Demo For Free Education for All

Demo For Free Education for All

Jul 8th, 2009 by kawther.salam

“Stop the new European law – Stoppt die UG-novelle gegen Bildungsabbau”, “Education is a right and no privilege – Bildung ist ein recht und kein Privilege”, “Reclaim your University”, “Education not for sale”. See Demo photos
These signs were raised yesterday July 8 2009 at 11 in the morning in the Ring Street near the Parliament, during a small demonstration organized by the students of University of Vienna. The students sat in the middle of street and blocked the traffic in a clear challenge to the Austrian Police, who was present everywhere near the Parliament and around the demonstrators. The students were protesting against the negative policy of the government toward the education, and the new laws which should to be discussed between 8th and 10th July in the parliament. These new laws affect negatively the education and the students, and threatening the space of the democracy in the universities. The demonstrators described the new laws as a catastrophe which brings further massive deterioration for all universities, said the woman who spoke on behalf of the demonstrators.

The demonstrators said that the European education policies imposed during the recent years are aimed at the full economization of universities as well as the abolition of all democratic rights of teachers and students. They criticized the discussion of the law amendment under exclusion of the public by the parliament.

The Austrian police was unhappy with the students protesting, who surprised them by sitting suddenly in the middle of the street and hindering the traffic. The head of the police at the scene, Mag. Peter Famler, was seen addressing the protestors through a loudspeaker to free the street for the traffic, and to continue their protest at the place named in their permission for the demonstration. A while later, officer Famler was seen talking to the organizers of the demo for more than five minutes. Another Police officer was seen showing a paper to the demonstrators and ordering them to evacuate the street.

The protestors did not obey the orders of the police and challenged the orders to evacuate the street. They continued their sit in, chanting against the SPÖ government and refusing to leave the street. “It’s our rights to raise our voice before the government, who now sits in the parliament to discuss such grave laws against our future”, said one of the demonstration organizers.
The confrontation between the protesters and police was ended after the chief of the police ordered his troops to evacuate the protestors from the street. After that, many police troops were seen proceeding along the demonstrators with anger in their faces. They forced the protestors in a non-violent way to free the area. No violent action broke out during the evacuation. The police continued pushing the demonstrators to the front, and suddenly a police clashed with one of the demonstrators in the middle of the street.

Is the Demonstration Legal?
I asked the Chief of the Police Mag. Famler: “Is the demonstration legal?” My question came as a result of seeing the police chasing the demonstrators away. I had never seen such a confrontation between the police and the demonstrators in Vienna.
Mag. Famler, who I had seen addressing the demonstrating students in a peaceful way asking them to free the street, clarified that the students have the legal rights to demonstrate. He said: “we already permitted the student demonstration, but the demonstrators did not abide by the permitted place of their demonstration, and they changed the place where they demonstrated to a location around the corner at Löwelstrasse, before the entrance to the SPÖ headquarters, and then sat in the middle of Ring Street, and then blocked the passage of traffic in a provocative and illegal way. In this place, in the middle of the Ring Street, from where we evacuated the demonstrators, the demonstration was illegal”.

The demonstrators were allowed to continue their protest on Löwelstrasse, chanting against the SPÖ at the entrance to their headquarters. Four to five police were seen protecting the main entrance of the SPÖ. The chief of the police and the organizers of the demo organizers where seen talking with people from the local media.

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Vienna is the City of Culture

Vienna is the City of Culture

Jul 8th, 2009 by kawther.salam

Vienna is the City of culture, music, concerts, arts, theater, science, peace, beauty and love. Since my arrival to this green land of culture, Vienna, in August 2002, the Film Festival activities which take place at the Rathausplatz every summer were the first thing which called my attention. The music, the films, the lights in the night, the fresh air mixed with the smell of exotic foods, and … all have become a favorite part my life in Vienna. Yearly, like the Austrians and the lovers of culture, I wait for the great hours at Vienna Rathausplatz. The cultural festival which is held yearly in the place before the municipality of Vienna.

On 27 June 2009, this great hour of Viennese culture, the Film Festival, started at the Rathausplatz, “ballet, attractive concerts from classical to jazz and world music, and films” will be part of the Film Festival which this year will last until to 30 August 2009.

