za3tar

هههها فيديو عن جد نهفة

Professor David Mumford (homepage, wikipedia) is an American mathematician at Brown University. He is also the most recent recipient of the prestigeous Israeli mathematics prize (Wolf Prize). Mumford said on Monday that he is donating his share of that prestigious Israeli mathematics prize to advance the education of Palestinian students.

He decided to donate his money to Bir Zeit University and to an Israeli group that tries to ease Israeli travel restrictions on Palestinian students. The contrast between what goes on in Israel and what goes on in the Palestinian areas is “striking”, with Israelis able “to travel freely to meetings and graduate students going wherever they please,” he said. Adding: “It seems to me in the Palestinian areas, this isn’t the case”.

Thank you Dr. Mumford.

Read more about this story here and here.

My friend from Jerusalem is coming to visit me this summer. So, i asked him to bring me a Hatta / Kuffiyeh (حطة / كوفية) with him. Kuffiyas are traditionally worn in almost all of the Middle East. They are warm, comfy, and they look good too. So naturally, when i came to the states to study, i brought one with me to keep me warm during the long winter, and to affirm my identity.

Anyway, my kuffiyeh is pretty worn out. So i asked my friend to bring me one with him. Being from Jerusalem, he is allowed to travel from the Ben Gurion airport in Tel-Aviv, and so he did. If you don’t know, Arabs (even Israeli Arabs) are treated to extra searches in that airport, and every item and every bag is inspected at least twice by hand.

So unfortunately, when they saw the kuffiyeh, they decided it was too dangerous to carry on the plane (even though it is just a piece of cloth) and they took it away. I didn’t know that they would do that, but then again, should i be surprised ?! I don’t think so.

Ahh .. so now it seems i will be stuck with my old kuffiyeh. At least it could stand as a testament to the Israeli war on clothing.

I read somewhere that one of the key success factors for online startups is engaging the users. This was the case for Flickr. When Flickr started, every new joining member would receive a personal welcome from the Flickr staff. This (along with other factors) created a stronger sense of community and belonging to that site, and was one of the elements of its success.

I think this is still true today. Anyone can whip up a web application in a matter of days, creating a differentiating experience is a bit more tricky and definitely needed. I think this is even more important for many of the Arabian online startups that are providing services that are essentially the same (or highly similar) to American and global ones. In this scenario, you definitely need an incentive to attract people to your application. You simply can not offer the same exact services, and nothing more, and yet expect people to flock to your app.

The folks at Ikbis seem to believe in this as well. So far they have launched a bunch of competitions (the Ramadan one, the airplane one, the singing one), and now, they have launched their own comedy/variety show (called Ground Zero). …. it’s not all sweet-&-dandy .. they have their issues but that’s another story

Anyway, Ground Zero is quick weekly show that has 3 segments: Doblage (Film Dubbing), Lost in Translation, and new movie releases. It is a quick weekly refresher from your hectic life, so go ahead, give it a try

Here are the 2 published episodes so far:

This is the last of my Blog About Palestine Day posts. This Harvest post contains a sample list of more than 70 articles (in 4 languages) contributed to this magnificent event on that solemn day by YOU (or people like you). They are presented in random order:

English Posts:

