Tuesday, October 28, 2025

"Across Palestine, the olive trees are disappearing, burned, cut, and uprooted by Israeli settlers, often under military protection. In Gaza, tens of thousands of dunums of farmland have been leveled, destroying nearly a million olive trees, some that had stood for centuries. Families are attacked or blocked from reaching their groves, their livelihoods erased before their eyes. Yet every year, people still go to harvest, even among the ashes and stumps, to remember that the land is theirs. When the trees are gone, they still reach, as an act of resistance." Sliman Mansour of Palestine

sliman.mansour
Harvest (حصاد), oil on canvas, 1997

"Across Palestine, the olive trees are disappearing, burned, cut, and uprooted by Israeli settlers, often under military protection.

In Gaza, tens of thousands of dunums of farmland have been leveled, destroying nearly a million olive trees, some that had stood for centuries.

Families are attacked or blocked from reaching their groves, their livelihoods erased before their eyes.

Yet every year, people still go to harvest, even among the ashes and stumps, to remember that the land is theirs.

When the trees are gone, they still reach, as an act of resistance." Sliman Mansour of Palestine https://www.instagram.com/sliman.mansour/ https://www.instagram.com/p/DQMWd4Vjc3Q/

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Two photographs nearly identical, as if captured on the same day. One in black and white, the other in color. Yet between them stretches seventy-seven years. The first taken after the Nakba of 1948. The second after the Nakba of 2023..

Dr. Ezzideen

@ezzingaza

Two photographs nearly identical, as if captured on the same day. One in black and white, the other in color. Yet between them stretches seventy-seven years.

The first taken after the Nakba of 1948. The second after the Nakba of 2023.

Two moments divided by time yet bound by the same wound, the same sky, the same unyielding hope. A people exiled twice, grieving twice, still carrying within them the unwavering belief that survival begins with knowledge.

Even when homes vanish and cities are reduced to dust, the mind endures as a nation that cannot be occupied. So they learn under tents, under fire, beneath the relentless shadow of history, because they know that survival begins with the word, with the book, with the child who insists on imagining a world that refuses to kill its own future.

#WoundedGaza

"It is sad and painful that you come to these Holy Lands for an unholy purpose and that is to adhere to the [Israeli] occupation, its oppressive policies and practices against the Palestinian people" ... "How can a Christian ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people especially what happened during the two years in Gaza which was a War of Holocaust." Theodosios Atallah Hanna, Palestinian Archbishop of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in an open letter to US Vice President JD Vance

Theodosios Atallah Hanna, Palestinian Archbishop of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in an open letter to US Vice President JD Vance: —

"You fed us with speeches about peace, but you did not do anything for the sake of peace, no, you ignored Palestinian rights and proofs, and when the Palestinians lived their new burden during the two years of conquered and affected Gaza, you supported their oppressors who with your weapons killed many Palestinians, making you partners in this crime committed against our people."

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/53533

Message from Jerusalem Greek Orthodox Archbishop to JD Vance

Oct 23rd, 2025

Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Archbishop Atallah Hanna, Archbishop of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, issued this open message to US Vice President JD David Vance) yesterday, ahead of his visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Old Jerusalem today - hoping that it will reach him and that the Palestinian Christian voice will be heard.

You will visit the Church of Resurrection tomorrow and you will see doors open because the Church of Resurrection has always and forever been open to all its visitors regardless of their religious affiliation, ethnicity or skin colour.

The love that we hold on to and call for is the one that He who conquered death by His Resurrection called, and that is in the place you will visit tomorrow.

I will address you in the language of love, faith and humanity, not in the language of politics and interests that you will hear from the Israeli politicians that you will meet. We are not politicians and we will not be, but we believe in the values of truth, justice and the victory of the oppressed, and we hope that your visit to the Holy Grave will lead you to receive some of the light that has sprung from this empty tomb to dispel the darkness of this world.

There are rulers in this world who have been blinded to the injustice that our Palestinian people has been exposed and continue to be faced. In front of them the American President - you are his deputy - and you boast about your Christianity, but whoever hears your statements and attitudes discovers and notices that you are far from Christianity and you are in a place that has nothing to do with Christian values that always urge us to win against the oppressed and the tortured.

