(1) Resources:
(2) Articles: below (latest first)

• Hanin MAJADLI, « Before the Palestinians and the Jews » (Haaretz, Oct 6, 2023): click here!  Last month UNESCO recognized the archaeological site of Tel es-Sultan (also called Tel Jericho) as a World Heritage Site in Palestine. The recognition was for a World Heritage Site in Palestine, not a Palestinian heritage site. As usual, Israel tried to prevent the move.
• Ramzy BAROUD, «Ghosts of the past: For Israel, war on UNESCO is an existential battle » (Middle East Monitor, Sept 25, 2023): click here!

  Jericho does not belong to the Palestinians alone. It belongs to the whole of humanity. For Israel, however, the recognition by UNESCO of Jericho as a “World Heritage Site in Palestine” complicates its mission of erasing Palestine, physically and figuratively, from existence. The decision was described by Israel’s Foreign Ministry as a “cynical” ploy by the Palestinians to politicise UNESCO. This is ironic, as Israel has politicised history by removing anything that could be interpreted as part of Palestinian historical heritage, while elevating a self-centred, and largely fabricated, view of history that supposedly belongs to Israel, and Israel alone. Though Israel has succeeded, thanks to its massive military power, in dominating the Palestinian physical landscape, it has largely failed in dominating Palestine’s history.

• Ayman NOBANI, « Jericho’s Tell es-Sultan added to UNESCO World Heritage list » (Al Jazeera, Sept 18, 2023): click here!  The ruins at Tell es-Sultan have been declared the ‘oldest fortified city in the world’.
• « UNESCO votes to list ruins near ancient Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine » (The Times of Israel, Sept 17, 2023): click here!

  Israel slams Palestinians’ ‘cynical use of UNESCO’; Jerusalem quit the UN cultural body in 2019 for moves it said were designed to diminish the Jewish connection to the Holy Land.

• Nir HASSON: « Despite Israeli Efforts, UN Committee Votes to List Ruins Near Ancient Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine » Haaretz, Sept 17, 2023): click here!

  Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the Palestinian Authority. Israel's Foreign Ministry deemed the decision 'another sign of the Palestinians' cynical use of UNESCO'".

• Ariel DAVID: « Digging Up the Nakba: Israeli Archaeologists Excavate Palestinian Village Abandoned in 1948 » (Haaretz, Sept 13, 2023): click here!

  The first-of-its-kind project uncovered the ruins of Qadas, a Palestinian village near Lebanon, which Israel bulldozed so that refugees would have no home to return to.

• Alon ARAD & Talya EZRAHI: « Annexation in the name of archeology » (+972, August 1, 2023): click here!

  Armed with huge budgets, far-right Israeli ministers are pushing ahead with plans to displace Palestinians under the guise of safeguarding heritage sites. - On July 17, the Israeli government approved a NIS 120 million plan to “salvage, preserve, develop, and prevent antiquity theft at heritage sites in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley.”

• « A Pompei in Gaza: Major Archeological Discovery Announced » (The Palestine Chronicle, July 28, 2023) : click here!

  Archaeologists working on a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered in Gaza last year have found at least 125 tombs, most with skeletons still largely intact, and two rare lead sarcophaguses, Reuters news agency reported.

• Nidal AL-MUGHRABI: « At least 125 tombs discovered at Roman-era cemetery in Gaza » (Reuters, July 24, 2023): click here!

  GAZA, July 24, 2023 (Reuters) - Archaeologists working on a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered in Gaza last year have found at least 125 tombs, most with skeletons still largely intact, and two rare lead sarcophaguses, the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities said. The impoverished Palestinian territory was an important trading post for civilisations as far back as the ancient Egyptians and the Philistines depicted in the Bible, through the Roman empire and the crusades.

• Hiba ASLAN: « Library restores Palestinian history one manuscript at a time » (Al-Monitor, July 23, 2023): click here!

  A library in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem offers a rare glimpse into Palestinian history with its treasure trove of manuscripts dating back hundreds of years before the creation of Israel. At the Khalidi Library in the walled Old City, Rami Salameh expertly inspects a damaged manuscript as part of the effort to restore and digitise historical Palestinian documents.

