Welcome to Wizard Bisan Gaza,
The REAL Situation in Gaza My 30 Days of Coverage
your trusted source for breaking news and real-time updates from Gaza and around the world.
We bring you accurate reports, powerful stories, and deep insights into the events shaping our lives.
".... She described “constant bombs and sirens and bullets and arrests and
harassment” and was surprised at how well everyone handles it.
“The calm chaos that the Palestinians now are just like, ‘Ok. The
soldiers are coming in from this way. We need to move this way. This is
where the snipers are,’ and the way they just navigate this oppression
is super shocking,” said Maaih, who detailed her account in a blog.
Jeid Ebanks is a nurse and worked with the International Medical
Corps while she was out there. She describes what galvanized her into
taking action in Gaza.
“From the time I first saw what was happening in Gaza my heart was
just completely broken for the innocent people and the children and the
healthcare workers. I’m a healthcare worker myself and to see how they
were being targeted and the just desperate, dire need they had. I knew
that I had to do more,” said Ebanks.
She was a supervisor of wound care, helping perform surgeries at a field hospital in Deir Al-Balah.
“There were bombs dropping around us every day. People were getting
shot in the waiting rooms while we’re trying to save lives,” said
Ebanks. “These people just were complete heroes. The healthcare workers
in Gaza were facing the same health disparities and the same crises that
they were treating the patients for, but they still showed up every
single day to save lives. So I mean, I was honored and humbled to work
alongside them.”
She thanks the Capital Region community for going door to door in
Albany, Schenectady and Troy and raised the funds – $10,000 – to send
her there to help. She said the Palestinian people taught her a lot.
“They gave me a lot of levity. Being with the children, handing out
lollipops, making jokes, and you know just encouraging each other, and
reminding each other that we’re never alone,” said Ebanks.
John Paarlberg is a former pastor, at First Church Albany, and has been to Palestine several times over the last 20 years.
His first trip, he said, came after a Palestinian woman went to his
church and spoke to the congregation about what her life was like under
occupation in the West Bank.
“And I asked what could we do? And she said, ‘Come and see’,” said Paarlberg.
After he was invited he went the next year, in 2005, with Christian
Peacemaker Teams and, “by doing so to offer some degree of a protective
presence.” Both he and Maaih said just the presence of foreigners offers
a degree of protection from occupying forces.
“Much of what was happening 20 years ago is continuing to happen, only it’s been ramped up in the West Bank,” said Paarlberg.
His most recent trip was this past August. He was directly invited by
Palestinian Christian leaders who wrote a letter calling for support.
“They wrote a letter to Christians here in the U.S. and elsewhere and
said we very much appreciate your prayers but what we really need right
now is for you to come and stand with us,” said Paarlberg.
He said he witnessed more demolitions, more detentions and more
settler violence. He described how a village of sheep farmers had been
forced from their homes after constantly being harassed and threatened
by Israeli settlers...."
For
108 days, Motaz Azaiza acted as the world’s eyes and ears in his native
Gaza. Armed with a camera and a flak jacket marked “PRESS,” the
25-year-old Palestinian photographer
spent nearly four months documenting life under Israeli bombardment:
families displaced from homes, women mourning loved ones, a man trapped
beneath the rubble. His images offered a glimpse into Gaza that few in
the international press—which has been all but barred from accessing the
Strip—could rival. He did so at great risk: At least 95 journalists
have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, in what has been the deadliest
period for the press since the Committee to Protect Journalists began
tracking fatalities in 1992. Dozens more have been injured or arrested.
Since evacuating Gaza in January, Azaiza’s role has shifted to raising
awareness of the crisis—and to calling for international intervention.
“What is happening in Gaza is not content for you,” he said. “We are not
telling you what is happening ... for your likes or views or shares.
No, we are waiting for you to act. We need to stop this war.”
[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]
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 82 journalists and media workers have died since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7th, making this war the deadliest in modern history for journalists. Hamza Al-Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya are the latest journalists to be killed in the war. Hamza is the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza Bureau Chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, who had already lost his wife, daughter, another son, and grandson in an Israeli airstrike. Al-Dahdouh vows to continue reporting through his pain and loss.
