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Showing posts with label UN Resolution 194 from 1948. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UN Resolution 194 from 1948. Show all posts

Friday, September 26, 2025

HISTORY: 1949 Israel's empty promises upon joining the UN- "In joining the U.N., Israel vowed that it would pursue "no policies on any question which were inconsistent with...the resolutions of the Assembly and the Security Council." There had been five major points of concern about Israel's admission: its position toward internationalization of Jerusalem, its position on refugees, its stand on borders, its willingness to observe U.N. resolutions, and its failure to apprehend the assassins of Count Folke Bernadotte... "

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]        

https://www.palestinehome.org/history-of-palestine-annotated-1/history-1949-israels-empty-promises-joining-un       

Application of Israel for admission to membership in the United Nations

HISTORY: 1949 Israel's empty promises upon joining the UN

"... In joining the U.N., Israel vowed that it would pursue "no policies on any question which were inconsistent with...the resolutions of the Assembly and the Security Council." There had been five major points of concern about Israel's admission: its position toward internationalization of Jerusalem, its position on refugees, its stand on borders, its willingness to observe U.N. resolutions, and its failure to apprehend the assassins of Count Folke Bernadotte. Scandinavian countries complained that Israel's report to the United Nations on Bernadotte's assassination had been unresponsive and failed to show a serious effort to apprehend the culprits. Israel's U.N. delegate Abba Eban addressed each issue before the General Assembly.

On Jerusalem, he said Israel's actions in the city had not been taken in order to create new political facts but to help Jerusalem recover from the ravages of war. He said Israel accepted the principle that Jerusalem should be accorded separate treatment under U.N. control, but he noted the U.N. had not yet pronounced on the precise juridical status of Jerusalem and he hoped that when it did it would take into account changes since November 1947, when the partition plan had been adopted. Eban suggested internationalization might be applied to the whole city but restricted functionally, which Israel preferred, or confine internationalization to that part of the city containing most of the religious shrines.

On refugees, Eban said their problem was a direct result of the Arab states' war to try to defeat the U.N. partition plan. He said Israel had done its best to stem the exodus of the Palestinians and now resettlement would have to take account of the changes that had since occurred. He added Israel would make compensation for abandoned lands, and did not reject the return of those refugees willing to live in peace. But he also said resettlement of the refugees outside of Palestine should be explored. Ebresoan concluded by saying Israel was ready to help solve the problem but at this stage it was reluctant to make a commitment for or against any particular formula.

On borders, Eban said there might be some changes but he promised they would not be imposed and would be made through agreements freely negotiated.

On U.N. obligations, Eban said Israel held no views and pursued no policies at variance with the U.N. Charter or the resolutions of the General Assembly or Security Council. He said Israel favored increasing the compelling moral force of General Assembly resolutions and, after admission, would attribute to them wide validity. He said it was the Arabs who had defied the General Assembly's decisions on Palestine.

On Bernadotte, Eban said Jewish terrorism had emerged as a reaction to British policy during the Mandate, and unfortunately some terrorists operated in wanton defiance of the authority of the government of Israel. These groups were small and operated secretly, and as a result no exact identification of Bernadotte's assassins had been possible and therefore those responsible had not been able to be arrested."  

Donald Neff is author of the Warriors trilogy about Israel's 1956, '67 and '73 wars, and 50 Years of Israel

reposted from Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs (WRMEA) (July 2011)

https://www.palestinehome.org/

Thursday, June 26, 2025

"The new mechanism [Israeli-American GHF] is an abomination that costs lives. It humiliates and degrades desperate people, concentrating them in ghetto-like hubs, from which they can be more easily displaced. This is the grotesque culmination of 20 months of inaction and impunity, during which more than 55,000 people have been reported killed – mostly women and children... [PLUS] The occupied West Bank is now under lockdown. Additional restrictions on the movement of people and goods, are intensifying the impact of brutal military operations by the Israeli Security Forces, and rampant violence by Israeli settlers."

