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Birds of Paradise, 2011, by Palestinian artist Laila Shawa About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) © Laila Shawa

Volume 10 - Number 2 Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide February – March 2014 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 individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. Editorial Board With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic Professor Nadje Al-Ali membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also SOAS has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle Ms Narguess Farzad SOAS East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Mr Roger Hardy it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its King's College, London programme of activities. Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Dr George Joff é Cambridge University Mission Statement: Ms Sarah Searight British Foundation for the Study Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle of Arabia East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Dr Kathryn Spellman Poots AKU and LMEI those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in Dr Sarah Stewart London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the SOAS Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is Mrs Ionis Th ompson at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Saudi-British Society and BFSA and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Dr Shelagh Weir SOAS Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College LMEI Staff: Co-ordinating Editors Sarah Johnson Director Dr Hassan Hakimian Megan Wang Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking Listings Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci Vincenzo Paci Administrative Assistant Valentina Zanardi Designer Shahla Geramipour

Th e Middle East in London is published Disclaimer: Letters to the Editor: fi ve times a year by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Please send your letters to the editor at Publisher and in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal the LMEI address provided (see left panel) Editorial Offi ce views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their or email [email protected] Th e London Middle East Institute organisations nor those of the LMEI and the MEL's SOAS Editorial Board. Although all advertising in the University of London MBI Al Jaber Building, 21 Russell magazine is carefully vetted prior to publication, the Square, London WC1B 5EA United Kingdom LMEI does not accept responsibility for the accuracy of claims made by advertisers. T: +44 (0)20 7898 4490 F: +44 (0)20 7898 4329 E: [email protected] SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ ISSN 1743-7598 To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ Contents

4 19 EDITORIAL Finding a voice Peter Clark 5 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 21 LMEI Board of Trustees Professor Paul Webley (Chair) Mosaddeq and the intervention Over Th ere: Two poems Director, SOAS of the International Bank Rafeef Ziadah Professor Richard Black, SOAS Farhad Diba and Dr John Curtis Iran Heritage Foundation Homa Katouzian 22 H E Sir Vincent Fean KCVO Photo competition results Consul General to Jerusalem 6 Professor Ben Fortna, SOAS INSIGHT 25 Mr Alan Jenkins Kerry’s billions REVIEWS Dr Karima Laachir, SOAS Dr Dina Matar, SOAS Alaa Tartir BOOKS Dr Barbara Zollner Meet Me in Gaza: Uncommon Birkbeck College 8 Stories of Life inside the Strip PALESTINE Gerald Butt LMEI Advisory Council Palestine studies: an interview Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) with Walid Khalidi 26 Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Near and Middle East Department, SOAS Dina Matar Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Mr Stephen Ball Contemporary Capitalism KPMG in the Middle East H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO 10 Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait Raves, prison cells and Brenna Bhandar Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani Arab International Women’s Forum Foucault: new approaches Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa to Palestine studies 27 President, University College of Bahrain Professor Tony Allan Nora Parr Th e Lady from Tel Aviv King’s College and SOAS Jennifer Langer Dr Alanoud Alsharekh Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS 12 Mr Farad Azima Palestinian refugees and the 28 NetScientifi c Plc politics of return Memoirs of an Early Arab Dr Noel Brehony MENAS Associates Ltd. Ruba Salih Feminist: Th e Life and Activism Ms Zeynep Dereli APCO Worldwide of Anbara Salam Khalidi Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna 13 Sussanah Tarbush British Egyptian Society HE Mr Mazen Kemal Homoud Remembering Palestine Ambassador, Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Roger Hardy 29 BOOKS IN BRIEF 15 Founding Patron and Member of the Palestinian youth challenge 30 Advisory Council the Prawer Plan PROFILE Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber Nimer Sultany Reem Kelani MBI Al Jaber Foundation 17 31 A cultural mission EVENTS IN LONDON Roger Hardy

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © Iselin Shaw of Tordarroch

DDearear RReadereader

Palestinians of Jerusalem risking their lives to reach family and friends split up by the wall, Jerusalem (2012) Roger Hardy, MEL Editorial Board Adam Hanieh, SOAS

his issue marks the second Elsewhere in the issue, Nimer Sultany and describe what led them to settle in the anniversary of the founding of the looks at the wave of Palestinian protest British capital. One of those interviewed, TCentre for Palestine Studies at SOAS. provoked by an Israeli plan (currently the Gaza-born artist Laila Shawa, has kindly Th e Centre was inaugurated in March 2012 shelved) to resettle the Bedouin of the allowed us to use one of her most striking to bring together scholars from a variety Negev. Th is, he argues, was a moment when works on the cover of the magazine. of academic disciplines and provide an the type of popular protest made familiar In addition to our usual book reviews, we institutional home for the broad range of by the Arab Spring was played out on report on the Palestine Book Awards, which work on Palestine and the Palestinians Palestinian streets. Another SOAS scholar, have become an annual event in London which has long been carried out at SOAS. Ruba Salih, explores the debate on one of highlighting new books by Palestinians and We are using the occasion to highlight the most sensitive and contentious issues on Palestine-related issues ranging from some of the current work at SOAS on that will have to be addressed in any future politics and fi ction to travel and cooking. political, economic, legal and social aspects peace settlement: the fate of the Palestinian Th is issue also refl ects the work of two of Palestine past and present. At the same refugees. artists of the Palestinian diaspora: the singer time, this special issue examines a number Also in this special issue, we honour Reem Kelani and the English-language poet of current (and oft en highly-charged) the work of the father of Palestine studies, Rafeef Ziadah. themes related to the Israel-Palestine Walid Khalidi, who talks to Dina Matar Finally, it is with much pleasure that problem. For months now, the US Secretary about his pioneering work, and refl ects we take this opportunity to announce the of State John Kerry has been travelling on how research on the events of 1948 winner and runners-up in the magazine’s to the Middle East in an eff ort to revive and their consequences has evolved and photo competition (2013). Th e response the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In developed over time. Given the magazine’s from photographers was overwhelming, our Insight column, a young Palestinian raison d’être, we have not neglected the and it was a daunting challenge for the researcher, Alaa Tartir, who has recently activities of Palestinians in London. We Editorial Board to select a single winner. returned from the West Bank, provides profi le the work of the Qattan Foundation We hope you agree with the Board that a critique of the economic dimension (in London, as well as in Gaza and the the photos are truly stunning. We feel sure of the Obama administration’s (largely West Bank), and invite older-generation they will provide a rich resource for the unadvertised) plans. Palestinians to share their memories of 1948 magazine to exploit in issues to come.

4 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 LLETTERSETTERS TOTO THETHE EDITOREDITOR

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Farhad Diba and Homa Katouzian

he exchange below resulted from an Mosaddeq and the International Bank: no qualms about it, but his advisers [told article written by Homa Katouzian in Rejoinder to Mr Diba’s Comment him] that it would be damaging to Iran’s Tour special issue, IRAN – sixty years Th e principal reason for the failure of the interest and so he changed his mind aft er the coup. International Bank’s mission was precisely about the Bank’s intervention. [Tarikh-e that Iranians insisted it should act on their Melli Shodan-e San’at-e Naft -e Iran, Dear Dr Hakimian behalf, which Mr Diba describes as giving Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1974, p. 254; see also I have received my copy of Th e Middle the Bank ‘a power of attorney, to run oil Mostafa Fateh, Panjah Sal Naft -e Iran, East in London, containing some articles production for a pre-determined time’. Tehran: Peyam, 1979, p. 590] on 28 Mordad [the coup of 1953]. Due, Th is was patently contrary to the whole maybe, to space restrictions, Dr Katouzian idea of the Bank acting as a mediator, It also follows from the above that the has not fully detailed the mission of the and would clearly be unacceptable to the British government and AIOC did not International Bank (IBRD). Dr Mosaddeq British government and AIOC, who did expect the Bank to recognise their claim was most anxious to reach a settlement not likewise expect the Bank to act on for loss of profi t; simply that it would act with that particular delegation, which he their behalf, but simply as an independent without prejudice to the legal claims of invited and welcomed to Iran. However, the mediator. Th us the late Dr Fouad Rouhani either side to the dispute. And this was IBRD did not act independently but took writes in his detailed account of the subject precisely the point of the Bank’s mediation, directions from the AIOC and the British that namely to provide a two-year space in government, who insisted that the control of …the major cause of the failure of the which the two sides would negotiate a oil could not be ceded to the Iranians. negotiations …was precisely… that the settlement on the basis of their existing legal Th e Iranian government was prepared Iranian government wanted the Bank claims. to give the IBRD a power of attorney, to to act as its agent and representative, Homa Katouzian run oil production for a pre-determined whereas the Bank regarded itself as an time. However, the IBRD maintained that independent mediator, and pointed out such power should be accorded to them that, as far as they were concerned, both We value feedback and comments from by the AIOC, thus establishing the legal sides of the dispute had equal rights, and readers. Please send your letters to the Editor, right of the AIOC to retain control. Lastly, that the Bank could in no way act such Middle East in London. advised by the British, the IBRD proposed that it would support the legal claims that any agreement should include a clause of either side…Th us [Robert L.]Garner for compensation for loss of future profi t, [who led the Bank’s mission] explained which the Iranians categorically refused. to the Iranian representatives that the One of the best accounts of the failure of Bank’s intervention was possible only that mission is found in Dr Fouad Rouhani's on the agreement of both the Iranian book on the history of the nationalisation of and the British government, and that Iranian oil. any deviation from this position would Farhad Diba contradict its neutrality. Th e Bank’s (Author of the fi rst English-language point was obviously right, and as it later biography of Dr Mosaddeq) became clear, Dr Mosaddeq himself had

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 5 IINSIGHTNSIGHT

Alaa Tartir takes a critical look at US economic plans for the occupied Palestinian territories KKerry’serry’s bbillionsillions © Ruba Salih

ince May 2013, there has been intense Th e PEI is invisible to the Palestinian Palestinians better economic conditions, debate about US Secretary of State John people, who are the last to know keep them quiet, and aft er three years they SKerry’s economic plan for the occupied about it. Th e invisibility of the PEI is will make further political compromises. Palestinian territories. Th e plan – known particularly problematic because it Th is approach has failed over the last two as the Palestine Economic Initiative (PEI) promises an unattainable outcome (a decades, but it seems no one is learning – aims to develop the economy of the West 50 per cent increase in Palestinian GDP from past mistakes. However, major Bank and Gaza over the next three years, over three years, a cut of two-thirds in transformations have taken place since 2005 as a prerequisite for a political settlement unemployment rates and a virtual doubling which aff ect the peace-dividend rationale to end the Palestinian-Israeli confl ict. of the Palestinian median wage). Th e – namely, the security collaboration However, very few of those welcoming or disappointment this is likely to generate between the PA and Israel, and the PA’s criticising the plan know anything concrete could produce unpleasant consequences. increasing authoritarianism. Th e Palestinian about it. Hence I call it the ‘invisible plan.’ Many ordinary citizens I met in the West security forces are now better prepared to On a trip to the West Bank in December Bank fear that the PEI could be the biggest protect any political agreement. However, 2013, I met Palestinian and international sell-out since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. authoritarianism and oppression will always offi cials involved directly or indirectly in As for the ‘investment intifada,’ the be contested, as many young Palestinian the PEI. Th eir message was that there will interviews I conducted reveal how activists affi rmed in my conversations with not be, as many expect, a third intifada desperate local and international offi cials them. Th ey insist that a ‘peace dividend’ (uprising), but something very diff erent: an are to create tangible benefi ts on the can’t buy freedom or justice. ‘investment intifada.’ ground. Th e rationale is clear: off er the Th e PEI will reportedly solicit around US$ 4bn in aid and investment, which Many ordinary citizens in the West Bank fear the plan could it will allocate to construction and housing, agriculture, tourism, information be the biggest sell-out since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s technology, building materials, power and

6 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 Aid has not brought peace, development or the coloniser and colonised, but instead relies on the goodwill and co-operation security – let alone justice – to the Palestinian people of Israel. Th us it is Israel that will decide whether or not to give the green light to energy, water and light manufacturing. occupying power rather than following its the PEI. Th e historical evidence suggests However, a senior Palestinian offi cial told rules: to change not merely the rules of the it will ease some restrictions and allow me: ‘We expect the fi gure to reach US$ game, but the game itself. additional economic activity in the occupied 11bn, instead of US $4bn. We are not asking A new narrative is emerging which territories, but will never jeopardise its for favours, we are off ering our market, presents Kerry’s billions as an investment, ‘strategic goals.’ Continuing to depend on economic resources and cheap labour for not as aid. Th ose who have devised the PEI the colonial occupying power to develop international investment.’ Clearly, US$ 11bn want to market it to governments, donors, an independent, viable and prosperous is a far cry from US$ 4bn. Th e absorptive multinational corporations, Israel and the Palestinian economy is surreal. capacity of the Palestinian economy would public as an innovative plan. Indeed Tony Finally, while the US is the dominant need to be changed dramatically before Blair, the Quartet’s representative, declared player, the European Union (EU) is keen to the injection of such sums. Otherwise, this naively that ‘this is the fi rst time in history play a part. But the EU has failed to become will be a perfect recipe for yet more wasted that such a fresh, comprehensive, innovative a major peace broker, despite the leverage of billions that will entrench the complex and broad approach has been taken.’ its aid to the Palestinians and its preferential network of corruption between Palestinians All this is problematic for several reasons. trade relations with Israel. On the one hand, and Israelis, and the PEI ‘will be nothing First, it is astonishing that the PA leadership it has issued guidelines banning funding but a palliative for a dangerous disease: the is still dependent on the US and keen to for projects in Israeli settlements in the continuation of the occupation,’ as a former maintain its exclusive sponsorship of the occupied territories, but on the other it has Palestinian planning minister wrote recently peace process. PA leaders even believe in the upgraded its trade relations with Israel. It in the New York Times. myth that the US is interested in pressuring announced recently that a generous aid Radical and innovative change will Israel as a way to fulfi l Palestinian demands. package would be off ered to Palestinians require a dramatic shift in the overall Second, the PA’s prioritisation of the needs and Israelis if they reached a peace framework for aid and economic of the international community, as opposed agreement. It would also upgrade both development. It will also require moving to the needs of the Palestinian people, parties to privileged-partner status. Th e beyond the territorial classifi cation of has not only eroded the PA’s legitimacy sticks-and-carrots game played by the EU the Oslo Accords (Areas A, B and C). at home but brought about its failure on reinforces the conventional wisdom in the Palestinians should not be pleading with all fronts. Twenty years on from the Oslo occupied territories that the ‘the US decides, the Israeli authorities to allow the donor Accords, it is failing to bring Palestinians the World Bank leads, the EU pays, the UN community and international investors to closer to their national goals. Also, the US$ feeds.’ invest in Area C, which comprises 61 per 24.6bn of international aid received over John Kerry has called his plan ‘a new cent of the West Bank. Instead their eff orts the last two decades has not brought peace, model for development.’ Tony Blair has should be geared towards resisting the development or security – let alone justice – claimed it is unique in history. However, territorial fragmentation that Oslo created to the Palestinian people. I am afraid that the plan (and the whole and Israeli military occupation has further Th ird, the PEI is not designed to development industry in the occupied entrenched. Th e need is to confront the address the imbalances of power between territories) will remain like teenage sex – everybody claims they are doing it, but most people aren’t, and those that are, are doing it very badly.

