The Glittering Stone
CrossFireArabia- February 11, 2025
By Khaled Nusseibeh
Perchance a demolition site
Is the breeding ground of a great culture
Areas decimated and people maimed
The sin being the will to be
And they are evincing prodigious resilience
Persevering in conditions of great harshness
The ceiling might have collapsed
But the earth is ready for rapid reconstruction
Undertaken by the brave men and children
Evincing invincibility in the face of great odds
One could not withhold a humble salute
To the women of legendary resistance
The targets of an unjust battle
To usurp, uproot and expel
But the roots are too deeply entrenched
In the beloved Gaza of Palestine
Truly, the bloodletting has been too profuse
Of people baffled by the extent of rancor
The great lengths of guileful plotting
To exacerbate a tragic diaspora
However many a time the uprooting
The displacement is supplanted by a will to live
To restore the broken tents
To water a tiny garden of life
Supporting families that were abandoned
To a fate knowable only to God
Perchance illusory peace may become a reality
Perverted by an inordinate penchant for war
And you Gaza are a glittering stone
With a sparkle that will outlive the morbid plots
Khaled Nusseibeh is a translator, writer and a poet with several published poetry collections to his name. He holds a BA and MA Degrees from Colombia and Princeton universities in the USA. Mr Nusseibeh was born in Amman in 1961 and is a Jordanian of Palestinian origin.
Richard Gere: Trump is a ‘Bully’ and a ‘Thug’
- CrossFireArabia
- February 9, 2025
Actor Richard Gere Just called President Donald Trump a “bully” and a “thug” in Spain. “We’re in a very dark place in America, where we have a bully, a thug, who’s the president of the United States,” Gere was quoted as saying
Arab-US Artist Fareed Armaly Declines German Top Award
- CrossFireArabia
- February 6, 2025
Arab-American artist and curator Fareed Armaly rejected a prestigious award by the Academy of Arts in Berlin to protest censorship and cancel culture targeting pro-Palestinian voices in Germany.
The Academy of Arts in Berlin released a statement on Thursday, acknowledging “with respect and deep regret” Armaly’s decision to decline the prestigious Kaethe Kollwitz Award.
In a letter to the institution, Armaly, born in the US, explained his reasons for declining the award, criticizing what he called a “disturbing trend of censorship in Germany” and “intolerable interference” aimed at silencing pro-Palestinian voices.
“For several years now, there has been a highly politicized, reactionary shift in official cultural policies, aimed at silencing advocates for Palestinian rights under international law,” he said in his letter.
“In such a context of intimidation, liberal cultural institutions appear to adopt complacency and self-censorship. All this, consciously or unconsciously, structurally performs the ongoing dehumanization of Palestinians by obscuring and body_abstracting their agency and voice,” he added.
Germany has been a staunch ally of Israel, and government officials have repeatedly said the country bears special responsibility for Israel due to the country’s Nazi past.
In recent months, German authorities have intensified restrictions on pro-Palestinian activities—banning hundreds of protests, canceling cultural events, and imposing travel bans on prominent international figures invited to speak at pro-Palestinian events in the country.
Critics accuse Berlin of giving a blanket support to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial policies, and turning a blind eye to war crimes committed by the Israeli military in Gaza according to Anadolu.
Armaly has exhibited extensively in international institutions and distinguished platforms, including Documenta 11.
Body of Gaza Poet Alareer Finally Laid to Rest
- CrossFireArabia
- February 4, 2025
Today, Palestinians were able to find the body of Dr. Refaat Alareer, who had been buried in a makeshift grave for months, and moved him to a cemetery near his family members in Al-Shujaiya neighborhood, the area where he was born and lived.
On December 6, 2023, Dr. Refaat was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike that deliberately targeted his sister’s home, where he had sought refuge, in Gaza City, killing him along with six other members of his family.
Alareer, the Palestinian poet, writer, and literature professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, who was considered one of the most prominent voices in Gaza speaking out against Israeli crimes, leaves behind a legacy that endures despite his killing.
