On Jewish-Arab divas
Last Sunday, I was sitting in my pajamas at 2:00 pm, fully intending to remain unshowered and in sweatpants for the remainder of the day, when I received a text message from a friend.
"R U FREE RN?" she asked. "wanna go to the jewish museum w me today? 4pm is klezmer and sephardic/ladino music."
I tell you, it took me precisely 20 minutes to hop in the shower, throw on a clean dress, and mount my bicycle en route to the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Because who doesn't want to spend an afternoon listening to Sephardic music?!
The event in question was a performance by Ya Ghorbati, whose lead singer Laura Elkeslassy focuses on Jewish divas from Arab countries. Elkeslassy herself is of Jewish-Moroccan origin. You can see a version of the same concert, performed in Brooklyn last year, on YouTube.
Elkeslassy spoke very eloquently about the role of colonialism and Zionism in contributing to the fact that many Jews are no longer welcome in their countries of origin.
My father grew up in Morocco in the 1950s and 60s, surrounded by Arab and Jewish populations, among many others. As a little girl, he told me stories about how diverse Morocco was at that time and how that diversity allowed him to learn bits of Hebrew, Italian, and many other languages. I begged him to teach me everything he knew. Sadly, this did not result in learning to speak fluent Hebrew or Italian. Nevertheless, I've always been interested in this aspect of Morocco's history.
I've still never visited the country. But one day, I fully intend to travel to Tangier to see where my father grew up. But that's neither here nor there. Last Sunday's concert was excellent, and I learned about a bunch of Jewish-Arab musicians I'd never heard of before. Here are a few of them:
Habiba Msika, from Tunisia:
Zohra Al Fassiya, from Morocco:
Line Monty, Algeria:
What I'm writing:
• Crimean human rights defenders came to Washington to explain why Crimea cannot be left behind. This story is unlocked and free to read.
We're doing something a little different at work now. Instead of writing two or three deep dives each week, we'll focus on one deep dive and a few small snippets of news like the ones below. That means you'll get to read more of my work since less of it will be behind a paywall.
What I'm reading:
• The route Uyghurs take to flee China is known as "the pirate road." It involves a journey through the jungles of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and eventually into Malaysia, where they can fly to Turkey. Coda Story reports on one man's journey to freedom.
• Facial recognition allowed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to find an alleged Bosnian war criminal hiding in the U.S. state of Tennessee, Forbes reports.
• The number of people displaced by war, persecution, violence, human rights abuses, and other events has reached a record 110 million, the United Nations refugee agency reported.
• Alexander Soros, a younger son of philanthropist and right-wing target George Soros, will take control of the $25 billion empire, the Wall Street Journal reports. He plans to continue backing left-leaning U.S. politicians. “I’m more political,” he said, comparing himself with his father.
• Russia appears to have moved to take direct control of the paramilitary organization Wagner group, the BBC reports. Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said “volunteer formations” will be asked to sign contracts directly with the Ministry of Defense.
• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the paramilitary organization Wagner Group, said his fighters would not sign any contract with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Reuters reports.
• Russia's Defence Ministry said it signed a contract with the Akhmat group of Chechen special forces, a day after Russia's powerful mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to do so. Reuters has the story.
• Amid growing NATO division regarding Ukraine’s accession, the United States is backing a plan to remove barriers to Ukraine’s entry without setting a specific timeline, the Washington Post reports. A senior U.S. official said the Biden administration is “comfortable” with a recommendation from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg permitting Ukraine to forgo a formal candidacy process, circumventing the alliance’s Membership Action Plan.
• The Higher Public Prosecutor’s office in Kraljevo, central Serbia, ordered an investigation into three detained Kosovo policemen suspected of the illegal production, possession, carrying, and trafficking of weapons and explosive materials, Balkan Insight reports. The three police officers were seized on Wednesday in what Kosovo authorities called “kidnapping”. Serbian authorities said they were arrested inside Serbia, while Kosovo’s government claims they were arrested inside Kosovo.
• Senator James Risch, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, is halting a $735 million arms sale to Hungary in response to the country’s refusal to approve Sweden’s NATO membership, the Washington Post reports.
• Poland's most famous bus line - the 666 to Hel, a town on the Baltic coast - has been brought to an end, Notes From Poland writes. The operator confirmed it made the decision after receiving complaints about the number, which one Christian group warned was "spreading Satanism."
• Britain’s former prime minister, Boris Johnson, abruptly resigned his parliamentary seat following an investigation into whether he lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the pandemic, the New York Times reports.
• Former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was arrested and later released amid a party financing probe, Politico Europe reports.
• Protests have taken place across Greece over the sinking of a boat carrying migrants and refugees that left at least 78 people dead, Al Jazeera reports. Numerous migrant children are believed to have died after the boat from Libya sank off the coast of Greece. The final death toll could end up being in the hundreds.
• Turkey will not approve Sweden’s NATO membership bid unless it prevents anti-Turkey protests in Stockholm, Reuters reports.
• The Biden administration is developing plans to overhaul the United Nations Security Council to restore confidence in the world’s preeminent governance body, the Washington Post reports. The evolving U.S. proposal is expected to include adding roughly a half dozen permanent seats to the council without granting those nations veto power.
• Cases of neo-Nazism in Brazil increased as far-right politics flourished during former President Jair Bolsonaro’s 2019-2023 term, Reuters reports.
• The Netherlands and Canada submitted a case against Syria to the International Court of Justice over allegations of torture, the BBC reports. The application accuses the Syrian government of committing “countless violations of international law” since the country’s civil war began in 2011. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, at least 14,449 civilians have died from torture in government prisons.
• Afghans fleeing the Taliban are being kidnapped and tortured by gangs who aim to extract a ransom as they try to cross the border between Iran and Turkey on their way to Europe, the BBC reports.
• Israel may have committed war crimes during last month’s fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, according to a report by Amnesty International.
• The Israeli government told the Biden administration it intends to announce the building and planning of thousands of new houses in the settlements in the occupied West Bank, Axios reports.
Interesting statements:
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