Scholarships for Palestinians: Call for applications

منحة القطان للفنون الأدائية

يأتي مشروع منحة القطان للفنون الأدائية استمراراً لمشروع تطوير حقل الفنون الأدائية الذي أطلقه برنامج الثقافة والفنون في العام 2008، بتمويل مشارك من مؤسسة فورد. وتم تطوير هذا المشروع الجديد ليقدم الدعم في مسارين بشكل تكاملي، أولهما منحة الإنتاج، وتجمع ما بين بناء القدرات، وتقديم العروض، وتوثيق الإنتاج و/أو نشره. أما المسار الثاني فيتمثل في توفير وتنظيم برامج تدريب متخصصة في مجالات ضرورية لتطور القطاع.

 

الأهداف العامة للمشروع:

·       زيادة القدرة التقنيّة والمؤهّلات المهنيّة في أوساط العاملين في حقل الفنون الأدائية، وبخاصة في تخصصات جديدة أو غير متوفّرة في السابق.

·       زيادة الإنتاج في حقل الفنون الأدائية في فلسطين وتحسين نوعيّته.

·       زيادة فرص التدريب العملي للمهنيّين والمبتدئين.

·       تمثيل أفضل لحقل الفنون الأدائية في المهرجانات والمنابر العربيّة والدوليّة.

·       جمهور أوسع في جميع أنحاء فلسطين، وبخاصة خارج مركز الضفة الغربية، عن طريق زيادة عدد العروض الفنية العامة، ولاسيما في مناطق مهمشة اجتماعياً وجغرافياً، وعبر استهداف طلاب المدارس والجامعات.

·       زيادة التعاون والاتصال بين العاملين في الحقل من مختلف أنحاء فلسطين، ما يسمح بتحسين تبادل الأفكار واستغلال الموارد المتوفرة.

 

الفئة المستهدفة:

·       يستهدف المشروع، بشكل أساسي، الأفراد الفلسطينيّين (سواء من ذوي الخبرة في مجال عملهم و/أو أولئك ذوي المواهب الواعدة) أو الفرق أو المؤسسات الفلسطينية، وغيرهم من العاملين في مجال الفنون الأدائيةً.

 

معايير هامة:

·       سوف تعطى الأولوية للمشاريع التي تتمتع بالجدية والإمتياز والإبداع والتي تستدخل ضمن طواقمها مهنيين محليين و/أو أجانب بمستوى عال و/أو ترفد الحقل بأفراد وطاقات جديدة وطازجة، وتتوفر فيها العناصر المتعلقة ببناء القدرات، و/أو تطوير خبرات محددة في المجال، و/أو توسيع قاعدة الجمهور.

·       أخذا بعين الإعتبار المحدوديات التقنية للكثير من أماكن العرض ولا سيما في الأماكن البعيدة عن المركز، وفي المدارس، ورغبة في توسيع قاعدة الجمهور، سوف تعطى الأولوية للأعمال ذات الجودة العالية التي تثبت قدرتها على التكيف مع تلك المحدوديات التقنية والمالية لأماكن العرض المختلفة.

·       تعطي الأولوية للمشاريع التي تثبت قدرها على الوصول إلى قطاعات أوسع من الجمهور ولا سيما في المناطق المهمشة، إضافة إلى استهدافها لطلاب المدارس والجامعات.

 

 

سوف يقدّم المشروع هذا العام منحاً على الشاكلة التالية:

 

أ‌)      منحة لإنتاج أعمال أدائية جديدة وترويجها وتوثيقها

يقدم البرنامج نموذج المنحة الرزمة، والتي تتضمن لدعم إنتاج أعمال جديدة في حقل الفنون الأدائية؛ سواء أكانت هذه الإنتاجات على شكل عروض فنية حيّة على خشبة المسرح أم مسجلة (على DVD، أو CD مثلاً). إضافة لترويج العمل المنتج من خلال تنفيذ جولة عروض والوصول إلى قطاع أوسع من الجمهور، ولا سيما في المناطق المهمشة، ويشمل ذلك طلاب المدارس والجامعات. كما تشمل المنحة عملية توثيق العمل إما من خلال تصويره بشكل مهني يصلح لأغراض البث التلفزيوني و/أو النشر على DVD إضافة لنشر النص الخاص بالعمل في كتاب.

