UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, laureate, in recognition of his commitment to art education and his efforts to create platforms for younger generations of artists.

UNESCO

@UNESCO

 

UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, laureate of the @UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture (2019), in recognition of his commitment to art education and his efforts to create platforms for younger generations of artists. 

 

His paintings, sculptures, and writings transcended borders, finding their way into collections and hearts around the world, fostering mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue. Both an artist and a custodian of cultural memory, he leaves a legacy that will continue to inspire generations to come. https://unesco.org/en/prizes/shar

 Suleiman Mansour is among the most influential artists working in Palestine today. Over 50 years his paintings’ expression of Palestinian identity have won him international recognition. He has contributed extensively to the development of infrastructure for the fine arts locally and is a founding member of the League of Palestinian Artists. In 1994, Mansour co-founded the Al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem and served as its director from 1996 until 2003. One of the founding directors on the Board of the International Academy of Art in Palestine, he has also taught at numerous cultural institutions and universities and participated in several local and international exhibitions, and received several awards. The international jury recommended Suleiman Mansour not only in recognition of his prolific career but also for his commitment to art and art education and for the creation of platforms for younger generations of artists.   https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/sharjah/laureates

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Why Israeli Authorities Are Encouraging Settler Violence Against Palestinians: The retired I.D.F. colonel Doron Meiner, who was arrested while trying to protect a Palestinian community from settlers in the West Bank, discusses Israel’s strategy

A Palestinian man sits next to his family’s belongings after their house was demolished by Israeli security forces in the village of Nahalin, southwest of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on July 22, 2026.Photograph by John Wessels / AFP / Getty

 By Isaac Chotiner

August 24, 2026

Violent attacks by Israeli settlers have accelerated across the West Bank in recent weeks, adding to what has already been a horrifying year for Palestinian communities in the territory. (The United Nations found that, as of early August, Palestinians in the West Bank had faced more than fourteen hundred attacks from Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties or property damage in 2026.) And now, in the lead-up to October’s elections, the Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has suggested that the country’s police forces take control of the area. (The police are overseen by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister of national security, who is himself a settler and is famous for celebrating and encouraging deadly attacks on Palestinians.)

Some Israeli organizations have tried to prevent violence against Palestinian communities. Doron Meinert, a retired colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, was arrested earlier this month while trying to protect a Palestinian community in the West Bank that was under attack from settlers. I recently spoke with Meinert about his work with the group Looking the Occupation in the Eye, and about how the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated so rapidly. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.

Can you tell me about your background and career?

I’m sixty-six years old. I was in the army for about twenty-five years. I’ve been a colonel in the army. I’ve been a brigade commander, and then a staff officer. But, about fifteen years ago, I retired. And then I started work as a volunteer protecting Palestinians in the West Bank.

How did you decide to do this work that you’re doing now? What caused you to make this decision?

All my life I believed that the Palestinian problem and the occupation problem were the deepest and most serious problems Israel had... READ MORE  https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-israeli-authorities-are-encouraging-settler-violence-against-palestinians 

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Israeli settlers targeting Palestinian factories to force workers off land: Rising Israeli settler violence targets Palestinian industrial facilities across the occupied West Bank, aiming to paralyse the local economy and force mass displacement.

Burned trees and scorched land are seen following an arson attack by Israeli settlers on the Al-Omari aluminium factory in Ein Siniya [Screengrab/Al Jazeera]

 By Ola Mohammad

Published On 27 Aug 202627 Aug 2026

A massive fire, believed to have been started by Israeli settlers, has destroyed olive trees and farmland in the occupied West Bank.

A blaze broke out near the al-Omari aluminium factory in the village of Ein Siniya, north of Ramallah, on Monday morning, spreading to roughly 50 dunams (12.3 acres) of perennial olive trees and causing damage to the industrial facility’s yard.

It comes amid a settler campaign targeting the West Bank economy, including farmland and industry, in a bid to displace Palestinians, sources told Al Jazeera.

Emad Khater, the head of Ein Siniya council, told Al Jazeera that a settler from the Atara hilltops was seen close to the facility before the fire started. When the blaze broke out, Israeli soldiers prevented residents and workers from putting out the fire.

“[It] is one of a series of systematic attacks that previously affected Ein Siniya, which included deliberate fires in trees, homes, and cars, in addition to theft incidents and physical assaults with beatings that affected citizens and workers inside the factories,” said Khater.

Ein Siniya is in Area B according to the Oslo Accords, which should see it under Palestinian civil and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control.

Abdul Samad Abdul Aziz, the owner of the Ein Siniya facility, said Israelis from illegal settlements had infiltrated the industrial site in late July and set fire to heavy equipment. A stone crusher was severely damaged in the attack and caused an estimated $700,000 in losses.... READ MORE  https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/27/israeli-settlers-targeting-palestinian-factories-to-force-workers-off-land 

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Israeli court acquits Jewish settler who kicked Catholic nun in the head. The ruling comes amid growing attacks by extremist settlers against Christians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank

The 48-year-old nun was attacked on 28 April 2026 in occupied East Jerusalem, leaving her face bruised (Handout via Israeli police)

Elis Gjevori

Published date: 26 August 2026

An Israeli court has acquitted Yona Schreiber, a Jewish settler from the occupied West Bank settlement of Peduel, over a violent assault on a French Catholic nun near Jerusalem’s Old City earlier this year.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court acquitted Schreiber on Wednesday on the grounds of "mental illness".

