Author Archives: Arab America

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund (AWEF). The Bank informs that both IDB and DFID will contribute £10 million in Pounds Sterling each (nearly US $20 million) towards the establishment of Arab … Continued

UNRWA Commissioner-General, Pierre Krähenbühl, visited Lebanon from 28 until 30 January, where he met with the Lebanese Prime Minister, Tamam Salam, Parliament Speaker, Nabih Berri, a number of senior Lebanese officials and diplomatic representatives, including the Ambassador of Palestine to Lebanon. 

Upon his arrival to Lebanon, the Commissioner-General visited the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared, where he had the opportunity to inspect the latest developments of the reconstruction project. At the temporary shelters, Mr. Krähenbühl met with the displaced residents, the popular committees and Palestinian factions in North Lebanon. Mr. Krähenbühl reiterated UNRWA’s strong commitment to completing the reconstruction of the refugee camp and expressed his deep solidarity with the population: “It was important for me to come to Nahr el Bared and show my solidarity and commitment to the refugees who are understandably frustrated after waiting so long for their homes to be rebuilt. With current funding, our efforts should see the return of half the displaced to their dwellings. Positive as this is, it is not enough for the other half still homeless”.

In his meetings with the Lebanese authorities, the Commissioner-General expressed appreciation for Lebanon’s longstanding support to UNRWA.  Mr. Krähenbühl acknowledged the immense pressure Lebanon is under due to the huge influx of refugees from Syria and urged the authorities to continue recognizing the grave humanitarian situation faced by Palestine refugees fleeing Syria.  Mr. Krähenbühl extended his gratitude to the Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr. Tamam Salam for seeking funds from Gulf States for the reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared camp adding that, together with its partners, and in consultation with the affected population of the camp, UNRWA will continue to explore all possible ways to accelerate reconstruction efforts and improve current living conditions of those still displaced.

Mr. Krähenbühl emphasized the Agency’s commitment to carry out its essential work in support of Palestine refugees in Lebanon whose plight should not be forgotten.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.

Financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency’s General Fund (GF), supporting UNRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at US$ 81 million.

Source: www.unrwa.org

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frozen an additional 400 million shekels ($100 million) from Palestinian tax revenues, Israel Today revealed yesterday.

The funds were from January’s tax revenues, the newspaper said, and will be added to the 500 million shekels ($128 million) that Israel froze in December, making the amount of Palestinian tax revenues frozen about $228 million.

Sources close to Netanyahu told the newspaper that he promised continuous tax freezes as a punishment for the Palestinian leadership’s application to join the International Criminal Court.

Such revenues constitute 70 per cent of the Palestinian Authority’s source of income which finance the bulk of salaries and public services in the West Bank such as hospitals and schools.

It is worth mentioning that the money freeze last month faced critical reactions from the UN, US and many EU countries, but none of them put any pressure on Israel to recede its decision.

Sources reported by the Israeli newspaper said that the situation in the West Bank is expected to explode because of the hard economic circumstances as a result of lack of funds.

Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com

1. Not every Muslim is an Arab and not every Arab is a Muslim. According to Drew DeSilver from the Pew Research Center, the world’s Muslim population is more widespread than you might think. While many people, especially in the United States, may associate Islam with countries in the Middle East or North Africa, nearly … Continued

Presenting a new body of work with a subtly constructed educational undertone, Hafez Gallery in coordination with Ayyam Gallery organized a solo art show by the Saudi artist, Rashed Al-Shashai under the theme “Section 11”. Several citizens and expat residents attended the art exhibition and considered it to be one of a kind artwork that depicts Al Shashai’s perspective of an individual’s contradictions, fears and desires.

“Section 11” is a study of the changes in definition and beliefs in the Arab World and its effect on people’s behavior. 

The artist assembled cover pages of ancient Islamic books and superimposed them with a horizontal LED installation comprising a straight line and several bifurcating branches, evocative of an airport terminal’s aerial view.

With this mixed media piece, Al Shashai alludes to the straight path of goodness that should come from personal reflection rather than from the obtuse compliance with books and publications written millennia ago. Moreover, the show also included a one-minute video called “I Choose” where the concept of free will is re-examined by showing three white fortune-telling papers on a dark background, enclosed inside a transparent box. Al Shashai in this proscribed the submissive acceptance of randomness and advocated that pro-activeness and positive thinking are imperatives for personal achievement.

Likewise, on the theme of unity, the exhibit also offered an Islamic World paper impression, a map gathering all Islamic countries into one borderless alliance. The Saudi artist transformed the ongoing conflicts into an idealized vision of the world governed by common interests, economic unity, and political harmony. Besides, through this exhibition, Al-Shashai aimed at showcasing the dramatic change in terms of thoughts and belief that the Gulf countries are experiencing.

Source: www.arabnews.com

th Israel’s campaign season in full swing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will add a new stop to his campaign trail. At U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation, Netanyahu is slated to address Congress on March 3 to advocate for a tougher line against Iran, in particular regarding the ongoing negotiations over its nuclear program. If Congress gives Netanyahu a platform to address these issues, it should also begin a conversation with President Barack Obama’s administration about how the United States can strike a blow against Israel’s continued settlement construction.

Since Netanyahu took office in March 2009, the population of Israeli settlements has grown dramatically. According to recently released Israeli government data, from the beginning of 2009 until the beginning of 2014, the settlement population grew 23 percent — more than double the rate of the overall Israeli population, which expanded 9.6 percent. In late December, another 380 new housing units in East Jerusalem settlements were approved.

