Author Archives: Arab America

Hamda al-Qubaisi represents a new wave of working Emiratis. Aged 26, she is a first officer for Etihad Airways and regularly piloting an Airbus A320 on short-haul flights around the region.
Like many of her compatriots who have shared in their country’s vast oil wealth, she has no need to work, but she says: “I want to work. I want to give back to my country because they’ve given so much to me.”
She spotted an advert in a newspaper for trainee pilots, applied and was accepted for Etihad’s training scheme, which is fully paid for by the government.
“I couldn’t have become a pilot without this funding,” she says. “If it was based abroad I don’t think my family would’ve allowed it.
“I just applied to tease my brothers. I told them that I wanted to be a pilot and they said you cannot do it. So from that point I thought I have to do it, I have to prove that they’re wrong.”
Aviation is a key part of the government’s goals to diversify the economy beyond oil dependency.
The UAE is riding a boom in long-haul travel, particularly between Asia and the West, providing a prime stopover.
Dubai is now the busiest airport in the world but Abu Dhabi is home to the national carrier, Etihad one of the world’s fastest-growing airlines.
The more challenging part for Ms al-Qubaisi has been making her way in a male-dominated working industry
“I always do double the effort of my male colleagues to show them I can do the job. Eventually I want to be a captain. I love flying. Everyday there’s a different view.”

Source: www.bbc.com

“Exactly which olive trees do you want to see? The Israeli settlers have cut down thousands. Can you be more specific?” asked the taxi driver, telling IPS that he wished to remain anonymous.

About a week ago, Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Mezad, in the southern West Bank near the city of Hebron, cut down approximately 1,200 Palestinian olive trees in an act of environmental terrorism, a vindictive act aimed at intimidating their Palestinian neighbours and economically crippling many Palestinian farmers who rely on harvesting olives to make a living.

Israeli settlers are hacking down Palestinian olive trees in an act of environmental terrorism aimed at intimidating their Palestinian neighbours and economically crippling many Palestinian farmers who rely on harvesting olives to make a living
Not only is the harvesting of olives a major part of the Palestinian economy, supporting over 80,000 families, but it is also central to Palestinian culture and lifestyle.

Olives and olive oil are regularly served with Palestinian meals. The fruit and its oil have affectionately been called “green gold” by Palestinians, while ancient olive trees are incorporated into Palestinian art including paintings and embroidery.

As IPS attempted to take pictures of the remaining carcasses of the 1,200 olive trees hacked down by the settlers, bordering Mezad settlement, Israeli soldiers guarding the site started to approach.

We quickly left as the taxi driver, and an elderly Palestinian farmer who had shown us the way, did not want a confrontation.

This was the third attack on the olive trees, which belonged to Muhammad al Ayayadah, over a period of several months.

Mezad settlement is built on Palestinian land that was confiscated by Israel and the settlers appear to be trying to take over more land for expansion of their settlement.

The regular cutting down of olive trees, and the prevention of access to these trees by Israeli security forces, often forces Palestinian farmers off their land as crop losses can cripple them financially.

According to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), approximately 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Following the farmers’ eviction, Israel settlers can argue that the land has been abandoned and then move in and take it over with Palestinians having little legal recourse.

“No action will be taken against the settlers by the Israeli police. The police will say they are coming to investigate but most times they don’t even show up,” ARIJ spokesman Suhail Khalilieh told IPS.

“Even if they do show up, they will say there is no hard evidence that settlers were behind the attack or they will say that the attack was in retaliation for Palestinians throwing stones.

“Moreover, most of the settler attacks take place under the guard of the Israeli military who do nothing to stop the vandalism,” added Khalilieh.

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their property have also included the burning of homes and cars, the killing of livestock, stone-throwing attacks, running school children over and poisoning water wells.

One of the more serious acts of vandalism, in the eyes of a conservative and religious Palestinian society, has been the numerous arson attacks on mosques throughout the West Bank.

IPS visited one mosque which had been set on fire by the settlers where the settlers had placed piles of burnt Korans next to the bathroom in a concerted effort to offend.

According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 324 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians and their property were reported during 2014 alone.

While Palestinian farmers are struggling to survive, a simultaneous development in East Jerusalem has Palestinians concerned.

The Israeli authorities plan to build a construction waste site on land in occupied East Jerusalem.

The construction of the facility involves further expropriation of privately owned Palestinian land in the Shuafat and Issawiya neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem.

Thousands of tonnes of construction waste from all over Jerusalem will be brought in to the site over the next 20 years.

The land grab will also see the eviction of Bedouin families living in an encampment between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim.

The area between Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim is a controversial corridor known as E1. Israeli settlement expansion and construction there has caused friction between the U.S. administration and the Israeli government because the West Bank has effectively been cut off from Jerusalem.

Legal action taken by a number of Israeli rights groups on behalf of the Palestinians in Israeli civilian courts has so far not helped.

“The Israeli courts have not ruled against the construction in the E1 corridor as they have no civil authority over the West Bank which falls under Israeli military jurisdiction and this military rule is behind the continued expansion of the E1 corridor,” Khalilieh told IPS.

“Even if the Israeli civilian courts had ruled against this land expropriation and settlement building, it could not over ride decisions taken by Israel’s civil administration, or military rule, which will always justify its action under security or state needs.”

