Anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration

  

 Lord Arthur Balfour

 

On this day, one of history's most infamous and unjust declarations was made, when on November 2, 1917 a British official on  behalf of  the British government issued the  Balfour Declaration, which laid the foundation for the establishment of a Jewish state at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population. The ramifications would be seen up until the present day and is regarded as one of the most controversial and contested documents in modern history. The genocide we are witnessing in Gaza today is a direct result of these colonial efforts. 

It was named after Lord Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary during the Word War 1, who on an order by United Kingdom’s Prime Minister at that time, David Lloyd George,sent an official letter  to Baron Walter Rothschild (the 2nd Baron Rothschild), a leader of the British Zionist community, who accepted it on behalf of Great Britain and Ireland.

The document was quite short, consisting of only 67 words in three paragraphs. However, the impact was enormous: the declaration was the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which has not ended.The immortal words of the letter said the following:

" His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by jews in any other country."

The Original Letter of the Balfour Declaration

 

 

With the Balfour Declaration, London was seeking Jewish support for its war efforts, and the Zionist push for a homeland for Jews was an emerging political force. In 1917, Jews constituted 10% of the population, the rest were  Arabs. Yet Britain recognised the national rights of a tiny minority and denied it to the majority This was a classic colonial document which totally disregarded the rights and aspirations of the indigenous population. In the words of Jewish writer Arthur Koestler: “One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.”And in the words of the late Palestinian academic Edward Said, the declaration was “made by a European power … about a non-European territory … in a flat disregard of both the presence and wishes of the native majority resident in that territory. 

The indigenous Palestinian population’s political and national rights were ignored in the Balfour Declaration, not to mention their ethnic and national identity. Instead, Great Britain promised not to “prejudice the[ir] civil and religious rights,” and referred to Palestinians as “non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” The percentage of Jews living in Palestine in 1917 did not exceed 7%, yet the British attempted to rewrite history in order to justify their colonial policy.

Balfour, in a 1919 confidential memo, wrote: 

 “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age old traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far greater import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land”  

For all those that celebrate the Balfour Declaration. Balfour was an antisemite and wanted to migrate Jews out of Britain to solve the "Jewish problem".  Arthur Balfour wrote about the Zionist movement that it would “mitigate the age-long miseries created for Western civilization by the presence in its midst of a Body [Jews] which it too long regarded as alien and even hostile, but which it was equally unable to expel or to absorb.”

The discriminatory language used by Sir Arthur Balfour and seen in the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate reveal the prejudiced rational behind British foreign policy in Palestine. A month after the Balfour Declaration on 2 December 1917, the British army occupied Jerusalem.

The British government sought the approval of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson before the public announcement, with France and Italy also endorsing the declaration in 1918. By 1920, the Supreme Council of the Allied Powers at the San Remo Conference entrusted Britain with the mandate over Palestine, which included implementing the Balfour promise. 

The League of Nations subsequently approved the mandate in July 1922, coming into effect in September 1923 and included the entire text of the Balfour Declaration. Thus, the Balfour Declaration can be seen as a Western promise, not solely a British one. Arab responses to the declaration ranged from shock and outrage to outright condemnation  who had received promises of independence of its own in the post-war break up of the defeated Ottoman Empire.

To mitigate the backlash, Britain sent a letter to Sharif Hussein, affirming that it would not permit Jewish settlement in Palestine beyond what aligned with Arab interests. However, at the same time, the British military administration in Palestine was instructed to comply with the orders of the Jewish Agency, led by Chaim Weizmann, facilitating Jewish immigration from Russia and Eastern Europe and providing necessary protection. 

The Palestinians have always condemned the declaration, which they refer to as the "Balfour promise" saying Britain was giving away land it did not own. The Balfour Declaration constituted a dangerous historical precedent and a blatant breach of all international laws and norms, and this  act of the British Empire to “give” the land of another people  for colonial settlement and marked the beginning of a pattern of ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian people  that  continues to  this day.

The Mandate for Palestine constituted the entire legal framework for how Britain should operate during its occupation of Palestine. Despite this, the Mandate made no mention of the Palestinians by name, nor did it specify the right of Palestinians to nationhood. Instead, it was during its rule in Palestine that Britain sought to lay the foundations for the creation of a ‘national home for the Jewish people’. 

By the end of the 1920s, it became clear that this ambition would have violent repercussions.Between 1936 and 1939, thousands of Palestinians were killed and imprisoned as they revolted in protest against British policy.

The British response took a heavy toll on the livelihoods of Palestinian villagers, who were subjected to punitive measures that included the confiscation of livestock, the destruction of properties, detention and collective fines. During this time, British forces’ are said to have carried out beatings, extrajudicial killings and torture as they attempted to quell the uprising. To this day, there are still the ‘Tegart Forts’ in Palestine built and named by Sir Charles Tegart who had been stationed in India to punish those fighting against the British Raj and then later stationed in Palestine to control any Arab dissent.

The Palestinian people did not passively accept British promises and the realities imposed by Zionist actions. They engaged in a series of revolts, the first of which was the 1929 Buraq Uprising, followed by the 1936 Revolt.  

However for Palestinians, Britain’s three decades of occupation in Palestine was a turning point in the country’s history, laying the foundations for what would become decades of occupation, displacement and insecurity.

When the UK eventually decided to withdraw from from Palestine in May 1948  when the Israeli state was established. By this point, the Zionist paramilitary army was ready with a plan to colonise Palestine and the newly established United Nations was ready to take over the role of legitimising the occupation. 

This time is known by Palestinians as the Nakba or ‘catastrophe’, when large-scale ethnic cleansing, saw more than 700,000 Palestinians lose their ancestral homes. Hundreds of Arab villages razed to the ground and 15,000 Palestinians  killed in several massacres. Much of these events took place whilst streets of Palestine were still being patrolled by tens of thousands of British soldiers.

To this day, there are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Jordan as a result of the Nakba in 1948 and the displacement that followed the Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1967.

Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem have now been under occupation for over 50 years, devastating the lives of millions of Palestinians.

The catastrophe of the Arab Palestinian people in 1948 continues today at the hands of Israel, using the same old policies and laws established by the British such as land confiscation laws, home demolitions, ‘administrative’ detention, deportations, violent repression, and the continuation of the expulsion of about 7.9 million Palestinians who are denied their basic national and human rights, especially their right to return and live normally in their homeland. Today, the State of Israel, backed by the military and diplomatic might of the United States, continues this century-long pattern of denying the Palestinian people their right to self-determination. In violation of international law, Israel refuses to allow Palestinian refugees their right of return to the homes from which they or their ancestors were forcibly displaced by Israel during the Nakba in 1948; denies Palestinian citizens of Israel their equal rights; and imposes upon Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip a brutal military occupation and suffocating siege. that is currently facing  what amounts to genocide. This catastrophe of the Palestinian people could not continue without the support of Israel by the United States and Britain.

In the June 1967 war, Israel completed the conquest of Palestine by occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. By signing the Oslo Accord with Israel in 1993, the Palestine Liberation Organisation gave up its claim to 78% of Palestine. In return they hoped to achieve an independent Palestinian state on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with a capital city in East Jerusalem. It was not to be.

 On May 7, The Guardian newspaper regretted its support in 1917 for the Balfour Declaration, describing it as its “worst errors of judgment”.

The Guardian of 1917  had supported, celebrated, and could even be said to have helped facilitate the Balfour Declaration,” the British daily wrote, adding that the then editor, CP Scott, was “blinded” to Palestinian rights due to his support of Zionism.

The Balfour Declaration is not just history, it's actuality. The Palestinian people still experience this declaration's catastrophic consequences to this day, which bear witness to such a historic injustice due to the persecution, repression, killing, arrests and demolition of homes and properties. that perpetuated one of the longest-running settler-colonial occupations on a land that was and remains exclusively Palestinian.

This painful anniversary coincides with the ongoing crises in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, especially in the Gaza Strip, which is witnessing the escalation of killings, organized terrorism, displacement, and the deliberate destruction of residential buildings, schools, hospitals, places of worship, and infrastructure. The occupying army continues to commit one massacre after another without any accountability. Just today they destroyed an entire neighborhood in the Bureij camp over the heads of its residents! 