During these days and evenings, hundreds of Austrians, tourists, and peace lovers meet at the Vienna Rathausplatz, where they listen to music, read, eat, drink, and sit in the garden, reading books, enjoying the beauty of the nice flowers under the shade of big trees. During the night, thousands of Austrians and tourists are together in a huge riot of culture, where everybody finds a place to stand, or to sit, to eat, to drinking, to meet with friends, to listen to the music and to watch the films. The nights of Vienna are turned into day during the film festival which takes place yearly in front of the Rathaus.

Marcel Khalife Concert – Between Support and Opposition

Marcel Khalife Concert – Between Support and Opposition

Jul 3rd, 2009 by kawther.salam

wonderful night, a wonderful concert!! Over 600 hundred attendants were happy to hear the Lebanese composer, musician, Oud player and singer Marcel Khalife on the night of 30 June 2009 in the courtyard (Arkadenhof) of the municipality in Vienna. Khalife sang the songs of Mahmoud Darwish, he sang for the passport, the gun and … His songs were a present to Palestine. The audience sang with Khalife and applauded his songs warmly.

Among the audience was Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny from the city of Vienna representing the Major Dr. Michael Häupl, the ambassador of the Arab League Dr. Michael Wehbe and his wife, Ishaya El Khoury the Lebanese ambassador, Dr. Omar Zniber, the ambassador of Morocco, the Palestinian ambassador and his wife, the UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen Koning AbuZayed, the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Minister of foreign affairs Dr. Riyad al-Malki, member of the city parliament Dr. Omar Al-Rawi, the organizers and the supporter of the concert, the Secretary General of Saar Fritz Edlinger, the Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Dr. Suleiman Al-Herbish and his wife, and many other Austrian politicians and prominent individuals, many members of the Palestinian and Arab colony, ambassadors of other countries, and some Jews from pro-Israel and pro-Palestine movements. Among them the representative of the Jewish student union at the University of Vienna. The pro-Israelis attended the concert for unknown reasons. Who knows, perhaps they were sent by the Israeli Embassy to see if they would be able to find any pretext to raise a stink.

Khalife’s concert was organized by the Society for Austro-Arab Relations (Saar)in coordination with OPEC, the municipality of Vienna, the Federal Ministry of Education and Culture of Austria, and several other Austrian organizations. OFID supported the event with 75.000,- Euros!! The contributions towards financing the concert were over hundred EUR 100.000, the tickets were sold for 25 to 50 EUR, the audience reached around 700, more or less. Acording to my information, EUR 65.000 were paid to Khalife and his Al Mayadeen ensemble. This was a very high contribution, which the Palestinians who live in disaster in Gaza have not received from the very same organizations which financed the concert, according to many among the attendants to the concert.

We are very happy to hear Marcel Khalife, we love to hear his songs, his words,his Oud music, and we love him too, but we are in shock at the double standards of the organizers who financed Khalife’s concert!! Where were the very same people during the last massacre in Gaza? Other people wondered and asked me: “Who invited the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and his Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Malki, and why were they invited”? They said to me that they found it strange that the people who invited these PA officials were the same people who had described these PA officials as traitors in the media!

A person told me that they intended to invite Marcel Khalife for a concert inVienna, and that they had changed their opinion after Khalife demanded for EUR 10.000 as the price for a concert. This person told me “we found that EUR 10.000 was a too high price and we refused”. They described the high contributions paid for the concert as kind of corruption, saying that among the organizers were people who are fond off exhibitionism before the media, but that even the media forgot and ignored them after the concert had ended”.

Others commented positively on the concert, and described it as a positivedevelopment which helps to raise the voice of Palestine in Vienna. “We need the Austrians to hear our political voice in another way, in a way which they understand, we tried to raise our voice before the Austrian public in various political ways, but we were always ignored. And this concert helped us to achieve our goals”.

“I love music, all kinds of music. I am not political, I just attended the concert to hear music, I don’t care about Palestine, I don’t care about anything else” said an Austrian attendant”.

Some journalists left the concert before the end. According to one of them, anAustrian woman demanded them to stop photographing and filming. She claimed that Marcel Khalife had asked her to do that. The Austrian media ignored the event, even the journalists who were invited personally by the organizers to share the reception with Khalife at the Rathaus of Vienna did not report anything about the concert. During a search through Google, there were some short notes on ORF, and some blogs posted some information about the concert. All news about the concert was posted as commercial announcements by ticket agencies.

