Author Archives: Arab America

BOURGES, France: From Palestinian hip-hop to Egyptian electro to Lebanese blues-rock, artists from the Middle East are making inroads into Europe as seen at the latest Printemps de Bourges festival in France.

The latest edition of the annual music event in central France features artists from the Middle East as diverse as hard-edged Palestinian rappers DAM to Asaf Avidan, the Israeli folk singer who has won growing acclaim with his androgynous voice.

The artists selected for the festival’s 39th edition, which runs through Wednesday, show the “dazzling and extremely creative scene” in the contemporary Middle East, said Elodie Mermoz, who was involved in programming.

The six-day festival also features plenty of stars from the broader music world including the Australian folk rock duo Angus and Julia Stone, gender-bending singer Christine and the Queens, and French-Finnish indie band The Do.

With a showcase of eight artists from the Middle East, the festival is hoping to highlight some of the talent of a musical scene that – much like the region’s politics – is fast moving.

Mermoz said that the rising interest in Middle Eastern artists went hand-in-hand with the eruption of the Arab Spring.

The region-wide revolt “has woken up the youth,” she said. “From the moment they left the streets, they needed another ground for expression and that was music.”

Islam Chipsky, an energetic Egyptian keyboardist who brings an electro dimension to percussion-heavy songs, received an ecstatic response when he performed Friday.

Chipsky, whose trio has also played under the name EEK, had a career performing at weddings in Cairo and debuted in Britain last year.

He played down the significance of the Arab Spring on his music – part of the growing “electro shaabi” genre that combines traditional Arab forms with Western instruments.

“We were always there in the underground scene before the Arab Spring,” he said, “but maybe for [the festival] you started to look at young people in these countries because of the Arab Spring.

“Of course we get different exposure right now – not only us but all the art scene in these countries – but that is not exactly that much related to the Arab Spring.”

Chipsky said that electro shaabi had initially been written off as “ghetto music” for the poor, but that the appeal has rapidly spread.

“Right now you can’t just ignore the fact that everyone knows about this music in Egypt,” he said, “if not in the area, in the Middle East.”

The marriage of traditional and modern forms found in electro shaabi is increasingly widespread in the Middle East.

Among other artists who enjoyed a warm reception in Bourges was Mashrou’ Leila, the Lebanese indie-pop band, whose musical influences are wide and eclectic.

Despite lyrics that touch on sometimes sensitive topics such as homosexuality, the group has already won a loyal following in the Middle East and will tour Europe in the coming months.

Some Middle East artists are unconcerned about whether their music represents traditional elements. “Like plenty of Lebanese, I’m a mix of all the cultures around me,” said Sary Moussa, an experimental electronic musician from Lebanon with the stage name RadioKVM.

“I come up with a synthesis of all of this culture and I don’t necessarily feel a need to be recognizably Arab.”

The same philosophy holds for The Wanton Bishops, another Lebanese act whose English-language blues songs in come off as more from the banks of the Mississippi than the Mediterranean. The band plans an extensive tour of France through July.

Hip-hop has been a force for social commentary since its birth, and the ’48 Palestinian rappers DAM won a wide following a decade ago with “Meen Irhabi” (Who’s the Terrorist?).

DAM has increasingly found an audience outside the region, with touring in recent years across Europe and North America as well as Japan.

Source: www.dailystar.com.lb

Sunday, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day and this year, Vancouver has a special reason to show support for journalists.

Our peaceful city on the Northwest Coast is home to a new but high-profile organization launched in support of reporters’ rights and safety in countries where they are most threatened.

On March 5, a group of Vancouver lawyers partnered with Mohamed Fahmy to found the Fahmy Foundation.

Fahmy, an Egyptian-Canadian journalist, was arrested in August 2013 while covering the Arab Spring for Al Jazeera English. He was recently released on bail but before that spent more than 400 days in prison. He and his fiancée, Marwa Omara, have said they intend to settle in Vancouver.

To mark the Fahmy Foundation’s first Press Freedom Day in Vancouver, members of the organization have planned to join a rally at the Vancouver Gallery this Sunday morning at 11 a.m.

