Dear friends--
There is so much happening happening these days-- in Gaza, the rest of West Asia, and the world!
Yesterday, the United States led a cohort of just nine nations that voted to oppose Palestine sitting as a full member in the United Nations. But 143 nations gave Palestine an enthusiastic welcome.
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The impact of that vote on Palestine's actual standing has yet to be clarified. But still, at the global level, Washington is becoming more and more isolated with each week that passes... And for the past few days, after the Israeli military pushed forward and seized the Rafah Crossing, the IDF has dried up the passage of aid trucks into Gaza completely-- from there, from Kerem Shalom, and also apparently from Erez.
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Click-thru to news about Just World Books authors:
** Refaat Alareer
** Laila El-Haddad
** Miko Peled
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These are the figures from UN-OCHA:
![]() In these circumstances, a ceasefire-- including the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, along with a super-speedy ramp-up of aid deliveries to Gaza's 2.3 million people-- is more urgent than ever.
But Israel's Prime Minister refuses to conclude a ceasefire agreement. And here in Washington, in mid-week Pres. Joe Biden responded to mounting pro-ceasefire pressure from his grassroots starting to-- just possibly-- move toward reining in Israel, by threatening to withhold some future arms shipments. (Israel claims it has plenty on hand, anyway...)
But then last night, Biden's State Department issued a very blathery ruling that just possibly Israel might have violated international law in Gaza, but the matter needs more research... while Biden has continued throughout the past week to give full-throated support to Netanyahu's declared war aim of "destroying Hamas!"
All this, while the general level in Western countries of understanding about the nature, goals, and policies of Hamas remains woefully low... and while Biden and other leaders in Israel and the U.S. continue to churn out vast torrents of deliberate disinformation about the movement.
All of which makes Just World Ed's ongoing project, "Understanding Hamas & Why That Matters" even more necessary and timely.
I am happy to share the following updates about the project:
- On Thursday, we held the second webinar in this series.In this one, co-host Rami Khouri and I held an extremely informative public conversation about Hamas with the scholar and author Dr. Khaled Hroub (shown in the banner image above.) In our convo, Dr. Hroub talk about the balance between the political and wings within Hamas, about the strategic aims the movement was trying to achieve with its operation of October 7, and many other intriguing topics.
![]() We have already added the multimedia records of that conversation (video, audio, and transcript) to the Online Learning Hub that we're building on our website for this project, where they've joined the records for the earlier convo we'd had, with Dr. Paola Caridi. We'll be continuing to add more records to the Learning Hub as the project proceeds.You can access it here, or by scanning the QR code we created for it.![]() Our next Guest Expert, this Thursday (May 16) will be Dr. Jeroen Gunning, a Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and Conflict Studies at King’s College, London. Dr. Gunning is one of the founders of the field of critical terrorism studies; and he has taught and advised both policy-makers and civil society organizations. Back in 2008, he issued a strong plea, “Hamas: Talk to Them,” and in 2010, he published a book titled, Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence.
Rami Khouri and I are much looking forward to our conversation with Dr. Gunning-- and we hope you will join us!
If you're already registered in this webinar series, you don't need to do anything more except sign in to that same Zoom link that we and Zoom sent you, at Noon ET this Thursday. ![]() If you are NOT yet registered for the series, you can still do so. There is a separate QR code for the registration (shown here) -- or you can just click on this link, instead.
Plus, we would love it if you could share the news about this opportunity, and our whole "Understanding Hamas" project, with your friends and networks! One good tool for doing so is this graphic, which you can download and then share on social media:
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Our PalCast episode with a front-line doctor from Central Gaza
![]() In the latest episode of our PalCast podcast, now available on Apple, Spotify, and elsewhere, host Dr.Yousef Aljamal, co-host Tony Groves, and I had the honor of (virtually) sitting down with Dr. Musallam Abukhalil, a dedicated physician from Gaza who has been working at a shelter in Nuseirat refugee camp since November.
Dr. Musallam Abukhalil is not just a doctor; he is a beacon of hope for the displaced families seeking refuge in Gaza. He is employed by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) with the mission of providing essential medical care to those who need it most.
The Nuseirat refugee camp where he works is located in the central area of the Gaza Strip. It is currently home to hundreds of thousands of additional Palestinian families who have been displaced from areas further to the north. Despite the constant threat of danger, Dr. Abukhalil and his team work tirelessly to address the medical and public health needs of the shelter’s inhabitants. They see approximately 150 patients every day, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Dr Abukhalil’s work comes at great personal risk, having narrowly escaped death in an air strike not long ago. The road he travels every day is a battlefield, and every minute counts. Major neighborhoods in the Nuseirat camp are now marked as active military zones by the Israeli army.