This growth is partly being funded by millions of dollars from tax-exempt American charities, which help expand and support settlements.This growth is partly being funded by millions of dollars from tax-exempt American charities, which help expand and support settlements. Even though this revenue stream arguably violates Internal Revenue Service rules, neither Congress nor the Obama administration has done anything to stop it.

In late September, settlers moved into 25 housing units in Silwan, an East Jerusalem neighborhood that abuts the Old City to the south and is home to 50,000 Palestinians. The move prompted the Obama administration to condemn the organization that engineered the purchase — a reference, apparently, to an Israeli association known as Elad — as one “whose agenda, by definition, stokes tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Elad’s name is an acronym for “To the City of David,” the name Israelis use for Silwan. The name reflects the organization’s mission to, in its own words, “strengthen the Jewish connection” in the neighborhood, in particular, and East Jerusalem more broadly “through settlement and environmental and touristic development.” Elad’s agenda coincides with Israel’s state policy of moving its citizens into occupied territory — a position that violates international law. The Rome Statute, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, provides that the court may prosecute government officials responsible for the “transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

Source: foreignpolicy.com

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s most popular satirist Bassem Youssef has joined Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government as a resident fellow for the spring semester, almost a year after his program was taken off the air for lambasting Egyptian presidents and military men. Youssef was often described as the … Continued

  The remains of Egypt’s glorious era of centuries ago are still currently showing up, with the full extent of the country’s buried antiques as yet unknown. With that, the process of discovering new mummies is still ongoing. The Ministry of Antiquities has discovered several new mummies buried in tombs in a small village near … Continued

The Association for the Promotion and Exhibition of the Arts in Lebanon (APEAL) is looking to open a museum to display the art of many Arab and local artists in Beirut.

Source: www.al-monitor.com

In a society where women are still economically marginalized and absent from the labor market, technology entrepreneurship is emerging as a solution that saves them from overlapping responsibilities that hinder their productivity as effective actors in society. Moms busy taking care of their homes and kids are now able to run a whole business online … Continued

The tech ecosystem is booming in the MENA, we keep hearing. More investments were made in regional startups last year than ever before, more MENA-based entrepreneurs are making big time partnerships with multinational corporates all over the world, and more and more young people are seeing entrepreneurship as viable way to earn a livelihood in a region stricken with unemployment, corruption, and resistance to change.

But the good news doesn’t extend to every corner of the Arab world. Syria’s nearly four-year long civil war has, among other, more newsworthy tragedies, ground the country’s formerly vibrant tech scene to a skidding halt. “80% of medium-to-advanced level Syrian developers have left the country,” says Shopgo founder Moe Ghashim; this is a statistic also cited by Mohammed Habach, the editor-in-chief of Arabic language tech news site Tech-WD who has worked from his home in Aleppo since the conflict began. “There’s no place for tech in today’s Syria,” adds Ghaith Akkad, cofounder of Picasso Interactive, a Dubai-based interactive and digital communication agency.

This is the first in a two-part series on how the ongoing conflict has impacted the livelihoods of Syrian entrepreneurs, developers, and startup employees. This first piece will examine how members of the tech community who remain in the country are dealing with the challenges of war; later this week, another piece will explore how the war has impacted diaspora Syrians working in the regional tech ecosystem.

Despite the exodus of entrepreneurs and startup employees (in addition to nearly everyone else), and the gloomy outlook of many involved in the regional tech scene, some stalwart entrepreneurs and startup employees not only remain in Syria, but have kept working on their various projects despite existential challenges to their livelihoods and lives. Their creative, community-oriented methods of coping are an inspiring reminder of what people can accomplish, even against serious odds, through sheer force of will.

Power to the people

For many white-collar workers remaining in Syria, to even be able to focus on work requires an effort to rise above the various “distractions,” as Habach puts it, that they face at any given time. Put another way, when your city is being bombed, says Abedalmohimen Alagha, founder of web platform manager Hsoub (whose chief operating officer and five employees are based in Damascus), the last thing you’re worried about is your internet access.

But when they do have the time and energy to work, the main hindrance to productivity, by many accounts, has been the ever-decreasing availability of electricity. Late last year, Chinese researchers found, comparing images captured by satellites in March 2011 and in February 2014, that Syria was shining a quarter as bright in 2014 as it was in 2011.

Satellite images from February 2011 and March 2014 show the differential in electricity available. (Image via Xi Li & Deren Li)

“The first year of the conflict,” says Habach, who has been based in Aleppo since the war began, “we had four or six hours of electricity per day; when it went out we would go for a walk or read pre-loaded web pages. The next year, it was very normal to have no electricity for one week, so we started developing alternatives that would allow us to continue working. Now, every neighborhood has a community generator; everyone pays a little to keep it going.”

Using the generators, which generally cost between $400 and $2000 and run on gasoline or diesel, families charge 12-volt batteries (generally used for automobiles), on which they can run internet routers, computers, televisions, or lights. “Power inverters can raise the voltage of the battery so you can use it to turn on bigger devices,” says Habach, like refrigerators.

“These small 12-volt batteries are our own personal ministries of electricity,” Habach laughs. “It’s a complicated system we have,” to generate power enough to get work done, “and it’s still developing.”

Source: www.wamda.com