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samarbetmouni.bsky.social
Samar B 🕷️ 🍉 🌵She/Her
@samarbetmouni.bsky.social
280 followers 580 following 410 posts
History | Poetry | Crochet 🧶 | Books | Podcasts | Fairness | Equity | Reducing health inequalities | Anti-racist | Still wanting to save the NHS | Retired - prefer to call it "pivoting" - neuropathologist
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samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 7
So many books to read about Palestine

This is a book that will fill the reader with "what ifs"
Palestine-Peace Not Apartheid, Jimmy Carter

The last paragraphs in the book, published in 2006, are heart-breaking⤵️
Front cover of Jimmy Carter's book: Palestine - Peace Not Apartheid Last paragraphs in book: "The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of the majority of its own citizens - and honour its own previous commitments - by accepting legal borders. All Arab neighbours must pledge to honour Israel's right to live in peace under these conditions. The United States is squandering international presstige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonisation of Palestinian territories. It will be a tragedy - for the Israelis, the Palestinians, and the world - if peace is rejected and a system of oppression, apartheid, and sustained violence is permitted to prevail."
December 6, 2025 at 5:52 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 6
Four by Ghada Karmi
My favourite & most moving is In Search of Fatima
#BookSky
Book cover: In search of Fatima - A Palestinian Story, by Ghada Karmi Book cover: Return - A Palestinian Memoir, by Ghada Karmi Book cover: Married to Another Man, by Ghada Karmi Book cover: One State - The only democratic future for Palestine-Israel, by Ghada Karmi
December 4, 2025 at 8:02 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 5
Visualising Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation, edited by Jessica Anderson, Aline Batarseh, Yosra El

