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LEAD TO LIFE X ATTUNE

‫رفع الحصار عن غزة‬ ‫تحيا فلسطين حّرة‬ ‫أوقفوا اإلبادة‬ ‫الجماعية‬

ECOLOGIZING SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE a small field guide on the ecological implications of occupation, settler colonialism & genocide

PALESTINE SUNBIRD - A3 RISO POSTER PRINTED BY RISIKO PRESS.

overview

4 5

ON ASSEMBLY OF THE READER 7 10

12 22

PRAYER

RECIPROCITY

WISDOM OF THE WITNESS

MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES

HARM REDUCTION, ATONEMENT & BEYOND “JUSTICE” 26 29

COSMIC COMPANIONSHIP

ART & CULTURE AS RESISTANCE 34

PRAYERFUL ACTION 39

SOURCES

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PRAYER As much of the world witnesses, grieves, and responds to the violence and genocide taking place against the people of Gaza and Palestine by the nation-state of Israel, bolstered by the support of the American military empire, we are called through the quality of our presence to pay attention to the ecological impacts of apartheid, genocide, and militarization on land, cultural memory, and lifeways. The U.S. military and its concomitant forces (the state of Israel) produce some of the largest carbon emissions in the world. Settlercolonial violence deeply affects the environment which also always affects the oppressed communities living in that environment. When the land loses one of their keystone species, their humans, the beings that tend to them, pay attention to them, pray for them, are dreamed by them, are related to them, the land coterminously suffers ecocide. In collaboration with Lead to Life, (a queer, black diasporic collective committed to the prayer and prophetic practice of disarming state violence against planet and people), and participants and staff in Weaving Earth’s ATTUNE program (a cohort dedicated to liberating their attention from white supremacist, capitalist rhythms of time towards the wisdom of the earth’s cycles) have put together this syllabus to ground and ecologize our study, prayer, and action in solidarity with the people and land of Gaza, and Palestine at large. We follow Cherríe Morraga’s admonition in “This Bridge Called My Back” that “...we need political memory so that we are not always imagining ourselves the ever-inventors of our revolution; so that we are humbled by the valiant efforts of our foremothers' and so with humility and a firm foothold in history, we can enter upon an informed and re-envisioned strategy for social/political change in decades ahead." We offer these teachings to be informed by ecological memory as political and cultural memory. To be informed by the wisdom of the earth to support us as we support each other and our precious kin, our precious children, and our precious relatives in Palestine who are being taken from this precious earth through state violence. We offer the discipleship of study as scripture to prepare for the many decades ahead that will require our stamina to support ecological, spiritual, emotional, cultural, and physical rehabilitation after this significant trauma to Palestinian people and the land of Palestine.

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ON ASSEMBLY OF THE READER The reader was created through spaces called “conjure hours” hosted by brontë velez (creative director, Lead to Life, adult programs director, Weaving Earth) with participants in Weaving Earth’s program ATTUNE. During the conjure hours, we gathered to be in water scrying, sharing what the water was divining through us, and then spent time in collective prayerful research assembling the reader. We closed by sharing what was on our hearts after our time in research and dedicated the merits of our time toward collective liberation. Participants were then encouraged to go out onto the earth for a bird sit to integrate as a practice in levity and to support the ascension and safe passage of unjustly departed souls. Final edits and design of the reader were made by Lead to Life staff — brontë velez, jazmín calderón torres (Lead Producer), and irene boldshatten (Communications Coordinator).

Photo of ritualists washing a gun before it is processed to crucible to be transformed into molds reflecting the stars above oscar grant the evening he was murdered 10 years prior. Lead to Life alchemy ceremony. 2019, Oakland, CA, Chochenyo Ohlone territory. Photo by Ayse Gursoz.

“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political I must listen to the birds and in order to hear the birds the warplanes must be silent.” Marwān Makhkhūl

Palestine Sunbird - Photo courtesy of Palestinian twin sisters and birders Lara and Mandy Sirdah

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RECIPROCITY If you are feeling blessed by this reader, we invite you to offer financial reciprocity to frontline Palestinian organizations tending intersections of environmental justice, cultural memory, and community care. Share stories of how this reader was activated in your community or practice with us at Lead to Life at peoplesalchemy@gmail.com. Palestine Wildlife Society, an organization working in research education, and wildlife protection in Palestine and the region. Nature Palestine, project centering research, biodiversity, and education i n Palestine.

conservation,

Palestinian Feminist Collective, a grassroots Palestinian and Arab feminist-led organization ‘confronting systemic gendered and colonial violence, oppression, and dispossession.’ Heirloom Palestine Seeds, available for purchase through the design justice Palestinian organization, Disarming Designs. Palestinian Youth Movement, “a transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and in exile worldwide as a result of the ongoing Zionist colonization and occupation of our homeland.”

