Author Archives: Arab America

A Jordanian hip-hop group is suing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for using one of its songs in a campaign clip for Israel’s general elections next month.

The group Torabyeh (“Of the soil”) took legal action with the Haifa District Court, claiming that their song Ghorbah (“Alienation”) had been used without permission in the right-wing ruling Likud campaign, Reuters reported.

Source: www.ibtimes.co.uk

Umm Kulthum was a one-off.  She was a diva in the truest sense, but at the same time she was an original working-class hero who repeatedly identified herself as a villager, a fallahah or peasant, who shared a cultural background and essential values with the majority of the Egyptian populace. To say Kulthum was an iconic figure in Egypt would be to do the term iconic too gross an injustice. Commonly known as Kawkab al-Sharq (The Star Of The East), Umm Kulthum was so much more. She is almost regarded as royalty in Egypt and the wider Middle East; and she also held the sort of power normally reserved for presidents and heads of state. For example, she died in 1975 but to this day at 10pm on the first Thursday of every month, all Egyptian radio stations play nothing but her music.

  But this is not the only way she makes her presence felt. Get into any taxi in Cairo and there’s a pretty high chance the driver will be playing one of her songs. Late at night grainy black and white footage of her live performances will be screened on the TVs of countless bustling street cafes and shops. Then there are images, portraits, murals of her as street graffiti, not to mention the millions of cassettes and CDs stocked in small kiosks, which relay her art throughout the Middle East.  

Umm Kulthum was born Fatima Ibrahim al-Baltagi in a rural village called Tammay al-Zahayrah near the city of al-Sinbillawayn in the Delta province of Daqahliyah, to father al-Shaykh Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Baltaji, who was an imam at the village mosque and housewife mother, Fatmah al-Maliji. There’s no certainty as to her date of birth, but the most reliable suggestion is May 4 1904 according to provincial birth records. The family dwelled in a small mud brick house and lived in near-poverty. The family’s meager source of income came from her father by singing religious songs for weddings and other celebrations in his own and neighbouring villages.  

Source: thequietus.com

With this brilliant invention by Stuart and Cedar Anderson, a father-and-son beekeeper team in Australia, honey bees around the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Their Flow Hive invention allows beekeepers to harvest honey from their hives without disturbing the bees inside.
The clever invention works by providing the bees with a partially-completed wall of honeycomb cells that they then complete with their own wax. After they fill these cells with honey and cap them with wax, the beekeeper can open the other end, allowing the honey to flow out into a tap without ever disturbing the bees. The bees simply reopen the cells and fill them up again.
Honey bees around the world are in trouble from something called colony collapse disorder, and this is highly worrisome because of the honey they produce and the agricultural plants they pollinate. Hopefully, this hive will give weakened hives a much-needed break from intrusive visits from the bee keeper!

Source: www.boredpanda.com

The Libya dossier has now risen to the top of the priority list of the administration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, following an increase in the number of kidnappings and the killing of Egyptians at the hands of armed militias affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) in Libya. The latest such incident resulted in the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Copts on the Tripoli coast, leading to intervention and mediation by Cairo to bolster the Libyan army’s capabilities in confronting the militias.

Source: www.al-monitor.com

Stanford, Calif. —A major new exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center, She Who Tells a Story, presents the pioneering work of 12 leading women photographers from Iran and the Arab world. The artists explore identity, narrative, representation, and war in daily life, inviting a broader understanding of the Middle East than what Westerners glean through media reports. The 79 photographs and two videos—a collection of stories about contemporary life—especially refute the belief that women from this region are oppressed and powerless. The exhibition was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and runs at the Cantor, its only West-Coast venue, January 28 through May 4.
The 81 works, created almost entirely within the last decade, range in style from fine art to photojournalism and represent the women’s diverse perspectives. The photographers are: Jananne Al-Ani, Boushra Almutawakel, Gohar Dashti, Rana El Nemr, Lalla Essaydi, Shadi Ghadirian, Tanya Habjouqa, Rula Halawani, Nermine Hammam, Rania Matar, Shirin Neshat, and Newsha Tavakolian. In Arabic, the word rawiya means “she who tells a story,” and through their work, these 12 pioneering artists collectively portray a region that has undergone unparalleled change and endured continuing conflict.

