Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Amelia Smith
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Gaza’s Christians seek better life outside the prison
From his office in Gaza Suheil Tarazi, chairperson of the YMCA, is reflecting on the steady decline of the Christian community in the Gaza Strip: “You were born free by default and then you have the siege. Those that have the opportunity to get out, they get out. Some people…
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In Israel and the occupied territories, discrimination is enshrined in the law
In November five Israelis were killed and eight wounded when two Palestinians attacked a synagogue in West Jerusalem. Israeli police shot the attackers dead at the scene and Benjamin Netanyahu ordered that the assailant’s houses be demolished. The family of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the young Palestinian teenager who was kidnapped…
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Eyal Weizman on understanding politics through architecture, settlements and refuseniks
“We need to remember that some of the most beautiful pieces of architecture, that we all love and we all travel to see, have been military fortifications and sites of battles and execution, or beautiful castles that had a repressive social, political and military use. Architecture cannot be “tainted” by…
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Souad Massi on rock music, terrorism and bringing people together with music
“I like folk music, and country music, too. In fact, I was listening to Kenny Rogers just recently. I know a lot of people smile when they hear me say that,” Souad Massi tells me. Algeria, where the engineer turned singer Massi is from, is not so often associated with…
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Shlomo Sand on his new book, How I Stopped Being a Jew
“Winter here in Tel Aviv is wonderful,” Shlomo Sand tells me, before adding: “I think it’s the only thing here that is wonderful.” A Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Tel Aviv, Sand’s published work has attracted much controversy. His new book, How I Stopped Being a Jew,…
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Photographer Diana Matar on Libya, her father-in-law’s disappearance and portraying absence in her work
Diana Matar is interested in capturing what can no longer be seen. “It can be ironic within the medium of photography because we rely so stubbornly on a subject,” she says. “I have this strong intuition that the past remains and that history’s traces are somehow imprinted on buildings, landscapes…
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Britain’s Syrian diaspora unites to build peace in their homeland
Reem Al-Assil has been active in the Syrian uprising since it started in March 2011. By July of the same year she fled the country after being held twice for questioning. She went first to France to complete her doctorate, and then eventually settled in Britain, a journey made easier…
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Ending British complicity in Gaza war crimes could influence election outcome
On May 5, 2010, support for the Liberal Democrats flourished; many were swayed by their position on the Middle East, disillusioned by 10 years of Tony Blair. In the years preceding the general election they spearheaded demonstrations against the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and were a permanent face at…
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Mustafa Barghouti on Gaza, the unity government and Palestinians elections
“Immediately after the war Israel initiated a political and a propaganda campaign, including distributing false information about a coup d’état that was prepared in the West Bank, to divert Palestinians from unity. In other words Netanyahu is trying to achieve in political means what he failed to achieve in military…
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Jacob Zuma’s special envoy to Gaza, Aziz Pahad, on Hamas, military intervention and BDS
“I don’t think we have a magic wand to solve the problem but I think as part of the AU we can make an effective contribution as Africans, as a continent North and South, to resolving what is becoming a serious problem in that whole region.” All the genuine liberation…
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Iraqi vice-president on Sunni oppression, Nouri Al-Maliki and sectarian division
“The Iraqi tradition was built upon forgiveness and acceptance of the other on the basis of the national identity. This was eliminated in 2003 and the years that followed. Affiliation became linked to sects and race, which superseded the affiliation to the nation and therefore the national affiliation disappeared. This…
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Rich Wiles on photography, de-colonisation and resistance
“Palestinian voices are not heard in the media and when they do break into the media they’re diluted, or told what to say, or their language is changed, or they’re misquoted or misrepresented. So what I’m trying to do is use my own work as a platform for which Palestinians…
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Rabi’a Adawiya, the Sufi mystic behind the mosque
It is one year ago today that Egyptian forces stormed the square in Cairo where thousands of supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the first democratically elected President of Egypt, were protesting against his overthrow by the military. Protestors had occupied the space outside Rabi’a Al-Adawiyya mosque for six weeks. Police officers…
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Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri on Israel’s targeted assassinations, lifting the siege on Gaza and Egypt’s role in the crisis
“We are ready for all options, including peaceful ones through mediators, whether they are Egyptians or others. We are also ready for the resistance choice, which is based on exhausting the occupation and putting it under pressure until it accepts our demands.” When the first ceasefire between Israel and Palestine…
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Israel is losing its battle in public diplomacy
Yesterday a mobile phone game inviting contestants to pose as the Israeli military and bomb Gaza was dropped from the Google app store following public outrage. The aim of the game was to “drop bombs and avoid killing civilians;” grossly inappropriate considering the Israeli army have been targeting hospitals and…
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Atef Abu Saif on the war in Gaza, literature and orange orchards
In the end when you see those kids dying every day and old men and women killed, you want to survive. You think life is very cheap. Human life, which is the most precious, doesn’t mean anything and this is very dangerous. Earth was made for human beings, not for…
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My Sister Who Travels: contemporary artists engaging with post-colonial themes
Corinne Silva’s work is about Africa placed inside Europe. It speaks of the two continents’ history and how they are connected today through commerce, travel and occupation. Between 2008 and 2011 Silva worked on a project analysing the landscape in southern Spain and how it spoke of two different types…
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David Cameron displays contempt for international law
David Cameron came to power in 2010 promising service cuts unprecedented since 1945. He has since stripped down the NHS and axed over 600,000 public sector workers (a figure which could reach up to a million by the next election), trebled university tuition fees and cut benefits for the disabled.…
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Seeking refuge in Morocco
In the height of the summer, with nowhere to shelter from the sun, a group of people stand waiting to enter the UNHCR offices in Rabat, Morocco. Ahmed, whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, says he has been waiting more than three hours for a 9am appointment. He…
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Why Morocco’s Unification and Reform Movement is unique in the region
Mohammed El Hamdaoui likens the Islamic Unification and Reform Movement (URM) in Morocco, of which he is the President, to a football team. “If you look at the structure of a football team there is a defence, and the defence is the movement. Then there is a midfield, which is…
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Moroccan government spokesperson on the democratic spring, the Western Sahara and regional cooperation
Mustapha El-Khalfi calls the Arab Spring of 2011 the “democratic spring” though it’s hard to see how it earned that name. There is a civil war raging in Syria, a return to military rule in Egypt whilst Libya is rocked by insecurity, political polarisation and public disillusionment with the political…
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Bedouin Camp in the Jordan Valley demolished
Last week 70 protestors from the Jordan Valley gathered outside the UN office in Ramallah and delivered a letter to Ban Ki-moon: “We write to you to ask urgent action against Israel’s systematic policy of forced transfer and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, in particular the Palestinian farmers and…
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Film Review: The Mulberry House
When Sara Ishaq returns to Yemen after ten years abroad reconnecting with the Scottish half of her roots she finds the country she grew up is on the brink of a revolution. It’s 2011 and the infectious spirit of the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt has reached the peninsula –…
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Film Review: Return to Homs
Abdul Basset Saroot, goalkeeper of the Syrian national youth football team turned armed opposition fighter, is now classed as a terrorist by Bashar Al-Assad. The army raided his neighbourhood to find him, killing his older brother and destroying his family home when they refused to surrender. Once named Asia’s second…