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Last update - 04:51 29/05/2009
Israeli police shut Palestinian literature festival in East Jerusalem
By Reuters

Israeli police shut down a Palestinian theatre in East Jerusalem on Thursday, forcing foreign writers taking part in an international literature festival to move elsewhere for the second time in a week.

The police action was the latest in recent weeks against what Israel sees as attempts by the Palestinian Authority to host political activities in the city, where both sides in the conflict have staked claims to have their national capital.

Organizers and guests voiced disappointment at the treatment of what they said was a cultural, not a political, event.
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"All cultural events which take place in areas of contention have political undertones," British writer Jeremy Harding said at the theatre after police moved in. "Talking about what literature is and what it means in a fraught political situation is the most honest thing we can do. They didn't like that."

Police ordered the assembled authors and the audience for the closing event of the 6-day Palestine Festival of Literature to leave before a reading at the Palestinian National Theatre.

Saturday's opening event at the theatre was also shut down.

A police notice declared a closure on the orders of Israel's internal security minister on the grounds of a breach of interim peace accords from the 1990s. These laid the framework for talks on establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, but left
the status of Jerusalem to be determined by further negotiation.


Israel says the entire city is and always will be its capital, a point stressed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week on the 42nd anniversary of Israel's capture of Arab East Jerusalem.

For their part, Palestinians want their capital to be in the city.

Since a February election that brought the right-wing Likud leader to power, Israeli authorities have also banned events marking Jerusalem becoming the Arab League's Capital of Arab Culture for 2009 and closed down a media centre set up in East Jerusalem for this month's visit to the city by Pope Benedict.

Palestinians, who make up about a third of the population of Israel's municipality of Jerusalem, complain of a campaign to drive them out.

Israeli officials deny any discrimination in policies that range from the demolition of homes built without permits to the provision of municipal services in Arab areas.
Amal Nashashibi, attending the literature festival, said: "Because of the drive to make the city purely Jewish, they're trying to black out anything that is related to Arab culture."

Dozens of people moved quietly from the theatre to the nearby British Council, one of the sponsors of the festival.

In its second edition, it lists among its patrons the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and British playwright Harold Pinter. Both Pinter, who was Jewish, and Darwish were known as critics of Israeli policy. Both died in the past year.
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  1.   Do not tolerate Mini Orient Houses 07:05  |  Baruch Gold 29/05/09
  2.   It`s a good thing,..... 07:06  |  Deacon2 29/05/09
  3.   oh come on! 07:23  |  Suzy 29/05/09
  4.   Wow 07:46  |  Mike 29/05/09
  5.   This Is What I Don`t Agree With... 08:07  |  Yosemite 29/05/09
  6.   Bravo! Send the gendarmerie to squash peaceful culutral exchanges 08:56  |  Lasmarch 29/05/09
  7.   The present regime in Israel... 09:28  |  Esther 29/05/09
  8.   What`s next? Burning arab books? 09:47  |  Kilminster 29/05/09
  9.   Nothing strange. 09:58  |  JBT 29/05/09
  10.   It might be true.... 10:05  |  Anne 29/05/09
  11.   So, still no academinc boycott of Israel, those "intellellos" 10:24  |  Andreas 29/05/09
  12.   Israel.....the so called only democratic nation!!!! 10:58  |  singer 29/05/09
  13.   Another Israeli PR disaster 11:12  |  O-Dog 29/05/09
  14.   #5 Yosemite,I partially agree with you 11:57  |  Hastaroth 29/05/09
  15.   Any truth in rumour... 12:09  |  Rod 29/05/09
  16.   This is Typical for Israeli Police 12:14  |  B`galil 29/05/09
  17.   South Africa revisited 12:23  |  Justine Effort 29/05/09
  18.   Pure Barbaric Racial Persecution 12:38  |  Ari 29/05/09
  19.   There have been parallels in history... 12:54  |  BBSNews 29/05/09
  20.   Jewish lit.festival in Jericho 13:09  |  alexander 29/05/09
  21.   no arab culture 13:21  |  bobby G 29/05/09
  22.   Good work the British Council 13:29  |  Nick Ferriman 29/05/09
  23.   Jerusalem is only one third Arab? 13:42  |  Lynn 29/05/09
  24.   If only Jerusalem is recognized as the capital of israel 14:17  |  Akiva P 29/05/09
  25.   Jews are the oppressed in Jerusalem 14:58  |  Marco 29/05/09
  26.   An Israeli literature festival in Gaza or Ramallah? 17:27  |  Realist 29/05/09
  27.   Hey Feriman what your people know about Palestinian literature? 23:23  |  Go 29/05/09
  28.   democracy? 03:33  |  peter 30/05/09
  29.   Why?? 09:19  |  Spin Free Zone 30/05/09
  30.   the arabs seek attention 22:14  |  Tarzan 30/05/09
  31.   Marco: I`m puzzled 14:36  |  Outsider 31/05/09
  32.   Realist: wrong question 14:40  |  Outsider 31/05/09
  33.   To No. 30 16:25  |  Ana 02/06/09
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