✝️ Hosh Al-Syrian | Bethlehem, Palestine. 🇵🇸 It says in Arabic: “In the month of July, 1883 God is the guardian and the guide, and the house built by the Lord shall not shelter the wicked.”

Hosh Al-Syrian | Bethlehem, Palestine. It says in Arabic: “In the month of July, 1883 God is the guardian and the guide, and the house built by the Lord shall not shelter the wicked.”

‘My poems are part of my flesh’: Palestinian poet Batool Abu Akleen on life in Gaza: At just 20, the poet is one of the most vivid witnesses to the conflict. She talks about dreams of Oxford, the deaths of friends and how tragedy has shaped the person she has become.

‘I’m less timid now’ … Batool Abu Akleen. Photograph: PR -  One of her close friends, the photojournalist Fatma Hassouna, was killed in a strike this spring, a month before the Cannes film festival premiere of a documentary about her life, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

 by Claire Armitstead

Batool Abu Akleen was having lunch in the seaside apartment that has become the latest refuge for her family of seven, when a missile struck a nearby cafe. It was the last day of June, an ordinary Monday in Gaza City. “I was holding a falafel wrap and looking out of the window, and the window shook,” she says. Within an instant, dozens of men, women and children were dead, in an atrocity that was reported around the world. “It doesn’t feel real sometimes,” she adds, with the nonchalance of someone numbed by living with horror.

But this impression is misleading. At just 20 years old, Abu Akleen is becoming one of Gaza’s most vivid and unstinting witnesses, whose debut poetry collection has already won accolades from the novelist Anne Michaels, the playwright Caryl Churchill and the poet Hasib Hourani, among others. She has thrown her whole being into finding a language for the unspeakable, one capable of articulating its surrealism and absurdity as well as its daily tragedies.

In her poems, missiles are fired from Apache helicopters, fleetingly referencing both the US’s role and its history of annihilation... READ MORE    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/05/my-poems-are-part-of-my-flesh-palestinian-poet-batool-abu-akleen-on-life-in-gaza 

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The water fountain is called a sabil [in Arabic], a word that originally meant path. Later, it came to mean path to God. Sabils were widespread in the Muslim world until the early 20th century. They were charitable water fountains refilled by water carriers at specific times of the day

 Jerusalem-  Naqshbandi Zawiya-  a historical little mosque built from about 300 years ago and also used as Islamic information center offers a free rest station for tourist free Islamic books free drinks and give an intro about Islam

Bukhari Mosque in Jerusalem

Arabs in Pictures   The water fountain is called a sabil, a word that originally meant path. Later, it came to mean path to God.

Sabils were widespread in the Muslim world until the early 20th century. They were charitable water fountains refilled by water carriers at specific times of the day. 

"And yet we watched as those subtle, innocent, beautiful nuances of our tongue were twisted into indicators of suspicion. In an American discourse so heavily imbued with anti-Palestinian racism and so rife with Islamophobia, Palestinians or those who dare see them as human are not allowed to have legitimate intentions or legitimate grievances. They are to be constantly seen as suspicious. Even if they speak of human rights, equality, dignity, they can never really be trusted to mean those things because of who they are — sneaky shapeshifters with deeply held, murderous, ulterior motives. It is quite remarkable how much this echoes antisemitism throughout history, and that should surprise no one. All forms of racism are connected" Yousef Munayyer

 ... An Era of Being Exogenously Defined 

On a nightly basis after September 11, 2001, so-called terrorism experts who knew next to nothing about the language, religion, or cultures of the region would appear on news broadcasts — indoctrinating our friends, neighbors, classmates, and coworkers to treat our language as suspicious.

We watched as those subtle and innocent nuances of our tongue were twisted into indicators of suspicion.

I remember hearing an Arab-American elder once explain to a curious neighbor, “In Arabic, God is in every conversation.” At the time, I thought it was a bit overdramatic. It is undoubtedly true that it is hard to imagine an Arabic conversation where Allah is not uttered. Whether in our bismillahs, alhamdulillahs, mashallahs or inshallahs or our yallahs or wallahs, God makes routine appearances. But these are not necessarily religious conversations at all. Even the non-religious use these terms; it is just the nature of how we communicate in our language due to its historic ties to faith. It is also one of the many things that makes the Arabic language beautiful.

