What is Fringe ... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

 

       What is Fringe

What is fringe-

used to be

abolitionists

used to be

fair wages

used to be

used to be

used to be

freedom

and

ohhhhhh sooooo much more we take for granted now...

human rights

voting rights

equality

diversity

respect

the rule of fair and just laws

used to be.

                                                                                                poem copyright ©2026 Anne Selden Annab 

Dear America- Israel has a right to exist, but Israel has no right to starve and displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine.

𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐓𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐞 ♱

letter I just sent to my elected leaders 

Dear America,

I am a Christian, born and raised to love and to care for others.

As a Christian, and an American, I firmly object to the corporate greed and corruption that are destroying America's democracy.

Furthermore, as a Christian and an educated human being, I object to our elected leaders funding and arming Israeli bigotry and injustice with America's wealth and weaponry. 

We give billions and billions of dollars to Israel annually, while many Americans can't afford to feed their own children.

As a Christian who has been married to a Muslim man for decades, a good man who treats me well and has worked hard to take care of our family, I also vehemently object to the bigotry and injustice being fomented here in America, and in Israel, against Arab Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

I grew up in the 1960s in an America when full equality and legal respect for Blacks was a new thing.  I was very lucky because my mother, my church, and my school all promoted diversity- an end to segregation, and an end to racist hate and injustice.  I went to school with all types of people, every religion and color, and we learned to get along.  Diplomacy matters... and so does international law.

FYI Israel has been violating international law in multiple ways time and time again.  

International law was created because of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust.  After WWII the United Nations & the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made it clear how to build a better future for all people.  

Israel used international law to gain power, and Israel is now is actively sabotaging international law- especially UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.  https://www.unrwa.org/unrwa-claims-versus-facts-2025 

Israel's puppets in America's Congress have cut funds to UNRWA and to UNESCO.  Meanwhile Israel's current cat's-paw Trump has cut U.S. aid projects internationally and also cut programs for America's children, while generously supplying the Zionist empire with oodles of lethal weaponry and political support.

Israel is not a Christmas Carol or the answer to a prayer:  Israel is a heavily armed, home demolition, job destroying propaganda savvy killing machine. 

Israel insists on arming bigotry and funding religious extremism. There are no borders to stop Israeli aggression and land grabs. Israel steals land and peace from indigenous Arabs, including Indigenous Christians in the land of Jesus Christ's birth.

Israel has a right to exist, but Israel has no right to starve and displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

‘Olives are everything for us’: West Bank farmers prevented from harvesting by settler violence... About 70% of town’s olives are inaccessible without risking a potentially fatal clash with Israeli settlers

The grim task of recovering thousands of bodies from the rubble of Gaza. Relatives and experts tell of the human and societal need to find and identify the dead, while images and data shed light on the scale of the job

‘We don’t feel safe’: after week of bombings, people in Gaza are losing faith in ceasefire- After initial enthusiasm, people fear ceasefire does not mean end to war but just less frequent, more unpredictable [ISRAELI] violence

Children attending UNRWA temporary learning spaces in Gaza express their joy at learning in person and their hope that it will last. While most schools have been damaged or still host displaced families, UNRWA was able to quickly re-open 38 new temporary learning spaces in Khan Younis between September and October 2025. This has more than doubled the number of children reached through in-person learning compared to August levels. All children should be able to go to school. #UNRWAworks

“International law is clear: States must neither aid nor assist in the internationally wrongful acts of others, and must prevent & punish international crimes." New report “Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime"

"Families buried under rubble, hospitals struck, and deliberate starvation of an entire people are not isolated mistakes. They are the product of a system driven by power, sustained by impunity, and empowered by propaganda..." World leaders cannot claim to seek peace while enabling war and ignoring human suffering

"Admirers from UNICEF leaders to Hollywood actors have praised her for saying what many politicians won’t. Critics, meanwhile, accuse her of politicizing childhood. She doesn’t flinch. “I have to just remind myself that kids’ lives are more important than my reputation,”" Ms Rachel, Glamour magazine's Women of the Year

Another Palestinian journalist killed by ongoing ISraeli bombardment. Muhammed al-Miniarawi was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat regfugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. October 29, 2025

"Imagine slashing SNAP, the program that helps children in the U.S. not go hungry- while sending billions in weapons to another country to kill other children" Ms Rachel for Littles

Let UNRWA aid in... Lifesaving UNRWA medicines are waiting at the border, denied entry into Gaza by the State of Israel.