via Visualizing Palestine [https://visualizingpalestine.org/]
#BookSky
Front cover of book: Visualizing Palestine: A Chronicle of Colonialism and the Struggle for Liberation
December 3, 2025 at 3:05 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 4
Palestine: A personal history, Karl Sabbagh
#BookSky
Front cover of Karl Sabbagh's book: Palestine - A Personal History Back cover of same book - summary: Palestinians feature regularly in news headlines, but their country is much less known. In this humane and deeply compelling book, Karl Sabbagh traces Palestine and Palestinians from their roots in the mélange of tribes, ethnic groups, and religions that have populated the region for centuries, and describes how, as a result of the interplay of global power politics, the majority of Palestinians were expelled from their home to make way for the new Jewish state of Israel. Palestine: A Personal History offers a sympathetic portrait of the country's rich heritage as well as evidence of the long-standing harmony between Arabs (Muslim and Christian) and the small indigenous Jewish population in Palestine. Karl Sabbagh has written both a transporting narrative and a meditation on a region that remains a flashpoint of conflict--a story of how past choices and actions reverberate in the present day.
December 2, 2025 at 1:52 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 3
What does Israel fear from Palestine?, Raja Shehadeh
#BookSky
Book cover of Raja Shehadeh's book: What does Israel fear from Palestine? MEDIA REVIEWS An attempt to understand Israeli actions in Gaza, and a lament that the Palestinian story is still not properly heard ... [Shehadeh's] searching analysis offers insights for readers coming new to the situation and others who wish to face it afresh - 'Book of the Day', Guardian A slim, powerful work ... details the devastating consequences of the siege [of Gaza] - New Statesman Measured, lawyerly but always very readable... As the book comes to a close, as if summoning a last reserve of strength, [Shehadeh] manages a message of hope. Perhaps, he writes, the utter nightmarishness of the past few months may achieve what decades of war and negotiation have failed to resolve: a lasting peace - Observer Elegantly written ... suffused with anger without descending into bitterness - Irish Times An exceptionally lucid account of the underlying causes of the war in Gaza ... [Shehadeh] writes with so much humanity, recounting the story with neither rancour nor despair. This book will be particularly valuable for political education. Highly recommended all round. - Morning Star Praise for Raja Shehadeh: In his moral clarity and baring of the heart, his self-questioning and insistence on focusing on the experience of the individual within the storms of nationalist myth and hubris, Shehadeh recalls writers such as Ghassan Kanafani and Primo Levi - New York Times A buoy in a sea of bleakness - Rachel Kushner Shehadeh is a great inquiring spirit with a tone that is vivid, ironic, melancholy and wise - Colm Tóibín Palestine's greatest prose writer - Observer Luminously clear-sighted ... By turns lyrical, witty and shrewd, Shehadeh is an excellent companion - Prospect
December 1, 2025 at 2:32 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 2
My Palestine: An Impossible Exile, by Mohammad Tarbush
#BookSky
Front cover of book: My Palestine: An Impossible Exile, by Mohammad Tarbush Back cover of same book with reviews
November 30, 2025 at 10:48 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#ReadPalestineWeek Day 1
Recognising the stranger: On Palestine & narrative, by Isabella Hammad
Book cover of Isabella Hammad’s book: Recognising the stranger: On Palestine & narrative. Back cover of same book with reviewers’ comments
November 30, 2025 at 10:43 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
Cartoon showing image of St George replying to calls to return to England: “I am St George of Cappodocia, Turkiye, son of St Pochirhonica of Palestine and St Gerontias of Syria. I have been summoned by your undying loyalty to my name.” He returns but is being shouted at to “get out of England”
October 12, 2025 at 7:20 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
When I finish a book, I sometimes take a deep breath & hold it close to me… hugging it, knowing it will stay with me. I feel I know the characters & their lives, & in the days to come I’ll catch myself wondering how they’re doing.
This is one of those books.
🙏🏽 Christy Lefteri
#BookSky 📚
Front cover of Christy Lefteri’s book: The Beekeeper of Aleppo. A cracked, pale blue background with black & white image of a mosque outline, including minaret. In the foreground is a pair of hands creating a cup around a bee in flight
September 9, 2025 at 7:43 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
Thank you to 200 signatories at Royal Ballet & Opera
via: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Guardian Newspaper headline: “UK’s Royal Ballet and Opera withdraws Tosca production in Tel Aviv Show scheduled for next year pulled after 182 members of UK company sign letter criticising RBO’s stance on Gaza” “The letter highlighted the role the arts had historically played during times of crisis, and cited the RBO’s swiftness to stand in solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. It said: “We organised Concerts for Ukraine, we played the Ukrainian national anthem before performances, and we publicly displayed the Ukrainian flag as a gesture of solidarity with its people. We understood then that silence was unacceptable. Why is it different now? … The double standard is deafening.”
August 4, 2025 at 3:53 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
Happy 77th to the NHS
#NHS
Mug carrying the following words from Nye Bevan, founder of NHS 1948: “No society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means”
July 5, 2025 at 7:30 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
🧵#BookSky recommendation
Just finished reading this @peterbeinart.bsky.social book
I urge you to read it - a call for hope & recognition of shared humanity; a call away from those belligerent voices that know only cruelty, division & conflict as a means of sustaining their warped view of humanity
Front cover of Peter Beinart's book "Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza" - white cover, with capitalised font in blue, a red band separating book title from author's name. Two reviews are included on front cover: "Vital" Adam Hochschild "Essential" Daniel Levy "Urgent" Rachel Shabi
July 5, 2025 at 11:14 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
#BookSky 📚
Just finished reading Mohammad Tarbush's book

An amazing story - from his family's exodus from Beit Nattif in 1948, to being a refugee in Jericho, to hitch-hiking across Europe as teenager, getting an education - this will amaze you - hard work, earning & being a success...
1/
Front cover of Mohammad Tarbush's book: My Palestine - An impossible exile. Consists of blocks of either text (title of book, author) and photographs of author at various stages of his life. With comment from Edward Said saying, "As impressive a man as the Arab world has to show" Back cover of the book with several reviews by well known authors/commentators
June 30, 2025 at 10:45 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
1/ Just finished reading Mona Hajjar Halaby's book:

