Friday, April 7, 2023
Israel's System of Silencing- stifling the facts & any real hope for true peace and justice in The Holy Land
Warnings of Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa were ignored. Why?
"The decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been largely a
political one, even though the Zionist movement has used religion to
advance its claims of a divine right to the land of Palestine. But, as
far as the international community was concerned, Israel was acting as a
democratic civilized country that believed in the right of worship and
respected humanitarian law. Efforts by Palestinians, Israelis and
international NGOs to expose this lie went unnoticed until hundreds of
thousands of Israeli Jews demonstrated in opposition to what they
perceived as undemocratic moves even against fellow (largely secular)
Jewish Israelis." Daoud Kuttab
Warnings of Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa were ignored. Why?
As Always please go to the original link and read the article in full
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
My letter published in my local newspaper "I agree with Daoud Kuttab’s clear headed warning" PennLive letters
I agree with Daoud Kuttab’s clear headed warning
I agree with Daoud Kuttab’s clear headed warning | PennLive letters
Regarding Daoud Kuttab’s clear headed warning “When hatred replaces hope, how can there be peace in Israel?” in the Sunday March 26, 2023 news. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s expansionist map reaching far beyond the Jordan River across all of Jordan and into parts of Lebanon and Syria really should be a wake up call to American supporters and politicians.
In 1948, after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust the world came together to create the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the “foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Tragically, Israel has been violating the basic human rights of the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine since 1948 by systematically impoverishing and displacing the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine.
Zionism is a state-sponsored project shaping freedom, rights, jobs, investments, and housing projects for Zionist Jews. Zionism clearly inspires and rewards religious extremism on every side. This situation is insane and wrong ... and very dangerous!
We should be funding real freedom and democracy and jobs here in America, and we should be collectively investing in freedom of and from religion: Respect and compassion for all God’s children, no matter what their names.
Anne Selden Annab, Mechanicsburg Pa.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
1839 Palestine: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem print by David Roberts
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| 1839 Palestine: Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem print by David Roberts |
Land Day Palestine is not a commemoration of a past tragedy, it is a commemoration of something ongoing and present tense.
The Land Day is not a commemoration of a past tragedy, rather a commemoration of something ongoing and present tense. Out of all the loot, the land remains indisputably, the most valuable.
#landday #land_day #culture #traditionalart #digitalart #digitaldrawing #digitalartist #paintings #thobe #roots
#رمضان #رمضان_كريم #رمضان_يجمعنا #رمضانيات#poet #poetry ##ramadan #ramadankareem #ramadanmubarak #ramadandecorations #illustration #procreate #art #artist
| Land Day | |
|---|---|
 Land Day poster | |
| Observed by | Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories |
| Date | March 30 |
| Next time | March 30, 2024 |
| Frequency | Annual |
Land Day (Arabic: يوم الأرض, Yawm al-ʾArḍ; Hebrew: יוֹם הַאֲדָמָה, Yom HaAdama), March 30, is a day of commemoration for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians of the events of that date in 1976 in Israel.
In 1976, in response to the Israeli government's announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of dunams of land for state purposes, a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Negev.[1][2] In the ensuing confrontations with the Israeli army and police, six unarmed[3] Arab citizens were killed, about one hundred were wounded, and hundreds of others arrested.[2][4][5][6]
Scholarship on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict recognizes Land Day as a pivotal event in the struggle over land and in the relationship of Arab citizens to the Israeli state and body politic. It is significant in that it was the first time since 1948 that Arabs in Israel organized a response to Israeli policies as a Palestinian national collective.[1] An important annual day of commemoration in the Palestinian national political calendar ever since, it is marked not only by Arab citizens of Israel, but also by Palestinians all over the world.[7]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Day
Friday, March 24, 2023
PODIUM MAPS 2023: Jordan's response to racist Israeli politician Bezalel Smotrich's Paris podium map of “Greater Israel” that includes modern-day Jordan
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| This is Zionism: Israeli politician Bezalel Smotrich's podium 2023 |
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| Jordan's response after Smotrich spoke from a podium in Paris carrying a map of Israel that includes all of the Jordan kingdom's borders and the occupied Palestinian territories, where Smotrich claimed: "There is no Palestinian history or culture, and there is no such thing as the Palestinian people." |
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Ramadan Memories By Mike Odetalla #Palestine #Community #Respect #BeitHanina
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Lifta - لفتا: One Of Many From Lifta's Homes Still Stand As A Truth Witness. Palestine Remembered |
By Mike Odetalla
The holy month of Ramadan is once again upon us, and its fasting. Muslims will fast from sun-up till sun down, abstaining from food, water, and intimate relationships.