Alaa Tartir is a Palestinian writer and researcher who is working on a PhD at the LSE. He is the programme director of Al- Shabaka: Th e Palestinian Policy Network

(Opposite) A wall in a West Bank refugee camp: will the Kerry plan secure Palestinian rights, or deny them? (Left) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Secretary Kerry share dinner in Jerusalem before a meeting focused on Middle East peace on

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 7 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Dina Matar talks to Professor Khalidi about his pioneering work in promoting greater understanding of Palestine and the events of 1948 PPalestinealestine sstudies:tudies: aann iinterviewnterview wwithith WWalidalid KKhalidihalidi

alid Khalidi is one of the most History of the Palestinians 1876-1948 the extent of Israel’s settler-colonial policies infl uential Palestinian scholars brings together in one volume the largest from the start. Wof the 20th and 21st centuries. collection of photographs and historical Professor Khalidi was born in Jerusalem Th roughout his career he has single- documents of the Palestinian people from in 1925. He was educated at Oxford, where mindedly promoted a deeper understanding the late Ottoman period up to the eve of the he taught until he resigned in protest over of Palestine, its history, culture and people. Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) in 1948. the British participation in the attack on In 1963, Professor Khalidi co-founded the Th e book is both an essential reference Egypt in 1956. He has also taught at the Institute of Palestine Studies (IPS) in Beirut work and a valuable introduction to the American University of Beirut and has been as an independent research centre focusing history of the Palestinians before their a visiting research professor at Princeton on Palestine and the Arab-Israeli confl ict, dispossession in 1948. His other volume, and Harvard before becoming a senior and the publisher of the Journal of Palestine All Th at Remains, documents in great detail research fellow at the Harvard Center for Studies. the destroyed and depopulated Palestinian Middle East Studies. Professor Khalidi’s monumental work villages of pre-1948, recalling a vanished Before Th eir Diaspora: A Photographic past and providing a potent reminder of How would you defi ne the fi eld, if we may call it so, of Palestine studies? What constitutes the Palestine ‘problem’ ... is the Th ere is no generally accepted defi nition of phenomenon of the successful displacement and dispossession, the fi eld of ‘Palestine studies.’ At the Institute within a single life-span, of an entire indigenous people of Palestine Studies, which celebrated

8 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 Without the infamous Balfour Declaration we would (economic, political, sociological) – and probably not be talking about Palestine studies today some more policy-oriented. How relevant is it to have a Centre for its Golden Jubilee in 2013, we mean by major Western metropolitan centres (and Palestine Studies at SOAS? Palestine studies the history of Palestine legislatures) seem, for a variety of reasons, from the beginning of Zionist colonisation, impervious to it. It is very apt for SOAS to have its own in the early 1880s, and (since 1948) its Centre for Palestine Studies based in derivative, the Arab-Israeli (inter-state) How is the emerging scholarship on London, where the Balfour Declaration was confl ict, until the present. We include in our Palestine, by Arabs themselves, helping to made. Th e Zionist movement in Palestine purview the history of Zionism (its ideology redefi ne the fi eld and the understanding was in the doldrums before the Balfour and practices), aspects of Israeli policies and of Palestine? Declaration, and without this infamous strategies pertaining to Palestinians and pronouncement we would probably not be Arabs since 1948, as well as the policies and Th e establishment of the IPS in Beirut in talking about Palestine studies today. strategies of selected powers with regard 1963 gave rise to the establishment, most to the confl ict in general, with particular notably, of the PLO Research Center, also in Dina Matar directs the Centre for Media and reference to the US and the American Beirut, in 1965/66. Th e fi rst ever scholarly Film Studies at SOAS. She is the author of Jewish establishment. Palestinian quarterly in Arabic (Shu’un What It Means To Be a Palestinian: Stories Filistiniyyah) was published by the centre, of Palestinian Peoplehood (2011). Th e How has the fi eld evolved and what soon to be followed by the fi rst Arabic interview was conducted by e-mail remains missing? encyclopaedia on Palestine (Al Mawsu‘ah al Filistiniyyah) in seven massive volumes. Th e In March 2014 Professor Khalidi will deliver What remains missing depends on what range of topics covered by the encyclopaedia a keynote lecture at SOAS to mark the second you assume should be there in the fi rst was even wider than that of the IPS. It anniversary of the establishment of the Centre place. It is for the institution concerned included the history of Palestine from for Palestine Studies (see listings) with the study of Palestine to decide its ancient times, as well as Palestinian geology, focus in the light of its resources and topography, fl ora and fauna. It wasn’t with respect to its own perspectives and by accident that the Israeli army utterly interests. If, at the IPS, we have fanned destroyed the centre, looting all its books out so widely, it is because, even aft er fi ft y and archives during the 1982 invasion of years, we still see ourselves as exploring and Lebanon. Since then, several worthy centres (Opposite) Walid Khalidi probing. Nevertheless, we believe that what focusing on Palestinian studies have been constitutes the singularity of the Palestine established in the West Bank and by Israeli (Below) Palestine disturbances during summer 1936. Jaﬀ a. No-man's land between Jaﬀ a & ‘problem,’ and, by inference, what should Palestinians, each with a diff erent focus Tel-Aviv (neutral zone) be the central concern of Palestine studies is the unbelievable phenomenon of the successful displacement and dispossession © Matson Collection, Library of Congress in the post-colonial era, and in full daylight, within a single life-span, of an entire indigenous people, by immigrants, under the aegis of the leading Western secular democracies, justifi ed by a bizarre arsenal of alibis including divine real-estate promises.

How important is it to provide alternative approaches to understanding Palestine that speak to and against Zionist hegemonic discourses?

Given the perverseness and gall of the ongoing Zionist/Israeli narrative, the IPS’s raison d’être is to deny this narrative a free run and to affi rm and celebrate Palestinian identity, heritage and resistance. From the beginning, the Palestinian narrative has been intuitively understood by Afro- Asian-Latin peoples. It also has increasing resonance in Western academia and mainstream churches as well as among minorities, and liberal and human-rights groups. On the other hand, political elites in

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 9 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Nora Parr describes the wide range of PhD research at SOAS on Palestine- related issues RRaves,aves, pprisonrison ccellsells aandnd FFoucault:oucault: newnew aapproachespproaches ttoo PalestinePalestine sstudiestudies © Nora Parr

aves, prison cells and Foucault: While Palestine may not be unique as a SOAS faculty, the seminars draw on what perhaps not a traditional grouping, fi eld that opens up through interdisciplinary might well be the largest pool of thinkers Rbut uncannily related when the topic enquiry, the challenges it raises for political, on Palestine outside the Middle East. is Palestine and the exploration is one of social, gender and literary theories just Th ey foster the kinds of conversations that space. From the personal and individual might be. Ongoing research at SOAS reveal obvious theoretical links between to the group negotiation of barriers reveals not only some of the problematic economics, literature, history, gender and erected under occupation, enclosure or assumptions that have held sway in the nationalism. Research from the 2012/13 fragmentation, raves and prison cells open discourse on Palestine but also ways around sessions included work from Lauren Banko up chances to explore confi nement and them. Th is has become clear during the two and Oroub El-Abed, in a seminar that liberation. Try sperm donation and social years of research seminars held through the explored diff erent facets of the discourse militarisation? A logical pairing when it’s Centre for Palestine Studies. on Palestinian citizenship. El-Abed an exploration of gender norms and life Bringing together PhD researchers and launched the seminars with her work on under military control. From smuggled sperm from Palestinian prisoners to the From smuggled sperm from Palestinian prisoners to construction of gender roles in Israel and Palestine, mechanisms for understanding the construction of gender roles, mechanisms for ‘where we come from’ take on high-impact understanding ‘where we come from’ take on meaning meaning when it comes to sex, gender and the Holy Land. when it comes to sex, gender and the Holy Land

10 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 how Jordan has sought to incorporate PhD researchers at SOAS are proving the essential Palestinian refugee-citizens. Her paper looked at how the state attempts to activate nature of a forum for thought and critical enquiry Palestinian participation in social and on the past, present and future of Palestine political institutions and focused on how these eff orts diff ered among socio-economic groups. What her work unearths is a way background for readings of Palestinian frames for articulating and understanding to understand the complex mechanisms of writer Ibrahim Nasrallah’s novels. Looking the deep, important and long-term eff ects refugee integration and marginalisation, at one of the Arabic Booker-nominated of militarism. Sharri Plonski rounded out while signifi cantly challenging conceptions author’s collections – the Balcony series – the fi rst year of seminars with her work on of refugee status and belonging. my own research explored how Nasrallah’s maintenance and defence of Palestinian Adding to the question of rights and radical intertextuality is likewise breaking spaces by Palestinian citizens of Israel. national belonging, Lauren Banko presented down barriers. Th rough the example of an Like others, Plonski looked at the inter- an investigation of citizenship at a rarely inserted freezeframe of the 9/11 attacks in relation between political action and state explored period of Palestinian history: the one novel (as a story in a story, or a text in a policies, in this case around strategies of early years of the British mandate. Her text), I explored the limits of the novel and segmentation and isolation. Refl ecting look at discourses around citizenship for its assumptions about national narrative. My on the creation of space through counter- Palestinians under the mandate reveals an presentation suggested that by pressing the mapping, transnational advocacy, political important debate between the status and presence of the past in the narrative ‘now,’ lobbying and demonstrations, her work implication of designations as colonial the freeze-frame and other similar ‘texts’ in unpacked the relationship between state, subjects, nationals or citizens. Her work the novel stress the lingering importance space, tactics and resistance. looks at how these ideas were negotiated and of past or distant events in an imagination Probing the gaps between theory and how they later aff ected the mechanisms by of Palestinian community. Rather than ‘facts on the ground,’ PhD researchers at which Palestinians would be dispossessed. a linear narrative, Palestinian fi ction SOAS working in the fi eld of Palestine Moreover it asks larger questions about the dislodges moments from the historical studies are proving not only the utility but meaning and function of diff erent modes timeline so they can reappear and aid in the the essential nature of a forum for thought of national belonging. By breaking down interpretation of the contemporary. and critical enquiry on the past, present and the early 20th century debates into those Drilling down into oft en-contentious future of Palestine. on rights to services, rights to political areas of connection and interaction, a fi nal participation, rights to reside and rights to panel explored relationships between Israel Nora Parr worked as a news editor in the challenge existing systems, Banko asks us to and Palestine, and how everything from West Bank before becoming a PhD student think about the meaning and ramifi cations Israel’s legal framework to its gender norms at SOAS of citizenship, prompting a conversation are shaped by the ongoing relationship about ways these ideas might be used between occupier and occupied. Elian to describe, or even change, the current Weizman presented her work on options of conditions of citizenship in Palestine and its resistance in which she examines diff erent (Opposite) Images of Palestine: SOAS locations of exile. methods of counter-hegemonic action, researchers are engaged in critical enquiry into I had the opportunity to discuss my own within and outside the state legal system. Palestine's past, present and future work on Palestinian literature alongside Her discussion on the mechanism of (Below) Ramallah woman, 1940s Nadeem Karkabi’s enviable research on dialectic between state and activists – how underground Palestinian music culture. the actions of one shaped the other – © Matson Collection, Library of Congress Th is second seminar spurred a debate illuminated the logic of hegemony and the on the ways and means of overcoming intimate relationship between power and and re-conceptualising ‘fragmentation’ – action against it. and on methods of creating locations of Tackling the matter from a separate angle, belonging outside the bounded and singular Katherine Natanel focused her research locations of the nation. Karkabi’s work took on the relationship between gender and us on his travels through the desert and normalisation. Where Weizman looked at atop hilly olive groves where he collected conscious and deliberate actions, Natanel ethnographic descriptions of raves. To the explored the intimate as it is embedded in a beat of Palestinian transnational fusion, wider political sphere. Looking in particular Karkabi explained how he was able to at political stasis and apathy, she presented explore the ways a host of ‘identities’ mixed research into the construction and practice and merged into a unique ‘otherness’ via the of gender roles and how they function to music. His work probes the very defi nition preserve the power dynamics undergirding of the self at the heart of political, ethnic and forces of militarism and occupation. geographical divides in Israel and the West Both papers looked critically at Palestine Bank. as a crucial and embedded element of Th e determination of Karkabi’s research Israeli society. Th is not only upended the subjects to explore the ‘politics of pleasure’ standard method of discussion of Israel through music provided a fascinating and Palestine but provided alternative

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 11 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Ruba Salih looks at how refugees have become pawns in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle PPalestinianalestinian rrefugeesefugees aandnd tthehe ppoliticsolitics ooff rreturneturn

he 1993 Oslo agreements signalled ‘right to return’ (haqq al-awda), and the © Ruba Salih the beginning of a progressive ‘right to have rights.’ Tmarginalisation of the Palestinian In the host states, the narrative of refugee question that was dramatised ‘avoiding tawteen’ as the pre-condition for with the release of the ‘Palestine Papers’ in the Palestinian return has, over the decades, 2011. By disclosing the secret negotiations legitimated and prolonged a problematic between the Palestinian Authority and Israel amnesia about issues of democracy, social on the return of a mere 1,000 refugees over justice and pluralism in a region where a period of ten years, the Palestine Papers refugees’ exclusion or suspension from confi rmed the absence of any plan to deliver rights or entitlements fi ts into an agenda of justice to four generations of displaced reinforcing confessional, tribal, national and and stateless people. Th ey underscored a gender hierarchies. perception of Palestinian refugees as pawns Refugees perceive return as a trope for whose rights could be tacitly and arbitrarily multiple aspirations: return to origin and exchanged for minor concessions at the roots, to land and properties, to dignity as negotiating table with Israel. well as to individual and collective rights Th e offi cial dismissal of the Palestinian and freedom. Th is new ‘politics of return’ refugee question by its supposed national speaks to a wider spectrum of claims and leadership has prompted, among many entitlements that exist prior to and beyond refugees, narratives and criticism that the nationalist project and throws light were previously considered taboo. In this on the fl awed nature of contemporary gloomy context, Palestinian refugees are manifestations of nationalism or the nation- The entrance to a refugee camp in the West urged to make new sense of over sixty years state in the region and beyond. Palestinian Bank: the key is a powerful symbol of the of dispossession and exile, starting with refugees today can be seen as subaltern dream of return bitter disillusion with the offi cial narrative subjects whose claims and aspirations voice that their lack of rights and the temporary a project of democracy everywhere they nature of their condition (avoiding tawteen, are. By operating through the framework of or naturalisation) were pre-conditions democracy and self-determination rather of nationalism and modernisation, from for return. Th e third, and even fourth, than nationalism or modernity, Palestinian which they are excluded or in which they generations of Palestinians in exile still refugees contribute to the emergence of are only partially included. While their don’t enjoy basic rights, and yet their return what the scholar Partha Chatterjee has idioms are still nationalist, these movements has never been as distant as it is today. In defi ned as a ‘political society.’ Chatterjee may encompass and express diff erent addition, the assumption that Palestinian coined the term to denote those new types of allegiances, aspirations, claims and refugees are eager to live temporary or aspirations and claims that in many post- solidarities beyond the nation-state, which suspended lives merely awaiting return colonial contexts emerged outside, and in come to be scrutinised, contested and even to their national territory, where they will opposition to, the earlier liberal consensus challenged. fi nally achieve rights and citizenship, does of state-civil society relations. not do justice to the complexity of their Political societies are interested in a Ruba Salih works on refugee issues at SOAS, aspirations and claims. Th ese comprise project of democracy rather than in one where she is Reader in Gender Studies the ‘right to have rights,’ alongside the right to return and to compensation for Palestinian refugees today can be seen as their lost land and properties. Refugees are articulating a new culture which reconciles subaltern subjects, whose claims and aspirations two political projects and discourses – the voice a project of democracy everywhere they are

12 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Palestinians in London talk to Roger Hardy about their memories of home – and the journey that led them to Britain RRememberingemembering PPalestinealestine

Arab jeweller, Old City of

asked Laila Shawa what she missed most. Some had settled in neighbouring Lebanon Th ere is a Palestinian Community ‘I miss the smell of Gaza in the spring, but left aft er the outbreak of the civil war Association in London which brings people Iwhen you choked from the smell of the there in 1975. All became, to a greater or together – mostly professionals and those orange blossom.’ Now in her early seventies, lesser degree, Londoners; but seldom by with an interest in politics. But in recent Laila is a well-known Palestinian artist who choice. years the split between the two main has lived in London for 35 years. She never No one seems to know how many Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, has imagined she would settle here. But now, she Palestinians there are in Britain. An estimate to some extent been replicated in London. says, ‘I would call myself a Londoner. Th e from 2001 suggested 25,000. ‘We are ‘Politics no longer unites us,’ says Abbas. ‘It city has been my home for more than half statistically invisible,’ says Abbas Shiblak, divides us.’ my life.’ a Palestinian writer and researcher. Many Abbas himself was born in Haifa in I heard a similar story from other are offi cially listed according to the country 1944. He has a child’s memories of 1948: Palestinians of Laila’s generation. Th eir they settled in, as Lebanese or Jordanians ‘I remember the day I was bundled into a reasons for moving to London diff ered. or Syrians. In Britain, says Abbas, the small black car, together with my parents, Some came as refugees in 1948, aft er the end Palestinians are a small community, they two sisters and a brother. We carried few of British rule in Palestine and the birth of are scattered and they have few community possessions, but they were enough to fi ll the state of Israel. Some came as students. institutions. every nook and cranny in the vehicle. Among them was a Singer sewing machine, ‘Politics no longer unites us. It divides us’ which my mum continued to use for several

