February 13, 2011 by lajee

Palestinian Traditional Dresses

Embroidered dresses are an important part of Palestinian culture and history. Dating back to ancient history, women have been hand making beautiful dresses. Once an indicator of class and marital status, the dresses have now become a more symbolic costume to remember Palestinian culture and keep the tradition alive. In this piece, Sondos Nidal talks about this important handicraft and interviews her grandmother about the history of embroidered dresses.

Story by Sondos Nidal

Photo credit: Athal Al Azza

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February 5, 2011 by lajee

Dreams of Jerusalem

Since the beginning of the Intifada, Palestinians with West Bank or Gaza Identity Cards have needed to obtain permits from the Israeli Intelligence in order to enter Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, has important prayer sites for Muslims, Christians, and Jews. In this clip, 15 year-old Rania Roomi, talks about dreams of one day being able to visit Jerusalem.

Story by Rania Roomi

Photo credit: Mohammad Alazza

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January 30, 2011 by lajee

Why I Read Ghassan Kanafani

I have written this piece because I want everyone to know about Ghassan Kanfani. He put something in my heart and made me feel proud about being Palestinian.

Story by Athal Al Azza

Music by Le Trio Joubran

photo accessed from http://www.bintjbeil.com/articles/2003/ar/0709_bazzi.html

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October 29, 2010 by kaleidoscopefuzz

The Day I Got Shot

Personal stories like this one are extremely difficult to tell, but the telling is very important. It’s taken a long time for Radio Lajee’s Mohammad Qassim to finish this post and it’s been well worth the wait.

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October 25, 2010 by kaleidoscopefuzz

How To Make Turkish Coffee

Here in Palestine, coffee is a MAJOR part of our life. We drink it first thing in the morning, second thing in the morning, after lunch, whenever people come to visit, at work during meetings, to resolve disputes, at weddings, at funerals…Yep, we pretty much drink it all the time. In Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, locals tend to drink a Turkish style of coffee made from a combination of brown and black beans and ground until extremely fine and soft.

When people from outside the Arab world come to visit us, they often develop a taste for this style of coffee but have difficulty making it themselves. We often get asked the same series of questions: how many spoons of coffee should I use? How long should I keep the coffee on the stove before it’s done? How do you keep it from overflowing and making a huge mess? Well now, thanks to Radio Lajee’s Layan Azzeh, all will be revealed in this cute, instructional video of hers. If you enjoy watching it and find it helpful, don’t forget to leave a comment for her below.

Happy coffee making!

September 25, 2010 by kaleidoscopefuzz

First Impressions of Palestine

Each year, a number of internationals visit Palestine for the first time as part of the Lajee Center’s International Summer Workcamp.

Radio Lajee spoke with some of this year’s participants to find out what surprised them most about their experiences here.

This video was produced by Radio Lajee’s Linda Azzeh, Basil Zboun, Maren Rosenberg and Daz Chandler.

For further information about the International Summer Workcamp, please email info@lajee.org

September 24, 2010 by kaleidoscopefuzz

A Glimpse of Ramadan

Here in Aida Camp and in fact most of the Arab world, Ramadan is a pivotal occasion which takes place for 30 days of every year. It’s the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and historically commemorates the period when the first verses of the holy Qu’ran were revealed.

On a surface level, Ramadan is about fasting so if you’re in good health, adult and Muslim, you should refrain from eating or drinking anything during the daylight hours. When the sun sets, Muslims break the fast generally alongside their entire family.

On a deeper level, Ramadan is a time for spiritual advancement, self-improvement, generosity, empathy and community.

Like any significant religious occasion, some people love it, while others dread it. One thing’s for sure though, Ramadan certainly means something different to everyone.

To give you a better understanding of what these 30 days are about, Radio Lajee’s Shoroq Asad prepared this slide-show. If you like it, don’t forget to leave a comment and share with others!

July 28, 2010 by lajee

Afif’s Story

In 1948 the year of the Nakba, Afif Gatasha was just six months old. In this recording, he shares the very personal and moving story of his life from then until now.

Sound recording: Layan Al Azza

Click Here To Show Transcript

I want to speak about myself – how my family left our village and became refugees. My family was living in Beit Jebreen village to the west of Hebron about 25 kilometers. At that time, my father and my mother were married two years earlier and I was the first one – and the only one – for them. When the conflict began, some aero-planes came to our villages and dropped many bombs around the village and inside the villages and from that, some massacres happened… And some villagers, they were afraid. So, un-weaponed people went out of the village to save themselves and they thought after one week or more or less, we will return to our villages. They don’t have anything only their clothes.

When the problem took a longer time, my father was at that time about 27 years old and he went with his uncle – who was a friend of his around the same age – to the village to bring something from our house. When they entered at night there was a … a wire. But they didn’t see it, yeah? And there was a mine at the entrance to the house. Yeah the mine exploded and a wall fell on the 2 persons and they died at that time. My mother and my grandfather, (my uncles also) know or heard from some people who went to the village that my father and my uncle had died and my grandfather went to the village and made a grave for the 2 persons and returned.

Yeah we stayed refugees beside our village for about six or seven months. After that, we heard that UNRWA established a camp south of Hebron. So we joined the camp. I lived in the camp at that time – I was small, but I remember everything from my childhood at that time. We walked in the streets without shoes, with old clothes. But, the main thing that I thank UNRWA for is the education, really. They established schools. But at that time, the schools were in tents also. Yeah, when I was in the first and the second class I remember that when we sat on the desk – especially in winter we had to raise our legs so that the icy water went under our feet.

