#jazeera travels

[hostilecityshowdown]

i know i'm The Guy who never shuts up about people, especially modern-day professional wrestling fans with little to no awareness of pre-1980's wrestling, needing to read death of the territories. However. bodyslams in buffalo by dan murphy opens with the best overview of the entire history of professional wrestling i've found yet and, overall, it's a much shorter book that doesn't read like a textbook

this is a greatly accessible alternative for anyone who felt overwhelmed by death of the territories' scope, constant stream of factual information with little reprieve, and serious/academic overtone. bodyslams in buffalo has humour, dramatised retellings of events, and exclusive/rarely seen photos from the collections of both pro wrestling illustrated and the families of wrestlers. also: transcribed promotional posters, news articles, and advertisements! highly recommend

and don't forget to continue engaging in active boycotts, demonstrations, letter/email writing, awareness raising, and direct action in support of palestinian freedom and in opposition to the genocide of palestinians.

[northgazaupdates]

Please support our friend

Graphic design artist and journalist Moataz Abu Sakran @moatazart was still finishing his beautiful home in Gaza City when the IOF bombed it. They destroyed everything he and his wife Maryam had built, leaving him, Maryam, and their baby girl Maria homeless. Moataz lost the ability to work, and his family is struggling to get food. They have been repeatedly under siege by the occupation, including during the long siege of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex area.

Despite all of this, Moataz continues to make content about Gaza, risking his life and going to unimaginable effort to inform people about real conditions on the ground in the north of the Strip. His tumblr (above) and Instagram accounts are both active, and you can view his work there. This blog often cites Moataz, and major news outlets like Al Jazeera as well as social media influencers have also used his photos and footage, usually without any recognition.

Moataz, Maryam, and Maria were about to evacuate to Egypt to temporarily resettle there for their own safety. Their plan was to find safety in Egypt, and find work there until they were able to return to Gaza. The border is currently closed due to illegal IOF seizure, but it will reopen. They still plan to travel to Egypt for their own safety and to find work, but for now that is too far into the future to be of any consolation. They have no intention of leaving Gaza permanently, they love their home and are determined to rebuild it.

You can help them rebuild their home by supporting them here. The rebuilding cost is significant, and the fundraising will have to be done in stages. Unfortunately, this first stage has seen very little progress. You can help Palestinians be able to keep living in Gaza by supporting their reconstruction funds. No amount is too little, and all reblogs and reposts are immensely powerful.

We are also putting together an art drive to raise funds, and are looking for artists and other creatives who are interested in contributing. If you have experience organizing art drives, or want to contribute your work, please reach out to us.

Thank you

The legitimacy of Moataz’s case has been verified by this blog, as well as other tumblr users

[sayruq]

NAHLA AL-ARIAN HAS been living a nightmare for the past seven months, watching from afar as Israel carries out its scorched-earth war against her ancestral homeland in the Gaza Strip. Like many Palestinian Americans, the 63-year-old retired fourth-grade teacher from Tampa Bay, Florida, has endured seven months of a steady trickle of WhatsApp messages about the deaths of her relatives. “You see, my father’s family is originally from Gaza, so they are a big family. And they are not only in Gaza City, but also in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, other parts,” Al-Arian told me. Recently, the trickle of horrors became a flood: “It started with like 27, and then we lost count until I received this message from my relative who said at least 200 had died.” The catastrophe was the backdrop for Al-Arian’s visit last week to Columbia University in New York City. Al-Arian has five children, four of whom are journalists or filmmakers. On April 25, two of her daughters, Laila and Lama, both award-winning TV journalists, visited the encampment established by Columbia students to oppose the war in Gaza. Laila, an executive producer at Al Jazeera English with Emmys and a George Polk Award to her name, is a graduate of Columbia’s journalism school. Lama was the recipient of the prestigious 2021 Alfred I. duPont–Columbia Award for her reporting for Vice News on the 2020 explosion at the port of Beirut. The two sisters traveled to Columbia as journalists to see the campus, and Nahla joined them. “Of course, I tagged along. You know, why would I sit at the hotel by myself? And I wanted to really see those kids. I felt so down,” she said. “I was crying every day for Gaza, for the children being killed, for the women, the destruction of my father’s city, so I wanted to feel better, you know, to see those kids. I heard a lot about them, how smart they are, how organized, you know? So I said, let’s go along with you. So I went.” Nahla Al-Arian was on the campus for less than an hour. She sat and listened to part of a teach-in, and shared some hummus with her daughters and some students. Then she left, feeling a glimmer of hope that people — at least these students — actually cared about the suffering and deaths being inflicted on her family in Gaza. “I didn’t teach them anything. They are the ones who taught me. They are the ones who gave me hope,” she recalled. “I felt much better when I went there because I felt those kids are really very well informed, very well educated. They are the conscience of America. They care about the Palestinian people who they never saw or got to meet.” Her husband posted a picture of Nahla, sitting on the lawn at the tent city erected by the student protesters, on his Twitter feed. “My wife Nahla in solidarity with the brave and very determined Columbia University students,” he wrote. Nahla left New York, inspired by her visit to Columbia, and returned to Virginia to spend time with her grandchildren. A few days later, that one tweet by her husband would thrust Nahla Al-Arian into the center of a spurious narrative promoted by the mayor of New York City and major media outlets. She became the exemplar of the dangerous “outside agitator” who was training the students at Columbia. It was Nahla’s presence, according to Mayor Eric Adams, that was the “tipping point” in his decision to authorize the military-style raids on the campus.

