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Tayseer Barakat, Arrival, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 47 x 41cm. About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) Courtesy of Zawyeh Gallery and the artist Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Volume 15 – Number 3 individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. April–May 2019 With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Editorial Board has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Dr Orkideh Behrouzan SOAS it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its Dr Hadi Enayat programme of activities. AKU LMEI is a Registered Charity in the UK wholly owned by SOAS, University of London (Charity Ms Narguess Farzad SOAS Registration Number: 1103017). Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Professor George Joff é Mission Statement: Cambridge University Dr Ceyda Karamursel SOAS Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Mrs Margaret Obank East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Banipal Publishing those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in Ms Janet Rady London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Janet Rady Fine Art Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is Mr Barnaby Rogerson at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart SOAS and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Dr Shelagh Weir Independent Researcher Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College LMEI Staﬀ : SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: Editor Megan Wang Director Dr Hassan Hakimian To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: Listings Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ or contact the Vincenzo Paci Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci LMEI offi ce. Designer Administrative Assistant Aki Elborzi Shahla Geramipour Letters to the Editor:

Th e Middle East in London is published fi ve times a year by the London Middle Please send your letters to the editor at East Institute at SOAS Disclaimer: the LMEI address provided (see left panel) Publisher and or email [email protected] Editorial Offi ce Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal Th e London Middle East Institute SOAS views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their University of London MBI Al Jaber Building, organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's 21 Russell Square, London WC1B 5EA Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the United Kingdom magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the T: +44 (0)20 7898 4330 LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ of claims made by advertisers. ISSN 1743-7598 Contents

4 18 EDITORIAL Housing, rubbish, walls and failing infrastructure in East 5 Jerusalem LMEI Board of Trustees INSIGHT Manal Massalha Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ Baroness Valerie Amos (Chair) Director, SOAS Karma Nabulsi 20 Dr Orkideh Behrouzan, SOAS Stop waiting, the ‘next’ Professor Stephen Hopgood, SOAS 7 Palestinian writers are already Dr Lina Khatib, Chatham House PALESTINE here Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Understanding UNRWA: what Nora Parr Dr Hanan Morsy African Development Bank the Trump cuts tell us Professor Scott Redford, SOAS Anne Irfan 22 Mr James Watt, CBRL REVIEWS 9 BOOKS Th e Joint List: an obituary In Search of a Prophet: A Nimer Sultany Spiritual Journey with Khalil Gibran LMEI Advisory Council 11 Atef Alshaer

Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) On the dignity of teachers Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Mezna Qato 23 H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Hamas Contained: Th e Rise Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani 12 and Pacifi cation of Palestinian Arab International Women’s Forum Keeping national consciousness Resistance Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa President, University College of Bahrain alive Dina Matar Professor Tony Allan King’s College and SOAS Omar Shweiki Dr Alanoud Alsharekh 24 Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS 14 BOOKS IN BRIEF Mr Farad Azima NetScientifi c Plc Eight days on the (Wild?) West Dr Noel Brehony 26 MENAS Associates Ltd. Bank Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna Mike Scott-Baumann EVENTS IN LONDON British Egyptian Society HE Mr Rami Mortada Ambassador, Embassy of Lebanon 16 My short return to Gaza Atef Alshaer

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © Manal Massalha

DDearear RReadereader

Shufat Refugee Camp, Jerusalem, October 2017. Photograph by Manal Massalha Adam Hanieh & Dina Matar, SOAS his issue of Th e Middle East in coverage of these elections, the role of discusses the reality of Palestinian farmers London highlights the ongoing political parties representing Palestinian in the Jordan Valley and other areas of Timportance of Palestine to events in citizens of Israel, through the emergence the West Bank’s Area C. Turning then the region. Our contributors remind us of and recent collapse of the ‘Joint List’ – a to Gaza, Atef Alshaer writes about his the myriad forms of Palestinian resistance united platform of the main Palestinian recent trip there (his fi rst time home in 19 and the tenacity of a population living factions in Israel, which had been the years). His powerful refl ections capture under occupation and over six decades of third largest bloc in the Israeli Knesset the ordinary lives of Palestinians in the displacement. since the 2015 elections. Strip, their attempts to navigate the daily We begin with two pieces that survey From Palestinian citizens and Israeli challenges of siege and closure and their recent shift s in US policy towards elections, our next two articles turn to the remarkable resilience. Palestine: in Insight Karma Nabulsi education sector in the West Bank and Th e next article by ethnographer and examines the contours of the so-called Gaza Strip. Mezna Qato situates Palestine photographer Manal Massalha discusses ‘Deal of the Century’, a plan that has not in the recent global wave of teacher the goals of her project ‘Housing, yet been publically revealed but which and student mobilisations, exploring Rubbish, Walls and Failing Infrastructure the US President Donald Trump claims the unprecedented series of strikes by in East Jerusalem’ and documents the will defi nitively ‘solve’ the Palestine Palestinian teachers that occurred across urban neglect faced by Palestinian confl ict; Anne Irfan analyses US cuts the West Bank and Gaza Strip in early Jerusalemites, particularly following to the United Nations Relief and Works 2016. In the university sector, Omar Israel’s construction of the Wall that Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Shweiki, the current director of Friends began in 2002. highlighting how such a move has of Birzeit University (Fobzu), discusses Th e concluding article by Nora Parr increased pressure on Palestinians, the founding of Fobzu on the occasion discusses recent Palestinian novels, refugee communities and other Arab of its 40th anniversary, tracing its work arguing that this writing has oft en been countries to accept the ‘Deal’. in building solidarity with Palestinian rendered invisible by a focus on the Alongside these moves by the Trump universities under occupation. traditional Palestinian writing of the administration, there has been much Refl ecting on his recent trip to the 1960s and 1970s and that its signifi cance media speculation around the upcoming West Bank as part of a visit organised lies in its search for new alternatives in Israeli elections. Nimer Sultany explores by the Israeli Committee Against House the wake of the collapse of past certainties one dimension that is oft en absent in Demolitions, Mike Scott-Baumann around politics and resistance.

4 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 IINSIGHTNSIGHT

Karma Nabulsi sketches out the known contours of the still secret ‘Deal of the Century' TTrump’srump’s ‘‘DealDeal ooff tthehe CCentury’entury’

Posters and graﬃ ti on refugees’ right of return, Shatila camp, Lebanon

hortly aft er his election to the US is to achieve the most extreme, irredentist to guarantee its success. On Al-Jazeera Presidency, Donald Trump promised and expansionist vision yet, to ‘complete’ in March 2019, he explained the ‘Deal’ Sa peace plan for the Middle East. the settler-colonial project that began a will be publicly launched aft er the Israeli Calling it the ‘Deal of Century’, he claims century ago in Palestine. elections in April 2019. Th ese elections that it will solve the confl ict in Palestine Th e Trump administration’s hope is to are designed to strengthen Netanyahu once and for all. Although its public settle this protracted confl ict through a and the far right, indeed Netanyahu has launch has been delayed, the shape this comprehensive destruction of Palestinian personally assisted with the merger of deal will take is already clear from an collective national rights, ‘resolving’ the three far-right Israeli parties to form a overview of the offi cial interviews, various “fi nal status” issues of the Oslo Peace united front in order to gain electoral statements, leaked documents and the Accords – settlements, borders, refugees, strength. Th e new party is called ‘the destructive policies already initiated by Jerusalem and water – in Israel’s favour by Union of Right-Wing Parties’ and the US administration during the past force. includes Jewish Home, Tkuma, and year. Th e plan relies on taking advantage Although public announcement of the Jewish Power. of the momentary conjunction of forces features of the ‘Deal of the Century’ has allied within the extreme right, with been regularly delayed, Jared Kushner Central Features of the ‘Deal’ President Trump in the White House, (Trump’s son-in-law, a real-estate broker Several US initiatives to implement the formation of a coalition of right- in charge of the peace process along with the ‘Deal’ have continued since the wing parties in Israel, and increased Jason Greenblatt) has now explained the US embassy was moved to Jerusalem control of Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince continued silence as ‘intentional’ in order in December 2018 (in violation of Mohammed Bin Salman, the involvement of several Arab regimes, the rise of pro- Th e Trump administration’s hope is to settle this fascist anti-Muslim and racist parties in protracted confl ict by a comprehensive destruction Europe, and depends on silence from the mainstream political classes. Its purpose of Palestinian collective national rights

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 5 Rehistoricising the Palestinian people allows for erasure of injustices Palestinians have faced and still do today. Th is means an understanding of Palestinians’ current and ensuring that the 1948 Nakba – when continuing disenfranchisements, and the violence, the majority of Palestinians were expelled from their homes and their racism, and discrimination they face country – is understood as the core of the confl ict. It also means locating the international law). Th e most recent is the citizens of Israel has started in Israel; origin of Palestinians’ status as refugees closure of the US Consulate in Jerusalem the groundwork was laid with the new within that history, to highlight their this March. Th e consulate had provided Israeli nation-state law which legislates continued forced displacement, along Palestinians under military occupation the state of Israel for the exclusive right with Britain’s direct role as the colonial with consular and diplomatic services for of Jews, not all its citizens, although 20 power in Palestine. Rehistoricising decades and, in some diplomatic measure, per cent are the original inhabitants of the Palestinian people allows for an recognised the fact that Palestinians are a the land. Adopting national legislation understanding of Palestinians’ continuing people. Th is past year, the US also cut over that only Jewish citizens have the right to disenfranchisements, and the violence, $200 million in direct aid to occupied national self-determination denies basic racism, and discrimination they face by Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine, Palestinian rights, and disenfranchises an active and expansionist Israeli settler- including money desperately needed for Palestinians in their own homeland. colonial project. hospitals in East Jerusalem; more starkly, Th ese fi rst steps towards removing the Th e second step is to ensure that it suddenly cut over $300 million from the already limited civic and political rights Palestinians as a people, inside and United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s of Palestinians in Israel, and to crush all outside of Palestine, are made visible (UNRWA’s) annual budget in 2018. regional or international resistance to to the world, never allowing the issue Leaked emails published in Foreign these policies, are set to escalate in the to be diverted into a debate about the Policy last summer revealed Jared Kushner coming months. rights of protestors who speak out making the case for UNRWA’s destruction: on human rights abuses. Th is can be ‘UNRWA should come up with a plan What can be done? done in simple but powerful ways: to unwind itself and become part of the In order for this US-Israeli-Saudi plan retelling and reaffi rming the facts of UNHCR [the UN High Commissioner for to be achieved, international support for daily existence through gestures of Refugees] by the time its charter comes up the Palestinians must be silenced and international solidarity, through gestures again in 2019’, continuing, ‘It is important solidarity attacked and suppressed. Recent that illuminate their history, their present to have an honest and sincere eff ort to events have shown that institutions and and the international laws that protect disrupt UNRWA.’ individuals protesting these policies Palestinians. All Palestinians, whether Th ere are now discussions in the media of injustice can become subject to facing discrimination inside Israel, of ongoing attempts to forcibly resettle intense pressure. However, whenever military occupation and siege or enforced Palestinian refugees in neighbouring host campaigners for justice align their exile in refugee camps are part of one countries, with reports of the US exerting principles and actions on Palestinian cause and one people. Understanding the extreme pressure on host governments in rights, adhering to a solidarity focussed Palestinian struggle for justice and then Lebanon and Jordan to strip Palestinians on the universal rights of a dispossessed conveying it to others is the simple but of their internationally recognised status people – their reality, and their history – essential role of solidarity that permits as refugees. then they cannot be silenced. everyone to stand strong against this new Th e Israeli government and its military Two reorientations for discussing alignment of the far right, and to protect are also involved in forward planning: Palestine prove immensely successful: the Palestinians in a year of crisis. the strategy ahead will be to radically fi rst, a commitment to resist the current diminish or expel Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem to negate the internationally recognised view of the city as the capital of Palestine. Th e Israeli government and its military have entrenched and expanded illegal settlements and seek to complete the appropriation of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. For Gaza, details of the ‘Sinai Plan’ have also been revealed: Israel envisions the future of Gaza as a zone of denationalised and indentured labour. Gaza is currently suff ering the most extended siege in modern history, Professor Karma Nabulsi is Politics Fellow with vital services – including major at St Edmund Hall and teaches at the hospitals – forced to close down. University of Oxford. She is an Advisory Finally, public discussions on the Board member of the Centre for Palestine potential expulsion of Palestinian Studies, SOAS

6 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Anne Irfan unpacks Tump’s decision to quit funding UNRWA and examines the humanitarian, economic and political consequences of such a move UUnderstandingnderstanding UUNRWA:NRWA: WWhathat tthehe TTrumprump ccutsuts ttellell usus © Anne Irfan

Mural in West Bank refugee camp, 2011. Photograph by Anne Irfan

n 2018, the Trump administration economic impact, with good reason. especially critical in recent years, as announced the withdrawal of US UNRWA is the primary welfare provider Palestinian refugees suff er the impact Ifunding to the United Nations Relief to more than fi ve million registered of the ongoing crises in Gaza and and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees Palestinian refugees in its fi ve areas of Syria. Th e Gaza blockade, now in its (UNRWA). Th e move marked a dramatic operation: Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the 12th year, has left more than 700,000 rupture in US Middle Eastern policy, West Bank and Gaza. As the majority of Palestinians in need of emergency food aft er decades in which it had acted as these refugees are stateless, UNRWA is the aid from UNRWA. Meanwhile, 418,000 the Agency’s largest single donor. It also closest thing they have to a government – Palestinians in Syria are in critical need of triggered a fl urry of media interest in a role refl ected in its services. In addition its relief services; a further 120,000 have UNRWA, which until now had a relatively to emergency relief, UNRWA runs large- fl ed the country, with many now heavily low profi le despite being the oldest UN scale health and education programmes reliant on UNRWA to meet their basic refugee agency in the world. and administers infrastructure in the needs. Much of the reaction to the US cuts refugee camps. Th e Trump cuts have gravely has focussed on their damaging socio- Th e Agency’s services have become endangered these essential services. Prior to 2018, UNRWA was already suff ering from a prolonged budget defi cit with Since UNRWA’s creation at the end of 1949, it has its services seriously overstretched. Despite being a UN body, UNRWA is served as an international acknowledgement almost entirely dependent on voluntary of the Palestinian refugees’ unresolved plight donations, making the impact of this

