Apartheid

noun

1. An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.
   
2. A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
3. The condition of being separated from others; segregation.

Apartheid is an Afrikaans^[19] word meaning "separateness", or "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood" (from the Afrikaans suffix -heid).^[20][21] Its first recorded use was in 1929.^[9]

Letter I just wrote to my elected leaders regarding Israel- and our Congress idolizing and funding such a fiasco of injustice!

 Dear President Biden

Antisemitism is evil and wrong- and so is Israel's cruel quest to destroy and displace the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine.

I am sure there are nice and good people who live in Israel, but Israel is not a fair or just nation state.

Israel's ongoing quest to define itself as Jewish motivates Israel's heavily armed Zionist soldiers and settlers to persecute, impoverish, and displace indigenous Christian and Muslim men, women and children.

Why is our Congress idolizing and funding such a fiasco of injustice! 

We should know better, we live in a post Nazi Holocaust world where international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be guiding our way towards a just and lasting peace for all people, regardless of their supposed race or religion.

But right now American taxpayers are being forced to fund, protect, and pander to Israel's "Jewishness".  Let religion be a personal private choice, not a taxpayer funded requirement here and there. 

Be a staunch partner and supporter of the rule of fair and just laws, real freedom and true democratic values.... Not Israel

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

Social Media Meme 2023

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.

 "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.

 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-pass-resolution-backing-israel-jayapal-racist-state-rcna94897

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.

House of Palestine in Balboa Park, San Diego, California

My dear friend Amal Atieh Jubran at The Palestine House

Handala- the barefoot refugee whose face is always turned away from us, as he gazes out on the tragedy of the ongoing Nakba as the First and Forever People of Historic Palestine continue to be cruelly persecuted, impoverished and displaced by Zionist forces.  Handala's impact has grown in the decades after the Palestinian artist Naji al-Ali's 1987 assassination.  Today the character remains widely popular as a representative of the displaced Palestinian people.

Dispelling the myths about Palestinian refugees — in Jenin and beyond... With Israel's Jenin invasion sparking a new round of misinformation, here are the truths behind five hasbara tropes on Palestinian refugees.

A mural in the Jenin refugee camp, West Bank, October 10, 2006. (Anne Paq/Activestills)

By Anne Irfan   July 9, 2023

The Israeli army’s latest invasion and bombardment of Jenin refugee camp was accompanied by typical hasbara — Israeli propaganda — seeking to justify the illegal occupation as a necessary response to terrorism. It has also sparked another round of bad-faith arguments about the Jenin camp’s very existence, with a spike in social media rhetoric asking why there are refugee camps in the occupied West Bank.

While Palestinian refugees have long been the target of such misinformation campaigns, these hasbara efforts have escalated in recent years with the rise of the extremist right in Israel and an anti-Palestinian drive from Republicans in the United States.

The undermining of Palestinians’ refugee status and rights goes hand-in-hand with the denial of the Nakba (“catastrophe”), the uprooting and expulsion of around three-quarters of the Palestinian population in 1948, at the hands of Zionist militias and the new Israeli state. Denying the Nakba makes it possible to depict Israel’s establishment as liberatory and benign, while propagating myths about Palestinian refugees enables Israeli settler colonialism to continue today....

 As always please go to the original article to read in full--->  https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-refugees-hasbara-myths-jenin/

Palestinians from Tantura are expelled to Jordan, June 1948. (Benno Rothenberg/Meitar Collection/National Library of Israel/The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection/CC BY 4.0)

~

Dr. Anne Irfan is the author of Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the international refugee system, available with Columbia University Press. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Refugee Studies, Journal of Palestine Studies, Contemporary Levant, Forced Migration Review and Jerusalem Quarterly. She won the 2020 Alixa Naff Prize in Migration Studies for her article ‘Educating Palestinian refugees: The origins of UNRWA’s unique schooling system’; the 2020 Contemporary Levant Best Paper Award for ‘Petitioning for Palestine: refugee appeals to international authorities’; and the 2017 Ibrahim Dakkak Award for Outstanding Essay on Jerusalem for ‘Is Jerusalem international or Palestinian? Rethinking UNGA Resolution 181.’

BOMBS

 

The bombed yard of The Freedom Theatre in #Jenin Refugee Camp ...The Past Will Also Be Present In The Future

The painting on the wall (shown before the attack) reads "the past will also be present in the future" It includes the image of our murdered Artistic Director Juliano Mer Khamis & Indian Director Safdar who was also murdered.

