Welcome to Ramallah’s 7isbeh, our fresh fruit and veg market. Even though it’s early and vegetable deliveries are still coming in, as a regular customer here of 20 years, I can see our new reality. There are no strawberries from Gaza, in stark contrast to the winter months when everywhere is selling them and we touch the fruits of the hands of Gaza. There is limited local produce from Jenin which has been under heavy repression with regular incursions. The Israelis control our borders, that means our imports, so we are a dependent market they dump their lowest grade produce on. And we consume it. Especially when we cannot access our own produce because they cut off our trade routes between cities. They do this through a system of checkpoints and permits and gates and at a moment’s notice they can seal off any place.I am joyful because I am home, a return denied to every Palestinian refugee in the world. And so I bear witness to that and share what my eyes have seen today-our beautiful market and sellers
While it’s so incredibly important to keep sharing about Palestine and begging the world to demand and force a ceasefire, it hurts that what you have come to know of Palestine is the Israeli violence Palestinians have lived with for 75 years. It plays into old Zionist lies that this is the continuation of an ancient conflict between two religions. The reality is that in 1948 Israel stole Palestinian lands and displaced upwards of 700k Palestinians. That is the story and we must frame this genocide within its historical place. So when we talk about refugees, these are internally displaced people from 1948. And you all never did anything about it. Except give your tax money to support the oppression .Even. Until. Now. Gazans are being made refugees again. We are at 3 months. I never would have believed we couldn’t manage to stop this with our outrage and protests. We need a ceasefire! It’s 3 months too late. It is on you all to make it happen! And then, please don’t abandon Palestine…demand justice. My children should have a future that does not terrify me. They should live with freedom and dignity as all Palestinian children deserve! We have had enough checkpoints with guns pointed at us, drones overhead, closures, settler rampages, collective punishment, abductions and assassinations—all from a hostile foreign military illegally transferring their civilians onto stolen land and ethnically cleansing Palestinians. ENOUGH!
I can’t get how we celebrate the new year. Today is the same as yesterday, and yesterday in Gaza was another day of hell—starvation, terror and the horrifying wait for death. And tomorrow, if you are alive in Gaza, is the same. And again, everyday, until you die.What are we celebrating? We are failing to stop this and surely the vast numbers of humans supporting justice for Palestine are great enough to end the genocide and 75 years of injustice!
People always want to know how I came to live in Occupied Palestine. They always assume I fell in love with my now-husband and moved to Palestine for him. That is just too cliche! I came to Palestine after uni while backpacking Europe. I was visiting a friend who was teaching abroad and he found me a host family. And so in a way, I came BACK to Palestine because I fell in love, but not with my husband. I wouldn’t meet him for another 8 years.I fell in love with Fidah Mousa and her little family, and especially with the language and culture. It was my first time to learn about Hommos or hear Arabic or see a Muslim pray. Her love and hospitality and her children’s generosity and sibling-love for me brought me back a second time. And then a third and fourth until I just stayed. I still remember walking in Fidah’s door after having traveled away; she was cleaning the floor with her pants rolled up and shouted “Murjana!” Which is what people call me in Arabic. And that was it. It felt the same as coming home to my own mom. I knew I would always come back to that home, to that family of mine. Over the years, I experienced Friday morning family breakfasts and too much coffee and baklava during Eid. I learned to speak basic Arabic from her children and so so much about the Occupation. Fidah and her kids laid for me the foundations so that I could build a life in Palestine that was a meaningful intervention against colonialism. I taught at Birzeit University and really became rooted in Ramallah. Enter my now husband. The last 12 years with him have been an exploration and celebration of Palestine’s nature and culture. Palestine IS fantastic. And Palestinians’ aggressive hospitality is the best! For me, the world itfadaloo says it all. It doesn’t translate to English, which is telling. Itfadaloo is an invitation, a welcoming. It can be used to say, “please let me share my breakfast with you,” or “I welcome you into my home.”There are so many stereotype
I’ve been wanting to say this for a few days and this morning I saw a call from @wizard_bisan1 (follow her!) asking people to honor the message of Christ and not hold Christmas festivities? And she’s right! How can you celebrate Christmas when Jesus’ homeland is in such despair. And let’s not repeat Zionist talking points here. This is not an intractable conflict with two religions fighting since forever. No! This is a 75 year settler colonial project enabled and funded by the West and it is far too long to witness such oppression of Palestinians. Jesus preached justice and love. Do you really think he would back oppression and genocide and white supremacy? If you do, you truly don’t know Him.Christians in Bethlehem and across Palestine have committed to no festivities this year. They have called on you to do the same.
The road ahead is long. We must demand a ceasefire but we must also demand freedom and justice for Palestinians. They must be able to safely walk down a street in Vermont while a mother in Gaza must be able to safely sleep her children at night. We cannot shy away or self censor or stop talking about Palestine until we live in a better world that we create. That world should ensure that all people have the same rights, and all people have the opportunity to live in freedom, with justice and dignity. 75 years too long.
