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| Orthodox Vespers in Gaza Saint Porphyrius Church March 29, 2025 |
By Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Orthodox Vespers in Gaza Saint Porphyrius Church March 29, 2025
We need to bring to life the values and principles of the UN Charter in every corner of the world
Thursday, March 27, 2025
For over 75 years Palestine Refugees have endured loss and hardship- UNWRA- Until there is a just solution to their plight, a world where Palestine refugees thrive: Families newly displaced by the escalation in northern Gaza, including Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, are facing dire conditions. With limited food and water, some of them now live in makeshift tents on the main street near the UNRWA Gaza main compound. #CeasefireNow
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Families newly displaced by the escalation in northern Gaza, including Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, are facing dire conditions.
With limited food and water, some of them now live in makeshift tents on the main street near the UNRWA Gaza main compound.
#CeasefireNow |
For over 75 years, #PalestineRefugees have endured loss and hardship.
For Arabic:Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/unrwa.
Middle Eastbit.ly/4f3VPgh
Until there is a just solution to their plight, a world where Palestine refugees thrive.
unrwa usa
mission
UNRWA USA lifts up the voices, experiences, and humanity of Palestine refugees to secure American support for resources essential to every human being, for the promise of a better life.
voices of unrwa blog
We aim to shed light on the daily realities faced on the ground by Palestine refugees and the impact of our work in providing humanitarian relief and support. Here, you will find insightful articles from our staff, partners, and beneficiaries about UNRWA’s education, health, and emergency assistance programs. Join us as we share inspiring stories of resilience, hope, and determination from Palestine and beyond. https://www.unrwausa.org/voices-of-unrwa
Gaza, My True Home: A Palestine refugee’s story of hope and return
Amjad Shabat, a former freelance content producer for UNRWA USA, reported from Gaza before she was evacuated in 2024. Now residing in Texas with her husband and young daughter, she contributes as a guest writer for the Voices of UNRWA blog. Through her writing, she reflects on her identity as a refugee and her longing to return home.
The phrase “no place like home” has echoed a lot in my family. I remember my late father saying it the moment he stepped through the door after a long day at work. To keep the tradition, I hung the tapestry at the entrance of my apartment. This simple phrase is deeply rooted in my consciousness now. No matter where I live, if I’m away from Palestine, I can't feel home. 
I learned other lessons watching my people find creative solutions to life under siege. I admired the countless female nurses and doctors who treated injuries with scared and shaky hands under fire. In devastating conditions, UNRWA workers continued their efforts to deliver life-saving aid while trying to survive themselves. They arrived at our makeshift tents and camps under the continuous massive bombings to deliver the only food available. My daughter, who was two and a half years old at the time, would have an egg every three days delivered by UNRWA. During these days, this single egg was her only source of protein.
As refugees, our perspective of home is complicated. We move around while remembering our homes are temporary, until we return back to our rightful, ancestral land. And yet, despite its challenges, life as a refugee has taught me resilience and profoundly shaped my identity.
Growing up in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, I remember the winters were the most difficult. Our metal-ceiling houses and narrow streets used to sink and float each time it rained. We never had a playground to play in. Our most joyful games took place in the alleys. Gaza has been under an illegal blockade since 2007, and at one point early on in the siege, our resources were so limited that we could not even get paper or pencils to write down our lessons.
I went to UNRWA schools where classes were crowded. This pushed me to work hard so I could stand out. My passion for writing emerged, and with the encouragement of my UNRWA teachers, I joined storytelling competitions across elementary schools in Jabalia. I felt proud of myself as I heard my classmates’ applause after winning first and second place. Their little hands clapping is a memory I cherish as the true sound and image of success.
Appreciating the value of education is a core concept in our lives as Palestinians and as refugees. My parents always told me that education would lead us toward a better future—a lesson I now strive to pass on to my own young daughter. Through education, our generation is able to tell our narrative in different languages, playing a major role in the growing global solidarity movement for Palestine.