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 13 Palestinian families, under armed guard, in ‘Now [Gaza] is only a memory – which is something I a convoy of cars which drove via Gaza to never imagined I would say. I just wish to God it wasn’t’ Egypt. Michel stayed behind, only joining his family in May 1948, aft er the end of the mandate. He went on to become a judge of years, as well as an oud (lute) which my Leaving Jerusalem the High Court in Sudan and chief justice of parents were very attached to. My mother For the Cotrans, a Palestinian Christian the Cameroons. would oft en sing the Arabic song so popular family in Jerusalem, 1948 had a diff erent Eugene and Omeir studied at the at the time, "Marmar Zamani", a love song meaning, though no less traumatic. I met elite Victoria College in Alexandria and that refl ected the bitter-sweet times of two Eugene Cotran, now 75, at his home in west then moved to Britain to continue their lovers.’ London, together with his brother Omeir, education. Omeir developed a successful Th e Shiblaks did not leave Palestine, but who is four years older. ‘My father, Michel, textile business in Yorkshire. Eugene moved from Haifa to Nablus, in the West was quite a big shot,’ Eugene told me. ‘His became a lawyer and a visiting professor at Bank, where they stayed until their money last job in Palestine was as deputy chief SOAS. He was the fi rst Palestinian in Britain ran out. Th ey eventually settled in Lebanon. registrar to the judiciary.’ As such, he was to become a judge of the Crown Court. Abbas went to London to study in 1975. He instrumental in appointing magistrates, and worked as a journalist and later for the Arab one of the most senior Arab offi cials in the Staying in Gaza League. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, British administration. For Laila Shawa, the experience of 1948 he was detained by the British authorities Th e two brothers studied at the Collège was diff erent because Gaza was diff erent. as a supposed security threat. Only aft er a des Frères, in the Old City of Jerusalem – She belonged to a wealthy and politically high-profi le campaign by supporters was he mostly run, they recall, by Irish priests. Th ey infl uential family. Her father, grandfather released. remember being taken by their father to and great-grandfather had been mayors In 1993 he joined the Refugee Studies meet the Muft i, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. ‘He of Gaza. Before 1948, she recalls, Gaza Centre in Oxford. Th is enabled him, while was the unchallenged leader,’ says Eugene, City was a quiet town by the sea, with ‘the working on a European Union project, not only in Palestine but later from exile in whitest beaches I’ve ever seen,’ surrounded to return to Haifa, where he managed to Baghdad and Cairo. Th ey also remember by orange groves. revisit his family home. He shared the standing on the balcony of their apartment In 1948 they stayed put – but were joined hope of some of his friends that the Oslo in Jerusalem and watching the smoke rising by an infl ux of refugees from other parts of peace accords would usher in real peace. from the King David Hotel, aft er it was Palestine. Th e city’s population quadrupled. He was able to settle in Ramallah, in the bombed by the Irgun, a right-wing Zionist Gaza came under Egyptian rule, then West Bank, where he lived with his wife group, in 1946. in 1967 under Israeli occupation. In the and two children for a couple of years. But Not long aft erwards, Michel Cotran meantime Laila had gone to Cairo to study. the breakdown of the peace process and the decided it was no longer safe for his family Here her artistic talent was recognised. She onset of violence prompted the family to to stay. Th e brothers still remember the went to art schools in Italy and Austria, return to London. day in 1947 when they left with two other where she studied with Oskar Kokoschka. She settled in Lebanon but was still able to visit Gaza regularly. ‘I met a British architect in Beirut who I ended up marrying – and we came to live in London.’ Although the city was not her chosen home, it has become essential to her work. ‘I’m very integrated into the art world here.’ Laila hasn’t been back to Gaza for 14 or 15 years. ‘Now it’s only a memory – which is something I never imagined I would say. I just wish to God it wasn’t.’

Roger Hardy is a writer and journalist, a visiting fellow at King’s College, London, and the LSE and a member of the Editorial Board

Children of War, Children of Peace, 1996, by

14 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Nimer Sultany assesses the signiﬁ cance of the protests that erupted over Israel’s plans to resettle the PPalestinianalestinian Palestinian Bedouin yyouthouth cchallengehallenge tthehe PPrawerrawer PPlanlan © arabs48.com

Demonstration in Haifa, 30 July 2013

n 12 December 2013, the Israeli demolition of dozens of villages, the minister Benny Begin, one of its main government decided to withdraw relocation of thousands of Bedouin from architects, admitted that he had never Othe parliamentary bill that advanced their ancestral lands to a few designated obtained the Bedouin’s consent for the the Prawer-Begin Plan for the resettlement communities and the off er of meagre project. Th is admission undermined one of tens of thousands of Bedouin in the monetary compensation in return for the of the government’s main justifi cations Naqab (Negev). Th e plan sought to denial of historical land rights over most of for the plan. Yet the plan was quashed resolve the historical dispute between the the Naqab. Th e prospect of forced removal in the aft ermath of a public outcry. Arab Palestinian Bedouin and the state over held no appeal for the Bedouin not only members of the Knesset and human-rights land rights in Palestine’s southern desert. because it rejected their historical rights, organisations such as Adalah played a role Th ese Bedouin have lived in dozens of but also because a previous government in opposing the plan. Th e main credit, communities that are not recognised by plan in the 1970s to concentrate the however, goes to street demonstrations. Th e the state. Although the communities have Bedouin in a few towns ended up creating fi rst demonstrations started on a small scale existed for decades, in some cases prior unemployment, poverty and centres of – in Beersheba in the south, Umm al-Fahem to the state’s establishment, they remain crime. Th is fate is unsurprising given in the northern Triangle and Sakhnin illegal under Israeli law, so are not provided the lack of serious state investment in in the Galilee – on 15 July 2013. Th e with basic services and are repeatedly infrastructure and unfair and inequitable protestors attempted to close main traffi c demolished. Al-Araqib, for instance, has educational and employment opportunities. intersections and were met with police been demolished over fi ft y times. Th e state Moreover, state offi cials’ long-standing violence. Th en, on 1 August, much larger has also criminalised land use by these Zionist rhetoric of judaising the Naqab demonstrations were organised in A’rah in residents and has occasionally destroyed did not help convince the indigenous the northern Triangle and at the Naqab’s their crops by spraying toxic chemicals from population that the Prawer-Begin Plan was Lehavim intersection. Th is time the police the air. a development plan for their benefi t. ‘kettled’ the demonstrators at the entrance Th e Prawer-Begin Plan meant the Th e state rescinded the plan aft er former to A’rah and – using horses, tear gas, and making several arrests – prevented them Th e struggle against the Prawer Plan affi rms from closing the intersection. Th ree months the utility of popular struggle and highlights later, on 30 November, larger crowds in two major demonstrations – this time in the the crucial role of youth in shaping it mixed city of Haifa in the north and in Hura

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 15 Th e slogan ‘Th e people want the fall of the [Prawer] ahead given the worsening conditions of the Palestinian minority and the current Plan’ was inspired by calls during the Arab Spring trends within the Israeli political system. Th e Prawer Plan will not be the last in the south – faced similar attempts at strikes on these days. Without a general attempt to judaise the Naqab. Since 1977, kettling, higher levels of police violence and strike, the commemorations are stripped Israeli politics have been moving steadily dozens of arrests. of the political aspect of protest evident to the right. Th e rise of neo-liberal and Th ese demonstrations are not only in collective action and mobilisation. ethno-centric policies has led to higher notable for their ultimate success in Moreover, this politicisation runs counter poverty rates among Arab citizens (65.8 achieving their well-defi ned objective to the de-politicised social protests in per cent of Palestinian children in Israel (quashing the Prawer Plan), but for the fact Israel in the summer of 2011 (against the were classifi ed as poor in 2010), lower that they were not organised by established government’s economic policies) and in graduation rates from high schools (only political parties – although some of the the West Bank in September 2012 (against 32 per cent of students graduated in 2008) young organisers are active in existing then-Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s policies and higher rates of crime and organised parties – nor by the Follow-Up Committee. and the rise in the cost of living) in the crime. (In 2011, although Palestinian Th ey are also noteworthy for their bottom- aft ermath of the Arab Spring. citizens accounted for 18 per cent of Israel’s up and non-hierarchical organisation; As such, the campaign against the Prawer population, they comprised more than 50 the organisers (the youth movement) Plan affi rms the utility of popular struggle per cent of convicted criminals in prison have no defi ned leadership, and in the and highlights the crucial role of youth in and 67 per cent of all murder suspects.) demonstrations the political party leaders shaping it. Th is youth struggle has been It remains to be seen how this mode of who showed up had no say over the course the fi rst major case in which the imprint popular struggle will develop against such a of the demonstration. Indeed, they were of the Arab Spring has been evident in the backdrop. rebuff ed when they attempted to do so. Palestinian minority’s struggle. Th e main Another striking feature of the protests slogan – ‘Th e people want the fall of the Nimer Sultany is a lecturer in public law was the organisers’ extensive use of social [Prawer] Plan’ – was inspired by calls during at SOAS media (such as Facebook) and the build-up the Arab Spring for the fall of autocratic of momentum from one demonstration to regimes. another (ultimately attracting the national A youth-led rejuvenation of popular and international media). Also notable was struggle, however, faces a diffi cult road the unity displayed between Arabs residing © arabs48.com in the Naqab, Galilee and the Triangle; for them the displacement of the Bedouin is part and parcel of decades-long policies of land confi scation directed at the entire Palestinian minority. An additional feature of the protests was the role of women. Young women were at the forefront of all the demonstrations. Moreover, on 15 September 2013 the Haifa- based Palestinian Feminist Forum brought around a hundred Arab women from the centre and north to meet with Bedouin women in the south to raise awareness of their plight, their role and the Prawer Plan. Finally, by aiming to close road intersections and disrupt traffi c, these protests signalled a politicisation of popular struggle that runs counter to the de-politicisation/de-radicalisation of the commemoration of Land Day (marking Israeli confi scation of land in 1976) and of the October 2000 events (mass protests by Arab citizens in Israel against Israeli oppression in the West Bank and Gaza). Th e Palestinian leadership in Israel disagrees over how to mark these events and, as a consequence, they have not declared general

Israeli police at demonstrations against the Prawer Plan, 30 November 2013

16 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Roger Hardy proﬁ les the work of the Qattan Foundation and the family that runs it A culturalcultural missionmission © The Qattan Foundation

For Abdul-Mohsin al-Qattan, education is the key to the Palestinians' future

ince the Mosaic Rooms opened in his mid-80s, is a Palestinian from Jaff a who Omar was sent to school in Britain. Later London’s Cromwell Road in 2008, it settled in Kuwait, where he met his wife he studied in Cairo, Oxford and Brussels, Shas established itself as a vibrant centre Leila, from Tulkarem in the West Bank. where he started his career as a fi lm-maker. of Arab art and culture, under the direction Both were schoolteachers. His fi rst full-length feature fi lm, Dreams of the Palestinian fi lm-maker Omar al- Abdul-Mohsin went on to establish a and Silence, came out in 1991 to widespread Qattan. successful construction business, and in acclaim. Th e project is the brainchild of the A. M. the 1960s the family moved to Beirut. It Qattan Foundation, named aft er Omar’s was here that Omar was born and grew up. Education, education father, the Palestinian businessman Abdul- But the outbreak of the Lebanese civil war Th is was a moment of malaise in the Mohsin al-Qattan. Abdul-Mohsin, now in in 1975 forced them to return to Kuwait. region, following the traumatic war to free Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. ‘We felt,’ says Omar, ‘that the Arab world was undergoing Th e Qattans felt that the cultural crisis in the a major cultural crisis. Th is is an incredible Arab world was not due to a lack of resources, region – with so much wealth, with the three great monotheistic religions, with but was rooted in culture and education strategic importance – and yet everything

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 17 was being screwed up.’ Th e Qattans were Based in Gaza City, the Qattan Centre for the Child convinced that the problem was not a lack of resources, but was rooted in culture and is home to one of the largest children’s libraries education. anywhere in the Arab world, with over 100,000 books ‘Both my parents started their lives as schoolteachers,’ Omar explains. ‘Like that whole generation of Palestinian refugees, for the Child. Based in Gaza City, the centre the confl ict in Syria and a series of events they were obsessed with education, which is home to one of the largest children’s on Israel/Palestine, including in 2011 a was their most important asset.’ Th e libraries anywhere in the Arab world, with photographic exhibition, From Palestine to problem had both an Arab and a Palestinian over 100,000 books. It also runs a theatre Israel (accompanied by a book of the same dimension. Surveys showed that the and organises a range of activities which title, published by Pluto Press). standard of education in the West Bank and benefi t 45,000 children annually. Th e audience for these events has been Gaza – which had once been high – had Th ird, in an extension of its core activities, mainly non-Middle Eastern. ‘We are not begun to collapse aft er the First Intifada the foundation works with artists and preaching to the choir,’ says Omar. (uprising) of the late 1980s. writers to promote Palestinian and Arab art Until 2004, the family had made it a With the creation of the Palestinian and culture. point of principle to fund the foundation’s Authority in the 1990s, funds were being activities itself. It wanted to show that, poured into infrastructure. Th at was Spreading the word standing alone, a Palestinian family could important, the family believed, but it wasn’t It was this last aim which inspired the produce educational and cultural projects to enough. So in 1993, using money generated foundation to set up the Mosaic Rooms an international standard. But, having made by their construction business, the Qattans in London, where, in its own words, it its point, over the last decade the foundation set up a foundation – and, before long, showcases ‘some of the most exciting, has shown itself ready to work with others Omar was spending much of his time progressive and creative voices from the – provided there are no strings attached. helping them run it. Arab world.’ Th e range is wide, including Its budget for 2012/13 was US$ 8million, Th e foundation’s main focus is on art, literature, music, history, food – and of which forty per cent came from external Palestinian education – principally in lively political debate. funding (from such bodies as the European the West Bank and Gaza, but also among Omar and his colleagues have found Union, the Belgian Development Agency, refugees in Lebanon. It operates on three London a welcoming environment. Th e city the Ford Foundation, Arts Council England main tracks. From its base in Ramallah is so big, he says, that there’s always plenty and Save the Children UK). in the West Bank, it runs the Centre for going on – yet there’s always room for more. Among the Mosaic Room’s activities Educational Research and Development, Culture, as he puts it, ‘spreads like bush-fi re.’ in 2014 will be a continuing focus on the which works directly with Palestinian Th e Mosaic Rooms uses its gallery for art region’s disappearing cities. Th is began teachers to help them raise standards. exhibitions. It provides a venue to launch with an event recording the story of Lydda Among its initiatives, the centre encourages books. It has held poetry events, including (which became, aft er the expulsion of its the use of drama in education, and gives a celebration of the Syrian poet Adonis. It Arab citizens in 1948, the Israeli town of particular emphasis to developing the runs a small bookshop. It provides a studio Lod), and will continue in March/April with teaching of science. for visiting Arab artists, encouraging them Mogadishu: Lost Moderns, a multi-media Second, because of the special needs to write a blog about their experiences. exhibition by architect Rashid Ali and of the 1.7 million people of Gaza, the It has not shunned politics or political photographer Andrew Cross. Continuing foundation established the Qattan Centre controversy, hosting a heated discussion of until 21 February is a project called Al- Mutanabbi Street Starts Here, which brings together artists’ and writers’ responses to the bombing which destroyed this famous Baghdad street in 2007. Th is coincides with Th reads of Light, an exhibition of paintings by Iraqi artist Hanoos Hanoos.

More information can be found at www. mosaicrooms.org.