These actions constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Israeli occupation. Unfortunately, it highlights the failure of the international community to carry out its duties and assume its responsibilities in putting an end to this Israeli military aggression, providing protection for the Palestinian people, and obliging Israel, the occupying power, to comply with the principles of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions

On the Anniversary of the Balfour Declaration,it is important to note that the UK is currently assisting and providing cover for a second Nakba, the brutal genocide in Gaza and Israel’s latest and barbaric attempt to exterminate the north of Gaza, as well as the executions of Palestinians in the West Bank, continue with full impunity and collaboration from the British establishment!

Today Britain continues to be involved by supplying arms and political support to Israel, enabling bombings ending in tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths. And of all of the nations to stand by and watch, it shouldn't be ours. Britain has played a role in creating this cycle of killing and bloodshed in the middle east. Our country, the former colonial power is jointly responsible for the disaster of the Balfour declaration, and is fully accountable to the atrocities and dehumanizing of Palestinians. But even till this day, the UK has not shown any remorse for the historical sin it had made.

The silence and complicity surrounding the atrocities in Gaza highlight a chilling continuity we are witnessing an attempt to execute the final phase of a long-standing scheme—the theft of a homeland, encapsulated in the so-called Deal of the Century, backed by those who refuse to acknowledge the truth of the Palestinians struggle.

Over 100 years on, the commemoration of the Balfour Declaration is a stark reminder that the Zionist settler-colonial project was in the works long before the Nakba in 1948, and Britain has played a vital part in the expansion of the colonial project. Today Britain continues to support Israel in all its barbaric war crimes against the people of Palestine and beyond. For over 100 years the Palestinian people have been resisting colonisation and have become a catalyst for the world revolution everywhere! 

Let us follow in their footsteps and fight to break the kill chain right here from the heart of the country that promised a land away that was not theirs to begin with! Britain bears a moral and historical responsibility over the displacement and dispossession of millions of Palestinians and should therefore make every possible effort to remedy the wounds inflicted upon the Palestinians as a result of the Balfour Declaration by apologizing to the Palestinian people, and recognizing the Palestinian state on the June 4, lines with East Jerusalem as its capital in support of achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in accordance with the vision of a two-state solution to ensure that future generations of Palestinians can live in dignity.The Israeli occupation should be brought to an end and Israel should be held accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity. There can be no peace without righting this historic injustice.

Budget 2024 : Austerity Labour style.

Addressing the Commons as Britain's first female chancellor, Rachel Reeves pledged to make good on Labour’s promise to voters in July’s general election.This Budget, Reeves declared at the top of her speech, will "drive economic growth" and “invest, invest, invest”. 

What followed was for me  very dissapointing. Crackdown on benefits, slashes welfare by £3.4bn, kicking 400,000+ disabled people off benefits (according to Joseph Rowntree Foundation), access to bank accounts, cuts to the work capability assessment are going ahead, based on the outdated idea that weakening support improves work incentives. It doesn't, it actually creates barriers to work. And  their  planning cuts, which  will see 400,000 people more than £400 a month worse off at  a time when all the charities emphasise the desperate need for an increase. 

People on benefits do not live the life of riley, many with problems that are not always visible, with barely to live on as it is, Labours solutions are not going to help one bit, in many cases will just add to anxiety, We are seen as convenient scapegoats in a very uncaring society. Most people who complain about those on benefits never have had the indignity of relying on them. People receiving sickness benefits also face a fearful future at a time when almost two thirds of those experiencing destitution have a long term health condition.

Disabled and sick are not economically inactive. In fact no one is. This is a very ableist viewpoint. We all pay bills and not everyone can work. Starmer  and Reeve's ‘no stone unturned’ on benefits claimants is dangerous. Claimants are already *hounded for years* to prove they’re not faking it.this will simply break .people who are already struggling.

The whole point is to get more “growth” (profit) by pushing more people into the labour pool which helps employers push wages down and increase profit. Oh and pensioners robbed of Winter Fuel Allowance and public services cut by 4% annually (includes inflation). This is Austerity Labour style. 

All this has been  greeted by cheering bellows of "Hear hear" from the opposition benches. Of course the Tories are pleased that Labour will be continuing their 14 years of persecution of the disabled and vulnerable  on benefits. Labour has now become more Tory than the Tory Party themselves. 

I forgot to mention that with Tax Fraud approx. 4.8% (£40Billion) compared to Benefit Fraud 2.8%(£7.4Billion) Starmer/Reeves choose to protect their friends/Donors wealth by focusing on bullying disabled/ill people "back to Work" while cutting support services by 4%.

The Govternments decision to keep regressive Tory fuel duty freeze and to choose to penalise bus users is utterly nonsensical. What happened to promoting public transport?  A rocketing bus fare rise hits young people, families and all those who can't afford a car. It entrenches years of unequal burdens, is the opposite of a progressive transport pricing policy, and means less for better travel across the country. 

It seems to me watching this budget that Rachel Reeves is borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Basically taking it from one section of society to pay another section of society. Starmer / Reeves budget is just another tax and spend budget, probably worse than the last government but broadly speaking part of the same consensus.

It will continue to deliver poor public services, anaemic growth, not enough houses and more debt. The consensus is the problem and needs breaking. At the end of the day,a  very  dissapointing budget. We needed a Budget to build a fairer society and a greener economy. The Chancellor has missed the opportunity to close the inequality gap and fund public services by taxing the super-rich.

 Never thought the labour party would inflict such poverty onto ordinary people trying to get by in life. The rich will be comfortable thats for sure as they take from the poorest in society. Happy no I''m fucking  not,  I am honestly devastated at the financial misery this budget will inflict on the poorest people in the country. Starmers Labour Party offers no help and no hope. no meaningful boosts to support, no protections from widespread usury. But there’s always money for war £54.2 billion last financial year, that’s £100,000 per minute. It's a farce, well the  same old rotten system as usual,  just  dressed up in new clothes. 

Marking the Anniversary of the Dawayima Massacre during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

Pictured: Palestinian refugees forced to flee their homes in 1948.

October 29th,marked the  anniversary of the Dawayima Massacre 1948 when Israeli terrorists  murdered hundreds of peaceful Palestinian villagers. in the town of al-Dawayima  on October 29th, 1948. during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 

The incident occurred after the town was occupied by the Zionist regimes Israeli Defence Force (IDF)’ army’s 89th Commando Battalion during Operation Yoav, encountering little resistance. The battalion, whose first commander was Moshe Dayan, was composed of former Irgun and Lehi forces.This occurred after the town was occupied  by the IDF, encountering little resistance. 

Little is known about the brutal massacre in the village of Dawaymeh which is situated a few kilometres West of Hebron. It had a population of six thousand people.Some four thousand Arab refugees had taken refuge in the village prior to the massacre. 

According  to Palestnian historian Saleh Abd al-Jawad an estimated 80-200 civilian men, women and children were murdered in cold blood..The children of the village had their heads beaten with ’sticks’ – adults were blown up in their homes Around 60 people were murdered in the local mosque, most of them elders, and 85 people who sought refuge in the nearby cave of Iraq al-Zagh were also killed there. These included women, as well as children, who had their skulls beaten and smashed. Palestinian women were raped by soldiers, and women and their babies were murdered. Bodies were then  stuffed down the village well.

The Israeli daily 'Al ha-Mishmar gives the following description: 'The children they killed by breaking their heads with sticks. There was not a house without dead... One commander ordered a sapper to put two old women in a certain house...and to blow up the house with them. The sapper refused...The commander then ordered his men to put in the old women and the evil deed was done. One soldier boasted that he had raped a woman and then shot her...' 

One Israeli soldier wrote a letter to a newspaper describing what happened, and recounted how the "cultured, polite commanders, who are considered upstanding members of society, turned into base murderers, and not in the heat and passion of battle but in a system of expulsion and destruction." He claimed that the military was working on the principle that: "The fewer Arabs that will remain, the better. That principle is the political driving force of the expulsions and atrocities, to which no one objects, either in the operational command or in high command. I myself was at the front for two weeks and heard tales of boasting by soldiers and commanders of how they excelled at hunting and 'screwing.' To screw an Arab, just like that and under all circumstances, is an honorable mission and there’s competition for winning at this." 

The newspaper did not publish the letter.though it  was finally  released tn 2016.Link  here :-

 https://mondoweiss.net/2016/02/barbarism-by-an-educated-and-cultured-people-dawayima-massacre-was-worse-than-deir-yassin/ 

After the massacre, the Palestinians' homes were destroyed, and the survivors forced to flee as refugees in the West Bank and Jordan. The Israeli Prime Minister ordered the attorney general to investigate the massacre. His report remains classified to this day.