What also left a strong impression on me were the female journalists and UNRWA humanitarian workers—women who, while carrying the weight of their roles as mothers surviving a military assault— prepare and pack their children's meals before heading out to document what experts know to be a genocide or deliver life-saving UNRWA aid. They balanced motherhood with the immense responsibility of helping others, all while trying to survive the same brutal conditions and stay strong for their children.... READ MORE https://www.unrwausa.org/voices-of-unrwa/gaza-my-true-home
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This Week In Palestine [actually every week in Palestine] Exceptional Women: Hanan Daoud Mikhail Ashrawi Daughter of Palestine By Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison
Hanan Daoud Mikhail Ashrawi
Daughter of Palestine
As a child, I watched my mother precisely, yet effortlessly line her beautiful almond-shaped brown eyes in the mornings. The earthy colors of her make-up palette and the color-tone of the room were comforting in their familiarity. The various shades of green and beige on the bedcovers, the hints of red and orange on the book covers by her bed and sometimes in the clothes she meticulously hangs the night before. The beautiful wood closet doors and brass-colored hardware from the 1960s still feel timeless and homey.
The cream-brown instant coffee that was always placed within the perfect reach of her right hand, would always be followed by the much darker umber of Arabic coffee; the scent adding to the palette of the senses. She always looked focused yet graceful in her application. One line or two, then she checks each eye in the mirror before purposefully moving on to the next step in her routine. The yellow in the palette always came from her notepad that she kept to the side of her dresser, where she wrote down thoughts for a speech she had to give that day or notes for a paper she was working on (or both). I was later told by my father that that is Mama’s space when she takes time for herself to get her thoughts together for the day.
The phone rings almost constantly, then as now; calls from fellow activists and colleagues discussing strategy, from the press requesting a statement or an interview, or from family or friends wanting to stop by or to discuss plans for family lunch on Sunday. The news, in both Arabic and English, is always on interchangeably, and sometimes simultaneously!
Her public impromptu speeches, interviews, and writing display her linguistic mastery of both Arabic and English. It was always apparent that she has a deep passion for literature and the arts.... READ MORE https://thisweekinpalestine.com/hanan-daoud-mikhail-ashrawi/
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| https://thisweekinpalestine.com/twip-cover-322/ Issue: 322, March 2025 Exceptional Palestinian Women |
Mike Hanini Odetalla: When I was a small child living in our ancestral village of Beit Hanina, Palestine, I used revel in the stories my late aunts and the elders used to tell... Kharareef... We would fall asleep after a night of kharareef, comforted in the knowledge that good always triumphed over evil, the monsters vanquished.
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| PALESTINE: Children from the nearby village are shown by vegetable crops in a field, wearing the traditional dress of the villagers at that time. In the background, the Mosque of Nebi Simwail could be seen to the west of the village. |
When
I was a small child living in our ancestral village of Beit Hanina,
Palestine, I used revel in the stories my late aunts and the elders used
to tell.
These stories could be summarized as a cross between folk
tales & what they call in the West as "fairy tales", and Greek
myths.
The tales were often handed down orally through the generations
of Palestinian fellaheen, or rural villagers, hundreds of which had
existed in Palestine for millennia, each one with it's unique traditions and culture, all bound to the land of their forefathers.
Kharareef
was the name given to these mesmerizing tales that my aunt used to tell
us.
Because our village, like many Palestinian villages in the mid
60's, had no electricity, we relied on the oral stories of our elders
for our entertainment.
We
would sit around the flickering light of a lantern and listen intently,
hanging on every word, and in the case of late aunt Zahiya (may God
bless her soul), she was a master story teller, having memorized
hundreds of ancient tales, all told in such an entertaining manner that
always left us hungry for more.
All these tales always had a happy
ending with good triumphing over evil and the hero defeating the bad,
whether people or creatures.
We would fall asleep after a night of
kharareef, comforted in the knowledge that good always triumphed over
evil, the monsters vanquished...
Which brings me back to the children of
Gaza. For over 17 months they have been living a nightmare that no story
teller could have ever dreamed of...
