In spite of the stricter blocking of the roads to Bil'in, the Israelis of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative, and the increased numbers of the wider coalition against the fence and others who join us, succeed to arrive at Bil'in. This Friday, from about 70 Israelis, only 3 were blocked at the road blocks and detained so they could not make it to the demo. Most of the rest, succeeded to enter the region through "unauthorized" entrance and march of about hour or so through the hills.
After a short rest at the house that host us when we are in Bil'in, the early afternoon demonstration was started. With few placards demanding the freedom for the Israeli refusnics, and lot of Palestinian flags intended to be tied to the new metal structure bordering the route of the separation fence, about 200 villagers and Israelis marched to the less visited part of the fence route.
Either because they were caught in surprise, or because the change in policy, they let us reach the metal structure along the route of separation fence. First, the had a line of about 100 soldiers and border police preventing us from touching the massive structure. Later they retreated behind it, with a tacit not declare "agreement" that as long as we do not tie the flags to the structure and only bang on it with not too big stones, the "happening" can continue.
And for nearly an hour, about hundred people - the more "musically" oriented, bunged the long metal structure rising a hell of a noise.
Some time kids and even adults will pick up a real big stones to bung on the structure and were immediately threatened by state force people to stop it or being grabbed. Some times, a verbal confrontation and other "mischievous acts" resulted with detaining of people. A bigger group of about 10 people was detained when one of us was suspected of damaged lightly a part of the structure and the rest tried to prevent his arrest.
Afterwards we started to move slowly along the route - changing the bunging points. This and a verbal communication resulted in the detaining of Mohammed Hatib of the village comity for nonviolence struggle against the fence.
After another hour the demonstration was declared finished and we started to return to the village.... But persistent habits are hard to change... A small group of the state forces entered one of the olive grove of the village as a provocation against the stone throwing youngsters who till that moment have not thrown even one stone. And still, though verbally confronting the force, they did not through any stone. So, a tear gas canister was shot in their direction to remind them their role in the ritual... And it did. So, a short confrontation did started, with lot of tear gas used and even rubber bullets were shot - injuring lightly two youngsters.
Using it as excuse, the army shot a huge volley of tear gas canisters on the main body of the departing people of the demonstration who were watching the some what far confrontation with the youngsters... but we were too far from them and the wind refused to carry the tear gas to our direction.
When the short confrontation ended, we returned to the host house and after 17 of the 18 detainees were released we started the voyage home - Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and some other smaller cities.
One of the Israeli detainees was arrested and was taken to the regional police station at Givat Zeev.
-------------------------------------
A follow up from the againstwall mailing list of late Friday evening:
Hi everybody,
Eli that was arrested today in Bil'in is spending the night in Beit El. They are accusing him of disrupting an investigation and misleading a policeman. The officer in the police station told me they will take care of his vegan needs, quote: "you anarchists - you don't eat anything, from where do you get all this energy to demonstrate?"
He will be brought in front of a judge tomorrow night in the peace court in Jerusalem, in the russian compound (migrash harusim yaani)
Moral support will be most needed. Yossi promises that everyone who comes will be aloud to enter the hall, and will not suffer from the jerusalemite cold. For details about the court hearing call Yossi 052-........ Layla tov or good morning, depends... & forgive my english, I blame the occupation...
A.
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Saturday, October 1, 2005
Palestine-Israel, Bil'in - 30/9/05 - a successful Friday joint demonstration 01 Oct
The continuos and persistent joint struggle of Israelis and Palestinians, its persistence, and wide Israeli and international exposure brought fruits - at least in the behavior of the Israeli state forces. "Rumors" say that the replacement of the battalion and regiment commanders contributed to that change. (Reminder, about a month ago the chief Israeli commander of the region declared that there will not be any more joint Israeli and Palestinians demonstrations in Bil'in. For two weeks the confrontation was intense - including one Friday of curfew and one of "only" lot of suppression efforts - meaning tear gas, shock grenades and arrests.. But instead of preventing the demos it drew lot of Israelis to Bil'in and lot of media cover not friendly to the state forces. Then the demonstrations resumed with much less repression than before.)
Though the intensive efforts to prevent Israelis from arriving to Bil'in Friday demos continue, the behavior of the state forces seems to be milder.
Some of the "outsiders" - Israelis and spanish guests, came already Thursday night to be sure that at least few of us will be in the joint demo and to not need to march through rough terrain around state forces road blocks.
At Friday, most of the Israelis were blocked on entering to the region but long marches enabled most of us to arrive at Bil'in in time before the demo started. Even the less lucky rest arrived in time to participate in the prolonged demonstration.
The demonstration started as usual from the center of the village just after the noon prayer at the mosque - a march through the village main road towards the route of the fence building.
As usual, in the front lead the creative design structure of the week - to make the week after week demos more lively and catch the interest of the media. After it - about 200 people, the usual people - Palestinians from the Bil'in village (more than 10% of the adult males of the 1700 inhabitants), few people from neighboring villages, internationals of the ISM, Israelis of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative together with others of the broader coalition against the fence - from both the Jerusalem and the greater Tel Aviv regions.
When we arrived to the fringes of the village built are, we had a big surprise. The road block and the Israeli state forces that used to block us there every Friday for many weeks, was not there. So we continued our march along the road leading to the fence building site - where the state forces were waiting for us.... but half way there we gave them a big surprise - we spread widely and continue to march through the olive orchards towards the building fence rout, but a bit to the North.
The half hearted efforts to block the demonstration failed, and many of us continued with the momentum to a hill on the other side of the route. After a long stand still, the demonstrators regrouped on their own initiative to the shade of the olive trees adjacent to the fence route on the Bil'in side.
And thus, the demonstration continued for long with light hearts so even the late comers could participate in it.
As the demonstration was not blocked at the margin of the village built area, and as there was not any act of state forces to suppress the demonstration, the attrition fight between the village youth (stones) and the state forces (tear gas and shock grenades, and rubber bullets) did not happened.
It was a bit strange to the persistent participants of the Friday demos in Bil'in to have a demo that got nearly free access to the route of the fence in building, with the whole of it without any grenade or a shot... and without any one arrested or even detained.
The anxious few new comers Israelis experienced the lack of tear gas and shock grenades as bordering on disappointment ('=)
In the early Friday evening radio news they reported - probably from the "proud" army spoke person, that the demonstration in Bil'in passed peacefully as the "demonstrators behaved peacefully".
(Of course a big lie as all the 70 or so Israelis were trespassing on a declared military zone forbidden for us - mostly out foxing heavy patrols preventing our access, and the demonstration participants disregard the state force protests and pushing and "tramped" on the forbidden building route of the fence... But it was a way to satisfy the broad media and people who object to the previous high handed suppression of demonstrations.)
As no one was detained or arrested, we even got home an hour earlier.
Though the intensive efforts to prevent Israelis from arriving to Bil'in Friday demos continue, the behavior of the state forces seems to be milder.
Some of the "outsiders" - Israelis and spanish guests, came already Thursday night to be sure that at least few of us will be in the joint demo and to not need to march through rough terrain around state forces road blocks.
At Friday, most of the Israelis were blocked on entering to the region but long marches enabled most of us to arrive at Bil'in in time before the demo started. Even the less lucky rest arrived in time to participate in the prolonged demonstration.
The demonstration started as usual from the center of the village just after the noon prayer at the mosque - a march through the village main road towards the route of the fence building.
