The agreement came a day before the 64th Nakba Day on May 15, an annual day of commemoration of the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of Palestinian villages and cities following the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.

The agreement consisted of five main provisions:

The prisoners would end their hunger strike following the signing of the agreement; there will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for “security” reasons, and the 19 prisoners [currently in isolation] will be moved out of isolation within 72 hours; family visits for first degree relatives to prisoners from the Gaza Strip and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visits based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated within one month; the Israeli intelligence agency guarantees that there will be a committee formed to facilitate meetings between the IPS and prisoners in order to improve their daily conditions; there will be no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contain “very serious” information.

Awareness about the hunger strike reached a peak in the days before the agreement was announced. On Facebook there was a huge public display of support as thousands of users changed their profile picture in solidarity with the 2500 Palestinian prisoners. The pictures showed blindfolded Palestinians in prison uniform.

Solidarity on Facebook. Image posted by ‏@tounsiwaftakhir.

Additionally, almost instantaneous updates on the strike were provided on Twitter under the hashtag #PalHunger. Palestinian blogger and activist Linah Al Saafin confirmed that Thaer Halahleh, a prisoner on hunger strike for 77 days, ended his strike following the agreement:

@LinahAlsaafin: BREAKING: #ThaerHalahleh's father just called me; told me Thaer has agreed to end his hunger strike on the morning of 15/5 Tears #PalHunger

Nevertheless, only two days after the agreement there was a general call to continue supporting the hunger strike, because administrative detention had not ended. The director of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Sahar Francis, explained in an interview conducted by Electronic Intifada:

The success in this hunger strike doesn’t mean that the problem of the Palestinian political prisoners has reached an end, and they would be now living in perfect conditions, no. As well, the changes with administrative detention — until we get to monitor it on the practical level, we have to wait and see how it would work.

It is now apparent that a number of prisoners have resumed their hunger strike protesting Israel’s continued mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, such as holding them in isolation.

Learning from the Palestinian hunger strikers: dignity first. Cartoon by Carlos Latuff.

Addameer provides constant updates on Twitter about prisoners. On May 17 it tweeted:

‏@Addameer_ps: Ahmad Sa'adat was taken out of isolation today after over 3 years and moved to Shatta prison

@Addameer_ps: As far as we know, there are at least 4 hunger strikers now: #MohammadTaj, #MahmoudSarsak, #AkramRikhawi & #MohammadAbdelAziz

@Addameer_ps: Because he's still on hunger strike, #MahmoudSarsak is not even guaranteed release date of 22 Aug (next date of judicial review)

An agreement may have been reached, but the Palestinian prisoners will not rest until their demands are met. They are ready to strike again if the agreement's terms are not implemented.

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According to the festival's founder, Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif, having the festival in Gaza has been the ultimate goal of the event since it began, but it has always faced tremendous difficulties in getting permits for the participating authors to come through the Rafah Crossing. This year they were successful at last, and a group of about forty Egyptian, Tunisian, Sudanese and Palestinian authors, artists and activists were granted permission to visit Gaza and participate in PalFest 2012 from May 5 to 10.

Books donated to PalFest Gaza. Image by PalFest on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Workshops

The first day of the event, May 6, was dedicated to workshops at three universities: Al Aqsa University, Al Azhar University and the Islamic Univeristy. As blogger Nader ElKhuzundar described:

The events kicked off by holding two workshops at both Al Azhar and the Islamic University of Gaza on writing and blogging in both Arabic and English. PalFest 2012 authors were astonished by the fact that many students attended the workshops. They were more astonished by the fact that most of the attendees were females.

Palestinian bloggers and tweeps attending PalFest. Image by @tamer_ps and posted by @olanan.

Music and poetry

The next day, May 7, was for a lot of the Palestinians the highlight of the PalFest activities. A four-hour concert took place at Rashad Al Shawa Cultural Theatre, with three Palestinian groups and the Egyptian group Eskenderella.

Palestinian Roba Salibi wrote:

In the following video uploaded by PalFest, Egyptian poet Amin Haddad recites a poem, and Eskenderella performs “Ya Falisteeniya” (O Palestinian):

Egypt and Palestine together

Throughout PalFest there was a strong sense of solidarity between the Palestinians and Egyptians. Palestinian Tamer Hamam commented:

Nour Abed wrote:

#PalHunger

A mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners was not forgotten by the participants. Egyptian Samia Jaheen tweeted:

Palestinian blogger Matar wrote:

Palestinian Mahmoud Omar echoed the sentiment:

@_Mahmoud: NOTE: #PalfestGaza is totally consistent with #PalHunger , don't think otherwise.

Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif at the #PalHunger sit-in. Image by PalFest on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Shutdown

Despite having permission for its events, PalFest attracted the attention of members of the Hamas government. Nader ElKhuzundar described what happened:

In the last day of PalFest, a session was held in Qasr Al-Basha in the old part of Gaza City. The session included a goodbye performance by Eskenderella as well as speeches, presentations and readings by PalFest authors. The event drifted into [a discussion of] politics and suddenly, the electricity was cut. Everybody thought it was the electricity schedule under which Gaza has been living for years now so they continued the event. Five minutes later, a suspicious movement was noticed by the hall’s entrance then suddenly, the police stormed the hall, confiscated a woman’s camera as she was filming the event and called the event off claiming that there’s no official permit. […] Three hours later, the Chief of Police, his deputy and a colonel in the Interior Ministry visited the hotel. They officially apologized, stating it was an “individual error” and that they have opened an investigation into what happened. They stated that PalFest would always be welcome in Gaza.

However, a member of Hamas security admitted that the authorities had been reading the PalFest delegation's tweets and press statements, and were angered by the accusations that Hamas suppresses freedom of speech in Gaza.

Palestinian Saif Al Yazori wrote:

Blogger Nalan Sarraj wrote:

I want to apologize to the Palfest crew, but it's not my fault my government authority [Hamas] forgot how to love Palestine.

Dr Haidar Eid introducing the closing night of PalFest. Image by PalFest on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Goodbyes

Palestinian Ebaa Rezeq was sad to see PalFest end:

Egyptian Nariman wrote:

Written by Ola Anan · comments (2)
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Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices Podcast.

In this edition we explore the latest work and events in the Global Voices community. We also speak with some friends about the cross cultural elements of our lives, with a special focus on food: both food for thought, and to eat!

Silvia Vinas

First up, Silvia Viñas our Latin America regional editor, has been finding out more about translation on the Web. Intercontinental Cry is is a grassroots journal for the global indigenous movement, providing news, videos, petitions, commentary and action alerts. The site recently launched in Spanish, so Silvia had a chat with Editor and Publisher Alex Cacherino-Gorman, about spreading the news in a different language.

A previous version of the podcast said Silvia Viñas spoke to John Ahniwanika Schertow. Silvia actually spoke to Intercontinental Cry in Spanish editor Alex Cachinero-Gorman.

New Rising Voices grantees

Last month we announced, six new Rising Voices grantees from Guatemala, United States, Paraguay, Palestine, Peru and Myanmar. These new project have joined our global community will each receive microgrants to help get their ideas off the ground. Congratulations to all of the grantees!

Rising Voices

Beatrice Catanzaro is a visual artist and one of the newest additions to the Rising Voices community with her project, Food Tales from Nablus. Alongside her friend Fatima she is working with women from the heart of the Old City in the city of Nablus, Palestine, to celebrate their culinary skills. One of the major components of their project will be the creation a cooking school for foreign visitors that will employ local women as chefs and instructors. We speak with these two amazing ladies to find out more about their work.

Food across borders

If there’s one thing we like to share together at Global Voices - as well as news and stories - it has to be food. This July 2-3, we will be at the Global Voices Summit 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya, and it will be a pleasure to meet, discuss and eat with colleagues from around the world.

Gustavo Arellano, editor of the OC Weekly in Orange County, California and the writer behind ‘Ask a Mexican‘, has been on a culinary journey to find out how Mexican food has become so popular in the United States in his new book, Taco USA. Journalist, producer and blogger, Cyrus Farivar chats with Gustavo about the flavours that cross borders.

Mexican Food on 1806 Haight St in San Francisco, California. Photo by Rupert Ganzer on flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the podcast. As ever a huge thank you goes to all of our contributors and interviewees, and especially to Yazan for being great company and a brilliant co-presenter. Whether it is food for thought or something to eat, the Global Voices community always has it covered.

The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’re listening!

Music credits

In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. Thanks to Mark Cotton for his fantastic creations and thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

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There are more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and around 320 have been held without charge or trial under so-called administrative detention.

The situation in Israeli prisons has deteriorated over the years. The prisoners are demanding an end to solitary confinement, administrative detentions and punitive measures. Protests have taken place in the past, but this strike is different, following as it does the widely reported strike of Khader Adnan.