“As I continue to battle for my own exoneration, I am proud to work with notable Canadian friends, lawyers, and volunteers to remind world leaders that a free press is a fundamental core of the true democracy they promote,” Fahmy said quoted in a media release.

Scheduled to speak at the event is Vancouver deputy mayor Andrea Reimer and Peter Klein, director of the UBC graduate school of journalism.

Joanna Gislason, a board member of the Fahmy Foundation, recently told the Straight the group is expanding its work beyond Fahmy’s case.

“Part of Mohamed‘s dream while he was in prison was to do something positive for other journalists that found themselves in the same circumstance that he was in, wrongfully imprisoned for doing his job and desperate for support and for attention from the outside world,” she said.

The Fahmy Foundation media release concerning World Press Freedom Day lists a number of specific cases the organization has taken up.

Those include that of American journalist Jason Rezaian who is presently detained in Iran, photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid (better known as Shawkan) who was imprisoned in Egypt around the same time as Fahmy, Ahmed Ziada who is also held in Egypt, and a Qatari poet named Mohamed Al-Ajami.

Source: www.straight.com

rrorist, cartoon stereotype, evil oppressive dictator.

It’s through those lenses — those unfair representations of a complex, massive grouping of a wide variety of people and what they believe in — that much of the non-Arab world sees the population of the Middle East.

And it was this realization, this moment of clarity about how the world might view his culture, that led Prince Fahad Al Saud to try and play a part in disrupting that singular, often incorrect trope.

“I asked myself a whole bunch of perplexing, potentially paranoid questions,” Fahad said in his keynote at the Games For Change Festival in New York last week. “Was this intentional? Why was I misrepresented like this so often? Is someone doing this on purpose, generally presenting me as some super-size, bearded, brown-skinned terrorist? I didn’t know. I still don’t know. All I knew at that point of realization was that I had to play my part in disrupting this narrative, in contributing with positivity, to this global story.”

And his tools for sparking what he calls an intellectual, artistic renaissance are video games about camel racing, wordplay and soon, the revolutionary uprising of Saudi girls against an oppressive male regime.

Source: www.polygon.com

BY NINA TERRERO Entertainment Weekly An animated film inspired by a Lebanese poet may not be considered everyone’s usual summer fare. But that’s precisely why Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet—based on his 1923 book of philosophical essays—lends itself to audiences eager for a colorful antidote to CG and special effects-heavy offerings, according to producer Salma Hayek. “I think … Continued

In 2003, young Palestinian artist Annemarie Jacir had spent years trying to trace a group of resistance filmmakers who, in the 1970s and early 1980s, had devoted their talents to their people’s struggle.

Finally, during the 2003 “Dreams of a Nation” film festival in Palestine, she was able to bring together some of those directors and producers and their works. In the case of one 25-minute drama-documentary called They Do Not Exist, it was the film’s first ever screening in Palestine. It was also the first time its director, Mustafa Abu Ali, one of the founders of the PLO’s film unit, had seen his work in two decades.

Now, the film has been made freely available in versions on YouTube or Vimeo.

Abu Ali’s 1974 film depicts the final days of the Palestinian refugee camp of Nabatia, which was founded to house those fleeing the 1948 Nakba, or establishment of the State of Israel. The south Lebanon camp was destroyed by the Israelis in 1974. The surviving refugees were mostly moved to Ein al-Hilwe camp.

The opening sequences of the documentary show daily life in Nabatia – men, women and children carrying out their everyday tasks and taking leisure time together. In these quotidian acts – hanging out the laundry, baking bread, looking after youngsters and buying vegetables in the market – the Israeli narrative of Palestinian non-existence is quietly but comprehensively refuted.

Alongside the daily acts of “existence as resistance,” a little girl does her bit to support the armed resistance, by writing a letter to an unknown feda’i who will receive one of the bags of gifts sent by the camp’s residents to the fighters in the hills.

