# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
About the Workshop

Title: Palestine 101 - Debunking Myths Related to the Question of Palestine

Date: Monday, September 13th from 7-8pm (mark your calendar)

Workshop Description:

This workshop, titled Palestine 101, will overview Palestinian culture, resilience,

and everyday life. The workshop will begin with an overview of Palestinian history, from

9,000 BCE to the events of the first Nakba and a discussion of the mandate years, the first and second intifadas, and contemporary Palestine-Israel. This workshop will also describe the blockade, military assaults on the Gaza Strip, incidents of police brutality, the Israeli West Bank Barrier, also known as the Wall, and the experiences of Palestinians throughout historic Palestine, from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.

This workshop is open to all members of the community, including but not limited to graduate students, professors, staff, teachers, and undergraduate students. It should also be noted that the workshop will be conducted in English.

This workshop will be recorded for archival purposes. However, the recording will not be streamed or made available otherwise. Furthermore, the recording will only include the speaker and the facilitators of the EGSC and TCC Collective.
Speaker Bio

Jasmine Hawamdeh is a proud Palestinian living on the Dish with One Spoon territory, currently known as Scarborough, Toronto. She is an independent artist and communications specialist. Jasmine currently works at the Canadian Arab Institute as the Manger of Communications and Operations where she engages with community members to articulate the perspective of Arabs in Canada. You can connect with Jasmine through her website or on various social media platforms.

Registration

To register, we recommend using a professional email address (e.g., uOttawa) that has an account associtated with Zoom. You can register here:

You will receive a confirmation email once one of the co-organizers approves the registration.

Please also note the following before joining:

The workshop requires authentication to join, so you must use the email you registered with to sign-into the Zoom meeting

For uOttawa members, refer to Zoom in Virtual Campus instructions

For school board members, refer to your school board's instructions on this

If it helps, please save the date in your calendar (we will send a reminder an hour before we start)

If you have any questions before the workshop, please reach out to egsc.uottawa@gmail.com.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Title: Palestine 101 - Debunking Myths Related to the Question of Palestine Date: Monday, September 13th from 7-8pm (mark your calendar) Workshop Description: This workshop, titled Palestine 101, will overview Palestinian culture, resilience, and everyday life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
🧵Seeing a lot of interest in a "Palestine reading list." I wrote this one for an interested colleague last year and thought it might be helpful to some with the huge caveat that this is not comprehensive and no list can ever be (some titles trimmed for space) (1/x):

First, some foundational classics (a lot has changed since these came out, but still applicable and valuable):
1. The Question of Palestine- Edward Said
2. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine- Ilan Pappe
3. The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development- Sara Roy

Newer books, but will likely be classics:
1. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine- Rashid Khalidi
2. Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine-@4noura
3. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement- Angela Davis

Others with a unique viewpoint:
1. The Only Language They Understand-@NathanThrall
2. The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine-@BenEhrenreich
3. Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance-@TareqBaconi

4. Blind Spot: America & the Palestinians- @elgindy_
5. Except for Palestine-@marclamonthill & @MJPlitnick
6. Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced- Rochelle Davis
7. Refugees of the Revolution: Experiences of Palestinian Exile- Diana Allan

Some fiction:
1. Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Folktales- Ibrahim Muhawi & Sharif Kanaana
2. Salt Houses-@HalaNAlyan
3. Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba-@BasmaGhalayini
4. Mornings in Jenin-@sjabulhawa
5. The Book of Disappearance- Ibitisam Azem

And I couldn't let you go without some cookbooks:
1. Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Mother's Kitchen-@palestinesplate
2. The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey-@gazamom
3. Craving Palestine: A Cookbook (a fundraising compilation)

And dozens more. Pick a few, read them, challenge yourself, challenge others. Anyone who claims they're the ultimate expert on this topic is wrong. I still learn more all the time, and I hope I never stop learning. Additional must-reads that I missed, feel free to comment below!

* * *

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Thread by @Yara_M_Asi on Thread Reader App

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
🧵Seeing a lot of interest in a "Palestine reading list." I wrote this one for an interested colleague last year and thought it might be helpful to some with the huge caveat that this is not comprehensive and no list can ever be (some titles trimmed for space) (1/x): First, some foundational classics (a lot has changed since these came out, but still applicable and valuable): 1.

# data[].attributes.body
These are materials from any sessions we have put forth. The materials are usually uploaded a day or two after the session.

# data[].attributes.body
An Education Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Together, we're a national coalition of undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, and campus activists united in support for Palestinian equal rights and liberation.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Modern History of Islamophobia Starts in Israel and Ends in France

# data[].attributes.subject
The Modern History of Islamophobia Starts in Israel and Ends in France

# data[].attributes.body
Opinion Piece

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As an activist against Islamophobia, I have been characterized by pundits and commentators on the right, along with some on the left, as a "terrorist sympathizer," "ISIS propagandist," and card-carrying member of what the Islamophobia Industry has dubbed the "regressive left." But these labels and smears speak less about my activism and more about the pervasiveness and stubbornness of anti-Muslim animus in Western societies today.

The recent and ongoing crackdown against more than six million Muslims in France by the French government and the counter protests from liberals, academics, journalists, and those committed to the country's motto - Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, Fraternity) - have sparked the birth of a new denigrating term: "Islamo-leftism."

Emmanuel Macron, a career long center-left politician, has grabbed onto Islamophobic discourse and policies that unfairly discriminate against Muslims to stave off a likely political challenge from Marine Le Penn and her virulently anti-Muslim, far-right party - National Rally.

If you're at all familiar with Macron's discriminatory policies, such as the recent ban on Muslim women's headscarves, then you will know that those who stand against the government and in defense of France's secular democratic ideals are being tarred as "Islamo-leftists" to insinuate they are sympathetic to violent Islamic extremists and thus a threat to national security.

"We cannot escape the conclusion that this term ['Islamo-Leftism'] is used as a shield behind which people hide their overtly anti-Muslim sentiments."

"We cannot escape the conclusion that this term ['Islamo-Leftism'] is used as a shield behind which people hide their overtly anti-Muslim sentiments, and one that uses fear to distract from a growing movement to curtail human rights," writes Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal academic.

What's interesting, or rather alarming, about France is the way in which a number of intellectuals and long-time opponents of Islamophobic discourse on the left have switched sides and joined those on the right to voice their opposition to so-called "Islamo-leftism."

Individuals taking part in this trend include Frédérique Vidal, the French Minister of Higher Education and Research, and French philosopher Pascal Bruckner, who claims do-gooder leftists are using Islamophobia as a " weapon of mass intimidation," meant to silence criticism of Islam. "There are already more than enough forms of racism; there is no need to imagine more," he writes.

We've heard iterations of this well-worn trope before-i.e., "Islam isn't a race, so Islamophobia can't be a form of racism," so the argument goes.

Yet, social researchers and academics have not only determined Islamophobia to be a form of racism but also have settled on a definition, describing it as "an exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes resulting in bias, discrimination, and the marginalization and exclusion of Muslims from social, political, and civic life."

Islamophobia not only encourages acts of violence against Muslims, with the FBI documenting more than 3,500 hate crimes against Muslim Americans in the years spanning 2001 to 2017, but also produces negative outcomes for Muslims, or those perceived to be Muslim, in terms of access to employment, housing, healthcare, and education.
[Historical Wounds of the Crusades: France and the Charlie Hebdo Caricatures (Part 1 of 2)] [Historical Wounds: Why France Stands Out as a Terrorism Hotspot (Part 2 of 2)] [Can Arab Countries Condemn France's Islamophobia with a Straight Face?]
Islamophobia operates to portray Muslims as monolithic, separate, inferior, manipulative, hostile to Western values and democracy, and prone to terrorism. In the modern era, it's terrorism in particular that has given Islamophobia its distinct features.

It's easy to imagine Islamophobia was born in the ashes of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but the origins of the effort to tie Islam to terrorism in Western discourse trace back to the 1979 Conference on International Terrorism held in Jerusalem, Israel. Convened by US neoconservatives and right-wing Israelis, then-US Vice Presidential candidate George H. Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were among the dignitaries at the meeting, according to Professor Deepa Kumar, author of " Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire. "

The overarching goal of the conference was to have right-wing parties in Israel and the US singing from the same song sheet when it comes to speaking about Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation. More specifically, this meant labelling Palestinian liberation efforts as acts of "terrorism," but as Kumar notes, the conference did not emphasize ties between Islam and terrorism, only the Palestinian people.

Five years later, however, at a follow-up conference held in Washington, DC, the effort to tie terrorism to Islamic radicalism was formed. Bernard Lewis, the American intellectual in attendance, argued Islam to be a "political religion," and thus because terrorism is an act of political violence, the term "Islamic terrorism" applies.

From Europe to Asia and even to the Middle East, Muslims have become the number one referent object in national security discourse across the globe.

Osama Bin Laden's attacks on US embassies in Africa and New York in the late 1990s, followed by the events of 9/11 helped seal the connection between Islam and terrorism in American minds. The emergence of ISIS perpetuated that idea in the minds of millions of others around the world as well. Thus, from Europe to Asia and even to the Middle East, Muslims have become the number one referent object in national security discourse across the globe.

It has become the go-to discourse for every authoritarian regime seeking to control or put down a restive or disgruntled Muslim population, with China using it to justify its genocide against Uighur Muslims; Myanmar in its genocide against the Rohingya; India in its crackdown against Muslims in Kashmir and Assam; and Arab governments in their effort to crush Islamist political parties and pro-democracy protesters.

This brings us back to France, where the government has banned Islamic dress and shut down Islamic centers, charities, and schools - all in the name of national security. Indeed, France's ongoing anti-Muslim policies reveal that Western and Israeli efforts to tie Islam to terrorism have been successful and can continue to serve as a guise for Islamophobic practices around the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Modern History of Islamophobia Starts in Israel and Ends in France

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As an activist against Islamophobia, I have been characterized by pundits and commentators on the right, along with some on the left, as a "terrorist sympathizer," "ISIS propagandist," and card-carrying member of what the Islamophobia Industry has dubbed the "regressive left."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Email #2: Canada Needs To Do More To Stop The Violence and Evictions of Palestinians

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After you took action, the Canadian Government has now commented on the ongoing illegal mass expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, and has raised concerns about violations of international law.

# data[].attributes.body
A progressive policy on Palestine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A progressive policy on Palestine

Palestinian and Jewish activists and allies called on the New Democratic Party of Canada to adopt a more progressive policy for peace and justice for Palestine at its National Convention held on April 9 to 11, 2021. We are thrilled to announce that 80% of NDP Convention delegates voted in support of the Palestine Resolution.

We wish to express our thanks and gratitude to all who supported the Palestine Resolution. This motion represents real, concrete action on human rights for Palestinians and makes the NDP not only a leader in Canada but a leader on the world stage.

The Palestine Resolution makes it an official policy of the NDP to fight for:
1. An end to Canada's support for illegal settlements; and 2. Suspending the flow of weapons to and from Israel until Palestinians are free
The Palestine Resolution (now NDP policy) adopts the recommendations of the Canadian Labour Congress, Amnesty International and countless other human rights groups and leaders who have observed and bore witness to the Palestinian struggle.

We invite all New Democrats, and Canadians, to continue to advance the cause of a more progressive policy for peace and justice for Palestine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Palestinian and Jewish activists and allies called on the New Democratic Party of Canada to adopt a more progressive policy for peace and justice for Palestine at its National Convention held on April 9 to 11, 2021. We are thrilled to announce that 80% of NDP Convention delegates voted in support of the Palestine Resolution.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
December 12, 2020

Jews across the globe applaud statement by Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals

PROTEST BANNER IN LONDON, 2018. (PHOTO: JEWISH VOICE FOR LABOUR (UK) VIA THE PALESTINE POSTER PROJECT ARCHIVES)

We, Jewish groups and individuals from across the globe, applaud the recent powerful statement and set of principles signed by 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals regarding the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the way this definition has been applied, interpreted and deployed.

As the letter states so compellingly: " The fight against antisemitism should not be turned into a stratagem to delegitimise the fight against the oppression of the Palestinians, the denial of their rights and the continued occupation of their land."
It avers: "Antisemitism must be debunked and combated. Regardless of pretense, no expression of hatred for Jews as Jews should be tolerated anywhere in the world. We also believe that the lessons of the Holocaust as well as those of other genocides of modern times must be part of the education of new generations against all forms of racial prejudice and hatred."

And it also makes clear: "The fight against antisemitism must be deployed within the frame of international law and human rights. It should be part and parcel of the fight against all forms of racism and xenophobia, including Islamophobia, and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. The aim of this struggle is to guarantee freedom and emancipation for all oppressed groups. It is deeply distorted when geared towards the defence of an oppressive and predatory state."

See the full statement from Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals here.

Signatories:

Anya Topolski Een Andere Joodse Stem, Another Jewish Voice, Belgium

Hilla Dayan Academia for Equality, The Netherlands

Wieland Hoban Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost Germany

Dror Feiler European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP) Sweden

Dr. Itamar Shachar Belgium / Israel

Ofer Neiman, Boycott from Within Israel

Donna Nevel, Jews Say No! USA

Alan Rückert Z. Chile

Sheryl Nestel, Independent Jewish Voices Canada Canada

David Comedi, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-Argentina Argentina

Marilyn Garson, Sh'ma Koleinu - Alternative Jewish Voices New Zealand

Vivienne Porzsolt, Jews against the Occupation Australia

Rina King, South African Jews for a Free Palestine SAJFP South Africa

Ronnie Kasrils South Africa

Liliana Cordova-Kaczerginski, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Spain

Alejandro Ruetter, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Spain

Guy Bollag Switzerland

Richard Wagman, UJFP (French Jewish Peace Union) France

Eyal France

Corey Balsam, Independent Jewish Voices Canada

Rowan Gaudet, Independent Jewish Voices Canada

Itay Sapir, Université du Québec à Montréal Canada

sue goldstein, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network Canada

Haim Bresheeth, Jewish Network for Palestine UK

David Cannon, Jewish Network for Palestine UK

Mike Cushman ,Free Speech on Israel UK

Leah Levane, Jewish Voice for Labour UK

Michael Kalmanovitz, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network-UK UK

Rob Ferguson, Steering Cttee Free Speech on Israel & SocialistWorkers Party UK

Rachel Lever, Labour Party UK

Dorothy M. Zellner, Jews Say No! USA

Stefanie Fox, Jewish Voice for Peace USA

Lesley Williams Jewish Voice for Peace, USA

Ivan Strasburg, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (ATSE) USA

Rachel Giora, Boycott From Within Israel

Anat Matar, Tel Aviv University Israel

Haley Firkser Israel

Shir Hever, Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in NaHost. e.V. Germany

The Board A Different Jewish Voice, Amsterdam Netherlands

Michal Sapir Israel

Rebecca Vilkomerson United States

Ofra Ben Artzi Israel

Dr Les Levidow UK

Angie Mindel UK

Yehuda Aharon Australia

Heather Mendick UK

Angie Mindel UK

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead UK

Sue Rabkin South Africa

Motti Shimoni USA

Mike Simons United Kingdom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
December 12, 2020 Jews across the globe applaud statement by Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals We, Jewish groups and individuals from across the globe, applaud the recent powerful statement and set of principles signed by 122 Palestinian and Arab academics, journalists, and intellectuals regarding the definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the way this definition has been applied, interpreted and deployed.

# data[].attributes.body
A Resource from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
No front page content has been created yet. Visualizing Palestine 101 is a data-led visual resource and educational hub for people learning and teaching about Palestine See the Visuals Testimonials

# data[].attributes.body
These books are complied from @danielmcgreevy instagram page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.

Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle."

Angela Y. Davis is a political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on Black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine. She is the author of several books, including Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is the subject of the acclaimed documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners and is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

One of America's most provocative public intellectuals, Dr. Cornel West has been a champion for racial justice since childhood. His writing, speaking, and teaching weave together the traditions of the black Baptist Church, progressive politics, and jazz. The New York Times has praised his "ferocious moral vision." His many books include Race Matters, Democracy Matters, and his autobiography, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud.

Frank Barat is a human rights activist and author. He was the coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine and is now the president of the Palestine Legal Action Network. His books include Gaza in Crisis and Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation.