 

ب‌)  منحة ترويج و/أو توثيق و/أو نشر لأعمال أدائية منتجة سابقاً (3 سنوات بحد أقصى)

يقدم البرنامج منحاً لدعم ترويج أعمال أدائية أنتجت خلال العامين الماضيين، من خلال تنفيذ جولة عروض والوصول إلى قطاع أوسع من الجمهور، ولا سيما في المناطق المهمشة، ويشمل ذلك طلاب المدارس والجامعات. كما يقدم منح لدعم توثيق و/أو نشر هذه الأعمال حيث سيحصل الإنتاج على دعم لتوثيقه من خلال:

I.            تصويره بشكل مهني يصلح لأغراض البث التلفزيوني، أو النشر على DVD.

II.        نشر النصوص المسرحية (حيث ينطبق) وما يتعلق بالإنتاج من تغطية صحافية، وطاقم الإنتاج، ومقدمات ومواد نقدية أخرى في كتاب.

 

ت‌)  منح التدريب المتخصّص

تهدف هذه المنحة إلى دعم ورش عمل تدريبيّة متخصصة (تقنيّاً أو فنياً) أو برامج تدريبية مكثفة، لبناء خبرات مهنية يحتاجها قطاع الفنون الأدائية، مع التركيز على المجالات التقنية ذات صلة بخبرات توثيق الأعمال الأدائية، وتصميم الإضاءة، والسينوغرافيا، والصوت والمؤثرات الصوتية والبصرية وغيرها.

 

المواعيد:

يستقبل برنامج الثقافة والفنون الطلبات في أي مجال من المجالات أعلاه في موعد أقصاه 11 نيسان 2011، ويعلن عن النتائج قبل نهاية أيار 2011.

 

ويجب أن يتم تنفيذ المشاريع بشكل كامل، وتسليم التقارير النهائية المالية والإدارية قبل نهاية شهر آذار 2012.

للاستفسار ولمزيد من المعلومات عن شروط التقديم، ومتطلباته، يرجى الإتصال بـ:

هاتف: 022960544 (فرعي 201)

أو الكتابة على: amal@qattanfoundation.org

www.qattanfoundation.org

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62 years, memories from my village

A few months ago I attended the debut play by the Irish-Palestinian playwright Hannah Khalil. The play entitled “Plan D” was a look at the lives of a small family living in a generic Palestinian village during the spring of 1948. I was moved by the play, and it haunted me for a while afterwards, actually I still think about it every now and then. It was disturbing in the most subtle of ways, and it certainly got into my head. One of the things that bothered me and the people I was with was the fact that the family in question never fought back. They heard whispers of something coming, and knew that their neighbors had disappeared. Playing it safe, they decided to camp out in the hills near their home, and keep a lookout to see what unfolded. The father eventually goes back to check on the house, and upon entering the kitchen he sees  a man seated at the kitchen table grinning at him. The father leaves back to the hills, and takes his family to Jerusalem on foot, when asked what prompted his sudden departure he said “I felt like I never existed”. I asked Hannah afterwards about this, I mean we were brought up to believe that we fought back, and only when we ran out of ammo did we leave, to catch up with the Arabs, form an army and return, assuming a timescale of a month or two at most. Hannah said that that part was based on a true story. I was stunned.

This year I went back to Jordan, my first ‘proper’ visit in 9 years. I spent loads of time with my Aunts and remaining Uncle, and found them to be unusually open and chatty about their experience of the Palestinian Nakbe. I say unusually, because I have found that my relatives tend to speak about the pre-Nakbe period or they focus on politics or life in Irbid. They tend to avoid massive chunks of their experiences, namely their experience of occupation, ethnic cleansing, and their times in the refugee camps of Karami (Jordan). With Hannah’s play still playing on my mind, I pressed my Aunt for more details of our village and what happened there.

My Aunt was eight at the time and she remembers how she used to play with the European soldiers, who gave her sweets, and how one day when she skipped up to them they angrily told her to get lost “rookh!”. Confused, she returned home. Not long after, her sisters and younger brothers, along with their Mum and elders moved to the hills surrounding the village. They left behind the young men.