Roger Hardy is a writer and journalist, a visiting fellow at the LSE and King’s College, London, and a member of the Editorial Board

Children living in the underprivileged area of Al- Samouni in Gaza paint their faces during a day of

18 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Peter Clark recalls his recent experience judging books on Palestine FFindinginding a vvoiceoice © Rofoof Ali, Middle East Monitor

Prize-winners Lori Allen, Rashid Khalidi, Susan Abulhawa (contributor to Seeking Palestine) and Maggie Schmitt

he Palestine Book Awards are accounts, novels, memoirs, poetry and a Palestine) and Louisa Waugh (Meet Me in organised annually in London by cookery book. One genre of writing seems Gaza, reviewed later in this issue) write of TMiddle East Monitor, an organisation to be emerging – memoirs by disillusioned their experiences working for NGOs in the dedicated to providing ‘a focused and Zionists. Th ere were two in the submissions. West Bank and Gaza respectively. comprehensive coverage of Palestine.’ Th e One was by a son of an Israeli general, Matti Th ere are three Palestinian memoirs. prize for 2013 was awarded in November. Peled, who retired from the Israeli Defence Th e work of Raja Shehadeh is well known. Twenty-six books relating to Palestine Forces to become a professor of Arabic A Palestinian lawyer in Ramallah, he were considered by fi ve judges. Th ese were literature. His son, Miko Peled, in Th e has written several volumes of memoirs whittled down to a short-list of fi ve, and General’s Son, documents his progressive documenting the absurdities and cruelties then to two winners – one general and one disenchantment, which occurred through of the ongoing occupation. Occupation academic. working with Palestinians sharing an Diaries is the latest. Jacob Nammar, in Born Much good work is being written on enthusiasm for martial arts. He now lives in Jerusalem, Born Palestinian, tells the Palestine these days, in contrast to a in California. Also based in the US is story of a Christian Palestinian living in generation ago. For decades the dominant Rabbi Brant Rosen, whose Wrestling in the Jerusalem before and aft er the June 1967 narrative in the English language was the Daylight is intellectually stimulating. His war. Ghazi Hassoun was born in Haifa, Zionist story, with Palestinians marginalised disillusion is based on moral values derived won scholarships to the United States and and demonised. But in the decades aft er from Jewish traditions. has had a successful academic career. He 1967, Palestinians found voices in poetry Other personal accounts can be divided tells his life story in Walking Out into the and prose. Th e poetry of Mahmud Darwish into travel writing and memoirs. Dervla Sunshine. in translation became internationally Murphy, the veteran Irish travel writer, One of the three novels considered, Th e known. Edward Said brought an academic spent some weeks in Gaza and in A Almond Tree by American author Michelle rigour to the way people looked at the Month by the Sea writes vividly about the Cohen Corasanti, is the story of a successful Palestinians. Th e new Israeli historians, such tensions there. Pamela Olson (Fast Times in Palestinian scientist told in fi ctional form. as Avi Shlaim, undermined the heroic story of Israel’s ‘war of independence.’ In the decades aft er 1967 Palestinians Th e books we judged can be divided into diff erent categories: revised theses, travel found voices, in poetry and prose

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 19 Dispossession and diaspora have provided Brittain and myself, met three times. We were in general harmony about our Palestinians with multiple identities, without decisions. We listened to each other, diluting their basic sense of being Palestinian modifi ed views and reached unanimity about the shortlist and, without hesitation, the winners. Th e Disinherited by Ibrahim Fawal is one Lastly, there were books that are hard to Th e short-listed books were: of a series of novels: this volume is about categorise. Aidan Andrew Dun’s Unholyland • Th e Rise and Fall of Human Rights, by Lori how Palestinian refugees were received in is a series of poems about a tour of Israel Allen the Jordanian capital Amman in the years with a band. Palestinian Activism in Israel, • Th e Gaza Kitchen, by Laila al-Haddad and aft er 1948. Th e third novel, Th e Wall by by Henriette Daha-Kelev and Emile Maggie Schmitt William Sutcliff e, is an original story about Lefebvre, is not quite what the title suggests • Seeking Palestine, edited by Penny Johnson a Jewish boy in a West Bank settlement who but rather the account of the remarkable and Raja Shehadeh tunnels under the Israeli separation wall Amal al-Sane, a campaigner for the human • Brokers of Deceit, by Rashid al-Khalidi to encounter a Palestinian village. It is an rights of the Bedouin of the Negev. Th e • Meet Me in Gaza, by Louisa Waugh adaptation of a classic theme in children’s Gaza Kitchen, by Laila al-Haddad and On 14 November 2013 the winners were literature of the discovery of another, secret Maggie Schmitt, combines recipes with announced. Th e general book chosen was world. personal stories of the people of Gaza. Seeking Palestine, and the academic book Th ere were eight academic books. Why Finally, Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Brokers of Deceit. are academic books so oft en unreadable? In Writing on Exile and Home is a collection several cases there were important messages of articles, stories and memoirs, edited by Peter Clark has translated Arabic fi ction for the general reader, but all but two Penny Johnson and Raja Shehadeh, which and is the author of books on Marmaduke seemed to be written exclusively for other brings out what it means to be a Palestinian. Pickthall and Wilfred Th esiger. He is academics. Nur Masalha, in Th e Zionist Dispossession and diaspora have provided currently editing diaries he kept in Damascus Bible, has a most important message, but the Palestinians with multiple identities, in the 1990s proof-reading was awful, with howlers on without diluting their basic sense of being every page. Munshir el-Farra’s Gaza: When Palestinian. the Sky Rained White Fire was better written, Th e judges, Dr Ibrahim Darwish, Dr documenting the atrocities committed in Ahmad Khalidi, Haifa Zangana, Victoria Operation Cast Iron in 2008/09. Lori Allen in Th e Rise and Fall of Human Rights and Amahl Bishara in Back Stories write about the interface between the outside world and the Palestinians of the occupied territories in relation to issues of human rights and media reporting. Adel Saft y (Might Over Right) and Suraya Dadoo and Firoz Osman (Why Israel?) provide introductions to the Palestine issue for those new to it. Luisa Gandolfo in Palestinian in Jordan deals with several episodes of Palestinian identity in Jordan. Paul Keleman, in Th e British Left and Zionism, tells the story of the progressive disillusionment of many on the left with Zionism since the 1940s, when support for Israel and the kibbutz movement were articles of faith. Th e two most readable academic books were Th e Invention of the Land of Israel by Shlomo Sand and Rashid Khalidi’s Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East. In an earlier work, Sand deconstructed the ideas of Zionism. In this, he examines the newness of the idea of Jewish attachment to Greater Israel, regardless of anyone else who lives there. Khalidi is a distinguished Palestinian academic who took part in peace talks Brokers of Deceit: How the US between the PLO and Israel. He writes of has Undermined Peace in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi, several episodes in peace negotiations and winner of the 2013 Palestine details the falsity of claims by the US to be Book Awards, academic independent. category

20 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 PPALESTINEALESTINE

Two poems by Rafeef Ziadah OOverver TTherehere

am a Palestinian performance poet and human-rights activist based in London. My fi rst CD of spoken Iword poems, entitled Hadeel (the cooing of doves), is a collection of stories largely inspired by the way mainstream news portrays occupied Palestine, the way that death, especially of children, is normalised in limited sound-bites. Th e story that Hadeel tells is a collective Rafeef Ziadah story of several generations of Palestinians that have endured Israel’s military aggression. Th e poems are also about the ability to remain hopeful in the face of extreme military might, which is why the poems are dedicated to Palestinian youth, who still fl y kites in the face of F16 bombers, who still remember the names of their villages in Palestine, and still hear the sound of hadeel over Gaza.

Chronologies as if we need permission to be from Th ere stand me naked - alone for seconds or had a choice to be from somewhere else. then rubber gloves to slowly feel skin, seek Chronologies evidence of something with no purpose 2014 and waiting never been clear about. Didn’t even look up just dates upon dates and dates for another boat to break another siege at me. to remind us we once existed over Th ere. for mothers to make miracles raising children Years are only names for massacres only on water and lentils and no shoes for Th is is how the other half lives. 48, 67, 20something and waiting school Th e Passport’d half lives. the dead are numbered listed, graphed, for some to let us be human and work Th e legal half lives. mapped others to just let us be. and clustered in phosphorus Palestinian and return. For a second I wanted to stand my ground – wrapped neatly in statistic for the evening to explain his mistake news Th ere will be more boats explain there are questions to question I will sit in one - curled up in a memory scars to inspect 2014 and waiting that still smells of lead and concrete new machinery they need to test long enough in visa lines my children will learn to play machinery scans retinas shell shocked to carve out a home of fake smiles and by a beach in Yafa, they will tell stories machinery deciphers disfi gured skeletons documents of how long we waited carved in the zig-zag of visa lines to know I am from Th ere and unwanted to come back Th ere. and bent hiding inside boats across the anywhere else. 2014 and waiting. Mediterranean. Th e Th ere they accuse us of Th e Th ere of stories told in shelters in Beirut But he didn’t even look up at me. by grandparents voices trembling Passport Nothing changed between July 12 and July 13. not knowing if they will see Th ere again. My illegal skin Didn’t even look up – didn’t even look up My illegal bones 2014 and waiting sheltered behind a grey desk, Carry the same illegal me to negotiate or not negotiate a wide smile – he didn’t look up. I only put my hand up and swore to a queen. to apologize for our own Nakba Didn’t ask my name. Didn’t inspect picture to accept exile and pray forgetfulness match a face or age. Th is is how the other half lives. and ‘be practical’ child Didn’t ask how long and where I would stay Th e Passport’d half lives. be ‘pragmatic’ child or the reason I was there. Th e legal half lives. ‘the refugees are the last stumbling block’ so they negotiate us away Didn’t send me to the back of the line or into ‘they will never let you return’ child a small room

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 21 PPHOTOHOTO COMPETITIONCOMPETITION

MiddleMiddle EEastast iinn LLondonondon pphotohoto competitioncompetition rresultsesults ((2013)2013) © Mario Cardenas

Winning photograph 'Majestic Reﬂ ection, Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi'

n response to our photo competition for 2013, we had a fl ood of entries covering a wide variety of people, places and themes. ITh e standard was high, and the choice extremely diffi cult. But in the end we awarded the prize to Mario Cardenas for his remarkable photograph of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in the United Arab Emirates. Four additional photos won commendations including another of his pictures (Fujairah Fishermen). We are grateful to all who took part, and intend to make the competition an annual event.

Editorial Board Mario Cardenas

22 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 © Mario Cardenas Mario Cardenas is a self-taught artist who loves painting, design, drawing and sketching. He started photography in late 2009 and immediately recognised it as an excellent medium for expressing his creativity. For Mario photography is a ‘vehicle for adventure;’ it permits him to meet people from all walks of life, visit remote places and immerse himself in challenging and unfamiliar environments. Currently, Mario works as an architect and practises his photography in his spare time. He enjoys competing in photography competitions and has received numerous awards for his work in local and international arenas. He hopes that participation in such competitions will help his images reach farther, making his pieces accessible to a wider audience. In his winning photograph – Majestic Refl ection – Mario strove to capture ‘one of the most important architectural treasures of the United Arab Emirates.’ Commendation photograph 'Fujairah Fishermen'

Makan Mohammadi © Makan Mohammadi Ostadkalayeh Ostadkalayeh was born in Iran and currently resides in Turin, Italy where he is pursuing a master’s degree in Telecommunications at the Polytechnic University of Turin and teaching photography. Makan writes philosophical, political and artistic articles for newspapers and magazines and researches documentary cinema for various organisations. He is a member of the Urban Representation Group and, since last year, has been working on several projects including ‘Man walks through the images,’ ‘We lie – party game photography,’ ‘Cemetery collection’ and ‘Gonbad-e-Kaboud’ which aims to teach photography to children aged 3-5.

Commendation photograph 'An Old Mosque in Mountainous Village, North of Iran'

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 23 Madeleine McGivern works for Christian Aid as a Resilience Programme Offi cer for the Middle East Team, having studied Middle Eastern politics at Durham University and worked as a Human Rights Monitor in Palestine and Israel. She photographs while travelling for work and enjoys taking pictures of people and places as well as shots with interesting colours, lines and light. Her photography aims to make people smile, tell them about something important or both. Th is image – which is part of Madeleine's collection entitled Holy Land Shots – was taken on a day when 'the shining sun and blue sky painted a stark contrast to this grey separation wall and its telling maps.’ © Madeleine McGivern

Commendation photograph 'Separation Wall Painting Stark Pictures, Abu Diss, Jerusalem, Palestine'

Ana Marija Grbanović from Slovenia discovered her passion for the history of Islamic art and architecture during her studies in Preservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Udine in Italy. Currently she is pursuing a master’s degree in the History of Art and Architecture of the Islamic Middle East at SOAS. Her photographs represent ‘glimpses of wonder’ encountered during her travels to Georgia, Armenia, Nagorno Karabakh, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and India or while working as a tour guide in Cuba, Sicily, Turkey, Iran, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Her solo exhibition – Meanwhile in Iran

ć (Slovenia, 2013) – presented some of her images in light-box media. © Marija Grbanovi

Commendation photograph 'Summer Night Under the Khaju Bridge, Esfahan, Iran'

24 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS MMeeteet MeMe inin GGaza:aza: UUncommonncommon SStoriestories ooff LLifeife iinsidenside tthehe SStriptrip

By Louisa B. Waugh

Westbourne Press, June 2013, £11.55

Reviewed by Gerald Butt

n the fi nal section of this book, an elderly into a territory about the size of the Isle of All the while, Hamas’s Gaza and Fatah’s Palestinian recalls the days aft er the Wight, with no place to go. Th e author was West Bank remain what the author calls Icreation of Israel in 1948 when Bedouin in Gaza when the border fence with Israel ‘bitter divorcees’ – a political and ideological families were forced out of their homes in was blown up by Hamas in early 2008, split that pains ordinary Gazans, as does the the southern Negev, leaving them no choice allowing tens of thousands of people a economic blockade by Israel and the West. but to fl ee southwards. Th e transformation chance to cross into Egypt. It was a moment Th e author argues that Western sanctions of the calm and fertile district of Gaza of euphoria for Gazans – and for the author against Hamas have served no purpose on the Mediterranean coast into a dense who joined the excited scrum. But it was and have failed to protect civilians in Gaza. enclave of displaced Palestinians who no more than a moment’s liberation and in But it is also true that the failure to mend vastly outnumbered the local inhabitants the end signifi ed nothing. ‘We Palestinians,’ the breach between Hamas and Fatah has had begun. Th e bruise infl icted on Gaza in her companion said as they drove into damaged the image of the Palestinians as a 1948 has never healed. Nor is there still any al-Arish, ‘used to dream of real freedom, whole and has denied the Gazans a chance plausible or realistic suggestion of how Gaza our own independent state. And look at us to reconnect politically with the West Bank can ever return to something like normal now – blowing up our border to escape for and the world beyond. Today, with both life. a few days shopping.’ Fast-forward to 2010, Egypt and Israel targeting the smuggling Th e shadow of Israel with encirclement when a taxi driver complains that ‘nothing tunnels under Gaza’s southern border, replacing occupation and the still lingering changes. Too many taxis … nowhere to go,’ connections are diminishing still further. aft er-eff ects of 1948 provide the background while a Hamas policeman says: ‘I just want to Meet Me in Gaza. Louisa Waugh worked to get out of here. Where do I want to go? Gerald Butt, a former BBC correspondent in for a non-governmental organisation in Anywhere – just out of this prison.’ the Middle East, is the author of Life at the Gaza City for nearly eighteen months up to Th e bruise, if anything, has darkened Crossroads: A History of Gaza April 2009. She returned for short visits in over the decades. Th e author returned to 2010 and 2012. Th e author kept a journal Gaza in January 2009, when the Israelis throughout this time that takes the reader had withdrawn aft er Operation Cast Lead under the surface of the contemporary had battered the territory yet again. She Gaza Strip. She also weaves Gaza’s rich but observed that many people ‘still looked largely overlooked history through the dazed, their eyes dull and exhausted.’ text. It is the work of a gift ed writer who Th e author also detected a dampening of observes sensitively, but not uncritically, the spirits among Gazans as Hamas gained Gazans she meets and befriends. Th e book power, allowing no dissent and imposing is, therefore, a welcome addition to the few restrictions on personal liberties. Th e existing titles on the Gaza shelf. late-night parties with alcohol fl owing that Th e strong sense that emerges from the Waugh described in her early days in Gaza pages is futility – the futility and waste of or the sight of couples walking hand-in- the lives of 1.7 million people squashed hand on the beach are things of the past.

