Mati Shemoelof

Remains of the Berlin Wall. October 26, 2012. (Nati Shohat/FLASH90)

How Berlin became the ‘capital city of Arab exile’

The Arab sociologist Amro Ali has illuminated Germany’s capital city as the center of an intellectual and artistic renaissance, fueled by Arab exiles from the authoritarian crackdowns that followed the 2011 uprisings. By Mati Shemoelof Berlin has become a magnet for political exiles from the Middle East in the years since the failed 2011 uprisings…

By +972 Magazine October 17, 2019

Footprints in the sand in the Sinai desert. (Dudarev Mikhail / Shutterstock.com)

What we left behind in Egypt: Mizrahi thoughts on Israel

Even when they had reached the borders of the Promised Land, after 40 years in the desert, all the Children of Israel wanted was to go back to Egypt. In Erez Biton’s poem, the immigrant from Algeria and his son fail to build a home in Israel. Independence Day is also the tale of the…

By +972 Magazine May 24, 2016

Illustrative photo by Shutterstock.com

The diaspora is an integral part of Hebrew literature

There is a ceaseless movement of Israeli culture — and the diaspora experience is just waking up and testing its global limits. By Mati Shemoelof BERLIN — There is no such thing as “Hebrew literature written outside Israel” because the definition of “outside Israel” cannot address art in general or literature in particular. Literature is created…

By +972 Magazine April 22, 2016

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Berlin, by Mati Shemoelof

At the exiled Iranian Parliament in Berlin

At the exiled Iranian parliament we convened at Café Kotti in Berlin, I look around at my new friends and ask myself: how can civilians destroy the walls the politicians have built with such a lack of imagination, courage, vision and basic human love? It’s not a theoretical question. We’re talking about our lives. By…

By Haokets June 21, 2014