As usual, in the front lead the creative design structure of the week - to make the week after week demos more lively and catch the interest of the media. After it - about 200 people, the usual people - Palestinians from the Bil'in village (more than 10% of the adult males of the 1700 inhabitants), few people from neighboring villages, internationals of the ISM, Israelis of the Anarchists Against The Wall initiative together with others of the broader coalition against the fence - from both the Jerusalem and the greater Tel Aviv regions.
When we arrived to the fringes of the village built are, we had a big surprise. The road block and the Israeli state forces that used to block us there every Friday for many weeks, was not there. So we continued our march along the road leading to the fence building site - where the state forces were waiting for us.... but half way there we gave them a big surprise - we spread widely and continue to march through the olive orchards towards the building fence rout, but a bit to the North.
The half hearted efforts to block the demonstration failed, and many of us continued with the momentum to a hill on the other side of the route. After a long stand still, the demonstrators regrouped on their own initiative to the shade of the olive trees adjacent to the fence route on the Bil'in side.
And thus, the demonstration continued for long with light hearts so even the late comers could participate in it.
As the demonstration was not blocked at the margin of the village built area, and as there was not any act of state forces to suppress the demonstration, the attrition fight between the village youth (stones) and the state forces (tear gas and shock grenades, and rubber bullets) did not happened.
It was a bit strange to the persistent participants of the Friday demos in Bil'in to have a demo that got nearly free access to the route of the fence in building, with the whole of it without any grenade or a shot... and without any one arrested or even detained.
The anxious few new comers Israelis experienced the lack of tear gas and shock grenades as bordering on disappointment ('=)
In the early Friday evening radio news they reported - probably from the "proud" army spoke person, that the demonstration in Bil'in passed peacefully as the "demonstrators behaved peacefully".
(Of course a big lie as all the 70 or so Israelis were trespassing on a declared military zone forbidden for us - mostly out foxing heavy patrols preventing our access, and the demonstration participants disregard the state force protests and pushing and "tramped" on the forbidden building route of the fence... But it was a way to satisfy the broad media and people who object to the previous high handed suppression of demonstrations.)
As no one was detained or arrested, we even got home an hour earlier.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
France: Video showing and debate with "Anarchists Against the Wall", Dijon 1-10-05 [fr] 29 Sep
As we have just learned that 2 militants from the Anarchists Against the Wall initiative (who do direct actions against the "Apartheid Wall" and the Israeli occupation in Palestine) will be passing through Dijon, the "Collectif PASSION & Affinités" invites you to a meeting at the Local Libertaire, 61 Rue Jeannin in Dijon on Saturday 1st October 2005. The evening will begin at 7.00pm with an aperitif and toast. Our two guests will then give a short history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and then provide us with an account of their direct experiences in the struggle against the separation wall, and give us an up-to-date acount of the situation, from their unique perspective.
They will also be showing a video documentary, which shows a direct action by the "Anarchists Against the Wall" against the separation barrier, during which the [Israeli] army shot at Israeli demonstrators with live ammunition for the first time ever, seriously injuring one.
Obviously, this evening will be an excellent opportunity to find out more and we hope there will be a lively debate!
A poster for the evening can be downloaded at: http://brassicanigra.org/infos/ACLM-Dijon-20051001-poster.pdf
--
brassicanigra.org
archiving & documentation on libertarian struggles in Dijon
List: http://brassicanigra.org/mailman/listinfo/brassicaliste
From: brassicanigra.org
To: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Translation by nmcn/ainfos
They will also be showing a video documentary, which shows a direct action by the "Anarchists Against the Wall" against the separation barrier, during which the [Israeli] army shot at Israeli demonstrators with live ammunition for the first time ever, seriously injuring one.
Obviously, this evening will be an excellent opportunity to find out more and we hope there will be a lively debate!
A poster for the evening can be downloaded at: http://brassicanigra.org/infos/ACLM-Dijon-20051001-poster.pdf
--
brassicanigra.org
archiving & documentation on libertarian struggles in Dijon
List: http://brassicanigra.org/mailman/listinfo/brassicaliste
From: brassicanigra.org
To: a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Translation by nmcn/ainfos
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Palestine-Israel, Bil'in, The regular joint Friday demonstrations against the separation fence resumed 24 Sep
In spite of the declaration of the regional IOF army commander few weeks ago that there will not be any more joint demonstrations in Bil'in, and his efforts to enforce it, yesterday - 23-09-05 demonstration occurred, with great success. It seems that the bad publicity and political ferment related to the banning of the demonstration, and the struggles in the two weeks the ban was in power, that did the demonstration any way... forced the higher authorities to over rule the ban. (As a result both two last Friday demonstrations were not dispersed after few minutes of arrival to the roadblock preventing the advance to the building site of the separation fence - which was "improvement" of the policy applied .) Following the intensification of the efforts to block the arrival of Israelis to the joint Friday demonstration we took counter steps.
The obvious one was for few comrades to arrive already at Bil'in Thursday evening. In spite of roadblocks in all the roads leading to Bil'in to stop us, overcoming them ensured that at least few Israelis will be present at the joint demonstration that will be done in time.
The other step was starting the travel to Bil'in an hour earlier. This step which proved useful enabled most people to arrive in time in spite of the need to go by foot and climb step hills an hour or two in order to go around road blocks and time waste in police detention.
And indeed this Friday too, even the few of us who have white hairs could persist... and most of the people from Tel Aviv arrive early enough to have some rest before the demonstration. During the rest, reporters from Israeli printed and electronic media had time to interview us about the Anarchists Against The Wall role in the Bil'in joint demonstrations....
At the intended time - the end of the Friday noon prayer at the mosque, about 150 of us (third of internationals and Israelis and two thirds Palestinians of Bil'in and some out of village) started the march on the road to the construction site... And as usual, after singing and slogans shouting in the march with the weekly creative display structure at our head we were blocked at the fringe of the village built area.
As usual, the mass of soldiers and border police were standing behind the coiled barbed wire stretched on the road and its two sides. As if in a ritual, the commander of the force showed us a document declaring the area is a closed military zone and order all the Israelis to get out. He also declared that the time allocated for the demo is limited and he will disperse us if we will not comply.
As the time rolled on, the excitement ended. When the allotted time neared its end we decided to side step the state force and took a route back to the village through the olive groves in parallel to the route of the separation fence. As the land between the trees was freshly plowed, the soldiers who were going in parallel to us to ensure we will not "visit" the building site got weary and could not keep with us.... So, we found our self in front of an irresistible temptation to veer towards the building fence route.
Ten of the fastest of us - one Palestinian, three internationals and six Israelis, who also refused to get fast back, were detained by a border police persons who were rushed there by cars.
Other people stayed for a while in a confrontation area in which the usual youth stone throwing and police tear gas and rubber bullet shooting were not missing. However, as it was out of the built area of the village and with low intensity, none was seriously injured.
After more than an hour, the Israelis, and internationals and village activists regrouped to the "dream house" where the internationals who stay in the village are living, and where we assemble before and after the demonstration for talks. As the summing meeting was started, we were called for emergency activity. After a mysterious explosion occurred in the region of the demonstration road block (we already left an hour ago) the state forces started to interogate/harass people living in the near vicinity and we were called to confront the state forces. (It was suspected the state forces are vindictive and intend to take revenge for their trampled reputation as staunch protectors of the route of the fence.
