In Growing Gardens for Palestine Mother and her child (أم وطفلها), mud on wood, 2000 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Mother and her child (أم وطفلها), mud on wood, 2000 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Mother and her child (أم وطفلها), mud on wood, 2000 by Sliman Mansour of Palestine

During the first Intifada (1987 – 1993), Palestinians boycotted Israeli goods as a form of resistance. 

 

Artists, in their turn, boycotted Israeli art supplies. 

 

Four Palestinian artists, Vera Tamari, Nabil Anani, Tayseer Barakat, and myself, formed the “New Visions” group. 

 

Artists turned towards their environment and used wood, leather, mud, henna, natural dies, and found objects. 

 

This new approach helped to develop Palestinian art and formed a link between Palestinian art produced for several decades after Alnakbah and contemporary art created by young Palestinian artists.  https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10162242212696051&set=a.10150390568516051  

 

 

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]      

"And yet we watched as those subtle, innocent, beautiful nuances of our tongue were twisted into indicators of suspicion. In an American discourse so heavily imbued with anti-Palestinian racism and so rife with Islamophobia, Palestinians or those who dare see them as human are not allowed to have legitimate intentions or legitimate grievances. They are to be constantly seen as suspicious. Even if they speak of human rights, equality, dignity, they can never really be trusted to mean those things because of who they are — sneaky shapeshifters with deeply held, murderous, ulterior motives. It is quite remarkable how much this echoes antisemitism throughout history, and that should surprise no one. All forms of racism are connected" Yousef Munayyer

 ... An Era of Being Exogenously Defined 

On a nightly basis after September 11, 2001, so-called terrorism experts who knew next to nothing about the language, religion, or cultures of the region would appear on news broadcasts — indoctrinating our friends, neighbors, classmates, and coworkers to treat our language as suspicious.

We watched as those subtle and innocent nuances of our tongue were twisted into indicators of suspicion.

I remember hearing an Arab-American elder once explain to a curious neighbor, “In Arabic, God is in every conversation.” At the time, I thought it was a bit overdramatic. It is undoubtedly true that it is hard to imagine an Arabic conversation where Allah is not uttered. Whether in our bismillahs, alhamdulillahs, mashallahs or inshallahs or our yallahs or wallahs, God makes routine appearances. But these are not necessarily religious conversations at all. Even the non-religious use these terms; it is just the nature of how we communicate in our language due to its historic ties to faith. It is also one of the many things that makes the Arabic language beautiful.

And yet we watched as those subtle, innocent, beautiful nuances of our tongue were twisted into indicators of suspicion. In an American discourse so heavily imbued with anti-Palestinian racism and so rife with Islamophobia, Palestinians or those who dare see them as human are not allowed to have legitimate intentions or legitimate grievances. They are to be constantly seen as suspicious. Even if they speak of human rights, equality, dignity, they can never really be trusted to mean those things because of who they are — sneaky shapeshifters with deeply held, murderous, ulterior motives. It is quite remarkable how much this echoes antisemitism throughout history, and that should surprise no one. All forms of racism are connected.

A Shoe on the Other Foot

Imagine for a minute subjecting words or phrases in a different language, or about a different people, to the same unfair treatment. Consider the Hebrew phrase Am Yisrael Chai. The literal meaning of the phrase is “the people of Israel live,” and there are plenty of instances where the use of this phrase is mundane. However, the phrase is routinely chanted by murderous Israeli settlers as they engage in mob violence against Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Recently, it has been shouted by Israeli soldiers as they commit heinous war crimes in Gaza and shared widely and proudly by those same soldiers on social media. Thus, one could argue that Am Yisrael Chai is a genocidal slogan and must be banned, and that all those who use it or have used it must be criminalized and viewed with deep suspicion.

Surely, this is absurd. And yet this is the absurdity Palestinians and those who support their freedom are constantly subjected to. Still, too many cannot see the glaring double standard... READ MORE

https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/mamdani-globalize-intifada-democrats/

Zohran Mamdani Shows Democrats How Not to Take the Bait

By refusing to capitulate on "globalize the intifada," Mamdani rejected a long tradition of demonizing Arabic language.

by 

Yousef Munayyer

July 10 2025

[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, or at least fair and just laws and policies] 

BDS commemorates 37 years since the beginning of the 1st Palestinian Intifada of 1987... TAKE #nonviolent ACTION

Sunday, 8th December:

• We commemorate 37 years since the beginning of the 1st Palestinian Intifada of 1987. A collective and inclusive movement spread from Gaza across historic Palestine calling for boycotts, strikes, and popular resistance to end Israel's military occupation and colonial rule.

