Sabbah Report » Art

Roger Waters – “We Shall Overcome”, Palestine

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:57:53 +0000

Roger Waters wrote:

"Over the new year 2009-2010, an international group of 1500 men and women from 42 nations went to Egypt to join a Freedom March to Gaza. They did this to protest the current blockade of Gaza. To protest the fact that the people of Gaza live in a virtual prison. To protest the fact that a year after the terror attack by Israeli armed forces destroyed most of their homes, hospitals, schools, and other public buildings, they have no possibility to rebuild because their borders are closed. The would be Freedom Marchers wanted to peacefully draw attention to the predicament of the Palestinian population of Gaza. The Egyptian government, (funded to the tune of $2.1 billion a year, by us, the US tax payers), would not allow the marchers to approach Gaza. How lame is that? And how predictable! I live in the USA and during this time Dec 25th 2009-Jan3rd 2010 I saw no reference to Gaza or the Freedom March or the multi national protesters gathered there. Anyway I was moved, in the circumstances, to record a new version of " We shall overcome". It seems appropriate.

Roger Waters

Many thanks to G.E Smith: lead guitar and Thor Jonsson, drum programming and whatever. Thanks guys!!!

PS. 3rd June 2010

And now piracy!!!!!!!

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMMHepfYVc

Sculpture offends and ‘hurts’ poor little Israel

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:22:55 +0000

The Israeli embassy in Madrid is "hurt" and "offended!" How touching... It's okay for Israelis to kill everyday, to spit on Christians and Muslims, to kidnap people and harvest their organs, to arrest and jail children, to use illegal weapons, to impose an illegal siege on a million and a half people in Gaza, to occupy Palestine, Syria and Lebanon and to threaten more war and occupation everyday.. It's okay for Israel to ignore International Law, UN resolutions, the International Court of Justice, the NPT and on and on... but its not okay for a piece of art to be critical of "poor little Israel"... After 62 years of lies, Israel can no longer hide its true ugly colors from the world... even with its total control of mainstream media... (Hat tip: Cherifa Sirry)

Stairway to Heaven by Spanish artist Eugenio Merino

A controversial art piece on exhibition at the Madrid art fair, was condemned by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid as being "offensive to Judaism."

"The hurtful message this piece conveys doesn't hurt less because it is displayed under the veil of art," the Israeli embassy wrote in a letter to the organizers of ARCO art fair, one of the world's top contemporary art fairs.

The installation "Stairway to Heaven," by Spanish artist Eugenio Merino, displays a crouching Muslim, topped by a kneeling Christian, and he in turn is topped by a Jew in prayer. Next to the sculpture was displayed a machine gun with a Menorah shooting out of its barrel.

Merino denied that the sculpture was provocative, and said it reflected "the idea of coexistence between the three religions, all of which are trying to reach God."

The work, which used human hair and silicone to give it a real look, was sold immediately to a European art collector for 50,000 Euros.

The artist says that "Stairway to Heaven", is not anti-Semitic, but reflects the alliance of civilizations.

The Israeli Embassy in Madrid sent a statement stressing its rejection of works by the Catalan artist Eugenio Merino presented in the gallery's booth at the fair in Madrid 2010. The Israeli embassy believes that the work by Merino have "items offensive to Jews, Israelis, and probably others."

In the same vein, he explained that religion is always "problem" and said he has tried to be as "respectful as possible". "I accept their criticism, but they must accept my work," said the artist, who considers that his piece is not "aggressive" because it has an "air of true religiosity." "You always have an opinion or interpretation that can not control. What others think depends on many elements I can not control, such as where you lived.

Reflect and resist

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:03:45 +0000

From theatre in a Bethlehem refugee camp to the Venice biennale, Palestinians are making art out of adversity - and doing it with grace, finds Ahdaf Soueif, organiser of the Palestine festival of literature

Leaning against padded walls in a darkened room we eavesdrop on an argument: "the elite think they can get independence without resistance - by collaboration -"

"What's wrong with being normal? Normality as a form of resistance -"

"What is normal?"

"You know, sometimes I forget that we're under occupation . . ."

Last week I heard the same phrases in Ramallah. Today, we're listening to them at the Venice biennale, in Ramallah Syndrome, a sound installation by Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti.

