GAZA: The Gaza Strip’s film festival opened on Friday with artists and audience walking along a red carpet laid on a floor built from the rubble of homes destroyed in wars with Israel.
Organizers of the Red Carpet Human Rights Film Festival, running for the third time since 2015, said the goal is to raise awareness of hardship in the Gaza Strip, home to almost 2 million Palestinians. About 1,000 people attended opening night.
Running until Wednesday, the festival was timed to lead up to the Cannes film festival and coincide with the 69th anniversary of what the Palestinians call the Nakba, or Catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands left or were forced to flee their homes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that led to Israel’s establishment.
The festival will feature 25 films, made by Palestinian, Arab and international artists in Gaza, the West Bank and the Israeli-Arab city of Haifa, said festival spokesman Saud Aburamadan.
“Our message is: ‘We love life as much as we can,” Aburamadan said.
Gaza is ruled by the Hamas movement and is under a partial Israeli-Egyptian blockade. Poverty and unemployment are rife in the enclave. Israel and Gaza militants have fought three wars since 2008.
Palestinian film festival opens in Gaza
Palestinian film festival opens in Gaza
Egypt’s grand museum begins live restoration of King Khufu’s ancient boat
- The 4,600-year-old boat was built during the reign of King Khufu, the pharaoh who also commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza
CAIRO: Egypt began a public live restoration of King Khufu’s ancient solar boat at the newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum on Tuesday, more than 4,000 years after the vessel was first built.
Egyptian conservators used a small crane to carefully lift a fragile, decayed plank into the Solar Boats Museum hall — the first of 1,650 wooden pieces that make up the ceremonial boat of the Old Kingdom pharaoh.
The 4,600-year-old boat was built during the reign of King Khufu, the pharaoh who also commissioned the Great Pyramid of Giza. The vessel was discovered in 1954 in a sealed pit near the pyramids, but its excavation did not begin until 2011 due to the fragile condition of the wood.
“You are witnessing today one of the most important restoration projects in the 21st century,” Egyptian Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy said.
“It is important for the museum, and it is important for humanity and the history and the heritage.”
The restoration will take place in full view of visitors to the Grand Egyptian Museum over the coming four years.
