TODAY in PALESTINE

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Land Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Restriction of Movement / Apartheid & Occupation

Israel demolishes home in East Jerusalem

Israeli authorities demolished a home in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of the Mount of Olives on Monday morning. The Aramin family of eight persons, of whom six are children, is now homeless.
link to www.alternativenews.org

Clashes erupt in Bedouin village as Israel’s Interior Ministry distributes demolition orders

Bedouin claim Israel Police fired tear gas at local school ; police deny allegation, saying tear gas was used to disperse riot 300 meters away.
link to www.haaretz.com

Home, Pool, Car Repair Shop Demolished In Jerusalem, Bethlehem And Hebron

Israeli soldiers demolished, Tuesday, one home in Jerusalem, a car repair shop in Husan village, near Bethlehem, and a water pool in Beit Einoon village, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
link to www.imemc.org

Israel’s Parks Authority names plan to demolish Palestinian structures

’They See Not, Nor Know’Israel Nature and Parks Authority says name of plan for National Park in East Jerusalem, slated to displace Palestinian residents, is ’poor choice of words.’
link to www.haaretz.com

Couldn’t make this up — Official name of Israeli demolition plan for new East Jerusalem park is ‘They Won’t Know and Won’t Understand 2012′
"They Won’t Know and Won’t Understand 2012” – this is the name that was given to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority plan to demolish Arab structures and remove rubble in the area of the Mount Scopus Slope National Park, slated to be established in East Jerusalem.
link to mondoweiss.net

Ground Cracks in Silwan due to Israeli Excavations

Ground and earth collapses occurred in the main street of the Neighborhood of Wadi Helwe in Silwan due do the Israeli excavations in the area.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Occupation seizes financial accounts of the Orthodox Church in Jerusalem

The head of the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem District Electricity company, Yousef Al Dajani, called for an urgent processing of the file of the crisis of the company’s accumulated debt.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Army Occupies School In Jenin

Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday evening, a school east of Jenin city, in the northern part of the West Bank, and used it as a military post and monitoring tower.
link to www.imemc.org

AICvision : land of sad olives

A special programme on this year’s Palestinian olive harvest, now in its final days. On this subject we interview Nidal Azza from the Badil association and a lecturer in refugee rights at Al Quds University.
link to www.alternativenews.org

Refugees

The Struggle of Twice-Displaced Refugees : Palestinians Fleeing Syria to Lebanon
Meesar Lahan’s personal story represents thousands of Palestinian refugees filtering into the Shatila refugee camp of Lebanon from war-stricken Syria. Their move to Lebanon represents a second displacement (the first being from Palestine), and many of these refugees are giving up hope, some even considering a return with their families back to Syria. The labyrinth of discrimination and segregation specific to the already existing Palestinian refugee population of Lebanon has made many of the new arrivals feel that Syria, despite the violence, offers more dignity and a greater ability to live within their economic means.
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Palestinians in Lebanon Angry, Not Surprised Over Abbas Statement
Abbas’ recent statement on Israeli TV seemingly brushed aside Palestinians’ right of return. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon expressed little surprise over this statement, saying that their situation has little significance in the eyes of their supposed leaders.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Israeli & Egyptian Siege on Gaza

The Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf : breaking the siege on Gaza is an Islamic duty
The Undersecretary of the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf, Dr. Jamal Abdul Sattar, said that the breaking of the siege on the Gaza strip is an Islamic duty.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Counting Calories and Making Lemonade in Gaza, Sherene Seikaly
The calorie is a crucial measurement in our self-imposed scrutiny of the body. As a recently released Israeli government document shows, it is also an instrument of rule., After a two-year legal battle, the Israeli human rights organization Gisha has secured the release of “Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip — Red Lines.”
link to www.jadaliyya.com

Israeli Terrorism

Video : Watch Netanyahu ‘prepare international public opinion for an Israeli operation in Gaza’
Above is video of Benjamin Netanyahu addressing around 50 foreign ambassadors yesterday in Ashkelon as part of his effort to "shore up international support for a possible military ground operation into Gaza." To really capture the energy in the room, run this sound effect in the background while you watch the video.
link to mondoweiss.net

