Netanyahu's Speech to the American Congress

As some of you have heard about the Israeli prime minister's visit to the American congress.
In his speech, he just declared himself and the Israeli government views to the world. 


"Jerusalem will never be divided"
"will not return to the indefensible borders of 1967."
"The right of return is not to be discussed"


This is a very interesting article on Haaretz, the Israeli main newspaper about Netanyahu's speech


http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-has-declared-himself-ready-to-challenge-obama-1.363887

Publications

http://maan-ctr.org/FactSheets.php

The link above is for Ma'an Development Center, a Palestinian Non Governmental Organization. If you are interested you can find several publications regarding the community development in Palestine as well as the Apartheid wall (Means of Displacement) and (By-Pass Roads).

BBC Censorship

The link below is about a very interesting article. BBC radio station tried to increase the sound effect when an American rapper was singing a song entitled as "Free Palestine".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/13/bbc-palestine-lyric-mic-righteous

Obama demolished Palestinian chances for statehood

"Benjamin Netanyahu may as well have canceled his trip to Washington: Barack Obama did the work for him, or most of it."


http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/obama-demolished-palestinian-chances-for-statehood-1.362895


This is a recent article by the Israeli Jewish writer Gideon Levi commenting on President Obama's speech and its promise to the Israeli government. An article that is worth reading.


"The 1,500 new apartments in Jerusalem will be built, speech or no speech. The real test for that speech, as for any other, is what happens next, and the suspicion is that nothing will happen at all."

Architecture and Pyalara

Pyalara is a well known organization/group of youths from Palestine that is known to the Palestinian community. Unfortunately i did not have the chance to join and engage in Pyalara while i was living in Palestine, although my parents always wanted me to join.
"PYALARA is an independent Palestinian youth organization that seeks to create young Palestinian leaders who are aware of their rights and duties as equal citizens, capable of incurring social and political change, and effectively participate in building a democratic society through specialized media, lobbying and advocacy.". This is Pyalara's mission, a valuable mission and an important one that will empower the Palestinian youth.
Questions:
Q1) What are the activities planned for this summer? 
Q2) Can anyone join the Pyalara's activities and what is the process of doing so?
Q3) Did Pyalara's visual and artistic media plans and projects had the chance to be delivered in any other country beside Palestine? Are there any activities or plans for the organization to grow globally? 


While reading the article "Seizing locality in Jerusalem", i passed by a line that says "the traditions in the culture and professional formation of the generation of architects, which was entrusted with the national mandate of israelizing Jerusalem", this made me wonder how the Israeli architectures and the Israeli architects were able to Israelize Jerusalem? Because political wise, it is one of the top priorities for the ISraeli government to Israelize Jerusalem. Reading this article shows how some Jewish or Israeli architecture tried and is still trying to "Israelize" Jerusalem, a mission that contradicts the Pyalara mission for example, as Payalra's mission of architecture is not to "Palestinize" Palestine, but to empower a leadership sense within the community based on respect and education. I also wonder about the plan of the Israeli government in "remodeling"  one of the oldest gates to the Old City in Jerusalem, Demascus Gate, which is a plan that is intended to "Israelize" the city more and more than it is really intended to remodel or re build the gate. 
In the "West Bank", the Palestinian government with other youth organizations are working more and more in remodeling the old houses/institutes and the architecture in the area, in order to keep the old tradition and to maintain the sense of belonging to the land. One of the recent projects were in Ramallah, to remodel yet maintain the old appearance of the Hamrra Palace, as well as the re-opening of the Hamra cinema in East Jerusalem. 

Women's Testimonies of the Nakba סיפורן של נשים על הנ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRFk1iF8QWc&feature=player_embedded#at=37

The link above is a 10 minute video about testimonies of Palestinian womens who were displaced and expelled from their lands and houses 63 years ago. Today, May 15th, marks the 63 years of the Palestinian greatest catastrophe, one of the oldest and biggest refugee problem in recent history. 63 years ago, there were 1.4 million Palestinian living in the land of Palestine, in May 15th 1948, 84% were annexed by force and move out to neighboring countries. More than 70 massacres took place by the Zionist groups as the Haganah. More than 15,000 Palestinians were killed. More than 517 Palestinian villages were ethnically cleansed. More than 840,000 Palestinians became refugees outside their lands.

Isn't it time for the international community and humanity to wake up? If 63 years of destruction, apartheid, uprooting, ethnic cleansing, occupation, denial of freedom, justice and equality are not enough, when is it then?

Graffiti on Walls

I was not able to open or view the content of the article entitled “Old and New walls in Jerusalem”.

Regarding the Julie Peteet article, “The writing on the Walls: The Graffiti of the Intifada” is a very interesting article. As a Palestinian youth born and raised in Palestine and the occupied territories, this is not a new thing for us. As Peteet said, almost every inch of the walls of the stores, houses, etc have something written on them. It is a way to let others see and remember what is going on, or what have happened. Some of the writings could be statements about the conflict, names of martyrs who were killed by the Israeli occupation forces, or a name of a political party, etc. Although it might not look “nice” for some people, including me personally, but the writings have served during the past periods of the two Intifadas in 1987 and 2000. As some times writing on the walls will deliver some kind of messages to either the Palestinians themselves or the occupation forces when they invade the city/village.

One can also find not only writings or statements or names, but drawings. For example, after Mahmoud Darwish the Palestinian well known poet died, many people went after his funeral and start drawing his pictures and writings under it on walls. Another example is after the death of Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader, pictures of him, and his sayings were all over the place. Drawings of the map of Palestine with the Palestinian flag, etc can also be found on the walls. And now, after the eruption of the Apartheid Wall within the West Bank, Palestinians, Israeli peace activists and American activists started writing and drawing on the wall with statements as “the wall will fall”, or “ we need bridges not walls”, etc.

Peteet mentioned the relationship between graffiti and resistance. And I think this is very interesting and true to a great extent. Graffiti on the walls are now seen as part of the Palestinian struggle and resistance against the occupation, also a sign of international solidarity by non-Arabs who come to the oPT that draw and write on the wall as a sign of sympathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people.  Looking at the web site, one can see some examples of drawings and writings on the walls in Palestine. The videos in the site explain the exact message behind writing on walls.

It might look somehow “not civilized” or “not accepted” to draw on walls. Imagine going on campus and drawing on some walls, that does not sound a good or something to be done. But for the Palestinian conflict, it served its context, it delivered a message and now it is a sign or international solidarity against the occupation.

 This quote is written on the apartheid wall between The city of Ramallah, all the way to the wall at East Jerusalem, cutting through the main road that used to connect Ramallah with Jerusalem. This quote was said to be the longest quote on a wall ever, taken from some speech of Nelson Mandela at the time of apartheid.

This is another graffiti writing on the apartheid wall on Qalandia checkpoint, that separates Ramallah from Jerusalem. Many of the drawings are funny as this one.