Following the ruling, Schreiber’s lawyer, Idan Gamliel, described the attack as an “unfortunate incident” and said the defence took “note” of the nun’s “difficult feelings” over the assault.

Schreiber attacked the 48-year-old nun in April outside the Cenacle on Mount Zion, a site regarded as holy by Christians and Jews.

The nun, a researcher at Jerusalem’s French School of Biblical and Archaeological Research, required medical treatment after Schreiber pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the head.

The attack drew international condemnation and formed part of a growing pattern of attacks by Jewish extremists against Christians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In May, the French organisation L'Oeuvre d'Orient said Israeli troops demolished a convent belonging to the Salvatorian Sisters, a Greek Catholic religious order, in the village of Yaroun.

In April, an image showing an Israeli soldier using a jackhammer to smash a statue of Jesus on a cross in southern Lebanon went viral on social media.

A recent report by the Rossing Centre for Education and Dialogue documented a sharp rise in attacks on Christians, describing a “continued and expanding pattern of intimidation and aggression”.

It recorded 155 incidents in 2025, including 61 physical assaults, 52 attacks on church property, 28 cases of harassment and 14 instances of vandalised signage. The report said the figures represent only the “tip of the iceberg”. 

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-court-acquits-jewish-settler-who-kicked-catholic-nun-head 

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Fake US thinktank set up and funded by Israel sought to game AI for propaganda: In effort to prime chatbots to make pro-Israel arguments the site published 124 reports, over 560,000 words in nine days, Guardian analysis shows

A crow perches on an Israeli flag near an empty beach along the Tel Aviv coastline in April 2026. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

Jason Wilson

 

Wed 26 Aug 2026 

A pro-Israel messaging website badged with the name of a thinktank that does not exist has published more than half a million words in nine days, built on a commercial platform that promises to optimize content so that AI chatbots will cite it.

The site gives Israel’s position on subjects including the torture of Palestinian prisoners, Israeli war crimes and whether Israel has deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza, all presented as neutral research.

The New York media production company Piro Inc filed the site with the US justice department this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara), a 1938 law that requires anyone working for a foreign government to formally disclose it, as material it distributes for the Israeli government.

The site publishes in the name of the Hanover Institute for Public Policy, which apparently does not exist as a legal entity in any jurisdiction, has no physical address, and carries no named staff and no bylines on any of its reports. Its own terms of use are governed by the laws of “the state in which the Institute is established”, which they decline to name.

The existence of the site was first reported on 14 August. Since then the institute has added a page headed funding, which states: “An earlier version of this page said the Institute operated without external funding, and that was true when it was written.”

The site is one part of a broader effort, financed by tens of millions of dollars from the Israeli government and routed through third parties including the European advertising group Havas Media, to prime chatbots to make Israel’s arguments for it... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/aug/26/fake-thinktank-israel-ai-propaganda

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"Well, Core 5 is going ahead with the demolition of my Great Great Grandparetns' farmhouse. While this lack of respect for our local history makes me sad, it pales in comparison to the losses experianced daily by Palestinians who are being systematically forced off their land by the illegal and immoral actions of the Likud government and its settler proxies." David Dietz of York, Pennsylvania, USA

 

 

 

*MORE PHOTOS found online:

Demolition has started on the historic stone farmhouse built by John Strickler in the 1870s. It stands along the Lincoln Highway in Hellam Township. Paul Kuehnel/York Daily Record photo essay https://www.ydr.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2026/08/26/photos-of-an-1870s-farmhouse-razed-to-make-way-for-a-warehouse-complex/91481081007/

 

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United Nations rejects Israel’s threat to expel Gaza residents over kite-flying. United Nations rights office spokesperson slams Israeli threat of forced evacuations from Gaza communities over kite flying.

Palestinian children hold kites during a gathering at Gaza Port on August 25, 2026 [Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images]

 

By Al Jazeera Staff, AFP and Reuters

Published On 26 Aug 202626 Aug 2026

The United Nations has condemned Israel’s threat to expel Palestinians from areas of the besieged Gaza Strip where kites were being flown by children.

“On the threat of expulsion due to children’s kite flying, I hope we can all agree that this is outrageous,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters on Tuesday.

Israel warned Hamas on Sunday that it would intensify military operations if kites, drones or balloons continue, saying those responsible would be targeted.

Several kites not carrying incendiary devices were reported to have drifted into southern Israeli communities over the last month. The incidents have evoked memories of incendiary kites and balloons launched from Gaza in 2018, in what Palestinians said was a protest against the Israeli blockade of the enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, in a joint statement on Sunday, said “Israel warns Hamas that if the launches toward Israel do not cease immediately”, Israeli forces “will take action to intensify targeted operations against those responsible”. They “will evacuate the population from areas from which kites, drones and balloons are launched”, it added.

Gaza’s popular committees, coordinating with Hamas authorities, urged parents on Monday to stop children flying kites, saying they were acting “to protect their innocent lives”.

“Every summer, my kid, Ahmed, and the kids in the street fly those kites to entertain themselves,” Umm Mohammed, a mother in Gaza City, told the Reuters news agency. “But [now] I will not allow him to – not any more.”

Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, rejected the Israeli warning over the kites.

“Is it conceivable that attempts to appease the war criminal Netanyahu have led them to describe innocent children’s activities as armed activities, while Netanyahu continues to kill and destroy daily despite the agreement?”

The dispute comes amid a “ceasefire” in Gaza that has failed to halt Israeli attacks. More than 1,280 Palestinians have been killed since the agreement took effect in October, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/26/un-rejects-israels-threat-to-expel-gaza-residents-over-kite-flying 

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