Likud MK : Haniyeh must be eliminated
Debate between Yariv Levin and Ahmad Tibi turns heated when MKs discuss latest round of violence in south.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Gaza death toll climbs to seven
Israel continued its aerial bombardment of Gaza for a fourth consecutive day Tuesday morning, striking an uninhabited area it said was used to store weapons and launch rockets, as a 20-year-old Palestinian died from injuries sustained during Israeli attacks on Saturday. The man, Mohammed Ziad Abdullah Quno, was critically wounded when Israeli tanks shelled a civilian area in Gaza City Saturday, killing four others, mostly children, and injuring at least 25. Quno’s death brings the total number of people killed in Gaza to seven since Saturday.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Fighter Dies Of Wounds Suffered Saturday
Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip reported, Tuesday, that a resistance fighter died of wounds suffered last Saturday during the latest wave of Israeli military escalation against the coastal region.
link to www.imemc.org

Palestinian family survives Israeli shelling of its house
A Palestinian family miraculously escaped death on Tuesday after an Israeli artillery shell blasted on the roof of their house to the north of Gaza Strip.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israeli settlers storm evacuated settlement in Jenin
The Israeli settlers stormed on Tuesday afternoon the evacuated settlement Kadim east of Jenin, cut off the road and tried to assault citizens.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IDF Colonel Accused of War Crimes Promoted to General, Richard Silverstein
The IDF likes to reverse the old saying : “Let no good deed go unpunished.” It likes to ensure that no war crime goes unrewarded. Col. Ilan Malka, who was named by the Goldstone Report as possibly responsible for two sets of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead (one of them was the murder of the al-Samouni family, resulting in the deaths of 20 civilians including women and children), just received a promotion from the IDF chief of staff. He will be the new chief of staff of the Central Command, assigned to protect settlements and provide the security necessary for expanding the settler enterprise in the West Bank. He will rise in rank from Colonel to Brigadier General.
link to www.richardsilverstein.com

Israeli who revealed “medieval-style” torture of Palestinians faces virulent backlash, Ali Abunimah
“Without exaggeration and without even a drop of melodrama for enhancing the effect : we arrived at a medieval-style torture facility.”
link to electronicintifada.net

Palestinian Resistance

PRC unveils video documenting attack on IDF jeep
Popular Resistance Committees’ military wing claims responsibility to attack that left four soldiers wounded, releases video allegedly documenting missile hit
link to www.ynetnews.com

Illegal Arrests

Israeli forces detain 10-year-old boy
Israeli forces on Tuesday detained a 10-year-old boy for several hours in Hebron, Palestinian officials said., Muhammad Amer Burqan was detained for two-and-a-half hours in Hebron’s Old City, officials at the Palestinian liaison department told Ma’an., They said they contacted Israeli liaison officials several times before the boy was released., A spokesman for Israel’s border police could not be reached for comment.
link to www.maannews.net

IOF arrests 11 Palestinians, including 2 women, in West Bank
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested at dawn Tuesday eleven Palestinians, including two women, in different parts of the West Bank, and took them to the interrogation centers.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF arrests the activist in Jihad movement Mona Ka’adan in Jenin
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested at dawn today, an activist in the Islamic Jihad movement, Mona Awad Ka’adan, 45, during the storming of the Arraba town in Jenin Governorate.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

DFLP : Hamas forces detained 6 protesters at Gaza rally
Hamas security forces beat female activists at a rally in Gaza City calling, for national reconciliation on Nov. 6. (MaanImages), GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas security forces arrested six protesters in Gaza City on Tuesday at a women-led demonstration demanding national reconciliation, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said., DFLP central committee members Mahmoud Khalaf and Nabil Attallah were among those detained at the weekly protest organized by women’s groups including the general union of Palestinian women, DFLP said in a statement., DFLP leader Saleh Zaydan told Ma’an that party members Nabil Dyab and Khaled Abu Sharekh were also detained., Zaydan denounced the aggressive response of security forces and called for the protesters’ immediate release. He urged the Hamas government to investigate the incident and to apologize for the arrests., Witnesses told Ma’an that internal security forces detained a number of civil society leaders as they left the protest.
link to www.maannews.net