The purpose of my message is not to condemn you, it is not one of our responsibilities, because there is a Creator in heaven, and he is the one we will stand in front of at a time when each of us will ask what did you do to your brother?

The purpose of this message of mine is to remind you as you visit the holiest sacred place for Christians in the world with your Christian, moral and humanitarian duties, namely to reject injustice, tyranny, occupation and oppression.

How can a Christian ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people especially what happened during the two years in Gaza which was a War of Holocaust.

You will stay in Jerusalem for three days but we have not heard that your program includes a meeting with Palestinian representatives. You will not to hear what the Palestinians say about themselves but just what is said about them from the Israeli side, who dedicated all your visit to meeting them and hearing what they say to you.

It is not possible to come to Jerusalem and Palestine without hearing what the Palestinians say about their suffering, pain and concerns and in particular what the Palestinian Christians say - as you will visit their blessed and glorious church tomorrow. It seems that you will be surrounded by security men, preventing you from hearing anything that may bother you. The side that is hosting you.

In the Church of Resurrection there will be a number of leaders, fathers, monks who will tell you frankly that Jerusalem is hungry for peace and our holy country is also hungry for peace but the peace we are calling is peace based on justice and respect for human rights.

What I would like to tell you is that it is not in your power to ignore the existence of the Palestinian people and it is sad and painful that you come to these Holy Lands for an unholy purpose and that is to adhere to the occupation, its oppressive policies and practices against the Palestinian people.

You fed us with speeches about peace, but you did not do anything for the sake of peace, no, you ignored Palestinian rights and proofs, and when the Palestinians lived their new burden during the two years of conquered and affected Gaza, you supportd their oppressors who with your weapons killed many Palestinians, making you partners in this crime committed against our people.

I hope that your entrance to the Church of Resurrection will be an agent to change something in your character towards what is better and what is best, especially that you say you are a Christian. I hope that the grace of the holy tomb and the blessing of the wheel of the wheel will touch your life and your thought to be more just and humane. We pray for you and for the rulers of this world - those who lost their humanity, so that the humanity they lost returns, and will be their compass in the right direction.

What you should hear is what you will not hear at all during your visit, from your Israeli friends: that Palestine exists and its people exist and its cause is a living issue that many people support around this world, especially in America ...

American politics has only brought destruction - not only in Palestine but also in other places of the world. The successive American administrations played a destructive role in more than one place and a spot in this world where oil was poured on the burning fire to make it more ignorant and leave behind destruction, destruction and inhuman disaster.

Palestinian Christians and all our people are calling you as you enter the Old City of Jerusalem with tight Israeli guards that they wish you and your president to be more just.

Do you know that Palestinians are not allowed to enter the Church of Resurrection that you will visit tomorrow? They are also prevented from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the City of Jerusalem.

You crossed the oceans to reach Jerusalem, but a Palestinian who is half an hour away from Jerusalem by his car, cannot reach the Holy City, because there are barriers, gates and fences manned by the military.

Do you know that the war of genocide in Gaza left a huge destruction, a disaster and a tragedy that cannot be imagined by a human mind, and all of this is with the blessing of the American administration and those with it?

I invite you to radically change your policies in our region, the peace that we all want cannot be by supporting Israel and supporting its wars and its criminal policies against the Palestinian people. Peace is based on justice, respect and protection of human rights. Peace cannot be built on the ruins of the Palestinian people and by conspiring against the people.

When your president visited Jerusalem and Sharm Sheikh a few days ago, he did not touch Palestine at all as if it is not on a map, but in fact it is on the map, not in his mind and in his opinion distorted by the Zionist lobby that controls ruling in the United States.

They tell us that America is an oasis of democracy and freedom, but it is not. When the racist Zionist lobby controls the government and they direct the policies and attitudes, it means that America is undercover occupation even if it claims to be an oasis of democracy, freedom and human rights defense.

Your attitude towards the Palestinian people and their just cause is what makes us determine whether you are a Christian or otherwise. Please return to your humanity and true Christianity, and do not ignore the injustice that our Palestinian people are facing, and do not disregard the suffering of this people and their quest to live in freedom, dignity and peace.

