Saturday, January 24, 2026

1940s, Bethlehem, Palestine 🇵🇸 Palestinian Christian newlyweds in Beit Sahour. In Palestine, the tradition of sticking green leaves and yeast dough to the newlyweds’ home is a folk blessing symbolizing life, growth, and abundance.

Pals

1940s, Bethlehem, Palestine

Palestinian Christian newlyweds in Beit Sahour.

In Palestine, the tradition of sticking green leaves and yeast dough to the newlyweds’ home is a folk blessing symbolizing life, growth, and abundance.

Green leaves—often olive or fig leaves and sometimes kneaded directly into the dough—represent fertility, renewal, and baraka (blessing), while the yeast dough signifies prosperity, sustenance, and a household destined to “rise” and flourish.

https://x.com/palsofnations/status/2014681684713578666

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or 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]

Thursday, January 22, 2026

‘Impunity won’t last forever’: What gives Francesca Albanese hope

The UN Special Rapporteur points to the way out of the current crisis facing international law, while responding to criticism over her stance on October 7.

By Samah Salaime January 21, 2026

"This is not the first atrocity to have happened in world history, but it is the first to be fully televised. I would like to ask the people in Israel: Do you see what is being done in your name? There have been reports from B’Tselem and other human rights groups, there are soldiers who have broken the silence, and some have even committed suicide. Israelis know what is happening to the Palestinian people, but they seem not to care...."

"... I have huge respect for those Israelis who have managed to open their eyes and wake up to what they are part of. It’s important that as many Israelis as possible join the struggle against apartheid, because this is also something that holds them captive. You cannot commit crimes and atrocities and brutalize another people without losing your humanity in return. "

Francesca Albanese, July 27, 2024. (Rafael Medeiros/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Midway through Francesca Albanese’s recent lecture at SOAS University of London, the young man sitting next to me in the audience quietly began to cry. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories had been speaking about the role of international law at a time of genocide, but the man was no longer paying attention.

I asked him if he was okay and handed him a tissue. He told me that he’s a doctor from Gaza, and that he left the Strip with his wife (also a doctor) in the early months of the war.

Then I learned the reason for his tears. In December 2023, when the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of his neighborhood in northern Gaza, his family gathered their belongings and boarded a truck to escape. But while they did so, he ran to his in-laws’ house to collect his wife, whom he had recently married.

“Everyone got on the truck except me — my father, mother, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and their children,” he told me. “Before I got back, they were all killed in a single airstrike. I survived by chance. Everyone died. I have no one.”

I stopped listening to the distinguished speaker and the irritating questions from disgruntled audience members and continued speaking with the doctor, whose name, he told me, was Abdallah. “My mother was... READ MORE

https://www.972mag.com/israel-gaza-impunity-francesca-albanese/

Israel EXPANDS- erasing Palestine

From historic Palestine to today

https://www.sabeel-kairos.org.uk/partition-plan/

With thanks to Visualizing Palestine for their permission to use this resource.

https://visualizingpalestine.org/downloadable-exhibit/

DISPLACEMENT

These visuals and images document Israel’s ongoing expulsion and erasure of Palestinians from their land. Often referred to as the ongoing Nakba, or catastrophe in English, Palestinians have endured displacement for generations.

FRAGMENTATION

Displacement is compounded by Israel’s deliberate attempts to separate Palestinians from each other, from their land, and from the world. Despite codifying apartheid and enacting a settler colonial state, Palestinians persist and navigate Israel’s systems of oppression to overcome fragmentation.

RETURN & FUTURE VISIONING

The right of return is central to the Palestinian struggle for liberation. We must imagine and dream about what is possible so Palestinians can exercise their right to return, and live in a world free from oppression and settler colonialism.

“A cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God’s divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land.”

Kairos Palestine Document

New: Kairos II – Faith in a time of Genocide

Our partner Kairos Palestine have launched their renewed Kairos document: A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, calling us to greater costly solidarity with the Palestinian people.

14 November 2025.

Kairos Palestine – The Palestinian Christian Initiative
A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide

We, the Palestinian Christian Ecumenical Initiative, issued the Kairos Palestine Document in 2009 — “A word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.” The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem heard this cry, welcomed it, and offered their support. Likewise, the document resonated widely, both locally and internationally. Then, as now, we gathered — women and men, clergy and laity — from across the different church families in Palestine. After prayer and reflection on the suffering of our people under occupation, we released that cry of hope in the absence of hope, affirming our faith in God and our love for our homeland, convinced that our struggle is ultimately about human life and dignity.

We live now in a time of genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement unfolding before the eyes of the world. This moment — a moment of truth — demands from us a new stand unlike any before it. It is both a decisive moment and. Today, we renew our stand for truth and our commitment to fundamental religious, theological and moral principles. We look at our reality and take a renewed stand, responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit deep within us, listening to the call of faith in this time of genocide. We renew our message of faith, hope, and love — offering a faith-inspired vision for the time after genocide.

