Status/الوضع

Jadaliyya Co-Editor and Status Host Noura Erakat spoke to British Radio about Israel's violent and lethal response to demonstrations and protests by Palestinians in Gaza, as the US Embassy in Jerusalem opens.

"We are 70 years ongoing of this same cyclical story and, in order to break that cycle, we need to take an unequivocal and brave stance that everybody deserves freedom. Everybody deserves equality... It is unfortunate Palestinians pay the price for lessons we don't learn," said Erakat.

This Monday, May 14th, at least 58 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,700 others wounded by live ammunition, tear gas and firebombs.

لقاء مع الفنانة التشكيلية السورية عتاب حريب المقيمة في اميريكا, يتناول اللقاء مجموعة اسئلة عن الوطن والمنفى, عن رحلة البحث عن الحرية داخل وخارج الوطن. تحدثنا عتاب عن تجربتها الخاصة في سوريا واميريكا, عن الاحلام و الخذلان. يتطرق الحوار أيضا الى سياسات ادارة الرئيس الاميريكي ترامب تجاه الاجئين و الاثر الذي تركته هذه السياسيات في حياة عتاب و حياة السوريين بشكل عام.

March 8th, 2018 | Arabic
Interviewed by Raghad Almakhlouf

Music in this episode by Ollie North "Arabesque I".

Circa 2012, a refurbished house in the Beiruti neighborhood of Ras El Nabeh became a space for practitioners and lovers of the visual arts. A collective - of those looking to practice, connect and exchange experiences on everything from printmaking to animation - was formed.

David Habchy, one of the founders of the NGO and a Lebanese multimedia artist, describes WARAQ as a space that allows for a deeper experimentation of artistic processes and a challenge to the idea of the artist as an isolated maker.

In this conversation, which took place at the headquarters of WARAQ in Beirut, David also speaks to his own interests as an artist and experiences up to this point in his career as a multimedia artist.

February 20th, 2018 | English
Interviewed by Paola C. Messina

Music in this episode by Ollie North "Arabesque I".

A young filmmaker investigates the legend of 'Manivelle', an automaton gifted to Lebanon in 1945 that still haunts an abandoned mansion in Beirut. After being coaxed back into the limelight, the people who knew him come forward to speak out and the myth that 'Manivelle' has constructed around himself starts to unravel.

This is the synopsis of "The Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow" (آخر أيّام رجل الغَد). Status Host Paola Messina sat down with Fadi Baki in his home in Beirut to talk about the making of the film, its protagonist (Manivelle), and the many meanings his story may present to audiences in Lebanon and around the world.

March 19th, 2018 | English
Interviewed by Paola C. Messina

Muhammad Isa Waley discusses his experience working for over four decades with manuscripts from the Islamic world and provides a broad, rich overview of the study of Islamic manuscripts from various eras and regions in this lecture at George Mason University.

Hosted by the Ali Vural Ak Center for Global Islamic Studies
February 6th, 2018 | English

A well-known figure in the tight-knit Beirut music scene is Fadi Tabbal - a Lebanese-born musician, band manager and engineer who founded Tunefork Recording Studios in Burj Hammoud. In this conversation, Fadi speaks of his decision to return to Beirut after studying in Canada, current projects, and his hopes for the future of the city's music scene.

Omar Youssef Souleimane, a Syrian award-winning poet and journalist, discusses his new book Le Petit Terroriste (“The Little Terrorist”) (2018) which was published in French by Flammarion, Paris and reflects on the seventh anniversary of the Syrian Revolution.

March 17th, 2018 | Arabic

In the third and final installment of the panel on Authoritarian Leaders in Asia and the Middle East, the speakers discuss the relationships that the leaders have with their military. They then take questions from the audience.

In Part II, the panelists delve deeper into their respective case-studies, highlighting similarities and differences between certain authoritarian leaders, while addressing other topics, such as how each leader makes use of 'grievances' as a tool to maintain power.

Courtesy of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
February 15th, 2018 | English

In Part I, the speakers introduce themselves and speak of examples of authoritarianism in countries such as Turkey, China, North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

Courtesy of Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS)
February 15th, 2018 | English