Saturday, June 20, 2026

Israeli attack kills famed turtle sanctuary ecologist in Lebanon: Mona Khalil led decades-long effort to protect nesting site for turtles near her home in south of the country

Mona Khalil on the beach with a turtle in southern Lebanon in 2002. Photograph: Jihad Seqlawi/AFP/Getty Images

Sat 20 Jun 2026

The Lebanese marine activist Mona Khalil, who became a beloved figure in the country for a decades-long effort to protect a nesting site for turtles near her home, has died from injuries sustained in an Israeli strike.

Khalil, 76, ran a sanctuary called the Orange House Project near the Mediterranean city of Tyre. She hosted volunteers in her house to clean and monitor a mile-long beach and welcomed tourists to stay and learn about conservation.

An Israeli airstrike hit her house earlier this month, severely wounding Khalil, who was moved to an intensive-care unit in Beirut before succumbing to her injuries on Friday, according to friends. Her assistant, an Ethiopian woman, suffered burns but was recovering.

During the Lebanese civil war of 1975-90, Khalil moved to the Netherlands. She returned to her family’s land in 1999, where she had a chance encounter one evening with a turtle digging a nest in the sand on the beach.

Khalil painted the house orange to match the national colour of the Netherlands, which she said had given her refuge during a time of need, and started a protection and ecotourism project for loggerhead and green sea turtles that nest along Lebanon’s southern coast.

Foreign tourists had to coordinate their trip with the Lebanese military, as the bed and breakfast sat on land that Israel had repeatedly invaded and occupied. Those who managed to get permission would stay in Khalil’s idyllic home, with its flower-lined courtyard often filled with rescued dogs and cats. It is just a short walk through banana groves to the beach.

Regular power cuts and a lack of air-conditioning meant some visitors left unfavourable online reviews, although most were glowing as Khalil provided what other B&Bs could not – a chance to witness and help hatching turtles and to take part in protecting their vulnerable populations... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/20/mona-khalil-turtle-ecologist-lebanon-killed-israeli-attack?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[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]

Displaced from Na’lia in 1948 as children, Ahmad and Aisha have relied on UNRWA services for decades. Today, at 90 and 87 years old, they continue receiving support in Gaza. Now living in an UNRWA shelter, Aisha remembers how the Agency helped families like hers face difficult conditions, by providing assistance and services, including emergency food, healthcare and education. “We still feel the importance of this support” she says. #UNRWAworks #WorldRefugeeDay

UNRWA

@UNRWA

Displaced from Na’lia in 1948 as children, Ahmad and Aisha have relied on UNRWA services for decades.

Today, at 90 and 87 years old, they continue receiving support in #Gaza.

Now living in an UNRWA shelter, Aisha remembers how the Agency helped families like hers face difficult conditions, by providing assistance and services, including emergency food, healthcare and education.

“We still feel the importance of this support” she says.

#UNRWAworks #WorldRefugeeDay

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2068242627183452517/photo/3

The Evolving Infrastructure of Palestinian Refugee Camps: Perpetuating the Temporary

Fawwar camp, 1950s, UNRWA Archive.

UNRWA's Shelter Program

Broadly speaking, three types of camps existed in the 1950s: camps that evolved by refugees' efforts alone, camps where UNRWA replaced tents with huts or shelters or assisted refugees in this undertaking, and camps built fully by UNRWA. By 1955 UNRWA's approach moved from ad hoc to a more organized shelter program, the main objective of which was to replace tents with shelters in existing camps. By 1959 most tents were replaced with concrete huts. UNRWA shelters in all locations were based on a generic model: a small hut on a relatively large plot to which the family could add rooms and amenities as they found necessary and could afford. According to UNRWA, camps inhabitants generally built a kitchen, latrine, and additional living room as soon as they could, followed by a wall to enclose the plot.

The second objective of the shelter program was to provide grants of materials or money to encourage camp inhabitants to construct their own shelters, often presented as self-help. The practices, however, varied greatly. On the West Bank, East Bank , and in Gaza, UNRWA contractors constructed a large number of shelters. In Lebanon, UNRWA mostly distributed roofing material to refugees who constructed their own shelters. In Syria, it distributed roofing grants and cash grants to refugees, with parallel grants from the Syrian government.

