the occidental orientalist

arabist.
orientalist.
in the west.

what the District's think tank crowd is reading about the MENA
1 week ago
53 notes
theatlantic: Why Israeli Settlers Shot an Unarmed Palestinian When West Bank settlers shoot at unarmed Palestinians while Israeli soldiers look on without intervening, that’s a story—especially when one of the Palestinians suffers a head wound. So it’s natural that this weekend’s conflict near the Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya has been covered widely—in 972, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Haaretz, the Daily Dish, and elsewhere. Still, it’s important to appreciate how unsurprising this story really is, and how unexceptional its fundamentals are. Read more.

theatlantic:

Why Israeli Settlers Shot an Unarmed Palestinian

When West Bank settlers shoot at unarmed Palestinians while Israeli soldiers look on without intervening, that’s a story—especially when one of the Palestinians suffers a head wound. So it’s natural that this weekend’s conflict near the Palestinian village of Asira al-Qibliya has been covered widely—in 972, the Guardian, the Washington Post, Haaretz, the Daily Dish, and elsewhere. Still, it’s important to appreciate how unsurprising this story really is, and how unexceptional its fundamentals are.

Read more.

3 weeks ago
17 notes
Haven’t we all been here? Not heresy. It’s called tapping into constructs of Americanism for academic purposes.At least that’s what I tell myself when I order a fudge sundae late at night in Egypt.  paulbrady: I know it’s supposed to be heresy to eat at McDonalds when you go abroad (or even when you’re at home) but I wanted to see what an Egg McMuffin tastes like in a country where the real heresy is eating Canadian bacon. Turns out, it tastes like an Egg McMuffin.

Haven’t we all been here?

Not heresy. It’s called tapping into constructs of Americanism for academic purposes.

At least that’s what I tell myself when I order a fudge sundae late at night in Egypt. 

paulbrady:

I know it’s supposed to be heresy to eat at McDonalds when you go abroad (or even when you’re at home) but I wanted to see what an Egg McMuffin tastes like in a country where the real heresy is eating Canadian bacon. Turns out, it tastes like an Egg McMuffin.

1 month ago
44 notes
shedsumlight: Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926. by Eye magazine The Adventures of Prince Achmed(German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost. The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action.  German writer/director, Lotte Reiniger spent three years making this silent animated film, based on the Arabian Nights legends.  

shedsumlight:

Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926. by Eye magazine

The Adventures of Prince Achmed(German: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed features a silhouette animation technique Reiniger had invented which involved manipulated cutouts made from cardboard and thin sheets of lead under a camera. The technique she used for the camera is similar to Wayang shadow puppets, though hers were animated frame by frame, not manipulated in live action. 

German writer/director, Lotte Reiniger spent three years making this silent animated film, based on the Arabian Nights legends.  

(via sadajournal)

1 month ago
The truth is the reason the apologists want a second-rate military commission option is because of what we did to the detainees, not because of what the detainees did to us. This is not about the exigencies of the battlefield and the problems our soldiers face trying to fight a war; this is about torture, coercion, rendition and a decade or more in confinement without an opportunity to confront the evidence – abuses that would have us up in arms if done to an American citizen by some other country – that make the tarnished military commissions uniquely suited to try and accommodate the small category of cases where we crossed over to the dark side.

—, former chief prosecutor for the Gitmo commissions from 2005-2007 writing over at Salon, commenting on the arraignment of Sheikh Khalid Mohammed before a military tribunal this week. 

1 month ago

“Once We Kissed,” unabashedly stolen from The Arabist — a Cinema Paradiso-style reel of Egyptian film kisses from the 20’s through the 70’s. For those who seem to thing there is something conservative about the MENA.