Where are the Palestinian and Arab Women????

A strong criticism against the organizer who nominated the people who were invited to a reception with Marcel Khalife, President Fischer and the President of the Parliament, Barbara Prammer at the Rathaus after the concert. The organizer of this reception ignored the Arab and Palestinian women, journalists and political activists in his list which was sent to the Rathaus and to the house of the President. But the same person did not forget his Jewish friends from Women in Black.

This organizer of this reception was an Austrian person from the SPÖ party, who nominated some of his personal friends and beneficiaries to both meetings. It is shame on him the clear ignorance towards Palestinian and Arab women. It is shame on him to present his personal friends as representatives of thePalestinian and Arab community. It is time to raise our protest before the Austrian society. In Austria, the rights of women are privileged, and the continued ignorance of the Arab and Palestinian women in Austria during the meeting in the Rathaus is an affront and against the Austrian laws and customs, where women are respected equal to men, not only before law. Why should Austrian politicians exclude the women from events just to make happy some chauvinists who exclude their own women from every walk of life with force? I will send a letter to the Major of Vienna and to the president of the Austrian Parliament concerning this farce of ignoring the real activists among Arab and Palestinian women, and there are some.

Politicians During the Concert

At the beginning of the concert, Salam Fayyad gave a speech thanking theorganizers and the Austrian government for the invitation. He also thanked the Lebanese singer Marcel Khalife for the concert, and briefed about Palestine. Fayyad, well known as a person who seldom smiles, was very friendly among the attendants, smiling, applauding, and singing together with Marcel Khalife. I left my camera to sit next to Fayyad on the floor. I told him that I criticized his government, that I want the best for my people, the Palestinians. Fayyad smiled and said God bless you. He wrote me his e-mail address. After the concert I gave Fayyad a goodbye kisses. My husband commented on that and said: “You are fighting against the policies of Fayyad and when you met him you forget everything and you talk with him like to a friend. What is this? I thought that you would never shake hands with him. I don’t understand you Palestinians!”

Dr. Andreas Mailath-Pokorny from the city of Vienna gave a speech welcoming Prime Minister Fayyad, the musicians and all the attendants, and wished everybody a happy evening and stay. Dr. Mailath-Pokorny stayed with the audience until the end of the concert, listening to the music of Khalife and applauding him. There was a translation to German for some of the songs in Arabic.

OPEC Press Conference or Meeting of Note Takers?

OPEC Press Conference or Meeting of Note Takers?

Jul 3rd, 2009 by kawther.salam

In all my years working as a journalist I have attended many hundreds, perhaps thousands of press conferences, but never with so much hypocrisy. The strangest one I ever attended was the press conference of the OPEC which was held on 1 July 2009 in Vienna. It was held by the Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Suleiman Al-Herbish, together with Karin Koning Abu Zayd, head of the UNRWA. The occasion for the press conference was that Dr. Al-Herbish would start together with Ms. Koning an education fund for Palestinians.

The fun started at the door, where I was stopped by a lady with excessive make-up, who demanded that I wear a black suit with white blouse, but then a second lady came and told me to ignore the first one. I entered the conference room, and after a while another woman came and asked me for which journal I was reporting. She was happy to hear that I publish my reports in English. I had the impression that everybody was tense. There were no smiles, almost no talking among those present. Many women were dressed in shorts and without sleeves.

In total, four questions from present journalists were allowed before the conference was called off by Dr. Al-Herbish. Al-Herbish interrupted the journalists questions more than one time and stated that no political question should be asked during the conference and the grant signing ceremony between OFID and UNRWA. By the constant interruptions and limitations, and because Al-Herbish told the journalists present at his press conference that we should ask only questions related to the grant agreement which they were signing, the conference was reduced into a meeting for note takers.

