Painting "Playing for Return" (2020) from the "The Flute and the Goldfinch" series - by Palestinian artist Fayez Al-Hasani

Painting "Playing for Return" (2020) from the "The Flute and the Goldfinch" series - by Palestinian artist Fayez Al-Hasani

 https://x.com/Boudicca61AD/status/2102201352726220955/photo/1

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“It’s good to criticise governments for violating children’s rights. It’s something that everyone should be doing. Because we’re the grownups of this world and we’re meant to keep children safe. And the fact that we are not is horrific” Ms Rachel, the queen of toddler TV- Her preschool fanbase are, of course, unaware of any of her politics, and they cannot get enough of her.

Ms Rachel: ‘All my experiences have led me to knowing that we should take care of each other.’ Photograph: Joanna McGowan/The Guardian

Educational TV

Interview    Sun 20 Sep 2026  

Ms Rachel, the controversial queen of toddler TV: ‘My goal isn’t to be the most liked. It’s to help kids and speak the truth’

Sophie McBain

Her catchy videos have racked up billions of views, but Rachel Accurso’s statements on everything from Gaza to LGBTQ rights have caused a stir. She talks about screen time, song fatigue and speculation she might enter politics

The YouTube star Ms Rachel, toddler whisperer extraordinaire, spots me before I clock her, and even from a distance and without her trademark pink T-shirt and denim dungarees, she is instantly recognisable by her wave, which is accompanied by an enthusiastic bounce. I half expect her to say, “Hi, friends”, as she does at the start of many of her videos. Instead she bounds over, wearing a classic off-duty mum uniform – Sesame Street sweatshirt, grey leggings, baseball cap that reads “Mama” – and removes her oversized sunglasses. She’s very sorry, she says, rubbing her eyes, that she is so tired – but her manner remains unfailingly, characteristically peppy.

It is only seven years since Rachel Accurso, who used to be a preschool music teacher, uploaded her first video to YouTube, a counting song for preschoolers called Bubble, Bubble Pop!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi4AV2S4xA0 . She and her husband, Aron Accurso, who worked as a music director on Broadway, made the video because their one-year-old son had a speech delay and there seemed to be a dearth of quality videos online that could help toddlers learn to speak.

Nowadays, the Ms Rachel YouTube channel has more than 21 million followers, and since she signed with Netflix in 2025, the series has been streamed more than 69m times, becoming the highest-ranked new kids’ TV show. You can buy Ms Rachel dolls, rattles, talking toy phones, books and pyjamas. The couple are releasing their first album this month.

Ms Rachel, who is 43 and has a 17-month-old daughter, Susannah, as well as her eight-year-old son, Thomas, has also amassed a huge following on Instagram (5.5 million) and TikTok (11 million), where the mums of her superfans congregate, and where she cuts a more controversial figure, having become a vocal opponent of the Israeli government over its war in Gaza, and a campaigner on other humanitarian issues, such as family immigration detention centres in the US and the war in Sudan... READ MORE 

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/sep/20/ms-rachel-the-queen-of-toddler-tv-interview 

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Symbols of Palestine- Palestinian artist- Fedaa Boqaileh, 1948... "I dream of a gallery … one day , exact vision here… where people can smell the jasmine, hear the oud,share a coffee and sit to admire falasteen…"

Palestinian artist-  Fedaa Boqaileh, 1948

 juthur1948

I dream of a gallery … one day , exact vision here… where people can smell the jasmine, hear the oud,share a coffee and sit to admire falasteen…

And for a moment, they understand that home is more than a place, it is something carried, remembered, and lovingly recreated, somewhere dreamt…

Until that gallery exists, I’ll keep drawing it into being…-Fedaa

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbgwVFnizd4/ 

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"The first time I heard a song by Saint Levant, only three years ago, was in a world that does not exist any more. Gaza’s buildings were intact, as were its schools and roads and markets and mosques. My home city of Khartoum in Sudan was standing, as it had for centuries. Back then, I could scroll for fun, not in dread. I could stumble, say, in late 2022, upon an arresting clip on TikTok of a song by an Arab artist with a pun for a name..." Nesrine Malik

Palestinian musician Saint Levant performing at Les Francofolies, Paris, July 2025.

Photograph: Sadaka Edmond/SIPA/Shutterstock

Saint Levant: the pop star from Gaza caught between passionate fandom and bitter disapproval

His detractors say he shouldn’t be making pop music in times of war and destruction. His millions of fans say he has given them permission to celebrate their culture and their cause

By Nesrine Malik

Tue 26 May 2026 00.00 EDT

The first time I heard a song by Saint Levant, only three years ago, was in a world that does not exist any more. Gaza’s buildings were intact, as were its schools and roads and markets and mosques. My home city of Khartoum in Sudan was standing, as it had for centuries. Back then, I could scroll for fun, not in dread. I could stumble, say, in late 2022, upon an arresting clip on TikTok of a song by an Arab artist with a pun for a name; Saint Levant, a play on Saint Laurent – the icon of western style had been Arabised in homage to the Middle East’s Levant region.