Blogger and journalist Joseph Dana wrote about Adnan's case in February:

Mr Adnan’s story is emblematic of the administrative detention experience of many Palestinians. He claims to have been beaten and humiliated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, and began his hunger strike in protest.

Freedom for Bilal Dhiab and all our prisoners. Image from Facebook page of We Are All Hana Shalabi.

In the current strike two prisoners, Bilal Dhiab and Thaer Halahleh, are at grave risk of death.

Information on the hunger strike and solidarity actions can be found at the Twitter hashtag #PalHunger.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association based in Ramallah has been tweeting updates about the strike:

@Addameer_ps: In Ohalei Keidar prison, the 96 hunger strikers are all placed in solitary confinement cells, 2 prisoners to 1 cell. #palhunger

@Addameer_ps: 220 prisoners are on hunger strike in Ofer prison. #palhunger

@Addameer_ps: All 105 Palestinian prisoners in Eshel prison are on hunger strike #palhunger

@Addameer_ps: Hunger strikers in Naqab prison are being arbitrarily searched each day, including raids of their cells and body searches #palhunger

@Addameer_ps: Addameer currently estimating between 2,000 and 2,500 prisoners on hunger strike, but could be more #palhunger

Walaa Al Ghussein in Gaza tweeted:

@WalaaGh: My aunt's fiance is on his 20 day of hunger strike now, She is waiting him to get married,she don't want him to die! #PalHunger #Palestine

Activist Ali Abunimah ‏commented:

@AliAbunimah: Western media kept demanding “Palestinian Gandhis.” Now that 2000 political prisoners are on hunger strike they ignore. #PalHunger

Written by Jummana Kahlout · comments (6)
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Many in Egypt have criticised the Grand Mufti for his visit. Zeinobia commented on the fact that people from different political backgrounds in Egypt have finally agreed on something:

You can imagine the uproar in the Egyptian political scene after few hours of knowing about this visit. The nationalists, leftists and Islamists suddenly found something to agree upon at last.

Zeinobia also quoted presidential candidates such as Abdel Moneim Aboul-Fotouh [ar] and Hamdeen Sabahi [ar], as well as MP Essam Sultan [ar] of Al Wasat Party, who all criticised Ali Gomaa.

Grand Mufti in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Photo shared by Twitter user @alhabibali

Some of the criticism focuses on the point that acquiring a visa from Israel is considered a form of normalisation and recognition of the state of Israel. But Gomaa said, “I did not go on an Israeli visa. It was all organized by the Jordanian authorities.”

Zeinobia elaborated:

Sheikh Ali Gomaa was invited to visit the Holy places in East Jerusalem by the Royal Jordanian family which till this day is supervising the Islamic Holy sites in Jerusalem. (A piece of information I had not known before that day.) He was accompanied by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, King Abdullah’s cousin and his chief religious advisor. They were inaugurating the renovation of the Mughrabi Bridge, which leads into the courtyard of al-Aqsa mosque as well the Ghazli seat.

Khaled El-Baramawy tweeted:

Tunisian Twitter user Tounsia Hourra mocked the Mufti's denial that he took an Israeli visa:
‏

Aboul Maali Faek still regards the visit as recognition of Israel:

Ahmad Esseily, on the other hand, had a point concerning recognition:

This brings us to the fact that Pope Shenouda III, the Pope and Patriarch of the Church of Alexandria, who passed away a few weeks ago, requested Copts not to visit Jerusalem until peace was established in the region. Aly Elshafei ‏asked people to compare the two stances:

Nawara Negm joked in one of her tweets [ar] that the Mufti was waiting for the Pope to pass away before going there. According to Reem Al-Ashry things have changed for Copts since the Pope's death:

Mahmoud Hussien tweeted [ar] that the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists were waiting for something like this, since they want to replace the Mufti with one of their own. Issandr El Amrani also expects they will call for him to be sacked:

He might also have known that the Islamist-dominated parliament would not be happy with this, and indeed there is now a move by Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood MPs to question him and possibly sack him (something that in theory is the prerogative of the president, or for now SCAF).