First I asked Commissioner-General Karen Abu Zayed why the UN does not teach Palestinian history and geography to the Palestinian refugee children at the UN refugee schools in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and other countries, and who is responsible for that? After that, I asked Dr. Al-Herbish about the 130 thousand Euros which OFID and other organizations had spent the day before for the Marcel Khalife concert in the Vienna Rathaus and if there was any balance between what they had spent in this concert and what they had collected in ticket fees, and, if there was a relation between the concert activity and what they had spent in help for Gaza. After my questions, Al-Herbish and his assistants interrupted the other journalists present and told us that no political questions were allowed, and that questions should only be about the grant of OFID to UNRWA. When another colleague asked a question about Gaza, Al-Herbish interrupted him. After one more question the press conference was called off. I don’t know what was answered to my questions, because somebody turned off my recorder, and the tense atmosphere.

I felt depressed of how the OFID dealt with the journalists. I was thinking to follow the advice of Mr. Al-Herbish to ask non-political questions, and intended to ask him how he would describe a man who presents himself in public as a pious Muslim and whose wife is only seen wearing hijab but who is never heard, but who was seen the night before during a reception of the major of Vienna with the biggest glass of red wine of all those present? I could not ask him this non-political question because the conference was over very soon.

The press conference at the OPEC was attended by few journalists, by many representatives from NGO who are direct beneficiaries and do activities with OPEC. These people sitting around the conference table with frowns, not moving, not talking. Nobody was allowed to say one word. When Paula Hourani from the Jewish organization Women in Black tried to say one word about Gaza, she was interrupted directly and told to keep silence because she was not a journalist. My impression is that neither OPEC nor UNRWA wanted to hear or say anything at all about Gaza, and that what probably was planned to be a session of self-adulation was interrupted by a bit of reality.

I took home a bag full of propaganda from OPEC and UNRWA, which shows how happy all Palestinians are, how good the schools are, how good the life is in Palestine and in the refugee camps in the different countries. Really, if the life of us Palestinians was like it is portrayed in the expensive color brochures, it would be better if I went to Gaza or to one of the many refugee camps operated by UNRWA. In my propaganda bag there are about 10 Kg. of brochures with smiling children, women and men, all well fed, clean, healthy a CD, and a small holder of visit cards in aluminum. All in all, what they spent for my bag of propaganda could probably have fed a family in Gaza for a month. Such are the priorities of the UNRWA.

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UNRWA: 60 Anniversary of the Palestinian Misery

UNRWA: 60 Anniversary of the Palestinian Misery

Jul 2nd, 2009 by kawther.salam

During a press conference held Wednesday, July 1 2009 at the office of OPEC in Vienna, the Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Suleiman Al-Herbish, and the Commissioner-General of the United nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), Karen Koning AbuZayed, declared a grant agreement between OPEC and UNRWA in which OFID will give an additional contribution of US$3 million of the OFID Micro Enterprises for Palestine Fund (PALFUND), administrated by the UNRWA.

The conference was attended by Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe of the Arab League, Ambassador Dr. Omar Zniber of Morocco, Ambassador Ishaya El Khoury of Lebanon, Dr. Riyad al-Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, Ambassador Dr. Zuheir Elwazer of Palestine, and many other representatives of NGO organizations, and a few journalists.

Dr. Al-Herbish gave a brief about the work of OFID and their grants in Palestine. He stated that OFID created the OPEC Fund Micro Enterprises for Palestine (PalFund) scheme, with an initial contribution of US$2.5 million. Administered by UNRWA, the PalFund is “a microfinance scheme which supports the Palestinian Private Sector by extending small loans to productive and qualified micro-entrepreneurs and artisans and thereby contributing to job creation and income growth. In December 2005, and on the basis of successful outcomes, OFID extended a second contribution of US$7.5 million to this Fund”. He said that today the PALFUND account will reach US$10 million.

Commissioner-General Koning of the UN explained the importance of signing the agreement for the grant with OFID, and made clear the needs of the Palestinian refuges to the project. She spoke briefly about Gaza, but almost nothing about the actual genocide and the current situation.

For us Palestinians the 60 anniversary of the UNRWA is nothing to celebrate. The fact that the UNRWA has gone into its 60 year of existence is testimony to the failure of the UN to secure the most basic human rights for us Palestinians, if not its acquiescence, collusion and even outright collaboration with the crimes of Israel. It would be better if the UNRWA, instead of managing our misery and getting into agreements to give micro-credits, would start getting their act together and looking for ways to implement international humanitarian laws, and most important, to find ways to make Israel and all its supporters anywhere to pay damages and reparations to all of us.

