News & opinions from a Palestinian-American
living & working in Ramallah/Al-Bireh, Palestine
Then, October 7, 2023, happened, and its aftermath continues with no end in sight through today. Maha, like every Palestinian around the globe, became numb, finding it difficult to focus on anything but our loved ones in Gaza.
As Saudi Arabia attempts to assume the unilateral leadership role in the Arab World, it has welcomed the Palestinian issue as a component in the negotiations because it is looking for a save-face measure in front of the Arab and Muslim worlds to normalize with Israel, which seems to be one of the conditions the Biden Administration has placed on Saudi Arabia to be able to reach a historic U.S.- Saudi Arabia deal.
I offer the following draft of what I suggest Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas adopt as his speech in the upcoming General Debate of the 78th Session of the General Assembly.
This racist Israeli who spied on the U.S. has the ultimate solutions… Watch the full 16 minutes and 31 seconds, from 1:48:29 – 2:05:00.
This week in 1982, 41 years ago, in full coordination with the Israeli military which had invaded South Lebanon a few months prior, a group of “Christian” Phalangist fundamentalists, entered two Palestinian refugee camps, Sabra and Shatila, and slaughtered around 3,000 Palestinian civilians.
![The Bible Is Not a Baton [Book Review]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/the-bible-is-not-a-baton-1790705007.png)
The opening line of Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, the People, the Bible says it all: “For Palestinians, including the Palestinian Christian community, Palestine is a real land with real people.” It seems self-evident, but in a time when more people are in love with some majestic idea of Israel/Palestine rather than the real Israel/Palestine, it needs to be reiterated. This short read debunks many falsehoods that have taken root in parts of the Christian community over time and have been kept alive by constant watering by the State of Israel and the Zionist movement.
Israel has instilled a culture of “Slay-for-Play” to enable its soldiers and private citizens to shoot first and ask questions — if ever needed to — later. As B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights organization, previously documented, “[Israel’s] open-fire policy — which allows the unjustified use of lethal force — conveys Israel’s deep disregard for the lives of Palestinians and facilitates Israel’s continued violent control over millions of Palestinians.”
![“They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom” [Recommended]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/they-called-me-a-lloness.jpeg)
A Palestinian activist jailed at sixteen after a confrontation with Israeli soldiers illuminates the daily struggles of life under occupation in this moving, deeply personal memoir.
![“A Day in the Life of Abed Salama” [Recommended]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/A-Day-in-the-Life-of-Abed-Salama-by-Nathan-Thrall.jpg)
Nathan Thrall received the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for A Day in the Life of Abed Salama. Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a semitrailer. His father, Abed, gets word of the crash and rushes to the site. The scene is chaos—the children have been taken to different hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank; some are missing, others cannot be identified. Abed sets off on an odyssey to learn Milad’s fate. It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but for Abed it is compounded by the maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must navigate because he is Palestinian. He is on the wrong side of the separation wall, holds the wrong ID to pass the military checkpoints, and has the wrong papers to enter the city of Jerusalem. Abed’s quest to find Milad is interwoven with the stories of a cast of Jewish and Palestinian characters whose lives and histories unexpectedly converge. (Publisher’s description)
!["The Palestinian People: A History" by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal [Recommended]](https://epalestine.ps/sambahour/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/palestinian-people-a-history-baruch-kimmerling-joel-migdal.jpg)