The reason why so little is known about this massacre which, in many respects, was more brutal than the Deir Yassin massacre on 9 Aprilhttps://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2019/04/remembering-deir-yassin.html  is because the Arab Legion (the Army in control of that area) feared that if the news was allowed to spread, it would have the same effect on the moral of the peasantry that Deir Yassin had, namely to cause another flow of Arab refugees, but as with Deir Yassin, some months earlier  on 9 April, these acts of slaughter terrified the area and stimulated the flow of refugees, the abandonment of their land, as they sought refuge..  

Unlike massacres carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups, such as Deir Yasin  the perpetrators of the al-Dawayima Massacre were regular armed forces with operational planning capacity. They were part of the armed forces of the new state that, having firmly established its presence, was seeking recognition by the international community and was preparing its application to become a member state of the UN , which meant a pledge to respect all the commitments specified by its charter.

Moreover, the massacre of al-Dawayima was not followed by condemnations from Palestinians and Arabs; more than three decades passed before it received attention from scholars and the media. 

Moreover, interviewed in 1984 by the Israeli daily Hadashot, the former mukhtar (head) of the village recalls the following: 'The people fled, and everyone they saw in the house, they shot and killed. They also killed people in the streets. They came and blew up my house, in the presence of eye-witnesses. [...] The moment that the tanks came and opened fire, I left the village immediately. At about half-past ten, two tanks passed the Darawish Mosque. About 75 old people were there, who had come early for Friday prayers. They gathered in the mosque to pray. They were all killed.' 

According to the mukhtar, thirty-five families were hiding in caves outside al-Dawayima, including some from the previously occupied village of al-Qubayba. When discovered by the Israeli forces, '[t]hey told them to come out and get into line and start to walk. And as they started to walk, they were shot by machine guns from two sides...We sent people there that night, who collected the bodies, put them into a cistern, and buried them.'  

When taken back to his village in 1984 for the first time since the massacre, the mukhtar showed an Israeli journalist where his home had been, as well as the cistern where the bodies had been buried. The journalist returned with four labourers a few days later. After digging for a short while they discovered several human bones, including three skulls, one of which was a child's. They stopped digging and reburied the bones.  

Although a number of further investigations were launched, they were generally ineffectual and only ended with the disciplining of some soldiers and the issuing of a set of rules on the Israeli army's treatment of Arab civilians. When the issue of al-Dawayima was raised again in December 1984, during a general discussion of atrocities by an Israeli ministerial committee, Agriculture Minister Aharon Zisling said: 'This is something that determines the character of the nation...Jews too have committed Nazi acts.' 

While complaining that the investigation was not proceeding as it should, he nevertheless agreed with other ministers that Israel should admit nothing outwardly, in order to preserve its image. 

In 1955, the settlement of Amatzya was established on the on land that had belonged to Al-Dawayima. According to the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi :  "The site has been fenced in. A cowshed, a chicken coop, and granaries have been built at its center (which has been leveled). The southern side of the site contains stone terraces and the remnants of a house. The eastern side is occupied by the residential area of the moshav."  

In 2013, the whole area, apart from some ancient Jewish remains, was bulldozed to pave the way for the erection of a new community called Karmei Katif, which was completed in 2016 and which houses evacuees of the Gaza Strip settlements.

The war did not start on 7th October it started with the mass killings and forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948,  with the Nabka continuing through over half a century of military occupation, repeated military assaults on Gaza, and official Israeli statements that openly express support for the elimination of Palestinians. 

Historical accounts suggest that, during this turbulent period, both Israeli and Yishuv (later Israeli) soldiers were involved in at least 33 massacres and other indiscriminate acts of violence against Palestinians. 

Israel's history is replete with events that have raised serious accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population. that continues to  this day.More than 43,000 Palestinians killed in yearlong war in Gaza, Palestinian Health Ministry says. 

Months ago the Lancet said Palestinian deaths were at least 200k, with a probability it was 500k. Since then, unparalleled slaughter of the innocents has been perpetrated by Israel. Thousands buried under the rubble have not been counted.  

As Israeli atrocities are broadcast each day out of Gaza. How long will this genocide continue? When will the rest of the world stand up to the murderous Israeli regime and say enough is enough.The Israeli genocide in Gaza must be stopped!

This means supporting a full arms embargo  and an end to political support, international sanctions on all Israeli goods and services, prosecutions for all those who have committed war crimes and a plan for a viable Palestinian state.The horrific suffering" won't end all by itself.

October: Ten Days That Shook The World (1928)

October: Ten Days That Shook the World (Russian: Октябрь (Десять дней, которые потрясли мир); translit. Oktyabr': Desyat' dney kotorye potryasli mir) is a 1928 Soviet silent historical film by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov. It is a celebratory dramatization of the 1917 October Revolution and  was one of two films commissioned by the Soviet government to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution (the other was Vsevolod Pudovkin's The End of St. Petersburg). 

Eisenstein was chosen to head the project due to the international success he had achieved with The Battleship Potemkin in 1925 .

Originally released as October in the Soviet Union, the film was re-edited and released internationally as Ten Days That Shook The World, after U.S socialist journalist and founder of the Communist Labour Party of America John Reed's popular eyewitness account on the Revolution.

In the cultural sphere of the day, after the triumphant success of Battleship Potemkin in 1925 – a film that stands as one of the greatest achievements of silent cinema, and which inspired generations of filmmakers and artists, the  director Sergei Eisenstein found himself in high demand. 
A committed communist himself, Eisenstein spoke about how the revolution brought him to art from his engineering background, and how art, conversely, brought him to revolution. His films bear out that relationship. isenstein had planned to make a film about the events of October 1917 as the final part of his revolutionary triptych of films – succeeding The Strike (1925) and the aforementioned Battleship Potemkin.

 His “October” film was highly anticipated, received enthusiastic state support, and was to be released in commemoration of the ten-year anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power. What resulted was the most challenging (and perhaps most problematic) work in the filmmaker’s career. The authorities did not like October – it was partly censored, when it was  eventually released some months after the jubilee had passed in early 1928.
Nikolai Povoisky, one of the trioka who led the storming of the Winter Palace was responsible for the commission. The scene of the storming was based  on the 1920 re-enactment involving Vladimir Lenin and thousands of Red Guards, witnessed by 100,000 spectators. This scene is notable because it became the legitimate, historical depiction of the Winter Palace owing to the lack of print or film documenting the actual event, which led historians and filmakers to use Eisensten's recreation. This illustrates October's success as a propaganda film.
Today Sergei Eisenstein is often portrayed as the godfather of propaganda in film and.is regarded as one of the most important pioneers of early cinema, a filmmaker and theorist whose legacy can still be felt.
The film opens with the elation after the February Revolution and the establishment of the Provisional Government, depicting the throwing down of the Tsar's monument. It moves quickly to point out it's the "Same old story" of war and hunger under the new Provisional Government.The buildup to the October Revolution is dramatized with intertitles marking the dates of events. 
The film was originally  intended to represent two revolutionary leaders, Vladimir Lenin and  Leon Trotsky. Trotsky’s absence from the eventual film so obviously contradicts the historical record that one can only conclude the work was heavily censored as Eisenstein was required to re-edit the work to expurgate references to Trotsky, who had recently been purged by Stalin. 

Trotsky was chairman of the Petrograd Soviet from September 25, 1917. However, the film does not show Trotsky, but another leader of the Petrograd Soviet, Yakov Sverdlov, exhorting soldiers with a rousing speech. An important episode in the film concerns the second All-Russian Congress of Soviets. This was of huge importance in relation to the debates actually taking place. Trotsky is missing from this part of the film. The program notes to October reveal that his “historic utterance, ‘Words must be followed by deeds’ 'are put into the mouth of a political companion”

The film was not as successful or influential as Potemkin and Eisenstein's montage experiments met with official disapproval; the authorities complained that October was unintelligible to the masses, and Eisenstein was attacked—for neither the first time nor the last—for excessive "formalism". 
October was criticised in Keatsian terms by no less a luminary than Lenin’s widow, Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya. “Crude tricks will not do,” she said. “The dead horse suspended over the water, hanging from the shafts of the opening bridge; the murdered woman’s hair spreading out, covering the bridge’s slats. It’s too much like an advertisement, it’s theatrical.” It is, if you like, “palpable design”.
In spite of the film's lack of popular acceptance, film historians consider it to be an immensely rich experience,a sweeping historical epic of vast scale, and a powerful testament to Eisenstein's genius and artistry. October was initially banned, with its first British screenings only taking place in 1935.

