Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

This year and beyond, April 29 is National Rugelach Day, honoring the popular Jewish confection. Originating in Poland nearly four centuries ago, rugelach are today found in most Israeli cafes and bakeries, shaped in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling. This day can be attributed to Harlem bakery Lee Lees Baked Goods, the owner of which, Alvin Lee Smalls, successfully reached out to the National Day Archives in March to secure a special day for the treat the store has baked for over 50 years.

Rugelach is something that has always been near and dear to my heart, so I thought why not recognize and celebrate such a special little confection with the whole world, Lee said. This day has been designated for everyone to celebrate and enjoy the delight of rugelach wherever you are!

Lee Lees was established in 1988 after Lee became one of the first in the neighborhood to have an expansive selection of traditional Eastern European pastries, exposing those in the community to centuries of Jewish and Eastern European history through food. Lee, originally from South Carolina, first fell in love with rugelach after moving to New York in the early 1960s. To honor the very first National Rugelach Day, Lee Lees is throwing an all-day celebration to encourage rugelach lovers and rugelach newbies to try the much-loved dessert.

Though, rugelach has been around New York for decades prior, appearing at bakeries around the Lower East Side, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, and parts of Brooklyn in the late 1800s and early 1900s. When particularly Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island, Jewish bakeries popped up alongside delis and appetizing stores all over the city, preparing freshly baked breads, cakes, and fruit-filled pastries.

To keep within kosher laws, most bakeries only served dairy products and could only be open at most six days a week. Jewish bakeries were staples of each community with a large Jewish population, though as with most Jewish-owned food businesses, they dwindled following World War II, and only a few remain today. Most New Yorkers have heard of Yonah Schimmel, one of the long-standing Jewish bakeries open since the 1890s on East Houston Street. Though primarily known for knishes, Yonah Schimmel has kept sweet Jewish culinary traditions alive with options like cherry cheese and apple strudel knishes, alongside egg creams.

Most places in New York City serving up rugelach today are relatively new, though one long-standing spot is Kossars Bagels & Bialys, open for over 85 years (and at the Grand Street location since 1960). Isadore Mirsky andMorris Kossar first founded Mirsky and Kossars Bakery at 22 RidgeStreet on the Lower East Side in 1936. In 1953, Morris Kossar bought out his partner,after which the store was renamed Kossars Bialys. Though bialys are their specialty, Kossars also offers assorted rugelach, including a cinnamon variety.

Russ & Daughters, the famed appetizing store, only started baking its own rugelach in 2017 after the company formerly outsourced production. Russ & Daughters serves up a traditional raspberry version with a sweet-tart jam, raisins, and currants. In 1907, Joel Russ immigrated from Strzyzow in modern-day Poland, after which he sold schmaltz herring out of a barrel on theLower East Side. It took his first seven years to transition to a pushcart operation, a horse and wagon, and ultimately a brick and mortar store on Orchard Street. In 1920, he moved the store to its current home of 179 East Houston Street. His daughters Hattie, Ida, and Anne were involved in the business from a young age, and in 1935 Russ changed the name to include & Daughters, controversially making it the first business in the country with that included.

Orwashers, known for its raspberry and apricot varieties, has also been around for over a century, founded in 1916 by a Hungarian immigrant family as a small storefront on the Upper East Side. The bakery catered to the neighborhoods Jewish population with traditional rye, black, and grain breads. Since 2018, Orwashers is run by Keith Cohen and his team with additional locations in Lincoln Square and the Upper West Side.

On the newer side is Breads Bakery, opened in 2013 with all sorts of baked goods but with a particular emphasis on old-school Jewish New York staples. Breads was among the bakeries to popularize babka with Nutella and dark chocolate, as well as many types of challah. But its chocolate rugelach with an ultra-thin pastry is also a winner.

Out in Brooklyn, Shelskys was opened in 2011 as an appetizing store and deli with a bakery as well. At its locations, Shelskys offers some hard-to-find types like chocolate lingonberry, apricot walnut, and clementine and ginger. Also in Brooklyn are a handful of kosher favorites in Orthodox neighborhoods like Midwood, whose residents frequent Isaacs Bake Shop and Kaffs Bakery, and South Williamsburg, known for Oneg Heimishe Bakery.

Next, learn about the History of the Appetizing Store in NYC!

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On National Rugelach Day, A Look Into the History of Rugelach in NYC - Untapped New York

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

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A lot has been written about the famous Montreal bagel, but its much harder to trace the origins of its cheesy cousin.

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In the back room of Sollys Catering company headquarters in Lachine, the bakers are busy they make about 250,000 a year.

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First, they roll out the dough and fill it with sweetened farmers cheese. Then they form each one into that signature horseshoe shape and bake until golden brown.

Its the cheese bagel not to be confused with the Montreal bagel made famous by Fairmont and St-Viateur bakeries. Those are round and schmeared with cream cheese. The cheese bagel, often enjoyed with jam or sour cream, is an entirely different delicacy.

Though its name sounds misleading, cheese bagel is the anglicized version of the Yiddish term cheese bagelach, which means bagel-like but not entirely a bagel.

Beyond that, the rest is all a bit mysterious. A lot has been written about the history of the Montreal bagel, but its much harder to trace the origins of its cheesy cousin.

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Both have their roots in Montreal Ashkenazi Jewish food culture. In the early 1900s, approximately 53,000 Jews immigrated here, fleeing persecution and anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. Many settled around St-Laurent Blvd. and brought their favourite treats along with them. The traditional bagel, the smoked meat sandwiches they became superstars and known beyond the city.

I dont know that the cheese bagel is known outside of Montreal, said food historian and writer Lara Rabinovitch.

Food history, especially Canadian food history, is still young as a field of study, which is another reason why its so difficult to track down the origins of the cheese bagel, Rabinovitch said.

It takes years and years and decades of work and time to get these stories, she explained, but thats not to say that the information is not out there to be found. We dont have it at our fingertips yet.

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When asked about the impressive staying power of the cheese bagel as a Montreal staple, Rabinovitch explained that as with many other foods, the nostalgia might, in large part, account for its popularity.

I think memory and tradition play a big part in peoples affection, she said.

Food writer Sarah Musgrave is an example. She associates cheese bagels with her childhood, recalling trips to Cantor Bakery and pastry crumbs always falling onto her pants as she ate them.