 The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide services for registered Palestine refugees in the Middle East. For 75 years, UNRWA has been the primary humanitarian provider for nearly 6 million refugees across the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, delivering emergency assistance and development services like education, primary healthcare, food, and shelter. 

On October 28, 2024, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a devastating vote to ban UNRWA from operating in the occupied Palestinian territory...

[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]

During @UNRWA Advisory Commission, I stressed that we are witnessing the implementation of a project, to separate Palestinians from #Palestine. 

 In #Gaza, the culmination of 20+ months of inaction & impunity meant that desperate people are being starved, humiliated & degraded. They are concentrated in ghetto-like hubs from which they are likely to be further displaced. 

In the occupied West Bank, annexation is well underway. 

Across the region, Palestine Refugees are marginalized. They face profound anxiety & uncertainty while UNRWA, the Agency they have relied on for generations, undergoes an existential crisis. 

We are at a tipping point threatening to permanently shift long-established parameters for peace. 

 I urged Member States to increase their political engagement to find a solution to the conflict that will also address the plight of Palestine Refugees.

 

Statement by Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General at the Meeting of the Advisory Commission (AdCom)

25 June 2025

Virtual 


Excellencies,  

Members of the Advisory Commission, 

I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to Spain for the strong commitment it has shown as Chair of the Advisory Commission at a time of unprecedented challenges for UNRWA. 

I am also grateful to the Vice Chairs, Brazil and Jordan, for their steadfast support; and to Lebanon and Australia for their important contributions as Chair and Vice Chair of the Sub-Commission. 

The fact that this meeting must be held virtually reflects the dangerous escalation taking place in the Middle East. 

Principled political engagement by Member States is urgently needed, including by the members of this Advisory Commission in relation to the future of Palestine Refugees. 

 

Excellencies,  

We are at a tipping point in the occupied Palestinian territory, which threatens to permanently shift the long-established parameters for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict. 

We are witnessing the implementation of a project, decades in the making, to separate Palestinians from Palestine. 

In Gaza, two million people are being starved, while food and medical supplies sit across the border. 

It is obscene. 

A so-called “aid mechanism” has been created to replace the principled international aid operation led by the United Nations, of which UNRWA is a critical part. 

The new mechanism is an abomination that costs lives. 

It humiliates and degrades desperate people, concentrating them in ghetto-like hubs, from which they can be more easily displaced. 

This is the grotesque culmination of 20 months of inaction and impunity, during which more than 55,000 people have been reported killed – mostly women and children. 

*** 

The occupied West Bank is now under lockdown. 

Additional restrictions on the movement of people and goods, are intensifying the impact of brutal military operations by the Israeli Security Forces, and rampant violence by Israeli settlers. 

In the north, Palestinians have been displaced from camps at levels not seen since 1967. 

Public infrastructure is systematically destroyed so Palestinians cannot return, and the demography of camps is permanently altered. 

Annexation is well underway. 

The Israeli authorities are also depriving Palestinians of the most basic rights, including the right to education. 

A painful example is the forced closure of UNRWA schools in occupied East Jerusalem, weeks before the end of the school year and without any alternative for nearly 550 girls and boys. 

Denying children an education is not only inhumane, it is illegal. 

*** 

For Palestine Refugees outside the occupied Palestinian territory – in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan – it is a time of profound anxiety and uncertainty. 

In the past year, many have suffered the impact of war, sweeping political changes, and economic hardship. 

These are not new experiences for this long marginalized and deeply vulnerable population. 

What is new is the existential crisis engulfing the United Nations agency on which they have relied for generations, at every stage of their lives.  

Members of the Advisory Commission, 

So great is the desire to undermine the viability of a Palestinian State, and to strip Palestinians from their refugee status, that dismantling UNRWA has become an objective of the war in Gaza. 

The Agency is crumbling under the weight of relentless political attacks. 

Israeli legislation against UNRWA took effect in January, prohibiting our operations in what Israel considers its sovereign territory – including occupied East Jerusalem – and prohibiting contact between Israeli authorities and the Agency. 