• Ahmed DREMLY: « A Museum Obliterated: One of the Casualties of Israel’s May Assault on Gaza » (The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 20, 2023) : click here!

  IN A SMALL ROOM in his house, Hazem Muhanna, 62, created an antique museum. He has accumulated more than 2,000 artifacts that commemorate Palestinian and Arab culture..

• « PM calls on UNESCO to protect archaeological, heritage sites in Palestine » (MEMo, July 18, 2023) : click here!

  Palestinian Prime Minister, Muhammad Shtayyeh, has called on UNESCO to shoulder its responsibility and protect the archaeological and heritage sites in Palestine from the Israeli occupation's attempts to extend control over them. Speaking at the beginning of the cabinet meeting yesterday, Shtayyeh said the Israeli aggression and settler terrorism are escalating at Palestinian archaeological sites, especially in the town of Sebastia, near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, and the Husan village in the Bethlehem Governorate, which is full of water springs and ponds.

• Sheren Falah SAAB: « The Man Reviving Palestinian Women's Weaving » (Haaretz, July 12, 2023) : click here!

  Mohammed Zeitoun is the only craftsperson in Israel who still weaves using wheat stems, like Palestinian women used to do before him. And it all began at his grandmother’s home in the Galilee.

• Nir HASSON: « With Israeli Army Backing, Settlers Excavate West Bank Archaeological Site in Palestinian Territory » (Haaretz, July 9, 2023) : click here!

  Activist says the excavation was carried out without the Palestinian Authroity's premission and can amount to 'antiquity theft'.

• Miko PELED: « The Cultural Looting of Gaza »(Mint Press, May 30, 2023) : click here!

  Israel exploits the suffering of Gazans in order to recruit collaborators and garner whatever intelligence they may be able to provide. It is well known that people in Gaza who are in need of permits for medical care for themselves or their children are often asked to work for the Israeli authorities as informants. While all of these are expressions of cruelty, brutality and racism, here we are actually discussing another issue, one of unimaginable historic value. For years, Gaza has been robbed of priceless archaeological treasures that will very likely end up in an Israeli museum or in the private collections of the wealthy.

• Oren ZIV: « After backlash, conference drops Israeli archeologist for settlement university ties »(+972, May 28, 2023) : click here!

  Archeologists criticized the participation of two Ariel University scholars at the international event, citing illegality of excavations on occupied territory... The fact that two researchers from a settlement university were invited is noteworthy, both because the institution is located in occupied territory, and because excavating in an occupied area is considered a violation under international law.

• « Government approves $8.8m budget to restore ancient Israel’s capital in West Bank »(Times of Israel, 7 May 2023) : click here!

  Funds to go toward development of Sebastia archaeological park near Nablus, with remains from 10 different periods, over which Israelis and Palestinians have fought for years.

• Nir HASSON: « Israel Razed the Last Orchard in Silwan in Search of Siloam Pool. It Still Can’t Be Found »  (Haaretz, 28 April, 2023) : click here!

  For over four months, the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the settler NGO Elad excavated in East Jerusalem in an effort to find the most ancient and significant pool in Jerusalem’s history. It is possible that the lack of findings will require to redraw maps of ancient Jerusalem.

• Jonathan OFIR: « Theater as politics: an interview with Einat Weizman »(Mondoweiss, April 24, 2023) : click here!

  Jonathan Ofir interviews Israeli playwright Einat Weizman about her play "Prisoners of the Occupation" and how theater can become a vehicle for political mobilization and change.

• Nadda OSMAN: « Liberté, justice, Palestine : cinq poètes arabes révolutionnaires »  (Middle East Eye, 21 mars, 2023) : click here!

  Dans le monde arabe, la poésie est considérée comme l'une des plus éminentes formes d'art et le patrimoine poétique remonte à l’ère pré-islamique et aux odes épiques d'Imru al-Qais et Antarah ibn Shaddad. La poésie continue d'occuper une place centrale dans les sociétés arabes et pour de nombreux enfants qui grandissent dans la région, l’étude de l’arabe est associée à celle de la poésie classique.