Emad Arab [ar] and Samar Ali [ar] both called for the Mufti to be sacked. Mourid El-Barghouti, Palestinian poet and author living in Egypt tweeted:

Al-Habib Ali Algafry is a Sufi scholar who also visited Jerusalem recently, and he congratulated [ar] the Mufti on his visit and on praying in Al-Aqsa mosque. The Saudi Islamic scholar Abdulrahman Al-Harfi attacked them both:

Monmon Salah commented [ar] that paying a visit to a prisoner is always useful to him and not to his jailers. As if she predicted this visit, Palestinian blogger Hanadi wrote a couple of months ago:

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We seek to show the world a better image of Gaza (an image that exists, but has been ignored for so long), by empowerment through knowledge and by providing a venue for youth to speak out about Gaza's forgotten face.

On April 15, Diwan Ghazza announced a competition that is open to Palestinian bloggers everywhere. The idea is to collect the 100 best Palestinian blog posts, and then to publish them in a book, in Arabic and English if possible, later this year.

This contest was inspired by a recent initiative called the “100 Posts” book project [ar], by a group of Egyptian bloggers. That project resulted in a book called “The Alphabet of Spontaneous Creativity” [ar], which contained 100 posts written by Arab bloggers from five different countries (including seven Palestinian bloggers, one of them me). The paper version of the book was launched at the Cairo International Book Fair in February 2012.

The following are the rules [ar] for “100 Palestinian Blog Posts”:

1 - Each blogger is asked to nominate one blog entry only, previously published on his/her own blog.

2 - Entries will be accepted in Arabic or English.

3 - Entries can be in one or more of the following categories: literature, poetry, society, politics, fiction, and thoughts.

4 - Entries should have been written during 2011 and 2012.

5 - Entries should not have been formally published in any paper or electronic form (such as journals, books or magazines).

6 - Entries should not contain insults, racist or anti-religious content, or politically sensitive subjects.

The contest is open to any Palestinian blogger, regardless of his or her country of residence. Entries will be evaluated by a jury of Arab and Palestinian authors, in addition to an online voting process.

Those interested in participating should fill out the form here [ar].

For further information, see the official event page on Facebook [ar], or contact diwanghazza@gmail.com.

Written by Ola Anan · comments (1)
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On April 15, 2011, news came of the kidnapping and then murder in Gaza of Vittorio Arrigoni, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, an event which sent shock waves through the world of international activism, its ripples felt far beyond the online world.

Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza, from his Facebook profile.

Vittorio, better known as Vik, provided a first person account of Gaza and Palestine on his blog Guerrilla Radio, concluding each post with the message Restiamo umani (Stay Human). The blog is still active today, thanks to the efforts of friends and collaborators, who keep his memory and engagement alive by documenting and describing the everyday lives, difficulties and violence suffered by Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Facebook pages [ar] in several different languages have been created and dedicated to his memory.

A year after his death, many initiatives have been organised to commemorate his courageous defense of human rights and support of the Palestinian cause. Events and demonstrations are planned for various cities in Italy (for a complete list see this Facebook page), but there will also be events in several European cities, including Paris [fr] , Madrid [es], Cologne and Palma de Mallorca [es], as well as in Gaza, Ramallah and in Cairo [all en].

Demonstration in Gaza in memory of Arrigoni - April 15 , 2012, from Facebook

The independent news network Globalist.it is running a retrospective of Arrigoni's work and writings (some of it previously unpublished) and has allowed friends, writers and journalists ample space to share their memories and stories of Arrigoni.

Another initiative, established with the support of Arrigoni's family, has taken the form of a reading movie, produced thanks to a crowdfunding initiative which ended on March 31, 2012. Nineteen international figures (including Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Brian Eno, Stéphane Hessel, Luisa Morgantini, Moni Ovadia, Ilan Pappé and Roger Waters) who have, in the past, shown interest and engagement, from a cultural or humanitarian perspective, with the tragic consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, have agreed to “lend their voices” to the reading of 19 chapters of the book Gaza - Restiamo Umani (Gaza - Stay Human), a collection of Arrigoni's articles written during his months in Palestine as part of the “Piombo Fuso” [”Melted Lead”] operation.

The trailer for the film  “Gaza - Stay Human” [en]:

In addition to the commemorative events there is also an important and significant initiative being organised by the international Freedom Flotilla network. On Sunday, April 15, an international mission of 1,500 Italian and international activists will set out to “break the isolation and the siege of Palestine”.