LEAD TO LIFE & PALESTINE WILDLIFE SOCIETY Witness The Ecological Implications of Occupation conversation with brontë velez, creative director of Lead to Life and Imad Atrash, executive director of Palestine Wildlife Society (PWLS) to learn more about PWLS work.

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ask the wall an honest question like which mountain were they uncoiled from or what sounds they miss what moves them dance like mercy pours water on the ground give up hope / give into hope at the same time see who’s still farming there if the soil can still lift something green up out of its seed kneel every time a bird sings make an economy out of laughter celebrate and praise something left behind dried leaves carcass holes a shoe or an idea in palestine, notice where the tracks of jackals lead to ruptures in the fencing on turtle island, the tracks of coyotes find shade nearby the rupture the burrowing-under glitch and eat honey and rest there pray something true into the wet of your mouth tongue it into a raindrop and spit it through the opening in the wall if there’s no opening become one forget why you’re there witness the stance of a child-soldier standing guard at a passage to places they will never go or perhaps even think about give them a name and see how they live in you

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become a crossing and you’ll receive a guest lizard some cattle passing shade of a cloud or military jet shape of a memory a song an ancestor la migra the IDF be a crossing let the spirit of the open surround and choreograph the way you encounter one another divinity rejoices even in the distance between you be illegible to the state be legible to each other be moved at a pace too slow to catch like sun-down and when you’re told to leave, then leave

-Jiordi Rosales, excerpt from “Tihāmah” featured in “Flood Drafts: A Field Guide for Sensuous Repair” Hungry Mothers, Loam Magazine, 2020.

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WISDOM OF THE WITNESS We believe that an authentic path of liberation from systems of oppression requires transforming from the passive seat of spectator of cruelty toward the political maturity of the discerning, informed, and loving seat of witness. It is from the seat of bearing witness that we can show up more authentically to the care needed on this planet. It is our experience that connection with the earth and paying attention to the land strengthens our muscles as witnesses who can move towards prayerful and wise action. This section looks toward more-than-human accomplices as comrades who infringe upon and resist the seemingly impenetrable forces of the military-industrial complex, occupation, apartheid, and settlercolonialism — where the corvids take down the flags of the nation-state, where the Israeli Air Force’s narrow training corridor is confronted by the annual mass spring migration of an ancient avian pilgrimage, where F-35s that should be able to “evade capture”, irreverently celebrating the anniversary of the Nakba in martial fanfare, are forced to land due to bird strike.

Woodchat Shrike, Photo courtesy of Anton Khalilieh, Executive Director of Nature Palestine Society

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Black kites and starlings fly over West Bank at ISRAELI OCCUPATION Border wall. Photo courtesy of Anton Khalilieh, ED of Nature Palestine Society

“Every spring, half a billion birds migrate through Israel and the West Bank from their wintering grounds in Africa to their breeding grounds in Europe, and every autumn they return the same way. It’s one of the busiest corridors for bird migration in the world – only the Isthmus of Panama, which links North and South America, has heavier traffic, and Panama’s airspace doesn’t support the same density of military aircraft as Israel’s. The large soaring birds that migrate by day, to exploit the thermals rising from the land, pose a particular threat to aviation: most of Europe’s white storks and white pelicans traverse the skies above Israel and Palestine twice a year and, inevitably, collisions ensue. The effects of a ten-kilo bird hitting a plane traveling at 1,000 kilometers per hour with the force of one hundred tonnes are potentially catastrophic and, in the last forty years, the Israeli Air Force has lost more aircraft to ‘bird strike’ than it has to enemy action. Not surprisingly, it has therefore begun to take an active interest in the migration, and with the help of an academic and birdwatcher named Yossi Leshem, it has built a radar system designed to detect the passage of flocks through what it calls the ‘bird plague zones’ above Israel’s narrow waist.” - excerpt from The Migration, Edward Platt, Granta Magazine, 2008.

