Four of the booklets in #Issue 3 contain the English and Arabic versions of stories written in Russian by Irina Bogatyreva - born in 1982 in Kazan, Tatarstan - and Arslan Khasavov, born in 1988 in Turkmenistan. Khasavov's critically acclaimed  novel Sense was published in Russia and the US. Khasavov's story "Steven Seagal's Personal Assistant" was translated into English by Arch Tait and into Arabic (from English) by Carmel Badr. Irina Bogatyreva's story "Exit" was translated into English by John Freedman and into Arabic (from English) by Fadi Tofeili.

The other two booklets contain the Arabic original, and English translation by Meris Lutz, of Egyptian writer Mansoura Ez-Eldin's story "Al Siqilli Dream". The foldout is a poster of a montage of photos and text  "Robbery in Area A" by Palestinian artist Yazan Khalili. The artist explains on his website that the piece tells the story of a bank robbery that took place in the West Bank city of Ramallah a few years ago. It is based on a police report and the narrative of one of the thieves, and reveals how the thieves were able to use their reading of the geopolitical conditions to get away with the robbery.


The choice of contemporary Russian authors is an interesting one. It is true that the Russian literature scene in English translation in the West is still dominated by the 19th century giants of Russian literature. As Tofeili puts it: "A kind of historical amnesia has perpetuated the hegemony of international Russian classics by the likes of Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, and Tolstoy, and this is at the expense of the new, post-Soviet Russia." But in the Arab world "we have become more insistent on reading and learning about contemporary Russia, particularly in light of the convergence of our sociopolitical circumstances." 

Similarly, when Russia was the Market Focus of the London Book Fair in 2011, with more than 70 publishers and 50 writers, British audiences became aware of how much contemporary Russian literature is out there waiting to be explored.

Kuwaiti author Mai al-Nakib's beautifully accomplished first collection of short stories, The Hidden Light of Objects, was published recently by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. Al-Nakib, born in Kuwait in 1970, has a PhD in English Literature from Brown University in the USA. She lives in Kuwait where she teaches postcolonial studies and comparative literature at Kuwait University. Al-Nakib is currently writing her first novel.

Susannah Tarbush interviewed Mai Al-Nakib

Your collection gives a wonderfully cosmopolitan portrayal of the Kuwait in which the stories are set, and of links with other countries in the Arab world and beyond. Could you please say a bit more than there is in the book jacket about your family background?

Although I was born in Kuwait, I was just a few months old when I was whisked away to London, then Edinburgh, then St. Louis, Missouri, by my parents who, like many of their generation, were gaining knowledge and expertise abroad in order to return to help develop their young nation-state. We did not return to Kuwait until I was six, which meant that my first language was English. And once back in Kuwait, this did not change as much as you might imagine. My parents enrolled me in the American School of Kuwait (ASK)—this at a time when it was exceedingly rare, even slightly untoward, for girls whose parents were both Kuwaiti to attend international schools. But my mother staunchly believed in the benefits of an American system of education and so she insisted (not to my father, who was always on her side), but to concerned friends and family, that her girls would go to ASK, even if it was socially exceptional.

So English was and remains, quite literally, my mother tongue. In fact, it was my mother’s own first language too. Like many merchant families in Kuwait, her family had settled in India. Like me, my mother was born in Kuwait and was soon after relocated to India, where she attended a British mission school. She, like most of her family, was also fluent in Hindi, something she passed down to me and my sisters. My father’s side of the family traces its own intricate map across the region with points in Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and, of course, Kuwait. His particular linguistic trail shifts from Arabic to German and Latin, followed by English. Between them, my parents configure a complicated constellation of places and languages, a cosmopolitan chart that has, needless to say, informed my perspective on the world.

Furthermore, it was a sensibility passed on to their children, the generation of us coming of age in the 1980s. As evident on the streets of Salmiya or Hawalli or among the student body at ASK or even government schools, the texture of our community was decidedly varied and complex and, for the most part, harmonious. For example, up until 1990, Palestinians in Kuwait made up about eighteen percent of the population. This community, in Kuwait starting from at least the 1940s, played an indispensable role in helping to develop the country as a modern state and was well integrated early on. Their presence, as well as that of other nationalities from all over the world, contributed to Kuwait’s rich cosmopolitanism. Sadly, and for a variety of knotty reasons, I’d say this pluralistic perspective and way of life has been on the decline since the early 1980s.


The stories in The Hidden Light of Objects are written with a high degree of skill and have a distinctive poetic and economical style, and a touch that is light yet moving. When did you start writing short stories? Did you study creative writing during eg university studies, and do you teach it?

Although in one way or another I’ve been writing my whole life, it wasn’t until I completed my graduate work and started teaching at Kuwait University that my focus shifted to fiction. I studied English literature at Brown University, with a special focus on postcolonial studies and modernism. I did not study creative writing, nor do I teach it. I teach graduate and undergraduate courses mainly in postcolonial studies and comparative literature. I learned to write by being a voracious reader.

You write in a remarkably fresh way about the lives of young people and uninhibitedly depict their passions. When were these stories written and how do you find the experience of writing about children and young adults? How do you manage to recreate their world so effectively? 

These stories were written long after my own experience of young adulthood!  But the experience of childhood and adolescence is something that has always appealed to me, in books and, especially, in film.  In his remarkable collection of vignettes, titled Berlin Childhood around 1900, German cultural critic Walter Benjamin revisits the world of his childhood at the turn of the last century by presenting to his readers a series of seemingly ordinary objects and experiences—from a sock and sewing box to a carousel ride and butterfly hunt.  As Benjamin well recognized, the world of childhood is socially irretrievable—there is, in other words, no going back, not for the child, nor for the society into which that child happened to be born.   

Your collection made me feel that the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the 1991 Gulf War are somehow remembered less by the wider world than say the 2003 invasion of Iraq. My memory was jogged by references in your stories to for example abductions, fatal lung disease, fish dying en masse. Yet the events of 1990/91 had profound consequences for those living through them, as is reflected in your stories. Do you see the events as having a continuing effect? 

I think of the 1991 Gulf War as the forgotten war. Not only in the West or the region, but in Kuwait itself, where a generation born after the invasion remembers nothing first hand, of course, but are not taught much about it either. In some ways, I think this forgetting might not be a terrible thing since it softens the path toward normalization of relations with Iraq and with Iraqis—an extremely important thing.

 In other ways, forgetting this event that was, at least in part, the culmination of ill-conceived decisions made over the course of the previous decade, the 1980s, makes it more likely that similar mistakes happen again. Forgetting also blots out a version of Kuwait that existed up until that point (before the late 1970s or early 1980s), the version I mentioned earlier: cosmopolitan, outward-looking, generally tolerant, with a population (significantly both Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti) eager to develop an egalitarian nation-state, less self-centered, less consumed by materialism. The consequences of the invasion and post-invasion period continue to haunt the present—socially, economically, ecologically, demographically. My stories trace some of the more overlooked or subtle of these effects.

It is interesting to see the way in which you have interspersed the stories with vignettes, printed in a different typeface, which are related to the stories in various ways. Could you say something about this technique and why you chose it?

The stories in The Hidden Light of Objects are loosely linked, through language, images, characters, the trope of objects, and the series of vignettes, narrated in the first person, which precede each story. I wrote the vignettes together and, at first, thought they might stand together as a story in their own right. But once the collection was almost complete, it seemed to make more sense to introduce each story through a vignette tangentially linked to it.

That link between the vignette and its story was quite accidental. I didn’t have to change any of the vignettes to make them fit with their respective story. In fact, the stories don’t actually need the vignettes; but I felt their addition could provide a window into a specific experience and period in Kuwait—coming of age in the 1980s—that does relate to each of the other stories, even those not set in the same period or location. Their placement creates a kind of contrapuntal resonance that interests me. I think of the vignettes as an invisible wire holding the stories together or, more organically, as the collection’s connective tissue.

You are now working on your first novel. Could you tell us something about it: eg where and when it is set? How do you find the experience of writing a novel compares with writing shorter fiction? 

I can’t say much about my novel because I feel awkward discussing work in progress. What I can say is that it is set in the Middle East, India, and the United States, from the 1920s to the present. Writing a novel—despite the difficulty that always comes with writing regardless of form—is proving to be a great pleasure. I like its sprawl and openness, the feeling that there is time and space to develop geographies and characters, to live in its world for longer than the period allowed by the short story form. In some ways, poetry and short stories seem more unforgiving to me. Their concentration insists on a kind of perfection the novel does not necessarily demand. I like living in the novel’s tolerance of imperfection.

Maps of the Soul traces the fortunes of Othman al-Sheikh after scandal forces him to leave his desert village of Awlad Al Sheikh hidden in a coal lorry heading for Tripoli. Under the Italian occupation Tripoli is being transformed into an Italian city in which Othman uses his wits and charm to try to improve his prospects, with varying results. The trilogy gives a rich, multilayered portrait of Tripoli under the Italians, and of relations between the colonisers and the indigenous Libyans.  


As Darf Publishing puts it: "Othman falls for the city and its temptations, and with a natural instinct for survival, he perseveres on chance and opportunity. Maps of the Soul takes us in a journey into a different Libya, a country that has emerged from resistance wars in the early 1930’s, where the charismatic Italian colonialist Italo Balbo envisioned a new Rome for the fascist dream on what was named The Fourth Shore. It is a story of painful survival in the face of defeated dreams."

 In an interview with this blog in October 2012 Fagih said that he sees the 12 volume sequence of novels as a series of four trilogies "which deal with the life and soul of Othman Habashy through his ups and downs." One noticeable feature of the first trilogy is the use throughout of the second person "you". Fagih says that over the 12 volumes he uses a variety of viewpoints including "third person, first person, second person and the all-knowing, god-like authority."

Fagih hopes that publication of Maps of the Soul will encourage translation and publication in English of the other three trilogies. The second trilogy is "a trilogy of war, set during the Italian campaign to take over Ethiopia - the second Italo-Abyssinian war - connected in its last part with World War 2 in the Western Desert where Othman is transferred and fights with the Italians. He later fights with the British against the Italians: this is a historic fact, with many Italians changing sides and giving themselves up during the fighting with the Italians and returning to fight them with a Libyan regiment, helping liberate Libya under the British Army".

The third trilogy "deals mostly with the birth of independent Libya, the birth of a nation." With Libya liberated from the Italians and now under British rule "Othman returns to Tripoli, this time as an officer in a position of power as head of the police. This part of the novel depicts Libya under British mandate and Libyans preparing to get their independence."

 The fourth, final, trilogy "takes place in the desert. The country of nomads is depicted with all its multi-colours and flavours and desert traditions, and power structure, arts and folklore, bad and good and ugly and beautiful guys. Othman has been accused of breaking the law in pursuing his duties and feels that the colonial rulers are trying to make a scapegoat of him, so he flees the capital and takes refuge in the desert. It is a period of rehabilitation, of purifying himself in the solitude of the desert, becoming almost a holy man." 

Iraqi Hassan Blasim is first Arab winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize

For the first time in its 24-year history, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize has been won by an Arab writer – Iraqi author Hassan Blasim, for his second short story collection The Iraqi Christ, translated by Jonathan Wright and published by Comma Press. This is also the first time a short story collection has been victorious.

Blasim and Wright share the £10,000 Prize, which they received at Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2014 ceremony supported by Champagne Taittinger at the Royal Institute of British Architects this evening.


The Iraqi Christ combines reportage, memoir and dark fantasy to present Iraq, post-Saddam and post-invasion, as a surrealist inferno. From legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, Blasim’s stories blend the fantastic with the everyday. The Iraqi Christ offers an unforgettable and often harrowing insight into life in contemporary Iraq.

Blasim, described by Syrian writer, activist and blogger Robin Yassin-Kassab in the Guardian newspaper as ‘perhaps the best writer of Arabic fiction alive’, also won an English PEN translation award for The Iraqi Christ. In December 2012 Hassan Blasim and Jonathan Wright appeared in an event at the Mosaic Rooms, London to discuss The Iraqi Christ with English PEN director Jo Glanville.


The Iraqi Christ has yet to be published in its original Arabic. Blasim’s previous book, The Madman of Freedom Square, which was longlisted for this Prize in 2010, was published in a censored version in Arabic three years after its original publication in English by Manchester-based independent publisher Comma Press – but even then this was quickly banned in Jordan and many other Arab countries.


Jonathan Wright, translator of The Iraqi Christ, studied Arabic at Oxford University and has spent 18 of the past 32 years in the Arab world, mostly as a journalist with the international news agency Reuters. In 2014 he was co-winner of the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Translation for Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan.

Blasim and Wright will be appearing in conversation with Boyd Tonkin, judge and Senior Writer and  Columnist, The Independent at an event at the Hay Festival at 9.00am on Saturday 24 May.

This year the judges also wanted to give a special mention to The Mussel Feast, the debut novel by German writer Birgit Vanderbeke translated by Jamie Bulloch and published by fellow independent pubilsher Peirene Press.

This modern German classic first appeared in 1990 but is now published in English for the first time. Set around a family dinner The Mussel Feast lifts the lid on the trauma and pain that World War II left on ordinary German families and is described by judge Nadifa Mohamed as, ‘a tiny book that leaves a strong impression’.

Judge Boyd Tonkin said of the winner:

‘A decade after the Western invasion and occupation of Iraq, that country’s writers are exploring the brutal and chaotic aftermath of war and tyranny with ever-growing confidence. Among them, Hassan Blasim stands out for his fearless candour and rule-busting artistry.

'The 14 stories of The Iraqi Christ, often surreal in style but always rooted in heart-breaking truth, depict this pitiless era with deep compassion, pitch-black humour and a visionary yearning for another, better life. Jonathan Wright’s translation from the Arabic captures all of their passion, their desperation and their soaring imaginative energy. The Iraqi Christ is not only the first Arabic book to win the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, but a classic work of post-war witness, mourning and revolt.’

Antonia Byatt, Director, Literature, Arts Council England, added:
‘The Iraqi Christ is an intriguing collection, with unforgettable images, unexpected narrative perspectives and links between stories which urge you to revisit the previous tale even as you read on. The boldness and energy of Hassan Blasim’s prose is expertly conveyed by Jonathan Wright’s translation. Many congratulations to both the author and the translator and to Comma Press, regularly funded by Arts Council England, for publishing the collection.

