Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts

Monday, October 26, 2026

Truth under the rubble [of Palestine]: MEDIA in the time of [Israeli made] GENOCIDE

Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967- Francesca Albanese

https://x.com/FranceskAlbs/status/2114483869533823405/photo/1

https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a81249-report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-palestinian

Published

09 October 2026

UN symbol

A/81/249

Summary

This report examines how the destruction of truth has become integral to the destruction of a people. It identifies three interconnected patterns: the elimination of Palestinian media workers – through killing, maiming, arbitrary detention, torture, intimidation and the systematic labelling of them as “terrorists” – to suppress the documentation of crimes; the construction of an information regime in Israel through media restrictions, censorship, propaganda, hate speech, genocidal incitement and denial; and the role of influential international media and digital platforms in marginalizing Palestinian voices and reproducing Israeli narratives, normalizing legal distortions, which ultimately legitimized atrocities. Together, these practices have not merely accompanied genocide but have facilitated its commission and obstructed accountability. Some aspects of this assault on truth might be described as “mediacide”.

Issued By:

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967

Delivered To:

General Assembly - eighty-first session

Versions

See available official languages

Friday, October 9, 2026

"Art can play an important role in supporting children’s healthy development during conflicts and emergencies." UNRWA works

Friends Lareen (left) and Layan (right) exhibited their artwork at UNRWA’s Asmaa Shelter in Gaza City. © June 2026 UNRWA PhotoThe children's art was exhibited in five temporary spaces across the Gaza Strip. © June 2026 UNRWA PhotoA total of 250 children

UNRWA

@UNRWA

Through art, Lareen and Layan are finding ways to express their thoughts, hopes and emotions.

They were among 1,000 children in #Gaza who took part in UNRWA-supported art activities that provided a safe and encouraging space for creativity and self-expression.

With support from the European Union, these activities help children explore their talents and share their stories.

Read the full story: unrwa.org/newsroom/photo

#UNRWAworks

#FundUNRWA

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2108561074555424976

[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]

02 September 2026

A steady sound of voices fills UNRWA’s Asmaa shelter-turned-exhibition space in Beach Camp in Gaza City. As people move through the crowded room, they pause to smile, point, and take photos of the colourful artwork that brightens the once-white walls. Standing among them are 11-year-old friends Lareen and Layan. The young students-turned-artists proudly show off their posters and upcycled cardboard figures.

"I love drawing flowers," says Layan. "One day, I want to become an architect."

Alongside 1,000 other children living in UNRWA shelters across the Gaza Strip, the young friends have participated in art activities organised by the Agency. Under the supervision and guidance of UNRWA psychosocial counsellors, the students have learned how to express their thoughts, aspirations, and emotions through art, creating posters, drawings, artistic models, and sculptures.

"We were so happy to participate. We collected things from around us and learned how to turn them into something beautiful. We made new friends and spent time together in a healthy environment, away from the destruction around us," says Lareen, who is among the 250 children selected to exhibit their art in one of the five temporary exhibition spaces across the Gaza Strip.

The art activities and exhibitions were made possible through funding from European Union Humanitarian Aid, which provided the paint, paper, and other materials needed for drawing, colouring, and crafting, as well as the psychosocial support that helped create a safe and encouraging environment for the participants.

Art can play an important role in supporting children’s healthy development during conflicts and emergencies. Through art, they learn how to express complex emotions they might otherwise find difficult to articulate, while strengthening their confidence and fostering a sense of normalcy. For children in the Gaza Strip, opportunities to learn, play, and express themselves have been disrupted by more than two years of war, repeated displacement, and the loss of loved ones.

Wael, an UNRWA focal point for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in the Gaza Strip, has witnessed how the art activities have made a difference.

“The children transformed their feelings, experiences, and aspirations into powerful artworks that speak of both their struggles and their hope for a better future. The initiative gave them a voice, while strengthening their well-being and helping them rebuild hope in the most challenging circumstances.”

The project also attracted older children eager to develop their artistic talents.

For 16-year-old UNRWA school graduate Khadija, living in the Asmaa shelter in Beach Camp, art became a means of documenting the realities faced by children in the Gaza Strip. Having lost both her home and her brother during the war, she used her artwork to reflect on the experiences that continue to shape her community.

"I saw a child whose arms had been amputated playing hopscotch in the street," she recalls. "These are the real losses in life, the moments of joy that disappear. We have been deprived of everything. I want to express the suffering of the children..." READ MORE https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/photos/paint-paper-and-pencils-help-children-gaza-strip-cope-trauma-and-loss

Smaller than a Mouse- a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye published in her most recent book "Sidekick" 2026

Smaller than a Mouse

We demonstrated on a steaming day,

carrying signs,

five hundred thousand people

in the streets of New York

saying no to war,

gathering crowds for blocks and miles,

crush and press of world's religions

and secular codes, multi-flavored

WE SHALL NOT KILL

and the next day our story,

the story of saying no to war,

was written up in a three-sentence news item

on the back of the front section of the New York Times

smaller than the story of a mouse found

in a chain restaurant soup.

