"For me, as a Palestinian from Gaza who survived the ongoing genocide, when I look at the rubble of homes on Google Maps, I am not seeing only the remains of buildings, which from far look like a decaying wall. I am seeing the remains of people whose bodies were crushed beneath walls and ceilings they painted with their own hands. I see children’s toys. Books. Backpacks. Coloring pencils. An unfinished meal. Blankets. Shoes. Photo frames of grandparents whose grandchildren never met. An old key to a home in Yaffa or Haifa. I can also hear the last words of a broadcaster on the radio before the news occurred, before the radio was broken and the family crushed..." Mosab Abu Toha

 Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

 

For me, as a Palestinian from Gaza who survived the ongoing genocide, when I look at the rubble of homes on Google Maps, I am not seeing only the remains of buildings, which from far look like a decaying wall. 

 

I am seeing the remains of people whose bodies were crushed beneath walls and ceilings they painted with their own hands. 

 

I see children’s toys. Books. Backpacks. Coloring pencils. An unfinished meal. Blankets. Shoes. Photo frames of grandparents whose grandchildren never met. An old key to a home in Yaffa or Haifa. 

 

I can also hear the last words of a broadcaster on the radio before the news occurred, before the radio was broken and the family crushed. No breaking news there. No news at all.

Gaza 2026

At 76, Mansoura’s most precious possession is the key to her former home... ‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza

This is the most precious thing I own – the key to our house in the north. It is the key to the house that the occupation forces bulldozed. They flattened it: the house, the trees, the well, even a pen full of animals – they bulldozed it all. We couldn’t take anything with us, no money, no livestock.

I lived through wars before this. None was as bad as this one. During the 52-day war, we sheltered in schools, and we were OK – there wasn’t bombing like this, not the level of killing, and not the destruction of homes. But this war is extremely difficult. The destruction is enormous, the devastation is enormous – and all without any benefit. All of this is for nothing.

Life has become very different. Our family never knew hunger before, never knew displacement, bombardment, missiles, killing and destruction in this way or on this scale. The other thing I keep in this bag is a bullet – it was pulled from my son’s back. During the famine, he had nothing to eat and nothing to feed his seven children, so he went to get a bag of flour to feed his children from the aid stations, and they shot him. I keep this as a reminder of what happened – all for the sake of getting food.

‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza

 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2026/sep/23/this-is-where-i-live-now-the-back-of-a-truck-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-grandmother-in-gaza

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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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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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This year marks 50 years of honoring Land Day — a commemoration of the Palestinian ongoing struggle against the Israeli government's theft of Palestinian land. "With immense grief and rage at the horrors the Israeli military is committing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank right now, we recognize Palestinians’ deep roots in their land as we support the struggle for Palestinian freedom. We honor the steadfastness and resilience of those who have resisted land theft by the Israeli government, military, and Israeli settlers." Jewish Voice for Peace

LAND DAY Artwork by Suzanne via Palestine Poster Project

Jewish Voice for Peace 

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Today marks 50 years of honoring Land Day — a commemoration of the Palestinian ongoing struggle against the Israeli government's theft of Palestinian land. This commemoration of Land Day also falls during the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians for the third year in a row. 

 

With immense grief and rage at the horrors the Israeli military is committing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank right now, we recognize Palestinians’ deep roots in their land as we support the struggle for Palestinian freedom. We honor the steadfastness and resilience of those who have resisted land theft by the Israeli government, military, and Israeli settlers.

 

This day commemorates Palestinian land defenders from every era:

 

Those across historic Palestine who went on a mass strike to protest the Israeli government’s takeover of their land in the Galilee on this day in 1976;

 

The Great March of Return protesters of Gaza who launched weekly protests for 21 months demanding their right of return on this day in 2018;

 

and those who continue to resist genocide, encroaching Israeli settlement growth, home demolition, and displacement everyday—from Gaza City to Khan Younis to Masafer Yatta to Sheikh Jarrah to Huwara, Nablus, Jenin and beyond.

 

We mourn the tens of thousands who were killed or permanently injured by the Israeli military over the years. We honor those who rose up in 1976 and all who have risen up to fight for justice in Palestine. In their memory, we recommit to supporting Palestinians in their struggle to end Israeli genocide, settler-colonialism, and ethnic cleansing, and for their right of return.

