Monday, November 20, 2023

From my dear & beautiful friend Amal in California - Artist Amo Mahmood Abu Askar donated his work to House of Palestine.

"Artist Amo mahmood Abu Askar donated his work to House of Palestine [in California].

God bless you dear Amo."

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Alison Weir of IF AMERICANS KNEW on America's Bias and Distorted Media Coverage

Alison Weir

@alisonweir

The U.S. media presents a distorted picture of the Israel-Palestine issue, creating an illusion of balance where there is none, and reporting on periods of “calm” that are shattered only by Palestinian violence, with Israeli violence rarely meriting reporting.

This has been the case for decades, misinforming the people whose tax money funds the cycle of violence. I remember when the LA Times described a period of “relative calm” when Israelis hadn’t suffered attacks – during this “calm,” Palestinians had been killed, imprisoned, injured, abused, & maimed.

I called the paper to complain. I spoke to someone who – before he hung up on me - claimed their phrase was justified because they called the supposed calm “relative.” I guess to him and other media gatekeepers, Palestinian deaths are insignificant, relativeto Israeli deaths. I guess to them, Palestinian grief is basically unmentionable relative to Israeli grief. I guess to them, the weeping of Palestinian mothers and fathers – multitudes more of them – is negligible, relativeto the weeping of Israeli mothers and fathers.

That report and my call were in 2005. This is the history that’s hidden by narratives that begin with Oct.7. It also helps explain why US citizens have allowed our government to fund and provide cover for dispossession of Palestinians all this time. Will people wake up at last? Read what I wrote about this misleading reporting at the time. https://ifamericansknew.org/media/relativity.html

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world's major sources of instability. Americans are directly connected to this conflict, and increasingly imperiled by its devastation.

It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power – and duty – to bring a resolution.

https://ifamericansknew.org/

FROM TURTLE ISLAND TO GAZA by Palestinian-Greek-Canadian artist: Christina Damianos

by Palestinian-Greek-Canadian artist: Christina Damianos

MC Abdul - The Pen & The Sword (Official Video)

Sep 15, 2023 #MCAbdul

Lyrics:

I’ll remind them that the pen is greater than the sword

Remind them every time it’s greater than the sword

Education we defend is gonna save the world

Dream and reunite together save the world

I’ll remind them that the pen is greater than the sword

Don’t stop trying we all equally gods lives

Education we defend is gonna save the world

Save the world save the world nshallah

Education is not just some privilege

It’s a right every child deserves it’s GOD given

That right comes under threat it must be defended

You don’t think Allah don’t see what u doin to his children

Who’s been held accountable? Who’s in charge mister?

These kids don’t have nun to do with y’all business

You should be building more schools not prisons

They bombed us it ain’t even make the news in y’all city

He could’ve been a scholar but he’s a child of Gaza

Missile hit his home and crushed it killed his ba ba

We should be playing soccer or meeting up by our lockers

He wanted to be a doctor

But he didn’t have those options ( I told him)

I’ll remind them that the pen is greater than the sword

Remind them every time it’s greater than the sword

Education we defend is gonna save the world

Dream and reunite together save the world

I’ll remind them that the pen is greater than the sword

Don’t stop trying we all equally gods lives

Education we defend is gonna save the world

Save the world save the world nshallah

The system need to be eradicated

Thee attack on education has been activated

It’s not random it’s intentional it’s calculated

I’ll be lying if I said I wasn’t aggravated

I ain’t smiling cause I ain’t happy

Know how many times I prayed for peace and peace ain’t happen?

Still get on my rug and pray for peace till god take take actions

And people held responsible for they actions

Until then we gotta stay active

We need change that change needs to be data driven

Accurate comprehensive, and since we are the victims

We deserve a voice in day today, decisions

And we can dig this generation out these grave conditions

MC Abdul - Shouting At The Wall

The very first Christians were in fact Palestinians ...

A Palestinian Christian

Palestinian Arabs are both Christian and Muslim, and for over 1,500 years, were the custodians of all the Holy sites in the Holy Land.

Thousands of ancient churches and mosques were destroyed by the Zionists in 1948 as more than 600 Palestinian villages were ethnically cleansed and erased from existence.

The City of Bethlehem is surrounded by a giant Apartheid wall and everything and everyone that comes in and out is controlled by the Israeli army!

The very first Christians were in fact Palestinians and just recently the world's 3rd oldest church was recently bombed in Gaza killing Christians that were sheltering there.

Mike Hanini Odetalla

(lightly edited & illustrated by Annie)

Jerusalem Via Dolorosa Station 9 - entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Sunbird poem by Fady Joudah

The Western World will be putting up Nativity Scenes in their homes and churches which are about Middle Eastern people seeking refuge & look awful lot like those being bombed in Gaza

Olive wood carving from Bethlehem- Mary, baby Jesus, and Joseph

The #Western #World will be putting up Nativity Scenes in their homes and churches which are about Middle Eastern people seeking refuge & look awful lot like those being bombed in Gaza!