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 7 kind of defunding especially devastating. Th e Trump administration’s defunding of UNRWA is not Th e Trump move sent the Agency’s management on an intensive fundraising only about money, but is part of a much wider strategy drive, seeking alternative donations to to discredit and ultimately dismantle the Agency. plug the gap from governments around the world. Whether or not it will succeed is another question To make matters worse, the political signifi cance of these cuts is no less declared itself at odds with the very UNRWA overstates the number of important than their devastating premise of UNRWA’s work. In August Palestinian refugees today. Th ere are humanitarian impact. Since UNRWA’s 2018, leaked emails from Jared Kushner, further consistencies with Benjamin creation at the end of 1949, it has served Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Netanyahu’s earlier calls to abolish as an international acknowledgement on the Middle East, revealed plans to UNRWA completely. Th e leaked emails of the Palestinian refugees’ unresolved ‘disrupt’ UNRWA’s work. He wrote that thus provide further evidence of the US plight. Its continuing existence signifi es the Agency ‘perpetuates a status quo, is administration’s tight alignment not only that their dispossession has not been corrupt, ineffi cient and doesn’t help peace’. with the Israeli state, but in particular forgotten on the world stage; some see Th e emails went on to suggest that with the leadership of its current it as offi cial international recognition of Kushner’s ‘Deal of the Century’ will government under Netanyahu. their refugee status and attached political involve stripping the refugee status of Th e Trump administration’s defunding rights. While UNRWA itself denies that the fi ve million Palestinians currently of UNRWA is not only about money, any recognition it provides is politically registered with the Agency. As UNRWA but is part of a much wider strategy to binding, its registration cards are oft en is premised on the Palestinians’ refugee discredit and ultimately dismantle the the only offi cial identity documents that status, dismantling it would be crucial to Agency. Whether or not it will succeed stateless Palestinian refugees hold. In achieving this goal. Th e US and Israeli is another question. So far, UNRWA’s Lebanon and Syria, Palestinian refugees media have reported similarly that fundraising eff orts have had considerable have been compelled to produce their Kushner is pressuring the government of success in garnering special contributions UNRWA registration cards in order to Jordan to strip the country’s Palestinian from Europe, the Gulf and East Asia, to verify their identity when seeking the population of their refugee status. Such plug the budgetary gap created by the right to work or travel. moves are designed to undermine any withdrawal of US donations. Until now What’s more, in the eyes of many prospects that the Palestinian refugees’ the Agency has been able to continue Palestinians, UNRWA is tied to the right of return could be realised. If providing services across its fi ve fi elds of UN’s particular responsibility for their successful, they would therefore solidify operation, albeit while retaining a defi cit. statelessness. Having issued the 1947 the status quo of the Palestinians’ Th e removal of US support for UNRWA Partition Plan, the UN was directly dispossession – somewhat ironically, has therefore arguably demonstrated the involved in the events leading up to the given that this is precisely what Kushner limitations of US power; the Agency has Palestinians’ national dispossession in has accused UNRWA of doing. prevailed even without its erstwhile major 1948 (known in Arabic as the Nakba or Kushner’s approach is in keeping donor. At the same time, the funding ‘catastrophe’). As a UN body, UNRWA’s with the stance of other senior fi gures crisis triggered by the Trump cuts has services were therefore not charity but in the Trump administration. Nikki returned the Palestinian refugees to the rather an entitlement stemming from Haley, former US ambassador to the centre of the ‘Palestine question’. Yet injustice – one that should be issued until UN, has similarly criticised UNRWA critical questions remain over UNRWA’s the Palestinian refugees can realise their for supposedly perpetuating the future. As the Palestinian refugees remain right of return, also recognised by the UN refugees’ belief in their right of return; extremely vulnerable, any threats of in Resolution 194. Th is understanding of she has also claimed, erroneously, that dismantling UNRWA risk major political UNRWA’s work, expressed in refugees’ and humanitarian consequences, with correspondence with the UN as early an impact that may engender the start of as 1951, has remained predominant another crisis in the region. among many refugee communities – the Bethlehem-based BADIL Center for Palestinian Refugee Rights recently launched a campaign entitled UNRWA Is Our Right Until We Return. In such a setting, the Trump administration’s decision to defund UNRWA has an added curiosity. It arguably provides a clue as to the possible orientation of the much-vaunted ‘Deal Anne Irfan lectures in Middle Eastern of the Century’ for Middle East peace, history at the University of Sussex. Her offi cially still under wraps. Indeed, the PhD, completed at the London School Trump administration’s detachment of Economics, examined the historical from the Agency has not been limited development of UNRWA’s role in the to ending fi nancial support; it has also Palestinian refugee camps

8 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Nimer Sultany on how the Joint List dampened genuine political debate and activism and fostered an environment that elevated headline-grabbing performers over ideologues TThehe JJointoint LList:ist: aann oobituarybituary © Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons, CC0

The Joint List logo, featuring the names of the 4 parties that made up the alliance

n February 2019 the Joint List offi cially Four years earlier, in January 2015, cooperation against the backdrop of an became a short-lived experiment. this political experiment of uniting the Arab world wrecked by internal strife and ITh e political parties representing the factions in one list began out of necessity: sectarianism. Th e List gained 13 seats in Palestinian citizens in Israel eventually the Israeli parliament had increased in the Israeli Knesset in 2015, prompting split into two lists that will be competing 2014 the threshold required for political some of its leaders to suggest that the List, in the April 2019 Israeli parliamentary representation from 2 per cent to 3.25 as the third largest bloc in the Knesset, elections. One list includes Th e per cent for votes cast. None of these could play an eff ective political role in the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality parties on their own could have passed Israeli political system. and Ahmad Tibi’s list. Th e other list that threshold. Unity was a necessity. Th e rapid rise and fall of the Joint List, includes the Islamic Movement and the Nevertheless, the Joint List was heralded however, should serve as a cautionary National Democratic Assembly. by many as an exemplar for political tale against such idealisations. Its demise began long before Ahmad Tibi demanded to lead the List and increase his allotted Th e Joint List was heralded by many as an exemplar for seats (due to his his self-proclaimed political cooperation against the backdrop of an Arab popularity), even though he did not represent any genuine political party or a world wrecked by internal strife and sectarianism well-defi ned ideology. Th e List’s political

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 9 manifesto was minimalist in order to Th e maintenance of the unity of the List further silenced accommodate the diverse factions. Th e negotiations leading to the unifi cation criticisms of other colleagues’ statements and conduct focussed less on the manifesto and more and muted genuine and necessary disagreements on the distribution and order of seats amongst the four parties. Th us, it cannot be convincingly proposed that the List to distinguish themselves from their coming elections, is in sync with these represented a form of substantive unity. In competitors. Th is created vibrant and, at developments; it is their natural outcome. other words, it did not refl ect a consensus times, fi erce debates. In contrast, the Joint In the model advanced by the Joint List or a coherent agenda based on principled List emphasised the unifying elements, the members of the List can succeed agreement. many of which amounted to no more than only if they emulate the Tibi model and Dismayingly, but not surprisingly, empty slogans, and underplayed genuine become headline-grabbing performers the factional and incoherent nature of ideological diff erences. Th e maintenance rather than ideologues. this composite of lists came to the fore of the unity of the List further silenced Th e Joint List is the highest achievement upon Basil Ghattas’ resignation from criticisms of other colleagues’ statements of Arab political representation inside the Knesset. Ghattas, who represented and conduct and muted genuine and Israel – and its bankruptcy. the National Democratic Assembly necessary disagreements. No party (NDA), had to resign to serve a prison wanted to be accused of dissolving the sentence for unlawfully smuggling List lest they be punished electorally. phones into a prison. Th e National Moreover, in absence of the ability to Democratic Assembly asked the other have genuine impact on Israeli policies, three lists to submit resignations of their and in the age of social media, many of representatives to allow for another NDA the Arab members of the Knesset resorted member to replace Ghattas so that the to theatrics and gimmicks in order to gain NDA could retain its share of the seats. attention and secure visibility. Meanwhile, What followed was a farcical, quasi- the Joint List weakened the established contractual dispute over the interpretation political parties whose apparatuses were of the founding agreement of the sidelined in the decision-making process Joint List. Some approached the issue and whose branches became neglected formalistically and cited the text. Others and at times defunct because of the took a more holistic approach, demanding divisive nature of municipal elections. respect to the ‘spirit’ of the text, i.e. to In this sense, it can be said that the interpret the agreement in relation to its Joint List led naturally to the fetishism underlying objective. Ultimately, it took of representation at the expense of almost a year and a half, from March 2017 bottom-up organising. Representation to August 2018, for the NDA to secure its becomes sacrosanct despite both its missing seat. In the process, each one of declining utility (as the political map the three other parties in turn had one of shift s rightwards and further marginalises their representatives serve in the Knesset Palestinian citizens) and its depleted for few months and gained the allocated substance. budgets for that member of the Knesset. Th us, Tibi’s demand to recognise his Th e Ghattas episode illustrated another individual popularity as a media star, defect in the List. Against the backdrop as the key of forming the List for the of fi erce Israeli condemnation of Ghattas’ actions as harmful to state security, the solidarity from his colleagues in the List, with the exception of those who belonged to his party, was muted. In fact, the leader of the List – who had cultivated an image as an Arab moderate – distanced himself from Ghattas’ actions. In other words, the Israeli-made distinction between Arab moderates and Arab extremists did not go away with the List formation. At the same time, the List accelerated existing wider political trends of the decline in organised political parties and Nimer Sultany is a Senior Lecturer in the increasing emphasis on individual public law at SOAS. His recent book performance and popularity of Knesset Law and Revolution: Legitimacy and members. In previous electoral campaigns Constitutionalism Aft er the Arab Spring the competing political parties had was published by Oxford University Press

10 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Mezna Qato explains the driving forces behind the 2016 Palestinian Teachers Strike OOnn thethe ddignityignity ooff tteacherseachers

eachers are on the march © Gisha Access, Flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 everywhere. Across cities in the TMiddle East, most recently in Morocco, and all over the world – Sao Paulo, Chicago, Los Angeles and Port au Prince. Th ey make similar demands: a rollback of austerity measures, stronger and more independent union representation and the reversal of privitisation schemes against public education. Th e mobilisations have been Shejaiya School, Gaza incremental, a slow escalation as a result City, 2008. Photograph by Mohammed Yousif Azaiza; of stymied internal protests, reforms credit to Gisha.org and union obstructions. Palestinian conditions of settler-colonial rule strikes. Th e GUPT, long since captured slogan for the strike was ‘Th e Dignity oft en occlude seeing their substantive by the Palestinian Authority (PA), had of the Teacher is the Dignity of the involvement in this global rise of teacher turned into a calcifi ed hull of capture Nation.’ It is a somewhat old-fashioned mobilisation. Th e Palestinian Teachers and mediocrity, stymieing innovation, assertion; the humiliations of neoliberal Strike of February and March 2016 was, curricular vision and pedagogical governance had already done away with by all accounts, the largest single sector adaptability. A union as old as the PLO the rights of workers everywhere, but it strike in modern Palestinian history. itself, a mass organisation built to speak was precisely the loss of social capital, the Nearly 35,000 teachers, across both the collectively for the demands of those devaluation of their social role, that fi nally West Bank and Gaza, took to the streets tasked with providing Palestinians the turned teachers into protestors. In doing while Palestinian educators in Israel and means to acquire social capital that so, it opened up space to make a new in refugee camps across the region stood would permit some form of life during demand. As one teacher said, ‘we want in solidarity. dispossession, the union had turned every person who works in education It began in January 2016 when a small its back on its rank and fi le. Year aft er to be regarded as an educator, with no cohort of teachers, distressed by budget year, promises were made and broken; diff erence in respect accorded to a head cuts and salary freezes, started to self- the union relied on the reluctance of teacher, a school counsellor, a school bus organise online and in schools. A few educators to shut down their schools driver or a janitor.’ Stripped of the old weeks later, more than 10,000 ventured and turn off classroom lights. Second respectability, the teachers now had a out into streets of towns across the West jobs were needed by teachers to augment chance to build the architecture for a new Bank and Gaza, organising sit-ins in front meagre wages, deeply undermining their form of dignity, one that is not built on of the Ministry of Education fi eld offi ces. social standing. a scaff olding of hierarchy but refuses the By mid-February, the number of teachers And then students began to mock artifi ce altogether. swelled to 35,000. It was an extraordinary their teachers in brazen displays of Th rough a series of authoritarian image, not seen since the First Intifada, of disrespect and parents no longer deferred measures, including imprisonment, teachers – as teachers – on general strike. to educators on how to best teach their fi rings, isolation, entrapments, and as yet Th is time, however, the strikes were children. It was as if their role as engines unfulfi lled promises, the GUPT and PA orchestrated not in name of their union, of Palestinian national progress and pride managed to break the strike (for now). the General Union of Palestinian Teachers had been ripped out from under them. Th e demands, however, remain. (GUPT), but despite it. Th e ameliorative policies of their union Th eir demands were simple: an increase became intolerable and teachers resigned Mezna Qato is Junior Research Fellow in in basic salary, pensions in line with that en masse. Th e price of patience had History at the University of Cambridge. of public sector employees, re-activation grown too high. She is writing a book on the history of of promotion, a de-hierarchisation It is no wonder then that the primary education for Palestinians of the education sector and the democraticisation of the GUPT. It is the latter two demands that It was as if their role as engines of Palestinian national marked a departure from earlier teacher progress and pride had been ripped out from under them

