Arabs & Arabian Records Aggregator. Chronicler. Milestones of the 25 Countries of the Arabic Speaking World (official / co-official). AGCC. MENA. Global. Ist's to Top 10's. Records. Read & Enjoy./ www.arabianrecords.org
Category: Non-Resident / PAO (Persons of Arab Origin / Descent)
US Jordanian contestant Farah Abu Adeela from the state of Illinois was crowned Miss Arab USA at the beauty pageant’s finale in Arizona over the weekend.
The new Miss Arab USA, who is a model, takes over from 2022’s winner, Moroccan American Marwa Lahlou.
The annual pageant, which returned in 2022 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was held in Arizona this year. Produced by The Arab American Organization (AAO), the pageant is “founded on the basis of advancing the cause of young ladies of Arab descent,” according to its website.
The swimsuit category does not feature in the pageant, with the stated aim of organizers being to “select an honorable Arab young lady to represent our culture in the US and worldwide for one year.”
This year’s ceremony featured a performance by dance troupe Zeffa of Phoenix.
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Farah Abu Adeela nabbed the coveted tiara at the 2023 Miss Arab USA pageant. (Instagram)
Fady Dagher is the first minority-background officer to head Canada’s second-largest force.
A map of Lebanon hangs in Chief Fady Dagher’s office in the grey stone headquarters of Montreal’s police force. It is a constant reminder of where he is from and the place he hopes to return to.
“For me, it helps me to stay connected to my roots and not to forget where I come from,” Mr Dagher said.
The 55-year-old Lebanese-Canadian officer, who moved to Canada when he was 17, is the first person from a minority background to lead Montreal police in the force’s nearly 200-year history.
His appointment in January was the culmination of a lifetime of service to his adopted homeland.
“I always felt I had a debt to the Montreal community,” Mr Dagher told The National. “They welcomed me so well and it was a duty for me to serve them.”
Softly spoken with a slightly gravelly voice, Mr Dagher said that when he came to Canada in 1985 his original plan was to go to university and then return to Abidjan in the Ivory Coast, where his father ran a manufacturing company. But a chance encounter with a police officer drew him to a different life, despite strong opposition from his father.
“Oh my God, he lost it,” Mr Dagher recalled with a chuckle.
Not even an unplanned trip from his beloved father could dissuade Mr Dagher from pursuing a career in law enforcement.
“I didn’t see my father from 1985 to 1991 and he came right away to discourage me.”
While policing may not have held the same allure and status in Lebanon and Ivory Coast as it did in Canada, Mr Dagher has brought the values of both places to his role leading Montreal’s nearly 5,000 officers.
“In Lebanon and Africa, we really have the community spirit deep in us and in the police, if you don’t have the community spirit, you cannot be close to the community and you cannot find your resolve to apply the law,” he said.
Mr Dagher has championed a community approach that involves immersing officers in the neighbourhoods they patrol.
The police chief leads by example. Earlier this year, he spent five days living and sleeping at various Montreal homeless shelters to better understand the struggles faced by the city’s homeless population.
“There is no way you can lead without walking the talk,” Mr Dagher said.
At the heart of his approach to policing is a Lebanese ethos.
“I want to be able to be inside those houses, sit with them, cook with them, clean with them, eat with them and see what their stories are,” he said.
He is hoping he can help to transform a police force that is facing a severe shortage of personnel and a city grappling with a sharp rise in gun violence.
Mr Dagher estimated that the force is 20 per cent to 30 per cent short of the officers it needs. A huge part of his first few months on the job has been to go on a charm offensive trying to attract new recruits.
“That’s my first priority,” he said. “To be able to recruit and to keep the recruit is huge.”
He’s looking at immigrant communities and hoping his own career can help new Canadians see a potential future in the ranks of the Service de Police de la Ville de Montreal.
Like many cities across North America, Montreal recorded a sharp increase in violent crime during the pandemic, a trend that continued in 2022.
Mr Dagher said the force was actively looking at ways to reverse that trend and was optimistic it would.
