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| turathiceramics The Key of Return 🗝️ Symbol of Hope, Freedom, and Resilience: The Key of Return Unlocks Palestine's Promised Future 🇵🇸 ❤️ |
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
The Key of Return 🗝️ Symbol of Hope, Freedom, and Resilience: The Key of Return Unlocks Palestine's Promised Future 🇵🇸 ❤️
Once upon a time, not terribly long ago... Miss Palestine with her two Runners-Up: Beauty in a peaceful country (Palestine) before 1947
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At that time: Miss Palestine with her two Runners-Up Beauty in a peaceful country (Palestine) before 1947! Very fashionable and Unafraid! الجمال في بلد مسالم (فلسطين) قبل عام 1947! الأزياء الأنيقة والجمال الطبيعي بعيدا عن الخوف والرعب من أرشيف جريدة المهاجر . " From the archives of Al-Mohajer newspaper. |
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Thanks lovely Rima Isam Anantawi |
Israel Officially Banned the Palestine Flag from 1967 to1993 (Occupation to Oslo) ... WATERMELONS
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| Artworks using these four colors were banned by Israeli law in the 1980s. This ban ended in 1993. |
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| Early 1900's photo of watermelon vendors in #Gaza #Palestine! |
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Watermelon market outside Jaffa Gate at the base of the Citadel walls, #Jerusalem, #Palestine...Circa 1900's     |
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| Protest for Palestine |
After Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, it banned the Palestinian flag, which was lifted after the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993. They are routinely confiscated by the Israeli police.[5] Israel's restriction on the Palestinian flag were criticized by Amnesty International as an attempt to legitimize racism, adding that the Palestinian flag has been used for the past decades as "a symbol of unity and resistance to Israel’s unlawful occupation".
The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has appeared in the wake of Israel's restrictions of Palestinian flags.
,%20a%20Palestinian-Jordanian%20artist%20in%20England,%20depicts%20a%20slice%20of%20watermelon%20on%20a%20Hebron%20plate.%20.jpg) |
| Beesan Arafat (@beesanarafat on Instagram), a Palestinian-Jordanian artist in England, depicts a slice of watermelon on a Hebron plate. |
The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol has come as a response to Israel's confiscation of Palestinian flags.
Some people have a country they live in. We have a country that
lives within us. This collection of essays is a journey into the heart
and soul of a Palestinian who shares personal stories, reflections, and
feelings about Palestine and the diaspora. Through these writings, you
will discover a country that is not just a place on a map but a living
presence in the minds and hearts of its people. A SEED IN THE FRUIT OF PALESTINE ESSAYS BY MIKE ODETALLA
Thanks Mike!
Israel is banning Al Jazeera, America is banning TikTok. We know why: What the two laws have in common is desire to silence Israel-Gaza war critics.
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| ‘The TikTok law, like the Al Jazeera one, isn’t limited to its initial target.’ Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA |
The White House rightly said it was “concerning” when Israel’s parliament laid the groundwork to shut down Al Jazeera within its borders in April. On Sunday, Israel made its move. The Foreign Press Association called it a “dark day for democracy”.
If the White House remains concerned, it has a strange way of showing it. Joe Biden and his administration have supported and encouraged recent censorial laws and court cases that virtually ensure that “dark days” are ahead at home as well.
The best-known example is the bill Biden signed into law last month to ban or force a sale of TikTok. Like Israel’s Al Jazeera ban, that law relies on unsubstantiated assertions of national security concerns, ignoring Justice Hugo Black’s prescient warning in the Pentagon papers case that “the word ‘security’ is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the first amendment”.
Another thing the two laws have in common is that it’s an open secret that those concerns are pretexts for silencing the growing backlash against the Israel-Gaza war. Senator Mitt Romney essentially acknowledged as much in a recent conversation with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state. He wasn’t the first to say the quiet part out loud.
The TikTok law, like the Al Jazeera one, isn’t limited to its initial target. It opens the door for future bans of other platforms – including foreign-controlled online news outlets... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/07/israel-al-jazeera-us-tiktok-ban[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]
Monday, May 6, 2024
‘Man Number 4’ by Selma Dabbagh in the London Review of Books
6 May 2024
‘Man Number 4’
Selma Dabbagh
Last November, I wrote of waiting for the grey ticks to double up and go blue when sending WhatsApp messages to my friend Ghassan Abu Sittah, who in October had narrowly missed being killed in the bombing of al-Ahli Arab and al-Shifa Hospitals in Gaza, where he had travelled from London to work as a surgeon. He survived and was inaugurated as the rector of Glasgow University, with 80 per cent of the student vote, on 11 April. He has set up a fund for Palestinian children, planning ‘for the day after’, and is speaking tirelessly to the media and audiences across the world.
