This week marks the 26th anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the second half of the twentieth century. A Google search for recent news reports on this year’s commemoration of the atrocity, however, brought up very little. Yes, there were some emotional blog posts, as well as a link to the BBC’s “On this Day” page, featuring quick facts and figures about the massacre, alongside an archival, and iconic, photograph of twisted corpses lying in a heap next to a cinder-block wall, the victims of an execution-style killing.

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Photo: Beirut by Piax. Tadamon! special edition: entire program is on-line for download.

A special edition produced by Mostafa Henaway, featuring music that spans different eras and moments in Middle East history, music composed and performed during the moments of social and political transformation. Music from the Middle East that either directly or indirectly is a reflection of these critical historical moments, from Egypt with music from the 1950’s and 1960’s that is a celebration of a new era, independent of colonialism, or more contemporary songs that present a critique dictatorship and tyranny in Egypt in the 1970’s song by Sheikh Imam.

Music from Lebanon, compositions and artists that emerged in the context of over twenty years of Israeli occupation and fifteen-years of civil-war in the country. Music from Lebanon that reflects a will of people to not be divided by sectarian politics, expressed by artists such as Ziad Rahbani in the famous song Ana Mesh Kafer, a song which asks how people of different religious faiths can condemn each other.

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Beirut: [Yet another] blackout has descended upon Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp this night. It makes your efforts to find the Palestinian Arab Center that much more atmospheric and inspires vague hopes that perhaps you won’t miss the first minutes of Jackie Salloum’s “Slingshot Hip Hop” after all.

You find the hall’s exterior bathed in generator-driven light. The interior is dim but for the concert footage projected on a screen and reflected back upon the white plastic chair-mounted eyeballs fixed before it.

Salloum’s first feature-length film, “Slingshot” chronicles the rise of the Palestinian hip-hop scene – starting in ’48 Palestine (sometimes called “Israel”) and the other occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

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regards sur Bil’in: musique et de présentations contre l’apartheid israélien.

DIMANCHE 7 SEPTEMBRE 2008
20h. 5-10$
La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent
Montréal, Quebec

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Une édition spéciale de World Skip the Beat explore la musique et les chansons du monde entier, inspirées par l’immigration, la diaspora, l’exil. Avec de la musique des quatre coins du monde, notre programme offre une sélection unique et rare de musique d’artistes variés d’Algérie, Canada, Cap Vert, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypte, France, Jamaïque, Liban, Pérou, Slovaquie et d’Espagne. Cette édition spéciale de World Skip the Beat a été produite par Dror Warschawski.

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Beirut: “I was in Cairo for my first Egyptian concert,” Rima Khcheich smiles. “I was preparing an Umm Kalthoum song, a dour [a classical vocal form without improvisation] called ‘Dour Emta al-Hawa.’ Two days before the concert I met [iconic Egyptian composer] Fouad Abdel Majid. The rehearsals were difficult and I was very tired but they asked me to sing his song ‘Foutina al-Lathi.’ They recorded it on a little cassette tape recorder.”

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BEIRUT: The peoples of Lebanon and Palestine have an ambivalent relationship. In the years since the terms “Lebanon” and “Palestine” were assigned their 20th-century political meanings, they have accumulated meaning, just as the experiences of their citizens have diverged.

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The Lebanese government on Wednesday rejected Israel’s call for direct peace negotiations.

“Lebanon’s position is clear to all and there is no place for bilateral negotiations between Lebanon and Israel,” Premier Fouad Siniora’s media office said in a statement late Wednesday. The statement stressed that Lebanese territories occupied by the Jewish state are subject to “UN resolutions that do not require any negotiations.

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Daily Star. Friday, June 13th, 2008

Tyre: A Lebanese man was killed on Thursday by a cluster bomb dropped by Israeli forces during the 2006 war in Lebanon, a police official said.

Hisham al-Ghossein, 39, was killed in the village of Qantara, near the Southern town of Marjayoun, after stepping on the bomb while working in his field, the official said.

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Tyre, Lebanon (AFP): Almost half of the areas in southern Lebanon contaminated with cluster bombs dropped by Israel in 2006 have been cleared, a UN official said on Wednesday.

“Forty three percent of the areas affected by the cluster bombs dropped during the July 2006 war have been cleared”, UN Mine Action Coordination Centre for South Lebanon spokeswoman Dalya Farran said.

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