Saturday, April 20, 2024

In the vibrant tapestry of Palestine, Christians and Muslims intertwine as friends –each Christian cherishing a Muslim companion, and every Muslim embracing a Christian confidant. (NABLUS TAMREYAH recipe) in This Week in Palesitne

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/nablus-tamreyeh/

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

Nablus Tamreyeh

By Rawan Asaad

In the tapestry of spiritual observances, Christians worldwide, alongside their brethren in Palestine, embark on the solemn journey of Great Lent, a forty-day odyssey of abstinence from all animal products. Coincidentally, Muslims also engage in fasting during the sacred month of Ramadan. Amidst these hallowed moments, we unveil the recipe for Nablus Tamreyeh – a delectable confection void of animal derivatives, bearing the mantle of veganism, exuding lightness, vitality, and an unmistakable Palestinian essence.

In the vibrant tapestry of Palestine, Christians and Muslims intertwine as friends –each Christian cherishing a Muslim companion, and every Muslim embracing a Christian confidant. Amidst the shared bonds of neighbors, colleagues, and acquaintances, let the aroma of this delectable dessert unite hearts. Whether gifted to your Christian companion or your Muslim confidant, delve into its sweetness and watch prayers bloom during these sanctified moments.

Ingredients

For the dough:

– ¾ c flour

– ¼ c water (more or less as needed)

– a pinch of salt

For the filling:

– ½ c coarse semolina

– ½ c sugar

– 2 c water

– powdered sugar as needed (for decoration)

Preparation

For the dough:

– Place the flour and salt in an electric mixer bowl, gradually pour in the water while continuously kneading to obtain a soft, nonsticky dough. You can use your hands in the absence of an electric mixer.

– Continue kneading for five minutes using the mixer or ten minutes by hand.

– Divide the dough into eight equal portions.

– Place the dough portions in a lightly oiled bowl.

– Cover the bowl and set it aside to rest for one hour.

For the filling:

– In a pot over medium heat, stir together the sugar, water, and semolina until boiling.

– Continue gently stirring the mixture until it thickens.

– Pour the mixture into a rectangular tray, let it cool, then cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate briefly (not more than half an hour), until it becomes firm.

– Remove the filling from the refrigerator, and cut it into eight equal pieces.

– On a flat surface lightly greased with oil, roll out each dough portion separately into the thinnest possible square.

– Place a piece of filling in the center of each dough portion.

– Take a corner of the dough and place it over the filling.

– Repeat folding the dough with the remaining corners until all edges of the dough are closed over the filling, forming a square. (Do not stretch the dough too much over the filling.)

– Press lightly and roll the square with the palm of your hand to make it slightly thinner.

– Repeat with the remaining dough portions.

– In a pot, heat enough oil.

– Place the dough pieces in the hot oil and fry them until they are golden and crispy.

– Remove the pastries from the oil and drain them on paper towels.

Sprinkle the pastries with powdered sugar and serve immediately, while hot.

Sahtein!

Handala- the Palestinian Refugee Child

“The child Handala is my signature everyone asks me about him wherever I go… His name is Handala and he has promised the people that he will remain true to himself. I drew him as a child who is not beautiful; His hair is like the hair of a hedgehog who uses his thorns as a weapon. Handala is not a fat, happy, relaxed, or pampered child. He is barefooted like the refugee camp children, and he is an icon that protects me from making mistakes.”

Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali (1938 – 29 August 1987)

HANDALA posts on my blog

Al-Ali was born in 1938 or thereabouts in the northern Palestinian village of Al-Shajara, located between Tiberias and Nazareth (now subsumed by Ilaniya).^[9] He lived as an exile in the south of Lebanon with his family after the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, the Nakba, and lived in Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon,^[10] where he attended the Union of Christian Churches school. After graduation, he worked in the orchards of Sidon, then moved to Tripoli where he attended the White Friars' vocational school for two years.

Al-Ali then moved to Beirut, where he lived in a tent in Shatila refugee camp and worked in various industrial jobs. In 1957, after qualifying as a car mechanic, he travelled to Saudi Arabia, where he worked for two years.

