#Palestinian history

[cavalierzee]

THIS DIDN’T START OCTOBER 7th!!!

[sayruq]

[fairuzfan]

Please consider spending time to learn more about Afro-Palestinian experiences and living under occupation while Black and Palestinian, along with Afro-Palestinian resistance efforts throughout the years. Here are some valuable articles and resources:

Articles:

In the heart of the Old City, generations of Afro-Palestinians persevere in the face of occupation by Mousa Qous

Putting the pieces together: Fragments of oral history in exile by Samah Fadil

‘Afro-Palestinians’ forge a unique identity in Israel by Isma'il Kushkush

The Africans of Jerusalem by Mousa Qous

The History Of Afro-Palestinians, Past And Present by Fayida Jailler

African-Palestinian community’s deep roots in liberation struggle by Electronic Intifada

Remembering Fatima Bernawi: Historic Palestinian fighter and liberated prisoner (1939-2022) on Samidoun

Fatima Barnawi, founder of Palestinian Women's Police and veteran prisoner, dies at 83 by Middle East Eye

On Fatima Bernawi, Women's Struggle, and Black-Palestinian Solidarity by Elom Tettey-Tamaklo

Afro Palestine: the African Diaspora in Palestine (not an article but a quick video summary of Afro-Palestinian history)

Note: highly recommend checking out Mousa Qous, the founder of the African Community Society, for his writings above all!

African Community Society of Jerusalem:

Their website— organization centered around the Afro-Palestinian community in Jerusalem.

General info about the group

ACS's instagram to learn more about Afro-Palestinian history.

Here is a write-up about the African Community Society, their impact within Palestinian society, and Afro-Palestinian history in Jerusalem specifically. Highly recommend taking the time to read this if you can.

Please take the time to watch this Documentary by Stephen Graham about former Israeli prisoner Ali Jiddah where he takes the viewer on a tour throughout Jerusalem and describes the unique struggles the Afro-Palestinian community face. He is quite a friendly guy and very funny:

[kaalbela]

Elderly Palestinian women sit in wheelchairs as they enjoy the waters of the northern part of the Dead Sea in West Bank, Palestine. Photographed by Menahem Kahana, 2008.

[belleandre-belle]

[thepeopleinpower]

Keep talking about Gaza. Keep talking about Palestine. Keep talking about Palestinian martyrs. Keep talking about Palestinian survivors. Keep talking about Palestinian children. Keep talking about war crimes. Keep talking about genocide. Keep talking about colonialism. Keep talking about forced starvation. Keep talking about forced adoption. Keep talking about Israeli occupation. Keep talking about the Nakba of 1948.

KEEP TALKING ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO PALESTINE

Keep boosting Palestinian history. Keep boosting Palestinian graphics. Keep boosting Palestinian poetry. Keep boosting Palestinian fashion. Keep boosting Palestinian textiles. Keep boosting Palestinian art. Keep boosting Palestinian culture. Keep boosting Palestinian values. Keep boosting Palestinian stories. Keep boosting Palestinian voices. Keep boosting Palestinian life. Keep boosting Palestinian loss. Keep boosting Palestinian love. Keep boosting Palestinian grief. Keep boosting Palestinian hope.

KEEP BOOSTING PALESTINIAN HUMANITY

[former-leftist-jew]

“Jews are willing to give up land for peace.” Bull fucking shit!!! Have you seen what’s happening to the West Bank??? Are you aware of how many Palestinians have lost their homes to Israeli settlers? In settlements that are internationally recognized as illegal!!! This isn’t just an Israeli thing either. Diaspora Jews are being recruited to move to the West Bank but Israeli real estate agents.

“We are NOT willing to bare our necks before the executioner's axe just because Islamists demand it.” But you expect Palestinians to bare their necks for the executioner’s axe because Israel demands it.

Jews are not the fucking victims here. I know Jews have been the victims of a lot of violence throughout history but the situation in Palestine is perhaps the one time in history Jews are the perpetrators.

I see you didn't read or watch a single source I gave to back up my claims, and didn't cite any sources to back up your claims either.

Since you're not going to bother to read, I'll keep it brief:

Are you aware of how many Palestinians have lost their homes to Israeli settlers?

