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Alex Shams

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Palestine

Opinion Palestine

How Trump ruined Christmas for Palestinian Christians

Posted on December 25, 2017 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Middle East Eye on December 25, 2017. American support for Israel is helping drive Palestinian Christians out Christmas is a special time of the year in Palestine.

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Opinion Palestine

How Israeli control over Jerusalem destroyed its holiest sites

Posted on December 18, 2017 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Middle East Eye on December 18, 2017. Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital serves to legitimise ethnic cleansing of Palestinians – Christian and Muslim alike

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Iraq Palestine Reporting

The Iraqi soldiers who sacrificed everything to defend Palestine in 1948

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on May 15, 2017. The main road north from the West Bank city of Nablus winds between rolling hills covered in olive groves, abandoned

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Palestine Reporting

Yacoub Shaheen, the Assyrian singer from Palestine taking Arab Idol by storm

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on February 17, 2017. In just a few short months, Yacoub Shaheen has gone from a local singer in the West Bank town of

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Opinion Palestine

This Christmas, Remember the Embattled Little Palestinian Town of Bethlehem

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published in the Huffington Post. This week, more than 1.5 billion Christians around the world will celebrate the Christmas message of hope. But in the little hilltop town where

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Palestine Reporting

En Palestine, les chrétiens syriaques gardent espoir malgré la peur de Daech

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Alex Shams

Les syriaques de la vieille ville de Jérusalem ont été systématiquement expulsés par Israël depuis 1967, mais la communauté possède encore une forte identité

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Palestine Reporting

Syriac Christians in Palestine keep hope alive amid IS fears

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Alex Shams

The Syriacs of Jerusalem’s Old City have been systematically expelled by Israel since 1967, but the community still has a strong identity

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Palestine Reporting

Why do Palestinians burn Jewish holy sites?: The fraught history of Joseph’s Tomb

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Alex Shams

Originally published in Mondoweiss. Joseph’s Tomb (Photo: Alex Shams)  On October 16th, a large crowd of Palestinians near the northern West Bank city of Nablus surrounded the religious site

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Israel Opinion Palestine

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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Palestine Reporting

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Alex Shams

The city of Bethlehem wants the world to know it’s more than a Biblical theme park.

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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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About

Alex Shams is an Iranian-American writer and a PhD student of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. He was based in Bethlehem, Palestine from 2013-2015, where he worked for Ma'an News Agency, the largest independent Palestinian news agency. He previously received his master's from Harvard University in Middle Eastern studies. His work focuses on the intersections of gender, religion, politics, and urban space in the modern Middle East. He is an editor-in-chief of Ajam Media Collective (AjamMC.com), a platform focused on culture and society throughout Iran as well as Central and South Asia.

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