Syria News Wire

No Way Through is an award-winning short film on the Israeli Occupation.
Set in London, it asks, what would happen if the British capital was filled with Israeli-style checkpoints. The results brought me to tears. Really.

Thanks to Anas for spreading the word, and letting me find this amazing piece of work.
No Way Through takes a cue [...]

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An interesting article in Syria Today. It was published during the Gaza War, but I didn’t feel like it was appropriate to mention it back then.
It features the thoughts of wonderful bloggers like Anas Takriti, Yazan Badran, and Razan Ghazzawi, plus some ramblings by me.
John Dagge wrote the thoughtful piece. Here’s a snippet:

It is this desire to [...]

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I haven’t seen the case against Israel’s “Jewish state” claim put so eloquently for a long time:
“Netanyahu wants the Palestinians to acknowledge that Israel is a “Jewish state.” I don’t understand this demand. Israel is not a Jewish state, it is a multi-cultural state, with about half a million non-Jewish Russians and Ukrainians and 20% [...]

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The Quartet’s demands on Hamas:
-Hamas must recognise all previous agreements
-Hamas must recognise Israel
-Hamas must renounce violence

Meanwhile on the other side:

-Likud has torn up all previous agreements
-Likud doesn’t recognise a Palestinian state – now or in the future
-Likud will not renounce violence

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The big sell off continues. Rubbish collection is the latest state service to be privatised.
In the Old City men in orange outfits now clean the streets. They work for a new company called Swan.
Not only do they have new clothes, but there are more of them, and they use new smaller bins.
It comes in the [...]

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Most of the cafes littering Jebl Qasioun, high above Damascus, opened 6 years ago.
 
During the spring of 2003, lots of florescent multi-coloured cafes and restaurants appeared. Through the spring of 2009, many of them have vanished.
 
If you look up at the mountain from the city below, the mountain road used to be quite clear to see [...]

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The David Greig play ‘Damascus’ continues its tour of the Arab World this week.
 
It is in Beirut, at the Masrah Al Medina on Tuesday and Wednesday. It will then visit Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and Tunisia.
 
It just finished a six week run in London.
 
The Dummar Cultural Centre in Damascus was packed when it was performed last [...]

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Barack Obama is giving just under one billion dollars in aid, to help Palestinians rebuild Gaza. Except that it is not being given to Gaza – and they are not allowed to use it for rebuilding.

Two-thirds of the cash will be given to the West Bank-based Fateh Authority, because Gazans can’t be trusted. The money [...]

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The incredible Lena Chamamyan is playing three concerts in Syria this week.

She will be in Damascus on Wednesday (25 Feb) at the Zahra Cinema at 8pm (tickets from Koko CD shop in the Old City, near Albal cafe in Qaimariyeh – 300/500 SP).
Then she will be in Latakia on Friday (27 Feb) at the Cultural [...]

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Human Rights Watch has been incredibly active on its Syria programme recently. And now it has put out a piece claiming Syria has 30 political prisoners.
I’ve had a long-running distaste for HRW. The vast majority of their funding comes from within the US (because almost all of their members are American). That means most of [...]

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