Author Archives: Arab America

Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Arab citizens who are not loyal to the state of Israel should have their heads “chopped off with an axe”.

The minister, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party and an outspoken critic of Israel’s Arab population, made the controversial remarks on Sunday in a speech to an election rally held in the western Israeli city of Herzliya ahead of the March 17 vote.

“Those who are with us deserve everything, but those who are against us deserve to have their heads chopped off with an axe,” the ultra-nationalist politician said.

Source: www.newsweek.com

The Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival was founded in 2008 by a group of University of Michigan students eager to bring Palestinian film to their campus and community. The Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival was founded in 2008 by a group of University of Michigan students eager to bring Palestinian film to their campus and … Continued

Denial is an important and often underemphasized dimension of Israel’s violence toward Palestinians. Israel equally denies historical crimes and daily incidents. Denial has become, in fact, a constant and almost instinctual official reaction to any accusation of wrongdoing. This is not only an offence against truth, but also enables the ongoing perpetration of crimes. If one has done no wrong, one may, of course, continue doing it.

Source: mondoweiss.net

Hisham has spent his 23 years in Aida refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. He lives there with his parents, and has watched all but one of his seven siblings grow up, marry and make their own lives and homes.

Living in a camp run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, Hisham and his family receive basic assistance: a monthly food subsidy, education and medical services. They do not receive the protections to which refugees are entitled under international law.

That much became clear when Hisham tried to move to Canada five years ago.

After his brother, Muhammad, married a Canadian woman, Hisham sought to join them in Vancouver.

Hisham applied for asylum in Canada on the basis that he is a Palestinian refugee. When making his application, he produced a certificate issued by UNRWA. Yet the Canadian government turned down his application, arguing that the certificate was not proof that he was recognized as a refugee.

Source: electronicintifada.net

Following a successful first film and documentary festival in 2014, BBC Arabic announced its call for entries for its second festival, bringing films and documentaries about the Arab world to audiences in London.

The BBC Arabic Festival is accepting submissions (deadline: 13 May 2015) in four categories; short films, short documentaries, feature documentaries, reportage.

This year’s theme, ‘Rulers and Ruled: Power in a Changing Arab World’, will explore the struggles for power and control that continue to shake the region. Film and documentary makers, journalists and the general public who are exploring key issues around the Arab world are welcome to submit their work. People of all backgrounds are encouraged to take their chance with a creative or journalistic piece, conveying a unique, underreported story in response to the theme.

Source: www.jadaliyya.com

In the Dubai Canvas Festival, Pacora was the only South American artist.

Source: www.peruthisweek.com

American artist Anastasia Mak is known for her bright expressionist paintings of world destinations, including Rome, Istanbul, Paris, and her home Chicago.

Thanks to collaboration between Al Qasimi Foundation and the U.S. Mission in the United Arab Emirates, she can now add UAE-inspired works to her portfolio, having spent a week promoting arts and culture throughout northern corner of the country.

Mak began her time in the Emirates at a weekend-long 2015 Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) Fine Art Festival (that took place February 19-22), where she was a featured guest artist.

In RAK, she also found the time to explore the historic ghost village of Al Jazirat Al Hamra, which she then channeled into one of her destination pieces. In her signature geometric style, she brought an abandoned guard tower and one of the oldest mosques in the emirate to life in front of guests during a live painting session at the festival’s visual art exhibition.

Following the festival, Anastasia spent several days participating in youth art outreach programs. Visiting two RAK boys’ schools, Mak worked alongside teenage students who are part of the Foundation’s Hand On Learning Program, designed to engage kids that are at risk of dropping out. She helped the boys construct murals on their school campuses.

Source: thearabdailynews.com

Saudi Arabia has blocked a planned speech by Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom to the League of Arab States in Cairo following her criticism of its human rights record, Wallstrom has told local news media.

Wallstrom said on Monday notification that her speech had been axed for the event – during which the promotion of democracy, human rights and economic integration were to be discussed – had been relayed to her via the Swedish embassy in Cairo a day earlier.

Wallstrom told Sweden’s news agency TT: “The explanation we have received is that Sweden has drawn attention to the situation of democracy and human rights [in Saudi Arabia], and that is why they do not want me to speak.”

Wallstrom had been invited as a guest of honour to the meeting of Arab League foreign ministers and invited to speak.

Wallstrom had tweeted in January that Saudi Arabia’s flogging of blogger Raif Badawi had been a “cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression”.

The move by Saudi Arabia could result in Sweden ending a controversial military arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com

Last month the student court at the University of California at Davis overturned a recently approved resolution to divest from companies that profit from Israeli violations of Palestinians’ rights.

Determining that the resolution was “unconstitutional,” the student court’s ruling was based on a complaint made by Jonathan Mitchell, a former student body senator and former board member of the campus chapter of a right-wing Jewish fraternity.

The fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), has close ties to Israel lobby groups intent on crushing the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

The overturning of the Davis divestment resolution comes just weeks after the fraternity accused Palestine solidarity activists of a hate crime after swastikas were found spray painted on a fraternity house’s walls. The graffiti was found two days after the student government initially approved the divestment resolution.

Source: electronicintifada.net

March 9, 2015 The Academic Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace expresses grave concern in connection with the decision on Friday, February 27th of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors to close three University of North Carolina­ system academic centers: Chapel Hill’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity , N.C. Central University’s … Continued

Tnuva and Osem products are disappearing from the shelves of Palestinian grocery stores and supermarkets. However, the shop owners are boycotting these and other Israeli companies, more because several high-ranking Palestinians have publicly embarrassed them than out of patriotic fervor. It began about three and a half weeks ago, when the National Committee against Israeli Punitive Measures announced a campaign to boycott the products of five Israeli companies for as long as Israel held on to Palestinian tax revenues it had collected at the international borders.

The committee, which is headed by high-ranking Fatah member Mahmoud al-Aloul, gave the stores two weeks to clear their shelves. In the meantime, after some people ridiculed linking the end of the boycott to the return of the tax funds, a statement was made that the boycott would be indefinite.

Source: www.haaretz.com

Fight Back News is circulating Rasmea Odeh’s March 8 speech at the Chicago International Women’s Day event.

I’m so glad to join you today, to express my pleasure to be back amongst all of my family, friends, supporters, and the community who I love and respect so much.

I’m so grateful for the support, care, and endless love you have shown me, and for so much of the time and effort you have dedicated to the case since my arrest in October 2013. Your support gives me important strength, and continues to allow me the resilience to achieve justice.

I’m so lucky to have all of you in my life. I want to tell you that your activism and creative support changed the negative reaction against me, especially when I was in the detention center. Your intensive phone calls and demonstrations, and the support letters that I received from you, played a great role in breaking the isolation and providing a warm feeling in my heart and mind in the freezing cell. With your support, I was able to face all of the challenges and difficulties that threatened my life and my morale!

Source: www.fightbacknews.org