Rare film footage of Palestine from 1896, captured by the Lumière Brothers – pioneers of cinema. These unique films provide an invaluable glimpse into daily life in the Holy Land under the Ottoman Empire, offering a rare perspective of a time long past. Watch as Palestine appears over 100 years ago, during an era when the world was rapidly changing, and cinema was just beginning to take shape!

 https://youtu.be/f6gnUgxkfLE?si=rMiU1PA833rngj9H

Paddystinian

@Paddystinian

 

Palestine was never empty.  The camera already knew that. 

 

In 1896–97, the Lumière brothers sent Alexandre Promio to film the Holy Land under Ottoman rule. What he captured is among the earliest moving images of Palestine: Jaffa Port, the courtyard of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, Jerusalem’s railway station, sacred sites, and people in the streets. 

 

Muslims. Christians. Jews. Walking the same gates, the same roads, the same land. 

 

Not a slogan. Not a later map. Actual footage of a living country called Palestine — ports, churches, stations, markets, worshippers — before partition, before occupation, before the claim that this was a vacant stage waiting for someone else. 

 

Watch the people, not the propaganda. Jaffa was a port. Bethlehem was a town. Jerusalem was a city of three faiths under one sky. That is the historical record, not a talking point. 

 

Palestine had a name. Palestine had people. The film is still there.

 

https://x.com/Paddystinian/status/2100978157813744079 

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“What Are You Doing to My Brother?” A true story by Mike Hanini Odetalla (Abu Odeh) ... Here was an elderly Orthodox rabbi, aboard a plane filled largely with Jewish passengers headed to Israel, publicly kissing the hand of a Palestinian Muslim and calling him brother.

Good Morning! Rumaan Falasteen (#Palestinian #Pomegranates)... photo from Mike Hanini Odetalla

“What Are You Doing to My Brother?”

 

In October of 2007, my mother (AY) became ill and was hospitalized. I dropped everything and flew home, taking Lufthansa through Frankfurt to Tel Aviv.

 

The connecting flight was a packed 747, overwhelmingly filled with Jewish passengers headed to Israel.

 

I had specifically requested an aisle seat. But when I reached my row, I found an elderly Jewish woman sitting in it. Beside her was a very religious-looking man in his seventies.

 

As I started toward my seat, he immediately stood up.

 

“No! No!”

 

I understood what was happening. From what I knew of Orthodox Jewish religious practice, I figured he was uncomfortable with an unrelated man sitting beside his wife.

 

And being a Muslim, I understood the concern.

 

So rather than make an issue of it, I offered to take the window seat and let him sit in the middle—a “buffer” between his wife and me.

 

Problem solved.

 

Or so I thought.

 

Once we were seated, he began speaking to me in broken English.

 

“What is your name?”

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“Jerusalem,” I told him. “Palestine. The city of my birth.”

 

He looked at me.

 

Then, to my absolute surprise, this man who had been struggling with English answered me in perfect Arabic:

 

“I too was born in Al-Quds.”

 

And just like that, everything changed.

 

As we talked, I learned that he had emigrated to Australia in the late 1960s and was a chief rabbi there.

 

I told him why I was traveling—that my mother was sick and hospitalized and I was rushing home to see her.

 

He promised me that he would pray for her throughout the flight and again as soon as his feet touched Jerusalem.

 

A Muslim Palestinian and an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, both born in Jerusalem, sitting together on a 747 somewhere between Frankfurt and the city we both called home.

 

But our seating adventure wasn't over.

 

As more passengers boarded, an Orthodox Jewish family arrived. The mother and children were seated directly in front of us. The father's assigned seat, unfortunately, was the window seat I was now occupying.

 

And he wanted it.

 

He made a fuss and refused to sit elsewhere because he wanted to remain near his family. Even the rabbi's pleas couldn't persuade him. Eventually he called the flight crew and demanded his assigned seat.

 

The rabbi and his wife were visibly distraught.

 

So I stood up.

 

“Find me another seat,” I told the flight crew. “Anywhere. Let them stay together.”

 

Eventually they found one.

 

As I prepared to leave, the rabbi stood.

 

I extended my hand to shake his goodbye.

 

Instead, he took my hand—

and kissed it.

 

Then he kissed it again.

 

And he hugged me.

 

In Arabic, he said:

 

“Thank you, my dear brother.”

 

The cabin seemed to go silent.

 

Here was an elderly Orthodox rabbi, aboard a plane filled largely with Jewish passengers headed to Israel, publicly kissing the hand of a Palestinian Muslim and calling him brother.

