Palestinians' War on Art

by Bassam Tawil • September 11, 2017 at 5:00 am

What is particularly disturbing is that the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is backed and funded by the US and EU, is also playing an active role in the campaign against the festival and the Palestinian participants. It would be easier to understand if Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad were opposed to the festival, but the PA's opposition sends the unambiguous message to Palestinians from their leaders in Ramallah: it is Israel that is unacceptable, plain and simple.
Here is a festival that promotes nothing but culture and peace, and the PA, once again, is promoting precisely the opposite. Worldwide, music and culture are used to promote coexistence and peace between peoples. Yet, the Palestinians seem to approach art differently. Instead of embracing cultural events that strive to narrow the gap between people, the Palestinians consider art a mortal threat to their ideology and values.
If Palestinian and Israeli artists coming together in a festival is being labeled a crime and treacherous act by the Palestinian street and leadership, what is the hope that any Palestinian leader will ever be able to sign a peace agreement with Israel?

(Image sources: Mekudeshet, Navot Miller/Wikimedia Commons)

Palestinian strong-arm tactics are at it again.

The latest victims are Palestinian artists who are bearing the brunt of a campaign of intimidation to force them to boycott a summer arts festival in Jerusalem under the pretext that the event promotes "normalization" with Israel. The artists have been warned that anyone who participates in the Mekudeshet Festival as part of the Jerusalem Season of Culture will be expelled from the General Union of Palestinian Artists.

The festival, which is taking place in Jerusalem between August 23 and September 15, tries to "take an alternative and more open look at reality" in the city, according to the Mekudeshet Festival website.

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South Sudan is Strategic to the U.S.
Open Letter to the President of the United States

by Simon Deng • September 11, 2017 at 4:00 am

South Sudan, the land of my birth, is not only the world's newest nation, but also the only country in Africa that is currently blocking Islamic extremism from flooding southward to overtake the entire continent.
Without US engagement, there would be no South Sudan today, and without its leadership again, and yours, Mr. President, there may not be a South Sudan in the near future.

(Image sources: Wikimedia Commons, CIA)

President United States of America
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC 20500

Dear President Donald J. Trump,

As a former Sudanese slave, human rights activist, and American citizen deeply grateful for your public stand against all forms of public violence, I humbly ask that you allow me to provide some counsel on the grave situation in South Sudan, the land of my birth. It is not only the world's newest nation, but also the only country in Africa that is currently blocking Islamic extremism from flooding southward to overtake the entire continent. I hope that we will be able to meet in person to discuss the ongoing war and humanitarian disaster there.

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