The third objective of the shelter program was to build new camps. One central aim of camps was to bring order, low population density, and improved hygiene to the site. The layout plan (reproduced below) included twin shelters (black squares) with adjoining plots (white squares). There were specific zones for shelters, water sources, latrines, and open spaces and for installations like schools, clinics, and centers, connected by a system of circular roads.

Despite the disciplinary powers of both UNRWA and the host state, the refugees' own agencies imprinted their own meaning on the space and meaning of the camps. In some camp quarters, refugees reconstructed the pattern of organization in their lost village in Palestine. Settling in such microclusters helped establish belonging, familiarity, and security. Camps symbolized loss and defeat but became a powerful field to organize and express national identity and sentiment.

UNRWA established camp regulations, and one aim was to regulate refugees' building. In this undertaking, it relied on host country enforcement. Lebanon placed the most restrictions on refugee construction and refugees, but the degree of host country involvement varied. By the 1960s, UNRWA reported that camps were already overcrowded and in need of repair and maintenance. Shelters and camps had been built at low standards, and refugees' needs were higher than could be met by UNRWA, which was strained by limited funds and refugee and host country attitudes, both... READ MORE https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/22473/evolving-infrastructure-palestinian-refugee-camps

https://www.palquest.org/

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Thursday, June 18, 2026

The space for freedom of expression is shrinking dramatically as governments use new technologies to suppress dissent and digital giants manipulate information online to enrich themselves, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, warned today. In her final report to the Human Rights Council, Khan highlighted the conflation of State and corporate interests to exploit vulnerabilities of the right to freedom of expression.

UN Special Procedures

@UN_SPExperts

Space for freedom of expression shrinking as govts use tech to suppress dissent & digital giants manipulate info for enrichment, warns @Irenekhan @UN_HRC.

“Freedom of expression has been privatised, monetised, manipulated & unlawfully restricted.

#UNHRC62

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/freedom-expression-must-not-be-treated-fodder-geopolitics-or-commodity-trade

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session62/advance-versions/a-hrc-62-67-aev.pdf

NPR: June 16, 2026 Israeli ambassador to U.S. says Israel is 'not going to withdraw from South Lebanon' .... June 15, 2026 U.S. and Iran announce an initial deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz

June 16, 2026

Heard on Morning Edition

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Yechiel (Michael) Leiter, told Morning Edition that Israel does not plan to withdraw from southern Lebanon, reinforcing a position Israeli officials have already staked out and exposing a potential fault line in a U.S.-brokered agreement with Iran.

"We're not going to withdraw from South Lebanon, and the madmen of Tehran have no business poking their nose into this," Leiter said in an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Leiter's comments echoed remarks from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said this week that Israel would not retreat from Lebanon, Syria or Gaza "despite all the existing pressures and those that may yet come."

The position clashes with statements from Iranian officials, who have said Lebanon is part of a broader understanding reached with Washington. Iran's deputy foreign minister said the cessation of fighting would apply "on all fronts," including Lebanon.... READ MORE https://www.npr.org/2026/06/16/nx-s1-5858937/israels-ambassador-to-the-u-s-talks-about-u-s-iran-deal-to-end-war

Listen to the full interview by clicking on the blue play button above.

The digital version of this interview was written by Majd Al-Waheidi and edited by Treye Green.

U.S. and Iran announce an initial deal to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

East Jerusalem: Israel Escalating Home Demolitions, Evictions Discriminatory Laws Drive Forced Displacement in Silwan

Human Rights Watch

June 17, 2026

(Beirut) – Israeli authorities are accelerating home demolitions and forced evictions of Palestinian residents in the Silwan district of occupied East Jerusalem, Human Rights Watch said today. The forcible deportation or transfer of the population of an occupied territory within or outside the territory, unless justified on a temporary basis for the protection of the population itself or imperative military reasons, is a violation of international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime.

Silwan lies south of Jerusalem’s Old City. Among its 12 neighborhoods, al-Bustan and Batn al-Hawa have for decades been the primary focus of eviction and demolition campaigns led by Israeli authorities and settler organizations such as Ateret Cohanim. These campaigns intensified under cover of the hostilities in Gaza and, this year, Iran. Of the 587 Palestinians displaced by demolitions since October 7, 2023, a quarter were displaced during Israel’s war with Iran in March-April 2026, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination and Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Over 2,000 people are at risk of forced displacement in Silwan, which, if not halted, will be one of the largest waves of expulsions in East Jerusalem since 1967, according to Ir Amim, an Israeli group that tracks government policies in Jerusalem.