Meanwhile, pre-positioned outside Gaza, UNRWA has enough food parcels for 1.1 million people, flour for 2.1 million individuals, and shelter supplies for up to 1.3 million people."

"Maybe you don’t believe that we’re still starving in Gaza. So far: no enough food no meat, no chicken, no eggs at all no medicine." Israel's broken promises... AID ENTERING GAZA DURING CEASEFIRE: ACTUAL vs AGREED

Genocide is not a matter of opinion: 300+ writers, scholars & public figures refuse to write for the New York Times Opinion section in a collective effort to hold the paper accountable for its role in the genocide in Gaza.

The Catholic Church of Maalul, Nazareth remains standing despite the village’s destruction in 1948 and the expulsion of its people. Today, Maalul is an Israeli military zone, but its original inhabitants visit the church on special occasions or to commemorate their history.

"Across Palestine, the olive trees are disappearing, burned, cut, and uprooted by Israeli settlers, often under military protection. In Gaza, tens of thousands of dunums of farmland have been leveled, destroying nearly a million olive trees, some that had stood for centuries. Families are attacked or blocked from reaching their groves, their livelihoods erased before their eyes. Yet every year, people still go to harvest, even among the ashes and stumps, to remember that the land is theirs. When the trees are gone, they still reach, as an act of resistance." Sliman Mansour of Palestine

Two photographs nearly identical, as if captured on the same day. One in black and white, the other in color. Yet between them stretches seventy-seven years. The first taken after the Nakba of 1948. The second after the Nakba of 2023..

"It is sad and painful that you come to these Holy Lands for an unholy purpose and that is to adhere to the [Israeli] occupation, its oppressive policies and practices against the Palestinian people" ... "How can a Christian ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people especially what happened during the two years in Gaza which was a War of Holocaust." Theodosios Atallah Hanna, Palestinian Archbishop of Sebastia from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in an open letter to US Vice President JD Vance

Foreign journalists are still not allowed in Gaza & Israeli Settlers nearly club a Palestinian woman to death in the West Bank ... Arwa Mahdawi

"What’s urgently needed now is a UN-sponsored international criminal tribunal for Gaza, modelled on those in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It should be empowered to examine all aspects of Israel’s and Hamas’s conduct of the war, especially their shared disregard for civilian lives and their killing, torture and mistreatment of hostages and detainees." Simon Tisdall in The Guardian

Israel’s parliament has passed a bill advancing the annexation of the occupied West Bank, a blatant violation of international law... & "Barely a mention in Western media." Assal Rad

“For 80 years, we have worked to forge peace, tackle poverty & hunger, advance human rights & build a more sustainable world – together.” On Friday's #UNDay, @antonioguterres urges people to unite & fulfil the extraordinary promise of the United Nations... The creation of @UN was the result of a global commitment to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." 80 years later, the UN remains essential for advancing peace, prosperity & human rights. #UN80

The International Court of Justice opinion is clear: UNRWA must be allowed to deliver aid

ICJ orders Israel to allow aid into Gaza and says restrictions breached international obligations. UN’s top court also finds Israel failed to justify blocking Unrwa and other relief agencies

An estimated one million of Gaza’s 1.1 million olive trees have been destroyed. Prior to the genocide Gaza produced 50,000 tons of olives annually.

Jewish figures across the globe call on UN and world leaders to sanction Israel . Exclusive: In an open letter, Israeli ex-officials, artists and intellectuals say ‘unconscionable’ actions in Gaza amount to genocide.