In the past, his work on child injuries has led to his collaborating with Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has written on the ‘unchilding’ of Palestinian children, a process she describes as ‘the authorised eviction of children from childhood’. On 18 April, Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s home in the Old City of Jerusalem was raided without warning, her documents confiscated. According to her family,
During her interrogation and detention, the officers subjected the 64-year-old to ill-treatment and practices that amount to forms of torture: she was strip-searched, yelled and cursed at, and thrown in a cold, isolated and urine-smelling cell infested with cockroaches; the cell was kept illuminated throughout the night with bright, buzzing lights to prevent her from sleeping; and for some of the time her hands and feet were shackled.
Last Friday, Ghassan addressed the encampment of students at University College London who are demanding scholarships for students from Gaza and that UCL cut its ties with arms companies and Tel Aviv University.
On Saturday morning, I was facing another single grey tick. My messages were not being received by Ghassan, who was not back in Gaza but at an airport in Paris. He was due to speak to the French Senate but was denied entry to France. He is a British citizen. He was told that the German government had prohibited him from entering any Schengen country for a year. ‘It was the real deal, with a holding cell and armed escort,’ ... READ MORE https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/may/man-number-4[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]
There is ‘nowhere safe to go’ for the 600,000 children of Rafah, warns UNICEF
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06 May 2024
NEW YORK, 06 MAY 2024 – With the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip continuing to deteriorate, UNICEF is warning that a military besiegement and ground incursion in Rafah would pose catastrophic risks to the 600,000 children currently taking shelter in the enclave.
Following October evacuation orders to move to the south, it is estimated that there are now about 1.2 million people sheltering in Rafah, once home to about 250,000 people. As a result, Rafah (20,000 people per km2) is almost twice as densely populated as New York City (11,300 people per km2), and about half the population is children, many of whom have been displaced multiple times and are sheltering in tents or informal and unstable housing.
Given the high concentration of children in Rafah – including many who are highly vulnerable and at the edge of survival – as well as the likely intensity of the violence, with potential evacuation corridors likely mined or littered with unexploded ordnance; and shelter and services in areas for relocation very likely to be limited – UNICEF is warning of a further catastrophe for children, with military operations resulting in very high civilian casualties and the few remaining basic services and infrastructure they need to survive being totally destroyed.
“More than 200 days of war have taken an unimaginable toll on the lives of children,” said Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director. “Rafah is now a city of children, who have nowhere safe to go in Gaza. If large scale military operations start, not only will children be at risk from the violence, but also from chaos and panic, and at a time where their physical and mental states are already weakened.”
Compared to adults, children are especially vulnerable to the devastating impacts of the war in the Gaza Strip. They are being disproportionately killed and injured, and suffering more acutely from disruptions to healthcare and education and a lack of access to sufficient food and water. Already, more than 14,000 children have been reportedly killed in this current conflict, according to the latest estimate by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of children in Rafah are estimated to have a disability, medical condition or other vulnerability that puts them in even greater jeopardy from the looming military operations in the city:
- about 65,000 children are estimated to have a pre-existing disability, including difficulties seeing, hearing, walking, understanding, and learning.
- about 78,000 children are infants under 2 years of age;
- almost 8,000 children under 2 years of age are acutely malnourished;
- about 175,000 children under 5 years of age – or 9 in 10 – are affected by one or more infectious diseases;
- almost all children are already in need of mental health and psychosocial support.
Many of these vulnerabilities are not mutually exclusive, meaning that the same child could be both injured and sick, or malnourished and an infant.
“Hundreds of thousands of children who are now cramped into Rafah are injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities,” said Russell. “Many have been displaced multiple times, and have lost homes, parents and loved ones. They need to be protected along with the remaining services that they rely on, including medical facilities and shelter.”
UNICEF reiterates the call of the Interagency Standing Committee for Israel ‘to fulfil its legal obligation, under international humanitarian and human rights law, to provide food and medical supplies and facilitate aid operations, and on the world’s leaders to prevent an even worse catastrophe from happening.’
Underscoring the special vulnerabilities of children, UNICEF is also calling for:
- An immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire. The immediate release of hostages, and an end to any grave violations against all children.