Don’t just blame Trump [and Republicans] – Democrats paved the way for this campus crackdow. Both parties are responsible for the mess facing Columbia and other institutions
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| ‘Virtually every aspect of the Trump administration’s posture rests on track laid by the Biden administration and the Democratic party.’ Photograph: Dana Edwards/Reuters |
"... Even before Trump had a chance to weigh in, Joe Biden immediately characterized the protests at Columbia as “antisemitic” and declared that “order must prevail” on college campuses. Democratic lawmakers put aggressive pressure on the former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik to crush the protests. She ultimately did so with the assistance of New York City’s Democratic mayor, Eric Adams (who justified his clampdown via evidence-free statements that the protests were driven primarily by “outside agitators”). Trump celebrated the pictures and videos of students getting roughed up by the NYPDand, upon Trump’s reclaiming the White House, the justice department interceded on behalf of Adams – making his criminal investigation go away in apparent exchange for the mayor adopting a more aggressive posture on immigration – a move that critics claim is a quid pro quo.
In a similar vein, it was Biden who enshrined the IHRA definition of antisemitism into federal guidance, despite the definition’s author repeatedly describing it as a “travesty” to use this definition to regulate speech and behavior. Building on Biden’s introduction, Trump is poised to sign a bill that would implement this same definition into federal anti-discrimination law – and in the meantime, he’s insisting Columbia and other schools adopt this definition in their own codes of conduct. NYU and Harvard have already taken this step, overriding concerns by civil rights and civil liberties organizations – from the ACLU, to Fire and the AAUP, to Israeli civil rights groups – who stressed that IHRA’s definition is extremely vague and provides strong leeway for institutional stakeholders to censor most critical discussion of Israel, Zionism or Judaism more broadly, by Jews and non-Jews alike.
Likewise, before Trump called upon Columbia to put its Middle East studies programs into receivership, New York’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, took the extraordinary step of demanding that the City University of New York eliminate a job posting for scholars who study Palestine. This is the same type of overreach Trump is exercising at Columbia – politicians setting the agenda for what can be taught and who can be hired – justified on the same grounds.
The Democrats will not save colleges and universities. They have been key partners
and pioneers for all of the actions currently being undertaken by the
Trump administration in this domain...." READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/26/universities-columbia-trump
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Jewish Yale faculty sign letter denouncing attacks on pro-Palestine dissenters: The statement, which rejected “cynical” claims of antisemitism, urged universities across the U.S. to resist federal actions like the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil and to protect university members’ right to free speech.
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| Tim Tai YALE |
Dozens of Jewish Yale affiliates, including 30 faculty members, signed a statement calling for university leaders to resist President Donald Trump’s targeting of pro-Palestinian dissenters under the guise of combating antisemitism.
The statement, titled “Not In Our Name,” was drafted by the Boston chapter of Concerned Jewish Faculty & Staff and first circulated on March 11. Nearly 3,000 faculty, staff and students at universities across the United States have signed the letter.
“We are united in denouncing, without equivocation, anyone who invokes our name — and cynical claims of antisemitism — to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities,” the letter reads.
The statement specifically called out the arrest of Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil as an attack on political dissent that uses “Jews as a shield.”
Khalil, a permanent legal U.S. resident, was arrested on March 8 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for his role as a lead negotiator for the pro-Palestine encampment at Columbia last spring. While Khalil has not been charged with any crime, he is currently detained in Louisiana and faces deportation.
“I might not agree with much of what Mahmoud Khalil has said, but if we allow agents to come knock on the door at any time and take away anyone for non-violently expressing their opinions, we’ve descended into a reign of terror,” Marci Shore, a statement signatory and professor of Eastern European history, wrote to the News. “And we need to stand in solidarity to protect one another’s rights.”
Shore also drew parallels between the Trump administration’s actions and the history of the Soviet Union. She warned that the illegal deportation of a critic of Israel under the guise of protecting Jewish people from antisemitism could itself provoke antisemitic violence, “whereupon Jews can be scapegoated for the violence ... READ MORE https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/03/24/jewish-yale-faculty-sign-letter-denouncing-trumps-attacks-on-pro-palestine-dissenters/
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"Israel kills a child in Gaza every 45 minutes."... Gaza's stolen childhood: Who were the thousands of children Israel killed?
Published On 26 Mar 2025(Al Jazeera)
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Israel kills a child in Gaza every 45 minutes.
