This Week in Palestine December 2024: The War of the Narratives by Sani P. Meo

"... TWiP was initially intended to be a guide for tourists and pilgrims, offering them information on where to go and what to do while visiting the Holy Land. That was back in late 1998 and 1999. By the year 2000, TWiP had started to emerge as a voice for Palestine, promoting it in the best way possible, advocating for its rights and cause, and bringing out the best in Palestine.

The history of This Week in Palestine was published in an article in the June 2022 issue themed “Palestinian Archives” – in my opinion, one of the most powerful editions. The article, “TWiP: An Inadvertent Archive,” offers an in-depth exploration of the wonderful journey of This Week in Palestine that has included every single human emotion one can imagine.

However harsh this year has been on the Palestinian people, it has also been an excellent one for This Week in Palestine, at least from the standpoint of popularity and credibility. During the past year there has been a surge of around 350 percent in TWiP’s readership, which is understandable because of the grace of Gaza and the fact that people around the world want to know more about Palestine. Thanks to the young generation who by using social media have brought the question of Palestine to the international stage. It’s worth noting that this keen interest in Palestine, translated through millions of pro-Palestine posts on various social platforms, has come with a price. It has irked mainstream media and sent it on a frantic journey to debunk the Palestinian narrative. As TWiP turns 26, the war between the Palestinian narrative or story and that of the Zionists is reaching a peak.

In her article “Working with the British Media on Gaza,” published in the May 2024 issue of TWiP, Leila Sansour lists a few tactics that the Western political establishments use against the Palestinian narrative: “…from the willful choice of always starting history on October 7 and disregarding all the voices that have painstakingly pointed out the flaws in this approach, to denying Palestinians the right to comment on just about anything that concerns their plight.”..... "  READ MORE  https://thisweekinpalestine.com/twip-turns-26/ 

TWiP Turns 26

The War of the Narratives

By Sani P. Meo

Sani Meo is co-founder of the English-language print and online magazine This Week in Palestine and has been its publisher since TWiP’s inception in December 1998. Since January 2007, he has also been the publisher of the Arabic online magazine Filistin Ashabab, which targets Palestinian youth.

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

 

Palestinian Refugees and International Law

Palestine: The Litmus Test of Our Shared Humanity

The Betrayal of International Law

Israel’s UNRWA Ban

The Campus, the Courts, and Chickpeas

Christmas Is Palestine

Follow the Star

Despite Our Justified Skepticism

December 2024 issue of This Week in Palestine https://thisweekinpalestine.com/320-dec-2024/

"We Palestinians are a society, with a culture and language. We have our cause and the right to our land. Freedom of movement, speech, and press are the basics. If you’re in solidarity and you believe that, put your investment in the right place." Manar Harb

This Week in Palestine archived cover

What Are Fifteen Years?
By Manar Harb

I started my editorial career at This Week in Palestine (TWIP), and I am very proud of this fact. TWIP is a national magazine, made for the people, by the people! It may have started as a publication for tourists, but throughout the fifteen years of its existence, TWIP has acquired quite a unique archive of the Palestinian narrative. During my own experience, I was absolutely fascinated by the amount of material we received for each issue. The entire process was like soaring above the clouds with readers and writers. I was connecting with Palestinian authors from all around the world. I remember so many who reached out to us to express their thoughts and share their stories. I felt exposed to the entire Palestinian community that I was trying to connect with. Suddenly, TWIP was the only place that somewhat represented a “collective.”

The collective is an important part of the Palestinian struggle; no collective, no victory. And Palestinians everywhere need to think about a collective vision if we wish to have a future with a place called Palestine. Don’t kid yourself, we Palestinians are close to extinction. Perhaps I exaggerate, perhaps not; either way, without a complete understanding of the entire picture - the documentation and narration of what happened, and of what is taking place - there will be no justice!

Local organisations and businesses in solidarity with the Palestinians should support such a constructive medium. We Palestinians are a society, with a culture and language. We have our cause and the right to our land. Freedom of movement, speech, and press are the basics. If you’re in solidarity and you believe that, put your investment in the right place.

