Parkour is often misunderstood as a fringe sport or a collection of stunts. In reality, it belongs to the same cultural lineage as grafitti, skateboarding and surfing: youth-led movement practices shaped by place, limitations, and the need to claim space.

Parkour, a way of using acrobatics and stunts (sometimes death-defying) to move around the built environment, also caught on in Gaza. We wrote about the young parkour creators in 2012, and now there is a documentary film highlighting their lives and struggles.

For years, young people in Gaza used parkour to create structure and meaning in a restricted environment. Teenager boys trained on rooftops, in quiet streets, and among damaged buildings, learning how to move fluidly through spaces never designed for play. Like skateboarding in dense cities or surfing along contested coastlines, parkour offered discipline, community, and identity. (Boys and girls do not hang out in Gaza together, so the sport was limited to boys).

Yalla Parkour, directed by Areeb Zuaiter, captures this culture from within. The film follows Zuaiter’s long relationship with Ahmed Matar, a parkour athlete in Gaza, as she reflects on loss, memory, and belonging after the death of her mother. What begins as a personal search gradually opens into a portrait of how movement shapes young lives under constraint.

The documentary avoids spectacle. There are no competitions, rankings, or dramatic victories. Instead, the focus is on training, trust, and shared routines. Rooftops become practice spaces. Friends gather to watch, film, and learn from one another. Like skate crews or surf communities, Gaza’s parkour scene is built on mutual respect and collective risk.

Much of the film was developed and shot years before October 7, 2023. The Gaza shown on screen reflects pre-war daily life: informal training sessions, moments of calm between jumps, and a sense of continuity. The film now carries the weight of an unintended historical record, showing how beautiful and developed Gaza was. Any references to events after October 7 are reflective and editorial.

What Yalla Parkour ultimately shows is that parkour in Gaza was never about escape fantasies. It was about learning limits, adapting to obstacles, and staying grounded through physical practice. Like skateboarding and surfing, it offered young people a way to grow, build skill, and belong to something larger than themselves.

Seen this way, Yalla Parkour is not only a film about Gaza. It is a film about youth culture and movement, and about the universal human need to claim space, even when that space is sharply constrained.

If you love parkour, check out how girls in Afghanistan started skateboarding. Or how women in Cairo, Egypt could learn to cycle or jog, free from being sexually harassed by creating Harassmap.

::Yalla Parkour

The post Yalla Parkour – A Gaza documentary of the movement before the war appeared first on Green Prophet.

Back in 2005, before I opened Fauzi Azar Inn in Nazareth, I gathered my family to share a simple 10-slide presentation. It showcased my vision—how a guesthouse could unlock business potential while strengthening the local community. One slide featured a photo of an old Arab mansion I’d found online, an image of what the dream could one day look like.

When I finished, the room was silent. My parents exchanged a look and then said the words that changed everything: “Maoz, if you’re going for this—we’re with you.”

They became my first partners, my first supporters, and together we turned the dream into reality.

That same spirit still drives me today. As many of you know, my beloved parents, Yaccovi and Bilha, were killed in the Hamas attack on October 7th. Since that tragic day, I have taken on a new mission: to do everything I can to help achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians—so that others will not suffer the same fate as my family.

This week is the second anniversary of October 7th. War has continued to rage, the suffering in Gaza is unimaginable, and the extremist government in Israel pursues policies that harm both Palestinians and Israelis, including the remaining hostages. It has been easy to feel hopeless. But now, more than ever, and on the cusp of a potential peace plan, our work as peace-builders is urgent. Hope is not something we wait to find—it is something we create through action.

As my good friend and partner Aziz Abu Sarah says: “If you must divide us, don’t divide us between Israelis and Palestinians. The only division is between those who believe in justice, peace, and equality—and those who don’t, yet.”