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES SUBVERSIVE BIRDS & BIRDING [articles] The Migration, Edward Platt, Granta Magazine, 2008 ---------------------------------------------------In this essay, Edward Platt heads to Wadi Qelt, near Jericho, to witness the mass spring migration with a Palestinian birder and friend Sami Backleh. Against the enchantment of the spring migration, Platt also seeks to observe the Israeli Occupation Force’s migration monitoring. During Platt’s stay, the IOF instigates Operation Warm Winter against the people of Gaza and the Gaza Strip. Israel places travel restrictions throughout the West Bank and Backleh cancels the birdwatching trip. Platt must now find an Israeli guide to experience the migration. Throughout his journey, he notices how the militarization of the heavens disturbs its awe. F-35 forced to land after bird strike during “Independence Day” [(Nakba]) fly-by, Times of Israel, 2023. --------------------------------------------------Times of Israel is a Zionist publication whose “journalism” we do not endorse nor condone. This information is interesting to us because an IOF military plane that is able to avoid radar can’t evade being impacted by birds —— they are confronted and visiblized by the earth and the death and violence they bring. How Palestinians trapped in Gaza fell in love with bird-watching Marta Vidal, Daily Beast, April 2023. --------------------------------------------------This article features the Sirdah sisters, twin Palestinian sisters who bird, photograph birds, and work with Atlafuna, an organization supporting deaf people in Gaza (of course which is currently under siege and is probably not active in this moment…). The article explores the precarity of birdwatching under the occupation – the difficulty and inability for the Sirdah sisters to travel freely across checkpoints with binoculars and cameras.

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES SUBVERSIVE BIRDS & BIRDING CNTD. [articles cntd.] Free As A Bird: Searching for The Sirdah Twins Ryan Nakano, Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Dec 2023 --------------------------------------------------In this poignant article from Ryan Nakano he explores the Sirdah twins work and the concern about their safety in Gaza praying they are still alive when he finally comes across a new post from them after 2 months. Wild Legalities: Wildlife and Settler Colonialism in Palestine/Israel, Irus Braverman, Digital Commons @ University of Buffalo School of Law --------------------------------------------------“How are we to live and die in this present age of extinction, when colonial legacies help determine who and what is in a better position to survive” ? —Juno Salazar Parreñas (2018)”

Checklist of the Birds of the Gaza Strip - Palestine Norman Khalaf, Open Journal of Ecology, 2023 List of Mammals in the state of Palestine, Wikipedia

[video/film] Mass Bird Migrations Pose Unique Challenge for Israeli Air Force, Voice of America, Nov 2021 Video of corvid taking down Israeli flag, Al Mayadeen, (we have not identified original source of video) --------------------------------------------------For us, this video elicits the story of corvids teaching Cain how to bury Abel across the Abrahamic traditions — how the birds show us how to grieve, mourn, bury, and resist.

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES SUBVERSIVE BIRDS & BIRDING CNTD. [video/film cntd.] 13-year-old Gazan refuses to leave his pet bird behind... OPENS UP ANI, 2023. Palestinian woman says she braved Israel air strikes to save her birds Middle East Eye, 2023. Palestine Sunbird: A Stamp of Defiance Al Jazeera World, 2020. -------------------------------------------------On Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar’s creative dissent designing postage and passport stamps for the State of Palestine, using the Palestine sunbird as the motif.

[other sources] Birds for Abolition Instagram

ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF APARTHEID & OCCUPATION [articles] Environmental Justice in Palestine Toolkit, Intersectional Environmentalist, 2023.

Israel’s Environmental Apartheid in Palestine, Institute for Middle East Understanding, Nov 3rd, 2022. --------------------------------------------------A comprehensive overview that includes many additional links covering impacts of everything from land & water theft, destruction of agricultural land, clearcutting forests & planting non-native trees, settlement pollution, & the West Bank wall.

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF APARTHEID & OCCUPATION CNTD. [articles cntd.] Climate Oppression: A Major Tool to Establish and Maintain Israel’s Apartheid Regime over the Palestinian People and Their Lands -------------------------------------------------Palestinian human rights NGO Al-Haq’s submission & recommendations to the UN’s OHCHR about Israel’s climate change-related human rights violations, 2021. The U.S. Military Emits More Carbon Dioxide Into the Atmosphere Than Entire Countries Like Denmark or Portugal Sonner Kehrt, Inside Climate News, 2022. Oppressive Pines: Uprooting Israeli green colonialism and implanting Palestinian A’wna Ghada Sasa, SageJournals, 2022. In Israel, Questions Are Raised about a Forest that Rises from the Desert Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360, 2019. Barrier impacts on the environment and rural livelihoods United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), 2012 Displacing the Anthropocene: Colonisation, extinction and the unruliness of nature in Palestine Ruba Salif, Olaf Corry, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space,2021 Animals are Victims Too The Palestinian Chronicle, 2022

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF APARTHEID & OCCUPATION CNTD. [articles cntd.] "The Tree Is the Enemy Soldier": A Sociolegal Making of War Landscapes in the Occupied West Bank Irus Braverman, Journal of Law and Society Association, 2008 -------------------------------------------------A study on the violent afforestation of the Land with aleppo pine trees, destruction of desert ecosystems by the JNF An Environmental Nakba: The Palestinian Environment Under Israeli Colonization Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, Mohammed A. Abusarhan, Science for the People, 2020

Even animals are divided by Israel’s Wall and occupation threats to the local environment Miriam Deprez Tamina, MEMO Middle East Monitor, 2018

[interviews] The Ecological Implications of Occupation - conversation with brontë velez, creative director of Lead to Life and Imad Atrash, executive director of Palestine Wildlife Society, Lead to Life, Dec 2023.

