October, 1997:

The most important news of the month, was the award of the first annual Palestine Prizes. The awards were given for achievement in the arts, humanities and the sciences. The principal award, the Jerusalem Prize, awarded for achievements in the cause of Jerusalem, went to Lebanese singer Fayruz. Among the arts awards: The visual arts awards went to Ismail Shammout and Nabil Anani, cinema to actor Mohammed Bakri, literature to poet Fadwa Touqan, the novel to Ahmed Harb, short story to Mahmoud Rimawi, poetry to Walid Khazindar, literary criticism to Fakhri Saleh, and popular arts to the Funoun dance troop.

The jury was headed by Mahmoud Darwish. The award ceremony will take place on Palestine’s independence day on November 15, 1997, at Najah University in Nablus.

Theatre

* The seventh international children’s puppet’s festival was held in Jerusalem by the National Theater, featuring shows by companies from Palestine, Venezuela, Belgium, Japan, the UK, Italy, etc.. The festival’s shows also toured a number of Palestinian cities.

* Actor Mohammed Bakri received the best actor award at the Carthage Theatre Festival. Bakri was performing in Tunisia "Death & the Maiden" with the Qassaba Theatre company

Literature:

* Issue #53 of Al-Karmel literary quarterly appeared, containing articles by Edward Said, Subhi Hadidi, Faycal Darraj, Samir Amin, Anwar Abd el Malek, Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, Salman Natour, Simone Bitton, etc..

* Bir Zeit University professor, Dr. Ilham Abu Ghazaleh, published her first work of fiction, a short story collection titled {the arabic title in in italics please}Nissa min Samt (Women of Silence). The book is published by the Palestinian Writer's Union.

Dance & Music:

The Funoun Dance troop gave a special representation of their new dance show Zaghareed at Bir Zeit University.

* The Baroque orchestra of the European Union gave concerts in Gaza City and Ramallah, with programs featuring works by Bach, Haendel and Mozart.

* Jordanian ‘Oud (Arabic Luth) player Sakhr Hattar gave a solo concert at Ramallah’s Siraj Theatre.

* The Ramallah Festival organized a classical music concert with German pianist Friederike Hauff and Volker Ahmels. The concert was postponed in July due to the closures imposed by the Israeli military authorities on Palestinian areas, which led to the cancellation of a number of cultural and artistic events.