#BetterTogether: The United Nations... "Together, we promote peace & security, advance sustainable development & protect human rights. By uniting nations, we turn shared goals into collective action." LET UNRWA AID IN: "UNRWA has the reach, network, and trust to deliver lifesaving aid directly to people in need"

"In September, 2023—just before October 7th—the United Nations published a report about a spike in Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities in the West Bank. During the past two years, we’ve seen the situation in the West Bank get even worse. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been pushed out of refugee camps. And dozens of Palestinian pastoral communities have been wiped off the map. Their inhabitants have been forced off their land by a combination of settlers and the Army, which are often indistinguishable from each other. So when we’re talking about ethnic cleansing, or an Israeli desire for ethnic cleansing, we shouldn’t talk about it purely in this future hypothetical way. It’s happening on a smaller scale every day." Isaac Chotiner

"There are now, as the historian Rashid Khalidi has put it, “two peoples in Palestine, irrespective of how they came into being”, and their “mutual acceptance can only be based on complete equality of rights”. If that sounds utopian, it is largely because of the decay of political leadership in both Israel and Palestine. Whatever happens with the Trump plan, no amount of bulldozer diplomacy or external governance will alter that." Kenan Malik

Humanitarian principles & UNRWA

UNRWA has the reach, network, and trust to deliver lifesaving aid directly to people in need across Gaza. To meet urgent needs, let UNRWA bring in its aid to Gaza at scale. Let them do their job.

"This is a UN vehicle entering Gaza today. It looks like a scene in a dystopian movie." Assal Rad

‘One of the oldest urban centres on the planet’: Gaza’s rich history in ruins. The territory’s ancient heritage has too often been ignored. As we mourn incalculable human losses, learning about its past can help us better understand the present- William Dalrymple in The Guardian

Dear America- The vast majority of Americans are not wealthy & the taxes that We The People pay are being diverted into funding religious bigotry and terror via Israel's cruel war on the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine. HAMAS cruelty and stupidity echoes Zionist cruelty and stupidity and on and on it goes. Neither approach will build peace or security.

The weapons industry and a global war machine- AND INJUSTICE- burgeon with American tax payer funds.

Violence is a problem- not the answer.

STOP THE SIEGE- stop funding crazy cruel Israeli schemes & the forced displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and killing of human beings in Gaza and Palestine

"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

 

“Diversity can be a source of common strength, a wellspring from which we deepen our awareness of humanity.” Nelson Mandela's words resonate as strongly today as ever.

United Nations Geneva  @UNGeneva 

On this day in 1994,  @NelsonMandela delivered a lecture at the World Conference on Religion and Peace. His words resonate as strongly today as ever.

Actions for a peaceful world- Together, we can take action to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and peaceful world for all.

ACT NOW

Speak up for peace

Educate yourself about peace

Say no to violence

Practice understanding and solidarity

Report bullying and harassment

Protest inequality and discrimination

Embrace inclusion and diversity

Support peace advocates

Follow reliable news sources

Post with care on social media

Together, we can take action to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and peaceful world for all. Illustration: United Nations Department of Global Communications https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions-peaceful-world

Choose your issue. Make an impact.

A just society

A better economy

A peaceful world 

A healthy planet

Illustrations: Niccolo Canova

Act for Our
Common Future

Embrace the possible. That’s the call of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a blueprint for a better world. We don’t have to wait for the future we want—we can create it right now. Everyone can join the global movement for change.

ActNow is the United Nations campaign to inspire people to act for the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Goals can improve life for all of us. Cleaner air. Safer cities. Equality. Better jobs. These issues matter to everyone. But progress is too slow. We have to act, urgently, to accelerate changes that add up to better lives on a healthier planet.

What happens when millions of people act together for our common future? A lot. Join the campaign to learn more— and do more.

 

17 Goals to Transform Our World

The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.

 

“Wars destroy. Peace builds. In today’s troubled world, building peace is a conscious, bold and even radical act. It is humanity’s greatest responsibility.”  

– António Guterres, UN Secretary-General (7 July 2024)

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/goal-of-the-month/

GOAL OF THE MONTH

Peace, justice and strong Institutions are essential to sustainable development.  However,  ongoing and new violent conflicts around the world are derailing the global path to  peace and cause human suffering and hinder progress on Goal 16. Read more from the Goal of the Month editorial

https://www.un.org/en/actnow/ten-actions-peaceful-world

 

"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

On this day in 1990, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a revolutionary leader, was released from prison after 27 years... " It only seems impossible until it's done." Nelson Mandela

AFRICAN & BLACK HISTORY

@AfricanArchives

On this day in 1990, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a revolutionary leader, was released from prison after 27 years.