After a short verbal confrontation with the state forces who stopped the interogations/harassment when we arrived, the retreated from the village, and shortly later released the Israelis and Palestinian detainees. The international detainees who refused to identify themselves were taken to Givat Ze'ev police station for processing.
Afterwards, weary but satisfied, the Israeli convoy of Anarchists Against The Wall and others from the coalition against the fence returned to Israel.
The obvious one was for few comrades to arrive already at Bil'in Thursday evening. In spite of roadblocks in all the roads leading to Bil'in to stop us, overcoming them ensured that at least few Israelis will be present at the joint demonstration that will be done in time.
The other step was starting the travel to Bil'in an hour earlier. This step which proved useful enabled most people to arrive in time in spite of the need to go by foot and climb step hills an hour or two in order to go around road blocks and time waste in police detention.
And indeed this Friday too, even the few of us who have white hairs could persist... and most of the people from Tel Aviv arrive early enough to have some rest before the demonstration. During the rest, reporters from Israeli printed and electronic media had time to interview us about the Anarchists Against The Wall role in the Bil'in joint demonstrations....
At the intended time - the end of the Friday noon prayer at the mosque, about 150 of us (third of internationals and Israelis and two thirds Palestinians of Bil'in and some out of village) started the march on the road to the construction site... And as usual, after singing and slogans shouting in the march with the weekly creative display structure at our head we were blocked at the fringe of the village built area.
As usual, the mass of soldiers and border police were standing behind the coiled barbed wire stretched on the road and its two sides. As if in a ritual, the commander of the force showed us a document declaring the area is a closed military zone and order all the Israelis to get out. He also declared that the time allocated for the demo is limited and he will disperse us if we will not comply.
As the time rolled on, the excitement ended. When the allotted time neared its end we decided to side step the state force and took a route back to the village through the olive groves in parallel to the route of the separation fence. As the land between the trees was freshly plowed, the soldiers who were going in parallel to us to ensure we will not "visit" the building site got weary and could not keep with us.... So, we found our self in front of an irresistible temptation to veer towards the building fence route.
Ten of the fastest of us - one Palestinian, three internationals and six Israelis, who also refused to get fast back, were detained by a border police persons who were rushed there by cars.
Other people stayed for a while in a confrontation area in which the usual youth stone throwing and police tear gas and rubber bullet shooting were not missing. However, as it was out of the built area of the village and with low intensity, none was seriously injured.
After more than an hour, the Israelis, and internationals and village activists regrouped to the "dream house" where the internationals who stay in the village are living, and where we assemble before and after the demonstration for talks. As the summing meeting was started, we were called for emergency activity. After a mysterious explosion occurred in the region of the demonstration road block (we already left an hour ago) the state forces started to interogate/harass people living in the near vicinity and we were called to confront the state forces. (It was suspected the state forces are vindictive and intend to take revenge for their trampled reputation as staunch protectors of the route of the fence.
After a short verbal confrontation with the state forces who stopped the interogations/harassment when we arrived, the retreated from the village, and shortly later released the Israelis and Palestinian detainees. The international detainees who refused to identify themselves were taken to Givat Ze'ev police station for processing.
Afterwards, weary but satisfied, the Israeli convoy of Anarchists Against The Wall and others from the coalition against the fence returned to Israel.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
PRESS ADVISORY - Three Cities Against the Wall announces final artists' roster, catalog pub date 21 Sep
“THREE CITIES” FINALIZES ROSTER OF ARTISTS, ANNOUNCES CATALOG PUBLICATION DATE Art exhibition to showcase work of Palestinian, Israeli, and American artists opposed to Israel's “Separation Wall”
NEW YORK - Organizers of Three Cities Against the Wall have finalized the list of artists participating in the show, the first of its kind in which Palestinian, Israeli, and American artists will be appearing together. The show, featuring 64 artists, many of them internationally known, will open on Nov. 9 in Ramallah, Palestine; Tel Aviv, Israel; and New York City. It will run for four weeks in all three cities.
A complete list of artist participating in Three Cities Against the Wall appears below. The show brings together brings together 64 painters, sculptors, film/videomakers, photographers, installation and graphic artists. Some artists from each of the three communities are also available to speak about the show, their work, and their opposition to the “Separation Wall” that Israel is building in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Please contact Eric Laursen, above, to arrange interviews.
A full-color catalog of Three Cities Against the Wall, including essays by writers, critics, and activists from all three communities, is to be be published by Vox Pop Press in November. Please contact alex@voxpopnet.net for information and to receive review copies, or call Vox Pop at (718) 940-2084. Writers contributing essays to the catalog of Three Cities Against the Wall include:
* Terry Boulata is headmistress of a primary school in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem in the West Bank. She is a founder of he Palestinian Campaign for Freedom and Peace and a leading anti-Wall activist.
* Grace Paley, fiction writer, poet, and lifelong peace activist, is the author of the celebrated short story collections The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974), and Later the Same Day (1985) as well as three collections of poetry.
* Steven Zunes is an associate professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He also serves as senior policy analyst and Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus project.
In New York, Three Cities Against the Wall is organized through ABC No Rio, a community center for the arts on the Lower East Side, by a committee of artists and activists; in Ramallah, through Gallery Barakat; and in Tel Aviv, by a group of artists and activists associated with the Israeli Coalition Against the Wall, Ta'ayush, and Anarchists Against the Wall.
# # # # #
ARTISTS' ROSTER
From New York:
* Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, award-winning journalist, political activist, and now cartoonist, is currently on death row in Pennsylvania. He has written three books, Live from Death Row, Death Blossoms, and We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, and has produced radio commentaries for National Public Radio and the Pacifica Radio Network.
* Yacoub Al-Kurd's architectural ceramic mosaic projects include the exterior mosaics on the Alezariah Village Mosque and the Shufat Mosque in Jerusalem. He has exhibited in Palestine and internationally since 1991, and his residencies have included the Arkansas Children's Museum, Little Rock, and Studio Im Hochhaus, Berlin. He teaches at the Arts and Crafts Center in Abu Ghosh, West Bank.
* Terry Berkowitz has created installations and video that deal with political and social issues since 1975. Works include “A Rock and a Hard Place” (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1992), which explored the lives of Palestinians under occupation; “Backseat” (Sculpture Center, New York, 1994), which investigated rape; and “Chant for the Unsettled” (Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1996), which concerned forced expulsion. In 1997, a public action, “The Same Land/La Misma Tierra,” was executed in the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Creative Artists Public Service Program grant, and two Jerome Foundation production grants and is a Fulbright Scholar.
* Christopher Cardinale has created large-scale murals both individually and in collaboration and has participated in solo and two-person shows in New Mexico, New York, Mexico, Italy, and Greece. He contributes frequently to World War 3 Illustrated. Other work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, and the New York Press.
* Orly Dahan is an Israeli artist now living and working in Paris. Her work has appeared in exhibitions including “Mois de la photo” and “Nuit blanche” at Hypegallery palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Festival du cinéma d'art et d'essai, Marseille; the 48th Salon d'art contemporain, Montrouge; and Les Rencontres d'Arles. She is a member of Mémoire de l'avenir, an association that allows Palestinian, French, and Israeli artists to create dialogue between people and promote better arts education in Paris schools.