  “Today we confront the most brutal phase of Israel’s 76-year-old regime of settler colonialism and apartheid. This is manifested in a genocide perpetrated against our people in Gaza, which is funded, armed and shielded from accountability by the colonial West, led by the US. Also corporations and institutions that continue business-as-usual with apartheid Israel are  complicit in apartheid and genocide. In the spirit of the Palestinian Intifada, we continue to steadfast, to resist oppression, and we shall eventually overcome. We call on people of conscience worldwide to mobilize to end all forms of state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel. Together, we shall prevail and build towards a better humanity.” - Mahmoud Nawajaa, BNC General Coordinator.

 Monday, 9th December:

The International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.

For over a year, we have been sharing the images, stories and ghastly statistics of the rising number of Palestinians killed, burned, starved, displaced, and fallen sick by Israel’s devastating genocide in Gaza. We have been calling for and enacting pressure on states and international institutions to fulfill the bare minimum of their legal obligation to end complicity by imposing lawful, targeted sanctions on Israel.

On 5th December, 2024 the world’s largest human rights organization, Amnesty International, added its voice to states, UN experts, and thousands of legal scholars and historians who have reached the same conclusion. Amnesty found that, based on policies, actions, and omissions since 7 October, 2023, Israel is committing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in besieged and occupied Gaza. It  called on states to impose targeted and lawful sanctions on apartheid Israel.

Tuesday, 10th December:

• On the UN Human Rights Day, in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call on our supporters to heed the Palestinian call for action. Adopted only days after the UN passed the illegal and unethical Plan of Partition of Palestine 76 years ago, the Declaration has been systematically violated by Israel throughout its existence as a settler-colonial apartheid state.

Let's organize across these dates, peacefully disrupting business-as-usual with Israel, amplifying Palestinian demands in your mobilizations, and helping us grow the power of the BDS movement  to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza and dismantle its regime of settler-colonial apartheid.

TAKE ACTION:

1. PRESSURE YOUR GOVERNMENT TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON ISRAEL, INCLUDING A COMPREHENSIVE MILITARY EMBARGO.

2. TAKE TO THE STREETS TO PRESSURE GOVERNMENTS TO END COMPLICITY.

3. FOCUS ON BDS PRIORITY TARGETS AND CAMPAIGNS.

4. DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION OF APARTHEID ISRAEL FROM THE UN.

 READ IN FULL  https://bdsmovement.net/Three-Important-Dates-Three-Reasons-To-Mobilize

 [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]

GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA #artagainstapartheid Free Palestine!

Screenshot 2024-05-01 Clarence Diggs on Instagram

 

Screenshot 2024-05-01 Clarence Diggs on Instagram

Screenshot 2024-05-01 Clarence Diggs on Instagram

Intifada- shaking off racist Israeli injustice and lies that Zionists tell about Palestine & Palestinians

FYI the Israel/Palestine conflict did not start on Oct 7th 2023. To be fair and honest you must go back to 1917 when the British Empire and Occupation promoted the Balfour Declaration to create a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.  At the time Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire and there was a small Arab Jewish population living there, living in peace along with Muslims and Christians.  

Fast forward to 1948 when following the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, modern man made Israel was created. Israel was not created peacefully or by consensus with the Arab residents who had lived there for eons.  Israel was created by invading Zionist terrorists who murdered many indigenous Arabs- fragmenting families, and pushing millions of Palestinians into forced exile.

 

Annie's Notes about the real meanings of some very crucial words that are being badly misconstrued by Biden & the Zionist Word Police

 

 

Dove of Peace w Key ASA copyright 2009

Intifada- shaking off

From the River to the Sea-  Freedom, equality & respect everywhere for everyone- empowering the rule of fair and just laws.

Apartheid- 1940s: from Afrikaans, literally ‘separateness’, from Dutch apart ‘separate’ + -heid (equivalent of -hood):  SEGREGATION

Ethnic Cleansing- the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically or religiously homogenous.

 
Settler Colonialism- Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers

 Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people^[a] in whole or in part.  

In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly

Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, combining the Greek word γένος (genos, "race, people") with the Latin suffix -caedo ("act of killing"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

Semite, name given in the 19th century to a member of any people who speak one of the Semitic languages, a family of languages spoken primarily in parts of western Asia and Africa. The term therefore came to include Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, Hebrews, some Ethiopians (including the Amhara and the Tigrayans), and Aramaean tribes.

Notice that indigenous Arab Palestinians, including Arab Christians, are being erased -ethnically cleansed- from historic Palestine while also being intentionally and persistently excluded from the definitions of antisemitism:

Antisemitism- hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time. Nazi anti-Semitism, which culminated in the Holocaust, had a racist dimension in that it targeted Jews because of their supposed biological characteristics—even those who had themselves converted to other religions or whose parents were converts. This variety of anti-Jewish racism dates only to the emergence of so-called “scientific racism” in the 19th century and is different in nature from earlier anti-Jewish prejudices.