AbuZayed was also handed a letter of confirmation of a grant of US$1.2 million in support of the initiation of a Scholarship Fund for Talented Palestinians. This support was also created on the occasion of the 60 anniversary of UNRWA, or, simply said, this support for the operations of the UNRWA comes as a reward for the continuous occupation of Palestine and the utter failure of UN to forcing the “State of Israel” to implement all the UN resolutions and all stipulations of the many bilateral and multilateral treaties which they have signed, and end the occupation.

During the speech of the Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Riyad al-Malki, he stated that the OFID project is one of the best projects in the Palestinian territories, that the decision to increase the fund is another sign from OFID that not only they want to increase the contribution of commitment, but that they also believe in the work. “This fund by itself reflects the best partnership that we could have, a partnership between OFID and UNRWA, which could produce successes and could contribute its experience to many others who would like to come to the Palestinian territories and to invest in the Palestinian people, the Palestinian individuals, in the promotion of the capacity of buildings and in the preparation of building their statehood”.

My respected minister forgets that before we can declare statehood, we must kick out the invaders. And, how are we to kick out the invaders while we are accepting alms and offering us up for “investment”? I would suggest that, instead of inviting foreigners (there are already hundreds of thousands of llegal squatters in Palestine) to “invest in the Palestinian people” like others invest in a herd of cattle, we should start to find partners who will be able to help us to take back what is ours from the invaders of my country.

At the end of the event, the assistant of Karin Koning AbuZayed came to tell me that I would have to submit my questions beforehand of I want to interview the commissioner, but I told her that that this is not the way how I work. This assistant came by herself to offer me an interview with the commissioner at the end of Marcel Khalife concert. I had told her Ok we will talk tomorrow at the OFID conference, but after she heard my questions she was scared.

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Chemtrails in the Skies Over Vienna

Chemtrails in the Skies Over Vienna

Jun 28th, 2009 by kawther.salam

The photos which I show in my report are not the photos of real clouds. On 6 March 2009, the sky over Vienna was blue and clear. How beautiful it was when I opened the window at quarter past 9 that morning. This beauty was scratched some minutes later, after some airplanes passed in sky, leaving behind them thick trails of smoke. There were many airplanes flying at the same moment. They all left behind them strong smoke trails, which spread and converted into strange clouds. After a while, the color of the sky changed. Now it was not blue anymore, but the trails first expanded into strange clouds, then covered the sky with a dirty haze. This happens often, since years, and I have seen it almost everywhere I have been during the last years. I had never before given them importance.

While I was photographing the airplanes and the strange smoke which turned into strange clouds in the sky, a Niki airplane flew over me, but did not leave any smoke behind it. This was very clear, and I took some photos of the Niki airplane too.

After I realized the trails which changed the color of the sky, I went to the central cemetery, where I could sit and watch the movement of the airplanes to and from the airport. There I sat for some hours, watching the movement of the airplanes. I saw many airplanes flying high in the sky leaving trails behind them, but these trails was disappeared after a while without leaving any mark or converting into clouds, and the planes coming and going to the airport would also leave no thick trails.

Some weeks ago I met some other people. One of them called our attention to these airplanes leaving strong smoke trails behind them. The smoke also changed into strange clouds. This person asked me if I had my camera with me. He said that the smoke, which turns into clouds are “Chemtrails”, which are against the health of human beings. He said that these Chemtrails in the sky are sprayed on purpose by military airplanes. He told me that some people who he knows have had health problems as a result of the Chemtrails – bleeding from the nose, breathing difficulties, and some problems with their eyes. He mentioned that they all know that military airplanes are doing this since years. This person also mentioned that he knew somebody who had complained in writing to the Austrian government against the Chemtrails, but the answer he got was that he should not interfere or talk about the issue any more. Because it was not his business.

Recently, the person who told me this had also written the Austrian green party about the issue of the Chemtrails, asking them for their opinion and an explanation. He never received an answer to his request.

Are there really Chemtrails in the skies over Vienna? Are there military secret agreements which are part of the the US Global World? Is there a connection between the Chemtrails and the strange weather?

See more photos here.