And yet we watched as those subtle, innocent, beautiful nuances of our tongue were twisted into indicators of suspicion. In an American discourse so heavily imbued with anti-Palestinian racism and so rife with Islamophobia, Palestinians or those who dare see them as human are not allowed to have legitimate intentions or legitimate grievances. They are to be constantly seen as suspicious. Even if they speak of human rights, equality, dignity, they can never really be trusted to mean those things because of who they are — sneaky shapeshifters with deeply held, murderous, ulterior motives. It is quite remarkable how much this echoes antisemitism throughout history, and that should surprise no one. All forms of racism are connected.

A Shoe on the Other Foot

Imagine for a minute subjecting words or phrases in a different language, or about a different people, to the same unfair treatment. Consider the Hebrew phrase Am Yisrael Chai. The literal meaning of the phrase is “the people of Israel live,” and there are plenty of instances where the use of this phrase is mundane. However, the phrase is routinely chanted by murderous Israeli settlers as they engage in mob violence against Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Recently, it has been shouted by Israeli soldiers as they commit heinous war crimes in Gaza and shared widely and proudly by those same soldiers on social media. Thus, one could argue that Am Yisrael Chai is a genocidal slogan and must be banned, and that all those who use it or have used it must be criminalized and viewed with deep suspicion.

Surely, this is absurd. And yet this is the absurdity Palestinians and those who support their freedom are constantly subjected to. Still, too many cannot see the glaring double standard... READ MORE

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/

Zohran Mamdani Shows Democrats How Not to Take the Bait

By refusing to capitulate on "globalize the intifada," Mamdani rejected a long tradition of demonizing Arabic language.

by 

Yousef Munayyer

July 10 2025

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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

By Zeina Ashrawi Hutchison

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!

With students.

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

https://thisweekinpalestine.com/table-of-contents-322/

United Nations: In this Holy Month, let us all embrace our common humanity to build a more just and peaceful world for all... as millions of people around the world begin to observe Ramadan.

United Nations

@UN

In this Holy Month, let us all embrace our common humanity to build a more just and peaceful world for all. —

@antonioguterres

as millions of people around the world begin to observe #Ramadan.

António Guterres: We will never, ever give up making this world better for everyone, everywhere.

The Whole World

Professor of Physics David Goldberg, PhD, is part of a team that tackled these questions and struck upon what is now the most accurate flat map of the world: a double-sided circle that features the Northern Hemisphere on one side and the Southern Hemisphere on the other. Picture a vinyl record and flipping it over in your hands—the edge of the record would be the equator.

Please do not demonize and silence or destroy people who speak out peacefully against corruption, injustice, racism, bigotry, and violence of every type.

Semitic languages

 Dear America ,

Criticizing Israel is not Anti-Semitic.  Semites speak Semitic languages. Palestinians are Semites, but they are erased and excluded from the definition of Anti-Semitism... 

 

Palestinians are also being erased, excluded, and silenced by Israeli efforts to seize Palestinian land, rights, peace, and the story itself.   

We know about Anti-Semitism because of the crimes against humanity committed by Nazis who were taught to hate Jewish people and others.

 

The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place during the Nuremberg trials (1945-1946) against defeated leaders of Nazi Germany, laying the ground work for modern international law.  

 

Nazis had been brainwashed by toxic propaganda to hate Jewish people.  But Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes.  Israelis should be too. 

 

Arming Israel and funding Israel's violations of international law and the Palestinians basic human rights is wrong. 

 

“Never Again means Never Again for anybody!” Every year Holocaust survivors and their descendants speak out about Israel’s cruelty towards Palestinian men, women, and children on Holocaust Memorial Day. It is not a huge crowd, but what they say is hugely important. We should listen.

 

Please do not demonize and silence or destroy people who speak out peacefully against corruption, injustice, racism, bigotry, and violence of every type. 