 

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela

"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite".  Nelson Mandela 

"My dream would be a multicultural society, one that is diverse and where every man, woman and child are treated equally. I dream of a world where all people of all races work together in harmony." Nelson Mandela

"It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in "  Nelson Mandela

Nine Quarters of Jerusalem- A New Biography of the Old City by Matthew Teller, lets the communities of the Old City speak for themselves. Ranging through ancient past and political present, it evokes the city’s depth and cultural diversity.

In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things.

Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn’t reflect the reality of mixed and diverse neighbourhoods.

Beyond the crush and frenzy of its major religious sites, much of the Old City remains little known to visitors, its people overlooked and their stories untold.

Nine Quarters of Jerusalem lets the communities of the Old City speak for themselves. Ranging through ancient past and political present, it evokes the city’s depth and cultural diversity. Matthew Teller’s highly original ‘biography’ features the Old City’s Palestinian and Jewish communities, but also spotlights its Indian and African populations, its Greek and Armenian and Syriac cultures, its downtrodden Dom Gypsy families and its Sufi mystics.

The book discusses the sources of Jerusalem’s holiness and the ideas – often startlingly secular – that have shaped lives within its walls.

It is an evocation of place through story, led by the voices of Jerusalemites.... READ MORE  https://www.matthewteller.com/nine-quarters-of-jerusalem/

MATTHEW TELLER

https://www.matthewteller.com/ 

My newest book Daybreak in Gaza: Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture (Saqi Books, 2024), co-edited with Palestinian friends Mahmoud Muna, Juliette Touma and Jayyab Abusafia, gathers almost a hundred accounts of Gazan lives and stories from before and during Israel’s ongoing assault, by Gaza’s writers and artists, but also its doctors and shopkeepers, its farmers and students and office workers. ‘A most significant collection, one that frightens, awes and inspires,’ said Philippe Sands. Suad Amiry called it ‘essential reading’ and Fatima Bhutto said: ‘Daybreak in Gaza must be shared with the world.’

My previous book Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City (Profile Books and Other Press, 2022) reassesses histories and outlooks on Jerusalem as told through stories of the communities that live – and have lived – inside the city’s walls. Jonathan Dimbleby called it “original and illuminating” and Raja Shehadeh said it “reveals the Old City of Jerusalem better than any other book written about the city.” It was the Observer‘s ‘Book of the Week’ and a ‘Book of the Year’ in the Daily Telegraph, Geographical magazine and elsewhere.

My book Quite Alone: Journalism from the Middle East 2008-2019 collects some of my travel, feature journalism and news reporting.  

 [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]

Rosa Parks: "Differences of race, nationality,or religion should not be used to deny any human being citizenship rights or privileges."

UN Women

@UN_Women

 

Rosa Parks, born #OnThisDay in 1913, was an American civil rights activist who refused to give up her seat on the bus as an act of resistance to segregation. She reminds us of the importance of speaking up for inequalities and rejecting racism. #BlackHistoryMonth

Dear President Biden, What dirty secrets does Israel have on you?

 October 20, 2023

Dear President Biden,

What dirty secrets does Israel have on you?  I am just trying to figure out how you can be so clueless and cruel when it comes to the Israel/Palestine situation.

HAMAS did not invent or unleash pure, unadulterated evil as you said in your most recent speech. HAMAS is a more recent evil response to Jews-preferred Israel's extensive mistreatment of the indigenous non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine.  

The unleashing of pure unadulterated evil in the Middle East is and has been modern man-made Israel, a fully sovereign nation state that has been aggressively persecuting, impoverishing, and displacing Palestinian families for the past 75 years.

Armed religious extremism and a growing tide of racist hate is an inevitable reaction to Israel being richly rewarded by America for arming religion with lethal weaponry. 

HAMAS is horrible and stupid, but Israel's state sponsored terrorism is a billion times more monstrous than HAMAS.

