Saturday, November 9, 2024

Thirty Jewish organisations have issued a powerful joint statement defending Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, denouncing what they describe as coordinated attempts to undermine her mandate through false accusations of anti-Semitism.

UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese gestures while delivering opening remarks at a Public hearing in Portuguese Parliament regarding Palestinian Territories situation, followed by speeches by MPs from the PS, Bloco de Esquerda, PCP, Livre and PAN, on October 03, 2024, in Lisbon, Portugal. [Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images]

Jewish groups rally behind UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine amid anti-Semitism accusations

November 8, 2024

Thirty Jewish organisations have issued a powerful joint statement defending Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, denouncing what they describe as coordinated attempts to undermine her mandate through false accusations of anti-Semitism.

The unprecedented show of support comes as Albanese faces what the organisations describe as “relentless attack from politically motivated organisations” in what appears to be a systematic campaign to discredit her work documenting human rights conditions in the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The groups specifically singled out organisations such as UN Watch, which they say “have been waging toxic smear campaigns to silence her and to harm her human rights mandate”. According to the statement, these organisations’ primary objective is “shielding the Israeli government from international criticism and legal accountability”.

Of particular concern to the Jewish organisations is the weaponisation of anti-Semitism allegations against the UN Rapporteur, especially by Western governments. “We reject such allegations, which are unfounded and recklessly incite against Ms. Albanese, at the risk of endangering her personal safety,” the statement declared, highlighting the potential dangerous consequences of such accusations.

The groups expressed alarm at what they view as a broader and deeply troubling pattern of instrumentalising anti-Semitism for political purposes, particularly through the highly controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism. They strongly condemned “the escalating instrumentalisation of anti-Semitism in this regard, specifically through the highly controversial IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which is also being weaponized against Ms. Albanese and the United Nations more broadly”.

The organisations, identifying themselves as “Jews committed to justice, equality and universal human rights”, reserved particularly strong criticism for Western governments’ positions, especially those of the US and Germany. The statement “strongly condemned the shameful diplomatic and military support that many Western governments, in particular the United States and Germany, have offered to Israel’s ongoing campaign of mass killings of Palestinian civilians and its barbaric destruction of all foundations of Palestinian life in Gaza”.

In a pointed critique of the current situation, the groups argued that the conflation of Israel’s actions with Jewish identity poses a genuine threat to Jewish communities worldwide.... READ MORE https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241108-jewish-groups-rally-behind-un-special-rapporteur-on-palestine-amid-anti-semitism-accusations/

[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]

We are witnessing the final stage of genocide in Gaza- Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian: Omer Bartov is an Israeli-American professor of Holocaust and genocide studies. He has issued a grim warning on Gaza

What’s unfolding in Gaza is genocide.’ Photograph: Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

"... Apologists for what is happening will shrug their shoulders and say: this is what happens in war. It’s tragic, but it’s war; innocent people die all the time. But, here’s the thing, wars have rules. They have limits. The scale of destruction in Gaza strongly suggests that this is no longer war by any normal standards. Indeed, numerous experts are raising the alarm that this is now a genocide. Still, much of the mainstream media seems to be blithely ignoring these warning bells, continuing the pretence that what is happening is a normal war rather than a systematic extermination.

Omer Bartov, an Israeli-American historian who is a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown, is one of the experts who believes what is happening in Gaza is a genocide. He didn’t always believe this to be the case. Last November, Bartov wrote a piece for the New York Times stating: “I believe that there is no proof that genocide is currently taking place.” But this came with a disclaimer: “There is genocidal intent, which can easily tip into genocidal action … There is still time to stop Israel from letting its actions become a genocide.”

Intent is a key component of genocide, which is legally defined as committing certain specified acts (including killing and imposing measures intended to prevent births) with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.

