As the 300-foot spire of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris tragically came tumbling down on live television, my thoughts ventured to Nuseirat Refugee Camp, my childhood home in the Gaza Strip. The very media that covered the news of the Notre Dame fire seemed oblivious to the obliteration of everything we hold sacred in Palestine as, day after day, Israeli war machinery continues to blow up, bulldoze and desecrate.
"We need more than rations," explains Asrat, who came to a refugee camp in Kenya from Ethiopia. "We want to express our views and be heard."
As the 2020 elections approach, watch out. There’s one possible American war still to come in the Greater Middle East. I’m thinking, of course, about a potential war with Iran.
Algeria's longest serving president stepped down last week following massive protests against his rule. "Bouteflika's resignation is a first step. He embodies the system. Now the struggle to build a new Algeria will continue," said activist Fares Kader Affak.
1% of the US population actually provides a quarter of all the money spent on American politics by individuals and 80% of what the two major political parties raise.
Palestinians participated in the Great March of Return because they understand their centrality in their struggle. Their protests are a collective statement, a cry for justice, an ultimate reclamation of their narrative as a people – still standing, still powerful and still hopeful after 70 years of Nakba, 50 years of military occupation and 12 years of unrelenting siege.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019