- The protection of civilians and the infrastructure that supports their basic needs, such as hospitals and shelters, from attack and military use;
- Continued protection of children and their families if they are unable or unwilling to move following an evacuation order - people should be allowed to move freely to safer areas, but they should never be forced to do so.
- Safe and consistent access for humanitarian organisations and personnel to reach children and their families with life-saving aid, wherever they are in the Gaza Strip.
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Note to editor:
The data point on children with disabilities is based on results from the 2019-2020 Palestinian Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). This is the latest available MICS survey for the Gaza Strip and does not reflect any changes of this indicator that might have occurred since; nevertheless it represents a valid lower bound of the incidence of children with disability.
Media contacts
Americans should not be helping racist Israel maim, wound and kill the children of Palestine.
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| 2024 Student Protests |
America has been unfairly siding with Jews-preferred Israel instead of standing up for the rule of fair and just laws- real security - and true democracy.
Israel aggressively persecutes and impoverishes the native non-Jewish people of historic Palestine over and over and over, for almost a century now, pushing Palestinian individuals and families into forced displacement and crowded refugee camps.
Meanwhile, here in America we frown on prayer in our public schools,
while at the same time our taxes, as well as charity donations,
generously fund Israel's religious "scholars" and schemes... American
politicians should not be legislating Israel's official taxpayer funded
religion, nor should our elected officials be helping racist Israel
maim, wound and kill the children of Palestine.
Holocaust
Remembrance & "Never Again" need to be for everyone's sake- a fully
inclusive plea, and a historically accurate call to remember all
who suffered and died in the Nazi Holocaust including blacks, gays,
disabled people, Poles, Roma
"Gypsies", and political prisoners, to name a few.
Furthermore "Never Again" has to be about firmly condemning ongoing crimes against humanity today, not just yesterday.
Israel's monstrous Apartheid Wall needs to fall.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes
Biden recently tweeted: "This Holocaust Remembrance Day, we mourn the six million Jews who were killed by the Nazis during one of the darkest chapters in human history. And we recommit to heeding the lessons of the Shoah and realizing the responsibility of “Never Again.” "
"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
Gaza's Christians face subdued Easter Sunday amid Israel's bombs: With Israel's war continuing to rage in Gaza, Christians in the strip face sombre Easter Sunday ceremonies, with festivities curtailed.
Merry Orthodox Easter to all my friends who celebrate. May you next celebrate your holidays in a Free Palestine.
A Rose Shoulders Up- poem fragment by Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha, gracefully illustrated by Hannah Maguire
Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha: "I miss my books. I miss the sea. I miss Gaza. Ceasefire Now!!"
Hind Rajab was six years old when she was killed in Gaza. So why did a CNN host refer to her as ‘a woman’?... "It’s not just CNN, of course. There is a long history (one that stretches back way before October 7) of mainstream media outlets dehumanizing Palestinians. "
'Our unwavering determination to return one day': Displaced Palestinians keep hold of keys to Gaza homes like their Nakba ancestors: Palestinians displaced by Israel's war on Gaza are holding on to keys from their damaged or destroyed houses as a symbol of one day returning to their homeland.
4 Palestinian female journalists detained in Israel jails
‘World powers allowing Israel to keep killing Gaza journalists to hide war crimes’
At Harvard Yard, students advocating for Palestine installed an artistic display above the statue of George, featuring Mark 84 bombs. These missiles, measuring 13 feet in length and weighing 2,000 pounds, are supplied by the U.S. to Israel.
6 days before the 2nd anniversary of Israel's killing of correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh: Israel to shut down local offices and broadcasrs of Al Jazeera in Ar & En, seize equipment used for its broadcasts; & limit access to its websites
Razia Iqbal: I teach democracy at Princeton. Student protesters are getting an education like no other- Students across the US are forging bonds in the face of brutal power structures. You might say they’ve already won
Academic freedom and free speech are essential. Universities must protect them. - ACLU's Open Letter to College and University Presidents on Student Protests
Which is worse, Israel’s lies about Gaza or its western backers who repeat those lies? ... Useful idiots keep parroting provably false Israeli talking points. Mehdi Hasan in The Guardian
No Freedom Without Free Press #WorldPressFreedomDay - Last week another Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, taking the death toll to 142 media personnel since October 7, 2023
Irish Artists For Palestine- Beautiful Resistance 9th May 2024 Dublin & Shine on Palestine: The Alternative Eurovision May 10th 2024
Our hearts are with the many Palestinian communities who have been forced to flee their homes, traditions, and livelihoods in the rural West Bank due to escalating Israeli settler and military violence.
