Global

We meet again tonight in about one hour (7 PM Palestine time Sunday) to
talk about Gaza genocide. Email if you want a link

While Palestinian church leaders wrote good position papers on Gaza (thank
you) and we circulated those before, 500 people signed signed a petition
over just a few hours today demanding boycott of those church leaders who
met with the Israeli genocidal regime president  (a president who said
there are no civilians in the Gaza strip and we act accordingly), whose
father participated in the ethnic cleansing in 1948, and who want another
Nakba. The petition is in Arabic (you can use google translate) and is open
to people who live in our region and Palestinians/Arabs (especially
Christians) who live in exile. Please sign and pass along this link:
وقع 500 شخص على عريضة تطالب بمقاطعة قادة الكنيسة الذين التقوا برئيس نظام
الإبادة الجماعية الإسرائيلي (الرئيس الذي قال إنه لا يوجد مدنيون في قطاع
غزة)، والذي شارك والده في التطهير العرقي عام 1948، والذين يريد نكبة أخرى.
العريضة باللغة العربية ومفتوحة للأشخاص الذين يعيشون في منطقتنا والفلسطينيين
(وخاصة المسيحيين الذين يعيشون في المنفى).

When Zionist militias, using advanced Western arms, conquered historic Palestine in 1947-48, they expressed their victory through the deliberate humiliation of Palestinians.   

 Much of that humiliation targeted women, in particular, knowing how the dishonor of Palestinian females represents, according to Arab culture, a sense of dishonor to the whole community.

 This strategy remains in use to this day. 

What’s ordinary about life suddenly becomes sacred. This is my definition of poetry — my deepest plunge into being alive.

It seems more relevant than ever, as innocent blood flows in the wars being waged by military-political bureaucracies across the planet. How many more stunned facial expressions will I see on YouTube, of parents who have just lost their children, their spouse, their siblings?

As I have noted, I have recently released an album of spoken-word poetry, plus crazy artwork, thanks to my good friends Andy Mitran and Scott Wills. Much of the poems go back to an earlier period of my life, shortly after the death of my wife from pancreatic cancer. At the time, my daughter was not quite 12 years old. Dad and teenage daughter — those were the days! (We both survived, I’m happy to say.)

Letter to Gaza I wrote 23 October 2023
https://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2023/10/letter-to-gaza.html But the
orgy of slaughter of Palestitinians since October accelerated and is
expected to get worse over the coming weeks of global "holidays" (The
Jewish state does not believe in a Christmas or new year truce). The
perpetrators gloat actually about the efficiency and scale of destruction
and even threatening to do more in the West Bank (already started including
in Bethlehem and Jerusalem), and to do the same in Yemen and Lebanon (two
countries obeying international oblibgations and law by trying with meager
resources to stop the genocide/holocaust that started in Gaza). Horrifying
"firebelt" bombing of whole neighborhoods (including schools, hospitals,
electric grids etc), starvation, and disease have not been used on such

Should there be a ceasefire in Gaza? Yes!

Palestinian deaths in Gaza are approaching an horrific 20,000, plus another 55,000 wounded, as Israel expands its violence into the West Bank.

One hundred and fifty-three member nations of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire. The US voted “NO.”

Is Pope Francis correct in saying this has “gone beyond war. This is terrorism” as he describes what is happening in Gaza? The pope was especially focused on the sniper-murders of Nahida Anton and then her daughter trying to carry her to safety inside the Holy Family Catholic Church compound in Gaza.

Their offense? Going to the only bathroom available.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has described it “an incident.” Contrary to constant Israeli statements to the contrary there were no warnings, no justification.

Nor were there warnings for Yotem Haim and two other Israeli young men – all former hostages – who appeared shirtless, holding a white surrender flag and calling out in Hebrew who they were. They were also killed by the IDF.