Showing posts with label Right to Return. Show all posts

Thursday, September 3, 2026

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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Saturday, July 12, 2025

" Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again." Yes, Israel’s plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza Raja Shehadeh

Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip – the planned site of Israel’s internment centre. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Yes, Israel’s plan for Rafah would be a crime – but international law has never protected Gaza

Raja Shehadeh

Palestinians continue to hold on to the practice we call sumoud – refusing to give up or leave – despite the world turning its back on us

Over the past 21 long months of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, voices all over the world have decried the demise of international law and the rule-based order. And indeed, the facade of Israel’s adherence to international law has vanished and policies that constitute war crimes are now brazenly declared.

This week, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, has shared plans to forcibly move Palestinians into a camp in the ruins of Rafah. Once they enter, they cannot leave. In other words, a concentration camp, which by definition is an internment centre for members of a national group (as well as political prisoners or minority groups) on the grounds of security or punishment, usually by military order. Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, was quoted in the Guardian as saying that Katz “laid out an operational plan for a crime against humanity”. Hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded trying to access food.

I have tried hard to understand the incomprehensible suffering endured by Palestinians in Gaza and how it is that most Israelis do not acknowledge their humanity. How are they able to show no remorse for what their army is carrying out in their name? I believe the seed of our dehumanisation was planted during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Palestinians were violently deprived of land, property and belongings in what we would come to call the Nakba (Arabic for “the catastrophe”), on the grounds that the land was God-given to the Jewish people. From that time, Israelis have been able to use Arab homes, lands and orchards without any feeling of guilt. The 7 October attacks were the starting point of the war, but Israel has been systematically degrading and dispossessing the Palestinian people for decades.

Such violations of international law lead to a feeling of despair about the inability of institutions to prevent the horrors of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank and to hold perpetrators to account. The UN-backed international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts”. No arrests have been made. The west continues to supply military and political support to Israel. I ask myself: should we Palestinians feel helpless in the face of this failure?

And yet the truth is that international law, though used as a measuring stick and point of reference by human rights organisations, has... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/12/israel-rafah-plan-crime-international-law-palestinians

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Saturday, May 17, 2025

"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)

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Systematic Oppression by Israel

This graphic predates the most recent Israeli WAR on Palestinians in Gaza 2024-2025

& don't forget to also factor in Israel's racist refusal to respect the Palestinians' inalienable right to return to original homes and lands as clearly spelled out by the United Nations and international law since 1948.

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

In Search of Fatima - A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi

Author Ghada Karmi is pictured left

The right to speak about Israel’s racism

By Ghada Karmi

"I was born in what is now west Jerusalem. During the war to establish the state of Israel, my family and I were forced from our home, when I was a young child. To this day, I have been prevented from returning to my home, simply because I am a Palestinian Arab – whereas any Jewish person from anywhere in the world could and can automatically become a citizen of the state.

The establishment of the Israeli state, as the ethnically defined state of what was then a minority of the population of Palestine, was discriminatory and racist. And laws and practices that discriminate on the basis of race and religion – against my people, the Palestinians – have continued to this day.

This is not only the case in relation to the occupied Palestinian territories, the illegal settlements, and the violence and abuses against Palestinian people in Gaza, but also within Israel’s borders..."... READ MORE https://prruk.org/a-palestinian-member-of-the-labour-party-demands-the-right-to-speak-about-israels-racism/

Ghada Karmi and Ellen Siegel, in 1973, 1992 and 2011. Photos by Francis Khoo (1, 2) and Jean-Pascal Deillon (3).

KARMI, GHADA (1939-)

"The right of Palestinian return is enshrined in international law and historical precedent, and affirmed repeatedly by the UN. Resolution 194 was passed by the UN general assembly in December 1948 and called on Israel to repatriate those "displaced by the recent conflict" with compensation for their losses. The 1948 universal declaration of human rights states that those who leave their homes for whatever reason have the absolute right to return to them. " Ghada Karmi, writing in The Guardian in 2011: Only Palestinian refugees can give up their right of return

“Just as the ripples of a stone thrown into a pond will spread further and further away from the source, so the ripples of the disaster in 1948 hit my parents first and then spread to us and to our children long afterwards. Seeing only the ripples, it was easy to confuse the original cause with its effects.”

— Ghada Karmi

"Israel, from its inception in 1948, has been given the most wonderful opportunity to behave itself, and it clearly has not done so. It's flouted every single law, it's behaved outrageously, it's made a travesty of international and humanitarian law. On what basis should this state continue to be a member of the United Nations?" Interview: Ghada Karmi, a voice from exile, Executive Intelligence Review, (reprinted by Middle East Policy, Spring 2010).(available online here). Also available here: Interview: Ghada Karmi, a voice from exile at Goliath.