'It is exciting to see the range of languages widening with each successive winner of the prize, with an Arabic title winning for the first time. Translation is hugely important to our literary culture – as is short fiction – and Arts Council England is delighted to support the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, which brings to UK readers the finest fiction from around the world.’

In a year with record entries for the Prize (126 titles from 30 source languages), Blasim fought off challenges from a prestigious shortlist including Karl Ove Knausgaard’s blockbuster A Man In Love, translated from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett (Harvill Secker) and Prix de Médicis laureate Hubert Mingarelli’s A Meal in Winter, translated from the French by Sam Taylor (Portobello Books).

The 2014 shortlist also featured two Japanese women writers for the first time: Yoko Ogawa, author of Revenge, translated from the Japanese by Stephen Snyder (Harvill Secker), and Hiromi Kawakami’s Strange Weather in Tokyo, translated from the Japanese by Allison Markin Powell (Portobello Books).

Previous winners of the Prize include Milan Kundera in 1991 for Immortality, translated by Peter Kussi; W G Sebald and translator Anthea Bell in 2002 for Austerlitz; and Per Petterson and translator Anne Born in 2006 for Out Stealing Horses. The 2013 winner was Gerbrand Bakker for The Detour translated from the Dutch by David Colmer.

The judges for this year’s Prize are:
Alev Adil, Artist in Residence, Principal Lecturer and Programme Leader for MA Creative Writing at the University of Greenwich
British writer, broadcaster and former stand-up comedian Natalie Haynes
Nadifa Mohamed, award-winning author
Boyd Tonkin, Senior Writer and Columnist, The Independent
Literary translator Shaun Whiteside

The £10,000 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize is awarded annually to the best work of contemporary fiction in translation. The 2014 Prize celebrates an exceptional work of fiction by a living author which has been translated into English from any other language and published in the United Kingdom in 2013.

Uniquely, the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize acknowledges both the writer and the translator equally – each receives £5,000 – recognising the importance of the translator in their ability to bridge the gap between languages and cultures. The Prize is funded by Arts Council England, managed by Booktrust and supported by The Independent and Champagne Taittinger.

The Independent Foreign Fiction Prize ran initially between 1990 and 1995, and was then  revived with the support of Arts Council England in 2000. The Prize money and associated costs are funded by Arts Council England, and supported by The Independent and Champagne Taittinger.

About the 2014 winners: 


Hassan Blasim is a poet, filmmaker and short story writer. Born in Baghdad in 1973, he grew up in Kirkuk and studied at Baghdad's Academy of Cinematic Arts. In 1998 he left Baghdad for Sulaymaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan) in order to continue to make films that were critical of the Hussein dictatorship, using the Kurdish pseudonym Ouazad Osman (Hussein had government spies even in his university). In 2004, he moved to Finland, where he currently lives. His debut collection The Madman of Freedom Square was published by Comma in 2009 and longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010. Next month, a theatre adaptation of Blasim’s short story ‘The Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes’ by Rashid Razaq is being staged at the Arcola Theatre in London.


Jonathan Wright studied Arabic at Oxford University in the 1970s and has spent 18 of the past 32 years in the Arab world, mostly as a journalist with the international news agency Reuters. His first major literary translation was of Khaled el-Khamissi's best-selling book Taxi, published in English by Aflame Books in 2008. In 2014 he was co-winner of the Saif Ghobash–Banipal Prize for Arabic Translation for Azazeel by Youssef Ziedan.

The funder, manager and supporters of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize:

Booktrust is an independent charity that changes lives through reading. It has  a vision of a society where nobody misses out on the life-changing benefits that reading can bring. Booktrust is responsible for a number of successful national reading promotions, sponsored book prizes and creative reading projects aimed at encouraging readers to discover and enjoy books.

These include the BBC National Short Story Award, the Booktrust Best Book Awards with Amazon Kindle, and Bookstart, the national programme that works through locally based organisations to give a free pack of books to babies and toddlers, with guidance materials for parents and carers. www.booktrust.org.uk

The Independent was launched in 1986 and has since established itself as Britain’s most free-thinking newspaper with a uniquely trustworthy source of information and analysis. Throughout its history it is renowned for its innovation and ground-breaking stories, from being the first national newspaper to make climate change a front-page issue to Robert Fisk’s first interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1996.
In 2004,

The Independent was the first broadsheet newspaper to launch in a tabloid format, and in 2010 it went onto launch i, the UK’s first quality daily produced in a concise format. The Independent has a circulation of 117,084, and 19 million global unique users through its website. www.independent.co.uk

Arts Council England champions, develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives. It supports a range of activities across the arts, museums and libraries - from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature, and crafts to collections. Great art and culture inspires us, brings us together and teaches us about ourselves and the world around us. In short, it makes life better. Between 2011 and 2015, it will invest £1.4 billion of public money from government and an estimated £1 billion from the National Lottery to help create these experiences for as many people as possible across the country. Government funding is received from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and requirements are laid out in our funding agreement with them. www.artscouncil.org.uk

Champagne Taittinger is the only top Champagne house to remain owned and managed by the family named on the label and they continue to be a keen supporter of the arts. www.taittinger.com

report by Susannah Tarbush, London

“'What’s the Arabic for aphrodisiac?’ someone shouted in the conference room of Kurdistan’s Swedish Village, home to the eight poets of Reel Iraq 2013. Cue a twenty minute debate on what gets people going in the Middle East and whether broccoli is as exciting as oysters.”

Thus begins Lauren Pyott's introduction to the ground-breaking anthology This Room is Waiting, newly out from Freight Books of Glasgow. The anthology is the fruit of a remarkable collaboration between four Iraqi poets, and four UK poets with strong Scottish connections. The initiative was part of Reel Iraq 2013, a programme of events marking 10 years since the US and UK-led invasion of Iraq.

Pyott, who has a degree in Arabic from the University of Edinburgh, has since 2010 been Literature Coordinator and Arabic translator for Reel Festivals which collaborates with artists working in areas in conflict. She co-edited This Room is Waiting with the Literature Director of Reel Festivals, American poet Ryan Van Winkle. Reel Festivals was co-founded by Dan Gorman, the coordinator of Reel Festivals and director of UK-based NGO Firefly International. Reel Festivals aims to celebrate diversity, build solidarity and create dialogue with audiences internationally. 


Their UK counterparts are John Glenday (shortlisted in 2010 for the international Griffin Prize and for the Ted Hughes Prize for Excellence in New Poetry); Jen Hadfield (youngest-ever winner of the T S Eliot Prize, in 2008, for her collection No-Nigh-Place); William Letford (a roofer by profession, whose first collection is Bevel) and US-raised Edinburgh-dwelling Krystelle Bamford (winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award 2010).

Each of the 32 poems in the anthology is displayed in English side by side with the Arabic or Kurdish original or other langauge "version". Though those involved in the collaboration try to avoid using the word "translations". Pyott explains: "As each poet spoke little or none of the other's language, and as they all brought their own style and sensibilities to the verse we consider these 'literary outcomes' as 'versions' rather than pure translations. The new works produced – in Arabic, Kurdish and English – not only share the essence of the original poem, but also convey new cultural resonances in the corresponding language.”

In addition to the poems the anthology contains four striking newly-commissioned pieces of Kufic calligraphy by Samir Sumaida’ie. They incorporate phrases from some of the poems. In Pyott's words they "stand not only as beautiful works of art in themselves, but also as a testament to the link between the visual and the literary in both Iraq and the UK."

The four Iraqi and four UK poets were brought together for the first time in the Kurdish village of Shaqlawa in January 2013. As the basis for their workshop collaborations they were first given literal “bridge” translations of the poems. Pyott had prepared the Arabic to English, and English-Arabic bridge translations, while the bridge translations between Kurdish and English were provided by Erbil-based poet and journalist Hoshang Waziri. Actress Dina Mousawi was also involved in Arabic interpretation.

Pyott describes how the poets sat in pairs with an interpreter on hand, and chatted about each other’s work. “Can you swear in Arabic poetry? Should you translate a Scots word into Modern Standard Arabic or a dialect and if so, which one? Which register of speech is more engaging, more poetic? And that golden question which everyone wants to ask but doesn’t really dare: what to you actually mean by that?”

The poems were first presented at the British Council’s second Erbil Festival of Literature, which took place while the poets were in Shaqlawa. Reel Festivals then toured the poets in the UK in March 2013 as part of Reel Iraq 2013. Sarah Zakzouk wrote for reorientmag.com about their appearance at the Reel Words evening in London. Sabreen Kadhim was unable to be present: Sarah Irving noted in a post on the Arablit blog about the Edinburgh leg of the tour that Sabreen had had her visa denied by the British authorities. Happily, Sabreen was at the Edinburgh International Book Fair and Reel Iraq events in August, as shown in this report with video.

 (L to R): John Glenday, Awezan Nouri Hakeem, Ghareeb Iskander, Jen Hadfield, William Letford, Krystelle Bamford, Zaher Mousa during their March 2013 UK tour 
photo courtesy Michael Brydon / Reel Festivals

Several of the participating poets wrote of their experiences of working with the other poets. William Letford wrote vividly about the poets' collaboration on the blog of his publisher Carcanet. And Krystelle Bamford wrote on the poetry workshops and Erbil Literature festival in an article for The Scotsman newspaper. She begins: "'IRAQ?' friends repeated, eyebrows raised, as if hoping my American accent had mangled the Gaelic name of some lovely Highland town."

Zaher Mousa wrote a detailed article on the poetry workshops for Al Sabah Al Jadid newspaper, which appeared in English translation on the Reel Festivals website under the title “Dialogue through Poetry”. Zaher writes of being paired with the different poets, including working with Krystelle Bamford on versions of her poem “Cancer” and his poem “And You?”

When working with Jen Hadfield, he swapped two of her poems, including “Lichen”, with one of his long poems. “She gathers photographic images of Scotland’s nature to give her an imaginary life and internal motion,” Mousa writes. “Her poems centre around 'Lichen', which listens to an isolated person and gulls which are considered part of the furniture of Scotland’s cities.”

His longer poem translated by Hadfield is the intensely moving "Born to Die",  which  is “about a dead baby who send messages to God.” It includes the lines:

Tell him, Baghdad plucks its people like grey hairs from its streets
and that all of a sudden,

like a family throwing its possessions into a couple of hastily packed bags,
Iraq doesn’t know where it’s going.

Reel Festivals commissioned Alastair Cook and Marc Neys to each make a video of this poem for Reel Iraq 2013, using footage shot in Iraq by Ryan Van Winkle. In the first video Zaher Mousa reads his poem in Arabic; in the second Jen Hadfield reads her English version. The videos are posted at Moving Poems.
Other powerful poems by Zaher Mousa include "The Iraqi Elements" and "The House and the Family".

From Ghareeb Iskander we have "Gilgamesh's Snake" and "Three Poems"- both rendered into English by John Glenday - and "On Whitman" in a version by Jen Hadfield. This video shows Iskander and Glenday reading together at the Rich Mix in London in March 2013. Glenday said: "I love the way that he uses the ancient legends, the legend of Gilgamesh, a four-and-a-half-thousand-year-old story, to talk about the way Baghdad is today, it's very moving." The two poets read in Arabic and English "Gilgamesh's Snake", a poem in three acts: Song, Gilgamesh and Conclusion.

Sabreen Kadhim's "Water My Heart with a Jonquil", translated by Krystelle Bamford, is suffused with spirituality, tenderness and everyday details as a woman yearns for her love  amidst uncertainty. the poem ends:

So, has the wick blackened to its end
or was it simply never lit?
Are you with me? Are you with me?
Don't you dare ask me back...I'm here
clutching my match in the darkness.

In a few cases there are footnotes to poems. In her translation of Krystelle Bamford’s “My Mama, Baba Yaga” Sabreen Kadhim transliterates into Arabic, and explains in footnotes, "Baba Yaga" and two words associated with Christmas decorations: “tinsel” and “festoon”.

With their strong links to Scotland, the UK writers sometimes used Scots words in their own poetry or their translations of the Iraqi poet. In his arresting rendering of Awezan Nouri Hakeem’s Kurdish poem “He's not Like Me” John Glenday uses the Scots word “guddle”:

He's hard as a pebble when he hurls himself at me
to guddle meaning from the pool of my dreams
and inspiration from the shingles of the sea.

and also uses the word “swithering":

He's the swithering wave; he wants to flail his arms and swim through Time;
drag me behind him towards whatever fate I've earned;
grant me a fine death.

Jen Hadfield uses Scots words in her poems; "bigging" meaning building, "smoored" meaning smothered in her poem "The Session".

The experience of reading the poems and their renderings in This Room is Waiting will vary from reader to reader, depending on among other things their fluency and depth of knowledge of the three languages  and their particular sensibility and wider cultural background.

It is a testament to the success of this first Reel Festivals experiment in Iraqi-UK poetry collaboration that that a second round of workshops, with a different set of poets, was held recently held in Shaqlawa, as  reported by Nia Davies on Literature across Frontiers. S (Steven) J Fowler also wrote this  blogpost about the event. The four UK poets are Nia Davies, Kei Miller, Vicki Feaver and SJ Fowler. The counterpart Iraqi poets are Ahmad Abdul Hussein, Zhwen Shalai, Ali Wajeeh, and Mariem Maythem Qasem Al-Attar.

The Philip Larkin Society has organised two special  events to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the poet's collection The Whitsun Weddings! (the title poem is read by Larkin himself in this recording at the Poetry Archive).

In the first event, on Friday June 6th, dubbed "the performance train", the Hull-based theatre company Ensemble 52 will bring the poem to life on rail platforms and on a First Hull Trains journey from Hull to London King’s Cross. 'The Whitsun Weddings' has been described as ‘one of the best poems of our time’ (in the Times Literary Supplement) and this unique performance piece will cover 200 miles, eight towns and cities, and 50 years in three hours.


At several stations - Hull, Brough, Doncaster, Retford and Grantham - brides and grooms will board the train, waved off by family and friends dressed in the ‘parodies of fashion’ from 1964. Once on board each couple will share stories of life and love, marriages and heartbreak from the last 50 years. The stories will last the period of time between stations and be interspersed with other poems from the collection relayed over the tannoy. The journey will also feature a soundtrack of Larkin’s beloved jazz music. (In addition to being a poet and Hull University librarian, Larkin was jazz critic for the Telegraph newspaper.

