Last November, I wrote of waiting for the grey ticks to double up and go blue when sending WhatsApp messages to my friend Ghassan Abu Sittah, who in October had narrowly missed being killed in the bombing of al-Ahli Arab and al-Shifa Hospitals in Gaza, where he had travelled from London to work as a surgeon. He survived and was inaugurated as the rector of Glasgow University, with 80 per cent of the student vote, on 11 April. He has set up a fund for Palestinian children, planning ‘for the day after’, and is speaking tirelessly to the media and audiences across the world.

In the past, his work on child injuries has led to his collaborating with Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has written on the ‘unchilding’ of Palestinian children, a process she describes as ‘the authorised eviction of children from childhood’. On 18 April, Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s home in the Old City of Jerusalem was raided without warning, her documents confiscated. According to her family,

During her interrogation and detention, the officers subjected the 64-year-old to ill-treatment and practices that amount to forms of torture: she was strip-searched, yelled and cursed at, and thrown in a cold, isolated and urine-smelling cell infested with cockroaches; the cell was kept illuminated throughout the night with bright, buzzing lights to prevent her from sleeping; and for some of the time her hands and feet were shackled.

Last Friday, Ghassan addressed the encampment of students at University College London who are demanding scholarships for students from Gaza and that UCL cut its ties with arms companies and Tel Aviv University.

On Saturday morning, I was facing another single grey tick. My messages were not being received by Ghassan, who was not back in Gaza but at an airport in Paris. He was due to speak to the French Senate but was denied entry to France. He is a British citizen. He was told that the German government had prohibited him from entering any Schengen country for a year. ‘It was the real deal, with a holding cell and armed escort,’  ... READ MORE  https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/may/man-number-4

[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]