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

The Key of Return 🗝️ Symbol of Hope, Freedom, and Resilience: The Key of Return Unlocks Palestine's Promised Future 🇵🇸 ❤️

turathiceramics

The Key of Return 🗝️

Symbol of Hope, Freedom, and Resilience: The Key of Return Unlocks Palestine's Promised Future 🇵🇸 ❤️

Sunday, May 5, 2024

'Our unwavering determination to return one day': Displaced Palestinians keep hold of keys to Gaza homes like their Nakba ancestors: Palestinians displaced by Israel's war on Gaza are holding on to keys from their damaged or destroyed houses as a symbol of one day returning to their homeland.

The significant act of holding on to the keys of their homes has become a powerful testament to the resilience of Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel's brutal war.

Throughout Palestinian culture, art, and activism, the key of return is prominently featured as a symbol of resistance and a reminder of the ongoing quest for justice and peace.

It is also a testament to the enduring connection with their homeland, regardless of geographic distance or political circumstances.

“These keys, passed down through generations, represent not just physical properties, but also the cherished memories, identities, and aspirations of displaced families,” Dr Hisham Ahmed, a Palestinian anthropologist at Michigan State University specialising in peace and conflict studies told The New Arab.

How the Nakba continues to take the lives of Palestinians

Society

Qassam Muaddi

According to Dr Ahmed, “the key of return" holds profound significance in the Palestinian narrative and symbolises the longing for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants displaced during the Nakba — the mass violent exodus of at least 750,000 people from Palestine in 1948.

Now, history is repeating itself, as a staggering 85% of the total population of Gaza — 1.9 million civilians — have been forcibly displaced amid Israel’s war since October 2023. It is uncertain if they will ever be allowed to return.

And so, the current act of Gazans keeping hold of the keys to their houses serves as a tangible link to the past, evoking memories of lost homes and shattered communities displaced during the 1948 Nakba, many of whom still hold their keys in their possession.

Hope of return

Before Bou Adnan and Um Adnan were displaced from the South of Gaza to a Rafah refugee camp with their four children. The family insisted on taking the keys to their home with them.

"We must hold onto our hope and our dignity, these keys are not just for our house; they symbolise our unwavering determination to return one day, to rebuild and reclaim what is rightfully ours,” Um Ahmad told The New Arab.

"The key is our symbol of resistance against occupation and oppression with the hope that one day we will reclaim the rightful of return to our places"

Amid the devastation of the war, the key of return represents a collective aspiration for a just and lasting resolution, one that recognises the rights and dignity of all Palestinians, including those living in Gaza.

“The key is our symbol of resistance against occupation and oppression with the hope that one day we will reclaim the rightful of return to our places,” said Bou Ahmad.

For Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the simple act of holding onto their home keys goes beyond material possession as it connotes a connection to their lost homeland since their displacement.

These keys to the homes passed down through generations, carry the weight of memories, longing, and resilience.

“My mother would often recount tales of her childhood spent playing in the courtyard, of the fig trees in her family's garden, and of the warmth of family gatherings that filled every corner of the house, of the Palestinian neighbours, food, weddings and traditions,” Said Mahmoud Hammami, a 56-year-old Palestinian refugee who lives in Lebanon’s Burj Brajneh camp.

“She tells us we are too young to remember the home we had never known, but we always listened to her stories, with our eyes alight with curiosity,” Said recounted.

To them, the keys represent not only the promise of a physical home but also the hope for a return to their homeland.

Gazans pick baby names that bring hope despite Israel's war

Society

The New Arab (From the Arabic Edition)

In the face of adversity and the passage of time, these keys serve as silent testaments to the determination of the Palestinian people to preserve their identity and heritage, even in the most challenging circumstances.

“The keys represented the hopes and dreams of past generations, the struggles and sacrifices that had shaped my family's journey through displacement and diaspora,” Said added.

Despite the hardships they’re facing, the scarcity of food, the fear of airstrikes and the uncertainty of tomorrow, some families in Gaza are still holding onto their home keys with the belief in the right of return, where they reclaim their homes and rebuild their lives.