WATER RIGHTS UNDER OCCUPATION [articles] Weaponizing Water Shaddad Al-Attili, This Week in Palestine, 2023 -------------------------------------------------Overview of Israel’s war crimes and UN’s neglect regarding water on occupied Palestine within the past few decades

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES WATER RIGHTS UNDER OCCUPATION CNTD. [articles cntd.] The Israeli Palestinian Mountain Aquifer: A Case Study in Ground Water Conflict Resolution M. El-Fadel,* R. Qubaía, N. El-Hougeiri, Z. Hashisho and D. Jamali, Natural Sciences Education Journal, 2001. The Occupation of Water Amnesty International, Nov 2017. An Uncertain Climate in Risky Times: How Occupation Became Like The Rain in Post-Oslo Palestine Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Sept 2018.

[story map] Israel-Palestine & Shared Aquifers The Politics of Water: Water & Conflict in the Middle East, UNC Chapel Hill, 2023. -------------------------------------------------map of vital sources of occupied water in the region,

FOOD & LAND SOVEREIGNTY UNDER OCCUPATION [articles] Food sovereignty and the colonization of Palestinian agriculture Jessica Anderson, Mondoweiss 2022

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES FOOD & LAND SOVEREIGNTY UNDER OCCUPATION CNTD. [articles cntd.] Agroforestry for Palestine Bustan Qaraaqa, 2023 -------------------------------------------------Historical overview of Palestinians’ relationships with trees. Phytoremediation for poor water quality sources (sewage, salt, greywater). Food forest for highlands and lowlands. Profile for 95 tree species. Permaculture in the West Bank Sakina Grome, Permaculture Research Institute, 2010.

Sustainability in the Shadow of a West Bank Settlement Yuval Ben-Ami, Haaretz, 2012. For Palestinians in the West Bank, This Olive Harvest Is Literally Life-Threatening Hana Elias, The Nation, Nov 2023. Palestine’s Olive Industry: An Infographic Mohammed Haddad and Zena Al Tahhan, Aljazeera, Oct 2021. Destruction of Palestinian olive trees is a monstrous crime Dr. Cesar Chelala, The Ecologist, 2015. -------------------------------------------------On arboricide and over a million olive trees destroyed in 40 years

Indigenous Wine and Settler Colonialism in Israel and Palestine, Daniel Monterescu & Ariel Handel, Middle East Research and Information Project, 2022. Palestinian Winemaking Under Occupation Anya Evans, Open Democracy, 2017. Books

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES FOOD & LAND SOVEREIGNTY UNDER OCCUPATION CNTD. [articles cntd.] Mossback: Ecology, Emancipation, and Foraging for Hope in Painful Places David Michael Pritchett, Trinity University Press, 2023 ------------------------------------------------A collection of essays exploring moss in Palestine, amongst other global landscapes and mythologies at the intersection of environmental, indigenous, and social justice. Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape Raja Shehadeh, Scribner Book Company, 2008 ------------------------------------------------Describes the vanishing landscape through the practice of sarha, to walk or roam freely.

[infographics] Zion Inc. "Electricity Island" Jiordi Rosales, 2021 ------------------------------------------------A brief on the U.S.-Israeli oil industry. What Does Palestine Have To Do With Environmental Justice Catatumbo Cooperative Farm, 2023

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES FOOD & LAND SOVEREIGNTY UNDER OCCUPATION CNTD. [interviews + film] Foragers Jumana Manna, 2022 ------------------------------------------------A Palestinian documentary exploring foraging and farming as central to the struggle against colonial occupations

Agroecology and Food Sovereignty in Palestine: Determination? Interview, Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2023.

Way

Self-

Memory of the Cactus written and directed by Hana Musleh, 2008 ------------------------------------------------”In Arabic, the word for cactus – saber – is the same as the word for patience. For Palestinians, the plant has always been a symbol of patience, particularly so in the wake of what they call the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in 1948.” - Ahmad Muhammad Yasin

Wild Plants of Palestine Video-essay, Alaa Abu Asad, 2018 --------------------------------------------------“Wild Plants of Palestine follows journeys of observational tours solicited by the Palestinian museum and conducted by two professors from Birzeit University to collect photos and information about Palestinian flora.”