October is significant in global cinema history as it exemplifies the use of film as a political tool, showcasing revolutionary events through innovative editing and montage techniques that influenced later film movements.

This iconic film continues to receive attention for its dramatic use of imagery, deploying  Eisenstein’s famous techniques of intercutting, juxtaposition and montage to create mood and drama  and. is still in my opinion a wonder to behold. 

 

In the maze of emotions

 

The more we share our stories, the more we discover the love that holds this world together. There’s a unity in the human experience that, when bravely spoken from the heart, can liberate us all. Always  speak your truth with every word you utter. 

Our voices and experiences are capable of bringing transformation, both within ourselves and to the world around us. Stay away from people who put you down, lower your vibe, they'll probably judge you anyway, so for self care keep moving in your own free direction, 

Search for that place called love, containing the ultimate truth, held within the beauty of every bloom. where dreams never die. Ignore the inner mind of our politicians who stand by genocide, the sickest minds of society with nowhere now to hide. 

In the maze of emotions find paths of resistance, between the light and dark, the dance of liberation, savour the gifts of mother nature.With every fluttering heartbeat, seek new depths, cast peacefullness wherever possible, as time slips through our fingers, with each passing day, discover new layers of  meaning.

Follow the eternal flames of justice, through every season, let them be known, despite the struggles all  around us, remember it's ok to feel delicate, after  the storms have diminished, we can find calm, see the world through a new lens of wonder. 

Celebrating Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud: The ' enfant terrible' of late 19th century French literature ( 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891)

The marvellous visionary French  poet Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud  known for being the ‘enfant  terrible’ of French literature and for .his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism, an individual  whose work and life I've  long been interested in, Arthur Rimbaud was born in Charleville in the Ardennes  region of northern France  near the Belgium  border on October 20, 1854. His father was an infantry officer frequently away from home, and Arthur’s parents separated when he was six, leaving him to be raised by his rigid, narrow-minded, humorless, miserly mother, whom he called the “mouth of darkness.”

A priest at the Pension Rossat, where Arthur was enrolled, inspired him to love Greek, Latin, and French literature, and encouraged him to write poetry. and  he started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student. 

He surprised from an early age with his intellectual precocity and a special talent for communicating images and feelings through words. At the age of ten, he began to make known his first verses, with great imagination and sense of rhythm, to such an extent that the writer Victor Hugo called him the “child Shakespeare” and many consider him the “father of modern poetry”. 

At the age of 17  he  wrote- The Drunken Boat , one of his most celebrated poems: “I know of the skies that burst into lightning, and of the waterspouts and the undertows and the currents. I know of the afternoon, of the Dawn exalted like a village of doves. And I have seen sometimes, that which man has believed to see! (…) I would have liked to show the children those golds. Of the blue wave, the gold fish, the singing fish. The foam of the flowers has blessed my wanderings and ineffable winds gave me their wings for a moment”.

As in these verses, he never forgot his passionate childhood. What better than to let him speak, through his own definition in the famous work entitled We Must Be Absolutely Modern : 

“I am an inventor whose merits differ greatly from those who have preceded me; I am even a musician who has found something like the key to love. Now, a gentleman  of a bitter field  under a sober sky, I try to be moved by the memory of my beggarly childhood (3), of the time of apprenticeship and of arriving in wooden shoes  of the disputes, of the five or six widowhoods and of some parties in which my stubbornness prevented me from being in tune with my friends."

  

By the time he was seventeen, Rimbaud had become a dyed-in-the-wood rebel and libertine he consumed alcohol, wrote obscene poems, stole books, and allowed his appearance to grow unkempt and disheveled.What makes Rimbaud’s poetry  so important, is part of what makes his life so compelling,  his sheerrebellion, audacity, creativity and exploration. 

Almost all of Rimbaud’s poems were written between the ages of fifteen and twenty. Against the backdrop of the crumbling Second Empire and the tumultuous Paris Commune, the poet took centuries-old traditions of French versification and picked them apart with an unmatched knowledge of how they fitted together. 

Combining sensuality with pastoral, parody, political satire, fable, eroticism and mystery, Rimbaud’s works range from traditional verse forms to prose-poetry and the two first free-verse poems written in French. As a poet, Rimbaud is well known for his contributions to Symbolism and for A Season in Hell, a precursor to modernist literature. Within it Rimbaud fully tested the boundaries of traditional forms of verse. In an approach to writing verse he famously described as a "rational derangement of all the senses", 

When Rimbaud's mother asked of A Season in Hell, "What does it mean?" - perhaps voicing a universe inquiry, Rimbaud answered, "It means what it says, literally and in every sense."

Rimbaud allowed his own observations to dictate his experiments with language and the rhythmic flow of his poems. It did not matter to him if his visions lacked coherence or shape, and it was images, and the ideas he associated with those images, that determined the arrangement of his poetry.

Thematically, Rimbaud's poetry also challenged conservative norms. His complex relationship with his domineering mother saw him rebel against her strict Catholic standards. He would reject all forms of scholarly rationalism, and all concessions to traditional family and civic values. His writing, which sometimes ventured into mysticism and spiritualism, also dared to celebrate the "virtues" of apathy, laziness, and vice.

Critics have called Rimbaud one of the creators of free verse for such poems as Marine and Mouvement in Les Illuminations. Rimbaud had written in Une Saison en Enfer: 

"I believed I could acquire supernatural powers. Well! I must bury my imagination and my memories!" 

Rimbaud wrote to several poets in order to  promote  his  work,but received no replies, so his friend,  Charles Auguste Bretagne, advised him to write to Paul Verlaine, an eminent Symbolist poet. who as it happens Rimbad  greatly  admired.

 Rimbaud sent Verlaine two letters with several of his poems, including the hypnotic, finally shocking "Le Dormeur du Val" (The Sleeper in the Valley), in which Nature is called upon to comfort an apparently sleeping soldier. 

Verlaine was intrigued by Rimbaud, and replied, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you," sending him a one-way ticket to Paris.Rimbaud arrived in late September 1871 and resided briefly in Verlaine's home. Verlaine's wife, Mathilde Mauté, was seventeen years old and pregnant, and Verlaine had recently left his job and started drinking. 

In later published recollections of his first sight of Rimbaud at the age of seventeen, Verlaine described him as having "the real head of a child, chubby and fresh, on a big, bony, rather clumsy body of a still-growing adolescent", with a "very strong Ardennes accent that was almost a dialect". His voice had "highs and lows as if it were breaking."  

Desire him, Verlaine certainly did. Rimbaud and Verlaine began a short and torrid affair. The Parisian literary coterie was scandalized by Rimbaud, whose behaviour was that of the archetypal enfant terrible, yet throughout this period he continued to write poems.

He moved in with Verlaine and his wife and was a houseguest from hell: his room was a squalid sty, he indulged heavily in absinthe and hashish, he sunbathed stark naked in the front garden, he picked lice from his overgrown hair and flicked them onto visitors, he smashed china, he desecrated an heirloom crucifix, he sold some of his hosts’ furniture, and he used a magazine containing poems by a friend of Verlaine’s for toilet paper. 

Verlaine, enamored of the boy, was delighted with his antics. Throughout these rambunctious teen years.They indulged in absinthe ,opium and hashish together, and reveled in their sexual excesses, even collaborating on a “Sonnet du trou du cul”—which can most politely be translated as “Sonnet in Praise of the Butthole,” and whose contents are decidedly pornographic which includes the lines “Dark and puckered like a violet carnation/It breathes, humbly lurking amidst the moss,” and “It’s the shrivelled olive and the flute-hugger.”. 

Rimbaud entered into a prolific period of creativity during the next three years, turning out virtually his entire body of work in that time.  In 1872 Verlaine abandoned his wife and child and took Rimbaud with him to England, where they lived in Bloomsbury and Camden Town, and scraped a living by teaching and an allowance from Verlaine’s mother. Rimbaud stuck to his writing in the Reading Room of the British Museum to take advantage of the free heating, lighting, pens, and ink. After several months in London, Verlaine went to Brussels, where he asked his mother and Rimbaud to join him at the Hotel Liège.  

Now drinking even more heavily, Verlaine bought a pistol, with which he intended to commit suicide, but instead he used it to shoot Rimbaud in the wrist during a violent lovers’ quarrel. Rimbaud declined to press charges but wisely decided to hightail it out of Brussels. On the way to the train station, Verlaine threatened him again, and Rimbaud summoned a police officer and had him arrested. Verlaine served two years in prison for the assault.  