To advance this vision, Aziz and I have launched InterAct, a nonprofit organization with a bold mission: to achieve peace by 2030. InterAct builds trust, fosters dialogue, and creates shared spaces where Israelis and Palestinians can meet as equals. Over the past two years, we have come to realize that our message is like water for those in the desert—vital, life-giving, and desperately needed. We aspire to share this sustenance with all those seeking hope and change.

Last year, Aziz and I opened the 2024 TED Convention with our healing conversation. Since then, we have shared our message with millions through the media and with thousands in person—including world leaders such as the late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV. These milestones remind us that the world is listening, and that change is within reach.

As part of this journey, I plan to send updates on our efforts every few weeks. You can also visit the InterAct website to see upcoming events. If I’m in your neighborhood, I’d love to meet you.

When I first shared my dream of opening a guesthouse, my parents stood beside me and gave me the courage to begin. Today, as I pursue the even greater dream of peace, I ask you to stand beside me in the same way. Help me amplify our message—share our story with your friends, your communities, and your networks. The more voices join, the stronger and more unstoppable our call for peace becomes.

Here’s how you can help:

Forward this article to those you know. Forward this email to those you know and ask them to join the mailing list Invite us to speak with the media, in webinars or at public events. Share our TED talk on social media

With love and peace—by 2030,
Maoz Inon

::Interact

::Abraham Hostels

More about Maoz Inon

Born on a kibbutz in the Negev Desert, Maoz spent a year backpacking around the world when he was 22, and it was then that he discovered the power of the hostel to bring all kinds of people together and stimulate an area’s local economy.  At 28, he embarked on the Israel Trail and was inspired to bring this world of the independent backpacker to his home country.

In 2005 Maoz opened his first hostel and the first guest house in Nazareth, Fauzi Azar Inn.  He received international praise for bringing a new model for travel to Israel and sparking Nazareth’s resurgence as a destination for travelers.  In 2000 the Lonely Planet called Nazareth a city to “avoid,” while in 2011 former British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to visit Nazareth and the Fauzi Azar while in Israel, a sign of the city’s much-improved status among foreigners.

Following Fauzi, Maoz and his American friend David Landis went on to develop the Jesus Trail, a walking trail through the northern region of Israel.  The project was intended to stimulate and support the local economy in smaller, out-of-the-way Israeli towns and also bridge cultural gaps by trekking through currently and historically significant sites for Christians, Jews & Muslims.  This project was also noted by international media as a positive development for Israeli tourism.

In 2006 Maoz met Yaron Burgin, who was staying as a guest at Fauzi Azar.  After talking and brainstorming, the two proceeded to create ILH – Israel Hostels, a network of Israeli hostels with high standards of cleanliness, true backpackers’ vibes, affordable prices and “more than a bed to sleep in.”

It became clear that Jerusalem needed an ILH-style hostel, and Maoz teamed up with Gal, Dror, Nitzan, and Yaron, to create it.  The five opened their dream hostel in the city center of Jerusalem, and Maoz saw his dream for Israel and the Middle East realized one step further.

The post My parents were killed on October 7. I am not giving up on peace for the Middle East appeared first on Green Prophet.

Saudi Arabia is pouring billions of its oil profits from its family-owned oil business Saudi Aramco to make Saudi Arabia an attractive destination for Westerners. Saudi Arabia wants to rival the United Arab Emirates in its openness to Western values and business. It was not long ago (6 years) that Saudi Arabian women were allowed to drive. But now with the investment into Saudi Arabia’s mega-developments called Neom, the country has started inviting and paying American influencers to live in the15-minute city being created at the Red Sea, called The Line.

South Africa influencer Jessica Ashley Herman has moved into a Neom complex in Saudi Arabia with her family, and commenters on social media, X are not kind. “Low security prison vibes,” writes one user.

“Is this supposed to convince people to work out in the desert for a penal colony?”

Below is the video she posted on TikTok.

“Looks like nothing any sane person would want to live the rest of one’s life.”

“Dude this is the stuff of nightmares.”

“Oil pipeline camp vibes.”

“We were promised stuff from an 80s sci-fi film and we got an 80s office park.”