“For those individuals, their home keys are not just simple metal objects, they show the strength of a population who dared to believe that amidst the chaos of war, the promise of home would always endure and for Palestinians who were displaced in the past, the keys are a reminder of where they came from,” said Sarah Al Omari, a Jordanian researcher and expert on Palestinian refugees who has extensively studied the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

There are institutions, museums, and cultural centres in various locations, including Lebanon, that have showcased or highlighted artefacts symbolising the Palestinian experience, including keys symbolising the Nakba.

The Memories Museum is located in a hidden alleyway in Beirut's Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. It is home to several hundred objects brought by the Palestinian refugees in 1948, which were later donated to the museum's originator, Muhammad al-Khatib.

The museum contains ancient clay cookware, decorative jewellery boxes, quaint wooden combs designed with caricatures from antiquated times, muddied wheat cutters once owned by Palestinian farmers, and a dozen ruined keys meant for dilapidated Palestinian homes.

“The Memories Museum plays a vital role in preserving Palestinian heritage, it is proof that this is our land and we were once there,” said Sarah.

In the Occupied West Bank, giant keys can be seen in various locations as a symbol of displacement for refugees there.

This artistic expression serves as a visual reminder of the Palestinian narrative of displacement and dispossession, particularly in areas where Palestinians are confronted with physical barriers such as the Israeli West Bank barrier often referred to as the "separation wall" or the "apartheid wall, according to Sarah.

Rodayna Raydan is a Lebanese British journalism graduate from Kingston University in London covering Lebanon

Follow her on Twitter: @Rodayna_462

https://www.newarab.com/features/symbol-resistance-gazans-keep-hold-keys-homes

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Sunday, April 21, 2024

There are enough weapons of war and destruction already on planet earth.

Dear Biden, Harris...etc... my elected leaders,

Stop funding weapon sales to foreign countries. FULL STOP!

We must stop escalating war worldwide. Start by sending the clear message to Russia that land grabs are wrong by firmly condemning all Israeli land grabs, illegal settlements, and bombing campaigns.

Israel has spent the past 6 months pulverizing Palestinians in Gaza with American made bombs, mainly killing women and children. Israel's war has already killed at least 34,049 Palestinians and wounded another 76,901

Protesters worldwide loudly chant End Apartheid, Free Palestine, Stop the Genocide!

And what do American officials do- our elected leaders force American taxpayers to hand Israel more weapons and more excuses to pulverize more Palestinian homes and families.

Zionists demand that Americans "protect Jews". What they really want is for America to arm and protect Israeli Apartheid.

Columbia U. does what it can to "protect Jews" by trying to silence Human Rights protesters who object to Israel's ongoing war on the indigenous non-Jewish people of historic Palestine.

USC cancels all graduation speakers because their best & brightest student, valedictorian Asna Tabassum, supports Palestinians on her social media accounts. Tabassum in turn urges everyone "to see past our deepest fears and recognize the need to support justice for all people, including the Palestinian people."

There are enough weapons of war and destruction already on planet earth. The only way to build a just and lasting peace (and to protect Jews plus every one else) is to invest all energies into full respect for Human Rights for ALL human beings, regardless of supposed race or religion. That means one state or two to end the Israel/Palestine conflict, start with FULL RESPECT for every refugee's inalienable legal and moral right to return to original homes and lands.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

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

"Art is the language of peace, love and life. Drawing and playing with children are the only tools of resistance I have to improve living conditions" Basel Elmaqosui of Palestine

AP News: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah kill 18, mostly children, as US advances aid package

In the vibrant tapestry of Palestine, Christians and Muslims intertwine as friends –each Christian cherishing a Muslim companion, and every Muslim embracing a Christian confidant. (NABLUS TAMREYAH recipe) in This Week in Palesitne

Handala- the Palestinian Refugee Child

Dismantling the culture of silence... "On Remembrance: When Words Become Our Strength"

Palestine Museum US: Today we mark the opening of the exhibition "Foreigners in Their Homeland: Occupation | Apartheid | Genocide"

"What was the crime of the Palestinian child?" a poem on Palestine by Ahmad Ibsais

Time: Imagining a Free Palestine by Ahmad Ibsais, a first-generation Palestinian American who writes the newsletter State of Siege.

Palestinian-American Poet Fady Joudah Wins $100,000 Jackson Poetry Prize 2024 “Distinguished by his courage to speak in the face of the unspeakable, in poems of lyric concision and intensity.”

Shhhh.... that's ANTI- SEMITIC

Years from now students will study the Palestinian GENOCIDE and wonder HOW DID NO ONE STOP THIS??

UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide’ in Gaza 18 April 2024 “When schools are destroyed, so too are hopes and dreams.” Even UN schools sheltering forcibly displaced civilians are being bombed, including in Israeli military-designated “safe zones.” “These attacks are not isolated incidents. They present a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society,” the experts said.