Handala, also known as Handhala (Arabic: حنظلة), is the most famous of Al-Ali's characters.^[14] He is depicted as a ten-year-old boy, and appeared for the first time in Al-Siyasa in Kuwait in 1969.^[14] The figure turned his back to the viewer from the year 1973, and clasped his hands behind his back.^[15] The artist explained that the ten-year-old represented his age when forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland;^[16] his turned back and clasped hands symbolised the character's rejection of "outside solutions".^[15] Handala wears ragged clothes and is barefoot, symbolising his allegiance to the poor. In later cartoons, he is actively participating in the action depicted not merely observing it.^[15] The artist vows that his figure, Handala will "reveal his face to the readers again only when Palestinian refugees return to their homeland".^[17]

Handala became the signature of Al-Ali's cartoons and remains an iconic symbol of Palestinian identity and defiance. Handala has also been used as the web mascot of the Iranian Green Movement.^[18] The artist remarked that "He was the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine. Not just Palestine in geographical terms, but Palestine in its humanitarian sense—the symbol of a just cause, whether it is located in Egypt, Vietnam or South Africa.

Assassination

It is still not known who opened fire on Al-Ali outside the London office of Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas in Ives Street on 22 July 1987. He was subsequently taken to hospital and remained in a coma until his death on 29 August 1987.^[19] Although his will requested that he be buried in Ain al-Hilweh beside his father, this proved impossible to arrange

Dismantling the culture of silence... "On Remembrance: When Words Become Our Strength"

@gazamom

Palestine Museum US: Today we mark the opening of the exhibition "Foreigners in Their Homeland: Occupation | Apartheid | Genocide"

Dear Friends of Palestine Museum US,

Greetings.

Today we mark the opening of the exhibition "Foreigners in Their Homeland: Occupation | Apartheid | Genocide"

You are cordially invited to attend the opening ceremony in person (in Venice, Italy) or Via Zoom.

Saturday April 20, 2024 | 18:00 Italy 19:00 Palestine 17:00 UK and 12:00 PM US EDT.

In-Person and Virtual Opening Ceremony for: 'Foreigners in their Homeland: Occupation | Apartheid | Genocide,' art exhibition, Venice, Italy

Event Program

Keynote Address by Faisal Saleh, Exhibit Curator and Exec Dir of Palestine Museum US (English & Italian)
Introducing participation artists (present and absent)
Musical performance by the Arabic language students’ choir of Ca' Foscari University of Venice
Musical performance by Palestinian soprano Zeina Barhoum
https://www.palestinemuseum.us/events/2024/foreigners-in-their-homeland?mc_cid=70d145acc8&mc_eid=fad2923dbf
[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

"What was the crime of the Palestinian child?" a poem on Palestine by Ahmad Ibsais

The crime of the Palestinian child

a poem on Palestine

by Ahmad Ibsais

What was the crime of the Palestinian child?

What warranted their death?

Why did their parents’ tears

And the child’s blood, water the soil?

Why do you kill

when the air you breathe is ours

the clouds in the sky, ours?

Why do you imprison us in our country

and punish us for living

When you are the fire that burns the land?

That which we will eventually return and rebuild

Why do you build upon our bones

and expect it not to crumble beneath your bloodied boots?

Subscribe to State of Siege

By Ahmad Ibsais · Launched 2 years ago

"Conflict?" No, its Apartheid. Weekly newsletter focusing on Palestine, the Middle East, and Western colonialism across the world. A politics, news, and culture reading.

https://ahmadibsais.substack.com/p/the-crime-of-the-palestinian-child

https://ahmadibsais.substack.com/

One of Israel's Apartheid segregation walls- the logo photo for Ahmad Ibsais's newsletter State of Seige

Time: Imagining a Free Palestine by Ahmad Ibsais, a first-generation Palestinian American who writes the newsletter State of Siege.

