MENA Minorities

"Once you smell the pipe Salman Natour is here" (S. Natou r ) (picture: Wikipedia) I have just read about the passing of writer Salman Natour, who had already died of a heart attack o n February 15. Natour was one of the most important contemporary Palestinian poets and playwrights but also a former journalist (most prominently with  the daily communist Arabic-language newspaper  Al-Ittihad ) , researcher (former director of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian and Israeli Studies in Haifa) and activist. He more or less gave up the latter occupations after suffering from a heart attack in 2005 and subsequently focused more on his poetry. Salman Natour was born in 1949 in the all-Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmal right next to Haifa. Despite being Druze and living in Daliyat for all - or most - of his life, he strongly identified with the Palestinian cause and was an outspoken opponent of Israeli Druze particularism in general and Dr...

As it was mentioned here before, the Greek Orthodox - more correctly called the Rum Orthodox - patriarchate of Jerusalem has a legitimation problem (watch some footage here ). The patriarchate, which covers Jordan (with a sizable Orthodox population) Palestine and Israel, has an almost entirely Arab congregation but the highest ranking clergy including the patriarch is from Greece. It's a long ongoing struggle of emancipation from the Greeks which dates back way to the mandatory period, when the Orthodox community had its own Arab awakening. But the struggle against Greek domination is also deeply connected to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, mainly because the patriarchate is often accused of being to soft to Israeli demands, foremost selling church owned land to the Jewish state. Also the measures against the lately increasing efforts towards the conscription of Christians to the IDF , which is propagated by an Orthodox priest, are lukewarm if any. Remember,  Irenai...

Holy Land Christians disappointed by pope's visit , by Alona Ferber, Haaretz