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“وهل هناك حزن على ضياع الفتات بعدما سُرق الرغيفُ!”
― Abdullah Abu Snaineh - عبد الله أبو سنينة, وشاح

“In Gaza, some of us cannot completely die.

Every time a bomb falls, every time shrapnel hits our graves,

every time the rubble piles up on our heads,

we are awakened from our temporary death.”
― Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza

“Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear
BY MOSAB ABU TOHA
For Alicia M. Quesnel, MD

i

When you open my ear, touch it
gently.
My mother’s voice lingers somewhere inside.
Her voice is the echo that helps recover my equilibrium
when I feel dizzy during my attentiveness.

You may encounter songs in Arabic,
poems in English I recite to myself,
or a song I chant to the chirping birds in our backyard.

When you stitch the cut, don’t forget to put all these back in my ear.
Put them back in order as you would do with books on your shelf.”
― Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza

“الذكريات ضمن الأشياء القليلة التي لا تستطيع الترسانة العسكرية والعصابات المسلحة سرقتها.”
― Abdullah Abu Snaineh - عبد الله أبو سنينة, وشاح

“You ask: What is the meaning of "homeland"?

They will say: The house, the mulberry tree, the chicken coop, the beehive, the smell of bread, and the first sky.

You ask: Can a word of eight letters be big enough for all of these, yet too small for us?”
― Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence

“PALESTINE A–Z
A
An apple that fell from the table on a dark evening when man-made lightning flashed through the kitchen, the streets, and the sky, rattling the cupboards and breaking the dishes.

“Am�� is the linking verb that follows “I�� in the present tense when I am no longer present, when I’m shattered.

B
A book that doesn’t mention my language or my country, and has maps of every place except for my birthplace, as if I were an illegitimate child on Mother Earth.

Borders are those invented lines drawn with ash on maps and sewn into the ground by bullets.”
― Mosab Abu Toha, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza

“Statement on Hamas (October 10th, 2023)

When Israel strikes, it's "national security" - when Palestine strikes back, it's "terrorism". Just like over two hundred years ago when native americans resisted their homeland being stolen, it was called "Indian Attack". Or like over a hundred years ago when Indian soldiers in the British Army revolted against the empire, in defense of their homeland, it was called "Sepoy Mutiny".

The narrative never changes - when the colonizer terrorizes the world, it's given glorious sounding names like "exploration" and "conquest", but if the oppressed so much as utters a word in resistance, it is branded as attack, mutiny and terrorism - so that, the real terrorists can keep on colonizing as the self-appointed ruler of land, life and morality, without ever being held accountable for violating the rights of what they deem second rate lifeforms, such as the arabs, indians, latinos and so on.

After all this, some apes will still only be interested in one stupid question. Do I support Hamas? To which I say this. Until you've spent a lifetime under an oppressive regime, you are not qualified to ask that question. An ape can ask anything its puny brain fancies, but it's up to the human to decide whether the ape is worthy of a response. What do you think, by the way - colonizers can just keep coming as they please, to wipe their filthy feet on us like doormat, and we should do nothing - just stay quiet! For creatures who call themselves civilized, you guys have a weird sense of morality.

Yet all these might not get through your thick binary skull, so let me put it to you bluntly.

I don't stand with Hamas, I am Hamas, just like, I don't stand with Ukraine, I am Ukraine. Russia stops fighting, war ends - Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Israel ends invasion, war ends - Palestine ends resistance, Palestine ends.

However, I do have one problem here. Why do civilians have to die, if that is indeed the case - which I have no way of confirming, because news reports are not like reputed scientific data, that a scientist can naively trust. During humankind's gravest conflicts news outlets have always peddled a narrative benefiting the occupier and demonizing the resistance, either consciously or subconsciously. So never go by news reports, particularly on exception circumstances like this.

No matter the cause, no civilian must die, that is my one unimpeachable law. But the hard and horrific fact of the matter is, only the occupier can put an end to the death and destruction peacefully - the resistance does not have that luxury.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“Israel ends invasion, war ends - Palestine ends resistance, Palestine ends.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“... all over the world the institution of the prison serves as a place to warehouse people who represent major social problems... prison serves as an institution that consolidates the state's inability and refusal to address the most pressing social problems of this era.”
― Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement

“To claim Palestine after two thousand years made no more sense to him than the Italians claiming Germany because it was once occupied by the Romans.”
― Fred Uhlman, Reunion

“كونوا على ثقة أننا لو انسحبنا من هذه الساحات فستتحول إلى ساحة للفوضى والاضطراب إلى الأبد .السلطان عبد الحميد الثاني”
― حسين أوزدمير, فلسطين في العهد العثماني

“إن التاريخ هو نور ينفذ من الماضي إلى المستقبل”
― حسين أوزدمير, فلسطين في العهد العثماني

“لقد رفض السلطان عبد الحميد الثاني بيع الأراضي في فلسطين لليهود الذين أرادوا الاستيطان فيها، مهما كان الثمن المعروض مغريًا، بل قال لمن جاء إليه بهذا الخصوص: '' لن أبيع ولو شبرًا واحدًا من الأراضي التي دخلت ضمن دولتنا العلية ودفع أجدادنا دماءهم ثمنًا لها؛ لأن هذه الأرض ليست ملكي، بل ملك أمتي، وقد دفعت أمتى دماءها ثمنًا لهذه الأرض؛ فلن أبيعها لكم ولو بملء الأرض ذهبا.”
― حسين أوزدمير, فلسطين في العهد العثماني

“When Israel strikes, it's "national security" - when Palestine strikes back, it's "terrorism". Just like over two hundred years ago when native americans resisted their homeland being stolen, it was called "Indian Attack". Or like over a hundred years ago when Indian soldiers in the British Army revolted against the empire, in defense of their homeland, it was called "Sepoy Mutiny".

