Palestine Think Tank

Free Minds for a Free Palestine

Archives for the ‘Culture and Heritage’ Category

Time is Running Out for Israel, Atzmon’s report of the Nakba commemoration event

By Gilad Atzmon • May 13th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Gilad Atzmon, Israel, Music, Poetry, Events, Nakba and Right of Return, Our Authors, Palestine, Resistance

Something positive is happening, I would even call it a shift of awareness, a realisation that the Palestinian struggle is leading somewhere after all.
Yesterday, at Exeter University, to a very crowded theatre, in an event of that was a commemoration of 60 years of the Nakba, I had a chance to listen to Dr Manuel [...]



Reham Alhelsi - Our Cultural Heritage

By Reham Alhelsi • May 11th, 2008 • Category: Analysis, Children's Corner, Culture and Heritage, Features, Human Rights, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, War, Zionism

As Palestinians all over the world commemorate the Nakba and 60 years of on-going zionist ethnic cleansing, murder and apartheid, there is one aspect of our Palestinian identity that survived despite all zionist attempts of elimination: our cultural heritage. The Palestinian cultural heritage is full of popular songs, poetry, sayings, stories handicrafts and other forms [...]



NAKBA COMMEMORATION EVENTS

By Mary Rizzo • May 10th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Israel, Nakba and Right of Return, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, Zionism

Press release - BADIL and the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign on behalf of
the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba*
Nakba Commemoration - 11 May, 2008

Prominent authors and poets from around the world present their work in the Palestine Literary Festival.
The campaign to educate Palestinians on the Nakba and their collective Right of Return continues today in the [...]



Exile Remembered, an evening of music, poetry and reflection

By Mary Rizzo • May 8th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Music, Poetry, Events, Palestine

The 60th anniversary of the establishment of the state of Israel is for some a day of celebration, for others a day of reflection. For Palestinians it marks the nakba (catastrophe) - when 400 villages were destroyed and 750,000 refugees fled to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and beyond.
Trócaire and Poetry Ireland invite you to [...]



Homeland Lost exhibit criticised by UK’s Israeli community

By Gilad Atzmon • Apr 30th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Israel, Nakba and Right of Return, Opinions and Letters, Palestine

(from The Independent) As far as the organisers of the exhibition are concerned, these photographs of Arab refugees, displaced from their homes in Israel in 1948, are merely an artistic slice of life from a dramatic point in Middle Eastern history.

But the Barbican Arts Centre’s show Homeland Lost, consisting of 16 black and white images [...]



Open Letter by Haider Eid to Nadine Gordimer

By Mary Rizzo • Apr 27th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Nakba and Right of Return, Opinions and Letters, Palestine

 

Following is an edited open letter from Gaza lecturer Dr. Haider Eid
to Nobel Prize-winning South African author Nadine Gordimer…
 
I am a Palestinian lecturer in Cultural Studies living in Gaza. I happen to also have South African citizenship as a result of my marriage to a citizen of that beloved country. I spent more than five [...]



Swindler’s List

By Gilad Atzmon • Apr 11th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Gilad's Choice, Religion, Zionism

It is a common trend amongst rabid Zionists and notorious Islamophobes to quote some isolated and mistranslated verses from the Qur’an for the purpose of collectively libeling Muslims and presenting Islam as a regressive and violent belief system.
Needless to say, so far, such repetitive attempts have been found futile if not actually counter-effective. Not a [...]



Palestine is not a nation, Palestinians are part of the Arab people

By Adib Kawar • Apr 11th, 2008 • Category: Analysis, Culture and Heritage, Middle East Issues, Nakba and Right of Return, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Zionism

As a student of political science who had been involved in the protection of the interests of his nation all his life, I would like to clarify few points regarding the definition of what is a nation, a people or a political entity.
There is a vast difference between a people or a nation with a [...]



My Sweet Home Palestine

By Mary Rizzo • Feb 5th, 2008 • Category: Children's Corner, Culture and Heritage, Music, Poetry, Events, Palestine, Resistance

A poem by Tamim Tamimi
A young man’s mature poetry of yearning. How can such a young man yearn so much? This is Palestine. This is the heart of the people of Palestine. It gives birth to pain that never goes away, a pain that makes young men grow up quickly and grow up sad, but [...]



Two Poems for the Beloved People of Gaza by Nahida Izzat

By Nahida Izzat • Jan 24th, 2008 • Category: Culture and Heritage, Music, Poetry, Events, Nakba and Right of Return, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance

Photo from Free Gaza, one of many photos of the people of Gaza.
Beloved people of Gaza
Treasured people of Palestine
Teachers of courage and dignity
Archetype of humanity
Allow me to kneel down
And wash your feet with my tears
Kiss your blessed hands
And sprinkle your beautiful faces with musk and roses
While we sat pondering like fools
Utterly helpless
Talking much and doing [...]