"Angela Davis new book made me think of what Dear Nelson Mandela kept reminding us, that we must be willing to embrace that long walk to freedom. Understanding what it takes to really be free, to have no fear, is the first and most important step one has to make before undertaking this journey. Angela is the living proof that this arduous challenge can also be an exhilarating and beautiful one." —Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Whether you've grown up with the courage and conscience of Angela Davis, or are discovering her for the first time, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle is a small book that will be a huge help in daily life and action, from exposing the "prison industrial complex" that she named long ago to understanding that leaders are only leaders if they empower others. She herself exposes facts and makes connections, but also leads in the most important way–by example." —Gloria Steinem

"This is vintage Angela: insightful, curious, observant, and brilliant, asking and answering questions about events in this new century that look surprisingly similar to the last century." —Mumia Abu-Jamal

"Here is someone worthy of the Ancestors who delivered her. Angela Davis has stood her ground on every issue important to the health of our people and the planet. It is impossible to read her words or hear her voice and not be moved to comprehension and gratitude for our incredible luck in having her with us." —Alice Walker

"Angela Davis once again offers us an incisive, urgent, and comprehensive understanding of systematic racism, the grounds for intersectional analysis and solidarity, and the importance of working together as equals to unmask and depose systems of injustice. This wide-ranging and brilliant set of essays includes a trenchant analysis of police violence against people of color, of the systematic incarceration of black people in America, the grounds of Palestinian solidarity for the Left, the affirmation of transgender inclusion, and the necessity of opposing the G4S corporation and its high-profit empire dedicated to the institutionalization of racism in the name of security. These essays take us back in history to the founders of revolutionary and anti-racist struggle, but they also take us toward the possibility of ongoing intersectional solidarity and struggle. Angela Davis gathers in her lucid words our luminous history and the most promising future of freedom." —Judith Butler

"She has eyes in the back of our head. With her we can survive and resist." —John Berger

"In this latest text of her magisterial corpus, Angela Davis puts forward her brilliant analyses and resilient witness here and abroad. In a clear and concise manner, she embodies and enacts "intersectionality" – a structural intellectual and political response to the dynamics of violence, White Supremacy, patriarchy, state power, capitalist markets, and imperial policies." —Dr. Cornel West, from the Foreword

Watch the full video of our event with Ruth Wilson Gilmore on Covid-19, Decarceration, and Abolition, hosted by Naomi Murakawa. Gilmore's new Haymarket book Change Everything: Racial Capitalism and the Case for Abolition, will be released in February, 2021.
Continue Reading

Take 50% OFF all Haymarket Books through Tuesday, January 2nd! Get a FREE Ebook bundled with every book purchase! Get FREE Shipping on orders over $25 inside the US.
Continue Reading

Other books edited by Frank Barat, by Angela Y. Davis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"In Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, editors Sumaya Awad and brian bean introduce both the Question of Palestine as well as socialist principles-topics that have each produced volumes of scholarly literature-to new audiences. They accomplish this tremendous feat with moral clarity and analytical rigor. The volume provides the reader with an internationalist framework, defined as a commitment to anti-imperialism, and uses it to place Palestine into local, regional, and global historical context. The book connects the past to our present and, despite the daunting odds before us, sustains a commitment to a socialist future where all of us are free because all of us are free." -Noura Erakat, author of Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine

"A crucial reminder that Israel's settler-colonial project is not merely a historical event that we can move past, but an ongoing reality backed by successive western administrations. In moments where those who fight for freedom and equality triumph in their local battles around the world, we (Palestinians) see this as part of the victory in our battle for freedom in Palestine. Only through the strengthening of our civil society, of trade unions and workers, can we build our struggle against occupation and pressure Israel until it ends its project of colonialism and racial segregation. This volume lays bare just that." -Ahmed Abu Artema, Palestinian journalist and peace activist

"The Vietnam war was once a line in the sand. Protests against the war radicalized a generation, built a new Left, and taught it why imperialism was indispensable for capitalism. Palestine is the Vietnam of our times. This urgent book will offer a new generation of activists lessons on why, to fight capitalism and apartheid today, we need to fight like Palestinians." -Tithi Bhattacharya, co-author of Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto

"This collection is a poignant and incisive engagement with the past, and possible future, role of the Left in the struggle for justice in Palestine. From critical analysis of organizational matters to the very complex issues of gender and secularism, this book is a must read for anyone whose socialism has brought them to care and act on behalf of Palestine and the Palestinians. As a Left, we are at a crucial juncture of strategic contemplation in general and on Palestine in particular. This book offers ways forward that can re-energize the Left as a robust alliance of identification and solidarity for the sake of the liberation of Palestine as well as that of all the oppressed workers and peoples around the globe." -Ilan Pappé, author of Ten Myths About Israel

"Ten powerful essays, meticulously woven together by Sumaya Awad and brian bean, combine rich political history with incisive analysis of the current conjuncture and struggle. The book provides an entry-point for new activists to understand a conflict whose history has been so deliberately obfuscated, alongside a rich well of analysis on complex political questions. Awad and bean's book should be widely read, and its socialist, bottom up vision of transformation acted upon." -Hadas Thier, author of A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics

"The contributions within this book not only offer an understanding of Palestinian realities, they also provide insight into themes such as Diaspora and the search for belonging, and reflect the voices of all those who wish to return home in dignity, justice, and freedom. In essence it is a book which outlines a roadmap for return, with nuance and an offer to go beyond acknowledging the injustice in order to do something about it." -Mariam Barghouti, Palestinian American writer

"This collection of essays is an essential contribution to the socialist perspective on the issue of Palestinian liberation. Its authors share a valuable overarching insight: that for socialists the fight for Palestinian individual and national rights is not a mere object of abstract solidarity, but must be approached within the context of the international struggle against imperialism and for socialism." -Moshé Machover, author of Israelis and Palestinians: Conflict and Resolution

"A Palestine primer for the growing socialist movement, and an argument for socialism for the growing Palestine solidarity movement, this book is a valuable resource for building the type of US left that the world desperately needs." -Danny Katch, author of Socialism...Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation

"The truth is simple: Palestinian people deserve the right to self-determination. But to get to that truth, you need to understand the history and politics of their struggle. This book is a tremendous roadmap to get to that truth." -Dave Zirin, author of A People's History of Sports in the United States

"Essential reading for anybody interested in understanding the past, present, and future of the Palestinian liberation struggle." -Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers' Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction systematically tackles a number of important aspects of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, contextualizing it in an increasingly polarized world and offering a socialist perspective on how full liberation can be won. Through an internationalist, anti-imperialist lens, this book explores the links between the struggle for freedom in the United States and that in Palestine, and beyond.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Palestinian "Nakba" ("catastrophe" in Arabic) refers to the mass expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from British Mandate Palestine during Israel's creation.

# data[].attributes.body
Petition by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
NCCM - National Council of Canadian Muslims

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Tell the Federal Government to do more as after the attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Over the last week, the United Nations reaffirmed that international humanitarian law applied in occupied East Jerusalem and that Israel's actions to evict and dispossess Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah could amount to war crimes.

The videos and photos emerging from Jerusalem are absolutely clear. With impunity, Israeli forces violated the internationally recognized sanctity of the Al Aqsa Mosque, one of the most sacred sites for Muslims worldwide. They attacked Palestinian worshippers as they prayed peacefully.

This egregious assault during Ramadan by Israeli forces on one of the most inviolable sites for Muslims, and their flagrant violation of the human rights of Palestinians under international law, must be continuously categorically condemned.
YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Sign this petition!

This petition is to continue to demand that the Government of Canada takes all diplomatic steps to end the conflict.

After you have signed it, SHARE IT with your friends, families, and your co-workers. The more support we have for this petition, the greater the difference we can make.

YOU CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

Share this petition!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sign this Petition to Tell the Federal Government to Help End the Attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
101,291 have signed. Let's get it to 120,000 Tell the Federal Government to do more as after the attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Over the last week, the United Nations reaffirmed that international humanitarian law applied in occupied East Jerusalem and that Israel's actions to evict and dispossess Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah ...

# data[].attributes.headline
Angela Davis on Black liberation and Palestinian solidarity

# data[].attributes.subject
Angela Davis on Black liberation and Palestinian solidarity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Angela Davis on Black liberation and Palestinian solidarity

# data[].attributes.headline
For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women

# data[].attributes.subject
For a Free Palestine: Films by Palestinian Women

# data[].attributes.body
Another Gaze/Another Screen

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.text
From this eve! Films by Basma Alsharif, Mai Masri, Mona Benyamin, Emily Jacir, Jumana Manna, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lokman Slim/Monika Borgmann, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, Pary El-Qalqili, Layaly Badr + more! Free worldwide with subtitle selection https://t.co/pJynaXEOsZ

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.entities.urls[].title
Another Screen: A free streaming platform from 'Another Gaze'

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.entities.urls[].description
Now playing: Autour de Jeanne Dielman (1975). Coming soon: 'The Practice of Disobedience'

# data[].attributes.wish_content.attachment_props.original_text
From this eve! Films by Basma Alsharif, Mai Masri, Mona Benyamin, Emily Jacir, Jumana Manna, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lokman Slim/Monika Borgmann, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, Pary El-Qalqili, Layaly Badr + more! Free worldwide with subtitle selection https://t.co/pJynaXEOsZ https://t.co/eyrIBg2eBl

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
From this eve! Films by Basma Alsharif, Mai Masri, Mona Benyamin, Emily Jacir, Jumana Manna, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lokman Slim/Monika Borgmann, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, Pary El-Qalqili, Layaly Badr + more! Free worldwide with subtitle selection https://t.co/pJynaXEOsZ https://t.co/eyrIBg2eBl

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.entities.urls[].description
A solidarity and fundraising programme comprising over twenty Iranian films

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
From this eve! Films by Basma Alsharif, Mai Masri, Mona Benyamin, Emily Jacir, Jumana Manna, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lokman Slim/Monika Borgmann, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, Pary El-Qalqili, Layaly Badr + more! Free worldwide with subtitle selection https://t.co/pJynaXEOsZ https://t.co/eyrIBg2eBl

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
From this eve! Films by Basma Alsharif, Mai Masri, Mona Benyamin, Emily Jacir, Jumana Manna, Rosalind Nashashibi, Lokman Slim/Monika Borgmann, Razan AlSalah, Mahasen Nasser-Eldin, Pary El-Qalqili, Layaly Badr + more! Free worldwide with subtitle selection https://t.co/pJynaXEOsZ

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.entities.urls[].description
A solidarity and fundraising programme comprising over twenty Iranian films

# data[].attributes.headline
Sorry, Anti-Zionism Still Doesn’t Equal Antisemitism

# data[].attributes.subject
Sorry, Anti-Zionism Still Doesn’t Equal Antisemitism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Facebook is on the brink of deciding whether to formally classify criticism of Israel and Zionism as hate speech. This comes a year after Donald Trump signed an executive order endorsing the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in all investigations conducted by US federal agencies into Title VI claims. The executive order, like the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, is part of an attempt to enshrine the IHRA definition into law. The definition cites eleven examples of antisemitism, seven of which refer explicitly to criticizing Israel.

As leading figures of the Palestine movement have pointed out, this conflation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism is a blatant attempt to intimidate, persecute, and ultimately silence the Palestinian rights movement in the United States and around the world. It is built on the false assumption that Zionism is synonymous with Judaism, and that Israel's seventy-three-year occupation of Palestine is a religious movement, not a settler-colonial project propped up by geopolitical conditions and imperial alliances.

Zionism was born out of nineteenth-century European imperialism. Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau, the founders of Zionism, sought to resolve the sharp rise of antisemitism and the increasingly impoverished state of Jews in Europe, not by confronting the reactionary and racist ideas gaining influence at the time, but by advocating a separate ethno-Jewish state. Their proposal relied on two assumptions: that antisemitism was a permanent fixture in society, and that the only way to gain respect and autonomy was to convince imperial powers of the utility of a Jewish colonial outpost in the Middle East.

Herzl, Nordau, and later the World Zionist Organization had no illusions about the brutality it would take to replace the indigenous population. In fact, Herzl's writings reveal that from the outset the plan was to colonize an already-populated land with the help of imperial powers. Herzl targeted Britain, though he also courted the German kaiser, the Russian tzar, and even the Ottoman sultan (to whom Herzl offered help in covering up the Hamidian massacres of 1894-96 in exchange for authority over Palestine). Vladimir Jabotinsky, one of the founders of the Zionist movement, wrote in 1923:

Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot - or else I am through with playing at colonization.

Zionism, then, should be understood in light of the reality it vigorously defends: settler-colonialism and the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948.

To this day Israel favors Jewish citizens and denies most Palestinians the right to vote, purchase land, build homes, and enjoy equal employment opportunities, freedom of movement, or access to medical care. Dozens of statutes enshrine these inequalities in law. The result isn't just an undemocratic society - it's an apartheid state.

Although Herzl envisioned a European-style monarchy in Palestine, large sections of the Zionist movement sought to integrate Zionism and socialism. They created ostensibly egalitarian institutions like the Kibbutz (Jewish collectives) and promoted the idea that Zionism was a left-wing movement.

But this was always a contradictory enterprise, because Zionism necessitates Jewish exclusivity. In Russia, the Workers of Zion actively organized against non-Jewish workers in labor actions. In Palestine, the Histadrut, founded in 1920 as a Jewish-only labor union, fought to replace Arab workers with Jewish workers in factories and on farms. Zionist workers organizations openly espoused reactionary politics.

The Kibbutzim were complicit in the plan to Judaize the land. They built Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land, using force to repel any Palestinian attempts to reclaim it. The Kibbutzim also played a central role in the Haganah and Irgun, the Jewish militias that carried out massacres and ethnic cleansing campaigns in Palestine in the 1940s. They are the predecessors of the expanding network of illegal settlements sprinkled across the occupied West Bank today.

In 1969, David Hacohen, member of the Israeli Labor Party, described what Zionist socialism meant in practice:

I had to fight my friends on the issue of Jewish socialism, to defend the fact that I would not accept Arabs in my trade union, the Histadrut; to defend preaching to housewives that they not buy at Arab stores; to defend the fact that we stood guard at orchards to prevent Arab workers from getting jobs there.... To pour kerosene on Arab tomatoes, to attack Jewish housewives in the markets and smash the Arab eggs they had bought.

Many Jewish organizations and radicals dating back to the days of Herzl opposed Zionism as a political ideology as well as its claim to speak for all Jewish people. As early as 1910, Karl Kautsky, a prominent Jewish Marxist theorist, wrote extensively about the reality of Zionist colonization in Palestine.

On the basis of the right of labor and of democratic self-determination, today Palestine does not belong to the Jews of Vienna, London, or New York, who claim it for Judaism, but to the Arabs of the same country, the great majority of the population.

Zionism's colonial character helps explain why its leaders, past and present, have aligned with far-right and violently antisemitic figures: from Nazis in the 1930s to Viktor Orbán or Jair Bolsonaro today. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not an anomaly. His far-right, violent, expansionist agenda is exactly what Israel has advanced from the start.

Meanwhile, cynical claims of antisemitism are being used to attack the most basic forms of solidarity and organizing. In the United States, 217 bills designed to curb the speech of Palestinian rights activists have been introduced at the state level; 23 percent have passed. If the IHRA definition becomes the law of land, it would mean a simple statement like "Israel is an apartheid state" would be considered antisemitic, a violation of hate speech policies, and in some cases constitute a hate crime.

These measures intentionally distort what the Palestinian rights movement is calling for: holding a state and political movement accountable for their ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Antisemitism has nothing do with it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Sorry, Anti-Zionism Still Doesn't Equal Antisemitism

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Facebook is on the brink of deciding whether to formally classify criticism of Israel and Zionism as hate speech. This comes a year after Donald Trump signed an executive order endorsing the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in all investigations conducted by US federal agencies into Title VI claims. The executive order, like the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, is part of an attempt to enshrine the IHRA definition into law.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This book is all about Gaza, where those Palestinians live. You've heard all this woebegone Palestinian stuff before, too many times. What a benighted people they are, either victims or terrorists, that's all they ever seem to be, and this big book reinforces that stereotype on every page. It's about Joe Sacco's quixotic one-man research mission into two atrocities committed by Israeli armed forces in 1956 - oh yeah, very worthy. Joe was offended that these two massacres had been simply beneath ...more

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This book is all about Gaza, where those Palestinians live. You've heard all this woebegone Palestinian stuff before, too many times. What a benighted people they are, either victims or terrorists, that's all they ever seem to be, and this big book reinforces that stereotype on every page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Winner of the 2019 Palestine Book Awards, sponsored by the Middle East Monitor (MEMO).

Bronze Medal in the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) - Current Events I (Political/Economic/Foreign Affairs) category, sponsored by the Independent Publisher Book Awards.

Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip. The Oslo Accord's two-state solution is now dead letter.

Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures-from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza-Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable.

Law is politics, and its meaning and application depend on the political intervention of states and people alike. Within the law, change is possible. International law can serve the cause of freedom when it is mobilized in support of a political movement. Presenting the promise and risk of international law, Justice for Some calls for renewed action and attention to the Question of Palestine.

About the author

Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason University. She has served as legal counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives and as a legal advocate for Palestinian refugee rights at the United Nations. Noura's research interests include human rights and humanitarian, refugee, and national security law. She is a frequent commentator, with recent appearances on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NPR, among others, and her writings have been widely published in the national media and academic journals.

