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Palestine

Palestine Reporting

Bethlehem filled with hope as Christmas season approaches

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on December 3, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Bethlehem of today is a far cry from the little village of Jesus’ era, and the historic

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Palestine Reporting

Palestinian students tour US, building solidarity with local movements

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on November 27, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — 10 Palestinian students returned to the West Bank this week from a tour of more than 40 colleges

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Palestine Reporting

In Hebron, Palestinian women face down daily settler home invasions

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on November 26, 2014. By: Alex Shams and Salam Muharam This is the second part in a series about the lives of Palestinian women

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Palestine Reporting

Israeli harassment curtails access to education for Hebron girls

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on November 19, 2014. By: Alex Shams and Salam Muharam This is the first part in a series about the lives of Palestinian women

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Palestine Reporting

Nablus conference imagines life in ‘glocal’ Palestine

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on October 5, 2014. The Palestinian experience of mobility has long been defined by seemingly irreconcilable contradictions.A global community of millions is increasingly well-connected

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Academic Work Palestine Reporting

Palestinian Shared Worlds of Meaning, between George and Reuben

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ajam Media Collective on September 29, 2014. Ajam Media Collective recently worked with THE STATE, a Dubai-based publishing practice, to make a ‘zine. We provided the words and

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Palestine Reporting

Has Oslo made West Bank boycott of Israel impossible?

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on September 6, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Since the beginning of the Israeli assault on Gaza, a flurry of popular campaigns have emerged across

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Palestine Reporting

Amid destruction, ordinary Gazans open homes, churches to displaced

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published by Ma’an News Agency on August 13, 2014. The first day the bombs began to fall on Gaza, Refqa al-Hamallawy called a meeting in her office at the

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Israel Opinion Palestine

Israel and the Palestinian Territories Lonely Planet: Systematic Erasure and Casual Racism

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Jadaliyya. Haifa is a picturesque city of hills, gardens, and trendy cafes perched along the slopes of Mount Carmel in northern Israel. If the Lonely Planetguidebook is

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Palestine Reporting

Israeli forces spray Bethlehem homes with putrid-smelling water

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Alex Shams

Originally published on Ma’an News Agency on June 27, 2014. BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Rubhiya Abd al-Rahman Darwish was taking a nap on the couch of her family home on Sunday when

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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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