* Ronit Davrat, an Israeli artist now living in Italy, founded Ehad Haam 90, an experimental contemporary art gallery in Tel Aviv and cofounded Zeit U Za'tar, a museum in Italy addressing the Palestinian catastrophe. She has shown work addressing the Occupation in many group exhibitions including the Biennale of Young Artists at the Haifa Museum and exhibits at the Kibbutz Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Portogruaro, Venice; Grand Palais, Paris; and Pinta Gallery, Milan. Her solo exhibitions include: Gallery of the City of Siena; Radius Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Cité des Arts, Paris; and Pinta Gallery, Milan.
* Eric Drooker is a painter and graphic novelist. His paintings frequently appear on the covers of the New Yorker and many other magazines. His published books include Flood! A Novel in Pictures (American Book Award, 1994), Illuminated Poems (with Allen Ginsberg), and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad.
* Mike Estabrook's work, which encompasses video, painting, drawing, and photography, approaches political topics through a deconstruction of the conventions of their representation. His work has been shown at a wide variety of venues including White Box Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Queens Museum, the Dumbo Short Film Festival, all in New York City, and Prenelle Gallery in London. He is a recipient of the Leopold Schepp Foundation Award.
* Kate Evans is a British activist and cartoonist. As part of her work in defense of the environment, she authored Copse: The Cartoon Book of Tree Protesting, and Funny Weather We're Having at the Moment: Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Climate Change But Probably Should Find Out.
* Danielle Sara Frank spent six months in the West Bank in 2003, documenting the effects of the Occupation and engaging in nonviolent direct action with solidarity groups and Palestinian people. Her sculpture and video work has been exhibited in North America, Europe, and Asia.
* Leon Golub, who died last year, was one of the most accomplished American figurative painters of the second half of the 20th century. He was also a leading political artist, known for his “Assassins” series (1972-73) commenting on the Vietnam War. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate Gallery (London), among others.
* Susan Greene is an artist and clinical psychologist. In 1989, with three other American Jewish women artists, she co-founded the Break the Silence Mural Project, the goal of which is to bring the images and stories of Palestinians back to the US to raise awareness and inspire action. For more than two decades, Break the Silence has painted murals in Palestine and exhibited documentation from this work in the US. Greene's work has been included in numerous surveys of muralism. She directs the learning center at the San Francisco Art Institute.
* Brian Higbee is the founder of Associated Artists for Propaganda Research, a member of Art Codex, a member of the Pavilion of the American Resistance, and director of the Lost Estate of Ed “Johnson” Shepard. He has recently exhibited at the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; ABC No Rio in New York City; and the Islip Art Museum on Long Island, New York. He has received two grants from the Puffin Foundation.
* Suzanne Klotz, painter and multimedia artist, has shown internationally in more than 300 exhibitions. Her work is in collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Palestine Costume Archive Museum. She has mounted multicultural collaborative exhibitions in Australia, West Africa, Mexico, Taiwan, the US, and in Palestine and Israel as a guest artist of Mishkenot Sha'ananim, a nongovernmental cultural center in Jerusalem. Her 2004 awards included a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship and a Puffin Foundation grant in support of a collaborative project about the Wall with Yacoub Al-Kurd. One of her most recent works is a digital 'zine, A Pocket Guide to the Other Holy Land.
* Tom Lewis was a founding member of Artists Against the War during the Vietnam War and served a three-year prison term during that period for destroying draft files. He teaches nontoxic printmaking at Anna Maria College and the Worcester Art Museum. His work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Art Museum and the Peace Museum. He has won prizes at the Fitzburg Museum of Art and the Peal Museum, among others.
* Alice Hailey Proskauer studied painting at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and the Art Students League in New York. Her work has been exhibited frequently in New York City and also in Buenos Aires.
* Fawzia Reda has designed costumes and sets for the American University in Cairo; the Egyptian Opera and Ballet House; La Scala, Milan; and Theatre in the Round, Minneapolis. She is the founding and creative director of Cultural Connexion, a US-based nonprofit organization with affiliates in Jerusalem and Paris that promotes Arabic arts and culture and fosters dialogue in the West with Arab communities. She has received grants from the Rockefeller and Henry Luce Foundations.
* Joe Sacco is a cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for Palestine (National Book Award, 1996), a comic book that combines the techniques of eyewitness reporting and comics storytelling. Sacco has contributed work to a wide range of comics magazines including Drawn & Quarterly, Prime Cuts, Real Stuff, Buzzard, and R. Crumb's Weirdo. His recent work includes Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 (2002).
* Nicole Schulman, cartoonist and graphic artist, is a frequent contributor to and occasional editor of World War 3 Illustrated. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in such publications as the New York Times and the Progressive, and she is the co-editor of Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (2005). Her work has been exhibited across the US as well as in Europe and South Korea and is in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.
* Nancy Spero has concentrated on social and political themes in her work, producing the War Series, 1966-70; the Codex Artaud, 1971-72; and Torture of Women, 1974-76. Since 1974, she has focused exclusively on images of women. Solo exhibitions include the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; the University of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; and a major retrospective at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 2004. Spero and her husband Leon Golub were jointly awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize in 1995. Spero's mosaic “Artemis, Acrobats, Divas, and Dancers” can be seen at the Lincoln Center subway station in New York.
* Seth Tobocman started the radical comic book World War 3 Illustrated with Peter Kuper in 1979 and has been involved in publishing the magazine ever since. His illustrations have been published in the New York Times, the Shadow, and many other periodicals. His work has been exhibited at Exit Art and ABC No Rio in New York among other spaces. He is the author of three books of his artwork: You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive (Soft Skull Press), War in the Neighborhood (Autonomedia), and Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians (Soft Skull Press). He teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons Institute of Design in New York.
From Ramallah:
* Khalil Abu Arafeh, architect and cartoonist, has had solo exhibitions in Baltimore and in Oslo, Norway. He has published two books on “forbidden cartoons” and a children's storybook and is an editorial cartoonist for Al-Quds daily newspaper.
* Iman Abu Hmeid, participated in the group installations “Read 1” in Belgium and “Read 2&3” in Biala, Italy, in 2003. She was a finalist in the A.M. Qatan Foundation competition for young artists with her installation “Paper Kite.”
* Jawad Almalhi, has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and held several solo exhibitions in Jerusalem and Paris. He has been awarded residencies in the UK, Sweden, and France.
* Ibrahim Almuzayan's solo exhibitions and installations include “Optical Section of the Rose Stone” at Tell Alfukhar Theatre in Akka in 1993 in association with the late poet Husein Albarghouti, and “Call them Icons” at the Rashad Alshawa Center in Gaza in association with the poet Muhamad Alqaisi in 1998. He created several installation on Gaza Beach in 2001, including “Nets on Gaza Beach,” “Dinner in Honour of Her Majesty,”and “When Earth Is Rocked With Her Last Convulsion.”
* Nabil Anani, head of the League of Palestinian Artists since 1996, is co-author of several books about Palestinian art and culture. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and has held many solo exhibitions in Palestine.
* Asad Azi's group exhibitions include “Arab Painters in Israel” in Akka in1984, Haifa Contemporary Arts Museum in 1986, and the 48th Venice Biennale in 1986. His solo shows include the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem (1987), the Nazareth Municipal Cultural Center (1991), and “Bypass Your Limits” at the Ashdod Museum in 1996.