The legislation has effectively expelled international UNRWA staff from the occupied Palestinian territory. 

However, our services continue. 

Here, I must pay tribute to our local staff, whose courage and determination – amid arrests, harassment and intimidation – have allowed the Agency to provide essential services, including education and healthcare, to Palestine Refugees.  

But many of our colleagues have paid the ultimate price.  

Nearly 320 UNRWA personnel have been killed in Gaza, many with their families.  

One staff member was summarily executed while on duty for the United Nations and found near the infamous mass grave of Palestinian paramedics. 

I continue to call for accountability for these and other international crimes. 

In Gaza, UNRWA still provides more than 15,000 health consultations each day. 

We also play a critical role in managing shelters, providing clean water, and removing waste. 

To support our local staff, we have in place 24-hour remote management and critical incident reporting systems, backed by international staff. 

This helps to ensure effective coordination and accountability. 

*** 

The goal of ending UNRWA’s operations also underpins the fierce disinformation campaign spearheaded by Israel. 

This campaign targets lawmakers and the public in countries that support UNRWA, strangling our funding for critical services to Palestine Refugees. 

To tackle disinformation, we must continue to insist that independent, international media enter and report from Gaza. 

This is a vital complement to the extraordinary efforts of Palestinian journalists and others who have reported daily, especially through social media, about the atrocities taking place. 

 

Excellencies, 

The political attacks against UNRWA are based on allegations that the Agency is colluding with or infiltrated by Hamas. 

UNRWA takes allegations of neutrality breaches extremely seriously. 

Our policy on Outside and Political Activities makes clear that while personal views and convictions are inviolable – in accordance with human rights – staff are prohibited from participating in activities or being a member of any militant or armed group. 

We do not operate in a zero-risk environment, but we take a zero-tolerance approach to any proven breaches. 

The Independent Review of UNRWA’s neutrality conducted last year found that the Agency has a more robust approach to neutrality than comparable entities. 

Out of the 50 recommendations arising from this review, 20 recommendations will be fully implemented by the end of this month. 

The remining 30 are all underway.   

Implementing the recommendations of the Colonna Report remains a priority. 

We will be sharing a report next month on this remarkable progress. 

*** 

I know that many of you are particularly interested in progress made on recommendations related to neutrality in education. 

In all UNRWA schools, we use textbooks from host governments. 

This is best practice in refugee education globally, and allows students to pursue further education and employment more easily. 

In the occupied West Bank, this means using textbooks from the Palestinian Authority.  

The Grade 5 Arabic textbook includes a portrait of Dalal al Mughrabi, a Palestinian militant, that does not align with United Nations values. 

We raised our concerns with the Ministry of Education multiple times.  

Last December, I wrote to President Abbas informing him that UNRWA would no longer teach the Grade 5 Arabic textbook in our schools. 

The books have been withdrawn and replaced with self-learning materials developed by the Agency. 

*** 

UNRWA continues to work tirelessly to ensure staff integrity by conducting human resource background checks. 

Staff are also screened against United Nations sanctions lists.  

Through our partnerships with banks, checks against additional sanctions lists are performed as part of the salary distribution process.  

For the past 15 years, UNRWA has consistently shared staff lists with host countries and Israel. 

We now do so on a quarterly basis.  

*** 

I must stress that UNRWA – like comparable United Nations entities – does not have police, military or intelligence capabilities. 

We rely on Member States when such capacities are needed. 

We have repeatedly asked the Government of Israel for evidence to support its claims that UNRWA staff are involved in militant activity. 

Last month, I wrote to the Foreign Minister of Israel, once again, requesting information and evidence to substantiate these allegations. 

In my letter, I also noted that the Government of Israel has not pursued any prosecutions within its criminal justice system, which would also require the presentation of credible evidence. 

I explained that if the Government had shared evidence with UNRWA or pursued criminal prosecutions at the domestic level, the Agency could have acted within its regulatory framework to dismiss staff against whom criminal culpability had been established, in accordance with recognized principles of due process. 

We have not received a response. 