@freedom_theatre

in #Jenin_Camp 

 The Past Will Also Be Present In The Future

We should not be funding Israel's war on the indigenous First and Forever People of historic Palestine.

Freedom, Justice, Equality

 Dear President & Senators

America's freedom is a wonderful thing !   I am so proud of our Founding Fathers & Mothers who talked & thought their way towards and into the creation of our Declaration of Independence and our Bill of Rights: Happy 4th of July!

I am also so very proud of all Americans who valiantly fought in WWII to defeat Hitler and his horrible Nazi Holocaust.  Racism was wrong and evil then, and it is wrong and evil now as Jews-preferred Israel cruelly persecutes, impoverishes, and displaces indigenous Arab men, women and children all through out the Holy Land.

Our so-called "friend" Israel uses American money and weaponry to terrorize and kill Palestinians. Furthermore Israeli forces attack journalists and deliberately cut off electricity and telecommunications to prevent Israeli war crimes being documented and exposed worldwide.

Israel is not defending itself, it is in the process of intentionally tormenting Palestinian families and destroying Palestinian homes. Our own Trail of Tears, the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 indigenous First and Forever People of America between 1830-1850, was a huge and heinous tragedy.  We know better now, we live in a more aware world where racism of any kind is known to be evil and wrong.  At least we say it is wrong- but here we are with our elected officials and far too many of our our religious leaders plus our failing fourth estate ignoring sovereign Israel's very real crimes against humanity and the indigenous First and Forever People of historic Palestine.

Real Freedom, Democracy and Equality is an ongoing project here in the USA, and we have a good foundation on which to build.... BUT not as long as our elected officials and religious leaders and our failing fourth estate continue idolize and admire Zionist Israel, a very foreign country that has no constitution and no respect for the native non-Jewish Palestinians.

We should not be funding Israel's war on the indigenous First and Forever People of historic Palestine.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

1776 Our Declaration of Independence states:  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Our Bill of Rights Amendment I: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."  https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript

1948's Universal Declaration of Human Rights preamble "Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world" https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Nakba is an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe” and refers to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine, its exiling of Palestinians and making them into refugees, its dispossession of Palestinian property, its destruction of Palestinian cities, towns, and villages, and its attempt to erase the existence of the Palestinian people from its homeland in 1948.  https://imeu.org/article/the-nakba-and-palestine-refugees-imeu-questions-and-answers

http://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

https://imeu.org/

https://badil.org/

https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved/what-to-boycott

https://www.palestineremembered.com/index.html

Palestine- - Matson photo Library of Congress

My letter to CS Monitor RE "Middle East fence-mending"

Re: Middle East fence-mending

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2023/0628/Middle-East-fence-mending

Dear Editor,

Regarding the most recent online CSM editorial "Middle East fence-mending" that reaches out to readers with hope regarding ending the Jewish settler violence in the Palestinian Territories.

It is a beautifully written opinion and poem-like fantasy that foolishly ignores sovereign Israel's relentless violations of international law and the native non-Jewish Palestinians' basic human rights... day after day, decade after decade.

Israel's tax payer funded Zionist settlers protected by Israel's Zionist soldiers have been harshly persecuting, oppressing, and displacing Palestinian men, women and children year after year, decade after decade- for generations now.  Same old same old. This is a monstrous tragedy and it is mainly ignored by the Western world. 

Here in America far too many religious leaders and elected officials either idolize or excuse Israeli racism and its state sponsored terrorism.  We should not be funding and fueling Israel's war on the people of historic Palestine.  We live in a post Nazi Holocaust world and really should know better. 

Face the facts: Israel/Palestine already is a one state "solution" with Palestine and surrounding refugee camps serving as a complex prison camp and weapons testing ground where Israel's Zionist soldiers and settlers can feel like heroes while they systemically destroy Palestinian families, homes, and jobs.

Real hope is real freedom, diversity, respect, and equality all empowered by the rule of fair and just laws to help build real justice and a lasting peace for all people, regardless of supposed race or religion.  Here and there!

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab  

NOTES

http://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

https://imeu.org/

https://badil.org/

https://www.palestineremembered.com/index.html

Keys for Palestine are full respect for Basic Human Rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees' inalienable, legal, logical, moral, and natural Right of Return to original homes and lands.