In terms of gun violence, “last year was the worst year that we went through”, he said, but noted that since he took over in January gun violence appears to be down, a trend he hopes will continue through to the end of the year.
Mr Dagher, who signed a seven-year contract, is determined to help recharge the department, but he dreams of having one more professional act after he retires.
“I am hoping that one day I will finish my career as ambassador of Canada in Lebanon, so I can go back to where I come from,” he said.
It would be the cherry on top of an exceptional life and allow Mr Dagher to spend time closer to his ancestral village of Bikfaya in the Mount Lebanon region.
Even while he is busy leading Canada’s second-largest police force, his mind and heart are never far from the small Mediterranean country that generations of Daghers have called home.
Throughout his busy career, he said, Lebanon has always held a restorative power.
“Every time I go back to Lebanon my heart beats better, again and again. My heart is in good health when I go to Lebanon because I feel welcomed,” he said.
Egyptian-Scottish classical duo the Ayoub Sisters are scheduled to perform at King Charles III’s coronation in Edinburgh on Wednesday.
“We are delighted to share that we have been invited by HM King Charles III to perform at his coronation in Edinburgh next week,” wrote the Ayoub Sisters on Facebook on Saturday.
“The ceremony is part of Royal Week, with the King and Queen undertaking several engagements in Scotland, and will be broadcast live on BBC One. Tune in on Wednesday 5th July at 1:30pm to watch the celebration unfold,” they added.
The Ayoub Sisters have taken the international music scene by storm since their debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2016. Laura Ayoub plays the violin – performing on an 1810 J. Gagliano – and Sarah Ayoub masters the cello. Both play the piano.
The internationally renowned duo were discovered by producer Mark Ronson.
Their young, albeit sparkling, career has led them to sign a contract with Decca Records, one of the UK’s biggest record labels playing at the BRITS and the BAFTAs. Their album topped the Official Classical Artist Albums Chart.
The duo explore many musical genres, starting from classical music to Scottish traditional repertoire, topping it with captivating arrangements of pop, funk, and world music.
Their virtuosity and creativity have taken them to many prestigious halls in the UK (the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, London Palladium) and the rest of Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Hard truths beneath the exuberant arrangements of the Somalian-British singer-songwriter and activist strike a chord for others uprooted from their homeland.
The small stage at the Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room is bathed in lilac light as an acoustic drummer, a conga percussionist, two guitarists and then a saxophonist and keyboard player take their places.
For a few minutes, a laid-back jam session ensues until the lead singer weaves his way towards the microphone, expertly adjusts the stand and, without preamble, begins the set.
It is opening night of the city’s annual Arab arts festival, and the intimate audience, though it’s a decade since Aar Maanta and the Urban Nomads’ debut UK tour, is in for a rare treat: live Somali music played with instrumental accompaniment.
“Always with a band,” Maanta confirms to The National, “because there has been a cultural tendency to sing with playback music. I wanted something a little more genuine. I just thought: ‘I’ll be strict and do live shows.’
“I did playback one time when I was in my home town in Jijiga and I felt like I was cheating people, you know?” he adds, laughing.
Those gathered are making the most of the opportunity, clapping, bobbing their heads, dancing and singing along with Maanta’s soulful voice, the smooth tones of which a reviewer once aptly described as coloured by “the dusty echo of the desert”.
Midway through the live performance, he introduces a song called Uur Hooyo (Mother’s Womb) written by the oud virtuoso and renowned composer Ahmed “Hudeidi” Ismail Hussein.
“Unfortunately, he passed away in 2020 due to Covid in London,” Maanta tells the audience. “He was my teacher and taught me about music and generally about history, the connections between the Horn of Africa, Yemen and this area. There are so many connections here.”
As Maanta tells me, the gig is packed with significance as the port city welcomed the earliest members of the UK’s now 100,000-strong Somali community in the late 19th century.
Some of those mostly seamen and traders arriving by ship from the former British colony of Aden brought ouds – the short-necked, stringed instrument whose earthy notes are the signature of Somali folk music.