Audiences on board two dedicated carriages for the unique journey will also be able to hear exclusive one-off recordings of Larkin poems by British Hollywood star Bill Nighy.

Theatre producer Ensemble 52 has worked with the Larkin Society and Larkin 25 (which created the incredibly successful Toads installation throughout Hull) to create and oversee the project, and also with theatre-makers and companies along the route. People’s stories and memories from five of the rail destinations from the last 50 years will be collected, collated and distilled to produce a powerful look at life’s highs and lows, joys and woes.


E52's Andrew Pearson, who is directing this very mobile production and keeping it on the rails, said: ‘This will be a unique event and is a really rare opportunity to experience theatre on board a train and at the various locations en route. We're delighted that Bill Nighy has got involved. This will be the only opportunity to hear Bill reading these poems as they will not be commercially available. ‘This will be one of those events that will forever stay in the minds of those that join us on board. It will be a very special journey and is a chance to celebrate the anniversary of a truly great collection and a poet whose life and work is intertwined with Hull, the UK City of Culture.”

The Whitsun Weddings – on board First Hull Trains Hull to London Kings Cross service. June 6th, 2014. From 12.30pm from Hull Interchange. Tickets £65, £60 and £55 (includes travel to London King’s Cross) in advance from www.e52.co.uk and eventbrite.co.uk– price depends on station of departure.

For further information and updates visit the website www.e52.co.uk or follow the company on twitter @ensemble52

The second event marking the 50th anniversary of "The Whitsun Weddings', is the unveiling of a Larkin slate ellipse on King’s Cross Station in London, at 12.30 p.m. on Saturday June 7th (Whit Saturday). The unveiling will be carried out by Baroness Virginia Bottomley, High Sheriff of Hull, with other dignitaries present.

The ellipse will be mounted on a wall next to the First Class Lounge on the main station concourse. Carved by the sculptor Martin Jennings, it will display the final lines of the poem and will complete the sequence of installations which began in 2010 with Martin’s famous statue of Larkin and the associated poetry roundels (2011) and the Larkin bench seat (2012) on Hull Paragon Interchange. These all link neatly with the statue and roundels of Larkin’s friend and fellow poet, John Betjeman, also by Martin Jennings, sited on the next door station, St. Pancras.

In March 2012 I was fortunate enough be present when Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney read his poetry at Kings Place in London during an evening celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Forward Prizes for Poetry.

Heaney won the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2010 for Human Chain (reviewed in the Guardian by Colm Toibin). He shared the Kings Place stage with Forward’s creator and long-time supporter William Sieghart,  novelist Sebastian Faulks (a Forward Prize judge in 2006) and three poets who had won Forward Prizes: Jackie Kay, winner of the best single poem prize in 1992 for "Black Bottom", and Hilary Menos and Rachael Boast, winners of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection in 2010 and 2011 for Berg and Sidereal (the latter collection also won the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize for Poetry). 

On Monday of last week I again sat in the Kings Place balcony, this time for an evening of tribute to  Heaney, who died on 30 August at the age of 74 (among the many obituaries was this by Neil Corcoran in the Guardian)..

Like the Forward 20th anniversary celebration, Seanus Heaney: A Tribute was hosted by Poet in the City. This venture philanthropy charity is committed to attracting new audiences to poetry, making new connections for poetry and raising money to support poetry education. The evening was introduced and concluded by Poet in the City's Interim Chief Executive Isobel Colchester, and supported by Arts Council England.

Seats for the tribute were so much in demand that after all the tickets for Kings Place's Hall One were sold out Kings Place made 200 additional tickets available for live digital streaming in Hall Two. 

The tribute evening featured on stage four people with special connections to the much-missed  Heaney: the Irish poet and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford Bernard O'Donoghue; Northern Irish poet and Emeritus Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford Tom Paulin; Irish film and stage actor Stephen Rea, and, from the younger generation, the Northern Irish poet Leontia Flynn who is Research Fellow at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry and Seamus Heaney poet in residence at the Bloomsbury Hotel in London.

Each of the four brought their own memories and insights on Heaney and his work. Bernard O'Donoghue, whose books include Seamus Heaney and the Language of Poetry (Routledge, 1994), reminded the audience of Heaney's Nobel citation: "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1995 was awarded to Seamus Heaney for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past".

O'Donoghue related Heaney's poetry to the changes within and around him, including the impact of the Northern Ireland "Troubles" on poems in his 1975 collection North.  The poems include "Punishment", relating an ancient bog woman to the barbaric punishments inflicted by the IRA. After North Heaney said he wanted to escape back to more social kind of writing and produced Field Work (1979). O'Donoghue read from it the poem "Badgers", which ends: The unquestionable houseboy's shoulders / that could have been my own.

Among the other poems he read were "The Underground", the first poem from Station Island (1984), and the  fourth of the eight-sonnet "Clearances" sonnet sequence in memory of his mother, from The Haw Lantern (1987): "Fear of affectation made her affect / Inadequacy whenever it came to/ Pronouncing words 'beyond her'. Bertold Brek."

He noted that Heaney was a great translator from many languages, and read from his translation of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf (Faber, 1999). (He quoted from the Woody Allen film Annie Hall: "Just don't take any course where they make you read Beowulf!")

Paulin recalled the impact of Heaney's collection Death of a Naturalist when it burst onto the then uneventful province of Northern Ireland in 1966: "I was overwhelmed as a schoolboy sixth former". The title poem has frogspawn hatching into tadpoles which then turn into frogs: "Some sat ? Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting. / I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings / Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew / That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it."

Paulin and Heaney were among the six writers, three of them Catholic and three Protestant, invited to become  directors of the Field Day Theatre Company which was started in Derry as a collaboration by playwright Brian Friel and Stephen Rea in 1980. The company aimed to be inclusive of all Ireland. In 1991 it published the first three volumes of  Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing with Heaney contributing to the section on W B Yeats.

One of Paulim's anecdotes had the then Northern Ireland Secretary of State Patrick Mayhew. who "seemed to have read 'Digging'", presented the poet with a spade - in response to which Heaney joked that he looked forward to putting it in the spade rack.

 Paulin read  "Sunlight" from North (1975), "Mint" from The Spirit Level (1996) with its hints of a prison yard: Let the smells of mint go heady and defenceless / Like inmates liberated in that yard. He also read "Perch" from Electric Light (2001) and "Casualty" from Field Work. The  IRA had called a curfew after the killing of 13 on Bloody Sunday but a Catholic drinker went to a Protestant pub which was bombed. There are parallels between "Casualty" and W B Yeats'"Easter, 1916".  Paulin made a quip on the lines of  "Yeats is like garlic: you can always tell his influence."

Stephen Rea paid particular attention to Heaney's plays. He read in his inimitable fashion from The Cure at Troy: a Version of Sophocles' Philoctetes and The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone.(A main pleasure of BBC Radio 4's output this year has been Rea's beautiful reading of all the stories from James Joyce's Dubliners in the Book at Bedtime slot, in 20 15-minute episodes over four weeks).

Leontia Flynn, born in 1974, was the youngest on stage by a long way. (Poet in the City, in collaboration with Lavender Hill Studios  has Leontia as the subject of this  'Poetry Portrait' in which she reads from, and talks about her poetry, and about Heaney while having her portrait painted by Phoebe Dickinson). 

From the perspective of a young Northern Irish poet from a similar rural background to Heaney, she spoke of her changing attitude to Heaney, who had at first been too big, too close, overshadowing.  She came round to him like the stages of grief, starting with denial, anger, acceptance..She read  his poem "High Summer" from Field Work. The evening concluded with Rea's reading of "The Tollund Man" from Wintering Out and "Exposure" from North.
Susannah Tarbush, London

... A shootout in a church in a northern Lebanese village on 16 June 1957 in which some two dozen people are killed. The tearing apart of the community into two bitterly divided clans. Neighbour turning against neighbour; husbands and wives forced to choose between their loyalty to one another and clan loyalty...

This is the loosely fact-based scenario of  Lebanese academic, novelist and short story writer Jabbour Douaihy's novel June Rain  newly published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP) in English translation by Paula Haydar. The Arabic original of the novel, Matar Hzayran, was published by Dar Al-Nahar in Beirut in 2006. It was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) in 2008 - the prize's inaugural year.

Douaihy was born in the northern Lebanese town of Zgharta in 1949. On 16 June 1957 there was a massacre during a requiem mass in the village of Miziara near Zgharta, when the Franjieh family, allegedly led by future president of Lebanon Suleiman Franjieh, attacked the competing Douaihy clan.

Douaihy dedicates June Rain  to the Lebanese journalist, historian, author and publisher Samir Kassir who was assassinated in Beirut in 2005. In an interview with NOW Lebanon Jabbour pays tribute to Kassir's vital role in inspiring and encouraging the writing of the novel. It was Kassir who "gave me the idea of writing a literary novel about the background of the massacre of Meziara, which took place in our area in 1957. And that is precisely why I dedicated the novel to him, knowing that the murderers didn’t allow him to read more than two chapters of this novel; he had asked me to send him every chapter I finished writing.

"The idea as it crystallized in our discussions is that the Zawiya area in Zghorta underwent a period of civil violence that could easily be considered as a rehearsal for the civil war that stormed Lebanon in 1975. I lived these events at an early age, and I experienced the trauma that you can’t erase, as did a whole generation. All the details are hearsay, as two parties would tell a tale in a completely contradictory fashion and justify it as defense, no more" 

June Rain depicts the return to the village of Eliyya, twenty years after he emigrated to the USA. Eliyya is intent on learning about his father, who was shot through the heart in the church massacre, and whom he never knew. Eliyya had been conceived shortly before the church killings. Through his novel Douaihy evokes the horrors of internal division in Lebanon through the prism of observations of daily life in a village where revenge is the prevailing system of justice.

Prior to its publication in English by BQFP, June Rain was published in French (by Sindbad, Actes Sud), Italian (Feltrinelli) and German (Hanser). The world translation rights are with RAYA Agency for Arabic literature.


The translator to English of June RainPaula Haydar is Instructor of Arabic Language in the Department of Foreign Languages at the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies, University of Arkansas. Haydar has translated various works of Arabic literature to English including novels by Lebanese writers Elias Khoury and Rachid Al-Daif, and by Palestinian writers Sahar Khalifeh and Adania Shibli. She has also translated short stories and poems that have appeared in international and national journals, and is a regular contributor to Banipal magazine of modern Arab literature.

Jabbour has a PhD degree in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne and is a professor of French literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut. He is the acclaimed author of many novels and short story collections. He was shortlisted for IPAF a second time in 2012 for his novel Charid al-Manazil (journalist Anwar Hamed outlines the novel on the IPAF website here.). IPAF renders the title in English as The Vagrant: RAYA has it as Chased Away.

In all RAYA represents six titles by Jabbour.  In addition to June Rain and Chased Away. they are Hayy Al Amerkan (American Neighborhood, Dar al-Saqi 2014); Ayn Warda (Rose Fountain, 2002); Rayya an-nahr (Rayya-of-the-river, Dar an-Nahar -Beirut);  Iitidal al-kharif (Autumn Equinox),  Dar an-Nahar). The English translation of Autumn Equinox, by Nay Hannawi, was published in 2001 by the University of Arkansas Press. French rights to Ayn Warda were acquired by Sindbad, Actes Sud which  published it in 2009 as Rose Fountain Motel in translation by Emmanuel Varlet.

The latest title, Hayy Al Amerkan, is a highly topical novel set in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, in a quarter that is a cradle of salafism in Lebanon. Fighters are trained there to fight in Iraq. RAYA says: "As always, Douaihy offers a minute description of a city he knows well, Tripoli. With tenderness, and sarcasm, he introduces the reader to the complex world of the “American neighborhood”, a poor area of Tripoli where religious extremism has drastically increased in recent years.

At the Translating the Syrian News event held at the Free Word Centre in London on the eveing of Thursday of last week, a panel discussed how events in Syria are reported by the international and Syrian media and how the contrast between what is presented to a domestic and global audience can be mediated.

The event was chaired by Malu Halasa, who began by saying: "What is the news telling us about Syria, or rather what are we not getting from the news from Syria, and how is this information, or lack of information, forming our perceptions about the country?" The panel would also look at "the knock-on effect: how these perceptions affect government policy towards Syria."

Halasa is  co-editor of Syria Speaks: Art and Culture from the Frontline, published recently by Saqi Books of London.


Syria Speaks is a unique showcase of the work of more than 50 artists and writers challenging the culture of violence in Syria. "Their literature, poems and songs, cartoons, political posters and photographs document and interpret the momentous changes that have shifted the frame of reality so drastically in Syria," declares the book's cover.

The Free Word event was a fitting prelude to the UK tour of Syria Speaks, organised by Reel Festivals, from 11 to 16 June. Reel Festivals is presenting the events in partnership with English PEN, Saqi Books, British Council, LIFT Festival, Prince Claus Fund, CKU the Danish Centre for Culture and Development and the Arab British Centre. The project is supported with public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

The tour begins on 11 June at the Rich Mix in London, and takes in Bristol Festival of Ideas (12 June), Oxford (Ashmolean Museum, 13 June), Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (14 June), Bradford (Fuse Art Space,15 June) and Durham University School of Government and International Affairs (16 June). The visiting authors will also take part in workshops with English PEN at schools, refugee community centres and a prison. In addition there is an event at Waterstones bookshop in Piccadilly, central London, on 17 June at 7pm.

The packed-out Free Word event was presented jointly by Free Word and by English PEN: Syria Speaks has a 2013 English PEN Award for promotion within PEN's Writers in Translation programme. The event was Part of Free Word’s Translators in Residence Programme and the Islington Word Festival 2014.

The evening was introduced by Alice Guthrie, one of Free Word Centre's two translators in residence for 2014. Guthrie is one of the five translators who worked on the Syria Speaks book.

Malu Halasa is a London-based writer, editor and curator of arts events and the author of several books including The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie: Intimacy and Design (Chronicle Books, 2008) with Rana Salam. She co-curated three exhibitions of Syria's art of resistance in 2012-13 in Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London.