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 11 PPALESTINEALESTINE Fobzu was founded just over 40 years ago. Fobzu Director, Omar Shweiki asserts that the work it does is more important now than ever before KKeepingeeping nnationalational cconsciousnessonsciousness aalivelive

Protest against university closures in Palestine during the First Intifada. Photograph courtesy

ver the course of our 40th 1970s, just three decades aft er the end of level of the United Nations and regional anniversary year, Friends of Birzeit British colonial rule in Palestine and the organisations, as well as among civil OUniversity (Fobzu) renewed its Nakba of 1948 – when a majority of the society around the world. mission to support Palestinian education Palestinian people were expelled or fl ed It was in this context that Birzeit at a time when it is needed more than from their homes and their country. By College – which started in 1926 as ever before. In the last few months, this time, a new generation of Palestinians a girls’ elementary school – became Fobzu announced funding for ten new had emerged, reviving a national Palestine’s fi rst internationally recognised university scholarships for Palestinian movement and leading to a renaissance university; it received accreditation from refugee students, launched a new writing of Palestinian civic and cultural life. At the Association of Arab Universities residency programme for Palestinian the same time, international support was in 1975. Th e challenges it faced under scholars, began a second year of our successfully mobilised at both the offi cial Israeli occupation were harsh and wide Education, Occupation & Liberation series jointly hosted with the University & College Union (UCU) and campaigned Fobzu was one modest initiative taken in the UK by with UK education trade unions and British academics in close collaboration with their charities for the Palestinian right to education. Palestinian colleagues to support a people struggling Th e origins of Fobzu lie in the late for their rights in exile and under occupation

12 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 Th ere are few greater threats to Palestinian access to education they face daily harassment, detention and isolation. In Gaza, Palestinians endure than the politically driven attempt to dismantle UNRWA… a suff ocating illegal blockade, which Th e biggest provider of education to the Palestinian refugees fragments Palestinian education, blocking entry and denying exit. Palestinian citizens has become a target of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ of Israel face deep-seated discrimination. And the majority of Palestinians live as ranging: denied land on which to build, Mandate and the Balfour Declaration, refugees in exile, existing in various states subjected to punitive restrictions on access which she condemned as ‘one of the of precariousness across the Arab world to teaching materials, closures, arrests greatest mistakes of our imperial history’. and beyond. and harassment, not to mention the 1974 Eleanor Aitken felt duty bound by Britain’s Th ere are few greater threats to deportation of its fi rst President, Hanna colonial legacy in Palestine to support the Palestinian access to education than the Nasser, who was not to return from exile Palestinians, a sense which crystalised on politically driven attempt to dismantle for 20 years. a trip to Lebanon in 1972. On visiting the the United Nations Relief and Works Amidst a wave of growing international refugee camps, she wrote, Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). solidarity with the Palestinians, Fobzu was ‘Gradually, the Palestinian tragedy Th e impact this would have on young one modest initiative taken in the UK by began to unfold in a living way before Palestinian refugees would be devastating, British academics in close collaboration my eyes: I saw that thousands upon as Dr Caroline Pontefract (Director of with their Palestinian colleagues to thousands of people had been forced Education) and Chris Gunness (Chief support a people struggling for their rights to fl ee their country, and had not been Spokesperson) from UNRWA described in exile and under occupation. allowed by their country’s new foreign in their talk organised by Fobzu last year. For Fobzu’s founders, supporting Birzeit rulers to return to their homes.’ Th e biggest provider of education to the University was about defending the right Soon aft er her return she set to work Palestinian refugees has become a target of to education and academic freedom of a coordinating among colleagues the Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’, which seeks new generation of Palestinians against the establishment of the Friends of Birzeit to coerce the Palestinians into forfeiting repressive practices of the occupation’s University. their basic national rights. military authorities. Early Friends sent Today, while retaining its close But this month will mark the fi rst learning resources, delegations of visiting connection to Birzeit University, Fobzu’s anniversary since the Great March lecturers and raised awareness about the mission has expanded to support of Return began, an enormous civic cause of Palestinian education within Palestinian education more broadly, mobilisation led by young people, UK academic, civic and political arenas. and, thanks to the generosity of our bringing together Palestinians of all ages Supporting Birzeit was also a contribution supporters, provides scholarships to across the political spectrum to claim to assisting a people struggling for their students at universities across the West their basic rights. Th e March reminds freedom. Th e founders were aware of Bank and Gaza, campaigns for the right to us that, as with most freedom struggles the signifi cance of Birzeit and other education, facilitates educational exchange historically, young people lead the way. As emerging national institutions that and raises awareness about the experience a new generation marches for their rights, brought Palestinians together in a spirit of Palestinian students and academics. standing up for Palestinian education is of common endeavor. As Fobzu’s fi rst Forty years on from Fobzu’s founding, one vital way we can show them they do pamphlet described, today’s young generation of Palestinians not walk alone. ‘For a people living under face obstacles to a freely enjoyed and occupation a good university is of self-determined education at every level. For more information about Fobzu special importance… Since 1967 Today Palestinians live under a military and how you can support Palestinian [Palestinians] have lived under the occupation entering its sixth decade; education, visit www.fobzu.org strain of Israeli occupation. Only those who have experienced this can know its tensions and uncertainties. At times, these people feel desperately isolated. Th e staff and students of Birzeit help to mitigate their sense of being forgotten by keeping national consciousness alive.’ For Fobzu’s two formidable founders, teacher and journalist Eleanor Aitken and Oxford Middle East scholar Elizabeth Omar Shweiki is Director of Fobzu. He was Monroe, supporting Palestinian education formerly Acting Director of the Kenyon was a cause that was very much close Institute in East Jerusalem and taught to home and chimed with their own history at Al Quds University. He co- assessment of the impact Britain’s colonial edited Decolonizing Palestinian Political rule had had on Palestinians in Palestine. Economy: De-development and Beyond In Britain’s Moment in the Middle East, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) with Mandy Monroe wrote damningly of the British Turner

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 13 PPALESTINEALESTINE Arrests, interrogations, demolitions and harassment. A lack of water and access to education. Mike Scott-Baumann describes life under occupation EEightight ddaysays oonn tthehe ((Wild?)Wild?) WWestest BBankank

International volunteers building the walls of a community centre in Bardala in the Jordan Valley. Photograph by Rashed Khudairy of the Jordan Solidarity Campaign

aving completed an MA in Th e community centre is to serve as for the village of Bardala, which has Palestine Studies at SOAS in 2018 a meeting place for the inhabitants of rich, fertile agricultural land capable of Hand written a dissertation on the several villages. None of these villages has growing vegetables such as aubergine, Israeli occupation of the West Bank, I was a school. Th ere was one once, but it was tomato and cucumber. But it requires a keen to visit the land. So, in October, I demolished by the Israeli Defence Forces reliable supply of water. Th e Jordan Valley spent eight days there under the auspices (IDF) on the grounds that it had not has plentiful supplies of water (from of the Israeli Committee Against House been granted a permit: in Area C, which the river and springs). However, control Demolitions (ICAHD), together with 20 includes most of the Jordan Valley, no of the water supply gives Israel control other international volunteers. wells can be dug and no new structures over the Palestinians, as the following We spent four days helping to build built (houses, schools or medical clinics) examples demonstrate. Israel has reduced a community centre in the village of without the permission of the Israeli the village’s water supply. Occasionally Bardala, in the north of the Jordan Valley. ‘Civilian Administration’ (in practice, they cut it off completely. In fact, on 17 We worked under the guidance of a the military). According to UN statistics, September, a month before we arrived, farmer, an activist in the Jordan Valley permission is very rarely granted. Israeli forces moved in with three military Solidarity Campaign. Th e centre of the Farming is the main source of income jeeps and two bulldozers to cut off the village is in Area B (under Palestinian municipal control but overall Israeli Israeli settlers in the Jordan Valley receive a 75 per cent military control) but the outskirts and reduction in the price they have to pay for their neighbouring villages are in Area C (under direct Israeli military rule). water... And their water supply is unlimited

14 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 water supply and destroy 500 metres of Th e Palestinian population in the Valley has fallen from pipes that irrigate local farms, thereby threatening the livelihood of 50 farmers. approximately 300,000 to 60,000 since 1967. Many of those In a very small village nearby, left reside in Jericho…perhaps only 20,000 continue farming the community water supply was permanently cut off ; residents are forced the land or grazing their herds. Many have migrated to Jordan to pay for tankers to bring water in on a weekly basis. Sometimes those tankers and Syria; as refugees they are not allowed to return are impounded. A nearby stream had been polluted by sewage from the Israeli when alone, he had been handcuff ed, in the village of Bureen, near Nablus. settlement above, rendering it unfi t blindfolded and interrogated. Fortunately, During that time we stayed in the nearby for human or animal consumption. his goats – his livelihood – found their way village of Awarta in the house of Jamal, an Signifi cantly, Israeli settlers in the Jordan home without him: otherwise, he might olive farmer, who had, in the past, been Valley, as well as in the rest of the West have lost his fl ock, either to dehydration attacked by settlers. On one occasion he Bank, receive a 75 per cent reduction or disorientation. Th e soldiers were fl ed with his son aft er their tractor was in the price they have to pay for their no doubt told (and believed) that they torched. We picked olives on land located water, most of which comes from Israeli- were protecting outpost settlers and just below a settlement that is owned by controlled aquifers. And their water that the shepherd, under the infl uence a family that is now too afraid to harvest supply is unlimited, even for swimming of activists/internationals, was a threat. their olives due to frequent harassment pools. More likely an explanation is that his by armed settlers. We took turns on One day we visited the farmer Abu arrest and interrogation was an example ‘guard duty’. Many Israeli settlements are Sakr in the village of Al-Hadidya, a of the harassment and humiliation classed as outposts, unoffi cial and not Bedouin community. Th e village, which designed to deter the shepherd from recognised by the Israeli government, but is surrounded by three military bases using his customary grazing grounds. Th e the settlers themselves are armed and, and three settlements, used to be home destruction of Palestinians’ livelihoods invariably, soldiers are posted nearby. to 54 families; aft er the demolitions now would appear to be a deliberate aim of Many such ‘outposts’ are connected to only 12 remain. Abu Sakr grazes sheep both settlers and military. Israel’s national electricity grid and water and goats. He is a local leader, signifi cant Given the arrests, interrogations, supplies and they are retrospectively enough to have been invited to address a demolitions and lack of access to water authorised. committee of the European Parliament. and education prevalent in this one small Over the course of eight days we His house has been destroyed many times, area – and the fact that much of the most witnessed many diff erent forms of likely in response to his activism: initially fertile land in the Jordan Valley was seized harassment perpetrated by both settlers razed to the ground, then partially rebuilt by the Israelis for commercial use in 1967 and the IDF. But we also witnessed a by the family the next morning only to be – it is not surprising that the Palestinian remarkable resilience, sumoud, in spite destroyed yet again, and so on. He spoke population in the Valley has fallen from of the ongoing trauma that is life under with power, passion and conviction, approximately 300,000 to 60,000 since occupation. Many remain determined to swearing that he would never leave his 1967. Many of those left reside in Jericho, stay on their land, to stay in their homes, land. the only major city in the Valley, so and not give up. It is both inspiring One day, fi ve members of our group, perhaps only 20,000 continue farming the and humbling. However, increasing accompanied by a rabbi from Torat land or grazing their herds. Many have displacement, particularly from Area C, Tzedet, went out in the morning with migrated to Jordan and Syria; as refugees attests to the success of an Israeli policy a shepherd and his goats. At one point, they are not allowed to return. than can only be described as ethnic three members of the IDF (all young) We spent four days harvesting olives cleansing, even if most Israelis describe it appeared and accosted them. When asked as Judaisation. what the group was doing one member explained that they were protecting the shepherd from harassment by the settlers from the hilltop. Th is explanation was met with sarcasm (‘poor shepherd’). Th e group was then informed that they were in a ‘military fi ring zone’. While 56 per cent of the Jordan Valley is categorised as closed military fi ring zone, little of it is used as such. Although the rabbi had a map to show that they were not in fact in the military fi ring zone, the IDF disagreed. Mike Scott-Baumann graduated in History No doubt they were under orders to stop from Cambridge in 1972. He has taught and interrogate the shepherd and his history in schools and colleges for 35 years ‘protectors’. Th e shepherd was detained and he has written about the Middle East for longer than the volunteers, and and modern Britain for students of both A not for the fi rst time: two days earlier, level and the International Baccalaureate

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 15 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Atef Alshaer recounts his recent journey to Gaza. Despite the hardships and cruelty, he ﬁ nds reasons to hope MMyy sshorthort rreturneturn ttoo GGazaaza