Theyre almost too sweet, she said.

As for its origin story, Musgrave jokingly proposes the theory that a cheese bagel might be a blintz that got stepped on.

Or maybe one day a baker was making both blintzes and knishes, and accidentally used blintz filling in their knish? Its anyones guess. For context, a blintz is another Ashkenazi Jewish treat filled with sweet cheese, this time wrapped in a crepe, and a knish is a delicacy of seasoned potatoes encased in puff pastry.

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Kat Romanow, a Jewish food historian and the creator of Beyond the Bagel, a walking tour that highlights Montreals Jewish delicacies, says theres no scholarship on the history of the cheese bagel but she has some theories shes willing to share.

Her first one: its a less fussy version of the cheese danish. Romanow explained that their fillings are similar but the cheese danish has a heftier dough that combines the cheese bagels puff pastry with sweet yeast dough. She noted that while the danish has intricate designs, the cheese bagels horseshoe shape is much easier to form, which could be why it was created.

The cheese danish originated in Austria, said Romanow. It was later popularized in Denmark before arriving in North America, she explained. She wonders whether it might have spawned the cheese bagel at some point on this journey.

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Romanows other theory is that the cheese bagel is a more esthetic version of a cheese knish, a version of a knish filled with sweet cheese instead of potato that gained popularity in Eastern Europe.

A knish is not all that pretty, she said. A cheese bagel is much nicer to look at.

Romanow noted that before modern dairy farming began in the late 1800s and early 1900s, cheese was most readily available in Eastern Europe in the spring, just around the time of the Jewish holiday Shavuot, which falls from June 4-6 this year. Since it is traditional to only eat dairy on this holiday, the cheese knish became a popular seasonal dish.

Romanow speculates that to make the knish into a more presentable Shavuot treat, someone transformed the round pastry into the horseshoe-shaped cheese bagel as we now know it.

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Still hungry for more details about the cheese bagels history?

Helen Scharf, 98, recalls eating cheese bagels as soon as I was able to chew.

She immigrated to Montreal at the age of 16, managing to leave Ottynia, Poland, a small town that is now part of Ukraine, months before the start of the Second World War. She remembers her mother used to make cheese bagels from scratch as a special treat on Fridays in preparation for the Sabbath. Because meat was so expensive, her family, along with many others, ate mostly dairy, Scharf said.

The shape of pastry depended on the mood of my mom and grandma, but the horseshoe definitely existed in Europe, she said.

Once in Montreal, Scharf said she became Americanized and bought cheese bagels from the Arena Bakery near her St-Urbain St. home instead of making them. Now, she enjoys them from Kosher Quality on Victoria Ave., which is closer to where she currently lives.

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Mitchell Kadanoff, owner of Sollys Catering, says that cheese bagels are among his most coveted products.

I think the popularity of the cheese bagel is that its easy to eat, he said. You can eat it as a snack. You can eat as a lunch. You can eat it hot. You can eat it cold. You can eat it room temperature.

Sollys also supplies outlets in Toronto and Ottawa, he says, to meet the demand from ex-Montrealers.

He makes so many of them, he says, I think I could safely say that were the number one cheese bagel producer in the world.

Hes got plenty of company. Other places to pick some up are Dizzs Bagel & Deli, Cte St-Luc Bagel and Snowdon Deli.

Ian Morantz, owner of Snowdon Deli, says he sells nine to 10 dozen a day. Its one of our staples, he said. His deli has been making them since the 1960s.

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Our original one was actually an S-shape, he said. Now, theyre a traditional horseshoe.

We might not be able to solve all the mysteries of the cheese bagels history just yet, but as Romanow explains, its existence shouldnt stay one of Montreals best-kept secrets as it is truly, truly delicious and unique.

We need to talk more about our Montreal cheese bagels, she says, noting that they deserve a place in the canon of Montreal Jewish foods alongside Montreal bagels and smoked meat.

Or they can simply remain Montreals best-kept secret more for us!

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As Montreal as? The mystery of the cheese bagel - Montreal Gazette

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

Pakistan's first recorded polio case in more than a year served as a stark reminder that the global fight to eradicate the disease is still to be won.

Health officials announced this past Friday a 15-month-old boy had been left paralysed after contracting the wild polio virus in the north-western district of North Waziristan.

A recent case in Malawi was also traced back to Pakistan, with Africa considered free of wild polio virus.

It highlighted that as long as the wild virus circulates in Pakistan and Afghanistan, all nations remain at risk, in particular vulnerable countries with weak public health and immunisation services and travel or trade links to endemic countries, as the World Health Organisation puts it.

According to Prof Gareth Williams, a doctor and researcher who wrote Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio, the world is agonisingly close to eliminating the disease, with only a handful of wild polio cases being detected annually.

If you go back 10 years, the cases each year were between 20 and 100. We are now down to just five cases a year, he said.

A couple of years ago there were just two then Covid came along, which drove a tractor through the national vaccination schedule, particularly in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, where it matters.

In these two nations, blighted by difficulties associated with their vaccination programmes, the wild polio virus, the naturally occurring pathogen, is clinging by a thread and unlike in every other nation remains endemic.

We must make sure it is eradicated before we can relax and say it is locked away in the museum of medical history, said Prof Williams.

A recent outbreak in Israel, its first in three decades, did not involve the wild polio virus but a circulating vaccine-derived polio virus (cVDPV), a form that originates from the oral polio vaccine (OPV), administered as drops into a childs mouth.

These drops contain a weakened form of the polio virus and, in populations where vaccination rates are low, this may circulate between people and mutate into a form that causes paralysis.

Risks from vaccination are, however, low. In figures published in 2019, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative said that the more than 10 billion doses of OPV given to more than three billion children since 2000 resulted in slightly more than 1,000 cases of cVDPV paralysis.

A child receives polio vaccine drops in the western Afghan city of Herat after the UN children's fund said the Taliban agreed to allow the UN to carry out a nationwide campaign. Photo: AFP

Outbreaks of cVDPV can be eliminated through good surveillance systems and vaccination, with PGEI noting that these methods stopped a flare-up in Syria in a matter of months in 2017.

Another, in Somalia in 2018, which resulted in seven children becoming paralysed, was also stamped out.

Late last year, Ukraine reported cases of cVDPV, with the virus able to spread because the countrys vaccination rates were poor even before the Russian invasion.