 

You could hear a pin drop.

 

I thought that was the end of our story.

 

It wasn't.

 

When we landed at Ben Gurion Airport, I encountered something much more familiar to me: I was pulled aside and being led away for “further questioning.”

 

Normally, that could mean four or five hours of security questioning for me.

 

Then suddenly, the rabbi appeared.

 

He hurried toward us, took my hand again and kissed it.

 

Then he confronted the security personnel:

 

“What are you doing to my BROTHER?”

 

Apparently, having a chief rabbi vouch for you carries some weight.

 

They let me go.

 

It remains one of the few times I can remember passing through Ben Gurion without spending hours being questioned.

 

And there is one detail that matters.

 

In Palestinian and Arab culture, kissing someone's hand is among the deepest gestures of respect. This rabbi didn't know whether I needed his respect. He didn't know whether anyone around us would understand what that gesture meant to me.

 

But he did it anyway.

 

Twice on the airplane.

 

And once more when I needed someone to stand beside me.

 

Nearly twenty years later, I don't remember his politics. I don't remember everything we discussed on that long flight.

 

But I remember his Arabic.

 

I remember his prayers for my sick mother.

 

I remember his lips touching my hand.

 

And above everything else, I remember one word:

 

“Brother.”

 

Sometimes humanity doesn't announce itself with speeches, flags or slogans.

 

Sometimes it finds you at 35,000 feet, in the person you were supposed to see as the “other,” and quietly reminds you that we were brothers all along.

 

~ Mike Odetalla (Seems like a lifetime ago)

 

Grandfather. Historian. Story teller. Dreamer. Witness. Palestinian. Human. Cancer survivor 

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"Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed are probably today’s most visible Muslim American politicians. What makes them noteworthy is not just their obvious communication skills, but their deliberate attention to policies that enhance the public good for all."

‘What makes Mamdani and El-Sayed noteworthy is not just their obvious communication skills but their deliberate attention to policies that enhance the public good for all.’ Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

9/11 entrenched Islamophobia in US politics. But it doesn’t work the way you think

Anti-Muslim sentiment is used as a political weapon. Meanwhile, Muslim American leaders are making a difference for all 

 Moustafa Bayoumi in The Guardian 

Fri 11 Sep 2026 

It’s been 25 years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, and during this time Muslim Americans have learned how to live in that dangerous space between other Americans’ fears and their ignorance.

The fear was clear from the beginning. Immediately following 9/11, Muslim Americans faced what Human Rights Watch called “a severe wave of backlash violence”. A tide of hate rose up against ordinary Muslims and those who appeared to be Muslim, including at least three murders in the immediate backlash after the attacks. The federal government, for its part, began targeting Muslim immigrants in a massive surge of repression that legal experts soon compared to the Palmer Raids of the 1920s.

The ignorance was just as evident. Even Oprah Winfrey did her part to allay it, dedicating an episode of her show in October 2001 to “Islam 101”. The Qur’an leapt on to the New York Times bestseller list that fall. Yet despite these early efforts at education, most Americans still learned little about Islam and Muslims. One 2006 study found that only a third of those polled realized that Muslims worship the same God as Christians and Jews do. Close to 10% of respondents thought Muslims worship a “moon god”.

Much of this fear and ignorance has continued unevenly over the last quarter century, with negative attitudes towards Muslim Americans softening at times and hardening, sometimes into deadly violence, at other times. What’s interesting is when expressions of these attitudes happen. It turns out that predicting when animosity to Muslims will rise and fall may not be quite what you think.

Researchers who study Islamophobia discovered several years ago that anti-Muslim outbreaks in the United States don’t follow highly publicized acts of terrorism. Rather, Islamophobic incidents tend to cluster more routinely around our election cycles.... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/11/9-11-islamophobia-us-politics

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UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, laureate, in recognition of his commitment to art education and his efforts to create platforms for younger generations of artists.

UNESCO

@UNESCO

 

UNESCO pays tribute to the memory of Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, laureate of the @UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture (2019), in recognition of his commitment to art education and his efforts to create platforms for younger generations of artists. 