• Emek Shaveh's Newsletter March 2023: "New government takes politicization of heritage sites to a new level" (Foundation for Middle East Peace, March 2023): click here!

  This newsletter outlines the changes brought about by the new government in the area of heritage governance, and its implications for sites, particularly in the West Bank. Years of sacrificing professional standards and democratic norms in favor of policies shaped by political partisanship and nationalist agendas have given us a government which has abandoned even the pretense of maintaining professional standards or an inclusive approach to the country's multicultural heritage.

• Sheren Falah SAAB: "Israeli Army Arrests Member of Jenin's Freedom Theater General Assembly" (Haaretz, Jan 30, 2023): click here!

  Yahya Zubeidi, who was arrested on suspicion of 'involvement in terrorist activity,' took on a managing role in the Freedom Theater in the Jenin refugee camp following the arrest of his brother, former commander of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades and co-founder of the theater Zakariya Zubeidi.

• Emek Shaveh, p.r. January 22, 2023: "Knesset Committee Recommends Expanding Israel Antiquities Authority Oversight into Area C of the West Bank:" click here!

  Minister of Heritage and Jerusalem Affairs allocated an additional 10 million NIS to protecting ancient sites in Area C. Knesset’s Education Committee recommends government consider expanding remit of the Israel Antiquities Authority into Area C.

• Hagar SHEZAF: "Flouting Oslo Accords, Israel Razes Structures in West Bank Area Under Palestinian Civil Control" (Haaretz, Jan 10, 2023): click here!

  Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank demolished two Palestinian structures at an archaeological site in Area B – the West Bank area under Palestinian civil control, but primarily under Israeli security control – in violation of the Oslo Accords.

• Thomas PINN: "Le cinéma sous l’occupation : Un entretien avec la réalisatrice palestinienne Najwa Najjar" (Investig'Action, 8 déc 2022): click here!

  Figure de proue du cinéma palestinien, Najwa Najjar a signé et dirigé de nombreux films qui reflètent les épreuves et les tribulations de la vie sous une occupation et qui ouvrent un espace aux Palestiniens désireux de raconter leur propre histoire.

• "Gaza's archaeological discoveries left vulnerable" (Al-Monitor, Oct 29, 2022): click here!

  Archaeological discoveries in the Gaza Strip continue to be neglected amid the government’s failure to protect them, while the citizens who often make these discoveries aren't compensated.

• Nir HASSON: "The groundbreaking work of Arab archeologists in Israel" (Haaretz, Oct 20, 2022): click here!

  Over the years, Arabs who sought to work as archaeologists were looked on with suspicion by Jews and Arabs alike. Haaretz speaks with pioneers in the field about their challenges and achievements.

• Fares AKRAM: "Unearthed Byzantine mosaic hailed as one of Gaza’s greatest archaeological treasures" (TOI, Sept 16, 2022): click here!

  Discovered and painstakingly excavated by an olive farmer planting a tree, find sparks excitement among archeologists, but also concern it could be damaged in conflict-ravaged zone.

• Ofer ADERET: "Palestinian Farmer Discovers 'The Most Stunning Mosaic' in Gaza" (Haaretz, Sept 16, 2022): click here!

  The mosaic, dating from between the 5th-7th centuries A.D., was discovered by a local farmer planting an olive tree. The significant discovery raises questions about preservation efforts inside the Palestinian enclave.

• Sheren Falah SAAB: "Israeli Forces Arrest Chairman of Jenin's Freedom Theatre" (+972, 12 Sept, 2022): click here!

  Palestinian culture minister condemns arrest of Bilal al-Saadi at the Za’atara checkpoint: "Part of the policy of abuse and oppression that the occupation employs on a daily basis." The chairman of the board of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, was arrested on Sunday by Israeli forces while crossing through a military checkpoint in the West Bank, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

• Mohammed Rafik MHAWESH: "She was a promising young artist in Gaza. Israel killed her while she painted" (+972, Aug 12, 2022): click here!

  Doniana Al-Imoor dreamed of the day she would graduate from art college. After Israel shelled her family's home last week, that day will never come.