Only 53 per cent of one-year-olds in Ukraine were jabbed as of October last year, with vaccine coverage especially modest because of disruption caused by Covid-19.

The pandemic has hampered vaccine campaigns for polio and other childhood disease in many nations.

In Israel, a national polio campaign for teenagers up to the age of 17 was recently launched to cover those unvaccinated.

Although the WHO said there is a moderate risk of wider infection, an unvaccinated child was found to have the virus in Jerusalem city in March.

A further eight children were found to be infected with the virus in the following weeks, with one suffering paralysis.

Routine monitoring of wastewater in the cities of Tiberias, Bnei Brak, Beit Shemesh and Modi'in Illit also revealed traces of poliovirus.

Dr Moshe Ashkenazi, deputy director of Sheba Medical Centre's Safra Children's Hospital in Tel Aviv, said parents had become complacent about the risk.

Unfortunately some communities are not vaccinated, and polio can spread, he said.

If they are unvaccinated, immunity is weak and these people are vulnerable.

There is a certain vaccine tiredness, as people are less keen to vaccinate themselves and their children.

We have seen a dramatic decrease in the percentage of children vaccinated as normal, unfortunately, as a repercussion of the pandemic.

Israel has a mandatory vaccination programme for children but parents can still legally refuse to vaccinate.

Some kindergartens refuse to accept children who have not taken the polio vaccine, as it is part of the national childhood immunisation plan.

I am not worried, as a national campaign will help, said Dr Ashkenazi.

Most people will have light symptoms, like a runny nose or dizziness. But some are ignorant of the risk.

We see people in Israel born in the 1950s in wheelchairs, who are monuments of past polio infections to make us aware of the impact it can have.

The risks associated with vaccination are dwarfed by the dangers of polio itself or poliomyelitis to use the full name.

The diseases effects were identified in cultures such as Ancient Egypt, although the first recorded clinical description was not made until the late 18th century.

Polio spreads from person to person and in most people, typically passing through the gut without causing symptoms.

However, in about 10 per cent of cases, it enters the bloodstream, while in fewer than one per cent of people, it enters the central nervous system, where it can cause damage that results in paralysis.

For every case of paralysis, there may be 200 to 300 undetected cases.

This week the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, which includes the World Health Organisation, Unicef, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, began efforts to fund its strategy for 2022 to 2026.

Requiring $4.8 billion, this initiative aims to vaccinate 370 million children a year against polio for the next five years. The UAE in particular has been committed to ending polio across the world. In 2021 alone, the country donated $23m for polio campaigns in Pakistan, state news agency Wam reported. Since 2014, the UAE has contributed more than $200m to polio eradication efforts in Pakistan.

Describing wild polio cases as being at a historic low, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, meanwhile, aims to integrate polio eradication into the wider health programmes of target nations.

Despite facing hostility to vaccines in Pakistan and Afghanistan, confidence in the programme remains high.

The great thing about oral polio is you get a better immune response and it is so much easier to give, Prof Williams said.

With the other main jab, the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), the virus is inactivated by chemical treatment and cannot revert to virulence. This vaccine is, however, more burdensome to administer, being injected.

Work continues to develop and administer new vaccines. Ian Jones, a professor of virology at Reading University in the UK, is researching vaccine-like particles that are inherently safe because they do not consist of the virus itself.

The technology to produce these vaccine-like particles is not quite there, he said. The issue is that the vaccine-like particles are just not quite as stable.

As research continues, such hurdles may be overcome, offering another potential tool to prevent the spread of polio.

While the world has done much to control the polio virus and may yet achieve its eradication, as happened with smallpox there is no room for complacency.

The vast majority of the world is vaccinated against polio, so the threat, even if live virus is around, is relatively low, said Prof Jones.

That situation would change if the current vaccine ceased to be used and people felt the threat wasnt around If vaccine rates were to drop, it would re-emerge as a threat.

Updated: May 02, 2022, 9:58 AM

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

Richmond is a natural birthplace for a restaurant like JewFro. The former capital of the Confederacy relied heavily on an industry of slavery, which primarily operated in what is now JewFros neighborhood. As early as 1790, Richmond boasted the fourth largest Jewish population in the country, according to the Jewish Virtual Library. The local Jewish communitys relationship to Black residents has long been fraught. An estimated 75% of Jews in Richmond owned enslaved Africans at the beginning of the Civil War. Particularly after the Holocaust, Jews in Richmond stepped up their support of civil rights, but already facing discrimination and fearing a backlash, they often did so behind the scenes, according to the Virginia Center for Digital History.

Today, Richmonds population is almost 50% Black, including small communities of African immigrants. Its also home to a modest but active Jewish community. JewFro isnt the only local effort to address the two groups shared histories; the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond partnered with organizations like the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia on an educational program about Jews in the Civil Rights Movement last Black History Month, for example. But the restaurant is arguably the most visible and ongoing attempt to foster cross-cultural relations between Black and Jewish communities in this city.

Before JewFro opened, there were already restaurants serving Jewish or African food in Richmond, of course. Locals love Perlys Deli, Africanne on Main, and Nile, among others. With JewFro, Owens and his partners are getting at something elsea crossover that expands the bounds of the cuisines it encompasses.

Doing things differently has required education, including for dinersand sometimes even familywith strong feelings about their favorite foods. Augenbaums own grandfather couldnt believe the restaurant was charging $18 for chopped liver, a traditionally modest and affordable dish in Ashkenazi Jewish communities that Augenbaum makes with the inclusion of foie gras.

By pulling from a range of cultures, yet diverging from all of them, JewFro aims to offer an experience that forces diners to think beyond easy narratives. That begins with the restaurants potentially loaded name, which some locals arent sure how to interpret, and continues with the menu, which includes a glossary explaining that kishka is a Jewish sausage made with schmaltz, and dukkah is an Egyptian nut and spice blend.

Theres nothing traditionally Jewish or African about JewFros approach. Thats exactly the point. Our goal is to remind you of the thing youre familiar with, but do it in a way thats new, Hovnanian says. People are really excited about it after they get over the initial shock of What is this place?

For many Richmonders who have flocked to the restaurant, JewFros unconventional approach is refreshing.