The genocidal intent Bartov mentions is the dehumanizing language and threats of total annihilation from Israeli politicians and influential figures. There are hundreds of these statements out there. Bartov cites an example... " ... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/06/we-are-witnessing-the-final-stage-of-genocide-in-gaza

+13,319 children killed in Gaza [PALESTINE] +35,055 children lost one/both parents in past year +1M children deeply traumatized .... End this war on innocent children

Kent Page

@KentPage

+13,319 children killed in Gaza [PALESTINE]

+35,055 children lost one/both parents in past year

+1M children deeply traumatized 85% of schools directly hit/damaged

237 @UNRWAcolleagues killed

End this war on innocent children

#CeasefireNow

@unrwa

Human Rights Are Not White Privilege #PalestineLivesMatter

Hundreds of people marched in Berlin against Israel’s on going genocide in Palestine 2024

egultekin_ Independent Photojournalist

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-yXizqML8T/?img_index=1

Why is Germany supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza? In 1953, Germany started paying reparations – not to individual survivors of the Holocaust, but the state of Israel in the form of industrial goods, including weaponry.

The answer lies in Germany’s history – but it is not, as many assume tied to efforts to atone for the Nazi Holocaust and ensure that it never happens again.

Police intervene in protesters with dogs during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Kant Street in the Wilmersdorf district in Berlin, Germany on October 19, 2024 [Erbil Basay/Anadolu]

No state has been as assiduous in attacking the Palestine solidarity movement and supporting Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza as Germany.

Today, it is impossible to hold a pro-Palestine demonstration in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany without facing attacks from the police, intimidation from the state and accusations of anti-Semitism from the press.

In April, the Palestine Assembly, a high-profile pro-Palestine conference in Berlin was broken up by hundreds of police officers. British Palestinian rector of Glasgow University, Ghassan Abu Sitta, was stopped from entering Germany to attend the conference and deported back to the UK. He was later banned from entering the entire Schengen area.

Abu Sitta, a surgeon who volunteered in several Gaza hospitals since last year, was planning to deliver a speech on the horrific condition Israeli attacks have left the Strip’s health system in. A German court later overturned the ban.

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was also banned from entering Germany and prevented from even participating in the Congress via a video link.

German authorities said they targeted Abu Sitta, Varoufakis and others at the conference because they deemed their speeches “anti-Semitic”.

There is no truth to this claim. Germany is not silencing pro-Palestinian voices to protect the rights of Jews and combat anti-Semitism. This is apparent not only in the content of the speech it censures, but also in the way Germany treats anti-Zionist Jews who speak in support of Palestinian rights.

Iris Hefets, a German-Israeli psychoanalyst in Berlin, for example, was arrested last October on charges of anti-Semitism. Her only “crime” Her only “crime” was walking alone with a placard reading: “As an Israeli and as a Jew, stop the genocide in Gaza.” ... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/11/8/why-is-germany-supporting-israels-genocide-in-gaza

Israel passes law allowing Palestinian children under 14 to be jailed: More than 270 Palestinian minors are currently held in Israeli detention, despite UN resolutions and international treaties prohibiting the imprisonment of children, according to Palestinian right groups.

Israeli soldiers detain a 10-year-old Palestinian boy Ismail en-Nicce in Hebron, West Bank on September 23, 2021. ]Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli Knesset passed a law yesterday authorising the detention of Palestinian minors under the age of 14, Anadolu reported.

The bill was approved in the second and third readings by 55 votes to 33, the Knesset said in a statement.

The legislation, a temporary five-year measure, allows courts to order the detention of children under 14 in closed facilities if convicted of murder involving “terrorism or terrorist activities.”

Upon reaching 14, the child would continue to serve their sentence in prison, according to the statement.

The measure could be extended by up to two years upon approval from the justice and welfare ministers and the Knesset’s Constitution Committee.

The law also includes a three-year provision allowing courts to jail minors in prison instead of juvenile facilities for up to ten days if they are deemed dangerous or pose a threat to others. Courts may also extend this period if circumstances warrant, the Knesset said.