I must reiterate here that allegations are not evidence. 

Repeating allegations in letters or on social media does not constitute due process.  

The absence of evidence, and of legal process, raises the possibility that the accusations made against UNRWA personnel are unfounded... READ MORE  https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-philippe-lazzarini-unrwa-commissioner-general-meeting-0

Thursday, May 16, 2024

From 1948 to 2024, three Palestinian sisters speak of endless Nakba For Dalal

 For Dalal, 1948 was the year she was forced to walk hundreds of kilometres on foot with her mother and two brothers, Nimr and Naim to reach safety.

Sally Ibrahim
Gaza
16 May, 2024
Amina Nassar, one of the three Palestinians sisters, embracing her granddaughter, Layan. [Sally Ibrahim/TNA]

Dalal, Naima and Amina Nassar are three sisters who lived through a horrific journey of forced exodus, destruction and death since 1948 and today, indicating how endless the Nakba has been for the Palestinians throughout the decades.  

The three sisters are Palestinian refugees from Julis in northern occupied Palestine. Their family was forced to flee their town in 1948 to the Gaza Strip, like more than 700,000 other Palestinians, by Zionist militant groups, according to official Palestinian data.

For Dalal, 1948 was the year of the Nakba, when she was forced to walk hundreds of kilometres on foot with her mother and two brothers, Nimr and Naim, to reach the nearest safe place in the Gaza Strip. 

"The situation was as if we were experiencing the Day of Judgment (...) Crowds of people escaping from the death on foot and others riding donkeys and camels, while children ran in front of their families as the sound of bullets fired by the Zionist gangs towards us," Dalal recalls to The New Arab. 

Dalal Nassar, a 84-year-old Palestinian refugee elderly woman
Dalal Nassar is an 84-year-old elderly Palestinian refugee. [Sally Ibrahim/TNA]

The 84-year-old mother of six never forgot one scene during that time. She describes how men and women lay dead in the streets, shot by Zionist forces while they were trying to escape. No one managed to save them or know who they were. 

"Everyone was trying to survive (...) No one had weapons during the exodus. We were and still are defenceless women, children and helpless elderly people," she remarked. 

Before the Nakba in 1948, Dalal said, "We lived a quiet, simple life." She lived in a mud house and her family owned land on which they planted legumes and vegetables. They had a cow from which they got milk for the children and made cheese to eat.

Despite the passage of time, Dalal vividly remembers details of her life with her neighbours and friends, when they used to gather daily to play in front of their houses, and the long walks they all took together to fill some galloons with water.

"I miss farming the land with my mother during the farming seasons," she said. "Sometimes we grew lentils and chickpeas, and in another season, we grew tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, cabbage, and many vegetables and fruits."

"But," Dalal added, "Everything was destroyed. Our lives became hell after we were forced to flee to the Gaza Strip, where my family lived in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, sheltering in tents that did not protect us from the harsh winter cold or the oppressive summer heat.

Dalal continued to live the tragic reality with her family in light of the lack of all necessities of life. She recalls, "Living in tents is the height of tragedy, without protection and privacy for you and your family (...) We felt naked in front of each other and felt ashamed all the time, even when we had to relieve ourselves inside tents."

Dalal and her five-member family then tried to deal with the "new difficult reality" imposed on them, believing that they would return to their town, from which they had been displaced, after weeks or months.

But many years passed, and neither Dalal nor any of the Palestinian refugees were able to return to their homes, denied their inalienable right to return.

MENA

"For many years, I heard stories from my family about immigration and how happy and stable my family's life was after that, but I did not expect that I would live a catastrophe and know its details intimately until the war broke out between Israel and the Arab countries in 1967," Naima,  the 74-year-old middle sister, said to TNA. 

At that time, she said, "Internal displacement was imposed on us again; we were forced to move from Deir al-Balah to Mawasi Khan Yunis and stay there during the six days of the Israeli-Arab war in 1967."

