Saturday, November 4, 2023

The academic school year in Palestine, for many students, is over

Lebanese Artist Guinea Radwan's clay sculpture called "Children under the rubble"

Michael Lavalette

"For today’s art from Palestine I’ve gone with this piece by Lebanese artist Guinea Radwan. It’s a clay sculpture called "Children under the rubble" "

Pledge allegiance to America- not Israel please.

https://ifamericansknew.org/about_us/bethlehem.html#postcard

Dear America,

"US states invest $300m in Israeli bonds since start of Israel-Hamas war" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/03/state-invest-money-israeli-bond-florida-texas-arizona

I had to read that in the UK's Guardian because America's mainstream media has so seriously failed to do its job as our Fourth Estate.

State funds should stay here in our state, or at least in the USA- but right now, Pennsylvania's taxpayers are funding a very foreign, very far away government that stands in long term & blatant violation of international law, basic human rights and real democracy here and there: Israel is not a good investment in any way, shape, or form.

America's well being, security, and economic future are being sabotaged by America's lack of compassion for stateless men, woman and children who happen to hail from historic Palestine.

America's "Not In My Name" Jewish activists have courageously tried to convince any one who will listen that Israel's war on the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine is wrong.

America's Arab Christian and Muslim citizens, as well as secular humanists worldwide try to speak out too, but they are too often either ignored or demonized and accused of supporting terrorism because they dare speak out in support of ending Israel's racist reign of terror in the Middle East.

Semitic languages include Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Semites are the people who speak these languages. BUT the word "Anti-Semitic" excludes Arab Christians, Muslims and Secularists, in much the same way that Jews-preferred Israel refuses to give Palestinians full and equal rights, respect or freedom in the land of their birth.

Investing in Israel is not for the public good- here or there. Pledge allegiance to America- not Israel please.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American Homemaker & Poet

NOTES

Palestine Remembered: A picture from inside the house of Hajj Fawaz Hussein Theeb

Palestinian women wearing their unique traditional dresses from different regions of Palestine... Cultural Heritage from the River to the Sea

Stop arming and exasperating religious extremism and armed rage in "The Holy Land" !!!

New Icon Appears on Israel's Apartheid Wall - Jerusalem, Palestine 2023

A Palestine Belle in a ball gown with flowers in her hair

Criticism of Israeli State Policies Is NOT ANTISEMITISM

We need to empower real democracy with full and equal rights and respect for ALL... here and there!

From the river to the sea I (من النهر الى البحر ١), oil on canvas, 2021 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Loving Watermelons for Palestine

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Dear Elected Leader- Please stop empowering Israeli racism and violence.

Human Rights are NON-NEGOTIABLE

‘I’m so full of grief’: thousands take to the streets in support of Gaza

"The Immigrant" a painting by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Many Palestinian families still have the keys to the houses they left in 1948.

Dear President Biden RE our militant "friend" Israel

Gaza must not become a graveyard for international law

Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations

The UDHR is a landmark document that sets out fundamental human rights to be universally protected and translated into over 500 languages. It was drafted by different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world and has inspired more than seventy human rights treaties.

Palestine Remembered: A picture from inside the house of Hajj Fawaz Hussein Theeb

Kafr al-Dik - Kafr al-Dik: A picture from inside the house of Hajj Fawaz Hussein Theeb