I began to see the same song all over my social media. In the video, Saint Levant, then 22, is in a white vest and brown trousers. A gold pendant chain dangles on his chest, a tattoo encircles his left arm. He starts by rapping in English, telling the woman he is wooing that “he’s not toxic, he’s broken baby”. And then, the twist, as he switches to Arabic, then French, then English again. Like a wholesome boy next door, he tells her to send his regards to her grandmother and her brother. Then says that he wants to make her forget about her ex, he wants her overthinking all her texts... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/may/26/saint-levant-the-pop-star-from-gaza-caught-between-passionate-fandom-and-bitter-disapproval

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Bright Stars of Bethlehem: "You know when you live in a context like Palestine. Where our lives are being interrupted on a daily or weekly basis. We have almost every other year, a war. You feel everything is falling apart around you. And culture is the art to breathe. When everything around you is falling apart, culture keeps you sane. Culture keeps you going. Culture empowers you with a new vision and strength to continue and to excel in spite of everything. And so it wasn't by chance that we started the first and only university in Palestine with this focus on arts and culture." -Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb

Bright Stars of Bethlehem

  ·

At its core, Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb is describing what it feels like to live in constant interruption in his quote.

 

When he talks about life being disrupted on a daily or weekly basis, he’s pointing to a reality most of us don’t live in. A place where plans don’t always hold, where stability isn’t guaranteed, and where the future can feel uncertain more often than not. Imagine trying to build something meaningful when everything around you can shift without warning.

 

“You feel everything is falling apart around you.” That part hits because it’s something we all understand on some level. We’ve all had seasons where life feels heavy, uncertain, or out of our control. Now imagine that feeling not as a moment, but as a repeated pattern.

 

And then he says something powerful. “Culture is the art to breathe.”

 

That line changes everything.

 

Culture, whether it’s art, music, storytelling, or design, is not just something extra. In this context, it becomes survival. It is how people process what they are going through. It is how they hold onto who they are.

 

When everything feels like it is falling apart, culture gives people a way to breathe.

 

It keeps them grounded. It reminds them they are still human in the middle of everything.

 

“Culture keeps you sane. Culture keeps you going.” This is resilience in its truest form. Not pretending things are okay, but choosing to keep moving forward anyway.

 

And then he takes it one step further. “Culture empowers you with a new vision and strength to continue and to excel in spite of everything.”

 

This is where hope lives. Not a shallow kind of hope, but one that exists right alongside hardship. The kind that says, even here, even now, something meaningful can still be created.

 

And that is why Dar al-Kalima University exists. It was not by chance. It was a decision.

 

In a place where so much tries to limit expression and possibility, they chose to build something centered on arts and culture. Because creativity there is not a luxury. It is a lifeline, identity, and a way forward.

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1316852620490650&set=a.613653367477249

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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/

"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

Yusuf / Cat Stevens

@YusufCatStevens

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. #Peace #Religion #Faith #Unity

English guitar legend Eric Clapton kicks off his concert by playing a guitar adorned with the Palestinian flag.🇵🇸

Photo by Emma Lumley: English guitar legend Eric Clapton kicks off his concert by playing a guitar adorned with the Palestinian flag.🎸🇵🇸

Eric Clapton concert from May 9 2024 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, England. It was his first show in the city in 20 years.

Love that guitar

Photo by Emma Lumley

Mawtini, Edward Said National Conservatory of Music & Qattan CFC, November 6, 2015, Gaza, Palestine - children's choir

Mawtini - Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, Gaza branch #Let'sSingMyHomeTogether

 The choirs of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music and the Qattan Center for Children performed “Mawtani” on November 6, 2015, as part of the “Let’s Sing “Mawtani” Together” event.

We are not numbers- Lubna Alyaan, a 14-year-old prodigious musician, aspired to achieve international acclaim as a violinist, proudly representing her homeland #Palestine: Killed by Israeli bombs with her family in Gaza 2023.

We are not numbers

tsropSodnetc3a63f09c7046mul9c0umi619m054g29t1gulif6lmfha1mll  ·

Lubna Alyaan, a 14-year-old prodigious musician, aspired to achieve international acclaim as a violinist, proudly representing her homeland. #Palestine

 

She devoted herself as a diligent student at The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music-GAZA Branch (ESNCM), showcasing her musical prowess on the violin.

 

On the 21st of November, 2023, Lubna, along with 45 members of her extended family, which included her parents, siblings, and others, became martyrs. Killed by Israeli bombs.

 

Sources: https://web.facebook.com/gazaesncm

https://web.facebook.com/sabreen.alghoul

#WeAreNotNumbers