Source: www.ipsnews.net

ARAB WOMAN MAG It began as one young woman’s journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Today, that same woman shares her experiences and passion; with her goal to help others around the world discover a renewed sense of identity and purpose in their personal and professional lives. The Dima Ghawi of today is an inspiring leader and international speaker. Her story captivates audiences globally, causing them to walk away feeling … Continued

Through Its Annual Job Fair, AccessCal Helps Link Local Employers to Diverse, Skilled Talent Are you looking for a job? Are you an employer looking for that perfect fit? Or are you a staffing agency looking for an opportunity to reach qualified candidates and get them hired? We cordially invite you to take part in … Continued

Rashid Khalidi The Cairo Review of Global Affairs As with many other unresolved issues in the modern Middle East, it was Great Britain rather than the United States that initially created the problem of Palestine. But in Palestine, as elsewhere, it has been the lot of the United States, Britain’s successor as undisputed hegemon over … Continued

In the centre of Dubai’s Salsali Private Museum sits Build/Re-build, an installation by the Palestinian artist Hazem Harb.

On top of a platform the same height as a bed, a pillow, a sheet of glass and a ceiling light are supported by concrete blocks, accompanied by a video loop of an airbed being inflated. While the delicate items, intended to recall the architecture of a bedroom, are intact, the concrete is damaged and crumbled.

Upstairs, another video plays in slow motion, showing Harb inflicting the damage with a sledgehammer.

The piece is raw, regionally relevant and timely, particularly in the context of the entire exhibition, The Invisible Landscape and Concrete Futures.

“Concrete is the material of the occupier,” explains Maya El Khalil, director of Athr, the gallery and art institution that represents Harb. “This piece shows the fragility of the occupied but also an awakening – a hope.”

Harb has been working on this series, his first museum show, since 2008. For The Archaeology of Occupation series, Harb has super­imposed angular shapes onto landscape photographs. For The Tag Series, he has taken anonymous family portraits, placing squares over faces in the same way that Facebook prompts a user to “tag” or identify people in photos. “Tagging is about recognition of existence,” says El Khalil. “Here the artist is talking on behalf of the people saying ‘we are here, we are the people of the land’.” Also on display is a ­collection of ­photomontages made from pre-1948 images of Palestine.

While this show marks a significant point in Harb’s career, it also shows maturity and development for Athr, which started out as a ­contemporary art gallery in ­Jeddah but is quickly establishing itself as one of the most important initiatives in the Gulf. “One of our missions is to create dialogue,” El Khalil says. “It is very important for us that we bring to the world a dialogue that originates in Saudi Arabia but that also comes back to Saudi Arabia as well.”

The gallery was founded in 2009 by Mohammed Hafiz and Hamza Serafi, with the initial aim to represent art coming out of Saudi Arabia.

The pair, who took on El Khalil as director right from the start, soon realised that not only were there very few platforms for Saudi art in the region, but there was also very limited infrastructure inside the kingdom itself.

“We began to play many different roles,” she says. “We provided art education, organised workshops and residencies, and connected with institutions abroad to develop an art industry so that our artists could develop their work.”

With no museums, no formal education platforms, not even access to decent art books, artists were forced to travel for exposure and inspiration. Also, if they wanted to produce art, most had to do so overseas, as facilities in Saudi for things like professional printing and framing were not readily available.

Athr immediately began to have a dramatic impact both at home and abroad. It built up a steady roster of Saudi-based talent but also took on international artists such as Harb, a Palestinian who lives and works in Italy and Dubai.

“These relationships are important for local artists as well as for Athr itself,” says El Khalil. “Because, at the end of the day, we believe that art should not have a boundary and even though it can reflect a reality, our realities are very international and the only way to understand each other is to share experience.”

This year, in addition to a strong booth at Art Dubai, Athr was at Art Basel Hong Kong, and Harb’s work, alongside that of Nasser Al Salem and Ahmed Mater, is on display in Museum Villa Stuck in Munich. Mater, who is gaining worldwide renown for his photographs and sculptural work, is also showing at the Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture until May.

“The commercial aspect allows us to survive but the passion of the team is for all the extra work we are doing and the way it is growing beyond that,” says El Khalil. “We feel we have achieved a lot but we know we are really just at the beginning.”

Source: www.thenational.ae

By Charlie Kadado, Managing Editor of LebaneseExaminer.com. (DETROIT, MI) — One of my favorite proverbs is a quote by Khalil Gibran: “He who denies his heritage has no heritage.” I couldn’t stop thinking of this proverb over Easter dinner on Sunday, as a smorgasbord of Lebanese cuisine crowded a long dinner table. But it wasn’t … Continued

  The Chapel Hill shooting vigil at the University of Michigan. The Huffington Post spoke by phone with Fatima Chowdhury, a junior from the Bronx, and Meryem Kamil, a Ph.D. pre-candidate from California in the school’s American culture department. HuffPost also corresponded with Evelyn Alsultany, a professor in the American culture department and the coordinator … Continued

Los Angeles/London – As the conflict in Yemen escalates, with a significant surge in violence over the last week, more than 100,000 people are estimated to be displaced having fled their homes for safety. As of April 5th, nearly 550 people are reported dead and nearly 1,700 injured due to the conflict. In response, International Medical … Continued

John Sexton Award for Individual Achievement   “The status quo is not an option. We’re in for what I call a radical restructuring of higher education today.” John Sexton established himself as a pioneer figure in the formation of the Global Network University as the President of New York University. Mr. Sexton helped make the … Continued

2015 SPRING NEWS! MORE MANDALAS!   A season of growth, color, blossoms, and new beginnings: The new year is getting off to a vibrant start! My mandala painting, left, is a commission just completed  themed transforming darkness into light.  A transformative process and a blessing to work on for a wonderful client, who is a … Continued