Saturday, May 17, 2025

Dear America- Racist times created hell on earth for "others" then, we really should know better now...

 
& from UNWRA:  “We are used to different types of malnutrition, created by climate change, by drought, by conflict. In the context of #Gaza, it is none of that, it is man-made from the start to what we see today,” @unlazzarini  @UNRWA 

Yet another letter I just wrote & sent to my elected officials

Dear America,

My heart breaks for a misguided America that refuses to see Israel's cruel crimes against humanity.   

Ignoring real news and shocking facts about the horrific torture and suffering of Arab men, women, and children day after day, year after year, decade after decade, America has been foolishly funding, arming, and empowering an actual genocide and ethnic cleansing in that place once known as Palestine, as well as Lebanon and Syria.

Arabs say the Nakba (catastrophe) has been going on for 77 years- since 1948 when Israel was established, but really the Nakba and armed Zionist violence against the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine started with Zionism long before Hitler and the Nazi Holocaust.  

Racist times created hell on earth for "others" then, and we really should know better now.

We live in an age of International Law, Universal Human Rights, Free Speech, and Cell Phones live streaming the truth.  Justice in today's interconnected world should be as peaceful and careful as possible: Scorn violence!

Start and stay with full respect for fair and just laws for all people, not just your chosen favorites. 

Racist Israel is in the wrong. 

ISRAEL/PALESTINE as one state or two or three or ten, everyone must respect and honor every refugee's inalienable right to return to original homes and lands. 

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

Mosab Abu Toha: Israel murdered an artist yesterday. Elham al-Boddi, 33, from Beit Lahia. Her husband was killed months ago.

Brilliant Engineering Graduate Ceremony Student Speech by Palestinian American Leena Ghrayeb- University of Michigan 2025

Palestinians from Jaffa city enjoy a seaside cafe on the seashore of their city circa 1895 (- 1916) during the Ottoman era.

Some Symbols of Palestine (love not hate): The keffiyeh, Olive Trees, Tatreez Embroidery, Watermelons, Flags, Handala, Mahmoud Darwish, Ismail Shammout, Tamam Al-Akhal, Sliman Mansour, The Holy Family, The Dome of the Rock, Maps, Food, & KEYS

Israeli forces have now dropped more explosives in Gaza than fell on London, Dresden, and Hamburg during the Second World War. The region’s hospitals have not been spared; most are no longer functional. Clayton Dalton writes about the devastation in The New Yorker .

"“They were shouting at me, threatening to rape me, chanting ‘death to Arabs’. I thought the police would protect me from the mob, but they did nothing to intervene,” she said."

UNWRA Aid is ready to be brought into Gaza, just waiting for the crossings to reopen. Basic supplies meant for people in need are expiring while on the other side starvation deepens. UNRWA has nearly 3,000 trucks of lifesaving aid waiting. The siege imposed by the Israeli authorities must be lifted.

From our cousins in Jordan: With profound sorrow and deep sadness, we bid farewell to His Holiness Pope Francis, who throughout his life was a beacon of giving and love. He embodied humility, championed humanity, and tirelessly advocated for peace, both in word and in deed. He was a defender of the weak, an unwavering voice for truth, and a relentless seeker of justice for the poor and the oppressed... May the gentle soul of beloved Pope Francis Rest in Peace.

ADC: American Arabs on Pope Francis "WHILE WORLD LEADERS REMAINED SILENT, HE NAMED THE TRUTH: THERE IS A GENOCIDE IN GAZA, AND THE WORLD MUST STOP LOOKING AWAY"

UN Expert, Francesca Albanese, Urges Immediate End to Arms Sales to Israeli Occupation & UNRWA's Philippe Lazzarini Explains That Gaza’s Children Are Starving Under Deliberate and Brutal Blockade Imposed by Israeli Forces: This is not the result of a natural disaster or logistical failure,” he wrote on the X platform. “It is a man-made catastrophe, driven by clear political motives.”