Here in America various deluded CEOs and bigoted billionaires are doing what they can to silence support for Palestine and the truth.  Our mainstream media has become a mouthpiece for a foreign country instead of being America's Fourth Estate. And I go to White House.gov and I might as well be looking at an Israeli government propaganda site.  

I know that early on in our history American racism was rampant and wrong. Slavery was everywhere and technically legal. But that did not make slavery right or good. Thankfully we had courageous heroes speak out to help lead us away from legalized racist injustice and segregation. Our country grew stronger and better thanks to our learned respect for diversity and the rule of fair and just laws.  

So why exactly are we arming Israel as it traps and bombs Palestinians in the concentration camp called Gaza?  

Why are we funding Israel's belligerent occupation and illegal settlements in the West Bank?  

Why isn't America standing up for real justice and peace! 

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

American Homemaker & Poet

Live by the Golden Rule

Christians Killed by Israeli Bombing of One of the Oldest Churches in Historic Palestine- Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church

 

America, Do we believe in full and equal rights for all people, regardless of their supposed race or religion? !!!

 

We’re anti-Zionist Jews and we see genocide unfolding in Gaza- Ellen Brotsky and Ariel Koren

"Israeli supporters thirst for these lies. They do not want to know the truth. The truth would force them to examine their racism, self-delusion and complicity in oppression, murder and genocide." Chris Hedges

Think of Others- a poem by Mahmoud Darwish [of Palestine]

BEWARE: Don't let Racist Hate win ... a poem

"It lifted my grieving heart to join crowds in London on the March for Palestine. We need more of them" - a timely Guardian op-ed by Nimer Sultany

MIFTAH's Chairperson Dr. Hanan Ashrawi sends a message to the world.

WHAT YOU BOMB a poem by VIJAY PRASHAD

In Israel's war against the Palestinians, Tel Aviv controls the narrative and silences dissenting voices

In one week, the number of children killed in Gaza has surpassed the number of children killed in Ukraine in one year. Both are occupied lands, but with vastly different approaches from the US.

His name is Wadie Al Fayoume. He was just killed- murdered at the age of 6 for being Palestinian and Muslim in America... Stabbed 26 times in his Chicago area home.

Pamela Olson's book (and blog) that aims to bring the realities in Palestine to the American mainstream

This Week in Palestine: When Art and Artists Belong Ismail Shammout, an Ambassador of Palestinian Identity By Bashar Shammout

Memory of Places by Sliman Mansour, 2009.

Heba Zagout, artist, killed by Israeli bombs in Gaza, Palestine, October 2023

HATE, it has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet- Maya Angelou

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

We need facts and the preservation of press freedom.

STOP DOMESTIC VIOLENCE... & State Sponsored Terrorism

My letter to CS Monitor RE "Middle East fence-mending"

Re: Middle East fence-mending

https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2023/0628/Middle-East-fence-mending

Dear Editor,

Regarding the most recent online CSM editorial "Middle East fence-mending" that reaches out to readers with hope regarding ending the Jewish settler violence in the Palestinian Territories.

It is a beautifully written opinion and poem-like fantasy that foolishly ignores sovereign Israel's relentless violations of international law and the native non-Jewish Palestinians' basic human rights... day after day, decade after decade.

Israel's tax payer funded Zionist settlers protected by Israel's Zionist soldiers have been harshly persecuting, oppressing, and displacing Palestinian men, women and children year after year, decade after decade- for generations now.  Same old same old. This is a monstrous tragedy and it is mainly ignored by the Western world. 

Here in America far too many religious leaders and elected officials either idolize or excuse Israeli racism and its state sponsored terrorism.  We should not be funding and fueling Israel's war on the people of historic Palestine.  We live in a post Nazi Holocaust world and really should know better. 

Face the facts: Israel/Palestine already is a one state "solution" with Palestine and surrounding refugee camps serving as a complex prison camp and weapons testing ground where Israel's Zionist soldiers and settlers can feel like heroes while they systemically destroy Palestinian families, homes, and jobs.