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How Richmond Restaurant JewFro Is Working to Bring Together Two Local Histories - Bon Appetit

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

Almost a year has passed since the riots that took place in mixed cities across Israel last May, during the last bout of fighting between Israel and Gaza. Jews and Arabs were quick to establish reconciliation initiatives. They handed out flowers in Haifa and smiled for the cameras; some held the Israeli flag aloft in one hand and stickers reading "no to violence" in the other.

But the events of May 2021 opened a deep and painful chasm in Israeli society. There is no amount of hummus that can heal the wounds between Jews and Arabs but there is a real need to ask the tough questions and take a good look at the coexistence that fell apart.

In his documentary series, "One City, Two Peoples," Dr. Hani Zubida takes viewers to five mixed cities in Israel: Lod, Jaffa, Haifa, Acre and Ramle. Created and presented by Zubida, the series was directed by Amit Farbman. It recently premiered on the Knesset channel and is available to watch on YouTube.

Through conversations with residents, social activists and political leaders, Zubida reflects the events through the lens of social and political processes that preceded them. He explains why the roots of the riots go far deeper than "us" versus "them." Alongside a process of judaization in mixed cities by means of "Torah nuclei" groups of Orthodox Jewish families that move into underdeveloped cities he points to the growing social and economic gaps between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, many of whom have lost faith in coexistence or never believed in it to begin with.

"It started with the events of October 2000," Zubida says, referring to a week of violent confrontations between the Israeli police and the country's Arab citizens, leading to the death of 12 Israeli Arabs and one Palestinian from Gaza.

"I was studying for my Ph.D. in the United States when I saw reports that they had shot Arabs in a demonstration in Umm al-Fahm. I thought, is there any situation where Jews would be shot at a demonstration," Zubida says. "I realized that they shot them because they were Arab; that Arab citizens are dehumanized and that's why they can be shot. It stayed in my head, and the idea developed after I returned to Israel."

Zubida, 55, married with two children, personally experienced discrimination a year later, in the wake of the terror attack on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001. "They asked me come to the immigration office and show them my papers.

I started thinking, who am I, what am I, and who am I dealing with? I realized that it wasn't a local Israeli problem, it had landed in our back yard in New York. For a year, I couldn't speak Arabic on the street, I couldn't speak Hebrew either. What was happening in New York is also what happens to Arabs in Israel. I was planning a series on mixed cities even before the riots," Zubida says.

'Im an Israeli I was in the army'

Zubida is a political scientist who received his Ph.D. from New York University. His research deals with social identities, voter behavior, politics, migration and Israeli government and society. He was born in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1971, when he was five years old, after his uncle was arrested and hanged in Iraq. The family was sent to an absorption center in Netanya. From there, the family moved to Petah Tikva.

"My mother was a schoolteacher in Ramle. The principal was Abed al-Rahman Masarweh. I spent a lot of time with his sons in Taibeh. Arab identity was present in my home growing up. In New York, I had nowhere to run I would stand in front of an American and I couldn't say 'I'm Israeli, I was in the army.' From their point of view I was born in Iraq, so I'm an Arab."

In Israel too, Zubida couldn't outrun his Arab identity. While working on the series, he ran into quite a few difficulties. "During filming we had trouble sitting alongside one another, Jews and Arabs," he says. "They refused to sit together, and there were some, both Jews and Arabs, who wouldn't speak to me because of my opinions. It was important for me to let different voices be heard. In one case, I spoke to a guy from one of the Torah nuclei in his synagogue. It was important for me to hear everything he had to say."

In the segment on Acre, Zubida allows the social complexity of the city to come through the different voices. Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman says: "In Acre we live next to one another, not together." On the other hand, Reut Getz, head of the Ometz nucleus, says: "I live in a building that's mostly Arab. We live together like neighbors. Just because we live together doesn't mean we need to have a unified identity or create common ground. No. I'm not interested. They're not my people, they're not in my tradition. Their identity is of the Palestinian people, and the moment there's a war at Al-Aqsa, they'll toe the line in that war. And the truth is, I'll toe the line of the Temple."

"That interview one of the saddest moments I'd had in years," Zubida says. "It revealed the inability to see another person as a person. She doesn't see us as human beings, but as a collective, claiming that it's a necessary reality. That hurt me personally. The motif repeats elsewhere in the series. For me, it's a really difficult point."

Some claim that the series incites against the Torah nuclei, blaming them for the riots. After all, there are no Torah nuclei in Umm al-Fahm, or on the road between Be'er Sheva and Arad, and there were riots there.

"Members of the Torah nuclei were given space to say everything they wanted to say. There's no mixed city where we didn't approach the Torah nucleus and ask to speak with members. The issue is the Torah nuclei's takeover of public property. Nobody has the right to take over public housing and state resources. It's important to stress that this mainly applies to Lod.

"They're not all as heavy-handed as the Torah nucleus in Lod. I'm against violence in any circumstance, but it's important to understand what the Torah nuclei want. When they say: 'I want to Judaize a certain place and take over public housing and public resources,' there's a problem not with the Torah nuclei, but with the state. I want the state to do something about it. They manage to harness politicians to their advantage, and that's their right, but at the same time, it's my right to point out the problem. As a citizen, I have a right to know and understand what's happening, and it's clear that there's a problem in Lod," Zubida says.

Zubida doesn't blame the Torah nuclei for all of the problems in the Arab community of Lod. "I can easily buy a gun in Lod. When there's a shooting, a mother can get hit by a stray bullet. There are layers to the problem, and the Torah nucleus is one of them. There are business interests that have come in and want to take over the Old City, which makes it feel like the walls are closing in. Everyone I spoke to in Acre expressed that feeling."

Counterintuitively, Jews from Arab countries seem to have internalized anti-Arab racism in Israel, even though it seems logical that Mizrahi Jews would show more solidarity to weaker populations like Arabs and refugees.

"Some Mizrahim have been pushed to the point of extreme nationalism. They think that the only way to love Israel is to see it as a state for Jews only. But you can still love Israel if non-Jews live here. Unfortunately, many Mizrahim have been stuck in the working class woodcutters and water bearers for the Ashkenazim they found themselves competing with Arabs in the labor market. At the same time, they want to differentiate themselves from the Arabs," Zubida says.

