Gazans find themselves completely isolated - cut off from their loved ones and from the rest of the world.

UNRWA

2:38 PM · Dec 16, 2023

@UNRWA

 

There is a prolonged communications blackout across the #GazaStrip that started on Thursday night and has continued over the past 48 hours.

 

Once again, Gazans find themselves completely isolated - cut off from their loved ones and from the rest of the world.

Palestine's exiles find family bonds thru Facebook

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

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/06/palestine-exiles-find-family-bonds-thru-facebook/

Published May 06, 2012

SIDON, Lebanon –  As Jewish forces advanced on their village during the war that surrounded Israel's creation in 1948, the Palestinian Faour family piled children and belongings into donkey carts and fled, hoping to return home when the fighting stopped.

Only some of them got back, and the family is still divided. Some are in the Lebanese city of Sidon as stateless refugees. Others are 80 kilometers (50 miles) away as Israeli citizens in their village of Shaab, across a fenced and hostile border.

Granddaughter Mona Maarouf, 26, still considers Shaab home, even though she has spent her life in Sidon, has never visited her ancestral village and maybe never will. She knew she had relatives there but knew nothing about them.

Then she joined Facebook.

Now she tracks who has died in the village, and her cousins in Israel weigh in on her marriage prospects. "I didn't think anyone knew anything about me," she says. "Then I saw that they knew everything."

Social media have produced a boom in communications between Palestinians in Israel and the Arab world, once connected only through rare letters carried by intermediaries or the International Red Cross. Younger exiles like Maarouf are tracking down and getting to know relatives separated for decades.

Many Palestinians say they now know more about their extended families than at any time since the birth of Israel, an event Palestinians mourn every May 15 as the "Nakba," or catastrophe.

Mostly they stick to swapping family photos and news, worrying that political talk could draw attention from intelligence agencies. Some, however, say stronger ties will bolster the Palestinian demand that some 5 million Palestinian refugees registered with the U.N. return to their villages...READ MORE

The Golden Chariot celebrating diversity & tolerance: Found near the Oxus River, on the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan (500-300 B.C.)

Oxus chariot model, gold model found near the Oxus river, 500-300BC: 'On the front of the chariot... is the head of the Egyptian god Bes... But what is an Egyptian god doing protecting a Persian on the frontiers of Afghanistan? It's a perfect demonstration of the Persian Empire's striking capacity for tolerating different religions.'

Trustees of the British Museum

See opening page

« 100 objects of desire: Story of the radio series of the year

OR

NYTimes

The History of the World in 100 Objects

OXUS CHARIOT MODEL

Found near the Oxus River, on the border of Afghanistan and Tajikistan (500-300 B.C.)

“Our chariot doesn’t just tell us about travel and communications; it sums up the acceptance of diversity that was at the heart of the Persian imperial system. . . . On the front of the chariot, prominently displayed, is the head of the Egyptian god Bes. . . . I suppose he’s the equivalent of a modern-day St. Christopher or talisman dangling from the car mirror.’’