More than 270 Palestinian minors are currently held in Israeli detention, despite UN resolutions and international treaties prohibiting the imprisonment of children, according to Palestinian right groups.

The Knesset also passed a controversial law that allows the deportation of family members of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis.

The legislation is widely seen to be targeting Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinian residents of the occupied East Jerusalem.... READ MORE https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241108-israel-passes-law-allowing-palestinian-children-under-14-to-be-jailed/

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of #HumanRights reminds us that everyone is born #free and #equal in dignity and rights. Let’s act with compassion and respect to foster a world of equality.

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of #HumanRights reminds us that everyone is born #free and #equal in dignity and rights.

Let’s act with compassion and respect to foster a world of equality.

buff.ly/4hCpGyJ

Jordan's former foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, tells MEE that Jordan is worried Palestinians will be displaced en masse: “What we have seen in Gaza is an example not just of killing Palestinians but of making Gaza uninhabitable and trying to affect a mass transfer of Palestinians into Egypt."

Former Jordanian foreign minister Marwan Muasher interviewed by Middle East Eye (MEE)

Jordan's former foreign minister says two-state solution is over

Jordan’s former foreign minister has told Middle East Eye that Arab countries need to abandon the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

“Practically, that is not going to take place,” Marwan Muasher, who also served as Jordan’s deputy prime minister and opened the kingdom's first embassy in Israel in 1995, said of the two-state solution in a video interview with Middle East Eye.

The ex-diplomat, who is now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said it should be replaced with a “rights-based approach in which the departure point should be equal rights between Israelis and Palestinians”.

“Then one can start talking about what shape of a solution we can arrive at. But any solution that does not involve equal rights is not going to be sustainable in my view.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Muasher said Jordan is very concerned that Israel intends the forceful transfer of large numbers of Palestinians to the kingdom.... READ MORE https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jordans-former-foreign-minister-says-two-state-solution-over

Jordan has always been concerned that Israel’s aim ultimately is to have mass transfer of Palestinians outside of Palestinian territory,” he said.

“Whereas that position was that of fringe groups in Israel 30 or 40 years ago, today they are part and parcel of the Israeli government.”

“The Israeli government is saying every single day that what they want is an Israeli state from the river to the sea, so that really is Jordan’s worry,” Muasher added.

“What we have seen in Gaza is an example not just of killing Palestinians but of making Gaza uninhabitable and trying to affect a mass transfer of Palestinians into Egypt.”

Friday, November 8, 2024

In Forest of Noise, renowned Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha explores the pain, loss, and struggle of life in Gaza, while holding onto his connection to home

'Every child is me. Every mother and father is me': A glimpse of Gaza, occupation and genocide in Mosab Abu Toha’s new poetry collection, Forest of Noise

Book Club: In Forest of Noise, Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha explores the pain, loss, and struggle of life in Gaza, while holding onto his connection to home.

Eman Quotah

06 November, 2024

You might begin reading Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha’s second collection, Forest of Noise, by judging his book by its cover. On a matte, off-white background, a bark-brown, finger-painted hand and spindly arm stretch diagonally; green thumbprint leaves sprout from the fingers. It’s a tree limb. A child’s raised hand. An arm stretched in terror.

With its multiplicity of meanings, Arsh Raziuddin’s arresting cover art captures the spirit of Mosab Abu Toha’s candid poetry about living in and through war and genocide in Gaza.

It teases a litany of quandaries central not only to this collection but also to Mosab’s online presence as an unceasing chronicler of Israel’s destruction of Gaza: How does life go on amid death and devastation? How do despair and hope feed each other? When will it end? How can we make art amid the rubble? How can we not?

"Throughout the book, Mosab grapples with poetry’s ability to convey the horror of life in Gaza under Israeli assault"

In a recent post, Mosab responded to the widely shared photo of 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou, arms raised against flames as he burned alive. Witnessing this horrific image reminiscent of his cover, he writes, “How can I look at my book? How can I read my poems?”