• Haaretz Editorial: "Occupation Archeology" (Haaretz, Aug 11, 2022): click here!
• Marianne DAGEVOS: "Ghassan Kanafani, literair vernieuwend en maatschappelijk blijvend relevant" (The Rights Forum, 9 juli, 2022): click here!

  Vijftig jaar geleden werd de beroemde Palestijnse schrijver Ghassan Kanafani vermoord door de Israëlische geheime dienst. In zijn werk toonde hij zich een literair vernieuwer en maakte hij, zelf vluchteling, het complexe bestaan van Palestijnse vluchtelingen invoelbaar. In een wereld met honderd miljoen vluchtelingen hebben zijn verhalen anno 2022 niets aan relevantie ingeboet.

• Haidar EID: "Ghassan Kanafani and the inexhaustible dialectic" (Mondoweiss, July 9, 2022): click here!

  Ghassan Kanafani's fiction remains essential 50 years after his assassination because it moves us towards a new perception and understanding of art, revolution, and, of course, Palestine.

• Selma DABBAH: "A murder-mystery set in Gaza, with a bookish bent " (The Electronic Intifada, 20 June, 2022): click here!

  "Come What May," by Ahmed Masoud, Victorina Press (2022).

• Jonathan LIS: "Settlement Cultural Institutions Left Out of EU Deal May Get Israel's Help" (Haaretz, June 12, 2022): click here!

  Israel looks to join the European Union’s Creative Europe project even though it would exclude Israeli institutions in East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and West Bank Jewish settlements.

• Nir HASSON: "Under Settler Pressure, Israel Extends Antiquities Authority's Powers Into West Bank" (Haaretz, June 8, 2022): click here!

  An anti-theft effort is seen as the possible start of a de facto annexation of the West Bank in the realm of antiquities.

• Juan COLE: "Palestinians: Bust of 4500-yr.-old Goddess Anat found in Gaza “attests the Depth of Ancient Palestinian Civilization”"( Informed Comment, April 30, 2022): click here!

  A farmer plowing his land in Khan Younis, the Gaza Strip, recently found the head of a statuette of the ancient Levantine goddess Anat from 4,500 years ago, AFP reports. Everything in Israel/Palestine is political, including, and maybe especially, archeology.

• Jens HANSSEN: "Who was Khalil al-Sakakini? Diaries to Palestine" (Jadaliyya, April 13, 2022): click here!

  “Does the Documenta have an anti-Semitism problem?” an editor of the German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT asked on 12 January, 2022. He went on to explain a few issues later (in the ZEIT of February 2, 2022): “Artistic freedom and freedom of expression [are] by no means the same.” In both articles he makes serious allegations against Yazan Khalili, the spokesman for the group The Question of Funding, which was invited as an artist collective to produce new work at the renowned art forum documenta fifteen which opens this summer.

• Hagar SHEZAF & Nir HASSON: "West Bank Archaeological Site Is at the Center of a Passionate Jewish-Palestinian Struggle" (Haaretz, Sept 14, 2021): click here!

  Tel Sebastia in the West Bank has become a battleground for both control of the site as well as over its historical narrative. The Israeli army, a huge Palestinian flag and Ahab, seventh king of Israel, have all been co-opted for the cause.

• Lawrence DAVIDSON: "Israeli food theft as a form of genocide of Palestinian culture" (Redress Information & Analysis, Aug 8, 2018): click here!

  The idea behind cultural genocide is relatively simple: it is the systematic erasure of the culture of indigenous people subject to colonisation.

• Ahmed el-KOMI: "Palestinian artist gives voice to unrecognized villages" (Al-Monitor, Sept 6, 2017): click here!

  GAZA STRIP, Gaza City — Six children sit amid the leafless branches of a tree in an arid, barren landscape, a small weary-looking shed in the distance. The image, a photograph by Mohamed Badarne, is part of “Unrecognized Games,” a series featuring children from the 45 unrecognized villages in Israel's Negev Desert, where more than 75,000 Bedouin live.

• Hrag VARTANIAN: "A Garden of Possibilities at the Palestinian Museum" (Hyperallergic, Sept 5, 2017): click here!