"I don't hide my Arabness. They say I don't represent the Mizrahim, but I don't have to. I represent a perspective that allows me to love my country and believe in a Jewish state, not only because of what happened to the Jews in the Holocaust, but over the last 5,000 years. Nevertheless, I believe the state doesn't have to be alienated from its surroundings, the neighboring Arab countries, or from the non-Jewish people who live here. In Israel, everyone want to speak English and be like Americans, but we live in the Middle East and almost no one speaks Arabic."

"As for the refugees, Netanyahu's government's settled them in south Tel Aviv, not north Tel Aviv. If Bibi [Netanyahu] really loved the second Israel, he would move them, but that doesn't serve his goals. And that is my problem. I don't think Bibi is the messiah. [Prime Minister Naftali] Bennett and [Health Minister Nitzan] Horowitz aren't the messiah either."

His uncles murder

In January 1969, Zubida's uncle, David Dallal, was arrested. He was only 17-years-old and was eventually executed by hanging. Hanis mother, Hana Yehezkel Dallal-Zubida, described the events on a website devoted to communities uprooted from Arab countries: "It was at the end of the Six-Day War and the defeat of the Arab countries.

Tensions were high and the government was looking for a way to justify its failure. Who was the scapegoat? The few Jews remaining in Basra. How do you redirect the anger of the masses against the quiet and discipline Jewish minority? By spreading rumors in the media that there are spies in Iraq, and who would they be if not the Jews? They brought down the Iraqi army. Nothing sparks anger in the street like striking at the Jews."

"My brother heard the police from his sickbed," the testimony continues, "and innocently went downstairs to tell my mother there was nothing to worry about. He said he would be right back, and it was better for them to take him than to bother our father. He was so sure he'd return, he left with complete confidence because he had nothing to hide. He didn't know that he'd been sentenced before they knew who he was. The trial was one big farce.

"On the first day, they brought out the accused and asked what they did. They all denied the allegations, and their words were edited before being broadcast that evening. In the morning they were tortured. By the evening they all admitted their guilt. That's what happened to my brother David, after unendurable torture, he surrendered and confessed. They were hung with ropes still on their necks, and they covered their bodies from head to toe, so that the signs of abuse wouldn't be visible. The undertaker came to us that night and said, 'they told me that one member of each family can come, but I advise no one to come. It's too difficult to look at.' After the parade of executions, Jews began to disappear."

Zubida says that many Jews from Arab countries bear terrible scars of their last years in their home countries. "I know what happened in my family after my uncle's death. We all lived with the daily fear that something would happen to our children, that someone would hurt them. It hung like a cloud over all of us. On the other hand, my uncle's murder was an institutional-governmental act by an inhumane regime that did similar things to their own people. Just to gain a few years more in power, they turned the anger against a vulnerable minority. It made me very critical of government institutions, and all sorts of nationalist, fascist and religious ideas."

"But after all that," Zubida says, "I believe that we can't keep living in fear, because it gives rise to hatred and withdrawal. You can't live a normal life that way. So I and some members of my family decided that we wouldn't wage a campaign of hatred or revenge against nations or people. It was a hard, painful family sacrifice, but it didn't sever me from who I am neither my Arabness, nor my Judaism. I live in peace with both identities and I love them both. I can't forget what happened to my family, but I do forgive, to reach a better future for us all."

During the pandemic you said: "The Haredi public does what it wants and breaks the rules of the state. The Haredi public is among the most racist." What led you to say this?

"I said the Haredi public was breaking the rules, and I blamed their rabbis and leaders because that's the way it was. They refused to distribute government information to the community. The infection rate was very high in Haredi cities, and I told Haredi leaders that they were sickening their people, and that it was indeed their fault," Zubida says.

"In regard to the racism, I was referring specifically to the fact that they don't accept Sephardic girls at Haredi schools. In Immanuel, they started a class and the state required them to accept Sephardic girls. They built a plaster wall a meter and a half high to separate the Sephardic and Ashkenazi girls. I later apologized for the words I chose, but I still think this has no place in the State of Israel putting up walls between children. The notion that they would be separated or rejected according to a quota based on their ethnicity is insane to my mind."

Still, people were hurt by your harsh words, whether they are Haredim or members of Torah nuclei.

"I don't like hurting people, and it's never my goal. When friends told me that the Haredim didn't understand me and were hurt, I felt bad. I went back and made myself clear. I take it to heart, though it may not always seem that way. I feel for people, and when people are hurt, it tears me up inside. I don't want to hurt Torah nuclei members. I have no issue with them as people, but there's an issue of the establishment here. I think I'm very sensitive.

"When I hear that someone was called a dirty Arab or a terrorist, it sucks the air out of my lungs. I want to stay that way. I don't want to be emotionally disconnected. I know I'll be criticized for the things I say, because I present facts and aspects of Israeli society that people don't want to hear about. You can shoot the messenger I am the messenger."

Do you feel that you pay a price for your Arab identity?

"I'd rather be unpopular doing what I believe, than be loved and do things that I don't believe in. I could have changed my name Danny instead of Hani, Ziv instead of Zubida. I could find an alternative identity, but I don't want to. I'm find with who I am. Someone once told me, 'You're always kicking at the elites, don't expect them to embrace you.'"

In both your writing and your new series, it seems like coexistence is unattainable. It's not just Arabs versus Jews, Israeli identity politics is complex.

"We're not educated to see each other as people who can coexist. This is the establishment, and it trickles to all levels of society. The Arabs are perceived as folklore, not an integral part of Israeli society. People say, 'I ate knafeh in Nazareth,' and think that's coexistence. Former MK Zuhair Bahalul says in the series that Arabs have been integrated in sports, but that it needs to happen on an institutional level. We're not bridging the gap, and it won't change until we create a framework that allows for it. We don't live together. People are afraid to. Tzachi [Halevy] and Lucy [Aharish] got married and people are terrified of that kind of relationship. But I love my country and believe we can live differently, in a way that benefits everyone here."

Originally posted here:

'I live in peace with my two identities, Jewish and Arab - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

(Beirut, 2 May 2022) - The 2022 parliamentary elections in Lebanon will begin with the diaspora voting in their country of residence on 6 and 8 May. This will be the first electoral test at the national level since the October 2019 mass protests and the August 2020 Beirut blast. Wide efforts to encourage the diaspora to vote, led by Lebanese activists all over the world, have succeeded in getting over 225,624 Lebanese on the out of country voters listalmost a threefold increase from the last elections in 2018.