She recalls "tens of thousands of people running and fleeing on foot (...) I cannot forget the beating of my heart that was accelerating due to fear of Israeli bullets. And I cannot forget the sights of so many bodies lying in the streets. What I witnessed was terrifying, and I thought we would die."

Naima, the mother of six, elaborated that experiencing the Nakba is not just fear and anxiety for one's self but is also part of fear and anxiety for the Palestinian existence.

"Every time we survived, we insisted on proving our Palestinian presence (...) After the end of the war and Israel's occupation of Gaza, we were forced to live as immigrants inside our cities. Still, the pain inside us is great after we lost many of our loved ones and our lands and watched the Israelis seize our lands and establish settlements," she added.... READ MORE   https://www.newarab.com/news/1948-2024-three-palestinian-sisters-live-endless-nakba

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

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Dear President Biden- American taxpayers should not be forced to fund Israeli crimes against humanity

 

We keep keys
Dear President Biden (etc),

Flagrantly violating international law and universal basic human rights- Israel is in the wrong.  And so is America for blessing Israel with American tax payers' hard earned money, plus an unending plethora of lethal weaponry:

Religion should be a personal, private choice, not a state funded project.  America should not funding and arming religious preferences in the Middle East- stoking violence, religious extremism, illegal settlements & ugly bigotry with horrific ramifications.

Israel has been utilizing bullets, bombs, detentions, torture, displacement, and character assassinations, plus Apartheid laws, walls, & policies in order to starve and ethnically cleanse the Holy Land of the indigenous non-Jewish people whose ancestry is firmly rooted in historic Palestine.

UNWRA was established shortly after WWII when The Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Israel were established.  UNWRA would no longer exist if Israel had started a just and lasting peace in 1948 by respecting the Palestinian refugees' inalienable right to return to original homes and lands.

Churning out more and more refugees and punishing them when they dare object to further displacement and poverty, Israel has become a genocidal war machine.  

America needs to wake up and shake off delusions that Israel is our friend.  Do not trust Israeli news and information. They want our money and support, and for decades they have been deploying multiple skilled propagandists and bully tactics in order to dupe American leadership into doing their bidding.  

Please stop doing Israel's bidding. Stand up for American ideals and security... stand up for real freedom, equality and justice for all human beings, regardless of supposed race or religion.  

Exercise Golden Rule thinking by empowering international law, universal human rights, fair policies, and good investments.

Aid for starving children IS a good investment.  

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

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

"Of course Israel deliberately killed @WCKitchen workers and of course the kitchen will halt its operations in Gaza. That’s exactly what Israel wants….to further starve Palestinians." Diana Buttu

If you're shocked that 7 food aid workers were killed, wait until you hear about the murders of Palestinian journalists, doctors, nurses, teachers, ambulance drivers, mothers, fathers, and the children the children the children #ceasefirenow

Dean Obeidallah: Two words  [#FreePalestine] that made Ramy Youssef’s ‘SNL’ monologue historic 

Dean Obeidallah CNN Opinion: "... Hearing someone on national network television say the words “Free Palestine” — and having the audience spontaneously burst into applause — is not something I’ve seen before. It’s something I wish my late father, a Palestinian immigrant to the US, had been alive to see.

Israeli army destroyed completely Al Shifa hospital, Gaza, Palestine - Witnesses say hundreds of bodies were found inside al-Shifa Medical Complex and outside in the surrounding streets.

Easter Sunday: The Nazarene (الناصري), oil on canvas, 1993 painting by Sliman Mansour

Handala by Time

Palestinian cartoonist Naji Al Ali's Handala & the Palestinian Diaspora

Easter Vigil for Gaza - Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac in Bethlehem Palestine 2024

A big reason so many of us are speaking up for Palestine is because we recieved Holocaust education not because we lack it: NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE

Palestinian artist: Rawan Anani “Women and Olive Trees- Jerusalem” (2024)

Land Day 2024 Palestine: In 1976 it was 6 unarmed farmers murdered by Israeli forces, this year it is more than 32,704 + Palestinian people murdered by Israeli forces, mostly women & children have been killed