"Noura Erakat's incisive exploration of the role of law in shaping the development of Israel/Palestine reveals the consistent genuflection of international legal institutions to Israel's reliance on well-established colonial practices. She also forcefully argues that the skillful use of international law as a tool of struggle can be generative of hope and possibility-for Palestine and the world. Justice for Some is precisely the book we need at this time."

-Angela Y. Davis, author of Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

"A radical rethinking of the role of law and legal advocacy in the struggle for Palestinian rights. Noura Erakat tells how a refugee problem became a national liberation movement, and the tragic story of how initiative and momentum were squandered after Oslo. Brilliant, inspiring, coldly realistic-and hopeful."

-Duncan Kennedy, Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence Emeritus, Harvard Law School

"Without any doubt, Justice for Some is the best book on the law and politics of the Palestine/Israel struggle-sophisticated, learned, humane, and creative. Noura Erakat makes a profound contribution to our general understanding of the paradoxical role of law in the contemporary world."

-Richard Falk, Former UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, author of Palestine's Horizon: Toward a Just Peace

"Anyone wondering how and why international law has failed so miserably to curb Israeli violations in Palestine and the deleterious effect this has had on the law itself should read this book. Noura Erakat communicates...with the skill of a lawyer and the passion of an activist. Justice for Some is both enriching and inspiring."

-Raja Shehadeh, founder of Al-Haq, author of Where the Line Is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships, and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel-Palestine

"Through a brilliant and bracing analysis of the Palestine question and settler colonialism, Noura Erakat offers a compelling story of how the antinomies of structure and indeterminacy shaped international law and its possibilities. Justice for Some is a vital lens into movement lawyering on the international plane. At once tragic and inspiring, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in decolonization and the politics of international law."

-Vasuki Nesiah, New York University, founding member of Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL)

"Noura Erakat brings a sophisticated understanding of the role of international law over the last century in the Question of Palestine. This brilliant book will be of great interest to anyone seeking to understand why the outcome, thus far, to the disposition of the Palestine problem has not been a just one."

-Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017

"Erakat's dissection of these legal and political histories is careful and captivating....This book asks that the Palestinian liberation struggle and Jewish-Israeli society each reckon with the impossibility of a two-state future, reimagining what their interests are-and what they could become. In rejecting the zero-sum formula's inevitability, Erakat sees, and demands, an alternative."

-Amanda McCaffrey, Jewish Currents

"[A] major scholarly contribution to the critical literature devoted to resolving the Israel/Palestine struggle in line with the dictates of justice....[I] urge a careful reading of Justice for Some by all those interested in the Palestinian struggle as well as those curious about the way law works for and against human wellbeing."

-Richard Falk, Mondoweiss

"[Erakat] meticulously reveals how Israel ignored international law, the laws of war, duties of an occupying power, and efforts brought through the United Nations to censure its actions....The book will interest those concerned with the law and ethics of war, international law, terrorism laws, and observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its treatment by international bodies. Highly recommended."

-S. Zuhur, Choice

"Erakat's detailed analysis paints a dismal reality, yet it is one that must be acknowledged and worked from. Her meticulous discussion on the inherent injustice in international law propels attention towards what so far remains overlooked and calls the reader to reflect upon action that veers away from what the international community keeps demanding of Palestinians."

-Ramona Wadi, Middle East Monitor

"That international law is not an effective starting point for achieving justice in Palestine is a vital insight for leftists developing a progressive foreign policy. Justice for Some makes clear that winning Palestinian freedom will require confronting the geopolitical power structure that gives international law its meaning."

-Gunar Olsen, Jacobin

"Noura Erakat eloquently shows that, yes, the Israeli state project has been consolidated and expanded on a platform of might making right since 1948-but not only that. Israeli governments have also actively sought to craft legal justifications for the conquest and colonisation of territory, and to harness international law in their favour....[Erakat] has written a book that is a story of Palestine but is also a story of international law itself. Some of its most important insights are more universal than specific. They are major conceptual contributions with value well beyond the immediate case study."

-John Reynolds, Dublin Review of Books

"Erakat's critical perspective on international law and the focus on how Palestinians have used it to support their cause is a much-needed addition to the international law literature on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict....This is a book brimming with acute insights that deserves the widest possible readership."

-Markus Gunneflo, Journal of Conflict and Security Law

" Justice for Some challenges the not infrequent characterization of efforts to resolve the struggle over Palestine as a dichotomy between law/politics, principle/pragmatism or an imposed/negotiated solution. As [Erakat's] incisive analysis points out, these binaries, while not completely inaccurate, are incomplete in that they mask Israel's skilled use of the law to advance its interests while overlooking the political reasons for shortcomings in the Palestinian leadership's use of law as a form of resistance."

-Terry Rempel, The Middle East Journal

"In this elegantly written and carefully argued book, Erakat strikes a delicate balance that makes an important contribution to the scholarly literature on both Palestine and critical international law....[Her] clear-eyed analysis is not only an excellent account of the law and politics of the Palestinian struggle but also a remarkable and often inspiring assessment of the relationship between law and liberation."

-Asla Bâli, Journal of Palestine Studies

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine - Noura Erakat

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Justice in the Question of Palestine is often framed as a question of law. Yet none of the Israel-Palestinian conflict's most vexing challenges have been resolved by judicial intervention. Occupation law has failed to stem Israel's settlement enterprise. Laws of war have permitted killing and destruction during Israel's military offensives in the Gaza Strip.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We and our partners use cookies to personalize your experience, to show you ads based on your interests, and for measurement and analytics purposes. By using our website and our services, you agree to our use of cookies as described in our Cookie Policy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Listen to This Is Palestine on Spotify. 'This Is Palestine' is a podcast that highlights people, issues and events around Palestine. We bring you stories from the ground in Palestine, and we speak with experts and activists to bring you unique perspectives and analysis about Palestine from across the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
From Turtle Island to Palestine: Lee Maracle

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Sign up to get the latest updates

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East

Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) 580 Sainte-Croix Ave, Suite 060, Montreal, QC, H4L 3X5.
©2007-2017 CJPME

Sign in with Facebook, Twitter or email.

Created with NationBuilder

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CJPME's mission is to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada. When evaluating circumstances and events in the Middle East CJPME believes that all positions should respect international law, that all parties in conflict must be held to the same standard and that violence is not a solution.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Our "Gaza Relief and Recovery" campaign aims to address urgent humanitarian needs and support long-term recovery efforts in Gaza. The funds raised will primarily focus on immediate relief, including providing essential medical supplies, food, medical treatment, clean water, and other necessities for families affected by the conflict. Additionally, our campaign will support rebuilding healthcare facilities and providing long-term support through impactful programs and projects to support the needs of children and the health sector in Gaza. It will also allocate resources towards trauma counseling, mental health support, and other initiatives for children affected by the conflict, aiming to foster healing and resilience within the community.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Palestine Children's Relief Fund was established in 1992 by concerned humanitarians in the USA to bring injured and sick children for free medical care they could not get locally

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Palestinian refugees are the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, the majority of whom were dispossessed, were forced to run away or were expelled when the state of Israel was created in 1948. This dispossession and expulsion has continued since with the second largest such event in Palestine taking place during the 1967 war, which Israel launched on its Arab neighbors and which resulted in the occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Palestinian refugees generally fall into three main groups: Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948, internally displaced Palestinians who remained within the areas that became the state of Israel, and Palestinian refugees displaced in 1967 from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. For the past 66 years, Israel has continued to deny Palestinian refugees their right to return to their ancenstral towns, villages and homes.
How did the Palestinian refugee problem arise?
The Palestinian refugee problem arose from a systematic policy of ethnic dispossession and elimination, the results of which are apparent in the Palestinian refugee camps and in the Palestinian Shatat (exile). These policies continue to this day.

Zionist policy sought to create an exclusive homeland for Jews in Palestine, a region that already had an indigenous population with a history stretching back thousands of years. The characterization of Palestine as "a land without a people for a people without a land" was a myth created to suggest that Palestine was waiting to be populated. Nothing was further from the truth and this has been evidenced by the atrocities of 1948 and since.
How did Israel expel Palestinians from their land?
Jewish terrorist groups such as Haganah, Irgun and Stern terrorized the Palestinian street, destroyed villages and slaughtered entire Palestinian families. Thirty four massacres were documented by Zionist historian Benny Morris to have occured within a few months: Al-Abbasiyya, Beit Daras, Bir Al-Saba', Al-Kabri, Haifa, Qisarya. These attacks were part of Plan Dalet and aimed to annihilate the Palestinian population. Approxiamtely 50% of all Palestinian villages were destroyed in 1948 and many cities were cleared from their Palestinian population including Akka, Bir Al-Saba', Bisan, Lod, Al-Majdal, Nazareth, Haifa, Tabaria, Yaffa, and West-Jerusalem among others.

Israeli forces killed an estimated 13,000 Palestinians and forcibly evicted 737,166 Palestinians from their homes and land. Five hundred and thirty one Palestinian villages were entirely depopulated and destroyed.

The tragedy of the refugees continued in 1967. That year, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and many Palestinians were uprooted for the second time. The refugees found shelter in surrounding countries including Jordan, Syria and Egypt.
How many Palestinian refugees are there today?
Palestinians are the largest and longest suffering group of refugees in the world. One in three refugees world wide is Palestinian. There are about 7.2 million Palestinian refugees worldwide. More than 4.3 million Palestinian refugees and their descendents displaced in 1948 are registered for humanitarian assistance with the United Nations. Another 1.7 million Palestinian refugees and their descendents, also displaced in 1948, are not registered with the UN. About 355,000 Palestinians and their descendents are internally displaced i.e. inside present-day "Israel". When the West Bank and Gaza Strip were occupied in 1967, the UN reported that approximately 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes. These 1967 refugees and their descendants today number about 834,000 persons. As a result of house demolition, revocation of residency rights and construction of illegal settlements on confiscated Palestinian owned-land, at least 57,000 Palestinians have become internally displaced in the occupied West Bank. This number includes 15,000 people so far displaced by the construction of Israel's Annexation Wall. Such dispossession of the Palestinian population continues today.
Where do Palestinian refugees reside today?
The majority of Palestinian refugees live not far from their homes of origin either in their own homeland or in neighboring countries. More than half the refugee population lives in Jordan. Approximately 37.7% live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, comprising about 50 percent of the population in those areas. About 15% live in almost equal numbers in Syria and Lebanon. About 355,000 internally displaced Palestinians reside in present-day Israel. The remaining refugee population lives throughout the world, including the rest of the Arab world. Of the 4.3 million refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), 33% live in UNRWA's 59 refugee camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
What are the basic rights of refugees?
According to international law, refugees have the right to return to their homes of origin, receive real property restitution, and compensation for losses and damages. The UN General Assembly set forth the framework for resolving the Palestinian refugee case in UN Resolution 194 (III) which provides: repatriation for those refugees "wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors," or compensation for those choosing not to return. On November 22, 1974, Resolution 3236 clarified the right to return as an "inalienable right". In Res. 302 (IV), the UN General Assembly created UNRWA and assigned the agency the task of caring for Palestinian refugees. UNRWA defined Palestinian refugees as persons who resided in Palestine two years prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1948 and who lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of that war.
Why are Palestinian refugees excluded from coverage under UNHCR's mandate?
When the UN adopted the Refugee Convention and established the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, it excluded those falling within the UNRWA mandate from coverage under UNHCR's mandate. In effect, this has meant that UNHCR does not concern itself with (or count) Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, or the West Bank and Gaza Strip, although the agency assists Palestinian refugees outside the UNRWA-mandate area. Although unintended, the effect has been that Palestinian refugees have enjoyed fewer protections than other refugees because UNRWA only has a mandate to provide Palestinian refugees with humanitarian assistance, and, unlike UNHCR, does not have a specific protection mandate.
Is something being done to rectify this exclusion?
Since the beginning of the last Palestinian uprising, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, and some independent refugee experts have argued that the fact that many Palestinian refugees lack effective protection should trigger the applicability of the UN Refugee Convention to Palestinians in the UNRWA mandate area. These organizations and individuals cite Article 1D of the Refugee Convention, which effectively states that whenever protection or assistance for Palestinian refugees has ceased for any reason before their situation is resolved in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, they shall "be entitled to the benefits of this Convention." Proponents of this view contend that UNHCR should have begun to exercise its protection mandate for Palestinian refugees long ago when it became clear that the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, which was concerned with protection for Palestinians, was unable to carry out its responsibilities.
Why have Palestinian refugees not returned to their homes?
The state of Israel refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to exercise their natural, legal and historic right to return citing three main arguments; first, that there is no space in Israel for the refugees to return, second, that the return of Palestinian refugees would threaten security and lead to conflict, and finally, that the return of the refugees would jeopardize the Jewish nature of the state. With regards to the first argument, recent research shows that 80% of the Jewish population of present-day 'Israel' resides on 15% of the land. The areas where Palestinian villages were demolished lie mainly uninhabited. Hence there is space. As for security concerns, Palestinian refugees broadly accept that exercising their right to return would not be based on the eviction of Jewish citizens but on the principles of equality and human rights. The final argument though is a testament to Israel's false claim that it is the only democracy in the Middle East. Israel is a democracy for Jews only, and this religion-based discrimination or oxymoron should not be confused with real democracy.
Is there a durable solution?
There can be no comprehensive solution without honoring the rights of Palestinian refugees. Three UN human rights treaty committees have found key aspects of Israel's nationality, citizenship, and land legislation which effectively bar Palestinian refugees from exercising their inalienable right to return to be incompatible with the rights codified in relevant human rights conventions. Israel's ongoing aggression against the Palestinian people and continued pursuit of population transfer are incompatibel with the quest for peace.

Sources:

Adapted from The Palestinian Dispossession - Frequently Asked Questions
May 15, 2003 By MIFTAH

Download FAQ's on Refugees ( 54K) (need acrobat? Download from Adobe.com)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Palestinian refugees are the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, the majority of whom were dispossessed, were forced to run away or were expelled when the state of Israel was created in 1948.

# data[].attributes.headline
It’s not a ‘conflict’: how to talk about Palestine

# data[].attributes.subject
It’s not a ‘conflict’: how to talk about Palestine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over the last month, Israel has inflicted its worst violence in years on Palestine, killing at least 119 Palestinians, including 31 children, and injuring hundreds more. Hostilities flared at the end of April following unnecessarily strict restrictions on gatherings during Ramadan, and after far-right Israeli's marched through the Old City chanting " death to Arabs ". Tensions were further fuelled after Israeli authorities attempted to forcibly dispossess dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, and give them to Israeli settler colonisers.

Although there has never been peace in Palestine - due to Israeli occupation and persistent ethnic cleansing - the recent flare up of violence and galling human rights abuses against the Palestinian people has attracted mass attention, with many beginning to question how we should talk about the crisis - both in everyday conversation and the media.

Here, drawing from interviews, information, and social media posts by Palestinians and human rights organisations, Dazed explains why the language you use is important, and outlines how to talk about the 70-year genocide of Palestinians.

DON'T CALL IT 'COMPLICATED'

Although the colonisation of Palestine seems black and white (and it is), many people will preface conversations about the crisis with a nod to how "complicated" of an issue it is. However, despite never seeming to offer an answer as to what exactly makes it "complicated", they often succeed in shutting down conversations about it - particularly among those who are still educating themselves and learning how to talk about it.

In an article addressing this, Decolonize Palestine summaries that "appeals to complexity have been historically employed in an attempt to defend the indefensible". It continues: "This arcanization serves to make Palestine exceptional, meaning that our normal judgement or morality goes out of the window; they do not apply here due to these special circumstances. Normally, it would be difficult to argue against the right of refugees to return to their homes, but in the case of Palestine, these are special refugees created under special circumstances."

The piece references a succinct quote by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, which reads: "The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story - hard to understand and even harder to solve... Israel succeeded, with the help of its allies everywhere, in building a multilayered explanation that is so complex that only Israel can understand it. Any interference from the outside world is immediately castigated as naïve at best or antisemitic at worst."

LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT

The language used to describe any event is vital in shaping how people perceive it (see: protest vs. riot). In this case, most media publications refer to what's happening between Israel and Palestine as a "conflict" - a word defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a serious disagreement or argument". As pointed out by non-profit The Slow Factory, "a conflict means there is equal footing, which is not the case" in Palestine. "What is happening is settler colonisation, military occupation, land theft, and ethnic cleansing," the group explained. "There is an active oppressor (Israel) and an oppressed (Palestine). A coloniser (Israel) and a colonised (Palestine)."

Framing the crisis as a "conflict" suggests that there are two sides to the violence, placing blame on Palestinians when they resist Israeli rule. In an article for , journalist Asia Khatun writes: "These language choices, be they irresponsible or just ignorant, reinforce the notion that this is a conflict in which both sides have the means to be equally as violent towards the other. But the fact of the matter is that Israel is one of the most militarised occupying nations in the world, backed with billions of dollars and weapons from the USA. The power dynamic that Western society at large believes to be in existence simply does not exist."