Throughout the book, Mosab grapples with poetry’s ability to convey the horror of life in Gaza under Israeli assault — and makes clear to readers the price the poet pays when writing and revisiting what he has lived through.

He also vividly portrays his deep connection to everything in Gaza, where he lived most of his life before fleeing last December to Egypt, then the United States, with his wife and children.

In a dedication, he writes:

“Every child in Gaza is me.

Every mother and father is me.

Every house is my heart.

Every tree is my leg.

Every plant is my arm.”

Born in 1992, Mosab Abu Toha has endured multiple Israeli assaults, as well as the siege of Gaza that began in 2007.

His collection’s opening poem, Younger Than War, recalls tanks rolling “through dust, through eggplant fields,” book-burning soldiers, and warplanes overhead at the start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000.

“No need for radio,” he writes, “We are the news,” and “At the time, /I was seven: decades younger than war, /a few years older than bombs.”

Last fall, Mosab himself became news when Israeli forces kidnapped him and other Gazan men and transported them to an Israeli prison. Under pressure from PEN International, the New Yorker, and others, Israel released him, calling his detention “a mistake.”

In On Your Knees, it feels as though he is sitting across from us, recounting the harrowing story aloud:

"On your knees!

A new soldier calls me by my full name.

He even says my grandfather’s name.

I love the name of my grandfather.

I hate the soldier,

I hate his name,

which I do not know.

Your ID number, say it aloud!

Remove your clothes,

Even your boxer shorts.

Turn around.

*

In my ears, I’m hiding

my mother’s stories,

my father’s recitation,

of the Holy Quran when I am sick."

These lines offer both a blow-by-blow account of Mosab’s abuse and humiliation and his interior response: wanting to protect and keep for himself the things that matter most to him (memories, stories).

As for many Palestinians, a lineage of loss and persistence looms large for Mosab Abu Toha, a third-generation Gazan refugee whose grandparents fled Yaffa during the Nakba.

In My Grandfather’s Well, his deceased paternal grandfather stands vigil in Yaffa. “Where have you been? Grandfather asks me,” Mosab writes. As though the living have abandoned the dead.

Later, in No Art — which echoes and responds to Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art (“The art of losing isn’t hard to master/so many things seem filled with the intent/to be lost that their loss is no disaster”) — Mosab writes:

"I’ve personally lost three friends to war,

a city to darkness, and a language to fear.

This was not easy to survive,

but survival proved necessary to master.

But of all things,

losing the only photo of my grandfather

under the rubble of my house

was a real disaster."

Writing after and in response to other English-language poets like Bishop, Whitman, Ginsberg, Bob Kaufman, and Mosab Abu Toha’s beloved late friend and mentor Refaat Alareer, the poet pushes against any notion that poetry must uplift and beautify — or that any poem can stand alone.

Of course, poets know their work is inspired by and in dialogue with other works. But today, individual poems have become standalone memes that many of us share on social media because we feel otherwise impotent to stop Israel’s violence against Palestinians.

Mosab’s unwillingness to hold any particular poem holy reminds us that poets’ conversations with each other, across time and space, among the living and the dead, hold more power than a single poem.

Take his response to Refaat Alareer’s well-loved poem of hope, If I Must Die (which echoes Claude McKay’s defiant 1919 resistance poem If We Must Die).

Refaat wrote of his own foretold passing, “You must live/to tell my story… let it bring hope/let it be a tale.”

Mosab brings another perspective by writing about the nightmare of always knowing you’re this close to dying: “If I am going to die,/let it be a clean death./No rubble over my corpse.”

He wants a funeral, something too many Palestinians have been denied, and clean, ironed clothes for his corpse. He wants the dignity of a nonviolent death.