On February 20, 2003, Nahla’s husband, Sami Al-Arian, a professor at the University of South Florida, was arrested and indicted on 53 counts of supporting the armed resistance group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The PIJ had been designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization, and the charges against Al-Arian could have put him in prison for multiple life sentences, plus 225 years. It was a centerpiece case of the George W. Bush administration’s domestic “war on terror.” When John Ashcroft, Bush’s notorious attorney general, announced the indictment, he described the Florida-based scholar as “the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Sami Al-Arian.” Among the charges against him was conspiracy to kill or maim persons abroad, specifically in Israel, yet the prosecutors openly admitted Al-Arian had no connection to any violence. He was a well-known and deeply respected figure in the Tampa community, where he and Nahla raised their family. He was also, like many fellow Palestinians, a tenacious critic of U.S. support for Israel and of the burgeoning “global war on terror.” His arrest came just days before the U.S. invaded Iraq, a war Al-Arian was publicly opposed to. The Al-Arian case was, at its core, a political attack waged by Bush’s Justice Department as part of a wider assault on the rights of Muslims in the U.S. The government launched a campaign, echoed in media outlets, to portray Al-Arian as a terror leader at a time when the Bush administration was ratcheting up its so-called global war on terror abroad, and when Muslims in the U.S. were being subjected to harassment, surveillance, and abuse. The legal case against Al-Arian was flimsy, and prosecutors largely sought to portray his protected First Amendment speech and charitable activities as terrorism. The trial against Al-Arian, a legal permanent resident in the U.S., did not go well for federal prosecutors. In December 2005, following a six-month trial, a jury acquitted him on eight of the most serious counts and deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquittal on the other nine. The judge made clear he was not pleased with this outcome, and the prosecutors were intent on relitigating the case. Al-Arian had spent two years in jail already without any conviction and was staring down the prospect of years more. In the face of this reality and the toll the trial against him had taken on his family, Al-Arian agreed to take a plea deal. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to one count of providing nonviolent support to people the government alleged were affiliated with the PIJ. As part of the deal, Al-Arian would serve a short sentence and, with his residency revoked, get an expedited deportation. At no point during the government’s trial against Al-Arian did the prosecution provide evidence he was connected to any acts of violence. For the next eight years following his release from prison in 2008, Al-Arian was kept under house arrest and effectively subjected to prosecutorial harassment as the government sought to place him in what his lawyers characterized as a judicial trap by compelling him to testify in a separate case. His defense lawyers alleged the federal prosecutor in the case, who had a penchant for pursuing high-profile, political cases, held an anti-Palestinian bias. Amnesty International raised concerns that Al-Arian had been abused in prison and he faced the prospect of yet another lengthy, costly court battle. The saga would stretch on for several more years before prosecutors ended the case and Al-Arian was deported from the United States.

“This case remains one of the most troubling chapters in this nation’s crackdown after 9-11,” Al-Arian’s lawyer, Jonathan Turley, wrote in 2014 when the case was officially dropped. “Despite the jury verdict and the agreement reached to allow Dr. Al-Arian to leave the country, the Justice Department continued to fight for his incarceration and for a trial in this case. It will remain one of the most disturbing cases of my career in terms of the actions taken by our government.” That federal prosecutors approved Al-Arian’s plea deal gave a clear indication that the U.S. government knew Al-Arian was not an actual terrorist, terrorist facilitator, or any kind of threat; the Bush administration, after all, was not in the habit of letting suspected terrorists walk. Al-Arian and his family have always maintained his innocence and say that he was being targeted for his political beliefs and activism on behalf of Palestinians. He resisted the deal, Nahla Al-Arian said. “He didn’t even want to accept it. He wanted to move on with another trial,” Nahla said. “But because of our pressure on him, let’s just get done with it [because] in the end, we’re going leave anyway. So that’s why.” Sami and Nahla Al-Arian now live in Turkey. Sami is not allowed to visit his children and grandchildren stateside, but Nahla visits often.

[capybaracorn]

Israel’s ‘anti-Zionists’ brave police beatings, smears to demand end to war

Some have been jailed for refusing to serve in the armed forces while others face threats and harassment from right-wing groups.

An antiwar protest in Tel Aviv during municipal elections [Mat Nashed/Al Jazeera]

(9 Mar 2024)

Tel Aviv/West Jerusalem – In 2015, Maya, a Jewish Israeli, travelled to Greece to help Syrian refugees. At the time, she was an exchange student in Germany and she had been deeply moved by the pictures she saw of desperate people arriving there in small boats.

That was where she met Palestinians who had been born in Syria after their parents and grandparents fled there during the founding of her own country in 1948.

They told her about the Nakba – or “catastrophe” – in which 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes to make way for the newly established Israel. Maya, 33, who had been taught that her country was born through “an independence war” against hostile Arab neighbours, decided that she needed to “unlearn” what she had learned.

“I never heard about the right of return, or Palestinian refugees,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I had to get out of Israel to start learning about Israel. It was the only way I could puncture holes in what I was taught.”

Maya, who asked that her full name not be used for fear of reprisals, is one of a small number of Israeli Jewish activists who identify as “anti-Zionists” or “non-Zionists”.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Israeli group with a stated mission of fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in the United States, Zionism means supporting a Jewish state established for the protection of Jews worldwide.

However, many anti-Zionists like Maya and the people she works with view Zionism as a Jewish supremacist movement which has ethnically cleansed most of historic Palestine and systematically discriminates against the Palestinians who remain, either as citizens of Israel or residents of the occupied territories.

But since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israeli civilians and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and nearly 250 taken captive, Israeli anti-Zionists have been accused of treason for speaking about Palestinian human rights.

Many have called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza to stop what they view as collective punishment and genocide of the Palestinian people.

“I think [anti-Zionists] always claim that Jewish supremacy is not the answer and it is not the answer to the [October 7] killings,” Maya said.

“Israelis don’t understand how the Palestinian story is all about the Nakba, refugees and the right of return. If we are not able to deal with that then we are not going anywhere.”

Perceived as ‘traitors’

Since October 7, Israeli anti-Zionists have described living in a hostile political and social environment. Many say the police have violently cracked down on anti-war protests, while others have received threats from far-right-wing Israelis.

Roee, who, like Maya, did not give his last name for fear of reprisals from Israeli society or authorities, is also a Jewish Israeli activist. In October last year, he attended a small demonstration of a couple of dozen people a few days after Israel began bombing Gaza. The demonstrators were calling on Hamas to free all Israeli captives and on Israel to stop the war.

“The police pushed all of us [out] violently in just two minutes,” Roee, 28, told Al Jazeera at a cafe in West Jerusalem.

Weeks later, Roee and his friend, Noa, who also did not want her full name to be revealed, attended another silent demonstration outside a police station in Jerusalem. They put tape over their mouths to denounce the sweeping arrests of Palestinian citizens of Israel who had also called for an end to the war on Gaza.

But again, police chased down the Israeli protesters and beat them with batons.

“I think it is very clear that the police recognise us. It doesn’t matter the signs we hold. They know us. They know we are leftists and that we are ‘traitors’ or whatever they call us,” Noa told Al Jazeera.

Many Israeli antiwar activists have also been smeared or “doxxed” – a term given to people whose identities and addresses are made known on social media by those hoping to intimidate them into silence.

Maya said that a right-wing activist had accused her romantic partner of cooperating with Hamas by informing them of the whereabouts of Israeli positions in Gaza. The activist published photos of her partner on Instagram with captions detailing the fabricated accusations.

“We were afraid that our address would be exposed, but luckily it wasn’t. Even before October 7, [these groups of extreme right-wing people] tried to obtain addresses of people to ‘dox’ them and taunt them. Some of our friends had to leave their apartments. That was our main worry,” Maya said.