New beginnings . . . Emily Jacir's proposal for Venice's vaporetto stops. Photograph: Emily Jacir

Three biennales ago, in 2003, Bethlehem-born Hilal and her husband, Petti, provided the exhibition with Stateless Nation: a number of giant passports that you came upon, one by one, in the pavilions of different states. The passports were issued by different authorities, but the bearer's place of birth was always Palestine. Now I'm struck by the converse: the number of people born in different parts of the world who identify themselves and act as Palestinians. And this year the Palestinians have - well, not a pavilion, but a space of their own. As one of the 44 "Collateral Events" of the 53rd biennale, they are housed - courtesy of the City of Venice - in the former Convento dei Santi Cosma e Damiano.

A few metres away from Ramallah Syndrome, on a spotlit patch of floor, tiny figures float, meet and merge, reproduce, splinter, vanish; OK, hit, hit but don't run is an animation by Shadi Habib Allah that aims, he says, to create a "tension between the mechanisation of nature and the naturalisation of the mechanical". It makes you think of amoebas, of cells under microscopes. You can follow a meandering train of thought to the Palestinian condition if you like. But you don't have to. The point about the art on show here is that it both resists the Israeli project for Palestine and resists being seen only in terms of resistance.

Six Palestinian artists are grouped in Palestine c/o Venice - the name reflects Palestine's historic condition of always being c/o someone else: the Ottoman empire, the British mandate, Jordan, Egypt, Israel. In an excellent catalogue, the curator, Salwa Mikdadi, describes the strategy of the exhibition, from the 100% Palestinian financing to seeking out Italian artistic partnerships. Most significant is the exhibition's presence, with duplicate work, in six art institutions in Palestinian cities. And here we have the elements at the heart of so much Palestinian work now.

Palestinian philanthropists and charitable organisations have been working in aid and education for some time; the Welfare Association, for example, marked its 25th anniversary last year. But recently a second generation has become visible. Young, dynamic and mostly American-educated, they are branching out to finance and invest in art - to notable effect.

Diaspora Palestinians are constantly activating links with home - and links between different bits of home - forming productive partnerships as part of a wider community of artists. As the Israeli process of building walls, settlements and settlement-only roads breaks up and cuts off established communities in Palestine, their friends abroad work to establish bridgeheads, virtual links, common projects.

Khalil Rabah's presentation at the biennale is an account of the restoration work undertaken in 50 Palestinian villages by the Palestinian architectural NGO, Riwaq. His aim is clear: "Riwaq has created an opportunity not only to investigate the trappings of our visual and cultural codes, but also to look at ways to reconnect isolated and walled Palestine to the international art world."

Jawad al-Malhi's House No 197 concentrates on the "project" where he grew up, Shufhat refugee camp in Jerusalem, where buildings - although built in concrete - are "never conceived as a whole from foundation to rooftop, but rather are built in piecemeal fashion for temporary use as their occupants wait to leave". The work, which also examines community and its durability under stress, is eerie in its crowdedness, emptiness, the occasional splash of colour.

Taysir Batniji zooms in on one room, his studio in Gaza - inaccessible to him for almost two years because of Israel's siege. In Hannoun, the studio floor blossoms with the pink curls of pencil shavings: are they evidence of a thousand acts of preparation for one act that hasn't - and may not - happen (writing or drawing)? Or are they poppies? The blood of martyrs dead in their thousands for something that may or may not happen? Batniji's works, the artist says, are always an attempt to speak to what is going on, but also beyond it; he wants them to have "an existence sustained through time, not consumed by the actual situation or event they evoke". As Mahmoud Darwish said in his address to the writers of the first Palestine festival of literature just before he died in 2008: "An art born of a defined reality is able to create a reality that transcends reality - an alternative, imagined reality."

The overall title of this year's Venice biennale is Making Worlds. "It is," says the director, Daniel Birnbaum, "about possible new beginnings." One such beginning - or resumption - was envisaged by Emily Jacir. Jacir, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2007 Venice biennale and, in 2008, of the Guggenheim's Hugo Boss prize, planned to display the names of each vaporetto station along the Grand Canal in Arabic alongside the Italian. "Centuries of cross-cultural exchange between Venice and the Arab world are clearly visible along the canal . . . The Arabic translations place each floating platform in direct dialogue with the surrounding architecture and urban design, linking them with various elements of Venice's shared heritage with the Arab world" - and pointing to possible future exchanges. The intervention was approved by the biennale commission and by the Venice municipality. It was welcomed by the vaporetto company, and Jacir began work, but a month later the official letter from the company came - and it refused the project. No reason was given for passing up this opportunity to highlight an un-crusading, mutually beneficial and productive historic relationship between a western power and the Arab world.