Halasa's co-panellists were Paul Mason, Armand Hurault, and Zaher Omareen who is like Halasa a co-editor of Syria Speaks: the third co-editor is Nawara Mahfoud. In addition to co-editing the book, Omareen has contributed to it an essay: "The Symbol and Counter-Symbols in Syria: Power and propaganda from the era of the two Assads to the Revolution of Freedom and Dignity".

Omareen is a Syrian researcher and writer who has published articles and short stories in the Arab and English press. His short story "First Safety Manoeuvre’ won prizes awarded by the Danish Institute in Damascus and the 2012 Copenhagen Festival of Literature. He has worked on independent cultural initiatives in Syria and Europe, and co-curated exhibitions on the art of the Syrian uprising. He is a PhD candidate in Contemporary Documentary Cinema and New Media at Goldsmiths College, London University.

Paul Mason is the Culture and Digital Editor of Channel 4 News and has worked extensively as a journalist and broadcaster for a number of productions including BBC2′s Newsnight. He is the author of three books: Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global (Harvill Secker, 2007), Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere: The New Global Revolutions (Verso, 2012) and Meltdown – The End of the Age of Greed (Verso, 2012).

Armand Hurault is deputy coordinator at ASML, a Syro-French organisation supporting the emergence of an alternative and professional media landscape in Syria. At the start of the uprising in 2011 he provided regular Skype training sessions to Syrian citizen journalists inside the country as  part of his work as former coordinator of the ‘Syrian Voices Initiative’ (2011-2013) at Transnational Crisis Project in London, a project that was funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

A major focus of the event was the striking growth in citizen journalism in Syria over the past three years. Halasa noted that Syria Speaks includes critical essays by free speech proponents and interviews about news gathering and the rise of a citizens journalist movement inside the country.When the killings started in Syrian "the regime had a very well-oiled media machine; ordinary Syrians felt that they had to take matters into their own hands," Halasa said.  

Zaher Omareen, who  was a freelancer and a  journalist working in Damascus at the time the uprising began, set the scene.  "To be honest the revolution in Syria surprised us as it surprised the outsider or the Western media," he said. Soon after the uprising started in March 2011 the government took action against and arresting journalists. The regime asked international journalists to leave the coutnry immediately.

As for Syrian journalists many of them, especially the professioinal ones, spent weeks or months in prison for dealing with Al-Jazeera, the BBC or other news providers.  "So we found ourselves without any professional media coverage and we started trying to find alternatives to tell others what happened inside Syria."
Susannah Tarbush, London

Judge Eugene Cotran, one of the most loved and eminent members of the Palestinian community in the UK and far beyond, died on 7 June. Please find below the details of his funeral on 20th June and of the open day of Condolences on 21st June, plus a request for any donations to go go Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP).

Judge Cotran, born on 6th August 1938, grew up in Jerusalem and was a circuit judge in England. He wrote this fascinating piece on his life for This Week in Palestine, under the headline A Day in the Life of Eugene Cotran.


---------
 from Palestinian Mission UK

Funeral of our beloved Judge Eugene Cotran The Funeral of our beloved Judge Eugene Cotran will take place on Friday 20th of June at St Joseph Church at 11.00am St Joseph Church Cookham Road Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 7EG وتدعو عائلة قطران الأهل والأصدقاء لمشاركتهم الصلاة وستقبل التعازي بعد مراسم الدفن في فندق Condolences after funeral on Friday will be held at The Oakley Court Hotel Windsor Road, Water Oakley Windsor SL4 5UR In accordance with our beloved Eugene’s wish, his family is asking those who wish to send flowers, to donate the money to Medical Aid for Palestine)MAP) to be sent to: W. Sherry & Sons 227 Acton Lane London W4 5DD Tel: 020 8994 5474 The Association of the Palestinian Community in the UK and Cotran family  Are holding an open day of Condolences On Saturday 21st June 17.00-20.00 AT Capthorne Tara hotel Scarsdale Place Kensington London W8 5SR

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There must these days be many news followers who would like to be able to stretch out a hand and reach for a book that would explain the background to, and history of, the various complex conflicts raging in the Middle East. A Concise History of the Arabs  by British lawyer, Arabic linguist and Middle East specialist John McHugo might be just the book for them, and for those with some knowledge of the Arab world who need a refresher course or detailed reference source.

The publication by London-based Saqi Books of a paperback, updated, edition of A Concise History of the Arabs is timely, when news bulletins are routinely studded with references to such matters as the roots of the Sunni-Shia divide; the days of the Ottoman Empire; Sykes-Picot Agreement; Balfour Declaration; the Kurds; Christian minorities; Arab Spring, and so on.

It is often more challenging to write a concise account than a lengthier record. In 368 pages McHugo succeeds in producing a clear, elegant and fully-sourced account of the sweep of Arab history from the birth of Muhammad in around 570 AD to the military coup in July 2013 that overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi.

Saqi first published A Concise History of the Arabs in hardback last year. It met with a highly-favourable reception, and the cover and inside page of the paperback carry accolades from leading specialists in Arab history, politics and journalism.

The late Patrick Seale dubbed the book "brilliant and erudite", while author David Gardner of the Financial Times says it is "brilliant and poignant...an effortless read". Charles Tripp, SOAS Professor of Politics with reference to the Middle East, finds it "a lucid and highly-readable history of the Arab peoples up to the present day."

McHugo is an international lawyer and Arabic linguist, with over forty years’ experience of the Arab region. He has a BA in Oriental Studies from Oxford University, an MA in Arabic Studies from the American University in Cairo and an MLitt in medieval Sufi thought from Oxford University.

He has worked as a lawyer in several Arab countries, notably Egypt, Bahrain and Oman. He is a board member of the Council for Arab British Understanding (CAABU) and of the British Egyptian Society. McHugo, who lives in London, also chairs the Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine.

The titles of his chapters point to the broad themes he tackles. Chapter Four is aptly titled "Sharing an Indigestible Cake". It covers the First Word War and the carving up of Arab-speaking provinces of the Ottoman Empire: "Britain and France had sliced up the cake and shared it out, but it was indigestible." In the chapter McHugo provides an admirably succinct account of events whose repercussions are felt some hundred years later in Syria, Iraq and Palestine/Israel.

The final chapter is "Something Snaps: The Arab Spring and Beyond." Although the Arab revolutions have seen a swing from initial euphoria to turmoil and sometimes conflict, McHugo assesses the process within a wider historical framework.

He draws comparisons with the French Revolution, which "could not be rolled back" and the 1848 "Springtime of the Peoples" with various uncoordinated uprisings in different European locations. Over the following decades, rulers increasingly acknowledged that they needed to government by consent "and that it was better from their own point of view to make concessions to  popular demands than to be engaged in a cycle of endless, and fruitless, repression." McHugo considers that "a similar process has started with the Arab Spring. It has only just begun."

The value of McHugo's book is enhanced by the richness of its references and fullness of its bibliography. He also has a section for those who are new to the history of the Arabs, giving pointers as to how they can begin to explore further the matters covered by his book.


As well as publishing A Concise History of the Arabs, Saqi Books is publisher of McHugo's latest book Syria: From the Great War to Civil War. On 3 July at 7 pm the book will be launched at an event at The Mosaic Rooms in London. McHugo will be in discussion with Jonathan Fryer, freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster on international affairs and part-time SOAS lecturer. His publications include histories of Iraqi Kurdistan and Kuwait. McHugo and Fryer will talk about the history of Syria from the First World War to today, and how this relates to the greatest political and humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century so far, in which an estimated 190,000 people have died and nine million have fled their homes.

Susannah Tarbush, London

An anthology of futuristic short stories by Iraqi authors edited by Hassan Blasim - winner of this year's Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (IFFP) - has been awarded an English PEN grant for translation, through the PEN Translates programme. Manchester-based not-for-profit Comma Press is to publish the anthology  Iraq + 100: Stories from Another Iraq in March 2015, as an Arabic eBook, and as an eBook and paperback in English translation.

"English PEN is proud to support award-winning Iraqi author Hassan Blasim's anthology of short stories Iraq + 100" said a statement from the organisation. "The collection asks ten contemporary Iraqi writers to reflect on what their home city might look like in the year 2103, 100 years after the British/US invasion of the country. The writers will consider the legacy of the war in Iraq, and how it has affected its identity, politics, religion, language and culture."

Blasim and his translator from Arabic Jonathan Wright won IFFP 2014 for Blasim's short story collection The Iraqi Christ, published by Comma. The collection won an English PEN Award. 

Entries for Iraq + 100 are invited by the 1 August deadline. Hassan Blasim will be contributing a story, and other confirmed writers include Ali Bader (Kut), Khaled Kaki (Kirkuk), and Jalal Naim Hasan (Najaf). Further authors are in the pipeline.

The rules for submission of stories for consideration for inclusion in Iraq + 100 stipulate that authors should be Iraqi, and currently based in Iraq. Comma will pay £200 for each story published in the book. The stories set in 2103 must present visions of how the authors imagine life in particular Iraqi cities in 90 years time.

"Each story must tell a stand-alone drama, a complete human story, in less than 6000 words," Comma says (the ideal length is 1250 to 3500 words). "The culture, politics, technology, architecture, and most importantly the language must all be set firmly in the future however, as well as tied to one particular real-life city."

The ten stories in the anthology will be set in ten different Iraqi cities. The rules name 24 Iraqi cities in which stories might be set, 10 of them in Kurdish Iraq, but they add that other cities can be picked. The cities taken by authors so far according to the website are Kirkuk, Najaf, Tikrit, Kut and Nasiriya.

Comma Press hopes that the futuristic setting will give Iraqi authors one of three possible opportunities. The first is to escape completely the political/religious context of Iraq today, and write about a totally different society/environment. The second is to write allegorically about the present (or the recent past, eg the invasion) through the prism of the future; in other words, to project current issues onto an ostensibly otherworldly or unconnected setting, using the future to write about now. The third possibility is to write literally about the influence of the invasion 100 years down the line.

"We invite Iraqi authors from all genres, not just science fiction, and feel that it's just as interesting to ask literary writers to try their  hand at something they've never considered before," say the organisers. "We are interested in stories about relationships, comedies, existential narratives - everything! Not just science fiction and politics!" For writers who would like tips on writing science fiction stories, Comma provides this webpage. The tips are "based on things we’ve noticed over the years and are designed to help avoid some of the common clichés in sci-fi writing."

 Iraq + 100 is supported by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (Gertrude Bell Memorial).
Authors who would like to write for the Iraq + 100 project are asked to contact both the organisers via email, both to express interest and to check that the city they have in mind has not yet been taken.
Hassan Blasim is at hassanblasim@gmail.com   Ra Page is at ra.page@commapress.co.uk


Iraq + 100 is among 14 books to have won a 2014 English PEN grant for translation. Another Comma short story anthology, The Book of Gaza edited by Atef Abu Saif,  is also on the list. The Book of Gaza is in addition one of the eight titles to win a 2014 English PEN award for promotion, via the PEN Promotes programme. The Book of Gaza was promoted through a UK tour by Abu Saif on 1-11 June. (Abdallah Tayeh, a contributor to the collection, was due to accompany Abu Saif on the tour but he had visa problems and was unable to travel from Gaza to the UK. He participated in tour events via a recording).

Comma Press is working to develop a special translation Arabic Imprint working with Arabic short story writers, with the support of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World (CASAW).  Iraq + 100
is the latest addition to Comma's growing list of works translated from Arabic. Previous titles on the list are Madinah: City Stories from the Middle East, edited by Joumana Haddad; Hassan Blasim's two collections  The Madman of Freedom Square and The Iraqi Christ; and The Book of Gaza. 
report by Susannah Tarbush, London

Last month the Gazan fiction writer and political scientist Atef Abu Saif toured Britain to promote a short story anthology he edited and contributed to: The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction, published by Comma Press. He discussed the anthology at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, the Mosaic Rooms in London, the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester and – as part of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival – the Bluecoat Arts Centre.

Today Abu Saif and other contributors to the anthology are among the 1.8 million Gazans caught up in the hellish Israeli onslaught on Gaza by air, sea and land. His publisher Ra Page, Founder and Editorial Manager of Manchester-based not-for-profit Comma Press, has managed to keep in sporadic contact with him and some other contributors to the book.


On 19th July Atef emailed: "Ciao Ra, we are ok. waiting the unknown. it is hard to feel helpless and unable to predict what is coming even in little things which relates to ur existence. this feeling makes ur life unbearable. though u have to bear it. two nights ago the strikes destroyed the house of my good friend the poet Othman Hussain in Rafah. Othman spent his 30 years of saving in building this 2 stories house in a rural area east of Rafah. i remember that night 3 years ago when we celebrated the new house.. we grilled fish and ate and drank and sang until the down. now even my memories of the moments are broken images amid the destruction."

On 21 July Atef was in touch again:
"hi, i am sorry for late response. we have electricity for few hours. max 4 hours. i have to move from my place as a friend of mine was under tank attack in Beit Hanoun and we performed a miracle to get him out with his family, phonecalls to the red cross. we finally managed today at 5pm to get all the family in two ambulances and hosted them in my flat. thus i have to move to the little room in my father in law's house in Jabalia camp so we give them a space. now there are some 50 persons in my flat."

On the same day Nayrouz Qarmout, a contributor to The Book of Gaza, told Ra via email:
"I try to be okay, but I feel tired due to lack of sleep, and the increased pace of the bombing; every time we get near to achieving calm the parties on either side try to impose new conditions; ultimately it's the ordinary humans who die... But we are trying to hold out to the end; The warplanes' try to bomb us out of our humanity, to unbalance us; you know the number of Palestinian martyrs increases constantly, but I will continue to write and share the sorrows of others. The number of hours for using electricity has become less than before. I do not feel reassured, anxiety is on each side. I draw my strength from the far reaches of my imagination, not from here."

Najlaa Ataalah, another contributor, emailed Page on 20 July:
"The situation in Gaza is worse than ever... Now we just have electricity for a few hours and some areas just have it for [only] 2 hours per day, the sounds of shelling and bombing rip the ear drum and that's if you are lucky and live little way off the targeted place; if you are any closer the bombing may harvest your beloved friends or family members. “Please Ra sends my regards to all who are thinking of Gaza in during nightmare; tell them that we Gazans feel fear and horror just like anyone else in the world, but we don’t have any choice except to bear it till this nightmare is finished."

two awards from English PEN for translation and promotion
  
The significance and quality of The Book of Gaza was recognised by English PEN which has given it two awards:  one for translation, under the PEN Translates programme, the other for promotion via PEN Promotes which supported Abu Saif’s UK tour. Abu Saif was to have been accompanied on the tour by a contributor to the anthology, Abdallah Tayeh, but Tayeh was unable to get out of Gaza. He did however record a message which was played at tour events. (The message and a video of Abu Saif talking at the Manchester event can be accessed on the Comma website).

