"We believe that all people are born free and equal, and advocate for everyone to have the same basic human rights, regardless of their race, sex, nationality, religion or any other status."

United Nations 

United Nations

@UN

 

Every day, the UN works around the world to:  

Feed the hungry  

Vaccinate children  

Promote development  

Protect civilians  

Support displaced people  

Advance human rights 

 

& much more.  

 

https://un.org/en/essential-un

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1936, Jerusalem, Palestine 🇵🇸 A Palestinian shepherd.

1936, Jerusalem, Palestine  A Palestinian shepherd.

Pals

@palsofnations

https://x.com/palsofnations/status/2013478790047969428 

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Nadeen Ayoub: “There hasn't been another Miss Palestine since 2022 because of the genocide,” she says. “After Miss Earth, I was supposed go to Miss Universe. But I postponed it because I did not want to go when genocide was happening. I wanted to focus more on staying behind the scenes because the spotlight was supposed to be on the people in Palestine who are suffering, rather than me.”

Nadeen Ayoub is a Palestinian model who was appointed Miss Universe Palestine 2025. She represented Palestine at Miss Universe 2025, where she placed in the top 30. 

“There hasn't been another Miss Palestine since 2022 because of the genocide,” she says. “After Miss Earth, I was supposed go to Miss Universe. But I postponed it because I did not want to go when genocide was happening. I wanted to focus more on staying behind the scenes because the spotlight was supposed to be on the people in Palestine who are suffering, rather than me.”

Crowned Miss Palestine in 2022, Ayoub, 27, made history that year when she represented her country for the first time at the Miss Earth pageant, where she was one of the top five finalists. But she had to put her future plans as a title holder on hold after conflict broke out in Gaza in 2023.  

Nadeen Ayoub on representing Palestine at Miss Universe: 'We should never be silenced'

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/lifestyle/other/nadeen-ayoub-on-representing-palestine-at-miss-universe-we-should-never-be-silenced/ar-AA1KIqHs 

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"I want my taxes to help children, not kill them. I want my taxes to feed children, not starve them. I want to build a better world, not bomb it." Ms Rachel

The dehumanization is so painful.” As Gaza’s war rages, Ms. Rachel — beloved by millions of toddlers — has been outspoken for Palestinian children. She says she’s shocked by how deeply they’re dehumanized, and while the backlash has been painful, the support has been greater.

Instagram Repost - @msrachelforlittles

msrachelforlittles

 "“I was in a lot of pain, because I just didn’t understand. And now I am definitely speaking out, saying — if you care deeply about one group of kids, it does not mean that you don’t care about other groups of kids. That’s not fair, and it’s not right to say that.”

She didn’t stop posting about Gaza; she also continued to make statements condemning antisemitism and expressing grief for Israeli families whose children and loved ones were taken hostage by Hamas. “I just felt led to keep going,” she says. “I have this platform. Kids gave me this platform, and I want to use this platform for kids.”"     https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/interactive/2025/ms-rachel-childrens-media/?itid=sr_0_b963bb7d-4f70-4d9e-960a-8b7e83553a10

Ms. Rachel grew up on Mister Rogers. Now she’s carrying on his legacy.

The YouTube star wants her audiences — adults and children alike — to see the humanity of all people.

By Caitlin Gibson

July 31, 2025 in The Washington Post

 

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

 

Education

UNWRA's students are among the most highly educated in the region. Since the 1960s, girls have made up around half of UNRWA students.

 

Quality education helps young Palestine refugees understand the world in which they live and promotes values of tolerance, cultural identity, and gender equality. Through its education system, UNRWA aims to ensure that Palestine refugee students develop their full potential and become “confident, innovative, questioning, thoughtful, and open-minded, to uphold human values and tolerance, proud of their Palestinian identity and contributing positively to the development of society and the global community”  https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do/education

 

UNWRA provides assistance and protection for registered Palestine refugees 

 

"There is no alternative to UNRWA among UN agencies or NGOs" @‌UNLazzarini  

Without a political solution, UNRWA remains the sole provider of these essential services. A fully empowered Palestinian state is the only viable alternative to take over, but until then, UNRWA's mandate remains crucial for the stability and well-being of refugees across the region.  https://www.unrwa.org/

UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution A/ES-10/L.32 affirming its full support for the mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency UNRWA and deploring the legislation adopted by the Israeli Knesset on 28 October 2024 VOTE: In favor: 159 Against: 9 Abstain: 11

UN News

@UN_News_Centre

#BREAKING UN General Assembly ADOPTS resolution A/ES-10/L.32 affirming its full support for the mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency

@UNRWA

and deploring the legislation adopted by the Israeli Knesset on 28 October 2024 VOTE: In favor: 159 Against: 9 Abstain: 11

4:52 PM · Dec 11, 2024

This Christmas, once again, we find ourselves reflecting on the meaning of Christmas through the image of Christ in the Rubble... 87% of housing units in Gaza are damaged.

Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

 

This Christmas, once again, we find ourselves reflecting on the meaning of Christmas through the image of Christ in the Rubble. 

 

Christ is still under the rubble in Gaza, as children are still being pulled from under the rubble in Gaza. 

 

It is heartbreaking that we are still calling and pleading for a ceasefire. 

 

Decision makers seem to be content with this war continuing as long as it has. They have decided that Palestinians are dispensable. 44700 killed (not including those under the rubble), including close to 17500 children. 

 

87% of housing units are damaged. 

 

Thousands are physically handicapped. Millions are traumatized. It is literally hell on earth in Gaza. 

 

How many more need to be sacrificed before decision makers decide enough in enough? 

 

We insist: we see the image of Jesus in every child killed. They are precious to God. 

 

May we unite this Christmas in lighting a candle for Gaza, and particularly for the children of Gaza. This is beyond symbolism. Let us unite in prayer, and commit ourselves to the cause of ending this genocidal war. We cannot stop talking about Gaza. 

 

We can stop advocating. Most importantly, we will not lose our faith and hope in God and the goodness and justice of God.

 

12:47 PM · Dec 8, 2024

Pope: ‘Enough with wars and violence in the world, let there be peace in the whole world’ 2024-12-07

Pope: ‘Enough with wars and violence in the world, let there be peace in the whole world’   2024-12-07

From Palestine to the Vatican: A Nativity Scene Adorns Paul VI Hall, Crafted by Artisans from Bethlehem

As the Christmas season approaches, the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall unveiled a Nativity scene, meticulously crafted by Palestinian artisans from Bethlehem. Organized under the auspices of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine and the Embassy of the State of Palestine to the Holy See, with the oversight by Dar al-Kalima University and the Piccirillo Center.

 

The ceremony was presided over by His Holiness Pope Francis, who was joined by Dr. Ramzi Khouri, PLO executive committee member and head of the Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs.

 

Dr. Khouri conveyed warm greetings from the Palestinian people, President Mahmoud Abbas and members of the Higher Presidential Committee. He expressed deep gratitude for the Pope’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and his tireless efforts to end the war on Gaza and promote justice.

 

In a symbolic gesture, two Palestinian children presented the Pope with the “Star of Bethlehem” plaque, reflecting the pain and resilience of Palestinian children suffering from the war, famine, and devastation in Gaza.

 

Pope Francis used the occasion to call attention to Bethlehem’s sacred Nativity sites, emphasizing their message of peace and love. “Despite their differences,” he remarked, “all Nativity scenes embody the universal message of hope and goodwill left to us by Jesus.”

 

His Holiness issued a heartfelt appeal:

 

“Enough with wars! Enough of violence! Do you know that one of the most profitable industries is the arms trade? Profit made for the purpose of killing—how can this be? Enough with wars!” He reiterated his strong condemnation of the arms industry that thrives on war and death.

 

The Pope also remembered all those suffering from the scourge of war worldwide, stating, “With tears in our eyes, we lift our prayers for peace. Let there be no more wars, no more violence. May peace reign across the world and touch every heart beloved by God.”

 

The 10-foot-tall Nativity Scene aims to draw global attention to the Holy Land, where conflict and sorrow persist. It features the Holy Family carved from olive wood, with the Christ Child laid upon a Palestinian keffiyeh. A mother-of-pearl Star of Bethlehem adorns the scene, inscribed in Arabic and Latin with the message: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”   

... READ MORE  https://www.hcc.ps/archives/57274?lang=en

 

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Palestinian women wearing traditional dresses (thobe), each different design represent different Palestinian villages and cities.