Mona Hatoum's exploration of relationships in her solo exhibition is more oblique. Her work is on two floors of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia museum. On one floor, her objects are wittily inserted into the permanent exhibits: a circle of elegant drawing-room chairs are connected by a spider's web of emerald beads. Under a huge late 17th-century painting of a battle, described as an oeuvre d'inspiration militaire and praised for the violence of its effets de lumiÃ©re, Hatoum's Natura Morta places - in an antique cabinet - hand grenades produced in mirrored glass. They are made in Murano and could be exquisite Christmas tree baubles in luminous reds, lime greens, sapphire blues and sunshine yellows. On the other floor are her stand-alone works: Hot Spot III, a huge wire globe with the contours of the world's continents outlined in red neon fizzing and spitting with electricity; and the breathtaking Impenetrable, where a cube constructed out of three-metre lengths of barbed wire becomes an object of both dread and wonder as it shimmers and levitates in a white room. From certain angles, you can just about see a way through the wire.

What is clear is that, behind Hatoum, Jacir, al-Malhi and every Palestinian artist making a name internationally, there is a whole society in a state of cultural mobilisation. You can interpret this mobilisation as a survival mechanism; a visceral response to Israel's continuing occupation, its ever-tightening siege. Or as a product of the money invested in Palestinian "culture" over recent decades by international donors. Whether it's one or the other, or both, the result is a tremendous surge of activity throughout Palestine, with people from every sector engaging in activities that they define as cultural and as affirming Palestinian identity and resistance.

People tend to think of resistance as resistance to one force. Palestinians today have several to choose from. Israel is the obvious one, then there's American and European complicity in the Israeli project, and the Arab leaders' subservience to American complicity. And recently there have been the bloody internal divisions of the Palestinian leadership. Resistance, therefore, is an insistence not just on freedom and statehood, important as they are, but on identity, cohesion and being part of the larger world.

As we travelled through Palestinian cities for the Palestine festival of literature two weeks ago, this cultural mobilisation was as evident, as visible, as Israel's wall - itself now a giant canvas for local and international drawings and graffiti. In Jenin, we visited the university and the Freedom Theatre, then lunched at a women's co-operative where the members made a living by cooking traditional recipes and selling traditional embroidery. The founder, Imm Imad, told us about her son, a journalist, who was killed by the Israelis as he photographed their invasion of Jenin in 2003. His portrait dominated the main room. "It is hard," she said, "he was my eldest and my friend and adviser. But he inspired this project and here it is."

We attended two concerts given by offshoots from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. The audience clapped and stamped and yelled. But for many of us, the most enduring image will be of Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. In an exhibition of photographs taken by the children, a girl in a white dress smiles luminously from the grainy page, a Shrek-like giant of a man dozes on a chair in front of his house. There are no photographs of Israeli soldiers. Yet they are there. A British camp-worker/photographer told us that the kids used to hear the jeeps when they were playing on their football pitch, and would run and hide. Then the wall was built and swallowed up their football pitch and threw up the watchtowers.

Against the wall, and under one watchtower, the Palestinians built an open-air theatre: the Return Theatre, they call it. And after we've seen the exhibition and bought the crafts and eaten the fatayer, the children dance for us. Not in their theatre - that would be asking for trouble - but in the room where they practise. Little girls and boys fly around in their costumes of black and cerise. They skip and leap and tap out the dabka and sing songs of olive harvests and of travel and homecoming to villages they have never seen.

Palestinian talent is making itself felt. And, because of the divisions, there is no party line. They are making art out of adversity and are doing it with grace. This is clear at the Venice biennale. It is also clear in every Palestinian town, university and refugee camp.

For more on the Palestine festival of literature, go to www.palfest.org The Venice biennale continues until 22 November: details at www.labiennale.org

Source: Guardian

[Hat tip: Marisa]

Gaza Over & Over..

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:47:14 +0000

Hover your mouse over the presentation and view in FULLSCREEN!