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American homemaker & poet

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

Jonathan Cook: Thirty years of Middle East lies just keep coming back to haunt us- The West’s ‘war on terror’ was built on a series of deceptions to persuade us that our leaders were crushing Islamist extremism. In truth, they were nourishing it

No To Hate: United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech

“We must condemn antisemitism wherever and whenever it appears – as we must condemn all forms of racism, prejudice and religious bigotry which we see proliferating today.”  @antonioguterres United Nations

Rashida Tlaib: Politicians should not be allowed to profit from war

Tlaib introduced the Stop Politicians Profiting from War Act to ban members of Congress and their families from owning defense stocks.

UNWRA 2025- Palestinian children dream of music and peace....

A family from Bethlehem in 1951

“Never Again means Never Again for anybody” Holocaust Survivors speak about Israel's Genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day -January 2025

UNWRA WORKS: In the first week of the ceasefire, 60% of all the food that entered the Gaza Strip was from UNRWA. If the ban on UNRWA is implemented in the next days, it will severely challenge the already fragile ceasefire including the delivery of lifesaving aid in Gaza #UNWRAworks

"I don’t think that God sent us prophets and books of light to fight each other over them. They actually tell us how to live together. " Yusuf/Cat Stevens

Frankly every Holocaust Museum on earth should have a wing added explaining the very real plight and suffering of the native non-Jewish Palestinians. 75 years and counting...

CIVILIANS & their homes MUST BE PROTECTED 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 

America should not help Israel commit crimes against humanity.

Israeli Settlers threw molotov cocktails and rocks, breaking windows and setting several houses and cars on fire in each place they targeted in protest at the release of 90 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails in exchange for three Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

"Since the war in Gaza began, settler violence has intensified further, displacing entire villages for the first time. On many occasions, the Israeli army has been documented failing to stop settler attacks, or even joining in."

"“We can’t even cross the road to our olive trees now or they’ll shoot at us,” he said of the settlers. “This is our land, and our houses, but they want us to leave for good.”"

‘A constant state of panic’: how war in Gaza triggered new wave of depression and insomnia among Palestinian refugees from 1967 war The stress of seeing the destruction of their homeland sent rates of mental illness soaring in Jordan’s Jerash camp – and the ceasefire has brought scant relie

Poet Mosab Abu Toha's January 22, 2025 Statement on the destruction of the Edward Said Public Library in Gaza

Dear America- letter sent to my elected leaders: Please understand that our friend Israel already is a one state "solution" that has been oppressing and intentionally displacing the native non-Jewish Palestinians for decades now.

Unrwa may be forced to stop saving lives in Gaza. Will the world let that happen? Outrage over Israel’s attempt to dismantle our UN agency has largely petered out. The stakes are very high now Opinion piece by Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General

"Meanwhile, Hamas accuses Unrwa’s leadership of colluding with the Israeli occupation and opposes the agency’s efforts to promote human rights and gender equality. Far from being a party to the conflict, Unrwa is a casualty of this war." Philippe Lazzarini

CSM ‘Cold is death.’ For Gazans in flimsy tents, a winter of sorrow and loss. 

Human Rights Watch joins with nearly 90 other organizations in a letter opposing US sanctions against the International Criminal Court. It would be a terrible irony if a tool designed to penalize violators of human rights could instead contribute to their impunity. 

"The U.S. provided $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel from October 2023 to October 2024, a substantial increase from the already $3.8 billion in military aid the U.S. gives Israel annually. "

The best idea is to start with full support for fair and just laws based on full respect for basic human rights.

The United Nations & The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Always, no matter what.... Even Wars Have Rules

"If the U.S. had held Israel accountable for the killing of other Americans like Rachel Corrie or Shireen Abu Akleh, perhaps Israeli soldiers would not feel so emboldened to kill Americans, and other civilians, today." Hamad Ali in The Hill 12/14/24

Dear America- Israel and its propagandists claim it is all about self-defense, but Israel is and has been the aggressor and the rule breaker.

Dear Elected Officials- Stop poisoning the land, and undermining international law.