* Tayseer Barakat, director of Zyriab Gallery in Ramallah, is a leading member of the “New Vision” group of Palestinian artists who use local media such as straw, clay, henna, and leather in their work. He participated in the 1996 Sao Paulo Biennial and in the French Palestinian Spring Exhibit at the Paris Institut du Monde Arabe.
* Maysara Baroud graduated from Al-Najah University in Nablus in 1998 and has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Aamer Dirbas, an art teacher in Jaffa, has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and has been featured in one solo exhibition in Jerusalem.
* Hanadi Hijazi, an art teacher in the Hebron schools, graduated from Al-Najah University and has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Hanan Hirzallah works in the Art Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Khaled Hourani is manager of the Plastic Arts Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. He has participated in international workshops and residencies in Geneva, Switzerland and Alexandria, Egypt as well as the Braziers Workshop (Braziers College, Oxford) and the Spike Island center (Bristol), and has curated Palestinian participants in many international exhibitions.
* Ahmad Kanaan, sculptor, has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Israel and abroad as well as international sculpture workshops in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the UK, Poland, and Germany.
* Yusef Katalo is a photographer and graphic designer who has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Sliman Mansour was one of the first Palestinian artists to move away from painting and start experimenting with non-traditional materials such as mud. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Israel, Japan, Russia, Norway, the US, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Egypt, where he won the grand prize at the 1998 Cairo Biennial for his works I Ismail. He is director and a co-founder of the Al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem.
* Hisham Muhsen, head of the Art Department at Al-Quds University, has participated in many exhibitions in Palestine and abroad, including 35 Artists/35 Years of Occupation.
* Muhammad Musallam, a graduate of Al-Najah University in Nablus, has made several solo exhibitions in Palestine and participated in many group shows in Palestine and abroad.
* Husni Radwan, a graphic designer in Ramallah, has participated in many group exhibitions and held several solo shows in Palestine and abroad.
* Khalil Rayyan, a bronze sculptor and art teacher in Tamra, Galilee, has participated in many group exhibitions in Israel, Palestine, and abroad and held seven solo exhibitions in Jerusalem and Galilee.
* Samir Salameh has taught art in Damascus and Paris and worked in the Art Division of UNESCO in Paris. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and held several solo exhibitions in the Arab world and abroad.
* Ariej Zahdeh is an art instructor at the Polytechnic University in Hebron. She has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and Egypt.
From Tel Aviv:
* Tal Adler, conceptual artist, has had group and solo shows in Israel and throughout Europe. Artists Without Walls, video of (art) action, is a group of Israeli and Palestinian artists who have come together to create a permanent forum for dialogue between individuals engaged in all fields of art and culture.
* Lary Avramsson, painter, is an organizer of Three Cities Against the Wall in Tel Aviv.
* Yael Bartana, video and installation artist, this year was awarded the Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum Bonn and is a nominee for the Prix de Rome.
* Adva Drori, performance and installation artist, has created numerous projects in Israel and received several prizes including the 2003 Yehoshua Rabinovitch Fund, Tel Aviv Minicipality.
* Emanuel Faychevitz, a painter, digital and mixed media artist, and watercolorist, has exhibited at the Tal Esther Gallery in Tel Aviv as well as in Berlin and Stockholm.
* Ravit Gat and Moshe (Chicko) Gerstel, installation.
* Dan Geva, graffiti book.
* Dudu Geva, animator, cartoonist, painter, and social satirist, died early this year. One of Israel's best-known illustrators, he has been called “the godfather and inspiration for all Israeli alternative comics.” A cartoonist for the newspapers Ha'aretz, Ma'ariv, and Ha'ir, his masterpiece, “Mighty Sha'anan Against the Son of Godzilla,” a comicbook parody of science fiction literature and much else, appeared in 1993.
* Hagar Goren, sound installation. Her latest work includes “Bagcheck & Bodysearch,” a video installation that treats the excesses in penetration of privacy during security and medical inspections.
* Hadas Kedar, video art.
* Shula Keshet, adapted photography, in 2003 launched an ongoing series of exhibitions in which her own installation art fuses with the work of individuals from Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African Jewish), Ethiopian, and Arab communities in Israel.
* Dana Levi, photography.
* David Reev, painting
* Roee Rosen, multimedia artist, is one of a group of artists who address the political by constructing new “historical” figures and identities. His work was featured in the Jewish Museum's controversial show, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art,” in 2002. Another recent creation is “Justine Frank,” a Belgian-Jewish, lesbian artist of the first half of the 20th century. Her fictive life and her entire oeuvre of painting (created by Rosen) stand for an outsider position that was doomed to failure between the Holocaust and Zionism.
* Amitai Sandy, posters, co-published the influential Israeli alternative comix magazine Penguins' Perversions for four years. He is a member of the Dimona comix group, which publishes collective anthologies, participates in European comic festivals and is featured in several exhibitions.
* Shual, Net art.
* Meirav Shaul, painting, is an illustrator and comics artist. She has published three comics books with the Israeli comics group Dimona. Her work has also appeared in the French comics anthology Ferraille Illustre, the Scandinavian anthology Glump, and the German Jungle World and in Israeli newspapers and magazines and on album covers.
* Naama Tzabar, sculpture.
* Carmela Volk, adapted photography.
* Nevet Itzhak and Lior Friedman, video art.
* Naama Yuria, adapted photography.
THREE CITIES AGAINST THE WALL http://www.abcnorio.org/againstthewall/ Contact: Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452, laursene@earthlink.net
NEW YORK - Organizers of Three Cities Against the Wall have finalized the list of artists participating in the show, the first of its kind in which Palestinian, Israeli, and American artists will be appearing together. The show, featuring 64 artists, many of them internationally known, will open on Nov. 9 in Ramallah, Palestine; Tel Aviv, Israel; and New York City. It will run for four weeks in all three cities.
A complete list of artist participating in Three Cities Against the Wall appears below. The show brings together brings together 64 painters, sculptors, film/videomakers, photographers, installation and graphic artists. Some artists from each of the three communities are also available to speak about the show, their work, and their opposition to the “Separation Wall” that Israel is building in the Occupied Territories of Palestine. Please contact Eric Laursen, above, to arrange interviews.
A full-color catalog of Three Cities Against the Wall, including essays by writers, critics, and activists from all three communities, is to be be published by Vox Pop Press in November. Please contact alex@voxpopnet.net for information and to receive review copies, or call Vox Pop at (718) 940-2084. Writers contributing essays to the catalog of Three Cities Against the Wall include:
* Terry Boulata is headmistress of a primary school in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem in the West Bank. She is a founder of he Palestinian Campaign for Freedom and Peace and a leading anti-Wall activist.
* Grace Paley, fiction writer, poet, and lifelong peace activist, is the author of the celebrated short story collections The Little Disturbances of Man (1959), Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974), and Later the Same Day (1985) as well as three collections of poetry.
* Steven Zunes is an associate professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He also serves as senior policy analyst and Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus project.
In New York, Three Cities Against the Wall is organized through ABC No Rio, a community center for the arts on the Lower East Side, by a committee of artists and activists; in Ramallah, through Gallery Barakat; and in Tel Aviv, by a group of artists and activists associated with the Israeli Coalition Against the Wall, Ta'ayush, and Anarchists Against the Wall.
