Susan Muaddi Darraj: Palestinian Americans learned from the best... "I, Too" poem by Langton Hughes [written in 1926]

Susan Muaddi Darraj

Palestinian Americans learned from the best.

"The way they talk about the Palestinians “finally realizing their dream” of dignity and self-determination like they haven’t spent years and billions of dollars obstructing that dream, like all we need is a TED talk on goal-setting and time management" Susan Muaddi Darraj

On social media, Rashida Tlaib, described the description of "joy" at the convention as "a false narrative".

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj

@SusanDarraj

The way they talk about the Palestinians “finally realizing their dream” of dignity and self-determination like they haven’t spent years and billions of dollars obstructing that dream, like all we need is a TED talk on goal-setting and time management

 

Biden provided the bombs, Republicans autograph them... Nikki Haley signs artillery shells in Israel: 'Finish them! America ♡ Israel!' ... "Imperial feminism, everyone. A message written in purple marker, like she's doodling in someone's yearbook instead of co-signing a genocide" Susan Muaddi Darraj

Nikki Haley signs artillery shells in Israel- 'Finish them! America ♡ Israel!'  photo courtesy of Nikki Haley

Former U.S. presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley visited the northern Israeli border on Tuesday, meeting with Israeli soldiers and Israelis.

During her visit, Haley visited an Israel Defense Forces post with soldiers serving on the northern border.

Haley stopped and signed artillery shells, writing, "Finish them! America loves Israel!" on some of them.

Susan Muaddi Darraj 

@SusanDarraj

Imperial feminism, everyone. A message written in purple marker, like she's doodling in someone's yearbook instead of co-signing a genocide

