Artist Fayez Elhasani of Palestine... full of hope

Painted by Artist Fayez Elhasani of Palestine

  

I painted this work “Return to Palestine 2” while I was in my besieged city #غزة , but I am full of hope and certainty that I will restore the lines and colors of the work again in the heart of the city #القدس , which was liberated from occupation and colonialism. . Artist Fayez Elhasani

Centuries-old Jerusalem soup kitchen serves up ‘food with dignity’

The entrance to the courtyard of the Tikiya Khaski al-Sultan soup kitchen, a compound of 25 rooms, kitchen, and a school at the heart of Jerusalem's Old City, April 3, 2023.  Taylor Luck

Rana steps off Al Wad Street onto a winding narrow stairway, following an almost-hidden passage in the labyrinthine Old City that has led to generosity for nearly 500 years.

Carrying two bucket pails and a shopping bag packed with empty Tupperware, she passes Mameluke-era architecture as part of her daily route – a journey to feed her family.

“This is where we get food with dignity,” says the mother of three. “This is where the Holy City’s generosity is always kept warm.”

Tikiya Khaski al-Sultan, a soup kitchen that has been serving up meals since the height of the Ottoman Empire, is a lifeline for modern-day Jerusalemites who face rising costs and unemployment and are in need of “support without judgment.”

Yet the centuries-old charity also serves up some “good cooking.”

“This isn’t canned food or handouts,” Rana says. “This is a meal for all.”

A woman of influence

The Tikiya soup kitchen and sprawling complex were built on a hill facing the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount in 1552 on the order of Roxelana, wife of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman II... READ MORE https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2023/20230726?cmpid=ema:bundle:20230726:1164731:toc&sfmc_sub=62874446#1164731

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

“Crises and wars come and go, but the desire to give charity remains, good deeds remain, and generosity remains,” Mr. Jaber says as he closes up the kitchen at the end of the day.

Help achieve a world of freedom, equality & justice for all ... Celebrate and Elevate The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"In 2023, we reinvigorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, showing the ways it meets the needs of our time, and advancing its promise of freedom, equality, and justice for all."

2023 marks 75 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

Help achieve a world of freedom, equality & justice for all

What Are Human Rights? 

Human rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status...

Human rights are rights we have simply because we exist as human beings - they are not granted by any state. These universal rights are inherent to us all, regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. They range from the most fundamental - the right to life - to those that make life worth living, such as the rights to food, education, work, health, and liberty.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948, was the first legal document to set out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected. The UDHR, which turned 70 in 2018, continues to be the foundation of all international human rights law. Its 30 articles provide the principles and building blocks of current and future human rights conventions, treaties and other legal instruments.

The UDHR, together with the 2 covenants - the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - make up the International Bill of Rights.

Universal and inalienable

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This means that we are all equally entitled to our human rights. This principle, as first emphasized in the UDHR, is repeated in many international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions.

Human rights are inalienable. They should not be taken away, except in specific situations and according to due process. For example, the right to liberty may be restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime by a court of law.

Indivisible and interdependent

All human rights are indivisible and interdependent.  This means that one set of rights cannot be enjoyed fully without the other. For example, making progress in civil and political rights makes it easier to exercise economic, social and cultural rights. Similarly, violating economic, social and cultural rights can negatively affect many other rights.

Equal and non-discriminatory

Article 1 of the UDHR states: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.” Freedom from discrimination, set out in Article 2, is what ensures this equality.

Non-discrimination cuts across all international human rights law. This principle is present in all major human rights treaties. It also provides the central theme of 2 core instruments: the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Both rights and obligations

All States have ratified at least 1 of the 9 core human rights treaties, as well as 1 of the 9 optional protocols. Eighty per cent of States have ratified 4 or more. This means that States have obligations and duties under international law to respect, protect and fulfill human rights.

• The obligation to respect means that States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights.
• The obligation to protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses.
• The obligation to fulfill means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights.

Meanwhile, as individuals, while we are entitled to our human rights – but, we should also respect and stand up for the human rights of others.

Get Inspired 

https://www.ohchr.org/en/get-involved/campaign/udhr-75/get-inspired

AND don't forget Palestinians & the very real plight of the native non-Jewish men, women, & children of historic Palestine

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.