Source: museum.stanford.edu

Source: www.facebook.com

Devastated family, friends and schoolmates of a 15-year-old boy killed in a horrific hit-and-run car crash that is being investigated as a hate crime gathered for his funeral on Saturday.

A large community of Somali Muslims in Kansas City, Missouri, is still in shock after the boy died on Thursday evening, when a man appeared to deliberately drive his vehicle into him as he was leaving a local mosque.

Abdisamad Sheikh-Hussein, 15, almost had his legs severed when a man whom locals said had been harassing the community with anti-Islamic taunts and violent threats apparently swerved his car and ploughed into the boy.

Ahmed Aden, 34, a local Somali of Christian faith, appeared in court the following day, charged with first-degree murder and other crimes.

Multi-faith messages of support were sent for Abdisamad’s family and the stunned community as the boy’s loved ones prepared to say their last goodbyes in a service on Saturday at the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City.

A friend who was with Abdisamad was also hurt in the collision.

“It became pretty clear that this was not an accidental crash, there is a considerable amount of evidence that leads us to believe it was intentional,” said Sergeant Bill Mahoney of the Kansas City Police Department.

The boy’s father, Adullahi Mohamud, was an assistant to the imam and a teacher and the mosque. News reports said he and his wife Hawa have three other children. Mohamud was enveloped in tearful embraces at the mosque in a sombre prayer services on Friday.

His son had just led prayers early on Thursday evening and was about to get into a Toyota car parked outside to leave and go to the gym when a black SUV hurtled into him. Witnesses said it knocked him into the air before he landed and was run over by the vehicle.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Israeli forces arrested 14 Palestinians in overnight raids across the northern and southern West Bank early Thursday.

Israeli troops carried out detention raids at dawn in the northern West Bank regions of Nablus and Tulkarem, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said.

The sources told Ma’an that in Tulkarem district several Israeli military vehicles raided the city of Tulkarem, Tulkarem refugee camp, and the village of Iktaba hours after gunshots were fired at Israeli vehicles traveling on the main road near Tulkarem.

Five of the detainees in Tulkarem district were identified as Shathayah Hussein Ali Audah, 23, Jamal Allam Ahmad Hattab, 22, Omar Abd al-Majid Hussein Turk, 22, Rami Asaad Ahmad Abu Shilbaya, 23, and Mahmoud Mustafa Yousif Issa, 22.

An Israeli military spokeswoman told Ma’an that a total of seven individuals were arrested in raids on Tulkarem, including six of whom who were “affiliated with the Hamas terror organization.”

Israeli troops also stormed the Northern Mountain and Kurum Ashour neighborhoods of Nablus and detained Iyad Mansour, 40, and Mahdi Ashour, 33.

The Israeli forces also raided Balata refugee camp east of Nablus and apprehended Muhammad al-Riyahi, an employee of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism.

The Nablus-area village of Zuwata was also stormed by Israeli forces, who arrested a young Palestinian man identified as Islam Judah.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said that all of the individuals arrested in the Nablus region were affiliated with Hamas.

Israeli soldiers also carried out raids in Hebron in the southern West Bank overnight.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said in a statement that Israeli forces detained four Palestinians from the region.

Source: www.maannews.com

Oh what a night. The divide between the U.S. and Israel just gets wider and wider. The White House and the State Department yesterday said openly that the Obama administration is restricting the information it gives to Israel about the Iran talks because Israel is misrepresenting the talks in its efforts to derail them. There is “no question that some of the things that the Israelis have said in characterizing our negotiating position have not been accurate,” the White House press secretary says.

A friend asks, Has the US ever publicly stated that an ally was a liar? AP’s Matt Lee, who said at State yesterday that the Obama administration is saying that Israel is “lying,” calls the statements “extraordinary” in his article:

In extraordinary admissions that reflect increasingly strained ties between the U.S. and Israel, the White House and State Department said they were not sharing everything from the negotiations with the Israelis and complained that Israeli officials had misrepresented what they had been told in the past. Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials privately blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself for “changing the dynamic” of previously robust information-sharing by politicizing it.

And meantime, it turns out from the State Department briefing that no one is going to be around to meet Netanyahu when he comes to town to give his March 3 speech. The president won’t meet him. The VP won’t meet him. And now the Secretary of State will be out of town.