This 70 pages document try to summarize Israel military aggression into Gaza Strip (December 2008 - February 2009). It contains photos, data, report and artworks related to the war. More then 30 artist involved and more then 40 artworks featured. This is the third project done by No-More-Ignorance. This document is a must-see for every people & organization who wants to see Israel-Palestine conflict closely. In this occasion, we would like to ask you to tell your friends about this document. Tell them via your Facebook notes, links, DA journal, blog post, or anything. They could download our PDF file or read it online. You could post the 500px wide JPG image in this folder as a teaser in your publication. Just ask them to visit our landing page for this project. If you interested with our project, you could join us on Facebook pages or Deviant Art. Thank you very much for your help. Sincerely,No-More-Ignorance.

More info: http://nomoreign.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/gaza-over-and-over/

Piss On Bush!

Haitham Sabbah — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:37:56 +0000

I fell off my chair laughing and could not believe my eyes when I saw this funny picture:

Don't you just feel like doing it.... NOW :)

Well, this is not the first time I come across some of this "art". It actually reminds me of a Belgian one few years ago. This website report from Brussels about a urinal sticker with a picture of George W. Bush and the American flag and a caption which reads "Go ahead. Piss on me."

That sticker was actually designed by a Laurent Winnnock, a young man who worked for Belgium's vice prime minister.

Of course America already has its own piss-on-Bush urinal sticker. You can find it for sale at a place called stickergiant.com. Here is a sample:

Back to our new urinal sticker, it looks to be from some Arabian country, specially that you can see the Palestinian flag on the side. Maybe somewhere in Occupied Palestine, or Syria, or Iraq, even Iran, as the Palestinian flag is used widely in all these countries (they all claim they are ready and prepared for the "liberation of Palestine" - since 1948, but they never got the chance. The best they could do is "PISS on BUSH!" :-D ).

It could be a photoshop work too... but nevertheless, I liked it ;-)

World’s Most Famous Men/Women in a Single Photograph/Artwork

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:38:20 +0000

Maybe you have seen this before, but just in case you did not...

How many of them you can recognize!? (Click image to ENLARGE).

In memory of Naji Al-Ali

Haitham Sabbah — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:51:26 +0000

After 20 years of the assassination of Palestinian political cartoonist Naji Al-Ali; watch this BBC "In pictures: The work of Naji al-Ali"

And this is my collection of Naji's work:

[[Show as slideshow]]

The Israeli occupation through artists’ eyes

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 14 May 2007 12:24:10 +0000

This is quoted from Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project:

For the last three years, community members in Olympia, WA, and Rafah, Palestine, have been working together to create a lasting, sincere partnership to better foster understanding between people who have not traditionally had a chance to get to know one another. It is our belief that by forming such bonds between communities, misunderstandings can be overcome and distances and differences - whether they be cultural, linguistic or political - can be bridged. We believe these sorts of humanistic, people-to-people connections are vital to creating a world in which all people are treated with respect.

That is why it is called the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project.

The people of Rafah - and all Palestinians in the territories of Gaza and the West Bank, for that matter - live under Israeli military occupation. They are not citizens of Israel or of any state, and have no rights of protest or redress. The occupation is a violent daily reality, in which Israeli soldiers, checkpoints, tanks, helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter jets control every aspect of Palestinian lives, and have brought social, family and economic life to a virtual halt. What we often hear described simply as "the violence" in the Middle East cannot be understood without an understanding of what military occupation means.

The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project is now offering a series of pastel works created by artists in Rafah though the Palestinian Artists Association. These works represent what it means for a people to live for decades and decades under Israeli military occupation. The feelings of imprisonment while watching your land being taken from you must be unbearable.

Let the artists speak for themselves:

Title: The Palestinian Flag
Artist: Yusuf Subeh

Title: Waiting
Artist: Bisan Umar Atteya

Title: Right of Return
Artist: Hiba Ibrahim Al Jazzar

Title: The Prisoner
Artist: Hamza Jamal Mansur

Title: Freedom is Executed in Palestine
Artist: Bashir Hemeid Qishtta

For information on showing or purchasing the art seen here, write to art@orscp.org or visit:
http://orscp.org/art_under_occupation/

Opera Idomeneo, Mohammed and Bikini

Haitham Sabbah — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:00:24 +0000

Although from different continent, the following two examples show just how ignorant and stupid some people can be about their knowledge of Islam.

The first one comes right from one of the capitals of Islam, Cairo. This first story shows how stupid can some Muslims be:

(????? ???????) ???? ???? ???????? ?? ???