 

Artwork by Suzanne via Palestine Poster Project

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JVP Action, our 501c4 organization, is now doing business as JVP; JVP Lab, our 501c3 organization, continues separately and remains focused on our nonpartisan educational and cultural work.

"Fashion has always been political. Now, demonstrators are putting pro-Palestinian slogans and symbols on their clothes – and not just for marches" REPORTING by Ellie Violet Bramley. Photographs by Ethan Parker in The Guardian

 

Wear it loud, wear it proud: how marchers for Gaza are bringing ‘protest dressing’ up to date

It’s early afternoon at the latest national march for Gaza in central London. A man is wearing a sweatshirt bearing a photograph of Hind Rajab, the five-year-old girl who was killed in the Gaza conflict last year along with family members and the paramedics who tried to save her. He doesn’t want to be named. But it is, he says, his attempt “to keep her memory alive, until we get justice … Whether it takes one month, one year, 100 years, I’m not giving up. I’m not going to stop wearing this until the killers are behind bars.”

It’s a heart-rending example of a phenomenon common to all these marches over the past two years: people are here to call for an end to the war and the Israeli occupation, and many are using their clothes to bolster their message.

Far from being a frivolous afterthought, protest dressing has become an important part of these marches. Wearing the symbols and colours of solidarity can be an expression of grief and a call to action.

“Enough is enough,” says Mariama, who is in her 30s and works for the NHS in Nottingham. She is wearing a football-style shirt with a Palestinian flag in place of the club crest. Alongside it are the words “viva Palestina” and a visual representation of the contested area.

“It’s one way of giving voice to your opposition, my opposition, to the occupation of Palestine,” says the Rev Poppy Hughes, 65, of her Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) pin badge. Otherwise “there’s nothing to identify you as somebody who’s opposed to the occupation and the genocide and the starvation.”

There’s a sense of shared project about it. “You feel more united when you’re sharing the dress code,”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2025/sep/19/wear-it-loud-wear-it-proud-how-marchers-for-gaza-are-bringing-protest-dressing-up-to-date 

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*International Law makes it abundantly clear that every one- every person and every refugee- has an inalienble right to leave and to return to their homes and lands. That is why Israel wants to undermine and abolish the United Nations and UNWRA.

 from IMEU  https://imeu.org/article/the-right-of-return-palestinian-refugees

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Fact Sheet: Palestinian Refugees & The Right of Return Under International Law

May 05, 2024 chris

• Palestinian refugees are Palestinians who were expelled from their homes and homeland by Israel during and after the state’s establishment in 1948.

• Under international law, all refugees have a right to return to areas from which they have fled or were forced, to receive compensation for damages, and to either regain their properties or receive compensation and support for voluntary resettlement. This right derives from a number of sources, including customary international law, international humanitarian law governing rights of civilians during war, and human rights law. The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in Article 13(2) that "[e]veryone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and return to his own country."
• In December 1948, following Israel's establishment based on the ethnic cleansing of approximately 750,000 Palestinians, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, which states:

"refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."

• The right of return for Palestinian refugees has been affirmed repeatedly by the UN General Assembly, including through Resolution 3236, which "Reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return."
• The Palestinian right of return has also been recognized by human rights organizations like Amnesty International, which issued a policy statement on the subject in 2001. It concluded:

“Amnesty International calls for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from Israel, the West Bank or Gaza Strip, along with those of their descendants who have maintained genuine links with the area, to be able to exercise their right to return.”

• According to a statement issued by Human Rights Watch in 2000:

“HRW urges Israel to recognize the right to return for those Palestinians, and their descendants, who fled from territory that is now within the State of Israel, and who have maintained appropriate links with that territory. This is a right that persists even when sovereignty over the territory is contested or has changed hands.”

• The right of refugees to return to homes and lands they were expelled from is an individual right and cannot be unilaterally abrogated by third parties.
   

Go deeper

• Quick Facts: Palestinian Refugees
• Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba (“Catastrophe”)
• Timeline: The Palestinian Nakba & Establishment of Israeli Apartheid
• Explainer: Plan Dalet & The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
• Explainer: The Deir Yassin Massacre
• In Their Own Words: Israeli Leaders on the Expulsion of Palestinians During Israel’s Establishment
• Fact Sheet: Is Israel an Apartheid State?

"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)