Palestine Remembered

https://www.palestineremembered.com/index.html

Purpose

Ethnically Cleansed Palestinians on their way to Lebanon, Oct. 1948
To emphasize that the CORE issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are the DISPOSSESSION and ETHNIC CLEANSING (compulsory population transfer) of the Palestinian people for the past seven decades. Therefore, the conflict is deeply political and not about antisemitism that the Western world have experienced; and it would've been at the same level of intensity even if both parties had been Jewish, Muslim, or Christian.
To create an easy medium where refugees can communicate, organize, and share their experiences amongst themselves. The refugees are encouraged to attach their stories, memories, pictures, movies, music files, join discussions at the message board and guest book sections, directory service listing of the refugees and their contact information, and URL links related to each listed town.
To provide a comprehensive source of information about the villages and cities that were ethnically cleansed, looted, and destroyed by the Israeli army. At each town's homepage, you will find pictures (both before and after 1948), the current status of the town, the Israeli colonies that occupy the town's lands, a brief history of the town before and after Nakba, detailed accounts of atrocities and any acts of terror, personal accounts from the refugees themselves, and above all live interviews from refugees reciting their experiences before, during and after al-Nakba.
To preserve the memories and the experiences of the Palestinian people around the world, especially the 726,000 Palestinian refugees who were resolution 194. Based on this resolution, every single refugee has the right to go back to his or her home, and to be compensated for any loss of their property, pain, and suffering.
Faluja-Gaza, 1949, Ethnically Cleansed Palestinians on their way to Hebron
To respond to the widely popular Zionist myth that: "Palestine was a country with no people for people with no country", at length we have responded to this myth plus more. With the help of our online community (made up of tens of thousands of refugees), visitors to the site can verify how Palestine has its people who are rich with history, culture, and values.
To reach out to Israelis so they can feel the human behind this "Palestinian" or "the enemy", who was forced out from his home, farm, and business to make way for persecuted European Jewish refugees. We are proud to be one of the few mediums where Israelis and Palestinians can reach out to each other and meet, of course, other than at the humiliating checkpoints. It should be noted, that the majority of the site's page views come from Israel, and many of the pictures and films that we have of the destroyed villages were shared by Israelis. We understand that many Israelis and Jews around the world support the Palestinian struggle for justice and are willing to do their part in bringing an end to the wrongs of the past.
To send an unambiguous message to the Westerner World that the Palestinian people cannot be crossed for what they have sinned against their Jewish citizens. Palestine and its people cannot be the saviors for their tortured consciousness and souls for what they have done to the Jews who used to call Europe home. Their blind support of the "Jewish state" and its racist policies is blindly guided by their guilty conscious. Locking Jews, Palestinians, and Arabs into eternal struggle will neither bring peace to the Middle East nor to the whole world.

https://www.palestineremembered.com/MissionStatement.htm

Friday, November 3, 2023

Palestinian women wearing their unique traditional dresses from different regions of Palestine... Cultural Heritage from the River to the Sea

BETHLEHEM: An old photo of Palestinian women wearing their unique traditional dresses from different regions of Palestine- cultural heritage from the river to the sea

Stop arming and exasperating religious extremism and armed rage in "The Holy Land" !!!

Dear President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Senators Bob Casey & John Fetterman, Rep Scott Perry https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/,

This week House Republicans unveiled a $14.3 billion aid package to reward Israel while Israel flagrantly & intentionally violates international law and the Palestinians' human rights.

Is this really the message we want to send to the world?

Did you know that the average annual income in Israel is $54,650. which is actually a higher annual income than the average annual income of $48,890. in the UK !!!

Meanwhile the average annual income in Palestine is a mere $4,610.

Israel's Apartheid policies sabotage and impoverish Palestinians at every turn. Imagine if here in America we built Apartheid walls around our poorest neighborhoods, turning them into concentration camps, and then bombed those neighborhoods when the people trapped there dared object to such injustice.

Stop arming and exasperating religious extremism and armed rage in "The Holy Land"

And FYI de-funding the IRS here is most likely to only give exceedingly wealthy individuals, corporations and politicians a Get Out Of Jail Free card.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American Homemaker & Poet

coins of the world

New Icon Appears on Israel's Apartheid Wall - Jerusalem, Palestine 2023

A Palestine Belle in a ball gown with flowers in her hair

Criticism of Israeli State Policies Is NOT ANTISEMITISM

We need to empower real democracy with full and equal rights and respect for ALL... here and there!

From the river to the sea I (من النهر الى البحر ١), oil on canvas, 2021 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Loving Watermelons for Palestine

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Dear Elected Leader- Please stop empowering Israeli racism and violence.

Human Rights are NON-NEGOTIABLE

‘I’m so full of grief’: thousands take to the streets in support of Gaza

"The Immigrant" a painting by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Many Palestinian families still have the keys to the houses they left in 1948.

