Times Too Dire for Despair

Hearing Palestinian Cries. Heeding Palestinian Calls.

I am interspersing typing, cutting and pasting with sorting and packing for my departure today or tomorrow (depending on when I meet this all too firm a deadline). In March I shared quite a bit about my connections and reasons for returning to Palestine and Israel. I also spoke of my connections in January after my friend Eid‘s father, Hajj Suleiman al Hathalein (of blessed memory) was dragged and killed by an Israeli truck that was stealing cars from their small village in the south Hebron Hills. I have been saying to people at work who ask what I am going there for, “I am going to stand in defense and solidarity with my Palestinian friends who are under vicious and relentless attack by my tribe.”

I am going to enjoy a nice week visiting my sister Chava and friends at Kibbutz Gezer first. I am looking forward to a little physical rest, and there are a lot of people I like there. Chava and I will celebrate our birthdays as well as our father’s yahrtzeit (annual time of his death) together. Shavuot too.

The execution, by an Israeli sniper, on May 11, of Palestinian journalist Shirin Abu Akleh, brought to mind my dear friend Raymonda Hawa Tawil. (May blessings fill her days and those of her children.) Raymonda was a ground breaking journalist in Palestine in the 1960s and 1970s. She brought Palestine to an international audience, and she brought journalists to Palestine. She started the most reputable press service Palestine may have ever had since the Nakba. She opened her home to the foreign press and to Israeli progressives. Her promotion of Palestinian national rights brought her a beating in an Israeli jail and house arrest in 1978 while her work with Israelis like the radical youth group Siach and her memoir’s co-author Peretz Kidron (of blessed memory) garnered her credible death threats from some Palestinian factions. She ultimately left Palestine out of love for her family in the face of further threats, family pressure and the assassinations of a number of Palestinians with views similar to hers.

What an outstanding lens on a full century, through the lives of two amazing women and friends.

Search on line bookstores (other than Amazon) or your local library for My Home, My Prison (1979) and the easier to find An Improbable Friendship (2015) by Anthony David, a dual biography of Tawil and her longtime friend Ruth Dayan, divorced widow of Moshe Dayan. Tawil’s story gives you a great sense of the changes that have taken place from the 1920s to the 1970s (in Tawil’s and Kidron’s book) into the 2000s (in David’s book) and the trajectory forward to today.

I am embarrassed to have to admit that I was basically ignorant of the amazing life and work of Shireen Abu Akleh (now, of blessed memory) until now that she has been shot dead. I am sure that in this country I am in good company. Now, the obvious place to learn is from obituaries and testimonials. This Mondoweiss piece by Muhammad Ali Khalidid has several exerpts of a 2016 article by her about journalism and Palestine. This piece by Michael Aria in Mondoweiss on May 12 contains testimony by another journalist who was also under fire by Israeli soldiers when Abu Akleh was killed. It goes on to look at the insultingly absurd idea that Israel would ever actually care or investigate this blatant crime and attack on reporters. It is literally incredible (as in, NOT Credible)!

I don’t watch Al Jazeera on t.v. a lot, and even less in Arabic. Looking at Al Jazeera in English now, I am impressed by the range of stories, the quality of the writing and the veracity of the words I find there. Searching their site on “Abu Akleh” is very fruitful. Let me recommend this summary of some of her achievements. The more I learn about Shirin Abu Akleh, I am reminded all the more of my friend, the tailblazing Raymonda, one in a lineage of strong, independent women. May comfort somehow accompany the mourners despite the affrontery and attacks they are being accosted with. May their faith sustain them.

Morocco Wrongly Controls the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Forcibly Denies Entry to Two Friends of Mine, and Continues Horrific Abuse of Women Activists

The following letter was sent out by my friend Wynd. She and another friend of mine, Laksanna, were just denied entry to Western Sahara (The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic). In my March Missive, I shared about the first group of westerners to make this journey which successfully made it to the Khaya family home. Please keep the people of Western Sahara in your hearts, your prayers, and your justice,activist lens.

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is also called Western Sahara.

Dear Friends and Fam,

I hate to report that I am back in the good old USA (DC) after having been deported from Western Sahara by Moroccan Occupation forces. I never made it to the Khaya family home. Please see our latest press release.

I was the woman referred to in the press release whose breasts were exposed. (Noooooow are you going to click the link and read it? By the way, if you are interested, here are all the press releases since beginning of project.)

Apparently this tactic was the first type of sexual abuse used on the Saharawi womyn. Their tactics then escalated to sodomy and rape. In the conservative Muslim culture of Western Sahara, these things are never spoken of. Until Sultana Khaya. With no shame, she has proclaimed out loud and publicly, “I am not the first Saharawi woman to be raped by the occupiers. I am simply the first woman to speak publicly about it. I have to expose the reality of the occupation. And I need to pave the way for the next generation of Saharawi women.”

