From 400 hives to 35: the Gaza beekeeper refusing to let war end his life’s work - Ibrahim al-Dabba continues to care for his colonies despite losing his home and most of his hives and equipment. Story by Lina Abu Zayed, photographs by Omar Ashtawy

Ibrahim Naji al-Dabba, 49, (in green) working with his sons. He was displaced from the Shuja’iyya area, east of Gaza City to Tel al- to the south

    "Beekeeping... is our life, our livelihood, and our future."  

The Guardian picture essay 

Each morning, Ibrahim Naji al-Dabba climbs to the roof of a damaged residential tower in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, where rows of beehives sit surrounded by shattered concrete and the scars of war. The rooftop is far from an ideal place for beekeeping, but for the 49-year-old father of seven, it is the only place where he can continue the profession that has sustained his family for decades.

Before the war, al-Dabba owned more than 400 beehives spread across eastern Gaza. His apiaries, equipment, storage facilities, and four-wheel-drive vehicle allowed him to manage a thriving beekeeping business that supported his family. Today, almost everything he built over years of work has disappeared.

“Beekeeping is not just a business,” he says. “It is my family’s only source of income. It is our life, our livelihood, and our future.”

Al-Dabba, who also serves as president of the Gaza Beekeepers’ cooperative society, says beekeeping became a passion long before it became a profession. Over the years, he specialised in producing honey, breeding queen bees, and developing bee strains adapted to Gaza’s climate. Before the war, Gaza’s beekeeping sector had continued to grow despite years of blockade, with hundreds of beekeepers producing honey and supporting local agriculture through pollination.

That changed after the war erupted.

Unable to reach his apiaries because of bombardment and displacement, al-Dabba watched his life’s work vanish. He lost his home, more than 400 beehives, honey-processing equipment, storage facilities, and nearly all the tools required for his trade... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/jul/29/gaza-beekeeper-refusing-to-let-war-end-lifes-work

[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]

"Homes can be demolished. Walls can be reduced to rubble. Entire families can be scattered across the world. But roots run deep... And sometimes, from beneath the wreckage, life emerges to remind us that memory, belonging, and hope refuse to die." Mike Hanini Odetalla

Mike Hanini Odetalla

ptonedsroS3 aguh96c1ia5t010t:619lh249ly 33uaM01273uMP 78 g6i  ·

All That Remains...Reflections on a rather sad day

 

5/31/26

 

After the death of my father-in-law (ay), his humble two-room home in the Kadoura Refugee Camp was torn down.

 

His family, like so many Palestinians, had been violently expelled from their homes and lands by Zionist forces in 1948 and forced into a life of exile and displacement.

 

Seven years later, in 2022, I took my grandson—his great-grandson—back to show him where his grandmother had grown up and to visit a place that I myself had always loved.

 

The house was gone.

 

The tiny garden that my father-in-law had tended with such tender loving care was buried beneath rubble. Yet among the destruction, something remarkable remained.

 

A magnificent grapevine once covered his patio, providing shade in the summer and producing the most exquisite grapes. As I stood there looking at the ruins, I noticed a small cluster of grapes protruding defiantly from the debris.

 

I took this photograph.

 

To some, it is merely a bunch of grapes growing from a collapsed structure.

 

To me, it is a symbol of Palestine itself.

 

Homes can be demolished. Walls can be reduced to rubble. Entire families can be scattered across the world. But roots run deep.

 

And sometimes, from beneath the wreckage, life emerges to remind us that memory, belonging, and hope refuse to die.

 

All that remains... and yet, somehow, it is enough to tell the whole story.

That image of grapes emerging from rubble carries a quiet symbolism that is difficult to ignore:

 

the house was destroyed, but the vine still remembered where it belonged. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10166091777606977&set=a.10150390714236977

 photo & essay copyright Mike Hanini Odetalla 2026

Asia's oldest living organism, the ancient Abarkuh cypress tree - at least 4500 years old - is rooted in land that was already known as Iran at the time.

Asia's oldest living organism, the ancient Abarkuh cypress tree - at least 4500 years old - is rooted in land that was already known as Iran at the time.

