Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.01.2009:
By Mariam Shahin with photographs by George Azar
Founded in 716 during the rule of Umayyad Caliph Suleiman Ibn Abd el-Malik, Ramla was once simply described as a “fine city.” Like so many “new” cities, Ramla was fresh and young and unimpeded by the burdens of history. Its name, a derivative of ramle (“sand”), apparently referred to the sand dunes on which the city was built.
The(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.01.2009:
By Mariam Shahin with photographs by George Azar
For the first 40 years of the 20th century, Haifa was the most sophisticated city in Palestine. As the de facto capital of the north, it was home to the country’s main port, the most important rail system, and a 1,200-mile-long oil pipeline that connected Palestine to Iraq.
Its population was cosmopolitan and its urban landscape w(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.01.2009:
Zinc barracks line the highway from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea. From time to time, we get a glimpse of the Bedouin and what, for the outside observer, appears as a mysterious and unchanging way of life. In reality, they have not always lived in this place and manner. The Bedouin, as we encounter them today in the West Bank, have their roots in the Naqab (Negev) Desert, where they lived before (...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.01.2009:
By Hazem Jamjoum
Following government orders, Israeli forces, demolition workers, and two bulldozers entered the village at 9:30 a.m. on 8 May 2007, while all the men of the village were at work. They destroyed every structure in sight, forcing the women, children, and elderly in the village out of the thirty homes before destroying them all, rendering one hundred more Palestinians hom(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.01.2009:
By Mariam Shahin
“When he raised his head, something appeared in front of him. Through the pale blue mist were the domes and rooftops of Acre.” Ghassan Kanafani, from the short story, “Dr. Qassim Talks to Eva about Mansour Who Arrived in Safad.”
Acre was first mentioned in historical records almost 4,000 years ago. It was a Canaanite city specialised in glass manufacturing and a(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.01.2009:
By Fakhri Geday
Before1948, Jaffa was the pride of Palestine, the jewel of the Holy Land, the bride of the sea, and the cradle of tolerance. It was the womb that gave birth to most Palestinian nationalist personalities who raised the flag of resistance and independence: among them were Shafi’ Il-Hout, Michel Mitri, and Alfred Roch. Its citizens deeply believed that the secret of happin(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 16.11.2008:
Jaffa Gate is the most direct way to access the part of the city where most of the Armenian community resides and where their churches and institutions are located. The Armenians, who embraced Christianity as their national religion in 301, constitute the oldest Christian nation in the world. Not surprisingly, they established the first quarter in Jerusalem. The Armenian quarter encompasses a(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 04.07.2008:
Jerusalem: A World of Culture
By Huda Imam
As I entered Souq al-Qattanine this morning through Lions Gate, I passed Bab Hutta, St. Anne, Tareeq al-Mujahideen, the Via Dolorosa with its Ecco Homo, and walked towards the Austrian Hospice and Tareeq al-Wad to reach the Centre for Jerusalem Studies. At its Mamlouk khan, around 50 children had gathered, wearing T-shirts from Shams Al(...)
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 04.07.2008:
By Dr. Ali Qleibo
For the past century Jerusalem has stood apart from the rest of Palestine with its distinctive cosmopolitan character. From all over Palestine parents would send off their children to Jerusalem’s boarding schools. For the girls there were many options: the Schmidt School, the Sisters of Zion, the Rosary Sisters, the Jerusalem Girls’ College, etc. The boys would invari(...)
Contributed by Toine Van Teeffelen on 19.06.2008:
reportage
FORBIDDEN FISHING
by Luisa Morgantini*
IN GAZA STRIP THE SEA IS A HUGE ISRAELI CHECK POINT
All Palestinian fishermen, re-asserted their right to fish and their right to live, demonstrating on 16thJune with their boats against the Israeli siege
The sea in Gaza is blue, but also green due to pollution because in many sites sewage waters run freely i(...)