In the message Tayeh introduced himself as “a Palestinian writer, refugee, who lives in Jabalia camp in the besieged Gaza Strip. I am 60 years old, I have been writing novels, short stories, and articles since 1975. I have lived all my live in the miserable camp and I have never lost the hope of being free from occupation.”

Tayeh added: “This is the hardest time in the Gaza Strip that I have ever lived. I really wanted to be with you, enjoying these nice meetings, but the only border between Gaza Strip and the world has been closed for over a month, till now. Therefore I could not travel to be with you today although the organisers made a lot of efforts. I did not lose the dream to live in the independent state of Palestine and to be free to travel whenever I want and to see my family live a normal life.”

Tayeh said he hoped readers would enjoy his short story “Two Men”, translated by Adam Talib. He described the story as an allegory that makes the reader think its two main characters, a bald man and a security guard, have transported a girl against her will in a large cardboard box. “Events and the language indicate that a crime has occurred and that the girl is dead or sleeping under the influence of drugs.” The reader is surprised when the box is transported to the bald man’s house and its contents are revealed. Tayeh succeeds in creating a sinister atmosphere full of foreboding, and in overturning readers' assumptions. 

 a richer more nuanced picture of Gaza and its people

During the current Israeli assault on Gaza the media images of the Gaza Strip and its people are dominated by violence and destruction. The inhabitants tend to be seen as either militants, or victims. The ten stories in The Book of Gaza provide a much richer and more nuanced picture of the Gaza Strip and its people. The stories were contributed by five men and five women. Abu Saif is highly appreciative of the storytelling gifts of Gazan females. At the Mosaic Rooms he said his grandmother, who lived in Jaffa until 1948, was “the greatest storyteller...she was very talented in telling all this sadness, all the joy and happiness she had in her youth back home before she was exiled or forced to leave. This is where I learned my first narration skills, and from my neighbours in the refugee camp I grew up in, Jabalia"

In bringing the work of ten Gazan short story writers to an English-language readership, The Book of Gaza also highlights the skills of 11 literary Arabic translators, mostly from the younger generation. Each story, and the Abu Saif's introduction, was rendered into English by a different translator.

The book has the high production standards characteristic of Comma's output, and includes biographies of all the contributing writers and translators.  The book is part of Comma’s Reading the City series; the Gaza cityscape cover was designed by David Eckersall..

One recurring theme in the stories is of the sense of being trapped and wishing to escape. Gaza has been under a blockade for seven years. In 2000 Israel banned most Gaza residents from using the Erez checkpoint into Israel, and the Rafah crossing into Egypt has been virtually closed for a year due to the bad relations between Hamas and the Egyptian regime.



The opening story in the anthology, Abu Saif’s “A Journey in the Opposite Direction”, translated by Thomas Apin, is set near the Rafah crossing. A young man named Ramzi has been waiting to meet his brother who, after three decades living in Italy has returned to live in Gaza. The brother has been held up for three days on the Egyptian side of the crossing.

At the cafe Ramzi encounters Samir, a friend who has returned to Gaza after ten years working in Dubai. Ramzi and Samir are joined by two young women carrying suitcases who have been trying in vain to leave Gaza through the Rafah exit. Nadia, divorced from a violent husband, has a bursary to study in Greece. Samah is being transferred to the Beirut branch of the international organisation for which she works in Gaza. “Gaza was hard on her. It was surprising how quickly her long hair had managed to become a family issue – the key to her honour – after she refused to imprison it under a head cover.” 

We learn that Samah’s only true romance, lasting four years, had been with Ramzi but her father had refused to allow her to marry this poor young man from al-Shati refugee camp. As for Samir, he had been smitten with Nadia in their university days, but the pair had not progressed beyond exchanging looks and smiles. The four young people set off by car to chase the moon.

three generations of Gaza writers

In his introduction to the anthology, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, Abu Saif divides Gazan writers in the period since 1967 into three generations. In the first phase of Israeli occupation most writers left Gaza, many of them heading for Cairo. The short story became increasingly popular, its brevity and symbolism providing a way to overcome Israeli printing and publishing restrictions. “Copying and transporting a story to publishing houses in Jerusalem to be printed was no easy task, and so its short length helped facilitate publication. Gaza, as was said in Palestinian circles abroad, became ‘the exporter of oranges and short stories'.”

Many of the meanings and themes of short stories at that time were intended to provoke national feeling, and steadfastness, Abu Saif said at the Mosaic Rooms. Writers described the miserable lives in refugee camps, and “much of this literature told of how the people in the occupied territories are living.”

The three writers from this first generation included in the anthology are Abdallah Tayeh, Zaki al‘Ela and Ghareeb Asqalani, the pen name of Ibrahim al-Zand. Asqalani’s short story “A White Flower for David”, translated by John Peate, is bold in its portrayal of the possibility of a friendship between two men from opposite sides of the Palestinian-Israeli divide. The friendship comes under violent strain during a time of intifada: can the human rapport survive?

Zaki al ‘Ela, who was born in 1950 and died in 2008 is seen as a father of the Gazan short story. His powerful and poetic story “Abu Jaber Returns to the Woods”, translated by Max Weiss, conveys the brutality and humiliation to which the Israeli military occupation subjects Palestinians in a refugee camp. Taxi driver Abu Jaber is ordered by a group of armed fedayeen to drive them covertly out of the camp during a night curfew. Israeli soldiers interrogate him on his return, but he gives nothing away. After gunfire erupts outside the camp during the night all people between 16 and 60 are ordered by soldiers with megaphones to go into a cold rainswept pit. Soldiers subject Abu Jaber to a savage beating to try to force him to confess that he drove the fighters but he resists. “The rifle branch is flowering”, a line from a popular revolutionary song, is cited in the story. It suggests that to subject a people to such prolonged oppression was bound to lead to armed struggle.


The second generation of Gazan writers includes Abu Saif, Talal Abu Shawish and Yusra al Khatib. At the Mosaic Rooms event Abu Saif recalled writing a short story at the age of 19 during Ramadan in winter 1991 while imprisoned in an Israeli jail, “as most of my generation was”. His generation of writers was  “in a kind of limbo between the occupation era and the PNA (Palestinian National Authority).” In the second generation "the space took shape and the characters became more vivid. You find the streets of Gaza, the buildings."

In “Red Lights” by Talal Abu Shawish, translated by Alice Guthrie, the first-person narrator takes a taxi ride with a hard-pressed driver. The story presents a slice of Gaza life in just two and a half pages. For the beautiful-faced young boys selling chewing gum and sweets in the street, red lights and stopped cars are opportunities. Despite his own problems the driver treats the young sellers generously.  During his ride the narrator sees “two young men trail along behind a gaggle of careless, coquettish young women, who are wandering around the place in circles. All of them are looking for an escape”. The story ends:  "More red lights await  us".

A man agonises over calling a telephone number from long ago in Yusra al Khatib's story "Dead Numbers", translated by Emily Danby. The number is written on a piece of paper which he at one point  tears up, only then to piece it together again. The story reflects the fragility of the links between people. Could dialling the number hail a new beginning, and can one go back when all may have changed? 


The third, youngest, generation is represented in the book through stories by four women. “Mona Abu Sharekh and Nayrouz Qarmout’s writings offer a critical – and one might say, frustrated – engagement with social reality, particularly with regards to the perspectives of women,” says Abu Saif.  “Najlaa Ataallah’s story deals with a harsh reaction to society’s constraints, a tale marked by her own personal word, while Asmaa al Ghul explores love that seeks to be freed from the dominance of men and society alike.”

In “The Sea Cloak” by Nayrouz Qarmout, translated by Charis Bredin, a young woman has been hemmed in by her family since the age of ten when her brother reported her to his parents for flirting with the neighbour's son. She goes with family members to Gaza beach, which is delightfully described by Qarmout. The sea seems to cast a spell on her "making her invisible to those around her and carrying her like a bride on her wedding day." She swims out to sea in her headscarf and black dress and headscarf: “panic and desire gripped her”. 

“The Whore of Gaza” by Najlaa Ataallah, translated by Sarah Irving is steeped in sexuality. A woman in her early thirties sprawled alone on a bed caresses herself  in a fever of frustration, then revels in the beauty of her body. Her mind is full of conflict as she considers male-female relations in Gaza. She goes to meet her older married lover of seven years;  their relationship, which was never fully consummated in order to preserve her hymen. While she waits for him she flicks through her many text messages from men. She decides "in all her anger that she will be whatever Gaza wants her to be, and how it wants her to be."

In Mona Abu Sharekh’s “When I Cut Off Gaza’s Head”, translated by Katharine Halls, a woman receives over the course of a week mysterious daily letters from an unknown artist named Salwa. The woman who receives the letters is the only one in neighbourhood who doesn’t wear a headscarf, and who lets her daughter travel round Europe. Salwa is a kind of alter ego. “Where has Salwa come from? Who has sent her to dig deep into my soul’s wrinkles and my heart's vaulted cellars, opening doors I closed years ago?" As Salwa reveals her love affair through her letters, the narractor discloses things about herself.


The first-person narrator of Asmaa al Ghul's story "You and I”, translated by Alexa Firat, engages in compulsive counting of objects, which seems to be a form of obsesssive compulsive disorder (OCD). The counting and repetitions give the story a rhythm. She is remembering a lost friend, but as she counts she "dissolves into forgetfulness. I forget your face, your features, your eyes bound to my soul like a white moth drawn to the beam of a candle." Towards the end of the story her counting moves from objects such as cars to the counting of graves.

Atef Abu Saif concludes his introduction to The Book of Gaza with the observation that people in Gaza "live on a remorseless stretch of land in a reality that tries to kill their desire to live, yet they do not tire of loving life, as long as there is a way to do so." Words that may offer some slight glimmer of hope in these terrible times.
by Susannah Tarbush

Press release issued by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Thursday 07 August 2014, 6:00 am GMT

Mounting evidence of deliberate attacks on Gaza health workers by Israeli army

An immediate investigation is needed into mounting evidence that the Israel Defense Forces launched apparently deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza, which have left six medics dead, said Amnesty International as it released disturbing testimonies from doctors, nurses, and ambulance personnel working in the area.

“The harrowing descriptions by ambulance drivers and other medics of the utterly impossible situation in which they have to work, with bombs and bullets killing or injuring their colleagues as they try to save lives, paint a grim reality of life in Gaza,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International. “Even more alarming is the mounting evidence that the Israeli army has targeted health facilities or professionals. Such attacks are absolutely prohibited by international law and would amount to war crimes. They only add to the already compelling argument that the situation should be referred to the International Criminal Court.”

Hospitals, doctors and ambulance staff, including those trying to evacuate people injured in Israeli attacks, have come under increased fire since 17 July. Some medical teams have even been prevented from reaching critical areas altogether, leaving hundreds of injured civilians without access to life-saving help and entire families without assistance in removing the bodies of their loved ones.

Jaber Khalil Abu Rumileh, who supervises ambulance services in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, told Amnesty International of a shelling attack on the medical facility on 21 July that lasted for half an hour.

 “It was 3pm and I was working in the emergency unit. I heard bombing that shook the hospital. It was a shelling that had hit the fourth floor, the pregnancy and caesarean unit. Then there were a few more hits. People were terrified, patients ran out, doctors could not enter to help the injured and remove the dead. Then the third floor was hit and four people were killed. I saw one women come running with the child she just gave birth to. Some women gave birth during the shelling.”

Mohammad Abu Jumiza is partially deaf after suffering head injuries during an attack that took place while he was transferring injured people in his ambulance in Khan Younis on 24 July.

“We were on our way back to Nasser hospital, driving with the lights and sirens on as always. The ambulance was clearly marked as such. The doctor, nurse and I were all wearing medical uniforms. When we reached the Islamic University I heard an explosion right next to us and the front and back windows of the car fell out. As I was turning another missile hit next to us, and then a third one. When the fourth missile hit, I lost control and we crashed, so we ran out of the car and found shelter in a building. Then there were two more missiles fired and some people were injured.”

Dr Bashar Murad, director of Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s (PRCS) emergency and ambulance unit, said that since the conflict started at least two PRCS ambulance workers had been killed, at least 35 had been injured and 17 health vehicles had been left out of service after attacks by the Israeli army.

“Our ambulances are often targeted although they are clearly marked and display all signs that they are ambulances. The army should be able to distinguish from the air that what they targeting are ambulances,” he said.

Ambulance worker Mohammad Al-Abadlah was killed on 25 July. He was in Qarara to help an injured person when he was shot in the hip and chest with gunfire and bled to death. Mohammad was travelling in a visibly marked ambulance and was wearing his medical uniform. Colleagues who approached him to help him were also shot at but were not injured.

A’ed Mustafa Bur’i, another ambulance worker, was burned to death on 25 July in Beit Hanoon after a shell hit the clearly marked vehicle he was travelling in.

Hospitals across the Gaza Strip are also suffering from fuel and power shortages, inadequate water supply, and shortages of essential drugs and medical equipment. Such shortages, already prevalent due to Israel’s seven-year blockade, have been made much worse during the current hostilities.

Public Document **************************************** For more information contact Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 or +44 (0) 777 847 2126 email: press@amnesty.org

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 7 August 2014


Evidence of medical workers and facilities being targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza
Testimonies from doctors, nurses, and ambulance workers who have spoken to Amnesty International paint a disturbing picture of hospitals and health professionals coming under attack by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, where at least six medics have been killed. There is growing evidence that health facilities or professionals have been targeted in some cases.

Since Israel launched Operation “Protective Edge” on 8 July, the Gaza Strip has been under intensive bombardment from the air, land and sea, severely affecting the civilian population there. As of 5 August, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 1,814 Palestinians had been killed in the Gaza Strip, 86 per cent of them civilians. More than 9,400 people have been injured, many of them seriously. An estimated 485,000 people across the Gaza Strip have been displaced, and many of them are taking refuge in hospitals and schools.