No shots were fired when my village was invaded, or so my Aunt says. The Iraqi army, from whom the Palestinian ‘fighters’ took orders, entered one night and told the Palestinians not to fire, as people walked into the village. Who these people were, what exactly the Iraqi army said or did and how the Palestinians reacted I may never know. My grandfather and eldest Uncle are dead, and they would have been on the front lines so to speak. My Aunt does remember that her brother in laws father remained in the village, and was never seen or heard from again and she remembers whisperings of what happened in Deir Yassin. Someone said that they saw his dead body in front of his house.

So my Aunt remembers, starting the long walk to Jerusalem. Along the way, her heavily pregnant 16 year old sister goes into labour, in the middle of a valley with planes flying over their heads. No army was formed when they arrived in Jerusalem, and thus began the refugee camp years. She remembered later meeting someone whose village had also been invaded. The villagers were locked up in the village hall. One girl caught the eyes of the soldiers and was dragged off, only to be returned later looking sullen. They came again for her, and the girl was terrified, she kicked and she screamed, her parents clung to her, but the soldiers dragged her off. She was never seen again either.

These stories are rarely told and are rarely heard. Rape is viewed as the failure of the man to protect his womenfolk. This may be why so many people left the villages, the idea was to get the women to safety. This was deemed more important than land.

This vagueness I have regarding the history of my own village pains me really. And is why the oral history project, spearheaded by www.palestineremembered.com is so important to us and future generations.

Here is commemorating the 62nd year of the Nakbe

Jordan – 9 years on (BAJD2010)

It had been 9 years since I last paid a proper  visit to Jordan, but I recently went back for 2 weeks. I was greeted by a freak heatwave in the middle of the bitter Jordanian winter, and instead of the bone chilling cold and sobbas I got warm sunny days. It had been 6 years since I had seen most of my relatives, and during this time two of my uncles had passed away. A loss which struck me again when I arrived, and I kicked myself for not having gone back sooner, in time to see them one last time. But as is life, I dont have a money tree and I guess my priority is to visit my nuclear family at least once a year.

While in Jordan I felt ‘something’ had changed, certainly the little I saw of Amman was busier, more developed, and significantly more capitalised. In northern Jordan in general there was a boom in billboard adverts, with slogans such as “together we can build a better future”, and I remembered thinking what that was about? There were far more leisure outlets as well, such as the King Abdullah gardens and the water park, which were not there 9 years ago. The explosion of malls did not escape my attention either, there is, what, four or five of them now, and I left the day after they opened abdoun mall (the first mall in Jordan), and there are now plans for another in Irbid. I was saddened however at the high perecentage of imported goods, I would have preferred to see more home grown products in the malls. But I guess we can always go to wist-al-balad for that, which I did, and was pleased to see it was the same!

In terms of spirit, I did feel that the few young people who had remained were optimistic, and were developing plans for their futures. My engineer cousin has yet to succumb to the lure of the gulf, and enjoys a decent job with a decent salary and health care, and the option to switch jobs. This luxury of choice of companies to work for was not as available when I was there, I recall a deep pessimism in the land regarding career progression, but now, at least with the few that I spoke to, they felt they could build a life in Jordan. Having said this, I did feel the Jordan is an ageing society, with so many of its youth and middle-agers having travelled abroad, and people did complain about the broadening divide between the super-rich and super-poor.

I was impressed by the new Jordan highway, as well as the northern bus station (so much cleaner, organised and pleasanter than abdali). I was also gobsmacked at immigration, I usually get through passport control in a bad mood, due to the officer being rude, but this time things went really smoothly, and the officer smiled and was really pleasant! It turns out this was not a one off experience, my sister reported the same phenomena when she joined me a few days later. We were both impressed and pleased by this!

The mumtaz taxi service gets a mixed reaction from me, their phone service is professional and friendly, but their drivers still try to bargain and switch the counter off just before they reach their destination, but of course you can always complain.

Above all, I just loved seeing my relatives again! I loved being reminded of all the amazing qualities that Palestinians/Jordanians have, that often are absent in the people who travel west. I was reminded of how genuinley generous they were, how unassertive and how much they hated upsetting people, and how hospitable! It was great to be reminded where my little quirks come from.

European Court rules boycott of Israel illegal

This smacks of outright, racist, hypocrisy! Wasn’t Iraq boycotted all so recently? Isn’t Cuba boycotted (sure they are by the States anyway)? Why is Israel above such boycotts? It’s disgusting!