This is the truth.

Poem by award winning Palestinian American poet Naomi Shihab Nye published in her most recent book "Sidekick" 2026

https://boaeditions.org/book/sidekick/

Praise for Naomi Shihab Nye

“On every page, Shihab Nye's insistent call is the same: people, all people, deserve to live safe and healthy lives, free from fear and violence. She mourns, rages, takes politicians to task, but always lands on the side of compassion.” —Shelf Awareness

Naomi Shihab Nye is the author and/or editor of more than thirty volumes including six collections of poetry from BOA Editions: Sidekick (2026), Red Suitcase (1994), Fuel (1998), You & Yours (2005), Transfer (2011), and The Tiny Journalist (2019). She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow and a Witter Bynner Fellow. Her numerous awards include a Lavan Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award from BOA, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the Patterson Poetry Prize, four Pushcart Prizes, the Robert Creeley Prize the Betty Prize from Poets House for her service to poetry, and the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Texas Institute of Letters. She served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2010–2015, and in May 2019 she was named the 2019–2021 Young People's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation.

Monday, August 24, 2026

"Because, after all, how do you explain to a 12-year-old that one of the world’s most powerful militaries is designating paper kites as “weapons of war” in a completely devastated area?" Maha Hussaini of Palestine

Maha Hussaini

@MahaGaza

Two weeks ago, Nazeeh, my first nephew, flew a kite for the first time in his life.

He is 12, however, and he should have learned how to fly kites years ago. But when he was old enough to learn, the genocide began. For the next three years, the things he learned were how to cut firewood with his father for cooking, collect water, and move from one shelter to another.

Earlier this month, we went to the beach together as a family.

In every break he took from swimming, I noticed him watching boys flying kites.

“Nazeeh,” I called. “Look around. If you see anyone selling kites, let’s get you one.”

His eyes lit up. He jumped up and started asking around.

We couldn’t find anyone selling one. And just as he came back disappointed, I called over a boy flying a black-and-white kite.

“Where did you buy it?” I asked.

“Do you want one?” he asked back.

He told us he made the kites himself from nylon and sticks and sold them to earn a little pocket money. He offered us the kite for very little. So we got it.

For the next few hours, I had to reach back into my own childhood to teach Nazeeh how to fly it.

Every time I let out more string and the kite climbed higher, he would jump and shout: “Higher! Higher!”

I hadn’t seen my little genius this excited in a long time.

Nazeeh isn’t easily impressed by ordinary children’s toys. He is the kind of kid who would rather take things apart and fix them, especially electronics, or sit watching “how-to” videos.

At one point, laughing, he said: “Wow, how beautiful it is to drive something in the sky.” He knew “drive” wasn’t quite the right word. But I knew exactly what he meant.

As I expected, the kite didn’t stay the way he had bought it. The next day, he asked his mother to show him YouTube videos on how to make kites. Then he rebuilt his own.

He used different nylon. He glued a Palestinian flag onto it. And he wrote “Gaza” on every side, preparing it for our next trip to the beach.

But yesterday, his parents told him he couldn’t fly it outside the house.

“Why?” he asked.

I’m not sure what they told him, but I’m sure they couldn’t put into words how Israel’s Prime Minister and Defense Minister have themselves threatened intensified bombing and forced evacuations of areas in Gaza where children are spotted flying kites.

Because, after all, how do you explain to a 12-year-old that one of the world’s most powerful militaries is designating paper kites as “weapons of war” in a completely devastated area?

https://x.com/MahaGaza/status/2091823635409346902

[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 here, there- and everywhere]

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

MIFTAH: Targeting the Witness Not the Crime... The issue is no longer confined to Palestine. It becomes a question about the future of international law and accountability for EVERYONE. Protection of civil society, lawyers, and human rights defenders is NOT OPTIONAL, it is essential for truth, justice, and the demand for accountability

https://x.com/miftahpal/status/2076940941542236236/photo/1

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Friday, May 8, 2026

" “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

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

"On the International Day for the Right to Truth about Human Rights Abuses, we honour victims and human rights defenders who break the silence and uncover the facts." Volker Türk, United Nations Human Rights

Volker Türk

@volker_turk

Knowing the truth about human rights violations is crucial to reconciliation and justice. On the International Day for the Right to Truth about Human Rights Abuses, we honour victims and human rights defenders who break the silence and uncover the facts.

https://x.com/volker_turk/status/2036398864719057139/photo/1

[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]

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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