Liberation struggles

The film explicitly locates the Palestinian cause among the global wave of national liberation struggles of the time — Vietnam, Mozambique, South Africa — and in the historical setting of other imperialist crimes, including the genocides of Native Americans and Nazi massacres.

Against this backdrop we then see footage of the May-June 1974 air raids which destroyed large areas of Nabatia camp, killing large numbers of civilians and displacing many of the camp’s residents a second time, to other refugee settlements including Ein al-Hilwe.

Here, Abu Ali makes particularly neat use of his musical accompaniments, with the traditional Arabic folk which gave atmosphere to the bucolic scenes of camp life giving way to a baroque Bach violin concerto, sharp and alien in tone.

No music, however, accompanies the footage of the death and destruction which follows the Israeli raids; the film remains silent as we are presented with shell-shocked civilians carrying away the dead and injured and narrating their tales of loss.

As well as its 2003 West Bank debut, They Do Not Exist was also screened in the US as part of the “Palestinian Revolution Cinema” tour, curated by Emily Jacir, which took place in 2007.

Writing at the time, The Electronic Intifada’s Maureen Murphy noted that “The film boldly refutes both [former Israeli Prime Minsiter Golda] Meir’s assertion that there is no Palestinian people, as well as Moshe Dayan’s boasting that there is no longer a place called Palestine.”

And Annemarie Jacir has reflected on her quest, which culminated in the 2003 Palestine screening of They Do Not Exist, that:

These filmmakers included founders Mustafa Abu Ali, Sulafa Jadallah, and Hani Jawhariya. Others were Khadija Abu Ali, Ismael Shammout, Rafiq Hijjar, Nabiha Lutfi, Fuad Zentut, Jean Chamoun and Samir Nimr. Most were refugees, exiled from their homes in Palestine. And additionally there were fellow Arabs who stood in solidarity with them, devoting their work to a just cause. Their films screened across the Arab world and internationally but never in Palestine. None of the filmmakers were allowed into Palestine, or what became known as Israel, let alone their celluloid prints.

Now it is to be hoped that, with the recovery of these films and the mass access of the Internet, new audiences can view these classics of Palestinian resistance art and expand their understanding of the multi-faceted resistance of the 1970s.

Source: electronicintifada.net

The United States Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) stands in solidarity with the brave people of Baltimore who are rising up in justified anger at another instance of vicious police violence against Black communities in this country. A few weeks ago, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American, was chased down and arrested by Baltimore … Continued