Yes, we are with peace, and we pray for peace, and tomorrow you will listen to the fathers in the Church of Resurrection who will stress the concept of peace, but our peace is not the peace of surrender, but the peace of freedom, dignity, abstinence from occupation, preservation of freedom and dignity of the Palestinian human.

I hope you receive my message and not be blocked by those around you who do not want you to hear the voice of truth and justice, but want you to here the voice of misguidance, distortion and falsification of facts and records.

We pray for you and for your president and all the rulers in this world to work to remove the injustice from our people, who deserve to live and do not deserve to die and deserve freedom and do not deserves to stay alive under occupation and slavery.

As you enter the Church of Resurrection, remember that this place reminds us of the victory of life over death, the victory of good over evil, and the victory of love over hate and racism.

We raise our prayers for our oppressed people in Gaza and for our Palestinian people displaced under the occupation, and remind you of what His Holiness, the late Pope Francis, said when he went to Bethlehem and was shocked by the presence of military fences and barriers, where he said in front of the media who accompanied his visit to Bethlehem, "that peace does not need military fences or barriers." Instead peace needs bridges of love, brotherhood and mercy.

"Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful," and remember that Jerusalem is a holy city of the three monotheistic religions, and it's not thanks to your host who claims to be a Jewish city ignoring its importance in both Christianity and Islam religions.

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they are the children of God who are called." (Matthew 9:5)

Archbishop Atallah Hanna
Jerusalem 22/10/2025

Foreign journalists are still not allowed in Gaza & Israeli Settlers nearly club a Palestinian woman to death in the West Bank ... Arwa Mahdawi

".... Foreign journalists are still not allowed in Gaza

The Foreign Press Association (FPA) has said it is disappointed in the Israeli supreme court’s decision to grant the state of Israel another delay regarding the independent entry of journalists into Gaza. It’s a shame that more journalists in the western media aren’t screaming at the top of their lungs about the murders of their colleagues in Gaza and this assault on press freedom – not to mention the fact that Israel is still not allowing adequate aid into Gaza. At the very least, the western media should be asking what it is that Israel doesn’t want reporters to see. Evidence of torture, perhaps?

Settlers nearly club a Palestinian woman to death

The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs recorded 71 incidents of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank across just one week. These include a brutal attack on a 55-year-old woman that was caught on camera...."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/25/why-is-trump-demolishing-the-white-houses-east-wing-because-he-wants-to

"What’s urgently needed now is a UN-sponsored international criminal tribunal for Gaza, modelled on those in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It should be empowered to examine all aspects of Israel’s and Hamas’s conduct of the war, especially their shared disregard for civilian lives and their killing, torture and mistreatment of hostages and detainees." Simon Tisdall in The Guardian

The war in Gaza is supposed to be over. But be warned: without truth and justice, it will never truly end

Simon Tisdall

A fragile ceasefire is in place, but what’s needed is an international tribunal for resolution and reparation. That’s the only route to lasting peace

Donald Trump insists the war in Gaza is over. No, it isn’t. The violence is much reduced. Yet Israeli forces have reportedly killed about 100 Palestinians and wounded hundreds more since the 10 October ceasefire began. Food aid supplies are still heavily restricted. The occupation continues, in Gaza and the West Bank. US officials fear prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices may renege on the deal, as in the past.

Likewise, Hamas elements and rival gangs have kept fighting. The terrorist group is not disarming; Israeli forces have not fully withdrawn to the agreed lines. US-framed security, governance and reconstruction proposals remain vague, hypothetical and contentious. The war’s root causes, principally the denial of Palestinian sovereignty and statehood, are not addressed. Unless that changes, it will all kick off again, sooner or later.

Yet for the sake of argument, let’s pretend – and hope – that Trump is right, and sustainable peace somehow slowly emerges from Gaza’s ruins. What happens next? Justice is what must happen next. As in other “post-conflict” situations, the living and the dead in Israel and Palestine are owed a reckoning.

All who committed, or oversaw, war crimes on or after 7 October 2023 must answer for their actions. Lest we forget, there are multitudes of victims, on both sides, whose suffering cries out for recognition, resolution and reparation. If only to reduce the risk of resumed warfare, it’s imperative that there be accountability and an end to impunity.