1. Hani Obaid: Memories of The Old Country
2. Mona’s Corner: Tatreez (Cross-stitch Embroidery) : Important Symbol Of Palestinian Culture
3. Ali: Christians of Palestine & Death March ( & part 2)
4. Summer’s Life Thoughts: Palestine Remembered- Sixty Years Later
5. Loolt’s Talking Virtually To Myself: My Daughters Graduation; Location: Yaffa, Palestine
6. Qwaider’s Memories Documented: Palestine, the bloody tearful eye of the nation
7. Black Iris: To Palestine: An Apology
8. Maioush: The Holy Land, this is where I’m from.
9. Dandoon: 60 years
10. 7aki Fadi: A Poem for Palestine
11. za3tar: On Being Palestinian
12. Al-Falasteenyia: Redefining the Nakba
13. Al-Ajnabiya’s Climbing Walls: Judaizing East Jerusalem
14. SimSim’s Own World: We don’t live in Palestine; Palestine lives In Us
15. Adoosh: On the 60th anniversary
16. Bruised Earth: The Nakba Continues: 60 Years On
17. Southern Muslimah: Diaspora
18. Aaminah Hernandez: Genocide By Any Other Name
19. Attending The World: Nakba: We will never forget!
20. Paroles: Palestine, May God change all of this.
21. Sabeur’s Nekrif: Palestine
22. The Coffee House’s: Refugee-ism
23. Oma: 60 years of Tears!
24. Don’t be sad blog: The origin of the olive tree
25. Ibrahimo: Al Nakba: Sixty years of Displacement and Occupation of Palestine
26. Alloush from Syria: Sixty years, our home is stolen !!
27. Ola’s Cinnamon Zone: Happy Birthday Israel & Mahmoud Darwish and Naji Al-Ali Audio-Visual Collection
28. Rebellious Arab Girl: I can’t deny who I am. I am part of Palestine.
29. Roba’s And Far Away: 60
30. Black Ice: Palestine: Try not to cry…
31. Iman: To Palestine: With Hope,
32. Above and Beyond: I Am
33. 3ammania: Blog About Palestine
34. 7ala: The Tears of Palestinian Kids
35. Reflect Upon: Palestine.. I Love You!
36. Behind Walls: Is It Our Nakba or Theirs ?!
37. Arabian Monkey Tales: Open Call: Palestine
38. Grey Fort: A song for the lost
39. Garfan: فلسطين داري ودرب إنتحاري

Arabic Posts:

1. رؤى حلا طه: أهم المصطلحات حول احتلال فلسطين منذ 60 عاماً وقيام دولة إسرائيل المزيفة! وهذا فيديو
2. علوش: ستون عاماً على سرقة وطن
3. شريف وأحزان شجرة البطاطا: 60
4. البحر العذب: إستشهاد أم
5. فتوشة انثى من مطر: آن أن تنصرفوا
6. خبيزة (محمد القاق): كل عام ونحن منكوبين
7. ياسمينة : كلمات من داخل 48 : في ذكرى الستين
8. أنا كده: فلسطين … صباح الخير يا حلوة
9. علا من غزة: فلسطين التي أسميها وطني
10. شامي: لفلسطين وحدها
11. ابن الشمال: عن النكبة
12. كنان جرجوس (مرطبان العصير): القدس عربية
13. بلوند (أشقر): عائدون .. في ذكرى النكبة
14. أحمد بكداش: نزاريات … والنكبة لم تنتهي بعد
15. نور : سلسلة النكبة واحد ، إثنان ، ثلاثة
16. أسكدنيا: ستون عاماً والعودة أقرب
17. بعد الصمت: فلسطين …كالروح ، أغلى ما لدى الأحياء
18. مبرمج من جرش: نكبتنا ستون عاماً وما زالت مستمرة
19. المترمد: 60 عاماً وفلسطين باقية
20. المنفي: فلسطين 60
21. حر اليدين: ستون عاما … يا فلسطين
22. كباية شاي: فلسطين … ستون عاما عائدون
23. محمد أون لاين: 60 عاماً على إغتصاب ابنة عمي
24. ملاقط عالمنشر: النكبة 60

Other Languages:

1. Albert’s Salut i república: Nakba , 60 anys d’èxode. (in the Catalan Language!! — i think)
   
2. Mudin: Mereka dibunuh, kerana kita membenarkannya! (in the Malay Language!!)

Thank you everybody for your contributions! Many personal stories about first hand experiences of the Nakba were told. Many stories about the Palestinian identity, and living in diaspora were discussed. Many wonderful poems were written. Many first hand present-day accounts were shared. Many visions for the future. It is all because of you, and thanks to you.

I know for a fact that i didn’t/couldn’t list all contributed entries here (simply because it is intractable). If you were not listed and would like to be listed, please let me know.

Finally, to those who were recently introduced to my blog. I hope you stick around after this event. I do blog about various other stuff on a semi sporadic fashion. I will try to keep it interesting, and i hope to see you around. To my dear existing readers, stick around; This new summer season of za3tar’s blog is full of surprises .. who knows what it holds ?!! a mid summer rommantic thrill ? a million dollar give-away ? an adventure with ruthless gangs ? speedy car chases ? more boring nerdy stuff ? some rants ? .. only time will tell. So stick around