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And... here's your reminder that that everything we do at Just World Ed, whether its the numerous substantial webinar series's we've put on in recent years (and the Online Learning Hubs that resulted), or the PalCast and other podcasts, or our blog, our public events, or this newsletter-- Well, all these projects take resources, and since we have no big deep-pockets donors, it makes us reliant on you and anyone else who appreciates and values our work.
Our huge thanks, obviously, to everyone who has sent us a donation recently. We could not carry on without you!
But if you haven't given recently, or you'd like to augment your giving at this crucial point in world history, you can find out how to do so by clicking the button below. Big thanks to all who give this week!
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Our big thanks, too, to Dr.Yousef Aljamal for continuing to bring such inspiring and well-informed people onto our PalCast project, and to lead it so successfully!
![]() Yousef also recently authored this timely article on the website of the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers.)
British and American Quakers have had a very active presence in Gaza since 1948, when their very experienced aid workers provided the entire gamut of relief aid to the Palestinian refugees who poured in to the area as a result of the Zionist/Israeli militias' deliberate, ethnicly-based expulsion of Palestinians from all the areas that they controlled.
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It's been a few weeks now since I wrote anything in my newsletter about my publishing company, Just World Books, and our fabulous collection of super-talented and dedicated authors.
![]() I realize that most of you who read this will know that back in early December, the Israeli military brutally killed our wonderful author and friend Dr. Refaat Alareer. Refaat's legacy certainly lives on! Many-- perhaps nearly all-- of the pro-Palestinian, anti-occupation student encampments erected around North America in recent weeks established small lending libraries at their hubs-- and then named those libraries the "Refaat Alareer Memorial Library".
![]() Last weekend I went down to the encampment at George Washington University, specifically to donate some books to their Refaat Alareer Memorial Library. And when I got there I saw they already had an intriguing and educational collection of books-- including one copy of Refaat's Gaza Writes Back, and three copies of Laila El-Haddad's super-important 2010 title, Gaza Mom!
Back in 2014, Just World Books-- and AFSC-- jointly brought Refaat Alareer to the United States, on a book tour for Gaza Writes Back... and we were able to introduce Refaat to Laila, a fellow Gaza Palestinian who had grown up largely in exile from her hometown.
![]() That year, Israel launched yet another of its ghastly periodic assaults on Gaza-- and at my suggestion Refaat and Laila collaborated on editing the haunting non-fiction anthology that we published the following year: Gaza Unsilenced.
Meantime, of course, Laila had also engaged in another crucial collaboration: the work she did with Maggie Schmitt to produce the super-powerful, richly illustrated ethnographic cookbook, The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey.
![]() Gaza Kitchen has received numerous wonderful accolades from giants in the food business since we released its first edition in 2012. We probably like the late Anthony Bourdain's comment the best: "Not just a superb cookbook, a collection of vital recipes from a delicious yet often overlooked cuisine, but an argument for understanding. A classic of world food..."
Just World Books' commitment to Laila, Maggie, and their amazing body of work has continued. In 2021, we released the Third Edition of Gaza Kitchen, and at the same time Just World Ed ran a great, short webinar series with the two of them on the related field of food-security issues worldwide. Leafing through the pages of the book today, with their many intimate images of "the women of Gaza at home in their kitchens", or of farmers or fishers or other participants in Gaza's pre-genocide food system is a deeply bittersweet experience.
In the years since we published the first of her books, Laila El-Haddad has become an increasingly influential figure in the movement for Palestinian rights here in the United States. Here she was, on Thursday, as a guest on WBUR's "On Point" program, talking about the continuing struggles of Gaza's civilians. And earlier, as you may know, she was one of the lead plaintiffs in the case that a number of Palestinian Americans brought against Pres. Biden and Sec. of State Anthony Blinken in U.S. federal court, for their complicity in the genocide in Gaza. (They lost that case, but only because the judge ruled that-- to his consternation-- he had no jurisdiction over national leaders in the matter.)
![]() Another of our authors very frequently in the news is Miko Peled, author The General's Son and Injustice.
On Thursday, Miko was featured in Middle East Eye's "Unapologetic" show, where he called for urgent U.S. action to end Israel's assault on Rafah.
... I am really proud of the tremendous work that these and numerous other JWB authors have been doing over the years to try to raise awareness of the grave harms Israel has been inflicting on Palestinians and many other peoples-- in West Asia, and worldwide. In the weeks ahead we'll be ramping up a bit of a publicity campaign for all of them. I hope you can help, by telling your friends-- and especially your local libraries!-- about the value of these authors' works, and the great educational value of making their books available to the widest possible reading public!
And meantime, Just World Ed, our non-profit foundation, will also be continuing its much-needed work. I hope you can join us at this week's webinar!
You stay well--
Helena
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