Finance and marketing are two important factors in the life of a magazine, and they also influence the content and final output. These are areas that we should also think about and examine. The overhead involved in printing 12,000 copies of each issue is not cheap! And yes, to sustain a magazine, resources are required.

TWIP has the capacity to reflect a part of the Palestinian narrative to an English-speaking audience, which is a pretty powerful tool. And the English-speaking audience is a broad audience. We Palestinians have not been very good at presenting ourselves in public. I mean the public media. We haven’t been very successful at presenting ourselves to each other. I find that TWIP is a healthy space for us to have these exchanges and conversations between ourselves, and yes, in English, because the world needs to know.

Palestinians will always be weak if we remain divided; we will be strong only if we are united with our Arab neighbours and allies. It is true that borders disconnect us, and that if it weren’t for the Israeli occupation, there’s no reason why I wouldn’t be speaking Farsi or Turkish. There was a point in time, not long ago, when those borders were wide open and people travelled freely from village to village, and town to town. We won’t forget what once was, but we will also look very closely at the present.

The present is the most exciting time! Some say that the present is a gift.

The best gifts are those that come unexpected. We’ve got some presents to give! With the young and the old, our voices, our energy, our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, we’ve got to tell our stories; that’s the only way to justice.

The magazine has survived fifteen years of wars and conflict, issue after issue, curfew or not, TWIP was published! The clarity of the vision behind TWIP is what drives this success.

I am grateful for TWIP as a model of success for Palestinians, an experience that reflects how persistence and faith go a long way. For the future of this humble magazine, I only hope for further growth. And thank you, TWIP, for capturing some of the brighter moments. (:

I am really proud of you, Sani Meo and Taisir Masrieh!
Manar A. Harb is an aspiring writer and previous content editor of This Week in Palestine.

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=4157&ed=225&edid=225

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

This Week in Palestine: One of Ours By Jane Masri

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=4153&ed=225&edid=225

One of Ours
By Jane Masri

I don’t think you can find an English speaker in this country who couldn’t identify This Week in Palestine at 20 paces. Sani Meo, in the jargon of our shared industry, has created an iconic brand. His monthly chronicle of Palestinian perspectives set the standard for graphic design when he put out the first issue 15 years ago. Then and now, Turbo Design is a benchmark for young professionals in the communications field.

Sani and I are good friends. For two challengers who compete head to head for business in a very small market, this is a very strange circumstance indeed. I can’t speak to why Sani likes me (perhaps he likes my jokes), but I know exactly why I like him.

Sani is an entrepreneur and an idea man, in equal measure. This Week in Palestine’s most elemental function is as a slick, well-presented tour guide of Palestine. It’s a trove of valuable information for ajanab (foreigners) and locals alike, with good maps, restaurant reviews, a monthly list of goings on about town…and much, much more.

TWIP’s foundational business model was, and is, rock solid. Sani could have stopped there, and, arguably, he might have sold the same number of monthly ads. If he had, TWIP would be like every other magazine you see in hotels and restaurants all over the world. But he didn’t stop there.

Sani decided that TWIP’s content would showcase local and guest authors. Each month, he invites them to hold forth as they see fit on a certain theme. This month might be politics, another month might be cuisine, yet another might be landscapes or hikes. We’ve seen light-hearted pieces, tales of personal sadness or loss, sarcasm, info-mercials - you name it, someone’s covered it through the years in TWIP. And throughout this process, we have succeeded in documenting this Palestinian journey of ours from every imaginable perspective and point of view. I say “we” because we are the writers of This Week in Palestine - as much as he is. That’s the genius of his vision. From scratch, Sani built a successful business that adds value to his community - and he made us all shareholders.

Jane Masri is a founding partner and director of communications at Publicis Zoom. She has lived in Palestine with her husband and two children since 1998.
 
See PDF www.thisweekinpalestine.com/i188/pdfs/article/one_of_ours.pdf  

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The main objective of TWIP, as many of you already know, is to document and promote Palestine.

Message from the Editor

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