Sultana is probably one of the world’s most courageous, creative and brilliant activist and human rights protector. Her relentless persistence to the cause of Saharawi self-determination and her absolute commitment to nonviolence has left me in awe. In addition to the grief I have that our mission failed, I most regret not being able to meet this remarkable woman in person. Even on Zoom she is warm and loving, vibrant and charismatic.

So you may wonder, what is next? We will continue to fight to ensure that all nations in the world, including Morocco and our own, respect human rights and international law. We will work with the Sahawari people, taking their lead in the fight for liberation of this last colony in Africa. Because if Russian is wrong in its attempt to gain territory by force in the Ukraine, then the same principle must apply to Morocco’s attempt to acquire Western Sahara by force. (And while I’m at it I may as well throw in that we need to apply the same principle to Israel’s occupation of Palestine!)

Our first step will be a stop in Washington D.C. where some diaspora Saharawi activists are staging a demonstration to expose our own government’s complicity/enabling of Morocco’s human rights abuses. Amnesty International just issued a very powerful report on the situation.

Beyond that, we will continue to support the Khaya sisters and their community in Boujdour and all of Western Sahara. Please stay tuned. And consider just visiting Western Sahara yourself! Check out www.justvisitwesternsahara.org

Love,
Wynd
WendyPalestine at gmail.com

And more…Ukraine. Blessings to Billie Nessen, on the Ground

I was very moved by the live interviews Billie Nessen has given Democracy Now! on May 18 and May 27 about life on the ground in Severodonetsk and then in another nearby city not under the same active, relentless bombardment. What is touching about these interviews is the sense Billie conveys of what it is like on the ground there. Who is there? What are they doing? Why haven’t they left? What are the sounds and feelings that he is experiencing? He also talked about what some of their views are and who some of the different players are, but mostly he was giving us insight into life there at present. I cried. I remember running in the streets in the 1980s demonstrations with Billie, and I know he has been in tough situations that left their marks on him in the Philippines and in Aceh. Watch it from their website. Don’t just listen. At one point the camera shakes and we lose video. Close one.

I am aghast at what Russia has been doing in Ukraine. It fills me with dread, almost to hopelessness, this offensive and what it signals. That these leaders (Putin number one in some ways, but not alone by a long shot) will be so violent and so reckless is surprising because the devastation is so close to home. The willingness to flatten so much civilian infrastructure seems so Genghis Kahn, or Harry Truman or Dwight D. Eisenhower. (80% of North Korea was bombed in the 1950s war.) I thought the racism and white supremacy would keep Europeans from trying to wipe out their neighbors. Check out the resources of the people who organize May 15 at International Conscientious Objectors Day and what they have to say about the problem of conscription, forcing men (mostly) into military service, and the war, War Resisters International.

After all that feeling, I remain aghast at how very relevant this RAND study remains given the historically recurring nature of the US’s offensive, foreign policy playbook that works to topple governments into permanent disarray. The United States Department Department of State should have a marquee that reads “Failed States ‘R’ US”. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html

I see now that they have added the following remarkable caution: Editor’s Note, April 2022: We encourage you to explore this research brief and the full report that it is based on. However, because Russian state media entities and individuals sympathetic to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine have mischaracterized this research in recent weeks, we also encourage you to explore this helpful resource on Russia’s “firehose of falsehood” approach to propaganda and our research on “Truth Decay,” which is a phenomenon that is driven in part by the spread of disinformation.

Thanks for an amazing 60th Birthday Experience!

I threw myself a lovely backyard celebration! I have nothing to complain about. It was joyous and safe enough; no one got sick. Several wonderful friends stayed away becasue they weren’t feeling well one way or another. Someone who lives in one of the apartments off the backyard on Ashby came over to say how happy she was to hear us with our laughter and music. I was haphazard at inviting people because I was afraid of it becoming something of a spreader event. It was a lovely day, and I got the backyard into a really nice shape for a gathering. I hope I do one again. Thanks everyone for coming, and Rosemary and Steve for your help.

Jim Marian and Bob!

Jim, Jamie and Ivory Fly!

Hi Chelsea! Hi Adissa!

What a fun shot of me, Phyllis, Jackie and Zappa.

Penny B Funny!

Jim and Heather together!

What a great picture!

Eamon and I Celebrated Mothers Day with Five MacAuley Mothers in Brunswick, Maryland!

Susan made me a 60 of cupcakes for my first candle blowing experience of the season.

Kids, Kids, Kids!

Lacy took me to Harper’s ferry for the first time. I was quite pleased tosee a lot of good interpretative displays, buildings and language. I was tickled to see this sign of home where we got a bite to eat!

I was honored to cater Mother’s Day lunch for five MacAuley mothers. I’m so happy Lacy and Lorien invited everyone over to their house.