Conscientious objectors

While most Israelis are required to enlist in the army after high school, antiwar activists have refused to take part in their country’s continuing occupation of the West Bank, where raids and arrests have been intensified since October, or in the war on Gaza. Two young Israelis who publicly refused to join the army are now serving short sentences in military prison.

Einat Gerlitz, a “non-Zionist” and a member of Mesarvot, a non-profit organisation providing social and legal support to Israeli conscientious objectors, said that more people may have refused military service since the war on Gaza began, because not everyone goes public.

“The army does not release the numbers … because the army’s interest is to make sure [refusing service] is not a topic spoken about in the public sphere. The government and army work really hard to glorify army service, so they want minimal attention on conscientious objectors,” the 20-year-old said.

Einat Gerlitz is a 20-year-old peace activist and a conscientious objector. She spoke about her peace activism in a cafe in Tel Aviv [Al Jazeera/Mat Nashed]

Gerlitz added that the October 7 attack did not make her reconsider her peace activism, but she is very concerned for friends and peers who were quickly deployed to Gaza.

“I was worried for them, but I was also worried about some of the commands that they may need to fulfil,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to her worries that soldiers may be ordered to commit atrocities or violate international law.

Over the past five months, Israeli soldiers have razed entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, bombed universities, hospitals and places of worship, and shot at crowds of starving Palestinians lining up for food aid.

Rights groups say that these attacks amount to war crimes and may collectively amount to a campaign of genocide.

‘We need greater empathy’

Many anti-Zionist Israelis say that their aim is to make fellow Israelis recognise the humanity of the Palestinians.

However, they say it has been difficult to counter the messaging of Israeli politicians, some of whom have called Palestinians in Gaza “animals”, “subhuman” or “barbarians” in order to rally support for the war. Some of these statements were singled out by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which issued an emergency order in January on the genocide case brought against Israel by South Africa.

Israeli society also expresses little empathy for Palestinians in Gaza, several Israeli activists told Al Jazeera. They explained they believe this is partly due to Israeli media rarely reporting on the army’s probable war crimes, nor on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis brought on by Israel’s war.

Maya recalls going to a demonstration in Tel Aviv to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in late October. About 50 people attended, with many holding up photos of children killed by the Israeli army. But when Israeli children saw the photos, they claimed they were fake.

“[Young Israeli kids] pointed at a photo of a father holding a dead baby in Gaza and said, ‘How can you believe this? It’s not real. He is acting’,” Maya said.

“[Another child] pointed to a different dead baby and said, ‘This is a doll’.”

Addam, an anti-Zionist Israeli and a graffiti artist, who did not disclose his full name, was also at the protest. He said that an Israeli woman called the demonstrators “traitors” and said that her own brother had died fighting for Israel in Gaza.

While Addam was heartbroken to hear about her loss, he said he believes that the government is weaponising Israeli grief to commit atrocities in Gaza. He added that he tries to humanise Palestinians through his art and spoke about one project where he photographed the physical scars that Palestinians and Israelis bore from past conflicts.

“Once there is empathy, it creates an entirely different foundation to begin engaging in reality,” he told Al Jazeera. “It should be a given that people in Gaza are human beings with families, dreams and jobs.

“But, for many factors, there is this ongoing process [in Israel] of dehumanising Palestinians.”

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Amazing news on the 129th day of the war: Israel's army has rescued 2 hostages from Gaza, 70 years old Luis Har and 60 years old Fernando Merman (they're two of 5 family members who were all kidnapped together, including Clara Merman who I mentioned before. The women were released as a part of the hostage deal, roughly 2 months ago). The rescue operation was started at roughly 1 in the morning, lasted about 1 hour from the first to the last bullet fired, and took place in Rafah, the last city in Gaza under full Hamas control. That Israel managed to do it in Hamas' last stronghold makes this operation (which required a lot of forces and VERY accurate intel) even more impressive, certainly when you consider how the difference between success and tragic failure in such complex operations is SO small. The IDF spokesman said that from the moment the soldiers broke in, they physically embraced Fernando and Luis to shield the hostages with the soldiers' own body (we've heard from released hostages that the terrorists told then in case of a rescue operation, the orders are for the terrorist to kill them, them themselves. I'm gonna admit, that's when I started crying. I was so happy to hear these two men are okay, but being reminded that young men, with their whole lives ahead of them, physically put their bodies between these elderly men and the terrorists' bullets got to me. It goes against every evolutionary instinct that human beings are supposed to have, and yet... And the truth is, that's what all of our soldiers are doing, they're putting themselves between us, all Israeli citizens, and the brutal violence of the terrorists.

On the left and Luis on the right:

Hamas has made its own announcement about this operation, of course not saying a word about the freed hostages, and instead blaming Israel of committing a massacre. Hamas, which started this whole war by massacring over (at least) 1,200 people, most of which were civilians, and kidnapping over 240 human beings, is accusing Israel of committing a massacre because Hamas says dozens of people were killed (according to the soldiers who engaged in fire with them, there's no question that most of the people killed weren't "uninvolved civilians") during the rescue of the civilians kidnapped by Hamas. Make it make sense. Soap opera logic doesn't make my head hurt as much as that of antisemites.

Yesterday, there were two stabbing terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and near it. The first one happened in the Old City, ending with one person wounded and the terrorist neutralized. The other took place outside the town of Beitar Illit, no one was wounded, the terrorist was neutralized. On a personal note, there's an expert doctor who I've been going to in Jerusalem, and he called me back on a very specific date, but when I called his secretary, it turns out he's fully booked for an entire month past that day. My one option to see him around the date he mentioned, is to go see him at his Beitar Illit clinic. We're talking about a clinic that's 15 minutes from my home, yet right now I feel terrified of going there. It feels like if I go, I may pay for it dearly, and if I don't go, I may pay for it dearly. It's my own country, my ancestral homeland, a place my ancestors, who lived in the same place as I do, weren't scared to travel to. This is not a normal reality, and anyone calling this "resistance" just means they're against Jews having a normal life.

Once more, a Gazan journalist was revealed to be a Hamas terrorist. This time, it's a man who has been reporting for Al Jazeera (which has a long history of antisemitism), and has now been determined to have been a Hamas senior, developing anti-tank missiles for the terrorist organization. I just wanna point out that anti-tank missiles were fired at homes in Israeli civilian communities, including on Oct 7. Please keep in mind these countless journalist who are also linked with Hamas when you hear the lie that Israel is targeting journalists just for reporting.

A 21 years old Palestinian, convicted for terrorist acts, who had been released as a part of the hostage deal, was arrested yesterday after trying to infiltrate Israel using a stolen Israeli ID card. This is the third released convicted terrorist I've heard of to be arrested since the hostage deal in December 2023. There might have been more that I missed. This is a reminder that a terrifyingly high percentage of prematurely released terrorist end up returning to terrorist activity in one capacity or another.

