Here is the article from the NY Times I found, just an interesting perspective into life in Gaza and the development of a “black market economy”. If there are any problems with the link let me know and I can post the text of the article without pictures.

I found this rather unique cartoon on youtube after typing in Israeli-Palestinian cartoon. After spending an evening watching all the episodes, which can be found here http://www.ahmedandsalim.com/, I spent some time thinking about how it relates to our larger discussion of the connections and differences between Israeli and Palestinian cultures.

Watch an episode, ideally 1, 2, or 3 as they relate more directly to my point, and think about the popular culture references. In your posts, I want to discuss 4 things: 1) your individual opinions on the show, 2) how the show portrays Israelis/Jews, Palestinians, or any other cultural stereotypes, 3) is the show offensive? To whom, and why? And 4) what are some examples of popular culture, and how to they impact your understanding of the cartoon?

Here are some additional questions (you don’t have to answer them in your posts) that might help your interpretation of the cartoons: where are the cartoons from? Who made them? How is language portrayed in the cartoons? How were the cartoons shown to the general public? What style do these cartoons use/ can you think of any other cartoons that are similar in style/purpose? If so, how are they different? Also, try interpreting the cartoons from Israeli and/or Palestinian perspectives. How does an understanding of the show change depending on perspective?

I also want to point out, after discovering the actual cartoon, I found some additional websites that are related the show, they are not mandatory reads or anything, just additional information that I thought was interesting. Here are the best of the articles (in my opinion):

http://news.tubefilter.tv/2009/04/29/ahmed-salim-a-terrorist-sitcomseriously/

http://israelity.com/2009/04/26/ahmed-and-salim-israeli-satire-stretches-the-limits-of-taste/

http://www.printfection.com/ahmedandsalimAhmed and Salim episode 1

Hey guys, you don’t have to respond to this, even though you can–for extra-credit, but I had to post it, this is just way too interesting. Feel free to post things that grabbed your attention too. So, here you go–the first Arabic language film to represent Israel at the Oscars.

by an unknown patient at the bombed out Auda Hospital, downtown Gaza City

"oh Jerusalem, I am returning..." banners like this are all over Gaza. The picture shows significant religious sites, soldiers, and an Islamic flag reading "there is no God but God and Muhamed is his messenger"

A very large family's martyrdom poster. Learning I was American, they were quick to show me the misile casing, manufactured in and payed for by the US, which had hit the house killing the kid on the bottom and wounding others. Again, the poster features calligraphic "there is no God but God and Muhamed is his Messenger"

another picture by a child patient

this one was more unique

Consider the music of Fayrouz we listened to Thursday, and the Songs of Palestine we listened to earlier in the semester. How do these images compare to the images related in those songs. Is this the same Palestine they sang about? What about the  martial song with the music video featuring images of Nasser? The rap song by DEM with more overt militarism? What ideas of masculinity are conveyed by Martyrdom posters and the “Rocket Guy”. Can this be related to the larger gender themes we have studied?

We also looked at Israeli propaganda from many eras of Zionism. What parallels can be drawn to the Zionist struggle for legitimacy through culture. Have we seen anything from Israel or Zionism that is comparable to these cultural products?

Anything else that you think relates to this culturally, please feel free to bring it up!

So far we’ve talked about relationships between mainly Palestinian and Israeli cultures, but what happens when the Palestinian culture encounters US-American culture of liberal arts education? Read the article from the Jewish weekly Forward. What kind of exchange/transformation/appropriation takes place when American profs teach in a Palestinian college classroom? What kind of borders and divisions are created, or perhaps are overcome? As usual, see if our classroom material helps you in identifying the issues.

Article on keys

Images

Here is an article from the last week’s Times Magazine about the “Sesame Street” TV show in Palestine. Make sure you also watch an excerpt from Israeli and Palestinian versions of the show–the link is in the body of the article. Obviously, the article discusses a lot of the same issues that we are dealing with in class. Pick one issue or aspect of the article and discuss it in lieu of our course material. Some suggestions: what is the production history of “Sesame Street” in Palestine and how it relates to the larger context of Palestinian culture industry? What are the differences between the Israeli and Palestinian versions of the show? Why is that, that the Israeli version seems to feature more Palestinian characters/themes than vice a versa? You can pick something completely different, but your goal is to make connections to readings, and if not to readings than to our class discussions. The posting is due on Tu night.

Following someone’s question in class, whether Zehava Ben still sings Umm Kulthum’s repertoire, I went to look for answers, and found this video clip from 2006

The video in and out of itself looked pretty wild to me, but the comments of the YouTube were pushing it even further. What is going on in the clip? What are the commentators trying to tell to each other? How does all this relate to our class discussions? Try answering these questions in lieu of our reading about Zehava Ben, and our next reading about passing. (Don’t feel like you have to cover everything, just make your point).

Hi guys, here is a link to the NY Times article about some interesting developments in the Gaza strip.  What is the main change that is discussed in the article? Answer this question by connecting the article with our readings, especially to the Introduction by Stein and Swedenburg, and to the chapter by Sa’adi. Please post your response by Sunday night.

For my screening report, I chose the movie “Zero Degrees of Separation” by Elle Flanders.  This film is a documentary that follows two different homosexual couples in Israel, one male and one female, and shows how each couples’ other identities, (Israeli, Palestinian, male, female) affect their relationships.  Coupling this with the film “The Bubble”, I was curious to learn more about how homosexuality is perceived in Palestine.

To this end, I found this video on Youtube:

It is a segment from a film entitled “Against All Odds: Being a Young Arab Palestinian in Israel”

Interestingly, the male couple in “Zero Degrees of Separation” is broken up when the Palestinian partner, Selim, is deported back to Palestine.  Flanders adds text to state that the last Ezra heard about Selim was that he was married to a woman.  This intrigued me because of the push for Ashraf to marry a woman in “The Bubble”, even after his brother-in-law knows he is gay.

I attempted to find information in both Al-Jazeera in English and in “This Week in Palestine”but there was, unsuprisingly a dearth of information.  Searching through the internet, I found an article in the Jewish Daily Forward discussing how homosexuality is absolutely not tolerated in Palestine:  Here

I found the most interesting part of this article to be that Israel blocks Palestinians from seeking asylum to Israel because of its control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (i.e. that the whole country is Israel.)

Drawing from both the video and article I posted in this article, how do you think homosexual identity is juxtaposed against the other identities that we have read about vying for their place on the cultural and personal spectrum.  Also, does the points I’ve discussed in this post fit with the ideas given by Raz Yosef in “Homoland” and some of the other works we’ve read?  Finally, how do does this change your understanding of the short-film Diary of a Male Whore?