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MORE-THAN-HUMAN ACCOMPLICES FOOD & LAND SOVEREIGNTY UNDER OCCUPATION CNTD. [organizations caring for palestinian food sovereignty] Bait al KARAMA ------------------------------------------------Palestinian culinary project led exclusively by Palestinian women

Marda Permaculture Farm ------------------------------------------------Farm in the West Bank exploreing water sovereignty, food sovereignty and education in permaculture design neighboring one of Israel's largest illegal settlements. Sharaka CSA ------------------------------------------------Sharaka, meaning 'partnership' in Arabic, is a Palestinian volunteer-run initiative in Ramallah that aims to support Palestinian farmers by promoting local seasonal and Palestinian produce and goods and by linking farmers and consumers directly

Palestine Heirloom Seed Library (PHSL) ------------------------------------------------“Founded by Vivien Sansour, the PHSL and its Traveling Kitchen project seek to preserve and promote heritage and threatened seed varieties, traditional Palestinian farming practices, and the cultural stories and identities associated with them.” Karama ------------------------------------------------“an NGO rooted in the Palestinian refugee community on the West Bank; established by and for Palestinian refugees. Through its community center, projects, and initiatives in the southern West Bank, they are a safe haven for recreation, education and personal development for Palestinian refugee women and children.“

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harm reduction, atonement & beyond “justice” [articles] The Lines that Whisper Us: Rethinking Agency and Accountability in the Middle East through the More-than-Human Bayo Akomolafe, Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, 2023 ------------------------------------------------“Yes, stands are important to articulate. But other gestures are needed to do other kinds of work. Perhaps the thing to do when the storm approaches is to prostrate.” - Bayo Akomolafe

Teshuvah: A Jewish Case for Palestinian Refugee Return Peter Beinart, Jewish Currants, 2021

The Nakba Demands Justice Kaleem Hawa, Jewish Currents, 2021 ------------------------------------------------An article outlining the political history of demands of landback in Palestine.

dispossession

and

[essays, poem & prose] THE CUCUMBER AND THE CACTUS (A PALESTINIAN CHRISTIAN STORY) Mazin Qumsiyeh, Arab World Books, 2017 Grief Beyond Language Nicki Kattoura, Nada Abuasi, Institute for Palestine Studies, 2023 The Twelve Steps of Jewish Zionists Anonymous Noa Grayevsky and Hadar Ahuvia, 2023

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harm reduction, atonement & beyond “justice” [online resources] Decolonize Palestine A collection of resources dispelling myths and propaganda against Palestinian liberation The Free Palestine Library ‫المكتبة الفلسطينية‬ Google drive folder with primarily texts on an array of topics on and contextualizing the movement for Palestinian liberation.

[podcasts, interviews & film] On Arab Jews and Palestine with Mohammad Salaymeh hosted by Hadar Cohen, Hadar’s Web Podcast, 2023

and

Tansneen

Global Decolonization Solidarity: A Conversation from the Red Nation Podcast hosted by Nick Estes with Rawan Eid and Fathi Nemer, The Red Nation Podcast, 2023 Conversation on Endurance During Moments of Crisis, and the Longer Arc of Longevity in Liberation hosted by adrienne maree brown, How to Survive the End of the World Podcast, 2023 Two Conversations on Ceasefire with Lara Kiswani of AROC (Arab Research and Organizing Center) and Morgan Bassichis of JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace) hosted by adrienne maree brown, How to Survive the End of the World Podcast, 2023 Across Lines: Grief with Bayo Akomolafe, Sa’ed Atshan, and Cecilie Suraskyte, Othering & Belonging Institute, UC Berkeley, 2023

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harm reduction, atonement & beyond “justice” [podcasts, interviews & films cntd.] Frontiers of Dreams and Fears Directed by Mai Masri, 2001 ------------------------------------------------Palestinian children’s connection to land while different refugee camps

living

[infographics & toolkits] Palestine Action Toolkit: Freedom Within Reach by Palestinian Feminist Collective, 2021 Land Back & Free Palestine Are Interconnected by Black Education Matters, 2023

