"People talk about post-traumatic stress, but for us, there is no post-era; the trauma is ongoing. Keeping our people safe in such a context is incredably difficlut, especially when you see your mother in pieces, your father under rubble, and your friends gone. Such experiences profoundly affect your brain and emotions, and we must help our people to be resilient in this harsh reality." -Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb of Palestine

Bright Stars of Bethlehem  https://www.instagram.com/bright_stars_of_bethlehem/?g=5

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The real function of the so-called Board of Peace was not to stop the genocide, but to manage perceptions while it continues

A Palestinian boy stands by the rubble of a residential building targeted overnight by an Israeli strike in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on 24 May, 2026 (AFP)

 Eid in Gaza was another bloodbath. The ceasefire is a lie

Soumaya Ghannoushi

3 June 2026

 

Eid has just ended. Across much of the Muslim world, families gathered around tables, children wore new clothes, and homes echoed with laughter and celebration.

 

While communities elsewhere marked the occasion with joy and togetherness, Gaza endured another season of grief, displacement and death.

The images that emerged from Gaza during Eid al-Adha were not isolated tragedies. They were a glimpse into the reality that continues every day behind the convenient fiction that the war has somehow ended.

One image showed a mother, Hidayah, taking her daughters shopping for Eid clothes. The girls entered the shop while she remained outside. Moments later, an Israeli strike hit. They rushed back out in panic only to find their mother lying dead in the street, soaked in blood.

Another clip lasted only seconds. Amid the ruins of a building destroyed by an Israeli air strike, a man held the body of a small girl in his hands. Her body was shattered, charred and covered in blood. As he lifted her from the rubble, he screamed: "This is the first day of Eid!"

A third image showed tents burning in the darkness of an Eid night. Even the makeshift shelters of the displaced are not spared. It is no longer enough that Palestinians have been driven from their homes; even the scraps of canvas under which they seek refuge have become targets.

A meaningless ceasefire

These scenes were not anomalies. According to the United Nations and humanitarian organisations, more than 26 Palestinians, largely women and children, were killed during the first days of Eid alone. 

On the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Israeli strike in central Gaza City reportedly killed at least 10 people, including four girls, one boy and three women.

For the victims, the debate over whether there is a ceasefire is meaningless. They are dead either way.

That is the great deception at the heart of the current discourse on Gaza. 

The United Nations reports that Israeli forces have killed around 1000 Palestinians since the October ceasefire was announced, bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to nearly 73,000. Thousands more are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

The reality is stark. Palestinians largely adhered to the ceasefire. Israel did not. Yet, Western governments, media organisations and political establishments continue to speak as though a ceasefire exists. 

The new definition appears to be that Israel may continue carrying out air strikes, shooting civilians, demolishing homes and killing Palestinians on a near-daily basis, and the world will still describe the situation as a ceasefire. The moment a single bullet is fired from Gaza, however, headlines fill with accusations of violations and escalation.

This fiction serves an obvious purpose. It removes Gaza from the headlines, lowers public scrutiny and allows Israel to continue its assault while political leaders present themselves as peacemakers... READ MORE https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-eid-bloodbath-ceasefire-lie

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" “I think [Palestine] is the moral issue of our time and I believe it’s been used to undermine democratic institutions in the US,” Elghandour said. He referred to the cancelled invitation as a sign or “erosion of free speech and the first amendment”. “We’ve seen a livestreamed genocide,” he added. “And we’re supposed to worry about the feelings of the people who support that.” " Rami Elghandour

Rami Elghandour. Photograph: Courtesy Rami Elghandour

Rutgers graduation speaker canceled for pro-Palestinian posts says decision sends ‘dangerous’ message

Rami Elghandour tells Guardian in exclusive interview his speech was cancelled due to students’ complaints

Rutgers University abruptly rescinded its invitation to a prominent alum who was slated to deliver a graduation speech next week after some students complained about social media posts he had published about Palestine.

Rami Elghandour – a tech entrepreneur, graduate of Rutgers’ School of Engineering, and executive producer of the Oscar-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab – was set to deliver a graduation address at the school’s campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey on 15 May.

But the school’s dean, Alberto Cuitiño, called Elghandour last week and told him he was cancelling the speech because of students’ complaints, though he declined to say how many students and what posts they had complained about. The dean, Elghandour said, broadly described the posts as “opposed to their beliefs”.

“What is most puzzling to me is that they champion me for my humanitarian views and now they’re canceling me for them,” Elghandour told the Guardian in an exclusive interview... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/06/rutgers-cancel-graduation-speech-pro-palestine-post

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The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024, has been nominated for best international feature film... Palestinian actor, Motaz Malhees, who plays the role of a call center operator attempting to help the girl, can’t attend Oscars because of US travel ban

Motaz Malhees is an actor in The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a Palestinian girl killed by the IDF in Gaza in 2024

A still from The Voice of Hind Rajab, with Motaz Malhees in the background. Photograph: BFA/Alamy

Palestinian actor Motaz Malhees said a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump is preventing him from attending Sunday’s Academy Awards, whose nominees include a movie in which he has a starring role.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2024, has been nominated for best international feature film.

