Archive for category Palestine News
My Take on Israel and Palestine
Really now I don’t mean to be the least bit controversial and I may be looking at it through American eyes so to speak but, what the hell is going on with Israel and Palestine? I will give you my view and of course, that and about ten bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Let’s see, after World War I the League of Nations approved a British Mandate that set forth the creation of a “national home for the Jewish people” So, in 1947 the United Nations approved what was known as the partition Mandate of Palestine into 2 separate states. One was to be Jewish and one was to be Arab. The Arab League of course rejected the plan outright (oil wasn’t on the table yet obviously). Even with the Arab League’s bitter objections, but with United Nations approval Israel Declared it’s sovereign independence on May 14, 1948. Read the rest of this entry »
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History of Israeli Dance
Israel has a rich tradition of dance, arising from Jewish religious and cultural celebrations that developed in the Jewish diaspora.
Israeli folk dance is dancing brought to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) by Jewish olim (immigrants) from various countries of the Jewish diaspora, and the forms of dance that have been and are still being developed in Israel and are highly influenced by those Jewish immigrant traditions.
Much of Israeli folk dance is reminiscent of the lands of the early Eastern Europen pioneers, with circle dances and line dances being common, and with dance attire usually resembling that of Eastern Europe. The circle dance called the “Horah” is one of the most well known Jewish and Israeli folk dances. Not strictly Israeli, it was a European Jewish folk dance before the founding of the modern State of Israel, but it has functioned as an important foundation in Israeli folk dance. This dance is often done at Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs to the tune of the folk song “hava nagilah”. In large groups of people it can be done in concentric circles, with one circle dancing inside an other.
In most countries folk songs’ and folk dances’ creators are generally unknown because they were developed long ago, but the modern State of Israel is a young country and its folk traditions are still being developed, with their creators generally known and acknowledged. Modern Israeli folk dances developed in Israel are often influenced by other forms of dance such as ballet, as well as Arabic folk dances and the dances of Jewish immigrant communities from Arab lands, such as Yemen.
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The Geography and Climate of Israel
Israel is sometimes mistakenly categorized as part of Europe, likely because of its history of European Jewish immigration, its alignment with the West, and the Arab boycott of Israel which has prevented it from developing cultural ties with the Arab World through arts, sports, and commerce.
In reality Israel is located in Western Asia, in the region commonly referred to as the Middle East. It is on the Mediterranean Sea, lying northeast of Egypt. Egypt is usually classified as being in Africa, but the Sinai Peninsula that borders Israel is a part of Western Asia. The border between Asia and Africa is usually considered to be Egypt’s Suez Canal.
When most of us think of the Middle East we probably imagine rolling sand dunes or hot, dry desert. Those types of landscapes do exist in Israel, but Israel’s geography shows stunning diversity for such a small country. The basic topography of Israel consists of a coastal plan with sand dunes that blend into lowlands while moving inland; rolling hills and mountains in the center of the country, and a deep valley at the eastern border. This pattern more or less applies to Israel at any longitude. But there is of course variation moving from the more fertile and wet north to the more arid and dry south.
The Negev Desert in the south borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and they are geographically speaking two parts of the same entity. The Negev is dry, hilly, and rocky, just like it’s Egyptian counterpart. At the northeastern edge of the Negev lies the Judaen Desert, which descends deeply and rapidly into the Jordan Rift Valley, the lowest point on Earth that contains the Dead Sea.
Tags: palestine news, palestine solidarity movement