Maanta’s body of work across two albums and an EP is a poetic and, at times, urgent soundtrack of that migrant experience.
Finding his voice
Born Hassan-Nour Sayid in the capital of the Somali Regional State in Eastern Ethiopia, his creative journey began in the home of his auntie in Hargeisa, where he and his two siblings were raised.
“It was a good house,” he says. “Altogether, there were 10 children inside and it was fun. I was well cared for and, because there were so many of us there, I felt like I had many older sisters.”
Though his great-grandfather was Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, the Somali nationalist revered as a skilful oral poet, his maternal aunt was the one responsible for encouraging an early love of the arts.
Looking back, Maanta recalls the rhythms and melodies of the Iftin Band and those of Hudeidi himself emanating from an old transistor in the kitchen to intermingle with the aromas of Mandi, the traditional Yemeni dish of meat and richly spiced rice.
“My auntie used to sing these old Somali songs on the radio, and I would always listen and sing along because I loved the music,” he says.
“Now, this was the Eighties, so radio was very limited. Whenever the radio goes off, she would basically ask me to sing some of her favourite songs again and I would. It was beautiful.”
Though Maanta doesn’t much like talking about it now – “It’s a pretty common story and not a good one,” he has said – he was separated from his brother and sister when taken by an uncle to relocate to London in the late 1980s, on the cusp of the civil war.
“When I first arrived in the UK, I remember how strange it all was. We moved from a big house to a small apartment and the corridors were so tiny.”
Those tighter living conditions, however, were offset by the expansive music options afforded by the multicultural society of his adopted home where the rustic tracks favoured by Maanta’s auntie soon made way for hip-hop and R’n’B.
“I lived in Brixton and when you are younger you don’t realise it was the hood in those days. I remember it was a rough area, but I made plenty of Pakistani and West Indian friends,” he says.
“Then, of course, there was the Brixton Academy, a famous music venue. As a child, I wasn’t allowed to go in but I remember the posters outside of some of my favourite groups like Jodeci and Guy.”
For somewhat different reasons, a famous band from Liverpool featured at that time, too. As a newly arrived pupil in an inner-city primary school, the young Hassan could often be found scribbling words such as: “You think you’ve lost your love, well, I saw her yesterday,” into an exercise book.
“I had a teacher for English support who was amazing. He would say: ‘Right, if you like music then listen to these and write them down.’ He was into The Beatles. There was one song in particular: She Loves You.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,’’ Maanta says with enthusiasm, unconsciously repeating the refrain that took the world by storm in the mid 1960s. “They’re effective. The lyrics show the economy of language and how to structure as well. It’s better, I think, than studying Shakespeare because you learn that sometimes five words are more important than 10 if you know how to use them.
“Literally, music was a weird and easy way of learning.”
Maanta was shy and introverted growing up, which meant a lot of alone time that he used to teach himself the oud and piano in his late teens and early twenties.
His family were disapproving of music as a career so he embarked on a science degree at Sheffield University, but resistance was useless: “If it’s your dream,” he says, “it’s what keeps you alive.”
Averse to the idea of becoming a solo singer, he decided to work with other UK-based Somali artists as a producer and arranger.
But after one artist refused to take part in a function in London in 2001 due to a last-minute financial dispute, Maanta stepped in to perform the planned classic Somali hits.
“I remember how nice it felt to be able to convey a message to an audience from the stage. It gave me the encouragement that I can do this.”
But Maanta, whose professional name combines his nickname (Aar, meaning Lion) and the title of one of his most popular songs (Maanta, or Today), wasn’t planning on being just another vocalist for hire.
Seeking a distinct sound, he composed his own songs for a new generation of Somalis who, seeing live bands from other countries, yearned for the same form of entertainment from their own homeland.
“It’s mostly the same band line-up but, if people are not available, because of logistics and all that, then I go with whatever I can find.
“I just genuinely feel like if you’re gonna perform, you’re gonna perform. If you don’t wanna perform, and you wanna do playback, it’s fine. But live music is meant to be with live instruments.”