Gazans head to the sea in August 2017. Photograph by Caitlin Procter © Caitlin Procter

alking in Rafah, my hometown homecoming. I found myself surrounded pleasantly surprised by the many green in Gaza, for the fi rst time in 19 with familiar scenes from my childhood, fi elds, beautifully planted with olive, Wyears oft en felt unreal. I had including people that I thought I would almond and orange and lemon trees, and just passed through the Rafah crossing never see again. Th e longstanding siege other lands tastefully lined with cabbage from the Egyptian side. Th e journey on Gaza cripples the thought and spirit or caulifl owers and hot pepper and other from the Suez Channel to Gaza felt like and shackles them both with impossible plants. Th is is particularly true in the no other. It was littered with exhausting burdens. southern towns of Gaza, Khan-Younis and and humiliating compliances with the Such is the unfathomable fate in Gaza, Rafah, rather than Gaza city itself, which chaos that is the Egyptian military system, tucked between merciless powers and feels crowded and concreted up. I would where everyone returning or coming to subject to their whims and mindless oft en gaze outside the car when travelling Gaza is searched and stopped so many games of siege and cruelty. between Rafah and Gaza and see trees, times that one wonders if this journey is Yet Gaza feels extraordinarily alive. It plants and nice buildings. Th is made me viable more than once in one’s lifetime. I is overcrowded, with countless children optimistic that Gaza cannot be defeated. pondered this sad and terrifying thought going or coming from schools or simply Its people keep innovating methods of as I found myself among my family playing outdoors. I thought that there living that ensure the continuity and in Rafah. I was warmly received and would hardly be any space left given the enjoyment of earthly blessings, no matter greeted, and my loved ones and I shed smallness of the strip and the abundance how cruel its enemies are. Moreover, the tears of happiness over the long overdue of people, but I was mistaken. I was sea and its endearing immensity struck me, running along the strip from the south in Rafah to the north in Gaza. As Th e longstanding siege on Gaza cripples the thought and the sun rises or sets, the sea shimmers spirit and shackles them both with impossible burdens with inviting warm colors and shapes,

16 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 Th ey are surrounded by dangers imposed on them, exit from Gaza in order to resume my work at the University of Westminster. It and are charged with terrorism and all sorts of became clear to me as a few days went by unfathomable accusations without trial or evidence that the British passport is of little use for someone of Palestinian origin in Gaza. Ultimately, the journey from Rafah in tempting one to derive hope from this feels surrounded by dangers. One Friday Gaza to Egypt was distressingly diffi cult. defi ant strip of land that feels squeezed as I was sitting by my brother’s house It was riddled with obstructions and but utterly alive too. along with many other relatives, I heard unnecessary delays, including a night over All of the above, of course, could not such wide-ranging and sustained fi ring at the underequipped Egyptian side of the obscure the fact that Gaza is poverty from the eastern side of Rafah. Th is was Rafah crossing. Along with two hundred stricken and destitute to a degree that I taking place within the context of the people or so, I spent a cold night where had never seen before. Th ough young Great March of Return, where Gazans one can neither sit nor sleep. people attend universities in large congregate around the borders and Th e road between Rafah Sinai until the numbers, only a tiny minority of them demand to return to their homes whence Suez Canal constitutes one long military gets a satisfactory job with anything like they were evicted in 1948. Th e fi ring zone. Palestinian Gazans make this harsh decent pay. While many of the universities alarmed me as it seemed to inch closer, journey out of necessity as all other in Gaza are brilliantly tenacious, off ering but I took notice of the people sitting openings to Gaza are controlled by Israel, programs and high quality education around me. Th ey were unfazed, unafraid which restricts movement and makes it across the board, their graduates end and used to being recipient of incessant extremely hard for the vast majority of up lining the streets. Th ey undertake follies from the Israeli occupation. Gazans. desperate jobs just to feed themselves Unlike when I was there in the But it was humbling to live the and are counted fortunate even if they 1990s, when the men of Fatah and the experience of people who have no control fi nd measly employment. Talking to Palestinian Authority roamed the cities or choice over their lives whatsoever. some of them, I could not help but feel and showed whatever military gear they Th ey are surrounded by dangers imposed sad that this energetic population is might have, Hamas is no longer as evident on them, and are charged with terrorism desperate to fi nd something to do, not in everyday life in Gaza. However, if and and all sorts of unfathomable accusations to waste their youth while waiting for when required, its weapons appear in without trial or evidence. Th is is while in urgent political and economic solutions many shapes and sizes, ready either to reality many of them yearn for peace, a to ease their conditions. As I travelled impose order or quell a protest or fi ght decent living and freedom, which they are back through Egypt, I met many young Israel. It is clear that Hamas has developed entitled to seek by any means possible. I people, including married ones, leaving a sophisticated military and policing see no alternative to Gazans resisting their their families behind in search of a better system in Gaza, which is marked with oppressors to obtain their freedom, as the future in Europe. I learned that they take professionalism and speed, and people’s cruel powers surrounding them continue extremely dangerous and unguaranteed opinions attest to this. to deny them this most basic of human ways to get there, and some never make it. Two days before I was scheduled rights. I found Gaza powerful in its to leave Gaza back to Egypt and then presentation of itself as a barely surviving London, I was informed by one of my population, yet movingly generous relatives that the Egyptians had closed and unyielding. People oft en gather in the crossing. Th e sudden occurrence of mosques or by each other’s houses and this alarmed me. I made several calls and exchange ideas about their conditions. many calls were made on my behalf to Th ey make jokes and shoot through the the British Foreign Offi ce to facilitate my misery with banter. Th ough the religiosity of Gaza is evident in the many mosques and the extensive movement of people between each prayer as they go or come from those mosques, Gazans fi nd ways to express their thoughts and innermost desires quite freely. Th eir expressions are riddled with sardonic references and ironies. Th ey describe their conditions and hardships with acid factuality. Th ey Atef Alshaer is a Lecturer in Arabic accept that these are unlikely to change and Cultural Studies at the University any time soon, despair over their situation of Westminster. He has written several and express their sincere love for Gaza – research papers and monographs, including all in the same breath. Poetry and Politics in the Modern Arab In addition, Gaza is quite secure World. He is also the Editor of A Map of and quite calm inside. It is only when Absence: An Anthology of Palestinian Israel bombs sites or homes in Gaza or Writing on the Nakba (forthcoming by Egyptians exchange fi re in Sinai that one Dar Saqi, May 2019)

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 17 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Manal Massalha documents the living conditions of Palestinians residing inside East Jerusalem but outside the wall through photography © Manal Massalha

HHousing,ousing, rrubbish,ubbish, wwallsalls andand ffailingailing iinfrastructurenfrastructure iinn EEastast JJerusalemerusalem

ubject to racialised planning and population census and granted permanent unifi cation for his/her spouse, which has zoning policies, and treated as foreign residency to those physically present at become virtually impossible since the Simmigrants in their own city where the time of the census. Palestinians who passing of the Nationality and Entry into automatic revocation of residency rights had property/homes within the newly Israel Law (Temporary Order) in 2003. applies if they fail to prove that Jerusalem defi ned boundaries but were absent when Since 1967, over 14,500 Palestinians had is their centre of life, Palestinians in East the census took place were stripped of their residency revoked. Jerusalem live in compromised housing their right to return to their homes and Th e unmet rise in demand for housing, conditions. Th eir numbers grew from to legally live in the city. Permanent the conditionality of residency rights, about 69,000 in 1967 – when Israel residency, a legal status accorded to the racialised and unaff ordable planning occupied and annexed East Jerusalem – to foreign nationals who wish to reside and combined with zoning policies designed about 332,000 in 2016. Meanwhile, Israel work in Israel, is not automatically passed to privilege the Jewish population of the has failed to meet their basic housing to children or non-resident spouses, and, city render the available housing in East and infrastructure needs. Although they in the case of Palestinians, expires if they Jerusalem unaff ordable for the majority of constitute about 38 per cent of the city, reside outside of Jerusalem or Israel for a Palestinian families, 79 per cent of whom only 13 per cent of the annexed 71 km² period of seven years or more or if they live below the Israeli poverty line (2016). has been zoned for development (much obtain citizenship or residency in another As a result, many of those living in the of it is already built up), while 35 per country. A Palestinian Jerusalemite Old City and its vicinity experience severe cent has been confi scated for settlement married to a Palestinian from the West overcrowding, inadequate, dilapidated building and 22 per cent designated as Bank or Gaza has to apply for family conditions, or are forced to either build green areas where no construction is allowed. Th e fi nal 30 per cent remains unplanned. It is estimated that a third of Palestinian Jerusalemites live Soon aft er the occupation of East Jerusalem and the expansion of the city’s in Kufur Aqab and the Shufat Refugee Camp area; their municipal boundaries, Israel held a access to Jerusalem is controlled by military checkpoints

18 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 Th e manufactured housing crisis, the compromised conditions and the proliferation of rubbish and physical and bureaucratic housing conditions and the proliferation of rubbish walls are all a direct result of Israel’s and physical and bureaucratic walls are all a direct exclusionary/exclusive character. Defi ning itself as a Jewish state and a state of the result of Israel’s exclusionary character Jews, Israel creates structurally racialised hierarchies in connection with both their homes with no construction permits to Jerusalem is controlled by military space and citizens/subjects. It defi nes (thus risking criminalization, big fi nes checkpoints. Th e neighbourhoods are membership in society and demarcates and demolition) or move to Jerusalem forgotten about by Israeli authorities. the boundaries of who belongs and who neighbourhoods on the West Bank side of Neglect and chaos are commonplace. Th e does not, and that distinction has real the Israeli-constructed concrete wall. construction of high-rise buildings goes material manifestations. In 2002, the Israeli government on unsupervised and unregulated, with approved the construction of a barrier, little to no regard for health and safety. Manal Massalha is an Urban Ethnographer citing security concerns. Th e barrier, In the event of an earthquake, UNRWA and Documentary Photographer interested also known as the ‘separation wall’ or the estimates that about 80 per cent of the in urban space, politics, power and ‘apartheid wall,’ consists of a combination buildings around the Shuafat Refugee people. She holds a PhD in sociology of ditches, fences, patrol roads, barbed Camp will collapse. Meanwhile, sewage from the London School of Economics. wires, an electronic monitoring system overfl ows into the streets, uncollected She researches the Palestinian city and and a concrete wall in dense urban areas. rubbish gets burned and the water supply urban planning in Israel and writes It runs along 712 km, more than twice the is irregular/insuffi cient. about multicultural, convivial London, 320-km-long Green Line (1949 armistice Aft er years of complaints from gentrifi cation and child and the city. line) between Israel and the West Bank. residents, the Jerusalem municipality To view her work visit: According to United Nations Offi ce subcontracted private businessmen to www.manalmassalha.com for the Coordination of Humanitarian collect rubbish. Th e sanitation situation, Aff airs, as of 2017 about 65 per cent has nonetheless, still falls short of residents’ been completed. Only 15 per cent of the needs. ‘I have nowhere but the street,’ said entire planned route will be on the Green a young man who was coming out of his Line, while 85 per cent runs inside the building on the main Kufur Aqab road, West Bank. carrying in his hand a plastic bag full of Th e wall in East Jerusalem is 8-9 metres rubbish, and accompanied by his wife and high. Its route includes all East Jerusalem baby. ‘Dustbins are either full, overfl owing settlements and the land allotted to their or a long distance away from the building. (Opposite) 'Kufur Aqab: When developers’ greed meets political agendas,’ high-rise housing future expansion but leaves out large I can’t keep it at home. I’m left with no blocks built in close proximity, with little to no Palestinian neighbourhoods such as Kufur choice but to dispose of it in the street’, he regard for building regulations, October 2017. Aqab and the Shufat Refugee Camp area complained. Photograph by Manal Massalha on the West Bank side of the wall. Th ese My series ‘Housing, Rubbish, Walls (Below, left) ‘Forced Disrepair: Old City of neighbourhoods are within the Jerusalem and Failing Infrastructure in East Jerusalem,’ a Palestinian family’s one-bedroom home rendered uninhabitable as tenants unable municipal boundaries but are now forcibly Jerusalem’ consists of a selection of to renovate their dilapidated home, October severed from the city. photographs, taken mostly in October 2017. Photograph by Manal Massalha It is estimated that a third of Palestinian 2017, and showcases the urban neglect (Below, right) ‘Walking through the rubble of his Jerusalemites live in Kufur Aqab and the in East Jerusalem. Th e manufactured demolished home, Jerusalem,’ October 2017. Shufat Refugee Camp area; their access housing crisis, the compromised housing Photograph by Manal Massalha © Manal Massalha © Manal Massalha

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 19 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Nora Parr challenges the ubiquitous idea that there is no contemporary Palestinian writing, asserting instead that newer literary works cannot be understood using past frames SStoptop waiting,waiting, tthehe ‘‘next’next’ PPalestinianalestinian wwritersriters aarere aalreadylready hhereere

From left to right: a collection of short stories including the work of Adania Shibli, No One Knows Their Bloodtype by Maya Abu Al-Hayat and Cinema Gaza by Mahmud Amer

ost-millennial, post-Oslo, post- ‘Peace Initiative.’ Literary criticism aren’t really ‘new’ anymore – has been politics – since the late 1990s has followed suit, with critics naming so far dismissed as ‘inward looking,’ Pdiscourse on Palestine has been the newest national poet every few ‘personal’ and ‘fragmented.’ Somehow defi ned more by its past than its present. years and predicting or declaring the this means it doesn’t count. Reproached Politics is presented as a quagmire, arrival of a long-awaited national novel. for ‘lacking’ the political cohesion of marked by waiting and endless repetition; Real critical attention to Palestinian the Palestinian greats – the inventors the nth declaration of a third intifada, writing – from a ‘new’ generation of of Resistance Literature, the innovators the ‘latest’ war on Gaza, the newest writers born well aft er the Nakba, who of postcolonial theory, defi ners of exile, who lead Literature of Revolution – these It is not Palestinian writing that is missing from new writers are rendered invisible. Th e only thing necessary for ‘fi nding’ new the scene… but a theory or politics within which Palestinian writing is a better lens through to read or make sense of the present boom which to see it.