Other Prisoner News

Israeli court sentences female prisoner to 10 months
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — An Israeli military court sentenced an ex-prisoner to 10 months in jail on Tuesday, a prisoners group said. The Palestinian Prisoners Society said Asma Batran, 24, was given a 10 month sentence and fined 2,000 shekels ($509) for organizing political activities at university. Batran, who is said to be affiliated with Hamas, was arrested by Israeli forces on Aug. 27 from her home in the Hebron village of Ithna. She had previously spent 20 months in Israeli jails before being released in August 2009. Earlier Tuesday, Israeli forces re-arrested released female prisoner Muna Qadan in Jenin, the Ahrar center for prisoners studies and human rights said.
link to www.maannews.net

ACT : Demand release of hunger striking prisoners
Addameer demands accountability for all of Israel’s human rights violations related to the continued hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners. It is imperative that Ayman Sharawna, Samer Al-Issawi, Akram Rikhawi and Mohammad Kana’aneh are treated humanely, with dignity and receive immediate independent medical attention. Write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that the hunger striking prisoners be released immediately.
link to www.alternativenews.org

Addameer : Health of Hunger Strikers Continues to Deteriorate as Strike Escalates
Addameer is deeply concerned for the lives of three hunger strikers and the health of one former hunger striker who are held in Israeli prisons., Ayman Sharawna has been on an open hunger strike since 1 July 2012 ; today marks his 136th day of striking. Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad recently visited Ayman at Ramleh prison medical center, and found Ayman’s health so drastically deteriorated that in addition to the previously reported pain in his right leg, joints, kidneys, skin problems and memory loss, he is now unable to stand, speak easily or urinate, and just recently has been able to ingest water. Ayman is now taking fluids through injection, although medical intervention by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) has caused him pain and infections.
link to samidoun.ca

Protests / Solidarity / Activism / BDS

Egyptians protesters demand an end to ties with Israel
Egyptians have demonstrated in Cairo to protest against the latest Israeli attacks on Gaza and called for the suspension of ties with the Tel Aviv regime.
link to www.presstv.ir

Gaza students launch "boycott Israel" campaign, Joe Catron
Vending machine in college canteen no longer contains Israeli goods after request by students.
link to electronicintifada.net

Historic UC Irvine divestment vote deals stinging defeat to Zionist bullying on campus
Just over a year since an Orange County jury, in a politically-motivated prosecution, convicted the “Irvine 11” students for disrupting a lecture by Israeli Ambassdor Michael Oren, the Associated Students of UC Irvine voted unanimously tonight to call for divestment from companies that profit from Israeli occupation., The vote deals a major blow to intense efforts by Israel and allied organizations to suppress Palestinian solidarity activism on campus, particularly at UC Irvine, part of the University of California system., The resolution, passed by 16-0 with no abstentions, calls on the University of California to divest from companies, including Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Sodastream, Raytheon and L-3 Communications, that assist or directly profit from Israeli occupation and human rights abuses.
link to electronicintifada.net

BDS Roundup : Veolia loses another major contract in UK
Latest roundup of news from the global BDS movement : Veolia loses a $63 million contract in the UK ; the Technical University of Denmark drops scientific collaboration projects with an Israeli settlement ; and more !
link to electronicintifada.net

STOP G4S ! Right to Education Week Action
As part of Right to Education Week 2012, an international week of events called for by students at Birzeit University to raise awareness of the right of those in occupied Palestine to education, Scottish students from Glasgow and Dundee Universities staged an action against multi-national security corporation G4S, which has recently found itself in the public eye over its shambolic handling of security at the London Olympics.
link to weareallhanashalabi.wordpress.com

Danish universities work with illegal settlements
It is not just Danish companies, but also Danish universities that have connections to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is working together with Ariel University, located in the settlement by the same name. According to DTU the collaboration dates back to the 1990s. After DanWatch presented the information to the leadership of DTU, president of DTU Anders Bjarklev chose to stop the collaboration immediatley : "We have ended the cooperation immediately after we were made aware of it," he says : The money that was devoted to analyses in the laboratories of Ariel University has been suspended and will be paid back to the fund that supplied the finances."
link to www.danwatch.dk