Dear President Biden RE our militant "friend" Israel

Gaza must not become a graveyard for international law

Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations

Thursday, November 2, 2023

New Icon Appears on Israel's Apartheid Wall - Jerusalem, Palestine 2023

New Icon Appears on Israel's Apartheid Wall - Jerusalem, Palestine

& to echo that:

Husam Zomlot

@hzomlot

Today marks 106 years since Britain issued its colonial #BalfourDeclaration, which gave our land away and reduced us to the "non-Jewish" population. The ongoing campaign of mass murder against our people in #Gaza and all over #Palestine is a stark reminder of the catastrophic consequences of that declaration. It is the responsibility of the UK to correct this historic injustice, demand an immediate end to Israel's aggression, recognise the #State_of_Palestine and collect international support to once and for all end Israel's #occupation.

A Palestine Belle in a ball gown with flowers in her hair

Palestine Belle in a ball gown with flowers in her hair

Criticism of Israeli State Policies Is NOT ANTISEMITISM

"Globally, scholars who criticize Israel are facing an increasingly uphill battle to protect their academic freedom.

Redefining antisemitism

At the heart of the issue rests the new definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Proponents of the IHRA definition are part of what some are calling a new antisemitism movement that seeks to label criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

While challenging antisemitism is vital, Canadian critics of the IHRA definition argue that the new language could “chill political expressions of criticism of Israel as well as support for Palestinian rights.”

The IHRA definition is vague. It fails to connect antisemitism to other forms of racism. It also appears more intent on silencing critics of Israel than halting antisemitic threats from far-right white supremacists.

A series of open letters by scholars have warned against adopting this definition, including in Canada, the United Kingdom and Israel.

The main issue with the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism is not its short 38 word definition, but the 11 illustrative examples of anti-Semitism. Seven of these examples equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Two of them reference Israel without mentioning Jewish people.

Israel should be subject to the same critiques as other nations.

One of the original draftees of the IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, now says that the new language “weaponizes” the definition of antisemitism." ... READ MORE

Criticizing Israel is not antisemitic — it’s academic freedom

Published: November 15, 2020 9.03am EST Updated: April 19, 2021

https://theconversation.com/criticizing-israel-is-not-antisemitic-its-academic-freedom-148864

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

We need to empower real democracy with full and equal rights and respect for ALL... here and there!

"US will pay the price"- telling meme making the rounds

Dear Elected Leaders*

Institutionalized racism and injustice is wrong. I believe that with every fiber of my being, and because of that I know that Israel is wrong to persecute, oppress and displace the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine.

I suspect your news feed and office chatter is all about everything except the very real plight and suffering of the Palestinians. You don't see the poignant memes, poetry, photos, and news stories because your priority is all about empowering and protecting Israel.

Perhaps you see Arabs and Muslims as the enemy and Israeli violence as a video game scoring points. You are not seeing the shocking cartoons depicting Israel armed by the USA killing children.

You are not seeing the blood split, the 75 year long history of Arab homes pulverized, the orphaned children, the dead brown babies covered in grey concrete dust... or maybe you are seeing the news photos and films and it makes you feel good like the ending of a Hollywood movie when the hero wins by blowing up and destroying his enemy.

I think you are surrounded by a bubble of misinformation, and you happily bounce along doing cruel things- empowering injustice here and there- like voting to give 8 billion dollars of American tax payers' hard earned money to a racist war machine called Israel.

STOP promoting the bombing of refugee camps filled with families trapped and impoverished by racist Israeli laws and walls.

START noticing that we need to empower real democracy with full and equal rights and respect for ALL... here and there!

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

From the river to the sea I (من النهر الى البحر ١), oil on canvas, 2021 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Loving Watermelons for Palestine

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Dear Elected Leader- Please stop empowering Israeli racism and violence.

Human Rights are NON-NEGOTIABLE

‘I’m so full of grief’: thousands take to the streets in support of Gaza

"The Immigrant" a painting by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

John Hanna Asfour- a Christian Palestinian... a bit of historical context ... True story by Raymond Khoury

If I must die... a poem by Refaat Alareer

Many Palestinian families still have the keys to the houses they left in 1948.

