Friday, November 14, 2025

" ... It is a responsibility. A responsibility for them to speak as they suffer, a responsibility for me to carry their story, and a responsibility, ah, what a responsibility, for you to take action. Yes, it is your money that is killing us and funding our murderers and oppressors. It is your governments that are protecting our slaughterers." Mosab Abu Toha

Mosab Abu Toha: Forest of Noise (Knopf 2024)/ Pulitzer Prize/ OPC/ American Book Award/ National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist/ Founder of the Edward Said Public Library

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

"My wife and I just spoke with our families in Gaza. Most of them told us they’ll be sleeping tonight on mattresses and blankets completely soaked with rainwater.

More than half of our relatives are children, some under the age of five.

And yes, tonight they will sleep on wet mattresses and blankets, in a tent on the street.

I know that sharing this won’t change anything for them, not tonight, and not even next year.

How do I know?

Because babies have burned in tents, been beheaded, and been buried beneath the rubble, and not a single person stepped in to save their lives.

So how am I supposed to expect that anyone will save the life of a child who may die from the cold?

Can a camera capture the cold the way it captures flames?

Anyway, the only reason I’m writing this is because they told me these things, and I feel it is my duty to share them with you.

It is a responsibility.

A responsibility for them to speak as they suffer, a responsibility for me to carry their story, and a responsibility, ah, what a responsibility, for you to take action.

Yes, it is your money that is killing us and funding our murderers and oppressors.

It is your governments that are protecting our slaughterers."

https://x.com/MosabAbuToha/status/1989366779861147914

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES & 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]

& on Substack

Mosab Abu Toha

Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian writer and poet from Gaza.

I’m running out of words as I watch the devastating scenes of rainwater flooding people’s tents in Gaza’s streets.

I talked to my family and my wife’s, all our relatives who live in tents in the street and deeply suffering.

I’m disgusted with a world that has allowed Gaza to continue suffering, even after the so-called “ceasefire.”

Not a single house has been rebuilt. On the contrary, Israeli terrorist forces are blowing up more houses in areas of Gaza they are still occupying.

There are babies who may not survive the cold.

And yet, who cares?

I’m posting this so everyone can see.

I’m posting this because I will never forgive or forget.

I’m posting this so future generations will witness the cruelty of the occupation and the leaders, as well as those who support them, who enable this suffering.

https://substack.com/@mosababutoha/note/c-177209519

moh.art_ "To the wonderful Miss Rachel, From the hearts of the children of Gaza and everyone who still believes in hope — thank you. You are not only a teacher or a creator, but a mother to every child, spreading joy and strength where pain lives. The dress you wore, made from the drawings of Gaza’s children, is more than fabric — it is a message of love, resilience, and peace from small hearts that still dare to dream...."

moh.art_

To the wonderful Miss Rachel,

From the hearts of the children of Gaza and everyone who still believes in hope — thank you. You are not only a teacher or a creator, but a mother to every child, spreading joy and strength where pain lives.
The dress you wore, made from the drawings of Gaza’s children, is more than fabric — it is a message of love, resilience, and peace from small hearts that still dare to dream.
I am a graphic designer from Gaza, the eldest in my family after losing my father. I draw from my heart — and I create art for anyone willing to support me, so I can provide for my loved ones.
Thank you for standing with us, for being our voice, and for bringing light to Gaza’s children ❤️
@msrachelforlittles

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQv3pzKCG3G/

"... It didn’t happen by accident. It’s the product of a deliberate and systematic assault on knowledge by some of the richest people on Earth. Preventing climate breakdown means protecting ourselves from the storm of lies."

If "you have the money to fund a junktank, it will produce whatever opinion you request, then papers such as the New York Times will balance that opinion against decades of academic study, as if the two things are of equal weight."

Illustration: Thomas Pullin/The Guardian

Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage

The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich

George Monbiot

If this were just a climate crisis, we would fix it. The technology, money and strategies have all been at hand for years. What stifles effective action is a deadly conjunction: the climate crisis running headlong into the epistemic crisis.

An epistemic crisis is a crisis in the production and delivery of knowledge. It’s about what we know and how we know it, what we agree to be true and what we identify as false. We face, alongside a global threat to our life-support systems, a global threat to our knowledge-support systems.

Let’s start by recognising that they were never robust. There was no golden age of public knowledge, no moment at which the information most people received was largely unbiased and accurate. Throughout modern history, European societies have formed a broad consensus around blatant falsehoods: such as the view that the monarch embodied all the interests of the nation, that women were unsuited to public life, that Black and Brown people were inferior beings, that empire was a force for good. A vast infrastructure of persuasion was built around these beliefs. Public knowledge is always shaped by power.

The promise of democracy was that the lives of all would steadily improve as knowledge spread: we would turn our gathering understanding of the world into social progress. For a while, in some places, we did. But that era now seems to be coming to an end.

The fundamental problem is this: that most of the means of communication are owned or influenced by the very rich. If democracy is the problem capital is always trying to solve, propaganda is part of the solution. Like the ... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/14/climate-crisis-communication-super-rich

“The US administration, they are supporting the rule of the jungle, not the rule of law,” he said. “And what’s going on, globally speaking, is a war between the rule of the jungle and the rule of law.” Shawan Jabarin of PALESTINE- general director of Al-Haq . Al-Haq has documented Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine for half a century. Alongside other organizations that the US has also sanctioned – Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, and Addameer, which is focused on the rights of Palestinian prisoners and detainees – the group played a key role in demanding and later supporting the ICC’s investigation.

