عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Saudi Arabia Wins ALESCO Chairmanship

Saudi Arabia Wins ALESCO Chairmanship
TT
TT

Saudi Arabia Wins ALESCO Chairmanship

Saudi Arabia Wins ALESCO Chairmanship

Saudi Arabia has won the Chairmanship of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization’s (ALESCO) Executive Council between 2021 and 2023 after its representative, Executive Council Member Hani al-Muqbil received the majority of votes, with 21 Arab countries taking part.

Minister of Culture and Chairman of the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan said that winning the chairmanship of the Executive Council confirms Saudi Arabia’s regional and global leadership in developing education, science and culture in order to achieve collective action and strengthen the ties between ALECSO’s member states to advance culture, education and science.

Al-Muqbil was appointed Saudi Arabia’s representative to ALESCO in July 2020 and had worked as executive director of the King Salman Youth Center between 2014 and 2017, subsequently becoming a member of its board of directors.

He worked as an adviser to the secretary-general of the Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Foundation (MiSK), where he is a member of several boards and has played key roles in the Foundation since its establishment.

Established through the ratification of Article 3 of the Arab Cultural Unity Charter by an announcement made in Cairo on 25 July 1970, ALESCO is considered among the most prestigious organizations affiliated with the Arab League. It is tasked with supporting Arab culture and developing education, culture and science at the regional and national level, as well as facilitating mutual coordination between Arab member states.

The Organization also oversees an array of research and training centers, most prominently the Institute of Arab Research and Studies, the Arabization Coordination Bureau and the Arab Center for Arabization, Translation, Authorship and Publication.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

Palestinian Pottery Sees Revival in War-Ravaged Gaza

Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
TT
TT

Palestinian Pottery Sees Revival in War-Ravaged Gaza

Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians walk past a wind and rain-damaged tent, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Traditional clay pottery is seeing a resurgence in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinians are forced to find solutions for a shortage of plates and other crockery to eat from in the territory ravaged by more than a year of war.

"There is an unprecedented demand for plates as no supplies enter the Gaza Strip," 26-year-old potter Jafar Atallah said in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah.

The vast majority of the Palestinian territory's 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Fleeing bombs amid Israel's devastating retaliatory military offensive, which has destroyed large amounts of civilian infrastructure, everyday items like cups and bowls have often been lost, broken or left behind to perish.

With imports made increasingly difficult by Israeli restrictions and the dangers of delivering aid, Gazans have had to find resourceful ways to meet their needs since the war began.

- Bare-bones -

To keep up with demand, Atallah works non-stop, producing around 100 pieces a day, mainly bowls and cups, a stark contrast to the 1,500 units his factory in northern Gaza made before the war.

It is one of the numerous factories in Gaza to have shut down, with many destroyed during air strikes, inaccessible because of the fighting, or unable to operate because of materials and electricity shortages.

Today, Atallah works out of a bare-bones workshop set up under a thin blue plastic sheet.

He carefully shapes the clay into much-needed crockery, then leaves his terracotta creations to dry in the sun -- one of the few things Gaza still has plenty of.

Each object is sold for 10 shekels, the equivalent of $2.70 -- nearly five times what it was worth before the war led to widespread shortages and sent prices soaring.

Gazans have told AFP they are struggling to find all types of basic household goods.

"After 13 months of war, I went to the market to buy plates and cutlery, and all I could find was this clay pot," said Lora al-Turk, a 40-year-old mother living in a makeshift shelter in Nuseirat, a few kilometers (miles) from Deir al-Balah.

"I was forced to buy it to feed my children," she said, noting that the pot's price was now more than double what it was before the war.

- Old ways -

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 44,176 people, most of them civilians, according to data from Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.

Following each Israeli army evacuation order, which generally precedes fighting and bombing, masses of people take to the roads, often on foot, carrying whatever they can manage.

But with each passing month and increasing waves of displacement, the loads they carry grow smaller.

Many Gazans now live in tents or other makeshift shelters, and some even on bare pavement.

The United Nations has warned about the threat of diseases in the often cramped and unsanitary conditions.

But for Gazans, finding inventive ways to cope with hardship is nothing new.

In this, the worst-ever Gaza war, people are using broken concrete from war-damaged buildings to build makeshift homes. With fuel and even firewood scarce, many rely on donkeys for transport. Century-old camping stoves are reconditioned and used for cooking.

Traditional pottery is another sign of a return to the old ways of living.