Israel
Israel arrests Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh
Palestinian cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh, a contributor to the Cartoon Movement comics journalism site, was arrested by Israeli authorities on Saturday and is being held without access to a lawyer, a situation that could continue indefinitely. The Cartoon Movement blog has been tracking the story as well as the reaction by international organizations.
Saba’aneh is a political cartoonist for Al-Hayat al-Jadida, the official newspaper of the Palestinian National Authority, the governing body for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and his cartoons comment on the political and human rights situation of the region, often criticizing the Israeli detention of Palestinians. He also works in the public relations department of the Arab American University. He visited the United States in 2010 as a participant in the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.
On Thursday, an Israeli military court extended Saba’aneh’s detention for nine days, and further extensions are possible. According to the International Council for Human Rights, “The Israeli security forces refuse to disclose any details on Mohammed Sabaana’s whereabouts and further deny to grant access to his lawyer or his family members. He is also at serious risk of torture and ill-treatment.”
SDCC ’11 | Guy Delisle, D&Q travel to Jerusalem
No sooner does The Comics Reporter’s Tom Spurgeon return from hiatus (welcome back, Tom!) than he breaks news of an exciting, and potentially controversial, new comic from Drawn & Quarterly: Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, the latest in cartoonist Guy Delisle’s series of graphic memoirs-slash-travelogues. Why controversial, you ask? Because Delisle’s travelogues have all chronicled everyday life under infamously repressive regimes — North Korea in Pyongyang, China in Shenzhen, and “Myanmar” in Burma Chronicles. I have a feeling that many people won’t feel super comfortable with Israel keeping that sort of company. On the other hand, the book takes place in part during the three-week Gaza War that resulted in a 1100-plus-to-13 Palestinian-to-Israeli death ratio, so perhaps even Israel supporters could concede that the war-is-hell harshness of this conflict is in keeping with Delisle’s past efforts.
The book is due in Spring 2012, with an initial first printing of 30,000 copies. Click the link for more details, including what publisher and editor-in-chief Chris Oliveros has to say about the project.
Straight for the art | The art of wounded pro-Palestinian activist Emily Henochowicz
Sheikh Jarrah Swings by Emily Henochowicz
The pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement activist group reports and the Baltimore Sun confirms that 21-year-old Jewish-American art student Emily Henochowicz was badly wounded Monday during a Jerusalem protest against Israel’s deadly raid on a relief flotilla headed for Gaza over the weekend. Hit directly in the face by a tear-gas canister fired by an Israeli border policeman, Henochowicz lost her left eye and required substantial surgery to repair damage to the bones of her face and skull.
What makes the nature of her injuries sadder still, hopefully regardless of your thoughts on the underlying conflict, is that Henochowicz is clearly a talented visual artist and animator. You can visit her blog and Flickr page for everything from life-drawing sketches to visual chronicles of her experiences in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Via Andrew Sullivan, who has further information and links.