20 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 Th ese authors declare the death of explanatory systems, not a divine order that has explanatory power over the world. to erase them, but to demonstrate the end of the symbols ‘In the end’, her short story (from the of this past power over explaining the present same 2000 Qattan publication) starts, ‘God created the heavens and the earth.’ Th e biblical passage goes on almost First to debunk the myth that there ‘is pages of these works of Arabic fi ction verbatim (but as ‘the end’ instead of the no Palestinian writing’ today. Th e fl ush god is declared dead, along with politics, beginning) until ‘And the light stole the of Arabic literary prizes makes the fact of and the aging fi gure of the Palestinian darkness of the night from the paper. contemporary literature by Palestinians resistance fi ghter ‘snores his last.’ And the Author saw the whiteness of the inescapable. Awards have highlighted Al-Hayyat’s protagonist watches her page and that it was empty.’ But when the the work of Ibrahim Nasrallah and Rabia freedom-fi ghter-turned-PLO-offi cial author saw the empty page the ‘Author al-Madhoun (both of whom won the father convulse in a hospital bed with was sad.’ Th e works are not a call for International Prize for Arabic Fiction in bodily fl uids leaking out his sides. He the cessation of words, but for a new 2018 and 2016 respectively), Huzama falls to the fl oor, dead, and the novel relationship between author, world and Habayeb (who won the 2017 Mahfouz (now translated by Hazem Jamjoum language. Each author declares the death Medal), and Osama Alaysa (who was and looking for a publisher) begins. of explanatory systems; not to erase them, awarded the 2015 Sheikh Zeid Prize) as For Amer’s text, the death of the father but to demonstrate the end of the symbols only a small sample of a proliferation of only really happens in 2006. Th ough the of this past power over explaining the letters. Today’s Palestinian writers are not patriarch had had a heart attack in the present. Th e symbols that once made exactly ‘new’ either; a volume published Tunis PLO HQ ‘before the ink was dry’ on sense of politics and action no longer by the AM Qattan foundation in 2000 the family’s new Palestinian Authority ID fi t; they are the wrong skin for a new on young writers essentially reads as a cards, his eldest son carries the political generation. For the texts, this is the only ‘who’s who’ of tomorrow’s prizewinners. torch into the ‘Gaza First’ government. way out of the representational quagmire; Adania Shibli, Alaa Hleihel and Maya During the 2006 Hamas takeover, the the only way to craft words for a lived Abu al-Hayyat are only a few of the Fatah fi ghter is on the run and calls the reality that is no longer best described authors introduced in that volume who novel’s protagonist to tell him he will fl ee by lingering systems. To make the world, have continued writing and publishing to Egypt. Th is, the protagonist refl ects, and its pasts, afresh; to fi nd new words in the decades since. Th ey are becoming means his brother ‘would not remain and symbols that recognise history but the old guard, with yet newer generations one of the returnees.’ Th e act casts the give diff erent space to its expression in the following their lead. It is not Palestinian whole Oslo project into question for the present. writing that is missing from the scene, character, who wonders if it ‘was not, then, but a theory or politics within which from the beginning, a real return.’ Th e to read or make sense of the present brother does not have the chance to un- boom. return, however, and is killed en-route A look at three diff erent works hints to the Rafah crossing. With the takeover, at one emerging frame: the only way to Amer’s text observes, Gaza ‘got rid’ of the a new politics is to declare the death of existing government, and its symbolic the prevailing symbolic order. Like so order ‘as though it hadn’t been its skin for many Arab writers aft er the 1967 defeat, years.’ For Shibli, who publically disavows contemporary Palestinian works fi nd it herself of the national frame to begin impossible that, as Elizabeth Kassab puts with, it is not the fi gure of the father or it in her Contemporary Arab Th ought, the fi ghter that disappears, but the idea of ‘things continued to look the same … words continued to be used in the same way … people wrote, read, and behaved as if nothing had happened’ (2010, p. 50) while political rhetoric becomes more and more distant from lived realities. Where 1967 was marked by a change in political conditions, writers had to respond to with diff erent language, the quagmire of Palestinian politics necessitated a diff erent tactic. Adania Shibli’s short story ‘Maths, under which is love, under which is language’ (2000), Maya Abu al-Hayyat’s No One Knows Th eir Bloodtype (2013) and Nora Parr is OWRI/AHRC Research Fellow Mahmud Amer’s Cinema Gaza (2015) at SOAS, University of London, with the each quite forcefully declares the existing project Creative Multilingualism. She language of Palestine to be ‘rotten and teaches Arabic/Comparative Literature and inadequate’ (Kassab, p. 50). In the opening Palestine Studies

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 21 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS IInn SSearchearch ooff A PProphet:rophet: A SSpiritualpiritual JourneyJourney wwithith KKhalilhalil GGibranibran

By Paul-Gordon Chandler

Rowman and Littleﬁ eld, 2017, £13.95

Reviewed by Atef Alshaer

n Search of A Prophet: A Spiritual Journey echoing its lasting resonance. Gibran’s ‘divine sublimation’. Th e book is invitation with Khalil Gibran by Paul-Gordon vision was infl uenced by his childhood to ‘harmony, contemplation and spirituality’. IChandler is a brilliant companion to in Lebanon within the context of the Chandler’s journey with Gibran continues a truly insightful and an ever-relevant increasingly despotic Ottoman Empire and to reveal the sources of inspiration to his poet who left indelible marks on Middle the communities he lived within. Much of other great writings, such as Th e Tempest Eastern as well as Western cultures. his writing is infused with biblical imagery, and Th e Prophet, and it is the latter book Chandler traces his growing fascination but it developed to accommodate other which attracted worldwide attention and with Gibran, highlighting how he too lived texts and experiences, including from the became an essential classic. It speaks to between diff erent cultures, Muslim and Islamic tradition, to the extent that his most essential themes: love, friendship, marriage, Christian, and ultimately found in Gibran famous book, Th e Prophet creatively invokes children, crime and death, and each of a healing voice. Summing up Gibran’s the journey of Prophet Mohammad. these themes is discussed in such a way legacy, Chandler writes, ‘Khalil wrote for Indeed, Gibran is a holistic fi gure, as it as to embrace humanity to its fullest. Th e both the East and the West, presenting were, constantly learning and absorbing overarching, recurrent concern in Gibran’s a nonsectarian vision of our world and infl uences and integrating them into his writing is for unity and purpose in life: off ering his readers a spiritual tapestry unique and inimitable style that speaks to ‘would that I could be the peacemaker in that transcends humanity’s divisions’ (p. the heart, soul and mind, all in the same your soul, that I might turn the discord and 2). Indeed, it is this ‘spiritual tapestry’ that breath. the rivalry of your elements into oneness Chandler unearths in this book, pursuing With provocative titles, such as Khalil the and melody’ (p. 89). Gibran’s soulful journey from his origins Heretic or Spirits Rebellious or Jesus Th e Son Chandler clearly identifi es with Gibran’s in Lebanon to his family’s migration to the of Man, Gibran sought to awaken people life and vision, reminding us of the United States at the turn of the 20th century from their strict adherence to religious concurrence of his life and vision with him. to his sojourn in Paris and fi nally to his dogma and structured ideologies which To this end, the book is an exquisite homage resting place back in Bsharri in Lebanon, were seen as corrupting, evincing walls to Gibran, but it is also a moving refl ection where Gibran was born in 1883. among people rather than freeing them and on Chandler’s outlook on life as holistic, Unlike other books which tend to record bringing them together on a humane and deeply spiritual and ultimately embracing Gibran’s enigmatic life in great detail, this spiritual basis. As Chandler wrote, ‘Khalil of all humanity – notwithstanding its book is a quiet voyage into Gibran’s mind instead chose to focus on “awakening” manufactured divisions – as of one family. and soul as they form a coherent and people to their greater self and to the true meaningful vision of life amidst turmoil heart of God’ (p.34). Perhaps Gibran’s Atef Alshaer is a Lecturer in Arabic and and instability. It is an extraordinary lifelong mission was to fi nd unity that Cultural Studies at the University of contribution, depicting Gibran as a unique explains all the mysteries of life. Westminster. He has written several research fi gure who, through his life and writing, In the Madman, Gibran pays homage papers and monographs, including Poetry projected an exquisite picture of humanity to the eccentric artists and writers who and Politics in the Modern Arab World. He transcending divisions and seeking a path infl uenced him, including William Blake, is also the Editor of A Map of Absence: An of inner peace and coexistence. What makes Nietzsche, William Yeats and others. Th e Anthology of Palestinian Writing on the this book exceptionally interesting is that artist appears as one who feels his senses Nakba (forthcoming by Dar Saqi, May 2019) its prose is anchored in Gibran’s writing, and their affl ictions. Madness is a form of

22 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS HHamasamas CContained:ontained: TThehe RRiseise aandnd PPaciaciﬁ ccationation ooff PPalestinianalestinian RResistanceesistance

By Tareq Baconi

Stanford University Press, May 2018, £23.99

Reviewed by Dina Matar

n Hamas Contained:dTh Th e Rise and d suggests, Israel’s intervention and as a bogeyman to sidestep the political Pacifi cation of Palestinian Resistance, manipulation: sustaining negotiations, aspects of the Palestinian question and ITareq Baconi, an analyst of Middle direct and indirect, with both parties Palestinian rights. By ignoring and Eastern politics, provides a detailed separately while obstructing any prospect denying Hamas’s political ideology history of Hamas based on primary of unity between the two. Based on the through a dual process of containment sources, such as obscure Hamas research, Baconi suggests Hamas is an and pacifi cation, Israel, Baconi suggests, newsletters and communiqués, and ideological political actor with a dual has been able to focus on confl ict interviews with informants inside the nature – a radical Islamist movement that management with a designated ‘terrorist’ movement and others familiar with its is also engaged in a national liberation group, rather than working towards a historical evolution. Using a chronological struggle, thus off ering a unique lens resolution of the confl ict that recognises approach, Baconi traces the movement’s through which to address the debates Palestinian rights. Th e resulting status rise and evolution, particularly following around whether Islamists can also quo means that both Hamas and Israel its electoral victory in 2006, which be nationalist. In addressing Hamas’ continue to focus on short-term survival gave it a solid foundation from which ideological convictions and readiness in a longer battle, allowing Hamas to disseminate the conviction that Islamic to use force to push forward its vision sustain its power and Israel to maintain Palestinian nationalism is central to while engaging fully in the democratic its colonisation of the West Bank and its Palestinians’ achieving their rights and political system constructed aft er the fi rst siege of the Gaza Strip. aspirations. Hamas’ victory also sparked Palestinian intifada of 1987, Baconi off ers Hamas Contained is a thoroughly years of fi ghting between Hamas and a more nuanced portrait of Hamas, its researched book that highlights Fatah, spurred on by Israel which played relations with Israel and with the PA and the desperate need for nuance in the groups against each other, eff ectively its constructed self-image as an enduring discussions surrounding Palestinian undermining Palestinians’ hopes for Palestinian resistance movement rooted resistance and the struggle for political self-determination and adversely aff ecting in Islamic Palestinian nationalism. independence while also contributing to their lived realities in conditions of Baconi suggests that although Hamas the wider debates around Islamism and continued colonisation. embraced democracy from the start of its nationalism. It is a must read for those Baconi begins his narrative by electoral career, it later unsubscribed from wishing to understand the rise of Hamas charting the changes and adaptations in the values of power-sharing and became and to contextualise the current attacks the movement’s identity and practices increasingly focussed on reformulating against the movement, from the PA as that refl ect and respond to historical the Palestinian struggle. Th is direction well as Israel and its allies. conditions – the assassination of the is particularly refl ected in Hamas’ group’s founder, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin approach to governance of the Gaza Strip, Dina Matar is Chair of the Centre for in 2004, the rise to power of current which demonstrates that the movement Palestine Studies and the head of the leader Ismail Hanieh and the group’s had been active in creating an illiberal School of Interdisciplinary Studies at troubled relationship with the Palestinian democracy or a ‘system based on soft SOAS. She is the author of What it Means Authority (PA). Th ese developments authoritarianism’ (p. 239). to be Palestinian, co-author of Th e were exacerbated by competing national In the concluding chapter, Baconi turns Hizbullah Phenomenon and co-editor of liberation strategies and, as Baconi attention to Israel’s attempts to use Hamas Gaza as Metaphor

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 23 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF

MMirroredirrored LLoss:oss: A YemeniYemeni WWoman’soman’s LLifeife SStorytory By Gabriele vom Bruck

Mirrored Loss tells the story of Amat al-Latif al-Wazir, only daughter of ‘Abdullah al- Wazir, the leader of Yemen’s mid-20th century constitutional movement for reform of the autocratic imamate. Her relationship with her father, who was accused of treason, takes centre stage in this biographical narrative. Amat al-Latif enjoyed a privileged childhood in a high-ranking family at the heart of Yemeni politics; yet the failed revolt of 1948 was the family’s downfall, leaving her and other close relatives exposed to social indignities and privation. Th rough one family’s story, Gabriele vom Bruck explores how violence translates into tragedy in the personal realm, and how individual lives and larger cultural and political worlds intersect in Yemen.

