Palestine

Country: Palestine

Portrait photo of the Palestinian-American cultural critic Edward Said taken in 1999 (photo: picture-alliance/akg)

Father of post-colonial studies

Edward Said – exiled between cultures

When people think of Edward Said, the first thing that generally comes to mind is his criticism of Orientalism. As a result, the theme of exile – which played no less significant a role in Said's writing and life – is often overlooked. By Tarek AzizehMore

Essay by Adania Shibli: Recalling Edward Said's thought today Edward Said's "Orientalism" in Arab discourse: Instrumentalised on all sides Western involvement in the Middle East: A rotten legacy

Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem (photo: private)

Book review: Ibtisam Azem's "The Book of Disappearance"

We woke to find them gone

In her latest novel, "The Book of Disappearance", Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem strikes a nerve with a fantastical tale that simultaneously fascinates and moves the reader, presenting the moral drift that can set in when people are confronted with the insoluble. Marcia Lynx Qualey read the bookMore

Interview with Palestinian American writer Susan Abulhawa: ″Literature is a facet of society″Sinan Antoon′s ″The Baghdad Eucharist″: Fading under fire Jenin's Freedom Theatre celebrates 10 years: What′s next for ″cultural resistance″?

Author Nathan Englander (photo: Getty Images)

Nathan Englander’s novel "Dinner at the centre of the earth"

Caught in limbo

Nathan Englander, an author of novels and short stories and a man who knows Israel very well, has written a fast-paced spy novel in which lovesick spies, dubious businesspeople and a virtually immortal general in a coma fail to bring about a workable solution for peace in the Israel-Palestine conflict. By Volker KaminskiMore

Palestine and its Arabic neighbours: Gaza – a city no one wants "The Blue Between Sky and Water" by Susan Abulhawa: Love and suffering in Gaza Book review: "The Drone Eats with Me" by Atef Abu Saif: A war without distinct edges

A bunker is seen in the Golan Heights, in territory that Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war (photo: Reuters/R. Zvulun)

Scars on Middle East landscape bear witness to past peace failures

As the first phase of President Donald Trumpʹs peace plan gets underway, talk of Middle East peace is in the air again. Bearing witness to the difficulty of the task are the scars left by wars past across the landscape of Israel, the Palestinian Territories and the Golan Heights. More...More

Interview with think tank veterans Yossi Alpher and Ghassan Khatib: "The Oslo peace process approach is over"Oslo I 25 years on: Israelis and Palestinians lament the deadlock When blackmail becomes policy: For ʹPalestinian peace processʹ read ʹIran war processʹ USA cancels aid to Palestinian aid agency UNRWA: Washington's penchant for moving the goalposts

Grace 1, the tanker seized in early July by British Royal Marines off the coast of Gibraltar (photo: Reuters/J. Nazca)

Europe's policies in the Middle East

Late-colonial convulsions

The UK has stopped an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar. Italy and France are supporting opposing parties at war in Libya. Germany has other priorities. Europe is doing almost exactly what it did 100 years ago. An essay by Stefan BuchenMore

Western involvement in the Middle East: A rotten legacy The crisis of the Arab nation state: Reconstructed reality 100 years of Sykes-Picot: "A tapestry of plans and promises"The end of Sykes-Picot?: "The end of the Middle East, as we know it"Sykes-Picot and the role of Gertrude Bell: Midwife of the Middle East

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu display the proclamation recognising Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights at the White House on 25 March 2019 (photo: picture-alliance/Photoshot/Ting Shen)

When blackmail becomes policy

For ʹPalestinian peace processʹ read ʹIran war processʹ

The success of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process model is there for all to borrow and copy. Create a regional ʹprocessʹ sponsored or led by the U.S. and attach to it ʹpeaceʹ, ʹwarʹ, or any other temptingly big carrot, then woo and blackmail the desperate parties you are targeting by turns. Essay by Khaled HroubMore

U.S. policy on Iran: Middle East nightmare – made in Washington Geopolitics in the Middle East: End the Arab-Iranian tug-of-war U.S. de-certifies Iran nuclear deal: Madmen at the helm

Israeli artist Adi Liraz (photo: Ceyda Nurtsch)

Portrait of the Israeli performance artist Adi Liraz

Provocation as a search for identity

Berlin-based Israeli artist Adi Liraz works the history and stories of the women in her family into her fabric artworks, re-telling them for posterity. In the process, she challenges existing narratives about home, femininity and identity. By Ceyda NurtschMore