Mike Hanini Odetalla

Water is life. The denial & destruction of it is genocide. .. Visualizing Palestine

Visualizing Palestine

@visualizingpal

97% of Gaza's water was unsafe to drink even before the most recent Israeli military assault, which has devastated water infrastructure.

Now, a dire situation has become catastrophic. Water is life. The denial & destruction of it is genocide.

Visual in partnership with @10Tooba

meanwhile...

The last Palestinians resisting in the olive groves: ‘The settlers are trying to take away the food we put on the table so they can then take our land’

West Bank farmers claim that they were already suffering attacks by settlers before October 7, but that now the Israeli army has also joined in the harassment

Guerra entre Israel y Gaza

Bárbara Ayuso (Special Correspondent)

Salfit - Nov 17, 2023 - 06:50 EST

“I will die of a gunshot, but not of hunger,” Fayza says as she separates the olives from the leaves, sitting on the ground. The 62-year-old has been harvesting olives in the West Bank village of Salfit, the largest olive oil producing area in Palestine, since she was a child. Fayza and nine other members of her family are the only people from the surrounding area working in the olive groves at the height of harvesting season. It also appears that they will be the last. Since October 7, when Hamas launched an incursion into Israel, leaving 1,200 people dead, attacks on farmers have multiplied throughout the West Bank, preventing Palestinians from accessing their land and even being killed if they get too close to their fields.... READ MORE

[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]

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-11-17/the-last-palestinians-resisting-in-the-olive-groves-the-settlers-are-trying-to-take-away-the-food-we-put-on-the-table-so-they-can-then-take-our-land.html

Jamal Mustafá Abu Salimé walks through his olive groves in Salfit.Álvaro García

Friday, November 17, 2023

8-year-old Mohammed from Gaza sits on the rubble of his family's house

“I wish for a ceasefire.”

8-year-old Mohammed from Gaza sits on the rubble of his family's house.

UNICEF

@UNICEF

UNICEF continues to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, unrestricted humanitarian access and immediate and safe release of all abducted children.

Children in Gaza need lifesaving support

UNICEF and partners are on the ground.

^{Updated 16 November 2023}

The escalation of hostilities in the Gaza Strip is having a catastrophic impact on children and families. Children are dying at an alarming rate – thousands have reportedly been killed and thousands more injured. An estimated 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced – more than half of them children. They’re running out of water, food, fuel and medicine. Their homes have been destroyed; their families torn apart.

“In all wars it is children who suffer first and suffer most.”

Even wars have rules. No child should be cut off from essential services, nor fall from the reach of humanitarian hands. No child should be held hostage or used by any means in armed conflict. Hospitals and schools must be protected from bombings, and they must not be used for military purposes, in accordance with international humanitarian law. No child should suffer the threat of bombs from their beds. The cost to children and their communities of this violence will be borne out for generations to come.

What is UNICEF calling for?

To respond to the situation for children in Israel and the State of Palestine, UNICEF is calling for:

An immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The immediate, safe and unconditional release of all abducted children and the prevention and end to any grave violations against children, including killing and injuring.
All access crossings into the Gaza Strip to be opened and safe movement for humanitarian workers and supplies across the Gaza Strip to ensure sustained and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid to affected populations wherever they are. This must include water, food, medical supplies, and fuel.
Urgent medical cases in Gaza to be able to safely access critical health services or be allowed to leave, and for injured or sick children evacuated to be accompanied by family members.
Respect and protection for civilian infrastructure such as shelters and schools, and health, electric, water and sanitation facilities, to prevent loss of civilian and children’s lives, outbreaks of diseases, and to provide care to the sick and wounded. All parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law.

UNICEF continues to press world leaders on every occasion for humanitarian access to the whole of Gaza.

Latest updates

Read the latest news or explore updates from social media

Where wars rage, children suffer. Families across the region have been impacted and children exposed to unthinkable distress. Worldwide, an alarming rise in hate speech and bigotry is tearing communities apart.

Dear America- STOP RACIST HATE

1948 Palestinian refugees refused their natural, logical, moral, ethical and legal right to return to original homes and lands.

Dear America,

America was very racist before, during and after World War II and the Nazi Holocaust. In some ways we are better now, but in other ways we are worse:

Funding Israel as Israel subsidizes religious zealots to harass Palestinians and usurp Palestinian land is wrong- and racist.

Arming Israel as it bombs refugee camps, hospitals, and bread bakeries in Gaza is wrong- and racist.

Ignoring Israel's blatant and long term violations of international law [1948-2023] and the indigenous Palestinians' basic human rights is wrong- and racist.

STOP RACIST HATE- start by ending America's misguided support for the heavily armed and generously subsidized Jews-preferred Israel as Israel aggressively destroys Arab Palestinian homes and lives everywhere and in every way it can.

The more America supports Israel the more power and weaponry angry armed extremists and their propagandists world wide gain, ensuring more terrorism and more enemies... more injustice... more poverty... more suffering... more hypocrisy... more lies... and more misinformation perpetuating more racist hate and evil in this world.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American Homemaker & Poet

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