Non – political gallery

Main gallery

Tirol and South Tirol Greet Vienna

Tirol and South Tirol Greet Vienna

Jun 19th, 2009 by kawther.salam

Tirol and South Tirol greet Vienna was a successful weekend events held on June 13 and 14 2009, before the municipality of Vienna on the Rathausplatz. Thousands of Austrians joined the activities organized by Tirol and South Tirol. During the event, the Tyroleans sent a special thanks to Dr. Michael Häupl, the mayor of Vienna. The events presented the history, future, and the tradition of the Tirolean people in a beautiful and cultural and historic exhibition with shows, music, traditional clothes and food, … which present the traditions of Tirol as a part of the Austrian society and culture.

On 14 June 2009 I also visited the Tirolean events, I listened to their music, and I photographed the singers at the Rathausplatz. The air and the sun, together with the beautiful Tirolean music, touched my soul and feelings. I joined in and danced in the middle of thousands of happy people, and I felt that I had missed other events of the Tirolean people, which had taken place earlier, before my arrival. See more photos about the event “Tirol and South Tirol greet Vienna”.

Marcel Khalife Concert

Marcel Khalife Concert

Jun 15th, 2009 by kawther.salam

On 30 June 2009 the well known Lebanese composer, musician, Oud player and singer Marcel Khalife will revive a night of concert in the beautiful city of love, peace, music, art, culture and democracy, Vienna. Over 1500 Austrians, Arabs, and people of many other nationalities will be waiting to hear the songs of artist for peace Marcel Khalife in the courtyard (Arkadenhof) of the municipality on Ring street.

Buy Tickets

Marchel Khalife Flayer

For further informations, please call,

Fritz Edlinger
Generalsekretär/Secretary General
Gesellschaft für Österreichisch-Arabische Beziehungen/Society for Austro-Arab Relations. (SAAR)
A-1150 Wien, Anschuetzgasse 1
Tel.: +43 1 5267810, Fax: +43 1 5267795

Marcel Khalife the Artist for Peace in Vienna

Marcel Khalife the Artist for Peace in Vienna

Jun 12th, 2009 by kawther.salam

On 30 June 2009 the well known Lebanese composer, musician, Oud  player and singer Marcel Khalife will revive a night of concert in the beautiful city of love, peace, music, art, culture and democracy, Vienna.

Over 1500 Austrians, Arabs, and people of many other nationalities will be waiting to hear the songs of artist for peace Marcel Khalife in the courtyard (Arkadenhof) of the municipality (Rathaus) on Ring street. For the first time in a big concert event, Khalife will transport the voice of the middle-east to the Austrian audience and all those who love peace, music, arts, freedom and liberty. Among the audience is expected Karl Blecha, former minister of interior and the president of SAA, Erwin Lanc, former minister of foreign affairs, and Willibald Pahr, also a former minister of foreign affairs of Austria. The names of the official representatives of the Austrian government to be present at the concert have not yet been published.

The concert will be held under the auspicies of Dr. Heinz Fischer, the Austrian President, and Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General. A honor committee consisting of Werner Faymman, the Austrian Prime Minister,  Michael Spindelegger, current Austrian foreign Minister, Dr. Benita Ferrero Waldner, EU commissioner for foreign relations, Dr. Michael Häupl, the Major of Vienna, Karen Koning Abu-Zayed, Commissioner-General of the UNRWA, and Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish, director general of the Opec Fund for International Development, underlines the importance of the event. The day after the concert, on 1 July 2009, President Dr. Heinz Fischer will receive the Lebanese composer in his office for a private audience.

The concert is organized by the Society for Austro-Arab Relations (Saar)  in coordination with other organizations. Fritz Edlinger, the Secretary General of Saar, stated that they organized the Khalife concert in Vienna in cooperation with the OPEC-Fund (OFID) and additional support given by the municipality of Vienna and the Federal Ministry of Education and Culture. Edlinger said that the most important financial support came from OFID, who support the event with EUR 75.000,- !! and that without this contribution, the concert would not have been possible in Vienna. He clarified that the main intention of OFID is to support the scholarship funds of UNRWA. The concert will also be used by the UNRWA to launch a special scholarship fund. The Dr. Al-Herbish of OFID will announce the pledge of an important contribution to the fund, which according to Edlinger could be about (USD 55 Mio).