Planned cities are difficult to build. When the United Arab Emirates built Masdar as the world’s first zero-carbon city, good thing they kept the flop of a city small. It never became a thing, and when engineering students moved into it they weren’t even allowed to write about it and its problems. We did have a secret submission years ago. It’s posted here.

So what about you? Think you will relocate to Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia is investing billions to make the desert and Red Sea area the playground for the rich and famous hoping it can become the new Cannes. We believe that a city without a purpose and a heart will flop.

Also worth noting, the Houthis had been firing rockets at Saudi Arabia before they took up the cause to support the Hamas and fire rockets at Israel. If Saudi Arabia can’t join some peacekeeping force ASAP no westerner will want to set foot anywhere close to the Red Sea.

The post Life at Neom, a 15-minute city in Saudi Arabia: looks like a penal colony says X user appeared first on Green Prophet.

Like Al Qaida, Boko Haram and ISIS who brutally raped and murdered women as a form of terror, Israel has just released an alarming report about the sexual violence of Hamas from Gaza. It is a difficult report to read but we have a copy here (links to PDF). The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel’s first official report regarding the Hamas attack on October 7 highlights the following key points:

• Sexual crimes were systematically and intentionally committed.
• Four main arenas of sexual abuse were identified.
• The sexual assaults and acts of rape involved multiple participants and included sadistic practices characterized by brutal features.

Orit Sulitzeanu, CEO of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, emphasized the significance of the report, stating that it leaves no room for denial or disregard. The report clearly indicates Hamas’s strategic decision to harm Israel through kidnapping citizens and committing sadistic sexual crimes. Silence in response to these atrocities is unacceptable, and international organizations are urged to take a clear stance.

The report, authored by Dr. Carmit Klar Chalamish and Noga Berger, consolidates evidence and concludes that the sexual crimes were not isolated incidents but part of a systematic, targeted strategy. It focuses on sexual and gender-based violence during the October 7 massacre and subsequent war, serving as a primary testimonial foundation indicating widespread sexual crimes.

The methodology involved analyzing numerous pieces of information, including testimonies, interviews, and direct information received by the ARCCI. Findings reveal brutal acts of violent rape, often involving threats with weapons and collaboration among perpetrators. Sexual and gender-based violence occurred systematically in various arenas, including festivals, kibbutzim, IDF bases, and captivity.

The report’s authors highlight the brutal nature of the assaults, designed to inflict sadistic terror and reinforce their impact on victims and communities. The ARCCI, founded in 1990, operates as an umbrella organization for nine rape crisis centers in Israel, addressing around 50,000 calls each year. It works to promote rights and services for survivors of sexual abuse and reduce its prevalence in Israeli society.

Read with caution. The full report is here.

The post Sexual Crimes in the October 7 War appeared first on Green Prophet.

Asma Al-Assad, the Syrian president’s wife, is accused of playing a major role in the crimes of her husband and his regime during Syria’s 12-year war; she’s played no small role in the country’s $57B Captagon drug trade. Image via AFP

Asma al-Assad, the wife of Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad grew up in London attending a private school. She went to Queen’s College and studied with people like Ringo Starr’s daughter. Asma was described by a source we spoke with as pretty normal. So how does a girl from London with a career in investment banking at JP Morgan go to running a drug ring?

Read Related: Asma al-Assad diagnosed with cancer

After years of the world forgetting how Asma and her husband Bashar killed 230,000 Syrians, and refugee’ed almost 7 million people, the two are are back in the game, making media appearances and attending conferences in China and the UAE.

The Financial Times wrote a scathing report about her in April accusing Asma of running the Captagon drug ring. Arab journalists also now wonder how the al-Assads are appearing publicly: Can a Genocide Expert Condemn Murder?

Back in 2011, Asma was dressed to kill in a Vogue article debacle entitled “A Rose in the Desert” which served as a litmus test for cynicism when considered against the backdrop of mass-murder, torture and imprisonment of tens of thousands of Syrians that had occurred since the story was first published.