????????, 01-??????-2006
???? ???? - ???? "??????? ?????? " ??????? ???? ??? ???????? ?? ??? ????????? ??????? ?? ???????? ??? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ????? ??????? ??????.

??? ????? ????? ????? "??????? ????????" ?? ???????? ???? ??????? ????? ??? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ?????? ???????? ??????? ????? ????? ????? ?????? ??????? ????? ??????? ?????? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ?????? -?? ???? ??????- ?????? ??? ??????? ????????? ??????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ????? ???? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? "?????" ??????? ???????? 31-10-2006.

???? ????? ??????? ???? ??????? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ????? ??? ??????? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ???????? ????????? ??????? ??????.

?????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ??? ????? ??????? ?? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ??????? ??????? ???? ???? ?????????? ????? ????? ??? ????? " ????? ?????????" ??? 5 ?????? ???? ??????? ????? ?? ?????? ?? ???????

Since when there is something called Islamic Bikini? And since when Muslim women can swim in a public place? And what does the Islamic Brotherhood has to do with the swimming pool? It just shows how empty and ruthless these people are with their ignorant followers.

Why do they care if a woman wishes to swim in public? If a woman swim in public, she is already sinful according to Islamic rules, so why does it matter if she is wearing a normal bikini, an "Islamic bikini", or not wearing anything? If they think it is haram looking at naked woman, then why do they care looking at all? How can it be better if the woman wears an "Islamic bikini"? And why should they go to swimming pools if they can't dare look at naked ladies in first place?

It is just an example of how some stupid people use religion to deliver wrong signals about Islam for their own benefits, which is elections here. Yeah... for elections, everything is haram, and they are the only right people. Ask them about Ramadan Iftar invitations and how many poor people were invited by these saviors to these rich tables.

The second story comes from one of the capitals of "modern world". [Source]

On September 26, 2006, Berlin's Deutsche Opera announced the cancellation of four performances of the opera planned for November 2006, citing concerns that the production's depictions of a severed head of the Islamic prophet Muhammad raised an "incalculable security risk." "To avoid endangering its audience and employees, the management has decided against repeating 'Idomeneo' in November 2006," the opera house said in a press release.

The Idomeneo production, directed by Hans Neuenfels, shows King Idomeneo staggering on stage carrying the decapitated heads of Neptune, Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed; a departure from the libretto and score. According to the BBC, the German press agency DPA said Berlin police have so far recorded no direct threat to the opera house. However, the New York Times reported that there was an anonymous threat in August against the theatre.

The cancellation sparked a great deal of debate in Europe on the issue of self censorship and the nature of free speech. On September 27, 2006, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel stated: "I think the cancellation was a mistake. I think self-censorship does not help us against people who want to practice violence in the name of Islam ... It makes no sense to retreat." Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble after a government-sponsored conference with Muslim representatives held independently of the incident told reporters that "to send a signal, we could all go to the performance together," and the Muslim representatives agreed that the performance should not be cancelled. Muslim reaction in Berlin to the opera was more muted than fiery. Several Muslims said the scene involving Muhammad may offend Muslims, but that artistic freedom should be respected in a democracy.

It is worthwhile to note that the severed heads are a recent 'addition' by director Neuenfels to the original, 225-year-old opera, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.

Finally today, Berlin opera house has sets new dates for Mozart work. It said in a statement on Wednesday that performances had been scheduled for December 18 and 29.

Now, what logic is there in respecting those who do not respect us? What dignity is there in defending their culture or supposed culture when they show contempt for ours? I want to defend my culture, not theirs, and inform you that I like Omar Khayyam much more than Shakespeare and Goethe and Walt Whitman and Leopardi and Mozart.

This shows how "freedom of speech" can be turned into a tool against the "respect of religions and freedom of worship", which is another human right. Anything, and everything is used to trigger violence from some radical ignorant call themselves, Muslims. Why can't the west respect others? And why should I respect him if his choose to depict me under the label of "freedom of speech."

Although no Muslim complained, they stopped it, calling it "self-censorship", in hope that if it was not noticed before, "let's show that we hate Muslims in ARTISTIC way." Not that other religions are not insulted by this same act, but it is not our problem, as Muslims, to care if Christians and Buddhist don't like to defend their religion and Goddess!

Sabbah in Colors!

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 29 May 2006 07:59:21 +0000

Here is a cool online application. It analysis your website structure and transfer it to colors and displays them in nice graphical form.