On the initiative's site they declared:

Questa nuova missione ha per obiettivo, quello di rivendicare il diritto di entrare in Palestina e la libera circolazione per i palestinesi e per chiunque voglia andare a trovarli, rompendo l’assedio “di fatto” che Israele pratica anche in Cisgiordania. […] Il nostro progetto è trasparente: noi andiamo direttamente in Cisgiordania per contribuire alla costruzione di una scuola. Il terreno è già stato acquistato, i lavori sono iniziati e quello che vedete qui sopra è il progetto degli edifici. All’uscita dell’aeroporto di Tel Aviv, il 15 aprile, ci aspetteranno delle auto per portarci direttamente a Betlemme, dove le famiglie e le associazioni palestinesi ci riceveranno.

For news and live updates on the initiative you can follow the @freedomflotita account and the hashtags #flytilla and #airflotilla2 on Twitter.

Currently Vittorio's Facebook page is the main location for sharing and announcing events and memories. Messages of support and memories have been circulating for days on Twitter as well, even if there are plenty of critics as well.

For example, @dscanferla writes:

I paci-finti non si smentiscono mai, #Arrigoni è morto da un anno, il processo a #Gaza è una farsa e per loro la colpa è d'#Israele ???

Rosa Schiano, an activist and photo-reporter who knew Vik personally, describes a demonstration organised by children from Beit Lahia:

@infoxresist I bambini di Beit Lahia, a nord della Striscia di Gaza, ricordano vik con musica e e rappresentazioni.

A year after his tragic death however, the events leading to his death remain uncertain. A motive for the killing has yet to emerge from the 14 court hearings held so far and many suspect the Israeli police of mishandling information.

Michele Giorgio addressed that view on the Near East News Agency site:

Ritrattando in buona parte le confessioni che avevano reso negli interrogatori seguiti all’arresto da parte della polizia di Hamas, i tre – Mahmud Salfiti, Tamer Hasasnah e Khader Jram – hanno recitato, davanti ai giudici della corte militare di Gaza city, la parte dei giovani difensori delle tradizioni sociali «minacciate» da un presunto stile di vita troppo «liberal» di Vittorio. Più di tutto hanno negato di essere stati a conoscenza di un piano per uccidere l’attivista italiano. È evidente il tentativo degli avvocati della difesa di far ricadere tutte le responsabilità su Breizat e Omari che non possono raccontare la loro versione dei fatti. La prossima udienza è fissata per il 14 maggio e secondo alcune voci potrebbe essere l’ultima prima della sentenza.

Two Partito Democratico (Democratic Party) MPs - Vincenzo Vita and Lucia Codurelli - tabled a question in the Italian parliament in order to seek clarification from the government of the motives behind the kidnapping and killing of the activist.

Please stay human.

Written by Paola DOrazio · Translated by Ciara Nugent · View original post [it] · comments (0)
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In addition to an ongoing Israeli-led blockade, the Gaza Strip is suffering from a fresh fuel crisis, with the only fuel currently available being an overpriced Israeli fuel supply in limited quantities. The shortage of fuel has added to the shortage of electricity, as it is used to supply the main generators of the electricity company, alternative power generators at hospitals, bakeries and sewage pumps, in addition to power generators used in households.

Palestinians wait to fill containers with fuel. Image by Majdi Fathi, copyright Demotix (21/03/2012).

Gaza's netizens have been commenting on the situation (when there is electricity to do so):

@Omar_Gaza: Gaza is heading into very dark dangerous turn because of fuel shortage! Bakeries, schools, hospitals, stores, cars, taxies & life will stop sooooon

The first victim of the power outage facing the Strip was seven-month-old baby Mohammed Al Helou, who died after the generator running his respirator ran out of fuel.

@LeilZahra: As we tweet the energy away, hospitals in #Gaza are denied the life-saving energy to sustain their patients #Gas4Gaza

Shortage of electricity and/or fuel is becoming the most popular topic among Palestinians on social media platforms. Things such as Facebook statuses cursing the electricity company, or happy tweets indicating the return of electricity, have become customary.

The electricity company has been dividing the Gaza Strip into areas and neighborhoods, and each gets a power supply for six hours daily on a rotating basis.

Blogger Randa Abu Ramadan has written a blog post [ar] that analyzes your personality according to the time your house gets electricity:

Moreover, people have to find a way to organize their day according to electricity. Yousef Abu Watfa, a reporter for Al Jazeera Talk, has written [ar] about how his friend's mother is affected when doing housework:

Large numbers of gas tubes are accumulating in stations in the Gaza Strip, as the fuel crisis deepens. Image by Ahmed Deeb, copyright Demotix (05/03/2012).

