 |
| Women cooking - Jerusalem 2026 Water Colours Rawan Anani |
[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]
 |
| Humanitarian organizations provide emergency shelter and other essential support to #Palestinians displaced from their homes. But displacement continues to rise by the year while funding and operational space remain limited. |
 |
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory mobilizes and coordinates assistance to people in need. |
Violence and restrictions continue to drive humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while shortfalls in humanitarian funding are further holding back relief efforts. Addressing Member States as part of the General Assembly High-level Week, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that "we must not lose sight of the devastating situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory."
Regarding Gaza, he said that “the resumption of assistance since the ceasefire was announced last October has brough some relief – but conditions remain intolerable... International law, including international humanitarian law, is brazenly violated. Humanitarian access remains severely restricted, and the level of human suffering is still off the charts.” He reiterated the need to allow the UN to perform its mandates in Gaza and for UN and humanitarian personnel to be protected, stressing that all parties must comply with international law and the orders of the International Court of Justice.
Regarding the West Bank, he said that "record levels of settler attacks and relentless efforts to expand settlements are pushing Palestinian communities to the breaking point. Such actions are unlawful and unjust." The Secretary-General further said that violence, displacement and settlement expansion by Israel "are bulldozing the path to peace and raising the spectre of ethnic cleansing."... READ MORE https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-report-25-september-2026
[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]
 |
| The International Criminal Court |
Today, the United States has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court as an institution. This unprecedented step follows a series of designations against thirteen independent Judges and prosecutors who serve the cause of justice.
This measure targets an independent judicial institution, created by treaty and entrusted by 125 States Parties with investigating and prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. It is an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the Court from doing what it was created to do. It is an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law.
The designation is aimed at disrupting the Court’s operations and at intimidating those who work for or cooperate with the Court. The Court, for its part, will not be deterred. “The Court will continue to fully discharge its mandate, with independence and impartiality, acting only on the basis of the law and the evidence, for the sake of the countless victims of grave crimes” said ICC President Tomoko Akane.
Yet the Court cannot stand alone. Its fate now rests also in the hands of the States that created it. The Rome Statute is a collective promise that the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole must not go unpunished. That promise is only as strong as the resolve of those who made it.
There may be challenges. But, together with its States Parties, the Court has made considerable efforts to ensure the continuity and resilience of its activities. The Court calls upon States to continue taking concrete actions, including to ensure that the Court continues to have the necessary means to continue its work. This is not just about defending a single institution, but about safeguarding the international order grounded upon the rule of law.
No one should be punished for serving the cause of justice. History will judge this moment. Future generations, and above all the victims of mass atrocities, will ask how we responded when an institution created to protect them came under attack. They will ask whether the Court held firm and whether the international community defended the principles it proclaimed or allowed them to be abandoned under pressure.
For further information, please contact the ICC Public Affairs Unit. You can also follow the Court’s activities on Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Flickr.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/icc-strongly-rejects-us-sanctions-against-institution
[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]
 |
Asira al-Qibliya, West BankPalestinian farmers try to extinguish fires on their land after Israeli soldiers fired teargas at them as they harvested their olives, resulting in the dry fields catching fire, in the village of Asira al-Qibliya. Armed Israeli settlers beat Jaafar Ashtiyeh, the photographer who took this image, in the presence of Israeli soldiers, hospitalising him, as he covered the settler violence against the olive farmers. Ashtiyeh, a 58-year-old veteran photographer for AFP in Palestine, was assaulted by a group of settlers despite him being marked as pressPhotograph: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images |
[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]
Israel was the world’s leading killer of journalists in 2025, and has killed at least 225 journalists in Lebanon and Gaza, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
Violence has flared in recent months in the West Bank with near-daily attacks, thefts or vandalism by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
 |
Gaza CityPalestinians inspect the destruction caused by an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in the Sabra area of Gaza City. Photograph: Omar Ashtawy/HL/Getty Images |
[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]
 |
| 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
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
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]
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
[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]
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/
“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.