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 25 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS LLineagesineages ooff RRevolt:evolt: IIssuesssues ooff CContemporaryontemporary CCapitalismapitalism iinn tthehe MMiddleiddle EEastast

By Adam Hanieh

Haymarket Books, November 2013, £14.99

Reviewed by Brenna Bhandar

dam Hanieh’s latest off ering is of countless people. Hanieh emphasises revolutions cannot be fully understood a welcome account of the Arab at several points in the book that the without looking at the preceding social ARevolutions that continue to unfold creation of a large precarious labour force, unrest aft er the early 2000s. Despite their in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere throughout for instance, has had particularly severe divergent paths, ‘[t]he popular movements the Middle East. Th e ‘Arab Spring’ is ramifi cations for women and youth. While that erupted in 2011 represented much understood here as a movement that ignited Hanieh renders the language of political more than the overthrow of despised and inspired protest and revolt beyond the economy in a manner accessible to those dictators... [t]o concentrate on the surface regional boundaries of the Middle East: who are situated outside the discipline, appearances of these demonstrations from the indignados in Spain to Syntagma exploring how the very categories of analysis obscures their real content. Th ese Square in Athens, from the student protests utilised within political economy have a mobilizations indicate that “politics” and in Quebec to Gezi Park in Istanbul and life within the law, or considering how “economics” which are typically conceived beyond. they have evolved historically in relation to as separate spheres are fused and part of the Th e global signifi cance of the Arab other concerns, would potentially add even same struggle.’ Revolts refl ects a phenomenon that Hanieh further complexity to the rich analysis on Th e struggle against political-economic illuminates clearly throughout the book: off er. repression is met, universally it seems, with the globalisation of the neo-liberal form Marx wrote, in his essay ‘On the Jewish authoritarian police repression. Th is is of dispossession that began in the 1970s Question,’ of the in many respects illusory nowhere more acute than in the West Bank, and created the conditions in which revolts and ideological nature of liberal democratic where Hanieh argues that an increasingly have taken place. Th e major fi nancial rights. Th e transition from feudalism to neo-liberal occupation is buttressed by a institutions that imposed reforms found capitalism heralded the emergence of violent military occupation that operates success with national bourgeoisies, laying individual rights and putative access to a both spatially and temporally. Hanieh’s the groundwork for the violent forms of range of freedoms. Th ese rights, however, observation of how historical narratives structural adjustment that took place aft er have also functioned as an anaesthetic of have become central to the ongoing process a short-lived period of socialist-oriented sorts, drawing our gaze away from the of colonisation refl ects an approach to land reform and redistribution. Hanieh inequalities that continue to fl ourish in the political economy that is neither abstract explains how the contradictory character of supposedly private sphere, in ‘civil society,’ nor removed from the actual, lived Arab nationalism in the post-independence where private property relations reproduce experiences of people who have taken to period facilitated neo-liberal capitalism. and exacerbate vast inequalities in wealth, the streets and squares to eff ect dramatic Hanieh’s work is grounded in a very social power and privilege. Interpretations political change. careful and detailed analysis of both of the Arab Revolts that read them as a national and international economic straightforward expression of the desire Brenna Bhandar is a Senior Lecturer at the policy. Th e legal techniques that were used for rights and freedoms enjoyed by citizens School of Law, SOAS, and a member of the to privatise ownership of fi nancialised of liberal democratic capitalist states fail international advisory board of Law and property, of land, of industry and service to pierce the veil between the private and Society Review sectors bear a striking resemblance to those public realms, masking the real and lived used elsewhere. Privatisation, as a form of conditions in which the revolutions unfold. dispossession, has impoverished the lives Hanieh argues cogently that the

26 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS TThehe LLadyady ffromrom TTelel AvivAviv

By Raba’i al-Madhoun Translated by Elliott Colla

Telegram Books, July 2013, £8.99

Reviewed by Jennifer Langer

n Palestinian author Raba’i al-Madhoun’s as home, yet the contested land is the basis shows how oppression aff ects a people. novel – which was shortlisted for the for a fraught connection: ‘Walid, you and I One response has been for the Khan Yunis I2010 International Prize for Arabic are two shadows thrown together in a single inhabitants to turn to an increased level of Fiction – novelist and journalist Walid place. What happened to my people cast religiosity, but Walid refers to religion as Dahman returns home to the Khan Yunis black shadows over yours. What’s happened a new culture conquering his society. He refugee camp in Gaza to visit his mother. to you makes the shadows over us darker also notes the tribalism that has returned He has been away for 38 years in London, still.’ Later in Gaza, the discussion of the to Gaza which aff ects his own family. In having been unable to visit her since guests surprisingly reveals nostalgia for the their sectarian discourse about Palestinian 1967 due to the Israeli occupation. Th e First Intifada (uprising) in the late 1980s individuals and narratives, people turn to protagonist is confronted by Odyssean when Jews used to visit them and attend their version of history so that the present is travails in the form of Israeli crossing- their weddings. One guest insists that the embattled with the past. points. Walid assumes that his British dying, shooting and suicide bombs of the Al-Madhoun’s novel provides insights passport will enable him to enter Gaza Second Intifada (which began in 2000) into the memory and emotions of a with ease. However, waiting all day to get ruined everything for the Palestinians. He returning exiled Palestinian attempting to through the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing regrets the lack of adherence to the notion understand the dire situation of his people in the scorching sun with other suff ering of a secular, democratic state, believing – who are represented as doubly oppressed Palestinians, he feels totally subjugated that Palestinians and Jews would have been and threatened by Palestinian in-fi ghting by the Israeli soldiers. In Gaza the threat assimilated, to the extent of intermarriage. and Israeli control. Th ere is a palpable sense of Israeli drones and bullets constitutes Moreover, one guest points out that of relief for Walid in returning to London’s a constant menace for the inhabitants. the Palestinian Authority has brought normality – and yet he arranges to meet the Th e novel is not a polemical narrative, thuggery and corruption to the country. ‘lady from Tel Aviv’ once more. yet through Walid’s descriptions and Th is discourse appears to call into question conversations the reader becomes aware the hegemonic narrative of deep-seated Jennifer Langer, who obtained her PhD from of the acute diffi culty of life in Gaza. Even Palestinian hatred for Israelis. SOAS, is founding director of Exiled Writers the sun is described as appropriated by the Walid’s dream in returning to Gaza is Ink (www.exiledwriters.co.uk) neighbouring Jewish settlement: ‘Th ey will of retrieving a homeland. However, on his grab the sun just before it melts, out there, journey from the airport to the crossing into the folds of the horizon.’ point, Israeli place and road names eff ace Yet, the relationship with Israelis is his memory of the Palestinian past. Th e nuanced. On the fl ight to Tel Aviv, Walid’s Khan Yunis that Walid knew is buried life intersects with that of Dana, an Israeli beneath the contemporary town and the actress: the lady from Tel Aviv. Th ey reveal sea view of memory is blocked by Israeli aspects of themselves to each other, yet are settlements. Friends and family members inhibited by their Palestinian and Israeli have been killed both by Israelis and by origins. Th ey regard the same piece of land opposing Palestinian factions. Th e novel

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 27 RREVIEWS:EVIEWS: BOOKSBOOKS MMemoirsemoirs ooff aann EEarlyarly AArabrab FFeminist:eminist: TThehe LLifeife aandnd AActivismctivism ooff AAnbaranbara SSalamalam KKhalidihalidi

Translated by Tarif Khalidi

Pluto Press, April 2013, £16.99

Reviewed by Susannah Tarbush

nbara Salam Khalidi, born in Beirut only 55. Anbara remained in Beirut until But on 6 May 1916 he was one of the many in 1897, was a pioneering feminist, her death in 1986. prominent Arabs hanged by the brutal Aactivist, writer and translator whose Anbara’s memoir was published in Arabic Jamal Pasha, commander of the Fourth life was intimately entwined with the in Beirut in 1978. Now translated into Ottoman Army in Lebanon and Syria. political and social upheavals of the 20th English by her son, Professor Tarif Khalidi, Before accepting Ahmad Khalidi’s century Middle East. She spent the fi rst the book off ers unique perspectives on proposal in 1929, Anbara met him and three decades of her life mainly in Beirut. a sweep of events from the Young Turk they wrote to each other. On her marriage Her father, Selim Ali Salam, was a revolution of 1908 to the Lebanese civil war she became stepmother to his two young prominent Sunni merchant who held which erupted in 1975. She was a gift ed children, Walid and Sulafa, who had lost various public offi ces under Ottoman rule writer and the numerous incidents and their mother at a very early age. She and and was elected as a deputy for Beirut in the characters in her memoir come vividly to Ahmad had four children. ‘Our life together Ottoman parliament. His Arab nationalist life. Tarif Khalidi thinks his mother would was characterised by constant happiness views led to his being imprisoned both by have been delighted to see her memoir and total harmony,’ she writes. ‘Ahmad and the Ottomans and by the French mandate translated into English, partly because ‘the I always commented on and critiqued each authorities. two years she spent in England (1925-27) other’s writings.’ Th ey would oft en read and Anbara was one of 12 children. Her had a formative infl uence on her activism.’ discuss the same book. Anbara produced brother Saeb, to whom she was particularly In 1928, while giving a lecture on her the fi rst Arabic translation of Homer’s Iliad close, later became prime minister of impressions of England to a mixed-gender and Odyssey, published with a foreword by Lebanon six times. Her father put much audience in Beirut, Anbara removed the veil the Egyptian writer Taha Husayn. thought into giving her a good education. she had worn in public since the age of 10. ‘I Th e early parts of Anbara’s memoir Her political and feminist activism began found the occasion ripe to express freedom portray the era of the Arab Awakening. in her mid-teens. In 1929 Anbara married from the veil which I had always believed How appropriate that its English translation the Palestinian educationalist, scholar and covered not merely the face but was in fact should appear during what some are calling writer Ahmad Samih al-Khalidi and moved a prison,’ she writes. Her action caused the Second Arab Awakening. to Jerusalem. Ahmad was principal of the outrage and even violence in Beirut. Arab College in Jerusalem and a key fi gure Anbara was an independent spirit and Susannah Tarbush is a London-based in Arab education in Palestine. Anbara was refused pressure to get engaged to a young journalist a passionate supporter of the Palestinian relative when she was only 12 years old. cause and was active in Palestinian women’s Th ereaft er she had many suitors, all of organisations. She lived in Jerusalem for whom she declined. She wanted to get nearly 20 years until the family was forced to know any prospective husband before by growing violence to leave in April 1948 accepting a proposal. At the age of 17 and seek what they assumed would be she was on the verge of getting formally temporary sanctuary in Beirut. Th ree years engaged to an Arab nationalist she greatly later Ahmad died in Beirut, at the age of admired, the writer Abd al-Ghani al-Uraysi.

28 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 BBOOKSOOKS ININ BRIEFBRIEF WWhyhy YYemenemen MMatters:atters: A SocietySociety iinn TTransitionransition

Edited by Helen Lackner

In November 2011, an agreement brokered by the GCC brought an end to Yemen’s tumultuous uprising. Th e National Dialogue Conference has opened a window of opportunity for change, bringing Yemen’s main political forces together with groups that were politically marginalised. Yet the risk of collapse is serious, and if Yemen is to remain a viable state it must address numerous political, social and economic challenges. In this volume, experts provide analysis of the country’s major crises: centralised governance, the role of the military, ethnic confl ict, separatism, Islamism, foreign intervention, water scarcity and economic development.

Feb 2014, Saqi Books, £21.99 KKeepeep YYourour EEyeye oonn tthehe WWall:all: PPalestinianalestinian LLandscapesandscapes Edited by Olivia Snaije and Mitchell Albert

In art and literature, walls are frequently used as powerful symbols of division. For the people of Palestine, however, the wall that cuts deeply into their land and society is all too real, snaking through over 700 kilometres of the West Bank and Gaza. It throttles Palestinians, seals off Israelis, and all but guarantees perpetual ignorance, fear and rage on both sides. Keep Your Eye on the Wall brings together seven award-winning artist- photographers and four essayists, all responding to the Wall in images or words. Th e photographers present unique perspectives, whether it is documenting the journey of labourers across the concrete separation barrier, or exploring the layers and textures of a wall in Gaza.

Sept 2013, Saqi Books, £45.00

MMusic,usic, CCultureulture aandnd IIdentitydentity iinn tthehe MMuslimuslim WWorld:orld: PPerformance,erformance, PPoliticsolitics aandnd PPietyiety Edited by Kamal Salhi

Th is book explores Islam's rich cultural and artistic diversity, showing how sound, music and bodily performance off er a window on to the subtleties and humanity of Islamic religious experience. Th rough a wide range of case studies from West Asia, South Asia and North Africa and their diasporas - including studies of Sufi chanting in Egypt and Morocco, dance in Afghanistan, and ‘Muslim punk’ on-line - the book demonstrates how Islam should not be conceived of as being monolithic or monocultural, how there is a wide disagreement within Islam as to how music and performance should be approached, and how important cultural activities have been, and continue to be, for the formation of Muslim identity.

Nov 2013, Routledge, £85.00

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 29 PPROFILEROFILE RReemeem KKelanielani

Singer and musician

Reem in concert, World Music Shanghai , May 2011

Some who have seen me live or listened to my music may have noticed the lack of Arab musicians in my line-up. It’s not that I haven’t tried, but I cannot aff ord to fl y musicians in from outside, and the number of good Arab musicians who live in London is very limited (and of them, there are even fewer who are willing to take instructions from a female band leader). Fortunately, there is no shortage here of talented jazz musicians, and their ability to improvise is the fi rst step towards them becoming performers of Arabic music. I have invested years in training my core musicians and I am proud of them. My residency in local schools in © Nono Hu Calderdale, Yorkshire, in October 2013 culminated in a performance of Arabic was born in Manchester, grew up in shaped my interpretation and performance songs by the children of two primary Kuwait and now live in London. But my of my collective heritage. When I sing schools: one located in a predominantly Iidentity is Palestinian (even though I Palestinian or Arabic songs, I take care to white area near hippy Hebden Bridge, the only get to see Palestine on visits). If these observe the conventions of Arabic music, other, heavily Asian and Muslim, in a poor complexities have shaped my outlook, they while at the same time I perform them in a part of Halifax. Th e achievement of the have also aff ected my career as a singer and way which is my own. children was stunning, as was their embrace musician. In Kuwait, infl uenced by local Th e Arab world has struggled with of each other and of the novel world of and international cultures, I sang traditional innovation. We don’t seem to have the Arabic song. And in this meeting point of Palestinian songs, the repertoire of the confi dence to respect convention and diff erent cultures, I felt entirely at home. Lebanese singer Fairouz and classics from introduce change. As a result, I fi nd little John Kay’s important article in 2004 ‘On the American songbook. Sparked by my interest among the music establishments in Obliquity’ in the Financial Times helped workshops at the exhibition of Palestinian the Arab world, which do not reward artists me to understand. Kay demonstrated the Costume at the Museum of Mankind in for straying beyond the strict confi nes of superior performance over time of US London in the early 1990s, I realised that accepted practice. In addition, Palestinian pharmaceutical companies whose main my vocation was to present the Palestinian factions only support artists who are aim was ‘to make people well’ over those narrative through music to a world which affi liated to them. whose primary stated objective was ‘to make struggles to admit that we even exist, let I take pride in the Distant Chords series money.’ If ordinary people appreciate my alone that we might have a distinctive and which I wrote and presented for BBC music, my raison d’être is affi rmed. beautiful cultural identity. Radio 4, which showcased the music of My fi rst album, which earned plaudits communities and artists living and working from reviewers the world over and which in our midst in the UK. Whatever the the Financial Times named as its Pick of the prejudices and self-interest of the world Year 2006, was called Sprinting Gazelle – music industry, its preoccupation with the Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and ‘native from the jungle’ and its Orientalist the Diaspora. My cultural roots are deep set creations, music is truly for the people and in Palestine, but living in the diaspora has by the people.