European Court rules boycott of Israel illegal

Boycott is ‘discriminatory and punishable’ – EU Court judges

‘interference with…freedom of expression needed to protect the rights of Israeli producers.’ – Jerusalem Post

‘First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win’ – Gandhi

The European Court of Human Rights has moved to criminalise support for Palestinian human rights. The EU has consistently rewarded an Israel sinking ever deeper into crime, with open ethnic cleansers as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister. Now the judiciary joins the executive in aligning with Israel and criminalising those who support the call from Palestine for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against the bloody violence of the Israeli state. Hardly suprising when the British Government is involved in an equally bloody military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Birds of a blood-stained feather flock together.

This ruling is a response to the growing support for BDS following Israel’s most recent massacres in Gaza in January. It criminalises the entire Scottish, Irish and South African trade union movements.

It might soon become illegal to stand up to the violence of Israel with the non-violent weapon of boycott. The courts, then, will leave supporters of Palestine with no choice but to challenge these laws in every way possible, including civil disobedience and non-violent direct action. This ruling is designed to protect those carrying out the ethnic cleansing of Palestine: according to the Jerusalem Post (see below), the European court of Human Rights ‘ruled that interference with…freedom of expression was needed to protect the rights of Israeli producers.’ Producing goods on ethnically cleansed land while working to destroy Palestinian producers.

The growing BDS movement will not be deterred by this latest ruling. After all, the British Government defied the ICJ (International Court of Justice) 2004 ruling that Israel’s apartheid Wall is illegal and must come down. The people of Gaza are being crushed by an open alliance of Israel, the US, the EU and the Arab regimes. They have no allies but a slowly awakening world civil society. They have paid many times over in mountains of corpses for their refusal to accept Israeli/Western plans for them to disappear. Compared to their heroism and suffering, the cost of standing up for human rights against the European Court of Human Rights remains very modest. Here in Scotland, we do not face Israeli death squads, the murder of our children, bulldozed homes, burning farms, prison walls, the kidnapping of our finest sons and daughters into dungeons, routine torture, expulsion or daily humiliation by a murderous soldiery.

Five Scottish PSC members will appear in court on Friday August 7 charged with ‘racially aggravated’ crime for disrupting a musical performance by official ‘Cultural Ambassadors’ of Israel when they came to Scotland last year. The charges are no more absurd than the defence of ‘Israeli producers’ by the European Court of Human Rights while Gaza lives with Israeli-induced hunger and misery. The five are privileged to stand alongside so many others fighting for justice, and with the people of Palestine whose resistance to Zionist crime has inspired the world, but has long been criminalised by Israel’s Western allies.

We invite you to come to the Court on Chambers St, Edinburgh at 9.15am on Friday 7 August to show your:

– solidarity with Palestine

– support for the boycott of Israel

– opposition to ‘interference with freedom of expression to protect Israeli producers’

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1246443852848

European court: Israel boycotts are unlawful discrimination

Israel finally won one last week in an international human rights court.

On Thursday, the Council of Europe’s European Court of Human Rights upheld a French ruling that it was illegal and discriminatory to boycott Israeli goods, and that making it illegal to call for a boycott of Israeli goods did not constitute a violation of one’s freedom of expression.

The Council of Europe is based in Strasbourg, has some 47 member states and is independent of the European Union. The court is made up of one judge from each member state, and the rulings of the court carry moral weight throughout Europe.

On Thursday the court ruled by a vote of 6-1 that the French court did not violate the freedom of expression of the Communist mayor of the small French town of Seclin, Jean-Claude Fernand Willem, who in October 2002 announced at a town hall meeting that he intended to call on the municipality to boycott Israeli products.

Jews in the region filed a complaint with the public prosecutor, who decided to prosecute Willem for “provoking discrimination on national, racial and religious grounds.” Willem was first acquitted by the Lille Criminal Court, but that decision was overturned on appeal in September 2003 and he was fined €1,000.

His appeal to a higher French court was unsuccessful, and as a result he petitioned the European Court of Human rights in March 2005, saying his call for a boycott of Israeli products was part of a legitimate political debate, and that his freedom of expression had been violated.

The court, made up of judges from Denmark, France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Macedonia and the Czech Republic .

According to a statement issued by the court on Thursday, the court held the view that Willem was not convicted for his political opinions, “but for inciting the commission of a discriminatory, and therefore punishable, act. The Court further noted that, under French law, the applicant was not entitled to take the place of the governmental authorities by declaring an embargo on products from a foreign country, and moreover that the penalty imposed on him had been relatively moderate.”