On the same day that Israeli IDF troops courage and willingness to self sacrifice made me cry, we also learned that two soldiers were killed tonight, in a separate (earlier) fight to the one where the hostages were released (in a different part of Gaza). Still, while they might not have been standing physically in front of Israeli civilians, but protecting them is exactly what they did. Every operation that saves a hostage is made possible by the army's presence and progress in Gaza. If soldiers were able to free hostages in the southern part of Gaza, it's thanks to each one fighting (and dying) in the northern parts, too. So today, I'm gonna remember that, as we say goodbye to these two 21 year olds. Our hearts bleed with their families for this loss. May their memory be a blessing.

These are 32 years old Eynav Levy and her 33 years old husband Or.

On Oct 7, they arrived at the Nova music festival just minutes before Hamas' attack started. Eynav was murdered, while Or was taken hostage to Gaza. They have a 2 years old baby, Almog. He doesn't understand, and there is no way to explain to him, where his parents have disappeared to. May Eynav's memory be a blessing, and Or return, so his son will still have at least one parent.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[catdotjpeg]

Motaz Azaiza posed for a photo with Al Jazeera’s Wael Dahdouh and shared it on X. Both reporters have received praise for their work amid dangerous conditions on the ground in Gaza, where dozens of journalists have been killed since the beginning of Israel’s assault. Dahdouh arrived in Qatar for medical treatment last week. The photojournalist Azaiza evacuated Gaza yesterday and also traveled to Qatar. “Our smile is a kind of resilience,” he said in a post showing him with Dahdouh.

-- "Palestinian journalists Dahdouh and Azaiza share photo" by Alma Milisic and Linah Alsaafin for Al Jazeera, 24 Jan 2024 18:30 GMT

[eretzyisrael]

by Chaim Lax

A popular adage states that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

In this day and age of social media and up-to-the-minute news, it has never been faster for a lie to travel around the world — and it’s been even harder for the truth to try and catch up.

That was the case last week, when Al Jazeera spread a malicious libel about Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women in Al-Shifa Hospital during the IDF’s ongoing campaign against entrenched Hamas forces there, before quietly removing the story and trying to silently bury it.

On the morning of March 24, Al Jazeera Arabic’s principal news presenter, Elsy Abi Assi (who is no stranger to antisemitism and denial of Hamas atrocities), interviewed a Gazan woman by the name of Jamila Al-Hessi on live TV. She claimed that Israeli soldiers operating in Al-Shifa Hospital were raping Palestinian women and brutally murdering other Palestinians sheltering in the medical complex.

These allegations soon spread like wildfire on social media, with popular anti-Israel accounts picking up the story and disseminating it to their large English-speaking audiences.

Then, that night, Yasser Abuhilalah, an Al Jazeera columnist and former director, tweeted that a Hamas investigation into these allegations had concluded that they were not true, and that Jamila Al-Hessi had justified her on-air deception by claiming that she had exaggerated her claims in order to “arouse the nation’s fervor and brotherhood.”

According to some analysts, Hamas had decided to issue a rare public denial of these claims since its dissemination among Palestinians in northern Gaza was having the opposite effect than was intended: Instead of producing enmity against Israel, these allegations had caused Palestinians to flee the area in fear for their safety.

By the next day, Al Jazeera had removed references to Al-Hessi’s claims from its online platforms, but never formally retracted these libels, even though it had uncritically aired them in the first place.

However, by that point, it was too late. The damage to Israel’s reputation had already been done.

In less than 24 hours, millions of people had already viewed Jamila Al-Hessi’s lies on social media and, despite the denial by Hamas itself, continue to do so through a variety of anti-Israel accounts.

As of this last Thursday alone, the story had been viewed 2.3 million times on the X (formerly Twitter) account of Middle East Eye, 918,000 times on the X account of “investigative journalist” Sulaiman Ahmed, 405,000 times on the X account of “human rights activist”/Hamas supporter Ramy Abdu, and over 305,000 times on the X account of alternative media outlet The Cradle.

Some (including Sana Saeed, a journalist affiliated with Al Jazeera) have even gone so far as to voice skepticism of Hamas’ discrediting of Al-Hessi’s story.

The allegation of rape by IDF soldiers in Al-Shifa Hospital is not the first lie about Israel and the IDF that has been spread since Hamas’ October 7 terror attack and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.

However, in this case, it was not spread by a lone social media activist or a fringe news source, but by a news organization that enjoys a veneer of respectability among both news consumers and media outlets around the world.

Despite it serving as an official mouthpiece of the authoritarian Qatari regime, and being accused of echoing Hamas talking points, Al Jazeera is viewed as a trusted source of information about Israel and the Palestinians during the current conflict, as well as over the past several years.

In 2022, HonestReporting uncovered that Al Jazeera had been cited by 16 “top-tier news outlets” 116 times in Israel-related news stories, with most never mentioning the Qatari media organization’s inherent bias.

Also, if not for Hamas deciding that the libel about rapes in Al-Shifa Hospital was not in its best interest and issuing a denial of the allegations, it is highly likely that Al Jazeera would have continued to run with this fabrication as a trusted news story.

In this age of the 24-hour news cycle and instant access to news from around the world, Al Jazeera is serving as a valuable tool in Hamas’ propaganda war, spreading misinformation and sullying Israel’s image around the world at record speeds.

Al Jazeera’s malign influence on the views of social media users is concerning. For mainstream media outlets to rely on it as a source for Israel-related stories is downright journalistic malpractice.

[newsfrom-theworld]

On international women's day let me introduce you to some of the victims of ''Isr@el''

1. Shireen Abu Akluh

On 11th of May 2022 around 6:30 the prominent American Palestinian Journalist was killed by Isr@eli snipers; they also attacked her funeral.

The shaky video, filmed by Al Jazeera cameraman Majdi Banura, captures the scene when Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian-American was killed by a bullet to the head at around 6:30 a.m. on May 11.

She had been standing with a group of journalists near the entrance of Jenin refugee camp, where they had come to cover an Israeli raid.

While the footage does not show Abu Akleh being shot, eyewitnesses told CNN that they believe Isr@eli forces on the same street fired deliberately on the reporters in a targeted attack.

All of the journalists were wearing protective blue vests that identified them as members of the news media. ​

2.Farah Omar

A Lebanese correspondent of Al-Mayadeen TV, was killed by an Isr@eli strike on Tayr Harfa, south Lebanon, on November 21, 2023, according to Al-Mayadeen.

