All posts tagged: Palestine

Days and Nights in Gaza | Muhammad al-Zaqzouq

Days and Nights in Gaza | Muhammad al-Zaqzouq

Last spring I got an email from the Palestinian novelist Adania Shibli asking if I had time to translate some work by a Gazan colleague of hers who was writing a book about the war. “A book?” I thought. I’d read plenty of poetry and diary-like accounts, but how anyone in Gaza could at that moment find the time, energy, and material resources to write a book was beyond me.  Muhammad al-Zaqzouq was an established writer before this project, the author of a prizewinning poetry collection, Betrayed by the Soothsayers, short stories, and regular book and film reviews and opinion pieces for magazines and journals. He was also responsible for running an extensive network of community libraries at the Tamer Institute for Community Education, a Palestinian organization that works with children, young people, and caregivers across Palestine to promote reading, provide safe and nurturing environments for learning, and encourage self-expression through the arts. Muhammad, in other words, believed in the transformative power of literature. The title of his book project says as much, though we haven’t yet …

Four examples of Trump’s neverending support for Israel | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Four examples of Trump’s neverending support for Israel | Israel-Palestine conflict News

The return of US President Donald Trump has been hailed by parts of the Israeli public who see his second term as a return of uncritical support of Israel. Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, supported Israel in its war on Gaza, as well as its invasion of Lebanon, but his administration’s occasional misgivings about Israel’s genocide in Gaza, which is now thought to have killed close to 62,000 people, made parts of the Israeli public unhappy. Trump’s involvement in a ceasefire that led to the release of some Israeli captives from Gaza and his enthusiastic suggestions of ethnically cleansing Gaza have raised Israeli hopes that his second term will be as pro-Israeli as his first. Here’s how he has helped prop Israel up. Diplomacy Trump’s diplomatic moves and appointments reflect his unwavering support for Israel. He wants the US ambassador to Israel to be Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who opposes the two-state solution that would give Palestine a state and has even questioned whether “such a thing as a Palestinian exists”. Trump’s previous ambassador to Israel …

Israel: Life By the Sword | Yonatan Mendel

Israel: Life By the Sword | Yonatan Mendel

Toward the end of October 2023 I was taking a taxi home in Tel Aviv. Just after we entered Shapira neighborhood, near the central bus station, the driver turned on the radio to the ongoing terrible news from the south. The Israeli ground operation in Gaza had just begun; there were heavy fights around Beit Hanoun. The newscaster mentioned the Israelis and foreigners whom Hamas had, earlier that month, kidnapped to the Gaza Strip—at the time they numbered 251—before moving on to the next item: clashes were underway between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. “It is so hard to build, and so easy to destroy,” the driver said, looking at me in the rearview mirror. “So easy to destroy what?” I asked. “You know,” he said, “everything. The peace we had here. Now, they will get nothing, no work, no peace.” I didn’t answer. Any conversation was bound to end in heavy silence, and I preferred skipping directly to the heavy silence part. Yet that nonconversation captured …

German Museum Says Visitor Damaged Installation Referencing Palestine

German Museum Says Visitor Damaged Installation Referencing Palestine

The Kunstverein in Hamburg, a contemporary art museum in Germany, said on Friday that part of an installation by artist Phoebe Collings-James that references Palestine was vandalized in what the institution described as a “politically targeted” act. The site-specific work, red earth, blood earth, blood brother earth [kick dirt] (2024), was commissioned for the group exhibition “In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992–2024,” which opened in September. On Instagram, the museum said that an unidentified visitor had specifically targeted a portion of the installation that included the word “Palestine.” Further details about the extent of the vandalism or required repairs were not disclosed. Related Articles red earth, blood earth, blood brother earth [kick dirt] (2024), after the vandalism. The Kunstverein condemned the act, calling it “politically motivated” vandalism. German authorities are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime, the museum said. Collings-James, a London-born multidisciplinary artist, produces installations that incorporate ceramics, painting, and sound, often referencing histories of colonialism and drawing ties to the broader Black diaspora. The large-scale installation references Aimé …

The pope is right about Israel and Gaza. This is cruelty, not war | Opinions

The pope is right about Israel and Gaza. This is cruelty, not war | Opinions

Pope Francis is a paradoxical figure. Despite leading a church with a long, egregious history of being synonymous with strife, injustice and abuse, the old, ailing Argentinian Jesuit strikes me, at his core, as a modest clergyman who abhors human suffering and misery. Like you and me, the pope can see what Israel has done with such ruthless ferocity to besieged Palestinians for more than a year in the barren, dystopian remnants of Gaza and the occupied West Bank. I believe that Francis understands that bearing witness to human suffering and misery on an almost incomprehensible scale requires a response, that silence under the awful, prevailing circumstances means, at the least, blithe acceptance and, at the worst, conscious complicity. So, to his credit, the pontiff has said what needed to be said. The pope has, in effect, abandoned neutrality in favour of a raw, refreshing honesty to declare – with candid language – his sympathy for and solidarity with the millions of Palestinian victims of Israel’s relentless killing lust. I am convinced that Francis will …

the Politics of Baby Jesus

the Politics of Baby Jesus

 Christ, the Keffiyeh, and a Clash of Perspectives A keffiyeh-wrapped Baby Jesus in nativity scenes, including one recently displayed at the Vatican, has sparked controversy and challenged traditional images of Christ’s birth. This provocative symbol brings attention to the political realities of modern-day Bethlehem and the ongoing conflict in Gaza, prompting deeper questions about the connections between faith, resistance and justice. RNS Reporter Yonat Shimron joins us to probe the depth of meaning behind the symbols. Source link

At least 42 Palestinians killed as Israel ramps up bombing in central Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News

At least 42 Palestinians killed as Israel ramps up bombing in central Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says conditions for reaching a ceasefire in Gaza have improved. At least 42 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip, medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic, as Israeli forces stepped up their bombardment of central areas and tanks pushed deeper into the enclave’s north and south. Six people were killed in two air strikes on a house and near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip while four others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a motorcycle in Khan Younis in the south, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday, quoting medics. Later, an Israeli air strike near a tent camp housing displaced families in eastern Khan Younis killed at least five people and wounded others. In Nuseirat refugee camp, Israeli warplanes carried out several air attacks, destroying a multistorey building and hitting roads outside mosques. At least 11 people were killed in the strikes, according to health officials at al-Awda Hospital in the camp. They said in a statement that dozens …