Rimbaud returned home to Charleville and wrote his last verses, after which he abandoned poetry forever. In his late adolescence and early adulthood, he produced the bulk of his literary outputi ncluding Le Bateau ivre, Une Saison en Enfer, and Illuminations,  that became hallmarks of French surrealism. 

In 1875 he and Verlaine met for the last time. Verlaine had become an exceedingly pious Catholic, and Rimbaud described him as “clutching a rosary in his claws.” They parted on chilly terms. However  despite this Verlaine was nevertheless essentially faithful to Rimbaud even after their friendship collapsed, and arranged publication of his Complete Poems in 1895.

By the age of 21, he had ceased writing poetry altogether, turning his back on the literary world to seek a different path. After quitting poetry, Rimbaud studied Italian, Spanish, and German, and committed to touring Europe, often on foot, seeking adventure and opportunities to make money. 

In 1876 Rimbaud went to Vienna, where he was robbed of all his money and stripped of his clothes by a cab driver. The French consul general arranged for his passage back to France. Then he joined the Dutch Colonial Army and served in the East Indies, but deserted into the Indonesian jungle and eventually found his way back to France once more. 

In 1877, Rimbaud spent some time working in a traveling circus in Sweden and Denmark before, in December 1878, arriving in Cyprus where he took a job as a stone quarry foreman. After five months in Cyprus, he contracted typhoid and returned to France. Critic John Tranter writes that, in March 1880, Rimbaud "found work in Cyprus again, as a foreman of a construction gang in the mountains. He got involved in a quarrel and, it seems, threw a stone which hit a local worker on the temple and killed him.!

Rimbaud fled, travelling through the Red Sea - further and further from Europe - and ending up in the British port of Aden, a sun-baked volcanic crater perched at the gateway to the Indian Ocean and the coast of Yemen".  

Once in Aden, Rimbaud worked for Alfred Bardey, a coffee trader. Already fluent in English and German (and with a working knowledge of Latin, Greek, Spanish and Italian) he quickly took to native languages and dialects. Tranter writes that "once he'd learned the ropes and proved himself useful and trustworthy, Bardey asked him to set up a branch of the business in Harar, five hundred kilometres from Aden [...] in the highlands of Abyssinia, as Ethiopia was then". 

The route to Harar was perilous as it was policed by the notorious Danakil tribesmen (they had recently attacked a French trader and his wife, killing them and their twenty Abyssinian guards, taking their testicles as battle trophies). Rimbaud risked the journey and once in Harar, befriended the Governor, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael Wolde Melekot, father of future emperor Haile Selassie. 

In Harar, Rimbaud was soon trading on his own behalf. As Tranter explains, "he had developed a circle of friends among the Africans as well as the Europeans. He had a devoted servant, a beautiful Abyssinian mistress, and a busy schedule. He'd earned the esteem of the society he'd chosen to join". However, Rimbaud was not happy with his new life (which, Tranter suggests, had been rather forced on him following the killing of his fellow workman in Cyprus). Tranter makes his point by citing Rimbaud's letters home (mostly to his mother).

It was a life from which literature was completely absent. As far as I can determine, in all the letters he wrote to his family during these last years, he never once mentions literature. (He does mention books, but they are invariably technical or instructional ones.) He certainly never wrote poetry again. He did write, though: He published several pieces on East Africa, including a treatise on Ogaden that appeared in the bulletin of the French Geographical Society. It was decently, though not memorably, written, but its author hardly seemed the same Arthur Rimbaud who had upset and forever altered the French literary world. 

In fact, like many before him and after, Rimbaud reinvented himself. The problem for posterity has been that with this reinvention, Rimbaud discarded his marvelous ability to spin words in the stars. When, some years later, Pierre Bardey's brother Alfred happened to learn that Rimbaud had written poetry and was revered in certain small circles in Paris, he confronted Rimbaud with this. Rimbaud seemed aghast: "Absurd! Ridiculous! Disgusting!" he said to Bardey. The Rimbaud who had written "The Drunken Boat" and A Season in Hell was dead and buried. The new Rimbaud wanted to make money. And, perhaps, to do some exploring and a bit of photography. This was the Arthur Rimbaud who arrived in Aden, Yemen in August of 1880  whose personality could hardly have been more different from the wild days of his youth. People who knew him said he was taciturn, withdrawn, gruff, and unsociable, but honest and methodical as a trader, with a dry sense of humor. He led a simple, almost ascetic, life, and he delighted in helping the poor.

In 1884  he left his job at Bardey's to become a merchant on his own account in Harar, where his commercial dealings included coffee and (generally outdated) firearms. 

He was, in fact, a pioneer in the business, the first European to oversee the export of the celebrated coffee of Harar from the country where coffee was born. He was only the third European ever to set foot in the city, and the first to do business there.

In 1885 Rimbaud became involved in a major deal to sell old rifles to the king of Shewa.The explorer Paul Soleillet became involved early in 1886. The arms were landed at Tadjoura in February, but could not be moved inland because Léonce Lagarde, governor of the new French administration of Obock and its dependencies, issued an order on 12 April 1886 prohibiting the sale of weapons.

In February of 1891, when he was thirty-six, he noticed a pain in his right knee, which made it difficult to walk, and he assumed it was arthritis. When it became more troublesome, he had a canvas stretcher made and was carried on it more than 150 miles across the desert to the port of Zeila in Somaliland. From there, he sailed to Aden, Yemen, where he saw a European doctor, who misdiagnosed his ailment as tubercular synovitis, an inflammation of the membrane around the kneejoints, frequently seen in rheumatoid arthritis. 

He recommended immediate amputation of the leg.  Rimbaud remained in Aden until May 7, when he took the steamer L’Amazone on a thirteen-day voyage to Marseille, where he was admitted to Conception Hospital, and on May 27 underwent amputation of his leg.  It was discovered that he was actually suffering from osteosarcoma, advanced bone cancer, and had only a few months to live. 

He wrote to his sister Isabelle: “What a nuisance, what a bore, what misery when I think of my former travels, and how active I was just 5 months ago! Where is my skipping across mountains, the walks, the treks through deserts, across rivers, and over seas? And now, the life of a one-legged cripple…. And to think I had decided to come back to France this summer to get married! Goodbye to wedding, goodbye to family, goodbye to future! My life is gone, I'm no more than an immobile trunk.”  

Isabelle joined him in Marseille and remained with him during his last days, engineering his deathbed conversion to the Catholic Church. She wrote to their mother in Charleville on October 28: “He is no longer a poor, unrepentant sinner.  He is now a saint, a martyr, one of the just, one of the chosen! Sunday morning, after mass, one of the priests came to see him and offered to hear his confession—and he accepted! As he left, the priest told me, ‘Your brother has the true faith. I have never seen faith of this quality.’ I kissed the ground with joy.  There is joy, even in his death, now that his soul is saved!”  Despite his repentance, the priest did not offer Rimbaud communion since he felt he was too weak to receive it and might vomit on the host.  Isabelle described her brother’s condition: “His stump is extremely swollen.  There is an enormous cancerous growth between his hip and his belly, just on top of the bone.  All the doctors—ten of them have visited him—seem terrified by this strange cancer. They say his case is unique, and there is something about it they don’t understand. Arthur’s head and left arm are in great pain, but he usually remains in a a deep lethargy, apparently sleeping.  At night he has a morphine injection.  When he wakes, he says odd things, thinking we are in Ethiopia or Yemen and must find camels and organize a caravan…He has the thinness of a skeleton and the color of a corpse. And his poor limbs are all paralyzed, mutilated, and dead around him.  O God, how pitiful!” 

His cancer widespread, Rimbaud died on November 10, 1891, alone and miserable. Though he was by then aware that some of his poetry had been published and had attracted attention, he had not a clue of the magnitude of his eventual, posthumous fame. Would he have cared? In one of his last letters, also written to his sister, he wrote, "Our life is a misery, an endless misery! Why do we exist?"  He was 37. He was buried at his place of birth in Charleville. 

Arthur Rimbaud led a truly remarkable life. When he wasn’t running away from home, denouncing God, or having an illicit love affair with Paul Verlaine, he wrote some truly remarkable poetry  and was obviously an incredible genius whose influence has extended long after his death,  with his life  and poetry analyzed and celebrated a myriad times. 

Following Rimbaud's example, many Dadaists and Surrealists engaged in spontaneous wordplay and other games and activities associated with free association and collage. Rimbaud had led the way in showing how one could visualize the workings of the subconscious. 