Jerusalem in Exile – Tangible Memories

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 11 May 2006 19:40:55 +0000

An Invitation to Palestinians Across the World [Hat tip: Amal]

Work started on the preparation of an exceptional book with a new concept “Jerusalem in exile – tangible memories” by artist Steve Sabella. The book seeks to explore the visual images of Jerusalem in the minds of Palestinians who live in the Diaspora, as well as Palestinians who live in Palestine but are incapable of reaching their city. The project will photographically materialize the various mental images Palestinians have of Jerusalem in their memories and imagination. These participations will be presented on the "Jerusalem in exile" web site, and this art experience will be documented in a book which will be edited by poet Najwan Darwish. The book will compile various testimonies and texts on Jerusalem and other related subjects by a number of distinguished Palestinians artists, intellectuals and participants.

The work will also be inaugurated in Jerusalem in the form of an exhibition and will subsequently tour various cities globally. CLICK HERE for Steve Sabella’s art statement, which presents the art project’s idea and includes an invitation to participate in the art project.

Please forward this invitation.

Your contributions will be published on the web site that will create a visual bridge through imaginings and memories that will connect Palestinians from all over the world with Jerusalem. Some of these contributions will form the book Jerusalem in exile tangible memories.

www.jerusalem-in-exile.net

The art of Racism!

Haitham Sabbah — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:35:23 +0000

In deviantART, the Palestinian artists simply cannot select their country from the dA country list. "Free-Palestine" community asked deviantART to add "Palestinian territories" to the country list. The answer was: "deviantART does not tolerate Mob like mentality...". dA then banned "Free-Palestine" members, and deleted all of their content. Members are seeking your help!

Paradise Now, Wins!

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:40:09 +0000

They say: "If you made a bad film, you made it alone. If you made a good film, you all made it." And that's what "Paradise now" did. A good film by all means!

The film didn't win the Oscar, but won more than the academy award. Won the hearts of the millions who saw it. Won the position that it was placed in. Won the controversy around it and it's message reaching out. Won the media coverage given to Palestine and the Palestinians and spotting the light on the Israeli occupation. Won the sympathy and understanding of the world.

I never expected it to win the academy award. Not because it does not deserve it, but because we all know the politics that run the show.

Congratulations, "Paradise Now".

Israel lobbies against “Palestine” tag at Oscars

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 10:54:30 +0000

Israeli and U.S. diplomats and Jewish groups are lobbying organisers of next month's Academy Awards not to present a nominated film (Paradise Now) about Palestinian bombers as coming from Palestine, an Israeli newspaper reports.

While the tag remains on the academy's Web site, the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected the film to be described as coming from the "Palestinian Authority" during the awards ceremony.

"Both the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles and several concerned Jewish groups pointed out that no one, not even the Palestinians themselves, have declared the formal creation of 'Palestine' yet, and thus the label would be inaccurate," the diplomat said.

Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's biggest daily, said on Sunday that the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles and local Jewish groups were urging the academy to reconsider the national label.

Funny! Do Palestinians need to formally declare Palestine? Again? Ok, here is the formal declaration (dated November 15, 1988):

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Palestine, the land of the three monotheistic faiths, is where the Palestinian Arab people was born, on which it grew, developed and excelled. Thus the Palestinian Arab people ensured for itself an everlasting union between itself, its land, and its history.

Resolute throughout that history, the Palestinian Arab people forged its national identity, rising even to unimagined levels in its defense, as invasion, the design of others, and the appeal special to Palestine's ancient and luminous place on the eminence where powers and civilizations are joined. All this intervened thereby to deprive the people of its political independence. Yet the undying connection between Palestine and its people secured for the land its character, and for the people its national genius.

Nourished by an unfolding series of civilizations and cultures, inspired by a heritage rich in variety and kind, the Palestinian Arab people added to its stature by consolidating a union between itself and its patrimonial Land. The call went out from Temple, Church, and Mosque that to praise the Creator, to celebrate compassion and peace was indeed the message of Palestine. And in generation after generation, the Palestinian Arab people gave of itself unsparingly in the valiant battle for liberation and homeland. For what has been the unbroken chain of our people's rebellions but the heroic embodiment of our will for national independence. And so the people was sustained in the struggle to stay and to prevail.