A woman waving the Palestinian flag- Getty

“Where is Ahmad?” The soldier called my name while we were stopped at the last Israeli checkpoint on the way from Ramallah to Jerusalem. I am a Palestinian American. But once I’m in my ancestral homeland, I’m not an American in the eyes of Israeli authorities. I am simply Palestinian, denied the basic right to movement and pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

For too long, Palestinians in the diaspora, like myself, became travelers on our soil. We tried to forget the realities of occupation in the West Bank, and that a few hours south in Gaza our brothers and sisters suffered under even more inhumane conditions.

Now, a reawakening has occurred. It has been six months since Oct. 7, and I’m closer to understanding the catastrophe that my people endured in 1948: children, no older than six or seven, sleeping huddled on muddied floors, under tents in which their lives as refugees began. Children who are slowly freezing to death as bombs rain down upon them. Children who have endured more than I ever have. In that continuous grief of watching my people from afar in my home in Michigan, I have rediscovered what it means to be Palestinian, and, like millions of us, reimagined what a Palestinian future looks like.

In the last few months, we have seen a rise in global Palestinian solidarity and resistance, yet the hardships mounted against Palestinians only seems to grow—during Ramadan and Easter, Palestinian Muslims and Christians could not practice their faith in peace neither in Gaza nor the West Bank, as the bodies pile up... READ MORE https://time.com/6967434/imagining-free-palestine/

Friday, April 19, 2024

Shhhh.... that's ANTI- SEMITIC

*Semitic languages spoken today include Arabic, Ethiopic, Hebrew and some traces of Aramaic in the Syriac Christian churches where it survives for liturgical use. Dead Semitic languages include Akkadian, (old Babylonian and new Assyrian) as well as various Canaanite dialects.

Years from now students will study the Palestinian GENOCIDE and wonder HOW DID NO ONE STOP THIS??

"Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children."

Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech in its entirety https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety

George Orwell statue at the headquarters of the BBC. A defence of free speech in an open society, the wall behind the statue is inscribed with the words "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear", words from George Orwell's proposed preface to Animal Farm (1945)

UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide’ in Gaza 18 April 2024 “When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.” Even UN schools sheltering forcibly displaced civilians are being bombed, including in Israeli military-designated “safe zones.” “These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts said.

OHCHR

UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide’ in Gaza

18 April 2024

GENEVA (18 April 2024) – UN experts* today expressed grave concern over the pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in the Gaza Strip, raising serious alarm over the systemic destruction of the Palestinian education system.

“With more than 80% of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide’,” the experts said.

The term refers to the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure.

After six months of military assault, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, and over 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured – with numbers growing each day. At least 60 per cent of educational facilities, including 13 public libraries, have been damaged or destroyed and at least 625,000 students have no access to education. Another 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques and three churches have also been damaged or destroyed, including the Central Archives of Gaza, containing 150 years of history. Israa University, the last remaining university in Gaza was demolished by the Israeli military on 17 January 2024. Without safe schools, women and girls face additional risks, including gender-based violence. More than 1 million Palestinian children in Gaza are now in need of mental health and psychosocial support and will suffer the trauma of this war throughout their lives.

“The persistent, callous attacks on educational infrastructure in Gaza have a devastating long-term impact on the fundamental rights of people to learn and freely express themselves, depriving yet another generation of Palestinians of their future,” the experts said. “Students with international scholarships are being prevented from attending university abroad,” they added.

“When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.”

Even UN schools sheltering forcibly displaced civilians are being bombed, including in Israeli military-designated “safe zones.”

“These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts said.

The experts called on all parties to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and to protect educational institutions, teachers, and students. “We remind Israel in particular of its obligations to comply with the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice on 26 January,” they said.

The experts said they were equally appalled by the annihilation of the cultural sector in Gaza, through the destruction of libraries and cultural heritage sites. “The foundations of Palestinian society are being reduced to rubble, and their history is being erased.”

"Attacks on education cannot be tolerated. The international community must send a clear message that those who target schools and universities will be held responsible," the experts said, adding that accountability for these violations includes an obligation to finance and rebuild the education system.

"We owe it to the children of Gaza to uphold their right to education and pave the way for a more peaceful and just future."