That is an average of 30 children killed every day over the past 535 days.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 17,400 children, including 15,600 who have been identified. Many more remain buried under the rubble, most presumed dead.
Many of the surviving children have endured the trauma of multiple wars, and all of them have spent their lives under the oppressive shadow of an Israeli blockade, affecting every aspect of their existence from birth.
What is left of Gaza’s children?
About half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are children.
Over the past 17 months, Israeli attacks have left their homes in ruins, destroyed their schools, and overwhelmed their healthcare facilities.
To put this in perspective, if you had a room of 100 children:
- 2 have been killed
- 2 are missing, presumed dead
- 3 have been wounded, many critically
- 5 have been orphaned or separated from their parents
- 5 require treatment for acute malnutrition
The rest of the children bear the invisible scars of war, trauma that affects their mental health, safety and future.
Who were these children Israel killed?
They were the sons and daughters of Gaza, each with a life that should have been filled with innocence and the joy of childhood.
Among the documented children killed, there were -
- at least 825 babies, not yet old enough to celebrate their first birthday
- 895 one-year-olds, killed before they could take their first steps
- 3,266 who died as preschoolers aged two to five, deprived of play, discovery and the simple wonders of growing up
- 4,032 who died aged six to 10, leaving behind empty classrooms and school uniforms that were hardly worn
- 3,646 who died aged 11 to 14, middle schoolers who had lived through three wars (2012, 2014, 2021), but were killed in the fourth
- and 2,949 who were 15 to 17, at the age when they were preparing to step into the world, leaving behind dreams of independence and futures never realised; the 17-year-olds lived through four wars (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021), and were killed in the fifth
- 8,899 who were sons and 6,714 were daughters
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Wednesday, March 26, 2025
"Hossam Shabat and Mohammad Mansour were the latest Palestinian journalists to be assassinated in Gaza. Responsibility for their killings rests in part on their Western colleagues who have failed to accurately cover Israel's genocidal assault. "
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| All the Palestinian journalists in the photo were recently martyred in GAZA, after showing the truth to a blind world. |
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| Gaza in 2025- Palestine is the most well-documented genocide in history, yet the most denied. |
To be clear- Wikipedia on what a MARTYR was and is:
A martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, 'witness' stem μαρτυρ-, martyr-) is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In colloquial usage, the term can also refer to any person who suffers a significant consequence in protest or support of a cause.
.jpg) |
| Miniature from the Menologion of Basil II depicting the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia, who were martyred when Roman soldiers set their church on fire on Christmas Day, AD 302 |
In its original meaning, the word martyr, meaning witness, was used in the secular sphere as well as in the New Testament of the Bible.[4] The process of bearing witness was not intended to lead to the death of the witness, although it is known from ancient writers (e.g., Josephus) and from the New Testament that witnesses often died for their testimonies.
In Palestine, the word ‘martyr’ is traditionally used to mean a person killed by Israeli forces, regardless of religion.[15][16] For example, Shireen Abu Akleh was a Palestinian Christian journalist who was killed by Israeli forces, and Arabic media calls her a ‘martyr’.[17] This reflects a communal belief that every Palestinian death is part of a resistance against Israeli occupation.[18] Children are likewise called martyrs, such as the late children of journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh who were killed in an Israeli airstrike.[19]
.jpg) |
| Palestinian-American Shireen Abu Akleh overlooking the Old City of Jerusalem |
How Western media silence enables the killing of Palestinian journalists
Hossam Shabat and Mohammad Mansour were the
latest Palestinian journalists to be assassinated in Gaza.
Responsibility for their killings rests in part on their Western
colleagues who have failed to accurately cover Israel's genocidal
assault.
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| Palestinian journalists lift placards during a rally in protest of the killing of fellow reporters Hussam Shabat and Muhammad Mansour in Israeli strikes a day earlier, in Gaza City on March 25, 2025. (Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images) |
These were not accidents. These were not casualties of “crossfire” or “clashes.” These were targeted assassinations designed to silence those who document the truth about Gaza.
“If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces,” wrote Hossam in a final message shared by his team. His words now stand as both testament and indictment. “I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury.”