Israeli Racism & Discrimination

Avigdor Lieberman : ‘When it comes down to the choice between Jewish or Democratic Israel it has to be Jewish’, Adam Horowitz
Israel Hayom English Editor Amir Mizroch live tweeted an event with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman today where he revisited many of his favorite themes including the threat that Palestinian citizens of Israel represent, and his undemocratic vision for the future of Israel. Lieberman was addressing the Sanhedrin Forum for young professionals in Tel Aviv and although the event was supposed to be off-the-record Mizroch tweeted that Lieberman knew it was being reported. Just as reminder, Lieberman and Benjamin Netanyahu will be merging their political parties ahead of Israeli elections in January.
link to mondoweiss.net

MKs Eldad, Ben-Ari form ’Strong Israel’ party
Rightist lawmakers split from National Union to ’fight for country’s Jewish character’
link to www.ynetnews.com

Bedouins lament police brutality against kids
After riots ravage Bedouin village, residents say police used undue force, violated minors’ rights
link to www.ynetnews.com

Watch : ESPN documentary exposes Israel’s racist football club, Jalal Abukhater
A short documentary produced by an American cable network exposes Beitar Jerusalem’s racist fan base.
link to electronicintifada.net

MK Kirshenbaum : Arabs are an economic burden on Israel
’Arabs in Israel want equal rights, but they don’t want to contribute to the state,’ Knesset member tells German-Israeli sister cities conference in Jerusalem.
link to www.haaretz.com

Arab Israelis fume at plans to reward schools for IDF enlistment
New program to incentivize schools according to a number of criteria including matriculation results, drop-out rates and absorption of special-education students, as well as, a service to the State rate.
link to www.haaretz.com

Activate - Israel : No Place to Go
African refugees in Israel face violence, discrimination and an uncertain future. Tensions came to a head in Tel Aviv this April with a Molotov cocktail attack on African homes and a creche. In a country where refugees are seen as ’infiltrators’ and a ’cancer’, Isayas is a refugee attempting to change the situation on the ground.
link to www.youtube.com

Study : Gender equality in Israel going backwards
The World Economic Forum index puts Israel at 56 among 135 countries, a big drop over six years.
link to www.haaretz.com

No Arabs allowed
It isn’t - heaven forbid - that we think it’s okay to discriminate against Arabs. After all, they are also human beings. But still, nu, you understand, they have so many restaurants of their own.
link to www.haaretz.com

Political Developments / Other News

Israel : We will annul Oslo Accords when Palestinians seek upgraded UN status
Israeli diplomats instructed to say Israel will consider partial or full cancellation of the Oslo Accords if the United Nations General Assembly adopts the resolution to upgrade the status of Palestine.
link to www.haaretz.com

Israel and Gaza reach tacit truce
Brokered by Egypt, both sides agree to hold fire but warn to resume fighting if attacked again.
link to www.aljazeera.com

Haneyya gov’t asks for serious Arab positions toward the Israeli aggression
The government of Ismail Haneyya has called on the Arab countries to adopt serious and important stands vis-à-vis the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

European watchdog ’concerned’ by PA pressure on journalists
A European press freedom group said Monday it was concerned about the Palestinian Authority’s steps to put pressure on a columnist who criticized President Mahmoud Abbas’ office., The Vienna-based International Press Institute said it was joining Palestinian journalists who have raised concerns about the PA’s treatment of Jihad Harb after he questioned hiring practices at Abbas’ office., Harb’s article, published by Ma’an and other Palestinian news sites in August, was based on a report by the Palestinian chapter of Transparency International and included his criticisms.
link to www.maannews.net

Jordan erupts in protests
link to www.youtube.com

Golan Heights wake up to shelling attacks from Syrian side
Syrian regime forces reportedly launched attacks into the Golan Heights in the early hours of Wednesday, shelling over Beer Ajam and other areas nearby, according to the SANA Revolution activist group.
link to english.alarabiya.net