On Wednesday, the Senate adopted an amendment to the Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA) designed to defend Israel against the global “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement” (BDS). A similar amendment was adopted in the House of Representatives. Whatever one thinks of the bill’s intentions, the actual content of it is troubling enough that it must be opposed, whether or not one opposes the global BDS movement.
Let’s dispense with one point right away. There is no comparison between the sort of actions this bill is targeting and the Arab League boycott of Israel, from which the United States has been defending Israel through legislation since 1977. The Arab League boycott had one purpose and that was to destroy the Israeli economy. It sought no change in policy. What it was protesting was Israel’s very existence.
A similar accusation is often made today against the global BDS movement. Whether one believes that accusation valid or not, there is no justification for barring economic actions which clearly target Israeli policies that are, surely, problematic to say the least. Can we, as Americans, truly justify stigmatizing or even criminalizing a business’ or an individual’s decision not to do business with companies based in Israel’s settlements beyond the Green Line?
This is a distinction that both amendments act to erase. Several times in both bills, the language refers not only to Israel but also to “territories controlled by Israel.” The bills, therefore, erase the distinction between Israel and the settlements it has established in occupied territory – territory that, even according to Israeli law, is not part of Israel.
It is important to remember that Israel has never extended Israeli law or made any official claim to sovereignty to territory beyond the Green Line, except for their claims on East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, neither of which has been recognized internationally, including by the United States. So how can Congress justify treating the settlements as if they are part of Israel? And what are the implications of it doing so?
As cynical as it may sound, it seems that Congress needs no justification for this crude and short-sighted act beyond the urging of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which strongly supports these amendments. One might understand the desire to shield Israel from BDS, just as the U.S. shields Israel from so many other potential consequences of its nearly half-century old occupation. But to willfully include the settlements, as these bills do, serves no obvious purpose other than to maintain that occupation.
The precedent this sets, and the message it sends, is nothing short of disastrous. Indeed, what it really does is pave the way for a one-state future, with no alternatives. It is ironic that, after the shock and opprobrium that greeted Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign pledge that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch, the United States Congress would take a step toward closing off the two state option, not with words, but with actual legislation.
That might sound like an overstatement. But consider what this legislation would mean.
True, most of the measures in this legislation deal with reporting, or Congress’ list of points of emphasis in trade negotiations. However, it sets a clear precedent that the settlements and Israel are a single unit. That can have grave implications down the road. For example, while the United States has routinely averted its gaze from the ways in which American aid to Israel helps sustain the occupation, the fact that at least technically, US weapons are not supposed to be used for this purpose and that US funds had to be kept within the Green Line matters. It is something to build on, to try to make a case with for increased stringency in monitoring Israel’s actions and, potentially, a lever to modify those actions.
More than that, the overwhelming majority of actions taken to try to convince Israel that there is an economic incentive for it to change its policies have been scrupulously targeted at the settlements. Two years ago, the European Union, which is the target of the anti-boycott legislation, issued guidelines based on existing EU law, prohibiting funding of any projects beyond Israel’s recognized borders. Several European companies and investment firms have stopped doing certain kinds of business with some of their Israeli counterparts either because the business supported the settlements or because the work involved would actually be in the West Bank. These are not wholesale boycotts of Israel, but are actions targeted specifically to the occupation and the settlements. Is that what Congress is trying to protect Israel from? If it is, that is a much more significant step against a two-state solution than any of Netanyahu’s campaign promises.
One can debate the merits of boycotts, but when a boycott is called due to the grievous policies of a government, it is a legitimate way for individuals, organizations and businesses to protest that policy. Congress should not be interfering with the choice of individuals and businesses as to how they might wish to use their dollars or euros to express their politics, as long as it is a political expression and not one, like the Arab League boycott, designed to bring all of Israel down because of its very existence.
What Congress is doing with this amendment is putting to paper the view that the West Bank is Israel. What does that imply?
First, it means that Congress is saying that Israel is an apartheid state. After all, in the West Bank there are millions of Palestinians who live under military law while the settlers live under civil law. Two peoples living under different laws administered by the same government is the textbook definition of apartheid. This is the very argument that truly anti-Israel forces use, and now Congress is making it for them.
Second, Congress is standing in clear and undeniable opposition to the vision, first articulated by none other than President George W. Bush over a decade ago, of two states living side by side in peace and harmony. After all, the entire premise of the two-state solution has always been that Israel is occupying territory that is not part of the sovereign state of Israel. This has been the view of not only the international community, but the High Court in Israel, and every Israeli government from 1967 until now.
Thus, Israel would be ending its occupation and de facto allowing a Palestinian state to come into existence. But if this is all one sovereign unit, as the new legislation implies, then we are talking about dividing an existing sovereign state when we mention a two-state solution. That has never been the argument for two states, and it is a much more difficult one to credibly make.
As JJ Goldberg correctly describes it in the Forward, “Proponents (of the global BDS movement) are divided on whether or not they seek to eliminate the independent existence of the state of Israel.” Congress, in a very bi-partisan fashion, is siding with the most anti-Israel elements of the BDS movement who also see the West Bank, Israel and Gaza as a single state, under Israeli rule and therefore an apartheid state.
Congress is also siding with the most radical elements of the settler movement, who see the West Bank and Israel as all part of one, holistic Greater Israel. Many of those settlers do not recognize the authority of the Israeli government, and frequently clash with the government and security forces.
Those are Congress’ fellow travelers in this sort of view, true opponents of the State of Israel. It could not be clearer: support for this legislation is about as far from being pro-Israel as one can get.

