 24 October. House of Poetry’s Arkana Prize Committee said that the award, named for a tree that grows mainly in the Moroccan south, is given to a poet who "defends the values of diversity, freedom and peace. " "Darwish’s experience includes different cultural periods that are wrapped by a deep knowledge of poetry and its geography, and a vital awareness that poetry is fated to be transformed and renewed which makes it always opened to the future," the committee said. "Since the first moment of being a poet, Darwish was determined to look for pain and joy, life and. . . more.. e-mail
Mahmoud Darwish wins poetry prize in Morocco Palestine News Network 6/28/2008 Morocco / PNN -- The luminous Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has won the International Park Award from the Moroccan House of Poetry. No Palestinian is translated into more languages than Darwish. His poems are political, are true to life and reality, and are deeply emotional without being sentimental. A Chinese poet won the prize in 2002 and a Moroccan poet in 2004. This year’s panel of judges included distinguished critics, scholars and poets themselves. Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 during the British Mandate in Palestine in the village of Al Birwah. One of his most well-know poems is "I Come from There," and one of the most impressive examples of his political resistance is "State of Siege. " more.. e-mail
Al-Khader 3-day Festival of arts and culture begins Ma’an News Agency 5/5/2008 Bethlehem - Maan - The Al-Khader festival of arts and culture began in the village’s sports stadium, south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Sunday. The three-day festival includes cultural and heritage presentations from Palestine, including singing, poetry recitation and performances by dance troupes. Al-Khader municipal council, in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism, organized the event to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, as well as the celebrations of Saint George’s memorial (Al-Khader in Arabic), where Christians and Muslim pilgrims visit Saint George’s Monastery. The celebration started with formal speeches and folk dances. Dr. Kholoud Daibes, the Palestinian Minister of Tourism, passed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ greetings to the audience. The mayor of Al-Khadir, Ramzi Salah, explained that the municipal council of Al-Khadir. . . more.. e-mail
Bearing witness to past bombs through poetry and music Laura Wilkinson, Daily Star 3/25/2008 Review - Theatre Monnot hosts a Good Friday of ’Les Poetes Temoignent - BEIRUT: Good Friday offered a reminder that Beirut also has a calmer face. In some city neighborhoods, dusk unveiled processions of families making their way through the streets sharing the burden of a cross, waving palms and carrying lanterns while candle-lit churches filled quietly. Away from the comforting Easter celebrations, though, in Theatre Monnot, "Les Poetes Temoignent" ("Poets Bearing Witness") offered an evening of performed poetry focusing on war and suffering, with the destruction inflicted on Lebanon during the summer war of 2006 receiving particular attention. "Poets Bearing Witness" provided a stark contrast to the Easter scene outside - which may have accounted for the event’s relatively low turnout - and offered a different kind of solace: one to be found within Lebanon’s fiery and resilient poetry circles. more.. e-mail
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