# # # # #
ARTISTS' ROSTER
From New York:
* Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, award-winning journalist, political activist, and now cartoonist, is currently on death row in Pennsylvania. He has written three books, Live from Death Row, Death Blossoms, and We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party, and has produced radio commentaries for National Public Radio and the Pacifica Radio Network.
* Yacoub Al-Kurd's architectural ceramic mosaic projects include the exterior mosaics on the Alezariah Village Mosque and the Shufat Mosque in Jerusalem. He has exhibited in Palestine and internationally since 1991, and his residencies have included the Arkansas Children's Museum, Little Rock, and Studio Im Hochhaus, Berlin. He teaches at the Arts and Crafts Center in Abu Ghosh, West Bank.
* Terry Berkowitz has created installations and video that deal with political and social issues since 1975. Works include “A Rock and a Hard Place” (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1992), which explored the lives of Palestinians under occupation; “Backseat” (Sculpture Center, New York, 1994), which investigated rape; and “Chant for the Unsettled” (Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, 1996), which concerned forced expulsion. In 1997, a public action, “The Same Land/La Misma Tierra,” was executed in the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Creative Artists Public Service Program grant, and two Jerome Foundation production grants and is a Fulbright Scholar.
* Christopher Cardinale has created large-scale murals both individually and in collaboration and has participated in solo and two-person shows in New Mexico, New York, Mexico, Italy, and Greece. He contributes frequently to World War 3 Illustrated. Other work has appeared in the New York Times, Time, and the New York Press.
* Orly Dahan is an Israeli artist now living and working in Paris. Her work has appeared in exhibitions including “Mois de la photo” and “Nuit blanche” at Hypegallery palais de Tokyo, Paris; the Festival du cinéma d'art et d'essai, Marseille; the 48th Salon d'art contemporain, Montrouge; and Les Rencontres d'Arles. She is a member of Mémoire de l'avenir, an association that allows Palestinian, French, and Israeli artists to create dialogue between people and promote better arts education in Paris schools.
* Ronit Davrat, an Israeli artist now living in Italy, founded Ehad Haam 90, an experimental contemporary art gallery in Tel Aviv and cofounded Zeit U Za'tar, a museum in Italy addressing the Palestinian catastrophe. She has shown work addressing the Occupation in many group exhibitions including the Biennale of Young Artists at the Haifa Museum and exhibits at the Kibbutz Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Portogruaro, Venice; Grand Palais, Paris; and Pinta Gallery, Milan. Her solo exhibitions include: Gallery of the City of Siena; Radius Gallery, Tel-Aviv; Cité des Arts, Paris; and Pinta Gallery, Milan.
* Eric Drooker is a painter and graphic novelist. His paintings frequently appear on the covers of the New Yorker and many other magazines. His published books include Flood! A Novel in Pictures (American Book Award, 1994), Illuminated Poems (with Allen Ginsberg), and Blood Song: A Silent Ballad.
* Mike Estabrook's work, which encompasses video, painting, drawing, and photography, approaches political topics through a deconstruction of the conventions of their representation. His work has been shown at a wide variety of venues including White Box Gallery, ABC No Rio, the Queens Museum, the Dumbo Short Film Festival, all in New York City, and Prenelle Gallery in London. He is a recipient of the Leopold Schepp Foundation Award.
* Kate Evans is a British activist and cartoonist. As part of her work in defense of the environment, she authored Copse: The Cartoon Book of Tree Protesting, and Funny Weather We're Having at the Moment: Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Climate Change But Probably Should Find Out.
* Danielle Sara Frank spent six months in the West Bank in 2003, documenting the effects of the Occupation and engaging in nonviolent direct action with solidarity groups and Palestinian people. Her sculpture and video work has been exhibited in North America, Europe, and Asia.
* Leon Golub, who died last year, was one of the most accomplished American figurative painters of the second half of the 20th century. He was also a leading political artist, known for his “Assassins” series (1972-73) commenting on the Vietnam War. His work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate Gallery (London), among others.
* Susan Greene is an artist and clinical psychologist. In 1989, with three other American Jewish women artists, she co-founded the Break the Silence Mural Project, the goal of which is to bring the images and stories of Palestinians back to the US to raise awareness and inspire action. For more than two decades, Break the Silence has painted murals in Palestine and exhibited documentation from this work in the US. Greene's work has been included in numerous surveys of muralism. She directs the learning center at the San Francisco Art Institute.
* Brian Higbee is the founder of Associated Artists for Propaganda Research, a member of Art Codex, a member of the Pavilion of the American Resistance, and director of the Lost Estate of Ed “Johnson” Shepard. He has recently exhibited at the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, New York; ABC No Rio in New York City; and the Islip Art Museum on Long Island, New York. He has received two grants from the Puffin Foundation.
* Suzanne Klotz, painter and multimedia artist, has shown internationally in more than 300 exhibitions. Her work is in collections including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Palestine Costume Archive Museum. She has mounted multicultural collaborative exhibitions in Australia, West Africa, Mexico, Taiwan, the US, and in Palestine and Israel as a guest artist of Mishkenot Sha'ananim, a nongovernmental cultural center in Jerusalem. Her 2004 awards included a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship and a Puffin Foundation grant in support of a collaborative project about the Wall with Yacoub Al-Kurd. One of her most recent works is a digital 'zine, A Pocket Guide to the Other Holy Land.
* Tom Lewis was a founding member of Artists Against the War during the Vietnam War and served a three-year prison term during that period for destroying draft files. He teaches nontoxic printmaking at Anna Maria College and the Worcester Art Museum. His work is in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Art Museum and the Peace Museum. He has won prizes at the Fitzburg Museum of Art and the Peal Museum, among others.
* Alice Hailey Proskauer studied painting at the Vesper George School of Art in Boston and the Art Students League in New York. Her work has been exhibited frequently in New York City and also in Buenos Aires.
* Fawzia Reda has designed costumes and sets for the American University in Cairo; the Egyptian Opera and Ballet House; La Scala, Milan; and Theatre in the Round, Minneapolis. She is the founding and creative director of Cultural Connexion, a US-based nonprofit organization with affiliates in Jerusalem and Paris that promotes Arabic arts and culture and fosters dialogue in the West with Arab communities. She has received grants from the Rockefeller and Henry Luce Foundations.
* Joe Sacco is a cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for Palestine (National Book Award, 1996), a comic book that combines the techniques of eyewitness reporting and comics storytelling. Sacco has contributed work to a wide range of comics magazines including Drawn & Quarterly, Prime Cuts, Real Stuff, Buzzard, and R. Crumb's Weirdo. His recent work includes Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995 (2002).
* Nicole Schulman, cartoonist and graphic artist, is a frequent contributor to and occasional editor of World War 3 Illustrated. Her comics and illustrations have appeared in such publications as the New York Times and the Progressive, and she is the co-editor of Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World (2005). Her work has been exhibited across the US as well as in Europe and South Korea and is in the permanent collection of the Library of Congress.
* Nancy Spero has concentrated on social and political themes in her work, producing the War Series, 1966-70; the Codex Artaud, 1971-72; and Torture of Women, 1974-76. Since 1974, she has focused exclusively on images of women. Solo exhibitions include the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City; the University of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; and a major retrospective at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 2004. Spero and her husband Leon Golub were jointly awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize in 1995. Spero's mosaic “Artemis, Acrobats, Divas, and Dancers” can be seen at the Lincoln Center subway station in New York.