This could be summarized in a tweet written by Fady [ar]:

Nour Abed, a school teacher, tweets [ar]:

As a recent poll shows that 48 percent of Gazans blame their local government for the fuel crisis in Gaza. Izz Shawa wrote on Twitter [ar]:

Blogger Yasser Ashour also noticed the exchange of accusations between Palestinian officials as he wrote on his blog [ar]:

Although the official representatives of the Gaza government have come out with a number of declarations defending themselves, claiming that a huge “conspiracy” is being conducted against them, a lot of people are still not convinced. Blogger and photographer Khaled Safi writes in a blog post [ar]:

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Syrian revolution support reached Sao Paulo, Brazil, on March 18, 2012. Hundreds of activists in Sao Paulo rallied to show their solidarity with the Syrian struggle on its first anniversary. The event took place as part of Global March Against the Syrian Dictator and in support of Palestine against Israeli occupation.

The activists shared photos and videos on Twitter and YouTube, for example Nadine Bekdache‏ (@NadineBek [pt]) who posted:

fotos da passeata hoje em #SaoPaulo apoiando a revolação #Siria - A #palestina estava em todas as palavras ditas

Brazilian committee to support Syrian Revolution. Via @NadineBek on Twitter (used with permission)

Although the protest numbers did not reflect the whole Arab community that exists in Sao Paulo, people from different cultures, origins and backgrounds gathered to demonstrate: Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Brazilians, human rights activists and a leftist representative from a party from Argentina. The march started from Shopping Paulista to the MASP art museum and went via the Paulista avenue.

A video posted on YouTube [ar] described the actions of the protest:

واحد واحد واحد الشعب السورية واحد، بعد هذا الهتاف تأتي هذه الكلمة الذي يقول فيها المتكلم أن في سورية هدف واحد وهو إسقاط النظام ونحن هنا نتعلم من الثورة ورغم الصعوبات سنعمل كي نبقى موحدين. بإختصار: ثم يعتذر عن إنفعاله ويقول أن قضيته هي فلسطين وبأن ثورات كل البلدان العربية هي من شأنه وبإنه يؤمن أن من خلال حرية العالم العربي نقضي على إسرائيل. وينتظر أن يتغير النظام في الأردن أيضا ويحيي المغرب على حراكهم

The march stopped at the Syrian and Lebanese consulates (although they were on their day off) chanting and requesting Lebanese officials to treat the Syrian refugees with respect, to provide them with necessities, and to open the borders for Syrians who are escaping the tyranny of the Syrian regime.

"Absolute Support to Syrian Revolution." Via @NadineBek on Twitter (used with permission)

Speeches focused a lot on Palestine, free Syria, occupy Golan heights, and called for a united Syria while rejecting foreign intervention.

"For a united nation, secular and democratic. Palestine will be free." Via @NadineBek on Twitter (used with permission)

This post is part of our special coverage Syria Protests 2011/12.

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The new hashtag went viral on Twitter, became a trending topic around the world, and even became a top story on the Twitter Discover page.

@JalalAK_jojo: #TerroristIsrael number One story on Twitter Discover now

The content of the tweets with this hashtag varied.

Some tweets included information and statistics:

@MadeInNablus: #TerroristIsrael has denied the right of millions of Palestinians to return to their homeland. 1 in 3 refugees worldwide is a Palestinian.

…or mentions of previous attacks:

@MarahMajed: ضرب مدارس قطاع غزة اثناء الحرب بالصواريخ و الفسفور المحرم دولياً والتي كانت تمتلىء بالمدنيين الغزيين

…while other tweets contained powerful images:

@AnjumKiani: Could be Your sister, my sister ! #TerroristIsrael Take pictures & intimidate students in #Palestine #Gaza

Israeli soldiers posing with a Young Palestinian hostage.

…not to mention a lot of emotional and supportive tweets in different languages:

@Nortencabronado: El mundo encontrara la paz cuando Palestina sea libre y reconocida como un País. Viva palestina Viva Gaza Viva la PAZ!

A lot of Twitter users were convinced that pro-Palestinian topics are always being censored and prevented from trending worldwide, and so were surprised at the success on this occasion.

@WafaFt: Stunned that #TerroristIsrael is actually trending, didn't think twitter would let that happen

However, this wasn't the first time that a Palestinian hashtag trended worldwide. Just a few weeks ago, activists on Twitter were publicising the case of Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan. A daily hashtag was created for his case - different each day - and each day managed to trend worldwide. The same pattern is now being used to advocate for Hana Shalabi, now on her 24th day of hunger strike.

