Begin forwarded message:
From: "Anis Hamadeh"
Date: September 14, 2010 4:47:52 PM EDT
To: "'Dan Walsh'"
Subject: AW: Interview Questions
Dan, my friend, how are you? I got most of the posters together now, only the Gaza ones left. Shall we do the interview now? Cheers, Anis
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Anis Hamadeh [mailto:anis@anis-online.de]
Gesendet: Samstag, 31. Juli 2010 14:04
An: 'Dan Walsh'
Betreff: Interview Questions
Dear Dan,
here I have prepared five interview questions for you. For the design of the upcoming page you can refer to the last interview of this kind at www.anis-online.de/1/orient-online/codepink.htm . This is how it will look like ... (This series is called "Chess Interviews" because initially I asked the questions ping pong style, in moves, question answer, question answer. I don't always do this anymore, but kept the name.)
Please correct any language and other mistakes I might have made, thanks. After your answers I will translate the interview into German and publish it. At the moment, Anis Online has about 650 daily visitors. Do you happen to have supporters of the PPP to provide more translations - into Arabic, French, or Hebrew?
Concerning sending my posters and Sabine's: your proposal with the Italian friend is good. I will just need some time to reprint the posters. Some have to be newly formatted and scanned. So I will let you know when the parcel is prepared.
Best regards
Anis
0. The Palestine Poster Project (Dan Walsh)
The Palestine Poster Project Archives at www.palestineposterproject.org contain about 3000 posters and 750 artists. It started as a masters' thesis and developed thanks to a grant. Today, these archives constitute a unique source of documents of high scientific value. They are notably user-friendly, perfectly organized and arranged. Every poster from Palestine, about Palestine or by a Palestinian matches Dan Walsh's definition, including Israel and Zionism. Dan Walsh studied Islamic Studies at Georgetown University and lives in Silver Spring in Maryland/USA. While posters from revolutionary Cuba and the former Soviet Union have either died off, been abandoned, or become mere artifacts, he explains, the Palestine poster genre continues to evolve, especially with the emergence of the internet. The Palestine poster collection is so significant that it can well be used in high schools, too. Anis Online spoke to Dan Walsh, initiator of the Palestine Poster Project.
1. Spark
On your website it reads that your interest in Palestine posters started in the mid-1970's in Morocco when you volunteered for the Peace Corps. But what was the spark? Did you see a specific poster there?
2. Zionism
Some of the items of the Palestine Poster Project are from the period between 1897 and 1948 and concern Zionism. How would you describe their significance?
3. Juxtapositions
Some of the exhibits juxtapose the clashing images of Zionists and Palestinians concerning the land. Which pictures, in your opinion, capture the basic problem in Palestine/Israel best?
4. Curriculum
In an 80-minute lecture for the Jerusalem Fund at http://blip.tv/file/1997232/ you summarize an alternative curriculum you designed, called "Teaching the Formative History of Political Zionism (1897-1947) through Poster Art: A Plain Language/Language Rights Curriculum Model for American High School Educators". What is the idea of this curriculum?
5. Didacticism
In the lecture mentioned above you emphasize that your New Curriculum poses questions rather than providing answers. This principle goes far beyond the topic of Palestine. Also, you stress the "third goal" of the Peace Corps: to promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. Could you explain the outlines of your values a little further?