Let’s go to the record. From Josh Earnest’s press briefing yesterday at the White House: We’re going to continue to consult with Israel about the Iran talks, but.

 we’ve also been very clear about the fact that the United States is not going to be in a position of negotiating this agreement in public, and particularly when we see that there is a continued practice of cherry picking specific pieces of information and using them out of context to distort the negotiating position of the United States.  So there is an obligation when you’re participating in these kinds of negotiations to ensure that those consultations and that those negotiations are carried out in good faith.  And that means giving negotiators the room and the space to negotiate.

Q    So you are consulting, but you are worried about cherry picking?  So does that still limit the information that you provide during those consultations?

MR. EARNEST:  Well, Jim, I obviously am not going to be able to get into the details of those conversations, I think for obvious reasons, but I think it is fair to say that the United States is mindful of the need to not negotiate in public and ensure that information that’s discussed at the negotiating table is not taken out of context and publicized in a way that distorts a negotiating position of the United States and our allies.

Q    And you think that distortion and cherry picking has occurred — has been done by the Israelis?

MR. EARNEST:  Well, there’s no question that some of the things that the Israelis have said in characterizing our negotiating position have not been accurate.  There’s no question about that.

The State Department briefing yesterday reflects the new cherrypicking reality. The spokesperson is Jen Psaki (who today is reported to be going over to the White House to lead the communications team there).

QUESTION: I understand that you share a great deal, but you’re saying that you don’t share everything. Is that correct?

MS. PSAKI: Correct.

QUESTION: Okay. So you are withholding some details.

MS. PSAKI: Correct.

QUESTION: Okay. So can you say if this – is this a new thing? Has this been in place, this decision been around since the beginning?

MS. PSAKI: We have long taken steps to ensure that these negotiations remain private….

QUESTION: Okay. Your colleague at the White House, when asked the same kind of questions that I’m asking right now, said that there was a – the Administration had a problem with people – he didn’t identify them – but cherry picking specific bits of information —

MS. PSAKI: That’s correct.

QUESTION: — and releasing them. Can you say —

MS. PSAKI: I think it’s safe to say that not everything you’re hearing from the Israeli Government is an accurate reflection of the details of the talks.

QUESTION: So you’re saying that the Israeli Government is lying about the talks. Is that correct? Or they’ve been misinformed because maybe you haven’t been telling them everything?

MS. PSAKI: I think there’s a selective sharing of information, Matt.

Notice Psaki doesn’t say Matt Lee is wrong when he says, lying.

Then this back and forth about Secretary of State John Kerry traveling when the Israel lobby AIPAC has its conference in DC. So is everyone fleeing Washington when Netanyahu comes to town?

QUESTION: I was looking through the list of confirmed speakers at the AiPAC conference… And I – so far I didn’t see any indication that the Secretary may be addressing the conference. Is there any plan to? I know in the past he has, or a Secretary has.

MS. PSAKI: He has in the past. I expect we certainly will have representation. I don’t think we’re at a point of announcing who that will be yet.

QUESTION: If the Secretary doesn’t actually take part, is this because of the circumstances surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit to the United States, which, of course, have been really overtaken by the fact that he’s going to address Congress on March 3rd?

MS. PSAKI: Well, we’ve already been clear that we don’t have to plan – we don’t have plans, I should say, to have a meeting. I think the more likely reason is that the Secretary is probably going to be out of town, which I don’t think surprises any of you, given his overseas travel schedule. We’re still working out the next couple of weeks.

QUESTION: Wait, the Secretary is probably going to be out of town when?… For the entire AiPAC conference?

MS. PSAKI: It’s only a couple of days, Matt. We have a trip we’re working on for early-March, late-February. So —

QUESTION: That’s funny, because the Vice President also had some unspecified travel plans that would prevent him from being at Congress to hear the prime minister’s speech.

MS. PSAKI: Well, given I think —

QUESTION: Is everyone fleeing —

MS. PSAKI: — we have all spent days if not months on a plane, I don’t think it should surprise anyone that the chief diplomat might be overseas.

QUESTION: Well, right, but – yeah. But it just seems to be a little unusual that both the Secretary of State and the Vice President are – have determined right now that they’re going to be out of town or out of the country. (Laughter.)

