{"id":275,"date":"2007-06-04T16:38:44","date_gmt":"2007-06-04T16:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=275"},"modified":"2008-01-19T20:52:34","modified_gmt":"2008-01-19T20:52:34","slug":"introducing-the-creative-forum-commemorating-the-golan-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/introducing-the-creative-forum-commemorating-the-golan-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the Creative Forum: Commemorating the Golan Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"
Posted by <\/strong>Camille Alexandre Otrakji<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some of you already know about Creative Syria’s new opinion forum. For the Forum’s first monthly discussion topic, I invited some of the best Syrian bloggers and analysts to tackle the following question concerning the <\/font>Golan Heights<\/a>:<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

"If you could write a one page letter to an Israeli citizen who does not believe his country should give back the Golan Heights to Syria, what would you tell him\/her?"<\/font><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I also invited two talented Americans who happen to know and love Syria, to moderate the Forum:  <\/span><\/font>George Ajjan<\/a>, a Republican political activist, and <\/font>Bridget Palmer<\/a>, a highly perceptive Syria blogger.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Creative <\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

So far, seventeen different letters were submitted and posted. Every one tackled the Syrian Israeli conflict from a different perspective.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Political analyst and historian Sami Moubayed shed light on the political atmosphere that led to the <\/font>1967 war<\/a> and the occupation of the Golan.<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n
  2. Hind Kabawat imagined what it would be like for <\/font>Syrians and Israelis<\/a> to be good friends.<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n
  3. Zenobia Baalbaki (doctoral candidate, psychology) analyzed the <\/font>mentality of Israelis<\/a> who want their country to retain the Golan.<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n
  4. George Ajjan compared Syrian and Israeli <\/font>perspectives of the Golan<\/a>.<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n
  5. Writer\/Film maker Farrah Hassen wrote a passionate piece about the <\/font>Golan’s Syrian inhabitants<\/a>.<\/font><\/span> <\/li>\n
  6. I took a more practical approach and listed a number of <\/font>relevant arguments<\/a>, as I have done on Syria Comment regularly.<\/font><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    And many more.  <\/span>I urge you all to participate in the debate; read the articles, vote for your favorites, and leave comments and questions.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    Haaretz’s Yoav Stern<\/a>, wrote a review of Creative Syria’s new forum in an article titled “<\/font>Shalom 2.0<\/a>” (thus far it is only available in Hebrew). This provided our forum with over a thousand Israeli visitors so far. Many of them engaged with us in an intelligent and positive debate. Yoav’s article also named Syria Comment “the most prominent” among Syria-related blogs.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

    <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

    And finally, <\/font>CreativeSyria.com<\/a> and <\/font>Mideastimage.com<\/a> both received a major update that included 500 new photographs of Syria hand picked from the online collections of some of my favorite Syrian photo bloggers. Mideastimage now has a more flexible search engine, and six mini-sites dedicated to <\/font>Aleppo<\/a>, <\/font>Damascus<\/a>, <\/font>Cairo<\/a>, <\/font>Istanbul<\/a>, <\/font>Baghdad<\/a> and <\/font>Jerusalem<\/a>. Now you can watch a slide show with larger views of our historic photo collection, accessible in the top right corner of each city mini-site.<\/font><\/span><\/div>\n
     <\/div>\n
    \"Aleppo <\/div>\n
    Aleppo Jewish<\/a> wedding in 1914.<\/div>\n
     <\/div>\n
    \"Aleppo <\/div>\n
    Aleppo's mini site on Mideastimage.com  <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Posted by Camille Alexandre Otrakji   Some of you already know about Creative Syria’s new opinion forum. For the Forum’s first monthly discussion topic, I invited some of the best Syrian bloggers and analysts to tackle the following question concerning the Golan Heights:   "If you could write a one page letter to an Israeli […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,40,17,15,23,41,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alex","category-announce","category-for-rels","category-israel","category-peace","category-refugees","category-un"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nIntroducing the Creative Forum: Commemorating the Golan Heights - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/introducing-the-creative-forum-commemorating-the-golan-heights\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Introducing the Creative Forum: Commemorating the Golan Heights - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Posted by Camille Alexandre Otrakji   Some of you already know about Creative Syria’s new opinion forum. 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