He continues this logic in Rescue Plane, where he wishes for two planes: One to drop wheat, tea, and vegetables in Gaza and remove rubble. Another is to drop flowers for children to plant on graves. And then he strips away the flights of imagination and reveals his true, and truly simple, wish: “No planes at all.../No war/I wish we never had to wish.” ... READ MORE https://www.newarab.com/features/glimpse-gaza-mosab-abu-tohas-forest-noise

Thursday, November 7, 2024

Earth after Israel is done defending itself:

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

2024 Snoopy & Handala & the Statue of Liberty

West Bank Wall graffiti art in Bethlehem: Handala and Liberty as "Pietà"

Symbolism

Handala's age – ten years old – represents Naji al-Ali's age in 1948 when he was forced to leave Palestine and would not grow up until he could return to his homeland:^[6] Al-Ali wrote that:

Handala was born 10 years old and he will always be 10 years old. It was at that age that I left my homeland. When Handala returns, he will still be 10 years old, and then he will start growing up.

His posture, with his turned back and clasped hands, symbolises the character's "rejection at a time when solutions are presented to us the American way" and as "a symbol of rejection of all the present negative tides in our region."^[4] His ragged clothes and standing barefoot symbolise his allegiance to the poor.^[4] Al-Ali described Handala as "the symbol of a just cause":

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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handala

The greatest challenge to being alive: To witness the injustice of this world, and not allow it to consume our light.

Love to all, Ibtisam the Palestinian author

Ibtisam Barakat

Good Palestinian moment:

I went to the local authors exhibit at the public library and had a great time. Many people stopped by and said that they are sorry for what is happening in Palestine. . . That means they see our humanity . . I wrote their names in Arabic calligraphy, sold books, gave out sweet grapes rather than candy to the children and many signed up for my Arabic language and culture class on Zoom.

The best part is that I don't have to fake anything.

For many, many years, I had to act like I am American and my people are not facing genocide. Nobody wanted to hear that or accept that. I had to carry a mountain on my back for years.

Now, people know and say they are sorry. The mountain is on the ground. It's a mountain of pain, but I can look at it and walk around it and aim to climb it now rather than it crush my soul alone . . . Thank you everyone who thinks about the humanity of Palestine denied for so long . .

Love to all,

Ibtisam the Palestinian author

Ibtisam Barakat, author of

TASTING THE SKY, a Palestinian Childhood

BALCONY ON THE MOON, Coming of Age in Palestine.

2010 photo: Helen Thoman, Anan Ameri, AANM director, and author Ibtisam Barakat at the AANM national book award ceremony. Ibtisam served as a judge for the fiction category, 2010. Helen's sculpture was unveiled at the event. She was funny and sad about that controversial comment that ended her career.. Sam Donaldson from ABC introduced Helen's speech. Two huge journalism icons. Washington, DC. GALLERY http://www.ibtisambarakat.com/

70% of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza is funded by the American government: Consecutive American governments have been diverting taxpayer money to finance the Israeli genocide against Palestinians, resulting in the killing of Americans too, instead of spending it on education and infrastructure for its own citizens.

@miftahpal

Despite Palestine joining

@UNESCO

13 years ago, Israel continues to steal and/or destroy Palestinian heritage sites, in an attempt to erase Palestinian history and culture as part of its genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine as a whole.

Statement from the bishop of the ELCJHL about Israel’s decision to close UNRWA: “We ask you to join us in condemning this action in the strongest possible terms”

https://www.facebook.com/elcjhl/

Monday, November 4, 2024

Israeli settlements and outposts are used to take over Palestinian land and enable Israeli settlers to torment and terrorize Palestinians, transferring the protected population by force in violation of international law.

UN Human Rights Palestine

@OHCHR_Palestine

"Israeli settlers, supported and facilitated by the Israeli government, are building an unprecedented number of illegal outposts in the occupied #WestBank, including East Jerusalem, with 43 new outposts established from Oct 2023 to Oct 2024, compared to a yearly average of 8 during the past decade. Outposts are used to take over Palestinian land and enable settlers to torment and terrorize Palestinians, transferring the protected population by force in violation of international law. Israel must immediately cease all settlement activities, evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and end the occupation as soon as possible, as concluded by the International Court of Justice."

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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