Israel says scored "direct hits" on Syrian targets
The Israeli military says it scored "direct hits" on targets in Syria after responding to stray mortar fire from its northern neighbor. The military says that Israeli tanks opened fire on targets in Syria on Monday after the mortar round landed in an open area in the Israeli-occupied, Syrian Golan Heights. According to Israeli television Channel 2, an undetermined number of Syrian soldiers were injured in the attack. Although the Golan Heights are internationally recognized as Syrian territory, the 1,200 square kilometers have been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

New reality in Lebanon has made Israel powerless : Nasrallah
Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has said the Lebanese resistance movement is capable of deterring Israel from attacking Lebanon. Nasrallah made the remarks late on Monday in a televised speech given during a ceremony in southern Beirut to commemorate Martyrs’ Day, which he said marks 30 years since the establishment of the Islamic resistance. The Hezbollah secretary general said the resistance movement is capable of retaliating against any attack by the Israeli military, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV channel reported on its website.
link to tehrantimes.com

Shura Council accuses Israel of stealing Egyptian oil
Members of the Arab Affairs and National Security Committee in the Egyptian parliament’s upper house, the Shura Council, have accused Israel of stealing from the oilfields within Egypt’s maritime exclusive economic zone. The committee members were highly critical of the Minister of Petroleum, Osama Kamal - who denied that Israel had done anything to harm Egypt deliberately - and the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who attended the meeting called especially to discuss the issue.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com

Israel Ranked as World’s Most Militarised Nation, Jim Lobe
At number 34, Israel’s main regional rival, Iran, is far behind. Indeed, every other Near Eastern country, with the exceptions of Yemen (37) and Qatar (43), is more heavily militarised than the Islamic Republic, according to the Index, whose research is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development. Singapore ranks second, followed by Syria, Russia, Jordan, and Cyprus, according to the Index, which is based on a number of weighted variables, such as the comparison of a country’s military budget with its gross domestic product (GDP), and the percentage of the GDP it spends on health care. Six of the top 10 states, including Israel (1), Syria (4), Jordan (5), Kuwait (7), Bahrain (9), and Saudi Arabia (10) are located in the Middle East, while yet another of Iran’s neighbours, Azerbaijan, made its first entry into the militarised elite at number 8.
link to www.ipsnews.net

Breast cancer screening service opens in West Bank, Jillian Kestler-D’Amours
Breast cancer accounts for more than one-fifth of all cancers affecting women in the West Bank.
link to electronicintifada.net

Analysis / Op-ed / Human Interest

Why Not Jordan ?, Pete Moore
The November 13 withdrawal of fuel and electricity subsidies has sparked vigorous demonstrations in Jordan, prompting renewed speculation about whether the wave of Arab uprisings that began in late 2010 has finally arrived in the Hashemite Kingdom. Indeed, amidst the rush of scholarly attempts to explain why uprisings did or did not occur in various Arab countries in 2011, Jordan is proving a stubborn case. Jordan fits nearly all the criteria for an uprising, but sustained protest has yet to take root.
link to www.merip.org

Why is the PA reluctant to investigate Arafat’s death ?
Out of nowhere, a sister of the late President Yasser Arafat has insisted that no exhumation of his remains should take place. We have never heard of this honourable lady before because she has never commented until now on any aspect the late President’s death and alleged assassination. It does not take a genius to surmise that the PA has put this lady up to make her demand, not least because she must have known about the intention to exhume Arafat’s remains for examination due to the concerns raised about the manner of his death. She has had plenty of time to try to stop it but made no effort to do so until now.
link to www.middleeastmonitor.com

Khaled Barakat : Palestinian and Arab struggles in the face of Canada’s ‘War on Terror’
The following speech, on the topic “Organizing in solidarity with Palestinian and Arab struggles in the face of Canada’s ‘War on Terror’” was delivered by Palestinian writer and activist Khaled Barakat of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network in Toronto, Canada on Friday, November 9, 2012 at the Right to Resist, Right to Exist conference sponsored by the International League of People’s Struggles, which brought together organizers and activists working in a wide variety of international movements, in communities targeted by heavy policing, in indigenous nations, and in labour unions and workers’ centres together to combat the “war on resistance, working people, communities, land defenders and the environment.” Barakat’s speech was part of the Friday night opening plenary of the conference, held at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).
link to samidoun.ca

