IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
An astonishing new cultural institution for the Middle East has now opened to the public. Situated on a hilltop near Ramallah in the West Bank, the $24m Palestinian Museum was opened officially in a gala inauguration ceremony on 18 May. Over 700 guests mingled on a broad pavilion in the afternoon sun, while musicians played a classical Arab repertoire in the terraced gardens below.
on June 12, 2016
On Jerusalem's busy Salah Eddin Street, where cafes, grocery stores, money exchange centres and jewellery shops proliferate the landscape, a prominent board at number 22 announces itself as the Educational Bookshop. Shortly ahead, across the road, is another bookstore and cafe, also titled the Educational Bookshop.
on May 30, 2016
Palestinian Profiles
A lawyer by training, British-Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh’s short stories have been included in a number of anthologies, including those published by Granta and International PEN. She was also nominated for the International PEN David T.K. Wong Award and the Pushcart Prize. “The power of fiction lies in its ability to humanize the other,” says Dabbagh on her decision to become a writer.
on May 24, 2016
sharp white crown rises from a hilltop in the West Bank, looking out across sun-scorched terraces of olive trees and sage bushes to the waters of the Mediterranean – a distant prospect that most Palestinians will never be able to reach. Seen from the valley below, this monolithic hangar could be the latest Israeli fortification, casting its beady eye over the surrounding Arab villages from the angular black windows slashed across its facade.
on May 17, 2016
Mahmoud Hawari, a research associate at Oxford University’s Khalili Research Center, was appointed the new director of the 37,000-square-foot Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, which will open its doors in May, Gareth Harris of the Art Newspaper reports.
on May 5, 2016
Nearly three decades ago, Aida Abu Sitta began to collect old dresses from Palestinian refugee camps, and redesigned them with a blend of contemporary and traditional elements. One of the models at Abu Sitta's latest fashion show told Al Jazeera that the goal was to preserve the Palestinian heritage that Israel has tried to destroy. The dresses are meant to represent the identity of the person wearing them, Abu Sitta said.
on April 23, 2016
In the rocky hills of the Palestinian West Bank, farmers learned long ago how to adapt to extremes of climate that make spring the shortest season. In a part of the world where agriculture was first practised, they found crops that could survive even if watered only by the occasional rain storm.
on April 23, 2016
The Palestinian city of Nablus has long been renowned for the production of olive oil soap. With origins reportedly stretching back more than 1,000 years, the localised practice progressed to an industrial scale around the 14th century. Several factories were destroyed by the 1927 earthquake that hit the city, and later, Israeli military attacks on Nablus during the second Intifada caused irreparable damage to several historic factories.
on April 8, 2016
Israeli forces on Wednesday began construction work on top of a historical site in the occupied West Bank town of Beit Jala, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said. The PA ministry condemned the Israeli authorities for allowing work to begin on a road that will be built on top of Khirbet al-Najjar, a site that reportedly dates back to the Roman and Byzantine periods.
on February 3, 2016