EMPOWERING POLITICAL MATURITY FOR YOUTH [lessons] Sitti’s Bird: A Gaza Story—An Introduction to Gaza for Children Donnie Rotkin, Jody Sokolower, Teach Palestine, 2023 Teaching Palestine/Israel: A Multiple Narratives Approach Samia Shoman, Teach Palestine, 2023 A 6th Grade Unit Takes a Global Look at Youth Incarceration Simone Allen, Teach Palestine, 2023

two

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harm reduction, atonement & beyond “justice” [lessons cntd.] Stolen Land: A Unit Comparing Palestine to the Americas by Marcy Newman, Teach Palestine, 2023 How to Talk to Your Kids About Palestine/Israel and the Resistance Movement- A Resource Guide by Eram Uddin, Haute Hijab, 2023 Children's Books About Palestine by Katharine Davies Samway, Teach Palestine, 2023

“ I AM CONVINCED THAT THE UNIVERSE IS UNDER THE CONTROL OF A LOVING PURPOSE AND THAT IN THE STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS [HUMAN BEINGS HAVE] COSMIC COMPANIONSHIP. “ DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., “PILGRIMAGE TO NONVIOLENCE”

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COSMIC COMPANIONSHIP [articles] Wonder and the Life of Palestinian Astronomy Jake Silver Science for the People, 2020 ------------------------------------------------Palestinian astronomers both amateur and professional peer toward a sky marked by oppression — toward the ways that Israel’s occupation has become volumetric in scope. It also looks past the sky, into deep space. In Gaza, Scanning the Sky for Stars, Not Drones Sarah Sax, Undark, 2020, ------------------------------------------------Article on Palestinian scientists’ efforts to bring astronomy to Gaza. Two Deserts, One Sky an outreach project funded by NASA, Arizona Space Grant Consortium, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies + School of Anthropology at University of Arizona, 2017 ------------------------------------------------Presents ancient Arab astronomical traditions within their own cultural contexts instead of fragmented within the confines of Greekoriented modern astronomy. Arabic Star Catalog an outreach project funded by NASA, Arizona Space Grant Consortium, School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies + School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, 2017 ------------------------------------------------“In any country but Gaza, a telescope is something you go to an optics store and you can buy it like a popsicle,” says Baraka. But here, he continues, astronomy “is also a window for breathing freedom that we were denied for our whole life.” Ptolemy, Al-Sufi, and the Middle Eastern influence on cosmology Indlieb Farazi Saber, Middle East Eye, 2022

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COSMIC COMPANIONSHIP [articles cntd.] Middle Eastern Star Lore by Richard Middle Eastern Star Lore Photo

Hinkley

Allen,

Date

Unknown

"A Space Exodus": A Truly Palestinian Film by Helga Tawil-Souri, Jadaliyya, 2009 ------------------------------------------------An exploration of “A Space Exodus” short film by Larissa Sansour.

A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave. The daughters of the bier, i.e. the mourning maidens, are the three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper, Alkaid, Mizar, and Alioth; while the four stars of the bowl, Megrez, Phecda, Merak, and Dubhe, are the bier.

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ART & CULTURE AS RESISTANCE THE ECOLOGICAL LINEAGE OF THE KEFFIYEH The Hirbawi factory, The last factory actively crafting Kufiya in Palestine. Palestinian Tatreez: Embroidering Resistance and Remembrance, Khaled A., Atmos, 2023 --------------------------------------------------This article honors Palestinian Tatreez embroidery — a textile craft that wove symbols of resistance and remembrance such as the Palestinian flag and escape routes, while also delving into the ecological impacts of colonization.

PALESTINIAN THEATER Al-Harah Theater, Beit Jala, Palestine ---------------------------------------------------AL-HARAH aims to bring compelling stories, in one of the most uncensored spaces, to audiences throughout Palestine and the region.

And Here I Am, Performance touring in Palestine and internationally. ASHTAR Theatre, Ramallah, Palestine ---------------------------------------------------A theater dedicated to fostering creativity and social change through acting programs and professional performances, traveling regionally.

El-Hakawati (Palestinian National Theatre) ---------------------------------------------------Palestine's inaugural specialized cultural center and theater plays a pivotal role in preserving Palestinian culture, simultaneously providing artists with expansive opportunities for experimentation and innovation.

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ART & CULTURE AS RESISTANCE PALESTINIAN THEATER The Freedom Theatre ---------------------------------------------------The Freedom Theatre is a theater and cultural center in Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank staging productions, publishing books, and offering workshops in acting, pedagogy and photography. On December 13, 2023, the IOF arrested three members of the Freedom Theatre including Mustafa Sheta, Producer and General Manager. His comrades Ahmed Tobasi, Artistic Director and Jamal Abu Joas, Trainer and Former Student have since been released as of December 21, 2023. 3 Members of the theater were murdered weeks before by the IOF: Yamen Jarrar, Jehad Naghniyeh, and Mohammed Matahen. Updates and petitions for their release found here.