And are you aware of how many Jews were violently driven out of their homes due to Islamic aggression after WWII--mostly in retaliation for Israel being formed?

Are you aware that Jews were living in and around the "West Bank" (historically Judea and Samaria) for centuries before Arab Jordinians invaded and violently expelled all the Jews living there in 1948?

Are you aware that most so-called "illegal settlements in the West Bank" are places where previous Jewish communities were forcibly expelled by Arab armies or militia, and many "Israel? (Or slaughtered, like Jewish community of Hebron in 1929?)

Are you aware that about 2 out of 9 million Israeli citizens are Israeli Arabs--most of whom are descended from Arabs who chose not to leave to make it eas

Meanwhile, most of Israel's current 2.2 million Israeli Arabs are descended from Arabs who chose not and annexed

But you expect Palestinians to bare their necks for the executioner’s axe because Israel demands it.

No, I just want them to stop attacking and trying to kill all Israelis/Jews already.

Like the so-called "moderate" Palestinian Authority's infamous "pay to slay" Martyr Fund, which incentivizes West Bank Arabs to attack and kill Israelis/Jews, since they get more money for every act of violence they commit against "the state of Israel."

Like Hamas firing rockets Israel non-stop after the latter completely withdrew from Gaza and effectively gave them a Palestinian state to run as they please, without Israeli.

Jews are not the fucking victims here. I know Jews have been the victims of a lot of violence throughout history but the situation in Palestine is perhaps the one time in history Jews are the perpetrators.

I want you to stop and think about that for a moment.

What logical sense does that make? "Yeah, Jews were victims of violent persecution throughout history, but THIS TIME all the evil things people say about you and do to you are totally justified!!"

a) Isn't that what antisemites say every time they attack Jews?

b) Have you ever considered that maybe the said extensive history of violent antisemitism might have contributed to Palestinian Arabs being complete hostility towards and refusal to accept a Jewish homeland?

For example: After the Ottoman Empire lost against the European Allies in WWI and ceded territory to the victors, France gained control of "Greater Syria" while Britain gained control of Palestine and Mesopotamia (now Iraq).

About the same time that Britain thought about dividing Mandatory Palestine into an Arab State for the Arab Muslim majority to the east and a Jewish state for the (existing) Jewish minority to the west...

France was ALSO dividing Greater Syria into a larger Arab State for the Sunni Muslim majority, and a smaller state for the Maronite Christian and Druze minority.

Yet, no one ever questions why Arabs grudgingly accepted a state for the Maronite Christian/Druze minority, but threw a raging bitch fit against a homeland for the Jewish minority?

No one ever accuses Maronites/Druze of "stealing Syria land!" but they do constantly accuse Jews of "stealing Palestinian land!"

Speaking of, roughly 3/4 of the original Mandate for Palestine became what is now Jordan, yet no one ever accuses Jordan of "stealing Palestinian land"?

IF NOTHING ELSE, I would like you to AT LEAST read this detailed and well-researched article about historical attitudes and treatments towards Jews in Islamic lands, and how those same attitudes and treatments carried over into the Islamic world's reaction to Jews emigrating to and eventually creating Israel.

[cavalierzee]

My Children

[sayruq]

[snifferish]

Here is a reading list of pieces about Palestinian Resistance curated by the Popular University and the Palestinian Youth Committee

In the introductory they say,

"We believe that education must be wielded in service of struggle."

If you're from a Western Country, the US especially. I urge you to look into this document. Pick out a few resources, read them, then SHARE THEM with your circle. There are English texts, and Arabic ones you can translate. It's no secret our education system is flawed, but especially when it comes to the history of the US' involvement in the Middle East it is purposely flawed.

The control of information and the viewpoint we've been taught is the foundation that western media builds it's propaganda on. It relies on us not to seek further that what we've been told, so inorder to combat it we must do just that.

If you're in academia, prompt your teachers to talk about Palestine. You could send them this list. But above all, do not be afraid to correct them if they're wrong, and if what they're teaching is bias. Do not let them get away with calling this anything but what it is is; a genocide. This goes for any social groups, and environments right now.

I know a lot of people who follow me are young, highschool or college age. Know that if you do not have financial means to help Palestine this is how you can, not just by sharing information online but the folks in your community who are disconnected and rely on broadcasted media. As the PYC said, it is a service, and a great start for you to follow other paths of educating, and aiding Palestine.

