Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 11 - 17 April 2002 Issue No.581
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Nobel Laureate Peres?
IN THE light of Israel's attacks on Palestinian civilians, many members of the Nobel Prize committee have openly questioned the right of the Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres, who shared the 1994 peace prize with Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin, to be a Nobel laureate at all.
Last week committee members expressed the desire to withdraw the prize, if Swedish law permits. One of the five jurors who gave Perez the prize declared to the press that "what is happening now in Palestine is shameful and unbelievable. Peres is responsible for it by virtue of being a member of the Israeli government. He agrees with what Ariel Sharon is now doing. If he did not he would resign from his post."

Artists condemn Israel
PRESIDED over by Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif more than 1,000 Egyptian artists -- actors, directors and singers as well as writers -- gathered at the Balloon Theatre last Tuesday to express support for the Palestinian people and condemn the practices of the Israeli government in the occupied territories. A minute of funerary silence to honour the Palestinian dead was followed by a statement, read out by actor-director El-Sayed Radi, the head of the Union of Artistic Syndicates, in which artists condemned Israel's "insistent refusal to accept the peace initiatives undertaken by Arab and European countries" and called on their counterparts the world over to support the Palestinian cause. A number of artists, including Palestinian actor Ghassan Matar, whose son and wife were killed in the course of Israeli attacks on Lebanon, then gave a series of individual talks discussing various aspects of the topic.

Unwanted ambassador
ALSO ON Tuesday artists and writers demonstrated outside the foreign ministry in Cairo, to demand the expulsion of the Israeli and American ambassadors to Egypt.
The Popular Egyptian Committee for Solidarity with the Palestinian People had drafted a statement to be submitted to foreign minister Ahmed Maher, calling on a delegation of 10 intellectuals to undertake the task of ceremonially handing it in at the ministry. In a remarkable display of fellow feeling, however, approximately 40 figures turned up.
The delegation met with Mukhlis Qutb, the deputy foreign minister, who expressed his respect for and appreciation of the intellectuals' demands, reassuring the delegation that the foreign ministry will take them into account in formulating its policy regarding the situation in Palestine.

Shocked and dismayed
BEIRUT saw more than 100 artists demonstrating outside UN headquarters on Saturday. Representing a number of unions and syndicates, the demonstration set off from the city centre and addressed its protests to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. In a statement addressed to Annan and read out by artist Rafiq Ali Ahmed, artists expressed "shock and dismay" at the massacres taking place in the occupied territories, calling on the UN to take immediate action in support of "peace and dialogue."

Out with Zionism
A DELEGATION representing the Popular Egyptian Committee for Supporting the Intifada submitted a statement to the UN media office in Cairo last Wednesday, demonstrating outside the office and striking within.
Addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the statement condemns Israeli practices in the occupied territories, describing them as barbaric and Nazi, and demands protection for the Palestinian people as well as the immediate military implementation of UN Resolution 1,402.
The statement also calls for imposing an embargo on Israel, implementing international agreements regarding the treatment of civilians and prisoners of war and declaring Zionism a form of racism in the light of the Durban Conference.

The NGO contribution
STARTING this week and until the end of April, an open conference of non- governmental institutions in Beirut discusses Israel's vicious attacks on the occupied territories.
Represented in the conference are the Voluntary Committee Assembly, the Women's Council, the Child Rights Assembly, the Committee for Coordinating the Handicapped and the Committee for Coordinating Palestinian Assemblies in Lebanon.
Participants discussed the implications and consequences of Israel's behaviour, declaring the attacks to be an attempt to eliminate Palestinian identity and crush the infrastructure and institutions of Palestinian society. They also condemned America's biased position on the Arab- Israeli conflict and debated the possibility that certain Arab regimes condone Sharon's policies. Finally, participants declared the staging of a strike in protest, to take place outside UN headquarters in Beirut and to continue until the siege is lifted.

Illustrating resistance
OPENING next Wednesday and ongoing for five days, the Bologna International Exhibition for Children's Books and Illustrations, in Italy, features a special programme dedicated to children's drawings by Arab artists.
Under the title "Arab Colours," the Arab Publishers' Union, headed by Egyptian publisher Ibrahim El-Mu'alim, put together a wing dedicated to Arab works of art and books, a significant portion of which depicts the plight of Palestinian children since the flare-up of the Intifada.
Among Egyptian government figures involved in this, the first such Arab contribution to the Bologna Exhibition are Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni and Samir Sarhan, head of the General Egyptian Book Organisation.
Compiled by Youssef Rakha

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