His influence has passed down through the generations, too, with figures as wide-ranging as Marcel Proust, André Freynaud, David Wojnarowicz, Samuel Beckett, John Ashbery, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Regina Hansen all acknowledging a degree of debt to Rimbaud's way of working.

In “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” Bob Dylan includes the line “Relationships have all been bad/Mine’ve been like Verlaine’s and Rimbaud.” 

Sixteen-year-old Patti Smith, enduring the drudgery of working in a New Jersey factory, stated that her "salvation and respite from my dismal surroundings was a battered copy of Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations, which I kept in my back pocket ] became the bible of my life" Her song “Easter” is about Rimbaud’s first communion. and she considers him "the first child of punk-rock", for inspiring talented lyricists of this genre.

Jim Morrison, of The Doors, wrote to Wallace Fowlie in 1968 to thank him for his English translation of Rimbaud’s poems; Fowlie subsequently wrote the book Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet. 

What began with Rimbaud continued with the Beat Generation poets who honoured Rimbaud for his systematic disordering of the senses. Proust said that Rimbaud was “almost superhuman.” Edmund White ends his biography, Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel, with the line “Every important thinker and artist of the last hundred years has had an opinion about Rimbaud, who continues to elude us as he streaks just ahead of our grasp on his ‘soles of wind.’”

The 'enfant terrible'of late 19th century French literature, Rimbaud was a genuine firebrand whose disreputable lifestyle merely reinforced his status as an archetypal rebel. His life was one of scandals, and later, dubious overseas escapades in exotic African countries. The fact that he would come to dismiss his own writing as "absurd, ridiculous [and] disgusting" has merely reinforced his status as a modern literary iconoclast.

Rimbaud's output might have been limited, but it has seen him firmly established as one of the most original and important writers of his generation, and, in his personal life, one of the great anti-authoritarian troublemakers in the mythology of the modernists who continues to captivate readers, artists and writers all over the world. 

“Life is the farce which everyone has to perform.” - Arthur Rimbaud

Departure- Arthur Rimbaud

Everything seen... 

The vision gleams in every air.

Everything had... 

Tthe far sound of cities, in the evening, 

In sunlight, and always.

Everything known... O Tumult! O Visions!

These are the stops of life.

Departure in affection, and shining sounds.

Eternity- Arthur Rimbaud

It has been found again.

What ? - Eternity.

It is the sea fled away 

With the sun. 

Sentinel soul, 

Let us whisper the confession

Of the night full of nothingness 

And the day on fire.  

From human approbation, 

From common urges 

You diverge here 

And fly off as you may.  

Since from you alone, 

Satiny embers, 

Duty breathes Without anyone saying : at last. 

Here is no hope, No orietur. 

Knowledge and fortitude, 

Torture is certain.  

It has been found again. 

What ? - Eternity.

It is the sea fled away 

With the sun.

Honouring the life of Palestinian Artist Mahasen Alkhatib killed in Israeli attacks on Jabalia refugee camp in Northern Gaza

It is with a heavy heart, I've heard of  the loss of 31  year old Mahasen Alkhatib, a talented Palestinian artist from Northern Gaza, the latest artist to be killed by the ongoing Israeli Genocide.She  was one of the 21 women killed  in Israeli attacks on Jabalia, Gaza yesterday.

Every day now has become heart-wrenching to me. Realizing that children, youths, and people who are like any other human being, have their dreams, their lives tragically end by occupying forces. 

Mahasen anticipated her death and, in January, posted a photo on her Facebook page with a caption: "So when I die you will be able to find a photo of me."  

Hours before her death, she posted her last artwork on Instagram in memory of 19-y-o Shabaan Al-Dalu, who was burned alive by Israel, with the caption: “Tell me what you’re feeling when you see anybody burning….” a  plea to  a cold indifferent  world.

https://www.instagram.com/mahasen_ktheeb 

 “Tough nights …” Mahasen’s last tweet while drawing her final painting of Palestinians being burned alive after Israel bombed tents in a hospital where they took refuge.

.https://x.com/MahasenAlkhatib/status/1846677607594520621

Specializing in illustration and character design, Mahasen's passion for art began at a young age, but her path has been anything but straightforward. Despite numerous hardships, including working various jobs to support her family and overcoming the limitations imposed by the blockade, she pursued her dream of becoming an artist. Her work was not just a source of income but a means of expression and a way to connect with others. 

Before October 7th, she was at the pinnacle of her artistic journey. She had poured her life into digital illustration, reaching a level many only dream of. Just two weeks before war descended on Gaza, she invested her life savings into opening a private studio, striving for the professional and financial independence she had long sought.  

Her brush was used to capture the essence of life in Gaza, portraying the strength and resilience of those who persevered despite the struggles of their daily lives. Her art became a testament to the beauty of Palestinian life. 

Then, everything was lost in the war. Her studio, her paintings, her colors, her beloved brush—all were swallowed by the destruction. Left standing before the rubble of her dreams, Mahasin had no choice but to rebuild from the ruins.  “There was no time to be shocked,” she recalled, as the war in northern Gaza escalated with bombings, home demolitions, and mass displacement. The violence stripped away everything—homes, livelihoods, lives. But despite it all, Mahasin refused to flee. She clung to her home, half of which was destroyed, and chose to remain connected to her land. While many moved south for safety, she stayed, determined not to let the war define her existence.  

Even in the depths of tragedy, Mahasin found no room for despair. The war may have taken her studio, but it hadn’t taken her will to dream. With the little she had left—old materials from her training sessions—she slowly returned to work. She began offering training to others at minimal prices and reconnected with companies she had worked with in the past, creating designs for stickers and clothing, each one marked with her signature artistic touch.  

But being a digital artist in Gaza came with a relentless challenge: electricity. The power shortage, always an issue, became even more critical after the war. Without electricity, Mahasin’s work was impossible. She often had to take her device to neighbors, hospitals, or any place she could find electricity to charge it. Each charge gave her only three hours of work, precious time that became her only window to the outside world.  

After tremendous effort and perseverance, she saved enough money to install a small solar power system. For Mahasin, art was never just about survival. It was her way of staying connected to her identity, her family, and her past. It gave her the strength to rebuild what had been shattered. Every painting she created was a bridge to the life she had before the war—a life filled with color, hope, and possibility. 

"Art wasn’t supposed to look nice," she often thought. "It was supposed to make you feel something."  She drew strength from that belief, not just for herself, but for others as well. Her art became a source of hope in a time of unimaginable darkness. 

"I don’t post anything that carries blood or violence," she said. "People are searching for hope."

Her paintings, filled with a blend of sorrow and hope, offered a vision of resilience for others to hold on to.  As war raged on, and as destruction surrounded her, Mahasin Khateeb refused to be defeated. Her story is not one of despair but of resilienceof finding the strength to rebuild from the ashes, of using art not just to survive, but to inspire others. 

Her work, created under the constant threat of conflict, is a testament to  her steadfast determination and creativity amidst the challenges of life under occupation.Reminding the world that even in the most desperate circumstances, hope can still take root. Sadly this courageous soul will  no  longer be able to share her art  with the world. May  her  soul  rest in peace. Mahasen Alkhatib  art lives on, the genocide did not destroy the beauty of my drawingsand through them the spirit of Palestine is etched into eternity along with her story and her form of resistance.

As we remember her legacy, lets acknowledge the heartbreaking reality of the Israeli atrocities being inflicted upon people in Gaza on a daily basis. Let us come together to pay tribute to her and all those thousands of lives  who have been taken by the Israeli Genocide.Doctors, artists, journalists, professors including schools, libraries, hospitals, mosques  who have all became a target. 

Doctors volunteering in north Gaza say the Israeli siege has made the situation so dire that "some days, the most you could do was hold people’s hand and watch them die."  "It never ends ... Every day you wake up to more and more of it, and that's just what makes it so horrifying," Dr. Samer Attar volunteering at Kamal Adwan hosptial told Democracy Now. 

 Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike has just hit a residential building west of Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.  Palestine's UN envoy says the famine-stricken north is now experiencing a "genocide within a genocide."

 Israel has so far killed at least 42,519 people in Gaza, mostly women and children , although the toll did not incorporate the overnight killings.  The toll includes 99,637 people wounded since the Israeli war began in October 2023.

I hope that all of these crimes are well documented and that someday the people responsible are held to account.

