Palestine Think Tank

“I was born in Kufr-Ein, a village in the Governorate of Ramallah. My wife and I currently live in the USA where I work as a chemical engineer. I built the folklore website to express my connection to our rich folklore and help create a place for the seekers of Palestinian Folklore to find and [...]

 
I met a teacher on the train during one of my trips from Bristol to London; she was very kind and she encouraged me to start a conversation. This I can assure you does not happen much. We started to talk about different issues to break the silence and the dull and cold atmosphere that [...]

Jazz musician Gilad Atzmon reflects upon his roots and his inspiration and how his activities as a supporter of the Palestinian cause and his art influence one another.

Qana
For use in MK-84 Guided Bomb BSU-37-B
Safe in your sister’s arms,
Shielded from the blistering heat,
Safe in your mother’s embrace
At one with the rhythm of her breath,
Safe from the random bullet,
The stray delivery of death,
Safe in a womb of your own,
Out of sight of the pilot above,
Safe here, where miracles are made,
Where water turns to wine, [...]

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.
Emily Dickenson, American poet

I hope I could have more time to write love poems only, because I feel it, and I want it, and I need it. But you can’t be concentrated in love poems when your life is threatened. You have, first of all, to defend your life, your existence.
Samih Al-Qasim, Palestinian poet

Illustration by Nasri Zacharia, Day of the Martyr
Palestinian Identity - By Remi Kanazi
I was born overseas
A refugee
With little knowledge of myself or my ancestry
Growing up in American society
I conformed to the mentality
I watched MTV
Envied actors and people who drove Mercedes
I didn’t listen to Public Enemy or read Edward Said
Comprehend the need for autonomy
I was a [...]

Alice was falling up, then rising down
With a quantum leap, transcending
Into a parallel universe
Were every thing is upside down
And nothing is what it seems to be
In a forgotten land, once called Palestine
In this land of wonders, Alice saw
Murderers get Nobel peace prizes
Thieves are the guardians
Of peace and security
War criminals are the law
In this land of [...]

Today the bulldozer crawled
Into my village.
I watched the trees’ resistance,
Heard them groan and shake,
Hoping beyond hope
They could not break and after the trees bowed,
the stones ground their teeth in impotent fury,
Before they too tangled with the bones
Of lost tomorrows, in unmarked graves,
Corrupt foundations
For a shimmering, empty city,
Destruction in the myth of creation
By architects stripped of [...]

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 [...]