The one dissenting opinion was written by the Czech judge.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor hailed the ruling Sunday, saying it provided important ammunition for those challenging on legal grounds calls frequently heard in Europe for a boycott of Israeli products, as well as calls for a boycott of Israeli academia.

“It is now clear that in every country in Europe there is a precedent for calling boycotts of Israeli goods a violation of the law,” Palmor said. “This is an important precedent, one that says very clearly that boycott calls are discriminatory. We hope this will help us push back against all the calls for boycotts of Israeli goods.”

Visit our website for latest international solidarity news: www.scottishpsc.org.uk

Join Scottish PSC – we are all volunteers with no paid staff – or make a financial donation to help us continue campaigning work:

Send a cheque to:

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign

c/o Peace & Justice Centre

Princes Street

Edinburgh

EH2 4BJ

www.scottishpsc.org.uk

SPSC is affiliated to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK) www.palestinecampaign.org

List of Scholarships Available for Palestinians

24/10/2015 Update

Since last I looked at this blog, a Gaza based startup created this app: http://www.menaship.com which aims to link up citizens of the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) to scholarships across the world.

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I thought I would compile this list to act as a starting point for any Palestinian wishing to further their education in the UK, hope it helps!The Durham Palestine Educational TrustThis trust funds two Palestinian students to study for a Masters degree at the University of Durham, one of the UKs most prestigous universities.The Website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/durham.palestine/

Whos is eligible: Palestinians who have completed their degrees in one of the Universities in the West Bank or Gaza, and belong to a family that is normally resident in the West Bank or Gaza. You will also be expected to return to the West Bank or Gaza once your scholarship is completed.

Neat ways to raise money for them: You will find ways to raise money for the DPET by using the everyclick search engine, or donating used books. My favourite is by following this link when you purchase items from Amazon, the DPET receives 5% comission on every purchase made this way.

Said Foundation (Formely the Karim Rida Said Foundation)

These scholarships enable you to pursue further (postgraduate) education in the some universities in the UK and the Middle East, with the proviso that you use your knowledge to serve one of the Foundations’ target countries.

Website:http://www.saidfoundation.org/whatwedo/education.shtml

Who is Eligible: Iraqis, Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians or Palestinians (including Palestinians inside Israel) who are resident in the Middle East.

Conditions:

1. you must demonstrate that your chosen course of study will be of use to your home country or the Middle East region.
2. you must have at least two years work experience.
3. you must sign a binding undertaking to apply the skills and knowledge you have gained in one of the Foundation’s target countries.

The A.M. Qattan Foundation

I have attached the latest news that I received from the London based Qattan foundation, I could not find much information on their website (http://www.qattanfoundation.org/en/index.asp), but you can email them for further information (and maybe share what you find out?)

Five teachers received preliminary acceptance to the Qattan-Qaddumi Postgraduate Scholarship Programme in Education, which is now in its second year. An independent panel interviewed all prospective candidates, including our Gaza colleagues who communicated via video-conference. Short listed candidates are now required to fulfil a number of other conditions before the panel announces the winner.

******check this site for scholarships for Palestinian teachers: http://www.hq-sf.org/public/English.aspx?Lang=3&Page_Id=1553&Menu_ID=244&Site_ID=0 ****

British Council

The British Council offers scholarships for international students to further their studies in the UK.

Follow this link (http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-funding-your-studies.htm) to find one that suits you.

The Hope Fund

Based in the USA (http://www.thehopefund.org/)

Update: as of the 10th of September 2009, this post has received 174 hits, mostly from search engine referrals.�

I would appreciate it of people could give me some feedback, did you find this list useful in any way?

Either vote via the buttons at the top of this page, or by leaving a comment.

Thank you! 🙂

Update + Disclaimer: 

Hi,

To everyone who has commented on this post, thank you! and to those students looking for funding for their studies, I wish you all the success.

As you can tell, I am no longer updating this blog, so my replies are very rare. So my apologies for the tardiness.

On the subject of scholarships, I am merely a messenger, and do not administer any of the available funding sources. Apologies if you I misled.

So if you are looking for a scholarship, please do follow the links I have provided, and contact the scholarships directly.