Each year around this time, my memories of Ramadan in our small village of Beit Hanina, a suburb of Jerusalem which was still without electricity, whereby people carried lanterns to light their way in the darkness as they went first to the mosque and from there to visit friends and family: a special part of Ramadan, are once again rekindled.
Beit Hanina had a drummer, charged with the pre-dawn task of awakening the village to sahoor, the light meal whose end marked the beginning of each day’s fast. Closing my eyes and thinking real hard, still brings back the sound of Beit Hanina’s drummer banging away, and the delightful memories of joining the other children, carrying our decorated fanoosia lanterns with candles burning brightly inside them, as we ran along behind the drummer, singing, laughing and shouting to help awaken the sleeping adults and start them on sahoor and their new day. How I admired the drummer; how I wanted his job and to share his fun.
In Ramadan 1979, my first visit back to Palestine since the ’67 expulsion, my cousin and I, both 18 and living in the US, finally became the Ramadan drummers of Beit Hanina. The Israeli invasion of 1967 and the subsequent occupation made the drummers’ job very high risk and today they are scarce: Ramadan drummers were often stopped, even beaten, and some have been killed by the Israeli occupying army.
By 1979, the village had not enjoyed a drummer in 5 years, so my cousin and I delighted in our job of walking through the village each morning banging away on large tin cans. It must have been a very humorous sight: the elderly were happy to hear us; the younger people thought we were a great joke and made fun of the ‘bored Americans’. But everyone agreed that we had renewed some “life” that had been lost as we broke through the dark still nights of Ramadan. For me, however briefly, I was transported back to a happy childhood whose memories had never left me for a moment.
I still remember sitting by the family’s transistor radio with my siblings listening to the special programs as we awaited the “cannon” to go off, signaling that it was time to break our fast. The “cannon” was a World War I era English relic and merely made a loud bang, which was all that it, was good for.
Ever since my children were very small, I had regaled them with the many stories of my childhood in Palestine, enjoying the look of fascination on their faces as they implored me to tell them yet “another story of when you were young in Palestine”…
This past summer, I took my children to visit the grave of my grandmother which is located on a hillside cemetery off of Salah Eddin Street in the Old City. The cemetery is actually located inside the boundaries of the Palestinian village of Lifta which was ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian inhabitants, which included my wife’s family, by the Zionists in 1948. Many people, including my grandmother and her family members are buried there, although now it is considered part of Jerusalem.
As we made our way through the cemetery gates and up the hill so that we could read Al-Fatiha, which is the opening verse of the Quran at her graveside, I noticed a an old rusty cannon sitting on the top of the hill, virtually buried beneath the overgrown weeds. I decided to head up the hill and take a closer look. Much to my surprise, the cannon was an exact copy of the very same cannon that I had remembered as a youth. I called my children up the hill and showed them the cannon, surmising that the cannon was used to alert the residents of Jerusalem when to break their fast before the city fell under Zionist control.
During Ramadan, my mother would always invite friends and relatives to our home to break the fast with us. As Muslims, we are obligated to share breaking our fast with others, especially those less fortunate than us. It is considered a blessing to do so. It is something that we continue to do here in America as we invite friends and loved ones to share in our blessing on this Holy Month, the essence of which are a time of prayer, fasting, and charity.