Part of the appeal is that expatriates hear their own experiences reflected in the mix. Hiddo & Dahqan, the debut album released under his label Maanta Music, is a revelation for its fluid blend of percolating Somali pop with oud-centred love songs – a genre called Qarami – and the bobbing bass lines of Afro-pop.
Dig beneath the exuberant arrangements, however, and there are some hard truths to be heard. By the time the album came out in 2008, Maanta had been touring regularly across Europe and the US but visa delays and long vetting by immigration officials were making a gruelling schedule more intolerable.
The frustration of being constantly under suspicion is encapsulated brilliantly in the song Deeqa, a popular girls’ name that Maanta translates as “Suffice” but points out that it was also how Somali Airlines, which ceased operating in 1991, became known.
For the music video, a recreation of an interrogation at Heathrow Airport, a tired Maanta is quizzed by officials about his travel plans in scenes that struck a deep chord within and beyond the Somali diaspora.
“I still keep getting messages to this day from all over about how people relate to this song, and it makes me feel so proud of it.
“There was even a barrister in the UK who tweeted how he used that song to train immigration officials on how to not deal with people in this kind of situation,” he says.
Music with purpose
Deeqa proved a turning point for Maanta in harnessing the power of the protest song. He began to infuse more sociopolitical subjects into his lyrics while leveraging his burgeoning profile to raise awareness of issues such as the refugee crisis.
Some of his frustration was particularly channelled into 2016’s Tahriib, or “Dangerous Crossings”, an a cappella piece written after a family member fell victim to human trafficking.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees subsequently reached out to ask him to re-record the song with collaborators including the Somali singer and former refugee Maryam Mursal, the Egyptian musician Hany Adel, and the Ethiopian singer Yeshi Demelash, in a multilingual campaign highlighting the perils of fleeing across the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea from Africa.
Maanta returned to Jijiga in 2015 as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and visited two refugee camps. “The environment was not really new to me. Even for some of us Somalis who didn’t go through this, we know our family experienced those situations,” he says.
“But it was tough to see the young people there. Yes, while they have some facilities like schools and food, they need more than that. They have dreams, they want to go out and achieve things, but they are not able to leave those places.”
Three years later, Maanta took his insights right to the top at a meeting with the then Somali president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed.
“We spoke about how there are a lot of Somali youths in difficult situations, such as camps in Libya or even forced into slavery,” he recalls.
“I just told him: ‘You guys need to do your job more and help those people.’ ”
No surprises, though, to hear that Maanta’s potent advocacy is not part of a plan to pave a way into the febrile world of Somali political life.
“Absolutely not,” he says. “Politics is generally very toxic and I do feel that African political leaders really don’t have much influence to change things at the moment.”
For the children
It was in Minneapolis rather than Mogadishu where he found an example of inspired leadership. Arriving in the US state of Minnesota in 2021, home to the country’s largest Somali population, Maanta was an artist in residence at The Cedar Cultural Centre for two years.
In a project funded by The Joyce Foundation, the Chicago-based philanthropy organisation, he teamed up with the esteemed poet, playwright and custodian of the Somali language Said Salah to compose and record songs that would become Ubadkaa Mudnaanta Leh (Children Have Priority).
“Myself and Professor Said Saleh didn’t decide to sit there and write the songs – we wanted the kids to share their experiences,” he says of promoting Somali heritage by seeking the lyrics and vocals of children aged five to 15.
“They were so enthusiastic about the whole process mainly because of the Somali language itself. They were curious and excited and that really influenced the way we created the songs.”
Form of creative therapy
The resulting EP is a stirring collection of bilingual offerings from a proud yet sometimes misunderstood community, the centrepiece of which is I Am Part 1 & Welcome to Cedar Riverside, a two-song suite in English that sheds light on the lives of those who live in “Little Mogadishu on the Mississippi”.