The Cypress of Abarkuh (Persian: سرو ابرکوه Sarv-e Abarkuh), also called the Zoroastrian Sarv,^[1] is a Persian cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) tree in Abarkuh in Yazd Province of Iran. It is protected by the Cultural Heritage Organization of Iran as a national natural monument and is a major tourist attraction with a height of 25 metres (82 ft 0 in) and with a perimeter of 11.5 metres (37 ft 9 in) at its trunk and 18 metres (59 ft 1 in) higher up around its branches. It is estimated to be over four millennia old and is likely the oldest living lifeform in Asia.^[2]

According to legend, the tree was planted by Zoroaster, the founder of the Zoroastrian religion. It is said that Zoroaster left to spread his teachings to an Iranian city towards Balkh and met Shah Vishtaspa. He stopped at Abarkuh and supposedly planted this tree.^[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarv-e_Abarkuh

1940s, Lydda, Palestine

1940s, Lydda, Palestine

Pals

@palsofnations

 

https://x.com/palsofnations/status/2017496148458561681/photo/1

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]

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

@palsofnations

 

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]  

"The Christ child still lies among the rubble, reminding us that God chose not safety, not power, not palaces—but vulnerability and solidarity with the crushed of the earth. And yet now, rising from that rubble, stands a tree - a living tree. For me, this is a profoundly Palestinian image—and a profoundly Christian one. The tree is declaration. It is the tree of life. It is defiance in the face of death. It is hope planted where despair is expected to rule. The tree appears almost as if it grows out of the rubble itself. Not beside it. Not after it is cleared away. But from within it. This is our story." Rev. Munther Isaac

Rev. Munther Isaac منذر اسحق

@MuntherIsaac

 

Today I had the chance to visit Christmas Lutheran Church, where I served for more than ten years—eight of them as the main pastor. 

 

Returning to a place that shaped so much of my life and ministry is never an easy experience. It carries memory, prayer and appreciation. 

 

Under the faithful and courageous leadership of my dear friend Rev. Ashraf Tannous, the church made a deliberate and meaningful decision: to keep Christ in the Rubble—but to place it under the Christmas tree. 

 

This old-new crib spoke to me again. 

 

The rubble remains. 

 

The broken stones are still there. 

 

The Christ child still lies among the rubble, reminding us that God chose not safety, not power, not palaces—but vulnerability and solidarity with the crushed of the earth. 

 

And yet now, rising from that rubble, stands a tree - a living tree. 

 

For me, this is a profoundly Palestinian image—and a profoundly Christian one. 

 

The tree is declaration. 

 

It is the tree of life. 

 

It is defiance in the face of death. 

 

It is hope planted where despair is expected to rule. 

 

The tree appears almost as if it grows out of the rubble itself. 

 

Not beside it. Not after it is cleared away. But from within it. This is our story.

 

A cry from the heart and a call to action from a Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian

In this impassioned and incisive book, Munther Isaac challenges Western Christians’ uncritical embrace of Zionist theology and politics. Speaking from his unique vantage point as a prominent Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian, he proclaims a truth that is rarely acknowledged in Christian circles: Israel’s campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people did not begin after October 7, 2023. Rather, the campaign is a continuation of a colonial project with nineteenth-century roots that has, since 1948, established systems of entrenched discrimination and segregation worse than South Africa’s apartheid regime. 

Writing with close-up knowledge of conditions on the ground, and rooted in a commitment to nonviolence and just peace, Isaac argues that support for the State of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza reflects a failure to apply a properly Christian theological critique to colonialism, racism, and imperialism. He calls on Christians to repent of their complicity in the destruction of the Palestinian people. And he challenges them to realign their beliefs and actions with Christ―who can be found not among perpetrators of violence, but with victims buried under the rubble of war.

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]

If you care for the sanctity of human life and freedom of speech, we urge you to speak up, too. FREE PALESTINE!

Bob Vylan

@BobbyVylan

"On Easter, the story of Jesus — born in Bethlehem, living under occupation, crucified by empire — echoes the Palestinian experience: a people who face oppression, loss, and injustice, yet refuse to be erased..."

The Nazarene (الناصري), oil on canvas, 1993 artist Sliman Mansour

 sliman.mansour

On Easter, the story of Jesus — born in Bethlehem, living under occupation, crucified by empire — echoes the Palestinian experience: a people who face oppression, loss, and injustice, yet refuse to be erased. Just as resurrection followed crucifixion, Palestinians hold onto hope, dignity, and resistance, believing that even from the darkest tombs, life and freedom will rise again.

“When the Sky Is No Longer” from Something About Living a poem by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.

Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.
Published by University of Akron Press April 02, 2024.

When the Sky Is No Longer

by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

 

a womb, prayers now besieged

inside your throat hum over whistles

and shrieks—the long how

puncturing what was. 

 

Silence is the first casualty. 

You no longer fear the clamor,

not because you are brave, but

because you’ve learned that death arrives 

noiselessly, hovering

in the bowels of a missile,

 

that the clamor means

you are alive and someone else is dying. 

You note the bleakness of your own heart 

wanting to live in spite of this.

 

“When the Sky Is No Longer” from Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha.
Published by University of Akron Press April 02, 2024.
Copyright © 2024 by Lena Khalf Tuffaha.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

 https://poems.com/poem/when-the-sky-is-no-longer/#featured-poet

 [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]

Every Palestinian's Impossible Choices

 

Art by Rami Jubran - Nurturing Life #Palestine

Art by Rami Jubran - Nurturing Life #Palestine