Source: fmep.org

Maybe you’re as excited as I am over the entry of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders into the presidential race. A socialist at heart, Sanders is actually going to push issues of income disparity and globalization into the US mainstream discourse, and in the wake of Baltimore will explain to Americans how our national community has been fractured, the middle class shattered, and the poor oppressed.

Sanders is also getting points for opposing the Iraq War, which Hillary Clinton supported, and he supports the Iran deal. But I’ve seen no one apart from Juan Cole, in this excellent summary of Sanders’s Middle East views, point out his yeoman defense of Israel during its assault on Gaza last summer. In July Sanders formed part of the “unanimous consent” to a resolution to support Israel in its attack, a resolution Salon’s David Palumbo-Liu said at the time “does more than confirm U.S. Senate support for Israel. It pushes that statement beyond any rational or ethical or moral framework imaginable.”

In a famous encounter at a town hall meeting in Vermont near the end of the onslaught– video below–, Sanders got so angry at pro-Palestinian constituents who were obviously deeply upset by an assault that had killed 500 Palestinian children that he told them to “shut up.”

Source: mondoweiss.net

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has issued a damning report on the University of Illinois’ firing of Steven Salaita that sets the stage for the institution to be censured.

Censure, which must voted on by the AAUP’s annual meeting, is a rare and grave sanction aimed at “informing association members, the profession at large, and the public that unsatisfactory conditions of academic freedom and tenure have been found to prevail.”

It is a damaging stain that most institutions would go to great lengths to avoid. Even before a possible censure, the AAUP report is certain to reinforce the boycott of the university which has seen prominent academics including Cornel West, UCLA Jewish studies director Todd Presner and Brandeis law professor Anita Hill cancel campus appearances.

Salaita was fired last August as he was about to take up a tenured faculty position in the American Indian Studies program at the Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) campus because of tweets criticizing Israel’s attack on Gaza that administrators deemed lacked “civility.”

By doing so, the university violated the AAUP’s long-standing and highly influential principles on academic freedom and tenure, the report concludes

Source: electronicintifada.net

This week, we’re taking a look into hummus.

The Arabic word for “chickpeas,” hummus is a spread or dip made of cooked chickpeas mashed and blended with tahini (sesame seed paste), olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic/spices. Traditionally served on a large plate and drizzled with olive oil and herbs, the spread is popular in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine, where chickpeas were known to be cultivated since ancient times.

Though chickpeas were one of the first crops of Mesopotamia and eaten in both ancient Rome and Palestine, the origin of the chickpea dip is unclear. According to the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, a cookbook published in Cairo in the 13th century brought the earliest known recipe for hummus bi tahina (what we know as hummus).

Today, the dip is made all over the world. And because of that, several variations exist — Greek yogurt, red peppers, cumin, paprika, and herbs are often incorporated. In parts of Palestine, Jordan, and Turkey, hummus is often made using butter instead of olive oil.

While you can find hummus everywhere these days, it’s super simple to make yourself. This recipe, from Julia Moskin, is the perfect starter for a basic garlic and lemon-scented, from-scratch hummus. Feel free to add in any herbs, spices, and flavors you desire.

Hummus

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup dried chickpeas (which you’ll soak overnight)
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup + 2 tbsp light tahini paste
4 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt
6 1/2 tablespoons ice-cold water
Optional: Drizzle of olive oil and paprika for garnish

Directions

Put chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with cold water at least twice their volume. Leave to soak overnight.

The next day, drain chickpeas. In a medium saucepan, combine drained chickpeas and baking soda over high heat. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add 6 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Cook at a simmer, skimming off any foam and any skins that float to the surface, from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the type and freshness. Once done, they should be very tender, breaking easily when pressed between your thumb and finger, and should be almost but not quite mushy.

Drain chickpeas. You should have roughly 3 cups now. Place chickpeas in a food processor and process until you get a stiff paste. Then, with the machine still running, add tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Slowly drizzle in ice water and allow it to mix for about 5 minutes, until you get a very smooth and creamy paste.

Transfer hummus to a bowl, cover surface with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 30 minutes. If not using immediately, refrigerate until needed, up to two days. Remove from fridge at least 30 minutes before serving.