For nearly 2 months we have made the conscious decision to use our platforms to advocate for Palestinians' right to life. I see other pages promoting and marketing and it really feels so wrong to me. That said, I also recognize that 35 artisan groups and cooperatives rely on our platform for their livelihoods. I recognize that life in Palestine has not stopped and people still need to generate income and be able to buy food for their families. Now more so than two months ago, as tourism and holiday craft markets are no longer options, we are their only chance at getting their crafts to market.I redesigned the Handmade Palestine website to help our visitors understand that Palestinian culture and crafts are rooted in the historic relationship between indigenous people and their land, which Palestinians have held dear for centuries and millennia. It is sacred and it is what motivates our work at Handmade Palestine: to honor, preserve and promote this bond.A small group in the heart of Bethlehem, just around the corner from the Manger Square, come together daily to celebrate their specialness and create together beautiful Christmas crafts and decorations. These wonderful people generate income with dignity and use resources naturally available in Palestine that people traditionally use to weave rugs and make mattresses: natural sheep wool. So in honor of their work, and Palestinians' steadfastness on the land, we celebrate their project and craft making today.We also celebrate every person who is standing in solidarity with Palestine and justice. May we all see positive change in the world and especially in Palestine. Because everyone deserves to live with freedom and dignity.--Thank you for your solidarity, support and patience with us in these inexplicable days of struggle.
I live in Occupied Palestine and we never have enough water even though our annual rainfall is greater than London’s. As insane as it sounds, It’s true that the Israelis made it illegal for people to harvest rainwater. And while they occupy Palestine, they impose this law on Palestinians in Area C, which is the designation for my family’s land AND for most Palestinian agricultural land. Water is life! So this is a very clever and vile way to stomp out life and crush Palestinian food sovereignty.Palestinians have been harvesting rainwater for the traditional injasa cisterns for centuries and centuries. And if the Israelis catch you doing this, they use it as justification to destroy everything.I have gone a full week without water to shower or wash a dish, only bought water bottles to drink from. Right now, it’s a weapon of choice for the Israelis: deny Palestinians clean drinking water by bombing their filtration systems. This is just one of so many ways the illegal Israeli Occupation violates Palestinian human rights.
I really can’t wrap my head around this pause…what are we saying? Is it a game to the Israelis and Americans that they can “pause” it? Palestinians need a break to pick up some bodies? Thats basically all they are getting. The Israelis are still not allowing any aid to enter. The Israelis have destroyed or severely damaged the infrastructure so it’s not like folks get to go home and shower…there’s no water. There’s no food, supplies, gas, electric, internet. The hospitals are destroyed, homes, bakeries…What is vital and what they need is clean water, food, electric, medicine, and they need FREEDOM! And to know this all starts again in four day, my God that’s sadistic!The general consensus is this American supported pause (really can’t wrap my head around this!) is so people stop protesting and start spending.So shut it down. Because the strongest power we all have to force change is with our money!#genocideingaza #pausegame
I have obsessively checked Instagram for first hand accounts and updates since October 7 when my son’s school told parents to get their kids at 10 am: there’s a war in Gaza they said. I rushed my kids home and picked up any dry lentils and beans I could grab along the way, afraid of what was to come. I wanted to run to the vegetable market so I put to on and told my little ones to stay put because there was an emergency. At the bottom of my street I saw people filming the sky and looked up to see a rocket. I ran home and called my husband. I told him I would die with our kids if it came to that and he could grab any vegetables possible. It felt terrifying and uncertain. Watching Gaza is to witness the greatest horrors mankind is capable of. They have done the most unspeakable cruelties. They cut off the oxygen supply to the hospital and are responsible for the death of every ICU patient and premie baby. Every day is more horrifying than the last. But many are becoming numb to it or gladly believing it’s over or not as bad because they aren’t seeing the videos.It’s not because it’s not happening. The Israeli genocide gains more power and pleasure and energy to massacre every day. And because they are cowardly hiding their atrocities from the world, we have a duty to scream louder and amplify Palestinian voices. So please on this day of global shutdown, go protest and scream and call your reps with all your rage against the greatest failure in modern human history.
I just read it’s already up to 36 premature babies in incubators that died today. There’s really not much else to say or write. And it doesn’t seem to make any difference anyway. The Israelis, with the full support and engagement of the US and much of Europe, has entered its second month of massacring Palestinians in Gaza. The are now well into a ground invasion and have not only managed to shut down all hospitals but are actually destroying them and massacring doctors, patients and people sheltering at this very moment.Yesterday I saw a woman who’d had her legs amputated after being bombed. She was being pushed in a wheelchair down the bombed roads to “safer” souther Gaza. Have you ever had surgery? I mean serious surgery? And no medication and then bump bump down the road for hours in the sun trying to find safety that doesn’t exist?It’s is the end of 2023 and this is the world we are living in. We should all be deeply ashamed and angered! And then get activated and fight for change! Palestinians have been denied justice since 1948 and it is long passed the time for the world to stand up and recognise this!#enoughpalestinianskilled #ceasefirenow #istandwithpalestine #justiceforpalestine #gazagenocide