The Right of Return 

"The Palestinian right of return^[a] is the political position or principle that Palestinian refugees, both first-generation refugees (c. 30,000 to 50,000 people still alive as of 2012)^[3][4] and their descendants (c. 5 million people as of 2012),^[3] have a right to return and a right to the property they themselves or their forebears left behind or were forced to leave in what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories (both formerly part of the British Mandate of Palestine) during the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight (a result of the 1948 Palestine war) and the 1967 Six-Day War.

The right of return was initially formulated on 27 June 1948 by United Nations mediator Folke Bernadotte.^[5] Proponents of the right of return hold that it is a human right, whose applicability both generally and specifically to the Palestinians is protected under international law.^[6] This view holds that those who opt not to return, or for whom return is not feasible, should receive compensation. Proponents argue that Israel's opposition stands in contrast with its Law of Return that grants all Jews the right to settle permanently, while withholding any comparable right from Palestinians.^{[7]" wikipedia as of 1 May 2024}

This artwork is titled Resolution 194, after the namesake UN General Assembly resolution. The keys symbolize those kept as mementos by many Palestinians who left their homes in 1948. Such keys and the Handala are common Palestinian symbols of support for the right of return.^[1][2]

Article 11 – Palestinian Refugees

Within United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948), it is (mainly) Article 11 which deals with the return of Palestinian refugees.

Article 11 of the resolution reads:

[The General Assembly] Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

 

2018 Protest for Palestine & Al-Awda, the Right of Return

2021 Memorial Day Weekend: Over 35,000 protestors converged in Washington DC this Memorial Day weekend for The National March for Palestine, the largest protest against U.S. foreign policy in the nation’s capital in decades. (Photo: Nuha Maharoof / IG sri.lankan)

Al-Awda logo 2024  https://al-awdapalestine.org/

 

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, is a broad-based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public education on the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution of all their confiscated and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations Resolutions upholding such rights (see Fact Sheet).

 

"For the White House to allow pro-Israel “word police” to define what is & isn’t acceptable language is a dangerous abuse of power" James J Zogby ... & Annie's Notes about the real meanings of some very crucial words that are being badly misconstrued by Biden & the Zionist Word Police

 James J. Zogby

@jjz1600

So the president is now condemning the word “intifada” as hate speech. It literally means “shaking off,” as in removing the shackles of the past. For the White House to allow pro-Israel “word police” to define what is & isn’t acceptable language is a dangerous abuse of power

What the “word police” say can’t be said: apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleaning, settler colonialism, “from the River to the sea…”, & now intifada. The list keeps growing as a way to shield Israeli policies from criticism. & to equate this w/ antisemitism is so wrong.