"Yes, we reject what happened on October 7 and wish it had never happened. But we also reject the monstrous crimes being committed now against a defenseless people, trapped in a dirty war meant to crush their cause. Those who stay silent, who conspire, or who support the aggression on Gaza bear deep responsibility—for decades they failed to help free the Palestinian land and people from occupation, so that they too might live with dignity and freedom like the rest of the world.” Archbishop Atallah Hanna Friday, April 25, 2025

Born out of the ashes of the Second World War, the United Nations was the result of a global commitment to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) As Palestinian Christians face relentless attacks — churches destroyed, worshipers displaced — we witness a people whose faith refuses to die. No nation shows the power of resurrection, the depth of hope, and the endurance of love more than Palestine. This is the true meaning of faith. This is the true message of Easter.

A nation behind bars: Why has Israel imprisoned 10,000 Palestinians? ... For every Palestinian Israel freed in the ceasefire deal, it apprehended 15 more. The number of political prisoners in its jails has doubled since the war began.

“Maybe my photos will live longer than I do and that’s what makes me feel at peace” Fatima Hassouna, a well-known Palestinian photographer from Gaza, was killed alongside ten members of her family when the Israeli army targeted her home in Gaza City April 16th, 2025

A martyr is a person who is killed or made to suffer because of their religious or other beliefs ... Talented artist Deem Zurub [Dina Khaled Mohammed Zaarab] drew pictures of people who died in Gaza- MARTYRs who died in Israel's war against the indigenous people of Palestine. Deem Zurub, a Palestinian refugee living in a tent, was killed by Israeli airstrike April 14th, 2025

Dear America- Funding religious extremists and charlatans is a recipe for disaster.

Dear America- Please do not let this tragic situation became a reason for more people to be treated more unequally, with more Palestinians and Palestinian Americans being doxed, destroyed, and displaced.

Life is not a video game. These are real human beings and American made weaponry has been creating a Holocaust with The Rule of Lawlessness in the Holy Land.

Taxpayers' money should not be shoring up greed, corporate corruption, injustice, and war.

Please, let Golden Rule thinking and the rule of fair and just laws guide US all towards a better way forward.

State sponsored violence is not the way to convince vulnerable people to veer away from arming religious tyranny and terrorism.

Hate crimes are escalating here in America with people primed by to think, say and do horrible things...

Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong. Wrong then and wrong now

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."   https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Mosab Abu Toha: Israel murdered an artist yesterday. Elham al-Boddi, 33, from Beit Lahia. Her husband was killed months ago.

mosab_abutoha
Israel murdered an artist yesterday. Elham al-Boddi, 33, from Beit Lahia [Gaza, Palestine.]
Her husband was killed months ago.
Mosab Abu Toha

Pulitzer Prize winner
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist

"Why aren't Palestinian prisoners called hostages too?"  https://www.instagram.com/mosab_abutoha/reel/DJiG3WhSgqF/

Founder at Library & Bookshop For Gaza

From Gaza City PALESTINE
   Pronounces name MOH-sub uh-BOO-TOH-hah

Mosab Abu Toha receives 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary

Mosab Abu Toha, who was a 2019–2020 fellow in Harvard’s Scholars At Risk program and a visiting poet in our department, received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. His essays in  The New Yorker offered an intimate portrayal of life in Gaza amidst ongoing conflict, which the Pulitzer committee commended for combining “deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience.”

Abu Toha, a poet and educator, founded Gaza’s first English-language library. He is the author of Forest of Noise and Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, the latter a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of an American Book Award.

“Under the Rubble”

“In Jabalia camp, a mother collects her daughter’s / flesh in a piggy bank, / hoping to buy her a plot / on a river in a faraway land.”

"We remember everything" 2025 Keys to Return painting by Palestinian artist Irina Naji

"We remember everything" 2025 Keys to Return painting by Palestinian artist Irina Naji

 https://www.facebook.com/reel/1978783495861828

https://www.facebook.com/irina.naji

Palestine Heritage Traditions Culture Art 

"All my paintings are pages of my life in Gaza" Irina Naji  

https://www.instagram.com/irina.naji

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/1-irina-naji?tab=about

Irina Naji  "Dream" painting from 2021
- An acrylic on canvas painting by Palestinian artist Irina Naji, named Dream, displayed at an art exhibition in the West Bank city of Ramallah (2014 photo credit :AP/Nasser Nasser)