The Israeli military placed Hossam and five other Palestinian journalists on a hit list in October 2024. He regularly received death threats by call and text. Yesterday, that threat was carried out.
When this genocide began, Hossam was just 21 years old—a college student studying journalism who could not have imagined his future. “Little did I know I would be given one of the hardest jobs in the world: to cover the genocide of my own people,” he wrote about a year ago.
Since October 2023, at least 208 Palestinian journalists have been killed by Israeli forces. This is not collateral damage—it is a systematic campaign to eliminate witnesses. By targeting journalists, Israel seeks to control the narrative, to ensure that its actions in Gaza occur in darkness, free from the scrutiny of international law and public opinion.
The idea that Western journalists are responsible for Hossam’s martyrdom today is not a slogan. Their total journalistic malpractice and regurgitation of Zionist propaganda has left Palestinian journalists exposed, as a precious few who publish the truth, and, therefore: targets. Their failure to accurately report on the targeting of their colleagues, their reluctance to challenge Israeli narratives, and their tendency to frame these killings as unfortunate byproducts of conflict rather than deliberate acts—these journalistic failures have real consequences. They have left Palestinian journalists vulnerable, bearing alone the responsibility of documenting atrocities that many Western outlets refuse to acknowledge.
Hossam embodied resilience in the face of this isolation. “I say to the world, I am continuing. I am covering the events with an empty stomach, steadfast and persevering,” he once said in an interview. Hours before his death, he filed a story about Israel’s renewed bombing campaign that killed over 400 people, including nearly 200 children, in just hours. “I want to share the text urgently,” he wrote, desperate to ensure the world would know.
For 492 days, Hossam survived in conditions most journalists will never experience. He “slept on pavements, in schools, in tents—anywhere I could,” he wrote. “Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my people’s side.”
The father of Mohammad Mansour, the other journalist killed yesterday, spoke words that should haunt every newsroom: “Stand up and speak, tell the world, you are the one who tells the truth, for the image alone is not enough.”
Yet most Western journalists remain silent about the systematic killing of their Palestinian colleagues. The International Federation of Journalists has documented by name those killed or injured, but these deaths rarely receive the coverage or outrage they deserve. When journalists are targeted anywhere else in the world, press freedom organizations and major news outlets rightfully condemn such attacks. The silence surrounding Palestinian journalists speaks volumes.
True journalism means acknowledging uncomfortable truths: that these journalists were not killed accidentally but deliberately targeted; that their deaths serve to obscure war crimes; that the weapons used to kill them often come from the same countries whose media fails to report accurately on their deaths.
In his final message, Hossam made a request: “Do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
Western journalists have a moral and professional obligation to honor this request. They must accurately report on the targeting of their colleagues. They must challenge narratives that dismiss these killings as unfortunate accidents. They must recognize that their silence makes them complicit.
Hossam concluded, “By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist.” The question now is whether Western journalists will fulfill theirs.
News on Palestine you can trust
Thank you for reading this article. Before you go, we want to ask for your help. The Israeli government announced they will spend an additional $150 Million on propaganda in 2025. With the help of mainstream media, they are trying to sway public opinion over the genocide in Gaza.
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| American Classroom Globe of the 1940s |
"This is Hossam’s team, and we are sharing his final message :
“If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces.
When this all began, I was only 21 years old—a college student with dreams like anyone else.
For past 18 months, I have dedicated every moment of my life to my people.
I documented the horrors in northern Gaza minute by minute, determined to show the world the truth they tried to bury.
I slept on pavements, in schools, in tents—anywhere I could.
Each day was a battle for survival. I endured hunger for months, yet I never left my people’s side.
By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest—something I haven’t known in the past 18 months .
I did all this because I believe in the Palestinian cause. I believe this land is ours, and it has been the highest honor of my life to die defending it and serving its people.
I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories—until Palestine is free.”
— For the last time, Hossam Shabat, from northern Gaza."
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| Israel targets and kills Hossam Shabat hours after killing his colleague Mohammad Mansour |
124 journalist were killed around the world in 2024, around two-thirds of them were Palestinian.
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