Palestinian writer Mohammed El-Kurd -whose family faces displacement - eloquently combatted "biased, inaccurate framing" in a recent interview with CNN. Immediately correcting the interviewer on her misleading language, El-Kurd said: "To start, it's not really an eviction, it's forced ethnic displacement. Because an eviction implies legal authority, while the Israeli occupation has no legitimate jurisdiction over the eastern parts of occupied Jerusalem under international law. It also implies the presence of a landlord, and certainly these Israeli settlers have not built our homes, they're not our landlords, they don't want our land. Thirdly, eviction does not imply the hundreds of heavily-armed police, army, and settlers colluding... and assaulting and arresting you if you resist."

Another illuminating moment comes at the end of that interview, when El-Kurd rebutts the question of whether he supports "the violent protests that have erupted in solidarity" with Palestinians. He responds: "Do you support the violent dispossession of me and my family?"

HOW TO DISCUSS ZIONISM

The way we talk about Zionism in the context of Israel and Palestine can also be contentious, partly because the term itself means different things to different people. "Yes, the base level definition of Zionism is just Jewish self-determination in our homeland, which is fine in itself," says TikToker Natalya (@hebrew_school_dropout), in a fluent explainer on the topic. "But the only way that Zionism has ever been applied on a large scale is political Zionism in Israel. When that scale is brutalising, oppressing, killing, and displacing people, we need to be OK with those people being against Zionism. It's not our place to say they shouldn't be."

"Zionism has a very different meaning and very different implications for Jews and Palestinians respectively," she adds in a subsequent video, noting that Jews can detach the term from its colonial meaning because they're taught that it predates the foundation of the state of Israel. "Palestinians cannot because the practice of political Zionism, and the practice of Zionism that they know, is only what the state of Israel has done to them."

This double meaning also makes the term "anti-Zionist" particularly controversial, notes 's Diyora Shadijanova: "For many Jewish people, it's the denial of self-determination, whereas for Palestinians, it's a resistance to oppressive Israeli occupation which 'Zionism' is used to justify."

"Whether you like it or not, Zionism has become pretty inherently connected to the political implementation of it," concludes Natalya, suggesting the topic requires a nuanced approach. "We can't be using the first ever, basic definition of Zionism as some kind of 'gotcha' when people are pointing out the issues behind Zionism and why the state of Israel is bad."

found this video on Zionism and how we talk about Zionism in the context of Israel and Palestine really nuanced and explanatory pic.twitter.com/2Sngpg9Xxv
- diyora (диёра) (@thediyora) May 11, 2021

HOW TO AVOID ISLAMOPHOBIA AND ANTISEMITISM

As youth education programme Solutions Not Sides says in a recent blog post: "Talking about what's happening in Israel and Palestine is vital... but we have to do it without falling back on antisemitic and anti-Muslim tropes and speech." The organisation outlines a list of things to be aware of before talking or writing about the crisis. These include: be clear when using labels, don't hold whole religious groups responsible for the decision of political leaders, don't demand that Jews or Muslims take a certain position on the issue, and don't assume that all Israelis or Palestinians support their governments.

HOW TO AMPLIFY PALESTINIAN VOICES

Over the many decades that Palestinians have been locked in cycles of violence and ongoing occupation, their voices have been disproportionately silenced across all forms of media. In 1984, the Palestinian American intellectual - and Orientalism author - Edward Said noted this absence, saying that Palestinians are denied " permission to narrate " their own experience.

Last year, Maha Nassar, a Palestinian American Associate Professor at the University of Arizona, conducted a study based on opinion articles in established publications over a 50-year period, beginning in 1970. Similarly, she found that Palestinians were often talked about - "often in condescending and even racist ways" - but that their voices weren't often represented.

Even now, when social media has supposedly democratised global discourse, Palestinians are facing censorship at the hands of tech companies, says a recent report. In the last few months alone, Zoom, Facebook, and YouTube have reportedly blocked an academic event featuring anti-apartheid activists, while Facebook has been called out for removing Palestinian posts and pages.

Nevertheless, there are several young Palestinian voices to follow for coverage - and raw, disturbing footage - of what's happening on the ground in Palestine, including London-based writer Ziad Qattan, and Gaza born and raised writer and Cambridge University student Tala Shurrab. Previously mentioned Mohammed El-Kurd is also actively working to break down mainstream Western coverage of Israel and Palestine.El-Kurd recently went viral for his direct and astute interviews from the ground in Palestine with US broadcasters CNN and NBC. Palestine Deep Dive also offers a fresh spotlight on the urgent journalism covering Palestine right now.

LIVE TODAY:

An emergency DeepDive hearing from young Palestinians on the frontline of Israel's brutal assaults across Palestine - from Jerusalem to Gaza.@MarkSeddon1962 is joined by @m7mdkurd, @Amanykhalefa & @Issam_Adwan
live 11am ET // 4pm UK https://t.co/y3C34NAPmb
- Palestine Deep Dive (@PDeepdive) May 12, 2021

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement is devoted to ending international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians, and pressuring Israel to comply with national law. On its website, the BDS National Committee (BNC) outlines five actions you can take to challenge the complicity of global governments and corporations, including boycotts, community mobilisation, and joining a solidarity group.

The grassroots activist group Sisters Uncut has also announced a solidarity protest in London this Saturday (May 15) at 12PM, which will see demonstrators march from the Colombian Embassy to the Israeli Embassy. If you're not in London, a list of more than 100 rallies held in cities across the world can be found here.

Donations, meanwhile, can help provide medical aid, food and clean water, and shelter for Palestinians when they need it most, as well as education for hundreds of thousands of refugee students. Funds can be donated via Medical Aid for Palestinians, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Muslim Aid, UNRWA's Gaza Crisis Appeal, Islamic Relief, Human Appeal, and Muslim Relief's Palestine Appeal.

If you can't afford to make a donation or attend a demonstration in person, you can also write to your MP to call for political action. The #SaveSheikhJarrah campaign, for example, calls for action against the forcible eviction of Palestinian families that have been living in east Jerusalem for generations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
It's not a 'conflict': how to talk about Palestine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Over the last month, Israel has inflicted its worst violence in years on Palestine, killing at least 119 Palestinians, including 31 children, and injuring hundreds more. Hostilities flared at the end of April following unnecessarily strict restrictions on gatherings during Ramadan, and after far-right Israeli's marched through the Old City chanting " death to Arabs ".

# data[].attributes.body
Petition by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stand with Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem!

If you're like us, you've been shocked and outraged to watch Israel's brutal assault on Gaza in recent days, not to mention its violence against Ramadan worshippers and Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah last week. Canada must condemn Israel's savagery and call Israel to account for its deadly violence against Palestinian civilians.

Israel's renewed violence comes only weeks after the international group Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report accusing Israel of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution! Join human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch, and tell Canadian political leaders, "Enough is enough!" Canada must insist on an end to Israel's crimes and brutality!
Use the fields below to send an email to the Prime Minister, your local MP, and other federal political leaders. Stand with Gaza and Jerusalem, end Apartheid in Israel!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you're like us, you've been shocked and outraged to watch Israel's brutal assault on Gaza in recent days, not to mention its violence against Ramadan worshippers and Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah last week. Canada must condemn Israel's brutality and call Israel to account for its deadly violence against Palestinian civilians.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Notes: Book reviews by Esraa Abukhadra and Jody Sokolower. This is a beginning list of books for students about Palestine and the Arab World. Please add to the list by sending reviews to jody@mecaforpeace.org. Be sure to include critical literacy perspectives and/or teaching ideas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to the Decolonize Palestine introductory articles section. Here you will find a basic historical overview of the Palestinian question, and Palestine 101 articles.

# data[].attributes.headline
A 101 Course to Understanding Israel’s Oppression of the Palestinian People

# data[].attributes.subject
A 101 Course to Understanding Israel’s Oppression of the Palestinian People

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A 101 Course to Understanding Israel's Oppression of the Palestinian People

Many people are held back from taking a stand on the issue of Palestine/Israel by the common misconception that it is "complicated." Here, we explain the steady continuation of the more than 100-year-old settler colonial project that is Zionism. Palestine 101: Not That Complicated can help folks both familiar and unfamiliar with the issue understand the ongoing process of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the legacy of Palestinian resistance to the colonization of their homeland. Make sure to explore the other tracks of the curriculum: Freedom Bound: Resisting Zionism and White Supremacy and Together We Rise.

The sections below offer an introduction to the different topic areas of the Palestinian issue. From the root of the problem (Zionism as a colonial project) to the topic of Palestinian political prisoners, you'll find resources, videos, and organizations to keep learning from.

Zionism is the political ideology behind establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine through the state of Israel and at the expense of the native Palestinian population. Early Zionist leaders understood that to manufacture a Jewish majority in Palestine, they would drive out the native Palestinian population and settle Jewish people in their place. This objective continues to guide Israeli policies, manifesting in ways that include a network of illegal Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, the siege of the Gaza Strip, the ongoing displacement of Bedouins in the Naqab inside Israel, and the ban on return for millions of Palestinian refugees.

Zionism is, and always has been, a settler-colonial project. We highlight this in the graphic series below, "Zionism is Colonialism: In Their Own Words." Israel commonly justifies its oppressive policies in the name of security, but these quotations from early Zionist leaders expose the reality of discrimination, dispossession, and exile of Palestinians necessary to have a Jewish state with an artificial Jewish majority in a land whose native population is not majority Jewish.

With this understanding, the common demand of Palestinians and others to recognize Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state can be understood as asserting Israel's perceived right to continue its oppressive policies that maintain its Jewish majority.

Learn more about Zionism, including how it impacts not only Palestinians but people across the world, by visiting the Freedom Bound: Resisting Zionism and White Supremacy section of the curriculum.
Keep Reading For the Visual Learner In Their Own Words

Israel's Military Occupation: A Matrix of Control

Since 1967, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have lived under a brutal Israeli military occupation, which is among the most visible forms of its settler colonialism and apartheid. This occupation has included Jewish-only, illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land; military checkpoints; thousands of Palestinians imprisoned and killed by the Israeli army; theft and restriction of natural resources, tens of thousands of home demolitions; and more than one million olive trees uprooted. Israel's actions since 1967 make clear that the occupation was never meant to be temporary. It is just the latest extension of Israel's ethnic cleansing and subjugation of Palestinians, which continues to this day.
Keep Reading For the Visual Learner

The Gaza Strip: Blockaded & Occupied

More than 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been living under a complete siege by Israel since 2007. This blockade of Gaza, which is enforced by both Israel and Egypt and backed by the US, denies Palestinians adequate food and potable water, makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians to receive medical treatment or travel abroad, and prevents Palestinians from operating power generating stations and sanitation systems at their needed capacities. In 2012, the UN released a report predicting that Gaza will be uninhabitable by 2020. In 2017, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities stated that the "unlivability threshold has been passed quite a long time ago."
Watch and Learn Keep Reading

Gaza Unlocked provides first-hand accounts from Palestinians living in Gaza, information about the blockade, and opportunities to make a difference. The website is run by member group American Friends Service Committee.

Obliterated Families is an award-winning multimedia web documentary that draws attention to the families from Gaza whose lives were shattered during the Israeli offensive in 2014. Blending together striking images, in-depth text, infographics, animations and short videos, the project is designed to bring the audience closer to the reality of life for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The site also includes a do it yourself exhibition.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is a human rights organization based in Gaza City that documents and investigates human rights violations.

We Are Not Numbers is a platform to share the human stories behind the numbers in the news, written by Palestinian writers and artists from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon who team up with mentors from around the world.

For the Visual Learner

According to countless UN Security Council resolutions and the International Court of Justice in 2004, East Jerusalem is part of the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Its annexation by Israel is not recognized internationally. Israel's policies there, including forced land acquisition and population transfer, are meant to change the composition of this Palestinian city and "Judaize" non-Jewish areas. More than 9,000 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have been demolished and around 15,000 Palestinians have had their residency revoked. Meanwhile, there are now 200,000 Israeli settlers living in East Jerusalem.
Keep Learning For the Visual Learner

More than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes when the Israeli state was established in 1948. Denied the right to return to their homes for more than seven decades, the 7 million Palestinian refugees scattered through the world today-including those in the occupied Palestinian territory and internally displaced within Israel-make up the world's most protracted refugee crisis.
Watch and Learn Keep Reading
For the Visual Learner

Palestinian Citizens of Israel: Second-Class in Their Own Homeland

While hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, 150,000 Palestinians remained in their homeland and were eventually granted Israeli citizenship. Today Palestinian citizens of Israel number 1.5 million, about 20 percent of Israel's population. Despite being citizens, Palestinians face institutionalized discrimination through for example more than 50 laws that privilege Jews over non-Jews. Learn more about the myth of citizenship here.
Watch and Learn
"Targeted Citizen" surveys discrimination against Palestinian citizens in Israel.

How Israel's facade of equality actually creates inequality in education for Palestinian citizens.
Keep Reading For the Visual Learner

Palestinian Political Prisoners

Since 1967, Israel has imprisoned or detained more than 800,000 Palestinians from the occupied territories. Around 70 percent of Palestinian families have had at least one relative detained. Palestinian prisoners and detainees have suffered from torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, and medical negligence. At least 200 Palestinian prisoners have been killed because of such actions.

Israel's policies of detention and imprisonment are used as political tools to suppress resistance and to maintain control over Palestinian society. These policies are intended to obstruct the daily lives and social fabric of Palestinians and undermine their ability to oppose Israeli oppression by criminalizing basic political affiliation and activities and intimidating individuals and communities.

As of October 2019, approximately 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, including 190 children, are being held in Israeli prisons. More than 400 are administrative detainees, a procedure that allows Israel to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
Watch and Learn Keep Learning For the Visual Learner

Factsheets & Other Resources

Read and distribute our fact sheet on the 2017 anniversaries: commemorating 100 years since the Balfour Declaration in 1917, 70 years since the UN partition of Palestine in 1947, 50 years since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, and 10 years since Israel imposed total blockade on the besieged coastal enclave in 2007.

The Making of Israel and Palestine Shrinking, Expanding Israel from Visualizing Palestine chart out Israel's settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict from Middle East Research and Information Project.

The Museum of the Palestinian People presents Palestinian history, culture, and stories through art, multimedia, personal narratives, and interpretive forms of storytelling.

The Palestine Teaching Trunk contains lesson plans, curriculum, posters, maps, artifacts, class sets of novels, books, and DVDs about Palestine.

Colonialism in Destr(A)uction maps out Palestinian and Syrian localities destroyed by Israel.

Israel & Palestine: A Very Short Introduction video from Jewish Voice for Peace

More videos from the Institute for Middle East Understanding on a variety of topics including settlements, refugees, and the U.S. complicity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Not That Complicated - US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A 101 Course to Understanding Israel's Oppression of the Palestinian People Many people are held back from taking a stand on the issue of Palestine/Israel by the common misconception that it is "complicated." Here, we explain the steady continuation of the more than 100-year-old settler colonial project that is Zionism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On sale date: December 17, 2001

A landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, this is a major work of political and historical nonfiction.

Prior to Safe Area Gorazde: The War In Eastern Bosnia 1992-1995-Joe Sacco's breakthrough novel of graphic journalism-the acclaimed author was best known for Palestine, a two-volume graphic novel that won an American Book Award in 1996. Fantagraphics Books is pleased to present the first single-volume collection of this landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s (where he conducted over 100 interviews with Palestinians and Jews), Palestine was the first major comics work of political and historical nonfiction by Sacco, whose name has since become synonymous with this graphic form of New Journalism. Like Safe Area Gorazde, Palestine has been favorably compared to Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus for its ability to brilliantly navigate such socially and politically sensitive subject matter within the confines of the comic book medium. Sacco has often been called the first comic book journalist, and he is certainly the best. This edition of Palestine also features an introduction from renowned author, critic, and historian Edward Said (Peace and Its Discontents and The Question of Palestine), one of the world's most respected authorities on the Middle Eastern conflict.

"Sacco uses the comic book format to its fullest extent, creating bold perspectives that any photojournalist would envy." - Utne Reader

"Sacco is a pioneer." - Journal of Palestinian Studies

"Based on his research, interviews, and personal experiences in Palastinian Occupied Territories in 1991 and 92, [Palestine] takes you there and gives you a first-hand account of the atrocities and suffering in the conflict with Israel. He gives you a close up visual rendering of the physical and emotional conditions of the people, who struggle daily for survival... Sacco has rendered the terrible conditions of life into a compelling and sympathetic artistic documentary. It is sad, but most good stories are sad... What's better, his drawing is detailed and realistic, very approachable and interesting." - American in Auckland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A landmark of journalism and the art form of comics. Based on several months of research and an extended visit to the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early 1990s, this is a major work of political and historical nonfiction.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ethical and Professional Journalistic Principles

# data[].attributes.subject
Ethical and Professional Journalistic Principles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
17 May 2021

As part of its ongoing war on two million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, on 15 May 2021, the Israeli air force destroyed an "11-storey building in Gaza City housing some 60 residential apartments and a number of offices, including those of Al Jazeera Media Network and The Associated Press," after giving a one-hour warning to its residents to evacuate it.