Traditional Palestinian "tatreez": Sewing with a message Interview with the Israeli artist Guy Briller: The Jerulin process Book review: Uri Shani's "Nemashim" theatre project: Creating a level playing field

Author and playright Sasha Marianna Salzmann (photo: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Dedert)

Interview with playwright and novelist Sasha Marianna Salzmann

The trap of the century

Shortlisted for the 2017 German Book Prize with her debut novel "Ausser Sich", playwright and novelist Sasha-Marianna Salzmann discusses the sense of flux – in language, gender and in nations – that dominates contemporary existence and how the past continues to live on. Interview by Noha AbdelrassoulMore

German-Turkish author Emine Sevgi Ozdamar: A literary maverick The integration game: A German-Syrianʹs trip to the hairdresser Transgender rights: Pakistan's Hijra hold their heads high

Opening of the African community centre in Jerusalem in 1996 attended by the author (photo: private)

Jerusalemʹs Africans

Alienation and counter-alienation

Yasser Qous, son of African-Palestinians, explains the feeling of foreignness experienced by Africans in 1970s Jerusalem and the alienation of African parishioners from each other at the timeMore

Interview with Mauritanian human rights activist Biram Dah Abeid: "Time to end Arab racism"Emancipation and music: Black Tunisiansʹ bitter heritage Photo essay: In Mauritania, slavery's last bastion

Palestinian-British singer Reem Kelani (photo: Alexia Villard)

Album review: Reem Kelaniʹs "Why Do I Love Her?"

Sweet discomfort

As a prelude to the album she's currently working on, "This Land is Your Land", Reem Kelani has just released the four track EP "Why Do I Love Her" – recorded live at the Tabernacle in London. By Richard MarcusMore

Album review: Reem Kelani′s ″Live at the Tabernacle″: Cultivating fusion Reem Kelani – "Sprinting Gazelle": "I defend my right to defend my right"Official Reem Kelani website

Sun Box entrepreneur Majd Mashharawi with a solar panel in Gaza City (photo: Inge Gunther)

Sun Box solar energy project

A light for Gaza

A go-getting young Palestinian woman is currently causing an energy surge in Gaza. Her goal: to make solar panels affordable for poor families. Her motto: do your thing, regardless of what others think. Inge Gunther reports from GazaMore

Qatari-bought fuel enters Gaza to ease humanitarian crisis Young women and start-ups in Gaza: Getting down to business Gazaʹs cultural heritage: The Palestinians' vanishing legacy

Israeli author Amos Oz (photo: Imago/Leemage)

Obituary: Amos Oz

Peace campaigner and voice of reason

His works centred on life in the kibbutz and the history of Israel and earned him countless awards and honorary doctorates. Amos Oz, writer and peace activist, passed away on 28 December at the age of 79. Angelika Ditscheid looks back on his lifeMore

Interview with Israeli author Amos Oz: "I want peace"Interview with Amos Oz: "For Israel, it is a lose-lose situation"Interview with Amos Oz: "I love Israel even in times when I don't like it"

Mahdi Baraghithi at the Birzeit University exhibition (photo: DW/Sarah Hofmann)

4th Qalandiya International art exhibition

Showing for Palestinian solidarity

The fourth Qalandiya International exhibition opens with shows in the West Bank and Gaza, but also in Lebanon and Germany, crossing borders the Palestinians themselves can't pass. By Sarah Judith HofmannMore

Official Qalandiya International 2018 website Qalandiya International – the first Palestinian Biennale: Against the flow Qalandiya International: Palestine's contemporary arts festival

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton gestures as then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (left) and then PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands after signing the Israeli-PLO peace accord, at the White House, in this 13 September 1993 file picture. Twenty-five years after the late Israeli and Palestinian leaders met on a sun-soaked White House lawn, hopes that their historic encounter would lead to peace have faded along with photographs of their hesitant handshake (photo: Reuters)

Interview with think tank veterans Yossi Alpher and Ghassan Khatib

"The Oslo peace process approach is over"

On 13 September 1993, an agreement of mutual understanding known as the Oslo Accords kicked off the Middle East peace process. 25 years on, Middle East expert Christian Hanelt interviews Israeli Yossi Alpher and Palestinian Ghassan Khatib on their experiences and their thoughts regarding the way aheadMore

Obituary: Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery: Shoes that will be difficult to fill The Sulha Peace Project: Listening for peace Israeli author Lizzie Doron on Independence Day: "Israel is facing crucial decisions"The bitterlemons family of Internet publications

Former Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (photo: picture-alliance/Pressens Bild Scanpix AB)

Country: Palestine

Pages

In brief

Most Recent Photo Essay