Heleen Murre-van den Berg

Prachtig stuk van @jjholtland.bsky.social over Ziad Rahbani, de zoon van Fairouz.

'Hij werd een rebel, een volkstribuun, een Libanese mix van Kees van Kooten en Boudewijn de Groot (‘Meneer de president, welterusten’), maar dan met de swagger en eeuwige sigaret van Serge Gainsbourg.'

How Foreign Agendas Hijacked a Local Crisis in Syria Seven months after Assad’s fall, an analysis of the violence in Sweida shows how international interference and internal paralysis are pushing the country back toward chaos

Inside Syria, each side has its version of events in Suweida, and each version has its facts. Outside Syria, as in the case of Israel, the crisis was overtaken by narratives designed to exacerbate existing divisions and fracture the country.
@newlinesmag.bsky.social
newlinesmag.com/argument/how...

Given Israel's Kahanist government, it was already on 7 Oct that genocide in Gaza is a real possibility. I personally did not know when the accumulation of Israeli crimes would cross that threshold. Two things could have stopped it: both failed.

1/

Ach

St. Elias #Church in the #Douaila neighborhood, in the heart of the capital, #Damascus, today.

Helen De Cruz (1978-2025) - Daily Nous Helen De Cruz, professor of philosophy at Saint Louis University, has died. Professor De Cruz specialized in philosophy of religion and cognitive science. They were the author of Wonderstruck: How Won...

We all knew this was coming since @helendecruz.net had been writing about her terminal illness - but it still comes as a blow.
Helen, thanks for what you did for philosophy and for humans without privileges; you will be very sorely missed. ✨
dailynous.com/2025/06/20/h...

ah, great! I think her work is very inspiring

Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays, Inside Arabic Music (New Texts Out Now) When I started learning Arabic music around twenty years ago, I wasn’t able to find a good introductory book in English that was aimed at musicians. As such, my training was by and large oral; I learn...

And more in general, Johnny Farraj's and Sami Abu Shumays, Inside Arabic Music provides also interesting thoughts about how 'playing together' can be conceived (and practiced) differently from classical European orchestra's and choirs - see www.jadaliyya.com/Details/39922

Sonic Icons A vivid, artfully crafted, and deeply hopeful account of one community’s struggle to rediscover and reinvent itself after a century of genocidal loss, disp...

and on the second, see www.fordhampress.com/978153150913...

#32 Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo – Tala Jarjour, Oxford 2018 When I came across the announcement of Tala Jarjour’s study of the chanting in Saint George’s parish of the Syriac Orthodox in Aleppo, I hoped that it would provide me with the tools to better unde…

Both wrote important monograph's, Tala Jarjour's book was published in 2018, and Sarah Bakker Kellogg last year.
On the first, see hlmvandenberg.me/2018/11/12/3...

Do you know the work of Tala Jarjour and Sarah Bakker Kellog, both on Syriac (choir) music? I see a lot that resonates here (without harmonizing it unduly ;)

The Father of Church History was Palestinian – #EOPalestine 21 by Chance Bonar Eusebius Pamphilius, bishop of Caesarea Maritima (modern Qesarya/قِيسارْيَة, Israel), is a fixture in the study of ancient Christianity. Living from the 260s to 339 CE and spending …

🦚📜 Did you know that the father of Church History was Palestinian? To learn more about what his story teaches us about ancient Palestine and how it relates to the present, read @chancebonar.bsky.social's new #EOPalestine post!
everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2025/05/20/t...

Maar die horen dus niet op strand …

Dank!

In de categorie bijzonder leven: weet iemand wat dit is? We kwamen het tegen op het strand van Terschelling, eind vorige week. Zo’n 30-40 cm in de lengte. @hesterloeff.bsky.social ?

En nu net al een grote club van plus twintig!

In Leiden gister ook de eersten gespot - meteen vijf of zes

Nice! Someone visited the Holy Sepulchre / Resurrection Church

Nederlandse universiteiten bieden onderdak aan bange onderzoekers en bedreigde gegevens uit de VS Een Amsterdamse hoogleraar genderstudies krijgt „wanhopige berichten” uit de VS. Een Delftse hoogleraar ziet kansen om wetenschappers hierheen te halen.

There’s a few beginnings, see Nederlandse universiteiten bieden onderdak aan bange onderzoekers en bedreigde gegevens uit de VS www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/... www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/.... @knaw-nl.bsky.social