30 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 LISTINGS EEventsvents iinn LLondonondon

HE EVENTS and organisations European Union Institute for Strategic free. Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, College, University of Bonn. Organised listed below are not necessarily Studies. Organised by: LSE Middle East SOAS. E [email protected] W www. by: Islamic Art Circle at SOAS. Part of Tendorsed or supported by Centre. A look at post-2011 Libya and soas.ac.uk/cimel/events/ the Islamic Art Circle at SOAS Lecture The Middle East in London. The the key questions related to post-confl ict Programme. Chaired by: Doris Behrens- accompanying texts and images reconstruction, security sector reform 8:40 pm | Horses of God (Film) Abouseif, SOAS. Admission free. Khalili are based primarily on information and transitional justice. Chaired by: Organised by: Mona Deeley in Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 provided by the organisers and do Toby Dodge, LSE. Admission free. New association with the Zenith Foundation. E [email protected] W www. not necessarily reflect the views of the Th eatre, East Building, LSE. T 020 7955 Part of the Discover Arab Cinema soas.ac.uk/art/islac/ compilers or publishers. While every 6198 E [email protected] W www.lse. season. Dir Nabil Ayouch (2012), possible effort is made to ascertain ac.uk Morocco-Tunisia-France-Belgium, Th ursday 6 February the accuracy of these listings, readers 115 min. Portrait of the relationship are advised to seek confirmation of 7:30 pm | Th e Voices of Two Iranian between two brothers growing up in a 6:30 pm | Turkey in an election year: all events using the contact details Exiled women in Short Story and Film Moroccan slum. Discover Arab Cinema What does the future hold for the provided for each event. with Mania Akbari and Nasrin Parvaz is dedicated to Sheila Whitaker (1936 AKP Government? (Panel Discussion) Submitting entries and updates: Organised by: Exiled Writers Ink. – 2013), former director of the London Ali Çarkoğlu, Koç University, Istanbul, please send all updates and Short story readings by Mania Akbari Film Festival and programmer of the Bill Park, King’s College, London, submissions for entries related to and Nasrin Parvaz, videos by Mania National Film Th eatre.Tickets: Various. John Peet, Th e Economist. Organised future events via e-mail to mepub@ Akbari and a discussion of the diverse BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South by: Th e British Institute at Ankara. soas.ac.uk perspectives of the two exiled Iranian Bank, London SE1 8XT. T 020 7928 In March 2014, local elections will be women negotiating hostile Iranian 3232 W www.bfi .org.uk held in Turkey. Th e panel will consider BM – British Museum, Great Russell external spaces and creating their possible outcomes from these important Street, London WC1B 3DG own internal worlds. Tickets: £4/£2 Wednesday 5 February elections and give their views on the SOAS –SOAS, University of London, EWI 2014 members. Poetry Cafe, 22 implications of them for the future Th ornhaugh Street, Russell Square, Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX. 6:00 pm | BRISMES Annual Lecture: of Turkey’s multi-party democracy. London WC1H 0XG E [email protected] W Th e Quest for Cultural Authenticity Chaired by: Sir David Logan. Tickets: LSE – London School of Economics www.exiledwriters.co.uk and the Politics of Identity (Lecture) £10/BIAA members free. Pre-booking and Political Science, Houghton Street, Sami Zubaida, Birkbeck, University of required. British Academy, 10 Carlton London WC2 2AE Tuesday 4 February London. Organised by: LSE Middle House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH. T East Centre. Zubaida will explore the 020 7969 5204 E [email protected] W 5:30 pm | Women, Power and question of changing identities. What www.biaa.ac.uk FEBRUARY EVENTS Politics in 21st Century Iran (Panel constitutes authenticity in diff erent Discussion) Tara Povey, SOAS, Mehri spheres of culture is contested between 7:00 pm | LMEI & LAP Mariam Honarbin-Holliday, Centre for Gender political and religious groups and Michtawi Book Launch (Book Launch/ Monday 3 February Studies, SOAS, Elaheh Rostami-Povey, ideologies. Th e BRISMES Award for Poetry Reading) Organised by: London Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS. Services to Middle East Studies will Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) 5:15 pm | Managing the Future: Th e Organised by: London Middle East be presented immediately aft er the and London Arabic Publications First Egyptian Five Year Plan (1960-64) Institute, SOAS (LMEI) and the Centre lecture to Alastair Newton, Nomura (LAP). With Mariam Michtawi. Event in Comparative Perspective (Seminar) for Iranian Studies, SOAS. Part of International plc. Followed by a drinks in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital Valeska Huber, German Historical the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture reception. Admission free. Old Th eatre, and St Jude Children Cancer Centre. Institute in London. Organised by: Programme on the Contemporary Old Building, LSE. T 020 7955 6198 E Admission free. Reception in Room Department of History, SOAS. Part of Middle East. A panel discussion on the [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk G3, SOAS followed by poetry reading at the Seminar on the History of the Near various spheres of women’s activity – 7:30pm in the DLT, SOAS. T 020 7898 and Middle East. Admission free. Room governance, education, employment 6:30 pm | Rawabi Holding Awards/ 4490/4330 E [email protected] W www. G3, SOAS. E [email protected] W www. and arts – in Iran, based on lived Annual Dinner Organised by: Saudi- soas.ac.uk/lmei/events / www.facebook. soas.ac.uk/history/events/ experiences of Iranian women living British Society. Sir James Craig and com/06FEB2014 and working in Iran. Chaired by: Arshin Michael Field will be awarded prizes 6:15 pm | A feast for the ears: Neo- Adib-Moghdam, SOAS Tea and biscuits for promoting Saudi-British relations 7.00 pm | Karama: Moroccan Assyrian accoustics and sensory available from 5:00pm. Admission free. by the donor, Abdulaziz al Turki. Explorations on the Oud (Concert) Part archaeology (Seminar) Augusta Khalili Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 Followed by buff et dinner. Tickets: £35 of the SOAS Concert Series.Karama is a McMahon, Cambridge. Organised by: 7898 4490 E [email protected] W www. per person. Pre-registration required E new band led by Moroccan oud player Th e London Centre for the Ancient soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ [email protected] Institute Soufi an Saihi. Saihi’s compositions are Near East. Ancient Near East Seminars. of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London based around oud, clarinet, double bass Convened by: David Kertai, UCL 7:00 pm | Regarding Liberty, Freedom, SW1. W www.saudibritishsociety.org. and percussion, fi nding inspiration from Institute of Archaeology. Admission Representation and the Rule of Law: uk the Gnawa tradition, North African and free. Room G51, SOAS. E ag5@soas. How Would the Sharia Fare? (Lecture) Arabic classical music as well as the ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/nme/ane/ Wael Hallaq, Columbia University, 7:00 pm | When Pottery Speaks: diverse sounds of London streets during lcane/ New York. Organised by: Th e Centre of What Inscribed Ceramics Tell us his busking experience. Admission free. Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, SOAS About People, Polities, and Power in Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. 6:30 pm | Libya: a happy ending and Th e Institute of Arab and Islamic the Late Medieval Levant (Lecture) T 020 7898 4500 E musicevents@soas. that wasn't (Lecture) Florence Gaub, Studies, University of Exeter. Admission Bethany Walker, Annemarie Schimmel ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/concerts

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 31 Friday 7 February Admission free. Th e Christopher Ingold Research Group (MERG). Admission Banipal celebrates the joint prizewinners Building, Auditorium XLG2, Ground free. Room K -1.56, King's College Jonathan Wright and William M 7:00 pm | Preview Screening: A World Floor, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H London Strand Campus, London Hutchins with two events: 2:00pm, Not Ours + Q&A (Documentary) OAJ. T 020 8349 5754 W www.aias.org. WC2R 2LS. E [email protected] / Roundtable on Literary Translation Organised by: Th e Frontline Club. uk [email protected] W www.kcl. Arabic to English. Introduced by Filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel spent his ac.uk joint prizewinners Jonathan Wright formative years in the Palestinian 6:30 pm | Israel: Th e Arab Spring, and William M Hutchins. Chaired by: refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in Domestic Politics and the Future of the Wednesday 12 February Yasir Suleiman. Admission free. Pre- Lebanon. As an adult he returns, Arab-Israeli Peace Process (Lecture) registration required E clare@banipal. challenging his teenage belief that ‘going Ahron Bregman, King's College 6:20 pm | Quarantine (Film) Organised co.uk. Meetings Room, Arab British to Ain el-Helweh is better than going London. Organised by: LSE Middle by: Mona Deeley in association with the Centre, 1 Gough Square, London EC4A to Disney Land’. Followed by Q&A East Centre. Th e Arab Spring has put Zenith Foundation. Part of the Discover 3DE. 7:00pm, Arabic Literature in with the director Mahdi Fleifel. Tickets: on hold the possibility of reaching peace Arab Cinema season. Dir Oday Rasheed English: An evening with the joint £10/£8 conc. Th e Frontline Club, 13 between Israel and Syria, leaving the (2010), Germany-Iraq, 90 min. A prizewinning translators Jonathan Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ. T Israeli-Palestinian peace track as the contract killer and a poor family squat Wright and William M Hutchins 02074798940 / W www.frontlineclub. only game in town. At the same time, in the same Baghdad residence in this and their novels Azazeel and A Land com/a-world-not-ours/ international eff orts, led by US Secretary tense thriller. Discover Arab Cinema is Without Jasmine. Introduced by Paul of State John Kerry to help Israelis and dedicated to Sheila Whitaker (1936 – Starkey. Admission free. Pre-registration Sunday 9 February Palestinians negotiate their diff erences 2013), former director of the London required E [email protected]. Th e are unlikely to end the occupation and Film Festival and programmer of the Gallery, Foyle's Bookshop, 113-119 6:20 pm | Horses of God (Film) See deliver a Palestinian state. Chaired by: National Film Th eatre.Tickets: Various. Charing Cross Road, London WC2H listing on Tuesday 4 February for more Toby Dodge, LSE.Admission free. New BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South 0EB. information. Th eatre, East Building, LSE. T 020 7955 Bank, London SE1 8XT. T 020 7928 6198 E [email protected] W www.lse. 3232 W www.bfi .org.uk 7:00 pm | Jamal Penjweny and Jonathan Monday 10 February ac.uk Watkins in conversation Organised by: Th ursday 13 February Ikon, Th e Mosaic Rooms and Gulan. 6:00 pm | Th e Quest for King David: Tuesday 11 February Doors open 6:30pm. Jamal Penjweny new light from Khirbet Qeiyafa Th e 2013 Saif Ghobash Banipal is an Iraqi Kurdish photographer. (Lecture) Yossi Garfi nkel, Hebrew 6:00 pm | Egypt and the Arab Spring. Prize for Arabic Literary Translation Jonathan Watkins, Director of Ikon, University of Jerusalem. Organised by: Th ree Years on (Lecture) Roger Hardy, Organised by: Banipal Trust for Arab was the curator of the Iraq pavilion, at Anglo Israel Archaeological Society King's College London. Organised by: Literature. Following the Award the 2013 Venice Biennale and included and the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. Middle East & Mediterranean Studies Ceremony on Wednesday 12 February, Jamal's work in the acclaimed pavilion

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32 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 exhibition 'Welcome to Iraq'. Some and Middle East. Admission free. Room Sohrabi will present her preliminary centuries, the ‘Canticle of the Birds’ of Jamal's photography and a short G3, SOAS. E [email protected] W www. fi ndings on the theoretical and empirical or Manteq-ot-Teyr is universally fi lm will be shown. Admission free. soas.ac.uk/history/events/ issues that arise in bridging the gap regarded not only as the most perfect Pre-registration required E rsvp@ between historians’ understanding of crystallization of Sufi thought in Persian mosaicrooms.org. Th e Mosaic Rooms, 6:15 pm | People in motion: Modi the revolution and the ways in which verse - indeed Rûmî acknowledged 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0SW. of cultural changes in Upper it was experienced. Chaired by: Roham its poet `Attâr (ca. 1145-1221) as his T 020 7370 9990 W http://ikon-gallery. Mesopotamia during the Iron Age Alvandi, LSE. Admission free. Room own spiritual master - but as one of the org / www.mosaicrooms.org / www. (Seminar) Mirko Novák, Tübingen. 1.04, New Academic Building, LSE. T greatest masterpieces of all mystical gulan.org Organised by: Th e London Centre for 020 7955 6198 E [email protected] W literature. `Attâr's poem has been the Ancient Near East. Ancient Near www.lse.ac.uk newly made available for international Saturday 15 February East Seminars. Convened by: David audiences by the Éditions Diane de Kertai, UCL Institute of Archaeology. 7:00 pm | Th e Mith of Bastoor and Selliers (Paris) in both French and 8:40 pm | Quarantine (Film) See listing Admission free. Room G51, SOAS. E Th e Children of Iranian Independent English versions - respectively translated on Wednesday 12 February for more [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ Cinema (Lecture) Farshad Zahedi, by Leili Anvar and Dick Davis - with 210 information. nme/ane/lcane/ Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. manuscript illuminations commented Organised by: Centre for Iranian on by Michael Barry. Admission free. Sunday 16 February Tuesday 18 February Studies, SOAS. Zahedi will analyse DLT, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490/4330 E the image of children and adolescents [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ 2:30 pm | LSO Discovery Family 5:45 pm | Th e myth of Perfi dious in Iranian independent cinema since lmei/events/ Concert: Arabian Nights - Th e Albion: Anglo-Iranian relations in the late sixties. Admission free. Khalili Ultimate Storyteller (Concert) historical context (Lecture) Ali Ansari, Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 7:00 pm | "Beautiful to Behold is the Organised by: Barbican Centre. Meet St Andrews. Organised by: London 4490/4330 E [email protected] W www. King": Th e Body and Dress of the the greatest storyteller of them all - Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/ Achaemenid monarch (Lecture) Lloyd Scheherazade - on an exotic journey and the Centre for Iranian Studies, Llewellyn-Jones. Organised by: Th e into the heart of the Arabian nights and SOAS. Part of the LMEI's Tuesday 7:00 pm | ISIS and the Battle for Syria Iran Society. Admisson free for Society discover how this beautiful princess Evening Lecture Programme on the (Panel Discussion) Kim Sengupta, members and one guest. Marlborough stayed alive and awake for 1001 nights. Contemporary Middle East. Th e Th e Independent, other speakers tbc. Suite, Th e Army and Navy Club, 36-39 Tickets: £10/£5 under-16s. Barbican political mythology of Anglo-Iranian Organised by: Th e Frontline Club. Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5JN (Dress Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. relations oft en overshadows the much Th e uprising in Syria began as a battle code calls for gentlemen to wear jacket T 020 7638 8891 W www.barbican.org. more complex nature of the relationship between Syrians and the regime of and tie). T 020 7235 5122 E info@ uk since relations were formalised in the Bashar Al Assad, the picture in the iransociety.org W www.iransociety.org 19th century. Th e lecture will situate the country now is much more complicated. Monday 17 February powerful mythology that has emerged As fi ghting between the Syrian Saturday 22 February within the broader historical context opposition and Al-Qaeda affi liated 2:00 pm | Why Yemen Matters in 2014 and conclude with an assessment of groups intensifi es the panel will off er 7:00 pm | Th e Voice of the Santur and Beyond (Seminar) Organised by: Anglo-Iranian attempts to further a picture of what is happening on the (Concert) Organised by: Th e SOAS Th e British-Yemeni Society and the nuclear collaboration in the 1970s. Tea ground in Syria. Tickets: £12.50/£10 Iranian Music Society Presents. Doors London Middle East Institute, SOAS and biscuits available from 5:15pm. conc. Th e Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk open 6:30pm. Multicultural santur (LMEI) and sponsored by the MBI Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, Place, London W2 1QJ. T 02074798940 recital by Peyman Heydarian and Al Jaber Foundation. Th e British- SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E vp6@soas. W www.frontlineclub.com/isis-and-the- the SOAS Iranian band. With jaw Yemeni Society Yemen Seminar and ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ battle-for-syria/ harp player, Deirdre Morgan, a rare Annual Lecture. Th e National Dialogue opportunity to hear the world's only Conference has opened a window 8:50 pm | Casanegra (Film) Organised 7:00 pm | Attar's Canticle of the santur (dulcimer) - zanburak (jaw of opportunity for change, bringing by: Mona Deeley in association with the Birds: a Th irteenth-Century Persian harp) duo. Part the ‘Voice of the Santur’ Yemen’s main political forces together Zenith Foundation. Part of the Discover Sufi Masterpiece of Poetry and Art concert series, launched by santur with groups that were politically Arab Cinema season. Dir Nour Eddine (Lecture) Michael Barry, Princeton virtuoso Peyman Heydarian in July marginalised. Yet, the risk of collapse Lakhmari (2008), Morocco, 131 min. University. Organised by: Temenos 2010 at SOAS. Tickets: £15/£10 students is serious, and if Yemen is to remain a Referencing classic fi lm noir and Mean Academy. Doors open 6:30pm. A lecture and the unwaged/ viable state, it must address numerous Streets, a dark tale of two small-time on the poem by Attar with special £6 SOAS students. Pre-booking political, social, and economic hustlers with big dreams in Casablanca. emphasis on the Persian, Central Asian, required. DLT (G2), SOAS. E events. challenges. Followed by the BYS Annual Discover Arab Cinema is dedicated to Turkish and Indian Mughal manuscript [email protected] W www.thesantur. Lecture by Ambassador Amat al-Alim Sheila Whitaker (1936 – 2013), former paintings from the thirteenth to com Alsoswa at 6:00pm on Yemen Aft er director of the London Film Festival seventeenth centuries which illuminate the National Dialogue Conference, and programmer of the National the spiritual fl ight of the poem's birds. 8:20 pm | Casanegra (Film) See listing What Next? (Admission to the Lecture Film Th eatre. Tickets: Various. BFI Tickets: £5/£3.50 conc./students with on Tuesday 18 February for more is free). Tickets (Seminar): £10/students Southbank, Belvedere Road, South Student Card ID free. Pre-registration information. free. Pre-registration required W www. Bank, London SE1 8XT. T 020 7928 advised. Th e Royal Asiatic Society, 14 soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/. Brunei Gallery 3232 W www.bfi .org.uk Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD. Sunday 23 February Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 T 01233 813663 E temenosacademy@ / 4490 E [email protected] W www.soas. Wednesday 19 February myfastmail.com 6:10 pm | Th e Attack (Film) Organised ac.uk/lmei/events/ by: Mona Deeley in association with 6:30 pm | Experiencing Revolution: Th ursday 20 February the Zenith Foundation. Part of the 5:15 pm | A Hedgehog’s View of the Late Th e Case of Iran (Lecture) Naghmeh Discover Arab Cinema season. Dir Eighth-century Economy of Northern Sohrabi, Brandeis University. Organised 7:00 pm | Attar's Canticle of the Birds Ziad Doueiri (2012), Lebanon-France- Syria (Seminar) Chase Robinson, City by: LSE Middle East Centre. On (Lecture) Michael Barry, Princeton Qatar-Belgium, 102 min. With the University of New York. Organised by: 11 February 1979, a revolution was University. Organised by: Centre for Israeli investigators accusing her of Department of History, SOAS. Part of declared in Iran to the surprise of Iranian Studies, SOAS. Composed at being the bomber rather than a victim, the Seminar on the History of the Near both many observers and participants. the turn of the twelft h and thirteenth a surgeon fi ghts to fi nd the truth about