  The new museum explores the living culture of Jerusalem, which curator Reem Fadda sees as a city that exemplifies the beginning and end of globalism.

• Jehad AHMAD: "The big screen saver: How cinema is providing hope for Gazans" (Middle East Eye, Sept 5, 2017): click here!

  The Al-Samer cinema re-opened after 50 years for the premiere of Gaza's first full-length feature. For most of the audience, it was a new experience.

• Silvia MORESI: "La littérature comme seule histoire possible de la Palestine" (orientXXI, 14 juillet, 2017): click here!

  La Palestine ne possède pas d’histoire officielle. Les pages des écrivains et des poètes palestiniens ont donc un rôle essentiel dans le parcours douloureux de la réapparition existentielle d’un peuple soumis au processus colonial d’effacement de son identité.

• "UNESCO declares Hebron Old City as Palestinian heritage site" (MEMo, June 7, 2017): click here!

  UNESCO has voted to recognise Hebron’s Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque as Palestinian heritage sites despite diplomatic pressures by the US and Israel to recruit the support of enough member states to vote against the move.

• Janan BSOUL: "What Occupation? New Generation of Palestinian Writers Shifts Focus From Politics to 'Life Itself'" (Haaretz, June 4, 2017): click here!

  Young Arabic-language writers in Israel are tackling the Palestinian predicament from their own point of view rather than obsessing about the Nakba.

• Derek WALTERS: "‘In Israël is poëzie een misdaad geworden’" (nrc.nl, 2 juni, 2017): click here!

  Nissim Calderon hoogleraar literatuur: De Palestijnse dichteres Tatour riskeert een celstraf voor dichtregels als: „Volg de karavaan van martelaren.”

• Kim JENSEN and Yoav HAIFAWI: "‘With furious cruelty’–Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour still facing prosecution in Israel" (Mondoweiss, April 13, 2017): click here!

  March 19 and March 28 marked two critical hearings in the trial of the Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour who faces up to eight years in prison on the charges of incitement and support for terrorism.

• Ahmed EL-KOMI: "Palestinian storyteller brings fresh vision to ancient tradition" (Al-Monitor, April 9, 2017): click here!

  Although storytelling is normally reserved for the elderly, a young Palestinian man is reviving Palestinian heritage through folktales and organizing tours to archaeological sites.

• Israel HAREL: "Cultural McCarthyism as Old as Israel Itself" (Haaretz, April 3, 2017): click here!

  The days of McCarthyism in literature, culture and arts are nothing new, in fact they go back to the pre-state days of the Yishuv.

• Nirit ANDERMAN: "Prominent Israeli Arts Fund Requires Filmmakers to Avoid Dishonoring Israel" (Haaretz, March 29, 2017): click here!

  To obtain funding, filmmakers working with the Rabinovich Foundation must declare their films won't present Independence Day as a day of mourning or insult symbols of the state.

• Rami YOUNIS: "The cultural terrorism of Miri Regev" (+972, March 27, 2017): click here!

  By threatening the livelihood of Palestinian theater workers, Regev is committing cultural terrorism: she is putting people’s livelihoods at risk — people whose only sin is holding different political principles.

• Yoav HAIFAWI: "Political poetry as a crime: Inside the surreal trial of Dareen Tatour" (+972, March 26, 2017): click here!

  Arresting someone for publishing a political poem is extraordinary. Having to prove at trial that police mistranslated your poem is nothing short of surreal.

• Edo KONRAD: "Photography as protest in Palestine/Israel" (+972, Jan 4, 2017): click here!

  ‘There is a lot of criticism over the way photojournalism perpetuates social gaps. Activestills came as a response to that. They are part of the struggles they were documenting. The work they produce is intended for communities to use to promote their own struggles.’

• Asmaa AL-GHOUL: "Why Gaza's intellectuals are fleeing abroad" (Al-Monitor, Sept 28, 2016): click here!

  Lack of freedom of thought and expression is leading creative young Palestinians to flee Gaza in search of a place where they can work freely.