Some 6.7 million Syrian refugees have since moved to Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan and probably will never go back. Canada accepted 40,000 of them. While Vogue took down the article after the Arab Spring riots took over, we found a copy of it. Vogue article – get the PDF

In March, 2011, the 3,200-word story on Asma al-Assad praised the “wildly democratic” family-centric couple who vacation in Europe, nurture Christianity, (ignore their country’s “missing” Jews) and leave their security guards at home when cruising around Damascus with Brad and Angelina. The article’s author Joan Buck declared that “Syria is known as the safest country in the Middle East” and described the couple’s aim was to give Syria a “brand essence.”

With catastrophic mistiming, the story was published online right before Syria’s Arab Spring erupted. It was later revealed to be the result of a coordinated public relations effort managed by Brown Lloyd James, the same firm that handled media spin for Libya’s Qaddafi regime.

Asma said in the Vogue article about her business acumen:

“What I’ve been able to take away from banking was the transferable skills—the analytical thinking, understanding the business side of running a company—to run an NGO or to try and oversee a project.”

She runs her office like a business, chairs meeting after meeting, starts work many days at six, never breaks for lunch, and runs home to her children at four.

The family’s grip over a country in bloodied ruin

Asma is now appearing with Bashar in various countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates. According to the Financial Times, “the first lady now has a leading role in a regime that is plundering the wealth of its people.”

She also made a recent appearance in China. This FT article exposes Syria’s $57B Captagon drug ring, naming Asma as playing a major role in its operation. A USA Today article suggests Captagon was found on Hamas-linked Palestinian terrorists that attacked Israel on October 7. Palestinian-Hamas terrorists crossed over and raped women, killed babies in front of their children, and blew up families hiding in their bomb shelters. Were they high on Captagon while doing it?

Captagon is called many names, writes USA Today: The jihadi drug, Captain Courage, the Poor Man’s Cocaine. But were Hamas terrorists high on the synthetic stimulant Captagon when they attacked Israel on Oct. 7, brutally killing more than 1,200 people and kidnapping at least 240 more? The Israeli government won’t say but they did find bags of pills on the bodies of terrorists.

According to the Middle East Eye:

Washington’s regional allies, particularly Jordan, have lobbied Washington to take a more active role in stopping the drug’s proliferation. The 2022 defence spending bill included the Captagon Act, requiring the US government to devise a strategy to disrupt and dismantle Syria’s narcotics networks.

“Syria has become a global leader in the production of highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” said Andrea Gacki, the senior Treasury official handling sanctions.

“With our allies, we will hold accountable those who support Bashar al-Assad’s regime with illicit drug revenue and other financial means that enable the regime’s continued repression of the Syrian people,” she added.

Prof. Eyal Zisser of Tel Aviv University, who specializes in the contemporary history of Syria and Lebanon says that after the economy of the Syrian regime collapsed, the entire country became a Captagon production laboratory. He told Globes: “The product is transported by drones and UAVs across borders. Saudi Arabia is flooded with it, Jordan is flooded with it.”

In 2015, even a Saudi Prince, Abdul-Mohsen bin Walid ibn Abd-Elaziz, was caught trying to smuggle large quantities of the substance into Saudi Arabia through Lebanon.

Meet the King and Queen of Captagon

The most telling is what is in the Financial Times, and later the BBC. Scroll down for the video.

Asma’s presence underscored something little understood outside Syria: how a woman initially sidelined as an obstinate young newly-wed with lofty western ideals has since risen to become one of the most powerful people in the country, at the apex of the country’s ruthless ruling family.

In public, she styles herself as the Mother of the Nation, radiating maternal care as she tends to Syria’s military families, cancer-stricken children and survivors of the February 6 earthquake. She sports delicate ribbons in her hair, her petite frame draped in dresses sewn by the widows of men martyred in her husband’s war.