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 33 his wife’s death in a supposed suicide cultural resistance in Palestine. Tea Rosalind Wade Haddon will talk about Centre of Islamic Studies, University explosion. Discover Arab Cinema is and biscuits available from 5:15pm. their BISI-funded project to research, of Cambridge. See listing above on dedicated to Sheila Whitaker (1936 – Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, catalogue, photograph and conserve the Th ursday 13 February for more 2013), former director of the London SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E vp6@soas. V&A’s collections of material excavated information. Film Festival and programmer of the ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ by Ernst Herzfeld at Samarra in 1911- National Film Th eatre. Tickets: Various. 1913. Admission free. Pre-registration MARCH EVENTS BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, South 6:20 pm | Th e Attack (Film) See listing W www.bisi.ac.uk British Academy, 10 Bank, London SE1 8XT. T 020 7928 on Sunday 23 February for more Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y Monday 3 March 3232 W www.bfi .org.uk information. 5AH. T 020 7969 5274 E bisi@britac. ac.uk 5:15 pm | History Writing as an Art Monday 24 February 6:30 pm | Th e Dialectics of the Arab for Forgetting: Th e Case of Iran in the Revolutions: 2011-2013 (Lecture) 7:30 pm | Th e Turtle’s Rage + Director Ninth-Eleventh Centuries (Seminar) 5:15 pm | Travels to Egypt and Gilles Kepel, Sciences Po. Organised by: Q&A (via skype) (Documentary) Sarah Savant, AKU-ISMC. Organised Syria in Mamluk Times: Some LSE Middle East Centre and LSE IDEAS. Organised by: DocHouse, Filmmaker by: Department of History, SOAS. Part Methodological Remarks (Seminar) Far from the misconceptions of the Pary El-Qalqili’s Palestinian father has of the Seminar on the History of the Stephan Conermann, University of 'Arab Spring' or the 'Islamist Autumn', always been an enigma to her, spending Near and Middle East. Admission free. Bonn. Organised by: Department of the upheavals of the Arab world over his days grieving the loss of his homeland Room G3, SOAS. E [email protected] W History, SOAS. Part of the Seminar on the last three years unfolded along a in the basement of their Berlin home. www.soas.ac.uk/history/events/ the History of the Near and Middle number of lines of understanding. Kepel As father and daughter journey across East. Admission free. Room G3, SOAS. introduces a contextual analysis of the the Middle East, El-Qalqili searches 6:15 pm | Digitising Ur: New life for E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ events rationale, based on his award- to understand the complexities of the Woolley’s excavations at Ur (Seminar) history/events/ winning travelogue Passion arabe Palestinian confl ict, and her father’s Jon Taylor and Birger Helgestad, BM. (the Arab Passion). Chaired by: Toby present day rage. Tickets: £7/£5 conc. Organised by: Th e London Centre 6:30 pm | Neoliberal Development in Dodge, LSE. Admission free. Hong Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, London for the Ancient Near East. Convened Palestine and the Regional Context Kong Th eatre, Clement House, LSE. T W6 9RL. E [email protected] W by: David Kertai, UCL Institute of (Lecture) Adam Hanieh, SOAS. 020 7955 6198 E [email protected] W www.dochouse.org Archaeology. Admission free. Room Organised by: LSE Middle East Centre. www.lse.ac.uk G51, SOAS. E [email protected] W www. Drawing on his new book, Lineages of EVENTS OUTSIDE soas.ac.uk/nme/ane/lcane/ Revolt, and recent fi eldwork in the West Wednesday 26 February LONDON Bank, Hanieh will examine the political Tuesday 4 March economy of Palestinian neoliberalism 4:30 pm | Qatari Foreign Policy and Friday 7 February in the most recent period. Chaired by: the Changing Regional Order in the 5:45 pm | Prospects for Inclusive Kamil Mahdi, LSE. Admission free. Middle East (Seminar) Lina Khatib, 5:00 pm | Jewish Scholars Between the Growth in the MENA Region Room 1.04, New Academic Building, Carnegie Middle East Centre. Organised Ottoman Empire and Renaissance (Lecture) Hassan Hakimian, LMEI & LSE. T 020 7955 6198 E s.masry@lse. by: LSE Middle East Centre and Kuwait Italy (Lecture) Robert Morrison, SOAS. Organised by: London Middle ac.uk W www.lse.ac.uk Programme. Qatar has established a Bowdoin College, Brunswick. East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). Part of reputation for adopting a foreign policy Organised by: the ERC Project IMPAcT the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture 7:00 pm | Upheaval in 18th C. Persia based on pragmatism. However, the and Faculty of Oriental Studies, Programme on the Contemporary (and its eff ect on the art of the carpet) geopolitical landscape in the Middle University of Oxford. IMPAcT Lecture Middle East. Hassan Hakimian (Lecture) Michael Axworthy, Centre East has recently witnessed a number of Series on Late Medieval and Early considers the Middle East and North for Persian and Iranian Studies, Exeter key changes. Are those changes testing Modern Islamicate Intellectual History. Africa’s recent trajectory of growth and University, with contributions from Qatar's pragmatism? Chaired by: Toby Convened by: Judith Pfeiff er, Oxford. its prospects for achieving inclusive Clive Rogers, international rug and Dodge, LSE. Admission free. Room Admission free. Lecture Room 1, Th e growth in light of the recent political textile dealer. Organised by: Oriental 2.02, Clement House, LSE. T 020 7955 Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, Oxford and social upheavals in the region. Tea Rug and Textile Society. Tickets: £7. St 6198 E [email protected] W www.lse. OX1 2LE. E [email protected] and biscuits available from 5:15pm. James Piccadilly Conference Room, 197 ac.uk W www.orinst.ox.ac.uk Admission free. Khalili Lecture Th eatre, Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL (entrance SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 E vp6@soas. in Church Place). T 020 8778 6215 5:00 pm | Diasporic fi lm cultures and Th ursday 13 February ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ E [email protected] W www. politics: Turkish and Kurdish media orientalrugandtextilesociety.org.uk / through a transnational lens (Seminar) 5:15 pm | One Land, Two States: Wednesday 5 March www.orts.org.uk Kevin Smets, visiting post-doctoral Refl ections on Refugees, Settlers and CMFS fellow. Organised by: Centre for Walls (Seminar) Yossef Rapoport, 4:30 pm | Diversifi ed but marginal: Th e Tuesday 25 February Media and Film Studies, SOAS (CMFS). Queen Mary, University of London. GCC private sector as an economic CMFS Seminar Series. Admission free. Organised by: Centre of Islamic and political force (Seminar) Steff en 5:45 pm | Falalfel King: culinary Room G3, SOAS. E [email protected] Studies, University of Cambridge. Part Hertog, LSE. Organised by: LSE Middle customs and national narratives in W www.soas.ac.uk/mediaandfi lm/ of the seminar series Turbulent World: East Centre and Kuwait Programme. Palestine (Lecture) Zeina Ghandour, events/ Maghrib, Mashriq and Gulf in the New Hertog's talk will explain the passive Birkbeck. Organised by: London Middle Era of Uncertainty. Admission free. and isolated role of business and how East Institute, SOAS (LMEI) and the Th ursday 27 February Th omas Gray Room, Pembroke College, its interests are at odds with those of Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS. Part Cambridge CB2 1RF. E [email protected]. GCC citizens at large. Chaired by: Toby of the LMEI's Tuesday Evening Lecture 6:00 pm | Samarra Finds from the ac.uk W www.cis.cam.ac.uk Dodge, LSE. Admission free. Room Programme on the Contemporary Herzfeld Excavation in the Vicitoria 2.04, New Academic Building, LSE. T Middle East. Based on an article (being and Albert Museum (Lecture) Th ursday 27 February 020 7955 6198 E [email protected] W published in Feminist Legal Studies - Organised by: Th e British Institute www.lse.ac.uk December 2013) Ghandour's talk will for the Study of Iraq (Gertrude Bell 5:15 pm | Th e Ikhwan in Turmoil: Th e draw on the emergent trans disciplinary Memorial) Th e British Institute for the Muslim Brotherhood Aft er the Arab 5:30 pm | Saudi Arabia in the Wider fi eld of food studies in order to pursue Study of Iraq's (BISI) Annual Mallowan Spring (Seminar) Alison Pargeter, RUSI Region (Lecture) Sir John Jenkins, questions of national identity and Lecture. Mariam Rosser Owen and and Menas Associates. Organised by: British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

34 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 Middle East Summer School 2423 JuneJune-24 – 26 July July 2014 2013

An intensive five-week programme which includes two courses: an Arabic Language Course (introductory(levels 1 and 2) or and intermediate) another and anotheron 'Government on ‘Government and Politics and ofPolitics the Middle of the East' Middle East. or 'Culture and Society in the Middle East'.

BeginnersArabic 100 Arabic (Level 1) Government andand PoliticsPolitics of of the Middle East This is an introductory course in Modern Standard Arabic. It teaches students the Arabic script and This coursecourse provides serves as an an introduction introduction to theto the politics politics of the provides basic grounding in Arabic grammar and ofMiddle North East Africa and (TheNorth Maghreb), Africa (MENA) the Arab region. East It gives(The on a syntax. On completing the course, students should Mashriq)country by including country basis,the Gulf, an overview the Arabian of the Peninsula, major political be able to read, write, listen to and understand simple Israel,issues andTurkey developments and Iran. It ingives, the region on a country since the by Arabic sentences and passages. This course is for countryend of the basis, First anWorld overview War and of addressesthe major keypolitical themes complete beginners and does not require any prior issuesin the studyand developments of contemporary in theMiddle region East since politics, the knowledge or study of Arabic. endincluding: of the the First role World of the War military, and addresses social and key economic themes indevelopment, the study of political contemporary Islam, and Middle the recent East uprisingspolitics, Arabic 200 including:(the ‘Arab Spring’). the role of the military, social and economic Beginners Arabic (Level 2) development, political Islam, and the recent uprisings (the ‘Arab Spring’). This coursecourse is focuses a continuation on reading, of Beginners writing Arabicand grammar Level 1. Itand completes provides the training coverage in listening. of the grammar The course and syntax will also of Culture and Society in the Middle East * Its main aim is to develop the students’ understanding introduce modern media Arabic to prepare students to Modern Standard Arabic and trains students in reading, Thisof the course major examines trends in the Middle major Easterncultural politicspatterns and and read newspapers, magazines and internet news sources comprehending and writing with the help of a dictionary institutionstheir skills ofof politicalthe Arab analysis world. It through is taught critical through reading, a study published in the Arab world today. On completing the more complex Arabic sentences and passages. oflectures, some lively presentations topics such and as religious informed and discussion. ethnic diversity, course, students should be able to read and understand impact of the West, stereotyping, the role of tradition, texts of an intermediate level, compose short texts in education (traditional and modern), family structure and Arabic on a variety of topics and be able to follow oral To qualify for entry into this course, students should value, gender politics, media, life in city, town and village, communication in Arabic. Students will also be trained have already completed at least one introductory labour and labour migration, the Palestinian refugee in the basic skills necessary to read and understand course in Arabic. problem and Arab exile communities, culinary cultures, Arabic news media with the aid of a dictionary. music and media, etc. This is an intermediate course. To qualify for entry into this course, students should have already completed at * (subject to approval) least one introductory course in Arabic.

FEES Session (5 weeks) Programme fee* Accommodation fee** 2324 June–26June-24 July July 2014 2013 (two (two courses)courses) £2,500 from £300/week

* An Early early bird bird discounts discount of 10%10% applyapplies to to course course fees fees before before 1 March15 April 2013. 2014. ** Accommodation fees must be paid by 1 March 2013 to secure accommodation. ** Rooms Please cancheck be ourbooked website at the from Intercollegiate mid-October Halls 2012 which for conﬁare located rmed prices. in the heart of Bloomsbury: www.halls.london.ac.uk.

For more information, please contact Louise Hosking on [email protected]. Or check our website www.soas.ac.uk/lmei February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 35 CENTRE FOR PALESTINE STUDIES | SOAS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON FIRST ANNUAL LECTURE

PALESTINEAND PALESTINE STUDIES ONE CENTURY SINCE THE FIRST WORLD WAR AND THE BALFOUR DECLARATION

PROFESSOR WALID KHALIDI INSTITUTE FOR PALESTINE STUDIES, BEIRUT, LEBANON 7.30PM, 6 MARCH 2014 BRUNEI GALLERY LECTURE THEATRE ADMISSION FREE ALL WELCOME