• "Appeal Against Administrative Detention of Mohammad Abu Sakha Rejected" (Addameer, Aug 25, 2016): click here!
• Urvashi SAKAR: "Sixty-Eight Years After Palestinian Nakba, Cultural Resistance Grows in West Bank" (The Wire, June 11, 2016): click here!

  In Palestine’s occupied West Bank, different kind of theatre, music, circus and dance are thriving, and serve not just as entertainment but a means for Palestinians to assert life, their living and existence.

• The Freedom Theatre: "Senior staff member and student prohibited from travelling abroad" (The Freedom Theatre, May 30, 2016): click here!

  The Freedom Theatre senior staff member Mustafa Sheta was recently denied exit by Israeli border authorities to attend a visa appointment at the US Embassy in Amman. Third-year acting student Osama Al Azzeh was denied entry by Jordanian border authorities to participate in community theatre performances in refugee camps.

• "Loach: I have a lot to tell about Palestine" (The Palestinian Information Center, May 24, 2016): click here!

  British film director Ken Loach has said that he has much to tell about Palestine and its people, affirming that everyone has to know the nature of the Israeli occupation.

• Alia AL GHUSSAIN: "Israel steps up war on Palestinian culture" (The Electronic Intifada, May 18, 2016): click here!

  The Palestinian community in Haifa enjoyed a small victory in March when a theater successfully challenged the Israeli government to win reinstatement of official funding cut after controversy over the staging of a play about prisoners last year. But the reinstatement also threw into focus the constraints on Palestinian artistic expression in present-day Israel and some saw the resumption of official funding as a double-edged sword.

• John REED: "Palestinian national museum to open after 20 years of planning" (Financial Times, May 6, 2016): click here!

  The bumpy and prolonged journey to opening day mirrors the Palestinians’ perennial struggles with Israel’s occupation and their own internal squabbling. Palestinians do not control the borders of their occupied homeland and the project has contended with cost overruns and disputes with Israel over the import of building materials.

• "Palestinian wins 'Arab Booker' with novel on Nakba, Holocaust" (The New Arab, April 27, 2016): click here!

  Novelist Rabai al-Madhoun has been declared winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, becoming the first Palestinian author to receive the prestigious award, also known as the 'Arab Booker'.

• Maryam RAMADAN: "Rafeef Ziadah: 'Make a pariah state of Israel'" (Al Jazeera, March 20, 2016): click here!

  Poems of Rafeef Ziadah are inspired by true stories of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and in exile. A Palestinian performance poet based in London, Ziadah is an activist in her own right and a member of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee.

• Amelia SMITH: "Artists challenge the blockade by building a virtual bridge between Gaza and London" (MEMo, Feb 8, 2016): click here!

  "Art is a threat because it's a non-violent form of resistance and even non-violent forms of resistance are a threat; sometimes actually they are a greater threat." At Home in Gaza and London is a digital, cross-border art project that offers an intimate look into people’s personal lives. In one video viewers watch friends sit around a kitchen table, reading, working, bickering and laughing as they would anywhere in the world. But the difference is that the kitchen is in London and the people around the table are in Gaza City.

• Yair ASHKENAZI & Jonathan LIS: "Israeli Culture Minister to Propose 'Loyalty Bill' in Bid to Control Artistic Funding" (Haaretz, Jan 26, 2016): click here!

  Bill would enhance her ministry's power and allow it to condition funding for institutions on their allegiance to the state and respect for its symbols.

• Alon IDAN: "By banning book, Israel maintains purity of blood" (Haaretz, Dec 31, 2015):click here!

  Jews and Arabs are forbidden to have sex, love, marry, have families or live with one another... We’ll have to do some decoding to properly understand what Dalia Fenig, the acting chair of the Education Ministry’s pedagogic secretariat, was saying when she disqualified the novel “Borderlife” [written by Israeli authoress Dorit Rabinyan], the story of an Israeli [girl] and Palestinian [boy] who fall in love in New York, for use in advanced high school literature classes.

• Ruth POLLARD: "Gaza Strip's artists seek to rebuild hope in a society ruined by conflict" (The Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 26, 2015):click here!