If you are financially able,

This is a Site Constructed with a growing list of Organizations and Relief Funds for Palestinians

[deadassdiaspore]

Palestine women in 1940's protesting British colonialism and demanding to end the British mandate over Palestine.

[infiniteglitterfall]

friggin faux-Palestinian history, istg

I'm in the middle of writing a post about the difficulties of pinning down details and dates in Palestinian history. This one is just me stopping to vent for a sec.

I came across the Wikipedia page for GUPS, the General Union of Palestinian Students. This is an organization with groups at colleges all over the world. Ish. It's shrunk over the decades.

The page made a bold claim: that GUPS was officially founded in Cairo in 1959, but had really started in the 1920s.

I called bullshit. The only source cited was a dead link to the 2010 version of the SFSU GUPS page, which said the same thing -- no context, no source, and especially, no explanation of how Palestinian student organizing could have started before there were colleges or universities in Palestine.

There were two. They were tiny. And they both taught in Hebrew.

Certainly, there could have been Arab Palestinian students there, who learned Hebrew there, or already knew it.

But were there so many that they started a student group that apparently lasted 35+ years before getting a name??

I could not find one other source for this.

So I deleted it and called bullshit.

Within a day, someone who wasn't even logged in reverted my edit. They told me that I hadn't proven that it was wrong, I'd just said it was illogical.

I started looking up sources and putting together a more detailed edit. In the meantime, I started a topic on the totally empty talk page, politely calling bullshit.

I said that I hadn't been able to find any sources in English OR Arabic that confirmed this claim, and that I thought it was an error made on a dead page.

The same person, now logged in, replied:

"you still haven't refuted the claim. the claim is still on their web page."

BRUH.

IT'S AN ARCHIVE OF A DEAD PAGE. BY DEFINITION, IT DOESN'T CHANGE.

This is exactly how it feels to research any of this stuff.

Every single time, it turns out that people's unsourced online bullshit is absolutely wrong.

Every single time, people just respond by insisting on believing whatever claim some rando made on the internet.

The problem is not that Palestinian history doesn't exist, hasn't been written down, or hasn't been researched. Of fucking course it has!!

(I have literally seen people claiming the contrary in the most wild-ass fucking ways. Supposedly-pro-Palestinian people, acting like Palestinians are wooby powerless fuzzy babbies whose books were all stolen by the cruel Jews 80 years ago, who had no way to replace that historic knowledge, and who have just been standing around ever since. It is the most Western Paternalism shit ever, and it absolutely drives me up the wall.)

The problem is that this is a topic that a lot of people are passionate about. And unfortunately, a whole lot of people are unwilling to back down on literally anything that "feels" pro-Palestinian to them, whether it's true or not.

It's purely going on Vibes, but the Vibes themselves are based on how something compares to the Vibes they get from social media and stuff.

And those vibes are so extreme and vehement that any kind of pushback sounds like You Love Genocide And Kill Babies For Fun.

It's just a fucking vicious spiral.

It's like playing tennis against the tennis-ball-throwing machine. It's not a real game. Nobody is engaging with you. It's just the same shit over and over.

(I was trying to type "shot." But apparently I swear so much that instead of autocorrecting me to "ducking hell," my phone now INSISTS I meant to cuss.)

I ended up getting Google to give me the Arabic for GUPS, and then digging for sources about its actual origin.

It turns out Yasser Arafat formed the Palestinian Students League in Cairo in 1949, and that became GUPS in 1956. This is entirely fucking unsurprising in any way if you know anything at all about actual Palestinian history. Of fucking course he did. This also explains why the first search result I found about GUPS was from the PLO. Of fucking course it was.

[northgazaupdates]

Do you have any resources on the history of Palestine?

Just got in a massive argument w/ someone who claims Isreali peoples and those who have inhabited that land existed way before Palestine.

And my only backing point is: Not according to the Palestinians I’ve talked to.

Thank you, I appreciate the help. I did my best to learn, but couldn't find any reputable sources on this.