Israeli military officials claimed that Palestinian resistance officials had taken offices in this building, a propaganda claim refuted by AP.

Regardless of Israel's spin, and the fact that Israel's attacks on journalists are routine and systematic, this latest Israeli attack in Gaza, like many others, amounts to collective punishment, a war crime under international law. Mainstream media coverage of the Israeli assault on Gaza to date shares part of the responsibility for allowing this crime to take place.

Coverage of the entire Israeli assault has largely been framed as a "retaliation" to acts committed by Palestinian resistance groups. This places resistance as the first instance of "violence," ignoring the basic ethical principle that in a situation of oppression, it is precisely oppression that is the root cause of violence. This framing, coupled with the pervasive and uncritical repetition of Israeli euphemisms and unsubstantiated propaganda claims, has contributed considerably to sanitising, whitewashing, even justifying, Israeli crimes and entrenching its impunity and lack of accountability in accordance with international law.

Israel's propaganda claims and terminology, after all, have successfully occupied a central position in mainstream coverage given the unparalleled access Israeli military spokespersons and politicians have been afforded by media outlets. To exacerbate this process, many Western journalists, not to mention editors, have betrayed basic principles of journalistic ethics by providing an open, uncritical and unchallenging platform to suspected Israeli war criminals to relentlessly repeat their dehumanisation of Palestinians, reducing whole civilian populations to a particular resistance group, and to their incitement to further racial violence against us.

This is the context that has allowed the Israeli occupation forces to have the audacity and impunity not just to level to the ground the building housing AP, Aljazeera and tens of Palestinian homes live on TV, but to escape proper consequences for many similar, or much worse, war crimes perpetrated against Palestinians during this "operation," all televised live.

While freedom of speech is a right for everyone, including those with offensive views, commitment to truth, challenging propaganda and minimising harm are basic tenets of journalism. Refraining from allowing a media outlet to be used for incitement to violence or promotion of hatred against particular groups based on ethnic, racial, religious or other forms of identity is among the cardinal ethical principles of journalism.

According to largely universal journalistic ethics, the professional obligation to be inclusive of all sides of a debate does not extend to providing a platform to spread lies, incite to racial violence, including by dehumanizing the victims of this violence and thus normalising and justifying the continuation of violence against them. This is particularly true at times of violent hostility, conflict or oppression when such incitement can cost human lives and livelihoods or stoke ethnic cleansing and other war crimes or crimes against humanity, as defined in international law.

Well informed ethical journalists and editors can identify whether certain speech is deliberately intended to dehumanize a particular group as a means to normalise or justify violently targeting it or suppressing the human rights of those belonging to it.

Condemnations and rhetorical calls to undefined "urgent action" do not suffice.

Based on the above, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate and the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the largest coalition in Palestinian society, call on the international media outlets, journalists and journalists' unions to:
1) Recommit to the basic principles of journalistic ethics, resisting pressure from Israel and its lobby groups, and challenging biased and dehumanising editorial lines; 2) End all institutional collaborations with Israeli media organisations that are on record promoting the dehumanisation of Palestinians and racial hatred and violence against us; 3) Refuse paid junkets to Israel organised by the Israeli government or lobby groups; 4) Adhere to, and update style guides to commit to, terminology that is grounded in international humanitarian and human rights law and used by the UN or authoritative human rights organisations in describing the context, such as naming Israel's regime as apartheid (following Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem and Palestinian human rights organizations). 5) Avoid the unprofessional and unethical, whether intentional or inadvertent, repetition of propaganda terminology propagated by the hegemonic/oppressor side; 6) Respect the rights of journalists and media workers to publicly and openly express personal solidarity with the Palestinian cause (outside the scope of their professional coverage), without being penalised. 7) Ensure that voices of those most affected by the situation of oppression or aggression are centered in reporting, instead of providing far more space/time to the dominant oppressors who have the means to bully, intimidate and threaten journalists and media outlets in order to make them toe the line.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
7 Points on Ethical and Professional Journalistic Principles in Covering Israel's War on Gaza

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
17 May 2021 As part of its ongoing war on two million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, on 15 May 2021, the Israeli air force destroyed an "11-storey building in Gaza City housing some 60 residential apartments and a number of offices, including those of Al Jazeera Media Network and The Associated Press," after giving a one-hour warning to its residents to evacuate it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Overview

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. Since its launch in 2005, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.

Ongoing injustice

Since 1948, Israel has denied Palestinians their fundamental rights and has refused to comply with international law.

Israel maintains a regime of of settler colonialism, apartheid and occupation over the Palestinian people. This is only possible because of international support. Governments fail to hold Israel to account, while corporations and institutions across the world help Israel to oppress Palestinians.

Because those in power refuse to act to stop this injustice, Palestinian civil society has called for a global citizens' response of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

What are Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions?

BOYCOTTS involve withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and from all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.

DIVESTMENT campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.

SANCTIONS campaigns pressure governments to fulfil their legal obligations to end Israeli apartheid, and not aid or assist its maintenance, by banning business with illegal Israeli settlements, ending military trade and free-trade agreements, as well as suspending Israel's membership in international forums such as UN bodies and FIFA.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society organisations called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel.

The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian unions, refugee networks, women's organisations, professional associations, popular resistance committees and other Palestinian civil society bodies.

Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the Palestinian BDS call urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law by meeting three demands:

International law recognises the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights as occupied by Israel. As part of its military occupation, Israel steals land and forces Palestinians into ghettos, surrounded by checkpoints, settlements and watchtowers and an illegal apartheid Wall. Israel has imposed a medieval siege on Gaza , turning it into the largest open air prison in the world. Israel also regularly carries out large-scale assaults on Gaza that are widely condemned as constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity.

One-fifth of Israel's citizens are Palestinians who remained inside the armistice lines after 1948. They are subjected to a system of racial discrimination enshrined in more than 50 laws that impact every aspect of their lives. The Israeli government continues to forcibly displace Palestinian communities in Israel from their land. Israeli leaders routinely and openly incite racial violence against them.

Since its violent establishment in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing of more than half of the indigenous people of Palestine, Israel has set out to control as much land and uproot as many Palestinians as it can. As a result of this systematic forced displacement, there are now more than 7.25 million Palestinian refugees. They are denied their right to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish.

BDS is an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that is opposed on principle to all forms of discrimination, including anti-semitism and Islamophobia.

A global movement

The BDS movement is supported by unions, churches, NGOs and movements representing millions across every continent and there are vibrant BDS campaigns in communities across the world. Progressive Jewish groups play an important role in the movement.

Public figures including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Klein, Roger Waters, Angela Davis and Judith Butler back BDS. The slider below features just a small selection of the movement's supporters.

Growing Impact

Thanks to strategic campaigning, the impact of the BDS movement is increasing substantially. Examples of direct and indirect BDS impacts include:

BDS aims to end international support for Israeli violations of international law by forcing companies, institutions and governments to change their policies. As Israeli companies and institutions become isolated, Israel will find it more difficult to oppress Palestinians.

BDS campaigns also raise awareness about how Israel oppresses the Palestinian people.

The growth and success of the BDS movement sends a clear message to Palestinians and to world governments that people around the world are increasingly unwilling to accept Israel's oppression of Palestinians.

To contribute to the growing impact of the global BDS movement in the struggle for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality, check out our Get Involved section.

Get Involved

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Capsicum peppers on a factory floor in the Israeli settlement of Tomer. Photos courtesy of the authors.

Yousef,* Samih,* and Hasan* are exhausted. Their eyes are heavy and Samih is slumped in his chair. It's after 10 p.m. and the 14-, 15-, and 16-year-old need to get up for work in less than six hours.

"We have no choice," explains Yousef. "If we don't go to work they will kick us out. It's peak season."

The three Palestinian teenagers work together in the fields of a capsicum and chili pepper farm, in the illegal Israeli settlement of Tomer, West Bank. The West Bank, which is part of Palestine, has been militarily occupied since Israel invaded in 1967.

Every day the boys start work at 5:30 a.m., harvesting peppers to be packed and sold across Israel, the West Bank, and elsewhere in the world. Most of their fellow workers are teenagers like them, some child labourers as young as 13 years old.

Despite the hard, physical work - and their young age - they say they are not allowed any breaks during the day - not even to go to the toilet or get a drink. "We go to the toilet before we go to work. If they catch us going in the farm they will punish us," says Yousef.

They are also exposed to the pesticides used in the fields. "They have a machine to spray the pesticides," Hasan tells us. "The guys who spray it wear a mask, but they do it while the workers are harvesting the peppers, and we don't have a mask or gloves."

"We breathe in the chemicals. It's toxic. They use plastic over the farm, so it's enclosed. We feel it in our eyes," says Yousef.

They are not provided with drinking water, so they have to drink the water from the same hose line that is used on the capsicum plants. They are worried that this may also be polluted with chemicals.

"I almost cut my finger off while working because of the cutters they give us. The settlers don't give us days off when we're sick or injured and my finger was hurting for 10 days. They didn't give me any medical help," says Hasan.

Most of their fellow workers are teenagers like them, some child labourers as young as 13 years old.

Khaled* joins the interview. He is the oldest worker we speak to, at 18 years old. He works in a capsicum and chili pepper packing house in Tomer. He has been there for two years - although he adds that to him it feels more like a hundred.

In the factory, Khaled stands in a long row with other workers and uses a machine to wash, clean, divide, and box up the capsicums. He doesn't know exactly where the peppers are being sent, but knows that some are going to Israel, some to elsewhere in the West Bank, and some to Europe.

"I don't feel safe in my job. We are really worried when we're working. We can't really take a rest. If I want to have a cigarette outside, they come and shout that we have to work. Even if a person has worked there for a hundred years, if the head person comes and isn't happy with one small thing they would fire him or her. One of the girls had been working in the factory for six years. This morning she had problems getting the peppers out of the machine. The settlers said that she shouldn't come back to work again because she wasn't working hard enough."

The boys are just some of the 1,800 Palestinian workers labouring on Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley. The land on which these settlements were established was taken from Palestinians; the majority of it was private land owned by individual farmers.

Yousef, Samih, and Hasan all live nearby, in the tiny village of Fasayil. Fasayil has had hundreds of acres of land stolen by the occupation. Over 7 per cent of the village area has been taken by the Israeli government to build four settlements: Tomer, Gilgal, Petza'el, and Netiv HaGdud. Illegal under international law, these settlements and others like them have brought around 11,000 settlers to the Jordan Valley.

Palestinian homes in the village of Fasayil

Almost 90 per cent of the Jordan Valley has been designated Area C - West Bank land that is under full Israeli control. Virtually all Palestinian construction in Area C is banned by the Israeli authorities, for any purpose, including housing and infrastructure.

The Jordan Valley is used as a military training area by Israel - about 46 per cent of its area has been declared a closed military zone. Groups of soldiers can be seen lurking in the hills as they carry out military exercises, and Palestinian homes, farms, and water supplies are regularly destroyed by the military. Villages are declared military firing zones, with residents forced to evacuate their homes on little to no notice. People live under constant surveillance, under the gaze of an increasing number of cameras stationed along roadsides. Palestinians in the Jordan Valley also face regular harassment from settlers and soldiers, whether it be violence, theft, abuse, or the destruction of crops.

"My family [has] goats and sheep," says Hasan. "If we are as little as 100 metres from the settlement fence, the soldiers come and shoot to scare our sheep. Sometimes the soldiers kidnap us shepherds and the sheep escape everywhere." He says that shepherds have been detained by soldiers and not released to retrieve their sheep for several hours.

Israeli settlement expansion in the Jordan Valley is driven by Zionist colonialism, but another motivation is that there is big money to be made by Israeli companies in exploiting cheap Palestinian labour. The unemployment rate in Gaza and the West Bank is the highest in the world - according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), it was 27.4 per cent in 2017. With agricultural livelihoods under attack and freedom of movement massively restricted by the occupation, many Palestinians across the West Bank are forced to work in the settlements on land stolen from their families. Over 130,000 Palestinians worked in Israel and the settlements in 2017.

Khaled, Yousef, Samih, and Hasan all work long, hard hours, seven days a week. They get paid NIS 100.00 a day ($36 CAD), which includes the NIS 10.00 fare for the bus to work. The daily Israeli minimum wage for a six-day week, which Palestinians working in Israeli settlements are entitled to, is NIS 212.00 ($76 CAD).

For Yousef, Samih, and Hasan, there is no sick pay. Khaled is the only worker interviewed who thinks that his employers give sick pay when there are accidents. He explains that one worker had his hand broken by a machine in the field, and was paid while he recovered at home.

A Palestinian herding animals, close to greenhouses in the settlement of Tomer

A working day should end at around 1 p.m. but normally they have to work at least two extra hours - sometimes more. "If we refuse to do overtime they'll fire us," says Samih. "If we're tired we're not allowed to have a break. If we do they will also fire us." Often the settlers refuse to pay for any overtime at all. According to Khaled, "Last month I worked seven hours overtime, but they didn't give me any more money."

Khaled makes around NIS 2,700.00 ($964 CAD) a month. Israel's minimum monthly wage is NIS 5,300.00 ($1,890 CAD). "They don't pay extra for the weekend and they only give us just NIS 10 per hour for overtime. Overtime should be paid double but it's the same money as during the day."

This is a lucrative business for the settlement companies exporting fruit and vegetables to be sold around the world. These products are often labelled as "made in Israel" to disguise that they came from settlements on Palestinian land - although in 2015, the European Union mandated that Israeli producers must explicitly label farm goods and other products that come from settlements built on occupied land.

In 2005, 170 Palestinian civil society organizations came together to call for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The boycott covers Israeli goods (including those produced in settlements), companies, and institutions. Pro-Israeli state and Zionist propaganda paints these activists as extremists and anti-Semites, simply for putting pressure on the Israeli state to end Palestinian oppression.

The Knesset, the national legislature of Israel, has made it a civil offence to publicly call for a boycott against the state of Israel. In early 2018 the government published a list of 20 NGOs whose officials would be banned from entering the country - including representatives from BDS national committees in France, South Africa, Italy, and Chile.

The unemployment rate in Gaza and the West Bank is the highest in the world.

Canada, however, has a long history of siding with the Israeli state instead of with Palestinian human rights. In 2016, the Canadian Parliament passed a motion formally condemning the BDS movement. Later that year, Conservatives and Liberals introduced a bill in the Ontario legislature that, if successful, would have imposed economic sanctions on several Canadian organizations that support BDS. Luckily the bill was voted down by a wide margin.

Undaunted, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) and other groups are campaigning in support of the boycott. CJPME distributes stickers that proclaim "Israeli apartheid: Don't buy into it" for consumers to stick on Israeli products at their local supermarkets.

Later in 2016, the Canadian Green Party voted to adopt BDS as part of its policy.

Yousef, Samih, and Hasan are not afraid of losing their jobs if the BDS movement is successful. "If there's no work in the settlement we can survive," says Hasan. "The boycott is good; it's solidarity."

Khaled also supports BDS: "I wish that everyone around the world would boycott Israeli goods; it is resistance. [...] If the settlement companies closed down because of the boycott I would be happy. I would find work in Nablus and there would be no more settlers in the Jordan Valley."

"If the settlement companies closed down because of the boycott I would be happy."

Goods from Tomer, where the boys work, are exported all over the world. In the past, BDS activists have uncovered that dates packaged in the settlement had ended up on the shelves of major European supermarkets such as Morrisons and Tesco. Several products from the occupied Jordan Valley, such as medjool dates and herbs, are air-freighted for sale in the U.S. and Canada.

Shoal Collective researchers visited Tomer earlier this year and found that boxes of capsicum were being placed in packaging bearing the logo of Israeli company Arava, the leading exporter of capsicum from Israel and its settlements. Arava U.S.A. was set up to export capsicum and other fresh produce to the U.S. and Canada.

In the U.K. in 2012, the Co-operative Group of supermarkets, one of the U.K.'s largest supermarket chains, took a principled stand and stated that they would no longer work with any supplier known to be sourcing from the illegal settlements. This had an impact on four of its suppliers: Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, AdaFresh, and Mehadrin. The Palestinian BDS national committee applauded their stance, stating that "Agricultural export companies, especially Israeli agricultural export companies, are at the heart of Israel's system of domination over the Palestinian people. They are an integral component of the on-going [sic] process of colonisation and environmental destruction of Palestinian land, the destruction of Palestinian agriculture, the theft of water, and the abuse of Palestinian workers' rights."

It's high time that Canadian supermarkets and grocery stores follow suit, stand in solidarity with oppressed Palestinians, and join the boycott of Israeli goods.
*Names have been changed to protect the security and privacy of workers.