  The art scene in Gaza – although still vibrant despite the wars and the abject poverty in which so many of its residents live – is struggling after eight years of Hamas rule and the decision of Western governments to isolate the group, say two other artists, Maha al-Daya, 39 and Ayman Eissa, 41.

• Umar AL-GHUBARI: "How Israel erases Arabic from the public landscape" (+972, Nov 22):click here!

  The Israeli government has begun omitting the Arabic name for Jerusalem from its street signs, erasing not only the language from the Israeli consciousness, but Palestinian identity itself.

• "Join the Freedom Theatre in celebrating 10 years of cultural resistance!"click here!

  Over the past decade we have devoted ourselves to what our co-founder, the late Juliano Mer Khamis, called the 'Cultural Intifada' - a movement that harnesses the force of creativity and artistic expression in the quest for freedom, justice and equality.

• Alaa TARTIR: "The Wanted 18 Cows, Economic Resistance, and Israel". (Huffington Post, Dec 2, 2015): click here!

  The Wanted 18 is an ingenious film that combines creative animation with a story-telling and documentary reporting style, resulting in an entertaining, educational and thought-provoking cinematic experience. Something as original and impactful as The Wanted 18 doesn't come along very often and it is an unmissable film.

• George BAJALIA: "Playwright Ismail Khalidi Talks Theater & Politics in Palestine". (Muftah, Nov 23, 2015): click here!

  In connection with his review on Muftah of Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace’s new edited volume, "Inside/Outside: Six Plays from Palestine and the Diaspora", George Bajalia sat down and spoke with Khalidi about the importance of the collection, as well as his and Wallace’s future plans.

• Megan HANNA: "In occupied Palestine, it’s time our language fitted the crime". Linguistics is power and those who control the language of Israel's occupation do so to reinforce the status quo (Middle East Eye, Nov 18, 2015): click here!

  It is imperative that we abandon the term “conflict” in this instance. The problem is perhaps best summarised by Richard Faulk, a professor of international law and the previous Special Rapporteur assigned to the OPT. In 2010, Faulk wrote, “I believe the time has come to call ‘a spade a spade’ and use such terms as ‘annexation,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ ‘apartheid,’ ‘colonialist,’ ‘settler colonialism,’ and ‘criminality.’”

• Susan ABULHAWA: "Occupied words: On Israel's colonial narrative". Analysis: Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa deconstructs Israel's insidious language of power (Aljazeera, Oct 27, 2015): click here!

  The language of sociopolitical constructs is rarely a mere collection of words arranged to reflect reality. More often, it is the very infrastructure of thought, laid out in a way to facilitate, or preclude, specific ideas. In the case of a settler colonial enterprise, the selection of words is highly deliberate and meant to construct a moral syntax to contextualise ethnic cleansing and settlement.

• Moe Ali NAYEL: "Pianist flees Yarmouk camp for Germany" (The Electronic Intifada, 27 October 2015): click here!

  Aeham Ahmed, a young pianist, used to roam the desolate streets of Yarmouk refugee camp — described by the United Nations Secretary-General as the “deepest circle of hell” in Syria earlier this year. Aeham colored the bleak camp with his melodies. But at the start of September the 28-year-old Palestinian fled the country along with thousands of others, seeking refuge in Europe.

• Mousa TAWFIQ: "Making music under siege" (The Electronic Intifada, 26 October 2015): click here!

  Eight years of suffocating siege, three devastating Israeli assaults and longstanding Palestinian political divide have negatively impacted all aspects of life in Gaza — including its music. There is only one music school in the tiny coastal territory, and only children are taught there.

• Roger SHEETY: "Stealing Palestine: A study of historical and cultural theft" (Middle East Eye, 14 July, 2015): click here!

  The cultural appropriation of books, music, art, cuisine and dress have been used by Zionists as a weapon against Palestinians. Stealing and appropriating the culture and history of indigenous peoples is a typical characteristic of all modern colonial-settler states, but usually accomplished once the indigenous people in question has been eliminated, dispossessed, or otherwise seemingly defeated therefore making it safe to do so. The colonial-settler state of “Israel,” established on the ruins of Palestine and through the expulsion of the majority of its indigenous population in 1948 and after, is no different.