Through the album’s recording process, Maanta realised he was providing a form of creative therapy for Somali youth by giving them a platform to voice what they were facing in the West such as being in a minority with a different faith; struggles with their mother tongue; and the politics of the then-President Donald Trump.
“I also met a few kids who were autistic, and I realised how important an issue it was within the Somali community, particularly in the diaspora. One of the songs in the album is sung entirely by an autistic child.”
Some of these compositions were heard live for the first time in The Music Room on Friday, where the 25-degree heat prompted Maanta to half-lament that it’s always “the hottest day” whenever he goes to Liverpool.
After more than three decades in the UK, he has come to prefer the cooler months of autumn to those of summer not least because of their unpredictability.
“It seems like you don’t know what’s to come. Everything’s kind of changing,” he explains.
Maanta seems as mutable as his favourite season, telling The National that he now wants to make working with youth the focus of his future efforts.
“Any artist can make songs with the aim of becoming popular but when you cater for children it leaves a lasting impression, especially when there is a need.
“And when it comes to Somali children, the need is the greatest now because there is nothing really out there to cater for them musically. If your country is struggling, obviously making music for children is not going to be a priority.
“I want to make that change,” he says with a passion that echoes some of the poetry for which Somalia is famed.
As a musician he is already widely regarded as the bridge between the old generation and new, but he just may be about to perform his greatest gig of all.
The Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2023 continues until July 16. For more information, go to: www.arabartsfestival.com/
New course offers four tracks specific to journalism, humanitarian work, health care and business
“Arabic for Professionals” carricula are proofed by Arabic academics from top universities
Six Syrian refugees in the US have crafted the “Arabic for Professionals” course launched on Wednesday by NaTakallam, a refugee-powered social enterprise that provides language learning, translation and interpretation services.
The course’s contents have been proofed by Arabic academics from top universities, such as the American University of Paris, according to a press release by NaTakallam.
Tailored for upper-intermediate and advanced Arabic students, “Arabic for Professionals” offers four tracks specific to journalism, humanitarian work, health care and business.
“The program is the outcome of conversations about common teaching challenges among NaTakallam language partners, especially when it comes to Arabic in practice,” said Carmela Francolino, NaTakallam’s talent and community manager.
“After defining the general profiles of our students and their needs, the necessity of structured courses for intermediate and advanced students was clear, as were the topics we needed to focus on,” she said.
Combining synchronous and asynchronous learning, “Arabic for Professionals” provides flexibility to fit busy schedules. The curricula are divided into several units, including exercises to reinforce each point and ten one-hour private lessons with an experienced tutor.
In addition to a focus on Modern Standard Arabic, a lingua franca used across the Arabic-speaking world, the one-on-one tutoring sessions offer students the opportunity to practice what they have learned in spoken dialects of Levantine Arabic.
Multiple pilot students have noted that the blended structure of the course provided an impetus for them to continue learning the language after their progress had stalled.
“For NaTakallam, whose core mission is to showcase the talents of displaced and conflict-affected people, it is especially meaningful that our language partners are not only teaching this curriculum but have created it in its entirety,” said Aline Sara, co-founder and CEO of NaTakallam.
Besides the new Arabic for Professionals program, NaTakallam offers an Integrated Arabic Curriculum, a 25-hour course that teaches Modern Standard Arabic and Levantine Arabic concomitantly, as well as one-on-one language tutoring in Arabic, Armenian, French, Kurdish, Persian, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian.
Longtime scholar Linda Jacobs calls it “the best-kept secret in New York history.” She is talking about New York City’s forgotten Syrian enclave of immigrants (often referred to as Little Syria) that once thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, forming the first Arab-speaking community in the US.
As part of an initiative supported by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Jacobs led in-person walking tours on Washington Street, the main hub of Little Syria, this summer. For Jacobs, it is a story that hits close to home.
Just-landed Middle Eastern immigrants at Ellis Island, ca. 1905. (Supplied)
All four of her grandparents emmigrated from modern-day Lebanon in the late 1800s, moving to Washington Street. “I was just interested in doing my family genealogy, and more importantly, for me, understanding if the myths or stories we were told as children in our family matched the reality … Some made it, some didn’t,” she told Arab News.