Serve drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with paprika if desired.

Source: blogs.houstonpress.com

Lebanese fans have gone crazy with the arrival of Salma Hayek in Beirut for the release of her animated production of Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet.” Speaking to the press following a screening Monday morning, Hayek said, “For me this is a love letter to my heritage.”

Photo credit: Jason Lemon
“I have been dreaming of coming to Lebanon, and every time I try to come, something terrible happens.”

The world premiere of the film is schedule for Thursday, April 30, in Beirut while the American premiere is set for Aug. 7. Hayek explained that this was her first time visiting Lebanon but insisted that she had always been raised as Lebanese by her family.

“I had a thorn in my heart that I had traveled the world but I had never been able to come here. And I have to say that, I feel so much better today that I have been here.”

“I don’t speak Arabic [well], but I was raised Lebanese. I was raised my whole life [as] Lebanese. And as you know, we are always raised with the pride of brotherhood.”

Photo credit: Jason Lemon
Hayek is normally identified as a Mexican-American actress, however, her paternal grandfather was Lebanese. She began her acting career in Mexico in 1988 in the telenovela “Teresa.”

In addition to producing “The Prophet,” Hayek also voices one of the characters. Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina and Quvenzhane Wallis also provide voice talent for the film. Nine different directors were involved in the production.

Regional talent involved with the production included Emirati animator Mohammed Saeed Harib (“Freej”) and Iranian-French author and director Marjane Satrapi (“Persepolis”). The Doha Film Institute also co-financed the production with Participant Media, MyGroup Lebanon, FFA Private Bank, JRW Entertainment and Code Red Productions.

Photo credit: Jason Lemon
The film has already made the film festival circuit. It opened to high praise at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada last September, receiving applause from the audience throughout the screening. It was also an “Official Selection” at the annual Cannes Festival in France. During the Ajyal Film Festival in Qatar last December, the film screened for the first time in the Middle East.

From a musuem in his hometown of Bsharre to a garden in downtown Beirut, the internationally acclaimed author Kahlil Gibran is celebrated throughout Lebanon. Gibran’s “The Prophet” has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. And now, through Hayek’s animated adaption, his writings will be made accessible to a whole new generation.

Roger Allers, the lead writer and director for the film and the visionary behind Disney’s classic “The Lion King,” spoke at the American University of Beirut following the press conference. He joked to students that a large part of the production was done via Skype as the film brought together a team hailing from all over the world.

Photo credit: Jason Lemon
Hayek stressed the unifying value of Gibran’s classic story, emphasizing its importance both to the Middle East region right now and the world as a whole. Allers and Hayek both explained that the film was very intentionally created in a way to cater to the family audience, for both young and old.

While the film has earned widespread praise, Hayek’s presence at the premiere in Beirut has drawn as much attention as the movie itself.

She repeatedly stressed her connection to her Lebanese ancestry. She commented that when some locals asked her if she liked Lebanese food, she wanted to respond by saying, “Its not like I am discovering it for the first time. I have been eating it in my house since I was born. I probably ate kibbeh before tacos!”

The actress also emphasized the support the project has received from Middle Eastern funding partners, the Gibran National Committee, and the Lebanese people as a whole.

“From the beginning, this film could not have been made without the support of the Lebanese.”

And of course, it couldn’t have been made without you either Salma. We love you. What else can we say?

Source: stepfeed.com

“In my dreams, we are still living in our house and village,” says Refika, a 50-year-old Syrian woman living in a refugee camp in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. “We had everything back home. My mom was old and she died when I was here—I couldn’t see her. My sisters, brothers, and my dad are still there. I cry every day for them.”

A mother of three, Refika escaped her village of Lazkiye three years ago as the civil war in Syria escalated to a violently untenable level. “We fled to other villages to find safety, but then eventually we had to come to Turkey. My husband took my youngest son and myself to the border and stayed behind with our two other sons,” she says. “We walked for hours. My dress was covered with dust, and my slippers were torn apart. I couldn’t stop crying while we were walking.”

Source: munchies.vice.com