About the objective of organizing Khalife’s concert in Vienna, Fritz Edlinger said that for him and SAAR, the event has two main meanings:

First: to celebrate the 60. anniversary of UNRWA, and also to launch a special scholarship fund for especially talented Palestinian students. Presenting UNRWA in this concert event means to remind the public about the still existing and unsolved fate of the Palestinian refugees!!

Second: to present one of the most important Arab singers to the Austrian public. Abut 1.500 attendees are expected to come, what would make this event the biggest Arabic cultural event in Vienna ever!! According to Edlinger, “If you look at the Al-Mayadine ensemble, you will easily recognize that this is a real international and multicultural project. This is also a third message, taking into consideration the rising xenophobia in Europe (and unfortunately also in Austria)”.

Marcel Khalife Artist for Peace

Khalife has in the past held concerts all over the world and he was named Artist for Peace in 2005 by UNESCO. He supports the commitment to the musical heritage of Arab and Lebanese chorals. In 2009 he was named the musical director of the Orchestra of Qatar. In Arab nations Khalife is considered a cultural icon who represents their musical culture around the world.

Musician Marcel Khalife has suffered the oppression of the many Arab regimes. When he added a revelation of Quran to one of his songs, radical Muslims fought and incited against him, and he was declared as an infidel in the mosques . For some years Khalife was banned in Tunisia because he sung a poem of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish; Khalife was also denounced by Bahraini parliamentarians for “encouraging debauchery”. His problems with the Tunisian government were finally solved, but Khalife still faces the hatred of Israel, as the zionists and the pro-Israel gangs everywhere who works obstruct his concerts around the world.

Marcel Khalife loves the Palestinians, and he sang and still sings for our national rights. He sings the poems of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. The poems of Darwish have become popular songs all around the world through Khalife’s songs. According of Khalife, he feels himself and his own presence in Darwish’s poems, he feels that Darwish wrote his words and poems for him.

Marcel Khalife and Al Mayadeen Ensemble

Marcel Khalife was born 1950 in Amchit, Lebanon. He studied the Oud at the Beirut National Conservatory of Music. From 1971 to 1975 he taught at the conservatory in Beirut. He created the Al Mayadeen Ensemble in 1976 and became very famous around the world for songs like Ummi (My Mother), Jawaz al-Safr (The Passport), and Rita w’al-Bundaqiya (Rita and the Rifle), based are on the poems from Mahmoud Darwish.

Marcel Khalife was granted the Palestinian Award for Music in 1999. In turn, he contributed the financial part of the award to the National Conservatory of Music at the Birzeit University in Palestine. He currently lives in Paris, and his sons, Bashar and Rami Khalife, are also accomplished Oud players and percussionists in the Al Mayadeen ensemble.

In the coming concert at the municipality, Khalife will sing the following songs, and Magda Assem will translate his songs from the stage, and they will also be translated and for the public.

• 1 Arabic Coffeepot – Raqwet Arabe
• 2 Pigeons Fly – Yateer Al Hamam
• 3 Love You More – Ouhibouka Atkthar
• 4 Walking Tall- Mountasiba al Qamati Amshi
• 5 A Song On My Mind- Fil Bal Oughniaton
• 6 Rita
• 7 Night Traveller- Ya Sari
• 8 Palestinian Mawwal- Mawwal Filastini
• 9 Tango (instrumental)
• 10 Sparrow- Asfour
• 11 Houriyyeh’s Teachings- Ta’alim Houriyyeh
• 12  Mother- Oummi
• 13 Passport- Jawaz el Safar
• 14 The Sailors – Ya Bahriyyeh

The artists in the ensemble are:

• Marcel Khalife: composer, oud & vocals
• Oumaima Khalil: vocals
• Yolla Keryakos: vocals
• Rami Khalife: piano
• Peter Herbert: double bass
• Mark Helias: double bass
• Anthony Millet: Accordion
• Ismail Lumanovski: clarinet
• Kinan Azmeh: clarinet
• Moslem Rahal: ney
• Feras Charestan: qanoun
• Kinan Adnawi: oud
• Mohamad Osman: bozouq
• Joanna Lewis: violin
• Anne Harvey-Nagl: violin
• Petra Ackermann: viola
• Melissa Zielasko: cello
• Bachar Khalife: percusión
• Alexandar Petrov: percussion 

Victims of Incest and Abuse in Palestine

Victims of Incest and Abuse in Palestine

Jun 11th, 2009 by kawther.salam

Today 11 June 2009 a Palestinian woman of age 32 and mother of two children, was killed by her family in the southern district of Hebron. The body was found while the murderers were trying to hide their crime. According to the sources, the background of the murder was a so-called killing to “protect the honor of her family”.
In the Gaza Strip, 10 June 2009, a girl from Deir el-Balah was murdered by her father. The background of this murder was a so-called killing to “protect the honor of her family”.