I feel I've walked the streets that Mona walked in Palestine, spoke to the people she talked to & worked with her at school as she patiently tried to help children who've seen & experienced more than any child should.
#BookSky
Front cover of Mona Hajjar Halaby's book: "In my mother's footsteps. A Palestinian refugee returns home" cover has an orange tree in the foreground, with Palestine in the background.
May 28, 2025 at 10:01 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
He will have chosen those phrases deliberately… they were no accident/slip of the tongue from this lawyer. Labour have decided whose votes they’re after & as for any other votes are counting on continuation of an “era of hostage elections”
Headline for article by Nesrine Malik in Guardian: “Welcome to the era of ‘hostage politics’, where Labour is apparently your only hope. First it was the Conservatives and now Reform. The only thing the government has to offer is that it’s the least worst option”
May 13, 2025 at 8:09 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
And finally, going back to your reluctance to utter condemnation of state of Israel's actions in Gaza & your compulsion for "balance" as genocide is live streamed... do read Omar El Akkad's brilliant book and try to work out "when it's safe to call a thing what it is"
5/5
Book cover of Omar El Akkad's book: One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this. The cover is red. The type face for the words "one day" and "everyone will have been against this" are in white The type face of the others is in dark red and almost invisible against the red background.
May 8, 2025 at 2:54 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
If you've been watching horrors in Gaza & West Bank
If you've wondered why vulnerable people world wide are ignored
If every time you watch violence being explained away
If your jaw drops at double standards
If you worry about humanity
If you just don't know what to think anymore
Read Omar El Akkad
The front cover of Omar El Akkad's book. The book cover is red and has the following text: "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this" The following parts of the text are in white - "One day" and "everyone will have always been against this" ... the rest in a dark red text, so almost invisible.
April 5, 2025 at 11:55 AM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
& you genuinely think that DavidLammy saying there's "a clear risk that Israel is breaching international law" as govt blusters through doing nothing of substance is worthy of merit..

You should all read this & reflect on what so-called progressives can turn a wilful blind eye to.
6/6
Front cover of Omar El Akkad's book - red cover with following text: "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have been against this". The words "One day" and "everyone will have always been against this" are in white type - the others are in dark red and almost invisible.
April 1, 2025 at 4:37 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
The full of title hits the nail on the head:
"One day,
when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable,
everyone will have always been against this"

Am looking forward to reading it
#BookSky 📚
Book cover of Omar El Akkad's book - red cover with the following title: "One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this" The words "One day" and "everyone will have always been against this" are in white text, the rest are in a dark red text and so almost invisible against the red cover.
March 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
For inspirational women
#InternationalWomensDay
#InternationalWomensDay2025
#IWD2025

This from Saja Kilani - could not stop crying when I first heard this poem about a year ago

Our Women, by Saja Kilani ⤵️
instagram.com/reel/C3C9ftY...
Photograph of Saja Kilani reading her poem - Our Women
March 8, 2025 at 3:13 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
as British Mandate "was ending without attending to the most basic needs of the majority of the inhabitants of the land.

I had to read this extract about Palestinians' frozen assets because the cruelty of it (let alone the sheer contempt of it) is still difficult to accept.