In northern Gaza, famine sets in: ‘We will eat anything’... [CSM] Reports indicate that the amount of flour entering Gaza may be ticking up slightly, but the need is urgent. Palestinian families are becoming increasingly desperate.

"I fear we are forgetting lessons from that terrible history" Eva Ladipo... My family’s past, and Germany’s, weighs heavily upon me. And it’s why I feel so strongly about Gaza

The Guardian view on the catastrophe in Gaza: it must not be overshadowed by the Iran crisis Editorial

UNRWA: A man-made famine is "tightening its grip" across Gaza

Israeli forces have killed over 33,900 Palestinians and injured over 76,000 since 7 October... Of the total killed, 13,900 of them were children.

Reuters photographer Mohammad Salem's haunting image of a grieving Palestinian woman embracing her little niece, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, has just won the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year Award.

No Tech for Apartheid campaign ... Google fires 28 employees for protesting Israel cloud deal

Time Magazine's The 100 Most Influential People of 2024: Palestinian Photo-Journalist Motaz Azaiza "We need to stop this war.”

Stop wasting America's time and resources playing word games for racist Israel

UN rights body demands Israel be held accountable for possible war crimes..."in just six months, more humanitarians have been killed in this conflict than in any war of the modern era.”

Palestine was not an empty piece of land before Israel

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

The UN Mediator for Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, believed that the Palestinians displaced had a right to return to their homes and wrote several UN reports to that effect.

"It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries."

Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group Lehi, a Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang

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

PALESTINE REMEMBERED

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Israel’s attempt to destroy Unrwa is part of its starvation strategy in Gaza

"... Israel’s obstruction flouts the UN security council’s demand that it lift “all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale”. That blockage is a war crime, as the international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan has warned. It also contravenes the international court of justice’s order in its preliminary genocide ruling, which, fueling further Israel’s animosity, relied in part on evidence provided by Unrwa.

Israel also hopes to destroy Unrwa because the government naively believes that Palestinian refugees would then somehow forget that they are Palestinian refugees and stop insisting on a right to return. Many would not exercise that right but others would. Israel denies this right not only for return to Israel within its 1967 borders but also for return to the occupied Palestinian territory – to Palestine..."

People walk past Unrwa’s damaged Gaza City headquarters on 15 February 2024. Photograph: AFP via Getty Images

READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/26/israel-unrwa-palestine

Friday, December 8, 2023

Condemning Congress’s attempt to distract from the ongoing genocide in Gaza by dangerously equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and targeting our students of color... We will not be silenced.

Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee

Harvard for Palestine

@HarvardPSC

THREAD: We, the undersigned, condemn Congress’s attempt to distract from the ongoing genocide in Gaza by dangerously equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism and targeting our students of color. We will not be silenced. Read our attached statement.

Our Mission

The Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee is a non-sectarian student organization dedicated to supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, justice, and equality through raising awareness, advocacy, and non-violent resistance. The PSC operates under the principles that justice in Palestine means:

Israel ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall of separation;
Achieving full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel;
Securing the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

The PSC stands for justice and equality everywhere. We stand in solidarity with all struggles against discrimination of any racial, religious, or ethnic group.

https://www.harvardpsc.com/

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES or quotes IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Friday, November 17, 2023

Dear America- STOP RACIST HATE

1948 Palestinian refugees refused their natural, logical, moral, ethical and legal right to return to original homes and lands.

Dear America,

America was very racist before, during and after World War II and the Nazi Holocaust. In some ways we are better now, but in other ways we are worse:

Funding Israel as Israel subsidizes religious zealots to harass Palestinians and usurp Palestinian land is wrong- and racist.

Arming Israel as it bombs refugee camps, hospitals, and bread bakeries in Gaza is wrong- and racist.

Ignoring Israel's blatant and long term violations of international law [1948-2023] and the indigenous Palestinians' basic human rights is wrong- and racist.

STOP RACIST HATE- start by ending America's misguided support for the heavily armed and generously subsidized Jews-preferred Israel as Israel aggressively destroys Arab Palestinian homes and lives everywhere and in every way it can.

The more America supports Israel the more power and weaponry angry armed extremists and their propagandists world wide gain, ensuring more terrorism and more enemies... more injustice... more poverty... more suffering... more hypocrisy... more lies... and more misinformation perpetuating more racist hate and evil in this world.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American Homemaker & Poet

NOTES