Aside from the presence of Arabs, Washington Street was home to other nationalities, including German and Irish families. It was an economic and cultural center, full of stores, cafes, and factories. It was not a bed of roses, though, according to Jacobs.
Built on landfill, Washington Street suffered from poor living conditions and a lack of clean air. Because the area was located near the tidal Hudson River, water would come up through the basements of tenement buildings.
60-62 Washington Street, where dozens of Syrian-owned businesses were located, 1903. (Supplied)
To make matters worse, the rate of infant mortality, due to tuberculosis, was high. “It makes you cry, it’s really sad,” said Jacobs. “You can imagine that people did not want to remember this time of their lives, and I think that’s why my grandmother never talked about it. She never mentioned the word(s) ‘Washington Street’.”
A majority of the people referred to as Syrians who came to New York City most likely hailed from Lebanon, seeking better economic opportunities. Those who initially arrived were farmers and laborers, later followed by wealthier classes. The lucrative trade of peddling was a common profession amongst Syrians, who saved up money to open their own businesses and relocate to safer boroughs, such as Brooklyn.
By the 1940s, the Syrian community was non-existent on the street. The physical neighborhood was destroyed, making way for building the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. Today, Washington Street is a neglected area, where only three buildings, including the facade of St. George’s Melkite Church of the Syrian Community, have survived, but most lack landmark status granted by the city.
Conducting such walking tours around the area is important for Jacobs. “All were surprised because no one had any idea that this community existed,” she remarked. “It’s a mixed blessing, because in a way, it’s a real lesson to others to try and save their communities from total destruction. And on the other side, it’s very sad to have it all be gone.”
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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New York City’s forgotten Syrian enclave of immigrants (often referred to as Little Syria) thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (Supplied)
Kassem Istanbouli, Lebanese actor-director, and Hajer Ben Boubaker, French researcher and sound director, were awarded the 19th UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture at an award ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 26th June 2023.
The event, organised by the Sharjah Department of Culture in collaboration with UNESCO, celebrated the achievements of two winners.
The ceremony was attended by Abdullah bin Mohammed Al Owais, Chairman of the Sharjah Department of Culture; Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO; Mohammed Ibrahim Al Qasir, Director of the Department of Cultural Affairs in Sharjah; Ahmed Al Mulla, Deputy Ambassador of the UAE to France, and Aisha Al Kamali, Representative of the Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of the UAE in France, along with dignitaries, writers, intellectuals and accredited diplomats to the United Nations (UN).
Al Owais and Ramirez presented the 19th edition of the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture to Istanbouli, winner of the Arab Personality Award, and Ben Boubaker, winner of the Non-Arab Personality Award.
The UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture recognizes recipients’ outstanding artistic achievements celebrating Arab art and culture globally. Core to UNESCO’s anti-racism and anti-discrimination agenda, the Prize promotes peace and dialogue to foster intercultural understanding and celebrate diversity.
For this 19th edition of the Prize, the international jury recognized Mr Istanbouli and Ms Ben Boubaker’s extraordinary contributions to promoting the arts and Arab culture and supporting their local communities.
Kassem Istanbouli is a Lebanese actor and director. Since 2014, he has led the rehabilitation of historical cinemas in Lebanon, including Stars Cinema in Nabatieh, and Al-Hamra and Rivoli in Tyre, abandoned or destroyed during civil war.
Mr Istanbouli is involved with several international projects focused on skills enhancement, youth empowerment and collaborative partnerships. In 2020 he co-founded the Arab Culture and Arts Network (ACAN) to design and implement online cultural activities across the Arab region. The Network includes over 700 organizational and individual members from across the world.
Mr Istanbouli is also director and founder of the Lebanese National Theater in Tyre and the Lebanese National Theater in Tripoli and has been a project manager at the Tiro Association for Arts in Lebanon since 2014.
