IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
Balloons emblazoned with an Olympic-style torch bobbed cheerfully in the sky above a swimming meet. For 12-year-old Adam Nairab and the other children on the beach, they provided inspiration. The balloons meant there was more to life than drones, explosions and the threat of sudden death.
on June 30, 2016
This month, U.S. congressmen, including Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), were refused entry into the Gaza Strip at the Erez crossing while on a fact-finding mission in Israel-Palestine. Israeli authorities, without elaboration, claimed that their application had not met the criteria necessary to enter.
on June 23, 2016
Dozens of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip marched throughout Gaza City on Tuesday, calling attention to nine years of Palestinian political divisions since Israeli forces blockaded the Gaza Strip in 2007, dissociating the small enclave from the rest of the occupied territory.
on June 14, 2016
From 21 – 26 May, the Palestine Festival of Literature toured cities in the West Bank and Israel. In attendance was Jehan Bseiso, a young Palestinian poet. With two anthologies to her name and online publications with ″Electronic Intifada″ and ″The Palestine Chronicle″, Jehan is currently working on a poetry collection called ″Conversations Continued″ – a compilation of real, misheard and misremembered conversations.
on June 13, 2016
Videos
"6 miles, 9 miles, 3 miles. It's all the same." For fishermen in Gaza, Israeli gunfire, harassment, intimidation, and arrest remain constant threats to their daily lives. Whether 9 miles or 3 miles, the restricted area simply doesn't have enough fish.
on June 8, 2016
alestinians were baffled when Tanya Habjouqa first explained her photographic project to them. “They felt a political obligation to talk about their suffering,” she says. “They were startled when I asked about pleasure. They would slowly ask, ‘Pleasure? We don’t usually discuss pleasure.’
on May 22, 2016
“Open up your heart and mind and just listen,” singer Philip Lawrence crooned against a gentle piano accompaniment before slipping into a falsetto sigh during a performance at Los Angeles nightspot The Study late last month. Lawrence – part of Bruno Mars’ songwriting trio The Smeezingtons – has helped pen hits such as Flo Rida’s “Right Round” and Snoop Dogg’s “Young, Wild, and Free.”
on May 18, 2016
Twenty-five years ago, during the first intifada, I was working as a volunteer surgeon with Medical Aid for Palestinians in al-Ahli hospital in Gaza when the Madrid peace conference led to the Oslo agreement and the supposed roadmap to peace between Israel and Palestine. I returned to Palestine a few weeks ago in my capacity as a breast cancer surgeon.
on May 18, 2016
“Turn them off? Off?” asked an employee of the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center in Gaza City repeatedly as he talked on his cellphone. Once he received a clear answer from the director of the center, he headed to the small control room at the far end of the hall teeming with more than 1,000 attendees, who sat on chairs, lay on the floor or stood leaning against the walls.
on May 17, 2016