For a world without borders and jails.
As a generation that only knows the domination of capital, every day we roam the landscapes of a world that constantly declares its own justification. While the ubiquity of the commodity seems to repress poverty (as lack of the means of survival,) misery spreads (as dispossession of our dreams.) (More…)
Documentaries featured prominently at this year’s Jerusalem Film Festival. The two award winners, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi’s Five Broken Cameras, and Ran Tal’s The Garden of Eden, were decidedly deserving. Similarly contending with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, they could not be more different. Not just in terms of perspective, but in the correspondence between their respective production values, and their subject matter. (More…)
On June 12th 2010 we want to hit the streets with you to call for a different way of organizing the city, one with more self-determination, and for a different society as well. And we don’t want to stay stuck on demands for affordable rents, a “social” city politics or other State-sponsored measures, but rather wish to demonstrate for our vision of a beautiful life (More…)
Israel is not just bedeviled by the occupation. It also struggles internally, with every manner of social problem. The two biggest winners of this year’s Jerusalem Film Festival could not do a better job of underlining this. Both films explore the insinuation of violence in Israeli society, by looking at the country’s Mizrahi and Bedouin communities. (More…)
Few European cities are as synonymous with drugs as Berlin. Second only to Amsterdam, in terms of Dionysian reputation, the German capitol tends to take on a more sinister hue due to its hipster association with heroin. Think back, for instance, to such rep theatre classics as Christiane F., Uli Edel’s 1981 film about a young girl, living in Neukölln, who goes from soft to hard drug use, and eventually, prostitution, all by the age of fourteen. (More…)
The focus on Arab countries takes some getting used to. Especially if you’re accustomed to encountering anti-Israeli occupation flyers, not anti-Assad or Tahrir Square-themed demo adverts. Indeed, the introduction of Arab Spring-themed street art, and political postering, throughout Europe, has signified a cultural change. The subject of popular debate now includes Middle Eastern states other than just Israel, and its conflict with the Palestinians. (More…)
It is obvious: the ruling order finds itself in a deep crisis. Everyone actually knows full well that it can’t go on this way. The political answer to the problem is the attack on society from above, fully in the sense of capital and profit: everything for the economy, nothing for people. (More…)
If you’re a conspiracy theorist, the green probably means Islam. Featuring cartoon depictions of all manner of neighborhood resident, the fact that they are all wearing the same color can only mean one thing. Promote diversity, and everybody crosses over to the other side. The panhandling punk kids, with the red mohawks, included. (More…)
As the Euro crisis metastizes to Spain, Italy and elsewhere, European institutions are busy to try to keep the most stricken patient, Greece, alive. The European Commission has set up a high-powered task force “to identify and coordinate the technical assistance that Greece needs to deliver the EU/IMF adjustment programme and accelerate the absorption of EU funds.” (More…)
I recently traveled to Tahrir Square in order to gain a richer perspective on the Egyptian Revolution. I was in Tahrir for the period immediately after the runoff elections, when the country was gripped with uncertainty regarding its final outcome. The graffiti on Mohamed Mahmoud street has been seen globally. These new designs are particularly evocative of the square’s current atmosphere. (More…)
In her award-winning film I Am Nasrine, Iranian-American director Tina Gharavi sheds light on the inexorable rise of post-9/11 xenophobia in the United Kingdom. Set in Tehran and northeast England, the film tells the story of teenage siblings Ali and Nasrine, who are sent off to England in hope of securing a better future. (More…)
There is nothing so beautiful as the faces of insurgents. Nothing in this world is so attractive, so full of hope. No journalist, no politician, no religious leader or other sort of leader will ever be able to extinguish the beauty of the revolt or bury it under discourses that know nothing of joy or longing. (More…)