You can read the full document here: Final_Kairos_document_II_English.pdf

https://www.kairospalestine.ps/images/Final_Kairos_document_II_English.pdf

"Leave Gaza alone. If the goal is truly peace, then the path is simple: end the occupation and help restore the rights that have been taken from Palestinians since 1948. We, the Palestinian people, are the ones who must determine our own future. Peace cannot be imposed while our land is occupied, our lives controlled, and our voices ignored. It cannot be imposed by those who have been contributing to our suffering. You know who I’m talking about! Stop supporting those who oppress us and murder our people." Mosab Abu Toha

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

Leave Gaza alone.

If the goal is truly peace, then the path is simple: end the occupation and help restore the rights that have been taken from Palestinians since 1948.

We, the Palestinian people, are the ones who must determine our own future.

Peace cannot be imposed while our land is occupied, our lives controlled, and our voices ignored.

It cannot be imposed by those who have been contributing to our suffering.

You know who I’m talking about! Stop supporting those who oppress us and murder our people.

JUSTICE FOR PALESTINE

https://x.com/MosabAbuToha/status/2014336911586754991/photo/1

Three journalists among 11 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Reporters had been in car on way to new camp, says media group, as two 13-year-old boys killed in separate incidents ... Israeli forces have killed at least 466 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect in October, according to health authorities.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/21/three-journalists-palestinians-killed-israeli-forces-gaza

Mourners carry the body of one of three Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA

Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians on Wednesday, including two 13-year-old boys and three journalists, in the latest violence to undermine a three-month-old ceasefire.

Palestinian health officials said the Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian journalists who were travelling in a car to film a newly established displacement camp in the Netzarim area of central Gaza.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said in a statement that the reporters who died “were carrying out a humanitarian, journalistic mission to film and document the suffering of civilians”.

In separate incidents on the same day, two boys aged 13 were killed in different parts of Gaza. In one strike, a boy, his father and a 22-year-old man were hit by Israeli drones on the eastern edge of the Bureij refugee camp, according to officials at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, which received the bodies.

In another case, a 13-year-old boy, Moatsem al-Sharafy, was shot dead by Israeli troops while collecting firewood in the eastern town of Bani Suheila, according to Nasser hospital. Footage shared online showed the boy’s father weeping over his body on a hospital bed.

The journalists killed were named as Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Shaat and Anas Ghneim.

Shaat was a regular contributor to Agence France-Presse as a photo and video journalist, although the agency said he was not on assignment at the time of the strike.

Local journalists said their work was sponsored by the Egyptian Relief Committee, which oversees Egypt’s relief operations in Gaza. Mohammed Mansour, a spokesperson for the committee, said the vehicle had been known to the Israeli military.

Video circulating online showed a burned-out vehicle by the roadside, with smoke still rising from the wreckage and debris scattered across the ground... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/21/three-journalists-palestinians-killed-israeli-forces-gaza

Israeli prisons continue to function as a network of torture camps for Palestinians, with the systematic abuse even more extensive than before. This includes physical and psychological abuse, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation and denial of medical care, all of which has led to numerous deaths. Some witnesses also described undergoing or witnessing sexual violence and abuse. The transformation of prisons into a network of torture camps is part of the Israeli regime’s coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society

https://www.btselem.org/publications/202601_living_hell

January 2026

“Living Hell” follows on B’Tselem’s August 2024 report “Welcome to Hell.” Building on the extensive research and analysis carried out for the previous report, it provides updated figures and new testimonies from 21 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons in recent months, and draws on data from other Israeli and international human rights organizations. The updated information indicates that Israeli prisons continue to function as a network of torture camps for Palestinians, with the systematic abuse even more extensive than before. This includes physical and psychological abuse, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation and denial of medical care, all of which has led to numerous deaths. Some witnesses also described undergoing or witnessing sexual violence and abuse. The transformation of prisons into a network of torture camps is part of the Israeli regime’s coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society, aimed at dismantling the Palestinian collective.

Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.

The demolition of buildings inside the UNRWA Headquarters, a United Nations site, in East Jerusalem that started on Tuesday was unprecedented. Yet it is part of a pattern of deliberate disregard for international law and the United Nations. UN Member States must uphold international law, without delay. This UNRWA compound is a UN facility, and therefore inviolable under the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. It was first leased by UNRWA from Jordan in 1952.

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2014262485604241844

UNRWA

@UNRWA

The demolition of buildings inside the UNRWA Headquarters, a United Nations site, in #EastJerusalem that started on Tuesday was unprecedented. Yet it is part of a pattern of deliberate disregard for international law and the United Nations.

UN Member States must uphold international law, without delay.

This UNRWA compound is a UN facility, and therefore inviolable under the Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. It was first leased by UNRWA from Jordan in 1952. UNRWA has remained in exclusive possession of the compound without interruption until 1967 and continuously thereafter since Israel has occupied the territory, ⁠⁠while Israel’s occupation has been determined by the International Court of Justice to be unlawful.

