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  The Nakba - the "disaster" or "catastrophe" was the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948 and the permanent displacement of Palestinian Arabs. The term is used to describe both the events of 1948 and the ongoing occupation of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as their displacement in refugee camps throughout the region and beyond. The Nakba was the result of the partition of Mandatory Palestine after World War Two ended as the United Nations and world powers realigned the borders of the Middle East.  The following story is by Neveen Abuelola, my 'step -niece' through marriage. I am reblogging this from when she first wrote it, around 2012 I am Neveen. I am Palestinian. This is my sto­­ry. This is the Palestinian Story. I'd like to take you back to 64 years ago, to the fertile rolling hills of Palestine. To the land of orange, lemon and olive trees, to around mid May1948. My Grandmother, heavily pregnant qu...

At around 3 am, on Thursday 24th February 2022, Russian President Putin announced, via a pre recorded message that Russia had launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in response, he said, to threats from the country. Explosions were heard in cities across Ukraine and initial reports of casualties by around 7am GMT  at least eight people had been killed and nine injured by the Russian shelling. I watched on TV in disbelief and horror, with millions of others around the world, as Russian tanks rolled across the border and reporters told of the escalating situation, minute by minute. Russian President  Vladimir  Putin   had  announced in a pre-recorded  broadcast that he had ordered "a special military operation" in eastern Ukraine in response, he said, to Ukraine aggression.  The Ukraine   Border Service said  that its border posts with  Belarus and Russia   were under attack and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared...

The Deceit - Ghassan Abou El Ola Behind the slogans, speeches, political statements, and spirited songs of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) lies a hidden entity very different from descriptions widely circulated. Through the personal experiences of an officer serving in the Palestinian Naval Forces, ' The Deceit ' reveals the truth about an inscrutable shadow organisation whose fortune amounted to 50 billion dollars – a fortune of which its sources or destinations are unknown except to a handful of people entrusted by the leader, to run its investments. The book describes how the junta, who held power in the PLO continuously for more than half a century, jostled for these fortunes and their returns, and how many wars were started and lost killing tens of thousands, mostly civilian, innocent people. Once these wars stopped being profitable at the beginning of the Soviet Union collapse, this junta turned to the political arena and allied itself with 'pea...