The narrative never changes - when the colonizer terrorizes the world, it's given glorious sounding names like "exploration" and "conquest", but if the oppressed so much as utters a word in resistance, it is branded as attack, mutiny and terrorism - so that, the real terrorists can keep on colonizing as the self-appointed ruler of land, life and morality, without ever being held accountable for violating the rights of what they deem second rate lifeforms, such as the arabs, indians, latinos and so on.

After all this, some apes will still only be interested in one stupid question. Do I support Hamas? To which I say this. Until you've spent a lifetime under an oppressive regime, you are not qualified to ask that question. An ape can ask anything its puny brain fancies, but it's up to the human to decide whether the ape is worthy of a response. What do you think, by the way - colonizers can just keep coming as they please, to wipe their filthy feet on us like doormat, and we should do nothing - just stay quiet! For creatures who call themselves civilized, you guys have a weird sense of morality.

Yet all these might not get through your thick binary skull, so let me put it to you bluntly.

I don't stand with Hamas, I am Hamas, just like, I don't stand with Ukraine, I am Ukraine. Russia stops fighting, war ends - Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Israel ends invasion, war ends - Palestine ends resistance, Palestine ends.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“I don't stand with Hamas, I am Hamas, just like, I don't stand with Ukraine, I am Ukraine. Russia stops fighting, war ends - Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Israel ends invasion, war ends - Palestine ends resistance, Palestine ends.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“Russia stops fighting, war ends - Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Israel ends invasion, war ends - Palestine ends resistance, Palestine ends.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Bulletproof Backbone: Injustice Not Allowed on My Watch

“When the contradictions weigh on you, know that this has never been a war of rights and wrongs, of what is just and what is fair. Never has it been a war of political logic or historic sense. All it ever was and will ever be is a war of semantics that altered, redefined and constructed today’s reality and tomorrow’s path.”
― Aysha Taryam

“Because of my ethnic background, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is a huge issue for me—it hits me very hard on many different levels.

(From 2005 on ihsan-net)”
― Khalil Bendib

“you’ll have people hijacking the Palestinian struggle as a chance for bashing the Jews, like European neo-Nazis who demonstrate against the occupation of Palestinian territories or the Iraq War. It’s important for the left to keep them apart from the legitimate struggle for the rights of the Palestinians; however, saying that anti-Zionism is antisemitism is a well-known tactic of intellectual dishonesty.

(Interview in Forward)”
― Carlos Latuff

“What deprives the spirit of its colors? What is it other than the bullets of the invaders that have hit the body?”
― Mourid Barghouti, رأيت رام الله

“Linking the national identity with race is not unique to the United States. National identity always requires an "other" to define it. But this country has linked its identity with race to an extraordinary degree, matched only by two other settler states: South Africa and Israel.”
― Elizabeth Martínez, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century

“Meanwhile, my fellow Fatehites in Kuwait were kind enough to find a role for me. They proposed that a group of us do something creative for the summer of 1968. They suggested we could perform two important tasks�� assisting overworked mothers in the "refugee" camps and visiting the families of our martyrs. "Social work", I scoffed, "is not social revolution. I want to participate fully in the revolution.”
― Leila Khaled, My People Shall Live: Autobiography of a Revolutionary as Told to George Hajjar

“Indeed, in many respects the story of Israel’s intelligence community as recounted in this book has been one of a long string of impressive tactical successes, but also disastrous strategic failures. Toward the end of his life, Dagan, like Sharon, understood this. He came to the conclusion that only a political solution with the Palestinians—the two-state solution—could end the 150-year conflict”
― Ronen Bergman, Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations

“I am many things. I don’t fit in any box. I’m Israeli, I’m Palestinian, I’m Arab, I’m Muslim, I’m a woman, a mother, and I am enjoying my life as an Israeli but cannot turn my back on my heritage. Is there a point when we will be able to move on?”
― Steven Rothfeld, Israel Eats

“there were about 4,000 casualties and some 12,000 Palestinians fled to other parts of Lebanon.”
― Liana Badr, The Eye of the Mirror

“She is marginalized as a young girl in a society with very fixed definitions ofwhat womanhood entails, and also as a Palestinian who is homeless and whose entire nation has been displaced”
― Liana Badr, The Eye of the Mirror

“One ofthe greatest wonders is that I am unable to enter my country or pass through the regions around it”
― Liana Badr, The Eye of the Mirror

“The Haganah gangs slaughtered a lot of people, and also raped many women. My neighbor’s niece was slaughtered in front of her father. We had no arms.”
― Liana Badr, The Eye of the Mirror

“People were surviving on almost nothing.”
― Liana Badr, The Eye of the Mirror

“Hana, the bravest wireless operator in the entire camp. No one is quite like her. She does the night shift in the wireless room, and goes with the girls to her military positions.��
I looked at her. Her eyes were green, her hair was tied back in a pony tail. She had a feminine air despite the seriousness which her difficult assignments imparted to her. I asked her: “It’s unusual for a girl to be on duty at night all by herself!��
“I’m not afraid of the night. Sometimes I used to be on duty at night, and I was not scared. The young men would be tied up along the combat lines and I would keep operating the wireless. At first, my parents wouldn’t agree to my work because they were worried about me. But I’ve done a three-month militia training course. I did it when the revolution entered the camp, and training began. They offered a course for girls. I was fourteen years old. It was a very strenuous course and I was in the third preparatory class at school.”
― Liana Badr, The Eye of the Mirror