Hundreds of thousands of Fatah supporters gathered in Gaza City on Friday to mark the political faction’s 48th anniversary. Years of back and forth political repression meant that Fatah supporters weren’t so outspoken in Gaza and, until recently, Hamas supporters kept low profiles in the West Bank. But the real surprise, which I think many people aren’t openly admitting, has to do with the sheer size of the Fatah rally. As one colleague asked me, “since when are there that many Fatah supporters in the Strip?”
When I traveled to the Gaza Strip in 2011, I arrived under the impression that anyone with allegiance to Fatah and the Palestinian Authority would have already left to the West Bank or even to Egypt. But little did I know, just months before my arrival, as part of what I suspect to be a package deal from a previous reconciliation attempt, Hamas eased up on its limitations and allowed Gaza residents to display support for Fatah where the yellow flags and Fatah shields had previously been banned. [Read more...]
A street vendor’s food stand reads “From Tahrir Square, Egypt, to Liberty Park, New York”. Students attending the National Students for Justice (SJP) Conference joined the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park.
Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh and Mahmood Mamdani address the audience during the SJP Conference’s opening and keynote address at Columbia Univeristy.
Mahmood Mamdani details Israel’s apartheid policies during the keynote address for the first ever National SJP Conference. 
America’s only football factory, Palestine’s only keffiyeh factory
Wilson, the official football-maker for the NFL, secured a spot during this year’s Super Bowl to run a rather moving commercial taking viewers inside the only dedicated football factory in the United States where footballs are laced by hand and prepped for play in the championship game.
Imagine what would happen if the factory based in the small town of Ada, Ohio was forced to shut its doors for good or if a foreign army kept customers and materials out. It would be an affront to American culture.
This wouldn’t stop the production of footballs of course, but if this factory was the only football-maker in the country, the only site fitted with the machines necessary to sew, stamp, shape, and lace a football, this would be a different story — a story more like what’s happening to the Herbawi keffiyeh factory in Al-Khalil (Hebron) in the West Bank. [Read more...]