 

~~~

Biden provided the bombs, Republicans autograph them.

April is Arab American Heritage Month!✨ ... GOOD BOOKS!

April is Arab American Heritage Month!

Susan Muaddi Darraj

@bnunionsqnyc April is Arab American Heritage Month!

We wanted to take a moment to spotlight some truly incredible books by some amazing Arab American authors. 

 

𝙎𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙂𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙚 by Margot Douaihy

𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 by Susan Abulhawa

𝘽𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙆𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙙𝙤𝙢𝙨 by Suleika Jaouad

𝘼 𝙒𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙄𝙨 𝙉𝙤 𝙈𝙖𝙣 by Etaf Rum

𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙀𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙤𝙤 𝙈𝙪𝙘𝙝 by Zaina Arafat

𝙄𝙣 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙮 𝙊𝙛 𝙈𝙚𝙣 by Hisham Matar

𝘽𝙧𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙊𝙛 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙖 by Eman Quotah

𝘽𝙚𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙄𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙖 by Susan Muaddi Darraj

𝘽𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙏𝙬𝙤 𝙈𝙤𝙤𝙣𝙨 by Aisha Abdel Gawad

𝙈𝙮 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 by Hisham Matar

𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙠 by Sarafina El-Badry Nance

𝙏𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙊𝙛 𝙏𝙚𝙖 by Hafsah Faizal 

 

Which ones have you read? And which ones are you adding to your list? 

 

#arabamericanheritagemonth #arabvoices #barnesandnoble #bn #bnbuz #bookish

Dismantling the culture of silence... "On Remembrance: When Words Become Our Strength"

@gazamom

Thank You for The Literature of Palestine

A photo inside an American Independent book store in 2024

"Of course Israel deliberately killed @WCKitchen workers and of course the kitchen will halt its operations in Gaza. That’s exactly what Israel wants….to further starve Palestinians." Diana Buttu

 United States-based aid group World Central Kitchen (WCK) confirmed on Tuesday that its staff members were killed in a “targeted attack” by the Israeli military. The dead were from Palestine, Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, and US-Canada.

Chef José Andrés 

@chefjoseandres

Today

@WCKitchen

lost several of our sisters and brothers in an IDF air strike in Gaza. I am heartbroken and grieving for their families and friends and our whole WCK family. These are people…angels…I served alongside in Ukraine, Gaza, Turkey, Morocco, Bahamas, Indonesia. They are not faceless…they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing. It needs to stop restricting humanitarian aid, stop killing civilians and aid workers, and stop using food as a weapon. No more innocent lives lost. Peace starts with our shared humanity. It needs to start now.

 Diana Buttu

@dianabuttu

Of course Israel deliberately killed

@WCKitchen

workers and of course the kitchen will halt its operations in Gaza. That’s exactly what Israel wants….to further starve Palestinians.

 

Diana Buttu reposted

Bel Trew

@Beltrew

For context before killing 7

@WCKitchen

aid workers last night, Israel’s been accused multiple times of bombing aid convoys in Gaza (despite coordination). In Feb

@UNRWA

said one of its food convoys was hit by naval shell as it prepped to go north UN has reported multiple incidents

 

Mosab Abu Toha

@MosabAbuToha

If anyone is waiting for a “thorough and transparent investigation,” they are thoroughly mislead in their belief that this was a mistake. There is no mistake for these people when it comes to targeting civilians, international aid workers, or even clouds that shade for our roofless houses or tents.

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj 

@SusanDarraj

If you're shocked that 7 food aid workers were killed, wait until you hear about the murders of Palestinian journalists, doctors, nurses, teachers, ambulance drivers, mothers, fathers, and the children the children the children #ceasefirenow

 

John Hudson

@John_Hudson

Munition dropped right through the World Central Kitchen logo

Yousef Munayyer

@YousefMunayyer

Reminds me of this, when Israel struck a Red Cross ambulance in Lebanon in 2006 right in the logo. There is a series of such images.

 

Israel struck a Red Cross ambulance in Lebanon in 2006 right in the logo

 

 

World Central Kitchen pauses Gaza operations after workers killed in airstrike

The organization said its workers had been traveling in a "deconflicted zone" in two armored cars carrying the WCK logo and a soft skin vehicle. It said that despite organizing travel with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the convoy was hit as it was leaving a warehouse in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj explains a crucial point about Israel, Palestine, & America... #LandTheft

Illegal Israeli Settlement Fortresses in the Occupied West Bank where a fully sovereign and free Palestinian State was supposed to be

Please understand that this is not a religious issue

Susan Muaddi Darraj

"Friends, please allow me to explain a crucial point. 

 

Israel has been building illegal cities (settlements) on Palestinian land for decades - Palestinian land that is supposed to be part of a future Palestinian state. The world has condemned the building of these cities, but Israel keeps building them. 

 

In order to build them, they steal land from Palestinian residents and families. It's been ongoing, even though I can remember presidents as far back as Ronald Reagan strongly condemning Israel for this policy. 

 

The policy is obviously aimed at pushing people out, at emptying Palestinian land of its Palestinian residents, people who have inhabited that land for thousands of years.

 

It is not a myth or a lie that we are indigenous to the land. As an example, Palestinian Christians have baptismal records proving their existence in Palestine for at least a couple of hundred years. 

 

So now, Israeli companies are holding real estate sales IN THE UNITED STATES to sell homes to Americans in these illegal settlements. It's like selling a vacation home to someone that has been built on the wreckage of someone else's stolen land. This comes after the recent news that Netanyahu approved the building of 30,000 new homes built illegally on Palestinian land. 

 

Please understand that this is not a religious issue. This is an issue about ongoing land theft! 

 

Please understand what is happening."

 "A for-profit company renting out a Teaneck synagogue on Sunday to pitch real estate deals in Israel ― including some in the occupied West Bank ― has drawn calls for protests and investigations after one of the region’s most outspoken Jewish critics of Israel cried foul." A pitch for West Bank real estate is prompting protest and fear in Teaneck [New Jersey]