4. Heba Sami

Dr. Heba Sami Al-Jourani who was known for her intelligence and determination lived elsewhere she could have been working in a very important hospital as a physicians to help those people who were wounded in wars and accidents, But unfortunately Heba had to put her dreams aside and stand face to face with death.

Heba’s family home in Rafah was targeted by Isr@eli warplane, minutes ago before she lost her life, Heba was sending messages and checking telegram groups to know where is the bombing she’s hearing, unfortunately that was her last scene,

Heba’s family became the breaking news at 11:48 am, on November

5. Walaa Saadah

A passionate filmmaker, writer, and blogger normally work day and night, travel, sometimes receiving awards but not if its a Palestinian woman in lives in Gaza and that’s the story of "Walaa Saadah, who was born in Beit Hanoun, Northern Gaza, in 1990.

Walaa since 2010, with too much passion worked in cinema and filmmaking, starting as a screenplay writer, she also worked in civil society organizations as a coordinator who directed several films that shed light on the suffering of the people of Gaza to the world.

Walaa was killed on March 2, 2024, in an Isr@eli airstrike on displaced people in Deir al-Balah city. walaa dream ended before having any chance to raise and shine as prominent filmmaker

6. Asmaa Hamdan

Asma a beloved 22-year-old, brought joy with her infectious smile. In high school, she was the heart of our large group. After a beautiful love story, she married Shadi and welcomed Sham, the light of her life. As an engineer, she graduated days before war disrupted everything.

Despite the hardships, Asmaa's resilience inspired us. Tragically, on December 25th, Asmaa and her daughter Sham were martyred in a massacre caused by Isr@eli occupation rockets, which claimed the lives of 100 martyrs in Al-Maghazi refugee camp, leaving behind a painful void.

7. Nagham Abu Samra

Nagham Abu Samra, 24 years old, was a professional karate player before Isr@el deprived her of that. She suffered from a critical head injury, and her leg was amputated after her home in Gaza was bombed by Isr@el.

Her uncle was pleading with the world to intervene and help Nagham travel abroad for treatment, but no one responded. Nagham was martyred, succumbing to her injuries from the Israeli bombing on January 12, 2023.

8. Talal Baalusha

A high school student, creative in traditional dance (dabke), and a member of the "Asayel Watan" group She also owned a clothing store.

She bid farewell to her family after they were martyred, then others mourned her.

She was martyred with her mother.

9. Hind Rajab

After she appealed to the world for help to save her, 12 days passed without communication.

On the 10th of February, the body of the martyr, the child Hind Rajab, and 5 members of her family were found.

Her Grandfather said: “We found the body of Hind and the rest of the family decomposed”.

10. Ayat Khadoura

Ayat, a Palestinian freelance journalist and podcast presenter, was killed along with an unknown number of family members in an Isr@eli airstrike on her home in Beit Lahya in northern Gaza, according to the Beirut-based press freedom group SKeyes, the news website Arabi 21, and London-based Al-Ghad TV.

Ayat shared videos on social media about the situation in Gaza, including a November 6 video, which she called “my last message to the world” where she said, “We had big dreams but our dream now is to be killed in one piece so they know who we are.”

Ayat was killed on November 20, 2023, at the hands of the Isr@eli occupation.

They aren't just numbers.

The UNRWA said 9.000 women where killed in this genocide.

Your feminism is trash if you aren't speak up for the women of Gaza, who are using pieces of tends as sanitary pads.

And always,

Free Palestine

[realtimefanduboutofcontext]

The journalists of Palestine

You may have heard a couple of names floating around social media - and I do mean ONLY social media - who have been vital to getting the facts about the genocide in Palestine right now. Let me highlight them for you.

Artwork by Ram Reyes @oversettext

Bisan Owda (she/her)

Bisan is the one you're probably familiar with. She's a young filmmaker who has worked with the UN on gender equality and climate change, and most recently this genocide. Her focus is social media. She called the strike, and is why we're all here.

Twitter - Instagram - TikTok

Motaz Azaiza (he/him)

Motaz is a photographer best known for capturing life in the Gaza Strip. He works for the UNRWA. His photo titled "Seeing Her Through My Camera" (depicting a girl being picked up from rubble) was named one of TIME's top 10 photos of 2023.

Twitter - Instagram

Plestia Alaqad (she/her)

Plestia is a citizen journalist and travel blogger, formerly an HR professional. She has been posting video diaries from Gaza - and even from Egypt as she had to flee in November. Her work has been a reminder of how beautiful Gaza can be.

Twitter - Instagram - TikTok

Wael Al-Dahdouh (he/him)

Wael is a journalist for Al Jazeera and the chief of its bureau in Gaza City since 2004. He has worked for the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, and is a journalism veteran. Most of his family was sadly killed by Israeli strikes.

Twitter - Facebook - Instagram

As I've said before, mainstream media outlets have been avoiding the reporting of Palestinian journalists, or filtered their own biases through the Israeli army. It's important to listen to, and uplift voices from Gaza, no matter how uncomfortable it may get. Let them be heard.

[girlactionfigure]

🔅Monday afternoon - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

🔻ATTACK - DRONES - from Hezbollah - north west border towns: Idmit, Eilon, Goren, Gornot HaGalil, Hanita, Ya'ara, Arab al-Aramshe 

🔻IRAN WARNS.. Al Jazeera: Tehran sent a new message to the US through Turkey after the attack on Israel yesterday. An "important and unprecedented" warning message was also sent to Israel via Cairo referring to the fact that there will be an Iranian response to any new "bold act" on Israel's part.

🔻DID BIDEN GIVE IRAN PERMISSION TO HIT ISRAEL?  (Maybe Fake)  “Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters, adding that Washington had conveyed to Tehran via Ankara that any action it took had to be "within certain limits.””

(( This is possibly FAKE NEWS. It is on many sites and channels, on some is quoted in the name of Reuters, but I can’t find an actual source. ))

🔻ISRAEL RESPONSE (PLANNING).. Israeli sources to CNN: The War Cabinet is determined to respond to the Iranian attack, and is discussing the timing and extent of the response.

Commander of the Home Front Command: "We are in a long war and there may be changes in the coming days in light of the situation assessment. Continue to listen and act according to the instructions - they save lives.”

▪️BOMB ON THE LEBANESE BORDER.. injures 4 soldiers. Hezbollah takes responsibility.

▪️ATTEMPTED TERROR.. at the Deir Sharaf intersection in Samaria: a female terrorist armed with a knife arrived at the soldiers' position at the intersection, who opened fire on her in a suspicious arrest procedure, and she was arrested.  

▪️AIR TRAVEL.. EasyJet and Air India suspend flights to Israel.  Travelers to and from Israel are struggling to find options.