But privately, Asma has manoeuvred herself into a position of remarkable power, according to interviews with 18 people familiar with the regime’s operations, including heads of business, aid workers and former government officials. She now controls some of the key levers in Syria’s battered economy, both as policymaker and profiteer, helping consolidate the family’s grip over a country in bloodied ruin.

Experts say the couple is using new illicit revenue streams for the regime to help keep it afloat: weapons, oil smuggling, alcohol (which is prohibited by Islam) and sales of the illegal amphetamine Captagon.

When I visited Syria in 1999 the people were living very poorly, kids were playing in piles of rubble and locals were plundering archeological sites. I felt that I had entered a time machine going back to the 50s. Most people got around by mini-bus and I felt safe not because there was no crime but because Basher’s father’s face was plastered everywhere. The people were living in fear of Basher’s father and in fear of each other. If you did not express your featly to the regime you could disappear. The regime hated Jews so much that even saying the word Israel was punishable. Locals said to never say the word Israel. This made me want to visit Israel even more.

Israel: codeword Disneyland

The hotels did keep guidebooks on Israel, however, covered over with the code name Disneyland. Most tourists in Syria then were headed for Jordan, Israel, then Sinai. I met a number of loving, decent Syrians when I was there. They all were afraid to mention Bashar’s father name. They were prisoners to the regime and begged that I would send them art books or any notes from the outside world as no-one in Syria was allowed to use the internet then.

We had spies following us around when we were there. We did feel very safe in Syria and slept overnight by ourselves in a Crusader Castle. We were the only guests.

People in Syria are less afraid today and social media has opened up space for critique: According to the Middle East Institute, there is a notable trend that has emerged among Alawites in Syria’s regime-held areas, including those from powerful families. They are no longer allowing themselves to be silenced. 

“Writers, journalists, and rank-and-file Alawites have taken to social media platforms to express their deep frustration with the regime’s economic policies and the centralized nature of the dictatorship under President Bashar al-Assad, as well as his wife Asma al-Assad’s outsized influence and corruption linked to her secretive “economic council.””

Some activists in Syria claim the Assads have gone so far as to start forest fires.

BBC offers a must-see investigative piece on Captagon in Syria and Lebanon. Warning: the video is age-restricted.

“Living conditions are hard and the people are manipulated,” says the Jordan army who attempts to hunt down infiltrators to their border carrying Captagon. He told BBC reporters that al-Assad’s regime uses children to smuggle drugs across the border.

“In April we reported the death of a child from the Ramthan tribe. Instead of carrying his school bag he was carrying a backpack of drugs. He met his death on the Syrian-Jordanian border.”

The average salary for a Syrian is $15 US a month. If they smuggle Captagon they can earn $15,000 – enough for a house and to get married.

In Jordan in 2022, a border officer was killed by drug traffickers from Syria and King Abdullah of Jordan said that border police could shoot and kill anyone that attempts to cross the border. Days later 27 Syrians were shot and killed.

Syrians interviewed said that most smuggling is done by civilians living in regime-controlled areas in Syria and they have connections to the regime. The regime also enlists women and children. The drugs are then exported to Gulf States, Turkey, Europe and Africa.

The BBC documentary also links Captagon production and smuggling to the Hezbollah. They report that the Lebanese government has lost control of the Bekaa Valley where the production and smuggling of Captagon takes place. This is the area firing rockets into Israel currently.

Captagon: Inside Syria’s drug trafficking empire

Update May, 2024 – Asma al-Assad’s cancer diagnosis:

The post Meet the Queen of Captagon appeared first on Green Prophet.

Iran’s terror proxy group, the Hezbollah in Lebanon (funded by the jihadi drug Captagon) are hoping to create more global chaos by firing rockets at Israel across Israel’s northern border. They operate as a state within a state in Lebanon and want to see a moderate Lebanon in chaos along with Israel. Now, Lebanese Christian olive farmers are caught in the crossfire. Even the Taliban stops fighting during pine nut harvesting season in Afghanistan. Does the Hezbollah hold nothing holy?