#BookSky 📚
2/2
From Raja Shehadeh: We could have been friends my father and I – A Palestinian memoir, p76-9 “When Israel declared itself as state, it inherited all the institutions existing in Palestine. Under the British Mandate, Palestine and Transjordan had the same currency and were treated as a single currency area for the purposes of exchange control. Palestine had a Currency Board and the Palestinians pound was equivalent to the pound sterling. In February 1948 there came a British Treasury announcement, with no prior notice or explanation, that it would ‘exclude Palestine from the sterling area and henceforth suspend the free convertibility of Palestinian pounds to pounds sterling’. It also stated that the Palestine Currency Board would no longer, ‘after 14 May 1948, continue to issue Palestinian pounds’. In other words, upon the termination of the Mandate the Palestinian currency would no longer be legal tender. What has been aptly described the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi as ‘the shabbiest regime in British colonial history’ was ending without attending to the most basic needs of the majority of the inhabitants of the land. These measures caused a panicked run on the banks, as ordinary people rushed to withdraw their Palestinian pounds and convert them into gold or any other security they could manage. By March 1948 the Palestinian pound was rendered unconvertible into any other currency. For the thousands of Arab Palestinian refugees who were forced to flee to other countries, this meant that they were unable either to exchange their Palestinian pounds into pounds sterling, or any other local Arab currency, before they left, or to withdraw sums form their accounts in other currencies once they arrived. Arab clients of the Jaffa branch of the Ottoman Bank, now refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, were asking the bank to pay them their balances in Amman and elsewhere, but these requests were refused. Heart-wrenching letters written to the banks, and also to th… the order. The newly established state was exploiting all its power to inflict the maximum amount of damage on its enemies, the Palestinians. On 2 December 1948 Israel passed directives, called ‘Emergency Regulations on the Property of Absentees’. This rendered legal under Israeli law the earlier freeze order. Once the order became law, the managers of Barclays Bank and the Ottoman Bank felt that they were obliged to comply. Under international banking law, banks are required to subscribe to the sovereign laws of any country in which the operate. This is unrelated to whether these laws infringe the individual rights of their customers. In February 1949 the Israeli government issued a new order. This required both banks to formally transfer all ‘frozen’ Palestinian sums over to the account of a newly created entity, the Custodian of Absentee Property, who, as it turned out, was custodian in name only. In reality this official post was only a transit point, taking custody of the assets in order to pass them onto another entity to dispose of. The banks thought, erroneously, that by transferring all the funds over to the Israelis they were rid of the problem. Within a year it became clear that the freeze was not a temporary measure, intended to last only until peace was established, as had initially been promised. For Israel now proceeded to liquidate the assets in these accounts as if they belonged to the state. Again the banks colluded in this harsh decision against the refugees, who had just lost all their properties in Palestine. My father was appalled. He could hardly believe that the banks could get away with it and began to explore the possibilities of a legal challenge, following developments closely. In November 1950 the banks were issued with a new order by the Israeli custodian ‘to deliver to him by cheque all the monies held in these accounts’. The banks complied without complaint. By the end of 1950 both Barclays Bank and the Ottoman Bank had p…
February 25, 2025 at 4:17 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
Just finished reading Raja Shehadeh's book - "We could have been friends, my father and I. A Palestinian memoir"
A tender, emotional book at heart about a father-son relationship - but also a documentation of ‘the shabbiest regime in British colonial history’(Walid Khalidi)
#BookSky 📚
1/2
Front cover of Raja Shehadeh's book: "We could have been friends my father and I: A Palestinians memoir"
February 25, 2025 at 4:17 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
DAY 3: Democracies don't censor books

What does Israel fear from Palestine, by Raja Shehadeh

"The very high human & material cost of the war in Gaza proves that what Israel fears from Palestine is Palestine's very existence"

#BookSky 📚
Front cover of book: What Does Israel Fear from Palestine?, by Raja Shehadeh Back cover of book: "When the state of Israel was formed in 1948, it precipitated the Nakba or 'disaster': the displacement of the Palestine nation, creating fracture-lines which continue to erupt in violent and tragic ways today. In the years that followed, while the Berlin Wall crumbled and South Africa abolished apartheid, the Israeli government rejected every opportunity for reconciliation with Palestine. But Raja Shehadeh, a human rights lawyer and Palestine's greatest living writer, suggests that this does not mean the two nations cannot work together as partners on the road to peace, not genocide. In graceful, devastatingly observed prose, this is a fresh perspective in a time of great need."
February 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
Day 2: Democracies don't censor books
"From 2005... to 2009, Levy tracks development of Israel policy, which abandoned the pretence of diplomacy in favour of raw military power, the ultimate aim of which is to deny Palestinians any chance of forming their own independent state."
The Punishment of Gaza, by Gideon Levy "Day 2: Democracies don't censor books "From 2005... to 2009, Levy tracks development of Israel policy, which abandoned the pretence of diplomacy in favour of raw military power, the ultimate aim of which is to deny Palestinians any chance of forming their own independent state."
February 11, 2025 at 4:22 PM
samarbetmouni.bsky.social
DAY 1: Democracies don't censor books
IIan Pappe - The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
"Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint."
📚📚📚#BookSky
"Between 1947 and 1949, over 400 Palestinian villages were deliberately destroyed, civilians were massacred and around a million men, women, and children were expelled from their homes at gunpoint. Denied for almost six decades, had it happened today it could only have been called 'ethnic cleansing'. Decisively debunking the myth that the Palestinian population left of their own accord in the course of this war, Ilan Pappe offers impressive archival evidence to demonstrate that, from its very inception, a central plank in Israel’s founding ideology was the forcible removal of the indigenous population. Indispensable for anyone interested in the current crisis in the Middle East."
February 10, 2025 at 8:56 PM