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Israel

Featured India Iraq Israel Palestine Reporting

Amba: The Iraqi Mango Pickle from India That Tops Palestinian Shawarma

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on October 22, 2018. Step into any Palestinian shawarma shop and the choice of toppings traverse a mouth-watering array of options: thick tahini-and-parsley bakdoonsiyyeh, crushed shatta peppers

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Israel Opinion

‘Broad City’ Didn’t Just Go on Birthright — It Spent 21 Minutes Mocking It

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Alex Shams

Originally published on The Forward on April 28, 2016. Written by Alex Shams. When Ilana and Abby from “Broad City” announced last week that they were going on Birthright Israel,

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Featured Israel Palestine Reporting

Learning the Language of Jesus Christ

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Roads and Kingdoms on November 2, 2015. Just a few hundred feet west of the church built atop the site where the Christian faithful believe Jesus was

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Israel Reporting

La langue arabe en tête des charts israéliens grâce à trois sœurs yéménites

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Alex Shams

Le clip de cette chanson a été vu 1,2 million de fois et a attiré des milliers de fans dans tout le Moyen-Orient

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Israel Reporting

Arabic tops Israeli charts as Yemeni sisters take Tel Aviv by storm

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Alex Shams

The music video has amassed 1.2 million hits and has attracted thousands of fans from across the Middle East

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Israel Opinion Palestine

Killings reveal link between homophobia, anti-Arab racism

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published on the Washington Blade on Aug. 15, 2015. Shira Banki, a 16-year-old girl who was stabbed during a Jerusalem Pride march, succumbed to her injuries on Aug. 2,

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Israel Palestine Reporting

Zionist tour for Muslim-Americans sparks anger in Palestine

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally Published by Ma’an News Agency on June 25, 2015. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — An all-expenses paid trip to Israel organized for Muslim-American leaders by a Duke University-based imam has set

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Israel Opinion Palestine

Seattle mayor’s Israel trip highlights dangers of ‘pinkwashing’

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published on the Washington Blade. Ed Murray (Photo by Ryan Georgi; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)   On Monday, Seattle mayor Ed Murray touched down in Israel as part of a

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Israel Palestine Reporting

Armenians in Palestine mark 100 years since Genocide

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on April 23, 2015. JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The Armenian community of the Holy Land this week marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of

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Israel Palestine Reporting

Israeli filmmaker explores life through the eyes of Palestinian teen

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally Published by Ma’an News Agency on March 11, 2015. JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — The short documentary “Khelil Helwa (Hebron is Beautiful)” follows a young boy from Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood as

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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

  • Looking A Tyrant In the Eye: Iran’s Long Struggle for Freedom and Justice
  • Iran After Khamenei
  • Iran’s Protesters Are Caught Between State Repression and Foreign Intervention
  • Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel’s War on Iran
  • Our Man For Tehran
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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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Popular posts

  • Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past
    Bulgarian Habibi: How Orientalist Stereotypes in Chalga Music Recover Memories of the Balkans’ Ottoman Past
  • When Persian was an Indian Language: The Fables of Jameh ul-Tamseel from Medieval Hyderabad to Modern Iran
    When Persian was an Indian Language: The Fables of Jameh ul-Tamseel from Medieval Hyderabad to Modern Iran
  • Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel's War on Iran
    Quiet Solidarity: The Underground Networks that Defied Israel's War on Iran
  • Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
    Inside Mexico's deep and unexpected legacy of Iranians
  • Sedentary Fragmentation: Toward a Genealogy of Chicago’s Iranian Art Scene
    Sedentary Fragmentation: Toward a Genealogy of Chicago’s Iranian Art Scene
  • Killings reveal link between homophobia, anti-Arab racism
    Killings reveal link between homophobia, anti-Arab racism
  • Sofreh aqd: An inside look at Iranian weddings
    Sofreh aqd: An inside look at Iranian weddings
  • Israeli filmmaker explores life through the eyes of Palestinian teen
    Israeli filmmaker explores life through the eyes of Palestinian teen
  • “I’m Afraid a Bomb Will Kill Me in My Sleep”: Iranians React to Israel’s Attacks
    “I’m Afraid a Bomb Will Kill Me in My Sleep”: Iranians React to Israel’s Attacks
  • A Jewish Shrine inside a Mosque: the History of Ezekiel’s Tomb in Iraq
    A Jewish Shrine inside a Mosque: the History of Ezekiel’s Tomb in Iraq

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