Malhees, who plays the role of a call center operator attempting to help the girl, said he cannot attend the Academy Awards show, known as the Oscars, because he has been barred from entering the US.

“I am not allowed to enter the United States because of my Palestinian citizenship,” Malhees said on Instagram, adding “it hurts” he would not attend the Oscars.

In a December proclamation restricting entry of foreign nationals, Trump said as president he had “determined to fully restrict and limit the entry of individuals using travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority”... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/14/palestinian-actor-oscars-travel-ban 

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Bishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna: Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....

Bishop Atta Hanna

Archbishop of the Orthodox Rome

 

Theodosios Atallah Hanna

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Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....

 

Emptying the Palestinian land from its inhabitants is an old and new colonial scheme, and we have recently noticed an increase in the policy of eradicating the Palestinians from their lands in the midst of the continuous and continuous assaults of the settlers who attack the security citizens and target their lives and livelihood in all its details.

 

Lately we are seeing an uptick in settlers attacks who seek to intimidate citizens with their barbaric, unacceptable and unjustified ways.

 

It is a purposeful plan to empty the Palestinian land from its original inhabitants and all Palestinians have the great responsibility to uplift this people and protect them from all attacks, policies and racist practices.

 

That the issue of arranging the inner Palestinian house is not an intellectual luxury as much as it is an urgent need to preserve the remaining Palestinians in this holy land.

 

They lied to us when they told us about peace and about two countries for Shaaban, so today we observe that the Palestinian lands are being stolen, and the Palestinian issue is being filtered, and we are certain that all projects to filter the Palestinian issue have failed miserably.

 

Where are the Arab brothers from all of this, and they who once said that Palestine was their first cause.

 

That the War of Genocide has clearly shown the reactionary Arab state, and everyone is aware that the occupation could not have fulfilled its conditions, agendas and programs if it were not for the Arab illusion, so if the Arabs were in a better condition, we wouldn't have reached where we have reached in Palestine and other places, despite the gloomy picture, we are We will remain optimistic because the Palestinian issue is a case of right and justice, and it cannot be broken or filtered, no matter how they conspire on it and plan to filter it, but this requires from the Palestinians more wisdom, sobriety, awareness and unity in the face of challenges.

 

The whole world must realize that peace begins with Palestine and through solving the Palestinian issue, which is the key to peace and conspiring on the Palestinian cause and on the oppressed Palestinian people will not get us anywhere to the real peace we want and desire.

 

Bishop Atta Hanna

Archbishop of the Orthodox Rome

Jerusalem 31/1/2026

https://www.facebook.com/theodosios.atallah.hanna

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Theodosios Atallah Hanna

srpoStdneoa896 ttil30083g5M2u1  3Jc 91rf5iym:antAu3maca1002i  ·

We raise our prayers this morning for our people in Gaza, affected, and for our children in the West Bank who are being targeted in a horrific way, in pious and unbiblical ways and methods.

 

Palestinians are all targeted in their land and in their livelihood and in every detail of their lives. We ask you, O Lord, while we are in our holy city, to be with our people and all our children in their distress, pain and pain.

 

Our people in Gaza deserve to live with dignity, and to be blessed with life, which is a gift from God, and also our people in the West Bank deserve to live in better conditions, and to enjoy the freedom of movement from one place to another, away from barriers, away from assaults and from compromising.

 

We pray for our Palestinian people, who are subjected to oppression and terrorism policies in more than one place and in more than one site.

 

O Lord, have mercy on this oppressed people, and be with them and protect them, and keep them away from all evil.

 

A STATEMENT FROM THE PATRIARCHS AND HEADS OF THE CHURCHES IN JERUSALEM ON UNITY AND REPRESENTATION OF THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE HOLY LAND

January 17, 2026

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in the Holy Land affirm before the faithful and before the world that the flock of Christ in this land is entrusted to the Apostolic Churches, which have borne their sacred ministry across centuries with steadfast devotion. Recent activities undertaken by local individuals who advance damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock. These undertakings have found favor among certain political actors in Israel and beyond who seek to push a political agenda which may harm the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the wider Middle East.

Holy Scripture teaches us that “we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” (Romans 12:5). To claim authority outside the communion of the Church is to wound the unity of the faithful and burden the pastoral mission entrusted to the historic churches in the very land where our Lord lived, taught, suffered, and rose from the dead.

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches further note with concern that these individuals have been welcomed at official levels both locally and internationally. Such actions constitute interference in the internal life of the churches and disregard the pastoral responsibility vested in the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem.

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem reiterate that they alone represent the Churches and their flock in matters pertaining to Christian religious, communal, and pastoral life in the Holy Land.

May the Lord, who is the Shepherd and Guardian of souls, grant wisdom for the protection of His people and the safeguarding of His witness in this sacred land.

—The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem

https://en.jerusalem-patriarchate.info/announcements/a-statement-from-the-patriarchs-and-heads-of-the-churches-in-jerusalem-on-unity-and-representation-of-the-christian-communities-in-the-holy-land/ 

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