Schachnovelle

Displaced Palestinians play chess outside their displacement tent at Nusairat, Gaza Strip. Photo: Moiz Salhi/APAImages/Shutterstock.

Who’s Who

A cat looks on as a Palestinian fisherman pulls in a net on a beach in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestine September 23, 2019. Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters.

Strangely proud of his own lack of culture

The United States government announced substantial cuts in its United Nations budget obligations for 2018-2019 as a revenge reprisal after the UN vote on Jerusalem. A rabid Nikki Haley declared that “[They] will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of”, with no regrets at having supported the unrealistic bully world map envisioned by her beloved Super President. Francis’s “negotiated” two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict would appear to be a more affordable option than that kind of “gentlemen’s agreement” so rudely “suggested” at last UN general assembly.

Let’s Have Coffee

Peter Beaumont, UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as capital, The Guardian, December 21, 2017

Che Guevara, cigar in hand, listened to a speech by the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, on December 14, 1964. Credit: Harry Harris/AP.

Hitchhiking along the promenade

A minibus loaded with balloons drives along the coastal road by the beach in Gaza City, Palestinian territories. Photo: Mohammed Abed.

Long Night Moon

Bethlehem, West Bank: A multiple exposure photograph shows the moon in various stages of the partial lunar eclipse. Photo: 新华通讯社 (Xīnhuá News Agency)/Barcroft Images.

Two of a Kind

Jerusalem, Israel: People are silhouetted behind glass panels in the Dome of the Rock located on the compound known to Muslims as al-Ḥaram al-Šarīf and to Jews as Temple Mount. Photo: Ammar Awad/Reuters.

To Fly Again

Gaza City, Gaza Strip: A Palestinian artist decorates a cafe a day before the start of Ramadan. Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images.

The Invisible Line

Abu Dis, Palestine: Banksy’s artwork is seen on the West Bank barrier in Abu Dis in 2005. On this trip to the Palestinian territories he created nine images on the wall bordering Israel and the West Bank. Photo: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images.

Layla

Monique Jaques is a photojournalist based in Istanbul, who spent the past four years in the Middle East. In her announced new 120 page book – due to be published in late 2017/early 2018 – “Gaza Girls: Growing Up in the Gaza Strip”, she highlights the challenges of daily life of girls in Gaza.

• Gaza Girls: rites of passage in Palestine – in pictures, The Guardian, March 10, 2017

Mannequins outside a shop near the main street of Gaza City. Photo: Monique Jaques.

Yara and her friends prepare a dance number during a blackout. Fuel is scarce in Gaza and many families have only six to eight hours of electricity a day. Photo: Monique Jaques.

The Ultimate Shoedown

Hebron, West Bank: A Palestinian demonstrator throws a shoe at a poster of Donald Trump in a protest against the U.S. president’s support for Israel. Photo: Hazem Bader/AFP/Getty Images.

Flowers on The Wall

“The Flower Thrower”, possibly the most iconic of all Banksy graffiti, is on a wall on the side of a garage on the main road to Beit Sahour, Bethlehem, Palestine. Photo: davehoggan.com.

Ulysses and the Sirens

Gaza City: A boy leaps into the sea at sunset
Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

Out of the Blue

Gaza City, Gaza: A Palestinian worker at a beachside coffee house decorates its terrace with colourful umbrellas as part of decorations for Ramadan. Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images.

On the Road

Gaza City: Baker Magadma, a member of the Palestinian sports group Bar Palestine, works out on a street. Photo: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images.

The girl who tried to save time

West Bank, State of Palestine: A child from the Arab Jahalin Bedouin community carries a clock as she walks past the debris of homes in the Bedouin camp of Khan al-Ahmar after Israeli authorities demolished four houses they said were built without permission. Photo: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images.

West Bank

West Bank, State of Palestine: A Bedouin girl sits on a television after an Israeli bulldozer demolished her home. Photo: Atef Safadi/EPA.

Ground colouring

Suca, Gaza City: Palestinian children plant flowers among the debris of buildings demolished by the Israeli army in 2014. Photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images.

Moonwalk

Alexīs Tsipras (@tsipras_eu)

Greece and the Palestinian Authority are to form a joint ministerial committee aimed at strengthening their relationship, it was announced Thursday. The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmūd Abbās, revealed the initiative after talks with Prime Minister Alexīs Tsipras in Ramallah. It was also announced that Abbās will visit Athens on December 21 and 22. [Read more].

• Abbās due to visit Athens next month, ekathimerini.com, November 26, 2015

Ολοκαύτωμα (The Holocaust)

Greek Prime Minister Alexīs Tsipras is visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah as tensions flare after the Turkish downing of a Russian fighter jet over its border with Syria, and both Israel and Greece have troublesome grievances with the EU, of which Greece is a member state. [Read more].

• Noga Tarnopolsky, Greek Prime Minister Visits Jerusalem and Ramallah while Regional Tensions Flare, The Media Line, November 25, 2015

Alexīs Tsipras remembering the victims of the Holocaust at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel. Photo: Alexīs Tsipras (@tsipras_eu).