▪️BETTER FOOD FOR TERRORISTS!  The "Association for Civil Rights in Israel" filed a petition with the High Court of Justice against the Minister of National Security as well as against the Israeli Security Service Commissioner, following the reduction of conditions of the Arab convicted prisoners since the outbreak of the war in accordance with the policy of Minister Ben Gvir.

As part of the petition they demand that the court issue a conditional order to the Israeli Security Service to explain why the Arab terrorists, including those who committed the most horrific acts humanly possible, are not given higher quality food and the possibility to buy food (the prison canteen) like criminal prisoners.

▪️ISRAELI HACKERS.. “We launched a broad attack on cellphone systems in Iran and over 20 million telephones received SMS messages, that they must be prepared for war in the coming hours.  The Iranians felt the  pressure and started withdrawing money from the banks which put the authorities in Iran under pressure.”

[limelocked]

in this world there are thousands of thousands of shipping lanes for boats to go through, looking at a map is crazy about it

however

there are about 5 points in this world where if the people who control it says No you cant go here, then you might just be fucked

panama canal

strait of gibraltar

suez canal

cape of good hope

AND

malacca strait

(via canadian geographic)

this is from an interactive map that shows the ships travel during the year of 2012 but its not limited to this year

now!

we all know that the yemeni houthis are shooting at israel owned or israel bound ships passing through the red sea

yemen has, by doing this, cut the suez canal out of the equation for a Lot of ships owned by zionists, not just hindering trade at the southern port on the red sea by forcing inbound ships to go all the way around the cape of good hope and into the med to get zionists trade goods

NOW!

(via al jazeera)

this deserves to be talked about because youll never guess where malaysia is

the strait of malacca is i think historically the most used path between the indian ocean and east asia, and malaysia is one entire half of it and owns port klang which is one of the worlds busiest ports and on the top 3 at LEAST in the region (source i saw said 12th busiest in the world and second in south east asia after singapore but im no expert)

malaysia doesnt NEED to shoot at ships because banning israel from its ports is devastating on its own, like if the entire strait were to be closed off (if indonesia and malaysia got together and not only banned them from ports but also their water space) then no boats can go from israel to or from china. with the suez canal you can go the long way round the cape of good hope but there are really limited option if youre locked out of malacca strait

malaysia doing this is good and cool because even if its not effective at halting trade at all its still a gesture and a half

its like gibraltar going No :) about letting you out of the mediterranean

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by David Harsanyi

The reaction to the rescue of four Israeli hostages from Gaza is a microcosm of the past 70 years of this conflict. Every time Palestinians pay the price for acting out in some horrific, irrational, self-destructive, violent way, their defenders want to rewind history to a more convenient moment — this time to Oct. 6, 2023.

Sorry, that’s not how life works. Hamas, the chosen political entity of Gaza — the overwhelming choice of Palestinian civilians, in fact — launched this round of the conflict by massacring, sexually torturing, and kidnapping Israelis whose only sin was attending a music festival. Palestinians took hundreds of these hostages back to the Gaza Strip — a place Arabs have political autonomy over for nearly 20 years — and held them in the middle of densely populated areas hoping to dissuade Israel from liberating them, or, if it did, to create as many martyrs as possible.

Critics of Israel now ask the usual dishonest question: Are four lives worth the alleged 200-plus Arabs that were lost rescuing them?

Israel is the only nation on earth that is tasked with protecting its own people and its enemies. Every innocent lost life is, of course, a tragedy. But if you don’t want to be placed in harm’s way, don’t hold hostages in your homes and neighborhoods, and don’t cheer and support a government that puts your life in constant danger for a lost cause. This is the reality of the world.

Now, if reports are correct, Hamas — and perhaps “civilians” (it’s difficult to tell because terrorists are often dressed as noncombatants) — opened fire on the rescuers. The Israelis, who do not indiscriminately target civilians, fired back, as they should. Whatever the specifics, every lost life is Hamas’ fault.

But, as always, it also needs to be stressed that the casualty numbers that are endlessly repeated by the establishment media are fiction — as everyone in those newsrooms is surely aware. So, we must assume outlets like The Washington Post and CNN — which also detestably contends that the hostages had been “released” — are fellow travelers. One BBC interviewer even asked an IDF spokesman if Israel had warned Palestinians of their sting operation.

Then again, even if there were over 200 dead, it is also surely the case that many of the dead were members of Hamas or holding hostages of their own volition or helping those holding hostages. Avoid doing so if you value your life.

The “Health Ministry” makes no distinction between terrorists and civilians, and in this case there might be little difference. Among those holding the Israelis hostage in their homes in Nuseirat, for instance, were a “journalist” (who apparently worked for Al Jazeera and the U.S.-based Palestine Chronicle, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) and a “doctor.” The entire neighborhood was ostensibly under UN control. We already know that UN workers had likely participated in the Oct. 7 kidnappings and UNRWA schools are used by Hamas bases of operation.

Even now, there’s a (terrible) ceasefire deal on the table being pushed by Joe Biden (still chumming for antisemitic votes) that Hamas continues to reject. Would we not expect the United States to act the same way as Israel if some homicidal cult had our people?

In the end, of course, this could all end today if the hostages were returned and Hamas would unconditionally surrender. Israel haters, who fashion themselves peaceniks, will blame everyone — Netanyahu, Biden, colonialism, racism, etc., etc. — but the Islamists who are the cause of this war.

Then again, the entire conflict could end if the Palestinians would stop turning to nihilistic theocrats to lead them and accept Israel’s existence.  

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Scenes from the first moments after the Israeli occupation army attacked a civilian vehicle in which Al-Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Rifi were traveling, killing the two correspondants in what is being called an assassination in the Palestinian media. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏢💥 🚨

GENOCIDE IN GAZA DAY 299: ZIONIST OCCUPATION LASHES OUT ACROSS THE REGION, HAMAS LEADER ISMAIL HANIYEH MURDERED IN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE ON TEHRAN, OCCUPATION BOMBS HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER IN BEIRUT SUBURBS, PALESTINIAN FACTIONS UNITED AGAINST THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION FOR THE FIRST TIME, ZIONIST COLONIAL SETTLERS STORM AL-AQSA MOSQUE, UN SAYS PALESTINIANS TORTURED IN ISRAELI PRISONS, GENOCIDE CONTINUES UNABATED AS VIOLENT AIRSTRIKES TARGET GAZA

On the 299th day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 45 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 77 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or whose bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally the number of those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

The Israeli occupation on launched a missile strike on Wednesday morning targeting the Hamas Politboro leader Ismail Haniyeh while he visited his residence in the northern suburbs of Tehran, the Iranian capital, where he had arrived to attend the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian.