Amnesty International has received reports that the Israeli army has repeatedly fired at clearly marked ambulances with flashing emergency lights and paramedics wearing recognizable fluorescent vests while carrying out their duties. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, at least six ambulance workers, and at least 13 other aid workers, have been killed as they attempted to rescue the wounded and collect the dead. At least 49 doctors, nurses and paramedics have been injured by such attacks; at least 33 other aid workers were also injured. At least five hospitals and 34 clinics have been forced to shut down due to damage from Israeli fire or continuing hostilities in the immediate area.

Hospitals across the Gaza Strip suffer from fuel and power shortages (worsened by the Israeli attack on Gaza’s only power plant on 29 July), inadequate water supply, and shortages of essential drugs and medical equipment. The situation was acute before the current hostilities, due to Israel’s seven-year blockade of Gaza, but have been seriously exacerbated since.

Amnesty International has repeatedly called on Israel to immediately end the blockade on the Gaza Strip, which is collectively punishing the entire population of Gaza, in breach of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.

Amnesty International is aware of reports that Palestinian armed groups have fired indiscriminate rockets from near hospitals or health facilities, or otherwise used these facilities or areas for military purposes. Amnesty International has not been able to confirm any of these reports. While the use of medical facilities for military purposes is a severe violation of international humanitarian law, hospitals, ambulances and medical facilities are protected and their civilian status must be presumed. Israeli attacks near such facilities – like all other attacks during the hostilities – must comply with all relevant rules of international humanitarian law, including the obligation to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects and military targets, the obligation that attacks must be proportional and the obligation to give effective warning. Hospitals and medical facilities must never be forced to evacuate patients under fire.

Mohammad Al-Abadlah, 32, a paramedic who worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), was killed on 25 July in Qarara by Israeli army gunfire when he was attempting to rescue an injured man stranded in an area controlled by the Israeli military. Hassan Al-Attal, 40, a colleague of Mohammad Al-Abadlah who was with him at the time and witnessed the shooting, told Amnesty International:

“On 25 July, my colleague Mohammad Al-Abadlah and I were tasked with reaching an injured man in Qarara. We went in the afternoon but were unable to cross the area because there were piles of sand blocking the roads next to which Israeli tanks were stationed. We were not able to reach our destination, so we cancelled the mission and we went back.

“At 10pm on the same day, we were tasked again with the same mission. We arrived at the intersection between Salah Al-Din and Al-Umda Streets and then headed north to try to access from a way other the one we had tried earlier. We were communicating with the Red Cross the whole time, relying on them every step of the way; we were communicating to them everything in details as we always do when we enter areas under Israeli military control.

“At one point while driving in the ambulance we were blocked by live electric wires on the road. We informed the Red Cross that the road was blocked and we could not cross. They asked us to try to cross somehow, but we told them we couldn’t. They then called the Israelis and told them about the wires blocking the road and how we were unable to cross. They got back to us saying the army says to get out of the car and cross on foot with our flashlights. So, Mohammad said to me ‘Let’s go, they agreed that we can go walking and collect the case from them directly’.

“We got out, we crossed about 10-12 metres and suddenly we were being fired at directly. My colleague screamed and said ‘I’ve been shot’. The shooting continued everywhere, so I could not pull him away or else I too would have got shot and fallen beside him – so I ran and sat in the ambulance. I called the station and told them we had been fired at and Mohammad was injured. The head of the centre came with two ambulances to try and save our colleague. When the colleagues got out to try and take Mohammed, they too were fired at. The head of the centre asked the Red Cross to ask for shooting to stop while we evacuated Mohammad. We brought him but sadly he died.

“When he was shot and I had gone back to the ambulance, we continued – he and I - to shout at each other. I could hear him. He was saying ‘come to me’ and I asked him to try and crawl closer to me, so that if he came closer I could pull him away – just so that he would move away from the shooting. He kept saying that he could not crawl to us and we couldn’t get to him. After that we co-ordinated with the Red Cross and the rest of our colleagues came and we were able bring him back, but he died.”

Amnesty International spoke independently to Mohammad Ghazi Al-Hessy, head of the PRCS’s centre in Khan Younis, who received the call to rescue Mohammad and attended to it with his other colleagues. He told Amnesty International: “When we received this call from the Red Cross. They said it was Israel that had requested the evacuation of the injured person. A team including Mohammad al-Abadlah as the ambulance driver, medic Hassan Al-Attal, and volunteer Ghaleb Abu-Khater were sent off to get the case. Fifteen minutes later, I heard Hassan Al-Attal on the radio shouting ‘There is shooting at us – we are being shot at by the Israelis and Mohammad Al-Abadlah has fallen and is not responding to me’.

“I immediately took two ambulances and went to the area while all the time communicating with the Red Cross. I tried calling Mohammad Al-Abadlah’s two mobiles but neither mobile responded. We first drove to a safe area nearby about 100 metres from where they were. I understood that Mohammad, Hassan and Ghaleb were out of the car because they could not reach the injured man with the ambulance; the Israelis had asked them to get out of the car, so the driver and the medic got out with a stretcher and a flashlight. The minute they entered the dirt road leading to the injured person, they were shot at directly and specifically at Mohammad Al-Abadlah.

“I asked the Red Cross to co-ordinate our entry to collect Mohammad. My colleagues and I got out. There were six or seven of us. We put the stretcher next to him and suddenly we were surrounded by very heavy gunfire from the soldiers in the area.

“They were direct shots aimed over our heads, under our feet, so we had to evacuate the area. During that time, Mohammad was bleeding very heavily, he was still alive at that point – his white uniform was completely red. Because of the gunfire we were unable to put him on the stretcher.

“So we ran and called the Red Cross and told them we were being shot at and it would not do. We remained there for 10 minutes then the Red Cross called back and told us to let two of us go in and grab him. Two of the colleagues did indeed go back in, put Mohammad on the stretcher and we drove him to Nasser Hospital. He was still alive and breathing. We worked on him at Nasser Hospital, but he died in the intensive care unit.” Speaking to Amnesty International about the killing of Mohammad Al-Abadlah, Dr Bashar Murad, head of PRCS’s emergency and ambulance unit, said:

“We had received permission to enter the area. The army had called the Red Cross asking for an ambulance. The call was about an injured person and when our ambulance worker Mohammad arrived he was killed, although he was travelling in an ambulance clearly visible as such. He was in medical uniform, which distinguishes him, and he was carrying a stretcher when he was shot by a sniper. He received bullets in the hip and chest, and even when his colleagues tried to rescue him they were also shot at. We had called the Red Cross and informed them and asked them to interfere and allow us to rescue the medic, but we were prevented from getting to him for half an hour. Mohammad bled to death.

“He was killed despite assurances we received from the Red Cross that the area was safe for us to work in. Our entrance to the area was checked twice with the army through the Red Cross. His colleagues would also have been killed if they had not found shelter in a house nearby. There was shooting at them. The Red Cross needs to call for accountability in this case”.

A’ed Al-Bor’i, 28, a volunteer medic with the PRCS ambulance service, was killed at around 4.30pm on 25 July in Beit Hanoun when a shell fired by the Israeli army hit the ambulance he was riding in on the way to treat an injured person. Jawad Budier, 50, a paramedic who was with A’ed Al-Bor’i and was injured in the attack, told Amnesty International:

“I received a call from the ‘dispatcher’ in Jabaliya ambulance centre while I was working in the Beit Hanoun area as there were injuries on Masriyeen Road. They were difficult conditions. Masriyeen Road was about 100 metres away from where I was in the Beit Hanoun hospital, which was our centre, so my team and I moved from there into Masriyeen Road. We went no more than 100 metres – to where the injured were. There was a side road around six meters wide which we tried to dive into, but suddenly there was an explosion directly on the ambulance – we were shocked.

“Suddenly there was fire on top of my head and my face was burnt – my hair was on fire along with my hand. I tried to put the fire out, but when I tried to open the door next to me to get out it would not open. So I thought I could get out through the door on the right – past the medic Hattem Shahine, who had been sitting next to me. Behind me was the late A’ed Al-Bor’i. To my surprise I could not find Hattem Shahine or the seat next to me. There was no one next to me. “I managed to get out… and was shocked to find A’ed thrown on the ground dead and his upper torso ripped apart (I could see his insides) – I am not sure how.

“I looked at the back of the car, and I could not see a back to the car, the back half of the car was all gone, totally separated from the front of the car, nothing was attached, no doors, nothing. I got out from the back and ran till I got to Beit Hanoun hospital, no more than 200 metres away. When I got to the hospital door I fainted from the shock and horror of the situation; I had also been fasting. The medical team took care of me and I was miraculously saved. I believe I was directly targeted. The Occupation [Israeli military] does not discriminate between rocks or trees or human beings.”

Dr Bashar Murad told Amnesty International that an ambulance which was sent to retrieve A’ed Al-Bor’i’s body was also shot at, which resulted in the injury of another medic. The PRCS were not able to retrieve the body until the next day.

Mohammad Abu Jumiza, 47, a Ministry of Health paramedic ambulance worker, was injured on 24 July when two ambulances he was riding in were hit by Israeli military aerial attacks in Khan Younis. He told Amnesty International:

“On 24 July at night, I received a call to transfer a case from Nasser Hospital, where I am based, to the European Hospital. That was around 11-11.30pm. The case need a nurse and a doctor; Dr Majdi Al-Amoor and colleague Shadi Abu Mustafa came with me. We picked up the injured person and took him along with two of this relatives to the European Hospital and dropped them off. On our way back to Nasser Hospital, it was only the three of us in the ambulance, it was clearly marked as such. All three of us were in medical uniform, and we were driving with the lights and sirens on as always.

“When we reached the Islamic University I heard an explosion right next to us. The front and back windscreens of the car fell out. My colleague asked me to speed up, so I did, and as I was going around a bend another missile hit next to us and then after that a third one hit next to us. Each of the hits moved the car. When the fourth missile hit, I lost control and we crashed. I was driving at 70-80km per hour at the time. When we crashed we ran out of the car and found shelter in a building. There were two more missiles fired; there were people there and some got injured. All the missiles that hit when I was driving hit very close to us.

“The people came out of their houses because of the bombing. Everyone was terrified, and some were injured by shrapnel. We found shelter and we called an ambulance. We called the PRCS and told them that medics were injured, so ambulances arrived after 10 minutes. I got in the car with my colleague; my head was injured and my face was bleeding. I got a ride with my colleague from PRCS Salem Abu Al-Kheir, along with three other people who were injured from the shrapnel. As we were driving we were hit by a missile, and then after another 30 metres another missile hit. There was a huge explosion; the sound was loud and the ambulance window fell out. I was sitting behind the driver. We stopped the car, got out and ran. We found a house and took shelter. My colleague was bleeding, as was I. My colleague called the PRCS and informed them about what had happened, but we told them not to send another car – because it would be hit – without first co-ordinating with the Red Cross. After 20-25 minutes, a PRCS ambulance came and took us to Nasser Hospital. My colleague from the PRCS was injured in his arm. Now I cannot hear, as well receiving injuries to the face (ear and lips) and to the head.”

Hani Ja’farawi, head of the Palestinian Ministry of Health’s ambulance unit, spoke to Amnesty International about some of the dangers he faced while joining ambulance missions in northern Gaza: “During my rides I saw massive destruction. I would be driving with the heavy sound of bombing the whole time. We were not directly targeted but there was the danger of fire around us. They fired right next to us when they wanted to tell us not to advance any more, and so we stop. They gave warning by firing at us.”

“On Thursday, 24 July, I accompanied an ambulance going to transfer injured people to Jerusalem through Erez. We worked to transfer at least six injured people per day. We would always go in a bunch of ambulances. We took off from the European Hospital and after we handed over the injured people we would come back on Salah Al-Din Street. We had lights and sirens on and, as we were driving in the empty streets – no one there, not a soul –we found two men injured and lying on the side of the road. When we stopped, the Israelis fired shells right next to us. There was some damage to the outside of the ambulances and one medic received an injury from the shrapnel. There was no one around us. The shelling targeted us although it did not hit the ambulance directly. How would you explain it otherwise? It was only us and injured men.”

On 21 July parts of the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah was struck by Israeli shelling, killing four people and wounding dozens, including medical workers, patients and people fleeing the violence and looking for refuge in the hospital. Jaber Khalil Abu Rumileh, supervisor of emergency and ambulance services at the hospital, who was there at the time, told Amnesty International:

“On 21 July, at 3pm, after midday prayer, I was at my workstation in the hospital. While I was working in the emergency unit, I heard a sound of bombing. It shook the hospital – a shelling. It hit the fourth floor, pregnancy and caesarean unit, then there were a few more hits. People were terrified, patients ran out, doctors could not enter and take out injured and killed people. And then as we were trying to calm people and attend to injuries and others, more shelling hit the building. The third floor was hit. It includes other surgery units, the childcare unit and the heart unit. Four people were killed from these hits. One shell went through the eastern wall on this third floor, through the wall in the middle and hit Nurse Eman Abu Jayyab. Her right arm was broken.

“It was chaos. All patients, visitors, people taking shelter at the hospital, nurses, doctors, workers – there were around 30-40 child patients - everyone was panicking. Everyone came down to the ground floor, everyone was scared, and when everyone was downstairs, another shell hit, and the glass down there fell out. The shelling kept on for 30 minutes from beginning to end. Ambulances and ambulance workers were hit when rubble fell down on them outside.

“It was a tragedy for all the pregnant women or those who gave birth. I saw one women come running with the child she had just given birth to. Some women gave birth during the shelling, the doctors did it on the ground floor, and three women were transferred to other hospitals.

“We were scared ourselves, I was worried about myself, but I have a duty to preform so I had not to worry about myself and attend to patients and my injured colleagues. We called the Red Cross and journalists. When the Red Cross came, we told them what happened. When they went up to see what happened, the hospital was hit again. They stopped their visit and left. Everyone was asking them for protection. We said that the hospital anywhere in any circumstances should be a safe place.”

Amnesty International has previously documented and reported on attacks by the Israeli army on health workers during military operations in Gaza in 2008/09 and 2012. Endangering the lives of aid and medical workers and obstructing their work is a violation of international law.

The Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949 (Fourth Geneva Convention) obliges states to respect and protect the wounded, to allow the removal from besieged areas of the wounded or sick, and the passage of medical personnel to such areas. The deliberate obstruction of medical personnel to prevent the wounded receiving medical attention may constitute “wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health”, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a war crime.

Enemy on the Euphrates: the British Occupation of Iraq and the Great Arab Revolt 1914-1921
by Ian Rutledge
Saqi Books, London, 471pp hardback
ISBN 978 0 86356 762 9

review by Susannah Tarbush, London
an Arabic version of this article appeared in  Al-Hayat newspaper on 9 August 2014.

Between July 1920 and February 1921 in the territory known to the British as Mesopotamia – the modern state of Iraq – an Arab uprising occurred which came close to inflicting a shattering defeat upon the British Empire.

“The insurrection in Iraq of 1920, measured in enemy combatant numbers, was the most serious armed uprising against British rule in the twentieth century,” writes the British economist and historian Ian Rutledge in his new book Enemy on the Euphrates: The British Occupation of Iraq and the Great Arab Revolt 1914-1921. The 471-page book was published recently in London by Saqi Books.

At the height of the rebellion the British estimated 131,000 Arabs were in arms against them. Iraqi estimates of the numbers are larger, and one Iraqi estimate is as high as 567,000.

Rutledge notes that to the vast majority of European and American historians of the 20th century Middle East, the term “Arab Revolt” has usually meant the role of British Colonel T E Lawrence – “Lawrence of Arabia” –in the pro-British rebellion of the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi, and his sons, against the Ottoman Turks in the First World War.

In this pro-British Arab Revolt of 1916-18, the maximum number of Bedouin mobilised never exceeded 27,000, supported by around 12,000 deserters from the Ottoman army. Only a small minority of the Bedouin actually participated in combat operations.


Rutledge writes that if we ask the question “On whose side did the Arabs fight in the First World War?” most people who know something of the war’s history would probably say Britain’s. But in reality, the vast majority of Arabs did not fight for the British in the First World War. In 1914 about one-third of the regular troops in the Ottoman army were Arabs. And in addition, among the tribal Bedouin there were thousands of Arab volunteers who flocked to fight for the Ottomans.

In contrast to Lawrence’s 1916-18 Arab Revolt, the Iraqi uprising of 1920 was not a matter of sporadic guerrilla fighting. “It was a war: one in which a huge peasant army led by Shi’i clerics, Baghdad notables, disaffected sheikhs and former Ottoman army officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs) surrounded and besieged British garrisons with sandbagged entrenchments and bombarded them with captured artillery,” writes Rutledge.

During this war the Iraqi insurgents ambushed and destroyed columns of troops, and armoured trains, and burned or captured well-armed British gunboats. The insurgents established their own system of government and administration in the ‘liberated zones’ centred on the cities of Najaf and Karbela. “It was a war which, at one stage, Britain came very close to losing and which was won only with the help of a massive influx of Indian troops and, especially towards the end of the campaign, the widespread use of aircraft.”

The policy of using of Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft against the Iraqis rebels is very much associated with Winston Churchill, who was in 1920 the Secretary of State for War and responsible for putting down the revolution in Iraq. It is sometimes claimed that under Churchill the RAF bombed Iraqis with chemical weapons. Rutledge notes that although Churchill said he was ready to authorise the construction of gas bombs, it was decided “ordinary” bombing from the air was effective enough. Some of the “spectacular” bombing operations were carried out at night, and not only killed rebels but caused heavy casualties among women and children.


The story of the 1920-21 Iraqi uprising once closely engaged the attention of the British public but, Rutledge writes, “over many decades it slipped back into the mists of exclusively academic history, almost completely erased from the collective memory.” 

However, the ill-fated US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the Iraqi insurgency against the occupation that followed, that once more brought to light the much older, forgotten 1920 insurgency in Iraq.

Journalists, historians and even functionaries of the US occupation drew lessons and made comparisons, “some appropriate, some less so”, between the 2003 invasion and Britain’s invasion and occupation of Iraq during and after the First World War. At the same time some of those Iraqis fighting the Americans and their allies in began to portray their own violent resistance to foreign intervention with reference to that 1920 armed struggle in which some of their grandparents might have participated.

In the first half of his book - entitled “Invasion, Jihad and Occupation” - Rutledge examines what happened in Iraq during the First World War. The oil industry, then in its infantry, was of growing importance to Britain’s whose admiralty was converting the Royal Navy’s warships to run on oil rather than coal.

 HMS Firefly, one of the 'Fly Class' gunboats used agaginst the insurgents



In June 1914 Winston Churchill, who was then the First Lord of the Admiralty, introduced a bill in the House of Commons to partially nationalise the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. One implication of this parliamentary Act was that “Britain had now committed itself to a strategic involvement in a region on the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire and within a few hours’ march of Ottoman troops based at the Iraqi city of Basra,” Rutledge says.

After Turkey allied itself with Germany, the Sheikh al-Islam on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan issued a fatwa on 14 November 1914, calling for jihad against the British and French. The Ottoman fatwa had a particularly strong impact among the Shi’i tribes of the mid-Euphrates area. Among the 18,000 volunteer mujahidin who joined up with the Ottomans were notables who would form the backbone of a second great struggle against the British six years later, in 1920.

The second half of Rutledge’s book, entitled “Revolution and Suppression”, depicts in great detail the different phases of the 1920-21 revolution, its crushing by the British, and the British goal of creating a “friendly native state” in Iraq. After the crushing of the insurgency a puppet government and army were installed and Emir Faysal, one of the sons of the Sharif of Mecca, was touted as the most suitable candidate as king, after the French expelled him as king of Syria.

The publication of Rutledge’s book is highly timely. This year is the centenary of the beginning of the First World War in 1914, and this has in Britain prompted many books, articles and TV and radio programmes on the war. While much of the attention has been focused on the Western Front, and on the battlefields of France and Belgium, there is growing interest in Middle Eastern theatre in the First World War.

At the same time, the current violent upheavals in Iraq and Syria has focussed attention once more on the creation of modern Iraq, and on the secret 1916 Sykes-Picot agreement between the French and British which defined their spheres of influence in the Middle East should the Ottoman Empire be defeated.

The Sykes-Picot agreement is often seen as a betrayal of the Arabs, but Rutledge sees as an even greater betrayal the breaking of the pledges made publicly to the Arabs in the Baghdad Declaration of 1917 and the Anglo-French Declaration of 1918. These pledges “were later ruthlessly ignored by the political and military authorities in Britain and France”.


Rutledge has a PhD in Economic History from Cambridge University, and is Research Director and co-founder of the Sheffield Energy Resources Information Services (SERIS).  Around 25 years ago he started to be fascinated by the economics, history, culture, and religions of the Middle East and North Africa. As an avid lover of books he set out to build a personal library on these subjects. Many of the books he discovered, many of them at second hand book shops and book fairs, provided crucial reference material for Enemy on the Euphrates.

He also set about learning Arabic, taking Arabic lessons with a personal tutor, Syrian Haytham Bayasi, formerly of Damascus and now living in Sheffield. Rutledge’s mastery of Arabic meant he was able to read important sources in Arabic. The extensive bibliography in his new book includes numerous Arabic works.

Enemy on the Euphrates is a long work, rich in detail, but Rutledge manages to make the text highly readable, lively and dramatic. And he presents fascinating accounts of the main British and Iraqi personalities involved in the narrative and the conflicts that sometimes erupted between them.


The main British actors in the story include of course Winston Churchill and Colonel TE Lawrence, as well as Gertrude Bell; Sir Percy Cox; Sir Mark Sykes (co-architect of the Sykes-Picot agreement) and Lieutenant Colonel Arnold T Wilson, who was head of the occupation administration in Iraq.

On the Arab side there is Emir Faysal: Churchill, Bell and Lawrence engineered matters so that he came to occupy the Iraqi throne in 1921. Other key figures included Iraqi-born Ottoman army officesr Ja’far al-Askari and Nuri al-Sa’id, both of whom defected to the British.The Baghdad Shi’i merchant Ja’far Abu al-Timman was one of the most important leaders of the nationalist organisation Haras al-Istiqlal as was Sayyid Muhammad al-Sadr.


Al-Timman campaigned for Shi’i and Sunni Muslims to unite against the British occupation. Rutledge considers that in the decades that followed: “The one veteran of the 1920 uprising who remained loyal to the best ideals of the revolution was Ja’far Abu al-Timman.”

Wealthy landowner Sayyid Muhsin Abu Tabih, was a main leader of the 1920 uprising and was appointed as mutasarrif, to govern territory governed by the insurgents. Another key figure was Yusuf al-Suwaydi, elderly Baghdad Sunni notable and leading member of the nationalist Haras al-Istiqlal.  

In his conclusion to Enemy on the Euphrates Rutledge considers the long-term consequences of the uprising, and Britain’s crushing of it, on the modern history of Iraq. The state that was created after the uprising had virtually no roots among the predominantly Shi’i cultivators who constituted the majority of Iraqi ‘civil society’ at that time. The British made sure that the machinery of the state and the army was dominated by Sunnis, who were at that time around 19 per cent of the population. “This absence of representative state formation at the birth of the Iraqi nation established a dark precedent for the future conduct of Iraqi politics.”

On 23 July this blog published a post on The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction, an anthology of short stories by Gazan writers edited by author, journalist and political scientist Atef Abu Saif and published recently by Comma Press of Manchester, England. Abu Saif had visited the UK in June for a tour to promote the book, which has two awards from English Pen, for translation and for promotion. A  sign of the very difficult situation for besieged Gazans was that Abdallah Tayeh, a contributor to the book, had been unable to get out of Gaza to accompany Abu Saif on the tour as had been planned.



Not only after Abu Saif returned to Gaza from his UK tour the Israelis started their assault on Gaza and Hamas launched rockets into Israel. The Tanjara blog post of 23 July included emails from Abu Saif and some of the other nine contributors to The Book of Gaza to Comma's Founder and Editorial Manager Ra Page telling of the impact of the onging Israeli air, land and sea attacks.


Over the past three weeks articles by several of the writers whose short stories appear in The Book of Gaza have been published in the international media.The articles are a remarkable collection of testimonies, reflections and observations, taking us deep into the Gaza experience.

I Do Not want to Be a Number by Atef Abu Saif, Slate, 23 July 2014
The Children Have Barely Slept by Atef Abu Saif, Guernica Magazine, 31 July 2014
We wait each night for death to knock at the door by Atef Abu Saif, the Sunday Times, 27 July 2014 Life Life Under Fire in Gaza: The Diary of a Palestinian  by Atef Abu Saif, the Guardian, 28 July 2014
Eight Days in Gaza: Life and Death in the Gaza Strip by Atef Abu Saif, New York Times, 4 August 2014
We're OK in Gaza by Atef Abu Saif, Guernica Magazine, 8 August 2014


Umm Ahmed: Newsflash a short story by Nayrouz Qarmout, in English Pen's Pen Atlas, 29 July 2014
Life in War by Nayrouz Qarmout, English Pen's Pen Atlas, 31 July 2014
My City Burning Peacefully by Nayrouz Qarmout in The Electronic Intifada, 26 July 2014 
Tomorrow the war ends by Najlaa Ataallah,  New Statesman, 31 July 2014
The 14th Night (The Massacre) - Najlaa Ataallah in Diritti Globali, 7 August 2014


The First Refugee Centre by Abdallah Tayeh in Diritti Globali, 8 August 2014

 Without Words by Mona Abu Sharekh, Guernica Magazine, 6 August 2014

Asmaa al-Ghoul (or al-Ghul) is a columnist on Al-Monitor, to which she has contributed a number of articles during the Israeli assaults.

The Asmaa al-Ghoul page on Al-Monitor has links to articles by the writer and  human rights activist, who was in 2012 awarded the Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women's Media Foundation.

Her recent articles include

Gaza residents return to destroyed homes, posted on 14 August 2014

and the intensely moving and thought-provoking:
Never ask me about peace again written after al-Ghoul found her own uncle's home in Rafah had been targeted by two  Israeli F-16 missiles, killing her uncle and eight members of his family including a 24-day-old baby.

Al-Ghoul begins her article:

"My father’s brother, Ismail al-Ghoul, 60, was not a member of Hamas. His wife, Khadra, 62, was not a militant of Hamas. Their sons, Wael, 35, and Mohammed, 32, were not combatants for Hamas. Their daughters, Hanadi, 28, and Asmaa, 22, were not operatives for Hamas, nor were my cousin Wael’s children, Ismail, 11, Malak, 5, and baby Mustafa, only 24 days old, members of Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine or Fatah. Yet, they all died in the Israeli shelling that targeted their home at 6:20 a.m. on Sunday morning.

"Their house was located in the Yibna neighborhood of the Rafah refugee camp. It was one story with a roof made of thin asbestos that did not require two F-16 missiles to destroy. Would someone please inform Israel that refugee camp houses can be destroyed, and their occupants killed, with only a small bomb, and that it needn’t spend billions to blow them into oblivion?

"If it is Hamas that you hate, let me tell you that the people you are killing have nothing to do with Hamas. They are women, children, men and senior citizens whose only concern was for the war to end, so they can return to their lives and daily routines. But let me assure you that you have now created thousands — no, millions — of Hamas loyalists, for we all become Hamas if Hamas, to you, is women, children and innocent families. If Hamas, in your eyes, is ordinary civilians and families, then I am Hamas, they are Hamas and we are all Hamas."

Manchester-based Comma Press is looking, by a deadline of 10th November 2014, for new short stories written by Iraqi writers and set in Iraq to be submitted for an anthology to be published in both Arabic (as an eBook) and English translation (book and eBook) in 2015. The anthology will be edited by the Iraqi short story writer and filmmaker Hassan Blasim, whose collection The Iraqi Christ, published by Comma, won the 2014 Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for Blasim and his translator into English Jonathan Wright.

Contributions will be selected according to how well they respond to the following brief.

Each story must:

• be set in the year 2103 - exactly 100 years after the allied invasion of Iraq.
• present visions of how the authors imagine life in particular Iraqi cities might be in 90 years' time.
• be a stand-alone drama and tell a complete human story in less than 6000 words.

Please note that the culture, politics, technology, architecture, and - most importantly - the language must all be set firmly in the future and tied to one particular real-life Iraqi city.



The reason for the futuristic setting is intedned to give Iraqi authors one of three possible opportunities.