MS. PSAKI: I wouldn’t look at it in those terms. I believe the Vice President’s attending the inauguration for the new Government of Panama, I believe…

QUESTION: So it wouldn’t be seen – it shouldn’t be seeing it as a snub because the prime minister will be addressing the same conference?

MS. PSAKI: I think, again, the Secretary of State never speaks at this every single year. We’ll – I expect we’ll have a representation there. I would leave it at that.

QUESTION: I just remember being with the Secretary at the inauguration of the Panamanian prime minister a few months ago.

MS. PSAKI: Perhaps that’s not the right information. I’m sure you can check the Vice President’s schedule on his website.

QUESTION: Might you invent a country that he could go to if there isn’t any – (laughter) —

MS. PSAKI: I don’t think inaugurations for new leaders are invented, Matt.

At Peace Now, Yossi Alpher says that the Netanyahu speech has inflicted serious damage on the US Israel relationship, but Netanyahu’s game is bigger than the Obama administration. He seems tough to the Israeli electorate. And

Netanyahu knows that Israelis place high value on the US-Israel relationship as a pillar of Israeli security. But he apparently believes he can persuade voters that the “real” America, as represented by Republicans, evangelicals, and AIPAC, is behind him and waiting for him to lead the campaign against a bad agreement with Iran.

Indeed, it appears that the Republican leadership and financial backers of both the Republicans and Netanyahu, like Sheldon Adelson, are by now somehow counting on Netanyahu to represent their position negating an Iran deal. In this sense, Netanyahu’s insistence on going through with the speech represents not only his message to Israeli voters but his close Republican political and financial links.

Source: mondoweiss.net

Next Tuesday in New York City, Hatim Kanaaneh will launch the publication of his short-story collection, Chief Complaint: A Country Doctor’s Tales of Life in Galilee, in an event at the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University. The book offers a picture of life in a resilient Palestinian-Israeli community in the Galilee, and it has been welcomed by literary leaders like Susan Abulhawa and Ghada Karmi. You can read the endorsements it has received here. You can see a video that Dr. Kanaaneh and his wife Didi made in the village of Arrabeh.

If you live in or near New York, Just World Books hopes you can come to the official launch, Feb. 24th, at 6 pm, in Columbia University’s Knox Hall, Room 208.

Source: mondoweiss.net

The email below is a report from a controversial NY City Council delegation to Israel. It was sent out today by Eric Koch, the spokesperson for City Council Speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito. Notice what’s missing: nothing about the occupation. No visit to an occupied Palestinian site. But the usual pinkwashing. And fun times with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who has pushed forward the Judaization of occupied East Jerusalem.

Or as Council Member David Greenfield tweeted: “Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat explains the imperative for a United Jerusalem to [Mark-Viverito and other council members.]” Or as Council Speaker Mark-Viverito reported, “Great convo” with Barkat.

The delegation is set to visit several sites inside the occupation. Let’s see who’s first to tweet the wall!

Source: mondoweiss.net

The United States and Turkey signed an agreement Thursday to train and equip vetted Syrian opposition fighters, a deal that has been months in the planning but appears to have been held up by a divergence in priorities between Washington and its regional allies.

The agreement was signed Thursday evening by the U.S. Ambassador to TurkeyJohn Bass and Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, said U.S. embassy spokesman Joe Wierichs. Sinirlioglu called the deal “an important step” in the strategic partnership between Turkey and the United States, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

The U.S. military has said it is planning to send more than 400 American troops, including special operations forces, to train vetted Syrian rebels at sites outside Syria as part of the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

U.S. officials have said they plan to train about 5,000 Syrian fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) every year for three years. Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as Turkey, have publicly offered to host training sites.

Turkey, which has a 750-mile border with Syria, says it hopes the training will also bolster the weakened and divided Syrian opposition in its war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose removal from power remains Turkey’s most pressing goal in Syria.

The Obama administration, however, is less concerned with Assad than with ISIL, which Washington considers a more significant threat to regional security.

The FSA has been presented as the best force capable of fighting both these wars — against Assad and ISIL — but critics of the training plan note that the group is riven by divisions and is one of the weakest factions on the ground in Syria’s civil war.

Source: america.aljazeera.com