A new joint report by the Arab Reform Initiative and The Policy Initiative examines the choices of the Lebanese diaspora in the 2018 parliamentary electionsthe first time out of country voting was allowed in order to offer some insights on the diasporas vote potential impact in the upcoming elections.

A lot of hope is riding on the diaspora helping vote out the established sectarian political parties, said Nadim Houry, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative. But little is known about the political preferences of this diaspora and the report seeks to provide a baseline to engage in a more informed conversation.

The key findings from the report:

- In 2018, Lebanese voters outside the country did not have a determining role in who made it to parliament for two main reasons: (i) out of country voters represented only 3% of Lebanese who participated in the elections (less than 50,000 of them went to the polls) and (ii) the diaspora voted for the established sectarian political parties in the most part.

- Only 6% of out of country voters in 2018 chose candidates on opposition lists (less than 3,000 voters) while the remaining 94% selected candidates from the traditional political parties, although there were some differences between the choices of the diaspora and in-country voters.

- The behavior of the Lebanese diaspora varies greatly from country to country, which is due in large part to the different contexts of the waves of emigration as well as the sectarian composition of a particular diaspora. Among the main countries voters were registered in, those in Canada, Australia, the United States, France, and the United Arab Emirates mostly supported Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement, while Amal and Hezbollah received most of the votes in Germany as well as across African countries, and the Future Movement performed best in Saudi Arabia. In no cases did anti-establishment lists come close to ranking first in 2018.

One of the challenges in evaluating the impact of out of country voting on anti-establishment parties results in 2022 is the extent to which a shift will occur amongst the diaspora supporters of traditional political parties. While one would expect a shift in voting behavior given the disastrous situation in the country, the scale of this change is unknownparticularly as political dynamics amongst Lebanese diaspora communities are not sufficiently studied and new anti-establishment parties have not campaigned extensively amongst diaspora groups.

Furthermore, the political allegiance of the additional voters registered abroadi.e. those who were not registered outside the country in 2018is also unknown. While much of the drive to register additional voters came from independent groups and activists who are generally opposed to the sectarian political parties, these parties have increased their electoral activity in diasporic communities in the lead up to the elections and have maintained their clientelist networks abroad.

Ultimately, the number of emigrants who registered for the 2022 elections, despite being significantly higher than that in 2018, still only represents 6% of total eligible voters for the upcoming election. From this perspective, it becomes key to examine whether the diaspora votes can make a difference in particularly competitive electoral districts where anti-establishment parties may have a chance of winning a seat. The report provides an analysis of diaspora vote per district in 2018 to shed light on such local dynamics.

Given Lebanons electoral law, in order to understand the potential of the diasporic vote to usher new political figures, one needs to examine particular districts that are competitive and where the diaspora is well-represented, said Georgia Dagher, author of the report and researcher at The Policy Initiative. And this is what the report seeks to do.

Beyond the number of out of country voters, the role of the diaspora in elections and in Lebanons politics more broadly needs further examination. The diaspora is a source of funding for political parties and candidates in Lebanon. The diaspora can also be a key influencer on the voting behavior of many who are in Lebanon. Given the spiraling economic crisis, diaspora members are increasingly a key lifeline for their families in Lebanonin some cases, the only lifeline. These diaspora members can mobilize and convince family members to go out and vote. After all, only 49% of voters participated in Lebanon in 2018, and ultimately, increasing this percentage will be essential.

Ultimately, those in the diaspora hoping for political change in Lebanon need to organize themselves for a long effort. They have shown that they are willing to protect their right to vote in Lebanon and are keen to mobilize. In and of itself, this represents a small but important step forward.

The views represented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Arab Reform Initiative, its staff, or its board.

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The Lebanese diaspora and the upcoming elections: What lessons from the 2018 voting? -

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

Today, the page boasts a similar format. Theres an amapiano playlist and Kenyas Gengetone right at the top, but there are also more esoteric additions: one named Gone Abroad, another titled Internet Famous. The former includes Nigerian TikTok favourite CKay and, puzzlingly, DJ Snake; the latter has the simple description, iykyk (or, if you know, you know).

By late 2021, Spotify had successfully launched in 40 more African countries, leaving the Swedish company fewer than 10 countries away from total penetration of the continent. Listening to its Radar Africa playlist, highlighting the most exciting new artists on the rise from the African continent & diaspora, its striking how similar it all sounds.

Outside of Nigerian and South African languages, its dominated by English, and the range of genres is limited. Rather than showcasing the diversity of the continent, it seems more interested in showing how different parts of the continent can sound the same, or at least evoke the same mood.

The underside of greater access and visibility is that when it collides with a profit-driven economy, a community becomes a market. Listening becomes engagement, a metric understood through views, followers and comments. Our connection to our musical culture gets mediated through a corporation thats gunning for more paid subscriptions rather than through people we know.

Its a new form of exploitation, Boima tells us. The old way is usually when some white, middle-class male, whos trusted by hipsters with disposable income in the Global North, positions themselves as an authority and says, Boom, this is cool, and it blows up. But now, people are uploading the music themselves. The intermediary is cut out of the picture. The forms of exploitation have transformed over the years, but theyre still fundamentally about empire, white supremacy and capitalism.

Even within the framework of making money, distribution is far from equitable. The cost of data on the continent remains prohibitively high. In 2019, in the Americas 1GB of data accounted for 2.7% of a persons income on average. Across Africa, that number jumped up to 8%. What were calling visibility on the global stage is limited to those privileged enough to afford enough data on a regular basis to upload their music, shoot videos and travel abroad.

For African artists in the diaspora, these challenges dont have to be diminishing. They can be opportunities to build bridges. Nazar acknowledges his privilege, but feels hopeful that it can have a positive effect on the music as a whole. Having a European passport has had a profound impact on my career, he says. I can be around for shows, while many of my peers in Africa are stuck with visa issues and all these obstacles. Its not always because they dont have the means.

They also havent spent enough time in Europe to know the labels and how the industry works, he continues. Because I grew up idolising artists who always had these shows around the world, and became big without compromising their art, I want to try to do the same with kuduro. We cant all be in the same category, but we are all African artists.

If anything is clear about this moment, its that however much changes, the spirit of the community lives on for Africans in the diaspora, searching for a piece of home.