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On the afternoon of March 9, Zuheir al-Qaysi, secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), was assassinated during an Israeli raid on Gaza City, along with his assistant Abu Ahmad Hanani. Hanani was originally from Nablus and was deported to Gaza as one of the prisoners freed in the prisoner swap deal a few months ago.

In retaliation, Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip fired rockets into Israel, with no casualties. Israel came back with severe airstrikes that shook Gaza and left 12 martyrs altogether, identified by Ma'an News Agency as Muhammad al-Ghamry, Fayiq Saad, Muatasim Hajjaj, Ubeid Gharabli, Muhammad Hararah, Hazim Qureiqi, Shadi Sayqali, Zuheir al-Qaysi, Mahmoud Hanani, Muhammad Maghari, Mahmoud Najim, and Ahmad Hajjaj. Some reports are now saying that 15 people have died.

Bombing of Gaza City by Israeli fighter jets. Image by Twitter user @journeytogaza.

Gaza's netizens have responded to the attacks on Twitter:

@MaathMusleh: 15 were murdered in Gaza till now, No WORRIES they're just Palestinians!! #GazaUnderAttack

@ectomorfo: Pray for the people of Gaza. No lights, little medicine, no gas. And now they're being bombarded from all sides by #Israel. #GazaUnderAttack

@Omar_Gaza: 18 minutes with no explosions! Cautious silence? is it over? or should I keep holding my breath? #GazaMassacre #GazaUnderAttack

@najlashawa: i dont know how i am still typing that was LOUD! #GAzaUnderAttack

@imNadZ: Welcome to #Gaza. Where sunshine is explosions. Where birds are F16s.

This attack comes at a time of shifting regional and political alliances. Last week, in light of increasing prospects of an American-Israeli war on Iran, two top Hamas officials announced that Hamas would not get involved and support Iran in case of an Israeli attack. Hamas has also declared its support of the Syrian people in their struggle against Assad.

Written by Yasmeen El Khoudary · comments (5)
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Written by محمد عادل · Translated by Mohamed Adel · View original post [ar] · comments (0)
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The activists did not leave when Mora told them to keep quiet, visibly impatient and irritated by their presence. What happened next? The answer is so surreal that you should see it by yourselves. Here is the link to the video.

Screenshot of the video in the moment when Antonio Mora holds his belt as he walks towards the activist.

Shockingly, Mora removes his belt and raises it as if to strike one of the women with it, while a second woman records the scene with her mobile phone. A few seconds later he drops the belt and tries to push the other woman out of the room.

The fact that this reaction comes from the head of a press association has sparked shock and disbelief among Spanish netizens, who have flooded Twitter with comments and even created a hashtag with the Head´s name: #antoniomora.  Spanish journalist Juan Luis Sánchez tweeted:

Lo que da miedo no es que se ponga violento, sino su gesto de sacarse la correa y doblarla friamente. Como si lo hubiera hecho antes.

Journalist Lydia Molina agrees:

Lo más perturbador es la tranquilidad con la que se quita la correa para pegarle a la chavala. No será la primera vez.

The Journalists Union of Andalucía has demanded Mora's resignation [es]. Mora has since resigned [es]. According to the Union's representatives:

Consideramos esta conducta inaceptable por entender que la actitud del Presidente de la Asociación es más propia de otros tiempos vividos en España durante la dictadura franquista en la que a mujeres, niños y animales se les pretendía corregir sus actitudes o castigar a golpes de correa.

Written by Leila Nachawati Rego · comments (1)
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Palestinian youth activist and Stanford alumnus, Fadi Quran. Photo by Jeff Mendelman. Used with permission.

Palestinian youth activist Fadi Quran has been released on bail from an Israeli prison. The news was welcomed by dozens of Twitter users who expressed great joy.

On Twitter, Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab reacts to his arrest:

@daoudkuttab: Israelis threw @fadiquran an American Palestinian nonviolent activists deep in Israel with 2 other Palestinians. No US murmur !!!. #freefadi

Quran was arrested in Hebron on February 23, 2012 - the day of his birthday - after allegedly pushing an Israeli police officer. At the time of the arrest, Fadi and his peers were protesting against the closure of Shuhada Street in Hebron, one of the city's main thoroughfares, on which Palestinians have been forbidden to walk or drive on for over a decade.