[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]
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 goes to a person who with exceptional courage and integrity has led the way towards a more comprehensive global legal order. This year’s laureate has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career. Born into a family of Indian Tamil origin under apartheid in Durban, South Africa, Pillay became a lawyer and legal pioneer, confronting deep structural discrimination, segregation and exclusion. A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time.
This year’s laureate has significantly enlarged the scope and impact of international law. She has served as a judge on the High Court in South Africa, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. She was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and, until recently, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Today Navi Pillay is a judge on the International Court of Justice in the case where Myanmar stands accused of genocide.
In historic international court cases, she has shown that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence. Navi Pillay has also contributed to strengthen the institutions of international law. Her independence, expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time.
The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded 125 years ago. Already then, the Norwegian Nobel Committee underscored the importance of resolving conflicts through international law – a theme that has remained prominent throughout the history of the peace prize. The reach of international law expanded after the Second World War, in particular with the creation of the UN institutions. The key insight was that lasting peace must be built on legal principles, not on the will of the strong or a fragile balance of power. Additional legal mechanisms were introduced in the post-war decades, and momentum picked up further after the end of the Cold War.
However, the rules-based international order has never been perfect. The greatest powers have often evaded responsibility... READ MORE https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/press-release/
[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]
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to South Africa's Navi Pillay for her work on international law and human rights.
| Photo Credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law. The Prize’s press statement described Pillay as a person with exceptional courage and integrity, who has led the way towards a more comprehensive global legal order.
“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said. “We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice.”
“Navi Pillay is one of the great defenders of international legal principles in our time. Her distinguished career reminds us of the need to support, fortify and expand the global rule of law,” he added.
Pillay became South Africa’s first non-white woman high court judge in 1995, following the end of apartheid. She also served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. She was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014 and later chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory... READ MORE https://frontline.thehindu.com/news/navi-pillay-nobel-peace-prize-2026-human-rights/article71563867.ece
[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]
I grew up in Tel Aviv and have visited there often in recent years. That is why the interviews with 24 Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers, which make up this documentary, felt strangely familiar. The conversations are conducted at night on rooftops, and the camera scans the cityscape, lingering on apartment windows as their inhabitants watch TV and make dinner. The landscape was intimately recognizable, and I felt a natural affinity with those people living their lives. I also recognized the way the interviewees talked – their speech patterns and choice of words. They reminded me of my son, who served more than a decade ago in the intelligence unit many of them might have belonged to.
But the dispassionate, technical and calm tone of the 24 men and women, as they describe in great detail the killing of people in Gaza, who are just as human as those in the surrounding buildings, brought back other associations – with men like Best and his ilk. It is the disjuncture between the familiar and intimate, on the one hand, and the coldly efficient and murderous, on the other, that makes this film unforgettable and an important statement about the world we currently inhabit.
When modern societies engage in extreme violence, they rely on two types of people: those who beat, torture and kill at close quarters, and those who plan, organize and order the killing at a safe distance from the actual gore of it all. Many people prefer to believe the brutes and the sadists are responsible, largely because they are not like “us”. But modern genocide is the product of those who belong to the second category: the technocrats, bureaucrats and cold planners of extermination, who don’t get their hands dirty.
This is by no means unique to Germany or Israel. It was also the case in the Cambodian genocide, in Rwanda, in the genocide of the Armenians, in the destruction of the Herero – there were always those who provided plans, orders, legitimizations, bureacratic apparatuses and technical means, and those who cracked skulls, wielded machetes and fired bullets point blank. The latter exist in any society. But a genocide cannot occur without the former.
NAZA is the Hebrew acronym for nezek agavi, or collateral damage. As is the nature of acronyms, the term NAZA distances the operatives even further from what the term stands for, which is itself a mere euphemism. One does not ask how many human beings the operator may condemn to death by targeting a suspected enemy; one does not even ask... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2026/oct/09/naza-mass-killing-gaza-israel