Wednesday, January 21, 2026

"The Holocaust, like all genocides, was not inevitable. Warning signs abounded long before the mass killing, and began with the process of “othering”. The Holocaust cautions us to heed these warning signs and to challenge hatred, bigotry, racism, and prejudice. We can draw on our knowledge of the past to counter the fear and suspicion spread today through the manipulation of information, hate speech and the distortion of history."

From 1933 to 1945, the Nazi regime and its allies created approximately 44,000 sites to confine Jews, political prisoners, POWs, Roma and Sinti, and many others.

Over 1,100 ghettos existed across Europe, with the largest in Poland. Most ghettos were situated on rail lines that facilitated later mass deportations to killing centers...

A reminder of our common humanity

To remember the victims of the Holocaust is to remember their humanity, and to defend the rights of all to live in peace and with dignity.

To remember is everyone’s responsibility.

Rounding up the children from the Lodz ghetto, Poland, for deportation to the Chelmno death camp, Poland, September 1942. None of the children survived.

Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives #50328. Courtesy of Instytut Pamieci Narodowej. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

https://www.un.org/en/exhibits/exhibit/holocaust-remembrance

The Global Impact of the Holocaust

A warning to all people of the dangers of hatred, bigotry, racism, and prejudice."

- United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/76/250

The United Nations was established in response to the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust. The Holocaust has had a profound impact on International Human Rights Law, resulting in the United Nations’ adoption of foundational documents in 1948: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights represents the universal recognition that basic rights and fundamental freedoms are inherent to all human beings, inalienable and equally applicable to everyone, and that every one of us is born free and equal in dignity and rights. Whatever our nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status, the international community on 10 December 1948 made a commitment to upholding dignity and justice for all of us. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, or Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to enforce its prohibition. It was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in December 1948.

"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

"It was not Hitler or Himmler who abducted me, beat me, and shot my family... It was the shoemaker, the milkman, the neighbor- who recieved uniform and then believed they were the master race." Karl Stojka, Auschwitz survivor

Painting by Karl Stojka's sister Ceija Stojka Arrest and Deportation, 1995. Courtesy of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-rm-g-dragon-8-k-pop-boy-band-idols-collect-art

Art as Memory – the Documentary Canvases of Karl Stojka, a Roma in Auschwitz-Birkenau

https://www.sarahmatthias.co.uk/articles/art-as-memory-the-documentary-canvases-of-karl-stojka-a-roma-in-auschwitz-birkenau/

Fear at Auschwitz-Birkenau, June-July 1943

Buchenwald: ‘Half people, half faces.’

"Birkenau", oil on canvas, approx. 60 x 70 cm, signed, dated 1990

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/id-card/karl-stojka

#ProtectTheFacts

Karl Stojka was 12 when the Nazis initiated mass deportations of thousands of Austrian Sinti and Roma to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943. He was arrested at his school right in the middle of a lesson and sent to the concentration camp with his family. There, he was known as “Z-5742”, a serial number tattooed on his left forearm. Z stood for “Zigeuner”, or “Gypsy” in German. Karl was assigned to work in the canteen, which allowed him to occasionally sneak some leftovers off the table to his family – a huge relief amidst starvation. When the news about the Soviet army approaching started to spread in the summer of 1944, Karl, his mother, brother and sisters – those deemed fit for continuous labour to exhaustion – were deported to other camps.

We know the story of Karl and his family because, on 2 August 1944, they were fortunate to escape death. That was the day the so-called “Gypsy family camp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau ceased to exist – and not because it had been liberated. That night, thousands of its Roma and Sinti prisoners never were able to experience freedom again because they were killed in the camp’s gas chambers. Karl’s uncle Lulo, his wife, and three children were among these victims.

Some 500,000 Roma people were systematically persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime, its allies and collaborators during the Second World War. Many more were subjected to criminal medical experiments, forced labour and torture. The Roma genocide is still under-researched and widely unknown by the general public, often leading to denial and distortion of facts about this dark chapter of history. For decades following the war, the Roma were not recognized as victims of Nazi persecution and the crimes committed against them remained unacknowledged.

After the liberation, Karl Stojka and his sister Ceija both became famous artists. They used their visibility to actively campaign for the importance of learning and acknowledging the facts about the crimes perpetrated against Roma and Sinti communities during World War II. Along with other activists, they also reminded that the Roma genocide didn’t spring out of nowhere: a centuries-long history of anti-Roma racism and discrimination could have laid the grounds for these atrocities... READ MORE https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/shedding-light-roma-genocide-take-part-protectthefacts-campaign

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Saturday, January 24, 2026

1940s, Bethlehem, Palestine 🇵🇸 Palestinian Christian newlyweds in Beit Sahour. In Palestine, the tradition of sticking green leaves and yeast dough to the newlyweds’ home is a folk blessing symbolizing life, growth, and abundance.

Thursday, January 22, 2026

‘Impunity won’t last forever’: What gives Francesca Albanese hope

Israel EXPANDS- erasing Palestine