More  of  Mahasen Alkhatib's art 

Thirst for Justice

Picasso's "Dove of Peace"

Apparently when we stop drinking  alcohol , and  I haven't had a sip  for  64  days now,  dopamine levels begin to stabilize, reducing feelings of sadness and hopelessness, thereby fostering  hope and happiness. 

OK will say even when pissed I  tried to stay  positive  but  the state of the world currently still leads me almost  to the pits of  despair, the heartbreaking story of  Shaban al Dalu for instance  and because of Western capitalism and climate inaction, the people on the planet are suffering as a result. I personally can't  simply  look away,  pretend these things are not happening while these stark reminders of global injustices go on and these disparities continue to widen. 

For those of celebrating the killing of civilians, their no better than those they claim to be fighting against. There is no joy or glory in death and killing. May they drink their bitterness, but hate will never quench the thirst for justice.

Whether drunk or sober,  we all have the power to  change this daily  tragic discouse. There is a lot of injustice in the world, but one thing we can always remember “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” 

The world is not poor. It is extremely unequal, and the global economy is organized around exploitation and accumulation rather than around meeting actual human needs. We can correct  this inbalance  and we  cannot afford  any one of us to  give up  on hope as  Paulo Freire  once said. 

"Hopelessness is a form of silence, of denying the world and fleeing from it. The dehumanization resulting from an unjust order is not a cause for despair but for hope, leading to the incessant pursuit of the humanity denied by injustice." 

We cannot solve every problem, fight every battle, or heal every wound. But we can choose our ground. We can pick our cause. We can find that one area where our passion burns brightest ,everyday  we can make a difference, by holding powers to  account with  our simple  individual actions of  resistance,  carry  on promoting  peace, whlst opposing  genocide and war. 

The Israeli far-right government and U.S. leaders are perpetuating the annihilation of Palestinian lives! Native Americans, African Americans, and now Palestinians, when will the insatiable thirst for blood and land finally cease? 

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, and whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.

Jutice isn't a luxury; it's a necessity. It's not something we beg for; it's something we demand. 

The streets currently echo with our cries for justice, but are ignored and drowned out by those in power, so we stand up and get louder..

Each time we stands up for an ideal, or act to improve the lot of others, or strike out against injustice, we send forth a ripple of hope. True justice heals wounds, holds wrongdoers accountable, and uplifts the oppressed. We must keep demanding justice.

Blessed are the poor in spirit 

Blessed are the meek 

Blessed are they who mourn

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice 

Blessed are the merciful 

 Blessed are the pure in heart 

Blessed are the peacemakers 

Blessed are the persecuted.  Matthew 5:6

Indigenous Peoples' Day

 

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is recognized the same day as Columbus Day each year, the second Monday in October. This year, Indigenous Peoples Day falls today Oct. 14, 2024 .It is a day to recognize indigenous people and the contributions they’ve made to history, as well as to mourn those lost to genocide and Western colonization—and to remember that Native Americans were actually here long before European settlers showed up on these shores.

Indigenous Peoples' Day, dates back to 1977, when the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas proposed that Indigenous Peoples Day replace Columbus Day.

Then in 1992 on the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival to the Americas. Indigenous organizers convinced the city of Berkeley, California, to declare October 12th as Indigenous Peoples Day. Many cities began following suit and on Friday, 8th of October 2021 President Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day,

 "Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities," Biden wrote. "It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them."

which the Associated Press reported as "the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Native peoples."

Many however had a message for him asking him as they gathered in Washington DC that  day if he could hear them now. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/10/11/biden-can-you-hear-us-now-ask-indigenous-leaders-amid-arrests-fossil-fuel-protest?utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium= 

However, we’ve since  faced right-wing attempts to reinforce a racist narrative about the history of the United States. In response to President Biden’s proclamation, Donald Trump’s Vice Presidential pick JD Vance wrote: “Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a fake holiday created to sow division” and praised Christopher Columbus for “discover[ing] a new continent.”  As Senator, JD Vance has also opposed Tribal leaders’ attempts to change the names of historic sites. Trump and Vance also want to seize federal land in another attempt to steal Indigenous homelands. While Trump was in office, he worked with corporate polluters to try to block climate progress and dismantle crucial environmental laws that safeguard not just Native communities but the future of every community. 

Often glorified by Western historians as a daring explorer, Columbus left a dark legacy in the Americas, beginning with his first encounter with the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean Sea on 12 October 1492  which  would  mark  the process of colonization and genocide against Native people, which represents one of the darkest chapters in the history of this continent, that  unleashed unimaginable brutality against the indigenous people of this continent.that killed tens of millions of Native people across the hemisphere. From the very beginning, Columbus was not on a mission of discovery but of conquest and exploitation—he called his expedition la empresa, the enterprise. 

Columbus's disdain for the Arawak people of the Bahamas is palpable in his journal entries. He observed their openness and generosity with a mix of condescension and opportunism, noting how easily they shared their possessions and hospitality. Columbus frequently mocked the natives' simplicity and lack of guile. He described them as 'naïve' and 'artless,' incapable of understanding European notions of property and possession. This demeaning attitude famously appears in his 12 October 1492 entry, where he marvelled at their willingness to trade valuable items for trinkets. To Columbus, their openness was not a sign of an advanced, communal society but rather that of their potential to be dominated and exploited.  

Columbus's Eurocentric worldview made it impossible for him to recognise the Arawaks' sophisticated social system. Consequently, his reports back to Spain helped build a narrative of European superiority that fuelled slavery and colonisation. 

He and his men enslaved the Indigenous population, bringing some back to Spain and forcing thousands of others to search for gold. Those who could not bring back enough gold had their hands chopped off. The Spaniards took women and children for sex and labour. Columbus' regime was so brutal that many of the Indigenous people committed suicide or infanticide to spare a life of suffering.   On the island of Hispaniola (now occupied by the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic), the Spaniards forced the Indigenous people to work at a ferocious pace, with only 15,000 people remaining by 1515, a sharp decline from the 250,000 people who are said to have lived there two years before when Columbus first arrived. By 1550, only 500 people reportedly remained. By 1650, no Arawak people remained on the island.

Even during his day, Christopher Columbus was viewed as controversial. While his arrival in the Americas, specifically in Ayiti, (Modern Haiti) allowed for the initiation of the colonialization and settlement of the Western Hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade and the amassing of massive wealth for many European countries, many of his contemporaries thought he was unnecessarily brutal.

Columbus deserves to be remembered as the first terrorist in the Americas. When resistance mounted to the Spaniards’ violence, Columbus sent an armed force to “spread terror among the Indians to show them how strong and powerful the Christians were,” according to the Spanish priest Bartolomé de las Casas. In his book Conquest of Paradise, Kirkpatrick Sale describes what happened when Columbus’s men encountered a force of Taínos in March of 1495 in a valley on the island of Hispañiola: " The soldiers mowed down dozens with point-blank volleys, loosed the dogs to rip open limbs and bellies, chased fleeing Indians into the bush to skewer them on sword and pike, and [according to Columbus’s biographer, his son Fernando] “with God’s aid soon gained a complete victory, killing many Indians and capturing others who were also killed.”

All this and much more has long been known and documented. As early as 1942 in his Pulitzer Prize winning biography, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that Columbus’s policies in the Caribbean led to “complete genocide”—and Morison was a writer who admired Columbus.

Many countries are now  acknowledging this devastating history by rejecting the federal holiday of Columbus Day which  is marked on October 12  and celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead to honor centuries of indigenous resistance.If Indigenous peoples’ lives mattered in our society, and if Black people’s lives mattered in our society, it would be inconceivable that we would honor the father of the slave trade with a national holiday. Let alone allow our history books to laud Columbus as some kind of hero. Because this  so-called “discovery” of the America caused the worst demographic catastrophe of human history, with around 95 percent of the indigenous population annihilated in the first 130 years of colonization, without mentioning the victims from the African continent, with about 60 million people sent to the Americas as slaves, with only 12 percent of them arriving alive.Therefore, Native American groups consider Columbus a European colonizer responsible for the genocide of millions of indigenous people. Not an individual worthy of celebration  because he helped contribute  to the Europeans Colonization of the Americas which resulted in  slavery, killings, and other atrocities against the native Americans.

Columbus' voyage has even less meaning for North Americans than for South Americans because Columbus never actually set foot on this continent, nor did he open it to European trade.

