{"id":4179,"date":"2011-12-20T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-02-23T20:53:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-23T18:53:51","slug":"normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/2011\/12\/normal-0-microsoftinternetexplorer4\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinian clowns are everywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Some Palestinians refuse to just sit still and accept their
\nfate as a permanently, militarily occupied people. One would think by now that
\nPalestinians would have received the message loud and clear \u2013 the world
\ncouldn\u2019t care less about their fate. But no, these Palestinians just refuse to
\nsit still. They continue to defy their reality and can be seen across the Holy
\nLand \u2013 jumping, climbing, swinging, falling, tripping, singing,
\ntwirling, juggling, cycling, tight roping, and the like. Their nerve! To think
\nthey can attempt to live a normal life when the powers that be are spending
\nbillions, literally, to cause a collapse of Palestinian society.<\/p>\n

And who is it exactly I speak of? Palestinian clowns. No,
\nI\u2019m not taking a swing at the political leadership, at least not here. I\u2019m
\ntalking about the real thing: circus clowns, like in clowns that make you laugh
\nand make you forget that the boot of occupation is pressing on your neck.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I can understand your confusion. Clowns and circus do not
\nusually appear in the same sentence with Palestine.
\nYou are probably much more attuned to how Palestinians have been labeled over
\nthe years by some Israelis and their marionettes \u2013 everything from terrorists, crocodiles,
\n\u2018beasts walking on two legs,\u2019 grasshoppers, cockroaches, slaves, \u2018a community
\nof woodcutters and waiters,\u2019 the \u2018penniless population,\u2019 \u2018not worth a Jewish
\nfingernail,\u2019 all the way to the most recent classification of being an \u2018invented
\npeople.\u2019<\/p>\n

As many are bent on dehumanizing Palestinians,
\nsystematically and with contempt, others are mending the wounds of a people who
\nhave been purposely stripped of their well-being in one of the world\u2019s most
\nunjust chapters of history. One group tending to that process of mending the
\ndeep wounds that 44 years of military occupation continue to inflict is the
\nPalestinian Circus School (PCS), based in Birzeit, Palestine.<\/p>\n

Yes, you read correctly. There is a Palestinian
\nCircus School
\nin Palestine! However, as I have
\nlearned while working closely with this professional team of circus artists,
\nthis is not what we all think of when we first think of circus. There are no
\nelephants here, only Palestinian children engaged in a form of art and
\nexpression that uses their body to tell a story which can make audiences laugh,
\ncry, or both.<\/p>\n

Although the school recently moved from Ramallah to its
\nnewly donated headquarters in Birzeit (thanks to Dr. Hanna Nasir), its
\nactivities are spread across the West Bank, and Gaza
\nwill be added as soon as possible. The School operates local circus clubs and gives
\nperformances in various cities, villages and refugee camps.<\/p>\n

<\/a>The Palestinian Circus
\nSchool is a non-profit,
\nnon-governmental organization established in 2006 and registered with the
\nPalestinian Authority since February 2007. You can read more and view some
\nvideos of their work at: www.palcircus.ps.<\/p>\n

My consulting firm, which mainly serves the private sector, was
\ncommissioned by a unique donor, the Drosos<\/em> Foundation<\/em>,
\n<\/span>to assist the Palestinian Circus
\nSchool in developing a five-year
\nbusiness plan which we successfully completed. Drosos has a rock solid motto of
\nbeing \u2018committed to enabling disadvantaged people to live a life of dignity.\u2019 It
\nis rare I would choose to write about one of my work assignments; however, what
\nI witnessed over several months sparked an interest that I want to share. I
\nalso want to appeal to you to support their efforts. Likewise, Palestine is
\nflooded with donor agencies, and most want to drive Palestinians\u2019 development agenda,
\nso when I worked with a funding agency that was sincere about supporting
\nPalestinians by providing resources, but didn\u2019t stand in the way of indigenous
\nplanning, I felt this was one of those cases that is the exception and also deserves
\nto be shared.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Contemporary circus (or nouveau cirque<\/em> as it was
\noriginally known in French-speaking countries) is a genre of performing art
\ndeveloped in the late 20th century, in which a story or theme is conveyed
\nthrough traditional circus skills. It may all look like a game to the untrained
\neye, but this is serious business. At its heart, this style of circus is a
\nsocietal change agent. The Circus School
\nteaches young Palestinians the circus pedagogy to stimulate and develop their
\nphysical, mental, artistic, emotional, social and cognitive abilities. The
\ncircus then employs these skills in bringing smiles to the faces of children
\nthroughout Palestine, especially in
\nmarginalized areas.<\/p>\n

