Stories about Israel from May, 2009
Palestine: Israeli Armed Police Disrupt Literature Festival
The Palestine Festival of Literature is a traveling cultural roadshow touring across the West Bank, in Palestine, from May 23 to 28. The aim is to take literary activities to Palestinians, who aren't allowed to travel under the occupation. However, the opening was marred when armed Israeli police ordered the theatre where the event was hosted to shut down. Bloggers from around the world reacted to the incident.
Israel: Bloggers Back the Struggle for Workers’ Rights
One of the issues Israeli bloggers truly care about and campaign for is workers' rights. At present, two topics are stirring up the Hebrew blogosphere: supporting the academic staff of the Open University that has been on strike for five weeks and counting, and boycotting AMPM drugstores (the "seven eleven" of Tel Aviv) for their workers' rights infringements.
Palestine: Remembering Al Nakba
Arab-American joint blog KABOBfest marks the 61st anniversary of the creation of Israel, commonly referred to as Al Nakba (catastrophe), saying: “Israel's foundation meant the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of refugees. This created the largest, long-term refugee population in the world. But, they should not mourn Israel's creation. They...
Jordan: The Pope's Visit to the Middle East
Jordanian Ali Dahmash assesses the Pope's visit to the Middle East in this post.
Israel: Eurovision Peace Duo Push for Another Way
Can music help bring us closer together? Noa and Mira Awad hope their message from the Eurovision Song Contest reaches far and wide. Gilad Lotan updates us about the journey of those two musicians and reactions to their performances in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
MENA: Does Swine Flu Spread from Touching Pigs?
More than 14 centuries after Islam prohibited the consumption of pork, pigs are once again making headlines across the Arab world - this time in the form of tweets. Here's a quick snapshot of some of the messages from Twitter users across the region.
Egypt: Combating H1N1 with pigs culling
While the world is busy trying to figure out a way for necessarily precautions to stop swine flu or H1N1 from spreading, the Egyptian government decided to take one more step forward and cull all pigs in the country. Since then bloggers, as well as mainstream media, have been engaged in a long debate whether this is a wise decision, or whether the crisis should have been managed in a better way.
Israel: Why does Earth Hour have to be at 8pm?
At Twitter, Mia_the_Ima from Israel writes: “Why does earth hour have to be at 8PM that's so inconvenient. How about if I black-out at 10PM. Does that count?”