 

His paintings, sculptures, and writings transcended borders, finding their way into collections and hearts around the world, fostering mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue. Both an artist and a custodian of cultural memory, he leaves a legacy that will continue to inspire generations to come. https://unesco.org/en/prizes/shar

 Suleiman Mansour is among the most influential artists working in Palestine today. Over 50 years his paintings’ expression of Palestinian identity have won him international recognition. He has contributed extensively to the development of infrastructure for the fine arts locally and is a founding member of the League of Palestinian Artists. In 1994, Mansour co-founded the Al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem and served as its director from 1996 until 2003. One of the founding directors on the Board of the International Academy of Art in Palestine, he has also taught at numerous cultural institutions and universities and participated in several local and international exhibitions, and received several awards. The international jury recommended Suleiman Mansour not only in recognition of his prolific career but also for his commitment to art and art education and for the creation of platforms for younger generations of artists.   https://www.unesco.org/en/prizes/sharjah/laureates

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Tent of Nations (ToN) is an educational and ecological family farm committed to nonviolent resistance, environmental stewardship, intercultural education, and connecting people with the land. It serves as a living model of nonviolent action and faith-based community building, within the context of Palestine and the world.

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 https://tentofnations.com/ 

The Tent of Nations is an educational and ecological family farm southwest of Bethlehem, Palestine. Our mission is to build bridges between people and between people and the land. Through creative resistance, organic farming, and educational programs, we seek to transform despair into hope and promote understanding, respect, and sustainability. 

What we do

 – Educational Programs: Children’s summer camps and women’s empowerment initiatives. 

– Volunteer Opportunities: Join short-term or long-term projects caring for the land and community. 

– Environmental Learning: Workshops in sustainability, organic farming, and renewable energy. 

Please note that we are not an NGO. We are a small educational and environmental family farm that welcomes individuals and groups to visit, to volunteer and to be encouraged to hear our story of hope in the middle of this darkness. We are not affiliated with any organization and we are supported by church groups and other international private friends of ToN.

Our Philosophy

In the face of injustice, we refuse to be enemies. We transform pain into positive action and work for justice and peace from the ground up. We believe every person can help shape a better future by caring for one another and for the earth. 

We want to help the oppressed and marginalized realize that they are powerful and can do something positive, even if they live under challenging conditions. We all have the task of creating the future with our own hands and not waiting for others to do it for us. At the ToN, we aim to collaborate with others and lay the groundwork for a better future, believing that justice and peace should emerge from the grassroots. At ToN, we connect people with the land and to our shared environment. We need them to appreciate this wonderful gift that GOD gave to humanity, and to help protect it for the generations to come.

Vision for the land

We continue to strive for self-sufficiency in food, water, and energy, building an Environmental Education Center where young people can learn about sustainability, tolerance, and community responsibility. 

 https://tentofnations.com/about-us/

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About Us: Rooted in the Land Since 1916

The Tent of Nations stands on a 100-acre (about 400 dunams) family farm named Daher’s Vineyard, located about six miles (about 10 km) southwest of Bethlehem in the West Bank. The land was purchased more than 100 years ago by the Nassar family, and the family holds original registrations and deed documents dating from the British Mandate (registration in 1924-25), and Jordanian administration. 

In 1991, the Israeli authorities declared the Nassar family farm (and surrounding lands) as “state land”. Since then, the family has engaged in protracted legal proceedings in the Israeli Military courts, the Appeals Committee, and the Israeli Supreme Court to re-register and protect their land. 

The farm is surrounded on all sides by Israeli settlements, including those in the Gush Etzion settlement block. the farm has faced repeated road encroachments, bulldozing and burning of orchards, and access restrictions.... READ MORE https://tentofnations.com/about-us/

Who We Are

Tent of Nations (ToN) is an educational and ecological family farm committed to nonviolent resistance, environmental stewardship, intercultural education, and connecting people with the land. It serves as a living model of nonviolent action and faith-based community building, within the context of Palestine and the world. 

We host international visitors, volunteers, and local partners who come to learn, share, and participate in our work. Together, we transform despair into hope through environmental education, organic farming, empowerment programs for women and children, and global solidarity.

Our Mission

Our mission is to build bridges between people and between people and the land through creative resistance, education, and environmental stewardship. We strive to cultivate understanding, respect, and sustainability by working in harmony with the land and with one another. 

We live by four guiding principles: 

1. We refuse to be victims
2. We refuse to hate
3. We act on our faith
4. We believe in justice

These principles shape every act of cultivation, teaching, and welcome that happens on the farm encompassed by the slogan We Refuse to Be the Enemy. 

Our Vision

We envision the Tent of Nations as a beacon of hope and sustainability – a place where individuals and communities learn to live in harmony with the environment and each other.... READ MORE https://tentofnations.com/about-us/ 

https://www.facebook.com/tentofnations