Amy Hall, Eliza Egret, and Tom Anderson are part of Shoal, a collective writing group for social justice and a world beyond capitalism. Their writing on Palestine can be found at corporateoccupation.org. You can follow them on Twitter CorpOccupation and ShoalCollective.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yousef,* Samih,* and Hasan* are exhausted. Their eyes are heavy and Samih is slumped in his chair. It's after 10 p.m. and the 14-, 15-, and 16-year-old need to get up for work in less than six hours. "We have no choice," explains Yousef. "If we don't go to work they will kick us out.

# data[].attributes.body
Please put your money where your mouth is and consider supporting some of the following groups/organizations:

# data[].attributes.body
Want to take action? Instead of asking "what can I do?" refer to some of the following as starting points:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish was born in al-Birwa in Galilee, a village that was occupied and later razed by the Israeli army. Because they had missed the official Israeli census, Darwish and his family were considered "internal refugees" or "present-absent aliens." Darwish lived for many years in exile in Beirut and Paris. He is the author of over 30 books of poetry and eight books of prose, and earned the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize from the Lannan Foundation, the Lenin Peace Prize, and the Knight of Arts and Belles Lettres Medal from France.

In the 1960s Darwish was imprisoned for reciting poetry and traveling between villages without a permit. Considered a "resistance poet," he was placed under house arrest when his poem "Identity Card" was turned into a protest song. After spending a year at a university of Moscow in 1970, Darwish worked at the newspaper Al-Ahram in Cairo. He subsequently lived in Beirut, where he edited the journal Palestinian Affairs from 1973 to 1982. In 1981 he founded and edited the journal Al-Karmel. Darwish served from 1987 to 1993 on the executive committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. In 1996 he was permitted to return from exile to visit friends and family in Israel and Palestine.

Mahmoud Darwish's early work of the 1960s and 1970s reflects his unhappiness with the occupation of his native land. Carolyn Forché and Runir Akash noted in their introduction to Unfortunately It Was Paradise (2003) that "as much as [Darwish] is the voice of the Palestinian Diaspora, he is the voice of the fragmented soul." Forché and Akash commented also on his 20th volume, Mural: "Assimilating centuries of Arabic poetic forms and applying the chisel of modern sensibility to the richly veined ore of its literary past, Darwish subjected his art to the impress of exile and to his own demand that the work remain true to itself, independent of its critical or public reception."

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye commented on the poems in Unfortunately It Was Paradise: "[T]he style here is quintessential Darwish-lyrical, imagistic, plaintive, haunting, always passionate, and elegant-and never anything less than free-what he would dream for all his people."

Mahmoud Darwish died in 2008 in Houston, Texas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish was born in al-Birwa in Galilee, a village that was occupied and later razed by the Israeli army. Because they had missed the official Israeli census, Darwish and his family were considered "internal refugees" or "present-absent aliens." Darwish lived for many years in...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The following information has been adapted by Jewish Voice for Peace from the the Institute of Middle East Understanding (IMEU)'s background briefings.
Q: What is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict really about?
A: The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is, in essence, a conflict over territory. Although religion plays a role in defining the identities of the parties to the conflict, and for some Jews, in justifying their claims to the land, the conflict is not, fundamentally, a religious conflict.
Q: What exactly is "the occupation"?
A: In 1967, Israel defeated the neighboring Arab countries in a war that lasted only six days. At the end of that war, Israel had captured the West Bank (which includes the Eastern half of Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. (It also captured the Sinai Peninsula, but this was later returned to Egypt as part of a peace accord that holds to this day). Some of this territory was annexed, specifically the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem.

The rest of the West Bank has been under a military occupation ever since. This means that the Israeli army has complete control over these areas. Palestinians in these regions have no guarantee of civil rights. They have no government of their own other than what Israel will allow. Israel can impose total curfews on any part or all of the territory. This prevents people from traveling to work, to market or to see family members. It can prevent medical care from reaching people, and people from reaching hospitals.

Gaza retained a Jewish settler population and was under total military control until the Israeli government unilaterally withdrew soldiers and some 8,000 settlers in 2005. Israel, however, has retained full military control over Gaza's borders, airspace, and coastline, thus retaining "effective control" and thereby meeting the official definition of occupation. (See more about Gaza withdrawal and closure below.) In addition, Israel has settled hundreds of thousands of its own citizens in these lands, in defiance of international law.
Q: Are Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel treated equally?
A: No. Although Palestinian citizens of Israel are entitled to vote and participate in Israeli political life, and several Palestinians are members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), they do not receive the same treatment as the Jewish citizens at the hands of the government. Israel still applies 20 laws that privilege Jews over Arabs. For example, the 1950 Law of Return grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, while denying that same right to Palestinians. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Freedom ensures that Israel is the state of the "Jewish people," not its citizens. This law was passed in 1992 to serve as a "bill of rights," as Israel does not have a written constitution.

Israel's flag and other national symbols are Jewish religious symbols, not neutral or national ones that represent all the citizens of the state. Government resources, meanwhile, are disproportionately directed to Jews and not to Arabs, one factor in causing the Palestinians of Israel to suffer the lowest living standards in Israeli society by all economic indicators.

Human Rights Watch has compiled an extensive study of Israel's policy of "separate, not equal" schools for Palestinian children, finding that "Government-run Arab schools are a world apart from government-run Jewish schools. In virtually every respect, Palestinian Arab children get an education inferior to that of Jewish children, and their relatively poor performance in school reflects this."

Nearly 25% of Israel's population is not Jewish.

As many as 100 Palestinian villages in Israel, many of which pre-date the founding of the state, are not recognized by the Israeli government, and are not listed on maps and receive no services (water, electricity, sanitation, roads, etc.) from the government. More than 70,000 Palestinians live in these unrecognized villages. Meanwhile, hundreds of new Jewish towns have been established on lands confiscated from Palestinians.
Q: Did the PLO reject a "generous offer" for peace at Camp David in 2000?
A: No. In fact, there was no Israeli "offer" at all, in the sense of a comprehensive plan to resolve all outstanding differences between the parties. To the extent that Israeli positions on discrete issues could be discerned, they were not "generous." Finally, while Palestinian negotiators did not agree to Israeli demands, they did not "reject" them, but sought to continue negotiations, and offered solutions based on long-accepted principles of international law and justice.
Q: What is an intifada?
A: Intifada is an Arabic word derived from a verb meaning "to shake off," and is the term used to describe the two major uprisings against Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Q: Haven't Jews and Arabs been fighting for thousands of years? Is there really an answer?
A: In fact, Jews and Arabs have been fighting for only about a century. While Jews were facing repeated expulsion and persecution in Europe, Jews in the Muslim world, though still facing some problems, were faring much better. Jews, as People of the Book under Islamic law, were entitled to legal protections and certain rights. To be sure, they were not the equals of Muslims, and there were incidents of anti-Semitism in many parts of the Muslim and Arab world through the centuries, some of them serious. But both the severity and the frequency of these were far lower than in Europe.

There is no doubt that the ongoing and brutal conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as the neighbouring Arab states, has created a great deal of hatred on both sides. But it is simply false to say that history shows that Jews and Arabs cannot live together. They have before, and, in a modern, secular state, may well be able to do so on a much more equal footing than existed in the past.
Q: What do Palestinians seek?
A: Palestinians, depending on where they live, face different challenges and thus have different concerns. However, what they all have in common is a basic desire for freedom and equal rights.

Palestinians living in Israel seek rights that are equal to Jewish citizens of the state as well as self-determination. Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip seek an end to the Israeli military's domination of every aspect of their daily lives - whether through direct military occupation, as in the West Bank, or control from without, as in the case of the Gaza Strip - and rights to freedom and national self-determination, equal to those of other national groups. And Palestinian refugees and others living in exile want the right to return to their homes, if they so desire, or to receive compensation and support for resettlement, just like other refugee populations in the world.
Q: What was the Gaza disengagement, and how has it affected Palestinians?
A: The Gaza disengagement was part of a unilateral plan adopted by the Israeli government without consultation with the Palestinians, although with the approval of the U.S. government. The disengagement began in August 2005, when Israel evacuated approximately 8,500 civilians from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, and 500 more from four small settlements in the northern part of the West Bank - about 2% of the total number of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories.

Israeli troops began to deploy outside of the Gaza Strip, while still controlling its coastline, borders, and airspace. Israel continues to provide Gaza water, electricity, and other vital services. Israel also claims the right to intervene militarily, including preemptively, in "self-defense."

In a sense, this represents a change in the form of military occupation from direct to indirect control. Dov Weisglass, a close adviser of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, stated in an interview with the newspaper Ha'aretz in October 2004 that the plan was intended to put the peace process in "formaldehyde," to postpone the creation of a Palestinian state indefinitely, and to relieve pressure on Israel to make further withdrawals from the West Bank.

Many Palestinians see the Gaza disengagement and the intensification of colonization of the West Bank as two faces of a unified policy whereby Israel will rid itself of responsibility for Palestinians, while maximizing its control of their land.

After Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel closed Gaza's border crossings. They began severely limiting food, fuel, medical and other supplies. The free flow of people has been severely limited as well. This closure has been widely condemned as a form of collective punishment in violation of international and Israeli law. Some restrictions were loosened after the Mavi Marmara incident in which members of a flotilla bringing aid to Gaza were killed by the Israeli military. Nonetheless, the closure continues with no end in sight, and according to the UN and Save the children, 10% of children suffer from stunting (long-term exposure to chronic malnutrition), 39% of people lived below the poverty line and more than 90% of the water supplied through Gaza's aquifer does not meet the safety standards of the World Health Organization and is unfit for drinking.
Q: What is Israel's separation wall or barrier?
A: In October 2003, Israel began construction on a "separation barrier" in the occupied West Bank, justifying it on security grounds. The barrier consists, in places, of a wall twenty-five feet high, razor wire, trenches, sniper towers, electrified fences, military roads, electronic surveillance, and buffer zones that sometimes reach 100 meters in width. Much of the wall will be built on lands confiscated from Palestinian landowners within the West Bank - not within Israel's own territory. Many Palestinian homes, business, orchards, and other valuable assets in the route of the wall have been destroyed.

The wall has been challenged repeatedly before the Israeli High Court, which has several times ordered the military to re-route specific sections of the wall, although the court has held that a wall built on Palestinian lands does not, in principle, violate international law. However, the wall must be militarily justified and conform to the principle of "proportionality" (that is, that the burdens imposed on civilians are proportional to the security benefits achieved through the military's action).

The wall was also the subject of a case before the International Court of Justice. The ICJ ruling, announced in July 2004, held that the wall is illegal, must be dismantled, and ordered Israel to compensate Palestinians damaged by the wall's construction. It also called upon third-party states to ensure Israel's compliance with the judgment. Although an advisory opinion, and therefore not binding on the parties, the ICJ judgment is an authoritative statement of the status of the wall in international law. In the course of the opinion, all fifteen judges of the court found Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, including East Jerusalem, to violate international law.

The wall has become the focus of weekly protests across the West Bank over the last five years. Led by Palestinians, these protests have used nonviolent techniques like sit-ins and roadblocks and have drawn increasing support from Israelis and internationals.
Q: What happened during Israel's 2008 invasion of Gaza?
A: According to the Goldstone Report, and corroborated by Israeli and international human rights groups, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and Palestinian armed groups had committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. While the report condemned violations by both sides, it clearly differentiated between the moral and legal severity of the violations of the Israeli forces compared to those of Hamas and other less culpable Palestinian armed groups. "The following grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention were committed by Israeli forces in Gaza: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly. As grave breaches these acts give rise to individual criminal responsibility."

For more on the "Laws of War," watch this video:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The following information has been adapted by Jewish Voice for Peace from the the Institute of Middle East Understanding (IMEU)'s background briefings. Q: What is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict really about? A: The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is, in essence, a conflict over territory.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
See the map below to find Palestinian-led and coalition actions near you, then use this toolkit for sign-making resources and other tools for joining in-person actions.

Take action virtually: 3 things to do now

1. Boost Palestinian voices on social media

Use the hashtag #savesheikhjarrah in your posts/shares on all social media platforms. Listen to this interview on Democracy Now with Mohammed El-Kurd; follow and Muna El-Kurd on instagram.

By Thursday, use this toolkit to participate in a virtual sign action against the expulsions and to show up in solidarity this Nakba Day. It includes instructions to make signs, take a photo, and post on social.

2. Demand immediate action from the U.S. government: call your representatives.

Over 200,000 people signed the petition to Secretary of State Tony Blinken, demanding an end to Israel's illegal evictions of Palestinians and demolitions of their homes. Our JVP Action team is working to push Members of Congress to apply pressure on the U.S. State Department. 15 have already spoken out, but it should be 535.

Follow the up-to-date thread of all the members we've seen speak out, and if your representative isn't on the list, call them immediately. And everyone should call to make sure your representatives support the Palestinian Children and Families Act, which would condition U.S. military aid to Israel. The $3.8 billion a year we send to Israel directly funds Israeli injustice in and beyond Jerusalem. We must shift U.S. policy from protecting Israeli impunity and funding Israeli war crimes to holding Israel accountable.

3. Help our Jewish family face difficult truths

It is our responsibility and mandate to bring in our fellow Jews who are freshly waking up to the horrors of settler violence and dispossession in Jerusalem, and to invite them to the kind of remembering that resists the lies we've been fed, creates real solidarity, and prompts powerful action.

Invite your mom, your childhood best friend, and all your cousins to , co-sponsored by JVP and featuring Mohammad El-Kurd, Majd Kayyal, Sandra Tamari, and Sumaya Awad who will unpack the history and ongoing reality of the Nakba. Need more information about the Nakba? Our Facing the Nakba curriculum is designed to educate about the Nakba to Jewish audiences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jewish Voice for Peace | Justice * Equality * Dignity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
See the map below to find Palestinian-led and coalition actions near you, then use this toolkit for sign-making resources and other tools for joining in-person actions. Take action virtually: 3 things to do now 1.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
Teach Palestine | Teaching Educators How to Teach Palestine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
By Katharine Davies Samway

It was a beautiful fall day for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival and I was volunteering at a booth devoted to Palestine and the impact of the Israeli occupation. Crowds of people passed by the booth and many of them stopped to look at the posters and pick up handouts. But what really captured my attention were the children, 9 or 10 years of age, who were riveted by one particular image-a photo of an Israeli soldier pointing his gun at a Palestinian child of about 5.

"Mami, Mami! Come and look!" Children pulled their parents and older siblings into the booth to look more carefully at the photo and talk with me about it. They were horrified that such a young child had such a frightening experience.

Talking with the children and their families, I learned that they didn't know much, if anything, about that part of the Middle East. As I tried to explain some of the key events that led to the photo, and why it is important for Americans to be informed, I realized that we had no information written for children. I should have brought some books and an annotated booklist to hand out, I acknowledged to myself. But I could think of less than a handful of possibilities.

Maybe, I thought, there are good books out there for K-8 learners that I'm not familiar with, and so I began to scour my local libraries. I ordered books through interlibrary loan, read books recommended by friends, and reread books that I already owned. What did I learn?

[pullquote1 variation="steelblue"]I discovered that there are several nonfiction books about life in ancient Palestine. There are also many nonfiction books about modern-day Israel that serve as propaganda for Israel and do not treat the plight of Palestinians honestly and comprehensively. These books tend to be dense, with a lot of complex historical information jammed into a few pages and a sprinkling of photos.[/pullquote1]

There aren't many books available for K-8 learners about life in Palestine since 1948. There are, however, a few. Although the quality of the writing varies, they are quite good overall and raise important questions about the Israeli occupation.

Picture Books

Naomi Shihab Nye is an award-winning poet whose father was a Palestinian refugee-as a teenager her life was divided between Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. In Sitti's Secrets, Mona, who lives in America, goes to visit her grandmother in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. Although Mona does not speak a shared language with her grandmother (s itti in Arabic), they are able to communicate through gestures, music, and actions. It is a beautifully written and illustrated book about a loving relationship between a child and her grandmother.

Amahl Bishara's The Boy and the Wall, written in English and Arabic, is about life in Aida, a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem, where the lives of Palestinians were turned upside down when Israel built a huge concrete separation wall (called an apartheid wall by former President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others). In a rhythmic speak-and-respond structure modeled on Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny, a Palestinian child talks with his mother about what he can do to help his community overcome the impact of the wall and all that it brings, including soldiers with guns and tear gas canisters. His mother's responses underscore her love for him and Palestinian traditions and culture, and the resilience of Palestinians under occupation. For example, when the boy says, "Or maybe I will become a mountain so that I can be bigger than the wall, and see over it," his mother replies, "If you become a mountain and become bigger than the wall . . . I will become a farmer and plant olive trees and tend to you and live from the olives you bear."