The office of Al-Haq, adjacent to the St Andrew’s church, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on 18 August 2022. Photograph: Nasser Nasser/AP

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/13/al-haq-sanctioned-palestinian-rights-group-trump?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

This Palestinian human rights group was sanctioned by Trump. Its chief wishes US allies would take a stand

Shawan Jabarin says US colleagues and funders have distanced themselves from West Bank-based Al-Haq over the sanctions

Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights organization based in the West Bank, is not new to adversity. But since the group was sanctioned by the Trump administration in September, its world has shrunk.

Today, staff work without pay because their banks closed their accounts. US-based funders have pulled away. YouTube has pulled hundreds of the group’s videos documenting Israeli forces’ human rights abuses against Palestinians. Perhaps most upsetting, US-based groups that had long collaborated have gone quiet, fearful that communications with Al-Haq may draw the attention of an administration that has made clear they are a target.

“I feel a deep, deep pain in my heart,” said Shawan Jabarin, Al-Haq’s director, of the silence from US-based organizations in the human rights and social justice sector. “Most of them – if not all – they stopped working with us or engaging with us formally and openly.”

Speaking to the Guardian, Jabarin called on US-based rights groups to take a more defiant stance against the Trump administration. “Standing on the side of human rights and justice doesn’t mean that you have to respect draconian orders or laws,” he said. “You have to fight back with all means.”

The Trump administration announced sanctions against Al-Haq over the group’s support for investigation of Israeli crimes in Palestine by the international criminal court (ICC). The sanctions marked an early strike in a broader campaign against civil society, a campaign disproportionately focused on groups championing Palestinian rights that also threatens to sweep up climate, democracy and racial justice groups... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/13/al-haq-sanctioned-palestinian-rights-group-trump?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Shawan Jabarin, general director of Al-Haq, at the Christian Aid offices in Dublin, Ireland, on 13 May 2024. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy... in The Guardian

Thursday, November 13, 2025

UNRWA’s mandate and operations is vital to the survival of millions of Palestinians and essential for a much-needed political solution... tragically for all there are ongoing disinformation attacks that aim to discredit and dismantle the Agency.

UNRWA

@UNRWA

“I just told the UN General Assembly that safeguarding UNRWA’s mandate and operations is vital to the survival of millions of Palestinians and essential for a much-needed political solution.

I emphasised the exceptional work of UNRWA teams who have not stopped serving their communities including in #Gaza, against all odds.

I highlighted latest attempts of ongoing disinformation attacks that aim to discredit and dismantle the Agency.

Finally, I stressed that the Agency is an invaluable multilateral asset and critical for a successful stabilisation and recovery. Read my full remarks here: unrwa.org/newsroom/offic

" — UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini

Al-Damun الدامون, a Palestinian village near Acre, had about 100 Catholic residents. Its people were expelled in 1948 [by Israelis], and the church was erased [by Israelis]

Al-Damun الدامون, a Palestinian village near Acre, had about 100 Catholic residents. Its people were expelled in 1948, and the church was erased https://x.com/PalCatholic/status/1988687056135246052

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

UNRWA has the capacity and expertise to support a postwar Gaza. We want to help make this peace work - Philippe Lazzarini in The Guardian

Palestinians ride a donkey cart past destroyed buildings in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, 3 November 2025. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters

With a ceasefire in place, rebuilding must begin, justice be delivered and healing seriously addressed by Palestinian and Israeli societies

Philippe Lazzarini is the commissioner-general of Unrwa

".... The path to recovery in Gaza will not be straightforward. The ceasefire is tenuous, with almost daily breaches testing the resolve of its guarantors. A ceasefire that merely prolongs the absence of war without charting a viable path to peace would only repeat the disastrous mistakes of the past. A truly peaceful future requires a genuine investment in a definitive political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Basic security is needed for recovery to take a firm hold. The ceasefire must be buttressed by an international stabilisation force mandated to maintain calm, protect critical infrastructure and guarantee humanitarian access. Such a force would create the necessary space for Palestinian institutions to be rebuilt.

The success of a stabilisation force, and the transition from emergency to stability, will also depend on providing Palestinians in Gaza with reliable public services and a credible pathway to peace and respect for human rights. This can only be accomplished through a capable civil service that has the trust of the community.

We have previously seen the consequences of underestimating the need to provide stable and effective public services – most strikingly in Iraq, when dismantling the civilian administration in 2003 created a governance vacuum that unleashed years of instability. Gaza’s professionals, administrators and community leaders must be part of the solution, not casualties of political resets.

Unrwa, with its thousands of Palestinian personnel, has the capacity, expertise and community trust required to provide healthcare, education and other public services to a devastated population. For decades, the agency’s teachers, doctors and engineers have formed a vital part of a functioning system of public services for millions of Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the region.

In its advisory opinion last month, the international court of justice reaffirmed the professionalism of Unrwa’s staff, underlined the agency’s indispensable humanitarian role and concluded that Unrwa remains an impartial and neutral actor...." READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/10/unrwa-rebuild-gaza-peace-israel-palestine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

Labels