You can check our #resources tag for some links, but going directly to DecolonizePalestine.com is the best way I can think of for finding analysis and evidence of this kind. I can also suggest some search tips for various databases and resources if you are comfortable DM’ing me, otherwise I will try to make a post about it soon. Authentic pre-1948 maps are helpful for this purpose as well.

Suggestions from our followers and other tumblr users are welcome.

[violottie]

"How Isra*l erases Palestinian 🍉 history by changing the names of everything they occupy." from Rolla Selbak, 27/Feb/2024

3 Recommendations to read:

- Article: Al Jazeera’s “Lost Cities of Palestine”

- Book: The 100 Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

- Book: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israeli historian Illan Pappe

[houseofpurplestars]

The subject of these famous photos from the First Intifada, taken by photographer Alfred Yaghoubzadeh, remained unknown for 30 years until the BBC interviewed her in 2017.

She is Micheline Awad from Beit Sahour. She was on her way to church and found young men throwing stones at the occupation forces, so she joined them.

(From The Palestinian Archive)

[former-leftist-jew]

I appreciate you reblogging my post, but I am perplexed as it says in your description that you are a Zionist, which is pretty ironic considering how I am quite the opposite on this issue.

You then proceed to mention the "Goyische Left"

A. Isn't 'Goyische' (moreso "Goyim") considered a Jewish slur for anyone considered to be a gentile? Isn't it a little bit prejudiced to use that sort of terminology? It would be wrong of a person to use the term "kike" when referring to Jews, so I personally think it goes the other way around too.

B. The "Left" as well as the "Right" aren't really a thing but social and political constructs people use to label a vague group of people and ideals, when it's more complicated than that & it's the reason I reject most politics in general besides Palestinians.

Yes, goyische" and "goyim" is a slur /sarcasm

Just like how "cis" and "cisgender" is a slur against non-trans people used by trans people and allies.

Just like how "gadjo" or "gadji" is a slur against non-Romani people hurled at them by Romani people.

Just like how "qallunaat" is a slur against non-Inuit people used by Inuit people.

Just like how "gringo" or "gringa" is a slur used by Spanish and Portuguese people to describe English-speaking Anglo Americans.

Whenever a small minority group has a word to describe general people outside that group (especially when it's a small, insular, minority group), it's automatically a slur, right?

--

The "Left" as well as the "Right" aren't really a thing but social and political constructs people use to label a vague group of people and ideals, when it's more complicated than that & it's the reason I reject most politics in general besides Palestinians.

Hate to break it to you, but "Palestinian" is just as much of a "social and political construct people use to label a vague group of people and ideas" just as much as "Left" and "Right," and you just fell for the party line.

Mosab Hassan Youself, son of one of Hamas' co-founders and a former Hamas operative himself, has talked extensively about the history of the Palestinian region for the last 100 years, and how the Arab Muslims political landscape has changed.

-

During the Peel Commission testimony in 1937, Arab leader Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi said, “There is no such country [as Palestine]! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country is part of Syria.”

In that same testimony, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi said, “The Arabs do not admit the existence of the Jews as Zionists at all... we utterly refuse to meet at the same table with any persons who call themselves Zionist Jews.”

What changed?A PR-shift in the 1960's.

Zahir Muhsein, PLO leader at the time, said in an interview with Trouw Magazine, 31. March 1977:

"The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism. Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity exists only for tactical reasons!"

There, straight from the horse's mouth.

And what is "Arab unity," you may ask? It's basically Pan-Arab nationalism

And this sentiment was held long before the state of Israel, since Arabs also massacred pious Jews who'd been living in Hebron for centuries in the name of Arab superiority--er, unity.

Honestly, I could go on and on.

That's not getting into how "Palestine" itself is a colonialist term. After the Roman Empire annexed Judea and expelled most Jews, they renamed the region "Syria Palestinia," after the Jews' historic enemies (and largely gone), the Philistines.

And that's before getting into the Arab Muslims' conquest of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia in the 7th and 8th centuries, after Romans and Byzantines battered themselves into a stalemate and

I'll never not be floored by the irony of Arab Colonizers using the term "Palestine"

Granted, it's also really hard to look all this up in good faith, since lots of pro-Palestinians have essentially hijacked the internet and flood it with pro-Palestine propaganda, which has been working tirelessly to infiltrate every aspect of Western life for decades.