The Hamas resistance movement has since confirmed the death of Haniyeh, while Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned that the Zionist regime would receive a "harsh punishment" for the assassination of the Hamas political leader on its territory.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei offered his condolences to the Islamic Ummah, the axis of resistance, and the Palestinian nation over the martyredom of their "valiant leader and the prominent mujahid”.

"The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime, with this measure, prepared the ground for a harsh punishment for itself,” Khamenei stated.

The Iranian leader continued by warning that “We consider blood revenge for him (Haniyeh), who was martyred inside the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as our duty."

Iran's foreign ministry said in its own statement that the blood of Haniyeh won't be wasted, and will instead strengthen the deep and unseparable bonds between Iran and Palestine.

In response to the assassination of Haniyeh, the National and Islamic forces of Palestine announced a general strike and marches, condemning the assassination and issueing a statement mourning his death.

The forces stressed in their statement that this "cowardly assassination" will not break the will and steadfastness of the Palestinian people, but will instead increase their determination and resolve to move forward by adhering to their rights and national principles until freedom and independence can be won.

Meanwhile, prior to the assassination of Haniyeh, the Israeli occupation lashed out in another attack, launching an airstrike on the suburbs of Beirut, on Tuesday night, targeting Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr, called the "right-hand man" of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in the Zionist media.

According to the Times of Israel, the airstrike blew a large hole into the side of an 8-story apartment building in southern Beirut on Tuesday night, which the occupation army claims killed the Hezbollah commander.

The Lebanese Islamic resistance movement has not yet confirmed the death of Shukr.

In more news on Wednesday, July 31st, the various Palestinian factions have united for the first time to stand against the Israeli occupation.

According to the Lebanese National News Agency, the many different Palestinian factions have agreed to end their divisions and strengthen Palestinian unity by signing the Beijing Declaration, on Tuesday morning, in the Chinese capital.

The declaration was signed after the closing ceremony following a reconciliation dialogue held with the various Palestinian factions in Beijing over the period of July 21st through the 23rd.

The compact encompassed a total of 14 different Palestinian factions, including the leaders of bitter rivals Fatah and the Hamas Islamic resistance movement, with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi present for the ceremony.

Previously, the Hamas and Fatah factions met in China in April for discussions around reconciliation to end 17 years of bitter disputes.

In more news, violent Zionist colonial settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque on Wednesday, backed by the Israeli occupation forces who turned the Old City area of occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem) into a military barracks, according to local reporting.

Palestinian media stated that the Israeli occupation army deployed hundreds of troops around the Old City and Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in particular placing a heavy military presence in the vicinity of the gates to the compound, while Zionist soldiers tightened restrictions and measures at the compound's gates, as well as the gates to the Old City, and imposed restrictions on Islamic worshippers.

In further news for Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement stating that Palestinians kidnapped and detained by the Israeli occupation army during the ongoing aggression and genocide in the Gaza Strip were mostly held in secret detention centers, and in some cases, where subjected to treatment that "may amount to torture."

Since the start of the Israel occupation's genocidal war in Gaza, "staggering numbers" of men, women, children, doctors, journalists and human rights defenders have been detained in deplorable conditions, while most have been held without charge or trial.

According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, Palestinian detainees have faced extremely poor treatment, torture and other violations of basic human rights without due process, which has raised concerns about the arbitrary and punitive nature of the arrests and detentions.

Testimonies collected by the agency point to conditions in prisons run by the Israeli occupation that are worsening, while Palestinian children are among the detainees, who are allegedly being held in some cases with adults.

The UN Commission reported that detainees are being held in "cage-like facilities, stripped naked for long periods, and left in diapers," while other detainees told the Commission they were blindfolded for long periods and subjected to electric shocks, burned by cigarettes, and deprived of food, sleep and water.

"Some detainees reported that dogs were set on them, while others reported being waterboarded, or having their hands tied and their bodies hung from the ceiling. Men and women also reported being subjected to sexual and gender-based violence," according to High Commissioner Turk.

Turk went on to emphasize that international humanitarian law protects all detainees and requires they be treated humanely and protected from all acts of violence or threats of violence.

"International law requires that all persons deprived of their liberty be treated with humanity and dignity, and strictly prohibits torture or other ill-treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. Prolonged incommunicado and secret detention may amount to a form of torture,” Turk said.

The High Commissioner went on to call for prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigations into all incidents resulting in serious violations of international law, and to ensure that any perpetrators be held accountable, while all victims and their families have a right to redress and reparation.

Meanwhile, dozens more Palestinians were killed and wounded over Tuesday and Wednesday, while the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued their unparalleled destruction of Gaza's housing, infrastructure and public facilities.

According to local reporting, the occupation army launched a bombardment of a residential house in the Al-Mawasi area, northwest of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where thousands of Palestinians have been directed towards after being evacuated from their homes and shelters in other areas of Gaza. As a result of the strike, several civilians were killed and wounded.

At the same time, reports stated that a number of wounded civilians arrived at a Red Cross field hospital after the Israeli occupation forces opened gunfire on the tents of displaced Palestinian families in the Al-Mawasi area.

Local healthcare sources also reported the death of one Palestinian and the injury of 4 others after Zionist warplanes bombed the town of Abasan Al-Kabira, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

IOF artillery shelling also hammered the Al-Zaytoun, Al-Shujaiya, and Al-Tuffah neighborhoods of Gaza City, resulting in large numbers of casualties among civilians, including women and children.

Occupation artillery shelling went on to pummel neighborhoods east of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, while violent explosions were recorded in conjunction with heavy gunfire from Zionist military vehicles in the same area.

In another horrific atrocity, a Zionist drone bombed a gathering of civilians in the vicinity of the Electric company in the town of Al-Zawaida, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of 8 Palestinians who were transported to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah.

In another war crime and atrocity, two Al-Jazeera journalists were killed in a direct attack by the Israeli occupation army on a civilian vehicle in Gaza City.

Local reporting stated that Al-Jazeera correspondant Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Rifi were killed on Wednesday evening when the Israeli occupation forces bombed their car in the Al-Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza City.

Video clips of the incident showed a civilian vehicle the two journalists were traveling in reduced to rubble, with smoke rising from the remains and blood spattered across the wreckage.

According to Palestinian reporting, more than 155 journalists have been killed by the occupation army since the start of the genocide on October 7th, 2023, while another 100 headquarters of journalistic institutions have been destroyed and over 100 additional journalists have been arrested or detained by the Zionist entity.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, the endlessly rising death toll now exceeds 39'445 Palestinians killed, including at least 10'300 women and over 15'700 children, while another 91'073 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

This brings the total number of casualties in Gaza to well over 130'518, or the equivalent of 5.67% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents.

