Authors launch literary festival in cities of the West Bank
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- Written by Esther Addley Esther Addley
- Published: 06 May 2008 06 May 2008
- Hits: 4036 4036
Soueif, one of the festival's organisers, said they had invited "authors who we really liked, and who showed a concern for the world in general".
Others taking part include the Scottish writer Andrew O'Hagan and Pankaj Mishra, who is Indian, as well as the British-Sudanese writer Jamal Mahjoub, and the American-Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad. They will work with Palestinian writers at events in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Jenin and Bethlehem.
Soueif said that the lack of Israelis taking part was not deliberate, but added: "I'm resistant to this idea of always having to twin, that every time you talk about Palestine you have to invite an Israeli, or vice versa. They aren't twinned."
"I have a bit of a trades union attitude when it comes to writers," O'Hagan said. "I admire their individual expertise and I support their collective influence.
"So when I see authors in the world who are silenced or punished or rubbished it feels to me like a personal insult."
The trip, he said, was "not about taking sides but is about arguing for reason and imagination to enjoy its freedoms in a situation dominated by oppressive bigotry".
The London-based Lebanese novelist Hanan al-Shaykh, one of the party, has Palestinian family members but has never visited the West Bank before. "It was always in my mind or my heart, but I never thought I would go," she said.
"I feel personally as if it is forgotten, as if it is like a no man's land, a no-no land. Now that there are festivals in Brazil, in Colombia, everywhere, Palestine and the occupied territories should be one of them. There shouldn't be any obstacles to literature anywhere on Earth."
The festival, which is supported by the British Council and Unesco as well as a number of charitable foundations, may become an annual event, Soueif said, adding that she hoped the project would encourage publishers to translate the authors' works into Arabic and English.
Unicef warns of Iraqis 'at risk'
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- Written by Clive Myrie , BBC News, Baghdad Clive Myrie , BBC News, Baghdad
- Published: 06 May 2008 06 May 2008
- Hits: 3995 3995
It is increasingly hard for Iraqi aid workers to help tens of thousands of people caught up in fighting in Baghdad, according to Unicef.
The Sadr City area of the capital has seen the worst clashes between government forces and Shia militia.
The UN children's agency says over 150,000 people there are having difficulty accessing clean water, food and other essential services.
The Iraqi government says almost 1,000 people have died in recent fighting.
Most of those have been civilians, and aid agencies say around 60% of them are women and children.
Medical shortages
For seven weeks now Iraqi forces, backed up by US troops, have been trying to disarm Shia militiamen, but they have faced stiff resistance.
Unicef is warning that tens of thousands of people are at risk because they cannot freely move within their communities, cut off from clean water and food supplies by snipers or by roads laced with improvised explosive devices.
Fighting has severely damaged water and sewage pipes, posing serious health risks.
Hospitals are reporting shortages of medical supplies, while other health facilities open and close depending on the ability of staff to turn up for work, and are often in locations too dangerous for patients to use.
Unicef wants better access to those in need, and is working hard with the government to get water tankers into affected areas and medical supplies to hospitals and clinics.
The agency is also reporting one other worrying development stemming from the current conflict.
It says there are unconfirmed reports that children are being recruited by Shia militiamen into their ranks.UN suspends food aid to Gaza
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- Written by BBC News BBC News
- Published: 05 May 2008 05 May 2008
- Hits: 4027 4027
The UN is to again suspend distribution of food aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip because of fuel shortages, the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) has said.
The announcement was made several hours after Israel closed two major crossing points into the territory after they came under mortar fire.
UNRWA stopped distributing food aid in Gaza two weeks ago for several days after its vehicles ran out of fuel.
Israel has blockaded Gaza since Hamas took power in the territory last year.
More than 80% of Gaza's population relies on humanitarian assistance, with UN food aid going to about 1.1 million people. A high proportion of them are children.
Aid to 650,000 people would be halted, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said.
The suspension would begin late on Monday, he said, when fuel supplies were expected to be completely exhausted.
He said both the Palestinians and Israelis had promised that UNRWA would receive the fuel it needs to maintain its deliveries, but none had arrived.
Rice visit
The UN was also forced to halt aid deliveries last month when fuel ran out.
Chronic fuel shortages in the Gaza Strip were hampered by a strike by Gaza's fuel distributors and petrol station owners.
But Israel also tightened fuel deliveries to the Nahal Oz terminal on the border after Palestinian militants killed two Israelis.
The Nahal Oz terminal and the Karni crossings - through which most food, fuel and humanitarian aid reaches Gaza - were closed by Israel on Sunday after a mortar attack, AFP news agency said.
Israel has said the crossings are being deliberately targeted by Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are to meet on Monday after meetings with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
She is in the Middle East to lay the ground for a trip by US President George W Bush to the region later this month.
The current peace process, launched at a Middle East conference hosted by Mr Bush in November, has been dogged by a lack of progress.
Ms Rice said she still believed a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians was possible by the year's end, according to commitments made by both sides last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7383636.stm
Published: 2008/05/05 08:50:28 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Israel falsifies lifting of movement restrictions
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- Written by B'Tselem B'Tselem
- Published: 05 May 2008 05 May 2008
- Hits: 3966 3966
Despite its claims of removing physical obstructions to “ease” movement, Israel continues to impose sweeping restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank
The government recently announced that at the end of March 2008, the army began removing 61 physical obstructions – dirt piles, boulders, and blocks – it had placed inside the West Bank. The obstructions were purportedly removed following Israel’s commitment, made in March to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to reduce restrictions on Palestinian movement in the West Bank. However, B'Tselem’s investigation and investigations by other human rights organizations indicate that the government’s declaration was no more than sleight of hand.
Read more: Israel falsifies lifting of movement restrictions
Theater, Ideology and the Censorship of "My Name is Rachel Corrie"
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- Written by WALTER A. DAVIS WALTER A. DAVIS
- Published: 04 May 2008 04 May 2008
- Hits: 4692 4692
I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been struck so to the soul that presently
They have proclaimed their malefactions
Hamlet, 2.2, lines 566-569
There is nothing political in American Literature.
Laura Bush
Read more: Theater, Ideology and the Censorship of "My Name is Rachel Corrie"