January 2019, Hurst, £35.00

KKhatt:hatt: EEgypt’sgypt’s CCalligraphicalligraphic LLandscapeandscape

Edited by Basma Hamdy

Egyptian cities and villages abound with an enormous wealth of khatt, or calligraphic script, ranging from casual scrawls and scribbles to elaborately-painted colourful murals. Th ese historical and contemporary versions of urban lettering, varying in surface, medium and technique, adorn mosques, shop-fronts, houses, trucks, boats, schools, tuk tuks and walls. Th ey are records of human existence, documenting expressions of hope, fears, dreams and anxieties. Featuring beautiful and unique examples of these written expressions, Khatt is an extensive visual documentation of the found typography and calligraphy in Egypt. Th is volume records the traditional craft smanship of hand-painted calligraphy, which is in decline because of the digitisation of the Arabic script.

September 2018, Saqi, £25.00

JJusticeustice fforor SSome:ome: LLawaw aandnd tthehe QQuestionuestion ooff PPalestinealestine

By Noura Erakat

Justice in the Question of Palestine is oft en framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian confl ict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel’s settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel’s military off ensives in the Gaza Strip. Th e Oslo Accord’s two-state solution is now dead letter. Justice for Some off ers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focussing on key junctures – from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza –Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions.

April 2019, Stanford University Press, £22.49

24 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF WWomenomen aandnd GGenderender iinn IIraq:raq: BBetweenetween NNation-Buildingation-Building aandnd FFragmentationragmentation By Zahra Ali

Since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, the challenges of sectarianism and militarism have weighed heavily on the women of Iraq. In this book, Zahra Ali foregrounds a wide range of interviews with a variety of women involved in women’s rights activism, showing how everyday life and intellectual life has developed since the US-led invasion. In addition to this, Ali off ers detailed historical research of social, economic and political contexts since the formation of the Iraqi state in the 1920s. Th rough a transnational and postcolonial feminist approach, this book also considers the ways in which gender norms and practices, Iraqi feminist discourses and activisms are shaped and developed through state politics, competing nationalisms, religious, tribal and sectarian dynamics, wars and economic sanctions.

September 2018, Cambridge University Press, £21.99 RRovingoving RRevolutionaries:evolutionaries: AArmeniansrmenians aandnd tthehe CConnectedonnected RRevolutionsevolutions iinn tthehe RRussian,ussian, IIranian,ranian, aandnd OOttomanttoman WWorldsorlds By Houri Berberian

Th ree of the formative revolutions that shook the early 20th-century world occurred almost simultaneously in regions bordering each other. Th ough the Russian, Iranian and Young Turk Revolutions all exploded between 1904 and 1911, they have never been studied through their linkages. Roving Revolutionaries probes the interconnected aspects of these three revolutions through the involvement of the Armenian revolutionaries – minorities in all of these empires. Exploring the geographical and ideological boundary crossings that occurred, this analysis of the circulation of revolutionaries, ideas and print tells the story of peoples and ideologies in upheaval and collaborating with each other, and in so doing it illuminates our understanding of revolutions and movements.

April 2019, University of Californian Press, £27.00 TThehe MMiddleiddle EEastast FFromrom EEmpirempire ttoo SSealedealed IIdentitiesdentities By Lorenzo Kamel

Th is analysis of the modern Middle East – based on research in 19 archives and numerous languages – shows the transition from an internal history characterised by local realities that were plural and multidimensional, and where identities were fl exible and hybrid, to a simplifi ed history largely imagined and imposed by external actors. Th e author demonstrates how the once-heterogeneous identities of Middle Eastern peoples were sealed into a standardised and uniform version that persists to this day. He also sheds light on the eff orts that peoples in the region – in the context of a new process of homogenisation of diversities – are exerting in order to get back into history, regaining possession of their multifaceted pasts.

March 2019, Edinburgh University Press, £75.00

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 25 LISTINGS

EEventsvents iinn LLondonondon

HE EVENTS and steps in to question him, the two conc. Th e Gallery, 70/77 Cowcross free. Room 52, BM. T 020 7323 organisations listed are forced to confront their past Street, London EC1M 6EJ. W 8000 W www.britishmuseum.org Tbelow are not necessarily and fi nd themselves torn between www.mondediplofriends.org.uk endorsed or supported by The bitter loyalties. Tickets: See contact Wednesday 3 April Middle East in London. The details below for various ticket 7:00 pm | Fresh off the Page: accompanying texts and images prices. Pleasance Th eatre London, Exciting New Writing by Exiled 1:15 pm | Who was Buried in are based primarily on information Carpenters Mews, North Road, Writers (Reading/Performance/ the Royal Cemetery of Ur? provided by the organisers and do London N7 9EF. T 020 7609 1800 Discussion) Organised by: Exiled Archaeological and textual data not necessarily reflect the views E [email protected] W www. Writers Ink. Open Mic. Host: compared (Gallery Talk) Enrica of the compilers or publishers. pleasance.co.uk Amir Darwish. With Alireza Abiz, Inversi (BM). Organised by: While every possible effort is Hamid Ismailov, Fawzi Karim, BM. Admission free. Room 56, made to ascertain the accuracy of 6:45 pm | Saudi Arabia & the West: Shabibi Shah Nala, Edin Suljic. BM. T 020 7323 8000 W www. these listings, readers are advised the Future of a Toxic Relationship Tickets: £5/£3 for 2019 Exiled britishmuseum.org to seek confirmation of all events (Talk) David Wearing (Royal Writers Ink members and asylum using the contact details provided Holloway, University of London). seekers. Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Th ursday 4 April for each event. Organised by: Friends of Le Street, London WC2H 9BX. E Submitting entries and updates: Monde Diplomatique. Wearing [email protected] W 4:00 pm | "Shrieks, Trills, and please send all updates and looks at the nature of the Saudi www.exiledwriters.co.uk Squeaks": Th e Cacophonous submissions for entries related regime and its foreign policy History of the Ottoman Band to future events via e-mail to under the Crown Prince and Tuesday 2 April of Jerusalem (Lecture) Michael [email protected] how far it will be possible for Talbot (University of Greenwich). western policymakers to change, 1:15 pm | Persepolis: An Organised by: Palestine BM – British Museum, Great recalibrate and disentangle Achaemenid Statement of Exploration Fund (PEF) and BM Russell Street, London WC1B existing relationships which are Kingship (Gallery Talk) Diana jointly with ASTENE. What can 3DG so dependent on the fl ow of Saudi Driscoll (Independent Speaker). a photograph tell us about what SOAS –SOAS, University of money to the west. Tickets: £3/£2 Organised by: BM. Admission the past sounded like? As it turns London, Th ornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Ali and Dahlia (see April Events, Monday 1 April, p. 26) LSE – London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2 2AE

APRIL EVENTS

Monday 1 April

Until 14 April | Ali and Dahlia (Performance) Debut play of actor- playwright Tariq Jordan. Having been accused of rioting, Ali awaits his fate in an Israeli interrogation room. But when an old lover

NEW MA PALESTINE STUDIES Ŕ Develop an understanding of the complexities of modern and contemporary Palestine

Ŕ Explore history, political structure, development, culture and society

Ŕ Obtain a multi-disciplinary overview

Ŕ Enrol on a ﬂexible, inter-disciplinary study programme For further details, please contact: Dr Adam Hanieh E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 27 out, quite a lot. Talbot explores the visual record of the band of the Ottoman military garrison in Jerusalem at the turn of the 20th century. Admission free. Pre- registration required T 020 7323 8181 W www.britishmuseum. org BP Lecture Th eatre, Clore Education Centre, BM. T 020 7935 5379 E [email protected] W www.pef.org.uk

Friday 5 April

6:00 pm | Bibi (Lady) Maryam Bakhtiari (Book Launch) Organised by: Jaleh Esfahani Foundation in association with the London Middle East Institute. Event to mark the publication of the English translation of a recent book on Bibi (Lady) Maryam Bakhtiari, a leader of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of Mustafa Hulusi, Oleander 1, 2016, Oil on canvas, 110 x 180cm. Photo Francis Ware. Mustafa Hulusi: Cyprus Realism (see Exhibitions p. 34) Iran, 1905. Admission free. Pre- registration required W www. eventbrite.co.uk Khalili Lecture aft erwards are connected to the Th ursday 11 April both days). Th e Arab British Th eatre, SOAS. E bonyad@ city of Cairo, to artefacts, and to Centre, 1 Gough Square, London jalehesfahani.com W www.soas. other bodies in a particular way. 5:45 pm | Endangered Cultural EC4A3DE. T 020 7832 1310 E ac.uk/lmei/events/ Admission free. Pre-registration Heritage of Yemen (Lecture) [email protected] W required W www.eventbrite.co.uk Robert Bewley (EAMENA www.arabbritishcentre.org.uk Sunday 7 April Room 215, 2nd fl oor, Aga Khan Project, University of Oxford) Centre, 10 Handyside Street, Organised by: MBI Al Jaber 4:00 pm | A Night with Filmakers 4:00 pm | Bibi (Lady) Maryam London N1C 4DN. W www. Foundation, British Foundation and Th eir Films Organised by: Bakhtiari (Book Launch) agakhancentre.org.uk for the Study of Arabia and the Jaleh Esfahani Foundation in Organised by: Jaleh Esfahani British-Yemeni Society. Part of association with the London Foundation in association with 6:30 pm | Manuscript the MBI Al Jaber Foundation Middle East Institute. With Bardia the London Middle East Institute. Illumination – Process and Lecture Series. Admission free. Jalali, Deep Sleep, Saeid Fatemi, A similar event to that which is Examples (Lecture) Anahita Alavi. Pre-registration required. MBI Hasti and Vahid Keshavarz, taking place on Friday 5 April in Organised by: Th e Iran Society. Al Jaber Seminar Room, London Postman, Avalon and Unexposed. Persian (see above event listing for Alavi is an Iranian artist who has Middle East Institute, SOAS, Admission free. Khalili Lecture details). learned Persian Miniature, Islamic MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell Th eatre, SOAS. E bonyad@ Illumination and Geometric Square, London WC1B 5EA. E jalehesfahani.com design under the supervision of [email protected] W Wednesday 10 April the great masters in Iran. Since www.mbifoundation.com 2016, she has been engaged in Sunday 14 April 6:00 pm | Urban Bodies in the teaching and producing Persian Saturday 13 April Cityscape of Cairo: Passion, painting and illumination at SOAS. 1:00 pm | SOAS Arabic Choir Th e Despair and Entanglement (Talk) In this talk she will go through the 10:00 am | East in the West: SOAS Arabic Choir meets every Maria Frederika Malmström process of producing miniatures A Cultural History of Arab second Sunday at SOAS. Th e choir (Center for Middle Eastern and illuminations and will then Presence in London Coline sings songs from diff erent parts Studies, Lund University & show some examples of miniatures Houssais (Sciences Po University, of the Arabic musical tradition - Columbia University), Jonas from diff erent periods. Admission Paris). Organised by: Th e Arab oft en songs with a radical stance. Otterbeck (Aga Khan University free for Society Members plus British Centre. An intensive All welcome. For further details Institute for the Study of Muslim one guest. Pall Mall Room, Th e two-day course which will look E [email protected] W www. Civilisations). Organised by: Aga Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall at the diversity and complexity geocities.ws/soasarabicband Khan University Institute for the Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress of Arab infl uence over Europe Study of Muslim Civilisations code calls for gentlemen to wear throughout the centuries, from Tuesday 16 April and the Aga Khan Trust for jacket and tie). T 020 7235 5122 a cultural point of view deeply Culture. Discussion focusing on E [email protected] W www. intertwined with economic and 7:15 pm | Hisham Matar in how intense experiences during iransociety.org / www.therag. political dynamics. Tickets: £240 Conversation Th e Pulitzer Prize- the Egyptian revolts in 2011 and co.uk (includes refreshments and lunch winning American born British-