July 31st, 2024.

#source1

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[sayruq]

Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh has confirmed that three of his sons and four of his grandchildren were killed in an air strike in Gaza. Hamas-linked media said the car his sons were travelling in was hit in Al-Shati camp near Gaza City. Haniyeh said that the incident would not change Hamas's demands in talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire deal.Israel's military said the sons were members of Hamas's military wing. The group was reportedly on its way to a family celebration to mark the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid.

"The enemy will be delusional if it thinks that targeting my sons, at the climax of the [ceasefire] negotiations and before the movement sends its response, will push Hamas to change its position," he told Al Jazeera. In comments reported on Hamas's Telegram channel, he thanked God for the "honour" bestowed on him by what he called the "martyrdom of his children and grandchildren".

[capybaracorn]

These children left Gaza but still suffer mental trauma from Israel’s war

Through art and bonding with each other, 68 children evacuated to Bethlehem are working through their pain.

19th of March 2024

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – A group of children from Gaza are in an art workshop in Bethlehem’s SOS Children’s Village, 102km (63.4 miles) from Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.

The children are working on depictions of the three-day journey they took from Rafah to Bethlehem, a convoluted journey to cover a distance that could be driven in an hour.

Like all Palestinians, their movement is constrained by the Israeli government, which severely limits the ability of Palestinians to move around in normal times, a situation made worse by the war Israel is waging on Gaza.

Sixty-eight children were evacuated this month from Rafah’s SOS Children’s Village to the charity’s facility in Bethlehem, accompanied by 11 caregivers who were looking after them in Gaza with the support of the German government.

Expressing pain and fear

For their comfort and privacy, the children – aged two to 14 – cannot be interviewed or photographed directly, but Al Jazeera was allowed to observe their workshop and interactions.

One girl was focused on cutting out the word “Rafah” and glueing it to a corner of her sheet with a sad, scared, frowning face glued sideways next to it.

From there, she wound bright yellow yarn down the page, wrapping it in a loose knot around an angry face, then winding it in big loops until it reached “Bethlehem”, which she had glued in the opposite corner.

[See embedded video in article]

Already close-knit because of how SOS Villages are structured, the children seem to have gotten even closer during their long journey to Bethlehem.

One boy leans over and patiently helps a younger boy figure out what to do with his sheet, explaining that the different faces were there for the little boy to express how he felt at different points in the journey and waiting for his younger friend to position them before explaining the glue stick.

At the other end of the room, a five-year-old boy has gotten tangled in his jacket because the sleeves are inside out. His 14-year-old buddy takes it off and sorts it out, putting it back on him and pulling him close to her for a big hug once he is ready to join the activity.

Dr Mutaz Lubad, an expert in art and psychological therapy, says this guided art session allows the children some release, to open up a space for them to express what is on their minds through their art.

The loose knots show points in their journey from Rafah to Bethlehem where the children were confused or scared, Dr Mutaz Lubad says [Monjed Jadou/Al Jazeera]

“Because children often find it difficult to express what they’re feeling verbally, we work on looking into their struggles through their art,” Lubad told Al Jazeera.

In guided art activities like this one where everyone is asked to produce the same thing, the children are able to choose their colours, the expressions on the faces they pick for different points in their journey and how convoluted they make the glued yarn to represent their three days of travel.

Asked about the significance of some children putting loose knots into their yarn journeys, Lubad said: “The knots represent points where the children were exposed to situations that confused or scared them, but the fact that they by and large used loose knots shows that these are things they feel they are able to overcome.

“One boy’s piece was especially expressive. When he was told he would be moved from Rafah, he feared the unknown, feared leaving his room and home. Then during the trip, he was worried and stressed by turn until, finally, he was relieved to be safe in Bethlehem. All that is shown in the expressions on the faces he chose.”

Protecting the children

The Rafah SOS Village is still open and receiving children whose families have died in the war or who have become separated from their relatives. There are several children who remained in the Rafah facility after their legal guardians refused their evacuation from Gaza.

[See embedded video in the article]

Maintaining contact with the children’s families – if they have any – is an important part of maintaining their community ties, but trying to find out which relatives have survived and which have died has been nearly impossible, Sami Ajur, programme manager at the Children’s Village Foundation in Gaza, tells Al Jazeera.

Despite the difficulties the foundation is facing during the war, it is continuing its work, he adds, pointing out that the Rafah facility is actually seeking support to expand its operations so it can receive more of the children being orphaned or separated from their families every day in Gaza.

The trauma the children are experiencing due to the war on Gaza manifests in many ways, including anxiety, incontinence, nightmares and insomnia, Ghada Harazallah, national director of the Children’s Villages in Palestine, says, adding that their mission – protecting the children – has not changed.

At sunset, the children from Gaza and the children who live in the Bethlehem Village will have a group iftar to break their  Ramadan fast.

The structure of SOS Children’s Villages worldwide encourages a family-style relationship among the children and between them and the adult staff. One staff member is assigned as a “parent” to each group of children, who are raised in “family” clusters where they can bond with each other.

[See embedded video in the article]

[tieflingkisser]

UNICEF committed to staying in Gaza amid ongoing war

Tess Duncan, a UNICEF spokesperson, says Gaza’s health facilities remain severely underequipped as they struggle to treat children who are sick, injured and malnourished. “I visited four hospitals in the last five days, and I can tell you that every medical director has told me about the impact of the lack of resources and the lack of staff,” Duncan told Al Jazeera from outside the Kuwaiti Hospital in Gaza’s Rafah district. “They’re running at four times capacity. Children are dying due to infections. Children are dying from malnutrition. There’s just not enough staff and resources to go around. … That’s why we have to rush this aid in, and that’s why we need a ceasefire,” she said. After the Israeli attack on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy on April 1, UNICEF and other UN agencies suspended their operations in Gaza for 48 hours, but it is now back to “full operations”, Duncan tells Al Jazeera. “We’ve been here in Gaza for decades, and we’re not going anywhere,” she said from Rafah. “We’re going to stay here during the fighting, stay here as the guns fall silent and then help the children of Gaza to rebuild once there finally is peace.” “But, of course, we can’t do that if it’s not safe,” she added, “so we need safety assurances from Israel that if we go on a mission, we’re not going to be killed.” While the entry into Gaza of more aid convoys is “good news”, Duncan said, there are still serious challenges to transporting such aid to those most in need due to ongoing violence, collapsed infrastructure, travel restrictions and a shortage of fuel and vehicles. “The obstacles are many, but we’re still doing our best in these really difficult circumstances to bring food and water and medicine and nutrition treatments to the vulnerable that need it,” she said.