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Nakba

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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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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Palestine Reporting

In photos: Hiking the ruins of Lifta

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on January 3, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Lifta is a Palestinian village that was mostly destroyed in 1948. Today, its ruins lie in Jerusalem’s

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Israel Reporting

Tel Aviv ‘Nakba’ film festival keeps alive memories of 1948 in Israel

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on Dec. 1, 2013. TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma’an) — The first-ever International Film Festival on Nakba and Return took place on Nov. 28-30 in Tel

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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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  • Workshop: Investigating Power
  • The “Terrorists” in My Grandmother’s Neighborhood
  • A Persian Christmas Story: How A Jewish Shrine in Qazvin Connects Palestine and Iran
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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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