The Revolution’s Promise --------------------------------------------------In collaboration with The Freedom Theatre, “a creative massmobilization project that aims to build a global conversation about censorship of Palestinian culture and the role arts play in fighting for justice, equality and self-determination.”

QUEERS FOR A FREE PALESTINE Queer Artist for a Free Palestine Pledge, Sign on Now! Queering the Map, A geographic anthology of queer stories globally, including Palestinian Queers. Palestine is A Queer Justice Issue, Queer orgs calling for ceasefire and solidarity with occupation resistance.

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ART & CULTURE AS RESISTANCE QUEERS FOR A FREE PALESTINE Gaza’s Queer Palestinians Fight to Be Remembered, Sarah O’Neal, The Nation, Nov 2023

ART & DESIGN Malak Mattar: ‘I Don’t Care How the World Sees Me’, GQ Magazine, by Nasri Atallah, 2021 ---------------------------------------------------“I don’t paint despite war and occupation. I paint because of it. Living through this era of war, there’s a big part of me that wants to document. I have this feeling that everything I do will live longer than me, than everyone. Even with a portrait that has nothing to do with the situation, it is a document because I was the one who painted it.”

Disarming Design --------------------------------------------------Palestinian collective crafting designs in solidarity with a Free Palestine such as the Gazan Bird House.

[music] Ceasefire by adrienne maree brown, arranged by Rise Choir, performed by Wild Choir, 2023 Sees Fire, Ganavya, 2023. "The Militant Ecologist (based on Fischia II Vento)" Marc Ribot, featuring Meshell Ndegeocello Palestine Lives! Songs from the Struggle of the People of Palestine, 1974

When Peace Dies, Embrace It, It Will Live Again by Malak Mattar, 2021

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ART & CULTURE AS RESISTANCE [photography] British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library, A Photo archive of pre-Nakba Jerusalem created by Mona Hajjar Halaby The photo archive bringing pre-Nakba Jerusalem alive, Interview with Mona Hajjar Halaby, by Adam Sella 2023

[poetry] Exile Is So Strong Within Me, I May Bring It to the Land”, A Landmark 1996 Interview with Mahmoud Darwish, by Helit Yeshurun, Journal of Palestine Studies, 2012 --------------------------------------------------An in depth, long-form interview with the national poet of Palestine.

I Grant You Refuge, Hiba Abu Nada, Protean Magazine, 2023. --------------------------------------------------Written on Oct 10th, 2023 and “among one of the last pieces she composed before being martyred by an Israeli airstrike on Oct. 20th, 2023. She was 32. Not Just Passing, Hiba Abu Nada, Miznah.

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PRAYERFUL ACTION DEVOTIONAL SPACES IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE Kruim Yachad: Diasporist Griefwork for the Long Haul --------------------------------------------------Led by Elana June, Sponsored by JVP (Jewish Voices for Peace) Havurah Weekly anti-zionist Jews space to metabolize grief on the ongoing genocide in Palestine in commitment to transforming cycles of harm in service of liberation.

Makam Shekhina ------------------------------------------------Multi-Religious Sufi Muslim Jewish Prayer Space

Prayer for Palestine ------------------------------------------------weekly call to prayer for Palestine to call on Allah permanent peace for the people of Palestine through recitation of the Nasiri Dua Torah for Palestine, by Shel Maala ------------------------ ------------------------A Trans & Queer Jewish Yeshiva

Ritual Grief Circles To Heal The Impacts of Colonialism hosted by Ekua Adisa ------------------------ ------------------------Some exclusively for black folks and some are multiracial.

for the

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PRAYERFUL ACTION COMMUNITY SCRIPTURE On dreaming new worlds into being, Janet Frishberg in Conversation with Hadar Cohen, The Creative Independent, 2023 Sovereignty, Reciprocity and Sacred Storytelling, with Aurora Levins Morales and Dori Midnight, Jewish Ancestral Healing Podcast, 2022 V'ahavta, Aurora Levins Morales, 2016 You Shall Love: V’Ahavta for Palestinian Liberation: An Invocation for Growing the Love that is Already There, Elana June Margolis, 2023

Our Queer and Jewish Grief Must Fuel Our Fight to Let Gaza Live, by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, Them, 2023 LGBTQ Muslims Call for Permanent Ceasefire Stonewall, TruthOut, by Zane McNeill, 2023

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PRAYERFUL ACTION We recognize the capacity for prayer and ritual to be wielded as direct action. We honor spiritual practice and organizing at the intersections of a global disarmament of militarism, abolition, white supremacy, ableism, apartheid, queerness, and environmental stewardship. In this faith, we offer a few ways to step into prayerful action in solidarity with Gaza and Palestine.