Harvesting oranges in Palestine - 1937

‘They kept us alive for thousands of years’: could saving Palestinian seeds also save the world? Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library, believes biodiversity will save the planet in the climate crisis

Satellite analysis shows farms devastated and nearly half of the territory’s trees razed. Alongside mounting air and water pollution, experts say Israel’s onslaught on Gaza’s ecosystems has made the area unlivable

Don't Look Left: A Diary of Genocide by Atef Abu Saif- due out May 16, 2024 in paperback

US State Dept human rights officer latest to resign in Gaza protest: "She [Annelle Sheline] said she saw firsthand how US credibility has degraded... as the [Israel/Gaza]war progressed."

“The genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians,” United Nations News: Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza

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

Hate is evil and leads to evil things. Please no more wars and weaponry for Israel.

1963 Martin Luther King Jr's I Have A Dream speech about equity for all still rings true: "Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children"      https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/i-have-a-dream-speech

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


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

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

Sunday, November 19, 2023

The very first Christians were in fact Palestinians ...

A Palestinian Christian
Palestinian Arabs are both Christian and Muslim, and for over 1,500 years, were the custodians of all the Holy sites in the Holy Land. 

Thousands of ancient churches and mosques were destroyed by the Zionists in 1948 as more than 600 Palestinian villages were ethnically cleansed and erased from existence. 

The City of Bethlehem is surrounded by a giant Apartheid wall and everything and everyone that comes in and out is controlled by the Israeli army! 

The very first Christians were in fact Palestinians and just recently the world's 3rd oldest church was recently bombed in Gaza killing Christians that were sheltering there.

(lightly edited & illustrated by Annie)

Jerusalem Via Dolorosa Station 9 - entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
 

Thursday, December 9, 2021

In Growing Gardens for Palestine- Visualising Return exhibition (& online tour) in London December 2021

Growing Gardens for Palestine

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Visualising Return exhibition in London December 2021

Photos shared by Maher Naji  followed by some photos from the online visual tour by the Palestinian Return Centre


"Maher's artwork is inspired by his family's memories of Palestine before 1948. He relies on his mother's vast details of her memories, for every line and shape in his paintings, his art is a means of preserving Palestinian culture in the midst of Israeli settler colonial siege. The memories he paints, are also the hopeful visualisations of return." RETURN WEEK



A Girl in a Jerusalem Dress

A Girl in a Jerusalem Dress by Maher Naji

Full digital tour can be found here

https://prc.org.uk/en/album/2/digital-gallery




Saturday, May 15, 2021

Nakba & Refugees 1948 never ending- continues on today

                                                                   Nakba Survivor

from IMEU  https://imeu.org/

Nakba means "Catastrophe" in Arabic. It refers to the destruction of Palestinian society in 1948 when approximately 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced into exile by Israeli troops. Because the Palestinians were not Jewish, their presence and predominant ownership of the land were obstacles to the creation of a Jewish state. Their exodus, or Nakba, was already nearly half-complete by May 1948, when Israel declared its independence and the Arab states entered the fray. https://imeu.org/topic/category/nakba-refugees

Tax-Exempt U.S. Nonprofits Fuel Israeli Settler Push to Evict Palestinians

U.S. charities are funding Israeli settler organizations working to evict Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes.

https://ifamericansknew.org/

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world's major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation.

It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power – and duty – to bring a resolution...

0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and at least 48,488 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967. (View Sources & More Information)

Demolitions of Israeli and Palestinian Homes
1967 - Present

Chart showing that more than 48,488 Palestinian homes have been demolished, compared to no Israeli homes.
Israel currently has 261 Jewish-only settlements and ‘outposts’ built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. (View Sources & More Information)   

 During Fiscal Year 2018, the U.S. is providing Israel with at least $10.5 million per day in military aid and $0 in military aid to the Palestinians. (View Sources & More Information)

32 Israelis were killed in Palestinian rocket attacks and over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since September 29, 2000. (View Sources & More Information.)


                                                      Nakba & Refugees 1948 never ending- continues on today ...