The Girl, The Smile and The Slipper

CrossFireArabia
Culture, News
September 3, 2026

There was nothing particularly special about the place.

A camp slipper, simple clothes, an unguarded way of sitting, and a smile that came without being asked for.

Perhaps someone might dislike this slipper.

To me, it is part of this moment, part of the life of a child who still finds a small space for joy in the middle of displacement.

I do not know what will remain in her memory from these days.

But I know that this smile was real.

And in those few minutes, she was simply a child watching a film made for children.

And that, on its own, is something worth preserving.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

News

Blair Asked PA to Remove Palestine From Textbooks

CrossFireArabia
September 3, 2026

From Heavenly Zanzibar

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was recently sent by Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to ask the Palestinian Authority (PA) to replace any mention of the word “Palestine” in schoolbooks with the Jewish designation of “Samaria”, Middle East Eye has heard.
Jeremy Greenstock, who was Britain’s ambassador to the UN between 1998 and 2003, told MEE that Blair attempted to exert pressure on the PA and said that if it was serious about being seen by the Board of Peace as capable of reaching an agreement with Israel to end the war on Gaza, then the word “Palestine” should be erased from textbooks.
In a wide-ranging interview on the David Hearst Podcast, Greenstock said the demand was rejected by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Greenstock also said that his former boss was experiencing “difficulties” in his new role overseeing the postwar management of Gaza for the board.
“He recently, I understand, was asked by the Board of Peace to go to Ramallah and ask to remove from the Palestinian curriculum any mention of the word Palestine if they were to be treated by the Board of Peace as capable of coming to an agreement with Israel to end the current conflict that had stemmed from 7 October onwards,” Greenstock said, adding that he received this information from a ministerial level source.
MEE/ David Hearst
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bl…