During large waves of Italian immigration between 1880 and the start of World War I in 1914, newly arrived Italians faced ethnic and religious discriminations. In New Orleans in 1891, 11 Sicilian immigrants were lynched. A year later, President Benjamin Harrison became the first president to call for a national observance of Columbus Day, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival,

Italian Americans viewed celebrations of Columbus as a way to become accepted into the mainstream American culture and, throughout the country, they began to advocate for his recognition.
Though it wasn't recognized as a federal holiday until 1971  Italian immigrants had celebrated Columbus Day for centuries, Mariano A. Lucca, of Buffalo led the campaign for the national holiday. Colorado was the first state to formally recognize Columbus Day, doing so in 1905,

However Native Americans have been a part of the American tradition even before the United States began, but due to hundreds of years of persecution, much isn’t left of the neighboring tribes and many have integrated into modern society.

In the last several years, with growing awareness of Columbus' brutal legacy and what the European arrival meant for America's first inhabitants, at least 14 states and more than 130 local governments have chosen to not celebrate the the second Monday in October as Columbus Day or have chosen to celebrate it as Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead.

Indigenous Peoples have spearheaded the cultural shift in understanding about how to mark this day.

The idea of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native nations to the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, held in Geneva, which passed that resolution.

In July 1990, representatives from 120 Indian nations from every part of the Americas met in Quito, Ecuador in the First Continental Conference (Encuentro) on 500 Years of Indian Resistance. The conference was also attended by many human rights, peace, social justice, and environmental organizations. This was in preparation for the 500th anniversary of Native resistance to the European invasion of the Americas, 1492-1992. The Encuentro saw itself as fulfilling a prophesy that the Native nations would rise again “when the eagle of the north joined with the condor of the south.” At the suggestion of the Indigenous spiritual elders, the conference unanimously passed a resolution to transform Columbus Day, 1992, "into an occasion to strengthen our process of continental unity and struggle towards our liberation." Upon return, all the conference participants agreed to organize in their communities. While the U.S. and other governments were apparently trying to make it into a celebration of colonialism, Native peoples wanted to use the occasion to reveal the historical truths about the invasion and the consequent genocide and environmental destruction, to organize against its continuation today, and to celebrate Indigenous resistance. (Indigenous Peoples' Pow Wow Website)

In the past twenty years the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day has become a counter narrative to Columbus Day as way of correcting historical wrongs in acts of reconciliation  and the roots of this rethinking go back several decades.

On October 6, 2000, the American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council wrote in a statement that "Columbus was the beginning of the American holocaust, ethnic cleansing characterized by murder, torture, raping, pillaging, robbery, slavery, kidnapping, and forced removals of Indian people from their homelands." The organization called for the federal abolition of the holiday.

In June, 2020, protestors in three cities targeted statues of Columbus, according to The Smithsonian Magazine. 

Centuries after Columbus Native peoples are still fighting to protect their lands and their rights to exist as distinct political communities and individuals.Because  of historical traumas inflicted on indigenous peoples that include land dispossession, death of the majority of the populations through warfare and disease, forced removal and relocation, assimilative boarding school experiences, and prohibiting religious practices, among others, indigenous peoples have experienced historical losses, which include the loss of land, traditional and spiritual ways, self-respect from poor treatment from government officials, language, family ties, trust from broken treaties, culture, and people (through early death); . 

These losses have been associated with sadness and depression, anger, intrusive thoughts, discomfort, shame, fear, and distrust around white people. Experiencing massive traumas and losses is thought to lead to cumulative and unresolved grief, which can result in the historical trauma response, which includes suicidal thoughts and acts, IPV, depression, alcoholism, self-destructive behavior, low self-esteem, anxiety, anger, and lowered emotional expression and recognition .These symptoms run parallel to the extant health disparities that are documented among indigenous peoples.

Today is about acknowledging all this whilst  honoring the rich history of resistance that Native communities across the world  have contributed to and  it is  also about sharing  a deep commitment to intergenerational justice. Celebrating Indigenous People’s Day is a step towards recognizing that colonization still exists. We can do more to end that colonization and respect the sovereignty of indigenous nations.

Amnesty International on Indigenous Peoples' Day have  renewed calls for President Joe Biden to grant clemency to jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who many say is America's longest-serving political prisoner. With the international human rights watchdog once more urging the outgoing Democratic president to commute the sentence of the decades-long jailed Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who turned 80 last month on Sept. 12, and release him.  Peltier, who was a member of the indigenous American Indian Movement, had been convicted in 1975 of allegedly murdering two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation, a territory of the Oglala Sioux tribe in South Dakota, in a trial many say was riddled with fraud. Peltier has since maintained his innocence. Peltier has been jailed for nearly 50 years despite legitimate and ongoing concern over the fairness of his trial decades ago, Amnesty and many others have long since argued.

Joining with Amnesty in its plea for Biden to show mercy has been American tribal nations and its leaders, members of both chambers of Congress including the Senate's Indian Affairs Committee chairman, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, ex-FBI agents, noted Nobel Peace Prize winners and former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, the very same federal prosecutor who handled Peltier's conviction and later appeals. 

 In early July, Peltier was denied his most recent parole request after a previous rejection in 2009.  But on Saturday in an open letter to Biden, liberal activist Michael Moore wrote that among 13 actions he feels Biden should take in the few remaining months of his "lame duck" presidency through Jan. 20 is to give Peltier his freedom.  "Mr. President, Leonard Peltier is two years younger than you," Moore opened his letter.  Moore's letter went on to state how Peltier was allegedly "pursued and surveilled by the FBI because of his political engagement. The evidence at his trial included conveniently altered details and a key witness who was coerced into testifying," Moore says. And many agree with his sentiments.  

Currently housed in a Florida maximum security prison in regular lockdown, Peltier reportedly requires a walker to move and is blind in one eye from a previous stroke.But Moore's is only one in a long line of other influential names, which he pointed out included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, members of Congress such as Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, as well as actor Robert Redford, the Dali Lama and the late leaders Mother Theresa and Nelson Mandela. 

Amnesty International has long been part of the Peltier case. Officials observers to Peltier's 1977 trial were sent by Amnesty and, "along with its millions of members and supporters around the globe," has been campaigning on Peltier's behalf for his release. 

Peltier in 2004 asked a judge to release certain files that he believed would grant a new trial, contending that he was framed by the U.S. government and would be exonerated if those documents could be publicly released.  In September, an official with Amnesty's U.S. arm went so far as to say the possible grant of presidential clemency for Peltier "could be one step to help mend the fractured relationship" and deep-seated generational mistrust the Native American population has for the U.S. government and "would forever be part of Biden's legacy," among other historical achievements.

On this Indigenous Peoples Day, let’s recognize the incredible resilience, strength, and resistance of Indigenous Peoples who have faced hundreds of years of colonization. May we spend this day, honoring Native Peoples’ commitment to making the world a better place for all. Reflect on their ancestral past , the ongoing struggles of indigenous peoples in protecting their lands and freedoms,celebrate their sacrifices.

Let's celebrate life whilst.recognizing the people, traditions and cultures that were wiped out because of Columbus’ colonization and acknowledge the. bloodshed and elimination of those that were massacred, whilst transforming this day into a celebration of indigenous people and a celebration of social justice  that allows us to make a connection between painful history and the ongoing marginalization, discrimination and poverty that indigenous communities face to this day. 

By honoring Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we  must continue  to  confront the “whitewashed” version of American history many are familiar with. This history often dignifies Europeans who perpetuated colonization, intolerance, violence, and committed atrocities against Indigenous communities and Native Americans. Indigenous People, Native Americans, and sovereign Tribal Nations have long endured, and continue to experience, some of the highest rates of discrimination and oppression in our society. 

We cannot dedicate just one day to acknowledging Indigenous People's, each and every day should be an act of solidarity, by us honouring and advocating for Indigenous rights. From Turtle Island to Palestine, together, we  must demand an end to occupation and fight for Land Back and climate and environmental justice for all oppressed peoples. 

A reminder on this Indigenous People’s Day: Palestinians are an indigenous people  and  have been struggling for their freedom and right to live safely on their own land. Israel has colonized Palestinian land and attacked Palestinians since day 1. A free Palestine is an indigenous struggle. I'm saying this over and over again as clear as I can because I don't believe people are contending with this enough, and you need to.

So today we should  also be acknowledging the cynical “celebration” of Indigenous Peoples Day by a settler state backing another settler state’s genocide against Palestinians and Lebanese shows us that  nothing is sacred, until we bury colonialism once and for all. While crimes against humanity and all life continue unabated, those on frontlines are criminalized, brutalized, disappeared, killed, this Indigenous Peoples Day we must stop the genocide in Gaza and  drop the charges against land defenders everywhere.