Before You Can- a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye in Everything Comes Next

 

Naomi Shihab Nye

 

 Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet and songwriter born in 1952 to a Palestinian father, Aziz Shihab, who worked as a journalist, editor and writer, and American mother, Miriam Allwardt Shihab, an artist who worked as a Montessori school teacher.^[4] Her father grew up in Palestine. He and his family became refugees in 1948, when the state of Israel was created. She has said her father "seemed a little shell-shocked when I was a child."^[5]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Shihab_Nye

In Growing Gardens for Palestine: Wafa Shami's A is for Arab- a playful romp through the Arab World for all ages

 Wafa Shami's A is for Arab- a playful romp through the Arab World for all ages

A unique alphabet centered on beauty and goodness in the Arab world.

 

Wafa Shami

Wafa Shami was born and raised in Ramallah, Palestine. She moved to the U.S. to pursue higher education and graduated with a Master’s degree in International Studies. Since moving to the U.S. Wafa has maintained her engagement in Middle Eastern issues as a volunteer. After her son was born she was inspired to write children’s storybooks based on her childhood memories Her stories, Easter in Ramallah, and Olive Harvest in Palestine were published in the last few years. Besides being busy raising her son. Wafa who lives in California has a passion for cooking and writes a food blog, in which she shares her family’s recipes. Visit her blog at www.palestineinadish.com and follow her on social media @palestineinadish for delicious recipes.

Other good books by author Wafa Shami

Of MishMish (Apricots) & Palestine by Mike Hanini Odetalla

                                           Of MishMish (Apricots) & Palestine

                                                     By Mike Hanini Odetalla

 

Have you ever tasted something so good, so special, that the taste continued to linger in your memories for the rest of your life? That no matter how many times you try, you are never able to duplicate it?

 

The memories of my childhood and my family’s fruit orchards in Palestine are still as fresh today as they were when I was there as a young boy. My family’s orchard produced an assortment of God’s beautiful bounty. We grew olives, peaches, figs, an assortment of plums, and the world’s best apricots. 

 

My favorite fruit had always been the golden, slightly blushing, sun kissed, apricots that grew on the trees that were planted decades before by my grandfather. These aged trees continued to produce fruit that we ate and sold to the neighboring townspeople as well as in Jerusalem.

 

I remember getting up early in the early summer mornings and running to the dew covered orchards. I would go directly to my favorite apricot tree and pick the cool, dew covered fruit that had fallen that morning to the ground. These slightly bruised golden beauties were absolutely the best tasting fruit the tree offered for they had been left on the vine to reach the peak of flavor ripeness. The point of getting there early was two-fold. I would get there early so that the birds would not have a chance to devour the fruit as it lay on the ground and it was nice and cool in the mornings. Since Palestine gets no rainfall in the summer, the principle water source for the trees and plants is the cool dew that blankets the area in the mornings.

 

I would scan the ground for the best looking fruit, pick it up, and lift it over my mouth. I would then squeeze the golden nectar from the fruit and let it drip into my mouth. The taste of that sweet, cool nectar emanating from the fruit is something that is well beyond explanation. It must be experienced for no amount of explanation or imagery can do it justice or come close to conveying the flavor and the feeling. The trees that produced such delicious beauty were planted by hand, on land, which had been in my family for hundreds of years. The soil that these trees lived off of was worked by the hands of my forefathers before me. Their sweat and tears were part of the soil and in turn translated into the sweet taste that I now enjoyed. This was not lost on me even as a child. For every bite that we took from the bounty of our land, we thanked God, and said a prayer for the people that made it possible.

 

I have now been away from my land and country for over 33 years. I have been back “home” to Palestine on numerous occasions, but never in the peak season when the apricots were ripe. Here in the US they grow apricots as well. I even make treks to orchards here to try to replicate the tastes and feelings that I have in my memory, but to no avail.  It is NOT the same. Not even close. 

 

The tastes, smells, and the experiences of my childhood in Palestine continue to haunt and taunt me. It is like an elusive love that is experienced and then lost. 

 

One can spend a lifetime trying to find and bring it back. To me the taste and smell of the nectar as it dripped from the apricot is something that I will cherish till my death. It is the essence of my life and attachment to a land that was stolen and continues to be from my people. For as long as I can remember the taste and smell of the bounty that my land and country produced, I will always yearn and dream of my return there…  That is why I am deeply saddened and outraged when I see pictures of olive groves and orchards being destroyed and uprooted by Israeli bulldozers. They are more than just trees…they are a whole lot more than most Israelis and their soldiers will ever realize or know…

 

Mike Hanini Odetalla

9-2002