“Israeli authorities are intensifying their longstanding illegal policy of emptying areas surrounding Jerusalem’s Old City of Palestinians and replacing them with Israeli settlers,” said Sarah Sanbar, acting Israel and Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Israeli efforts to change the demography of Jerusalem are war crimes, enabled by the impunity granted by Israel’s close allies.”

Human Rights Watch researchers visited Silwan in April 2026 and interviewed three residents issued eviction and/or demolition orders and two lawyers representing clients in Silwan, and reviewed relevant legal documents. Human Rights Watch attempted to reach Ateret Cohanim by phone but has not received a response.

The surge in displacement in Batn al-Hawa results from a series of eviction lawsuits filed by Ateret Cohanim, based on discriminatory laws allowing Jewish individuals to reclaim East Jerusalem property lost in the 1948 war, while barring Palestinians from recovering property also lost in 1948. In al-Bustan, the entire neighborhood of 115 homes housing 1,500 people is under threat of demolition due to the municipality’s plan to establish an archaeological park.

Zuheir al-Rajabi, director of Batn al-Hawa’s community center, said that Ateret Cohanim first initiated eviction proceedings in 2015. “At the beginning, we said, ‘What can they do? This is our land and house, we have nothing to fear,’” he told Human Rights Watch.

For a decade, he fought the eviction in Israeli courts: “But after October 7, everything became possible. Judges began issuing eviction orders without giving a chance to defend or hear from the victims. It used to take three to five years to go through all the courts and appeals. After October 7, the whole process only takes 45 days.”

A local lawyer said that “Sometimes, the decision takes one working day.”

Since October 7, Ateret Cohanim lawsuits have resulted in the eviction of 30 families, a total of 139 people, with enforcement proceedings underway for hundreds more, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group. In the 8 previous years, only 36 people were evicted.

Zuheir said that Israeli settlers have moved into the homes of his former neighbors: “Now we feel like we are at the end of the road. [...] For the last 50 years, we all lived together in Silwan, my brothers and I, and our children growing up with each other. We fought hard to stay together, and finally after 50 years, they succeeded in splitting us apart.”

In April 2024, Harbi al-Rajabi and his son, Nidal, received an eviction order for their building in Batn al-Hawa, where five families lived... READ MORE https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/17/east-jerusalem-israel-escalating-home-demolitions-evictions

"I learned about the Holocaust even in rural Oklahoma. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 10 years old. My mom watched Holocaust documentaries with me. We talked about it in high school -- to always, always, always look around and make sure we weren't BEING Nazis in some way...." Pamela Olson, author of Fast Times in Palestine

Pamela Olson https://pamolson.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pamolson4/posts/pfbid02B46Qg3dgY9LaoGTjqRnfC9HDtioQYTizhiXqdEqXtuhEc8fmyH4tqo2qHYSuTg6al

Pamela Olson

Seoprtsdona51301l0l74f7m11lua08t37falmi1fhua1i5ca93076t5988g

A sponsored post on my feed asked people to share their experience of learning about the Holocaust as kids, and if they feared they might have to hide from Nazis one day.

I commented:

I learned about the Holocaust even in rural Oklahoma. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 10 years old. My mom watched Holocaust documentaries with me. We talked about it in high school -- to always, always, always look around and make sure we weren't BEING Nazis in some way.

I felt like the US was being Nazi-like when we sanctioned Iraq and starved all those children. I felt like the US was being Nazi-like when we invaded Iraq and murdered hundreds of thousands based on a lie. (I would later learn that was just the tip of the iceberg.) So I went to the Middle East to meet Arabs and Muslims for myself -- to see if they were really the demons our news media made them out to be.

I traveled solo from Cairo to Istanbul in 2003, when I was 23 years old. It took about three months, and it was one of the most magical stretches of my life. "Beautiful and friendly" doesn't begin to describe it.

I did skip Iraq (too dangerous), and I planned to skip Israel / Palestine. But in the Sinai, I met an Israeli man who invited me to Israel, and in Jordan I met a British guy who invited me to visit the West Bank. I took it as a sign.

And I'm so glad I did. I was totally enchanted by the Holy Land and ended up living there for two years. I wrote a book about it that anyone can read for free here:

Get a Free PDF of the book here

(Also available as Kindle, Audible, paperback)

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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