Pictures of Palestine from 1868

This fascinating historical document was entrusted to PalFest last year. "Cities of Palestine" is an illustrated guidebook, published in 1868 and primarily concerned with religious pilgrimage from England to Palestine. Though the pictures are populated with orientalist shepherds, it's still a charming and valuable document.

Front Cover

Jaffa

Jerusalem

Bethlehem

al Khalil

See more pictures here. We were asked to get this book to where it would bring people some happiness. We now know the perfect place. Watch this space for news...

EXCLUSIVE: Najwan Darwish performing in Nablus

Here's another of Najwan Darwish's beautifully succinct poems performed at PalFest 2010's poetry night in Nablus.

Palestine Writing Workshop: Report

In September Robin Yassin-Kassab taught a week-long creative writing workshop in Nablus with the Palestine Writing Workshop - one of PalFest's most succesful offshoots. The workshop report is now online and you can download it here.

Russell Tribunal Artwork

Artwork for this weekend's Russell Tribunal on Palestine by PalFest's Head Designer,  Muiz Anwar. Get your tickets now, for what promises to be a very informative and energizing weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: Najwan Darwish performs at PalFest 2010

Here's one of two videos we'll be releasing of the brilliant Najwan Darwish performing in Nablus at PalFest 2010.  





English translation:


The Women of Lod

Women as tall as dry wood,
memory can only compare them to spears,
necks craning out of buses, coming to visit Jerusalem.
That was before the arrival of short women settlers
who memory can only compare to ‘dumdum’ bullets.


Translated by Lubna Fahoum
Beirut39 anthology
Bloomsbury Publishing 2010

Photography: Some of our favourite PalFest shots so far...

As our flickr account nears 650 photos, we thought we would highlight some of our favourite shots so far.

Suheir Hammad on stage, PalFest 2008.

Roddy Doyle, Brigid Keenan, Suheir Hammad, Ahdaf Soueif,
Ian Jack & Jamal Mahjoub at the Wall.

Inside the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.

After the Israeli army closed down the Palestinian National Theatre,
we relocated to the British Council for the closing night of PalFest '09

Michael Palin on stage in Bethlehem at PalFest '09

Suheir Hammad on stage at PalFest '09

A workshop at the Yaffa Cultural Centre in Balata Camp

Rev. Mitri Raheb guides us through the effects of the Wall around Bethlehem.

Suheir Hammad on stage in Nablus at PalFest 2010

Eugene Schoulgin at PalFest 2010's poetry night in Nablus.

Workshop at Bir Zeit University.

To see the full collection, visit our Flickr photostream

Southbank Centre Interns Write

The Southbank Centre's flagship poetry festival, Poetry International, has wrapped up until 2012. The 2010 festival focussed on Palestinian poetry, with Mourid & Tamim Barghouti, Suheir Hammad, Nathalie Handal, Najwan Darwish, Remi Kanazi, Fady Joudah and Tashweesh all performing.

Also, working behind the scenes were two young interns from Ramallah, graduates of the Palestine Writing Workshop - one of PalFest's most succesful offshoot projects. Here are the links to Amani and Sawsan's blogs about the week.

Sawsan with the charismatic Remi Kanazi

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine

On November 20th to 22nd the Russell Tribunal on Palestine will be holding its second international session. It will take place in London and will be examining international corporate complicity in Israel’s violations of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and War Crimes.

The Tribunal's opening on Monday was an energizing and informative panel session with Ken Loach, Ghada Karmi, Ewa Jasiewicz and Paul Troop. Judging from the opening, the whole tribunal will worth attending, and will be focussed on equipping ordinary citizens/consumers with the information and tools to confront corporations who are knowingly complicit in violations of the law.

Among those giving testimony is American novelist, and 2010 PalFestivalian, Nancy Kricorian. She will be talking about the cosmetics company Ahava and its production of spa products in illegal settlements. You can follow the 'Stolen Beauty' Ahava campaign on Twitter.

And literary titan Alice Walker will be a jurist. You can read her account of her trip to Gaza with Code Pink here.

Book your place in the Tribunal audience here.

Photography: Amina AbuSway

Amina AbuSway is a young photographer we worked with on PalFest 2010. Here are some of her shots of Jerusalem.

   

 

   

See more from Amina here

Remi Kanazi @ Poetry International

Remi hosted a spoken-word poetry lunch at the Southbank Centre, London, as part of Poetry International.





His first collection of poems is coming out in January and you can pre-order a copy here

Suheir Hammad & Tashweesh

Tomorrow night: Suheir Hammad and Tashweesh will be live at the Southbank Centre, performing a unique, one-off show. There are only eight tickets left, so hurry!

Older Posts

Before we started this illustrious blog, we collected our news here, in case you're interested.

Welcome!

To PalFest's new blog.