Palestinian women wearing traditional dresses (thobe), each different design represent different Palestinian villages and cities. This photo was taken in 2007 and was selected as the winner of a photo competition - ALECSO

 

Palestine Remembered - Traditional Costumes Map

Americans should focus on building peace - My letter published online in my local newspaper The Patriot News: "Our domestic and foreign policies should align to shape true justice, peace, and prosperity for all people, regardless of race or religion."

Americans should focus on building peace | PennLive Letters

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2024/11/americans-should-focus-on-building-peace-pennlive-letters.html

Published: Nov. 29, 2024

Thank you for publishing William Lambers’ 11/11 opinion “The silence heard around the world brought peace.”

Lambers sagely reminds us that the true spirit of Armistice Day, is “to keep up the mission for a world free from the horror of war.”

We must make it a priority to invest in goodness, not war: We need to disarm and dismantle the military-industrial complex that our tax dollars have helped build.

Fully respecting basic human rights and the rule of fair and just laws is a good first step in building peace.

Our domestic and foreign policies should align to shape true justice, peace, and prosperity for all people, regardless of race or religion.

Anne Selden Annab, Mechanicsburg Pa.

In A Climate Where All Palestinian Art Is “Controversial,” a Connecticut Museum Carves Space for Palestinian Dreams

View of the Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Photo Meg Dalton/Connecticut Public

September 13, 2024 7:00am 

by

Carlos Valladares

 https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/palestine-museum-us-dreams-art-connecticut-1234717438/

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 “We can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s greatest artists.”

So says Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum US. Since 2018, he has directed the space. He also owns the building—an office complex in Woodbridge, Connecticut—and so is free from worry over upsetting the various bureaucracies who might hesitate to showcase Palestinian art.

A soft ban on Palestinian artists is, and has been, all too pervasive. (Saleh tells me: “The name ‘Palestine’ is radioactive right now.”) This year’s Venice Biennale, with its theme “Foreigners Everywhere,” panders to an idea of inclusivity. But when the Palestine Museum proposed the exhibition “Foreigners in their Homeland” as a collateral event, the proposal was rejected. Palestine also does not have a national pavilion, since Italy does not recognize it as a sovereign nation. Besides, according to Saleh, any art from Palestine is instantly tagged as Political with a capital-“P.” Thus, art and expressions are swept away to escape a boogeyman controversy. What gets left behind? Tough-minded work that deals with the struggle of love, anger, jealousy, fear, survival, loss, and, beyond this, a desire for what can come. 

No matter: Saleh staged the exhibition anyway, renting Venice’s Palazzo Mora, where “Foreigners in their Homeland” is up until November 24, 2024. Most of the Venice artists have works on view in Connecticut, too, in the Palestine Museum’s permanent collection.

Loss—and the question of how to regain one’s bearings—is a common touchpoint in the works at the museum. Saleh wants to raise the profile of those Palestinian artists who know intimately the contours of loss, who long with passion for a space to give form to their dreams. When we face Khair Alah Salim’s painted solo cellist, who plays to her audience of three unpeeled oranges in an orange haze, we see how it is a clandestine joy—and a right too often taken as a privilege—to render a face, to paint fixed, concentrated eyes.

Raghda Zaiton: “Waiting,” 2020. Photo Carlos Valladares

The museum doubles as a library of Palestinian literature, with texts in Arabic, English, and French. I have spent hours just poring through these books—primarily donated, Saleh tells me, by Connecticut locals, now sitting on shelves nestled below the paintings. There are classics like Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape (2007); there are novels of identity crises with dashes and sweeps of the Kafkaesque and the science-fictive, like Emile Habibi’s The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (1974); there is poetry by luminaries like Naomi Shihab Nye (who writes about my home country, Honduras), as well as Fadwa Tuqan, Fady Joudah, and the essential Mahmoud Darwish. Throughout the museum, one experiences a harsh montage of image and text. There are the Palestinian kids’ drawings of daily scenes of a military violence they know so well. And there is Darwish, instructing “Be a child again,” in In the Presence of Absence (2006). “Teach me poetry. Teach me the rhythm of the sea. Take my hand, so we can cross this threshold between night and day together.” 

 

What else is in the museum? There are photographs by Najib Joe Hakim, whose series “Home Away from Home: Little Palestine by the Bay” (2014–ongoing) centers portraits of Palestinians in the Bay Area. Alongside these photographs, one can also hear the subjects’ voice-recorded testimonials on Soundcloud.... READ MORE