Hajer Ben Boubaker is a French-Tunisian independent researcher and sound director. Her research focuses on a socio-historical analysis of Arab music and the cultural history of the Maghreb community in France and around the world.
In 2018, she created and self-produced the Vintage Arab podcast, which explores Arabic musical heritage. At the intersection of research and art, the podcast allows her to keep a foot in each sphere.
Ms Ben Boubaker is a producer and documentary director for France Culture, where her work questions the sound and political memory of immigration. As a researcher, she is associated with the Arab and Oriental music collection at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and continues to write for scientific journals, including “Paris, capitale maghrébine: une histoire Populaire” in October 2023.
Created in 1998 and run by UNESCO at the initiative of the United Arab Emirates, the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize awards two laureates per year — individuals, groups or institutions — in recognition of their contribution to Arab art and culture, or for participating in the dissemination of the latter outside the Arab world.
The initiative contributes towards the Organization’s objective of fostering inclusive, resilient and peaceful societies. The Prize carries a monetary value of USD 60,000, which is equally divided between the two laureates.
Elizabeth Kassis has turned her Palestinian father’s house into a hotel, nearly 80 years after he emigrated
‘I want everyone in the diaspora to work for Palestine,’ Kassis tells Arab News
Chilean businesswoman Elizabeth Kassis has turned her ancestral home in Bethlehem’s Old City into a heritage hotel nearly 80 years after her father emigrated to Chile.
The Kassis Kassa Hotel is the Old City’s first heritage hotel, reflecting both the city’s traditional architecture and its long-standing association with the South American country.
The Palestinian community in Chile is reportedly the oldest outside the Arab world, with around half a million Palestinians moving there since the mid-19th century.
The hotel was officially opened on June 1, and the first group reservation was received on June 8.
“It was an exciting and challenging project that took years to implement,” Kassis, who was born in Chile, told Arab News. “It is rich in cultural history and has been carefully restored to preserve its original beauty and traditional Palestinian architecture.”
The project “will contribute to raising the level of tourism services in Palestine, as it is being implemented in cooperation with Bethlehem Municipality,” Kassis said.
We wanted the guests to get the full experience of what it means to live in a Palestinian house with real neighbors.
Elizabeth Kassis
“I think the experience of being a guest in a Palestinian house is a unique one. We wanted the guests to get the full experience of what it means to live in a Palestinian house with real neighbors.”
Kassis’ father visited Palestine in 1999, looking for ways to boost Bethlehem’s economy. Along with a group of Palestinian businessmen, he implemented a number of small projects at the turn of the century. He returned in 2015 and purchased his old family home. The restoration project began in 2016, led by his daughter.
Kassis said that setting up the hotel has been one of the most rewarding projects she has ever been involved in. In Chile, she managed her family’s farm and bred Arabian and Chilean horses. She has also worked as a TV presenter and is a talented visual artist who has participated in numerous exhibitions, as well as the co-founder of a band called Three Diaspora, which, she explained, “reshapes old songs that arrived in Chile with the first Palestinian immigrants.” The band has released several albums recorded with musicians from the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music.
Kassis has traveled extensively, but “found herself” in Palestine. “I want everyone in the diaspora to work for Palestine. I want people to feel, smell, eat, and live Palestine. This is my duty toward Palestine,” she said.
Engineer Raed Othman, who worked with Kassis on the project, told Arab News that Kassis loves Bethlehem and Palestinian heritage in general, and has devoted herself to promoting it to the world.
Bethlehem’s mayor, Hanna Hanania, told Arab News that, through her hotel and other efforts, Kassis is “building bridges” between Palestinian expats and their national heritage, especially the tens of thousands of expatriates from Bethlehem in South America.
He added that, as part of its attempts to attract investors to the city, the municipality plans to develop Al-Najma Street, where the hotel is located.
“The fact that Kassis Hotel is on this street will contribute to enhancing our vision regarding activating the location,” Hanania said.