ACTIONS Call Your Representatives, via US Campaign for Rights (USCPR), a script and connection representatives. Boycott, Divest, and genocide in Palestine

Sanction

from

companies

Palestinian to local

complicit

with

Daily Power Half-Hour for Gaza, For Grief, Action, Coordinated Representative Calls, by Jewish Voice for Peace STOP GAZA GENOCIDE: CEASEFIRE NOW! Public Toolkit, USCPR, 2023 Find A Protest, USCPR Disarmament Calls to Action, Join the movement to end military complicity with Israel’s war machine

QUEER MUSLIM MOVEMENT FOR PALESTINE MASGD, The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity

Queer Crescent Queer Shia Collective

A PRAYER FOR DISARMAMENT, FOR GAZA The Tanakh offers a passage: Isaiah 2:4 reads: And they shall beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war. The siege, occupation, and genocide in Palestine, along with all US-backed imperialism globally, is pursued not for safety but in the name of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and fascism. I witness a connection between climate apartheid and the settler colonial project of Israel and the US. They carry a motive centered on getting more resources, mines, oil, fossil fuels, land, and undervalued labor, leading to the production of more guns, bombs, toxic mono crops, and manufacturing that pollutes the earth. Settler colonialism is a source of climate change, which in turn, disproportionately harms Palestinians, the global majority, the disabled, chronically ill, youth, migrants, mothers, elders, the poor, queers, trans, black, indigenous, folks of color, and all those disproportionately vulnerable. The bombs tested by the US military on my people in Biekes, Borikén, continue to fall on Gaza, Syria, Lebanon. The diamonds violently extracted from Congo are one of the Zionist state’s largest exports. We will witness the disarmament of global militarism, white supremacy, settler colonialism and the tools of genocide in Palestine and everywhere. The disarming of cameras and technologies to surveil and expedite carceral systems, deportation, criminalization. There will be an end to the racialized violence and genocides in Sudan, Congo, Tigray, Borikén, Ayti, Hawaii, Lebanon, China,

Syria, here on Turtle Island, and everywhere. and will return back to our Indigenous Comrades on Turtle Island and Abya Yala. The abolition of prisons and carceral systems of surveillance capitalism, anti-black racism, and cop city will come to pass. There will be a disarming of the US-Mexico border and all borders. Migration will no longer be criminalized. We will see all political prisoners freed - all prisoners are political prisoners. Israel will be disarmed of the ability to weaponize the withholding of water, food, and energy, desecration of clean air. There will be an end to attacks on cultural memory, agricultural land, indigenous life-ways, and the more than human world. This mass disabling event will end; health care and disability justice will reign. In our lifetimes, all that sources racism, fascism, capitalism, extraction, ableism, xenophobia, ageism, sexism, cishetero patriarchy, environmental racism, settler capitalism, climate apartheid will be disarmed. We will witness the closure of Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, The Department of Defense and all who build wealth on weapons, war, and genocide. We shall behold the softening of the hearts of zionists, whom we know and don’t know. There will be an end to convincing the world of the humanity of Palestinians, or any kin pressured to the margins. I pray for a future where these stories are remembered as cautionary tales, and forgotten as tools to wield against one another. May all these systems be disarmed. May freedom dreams, equity, and liberation form in their wake. Amen. A Prayer for Disarmament, For Gaza by jazmín calderón torres, 2023

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sources IMAGES We do not own the rights to these images and sourced them from the internet for this free reader. Thank you to the artists and photographers for your beautiful work! pg. 2 - Palestine Sunbird - A3 riso poster printed by Risiko Press. pg. 7 - Palestine Sunbird - Photo courtesy of Palestinian twin sisters and birders Lara and Mandy Sirdah, featured in the article “How Trapped Palestinians Fell in Love with Bird-watching“ by Marta Vidal pg. 10 - Woodchat Shrike - Photo courtesy of Anton Khalilieh, ED of Nature Palestine Society featured in the article “Bird watchers of the West Bank navigate a fraught political climate” by Miriam Berger pg. 11 - Black kites and starlings fly over West Bank at border wall - Photo courtesy of Anton Khalilieh, ED of Nature Palestine Society featured in the article “Palestinian 'birdman' watches out over West Bank”, featured on Phys.Org pg. 32 - When Peace Dies, Embrace It, It Will Live Again by Malak Mattar, 2021

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF COVER Lift the Siege on Gaza ,‫ع الحصار عن غزة‬ ‫رف‬ Long Live Free Palestine ,‫تحيا فلسطين حّرة‬ Stop the Genocide ,‫أوقفوا اإلبادة الجماعية‬