28 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 Libyan author of Th e Return Th ursday 25 April EVENTS OUTSIDE (Council for British Research in refl ects on the abiding themes of LONDON the Levant) in association with the his writing life, from memory and 5:30 pm | Rethinking about London Middle East Institute. Th e family to war and repair. Tickets: Injuid Painting School: Inju Style fi rst major American diplomatic £12.50. Purcell Room, Southbank in Context (Seminar) Roxana Wednesday 3 April foray into the region occurred Centre, Belvedere Road, London Zenhari. Zenhari's talk will focus a century ago. Th e King-Crane SE1 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W on the expressive and enigmatic 1:15 pm | Discovering Islamic Commission of 1919, sent to the www.southbankcentre.co.uk painting school, the Inju style Geometric Design (Talk) A Middle East by Woodrow Wilson (practised between 1307 and 1353 talk with Eric Broug, author, in order to ascertain the political in Iran, Shiraz) and its relationship educator and designer specialising desires of the (no longer) Ottoman Th ursday 18 April with Jawānmardi or fotowwa in Islamic geometric design. people, generated a moment cycles. SOAS Research Seminars Admission is by token, one per of intense political debate and 6:45 pm | Converging Paths: in Islamic Art. Convener: Anna person, available at the Courtyard deliberation in the region. In Photography and the Middle Contadini (SOAS). Admission Entrance desk on a fi rst-come fi rst- his lecture Patrick will evaluate East: Documentation, free. Room B102, SOAS. E tt30@ served basis 30 minutes before the the history of this oft -forgotten Orientalism and Espionage soas.ac.uk talk. Th e Fitzwilliam Museum, Commission. Admission free. (Talk/Discussion) Organised by: Trumpington Street, Cambridge DLT, SOAS. T 020 7969 5296 E Asia House and Th e Barakat Trust. 6:30 pm | When Tehran was the CB2 1RB. T 01223 332900 W [email protected] W www.cbrl. In this illustrated talk, co-curator Brightest Star: A Global History www.fi tzmuseum.cam.ac.uk ac.uk of the exhibition Departures (see of the 1979 Iranian Revolution Exhibitions) Richard Wilding (Lecture) Simon Wolfgang Fuchs Monday 15 April 7:00 pm | Edward W. Said London contrasts the legacy and objectives (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Lecture 2019: Is Justice Still of historical photographers with Freiburg). Organised by: Royal 9:30 am | BRAIS 2019 (Two- Possible? Palestine, International his own contemporary work and Asiatic Society. Admission Day Conference: Monday 15 Law, and Public Discourse (Panel experiences in the region. Aft er free. Royal Asiatic Society, 14 - Tuesday 16 April) Th e Sixth Discussion) Susan M. Akram his presentation, Wilding will be Stephenson Way, London NW1 Annual Conference of the British (Boston University), Hassan joined by a panel of specialists 2HD. T 020 7388 4539 E info@ Association for Islamic Studies. Jabareen (Adalah), Philippe Sands in historical photography and royalasiaticsociety.org W https:// Tickets: See contact details below QC (Matrix Chambers and UCL). heritage documentation. Part royalasiaticsociety.org/ for various ticket prices. Teaching Th e rights of Palestinians are of the series Converging Paths. and Learning Building, University enshrined in international laws Tickets: £10/£8 conc./students free. Park, University of Nottingham and resolutions. Yet Israel and its Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Sunday 28 April NG7 2RD. T 0131 650 4165 E supporters continually act against Street, London W1G 7LP. T 020 [email protected] W www.brais. them. What can international 7307 5454 E [email protected] 11:00 am | Digital Workshop: ac.uk/conferences/brais-2019 law off er to change this reality? W https://asiahouse.org/ Egyptian Photo Booth Organised Chair: Wadie Said (University by: BM. Admission free. Use 9:00 am | BRAIS 2019 (Two-Day of South Carolina). Th e annual technology to turn yourself into Conference: Monday 15 - Tuesday Edward W. Said London Lecture Saturday 20 April a pharaoh, an Egyptian god and 16 April) See above event listing series is supported by Th e Mosaic other characters. Admission free. for venue and contact details. Rooms/A. M. Qattan Foundation 1:15 pm | Lions and Sphinxes Samsung Centre, BM. T 020 7323 and London Review of Books. in Ancient Egypt (Gallery Talk) 8000 W www.britishmuseum.org Tickets: £8–£14. Pre-registration George Hart (Independent MAY EVENTS required. Th e Royal Geographical Speaker). Organised by: BM. Society, 1 Kensington Gore, Admission free. Room 4, BM. Monday 29 April London SW7 2AR. T 020 7370 T 020 7323 8000 W www. Th ursday 2 May 9990 E [email protected] W britishmuseum.org 6:00 pm | Th e Annual Richard https://mosaicrooms.org/ Barnett Memorial Lecture: Th e 10:30 am | Art of the Islamic and Excavations at Tel Rehov and Indian Worlds, including Rugs Friday 3 May Wednesday 24 April the Archaeology of Israel in the and Carpets (Auction) Organised Early Monarchic Period (Lecture) by: Christie’s Auction House. Th e 7:00 pm | Lecture by Hassan 7:00 pm | Brick and Stucco. Amihai Mazar (Institute Of lot will be exhibited at Christie’s Jabareen Organised by: Centre Examples of the Architecture Archaeology, Hebrew University from 26 April to 1 May. Admission for Palestine Studies. A lecture and its Decoration in Saljuq Iran Of Jerusalem). Organised by: free. Christie’s, 8 King Street, Saint by Hassan Jabareen, the founder th th (11 -12 Centuries) (Lecture) Anglo-Israel Archaeological James’s, London SW1Y 6QT. T 020 and General Director of Adalah Lorenz Korn (University of Society jointly with the Institute 7839 9060 W www.christies.com – Th e Legal Center for Arab Bamberg, Germany). Organised of Archaeology, UCL. Followed Minority Rights in Israel. Hassan by: Islamic Art Circle at SOAS. by refreshments. Admission free. 6:00 pm | Imperial Interventions is the lawyer of the Palestinian Chair: Scott Redford (SOAS). Lecture Th eatre G6, Institute of in the Levant in 1919: Th e leadership in Israel and is an Admission free. Khalili Lecture Archaeology, UCL, 31–34 Gordon Wilsonian Imaginary and Adjunct Lecturer in diff erent Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 Square, London WC1H OPY. T the Ottoman Lands (Lecture) Faculties of Law in Israeli E [email protected] W 020 8349 5754 E secretary@aias. Andrew Patrick, (Tennessee State universities .Admission free. www.soas.ac.uk/art/islac/ org.uk W www.aias.org.uk University). Organised by: CBRL Wolfson Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 29 CENTRE FOR IRANIAN STUDIES – SCHOLARSHIPS

SOAS, University of London, is pleased to announce the availability of several scholarships in its Centre for Iranian Studies (CIS). The Centre, established in 2010, draws upon the range of academic research and teaching across the disciplines of SOAS, including Languages and Literature, the Study of Religions, History, Economics, Politics, International Relations, Music, Art and Media and Film Studies. It aims to

build close relations with likeminded p 25 . of the School Oriental and African Studies, London, 2007, Treasures institutions and to showcase and foster the best of contemporary Iranian talent in art and culture. MA in Iranian Studies *OCISNFNCFSTTVDDFTTGVMMZ launcIFEBOinterdisciplinary MA in Image: Anvār-i Suhaylī (Lights of the Canopus) Manuscript (Ref: MS10102) from: Anna Contadini (ed.) Objectsof Instruction: Image: Anvār-i Iranian Studies, UIFGJSTUPGJUTLJOE which will be off ered BHBJOJO2018/19. Thanks to the generosity of the Fereydoun Djam Charitable Trust, a number of Kamran Djam scholarships are available for BA, MA and MPhil/PhD studies. MA in Iranian Studies For further details, please contact: Dr Nima Mina (Department of the Languages and Culture of the Middle East) Scholarships Offi cer E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4315 T: +44 (0)20 7074 5091/ 5094 W: www.soas.ac.uk/nme/programmes/ W: www.soas.ac.uk/scholarships ma-in-iranian-studies Centre for Iranian Studies Student Recruitment Dr Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Chair) T: +44(0)20 7898 4034 E: [email protected] E: [email protected] T: +44 (0)20 7898 4747 W: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis

30 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 material culture, both in the UK period? Can we discern the ways and further afi eld. Having spent that contemporaries viewed their two years involved in its planning traditions and their environment and execution, Greenwood will (natural or built); what was the discuss the historical background view of outsiders, and how does of the gallery within the BM modern scholarship defi ne the and the curatorial approaches to distinctive aspects of the period? the collection. SOAS Research Conveners: Sarah Stewart (SOAS) Seminars in Islamic Art. and Charles Melville (University Convener: Anna Contadini of Cambridge). Tickets: £20 (SOAS). Admission free. Room (Standard); £10 (conc. & LMEI B102, SOAS. E [email protected] Affi liates); students free. Pre- registration required (see contact 6:00 pm | Revisiting Beth She’arim: details below). T 020 7898 4330 Locals, Foreigners, Poets And E [email protected] W www.soas. Rabbis (Lecture) Jonathan Price ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/ (Tel Aviv University). Organised by: Anglo-Israel Archaeological Sunday 12 May Society jointly with the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Followed 9:45 am | Th e Idea of Iran: Th e by refreshments. Admission Second Safavid Century (Two- free. Pre-registration advised W Day Symposium: Saturday 11 https://revisitingbethshearim. – Sunday 12 May) Organised eventbrite.co.uk Nash Lecture by: Centre for Iranian Studies, Th eatre (Room K2.31), King’s the Department of Religions & College London, Strand Building, Philosophies, School of History, London WC2R 2LS. T 020 8349 Religions & Philosophies, SOAS 5754 E [email protected] W and the Shahnama Centre for www.aias.org.uk Persian Studies, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. 6:30 pm | ‘Saladin, we have Sponsored by: Soudavar Memorial returned!’: Th e Myriad Foundation. See above event Memories of the Crusades in the listing for details. Near East during the Modern Era (Lecture) Jonathan Phillips Monday 13 May Anna Boghiguian, A Myth 1994 notebook NOAB018, mixed media on (Royal Holloway). Organised by: paper, 15 x 11 x 0.5 cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo Renato Ghiazza. Anna Boghiguian (see Exhibitions p. 33) Royal Asiatic Society. Admission 11:00 am | Th e Sudan free. Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Archaeological Research Stephenson Way, London NW1 Society Colloquium: Recent 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] Night. Th e concert also features 2HD. T 020 7388 4539 E info@ Archaeological Fieldwork W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cps/ Th ea Musgrave’s 1958 String royalasiaticsociety.org W https:// in Sudan Organised by: BM. Quartet and Tchaikovsky’s String royalasiaticsociety.org/ Presenting reports from fi eldwork Wednesday 8 May Quartet No.1, Op.11. Kareem projects in Sudan over the past Roustom is an Emmy-nominated Saturday 11 May 12 months. Tickets: £15/£12.50 7:00 pm | Revisiting Baghdad: composer, whose genre-crossing conc./£10 members of the Sudan Mosques, Caliphs and the collaborations include music 9:45 am | Th e Idea of Iran: Th e Archaeological Research Society. ‘Ulama (Lecture) Ruba Kana’an commissioned for the Kronos Second Safavid Century (Two- Stevenson Lecture Th eatre, (University of Toronto, Canada). Quartet and Daniel Barenboim. Day Symposium: Saturday 11 BM. T 020 7323 8181 W www. Organised by: Islamic Art Circle Tickets: £10-£30. Purcell Room, – Sunday 12 May) Organised britishmuseum.org at SOAS. Chair: Scott Redford Southbank Centre, London SE1 by: Centre for Iranian Studies, (SOAS). Admission free. Khalili 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W www. the Department of Religions & Tuesday 14 May Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 southbankcentre.co.uk Philosophies, School of History, 408 7480 E rosalindhaddon@ Religions & Philosophies, SOAS 6:30 pm | Persepolis in the gmail.com W www.soas.ac.uk/art/ Th ursday 9 May and the Shahnama Centre for Diaspora (Lecture) Lindsey islac/ Persian Studies, Pembroke Allen. Organised by: Th e Iran 5:30 pm | Looking Less, Seeing College, University of Cambridge. Society. A discussion about items 7.45 pm | Kareem Roustom’s More: Th e Making of the Sponsored by: Soudavar Memorial removed from Persepolis to Shades of Night (Concert) Albukhary Gallery of Islamic Art Foundation. Th e fi ft eenth foreign collections. Admission Chilingirian Quartet presents (Seminar) William Greenwood. programme in Th e Idea of Iran free for Society Members plus the European premiere of Th e BM’s Albukhary Gallery of the annual series and the second one guest. Pall Mall Room, Th e Syrian-born Kareem Roustom’s Islamic World represents a new dedicated to the Safavid era. What Army & Navy Club, 36-39 Pall new string quartet Shades of direction in the display of Islamic does the Idea of Iran mean at this Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 31 code calls for gentlemen to wear Albums in the Seventeenth Century Iran. See above event listing on dialogue-in-poetry-and-music jacket and tie). T 020 7235 5122 (rescheduled from January 2019) Th ursday 16 May for details. Knowledge Centre, Th e British E [email protected] W www. in which she will discuss the Library, 96 Euston Road, London iransociety.org / www.therag. Safavid capital Isfahan as the Tuesday 21 May NW1 2DB. T 020 36379730 E co.uk social, cultural, and architectural [email protected] W setting for the arts of the book 7:00 pm | Safavid Albums: www.gingko.org.uk 6:45 pm | L’Oriente di Pasolini: in seventeenth-century Iran. Shift ing the Visual Language Th e Arabian Nights Th rough the Convener: Scott Redford (SOAS). (Lecture) Part of the Yarshater Photographs of Roberto Villa Admission free. Khalili Lecture Lecture Series in Persian Art. In EVENTS OUTSIDE (Talk) Organised by: Asia House Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 her fourth lecture Farhad will LONDON and Th e British Italian Society. E [email protected] W approach album pages from a Talk showcasing the photographs www.soas.ac.uk/art/islac/ stylistic perspective to highlight taken by Roberto Villa on the their meaning and function within Th ursday 2 May set of Pasolini's Arabian Nights Friday 17 May the larger historical and artistic in 1973. Villa’s images not only context of the period. See above 5:00 pm | Arabic in Flux: capture some moments in the 7:00 pm | “United in War and event listing on Th ursday 16 May Social Media, Revolution and making of the fi lm but also the Peace:” A Closer Look at Safavid for details. the Transforming Linguistic faces of the locals, as well as the Albums (Lecture) Part of the Landscape (Talk) Saussan Khalil mystical locations where the poet/ Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian Wednesday 22 May (Chartered Institute of Linguists director set his version of the Art. In the second of four lectures (CIOL), the British Society Arabic folk tale. Tickets: £10/£8 by Farhad the structure, format, 3:00 pm | What is World for Middle Eastern Studies conc./students free. Asia House, and content of later Safavid Th eory? Abdallah Laroui and (BRISMES) and the United 63 New Cavendish Street, London albums (muraqqa’), the circulation the Language of Ideas (Seminar) Nations Association UK (UNA W1G 7LP. T 020 7307 5454 E of images, as well as Ottoman Hosam Aboul Ela (Houston). UK)). Organised by: Centre of [email protected] W https:// and Mughal responses will be Organised by: Centre for Cultural, Islamic Studies, University of asiahouse.org/ discussed. See above event listing Literary and Postcolonial Studies Cambridge. Admission free. on Th ursday 16 May for details. (CCLPS), SOAS. Th is talk will Room 8/9, Centre of Islamic Wednesday 15 May discuss two of Laroui’s works Studies, Faculty of Asian and Monday 20 May from this period—“Th e Concept Middle Eastern Studies, University 5:45 pm | A legacy of T. E. of Freedom” and “Th e Concept of of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Lawrence – Th e University 9:30 am | Middle East and Central the State”—in order to consider Cambridge, CB3 9DA. T 01223 of the Desert (Lecture) Mark Asia Music Forum Th e Middle Laroui as a global producer of 335 103 E [email protected] W Evans (Outward Bound Oman) East and Central Asia Music ideas and to shed light on the www.ames.cam.ac.uk Organised by: MBI Al Jaber Forum has been running since challenges of producing ideas Foundation. Part of the MBI Al 2007 and is open to researchers, beyond Europe. Admission free. Tuesday 14 May Jaber Foundation Lecture Series. students and anyone interested in Room FG01, Faber Building, Admission free. Pre-registration the music and culture of the region. 23/24 Russell Square, SOAS. T 020 5:30pm | Protracted required. MBI Al Jaber Seminar Conveners: Laudan Nooshin (City, 7898 4253 E [email protected] W Displacement and Palestinian Room, London Middle East University of London) and Rachel www.soas.ac.uk/cclps/events/ Refugee Politics (Talk) Ilana Institute, SOAS, MBI Al Jaber Harris (SOAS). Admission free. Feldman (George Washington Building, 21 Russell Square, Pre-registration required. Music Th ursday 23 May University). Drawing on archival London WC1B 5EA. E info@ Department, City, University of and ethnographic research, this mbifoundation.com W www. London, Room AG09, College 7:00 pm | Th e Poet and Suleika: talk considers refugee lives and mbifoundation.com Building, St John Street, London A West-Eastern Dialogue in politics across the length and EC1V 0HB. E l.nooshin@city. Poetry and Music Organised by: much of the breadth of Palestinian Th ursday 16 May ac.uk / [email protected] W www.city. Gingko. An evening of poetry exile. Convenor: Mezna Qato. ac.uk/events/2019/may/middle- and music to celebrate the 200th Admission free. Pre-registration 7:00 pm | Isfahan: the City as east-and-central-asia-music- anniversary of Goethe’s West- required. King's College, a Setting for Safavid Painting forum Eastern Divan and the launch Cambridge CB2 1ST. T 01223 (Lecture) Massumeh Farhad (Freer of Gingko's A New Divan. With 331212 W www.kings.cam.ac.uk Gallery of Art and the Arthur 7:00 pm | Painting and Nujoom al-Ghanem, Paul Farley, M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Production: A New Model for Don Paterson and Eric Ormsby Th ursday 30 May Institution, Washington, D.C.). Safavid Isfahan (Lecture) Part reading poetry from the West- Organised by: SOAS University of the Yarshater Lecture Series in Eastern Divan and A New Divan, 5:00 pm | Th e Dialogue between of London in association with Persian Art. In the third of four and ‘Hafi s Lieder’ by Gottfried AKP and Muslim Brotherhood the London Middle East Institute, lectures by Farhad the careers von Einem, ‘Suleika’ by Franz in Egypt (Talk) Ezgi Basaran SOAS. Sponsored by: Persian of three artists (Malik Husayn, Schubert and ‘Hatem’ by Hugo (St Anthony’s College, Oxford) Heritage Foundation. Part of the Muhammad Qasim, and Mu’in Wolf sung by Simon Wallfi sch. Organised by: Centre of Islamic Yarshater Lecture Series in Persian Musavvir) will serve as a lens on Tickets: £15/£12/£10 conc. T Studies, University of Cambridge. Art. Th e fi rst of four lectures by the production of manuscripts 01937 546546 E boxoffi [email protected] Admission free. Room 8/9, Massumeh Farhad on Artists, and album paintings and their W https://www.bl.uk/events/the- Centre of Islamic Studies, Faculty Paintings and their Publics: Safavid diff erent publics in later Safavid poet-and-suleika-a-west-eastern- of Asian and Middle Eastern