Teachers for Palestine #LetsTalkAboutPalestine ... 29th April-10th May 2024
Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign IPSC - Flight of Return Kites for Palestine 2024
Hereford Palestine Solidarity Campaign 2024 for Gaza
"The Zionist is not the Jew, The time before Zionism in Palestine, When people lived together in peace and harmony, Jews, Samaritans, Christians, Muslims, Druze, Baha’i, and many others of these spiritual and religious in Palestine, Who lived together for many centuries, before colonialism arrived to our land,, Zionism is not Judaism"
Universal Echo poem by Anne Selden Annab from 2008 "Every time you unlock any door any where any one you are Al-Awda. Any time you fit a key into any ignition of any vehicle you are Al-Awda. Any time you write a poem (or a grocery list)..."
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Factsheet on Palestinian Refugees: THE RIGHT TO RETURN, A BASIC RIGHT STILL DENIED*
Historical Maps of PALESTINE (or the) HOLY LAND
GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA #artagainstapartheid Free Palestine!
Part of Israel's nefarious Ethnic Cleansing campaign is stealing the story- pressuring newspapers and politicians worldwide to favor "The Jewish State" above and beyond all else. Israel Uber Alis.
"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
Arresting students and banning Tiktok will not stifle the truth about Israeli crimes against humanity.
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
Israel has failed to provide evidence of Unrwa staff terrorist links: report
Israel has dropped almost 75,000 bombs and shells on Gaza in 200 days, twenty times more than the US aimed at Iraq in six years of war. It’s not war. It’s genocide.
There are enough weapons of war and destruction already on planet earth.
Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?
The UN Mediator for Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, believed that the Palestinians displaced had a right to return to their homes and wrote several UN reports to that effect.
"It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries."
Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group Lehi, a Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang
Gaza's Christians face subdued Easter Sunday amid Israel's bombs: With Israel's war continuing to rage in Gaza, Christians in the strip face sombre Easter Sunday ceremonies, with festivities curtailed.
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Gaza's Orthodox Christians gather at the Church of Saint
Porphyrius, which has been targeted by Israeli airstrikes before [Getty]
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Celebrations were limited to around 100 Christian families at the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where they were confined to prayers and religious rituals without any of the typical festivities, Imad al-Sayegh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gaza Churches Union, told the Anadolu Agency.
Al-Sayegh, who, along with other Christian families, sought refuge at the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City's eastern district, noted that this year's Easter ceremonies were markedly different due to Israel’s devastating war on the territory.
“The sadness pervades the atmosphere inside the church, as it does outside, leaving no room for joy and celebration amidst the immense destruction, continuous shelling, and casualties,” he said.
The Sacred Holy Fire is traditionally transported from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in occupied Jerusalem to churches regionally and globally amid festive celebrations. However, this year Israel did not permit the entry of the Holy Fire into Gaza's churches.
Gaza is home to around 1,200 Christians, most of whom are Orthodox, out of a total population of approximately 2.3 million people.
Dozens of Christians are among the more than 34,600 Palestinians killed by Israel since 7 October. The war has also displaced over 1.7 million people, with many finding refuge in shelters, including churches targeted by Israel..
This includes the Church of Saint Porphyrius, one of the world’s oldest active churches, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike on October 19. At least 17 Palestinian Christians were killed among at least 600 people taking shelter at the church.
On 13 December, a Christian mother and daughter were shot dead by an Israeli sniper in front of the Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic parish. Hundreds of people, both Christian and Muslim, were living in that church as well.
A few days later on 17 December, Israeli airstrikes hit the Young Men’s Christian Association in central Gaza, where 300 displaced people were sheltered, killing six people.
https://www.newarab.com/news/gazas-christians-face-subdued-easter-amid-israels-bombs
[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]
Sunday, May 5, 2024
Merry Orthodox Easter to all my friends who celebrate. May you next celebrate your holidays in a Free Palestine.
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| Merry Orthodox Easter to all my friends who celebrate. May you next celebrate your holidays in a Free Palestine. |
A Rose Shoulders Up- poem fragment by Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha, gracefully illustrated by Hannah Maguire
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| Illustrated by Hannah Maguire |
Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha: "I miss my books. I miss the sea. I miss Gaza. Ceasefire Now!!"
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Palestinian Poet Mosab Abu Toha "I miss my books. I miss the sea. I miss Gaza. Ceasefire Now!!" |
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