Dear President Biden RE our militant "friend" Israel

Gaza must not become a graveyard for international law

(*President Biden, Vice-President Harris, Senators Bob Casey & John Fetterman, Rep Scott Perry https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/ )

Universal Declaration of Human Rights | United Nations

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

From the river to the sea I (من النهر الى البحر ١), oil on canvas, 2021 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

From the river to the sea I (من النهر الى البحر ١), oil on canvas, 2021

"Entire families were wiped out in Gaza and erased from the civil registry. Imagine a family’s history, heritage, dreams, and memories are wiped out. They are not numbers, and as the late Mahmoud Darwish wrote once, The martyrs don’t resemble one another. Each of them has a distinctive physique and distinctive features, different eyes, and a different name and age. The killers are the ones who all look the same." Sliman Mansour

Loving Watermelons for Palestine

artist unknown

artist unknown

Watermelon on plate painting by Beesan Arafat

Photo of Protest for Palestine

Modern Holocaust 2023

Palestine Paper Dolls

Palestine Watermelon Flag Colors

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world by Susan Muaddi Darraj

A Palestinian man covered with dust carries an injured baby girl into the al-Shifa hopsital in Gaza City following Israeli strikes on 29 October 2023

"I’m writing to you because you live in a country where there is little empathy for the plight of your own people. Your robotic politicians seem undisturbed by the fact that 2.3 million people have been without water, food and electricity for two weeks now.

A civilian population - elders who look like your grandparents, children who resemble your own - is being carpet-bombed with a cruelty that is beyond measure. An Israeli minister called them “human animals,” and President Joe Biden publicly doubts the numbers of casualties reported by the Palestinians.

You know, as he surely does, that the number is probably higher, that the missing people are not really "missing"; they're dead under the rubble.

Your heart is busted

Your heart aches. You scroll. You cry. You’re repeatedly stunned by the brutality you’re witnessing.

Your grandparents may have been born outside of Palestine. Maybe you’ve never ever seen Palestine yourself. Maybe you don’t speak or understand Arabic at all. In the past, these factors have made you feel distanced from your heritage, but this moment reminds you of how Palestinian you truly are, especially as you realise something we all do: there is a concerted effort to erase us."

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world

Susan Muaddi Darraj

31 October 2023

We will not be erased. The Palestinian community is a family. And we will survive as families do, by consoling each other; by gifting each other the gentleness the world denies us .... READ MORE

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-love-letter-palestinian-family-world

Monday, October 30, 2023

Dear Elected Leader- Please stop empowering Israeli racism and violence.

Palestine 2023

Dear Elected Leader

Hamas is wrong, and idiotic- and so is ISRAEL.

75 years ago, knowing the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, the United Nations stepped up to carefully craft a document to explain and protect basic human rights. Since then most but not all countries have been trying to respect every human being, every citizen of the world, regardless of supposed race or religion or gender or whatever.

Tragically for all today, the heavily armed modern nation state, Israel, has turned its back on international law and justice, choosing instead to foment religious extremism, racist hate, and attacks on civilians, including countless young children.

PLEASE stop funding and arming and excusing Israel's war on the indigenous men, women and children of historic Palestine.

And PLEASE start reading and listening to some real news of the world, for the Zionist Propaganda dominating our mainstream media is dangerously wrong- and cruel.

War has rules. Israel's current war is not on HAMAS, it is on all of Palestine, and so it has been for 75 years.

Meanwhile in the West Bank, since October 7th, a Palestinian civilian is killed every four hours either by settlers or Israeli military.

Please stop empowering Israeli racism and violence.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American Homemaker & Poet

NOTES

What’s the Israel-Palestine conflict about? A simple guide

It’s killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. And its future lies in its past. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/9/whats-the-israel-palestine-conflict-about-a-simple-guide

Right to Life

Freedom

Justice

Human rights belong to all of us. They are non-negotiable. #StandUp4HumanRights

Peace, Dignity and Equality on a Healthy Planet..

The UN works for everyone, everywhere, by:

Responding to conflict

Protecting refugees

Feeding the hungry

Addressing the climate emergency

Empowering women

Helping in humanitarian crises & much more. un.org/en/our-work