32 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 Studies, University of Cambridge, Kozanoglu: Multiple States of comments on the human condition Until 12 May | Akram Zaatari: Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, One Th e Turkish art of marbling: through the perspectives of global Th e Script Works by Lebanese CB3 9DA. T 01223 335 103 E cis@ Ebru is performed using aqueous trade, mass migration, colonialism artist Akram Zaatari featuring cis.cam.ac.uk W www.ames.cam. natural pigments mixed with ox- and war. Tickets: £9.50/£8.50 conc. video installations inspired by ac.uk gall in a rectangular trough fi lled Tate St Ives, Porthmeor Beach, St YouTube fi lms connected to the with thickened water, traditionally Ives, Cornwall TR26 1TG. T 01736 Arab world alongside photographs prepared using gum-tragacanth. 796 226 E [email protected]. of ordinary people taken in EXHIBITIONS Taking its starting point in the uk W www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate- the 1950s to 1970s at a popular traditional craft smanship of Ebru, st-ives commercial photography studio Kozanoglu manages to translate located in the artist’s hometown Until 6 April | Afarin Sajedi: Ecce the Ebru of past times into a Until 6 May | Kader Attia: Th e of Saida, South Lebanon. Th e Mulier First UK solo exhibition by present day contemporary art Museum of Emotion In sculptures, exhibition off ers a lesser-seen, the Tehran-based, Iranian artist, practice. Admission free. Gerald installations, collages, videos and more intimate view of Arab male Afarin Sajedi, taking inspiration Moore Gallery, Mottingham Lane, photographs that move ‘back and identity. Admission free. Modern from the psychoanalytic analysis London SE9 4RW. T 0208 857 forth between politics and poetry’, Art Oxford, 30 Pembroke Street, of the feminine observed fi rst 0448 E [email protected]. Attia explores the ways in which Oxford OX1 1BP. T 01865 722733 by Goethe and then by Jung, uk / [email protected] W colonialism continues to shape E [email protected] Sajedi explores the dreams, https://geraldmooregallery.org/ how Western societies represent W www.modernartoxford.org.uk solitudes, battles and goals of the and engage with non-Western universal woman. Admission Until 6 May | Anna Boghiguian cultures, and off ers a critique Until 2 June | Hayv Kahraman: free. Dorothy Circus Gallery, 35 Th e fi rst retrospective in the of modern Western systems of Displaced Choreographies Connaught Street, London W2 UK of the Egyptian-Canadian control. Tickets: £6.75-£15.50. Kahraman’s work explores her 2AZ. T 0755 192 9124 E info@ artist of Armenian origin, Anna Hayward Gallery, Southbank experience of living between dorothycircusgallery.uk W www. Boghiguian (Cairo, 1946). Centre, Belvedere Road, London Western and Middle Eastern dorothycircusgallery.uk Informed by her interest in SE1 8XX. T 020 3879 9555 W cultures: having fl ed Iraq with philosophy and her continuous www.southbankcentre.co.uk her family aged 11 during the fi rst Until 13 April | Hayrettin travels, Boghiguian's work Gulf War as part of the Kurdish

THE GREAT BETRAYAL How America Abandoned the Kurds and Lost the Middle East David L. Phillips

The twentieth century saw dramatic changes in the once Kurd- dominated Kirkuk region of Iraq. Despite having repeatedly relied on the Kurdish population of Iraq for military support, on three occasions the United States have abandoned their supposed allies in Kirkuk.

The Great Betrayal provides a political and diplomatic history of the Kirkuk region and its international relations from the 1920s to the present day. Based on first-hand interviews and previously unseen sources, it provides an accessible account of a region at the very heart of America’s foreign policy priorities in the Middle East, and reveals the devastating effects of betraying an ally. HB | Dec 2018 £20 | 9781788313971 “A must read for those who want to 256 pgs | 216 x 138 mm understand why the Kurds play such a www.ibtauris.com key role in that future of Middle East” - Bernard Kouchner

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 33 mass exodus, the artist migrated Friday 5 April work and a large-scale ceramic [email protected] W https:// to Europe and now lives in the tile installation. His show is about asiahousearts.org/ USA. A female fi gure recurs in Until 18 May | Heart/Homeless: making visible the cultural stasis of her work, representing shared Th e Art of Manal Deeb In her fi rst the present whilst simultaneously Until 22 June | New Waves: histories between women and solo exhibition in London Deeb re-imagining a yet-to-come, Mohamed Melehi and the building on personal histories of expands upon the themes of exile temporal vision. Admission free. Casablanca Art School Works migration. Admission free. De La and identity that have infused her Pi Artworks London, 55 Eastcastle by abstract painter Mohamed Warr Pavilion, Marina, Bexhill, art practice from the beginning. Street, London, W1W 8EG. T 020 Melehi and related archives from East Sussex TN40 1DP. T 01424 Following in the footsteps of three 7637 8403 W www.piartworks. the Casablanca Art School where 229 111 E boxoffi [email protected] W seminal Palestinian women artists, com Melehi was a key member in the www.dlwp.com from the early 1900s to the present 1960s and 70s. Melehi’s own work (Zulfa al-Sa’di , Juliana Seraphim Friday 12 April results from a dialogue between Until 14 September | Th e Mosaic and Mona Hatoum), Deeb treads Moroccan traditional and popular Rooms 10 Years: Modern Masters new pathways by using her body, Until 3 May | Departures: A craft , whilst also connecting to the and Contemporary Culture and most oft en her face as a Photographic Journey Th rough hard edge painters of the 1960’s. from the Arab World and Iran template for artwork expressing the Islamic World Drawing Admission free. Th e Mosaic A programme of exhibitions and the anguish of exile. Admission upon a unique collection of Rooms, A.M. Qattan Foundation, events running from spring 2018 free. P21 Gallery, 21-27 Chalton historical photographs and Tower House, 226 Cromwell Road, to autumn 2019. Th e programme Street, London NW1 1JD. T 020 postcards, Departures will reveal London SW5 0SW. T 020 7370 of six exhibitions has two parts, a 7121 6190 E [email protected] W the great diversity of the Islamic 9990 E [email protected] W series of seminal Arab and Iranian www.p21.gallery world’s social and cultural life. https://mosaicrooms.org/ modernist artists from Egypt, Iran Juxtaposed with the exhibition’s and Morocco curated by Morad Th ursday 11 April historical photographs will be Wednesday 22 May Montazami and a series of group a mosaic of the Islamic world shows presenting contemporary Until 11 May | Mustafa Hulusi: today seen through a curated Until 30 August | Nine Iranian art from these three countries. Cyprus Realism First solo sequence of images from the Artists in London: Th e Spark Is Tickets: See contact details below. exhibition by the British-Cypriot- social media platform Instagram. You Admission free. Parasol unit Th e Mosaic Rooms, A.M. Qattan Turkish artist Mustafa Hulusi. See April Events Converging Paths: foundation for contemporary art, Foundation, Tower House, 226 Encompassing his persistent Photography and the Middle East: 14 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW. Cromwell Road, London SW5 enquiry into the topic of ethics Documentation, Orientalism and T 020 7490 7373 E info@parasol- 0SW. T 020 7370 9990 E info@ and aesthetics, the exhibition will Espionage, Th ursday 18 April. unit.org W https://parasol-unit. mosaicrooms.org W https:// feature new paintings created Admission free. Asia House, 63 org/ mosaicrooms.org specifi cally for the exhibition, New Cavendish Street, London alongside a multi-channel video W1G 7LP. T 020 7307 5454 E

34 The Middle East in London April – May 2019 The Idea of Iran: Second Safavid Century Safavid School, Portrait of a Caucasian archer (Private collection). Pre-registration required: W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/ide http://soudavar.org/ www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/ http://persian. Admission: £20; Conc. & LMEI Aﬃ The ﬁ fteenth programme in Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Convened by Sarah Stewart, SOAS University of London Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 May 2019 Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, Department of Religions and Philosophies, SOAS Enquiries: T 020 7898 4330 E [email protected] Sponsored by: Soudavar Memorial Foundation and Charles Melville, University of Cambridge. SOAS University of London, Pembroke College, University of Cambridge and Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies, Organised by: Centre for Iranian Studies, The Idea of Iran liates: £10; Students: Free. annual series. pem.cam.ac.uk/ a-of-iran/

April – May 2019 The Middle East in London 35 The Yarshater Lectures in Persian Art

Ar sts, Pain ngs and their Publics Safavid Albums in the Seventeenth Century

Four Lectures by Dr Massumeh Farhad, Chief Curator and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab and Turkish Art Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Smithsonian Ins tu on, Washington, D.C.

7.00 pm, Thursday 16th, Friday 17th, Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st May 2019 Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London

Image: Woman Smoking a Waterpipe Admission Free - All Welcome Signed by Muhammad Qasim-i Tabrizi Iran, Safavid period, 1640s opaque watercolor and gold on paper Telephone: 020 7898 4330 E-mail: [email protected] Nasser D. Khalili Collec on of Islamic Art 36 CopyrightThe Middle Khalili Family East Trust. in London MSS 999. April – May 2019Website: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/