They can use the setting to either:

(i) completely escape the political/religious context of Iraq today, and write about a different society/environment altogether;

(ii) write allegorically about the present (or recent past, e.g. the invasion) through the prism of the future; in other words, they can project current issues onto an ostensibly otherworldly or unconnected setting (use the future to write about now);

or to

(iii) write literally about the influence of the invasion 100 years down the line.

Comma invites submissions from Iraqi authors working across all genres - not just science fiction. "We feel that it's just as interesting to ask literary writers to try their hand at something they've never considered before, whether that be science-fiction or futurism; an allegory which allows authors to express what normal literary realism doesn't; or the opportunity to metaphorically comment on the present political, social and cultural existence through the prism of the 'future' (2103)", says Comma. "In short, we are interested in stories about relationships, comedies, existential narratives - everything! Not just science fiction and politics!!"

Ten stories will be included in the anthology. Comma envisions that each will be set in a specific Iraqi city in the year 2103.

With the exception of Kut, Najaf and Kirkuk which have already been commissioned, submissions can be set in any of the cities outlined in the list below.

Comma can pay £200 for every story it publishes. However it cannot pay for a story if it does not ultimately publish it.

If you would like to write for this project, please contact the two organisers via email to express your interest and to check that the city has not already been taken:

hassanblasim@gmail.com and christine.gilmore@commapress.co.uk

DEADLINE for submissions: 10th November 2014 


The Setting
The setting is important - "the history of each city should be written into its future". The list below isn't exhaustive - you can pick other cities or even regions if your story is not limited to an urban setting. Feel free to contact Comma with your queries and ideas!

Cities to choose from: 

In Iraq:
1. Baghdad
2. Basra
3. Mosul
4. Karbala
5. Fallujah
6. Tikrit
7. Nasiriya
8. Amarah
9. Sadr City
10. Ramadi
11. Ukbara

In Kurdish Iraq:
1. Hewlr / Erbil
2. Silman /Sulaymaniyah
3. Dihok
4. Zaxo
5. Kelar
7. Rewandiz /Rwandz
8. Helebce / Halabja
9. Saml / Sumail
10. Ranye / Ranya


Comma wants writers to think about which city to choose to set their work in creatively, and carefully. For example, if you want to write a piece of classic utopian/dystopian futurism, Basra might be a very interesting setting. Basra is the town from which HG Well's futuristic saviours, the 'Wings Over the World', appear, to save war-torn Western Europe in his book and film The Shape of Things to Come. Or if you're interested in a Borges-inspired vision of the future, Ukbara might be a great setting. Ukbara is the real-life origin of Borges' unreal city 'Ukbar' in his famous "Tln, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius". The very fact that it's a real place undermines Borges' un-real game, so perhaps it could be a setting for a more existential set of questions, about the nature of reality. These are just examples.

Frequently Asked Questions  
Why has 2103 been chosen as the date in which the stories must be set?  
The idea here is both to give Iraqi writers some creative space to reflect on the long-term legacy of the Iraq invasion and, simultaneously, the chance to escape the pressures of the current political climate by projecting their visions of Iraq in the future. Setting the stories 100 years after the invasion gives writers freedom to be creative. They can choose exactly what direction they want their story to take, whether that be a complete escape from the present into a fictional future world; a realistic projection of the war's aftermath and how its' legacy affects the future; or an allegorical portrayal of contemporary issues in a future setting. Remember that for many science fiction writers, setting a story in the future gives them greater freedom to critique the present and evade the censorship and social taboos that so often hamper creative expression.

What are the requirements?  
The story should not have been translated into English before and should be written in response to the brief above. It must be fictional and set in one particular Iraqi city; the stories must be human stories rather than political. Each story will present a vision of how the authors imagine life in their chosen city in 90 years time, but through the story's context or background readers must grasp something of the city's past as well as the long term effects of the US invasion.

Who is eligible to submit a story?
Comma welcomes submissions from all Iraqi writers. We are particularly seeking authors currently based in Iraq.

Will the book be published in Arabic?  
The anthology will be published in both Arabic and English as an e-book, but the English version will also be published in print. Is Iraq + 100 a science fiction book? No! Science fiction is one possible genre, but the anthology is open to all styles and genres as long as the stories are set in the year 2103.

How many words can the stories be?
Ideally stories will be between 1250 - 3500 words in the Arabic, although we can be flexible.

How much will Comma pay for my story if it is published?
Comma can pay £200 for each story that it chooses to publish in the anthology.  

When is the deadline for submissions? All submissions must be received by 10th November 2014

Supported by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (Gertrude Bell Memorial).

To view the full Safar schedule, click here 
To view the 20 second trailer, click here

The sixth annual International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) literary workshop or 'nadwa' for emerging Arab writers opened today in Abu Dhabi at the secluded Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort. The nadwa is led by the Egyptian writer Bahaa Taher who won the inaugural IPAF in 2008 for his novel Sunset Oasis. Taher is joined as mentor by the Palestinian-Jordanian author Ibrahim Nasrallah - shortlisted for IPAF 2009 for Time of White Horses  - and by the Moroccan novelist, critic and academic Zhor Gourram, an IPAF 2014 judge. The nadwa is sponsored by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region.


The eight-day workshop, which runs until Thursday 4 November, brings together nine emerging writers from six Arab countries. The writers include Dina Mohamed Abd Elsalam and Ahmed Salah Sabik  from Egypt; Taher al-Zahrani and Majid Suleiman from Saudi Arabia, and Emad al-Wardani and Nassima Raoui from Morocco. From the UAE there is Sultan Al Ameemi, from Oman Suleiman al-Muamarri, and from Syria-Jordan Shahla Ujayli. 

The prestigious annual IPAF nadwa is organically entwined with the IPAF prize process. It brings together emerging writers from across North Africa and the Middle East and gives them the opportunity to hone their skills under the tutelage of IPAF winning and shortlisted authors. Among the participants of the 2012 nadwa was Iraqi author Ahmed Saadawi, who won IPAF 2014 for his novel Frankenstein in Baghdad.

Two previous nadwa participants – Mansoura Ez Eldin and Mohammed Hasan Alwan – have been shortlisted for the prestigious prize; the latter for his 2012 novel, The Beaver, which began life in the IPAF nadwa in 2009.

The nine emerging writers in this year's Nadwa were identified by former IPAF judges as ‘ones to watch’. Aged 40 and under, they come from a variety of writing backgrounds and professions. The nadwa aims to give them a retreat where they are able to work on a new piece of fiction, or to develop an existing, unpublished work. In addition to being mentored by the three writers from the IPAF fold they will take part in daily discussions with their peers, critiquing each other’s work as well as discussing literature in more general terms.

The nine new works of fiction resulting from the nadwa will in time be edited and published through the IPAF website at www.arabicfiction.org.

Ibrahim Nasrallah comments:
“The key thing about the nadwa, in my view, is to be open to different kinds of writing and to discuss these differences. If we treat each session as a blank slate to debate our ideas, as well as the individual texts in hand, then both participants and the mentors can learn a great deal from the experience. Creativity often rebels against rules we have learnt and invents its own rules in turn.”


IPAF Administrator Fleur Montanaro, nadwa coordinator, adds:
“The nadwa helps to develop the skills of talented young writers from a variety of countries and literary backgrounds. Its impact lasts well beyond the final day and it is a delight to see novels begun in the workshop going on to be published, read and sometimes even reaching the final stages of the prize. The nadwa is a unique opportunity for promising writers to benefit from the experience of established writers and critics of the likes of Bahaa Taher, Ibrahim Nasrallah and Zhor Gourram, to meet with them individually to discuss their work.”

IPAF is the leading international prize for Arabic literature. Sponsored by Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi) and run in association with the Booker Prize Foundation in the UK, the Prize aims to celebrate the very best of contemporary Arabic fiction and encourage wider international readership of Arabic literature through translation.

NADWA 2014: PARTICIPANTS

Dina Mohamed Abd Elsalam (Egypt) was born in Alexandria in 1976 and graduated from the English Department of the Arts College of Alexandria University in 1998. She obtained an MA in 2005 and a doctorate in Literary Criticism in 2010. She currently teaches literary criticism, classical literature and film studies in the same department. Her first novel, A Text Abandoned by Its Heroes, was published in 2012. She has directed two short films which have been shown at a number of Arab and international festivals and won several prizes.

Sultan Al Ameemi (UAE) was born in 1974. He has published over 17 works, including studies of popular literature, two short story collections and a novel, P.O. Box 1003 (2014). He currently works as head of the Academy of Arabic Poetry in Abu Dhabi and is a member of the judging panel for the Million’s Poet reality television contest. He is currently working on a variety of fictional projects and publications related to popular literature and ethnology.

Suleiman al-Muamari (Oman) is a broadcaster and novelist, born in 1974. He is the author of one novel, The Man who didn’t Like Abdel Nasser (2013), as well as three short story collections: Maybe It's because He's a Defeated Man (2000), Things are Closer to the Mirror than They Appear (2005), winner of the Youssef Idris short story award in 2007, and Narrow-minded Abdel Fatah Doesn't Like Details (2009). He was head of the Omani Writers' Association from 2008-2010 and of the Short Story Writers' Association from 2007-2009. He currently works as Director of Cultural Programming for Oman radio.

Taher al-Zahrani (Saudi Arabia) is a short story writer and novelist, born in Jeddah in 1978. He has published several novels, including: Towards the South (2010), Children of the Street (2013) and The Mechanic (2014). He is also the author of a collection of short stories entitled The Vendor's Box (2010). He works in the government media centre in Jeddah and freelances as a journalist.

Nassima Raoui (Morocco) is a poet, born in Rabat in 1988. She holds an Advanced Diploma in Marketing and International Commerce from the National School of Commerce and Management at the University of Abdel Malik al-Saadi. Her work has been published in a number of Arab newspapers and magazines. In 2012, she won both the International Tangier Poetry Prize and another competition organised by the House of Poetry in Morocco and Dar Al-Nahda publishing house in Lebanon. She won the Cultural Dialogue Prize for Literature in 2013. She was honoured by the Moroccan Writers' Union as part of the Mohammed Shukri series. She has published Riot of Words (2007) and Before Tangier Awakes (2012).

Ahmed Salah Sabik (Egypt) is an architect, graphic designer, illustrator and novelist, born in 1981. He graduated from Cairo University in 2003 and has worked as an architect and designer for a number of Egyptian design studios, as well as in Budapest and London. Nimrod (2013) is his first novel.

Majid Suleiman (Saudi Arabia) is a novelist and short story writer, born in 1977. He works at the Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz University, Riyadh. He has published three novels: Hot Spring (2011), Blood Drips between Turbans and Beards (2013) and Birds of Darkness (2014). He has also written a short story collection, A Star Throbbing in the Dirt (2013), and some children’s literature, including The Chest (story, 2014) and The Fathers (play, 2014). 

Shahla Ujayli (Syria-Jordan) is a Syrian writer, born in 1976. She holds a doctorate in Modern Arabic Literature and Cultural Studies from Aleppo University in Syria and currently teaches Modern Arabic Literature at the University of Aleppo and the American University in Madaba, Jordan. She is author of a short story collection entitled The Mashrabiyya (2005) and two novels: The Cat's Eye (2006), which won the Jordan State Award for Literature in 2009, and Persian Carpet (2013). She has also  published a number of critical studies, including The Syrian Novel: Experimentalism and Theoretical Categories (2009), Cultural Particularity in the Arabic Novel (2011) and Mirror of Strangeness: Articles on Cultural Criticism (2006). 

Emad al-Wardani (Morocco) is a short story writer and researcher, born in 1980. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Literature and has published his literary and critical works in Arab newspapers and magazines. He worked on the editorial board of the Austrian magazine Tomorrow's World and as a cultural editor. He has organised and participated in workshops focusing on literary criticism, creative writing and cultural media. He won the Mohammed Berrada Prize for Literary Criticism in 2011, the Moroccan Writers Union Prize for young writers for his short story collection entitled Perfume of Betrayal (2013), which was translated into Spanish and French, and the 2013 Dubai Arts and Culture Prize for his collection A Smell No-One Tolerates, to be published soon.

NADWA 2014: MENTORS

Bahaa Taher (Egypt) was born in Giza, Greater Cairo, in 1935, to Upper Egyptian parents from the village of Karnak, Luxor. He holds postgraduate diplomas in History and Mass Media from Cairo University. He has published 17 books (six novels, five short story collections, and six non-fiction works), as well as numerous translations from English and French. His novel, Sunset Oasis, won the inaugural International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2008. The book was subsequently published in English in the UK through Sceptre.

Zhor Gourram (Morocco) is a novelist, critic and academic. She was a judge of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2014. She is Professor of Higher Education at the Ibn Tofeil University in Kenitra, Morocco, where she is also head of the research laboratory for language, creativity and new media and a director of academic projects and PHD research units. She has previously judged a number of awards including the Owais Award and the Moroccan Book Prize, awarded by the Moroccan Ministry of Culture. She has organised Arab and international conferences and events and was awarded the Royal Sash (for National Merit) at the Casablanca Book Fair in 2012.

Ibrahim Nasrallah (Jordan-Palestine) was born in 1954 to Palestinian parents, living in exile in Jordan. He spent his childhood and youth in the Alwehdat Palestinian Refugee Camp in Amman and began his career as a teacher in Saudi Arabia. After returning to Amman, he worked as a journalist and for the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Since 2006, he has been a full-time writer and has so far published 14 poetry collections and 16 novels, including his epic fictional project of 8 novels covering 250 years of modern Palestinian history. Three of his novels and a volume of poetry have been translated into English, including his novel Time of White Horses which was IPAF-shortlisted in 2009 and is currently nominated to receive the London-based Middle East Monitor Prize for the Best Novel about Palestine. His novel Lanterns of the King of Galilee, IPAF longlisted in 2013, will appear in English in January 2015. Three of his novels have been translated into Italian, one into Danish and one into Turkish. He is also an artist and photographer and has had four solo exhibitions of his photography. He has won eight literary prizes, among them the prestigious Sultan Owais Literary Award for Poetry in 1997; his novel Prairies of Fever was chosen by the Guardian newspaper as one of the most important 10 novels written about the Arab world. In 2012, he won the inaugural Jerusalem Award for Culture and Creativity for his literary work.

Susannah Tarbush, London