tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post6030011548786300493..comments2023-06-16T06:27:31.555-07:00Comments on qunfuz: Visit Palestinequnfuzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07381648516025592849noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-83369175552456853112009-06-04T05:14:49.783-07:002009-06-04T05:14:49.783-07:00The answer, Amniyeh, is no, you can't. The Isr...The answer, Amniyeh, is no, you can't. The Israelis will put a visa on a separate piece of paper which you can remove later, unless they feel like being difficult. The safest thing is to get a new passport before you visit Syria. I have heard a story about a Syrian with a Spanish passport. When they asked her in Damascus airport if she'd been to occupied Palestine she said yes. They questioned her for 20 minutes until she lost her temper with them: "I went to help our brothers and sisters in Palestine! What do you think I did there? Am I not an Arab?" They apologised and let her enter Syria. So who knows?qunfuzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07381648516025592849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-72547338855671789342009-06-03T22:08:46.112-07:002009-06-03T22:08:46.112-07:00yeah i know.
but i wanna ask, after you have enter...yeah i know.<br />but i wanna ask, after you have entered Palastine, are you allowed to enter syria with the same passport showing that you've been there?مترجم سوريhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14891500987490712802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-23770835586193345822009-06-02T12:46:54.124-07:002009-06-02T12:46:54.124-07:00ah, Amniyeh... If you have a Syrian, Lebanese or I...ah, Amniyeh... If you have a Syrian, Lebanese or Iranian passport, it is of course quite impossible to get in. I was held at the border for five hours because I have a Syrian name, despite my British passport. People with Western passports but with viasa from the above countries will also likely be turned away.qunfuzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07381648516025592849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-82662435296556803582009-06-02T05:51:42.598-07:002009-06-02T05:51:42.598-07:00and here's my response:
Marcy – I understand your ...and here's my response:<br />Marcy – I understand your anger at Zionism, but I fear you are misfiring here. Part of this has to do with understanding how literature as opposed to political activism works. You can’t demand an immediate response from a novelist as to how they are going to use the experience of visiting Palestine or what they are going to do to help, because experience takes time and transformation before it becomes literature. Discussing culture and literature is not the same as making a political speech. I do both, I know both are important, and I know they are very different. And what would be the point of making a political speech to a Palestinian audience?<br /><br />To an extent, of course part of our reason for being there was simply to do a literature festival in palestine. What’s wrong with that? Palestinians told me that it gave them a breath of normality that helped them to survive. If you live in London or Tel Aviv you can go out for an evening and hear someone telling funny stories and relax. Why shouldn’t you be able to do that in Palestine? Michael Palin didn’t directly address politics, but the Palestinians I spoke to were delighted that he had come and seen the situation, and that they had had a chance to hear him speak.<br /><br />Is it really true that the journalists travelling with us were stopped by Ahdaf from visiting the camp, or is it just a rumour? I know that Ahdaf is very concerned to get as much media coverage as possible. Ahdaf, by the way, is a tireless campaigner for Palestine, who has written essays and articles, who organises Palfest unpaid, who has translated and promoted Palestinian writers in the West.<br /><br />Of course I agree there should be a response from the writers, and I’m sure it will come, from everybody who participated, in the medium and long term in their fiction, and in some cases more immediately, in journalism.<br /><br />Henning Mankel’s comment may have been rude. I didn’t hear it myself. But I was with him in the Aida youth club, where he asked pertinent questions, took notes, and was obviously very moved. He left because he was exhausted. On our first night, when we were closed down, he alerted his contacts in the Swedish media. Sweden was therefore the country where the closure was best reported.<br /><br />Claire Messud feels passionately about Palestine. She is writing a piece on the festival for Newsweek. Probably her piece wont be as radical as a piece you or I might write, but still, she’s clearly an ally. A very major, very well-known writer who sympathises with Palestine. I wonder who it helps to sneer at her?<br /><br />The Bethlehem event most certainly did have translation. I could see and hear the translator while I was on stage, and had been consulted beforehand about what I would read if I had time. You needed headphones to hear. Also, when we did do readings from our work, we were careful to read from excerpts that had been translated into Arabic in the festival book which was available free of charge at the venues.<br /><br />I was pleased to do workshops with students at Bir Zeit and in the poorer al-Khalil university, so we did meet non-elite Palestinians.<br /><br />The criteria for selecting a writer is certainly not ‘whether or not they are famous’. I am not famous, yet I was selected. I know a couple of writers who are more famous than me, one who is very famous, who want to go but have not yet been asked.<br /><br />Several of the writers had extensive experience of battling apartheid in south africa, and many of those who had not been to palestine before are very knowledgable indeed about the issues. Having spent a week with these people, I must say I don’t recognise them from your description. I worry that misdirected anger is making you pick fights with your allies. This reminds me of a classic mistake of infantile leftism, which squanders energy insisting on ideological purity, and which ends up creating irrelevant groupuscules when we need the widest possible alliance to fight the huge forces ranged against us.qunfuzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07381648516025592849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-17986775546541534992009-06-02T05:51:19.683-07:002009-06-02T05:51:19.683-07:00Sorry Anil, I've corrected his name now. Here's Ma...Sorry Anil, I've corrected his name now. Here's Marcy blog post: http://bodyontheline.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/what-is-a-palestinian-festival-of-literature/qunfuzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07381648516025592849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-3067508813804122942009-06-02T05:32:55.378-07:002009-06-02T05:32:55.378-07:00Hey Robin! Nicely written post. I looked for your ...Hey Robin! Nicely written post. I looked for your reply to that angry girl on her blog, but I couldn't find it. By the way, Dad's name is MG Vassanji.<br /><br />Best<br />AnilAnilnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-72011050417750114282009-06-02T01:36:41.631-07:002009-06-02T01:36:41.631-07:00A wonderfully vivid appetizer, thanks for this. I ...A wonderfully vivid appetizer, thanks for this. I look forward to reading more.boxthejackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16433708237098653640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-57697711051149129182009-06-01T22:35:36.930-07:002009-06-01T22:35:36.930-07:00i envy u.
"advice everyone to visit Palastine'?
a...i envy u.<br /><br />"advice everyone to visit Palastine'?<br />and how is that possible?<br /><br />waiting for the photos and the rest of the trip.<br /><br />Regardsمترجم سوريhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14891500987490712802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33889889.post-54522599226858848822009-06-01T17:37:14.296-07:002009-06-01T17:37:14.296-07:00Thank you very much Qunfuz. This is a very meaning...Thank you very much Qunfuz. This is a very meaningful testimonial, I look forward to your more detailed post about the individual participants. <br /><br />Alia.Alianoreply@blogger.com