When in the course of modern times a new order of values was declared with norms and values fair for all, it was the Palestinian Arab people that had been excluded from the destiny of all other peoples by a hostile array of local and foreign powers. Yet again had unaided justice been revealed as insufficient to drive the world's history along its preferred course.

And it was the Palestinian people, already wounded in its body, that was submitted to yet another type of occupation over which floated that falsehood that "Palestine was a land without people." This notion was foisted upon some in the world, whereas in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations (1919) and in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the community of nations had recognized that all the Arab territories, including Palestine, of the formerly Ottoman provinces, were to have granted to them their freedom as provisionally independent nations.

Despite the historical injustice inflicted on the Palestinian Arab people resulting in their dispersion and depriving them of their right to self-determination, following upon U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181 (1947), which partitioned Palestine into two states, one Arab, one Jewish, yet it is this Resolution that still provides those conditions of international legitimacy that ensure the right of the Palestinian Arab people to sovereignty.

By stages, the occupation of Palestine and parts of other Arab territories by Israeli forces, the willed dispossession and expulsion from their ancestral homes of the majority of Palestine's civilian inhabitants, was achieved by organized terror; those Palestinians who remained, as a vestige subjugated in its homeland, were persecuted and forced to endure the destruction of their national life.

Thus were principles of international legitimacy violated. Thus were the Charter of the United Nations and its Resolutions disfigured, for they had recognized the Palestinian Arab people's national rights, including the right of Return, the right to independence, the right to sovereignty over territory and homeland.

In Palestine and on its perimeters, in exile distant and near, the Palestinian Arab people never faltered and never abandoned its conviction in its rights of Return and independence. Occupation, massacres and dispersion achieved no gain in the unabated Palestinian consciousness of self and political identity, as Palestinians went forward with their destiny, undeterred and unbowed. And from out of the long years of trial in ever-mounting struggle, the Palestinian political identity emerged further consolidated and confirmed. And the collective Palestinian national will forged for itself a political embodiment, the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole, legitimate representative recognized by the world community as a whole, as well as by related regional and international institutions. Standing on the very rock of conviction in the Palestinian people's inalienable rights, and on the ground of Arab national consensus and of international legitimacy, the PLO led the campaigns of its great people, molded into unity and powerful resolve, one and indivisible in its triumphs, even as it suffered massacres and confinement within and without its home. And so Palestinian resistance was clarified and raised into the forefront of Arab and world awareness, as the struggle of the Palestinian Arab people achieved unique prominence among the world's liberation movements in the modern era.

The massive national uprising, the intifada, now intensifying in cumulative scope and power on occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the unflinching resistance of the refugee camps outside the homeland, have elevated awareness of the Palestinian truth and right into still higher realms of comprehension and actuality. Now at last the curtain has been dropped around a whole epoch of prevarication and negation. The intifada has set siege to the mind of official Israel, which has for too long relied exclusively upon myth and terror to deny Palestinian existence altogether. Because of the intifada and its revolutionary irreversible impulse, the history of Palestine has therefore arrived at a decisive juncture.

Whereas the Palestinian people reaffirms most definitively its inalienable rights in the land of its patrimony:

Now by virtue of natural, historical and legal rights, and the sacrifices of successive generations who gave of themselves in defense of the freedom and independence of their homeland;

In pursuance of Resolutions adopted by Arab Summit Conferences and relying on the authority bestowed by international legitimacy as embodied in the Resolutions of the United Nations Organization since 1947;

And in exercise by the Palestinian Arab people of its rights to self-determination, political independence and sovereignty over its territory,

The Palestine National Council, in the name of God, and in the name of the Palestinian Arab people, hereby proclaims the establishment of the State of Palestine on our Palestinian territory with its capital Jerusalem (Al-Quds Ash-Sharif).

The State of Palestine is the state of Palestinians wherever they may be. The state is for them to enjoy in it their collective national and cultural identity, theirs to pursue in it a complete equality of rights. In it will be safeguarded their political and religious convictions and their human dignity by means of a parliamentary democratic system of governance, itself based on freedom of expression and the freedom to form parties. The rights of minorities will duly be respected by the majority, as minorities must abide by decisions of the majority. Governance will be based on principles of social justice, equality and non-discrimination in public rights of men or women, on grounds of race, religion, color or sex, and the aegis of a constitution which ensures the rule of law and an independent judiciary. Thus shall these principles allow no departure from Palestine's age-old spiritual and civilizational heritage of tolerance and religious coexistence.

