On the ground - bad news, good news

Despite renewal of peace talks, Israel approves plans for hundreds of
residential units in West Bank
settlements<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.540481>
[with map/diagram] Haaretz 8 August by Chaim Levinson -  Some 550 units in
the settlements of *Talmon*, 60 in Alon Shvut and 38 in Kokhav
Yaakov*have been approved, out of a total 878; discussion of some of
the plans had been postponed amid renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians.
< http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.540481>
www.haaretz.com<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.540481>

*Video interview: Architects help envision Palestine's landscape after
apartheid*<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/architects-help-envision-palestines-landscape-after-apartheid>
Electronic Intifada 7 Aug by Nora Barrows-Friedman -- An in-depth interview with a former researcher with Decolonizing Architecture<http://www.decolonizing.ps/>was published by Toronto-based writer and interviewer Justin Podur. A collective of architects and artists doing political work on the ground in occupied Palestine, Decolonizing Architecture’s work "combines discourse, spatial intervention, education, collective learning, public  meetings and legal challenges … It proposes the subversion, reuse, profanation and recycling of the existing infrastructure of a colonial occupation," according to its website. In recent years, members of the Decolonizing Architecture collective have worked in the occupied West Bank to reclaim land <http://electronicintifada.net/content/architectural-planning-different-future/8916> and,
envisioning for the future, re-map the land inside and around illegal Israeli settlement colonies< http://electronicintifada.net/tags/settlements> in preparation for a post-apartheid era.palestines-landscape-after-apartheid
to electronicintifada.net<http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/architects-help-envision-palestines-landscape-after-apartheid>
< http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/architects-help-envision-
 Facing Al Aqaba, a multi-media installation for Art Prize <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/938933977/facing-al-aqaba-a-multi-media-installation-for-art>

This is an edited bulletin from Today in Palestine

Delivering art in Palestine

Palestinian artists have been invited to show their work in Jordan. This means an interminable journey through checkpoints and over the Bridge.  For details, see: Palestinian artists invited to present their work across the bridge that both connects and separates them from Jordan Since the second Intifada, Atarot Airport between Jerusalem and Ramallah has been closed and the Israeli authorities have prohibited Palestinians from using Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. This leaves the King Hussein Bridge as the only international exit from the occupied West Bank for Palestinians ... Sadly, crossing back over to the occupied Palestinian territories is a luxury reserved for people with Palestinian identity documents. Yet another deterrent to undertaking the journey across the Jordan is the effort it actually takes to cross the bridge. It should only take about two hours to get to the other side, but lengthy delays are routine. Repeated passport and baggage checks and seemingly endless orders to get into and out of buses are inevitable. In the summer, the heat and flies make the journey very unpleasant.
The growing distance between Palestinians living on either side of the river, an issue exacerbated by what happens on the bridge, is the issue that a new curatorial project, "The River has two Banks", will address. The idea behind the project is to bring two communities together who share history and culture, but have been divided by political circumstances.http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/culture/4202-

Source: Today in Palestine!

Behind the Wall

Rich Wiles is a photographic artist who has been living and working in Palestine for some years. His photographic work has been shown around Europe, the US, Australia and in Palestine itself. Since 2006 he has been writing from Occupied Palestine under the title Behind the Wall. Much of this work is based in and around the refugee camps in Palestine, highlighting daily life and memories of refugees who still live in forced exile for over 60 years since al Nakba (The Catastrophe). www.richwiles.com

Is Palestine the last muse?

We've had the Last Prophet (pboh), the Last Poets and now... Is Palestine the "last muse"? If you follow the careers of several high-profile artists and musicians since they got hit by the middle east meatball you may well see it that way.Here are two for a start:

Joe Fallisi, popular Italian tenor, is more well-known in some international circles as the hyper-active Palestine blogger and activist; Gilad Atzmon, hard-working saxophonist, composer and author, dances across the crossover points between music, cultural history and entertainment, with his proseletysing always buried deep in the sound, although he always has plenty to say on the subject given half a chance.

It happens. Anyone who goes to see Palestine for themselves is almost bound to return knowing they must act. Artists are in the business of making noise, and making their work into life. So you will hear about it.

Picture: Joe Fallisi - from the diaphram

Majed Badra on video

Gaza, the strip torn from the patchwork of Palestine, continues to make waves in inverse proportion to its size. Here is a new TV report on Majed Badra, Gazan political cartoonist:

Gazan Women and children paint their traumas

by Ane Irazabal, IMEMC
An art exposition shows, in Gaza City, the work of hundreds of refugee women and children from the coastal enclave, who use the artwork as a way to convey their traumas, the Spanish daily El País echoed.

(photo from El País)

Under the title "If you are happy, click your fingers," the exhibition shows portraits, murals and a "Tree of Dreams" that have been made by 300 mothers and children from Beit Hanun, Jabalia, Nuseirat and Rafah refugee camps.

The initiative has been leaded by the NGO Creart (Catalonia), with the cooperation of Mundubat (The Basque Country) and Solidaridad International. Using art workshops, the organizers have tried to help Palestinians affected by the Israeli "Operation Cast Lead" offensive on Gaza in the winter of 2008–2009, to transmit their traumas in a creative way.

The 'war' left 1,400 Palestinians dead and devastated Gaza, leaving the inhabitants in a difficult situation to overcome.

According to a member of Creart Chené Gómez, the massacres of those days and the current Israeli blockade in the strip have drastically affected the Gazans' vitality, especially with regard to children. As a result "There are many children with problem to concentrate. It is difficult to draw them a smile," he added.

In the opinion of Marta Mercadé, another organizer of the exhibition, the workshops aimed to be part of a creative process to help "rebuilding the social fabric and relationships broken during the war, " as well as to develop other skills to face the economical, cultural and humanitarian siege that Gazans suffer in their daily life.