Enquiries: tel No. 020 7898 4330 email [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cps/events Soas, University of London, London WC1H 0XG 36 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 Organised by: Saudi-British Society. Mandate: Jews in South Lebanon, Wednesday 12 March Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt from its Admission free. Pre-registration Shia in North Palestine (Seminar) founding in 1928 to the fall of Mubarak required E [email protected] Toufoul Abou-Hodeib, University of 7:00 pm | Th e Architect and the Artists' and the watershed elections of 2011- Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, Oslo. Organised by: Department of Atelier: Re-thinking the ketabkhane 2012. Admission free. KLT, SOAS. T 020 43 Upper Grosvenor Street, London History, SOAS. Part of the Seminar on (Lecture) Sussan Babaie, Th e Courtauld 7898 4490 E [email protected] W www. W1. W www.saudibritishsociety.org.uk the History of the Near and Middle Institute of Art, London. Organised soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ East. Admission free. Room G3, SOAS. by: Islamic Art Circle at SOAS. Th e 6:00 pm | The Syrian Crisis and E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ Bahari Foundation Lecture in Iranian Saturday 15 March Its Impact on Iran-Turkey-Syria history/events/ Art and Culture. Part of the Islamic Art Relations (Lecture) Ozden Zeynep Circle at SOAS Lecture Programme. 7:00 pm | A Musical Celebration of Oktav, Yildiz Technical University and 6:30 pm | Algeria and its Southern Chaired by: Doris Behrens-Abouseif, Nowruz with Persian, Kurdish and St Andrews University. Organised by: Neighbours: Turbulence in the Sahara SOAS. Admission free. Khalili Lecture Azari Music (Concert) Organised by: Centre for Iranian Studies, SOAS. Oktav (Lecture) Yvan Guichaoua, University Th eatre, SOAS. T 0771 408 7480 E Peyman Heydarian, Voice of Santur will discuss relations between Turkey of East Anglia, Imad Mesdoua, political [email protected] W www. and the SOAS Iranian Music Society. and Syria aft er the Syrian crisis alongside analyst. Organised by: LSE Middle soas.ac.uk/art/islac/ Doors open 6:30pm. Tickets: £25/£15 Turkey's changing foreign policy and East Centre. Guichaoua will address conc./£10 students. Pre-booking will go on to address the reasons why the role of Algeria in recent (Tuareg Th ursday 13 March required. DLT (G2), SOAS. E events. Turkey favoured to its relationship with then Jihadist) insurgencies in Mali and [email protected] W www.thesantur. Iran aft er the Syrian uprising. Chaired Niger as portrayed by various actors 5:00 pm | Hassan Hajjaj: Photography, com by: Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, SOAS. of the political crises in the Sahel. Fashion, Film, Design (Book Launch) Admission free. LMEI Seminar Room, Mesdoua will be examine the rationales Organised by: Rose Issa Projects. Th is Monday 17 March 21, Russell Square, SOAS. T 020 7898 guiding Algerian foreign policy in light timely publication explores how Hassan 4490/4330 E [email protected] W www. of growing instability throughout the Hajjaj's upbringing in Morocco and 5:15 pm | Bethlehem: Th e Global soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/events/ Sahel and Maghreb regions. Chaired by: London, his experiences in fashion and Story of a Little Town (Seminar) Jacob John King, Society for Algerian Studies. interior design, and his adventures in Norris, University of Sussex. Organised 6:30 pm | Th e Impact of the Muslim Admission free. Room 1.04, New the music industry infl uence his images. by: Department of History, SOAS. Part Brotherhood in the Middle East (Talk) Academic Building, LSE. T 020 7955 Admission free. Rose Issa Projects, 82 of the Seminar on the History of the Alison Pargeter, academic and author. 6198 E [email protected] W www.lse. Great Portland Street, London W1W Near and Middle East. Admission free. Organised by: Caabu (Council for Arab- ac.uk 7NW. T 020 7602 7700 E info@roseissa. Room G3, SOAS. E [email protected] W British Understanding). Pargeter will com W http://roseissa.com www.soas.ac.uk/history/events/ talk about the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, highlighting the Tuesday 11 March 6:00 pm | 2014 Anthony Hyman 6:15 pm | Th e reuse and recycling diff erences of various movements in Memorial Lecture with Gilles of Iron Age Levantine luxury arts Egypt, Libya, Syria, Jordan, and the 5:45 pm | An Historical Overview of Dorronsoro (Lecture) Organised by: (Seminar) Marian Feldman, Johns impact that this is having. Admission the Iranian Presidency: 1979-2013 Centre of Contemporary Central Asia Hopkins. Organised by: Th e London free. Pre-registration required E (Lecture) Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, & the Caucasus, SOAS. Admission free. Centre for the Ancient Near East. [email protected]. Th atcher Room, University of Manchester. Organised Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. Ancient Near East Seminars. Convened Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament. by: London Middle East Institute, SOAS E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ by: David Kertai, UCL Institute of W www.caabu.org (LMEI) and the Centre for Iranian cccac/events/anthonyhyman/ Archaeology. Admission free. Room Studies, SOAS. Part of the LMEI's G51, SOAS. E [email protected] W www. Th ursday 6 March Tuesday Evening Lecture Programme Friday 14 March soas.ac.uk/nme/ane/lcane/ on the Contemporary Middle East. 4.00 pm | Copper, Crises and the Birth Lecture rescheduled from Tuesday 12:00 pm | Ottomanism, Ottoman of Kings: what happened in the Early 3 December. Randjbar-Daemi will Vatan and World War I (Seminar) Wednesday 19 March Iron Age? (Lecture) Bruce Routledge, provide an overview of the genesis and Behül Özkan, Marmara University. University of Liverpool. Organised by: evolution of the presidency in the Islamic Organised by: SOAS Modern Turkish 6:30 pm | Syria-Iraq Relations: From Anglo Israel Archaeological Society Republic of Iran and will argue that the Studies Programme (London Middle State Formation to the Arab Uprising? and the Palestine Exploration Fund. three decades under consideration have East Institute, SOAS) and sponsored (Lecture) Raymond Hinnebusch, Admission free. Stevenson Lecture witnessed a continuous struggle, by by Nurol Bank. Part of the Seminars on University of St Andrews. Organised by: Th eatre, Clore Education Centre, BM. T successive presidents, for recognition Turkey series. Convened by Benjamin LSE Middle East Centre. Hinnebusch 020 8349 5754 W www.aias.org.uk of their constitutional authority and its Fortna, SOAS. Admission free. Room will examine Iraq-Syria relations augmentation. Tea and biscuits available 116, SOAS. T 020 7898 4431 E bp@soas. with the aim of using their changing 7:30 pm | Palestine and Palestine from 5:15pm. Admission free. Khalili ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ relations as indicators of changes in Studies, One Century since the Lecture Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4490 the regional states and MENA regional First World War and the Balfour E [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ 5:30 pm | Th e Muslim Brotherhood: states system. Chaired by: Toby Dodge, Declaration (Lecture) Walid Khalidi, lmei/events/ Evolution of an Islamist Movement LSE. Admission free. G.01, Tower One, Institute for Palestine Studies, Beirut, (Lecture) Carrie Wickham, Emory Clement's Inn, LSE. T 020 7955 6198 E Lebanon. Organised by: Centre for 7:00 pm | In the Picture: Afghanistan - University. Organised by: London [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk Palestine Studies, SOAS. Centre A Distant War (Discussion) Organised Middle East Institute, SOAS (LMEI). for Palestine First Annual Lecture. by: Th e Frontline Club. Renowned Lecture by Carrie Wickham on the 6:45 pm | Contemporary Iranian Admission free. Brunei Gallery Lecture photojournalist Robert Nickelsberg in subject of her latest book 'Th e Muslim Th eatre (Reading) Nima Mina, SOAS Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 E vp6@ conversation with Jon Lee Anderson to Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist and Bita Mafi zadeh, SOAS. Organised soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cps/ discuss his latest book Afghanistan – A Movement' (Princeton.University Press, by: Centre for Cultural, Literary and events Distant War. Tickets: £12.50/£10 conc. 2013). Drawing on more than one Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS). CCLPS Th e Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, hundred in-depth interviews as well as Reading Group. Admission free. P21 Monday 10 March London W2 1QJ. T 02074798940 W Arabic language sources not previously Gallery, 21 Chalton Street, London, www.frontlineclub.com/in-the-picture- accessed by Western researchers NW1 1JD. E [email protected] W www. 5:15 pm | Pilgrimage under the afghanistan-a-distant-war/ Wickham traces the evolution of the soas.ac.uk/cclps/cclps-reading-group/

February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 37 Th ursday 20 March History. Convened by: Judith Pfeiff er, 29 Iranian artists, many exhibiting national identity. Admission free. Room Oxford. Admission free. Lecture Room in the UK for the fi rst time. Working 69a, BM. T 020 7323 8299 W www. 6:30 pm | Syria's Humanitarian 1, Th e Oriental Institute, Pusey Lane, across a variety of media including britishmuseum.org Crisis: people versus politics (Lecture) Oxford OX1 2LE. E mona.liu@orinst. painting, sculpture, photography, video Nigel Pont, Mercy Corp. Organised ox.ac.uk W www.orinst.ox.ac.uk performance and installation pieces, Until June | Space & Gaze: by: Confl ict Research Group. LSE. the artists on display reject notions of Conversations with Jean Mohr & Admission free. Hong Kong Th eatre, Wednesday 12 March 'Iranian-ness' as a fi xed, timeless entity, Edward Said in Palestine For the fi rst Clement House. T 020 7955 7929 E gov. and investigate the social and historical time Mohr’s images and Said’s text are [email protected] W www.lse.ac.uk 5:30 pm | Arabia: Th e Central, but construction of identity, as well as their brought together alongside works by Missing Link in World Prehistory contribution to problematic political contemporary photographers from Friday 21 March (Lecture) Michael Petraglia, Oxford situations. Admission free. Brunei Palestine inviting refl ections on the University. Organised by: British Gallery, SOAS. T 020 7898 4046 E changes and continuities that have taken Th e Aesthetics and Politics of Foundation for the Study of Arabia [email protected] W www.soas.ac.uk/ place over time not only with respect Contemporary Moroccan Cultural (BFSA) and the MBI al Jaber gallery to how Palestinians have been seen, Production (Workshop) Part of the Foundation. Satellite images show but also how they have chosen to see Cambridge-Morocco Programme Arabia was well-watered many times Until 31 March | Made in Morocco and show themselves. Admission free. (Centre of Islamic Studies, University of in the past. Petraglia’s talk will examine Exhibition exploring Morocco's visual Kingsway Corridor, Richard Hoggart Cambridge; Moroccan British Society; evidence (stone tools, rock art) from identity and cultural heritage, includes Building, Goldsmiths, University of the British Council in Morocco) ancient rivers and lakes in Arabia. calligraphy, painting and a number of London, Lewisham Way, New Cross, Sponsored by the International Prize Followed by a drinks reception. hand-craft ed brass lamps from made London SE14 6NW. E N.Puwar@gold. for Arabic Fiction. Keynote speech by Admission free. Pre-registration by native artisans. Admission free. ac.uk W www.gold.ac.uk/methods-lab/ Mohamed Achaari, prizewinner of the required E info@mbifoundation. Until 20 February at: Art Moorhouse, 2011 International Prize for Arabic com MBI Al Jaber Building, Corpus Moorhouse, 120, London Wall, Greater Wednesday 19 February Fiction SOAS Main Building, SOAS. For Christi College, Merton Street, Oxford London, EC2Y 5ET. From 6 March: more information and to book a place E OX1 4JF. W www.thebfsa.org / www. European Bank for Reconstruction Until 28 March | Parastou Forouhar: Karima Laachir [email protected] mbifoundation.com and Development, 1 Exchange Square, Kiss Me Admission free. Rose Issa London EC2A 2JN. T 077 0219 6730 Projects, 82 Great Portland Street, Saturday 22 March E info@moroccanfi neart.com W www. London W1W 7NW. T 020 7602 7700 EXHIBITIONS moroccanfi neart.com E [email protected] W http://roseissa. TBC | Nowruz Concert Organised com by: Light of Music in cooperation with Until 31 March | What if Mousa al-Kordi the Centre for Iranian Studies. SOAS. Saturday 1 February presents a retrospective exhibition of Th ursday 20 February Tickets: TBC. Brunei Gallery Lecture his sculpture and paintings. Admission Th eatre, SOAS. T 020 7898 4330 E vp6@ Until 14 February | Open Your Eyes A free. Th e Street Gallery, Institute of Until 18 May | Court and Craft : A soas.ac.uk W www.soas.ac.uk/lmei-cis/ visually diverse collection of artworks, Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Masterpiece from Northern Iraq events/ ranging from 17th-century engravings Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4ND. Exhibition exploring the origins, to contemporary photography and E [email protected] W http:// function and imagery of one of the painting including works by Farhad socialsciences.exeter.ac.uk/iais/events/ rarest objects in the collection of EVENTS OUTSIDE Ahrarnia, Matthew Corbin Bishop, Ali exhibitions/ Th e Courtauld Gallery: a precious LONDON Omar Ermes, Selma Gurbuz, Nermine metalwork bag, made in Northern Iraq Hammam, Iraida Icaza, Lotte Reiniger, Until 21 April | Jameel Prize 3 around 1300. No other object of this Mourad Salem, and Osman Waqialla. Launched in 2009 and held every two kind survives and it ranks as one of the Th ursday 6 March Admission free. Rose Issa Projects, 82 years, the Jameel Prize is in its third fi nest pieces of Islamic inlaid metalwork Great Portland Street, London W1W edition, see the works by the 10 short- in existence. Tickets: £6/£5 conc./ 5:15 pm | Th e Syrian Uprising and 7NW. T 020 7602 7700 E info@roseissa. listed artists and designers, ranging under 18 and full-time students free. Turkey (Seminar) Ozden Oktav, com W http://roseissa.com from Arabic typography and calligraphy Th e Courtauld Gallery, Th e Courtauld University of St Andrews. Organised by: to fashion inspired by the Hagia Sofi a in Institute of Art, Somerset House, Strand, Centre of Islamic Studies, University of Until 23 February | Ferozkoh: Instanbul, and from social design and London WC2R 0RN. T 020 7848 2526 Cambridge. Part of the seminar series Tradition and Continuity in Afghan video installation to delicate miniature E [email protected] W Turbulent World: Maghrib, Mashriq Art Exhibition developed by the drawings. Admission free. V&A South www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/ / www. and Gulf in the New Era of Uncertainty. Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Kensington, Cromwell Road, London suebond.co.uk Admission free. Th omas Gray Room, Doha, Qatar featuring works of art SW7 2RL. T 020 7942 2000 W www. Pembroke College, Cambridge CB2 created by the students and teachers of vam.ac.uk/jameelprize Th ursday 27 February 1RF. E [email protected] W www.cis. the Turquoise Mountain Institute for cam.ac.uk Afghan Arts and Architecture in Kabul. Until 27 April | Wise men from the Until 2 March | Janet Rady Fine Art Each newly created artwork is based on east: Zoroastrian traditions in Persia at Art 14 Janet Rady Fine Art will be Friday 7 March an object from MIA’s collection and is and beyond On display are a variety of participating in the second edition of displayed alongside the historic pieces ancient and modern objects and coins London's new art fair, Art 14 (Th ursday 5:00 pm | “Extremely Long and that inspired them. Tickets: £5/£3 conc. which highlight the importance of 27 and Friday 28 February, Saturday Extremely Beautiful”: An Exuberant Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Zoroastrian traditions in other religions. 1 and Sunday 2 March). She will be Letter from the Year 1360 (Lecture) Park Road, London W14 8LZ. T 020 It will touch on the concept of the showing the works of Iranian artists Th omas Bauer, Institut für Arabistik 7741 9153 E [email protected] W Th ree Kings of the Christian tradition, Malekeh Nayiny, Shirin Neshat and und Islamwissenschaft , Universität www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums. described in the New Testament as Syrian artist Laila Muraywid. Tickets: Münster. Organised by: the ERC aspx Magi from the east – Zoroastrian Various. Olympia, Stand I3. T 020 7886 Project IMPAcT and Faculty of Oriental priests in the Persian tradition –and 3112 E [email protected] W Studies, University of Oxford. IMPAcT Until 22 March | Recalling the Future: modern objects will show the ongoing www.artfairslondon.com Lecture Series on Late Medieval and Iranian Contemporary Art aft er legacy of this ancient Iranian religion Early Modern Islamicate Intellectual the Revolution of 1979 Artworks by and its signifi cance as a symbol of

38 The Middle East in London February-March 2014 Th e BYS Yemen Seminar and Annual Lecture Monday 17 February 2014 Half-Day Seminar: Why Yemen Matters in 2014 and Beyond Th e BYS Annual Lecture: Yemen Aft er the National Dialogue Conference, What Next?

Half-Day Seminar In November 2011, an agreement brokered by the GCC brought an end to Yemen’s tumultuous 14.00-17.30 uprising. Th e National Dialogue Conference has opened a window of opportunity for change, Admission: £10, students free bringing Yemen’s main political forces together with groups that were politically marginalised. Yet, Th e BYS Annual Lecture by the risk of collapse is serious, and if Yemen is to Ambassador Amat al-Alim Alsoswa remain a viable state, it must address numerous political, social, and economic challenges. To mark the publication of the book “Why Yemen 18.00-19.00 Matters: a Society in Transition” (SAQI 2014), which discusses the country’s major crises, the Admission Free to All British-Yemeni Society and the London Middle East Institute at SOAS are organising a half day seminar Registration: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/events/ with the support of the MBI Al Jaber Foundation.

Brunei Gallery Lecture Th eatre, SOAS, University of London, London WC1H 0XG

The British-Yemeni Society February-March 2014 The Middle East in London 39 (International) in the United Kingdom Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations

ÊÊ Muslim Cultures

Based in central London, the Aga Khan University Institute for the Financial Study of Muslim Civilisations two-year MA Programme: assistance UÊ Ê"vviÀÃÊ>Ê`ÃÌVÌÛiÊÜ>ÞÊvÊÕìÀÃÌ>`}Ê ÕÃÊVÛÃ>ÌÃÊ>ÃÊÌ iÞÊ is available have evolved over time. UÊ Ê-ÌÀiÃÃiÃÊÌ iÊ«ÕÀ>ÌÞÊ>`ÊV«iÝÌÞÊvÊ«>ÃÌÊ>`Ê«ÀiÃiÌÊ ÕÃÊVÕÌÕÀiÃ]Ê ÃÌÕ`Þ}ÊÌ iÊ>ÃÊ«>ÀÌÊvÊÜÀ`ÊVÕÌÕÀiÃ° UÊ Ê «ÞÃÊÌ iÊÌÃÊvÊÌ iÊÃV>ÊÃViViÃÊ>`Ê Õ>ÌiÃÊ>ÃÊ>ÊvÀ>iÜÀÊ February for learning. 7Ì ÊÌ iÊ`ÃV«iÃÊvÊÃV>ÊÃViViÃÊ>`Ê Õ>ÌiÃÊÕÀÊÃÌÕìÌÃÊÃÌÕ`ÞÊ>Ê 28 ÕLiÀÊvÊÃÕLiVÌÃÊVÕ`}Ê>Ì À«}Þ]ÊìÛi«iÌÊÃÌÕìÃ]ÊiVVÃ]Ê «ÌV>ÊÃViVi]Ê>ÀÌ]Ê>ÀV ÌiVÌÕÀi]Ê ÃÌÀÞ]ÊÌiÀ>ÌÕÀi]ÊV«>À>ÌÛiÊÀi}Ê>`Ê Application >ÜÆÊÃÌÕìÌÃÊ>ÀiÊ>ÃÊÀiµÕÀi`ÊÌÊÃÌÕ`ÞÊiÌ iÀÊÀ>LV]Ê*iÀÃ>ÊÀÊ/ÕÀÃ Ê>`Ê Deadline: ÕìÀÌ>iÊ>ÊÌiÃÛiÊvÕÀÜiiÊ>}Õ>}iÊVÕÀÃiÊ>LÀ>`° 28 February 2014

For further information visit: www.aku.edu/ismc

40 The Middle East in London February-March 2014