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Alex Shams

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Alex Shams

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Palestine Reporting

In photos: Bethlehem festival draws thousands to Old City

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on June 19, 2014. The Bet Lahem Live festival kicked off on Thursday night along Bethlehem’s historic Star Street, launching four days of music,

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Palestine Reporting

Bet Lahem Live festival brings Star Street back to life

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on June 18, 2014. Star Street was once the bustling heart of Bethlehem’s Old City, a vital link on the 1,500-year-old pilgrimage route from Jerusalem to

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Palestine Reporting

Palestinians cynical as Israel mobilizes #BringBackOurBoys campaign

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on June 15, 2014. As Israeli forces deployed across the West Bank in hot pursuit of three teenagers who went missing on Thursday, the

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Palestine Reporting

Bethlehem walls transformed in the presence of the Holy See

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on May 24, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — In advance of Pope Francis’ visit to the Holy Land on Sunday, Bethlehem residents and officials have been

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Israel Palestine Reporting

Anti-enlistment performance art turns Israeli cities into battlefields

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on May 23, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — On Sunday, Israeli soldiers invaded the streets of Haifa’s upmarket German Colony neighborhood, beating Palestinian protesters with

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Israel Palestine Reporting

Retracing the Nakba in West Jerusalem’s al-Malha

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on May 16, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Towering above the gargantuan Jerusalem Mall and the repetitive, non-descript homes of the Malha (or Manahat) suburb

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Reporting

Palestinian Christians ask Maronite patriarch to reconsider Jerusalem visit

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency. on May 10, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A prominent Palestinian Christian activist group has urged the Lebanese patriarch to reconsider an upcoming trip to

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Palestine Reporting

Interview: Diana Buttu on Palestinian unity and the way forward

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on April 26, 2014. Diana Buttu is a Canadian-Palestinian lawyer. From 2000-2005, she served in the PLO’s Negotiations Support Unit as a legal and

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Palestine Reporting

Easter in the destroyed Palestinian village of Maalul

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on April 19, 2014. MAALUL (Ma’an) — As thousands of Palestinian Christians descend on Jerusalem for Holy Week festivities, the villagers of Maalul are busy

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Palestine Reporting

Palestinian Christians receive the Holy Fire in Bethlehem

Posted on April 19, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on April 19, 2014. Thousands of Palestinian Christians marched in cities and villages across the Holy Land on Saturday to receive the holy fire

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About me

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American writer and a PhD student of Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

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Recent posts

  • ‘They Hit Everyone and Anyone’: From Lebanon, residents share what life has been like since Israel launched its attack.
  • Iran Braces for Uncertainty After President Raisi’s Death
  • Universities should defend students’ right to free speech, not aid their repression
  • They Risked Their Lives for Freedom in Iran. Now They Fear Israel’s Bombs.
  • How Jesus’s Hometown Is Coping With War at Christmas
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About

Born and raised in an Iranian-American family in Los Angeles, Alex Shams has long been fascinated by the stories that places can tell us. Growing up, he learned Persian and Spanish; in college, he learned Arabic and studied abroad at the American University of Cairo before moving to Beirut after graduation. After receiving his master’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard, he moved to Bethlehem, Palestine, where he was a journalist at Ma’an News Agency, the largest independent Palestinian news organization. He received his PhD. from the University of Chicago in Sociocultural Anthropology. His dissertation, entitled “Constructing Islamic Modernity: Power, Religion, and Masculinity in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” was based on three years of ethnographic research in Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan as well as archival research in the British Library and Ba’ath Party Archives.

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