Susan Muaddi Darraj: There are 12 different ways to say "friend" in Arabic, and I believe South Africa embodies all of them.

  All my love and respect to you.  

Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of The Inheritance of Exile and A Curious Land (short stories) & the new novel Behind You Is The Sea

Susan Muaddi Darraj: "Thank you, @ensarasbookcorner , for including BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA 🌊 in your "most anticipated releases of 2024"! And thanks for this gorgeous graphic!"

Susan Muaddi Darraj

Thank you, @ensarasbookcorner , for including BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA in your "most anticipated releases of 2024"! And thanks for this gorgeous graphic!

Star of Bethlehem Quilt circa 1845 & Susan Muaddi Darraj's friendly annual reminder that this symbol you see everywhere this time of year is *not* a snowflake.

Stars of Bethlehem Palestinian Embroidery

Sunbula Bethlehem Star coin purse- Traditional 'Bethlehem Star' motif adorns this handy coin purse. Made by women artisans from small villages in the Bethlehem area.  https://www.sunbula.org/

Embroidered Cushion Cover - Star of Bethlehem- The Bethlehem Arab Women's Union (BAWU) was founded in 1947 as a first aid center to care for refugees from Al-Nakba (Palestnian catastrophe at the creation of the state of Israel). Located in ... Read more

Star of Bethlehem Quilt, ca. 1845 (American)

&

Susan Muaddi Darraj

  ·

My friendly annual reminder that this symbol you see everywhere this time of year is *not* a snowflake. 

 

It is the 8-pointed Bethlehem Star , a tatreez (embroidery) symbol that has decorated Palestinian artwork for centuries and was brought to Europe via the Crusades. 

 

Of the hundreds of motifs that are featured in tatreez, the Bethlehem Star is one of the oldest and most enduring. It represents the Star that guided the Three Kings on Christmas night.

 

Christmas started in Palestine, but it won't be celebrated there this year as Palestinians mourn the 20,000+ souls that have risen.

 

Follow me on Instagram and Twitter: @SusanDarraj

Also, here's an article I wrote that lists books and other resources: https://www.middleeasteye.net/.../palestine-traditional...

"Do mainstream news outlets like Fox, NBC, CBS etc even have a fact checking department anymore? ..." Susan Muaddi Darraj

 "Do mainstream news outlets like Fox, NBC, CBS etc even have a fact checking department anymore? 

 Or do they just let everything that "sounds correct" (i.e. fits the stereotype already in their head) get airtime?"

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj

 Susan Muaddi Darraj’s new novel, BEHIND YOU IS THE SEA, will be published in January 2024 by HarperVia. Her previous short story collection, A Curious Land: Stories from Home, was named the winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction, judged by Jaime Manrique. The book was published in December 2015 by the University of Massachusetts Press. It also won the 2016 Arab American Book Award, a 2016 American Book Award, and was shortlisted for a Palestine Book Award. Her previous short story collection, The Inheritance of Exile, was published in 2007 by University of Notre Dame Press.

In 2019, she launched the viral #TweetYourThobe social media campaign to promote Palestinian culture. Later that year, she was named winner of the Rose Nader Award, by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an award given by the Nader family to a person who “demonstrates an unwavering dedication and commitment to values of equality and justice.”

 https://susanmdbooks.com/about/

  [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] 

Oh hey, a friendly reminder that you can understand, acknowledge, and sympathize with very real generational Jewish trauma and still push for a free Palestine. - Susan Muaddi Darraj

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj

Oh hey, a friendly reminder that you can understand, acknowledge, and sympathize with very real generational Jewish trauma and still push for a free Palestine. 

 

Calling for a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli occupation is not antisemitic. That's a dangerous binary the media is pushing you to believe. Thanks, and enjoy your day!

 

 https://susanmdbooks.com/

 

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world by Susan Muaddi Darraj

A Palestinian man covered with dust carries an injured baby girl into the al-Shifa hopsital in Gaza City following Israeli strikes on 29 October 2023

"I’m writing to you because you live in a country where there is little empathy for the plight of your own people. Your robotic politicians seem undisturbed by the fact that 2.3 million people have been without water, food and electricity for two weeks now.

A civilian population - elders who look like your grandparents, children who resemble your own - is being carpet-bombed with a cruelty that is beyond measure. An Israeli minister called them “human animals,” and President Joe Biden publicly doubts the numbers of casualties reported by the Palestinians.

You know, as he surely does, that the number is probably higher, that the missing people are not really "missing"; they're dead under the rubble.

Your heart is busted

Your heart aches. You scroll. You cry. You’re repeatedly stunned by the brutality you’re witnessing. 

Your grandparents may have been born outside of Palestine. Maybe you’ve never ever seen Palestine yourself. Maybe you don’t speak or understand Arabic at all. In the past, these factors have made you feel distanced from your heritage, but this moment reminds you of how Palestinian you truly are, especially as you realise something we all do: there is a concerted effort to erase us." 

Israel-Palestine war: A love letter to my Palestinian family around the world

Susan Muaddi Darraj

31 October 2023

We will not be erased. The Palestinian community is a family. And we will survive as families do, by consoling each other; by gifting each other the gentleness the world denies us .... READ MORE

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

 https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-palestine-war-love-letter-palestinian-family-world

"...the possibility of infinite development"

Susan Muaddi Darraj  standing beside the Philadelphia Mural

from her facebook page

"This #Philadelphia #mural takes a quote by #WEBDuBois and translates it into #Arabic. (quote below)

It honors the neighborhood of Black Bottom, whose inhabitants were steadily displaced.

The mural was sponsored by @albustanseeds

"I believe that all men, black & brown & white, are brothers, varying through time & opportunity, in form & gift & feature, but differing in no essential partcular, & alike in soul & the possibility of infinite development."

- DuBois, Darkwater (1920) "