An introduction provides information about the Aida Refugee Camp and life under occupation, including the impact on Palestinians of the apartheid wall (e.g., separating Palestinians from their family members and friends, their land, their work, medical care, religious sites, and open land where children can play). The illustrations are by children from Aida.

Novels

Elizabeth Laird's A Little Piece of Ground is particularly good. It is set in Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. After a bombing in Israel, Ramallah is under a strict Israeli curfew and people are prevented from leaving their homes for days at a time. The main character, Karim, is a 12-year-old boy from a Muslim family who lives in town and is crazy about soccer. His best friend, Joni, is from a Christian family and is also crazy about soccer. While kicking a soccer ball against his apartment building during one of the few breaks in the curfew, Karim meets Hopper, who lives close to a refugee camp across town. Hopper takes Karim to a vacant piece of ground near the refugee camp. It is filled with the rubble of demolished buildings, but they think they can convert it into a soccer field. The three boys do exactly that by hauling rocks and rusty machinery to one side of the plot of land. They discover a car buried under the rubble and convert it into a den. One day, while the three boys are playing soccer with boys from the refugee camp, Israeli tanks roll into their soccer field and the boys take off for safety. However, Karim sprains his ankle and is unable to escape; he ends up hiding inside the abandoned car, where he is trapped for several days. The author, a well-known British writer of books for young adults who lived in Ramallah while doing research for this book, does a particularly good job of conveying the friendship and shared interests of the boys and the tension that is created for Palestinians by life under the Israeli occupation.

Canadian author Anne Laurel Carter wrote The Shepherd's Granddaughter after living in both Israel and Palestine. Amani is a young girl who lives with her extended family in a West Bank village and wants to follow in the footsteps of her grandfather and become a shepherd. She and her family experience terrifying situations when a group of illegal Jewish settlers occupy a hill overlooking the village. Under the protective eyes of Israeli soldiers, the settlers poison Amani's sheep; destroy her family's ancient olive, fig, and lemon trees; appropriate their land and water sources; and threaten villagers with death if they do not leave their land. Amani observes the demolition of her house by an armored Caterpillar bulldozer and the arrests of two close family members: her father, when he returns home to find his house being demolished, and her uncle, when he and other villagers are demonstrating peacefully against the building of a settler road on their land that only Jewish Israelis will be allowed to use. When Amani's mother returns to Palestine from visiting her dying mother in Canada, she is repeatedly denied re-entry at the Jordanian border. It is only after several days of this intimidation that she is allowed back to her home and family.

A subplot focuses on Jonathan, a 16-year-old Jewish American who lives with his father on the illegal settlement, hates what his people are doing to Palestinians, and returns to New York City to become an anti-occupation activist.

This book does a good job of portraying life under occupation from the perspective of a plucky young Palestinian girl. Amani witnesses disagreements within her extended family around whether to trust Israelis who oppose the occupation and whether to engage in peaceful or armed struggle, which creates an additional context for critical thinking and discussion among students.

Where the Streets Had a Name, by Randa Abdel-Fattah, an Australian of Palestinian and Egyptian heritage, tells the story of 13-year-old Hayaat, who lives with her family in a cramped apartment in Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Hayaat's elderly grandmother is from Jerusalem, but was forced out in 1948 when the state of Israel was declared, and has not been allowed to return. When she becomes sick, Hayaat is convinced that bringing a handful of earth from their ancestral home will help her grandmother get well. This sets in place a dramatic journey for Hayaat and her best friend, Samy, a free-spirited young Palestinian boy. Although their journey is short in distance, it is interminable because of checkpoints and a curfew. The story, told through Hayaat's eyes, provides readers with a clear window into a young teen's life under the Israeli occupation.

Nonfiction

A Child's View of Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against Censorship is equally compelling for children, older students, and adults. The captioned illustrations were created by Palestinian children who lived through the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2008-09. The pictures were drawn as part of an effort to help children deal with the horrors they had experienced. A Bay Area nonprofit, Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), arranged to display a collection of these pictures at the Museum of Children's Art in Oakland, California. However, under pressure from the Jewish Federation of the East Bay and other organizations, the museum backed out of the agreement at the last minute. MECA held an "art exhibit as demonstration" in front of the museum and then moved the exhibit to a nearby storefront. A Child's View of Gaza includes a foreword by Alice Walker. The children's pictures are detailed, colorful, and provide a matter-of-fact yet powerful window into the reality of being a child under attack by planes, bombs, and soldiers.

Another nonfiction book that relies on firsthand experience of the occupation is the picture book Outside the Ark: An Artist's Journey in Occupied Palestine, by Ellen O'Grady, an artist-activist who worked for six years in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. O'Grady tells the stories of Palestinians she knew, including 8-year-old Mahmoud, who was killed by Israeli bullets, and 69-year-old Salwa, who is unable to see her daughter, who lives in Jordan and is prohibited by Israel from returning to her village. Although this is a picture book, teachers may find that it is most appropriate for older elementary students. I sometimes found the handwritten cursive text distracting, but the content and illustrations are powerful-each double page merits its own intensive discussion.

Memoir

Ibtisam Barakat's memoir, Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, evocatively conveys what it is like to be forced by war out of one's home and familiar life into life as a refugee. Barakat was 3 when her family became refugees during the 1967 war. They joined about 200,000 other Palestinians who fled Israeli forces that invaded East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Barakat and her family lived for several months in Jordan before being able to return to their home in the West Bank, which was then occupied by Israel.

The first part of the book is set in 1981. The author is 17, traveling on a bus in the West Bank from Birzeit, where she has gone to check on mail from international pen pals, to her home in Ramallah. Her bus is stopped at a checkpoint and all the passengers are taken to a military detention center, where they are kept in custody for no reason and harassed for hours by Israeli police before being allowed to continue on their journey.

The second section of the book focuses on Barakat's memories of life as a refugee and then under occupation from the age of 3 to 7. Presumably she drew on family members' recollections to augment her own early childhood memories because the descriptions are very detailed. She describes how frightening the war is and what it was like to flee from her home and be separated from her family for a while. She describes her family's life in a refugee camp in Jordan and their return to their home on a hill near Ramallah in the West Bank. Because it is in the center of an Israeli training ground, they are not allowed to leave the house during the day. Afraid for her children's safety, Barakat's mother takes her children to live in an orphanage, where she finds work.

Poetry

Nye has written or edited several anthologies of poetry focused on the Middle East. In her collection 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, she writes about being Arab American, about being Palestinian American, about her family, and about living in the West Bank. The poems are beautifully crafted and evocative. For example, towards the end of the poem "Going to the Spring," about women collecting water in a traditional way, she writes:

These feet write history on the
dirt road
and no one reads it, unless you
are here
to read it, unless you are thirsty
and cup your hands where the
women
tell you to hold them,
throwing your head back
for the long sweet draft.

Nye edited Flag of Childhood: Poems from the Middle East. The poems in this volume, written by poets from 14 countries, including Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, explore and honor daily life in the Middle East, and life for Middle Eastern immigrants and their children in North America. The collection offers readers a beautifully worked window into what Nye refers to in the introduction as "a complicated center of dramatic cultural and religious history."

The revered Palestinian writer and prolific poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote primarily for adults. However, his compelling poetry captures life for Palestinians, from their forced dislocation when the state of Israel was formed, through exile and occupation, and many of his poems can be shared with intermediate grade readers. One example is "Identity Card"; the penultimate stanza captures the losses that Palestinians have experienced:

Write down!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of
my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks.
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!

Some Final Thoughts

U.S. media coverage of the Middle East is frequently Israel-centric and does not explore the enormous financial support that the United States provides each year to Israel and its occupation of Palestine. When this is coupled with a sometimes virulent anti-Muslim and anti-Arab feeling in many parts of the country, it is incumbent on educators to take a role in unpeeling these biases and encouraging students to think critically about human rights in Palestine/Israel. There is no question that reading books about contemporary Palestine and the Israeli occupation may raise conflicting points of view, but that is part of supporting students to become critical readers, thinkers, and, hopefully, activists in support of justice and peace.

____________________________________

Resources

Books

Abdel-Fattah, Randa. Where the Streets Had a Name. New York City: Scholastic Press, 2010.

Barakat, Ibtisam. Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood. New York City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Bishara, Amahl. The Boy and the Wall. Illustrations by youth from the Lajee Centre. Ramallah, Palestine: Lajee Centre. Available in North America from Nidal Al-Azraq at nd_alazraq@yahoo.com, 2005.

Carter, Anne Laurel. The Shepherd's Granddaughter. Toronto, Canada: Ground-wood Books/House of Anansi Press, 2008.

Laird, Elizabeth. A Little Piece of Ground. Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket Books, 2006.

Middle East Children's Alliance. A Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against Censorship. Berkeley, Calif.: Pacific View Press, 2012.

Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. The Flag of Childhood: Poems from the Middle East. New York City: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East. New York City: Greenwillow Books, 2002.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Sitti's Secrets. Illustrations by Nancy Carpenter. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

O'Grady, Ellen. Outside the Ark: An Artist's Journey in Occupied Palestine. Durham, N.C.: 55 Books. Available from P.O. Box 542, 305E Chapel Hill Street, Durham, N.C. 27702, 2005.

Internet Resources

The Electronic Intifada (electronicintifada.net) is an online news source that focuses on Palestine.

Mondoweiss (mondoweiss.net) is a news website that covers U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East from a progressive Jewish perspective.

Jewish Voice for Peace's website (jewishvoiceforpeace.org) includes an FAQ format to answer questions about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Videos

Alatar, Mohammed, dir. Jerusalem: East Side Story: Dispossession, Occupation, and the Challenge to Survive. Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees, 2007 (eastsidestory.ps).

Omeish, Sufyan, and Omeish, Abdallah, dirs. Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Majority. Trip'ol'ii Productions, 2007 (occupation101.com).

Shamir, Yoav, dir. Checkpoint. Amit Breuer Amythos Films, 2003.

____________________________________

Katharine Davies Samway is a recently retired professor of education specializing in literacy learning and teaching, with a focus on multicultural children's and young adult literature. She is active in efforts to bring a just peace to Palestine.

This article appeared originally in Rethinking Schools, vol. 27, no. 2, winter 2012-13.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
flag of childhood: poems from the middle east

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Children's Books About Palestine | Teach Palestine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Katharine Davies Samway It was a beautiful fall day for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival and I was volunteering at a booth devoted to Palestine and the impact of the Israeli occupation.

# data[].attributes.body
As co-organizers of the Education Graduate Students of Colour (EGSC) and the Teacher Candidates of Colour (TCC) Collective, we stand in solidarity with Palestinians, whose lived experiences cannot be separated from the Israeli apartheid and the settler colonial project that comes with it. We reject the notion of using “conflict” to describe the ongoing genoicide of Palestine, its cultures, its lands, and its peoples. We join the voices of Palestinians and non-Palestinians who similarly call it what it is: an apartheid regime.

In light of the recent violence against Palestinians, in addition to the ongoing decades of Israeli occupation, we see the need — one that has been pressing for decades — for educators to critically and radically engage in supporting Palestine. We have created this Padlet with the intention of sharing resources to educate, follow, and take action. For this, we want to extend our deep gratitude to activists and community organizers, especially Palestinians, for their labour of love. To that end, we request that anyone using any of the links here practice an ethical citation policy. In brief, that means to cite the individual or collective whose work you are referencing. This does not necessarily have to be an "academic" citation; rather, it can include mentioning where the reference is coming from or including the link to the reference.

With that said, we also encourage other academics and scholars to disrupt their own privileges. Standing in solidarity with Palestine, as many of us have been told, can make it difficult to have a professional career in academia and in school boards, as well. However, as educators of colour, we believe in refusing and resisting the colonial state of institutions, and we ask more voices from the Faculty of Education and the broader University of Ottawa community to support Palestine and join students in bringing attention to this on our own campus.

#FreePalestine

# data[].attributes.body
These are some resources to get started on bringing forth conversation about Palestine in the classroom:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An interview with Palestinian educator Ziad Abbas

By Jody Sokolower

Illustrator: Ericka Sokolower-Shain

Many teachers are reluctant to teach about Palestine. We worry about negative reactions from administrators or parents. Few of us learned much about the Middle East in our own schooling, and it's difficult to find good curriculum.

But just as it's important to teach the real history of Columbus, it's important that students learn factual history and are able to think critically about Palestine and Israel. Otherwise, they are left with the stereotypes so widely disseminated in the mainstream media. The increasing volatility in the region only makes the issue more urgent.

As program manager for cross-cultural programs at the Middle East Children's Alliance (mecaforpeace.org) in Berkeley, California, Ziad Abbas works with teachers, teacher educators, and students. As a Palestinian refugee himself, born in a camp in the West Bank, he shares his family history, his knowledge of the region, and his commitment to critical thinking and social justice. He spoke recently with RS Managing Editor Jody Sokolower about his own background, the context for teaching about Palestine, and ways to approach the topic with students in the United States.

Jody Sokolower: I know you have been an educator for a long time, both here in the United States and in Palestine. Can you tell us a little about your background?

Ziad Abbas: I was born in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, which is in Bethlehem in the West Bank. In 1948, 18 years before I was born, my parents, my sister, and brother were living in Zakarriyah village near Jerusalem. My father's family had lived there for centuries. As part of what we Palestinians call the Nakba ("catastrophe" in Arabic), Zionists attacked and destroyed the village - burning houses, firing mortar rounds from tanks, and shelling homes by air. The villagers - farmers and shopkeepers - were unarmed and had no means to defend themselves. My family fled to hide in the mountains. Before they ran, people locked their houses and took their keys with them, imagining they would be gone for only a few days until things were safe again.

The Red Cross and United Nations set up temporary camps to help people to survive. The camps were nothing but tents, and life was extremely hard. Everyone waited for the international community to bring justice and allow them to return to their homes.

I was born into this situation. My mom worked hard and did all her best just to help us to survive. We didn't have any programs for children, so the only place we went was the United Nations school. The school was just a room where we could spend some time. The curriculum was censored by the Israelis. Sometimes we learned things, of course, but I remember my classrooms had 60 or sometimes 70 students with one teacher.

As a result, much of my education came from home or from the narrow alleyways of the camp where we tried to find enough space to play. Much of the time we lived under curfew. After the United Nations added buildings to the camp, entire families lived crowded into small rooms, unable to breathe. There was not enough water or even enough food. Even today, 13,000 people, mostly children, live in less than a square mile, controlled by the Israeli military. We learned to share everything, and people developed a strong commitment to our community and its struggle for justice. This was the way we grew up.

Dancers as Activists

JS: How did you start working with children?

ZA: My training is as a journalist. Through journalism I encountered many human rights organizations; one was a French group called Discovery. Back in 1994, Discovery wanted to take 20 Palestinian children, ages 12 and 13, to France to meet French children the same age. The children would spend three weeks together, teach each other about their communities, and do a common project. Discovery wanted to connect children facing hard times in Palestine with children in France.

So they approached me. No one had done a program like this in Palestine before, and especially no one had done it in a refugee camp. I said, "Let me think about it, just give me some time."

I contacted a friend of mine (we played on the same soccer team) who was teaching in a school. He told me I was crazy. In that period, my camp was surrounded by a fence 8 meters high. We had one gate, and the entire camp was under Israeli military control. It was a struggle for us to go outside the camp. How could we go to France? But I thought, what do we have to lose? Nothing. Let us try to do something. I was dreaming. I wanted to travel, I wanted to go outside and see new things. My friend, the teacher, he said, "OK, let us try."

So we started Ibdaa, which means "creativity" or "to create something out of nothing" [in Arabic], because we were missing even basic necessities in the camp. We had nothing except our dream to gain our right to return to our homeland. The idea was to create a pure refugee initiative, a place that young people could express themselves and a forum for them to communicate their situation to the larger world.

Our young people are determined to never accept the degradation and humiliation the occupation puts on them. They throw stones at the Israeli soldiers and tanks in the streets. It is very dangerous. Many of our children have been killed or injured or become disabled at an early age.

In that period, we had many children who were injured. They had a lot to say about the solutions they hoped for, but they had only one way to express their anger at the occupation, in the streets. We decided that our children deserved more ways to express themselves, to express their struggle for their right to return home. So we started this project, born inside the refugee camp and protected by the community.

One of the first challenges we faced was how to choose the children. We decided to have an election. An election was a new idea. We had two schools, a school for girls, a school for boys. We spent the next two weeks teaching all the children the meaning of elections, how to vote, why do we do it. Because of the occupation, we had never had experience with democracy. In the end, we elected 20 girls and 20 boys.

From the beginning we had girls and boys together. This was a conservative community and they didn't accept girls and boys together. Even for the children, it was hard. One thing that helped to connect the children was talking about reality: "We are refugees living behind the fence. We want to come together as a team to represent what's happening on this side of the fence, inside our refugee camp. It's not something that only affects us as individualsÑwe want to represent the community."

Discovery asked us to present something from our culture during our visit to France. We decided to tell the Palestinian people's story, not through speaking, but through dance. So we designed a show called The Tent because it was going to be about refugees. We tried to make it a story.

