“A oliveira é considerada a árvore da paz, mas estão a torná-la numa arma de guerra”
PÚBLICO (8/12/2024) A época da apanha da azeitona é a mais importante para comunidades rurais palestinianas. Mas com o intensificar de ataques do Exército e colonos israelitas, é também a mais perigosa. Apesar dos riscos, os palestinianos continuam a cuidar das suas oliveiras, e a colher os frutos de uma tradição com milhares de anos. Walaja, Palestina […]
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Los aceituneros palestinos y los árboles milenarios que los arraigan a la tierra
EL SALTO (8/12/2024) A mediados de noviembre, cuando los cielos se llenan de nubes y las primeras lluvias del otoño finalmente llegan a Palestina tras largos meses de sequía, Salah Abu Ali anuncia el inicio de la cosecha de uno de los olivos más antiguos del mundo en Walaja, un pueblo confinado entre Jerusalén y […]
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Waging a war on Palestinian olive trees
NEW INTERNATIONALIST (5/12/2024) After the first rainfall of autumn, Salah Abu Ali announced the harvest of one of the world’s oldest olive trees in al-Walaja, between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He spread red mats around the enormous gnarled trunk, fetched wooden ladders to reach the high branches and gathered his family under the monumental tree. ‘Everyone […]
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In Portugal’s Rural North, Communities Are Resisting Lithium Mining
NEW LINES MAGAZINE (24/4/2024) Under the banner of a “green transition,” the EU is rushing to revive mining to secure critical raw materials. Plans to build large, open-pit mines in northeastern Portugal have been met with strong opposition from local communities, who are contesting the state’s authority to grant mining licenses without their consent. As […]
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Dinosaur Prints In Jordan Highlight A Largely Unexplored Region
DISCOVER MAGAZINE (2/11/2022) About 100 millions years ago, dinosaurs roamed through the coast of the ancient Tethys ocean that covered most of the modern Middle East. Recently, dozens of their footprints have been found on the arid mountain of Safaha, southwest of the city of Shobak, in the south of Jordan. In 2019, two Polish […]
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The woman preserving the handwoven history of the Levant
DEUTSCHE WELLE (1/6/2022) Women in the Levant have long used needlework to depict the region’s history, its landscapes, customs and traditions. Intricately embroidered panels, varying in style, colour and pattern reflect the different cultural, religious and family affiliations. One woman, Widad Kawar, has made it her quest to ensure this heritage is not forgotten Read […]
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Arabic inscription on Coimbra Cathedral “Greatness will stay”
DEUTSCHE WELLE / QANTARA (18/8/2021) The stones of Coimbra’s twelfth-century cathedral glow in the last rays of sunlight on a warm summer evening. Swallows swirl around the austere building as tourists line up to visit the Romanesque monument in Portugal‘s third largest city. The cathedral’s elaborate three-storey portal in the northern façade attracts many visitors. But […]
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How the world’s oldest masks tell a story of Palestinian dispossession
MIDDLE EAST EYE (18.5.2021) When a British missionary rode through al-Ram in 1881 asking for antiquities, residents of the Palestinian village tried to stop him from taking the local treasures. Armed with guns, a group of men confronted him and refused to let him take the village’s ancient stone mask. At least, this is how […]
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The Portuguese rediscovering their country’s Muslim past
AL JAZEERA (10/6/2020) When 33-year-old Mustafa Abdulsattar arrived in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, four years ago, something struck him as familiar: many Portuguese words sounded like Arabic. After fleeing war in his native Iraq, Abdulsattar had risked his life on a perilous boat trip from Turkey to Greece. Once in Greece, he was offered resettlement in […]
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‘Muslims were not foreigners’: Why don’t Portugal’s restitution laws include everyone?
THE NATIONAL (31/3/2020) Mouraria, a trendy neighbourhood in Lisbon’s city centre, still bears the name of its former inhabitants, the Moors – Muslims who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in modern Spain and Portugal, and once walked its maze of narrow and winding streets and tightly packed alleys. Next to Mouraria stands Alfama – from […]
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