Some of the best memories that I carry with me are connected to the month of Ramadan in Palestine when I was a child. The closeness and feeling of “community” that I felt during those times is something that is almost beyond description. The sound of the drummer, the Muezzin call to prayer, the static emanating from the transistor radio, the “boom” of the cannon, the enticing aroma of the special foods that we only ate during Ramadan, the sight of families huddled together on a mat covered floor around the evening meals, illuminated by the flickering light of a kerosene lantern, enjoying their meals, as humble as it may have been, in the company of family and loved ones…
These are my memories of Ramadan before the Israeli invasion and subsequent brutal and inhumane occupation which has destroyed many families and communities and is now in the process of causing further havoc as Israel continues to erect its Apartheid Walls, checkpoints, and roadblocks which have reduced many Palestinian villages and cities to nothing more than walled off ghettos and open air prisons.
Unfortunately, these will constitute the next generation of Palestinian children’s memories and experiences…
Mike Odetalla 2003-2105 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Olive Grove (حقل زيتون), oil on canvas, 2012- painting by Sliman Mansour
,%20oil%20on%20canvas,%202012-%20Sliman%20Mansour%20.jpg) |
| Olive Grove (حقل زيتون), oil on canvas, 2012- Sliman Mansour |
Monday, March 6, 2023
Training for peace, progress, and respect for all human beings, regardless of race or religion, does not require urban warfare tactics. #CopCity #America #Israel #Palestine
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| United Nations 2023 |
I heard on the TV news of the violence- the protest about "Cop City" down in Atlanta Georgia, and I did not understand who or why. So I searched online for information, and found that the beginning was all about a park and forest land being demolished to make way for a massive training center for police.
I do respect our police, but I do not support America becoming a
Police State, with those already in power doing all they can to gain and
keep more power.
Furthermore public parks and nature reserves should not be usurped by
local, state or federal governments here in America to further
militarize our police.
This situation sounds so much like Israel as Israel freely usurps
Palestinian land, training Zionist soldiers and testing weapons and
tactics on the Palestinians in the illegally occupied territories, and
then demonizing any and all who dare protest.
I searched for more information on the people behind "Cop City" to
see if Israel was connected to this project. First thing I find is a
polished piece of propaganda that points to major American corporations
that I won't name because I think that article is a misdirecting
smokescreen created to protect Israel.
Criticize Israel's state sponsored terrorism and you get wrongly
accused of being an anti-Semitic. That accusation silences many people,
stifling an honest and helpful conversation, thereby allowing
corruption and cruelty to flourish in racist Israel, and here in America
as well.
Training for peace, progress, and respect for all human beings (regardless of race or religion) does not require urban warfare tactics.
Protests about police violence in our cities include the plea for
money to be spent on the people's needs. The only way to stop
the violence in our cities is with crucial social programs and
investments so that all Americans have a better chance to find decent
jobs and create good lives for themselves.
I did find one article from 2021 "Israel and the militarization of Atlanta's police" pointing out that Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange "has been exchanging technology, homeland security policies, and community policing tactics with the IPF through the GILEE program"
https://georgiastatesignal.com/israel-and-the-militarization-of-atlantas-police/
That information should be front and center with all news coverage
concerning this situation, not buried away where few see it, because
that very foreign county called Israel really does have undue influence
over our elected leaders, our media, our technology (Pegasus) and now
our police.
This is a very scary situation. Our democracy is in danger of imploding thanks to the influence of Israel.
International law and basic human rights should matter, so should the people of Atlanta.
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"Out of the approx 35 people arrested at the #StopCopCity music festival last night, 22 are still being held and charged with "domestic terrorism," per the DeKalb County jail records website. Yet none are charged with violence, arson or the police claims #CopCity " |
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