Palestine
The West Bank on Strike
While international attention has been focused elsewhere, Israel has been steadily constricting everyday life in the occupied West Bank, including through the withholding of tax revenues it is legally obligated to pass to the Palestinian Authority. The desperate situation has led to a general strike, but there are few avenues for relief.
Hopelessness and Love
In his prison memoir, Nasser Abu Srour writes in a long tradition of incarcerated authors left only with their thoughts and words as vestiges of their autonomy. Now free from confinement, he has a new challenge on his hands: how to make meaning of his new life in exile.
Hind Rajab and the Dying Light
If Hind’s voice is a reproach, then the humanity of her would-be rescuers is redemption, however inadequate. For the hours they spent with her — comforting and reassuring the child on one hand, berating and beseeching her tormentors on the other — they expiate our collective guilt.
Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt That Decided History
The Great Arab Revolt of 1936 is one of the most important and least remembered events in the history of Arab-Zionist relations in Palestine. A newly released film and a recently published book provide thought-provoking insights and a new understanding of how events that occurred 90 years ago shaped the present.
Christmas Celebrations Are Returning to Bethlehem
Festivities have returned to the place of Jesus’ birth after a two-year pause, but the shadow of Gaza, occupation and genocide was never far from the muted celebrations.
‘The Course of Empire’ Reimagined in Middle Eastern Graffiti
Through graffiti, political expression has slipped out of gilded frames and onto concrete and stone. Modern murals in Cairo, Bethlehem and Amman show how the measure of a civilization lies not in its monuments, but in people insisting on being seen, claiming space and painting themselves back into the landscape.
The Shape of Gaza’s Future
Following the ceasefire, an imaginary yellow line divides Gaza into two sectors, with the Israeli army in charge of one and an international force poised to take control of the other. A new future is beginning to emerge.