Real hope is real freedom, diversity, respect, and equality all empowered by the rule of fair and just laws to help build real justice and a lasting peace for all people, regardless of supposed race or religion.  Here and there!

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab  

NOTES

http://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

https://imeu.org/

https://badil.org/

https://www.palestineremembered.com/index.html

Keys for Palestine are full respect for Basic Human Rights, including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees' inalienable, legal, logical, moral, and natural Right of Return to original homes and lands.

Wonderful story about Rahaf Othman and the importance of culturally competent teaching: Students Thrive When They Feel Welcomed in Schools

Palestinian Students Thrive When They Feel Welcomed in Schools

A Palestinian educator shares her experience and the value of inclusive classrooms

Key Takeaways

1. Students do better in school when their cultures and backgrounds are recognized.
2. Culturally responsive teaching helps to affirm and support students.
3. Learn how to create an inclusive classroom and more.

 Like many educators, Rahaf Othman knew from an early age that she wanted to grow up to be a teacher. “I used to play school with my younger siblings. I always had to be the teacher and they the students,” she fondly recalls. She also loved learning about the world around her.

But her love of learning was almost jeopardized after a classroom lesson went amiss. Othman’s fifth grade teacher gave students an assignment to select and research a country of their choice and present their findings to the class.

“I was born in Palestine. We immigrated to the United States as refugees—that's my history … and I was excited to share it,” she says. “I said to my teacher, ‘I want to do my presentation on Palestine.’ She looked at me compassionately and said, ‘Sweetie, Palestine doesn't exist. Do you want to do it on Israel or someplace else?’

“That conversation broke me,” shares Othman, adding that her grades went from passing to failing. She shut down, stopped caring about school, and was filled with questions about her identity.

She remembers thinking at the time, “If my teacher doesn't recognize where I'm from and doesn’t recognize my background—doesn’t see me—who am I?”

The following year things turned around for Othman. What made the difference?

“The teacher asked me where I was from, and I told her Palestine. She embraced it! She asked me to share with my classmates about [my homeland] and bring in artifacts and talk about them,” she says. “She completely rejuvenated me as a person and my education.”

She started to care about school again and went back to earning good grades and making honor roll.

Today, Othman is a 26-year veteran educator who teaches high school social studies in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, Ill.

While this incident in her fifth-grade classroom happened in the late 1980s, Othman says it’s common for Palestinian students today to encounter a similar experience.

Why Cultural Competence is Important

The southwest suburbs of Chicago have a large Palestinian American population, according to a report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. And despite their long history in the Chicagoland area and growing numbers, Othman shares that parents in neighboring school districts have “come to me complaining that their children’s geography class teachers are telling students Palestine does not exist,” she says. “It’s heartbreaking.”

More awareness of the Palestinian community is needed, and students need to feel affirmed and supported, adds Othman.

Culturally responsive teaching can help. An established body of research affirms what educators have long known: A culturally responsive and racially inclusive education benefits all ... AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE ORIGINAL  LINK TO READ AND THINK ABOUT THIS STORY IN FULL -> https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/palestinian-students-thrive-when-they-feel-welcomed-schools

Arabs from Israel risk arrest for 'Arab Idol' show... Israel and Suha Arraf Differ on Nationality of ‘Villa Touma’... & Escape to a World of Palestinian Surprises

In this Friday, Oct. 10, 2014 photo provided by MBC Press Office, Palestinian singer Manal Mousa, 25, performs during the Arab Idol Show broadcast by MBC Arabic satellite channel in Zouk Mosbeh neighborhood, north of Beirut, Lebanon. Her goal is to win Arab Idol, the Arab world's premiere television song competition. The journey Mousa and another singer Haitham Khalaily, 24, have taken from their villages in Israel to the competition in Lebanon could comprise a television drama of its own - featuring travel to an enemy country, Israeli security interrogations, and the complicated identity crisis of Israel's Arabs. (AP Photo/MBC Press Office)

[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]

http://news.yahoo.com/arabs-israel-risk-arrest-arab-idol-show-143214862.html
Arabs from Israel risk arrest for 'Arab Idol' show

MAJD AL-KRUM, Israel (AP) — Their goal is to win Arab Idol, the Arab world's premiere television song competition.