The traditional olive harvest in southern Lebanon is a crucial economic activity to a battered economy (Lebanon can barely keep the lights on), and it faces severe disruption now because of the Islamic jihad group, the Hezbollah. The Israeli army is firing back in response to the Hezbollah rocket attacks meant as a provocation, and olive farmer Adel Khoury from Rachaya al Foukhar, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley is afraid for his life, he tells The Media Line.

He is afraid that Israeli surveillance might consider their harvesting activities as part of the Hezbollah terror group, and kill him in the crossfire.

Christians from Lebanon who became refugees in Israel told me that Christians in Lebanon are not able to speak out against the Hezbollah. Sharbel Salameh was from the south Lebanese village of Klayaa, and joined about 2,500 Lebanese Christian refugees who fled to Israel while trying to fight against the Hezbollah. The story is here. I also covered this story for the Catholic News Service.

Rachaya Al Foukhar is a Lebanese village in the district of Hasbaya in the Nabatiye Governorate in southern Lebanon. It is located on the western slopes of Mount Hermon.

Rachaya Al Foukha in Lebanon is in the crossfire 

The attacks by the Hezbollah against Israel have persisted for over a month, and it has become worse since Oct 8, when Hezbollah used the Hamas terror attack against Israel as an opportunity to create more unrest in Lebanon. At one point in the past Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the jihadist death regime, pretended to be an environmentalist and had his terrorists plant trees right on the border with Israel as a provocation. 

The trees, he said, would scare Israel.

Hezbollah is a Shiite Muslim political party and militant group based in Lebanon, where its extensive security apparatus, political organization, and social services network fostered its reputation as “a state within a state.” Founded in the chaos of the fifteen-year Lebanese Civil War, the Iran-backed group is driven by its opposition to Israel and its resistance to Western influence in the Middle East. Western means Europe and America.

Jamal Hamdan, another local farmer told The Media Line that he worries that the conflict now could devastate the olive harvest season. The price of olive oil in Lebanon, often referred to as “liquid gold,” has already skyrocketed from $60 to $140 per 16-kg container. Olive oil prices have also tripled over recent years in Italy and other European countries. 

The 17 best olive varieties

The post Christian olive farmers caught in Hezbollah’s crossfire appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire in Gaza yesterday, a brief respite from the escalating violence that is testing the capabilities of relief agencies already strained by four years of Syrian war and renewed battles in Iraq.  It’s a half day opportunity to park politics and take humanitarian action. 

We’ve all been smacked around by recent news – regional events of increasing horror. Consider the plane crashes (over 700 dead in July alone); attacks at an Egyptian border crossing (killing 22 border guards) and a Yemeni gas pipeline (7 dead); Boko Haram bombings in Nigeria (80 murdered); ISIS assaults on Iraqi Christians (over 150 fatalities); and the incessant bloodbath of the Syrian war (170 killed last weekend).

No time to crawl under our covers. We are not powerless. Broadcasting our political POV via Hashtag tweets and Facebook postings may raise awareness among our personal followers, but when it comes to human aid (as we learned with our hats-for-Syrians drive) cash is king.  We can fight feelings of helplessness with money, and provide immediate help.

Getting assistance to Gaza has long been problematic, and food security has been a chronic headache due to years of blockade and restrictions on fishing and farming. Import of goods and money (thwarted by closed borders and the combined shenanigans of Hamas, Israel and Egypt) is left largely to international aid organizations.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) issued an appeal for emergency food supplies for the estimated 150,000 people displaced in the past 3 weeks.

Swift response came from two Jordanian organizations – Tkiyet Um Ali (TUA) and the Jordan Hasehmite Charity Organization (JHCO) who, together, provided 15,000 family food rations, which will enable UNRWA to feed 75,000 people for thirteen days. It’s a small dent in the growing mountain of need.

Financial support to UNRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services and the agency, which is 97% reliant on voluntary contributions, runs a budget deficit of $69 million. You can pop some cash – now – to UNRWA, or several other non-political, non-religious aid agencies we’ve identified below.  Each makes it simple to donate, resulting in immediate aid at point of need.