EXCLUSIVE : Secret Israel NIE Warns of Irreversibility of Israeli Colonization, Yusuf Munayyer
How much longer can the two-state solution survive ? It seems analysts in the American intelligence community realize that it is in serious danger. This is what a National Intelligence Estimate prepared by the CIA on Israel suggests. Here is the money quote from the secret document I’ve managed to get my hands on : If Israel continues to occupy conquered territory for an extended period, say two to three years, it will find it increasingly difficult to relinquish control. Domestic pressures to establish paramilitary settlements in occupied areas would grow, and it would be harder to turn back to the Arabs land which contained such settlements.
link to blog.thejerusalemfund.org

I Was Born There, I Was Born Here, Mourid Barghouti
"I want to deal with my unimportant feelings that the world will never hear," writes the exiled Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti in this moving companion piece to his memoir I Saw Ramallah. Gathered here are tales of personal sadness, but also of humour and love. One of the high points is the writer taking his son to see a room in a house in his home village of Deir Ghassanah and being able to say : "I was born here." Barghouti has to wait a long time for this moment because, as he observes, one of the chief weapons of the Israeli occupation is making people wait : at borders and checkpoints, or for electricity and water to come back on, and, ultimately, for the "waking nightmare" of the occupation to end. There is a disquiet at the heart of this book, not just because of the humiliation of living under occupation ("I ask myself how many times do I have to feel powerless to protect the ones I love"), but through a wider concern that nobody is prepared to "grasp the truth of Israel’s dilemma" : the Palestinians are not going away. "Do they suppose they can kill us all ?"
link to www.guardian.co.uk

Occupation Diaries, Raja Shehadeh
It is often the smallest details of daily life that tell us the most. And so it is under occupation in Palestine. What most of us take for granted has to be carefully thought about and planned for : When will the post be allowed to get through ? Will there be enough water for the bath tonight ? How shall I get rid of the rubbish collecting outside ? How much time should I allow for the journey to visit my cousin, going through checkpoints ? And big questions too : Is working with left-wing Israelis collaborating or not ? What effect will the Arab Spring have on the future of Palestine ? What can anyone do to bring about change ? Are any of life’s pleasures untouched by politics ?
link to jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com

The Plight of the Palestinian Olive Tree, Raja Shehadeh
This was the thought I had as I drove through the northern part of the West Bank recently on a field trip organized by Oxfam [pdf]. Since 2006 the British charity has been working with Palestinian nongovernmental organizations and the European Union to help local farmers’ cooperatives improve their agricultural practices and open local and international markets to their products. When Jewish settlements were first established soon after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, they were situated mainly on uncultivated land. But more was soon needed. Since about half of the cultivated land in the occupied territories is used for olive farming, olive trees [pdf] became a major casualty of this expansion. About 80,000 Palestinian families who rely on income from olive farming have been directly affected.
link to latitude.blogs.nytimes.com

Qalandiya Festival : Life and Art in Palestine
“Qalandiya International Festival – Life & Art in Palestine” marks an important moment in the evolution and internationalization of Palestinian art. This ambitious undertaking is the result of a collaboration between the Jerusalem Show and the Riwaq Biennial, as well as other Palestinian cultural institutions, in an attempt to pool resources and collectively showcase contemporary art in Palestine. The festival kicked off on November 1 in Qalandiya village, north of Jerusalem, to shed light on the historical significance of the area as a window to the world for Palestinians, prior to the closure of its airport in 1967. The opening ceremony took place at the historic house of the al-Hoqiya family, the ruins of which symbolize 200 years of Palestinian summud (steadfastness) on this land.
link to english.al-akhbar.com

Creativity in captivity : A Palestinian art festival, Amira Hass
Art works made of bullets and separation wall stones were an important feature of the Qalandiyah Biennale, closing Thursday after two weeks in Palestinian villages and cities.
link to www.haaretz.com