* Seth Tobocman started the radical comic book World War 3 Illustrated with Peter Kuper in 1979 and has been involved in publishing the magazine ever since. His illustrations have been published in the New York Times, the Shadow, and many other periodicals. His work has been exhibited at Exit Art and ABC No Rio in New York among other spaces. He is the author of three books of his artwork: You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive (Soft Skull Press), War in the Neighborhood (Autonomedia), and Portraits of Israelis and Palestinians (Soft Skull Press). He teaches at the School of Visual Arts and Parsons Institute of Design in New York.
From Ramallah:
* Khalil Abu Arafeh, architect and cartoonist, has had solo exhibitions in Baltimore and in Oslo, Norway. He has published two books on “forbidden cartoons” and a children's storybook and is an editorial cartoonist for Al-Quds daily newspaper.
* Iman Abu Hmeid, participated in the group installations “Read 1” in Belgium and “Read 2&3” in Biala, Italy, in 2003. She was a finalist in the A.M. Qatan Foundation competition for young artists with her installation “Paper Kite.”
* Jawad Almalhi, has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and held several solo exhibitions in Jerusalem and Paris. He has been awarded residencies in the UK, Sweden, and France.
* Ibrahim Almuzayan's solo exhibitions and installations include “Optical Section of the Rose Stone” at Tell Alfukhar Theatre in Akka in 1993 in association with the late poet Husein Albarghouti, and “Call them Icons” at the Rashad Alshawa Center in Gaza in association with the poet Muhamad Alqaisi in 1998. He created several installation on Gaza Beach in 2001, including “Nets on Gaza Beach,” “Dinner in Honour of Her Majesty,”and “When Earth Is Rocked With Her Last Convulsion.”
* Nabil Anani, head of the League of Palestinian Artists since 1996, is co-author of several books about Palestinian art and culture. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and has held many solo exhibitions in Palestine.
* Asad Azi's group exhibitions include “Arab Painters in Israel” in Akka in1984, Haifa Contemporary Arts Museum in 1986, and the 48th Venice Biennale in 1986. His solo shows include the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem (1987), the Nazareth Municipal Cultural Center (1991), and “Bypass Your Limits” at the Ashdod Museum in 1996.
* Tayseer Barakat, director of Zyriab Gallery in Ramallah, is a leading member of the “New Vision” group of Palestinian artists who use local media such as straw, clay, henna, and leather in their work. He participated in the 1996 Sao Paulo Biennial and in the French Palestinian Spring Exhibit at the Paris Institut du Monde Arabe.
* Maysara Baroud graduated from Al-Najah University in Nablus in 1998 and has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Aamer Dirbas, an art teacher in Jaffa, has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad and has been featured in one solo exhibition in Jerusalem.
* Hanadi Hijazi, an art teacher in the Hebron schools, graduated from Al-Najah University and has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Hanan Hirzallah works in the Art Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and has participated in many group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Khaled Hourani is manager of the Plastic Arts Department of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. He has participated in international workshops and residencies in Geneva, Switzerland and Alexandria, Egypt as well as the Braziers Workshop (Braziers College, Oxford) and the Spike Island center (Bristol), and has curated Palestinian participants in many international exhibitions.
* Ahmad Kanaan, sculptor, has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Israel and abroad as well as international sculpture workshops in Israel, Palestine, Jordan, the UK, Poland, and Germany.
* Yusef Katalo is a photographer and graphic designer who has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and abroad.
* Sliman Mansour was one of the first Palestinian artists to move away from painting and start experimenting with non-traditional materials such as mud. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Israel, Japan, Russia, Norway, the US, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and Egypt, where he won the grand prize at the 1998 Cairo Biennial for his works I Ismail. He is director and a co-founder of the Al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem.
* Hisham Muhsen, head of the Art Department at Al-Quds University, has participated in many exhibitions in Palestine and abroad, including 35 Artists/35 Years of Occupation.
* Muhammad Musallam, a graduate of Al-Najah University in Nablus, has made several solo exhibitions in Palestine and participated in many group shows in Palestine and abroad.
* Husni Radwan, a graphic designer in Ramallah, has participated in many group exhibitions and held several solo shows in Palestine and abroad.
* Khalil Rayyan, a bronze sculptor and art teacher in Tamra, Galilee, has participated in many group exhibitions in Israel, Palestine, and abroad and held seven solo exhibitions in Jerusalem and Galilee.
* Samir Salameh has taught art in Damascus and Paris and worked in the Art Division of UNESCO in Paris. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions and held several solo exhibitions in the Arab world and abroad.
* Ariej Zahdeh is an art instructor at the Polytechnic University in Hebron. She has participated in several group exhibitions in Palestine and Egypt.
From Tel Aviv:
* Tal Adler, conceptual artist, has had group and solo shows in Israel and throughout Europe. Artists Without Walls, video of (art) action, is a group of Israeli and Palestinian artists who have come together to create a permanent forum for dialogue between individuals engaged in all fields of art and culture.
* Lary Avramsson, painter, is an organizer of Three Cities Against the Wall in Tel Aviv.
* Yael Bartana, video and installation artist, this year was awarded the Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis, Kunstmuseum Bonn and is a nominee for the Prix de Rome.
* Adva Drori, performance and installation artist, has created numerous projects in Israel and received several prizes including the 2003 Yehoshua Rabinovitch Fund, Tel Aviv Minicipality.
* Emanuel Faychevitz, a painter, digital and mixed media artist, and watercolorist, has exhibited at the Tal Esther Gallery in Tel Aviv as well as in Berlin and Stockholm.
* Ravit Gat and Moshe (Chicko) Gerstel, installation.
* Dan Geva, graffiti book.
* Dudu Geva, animator, cartoonist, painter, and social satirist, died early this year. One of Israel's best-known illustrators, he has been called “the godfather and inspiration for all Israeli alternative comics.” A cartoonist for the newspapers Ha'aretz, Ma'ariv, and Ha'ir, his masterpiece, “Mighty Sha'anan Against the Son of Godzilla,” a comicbook parody of science fiction literature and much else, appeared in 1993.
* Hagar Goren, sound installation. Her latest work includes “Bagcheck & Bodysearch,” a video installation that treats the excesses in penetration of privacy during security and medical inspections.
* Hadas Kedar, video art.
* Shula Keshet, adapted photography, in 2003 launched an ongoing series of exhibitions in which her own installation art fuses with the work of individuals from Mizrahi (Middle Eastern/North African Jewish), Ethiopian, and Arab communities in Israel.
* Dana Levi, photography.
* David Reev, painting
* Roee Rosen, multimedia artist, is one of a group of artists who address the political by constructing new “historical” figures and identities. His work was featured in the Jewish Museum's controversial show, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art,” in 2002. Another recent creation is “Justine Frank,” a Belgian-Jewish, lesbian artist of the first half of the 20th century. Her fictive life and her entire oeuvre of painting (created by Rosen) stand for an outsider position that was doomed to failure between the Holocaust and Zionism.
* Amitai Sandy, posters, co-published the influential Israeli alternative comix magazine Penguins' Perversions for four years. He is a member of the Dimona comix group, which publishes collective anthologies, participates in European comic festivals and is featured in several exhibitions.
* Shual, Net art.
* Meirav Shaul, painting, is an illustrator and comics artist. She has published three comics books with the Israeli comics group Dimona. Her work has also appeared in the French comics anthology Ferraille Illustre, the Scandinavian anthology Glump, and the German Jungle World and in Israeli newspapers and magazines and on album covers.