The State of Palestine is an Arab state, an integral and indivisible part of the Arab nation, at one with that nation in heritage and civilization, with it also in its aspiration for liberation, progress, democracy and unity. The State of Palestine affirms its obligation to abide by the Charter of the League of Arab States, whereby the coordination of the Arab states with each other shall be strengthened. It calls upon Arab compatriots to consolidate and enhance the reality of state, to mobilize potential, and to intensify efforts whose goal is to end Israeli occupation.

The State of Palestine proclaims its commitment to the principles and purposes of the United Nations, and to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It proclaims its commitment as well to the principles and policies of the Non-Aligned Movement.

It further announces itself to be a peace-loving State, in adherence to the principles of peaceful co-existence. It will join with all states and peoples in order to assure a permanent peace based upon justice and the respect of rights so that humanity's potential for well-being may be assured, an earnest competition for excellence may be maintained, and in which confidence in the future will eliminate fear for those who are just and for whom justice is the only recourse.

In the context of its struggle for peace in the land of Love and Peace, the State of Palestine calls upon the United Nations to bear special responsibility for the Palestinian Arab people and its homeland. It calls upon all peace-and freedom-loving peoples and states to assist it in the attainment of its objectives, to provide it with security, to alleviate the tragedy of its people, and to help it terminate Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The State of Palestine herewith declares that it believes in the settlement of regional and international disputes by peaceful means, in accordance with the U.N. Charter and resolutions. With prejudice to its natural right to defend its territorial integrity and independence, it therefore rejects the threat or use of force, violence and terrorism against its territorial integrity or political independence, as it also rejects their use against territorial integrity of other states.

Therefore, on this day unlike all others, November 15, 1988, as we stand at the threshold of a new dawn, in all honor and modesty we humbly bow to the sacred spirits of our fallen ones, Palestinian and Arab, by the purity of whose sacrifice for the homeland our sky has been illuminated and our Land given life. Our hearts are lifted up and irradiated by the light emanating from the much blessed intifada, from those who have endured and have fought the fight of the camps, of dispersion, of exile, from those who have borne the standard for freedom, our children, our aged, our youth, our prisoners, detainees and wounded, all those ties to our sacred soil are confirmed in camp, village, and town. We render special tribute to that brave Palestinian Woman, guardian of sustenance and Life, keeper of our people's perennial flame. To the souls of our sainted martyrs, the whole of our Palestinian Arab people that our struggle shall be continued until the occupation ends, and the foundation of our sovereignty and independence shall be fortified accordingly.

Therefore, we call upon our great people to rally to the banner of Palestine, to cherish and defend it, so that it may forever be the symbol of our freedom and dignity in that homeland, which is a homeland for the free, now and always.

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful:

"Say: 'O God, Master of the Kingdom,
Thou givest the Kingdom to whom Thou wilt,
and seizes the Kingdom from whom Thou wilt,
Thou exalted whom Thou wilt, and Thou
abasest whom Thou wilt; in Thy hand
is the good; Thou are powerful over everything."

Personally, I'm happy about all this. Ask me why?

Well, regardless if the movie wins or not, this noise has created a lot of publicity for the film, the story, for Palestine and Palestinians, and shows how stupid some propagandas can be.

If I were in Hany's place, I would be happy regardless what happens next. Although I'm sure that Academy Awards will change the label soon, just watch it. A good suggestion would be 'Occupied Palestine' as Nas suggests.

After all, the film is against terror and killing innocents. This propaganda is indirectly helping the message reach, to all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims, Christians and Jews. What is more important than tagging, is peoples lives.

Erotic Star Academy

Haitham Sabbah — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 19:01:45 +0000

I can't describe what I saw. So, let the pictures talk:

Update!

~~Welcome to Slut Star Academy 3!~~

I won't be surprised if next time I see them having group sex LIVE on TV. That would be interesting "lesson" to watch their teachers instructing them and make sure that the STARS are following safety instructions, and wearing condoms!!!

~~Want more? See more photos here.~~

Wow, these guys and girls are so cute and adorable and are an idol for our Arab nation. God Bless them!

PS. Because I'm a bad boy, and because I used "dirty" words in the title and the post, I was told by SugarCubes that this post is blocked in UAE, and she can't add comments. Sorry SC :-(