Fadi Qattan, co-founder of the Kassis project, said the hotel promotes Palestinian heritage and culture through its food and its “beautiful location,” adding that he hoped journalists would visit the hotel and write about Palestinian food to “promote an accurate picture of the life and heritage of Palestinians.”
He continued: “The hotel is the first project wholly owned by an expatriate Palestinian family, which will encourage expatriate Palestinian families to return and invest in Bethlehem.”
source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Kassis said that setting up the hotel has been one of the most rewarding projects she has ever been involved in. (Supplied)
While aspiring to become a boxing champion, Taghmaoui’s fascination with cinema eventually led him to pursue a career in acting.
French-Moroccan Actor Said Taghmaoui has solidified his presence in the Hollywood industry, successfully securing various roles alongside renowned stars.
His latest endeavor sees him teaming up with Golden Globe nominee Mark Wahlberg in an upcoming feature film called “The Family Plan,” produced by Apple Original Films and Skydance.
Written by David Coggeshall, “The Family Plan” follows the story of a suburban father who finds himself on the run with his family when his past catches up to him.
The movie is directed by Simon Cellan Jones and produced by Wahlberg, Municipal Pictures’ Stephen Levinson, and Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger.
In addition to “The Family Plan,” Taghmaoui has also landed a role in the action-packed film “Tin Soldier,” which boasts an impressive cast including Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Robert De Niro, as well as Scott Eastwood.
During a recent interview with French lecturer and essayist Idriss Jamil Aberkane, Taghmaoui opened up about his journey as an actor. He described himself as an “autodidact,” highlighting the fact that he didn’t attend school but instead pursued his passions with unwavering dedication.
Recalling his boxing days, the actor expressed how the sport played a significant role in his personal growth. He believes that either boxing chose him or he chose boxing, emphasizing its complexity and the introspection it demanded.
While aspiring to become a boxing champion, Taghmaoui’s fascination with cinema eventually led him to pursue a career in acting.
Born in France to Moroccan immigrant parents, Taghmaoui became a naturalized US citizen in 2008 and swiftly made a name for himself in the Hollywood industry.
Despite dropping out of school at a young age, his boxing talent propelled him to second place in his category in France. It was during this time that he met Mathieu Kassovitz, with whom he co-wrote the acclaimed French film “La haine” (1995), which earned the Best Director award at Cannes.
Since then, Taghmaoui has become a prominent figure in cinema and has expanded his repertoire to include films from various countries, such as Italy, Germany, the United States, and Morocco.
He has featured in Hollywood productions like “G.I. Joe,” “Wonder Woman,” “Traitor,” “John Wick,” and “The Forgiven,” showcasing his versatility and talent as an actor.
Mawhiba representatives told the 13th Conference of Arab Ministers of Education in Rabat that its ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative had identified and was supporting people in 16 Arab countries
Secretary-General Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazaa said that the program allows Saudi leadership to share their expertise and discover, nurture, and empower talent around the Arab world
More than 600 ‘gifted’ students have been granted support to realize their academic talents under an initiative launched by a Saudi foundation, an education conference has been told.
Leaders from Mawhiba, or the King Abdulaziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, Mawhiba, told the 13th Conference of Arab Ministers of Education in Rabat, Morocco, that its ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative had identified and was supporting people in 16 Arab countries.
Secretary-General Dr. Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazaa said that the program allows Saudi leadership to share their expertise and discover, nurture, and empower talent around the Arab world.
Dr. Khaled Al-Sharif, director general of Mawhiba’s Center of Excellence, said that 606 students were identified in the first and second rounds of the ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative’s recruitment.
The initiative has provided the talented students with qualitative enrichment and academic programs to develop their knowledge and capabilities, he added.
Mawhiba said that its efforts were part of its vision to empower talent and creativity to further prosperity.
The conference, “Future of Education in the Arab World in the Digital Transformation Era,” was held on May 29 and 30.
source/contents: arabnews.com (headline edited)
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Mawhiba has grant aided 606 students under its ‘Gifted Arabs’ initiative. (SPA)