But the journey Manal Mousa, 25, and Haitham Khalaily, 24, have taken from their villages in Israel to the competition in Lebanon could comprise a television drama of its own — featuring travel to an enemy country, Israeli security interrogations, and the complicated identity crisis of Israel's Arabs.

The two singers are competing for more than just fame: they want to be a part of the cultural world that has been largely off limits to them because of the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict.

"This is a chance for Haitham," said Waheeb Khalaily, Haitham's father, in his home in Majd Al-Krum, a village in the Galilee, in northern Israel. "For the Arab world and the whole world to hear him and say that he represents a Palestinian people that clings to its land."

In the bitter conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Arab-Israelis are stuck in the middle. Though citizens of the Jewish state, they share the ethnicity, language and culture of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Arabs who remained in Israel after its creation in 1948, and their descendants, today make up 20 percent of the population. Many identify as Palestinians rather than Israelis, watch Arab satellite television and dream of traveling throughout the Middle East. But their Israeli citizenship bars them from most Arab countries because Israeli passport holders are prohibited entry....READ MORE

******

The Hand That Feeds Bites Back

Israel and Suha Arraf Differ on Nationality of ‘Villa Touma’

Suha Arraf identified her film Villa Touma” as Palestinian at the Venice Film Festival. Israel, which helped fund the movie, objected. Credit Villa Touma

 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/movies/israel-and-suha-arraf-differ-on-nationality-of-villa-touma.html?emc=edit_tnt_20141018&nlid=67297737&tntemail0=y&_r=0

“Villa Touma,” a darkly comic fable directed by a Palestinian-Israeli screenwriter, Suha Arraf, had been experiencing an identity crisis well before it got to Canada. At the Venice Film Festival a week or so earlier, Ms. Arraf (“Lemon Tree”) listed the film as “Palestinian,” and in doing so kicked up a media and bureaucratic storm. Since most of her financing came from Israeli state sources, the political establishment argued that “Villa Touma” should have been considered Israeli. The Israeli Film Council demanded the return of more than $500,000 Ms. Arraf raised from the Israeli Film Fund, the Economic Ministry and the national lottery.

Suha Arraf, who wrote and directed “Villa Touma.” Credit Kathleen McInnis

The response online and in the Israeli press to Ms. Arraf, was not, generally speaking, kind. “It was crazy,” Ms. Arraf said in Toronto. “They said I stole Israeli money, they said I’m a whore, of course, and a suicide bomber.” She continued: “When I talk about it here, and people hear about the story, they start laughing and ask me to write a comedy about it. A comedy. Nobody would believe me if I wrote the script.”

Set in 2001, the film tells of three Christian sisters who have cloistered themselves since the 1967 Six-Day War inside their once-elegant Ramallah home in the West Bank (though, aside from some exteriors there, the film was largely shot in Haifa, Israel). When a niece comes to live with them, their insular existence starts to dissolve. Featured are the Palestinian actresses Nisreen Faour, Ula Tabari and Maria Zreik, along with Cherien Dabis, the Palestinian-American director (“Amreeka”), making what she called a long-delayed acting debut.

“It was so refreshing,” she said of Ms. Arraf’s script. “It’s about a world we’ve never seen, a segment of Palestinian society that’s just lost. It’s about women’s lives, their intimacy. The humor was there, the pacing was there.”...READ MORE

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GIGI HADID
Fashion Model, USA

“My dad was born in Palestine and immigrated at a very young age. I think the most inspiring thing about my parents is that they came from nothing and through hard work and determination they both reached their goals…they always taught me the importance of making a name for myself regardless of the past success of my family, be financially independent, and using my success to help the less fortunate.”

Read more about Gigi Hadid at Palestinian Surprises website: http://bit.ly/1vP1UCO

Sherri Muzher is a journalist, scholar, and activist who has dedicated much of her writings to dispelling Palestinian stereotypes, clarifying myths, and presenting the Palestinian perspective... Muzher was born and raised in Michigan. Her parents left the Occupied West Bank in 1969 with hopes of brighter days for their future children... Escape to a World of Palestinian Surprises

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