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/04/un-experts-deeply-concerned-over-scholasticide-gaza

In northern Gaza, famine sets in: ‘We will eat anything’... [CSM] Reports indicate that the amount of flour entering Gaza may be ticking up slightly, but the need is urgent. Palestinian families are becoming increasingly desperate.

Ghada Abdulfattah

Palestinian children stand in line for a hot meal for their lunch in a camp for people who are displaced, in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, March 27, 2024.

DEEP READ

By Ghada Abdulfattah Special contributor
Taylor Luck Special correspondent

Deir al-Balah, Gaza; and Amman, Jordan

Searching the sky, or in the fields, even on the streets, residents of the northern Gaza Strip are constantly looking for food – and finding little.

When Ahmed Sawafiri isn’t chasing after parachuted aid packages, the photojournalist and father of seven from the war-torn neighborhood of Tal Hawa in western Gaza City scours the land for grass and wild herbs.

“We have tried everything for food: animal feed, barley, leaves,” he says. “We eat for survival. We will eat anything.”

Under pressure after the deadly strike on World Central Kitchen staff, Israel says it is allowing mass food aid into besieged Gaza via new land and sea routes. But two weeks later, Palestinians in Gaza and aid workers say little has improved on the ground.

As famine sets in, families in northern Gaza, where some 300,000 Palestinians remain, and elsewhere in the strip struggle to eat more than one meal a day.

Hurdles range from logistical issues to a lack of safety to restrictions imposed by Israel. That means the promised wave of food aid has been little more than a trickle, aid workers say, leaving Gazans struggling to stave off malnourishment and starvation.

"I fear we are forgetting lessons from that terrible history" Eva Ladipo... My family’s past, and Germany’s, weighs heavily upon me. And it’s why I feel so strongly about Gaza

"It is as if the war allows a long-suppressed view of the world to resurface in Germany, in which there are superior “western” cultures"

Illustration: Eleanor Shakespeare/The Guardian

I don’t usually talk about my great-uncle Walter. Gen Walter Warlimont, as my grandfather’s brother was formally known, was head of the national defence department in the high command of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Only two people were between him and the Führer in the chain of command. Walter worked so closely with Hitler that the failed assassination attempt in July 1944 injured his arm. The orders he signed during wartime – about who to shoot to kill, about how to treat prisoners – meant he had hundreds of thousands of lives on his conscience.

Not that Uncle Walter was the only one in the family who facilitated the Third Reich and the Holocaust. My paternal grandparents were very proud to have been among the very earliest members of Hitler’s party. My maternal grandfather – Walter’s brother – was the head of a factory in Vienna that made the guidance systems for the V2 rocket, a factory that was staffed by Russian and Ukrainian slave labourers.

I’ve never really felt a need to write about my family history before. But Walter’s life and crimes feel uncomfortably relevant right now. As I watch how the debate and discussion over the war in Gaza have played out in Germany, in the months since the horrific attacks of 7 October, I worry that even as we constantly invoke the Nazi past, we are forgetting some crucial lessons from our history.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/19/family-past-germany-gaza

Eva Ladipo is a German journalist and novelist based in London

The Guardian view on the catastrophe in Gaza: it must not be overshadowed by the Iran crisis Editorial

Hopes of a ceasefire have ebbed, concerns about an assault on Rafah endure, and aid remains wholly insufficient

‘The spectre of full-scale regional conflict, and the many deaths that could result, must not draw attention away from the almost 34,000 Palestinians already killed in Gaza.’ Photograph: AFP/Getty

The Middle East is “on the precipice” and “one miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned on Thursday. Israel has vowed to retaliate to Iran’s weekend barrage of missiles and drones – itself a response to Israel’s killing of two generals at an Iranian diplomatic facility in Damascus. It is hard to have confidence in either’s ability to calibrate their actions when both have misjudged already.

Yet the spectre of full-scale regional conflict, and the many deaths that could result, must not draw attention away from the almost 34,000 Palestinians already killed in Gaza, according to its health authorities, and the many more who will soon die without an immediate ceasefire and massive increase in aid in what Mr Guterres called a “humanitarian hellscape”.