UNRWA is providing trauma counseling, food, and emergency bedding.  Click here to help. 

TUA is accepting walk-up donations at their booths in Amman commercial centers including City Mall, City Mall Center, Carrefour City Mall, Safeway, Cosmo, Taj Mall, Mecca Mall, Galleria Mall, Sahara Mall – and in Irbid. Call +962 (0)6 4900900 for more information. Or click here for their English/Arabic website.

Not in Jordan? Donations can also be wired to:

Islamic International Arab Bank, Branch Gardens
Tkiyet Um Ali and Charitable Society for Voluntary Work
Account name: Tkiyet Um Ali
Account number: 1,010 / 000 188 -0/505
Jo05IIBA1010000001010000188505

Medical Aid for Palestine delivers medical care working in partnership with local health providers and hospitals. Click here to help.

Awqaf (Islamic Affairs) Ministry for Gazan orphans (a/k/a Monsara) is a Jordan-based charity that seeks to fulfill essential needs of Gaza’s children. Click here to help.

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund has three offices and a field staff on the ground in Gaza identifying injured kids and providing them with critical medical care, and providing displaced families with urgent humanitarian aid. Click here to help.

This list is just a sampler of established agencies with proven experience in aid delivery.  Aware of others?  Please leave details in the comments section. Screw politics. Support people.

Image of UNRWA World Food Program trucks from Shutterstock

The post Be a humanitarian superhero: park politics appeared first on Green Prophet.

Joudat Ghrab plucked the life-sized deity from the sea last August, just north of the Egyptian-Gaza border.  He said he spotted a human shape lurking in shallow waters some 100 meters offshore.  He dove in and found the statue, and – with the help of family – he dragged the 500 kg figure ashore and lugged it home on a donkey cart.

“I felt it was something gifted to me by God,” the fisherman told Reuters. “My financial situation is very difficult and I am waiting for my reward.”

The metal Greek didn’t enjoy traditional Arabic hospitality; Ghrab’s mother was appalled when saw the statue’s nakedness and demanded that his manhood (god-hood?) be covered.

Speculation spread as to the hunky god’s street value; someone listed it on Ebay at a starting bid of half a million dollars, then Hamas police seized it, claiming ongoing investigation.

Blurred photos of the young, athletic, god laid out on a Smurf-printed blanket are the only proofs that the statue exists.

“It’s unique…I would say it is priceless,” said Jean-Michel de Tarragon, a historian with the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem. He told Reuters television, “It’s very, very rare to find a statue which is not in marble or in stone, but in metal.”

Tarragon suggests that the pristine sculpture was probably cast between the 5th and the 1st century BC and added it was vital to pinpoint the discovery location. “This wasn’t found in the sea … it is very clean,” he said, noting there were no barnacles or erosion normally seen on items fished from water.

Historical records of ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders lie beneath Gaza sands, many sites remain unexplored. The Apollo find might prove the tip of an historical iceberg, Tarragon said.

“A statue at that time was (put) in a complex, in a temple or a palace. If it was in a temple, you should have all the other artifacts of the cult (at the site),” he said, adding that he hoped Hamas appreciated its potential importance.

Officials at Gaza’s tourism ministry told Reuters the statue will not be shown publicly until a criminal investigation into who tried to sell it concludes, but Apollo’s genitals would need be covered so as not to violate the Hamas regime’s modesty regulations.

The post Gaza fisherman’s rated-X catch hidden by Hamas appeared first on Green Prophet.

Hamas in Gaza does not want pretty women running in the streets. UN cancels the marathon that had almost 400 women registered for participation.

While Israel gears up for its 42k marathon next week, the United Nations cancels Gaza marathon after Hamas rulers ban women from participating. The ban is the latest attempt by the Palestinian political party to impose its ideology inside the crowded Gaza Strip. Gaza women athletes accepted the news, noting that even before the ban societal pressures made training problematic.