Genocide must never go unpunished. How extraordinary, then, that Trump’s “historic”, supposedly Middle East-transforming 20-point peace plan makes no mention of, and offers no path towards, any sort of official, postwar public investigatory process. Senior European, Arab and UK politicians are silent on this issue, too, apparently keen to draw a veil over the shaming events of the past two years.

One explanation is that, in different ways, their governments were complicit. Another is that the war exposed their lack of influence – and a societally damaging failure, exploited by Netanyahu and some Jewish diaspora leaders, to distinguish between crude antisemitism and legitimate anti-Israel, anti-war sentiment... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/26/gaza-war-truth-justice-ceasefire-international-tribunal

Friday, October 24, 2025

Israel’s parliament has passed a bill advancing the annexation of the occupied West Bank, a blatant violation of international law... & "Barely a mention in Western media." Assal Rad

Assal Rad

@AssalRad

Oct 22

Barely a mention in Western media.

https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/1981000085983957490

“For 80 years, we have worked to forge peace, tackle poverty & hunger, advance human rights & build a more sustainable world – together.” On Friday's #UNDay, @antonioguterres urges people to unite & fulfil the extraordinary promise of the United Nations... The creation of @UN was the result of a global commitment to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." 80 years later, the UN remains essential for advancing peace, prosperity & human rights. #UN80

United Nations

@UN

“For 80 years, we have worked to forge peace, tackle poverty & hunger, advance human rights & build a more sustainable world – together.” On Friday's #UNDay, @antonioguterres urges people to unite & fulfil the extraordinary promise of the United Nations.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/un-day/message

Secretary-General's message (2025)

“We the peoples of the United Nations...”

These are not just the opening words of the United Nations Charter – they define who we are.

The United Nations is more than an institution. It is a living promise – spanning borders, bridging continents, inspiring generations.

For eighty years, we have worked to forge peace, tackle poverty and hunger, advance human rights, and build a more sustainable world – together.

As we look ahead, we confront challenges of staggering scale: escalating conflicts, climate chaos, runaway technologies, and threats to the very fabric of our institution.

This is no time for timidity or retreat.

Now, more than ever, the world must recommit to solving problems no nation can solve alone.

On this UN Day, let’s stand together and fulfil the extraordinary promise of your United Nations.

Let’s show the world what is possible when “we the peoples” choose to act as one.

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

The creation of @UN was the result of a global commitment to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." 80 years later, the UN remains essential for advancing peace, prosperity & human rights. #UN80

The original manuscript of the United Nations Charter

The International Court of Justice opinion is clear: UNRWA must be allowed to deliver aid

The International Court of Justice has affirmed that the State of Israel must agree to and facilitate UNRWA’s humanitarian operations in #Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory — not impede them. The @‌CIJ_ICJ opinion is clear: UNRWA must be allowed to deliver.

UNRWA

@UNRWA

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Wednesday, October 22, 2025

ICJ orders Israel to allow aid into Gaza and says restrictions breached international obligations. UN’s top court also finds Israel failed to justify blocking Unrwa and other relief agencies

The court found Israel had not produced adequate evidence to justify ending cooperation with Unrwa. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Israel must allow aid into Gaza, and its restrictions on doing so over the past two years have put it in breach of its obligations, the UN’s top court has found.

The stinging advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague also found that Israel had a duty not to impede the supply of aid by UN organisations including the beleaguered UN Palestinian relief agency Unrwa, which has been in effect banned from the territory since January.

The court found Israel had not produced adequate evidence to justify ending cooperation with Unrwa on the basis it was not a neutral organisation under the Geneva conventions.

The court instead found the organisation was the backbone of all humanitarian assistance in the area, requiring Israel to cooperate with the organisation in good faith.

The ruling that Israel has violated the UN’s immunities as set out in the UN charter, as well as ignored its humanitarian obligations as an occupying power under the Geneva conventions is bound to lead to further calls for Israel’s suspension from the UN.

It is also possible that some countries will now claim that the UN secretary general António Guterres should seek damages from Israel for breaching the immunities of UN staff premises and entities inside occupied Palestine, by bombing them and ending cooperation with Unrwa. Israel has paid compensation in one previous case nearly 40 years ago... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/22/icj-orders-israel-to-allow-aid-into-gaza-and-says-blockade-had-been-a-breach