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Nations of nostalgia: African music, across the diaspora - DJ Mag

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

The California State University system, Americas largest public higher education system, recently added caste, a birth-based social hierarchy system, to its anti-discrimination policy, allowing students, staff and faculty across its 23 campuses to report caste bias and discrimination.

CSUs move has drawn a sharp response from some in the Indian diaspora: About 80 faculty members of Indian heritage, as well as the Hindu American Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, have opposed the decision, claiming that it is potentially stigmatizing for persons of Hindu or Indian heritage. They have also threatened a lawsuit against CSU if this decision is not revoked.

The caste system is often conflated in Western media with Hindu religion and India alone. However, as social scientists specializing in South Asian Studies, we know that the caste system is neither exclusive to Hindu religion nor is it endemic to India.

While the caste system originated in Hindu scriptures, it crystallized during British colonial rule and has stratified society in every South Asian religious community. In addition to India, it is present in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Bhutan.

Social, economic and political status in this pernicious system is tied to traditional occupations fixed by birth. Brahmins, for example, who are assigned priestly work, are at the top, and Dalits, relegated to the bottom, are forced into occupations that are considered abject in South Asia, such as cleaning streets and toilets, or working in the tanning industry. Caste-based rules of marriage maintain these boundaries firmly.

Caste organizes social life not only among Hindus but also in Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Buddhist communities in the region. It is an intergenerational system based on birth into a caste group. Caste identities stay even generations after someone converts out of Hinduism and into any of these faiths.

Among South Asian Christians, Anglo-Indians are at the top of the hierarchy. This small community includes individuals of mixed descent from Indian and British parents. Those who converted to Christianity, even generations ago, from middle level Hindu castes come next, followed by those from Indigenous backgrounds. Those who converted to Christianity from Dalit castes are placed at the bottom.

Muslims across the region are organized with the minority Ashraf communities at the top. The Ashraf community claims noble status as the original Muslims in South Asia, due to their descent from Central Asian, Iranian and Arab ethnic groups. The middle in this social hierarchy is comprised of Ajlaf, considered to be low-born communities that converted from Hindu artisanal castes. The group at the bottom includes converts from Dalit communities who are identified with the demeaning term Arzal, which means vile or vulgar.

In the Sikh community, the powerful land-owning caste, Jat-Sikhs, are at the top, followed by converts from Hindu trading communities in the middle and converts from lower caste Hindu communities, Mazhabi Sikhs, at the bottom.

While Buddhism in India is close to being casteless, its dominant versions in Sri Lanka and Nepal have caste-based hierarchies.

While many of the so-called lower caste groups converted to escape their persecution in Hinduism, their new religions did not treat them as fully equal.

South Asian Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Buddhists with Dalit family histories continue to face prejudice from their new co-religionists. They are excluded from or experience segregation at shared places of worship and sites of burial or cremation across all these regions.

Social scientists have shown that strict caste-based rules continue to regulate social organization and everyday interactions. Intercaste marriages are rare: In India alone, they have remained at about 5% of all marriages over the past several decades. When they take place, the couples risk violence.

While urbanization and education have normalized everyday interactions across caste groups in shared urban spaces, entertaining lower caste individuals in upper caste households is still taboo in many families. A 2014 survey found one in every four Indians to be practicing untouchability, a dehumanizing practice in which people from Dalit castes are not to be touched or allowed to come in contact with upper caste individuals. Untouchability was prohibited in India in 1950 when its egalitarian constitution came into force. However, home ownership is segregated by caste, and religion and caste discrimination is pervasive in the rental market where residential associations use flimsy procedural excuses for keeping lower caste individuals out.

Lower castes are expected to defer to the higher status of upper castes, refrain from expressing themselves in shared spaces and avoid displaying material affluence. They risk being punished by socioeconomic boycotts, which could include ostracizing the Dalits or keeping them out of employment. It may even include assault or murder. In Pakistan, anti-blasphemy laws are used as a pretext for caste violence against Dalits, many of whom have converted to Christianity.

Studies show that caste-based identity is a major determinant of overall success in South Asia. Upper caste individuals have better literacy and greater representation in higher education. They are wealthier and dominate private sector employment, as well as entrepreneurship.

While affirmative action programs initiated by the British and continued in independent India have made improvements in the educational levels of lower caste groups, employment opportunities for them have been limited.

Studies also demonstrate how caste identity affects nutrition and health through purchasing power and access to health services.

Most socioeconomic elites in South Asia, regardless of religion, are affiliated with upper caste groups, and the vast majority of the poor come from lower caste groups.

Scholars have documented similar discriminatory practices in the diaspora in the U.K., Australia, Canada and the African continent.

Caste has started getting recognition as a discriminatory category, especially in the U.S., in recent years. A 2016 survey, Caste in the USA, the first formal documentation of caste discrimination within the U.S. diaspora, found that caste discrimination was pervasive across workplaces, educational institutions, places of worship and even in romantic partnerships.

In 2020, the state of California sued Cisco Systems, a technology company in the Silicon Valley, on a complaint against caste-based discrimination. Harvard University, Colby College, UC Davis and Brandeis University have recognized caste as a protected status and have included it in their nondiscrimination policies.

These developments in the U.S. have put the spotlight again on this centuries-old system that denies equality to large populations on the basis of an oppressive and rigid hierarchical system. It is up to the American diaspora how they commit to engage with it, as they themselves strive for equality and fairness in their new multicultural society.

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Caste doesn't just exist in India or in Hinduism it is pervasive across many religions in South Asia and the diaspora - The Conversation

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

The continuation of the Israeli occupation of Palestine for over 70 years is a full-fledged racist war crime, says the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which also denounced the Tel Aviv regimes incessant violation of the Palestinian peoples rights, in particular workers.

All the human suffering experienced by our people, especially the workers who are exposed to different forms of targeting and restrictions on a daily basis and denied their most basic rights, has been caused by the occupation, Hamas said in a Sunday press release on the occasion of the International Workers Day, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

The movement also denounced the attempts to target the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and change or end its real role as the witness to crimes committed by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people

The Palestinian refugees in all areas of their presence should be allowed to exercise their rights, mainly their right to work, it added.