Joe Biden, losing support in his own party over his response, finally turned up the pressure on Israel following the deaths of foreign aid workers earlier this month, resulting in the opening of more crossing points for humanitarian goods and pledges of a surge in supplies of food and medicine. In reality, progress was slow to materialise, inconsistent and wholly inadequate, with improvements in some areas offset by problems elsewhere.

Restrictions on shipments and the breakdown in security mean that starvation still grips the population, particularly in the north.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/18/the-guardian-view-on-the-catastrophe-in-gaza-it-must-not-be-overshadowed-by-the-iran-crisis

Thursday, April 18, 2024

UNRWA: A man-made famine is "tightening its grip" across Gaza

UNRWA warns man-made famine tightening grip across Gaza

11:24 AM

The New Arab Staff & Agencies

A man-made famine is "tightening its grip" across the Gaza Strip, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA warned on Wednesday as he accused Israel of blocking aid deliveries and seeking to end UNRWA's activities in the enclave.

"Today, an insidious campaign to end UNRWA's operations is underway, with serious implications for international peace and security," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the 15-member U.N. Security Council.

Analysis: Israeli accusations against UNRWA are part of a long-running interest in disbanding the UN agency and nullifying the issue of Palestinian refugees.

“UNRWA serves 5.6 million Palestinian refugees stemming from the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli conflicts. Most of the refugee population resides in camps located in the OPT, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The decision to suspend aid impacts refugees in all these locations,” Zaha Hassan, a Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and human rights lawyer, told The New Arab.

Israeli forces have killed over 33,900 Palestinians and injured over 76,000 since 7 October... Of the total killed, 13,900 of them were children.

The New Arab

@The_NewArab

https://www.newarab.com/

Gaza Death Toll Update:

Israeli forces have killed over 33,900 Palestinians and injured over 76,000 since 7 October, according to the Gaza health ministry's daily update

Of the total killed, 13,900 of them were children

https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-bombs-gaza-middle-east-tense-after-iranian-attack


Israeli forces continue to bomb parts of Gaza City Israeli warplanes bomb house in Yabna camp in Rafah; crews recover 8 bodies, incl. 5 kids

Reuters photographer Mohammad Salem's haunting image of a grieving Palestinian woman embracing her little niece, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, has just won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year Award.

A woman embraces the body of a Palestinian child killed in Israeli strikes, at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 17, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

FILE PHOTO: Palestinian woman Inas Abu Maamar, 36, embraces the body of her 5-year-old niece Saly, who was killed in an Israeli strike, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 17, 2023. Reuters photographer Mohammad Salem was in Khan Younis on Oct. 17 at the Nasser Hospital morgue, where residents were going to search for missing relatives. He saw Inas squatting on the ground in the morgue, sobbing and tightly embracing Saly's body. "I lost my conscience when I saw the girl, I took her in my arms," Inas said. "The doctor asked me to let go... but I told them to leave her with me." Mohammed Salem won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award for this image. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem/File Photo

Reuters' Mohammed Salem wins 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award

Story by Anthony Deutsch

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Reuters photographer Mohammed Salem won the prestigious 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award on Thursday for his image of a Palestinian woman cradling the body of her five-year-old niece in the Gaza Strip.

The picture was taken on Oct. 17, 2023, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where families were searching for relatives killed during Israeli bombing of the Palestinian enclave.

Salem's winning image portrays Inas Abu Maamar, 36, sobbing while holding Saly's sheet-clad body in the hospital morgue.

"Mohammed received the news of his WPP award with humility, saying that this is not a photo to celebrate but that he appreciates its recognition and the opportunity to publish it to a wider audience," Reuters' Global Editor for Pictures and Video, Rickey Rogers, said at a ceremony in Amsterdam.

"He hopes with this award that the world will become even more conscious of the human impact of war, especially on children," Rogers said, standing in front of the photo at the Nieuwe Kerk in the Dutch capital.

Announcing its annual awards, the Amsterdam-based World Press Photo Foundation said it was important to recognise the dangers facing journalists covering conflicts.... READ MORE...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/reuters-mohammed-salem-wins-2024-world-press-photo-of-the-year-award/ar-AA1ne2Xq

Annie's New Letters (& notes)