Islam has no specific ban on women running.  Green Prophet has reported extensively on difficulties faced by Islamic women athletes during last summer’s London Olympics.  The majority of Gaza women wear hijab and many also wear abaya.  Unlike Formula One racers “The Speed Sisters“, many Palestinian sportswomen tend to limit their exercise to indoor gyms. So why the ban?

According to National Public Radio, Gaza’s Cabinet secretary, Abdul-Salam Siam, said women running in public violated Palestinian custom,”We don’t want any woman running uncovered.” Siam said only adult women were banned: girls could participate in the April 10 race.  He wouldn’t say why Hamas didn’t ban women from the previous two races.

Over 800 runners had registered, including 266 Palestinian and 119 foreign women, according to UN spokesman Sami Mshasha.  Organizers have always been careful to encourage modest dress: runners typically wore full-length running pants and long-sleeved shirts.

Gaza rights groups urged the UN to hold the marathon, arguing that Hamas has no right to discriminate against women.

Runner Nader Masri, who represented Palestine in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 5k race, said Gaza’s conservative culture makes it impossible for women to run in public. “Who would allow his daughter or sister to run in the street?” Masri asked. “When a girl of 16 or 17 is running in the street, that’s not acceptable.”

Woroud Sawalha represented Palestine in the 2012 London Olympics in the 800 meters. “It means a lot for me that I am female and representing Palestine,” she told CNN’s Aiming For Gold.

The UN does not recognize a Palestinian state but the International Olympic Committee has permitted athletes to compete under a Palestinian flag since 1996.

“My dad told me that I’m a pretty woman now, and not a girl anymore, so I can’t run in the streets. It will be a headache for him because people will gossip,” said Noura Shukri, a high school student who ran in the 2011 and 2012 marathons.

Critics suggest that the cancellation shows a shift in political power.  “The decision highlights the influence of the hard-liners in the Gaza government,”  Gaza political analyst Mukheimar Abu Sada told NPR.

“We did not tell UN Relief and Works Agency to cancel the marathon and we haven’t prevented it, but we laid down some conditions: We don’t want women and men mixing in the same place,” Abdessalam Siyyam, cabinet secretary of the Hamas government, told AFP.

The race would have been the third annual  UNRWA Gaza Marathon, raising funds for the agency’s summer program for Gazan children.  The news comes days before the Tel Aviv Gillette Marathon, Israel’s largest sporting event held on held on March 15, attracting over 35,000 runners.

Update: Due to a heat wave the Tel Aviv marathon will be postponed by a week.

The post Gaza Marathon Cancelled Over Girls and “Headaches” for Dads appeared first on Green Prophet.

A budding physical discipline called parkour is attracting several youth in Gaza, aged between 12 and 23 years old to pass their time training in cemeteries, former Israeli settlements and in abandoned or run-down buildings. Parkour originated in the suburbs of Paris and originates from the French word “parcours,” meaning route or journey. In a very literal sense the sport is about overcoming obstacles, using your imagination and tackling the restraints of physical barriers to “run through” a journey. It inspires a philosophical outlook on life that reflects this acrobatic discipline.

Mohammed al-Jakhbeer and Abdallah Enshsi started this discipline several years ago and they have been providing entertainment and inspiration for several young refugees who are now learning the art of parkour through observation and replication. Mohammed and Abdallah have decided to form a team called Gaza Parkour, they are taking it upon themselves to train the next generation of parkour athletes to ensure youths can experience this liberating physical discipline.

According to Mohammed, parkour helps untangle the “anger and depression” that comes with living in the narrow, politically and militarily confined Gaza Strip, home to a boxed-in population of 1.7 million Palestinians.

They believe that, one day, their ticket out of Gaza will be through parkour even though, they joke, “Gaza International airport used to be our only way out and now it’s in ruins.”

Images by Klaus Thymann via the New York Times

The post Gaza Parkour Take to the Streets appeared first on Green Prophet.