Hamas further urged the competent UN and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to assume their responsibilities in this regard, emphasizing that they should work on exposing Israels crimes against the Palestinian workers, pressuring the regime to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip, which affects workers livelihoods, and ensuring that they are given their legitimate rights to work and live with freedom and dignity on their own land.

The statement came after the Palestinian Foreign Ministrysaid Israel finds it easy to impose collective punishment against Palestinians since the regime is hardly ever held to account.

In a statement on Sunday, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said the Israeli regime practices the worst forms of discrimination and colonial racism against the defenseless Palestinian people on a daily basis and before the eyes of the international community, Palestines official Wafa news agency reported.

Acts of sabotage and settler violence against the Palestinians and their property are commonplace throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank. However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute the settlers and the majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate the crimes properly.

The latest development comes as the Israeli regime has escalated its deadly attacks against Palestinians in the run-up to Ramadan and sustained the violence throughout the holy fasting month, stirring up anti-Tel Aviv sentiments throughout the occupied territories.

The Israeli regime has also ramped up its violent attacks on Palestinian worshipers in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of occupied al-Quds in recent weeks.

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Hamas slams 70 years of Israeli occupation of Palestine as 'full-fledged war crime' - Press TV

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Posted By admin on May 2, 2022

When Bayan Abu Salameh enrolled in a mechanical engineering degree, she was one of only four women in an intake of more than 70 students at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah.

Her career choice had previously encountered doubts among her schoolteachers and peers, who questioned whether it was suitable for a girl or even realistic.

Despite the discouragement, she persevered.

The 25-year-old from a small village near Jenin called Faqua was awarded the Chevening Scholarship, funded by the British government, to study at Queen Mary University, where she successfully designed and analysed what she hopes will be the first Palestinian cube satellite and named it Palestine 1.

"It was around the age of 15, when I read the Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, when I knew that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life," says Bayan.

Inspired by Hawking's discoveries, Bayan wanted to create a machine that helps unearth more secrets of the wider universe. It was that early longing to explore and study space that charted her degree choice.

"But when I would tell my university classmates in Palestine that I want to study space, they'd laugh and make fun of me saying 'yeah because we have NASA in Palestine.' They made it sound far away, unreachable. But I did my research, I knew what I was talking about," says Bayan.

"It was something impossible for Palestinians to comprehend at the time, so I came to London, but it was during lockdown, unfortunately. And then I started my research about cube satellites."

Cube satellites, explains Bayan, are miniature satellites deployed into space for different missions, including the study of climate change, urban growth and water sources desertification.

The United Arab Emirates, she notes, launched its second cube satellite from the International Space Station last year, which was designed and built by Khalifa University of Science and Technology students at Yahsat Space Lab.

"It's a great indication of the country's academic competence, which I envision for the future of Palestine," she says.

"Palestinians deserve representation in space, we have great minds! The MENA region is facing a lot of problems and we need scientific-based solutions for such issues. However, it was very difficult to conduct research in lockdown because I had limited resources from the laboratories and library."

READ: Unemployed Palestinian women must have outlets for their abilities, says MP

Moreover, the threat of eviction of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah had unfolded at the time, which sparked weeks of violence last year, culminating in Israel's brutal 11-day military assault on the Gaza Strip that killed 230 Palestinians, including 65 children.

"I saw so many friends of mine getting arrested. Watching footage of my sweet friends getting attacked by Israeli soldiers made me cry for hours. I was here feeling helpless and continuously speaking to my mum and asking for updates."

Despite the psychological pressures hitting hard at the time, the events in Palestine made her more determined to focus on her thesis and exams, in hopes she will succeed and make her people proud.

"I did it," she says with a large smile. "I managed a structural design of the cube satellite and wrote my thesis, which I defended and received a distinction for it."

"That was the happiest day of my life because what I've been working on actually worked!" She announced her achievement on Facebook and shed light on the potential benefits of launching a Palestinian cube satellite into space one day. The news went viral.

Suddenly, Palestinians everywhere shared the same dream. Along with Bayan, they want Palestine to reach space.

Having recently been accepted into Imperial College London to pursue her PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Bayan says she will continue working on the Palestine 1 project.

She also recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds required for the PhD programme and the project, which she is determined to keep full ownership of.

"I don't want anyone taking the opportunity to turn this project into political propaganda, I just want it to be an academic project to benefit people academically worldwide."

"It's still a new industry and people are trying new ways to develop the structure of satellite cubes because currently, out of 100 cubes, almost 49 cube satellites fail. So, what I'm attempting to do with the Palestinian cube is modify the structure and efficiency of it, which will minimise the failure."

READ: Jailed by Israel, students pay heavy price in Palestine

Palestine will benefit greatly from this project, notes Bayan. In Birzeit University for instance, students studying urban planning will have access to raw aerial data that will allow them to understand and excel in their field of study, she explains.

"It will also help the MENA region in general, not just Palestine," she adds. "A major problem threatening the Middle East right now is climate change. I've been following climate change conferences worldwide and, in every conference, they repeat that they need new western foreign policies to combat the problems of climate change."

However, foreign policies shouldn't be imposed on the MENA region as if they represent the most ideal solution to climate change. Instead, explains Bayan, a scientific basis from outer space such as satellite imagery should be utilised to identify the most appropriate response to solving the rising climate change problems.

Around the world, only 18 per cent of women in college and universities are pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, compared with 35 per cent of men, according to the UN.

"For women in engineering in the Middle East, it's not only about proving to themselves that they can succeed in it, it's also about proving it to everyone else. And that means twice the effort than a male engineer because every step of the way, she's being reminded that she does not belong in this field," says Bayan.

"I was one of four females in a classroom of more than 70 and had to face sexist comments from my professors who believed that I did not belong there. A professor of mine even told me that I'd end up hanging my certificate on a wall and not doing anything with it."

READ: Palestinians sit the Tawjihi high school exam

This needs to change, she says, emphasising the need for a conscious effort to eliminate this gender bias and encourage more girls to explore STEM-related courses.

"My motivation is to create a world where my daughter and females of the future will be comfortable studying engineering."

"Whilst also trying to minimise the gap between Palestine and space, I aim to establish a network of women in STEM, where we can come together and learn from each other's expertise to create magnificent projects. We need to stop thinking that space is so far away, we have the potential to reach there and beyond."

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Female engineer: 'We can take Palestine to space and beyond' - Middle East Monitor

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