* Naama Tzabar, sculpture.
* Carmela Volk, adapted photography.
* Nevet Itzhak and Lior Friedman, video art.
* Naama Yuria, adapted photography.
THREE CITIES AGAINST THE WALL http://www.abcnorio.org/againstthewall/ Contact: Eric Laursen, (917) 806-6452, laursene@earthlink.net
Friday, September 16, 2005
Israel-Palestine, The joint struggle in Bil'in in the eye of the storm 16 Sep
This Friday demonstration and the surrounding activities reflected the the increase of struggle within the Israeli ruling elite. The focal point in the Bil'in struggle against the separation fence is that in addition to robbing lands of Bil'in villagers for the building of a settlement and then robing some more in the name of security of the Israeli settlement, it is the much bigger robbery of lands for future expansion of the settlement. Yesterday verdict of the highest Israeli "justice" court, moved a bit from full support for the settler colonialist and decreed that the security claim will not justify the expanding of the separation fence to include options for expansion. This, in addition of latest verdicts in the regional military court that claimed that the banning of the friday demonstrations by the local army commander is illegal... forced that commander from continue with the ban of the joint friday demonstration.
However, the change was not complete.
Thursday evening, the army put road blocks to prevent the arrival of Israelis who took it as counter measure for probable roadblocks and curfew on Friday. 15 israelis of the anarchists against the wall and others succeeded to find their way around the road blocks.
Early in the morning, the change in the army behavior was observed. The night harassment stopped, and instead of the curfew as the previous Friday, they left the village. Later few hours, the first Friday activity - the piano concert was not disturbed, though the road blocks of the army continued to make the arrival of Israelis hard to achieve.
Till the early afternoon demonstration only additional 20 Israelis succeeded to overcome the road block. And the demonstration started as scheduled though 50 additional Israelis were detained within the buss that brought them to the region.... only four of us succeeded to get out of the bus and took the road and the goat paths on the step hill around the road block and three even arrived in time for the demonstration.
And surprise surprise, the commander of the region who got scolded from his superiors, did not try to prevent the demonstration nor tried to disperse it before we decided to end it. He just forced on it the limit not to go beyond the outskirts of the village. The response of the army to an act of defiance of us to go around them in the direction of the building route of the fence, did not bring the shooting of tear gas and shock grenades or rubber bullets... just pushing with their hands and the arrest of two internationals activists.
All that time, the 46 comrades were held for nearly an hour within the bus, and when released, continue the way to Bil'in... and when nearing the village they had to go around the road block and climb the hill out maneuvering the soldiers who tried to stop them. % of them where detained and the rest arrived... but after the demonstration was finished.
Nearly before returning home, there was a call for action. As usual, the youngsters of the village started a stone throwing attrition war with the soldiers. This Friday they were restrained and did not start it before the end of demo.. and did not supply any excuse for repressing the demo... However, the angry soldiers were with bad mood as one of them fell to a water hole while pursuing after stone throwing youngsters, invaded the village in pursuing them.
So we were called by the villagers to confront the invading soldiers... and we did it. And the soldiers retreated from the village to the fence route.
This was an opportunity for a second demonstration about 150 of us - israelis and palestinians marched up to hundred meters from the fence rote. The army blocked us with few tear gas grenades, and after a while we decided to go home.
The people detained on their way around the road block were released and one of the internationals was taken to Givat Zeev police station.
However, the change was not complete.
Thursday evening, the army put road blocks to prevent the arrival of Israelis who took it as counter measure for probable roadblocks and curfew on Friday. 15 israelis of the anarchists against the wall and others succeeded to find their way around the road blocks.
Early in the morning, the change in the army behavior was observed. The night harassment stopped, and instead of the curfew as the previous Friday, they left the village. Later few hours, the first Friday activity - the piano concert was not disturbed, though the road blocks of the army continued to make the arrival of Israelis hard to achieve.
Till the early afternoon demonstration only additional 20 Israelis succeeded to overcome the road block. And the demonstration started as scheduled though 50 additional Israelis were detained within the buss that brought them to the region.... only four of us succeeded to get out of the bus and took the road and the goat paths on the step hill around the road block and three even arrived in time for the demonstration.
And surprise surprise, the commander of the region who got scolded from his superiors, did not try to prevent the demonstration nor tried to disperse it before we decided to end it. He just forced on it the limit not to go beyond the outskirts of the village. The response of the army to an act of defiance of us to go around them in the direction of the building route of the fence, did not bring the shooting of tear gas and shock grenades or rubber bullets... just pushing with their hands and the arrest of two internationals activists.
All that time, the 46 comrades were held for nearly an hour within the bus, and when released, continue the way to Bil'in... and when nearing the village they had to go around the road block and climb the hill out maneuvering the soldiers who tried to stop them. % of them where detained and the rest arrived... but after the demonstration was finished.
Nearly before returning home, there was a call for action. As usual, the youngsters of the village started a stone throwing attrition war with the soldiers. This Friday they were restrained and did not start it before the end of demo.. and did not supply any excuse for repressing the demo... However, the angry soldiers were with bad mood as one of them fell to a water hole while pursuing after stone throwing youngsters, invaded the village in pursuing them.
So we were called by the villagers to confront the invading soldiers... and we did it. And the soldiers retreated from the village to the fence route.
This was an opportunity for a second demonstration about 150 of us - israelis and palestinians marched up to hundred meters from the fence rote. The army blocked us with few tear gas grenades, and after a while we decided to go home.
The people detained on their way around the road block were released and one of the internationals was taken to Givat Zeev police station.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Israel, Media, Anarchists Against The Wall: Decision of Highest court of justice is strengthening apartheid 15 Sep
"The Anarchists Against The Wall" movement denounce the latest verdict of the Israeli highest court of justice regarding the separation fence. "By permitting the construction of the fence on Palestinian lands, the HCJ prove again that it is the a court that belongs to the occupation, and that the only relevant judicial arena remained for stopping the war crimes of Israel is the international arena." Said Jonathan Polak, of the activists of the movement. "He added: the decision* is additional item in the shame list of the state of Israel, and additional step of strengthening the apartheid"
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* [Ed. Note: This morning the Israeli highest court of justice in a quorum of 9 members deliberations, decreed that the decree of the International court in Hague that outlaws the building of the separation fence of Israel on the lands of the Palestinian West bank is not valid.... because it did not take into consideration the security needs of the Israelis in the occupied territories. The HCJ claimed that his verdict is within the International law, and thus decreed that the route of the separation fence must follow valid and reasonable security needs only. Thus, it also decreed that a specific part of the fence which was the focus of the deliberation must be moved as without security justification it is enclosing 5 Palestinian villages in the fence around Alfey Menashe....
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* [Ed. Note: This morning the Israeli highest court of justice in a quorum of 9 members deliberations, decreed that the decree of the International court in Hague that outlaws the building of the separation fence of Israel on the lands of the Palestinian West bank is not valid.... because it did not take into consideration the security needs of the Israelis in the occupied territories. The HCJ claimed that his verdict is within the International law, and thus decreed that the route of the separation fence must follow valid and reasonable security needs only. Thus, it also decreed that a specific part of the fence which was the focus of the deliberation must be moved as without security justification it is enclosing 5 Palestinian villages in the fence around Alfey Menashe....
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