 

 ~~~~~~

 Annie's Notes about the real meanings of some very crucial words that are being badly misconstrued by Biden & the Zionist Word Police

 

 

Dove of Peace w Key ASA copyright 2009

Intifada- shaking off

 

From the River to the Sea-  Freedom, equality & respect everywhere for everyone- empowering the rule of fair and just laws.

Apartheid- 1940s: from Afrikaans, literally ‘separateness’, from Dutch apart ‘separate’ + -heid (equivalent of -hood):  SEGREGATION

Ethnic Cleansing- the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically or religiously homogenous.

Settler Colonialism- Settler colonialism occurs when colonizers invade and occupy territory to permanently replace the existing society with the society of the colonizers

 Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people^[a] in whole or in part.  

In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly

Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, combining the Greek word γένος (genos, "race, people") with the Latin suffix -caedo ("act of killing"). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide

 

Semite, name given in the 19th century to a member of any people who speak one of the Semitic languages, a family of languages spoken primarily in parts of western Asia and Africa. The term therefore came to include Arabs, Akkadians, Canaanites, Hebrews, some Ethiopians (including the Amhara and the Tigrayans), and Aramaean tribes.

 

Notice that indigenous Arab Palestinians, including Arab Christians, are being erased -ethnically cleansed- from historic Palestine while also being intentionally and persistently excluded from the definitions of antisemitism:

 

Antisemitism- hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time. Nazi anti-Semitism, which culminated in the Holocaust, had a racist dimension in that it targeted Jews because of their supposed biological characteristics—even those who had themselves converted to other religions or whose parents were converts. This variety of anti-Jewish racism dates only to the emergence of so-called “scientific racism” in the 19th century and is different in nature from earlier anti-Jewish prejudices.

Nihal Rabbani: "November or December 1988 with my dad, celebrating Palestine's Declaration of Independence..."

Mahmoud Rabbani, born in Palestine, with his daughter, Nihal Rabbani, who is wearing a traditional embroidered Palestinian dress.

Essay by Nihal Rabbani:

"November or December 1988 with my dad, celebrating Palestine's Declaration of Independence. 

Thirty years ago, when the First Intifada received worldwide media attention, and we slowly started being portrayed as human beings instead of terrorists for the first time ever, there was a sparkle of hope. 

This was before the Oslo Accords, before the apartheid wall was erected, before the West Bank quadrupled in settlements, before the Palestinian Authority was formed, before the Gaza Strip became a mining field for the Israeli military to practice ILLEGAL chemical warfare on the Palestinian population, before a small proportion of a lost generation succumbed to suicide bombings, before Hamas would become a household name and replace Israel's accountability for its war crimes (it had only been in existence for a year in 1988) and before I even set foot in my parents' birthplace.

Shortly after this photo was taken, my father visited Palestine for the first time since he was thirteen years old, about forty years after his family was expelled from their homeland in 1948 and forced to escape to refugee camps in Lebanon." 

My letter to the NYTimes RE "The Facebook Intifada" by Micah Lakin Avni

RE "The Facebook Intifada" by Micah Lakin Avni
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/opinion/the-facebook-intifada.html?ref=international

Dear Editor,

The NYTimes illustration for the badly named article "The Facebook Intifada" by Israeli Micah Lakin Avni looks quite similar to a cartoon by a french cartoonist, Zeon, where a Palestinian child is being stabbed by a state shape knife labeled Israel:  The french cartoonist Zeon, was recently arrested in France: " A complaint appears to have been filed by the BNVCA (National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism)... The judge has indicted the designer of incitement to racial, religious hatred, by speech, writing, picture or means of electronic communication."  http://nonalignedmedia.com/2015/03/french-cartoonist-zeon-arrested-anti-zionist-work/

I think it is totally horrifying and tragic that Micah Lakin Avni's father, Richard Lakin, was murdered.  I also don't like Zeon's ugly cartoons.   But I think blaming Facebook/Twitter/social media (or cartoonists) for spreading venom and inciting violence is crazy and totally misleading.  

People do not need social media to spread ideas- word of mouth and posters and pamphlets work too. If the point is to convince young Palestinians not to attack Israelis then please start seriously noticing and publicizing facts about all the many ways that the sovereign nation state Israel has been persecuting, impoverishing, disenfranchising and destroying Palestinian individuals and communities.

Israel obsessed with being "Jewish" is in long term and flagrant violation of international law and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights when it comes to the native non-Jewish Palestinians.   

Israelis yearning to build global support for silencing criticism of the sovereign nation state called Israel are often able to curb the mainstream conversation, deflecting attention away from the very real plight and suffering of the Palestinians, but that most certainly does not stop the conflict and escalating hostilities.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"What is so special about the Journal of Palestine Studies is our commitment to academically rigorous content that is also accessible to non-academics, to anyone interested in Palestine. I want to make sure Palestinian non-academics who crave this information and history can enjoy the Journal as much as a scholar in Middle East studies." Nehad Khader, managing editor of The Journal of Palestine Studies
 

Bright & beautiful Karmah Elmusa in Elle Magazine.... "I'm Longing for Palestine While Living the American Dream" Oct 30, 2015

BDS calls for culinary boycott of Israel: After cultural and academic boycotts, movement urges top international chefs to 'take apartheid off the menu' and cancel their participation in November's Round Tables event in Tel Aviv.

#JeSuisBDS... "Anti-Israel" Activism Criminalized in the Land of Charlie Hebdo and “Free Speech”

National Geographic: A Photographer Captures Joy in Gaza ... From days at the beach to party preparations, Tanya Habjouqa offers a different look into life during conflict.

Concrete tent embodies contradictions of Palestine refugee life 2015

Strangling Jerusalem: "In reality, the roots of the violence in Jerusalem are deeper and far more complex. For decades now, Israel has been strangling East Jerusalem denying its Palestinian inhabitants freedom, opportunity, dignity, and hope, with devastating impact. Before Israel closed Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank in 1994, the city had served as the hub of Palestinian life. Not only was the city important for its religious role, all of the major Palestinian economic, social, cultural, educational, medical, and service institutions were located in the city. " James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute & author of 'Arab Voices'

IBISH: The Tragedy of the Palestinians

***

A Curious Land: Stories from Home..."A superb collection and a perfect selection for public libraries"

STAY CONNECTED... Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to: Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Unclench your fist... Live by the Golden Rule...

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Words to Honor: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.