My Letters https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

 

"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

 

In the aftermath of the ceasefire in Gaza, 1.9 million displaced people urgently need shelter, aid, and psycho-social support.⁣ ⁣UNRWA plays a vital role in fostering stability and resilience during this critical time.⁣

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/ 

“Depth of Kinship”: Zeina Azzam’s Some Things Never Leave You BOOK REVIEW by Deema K. Shehabi

 

Photo of the author by Jeff Norman / ZeinaAzzam.com

Book Review

September 10, 2024

by  Deema K. Shehabi  -Deema K. Shehabi is a poet and editor. Her first book, Thirteen Departures from the Moon

In Zeina Azzam’s mesmerizing collection of poems Some Things Never Leave You (Tiger Bark Press, 2023), tenderness means gazing directly at what both cuts and fills you. A universal factor of human existence is the need to enter an expressive space, which distills moments from one’s life into essences. Whether it’s standing at a parent’s deathbed wondering when the next reunion with a dying beloved will be or rejoicing at a child’s ability to enunciate Arabic letters despite truncation from the foundational homeland (Palestine), Azzam deftly parses the threshold of joys and losses and renders them in a breathless lyricism.

In one of the seminal poems in the collection, “You Could Tell Yourself,” Azzam invites the reader into ... READ MORE  https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/book-reviews/depth-kinship-zeina-azzams-some-things-never-leave-you-deema-k-shehabi

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The Arabic word for God is “Allah” whether you are A CHRISTIAN or a MUSLIM ... Inshaa Allah

"I am Arab, also, a Palestinian Christian.

 

We also say, “Allahu Akbar” which is normally associated with the Muslim faith, we also say “Inshaa Allah”,

 

“Ma Shaa Allah” and 

 

“Alhamdulillah”,

 

this is simply because ARABIC is our spoken language. 

 

The Arabic word for God” is “Allah” whether you are A CHRISTIAN or a MUSLIM. ‘

 

— Theodosius Atallah Hanna

Universal Echo poem by Anne Selden Annab from 2008 "Every time you unlock any door any where any one you are Al-Awda. Any time you fit a key into any ignition of any vehicle you are Al-Awda. Any time you write a poem (or a grocery list)..."

...Universal Echo

Every time
you unlock any door
any where
any one
you are Al-Awda

Any time
you fit a key
into any ignition
of any vehicle

you are Al-Awda

Any time
you write a poem
(or a grocery list)
you are Al-Awda
as the ink shapes
in every language
spell out
what was
is and always will be
Al-Awda

When you read a book
When you fall in love
When you buy a ring
When you leave home
When you return
all Al-Awda

Every time
you flick a switch
turn on a light
Al-Awda

Every time
you close your eyes
and dream
Al-Awda

Every pillow you fluff
every penny you drop
every street you stroll
every garden
every step
even every stumble
All Al-Awda

And now knowing Al-Awda
know that all roads now
lead home
....to Palestine

poem & photo copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab

The Nation: “The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza- The extraordinary story of a 14-year-old, her mother, and what happened when the Israeli military came to destroy their house.

 Lujayn describes an increasingly common tactic of the Israeli military in her narrative: bulldozing buildings with people still inside. In addition, Lujayn’s story serves as a warning to the world about the dangers of Israel’s threatened invasion of Rafah. If she were displaced again, she and her family would have nowhere to go.

Lujayn is a brilliant student. She had been planning to go to university to study mathematics. But there are no more universities left in Gaza, and Lujayn has no permanent home. All she can do right now is survive and tell her story. For Lujayn as for many Palestinians, storytelling is a form of resistance.

“The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza

The extraordinary story of a 14-year-old, her mother, and what happened when the Israeli military came to destroy their house.

Lujayn  Rafah, March 2024

This picture taken during a media tour organized by the Israeli military on February 8, 2024, shows Israeli soldiers standing near a bulldozer inside Gaza City. (Jack Guez / AFP via Getty Images)

This story was originally written in Arabic by a 14-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza named Lujayn. Along with one of Lujayn’s relatives, I have translated it into English. She initially wrote this story for her mother and then decided to share it with the world. It recounts her family’s forced displacement from the house where they were sheltering in Khan Younis. This was the fourth time Lujayn had been displaced since Israel’s assault on Gaza began.... READ MORE  https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-bulldozer-kept-coming-a-girl-stares-down-death-in-gaza/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

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