The so-called “honor killings” are a crime which has increased in Palestine under the studious ignorance of the Palestinian Authority, which is busy of implementing the criminal plans of CIA the and the real government of criminal Keith Dayton which based on jailing Palestinian political activists and destroying their homes to protect Vichy Regime which is the PA. Also, the honor killings have increased in Gaza under the control of the religious radical Hamas, who justifies the honor killings with their religious believe.

In the West Bank and Gaza there are no laws which forbid the women from being murdered and prosecuted. The Egyptian laws which are implemented in Gaza and the Jordanian Laws implemented in the West Bank discriminate between men and women, and protect the murderers of women. “Honor” has become a justification for murdering women and protecting the murderers as well keeping the power in the hand of the men who lead the society, and impeding women from reaching power. This is a clear threat for all women who seek equality in their rights with men.

In many cases women have been killed as a cover for incest inside their families, to cover up sexual abuse and rape committed by their brothers, fathers, uncles …, or simply because they met with a colleague from the university to drink a cup of coffee, because of a visit to the doctor not done in company of the husband or the mother, because they went shopping without permission from the husband, because of incitement from relatives of the husband, because of taking off their head cover against the will of the family, because of writing an e-mail to a friend, for exchanging photos, because of any kind of suspicions, because of asking the family for their inheritance, because of falling in love with somebody, because of opening the window and looking at the street, because of refusing marriage …. many small and awful reasons have caused women to lose their life in Palestine. Seldom had those women been killed because of guilt or a real sexual relationship.

Only a liar can say that in Palestine there is a woman who has never been harassed physically, insulted verbally, or abused sexually inside the family. A liar who says that the women are not harassed sexually at the offices of the Palestinian Authority. Sexual abuses are common at work, and insults, offenses, degradations, scorn are common inside the family. These issues are hidden, and no woman dares to talk about them. In many cases the father and the brother are abusing the daughter and sister sexually, and then they murder the victim in a so-called “honor killing”, because of which they are not punished, but which helps to maintain the undeserved “honor” of the murderers. More than 50 percent of the victims who were examined and found to be not virgin could only have lost their virginity because of sexual abuse by their own relatives, who then murdered them to cover up their shameful deeds. The local media has never exposed these crimes and the problems caused by the hidden epidemic of incest. This issue is always forbidden and censored by the criminals, who are always men heading the influential organizations. Even the police, in the few cases which reach them, tell the murderers that they did “a great thing, something honorable”.

Since my childhood I remember the murder of girls. I will never forget the murder of Haifa’a from my class, who was 9 years old when her parents murdered her. Another friend, Wafa, was forced to marry at age 12, and was murdered by her husband because she refused to sleep with him. A girl from school, Najah, was murdered by her brother while I was in the third class of secondary school. Two twins of age 13 years were murdered by the father and the mother in our neighborhood. Another girl was murdered in 2002 by her father, just some months before I became a refugee. And there are many more cases of murder which I will never be able to forget. Once in Jerusalem a woman was murdered by her brother before me. The story which I found out was that she had a fight with her husband and went to the brother until things calmed down; the husband came to mend fences, so she went home with him, but because she had forgotten to ask the brother for permission to leave, he followed and killed her on the street.

The PA is keeping week laws in the books, laws which protect the criminals who murder and harass women. They keep these laws which discriminate between the man and women simply because all men, or at least most of them, are involved in these crimes and they protect themselves from punishment. Even Hanan Ashrawi, who passes herself off as some sort of female hope in Palestinian politics, is silent and studiously avoids the issue of incest and honor killings in Palestine, as she too is well-paid by the cliques who condone and protect these unconscionable crimes. As a christian with an israeli ID she would lose too much if she was to mention these issues, and I know of one instance in which she declined to speak about a case in which a christian woman was murdered by relatives.