When we elected the children we weren't thinking of them as dancers, but in a few months they became a dancing group. We were prepared to dance for only one time in France.

We performed the first show in Paris. We ended up traveling throughout Europe and later to the United States, telling the story of Palestine through dance. I did that for 15 years. During this period I learned a lot from the children. They were the main contributors to who I am today.

You Say "Palestine."
They Ask, "Pakistan?"

JS: Now, after many years of working with Palestinian youth, you're in the United States, teaching about Palestine. What do youth here know about Palestine? Are they interested?

ZA: The Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) receives many invitations to speak in schools about the situation in the Middle East in general and about Palestine in particular. When I ask the children, "Do you know Palestine?" I will be lucky if I find a few hands raised. Sometimes there are children who have their own connections - they are immigrants from the Arab world or they come from a family of political activists, something like this. But the majority of the children, no. And with the adults, it is almost the same. You say "Palestine," they ask, "Pakistan?"

JS: How do you begin to build ties with those students? To make them care about what is happening in a country on the other side of the world?

ZA: When I traveled with the Ibdaa dance group, we performed in many places and gave workshops at schools. One experience we had was at the South Valley Academy in New Mexico, a very poor school with many immigrant students. The Palestinian children were all of a sudden very relaxed. They felt at home, like there was a connection when they danced. One of the Chicano students even said, "This is a story about us, not just about you."

So I learned from the children to make connections between Palestine and their lives. I try to reach out to the students in front of me, to understand where they are coming from. Privileged, unprivileged, immigrants. Sometimes I try to be funny so they can accept me. And I try to connect things to their reality.

I was in a school in San Jose and most of the students were from Latin America. I started talking about the borders. What the borders mean for them and anyone from their family, for anyone deported, and what borders have meant for my own family. I told them the story of my family, how my parents had to leave their homes and now my family is scattered in countries all over the world. I try to connect their story to my story.

Sometimes I push, to encourage them toward critical thinking: "Why are we seen as different from other people? Why is this happening that some people are forced from their homes? Why are Palestinians living like this?" I show them the map - the tiny space where Palestinians are allowed to live in the West Bank and Gaza. "Why are the Israelis trying to control this?"

It is similar for many new immigrants here. I explore with the students why people are forced to leave their homes and have to live here without the right documents. Being called "illegal" makes people feel insecure all the timeÑthey are afraid to be arrested and deported. What does it mean to be deported? To be jailed? This is where I can make a connection.

We can only plant the seeds. I try to use different ways to approach the meaning of oppression: If someone came to take your house, and after that pushed you to the garden, and later pushed you and your family out of your garden and even your city, what should you do? This is what happened to Palestine. How would you react if this happened to you? How should I react, because it has happened to me? This is the best way they can take my story. I target their hearts, their minds, their feelings. I want them to feel what this means.

Sometimes I speak about jail, and the experience of going to jail. When I talk about my going to jail as a child, when I tell them that children their own age are in Israeli jails because they are struggling for their rights, it motivates them to start asking more questions.

JS: You were young, right?

ZA: Yes, I was 14 the first time. Along with dozens of other teenagers, I was accused of throwing stones at the Israeli troops. When I speak about that, it shifts the feeling in the room. I get different questions. Instead of questions about how I grew up in the refugee camp, the students ask about jail. Did they torture you? How did they treat you? And they compare it with jails here in the United States. So this is the frame I use. I want them to be in my shoes. To start thinking about this.

In U.S. history, students learn about Manifest Destiny. I compare that with the Israeli concept of the Promised Land. I ask them: "Why would God give the land to these people and punish these other people because of their color or who they are? Why would this happen to Native Americans? Why to Palestinians?" Israelis say that God promised the Jewish people the land to make it their country. I encourage the students to go deep inside themselves and think about this. "Does this make sense? Did God say this?" These concepts - Manifest Destiny and Promised Land - do not fit when it comes to justice or political rights.

I talk about who gets resources and who doesn't. For example, for us water is a big issue. The aquifer under the West Bank where I grew up goes to give water to Israel - the Palestinians living right on top of the aquifer only get to buy the water from Israelis at high prices, while Israeli settlers get the water at very low prices. For many summers, when we didn't have enough to drink, I saw settlers filling their swimming pools and washing their cars.

Because of the theft of our groundwater, Palestinians are left with little water or polluted water. This is why MECA started the Maia Project. We build small water purification and desalinization systems for schools in the Gaza Strip.

Since I came to the United States I am enjoying two things: I can take a shower every day. And I can drive my car wherever I want. At home it is very hard because of the hundreds of checkpoints. For example, I can't go to Jerusalem even though it is less than 10 miles from my refugee camp.

A Framework for Curriculum

JS: What are the most important things for students to learn about Palestine? What is the framework through which we should be seeing this situation?

ZA: There are certain principles: oppression and oppressors, justice and injustice. As Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." I don't want someone to support Palestine and be against women's rights. I don't want someone to support Palestine but be against gay rights. All these issues are connected to each other. We need to teach children the principles. And Palestine is one of the clearest examples of injustice in the world today.

It is important to look at the whole history. If you start it from the Holocaust, you cannot understand what happened. It distorts the history. I try to start with how things developed. The first Zionist settlement in Palestine was in 1878; the first Zionist Congress was in 1897. In 1917, in the Balfour Declaration, the British, who were the colonizers then in Palestine, promised it to the Zionists. By the 1920s and '30s, Zionists were organizing Jews all over the world, especially in Europe, to settle in Palestine. Before World War II began, the Zionists had maps of all the Palestinian villages, lists of local leaders, and plans for how to force Palestinians out of Palestine. So it is important to put the history in 1948 and beyond in this larger picture.

Teaching about Palestine should be based in international law and respect for human rights. Under international law, especially U.N. Resolution 194, Palestinians have the "inalienable right" to return to their homeland. There are 11 million Palestinians in the world; 7 million of us are refugees in the Gaza and West Bank, in neighboring countries in the Middle East, and around the world. Resolution 194 was first passed in 1948; we are still waiting to go home. I have the key to my family house that my mom gave me before she died.

Palestine has been facing an apartheid system, especially in education. Most schools are segregated. Palestinian classrooms have poorer buildings than Israeli classrooms, fewer teachers, larger class sizes, fewer resources. Sometimes teachers can't even get to the school because of the checkpoints. This discrimination is another connection that children in the United States will understand.

JS: Why do you think so few teachers in the United States teach the history or current reality of Palestine?

ZA: The education system in the United States, like the media, is controlled. As Palestinians, we do not exist. If I see a map in the classroom, I ask the students, "Can you find Palestine on the map?" They go search and they will not find Palestine. "OK, can you find Israel on the map?" They go and they will find Israel very fast.

The U.S. education system, it is censored in that it dehumanizes "the other" so they do not exist. The focus is on teaching Manifest Destiny and Thanksgiving and Columbus-discovered-America. It means that you hide the Native American. It's the same thing as teaching the beginning of Israel as if it were because of the Holocaust - that somehow Israel was the solution to the Holocaust.

Teachers are victims of this education system, too. I wish that all the teachers in the United States knew about Howard Zinn, and that they were trained to teach children to think critically about the information they receive from teachers, their parents, and from the community. To help them to build their own perspectives and ideas.

Those teachers who are teaching about Palestine, it's often because they feel secure, they don't feel afraid for their jobs if they are attacked by the Zionists. They believe in social justice and struggle. And, also, they know their responsibility for what the United States is doing to other peoples, they make those connections. Many other teachers want to speak but they don't know what's happening in Palestine, or they have never examined this issue in their school.

JS: Another barrier to teaching Palestine is fear of negative reactions from parents and administrators.

ZA: I know that teaching Palestine is a risky thing to do. I had one experience where the teacher was forced to leave the school by the end of the year because she invited me to speak.

JS: She didn't realize what a firestorm that would cause.

ZA: She didn't realize at all. She's African American, the headmaster was African American. They were teaching about social justice and human rights. They thought they were very radical. She didn't realize the minute it comes to Palestine it's a different issue. This teacher, however, never regretted that she invited me. She told me that as someone committed to social justice, she needs to teach about human rights abuses everywhere, whether they are in Africa, in the United States, or in Palestine.

These Zionist groups are very well organized. They try to target everyone who talks or teaches about Palestine. They want to shut down everyone who tries to put this issue on the table or tries to teach about it. But people are resisting these attacks. Recently I've been invited to many schools and conferences to present about Palestine. Many teachers are refusing to be intimidated and are insisting on their right to teach about human rights. Because of this, things are changing. I am very proud that there are many teachers doing this.

Getting Started

JS: I think there are many teachers who would like to teach about Palestine, but they feel they don't know enough. If someone wanted to get a basic understanding of the history and current situation, what would you suggest?

ZA: When I care about an issue, I follow it in the news. That's a place to start (see Resources).

Then, to understand the background, I recommend The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, by Ilan PappŽ, who is an Israeli Jew; his parents were Holocaust survivors. He puts what happened in 1948 in historical context. He explains, using international definitions, why what the Israelis did to the Palestinians in 1948 was an ethnic cleansing. For Palestinian culture, you can read Ghassan Kanafani. He was assassinated when he was 36 years old, but he documented what happened to Palestinians through short stories. His best-known book in English is Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories. There are documentary films, including Occupation 101, which is a good introduction. Roadmap to Apartheid compares South Africa and Palestine. Promises is a documentary about Palestinian and Israeli children. Frontiers of Dreams and Fears explores the lives of a group of Palestinian children growing up inside refugee camps.

Why Teach Palestine?

JS: There is so much pressure to teach subjects that show up on standardized tests. Why is it important to make time to teach Palestine?

ZA: In the United States, there are special reasons why students need to learn about Palestine. First, it's a basic human rights issue. People in the United States care about human rights and have a right to know what is going on in the world.

Second, the main supporter of the Israeli occupation is the U.S. government. The United States gives money and human resources to support the Israeli military - this is $3 billion dollars a year that could support school budgets, but instead goes to support the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The United States gives political support to Israel, especially in international organizations like the United Nations. They try to protect Israel from Security Council resolutions that will criticize Israel or try to enforce Israel's compliance with international law.

Third, this issue directly involves the people of the United States. Many of the settlers who occupy the West Bank are actually U.S. citizens. They vote in U.S. elections, but also Israeli elections.

Fourth, just to understand world politics, we need to understand the dynamics that involve Palestine. U.S. policy in the Middle East uses Israel to try to control the resources in the region. The United States presents itself as the mediator for peace in the Middle East. In reality, they are supporting the Israeli occupation.

Finally, we cannot have peace in the world without justice in Palestine. It could lead to a third world war; I hate to say it. The new generations in the United States and the world, they need to know about Palestine. They need to know what's happening in Palestine; they need to know the principles of human rights, the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, so they can bring peace. Without changing U.S. public opinion and actions about Israel, without the new generation taking a lead toward justice for themselves and for those outside the United States, I don't think we can have peace in the world.

Sometimes teachers are not just educating children, they are educating their parents, too. You are planting seeds in the children that bear fruit even after they go to the streets, after they go home.

You don't teach Palestine because you are against Jewish people. You teach Palestine because you believe in certain principles. Teachers need to take a stand. And they should be protected by their principals, by the education system, by their union. This is very important.

Every school is a specific community with its own issues. You need to respect rules, but there are certain rules you need to break. You cannot continue to go along with rules that mean the system can confiscate the right of the people to think - to take a stand and to take initiative.

Educators are creative. It's beautiful when they connect what's going on in the world - in Palestine and elsewhere - to the classroom and to their students' daily lives.

Resources

Websites for Information About Palestine

Books

Kanafani, Ghassan. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories. Translated by Hilary Kilpatrick. Three Continents Press, 1998.

PappŽ, Ilan. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld Publications, 2007.

Documentary Films

Frontiers of Dreams and Fears. Mai Masri, filmmaker. Arab Film Distribution, 2001.

Occupation 101. Sufyan and Abdallah Omeish, filmmakers. Triple Eye Films, 2003.

Promises. Justine Shapiro, BZ Goldberg, and Carlos Bolado, filmmakers. Roco Films, 2001.

Roadmap to Apartheid. Ana Nogueira and Eron Davidson, filmmakers. Journeymen Pictures, 2012.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
By Jody Sokolower Illustrator: Ericka Sokolower-Shain Many teachers are reluctant to teach about Palestine. We worry about negative reactions from administrators or parents. Few of us learned much about the Middle East in our own schooling, and it's difficult to find good curriculum.

# data[].attributes.headline
Call Israel what it is: An apartheid state

# data[].attributes.subject
Call Israel what it is: An apartheid state

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
People in Gaza woke up to the sound of bombs and crashing buildings on the morning of Eid-ul fitr on Thursday, as Israeli forces continue their attack on Palestinians who are protesting the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.

The Israeli army has launched hundreds of air strikes on the Gaza Strip since Monday, and Palestinians launched more than 1 000 rockets in response.

As of Thursday, 84 Palestinians, including 17 children had been killed in Gaza as a result of the air strikes. Nearly 500 people were injured.

Days before Eid-ul fitr, the compound at the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was littered with the remnants of stun grenades and rubber bullets that were used against worshippers. Palestinians only had rocks and stones to defend themselves.

Calm was restored in Jerusalem on Thursday for Eid but in Gaza the religious day was stained with death and destruction.

We remember today (15 May) as the 73 rd anniversary of Nakba, which marks the establishment of Israel in 1948. During Nakba Israel dispossessed more than 700 000 Palestinians of their homes, rights and dignity. Zionists had taken more than 78% of historic Palestine and destroyed about 530 villages and cities. Zionists killed 15 000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres in those years.

But Nakba never stopped. Last year there was nearly a nearly fourfold increase in the number of people displaced from the West Bank and a 55% rise of structures targeted with demolitions or confiscations compared to 2019.

The events unfolding in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, where six families are facing eviction threats, again reminds us that Nakba did not end. Israeli forces raided homes and attacked residents and protesters in the old city.

Under international humanitarian law, East Jerusalem remains part of Occupied Palestinian Territories. Israel, as the occupying power, cannot confiscate private property in these areas, the United Nations said. Transferring civilian populations into occupied territory is illegal and may amount to war crimes.

Israel is committing crimes of apartheid

On 27 April, Human Rights Watch confirmed that Israel crossed the threshold of crimes of apartheid and persecution committed against Palestinians.

It found that Israel seeks to maintain domination over Palestinians to expand its sovereignty. It systematically oppresses Palestininans, deprives them of their basic rights of access to food, land, services and other resources, and it commits inhumane and discriminatory acts.

The three elements: domination, systematic oppression and committing inhumane acts against Palestinians amount to the crime of apartheid, Human Rights Watch said. The International Criminal Court is investigating Israel for war crimes and called for sanctions including travel bans and asset freezes on responsible officials.

Israel rejected the evidence, but it's action against Palestinians speaks louder than its words.

If anything, Israel should hang its head in shame. Even during the pandemic, Israelis are at a much greater advantage. Life is returning to normal for Jews in the West, but things are different in the East. The pandemic made the inequality between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians even more apparent.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel as an occupying power is legally obligated to supply food, healthcare services and medical supplies to Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Taking action

Human Rights Watch set out a list of recommendations for Israel to end its crimes against Palestinians. Among them are:

All forms of systematic oppression and discrimination that gives Jewish Israelis an advantage over Palestinians and their rights must be dismantled;

End discriminatory policies and practices especially where civil rights, freedom of movement, allocation of land and resources, access to water, electricity, the denial of building permits and other services are concerned;

The construction and expansion of settlements must come to an end and existing settlements must be dismantled. Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, must return to Israel's internationally recognised borders. Arbitrary restrictions on residency rights for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and their families must be lifted. Palestinians should be allowed to move freely; and

Israeli authorities should provide Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza with full respect for their human rights, using the rights that it grants Israeli citizens as a benchmark. International support for the Palestinian people continues to grow.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Call Israel what it is: An apartheid state - The Mail & Guardian

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
People in Gaza woke up to the sound of bombs and crashing buildings on the morning of Eid-ul fitr on Thursday, as Israeli forces continue their attack on Palestinians who are protesting the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.

# data[].attributes.headline
Is Israel Guilty Of Apartheid Against Palestinians?

# data[].attributes.subject
Is Israel Guilty Of Apartheid Against Palestinians?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Is Israel Guilty Of Apartheid Against Palestinians?

# data[].attributes.body
The following include organizations with public profiles that can be followed on social media for more information and news:

*We are sharing public social media accounts of organizations, but can include accounts of individuals who provide consent to do so.

# data[].attributes.body
In order to get informed about Palestine, we have to engage with critical and radical texts (e.g., podcasts, readings, viewings). The following texts are sorted by common questions that come up:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recommended titles for K-12 and adults on Palestine. This list is important for children of Palestinian heritage to see themselves represented in the curriculum.