After that, in ’56 when the issue was [still] not resolved, UNRWA helped the people to build shelters. The family with six persons was given one room for everything. The families with 6 – 12 persons were given 2 rooms.

But in ’67, when the Arab Israeli conflict happened – the war and Israel occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip after that I decided to go to Beit Jebreen so I can see the village and visit my father’s grave. At that time really I got a big shock because I can’t enter the village because it’s demolished – all of it! And, there’s a fence around the village. This is the bad thing that I remember every time, that I can’t visit my father’s grave.

I continued with my studies at the Fawwar Camp from first grade until year 9 and then after that I went to Hebron to study from years 9 – 12. I then went also to the Teachers’ Institute in Ramallah which UNRWA is responsible for. I worked as a teacher for about 25 years, for seven of them I was a school supervisor for physical education. And then I worked here as a Camp Services Officer or the Director of Aida Camp and Al Azzeh Camps. Then I retired.

When I was working with UNRWA I continued my studies at Arab Beirut University in Law. In ’72 I married the head teacher of Fawwar Camp Girls’ School; I have three boys and one girl. Two of them are doctors, one is an engineer and my daughter is a pharmacist.

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July 24, 2010 by lajee

Shadia Mansour on the Importance of Palestinian Hip Hop

Shadia Mansour is a Palestinian artist who is based in the UK. Her medium is Hip Hop and she believes that it is the next crucial phase in Palestinian resistance. Here in the West Bank we have a mixed reaction to this genre of music – many people feel that it doesn’t reflect our culture.

Radio Lajee’s Hiba Al-Azraq caught up with Shadia while she was in Bethlehem on tour. She has been visiting the West Bank since she was a little girl, her family are originally from Haifa and Nazareth.

Click Here To Show Transcript

(Opens with the sound of a woman’s voice – Shadia Mansour – singing ‘On This Earth Is What Is Worth Living’ a poem by Mahmoud Darwish.)

HIBA AL AZRAQ: As a Palestinian living abroad, how have you managed to stay true to Palestine and continue to feel Palestinian?

SHADIA MANSOUR: I’ve always felt Palestinian because it’s who I am, and it’s how my parents raised me to be. They taught me that if I don’t know where I’m from then I don’t know where I’m going. You know, I’ve always felt close to my heritage. From the music…You know, listening to music of Fairouz and Marcel Khalife and all these respected musicians and also my parents used to take me to demonstrations a lot when I was younger so I knew about the situation in Palestine from a very young age and this is what brought me into hip-hop.

HIBA AL AZRAQ: You know every artist in the world has a message to pass through their art, so as a Palestinian rapper what’s the objective behind your music?

SHADIA MANSOUR: I would say maybe being a female in hip-hop, it’s hard to try and convince more conservative Arabs that it’s OK that we can actually share our message and our outlook, our perspective on the situation. And also just express ourselves as Palestinian women. I feel that’s really, really important. Palestinian women played a very, very important role through the history of Palestine. The Palestinian woman is the lighthouse, is the strength behind the family and I think that in hip-hop that has to show – that has to come out that women are just as equal in resistance.

HIBA AL AZRAQ: But you know most Arab people think that rap is a style of music that is filled with hate and anger…Do you think that’s true somehow?

I think that they’re watching the wrong type of channels. If someone tells you to watch MTV and you only watch MTV and that’s the only thing you know, then that will only result in narrow-mindedness. But if you look hard enough and you listen to what the children are saying – to what I’m saying, to what anyone’s saying then you know, you’ll judge from what the person’s message is not from what you’ve seen on TV. You know, you have to have an open mind with these things. Arabic music for me you know, is the same. I don’t listen to the commercial Arabic music. I still listen to Mohammed Abdul Wahab, I still listen to Ess Mahad I still listen to Fairouz. And there’s a difference between many Arab artists, it depends what you like. And you can’t judge. You know, if I see a commercial video – an Arabic music video on TV for the first time, I can’t say well this is what Arabic music is. And it’s the same with hip-hop. You can’t say that the one thing you see generalises what hip-hop is.

HIBA AL AZRAQ: We all know that rap is a Western style of music and most Arabs think that it doesn’t really reflect our culture and customs as an Arab society or as a religious society. It contains a lot of swearing and people because of what they see in the Western music they think that Arab [hip-hop] is the same also…So, how do you defend this?

SHADIA MANSOUR: It doesn’t represent our culture but it can represent our culture. It depends on what you’re representing as a person. If you’re an artist who represents luxury and women and money, then you know, that’s what you do. But I don’t represent that, I represent our culture. I put my culture on the frontline of what I do. From everything I do; from the way I dress on stage, to what I’m saying in my songs and what I believe in. This is what represents me and obviously what represents me as a Palestinian. I think that we really need to start to open our minds more to Arabic hip-hop only because we are running out of options – we are running out of solutions to try and get the message across. There’s no point anymore in trying to get the message to our own people we need to get the message out globally. And, hip-hop is global. Hip-hop comes in all languages. You know, we have the right to involve the Arabic language in hip-hop. And that’s what will carry the message – our language, our struggle and us as diaspora.

HIBA AL AZRAQ: If you had something to say to the Palestinian people, what would it be?

SHADIA MANSOUR: I would say, please give us a chance and we need your support. We can’t do this on our own. One of the biggest problems we have as Arabs is not being as one. We are artists of resistance and we need support from our own people before we get support from the Western world. And that’s my message and also that we come here not for a holiday, we come here to remind ourselves who we are, to remind the people here that we know what’s going on and we carry the message with us wherever we go. And that’s a responsibility that every single Palestinian should carry.