A video of Quran's arrest was uploaded on YouTube by the New York-based Institute for Middle East Understanding:

Social media networks quickly picked up on Quran's arrest. On Friday, a Facebook page Free Fadi Quran was created. Quran's friends and supporters also changed their profile pictures on different social media platforms to show solidarity. And on February 26, Quran's Stanford colleagues created the website freefadi.org to raise awareness about his arrest. On Twitter, news about his arrest and later on his release was tweeted under the hash tag #FreeFadi.

Stanford student Lila Kalaf's online petition was created on change.org to call for his release.

Fadi Quran was one of the members of the nonviolent freedom rides organised in November 2010.

Palestinian Freedom Riders

The movement was modeled following the 1963 freedom rides in the United States against racial segregation. In this case, Palestinians protested against apartheid which prevents Palestinians from traveling freely to Jerusalem from West Bank.

Written by Ahmed Medien · comments (1)
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It's quite surprising to see that people are quite surprised to hear that there's a book club in Gaza, but I guess that's exactly why we started Diwan Ghazza. Let me tell you our story.

A group of my friends and I are fed up with the way the world regards Gaza (with the usual media coverage on the negative side of life here) and disregards the other face: the historic, the beautiful, the educated, and the inspirational. We decided that Gaza is a city no less capable than other cities, and the fact that we have gone through so much should add to our credit. Gaza breeds thinkers, and the only thing it teaches them is that they should do the thinking themselves. There are no cultural centers, theatres, cinemas or updated public libraries in Gaza, but that wasn’t going to stop us.

So we decided to put our thoughts, time and energy into creating a group that we would be proud of belonging to. Its quite funny actually, that whenever people ask us what “Diwan Ghazza” is, our answer, “we're a group of friends interested in knowledge and in improving Gaza's image in the world”, they don't get it. How can we not be a registered society or an NGO?! Why are we not asking for funding?! How can you not have an office!?

But Diwan Ghazza is much simpler than that. We're not willing to be subject to boring NGO or donor regulations. Why should we seek to become “officially registered” and ask for donations when we can do great work without any money?

Our first activity was the first Gaza Tweet-Up in July 2011, which gathered about 30 tweeps from Gaza, many of them meeting for the first time. We discussed everything from our role and responsibility as Gaza tweeps to future activities by Diwan. Later, we organized an online tweet up with Frode Mauring, Special Representative of the Administrator in the occupied Palestinian territories. We also organized several meetings between youth activists in Gaza and UNDP and other diplomats, including a diplomatic and cultural mission from Sweden.

Simultaneously, in July 2011, I became the Gaza Coordinator for the amazing Palestine Writing Workshop. We organized several writing e-workshops (generously hosted by the British Council), which were attended by an array of students and professionals who greatly benefited from the experiences of renowned authors from around the globe.

Later, we started the Gaza Book Club chapter with two novels: “Zabelle” by Nancy Kricorian and “The Road from Damascus” by Robin Yassin-Kassab. We also had a very insightful discussion about Zabelle with Nancy Kricorian after reading the novel, and are looking forward to a discussion with Robin Yassin-Kassab soon!

The Gaza Book Club

Our group started growing, and more and more people became interested in Diwan Ghazza and in the book club. But we didn't want to limit ourselves to English books or to novels, or to a small group of people. Neither did we have an updated library or bookstore option. Thus, we decided to start the Diwan Ghazza Book Exchange Club. And we did.

Our first meeting was in January, and was attended by 18 people, and yielded over 25 books. From books about Gaza's Christian history, to a translated Norwegian novel “Hunger”, by Knut Hamsun, to Charles Dickens, to Sahar Khalife, the books were a beautiful assortment. We met again last week, with more people and more books (we did not count, but the pile was HUGE).

This time, Ahmed Matar's poetry, fresh books about the Egyptian revolution, and Paulo Coelhos' books were among the collection. We swapped books again, but were left with a huge pile. Thankfully, the place that hosts our events, Almat'haf Hotel (Gaza's first museum of archeology and cultural house) offered to host our mini library in the hotel's business center. Anyone who's interested can check out our virtual shelf on Good Reads but our only condition is that you write a book review!

And by doing that, we are slowly building a model to show that a LOT can be done in Gaza without any donations. All you need is genuine commitment and mutual interests. I hope I was able to answer your questions about Diwan Ghazza, our book club and on how we're attempting to restore our Gaza, to which Choricius of Gaza (491-518 AD) [pdf] once belonged, and established Gaza's School of Rhetoric - a beacon of knowledge during Late Antiquity!

Written by Yasmeen El Khoudary · comments (3)
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