For every two Palestinian deaths, Palestinians are mentioned only once in the coverage of major newspapers we analyzed. For every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times — or a rate 16 times more per death that of Palestinians. The Intercept
Dear President Biden (& some of my other elected officials),
A "How to Respond to Antisemitism" report on TV was featured on CNBC
this morning. I tuned in as I believe racism is wrong, and I want to
know how best to help stop it. Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times was the interviewer. He spoke with a
so called pollster/political-something-or-other who had interviewed a
group of Zionist students. No Arabs or Muslims or Christians or
Humanists.
I am not going to repeat all the dangerously wrong Zionist propaganda
that Sorkin & the "pollster" bandied about, but the pollster did ask
wealthy listeners to stop giving to America's Ivy League Colleges. I
suspect he'd rather wealthy listeners give $$$ to Israel. So a
pro-Israel pontificator can publicly call for CNBC listeners to stop
investing in American colleges, but pro-Palestine truth tellers here in
America are either ignored or demonized for calling for boycotts against
Israel because of Israel's racist laws & policies and warmongering
ways.
Do you have any clue how much pollution is generated by war? "The
climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was
equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal" & "Almost
half the total CO2 emissions were down to US cargo planes flying
military supplies to Israel."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change
The human cost and the environmental cost of war in the Middle East is
horrifying, and yet America's mainstream newspapers, TV news, and
politicians itch to have more & more war, investing in Israeli
violence [and racism] at every turn.
Please stop trusting Israeli news, and start listening to people who sincerely want peace and prosperity for all people.
FYI the call for freedom "From the River to the Sea" is a call for full
and equal rights, not violence. It is a plea for compassion, the rule of
fair & just laws, and an end to racist Israeli cruelty &
apartheid in the Holy Land.
Sincerely
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Religion should be a
personal, private choice, not a state funded project
Susan Muaddi Darraj’s new novel, BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA, will be published in January 2024 by HarperVia. Her previous short story collection, A Curious Land: Stories from Home,
was named the winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction,
judged by Jaime Manrique. The book was published in December 2015 by the
University of Massachusetts Press. It also won the 2016 Arab American Book Award, a 2016 American Book Award, and was shortlisted for a Palestine Book Award. Her previous short story collection, The Inheritance of Exile, was published in 2007 by University of Notre Dame Press.
In 2019, she launched the viral #TweetYourThobe social
media campaign to promote Palestinian culture. Later that year, she was
named winner of the Rose Nader Award, by the American Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an award given by the Nader family
to a person who “demonstrates an unwavering dedication and commitment to
values of equality and justice.”
[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]
His name Wadie Al Fayoume. Killed at the age of 6 for being Palestinian and Muslim. Stabbed 26 times in his Chicago area home.
The Administration, elected officials, and the media for the past week have ignored Palestinians, and sold the general public lie after lie.
Day after day we warned about the uptick in hate crimes, and how hate rhetoric will lead to hate violence.
When @sarasidnerCNN goes live on air on @cnn and pushes a debunked lie of beheaded babies, what do you think will happen?
When networks give airtime to racist Israeli leaders to demonize our people, and push the talking points of a right-wing foreign government, this is the result.
"Members of "the squad" — a group of [nine] progressive lawmakers of color —
have fiercely and publicly criticized Israel’s treatment of the
Palestinian people for several years."
House overwhelmingly passes resolution backing Israel after Rep. Jayapal calls it a 'racist state'
Rep.
Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., has apologized for her remarks. The vote
comes one day before Israeli President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to
speak to a joint meeting of Congress.
WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to pass a
resolution condemning antisemitism and expressing support for Israel,
just days after Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal faced backlash
from both parties for calling Israel a “racist state.”
The
vote was 412-9, with 195 Democrats joining all Republicans in voting
yes. Nine progressive Democrats of color voted against the nonbinding resolution,
several of whom have denounced Israel as an apartheid state that
oppresses Palestinians. One Democrat, Betty McCollum of Minnesota, voted
present.
: Illegally annexes
: Announces settlement