If you spend any time in any part of Palestine, or even in
\nPalestinian refugee communities outside of Palestine, you will quickly notice
\nthat the ultimate weight of this conflict is falling on the shoulders of our
\nyoungsters\u2014shoulders that should never have to carry the weight of a military
\noccupation! These young minds continue to be systematically damaged, but
\nsociety is not standing still.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Circus
\nSchool puts smiles on children\u2019s
\nfaces as well as using the platform of circus to link to a global circus arts
\ncommunity. Circus schools and troupes worldwide are acting in solidarity with
\nPalestinians by exchanging trainers, performances and experiences. It\u2019s serious
\nbusiness with serious results. Maybe that\u2019s why, last year, Israeli authorities
\ndenied entry to Mr. Ivan Prado, the most famous clown in Spain,
\nwho was coming to perform to Palestinian audiences.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert Sugarman, author of The Many Worlds of Circus<\/em>,
\ndescribed the impact of circus best when he wrote, \u201cBy turning you upside down,
\nwe teach you to stand on your own two feet. By dropping objects we teach you to
\ncatch them. By having you walk all over someone, we teach you to take care of
\nthem. By having you clown around, we teach you to take yourself seriously.\u201d The
\nchildren of Palestine have had
\ntheir lives turned upside down. Help us bring a smile to their faces and build
\nconfidence in their futures to make their lives worth living.<\/p>\n

So, as you prepare to bring in a new year, I appeal for your
\ngenerous support to the Palestinian Circus
\nSchool in any way you can. You will
\nnot be disappointed. There are three places donations can be made:<\/p>\n

– IndieGoGo Campaign to raise $25,000 to kick off
\nfundraising for erecting a movable training hanger, which will be located
\nadjacent to the newly donated headquarters. This new addition will house the
\nhigh circus equipment, which are now placed outside in the cold under the open
\nsky. This campaign just started and will run through February 20, 2012 at: http:\/\/igg.me\/p\/52303.<\/p>\n

– Alternatively, donations to the Palestinian
\nCircus School
\nin the U.S. can
\nbe made through The Middle East Children’s Alliance<\/em> (MECA is a
\ntax-exempt 501(c) 3 organization, so your gift is tax-deductible) www.mecaforpeace.org\/partners\/palestinian-circus-school.<\/a><\/p>\n

– Of course, direct donations and\/or student scholarships can
\nbe made via the School\u2019s website at home.palcircus.ps\/en\/1\/1\/3.<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n

– Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business
\ndevelopment consultant from <\/em>Youngstown<\/em>,
\n<\/em>Ohio<\/em> living in the
\nPalestinian City of Al-Bireh in the West Bank. He is co-author of \u00a0<\/em>HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and
\nPalestinians (1994) and may be reached at sbahour@gmail.com. Disclosure:
\nSam\u2019s firm, www.aim.ps, provides consulting services to PCS.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some Palestinians refuse to just sit still and accept their fate as a permanently, militarily occupied people. One would think by now that Palestinians would have received the message loud and clear \u2013 the world couldn\u2019t care less about their fate. But no, these Palestinians just refuse to sit still. They continue to defy their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[942],"tags":[39,509,910,892,40],"ppma_author":[936],"class_list":["post-4179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sams-writings","tag-circus","tag-development","tag-drosos","tag-holy-land","tag-israeli-occupation"],"authors":[{"term_id":936,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"sambahour","display_name":"Sam Bahour","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bca109c333bf6d8ae807746dd512adde46265d37c923f6cd0fc4aab437f8e9aa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10368,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions\/10368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epalestine.ps\/sambahour\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}