International Literacy Day
September 8, 2014

  "Literacy is a key lever of change and a practical tool of empowerment on each of the three main pillars of sustainable development: economic development, social development and environmental protection."

Former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan

- See more at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.xl208HWW.Hay7bl2e.dpufhttp://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/literacy-day/#sthash.xl208HWW.Hay7bl2e.dpuf

Today is International Literacy Day, a day to celebrate and encourage literacy. All over the world tremendous strides are being made in literacy and education, but there are many notable exceptions. There are even places, such as Gaza, where literacy is moving the wrong way. Children are being hampered in their learning by external forces.

According to the New York Times, there are 648 schools in Gaza with 421 of the buildings being shared in double shifts. Since the recent violence, 34 buildings have been damaged beyond repair and dozens more need major repairs. Add the addition of 60,000 people whose homes were destroyed that are being sheltered in school buildings, and you have an insurmountable problem. (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/world/middleeast/broken-buildings-and-bruised-psyches-complicate-start-of-gaza-school-year.html?_r=0)

Schools are already three weeks late, and an opening day is not in sight. Even if schools were to open tomorrow, how many children would be able to study and learn? Democracy Now! Gives August 21 numbers as: 500 kids dead, 3,000 injured (over 1,000 of whom will suffer from lifelong disability), and 373,000 traumatized. Pernille Ironside, chief of UNICEF’s Gaza field office said, “There isn’t a single family in Gaza who hasn’t experienced personally death, injury, the loss of their home, extensive damage, displacement, The psychological toll that has on a people, it just cannot be overestimated, and especially on children."

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/21/a_war_on_gazas_future_israeli

Sadly, many of these children may never reach their full potential, yet there are ways we can help.

You can help UNRWA rebuild schools in Gaza

Click here to donate
***DONATE TO THE GAZA EMERGENCY APPEAL TODAY***

UNRWA must repair, rebuild, equip schools and they also provide food and counseling when they can.

Support for Palestine gives hope for change

Blogging about Palestine is not easy, especially lately. I have plenty of material, but I had no words to express what was in my heart. I still don’t. But I’m a novelist. It’s my job to find the words to express emotions…words that will make the reader feel the sorrow and the desperation of the character. I cry as I write because that’s the only way to make the reader feel the pain.

But after the hero has been challenged beyond endurance, he or she dredges up the last bit of strength and will to make one last push to overcome and triumph. That makes a satisfying novel. The hero (and the reader) are satisfied.

Unfortunately, what has been happening in Palestine is not the stuff of novels. The people of Gaza have been pushed beyond endurance, but that last shred of strength and will may only serve to help them survive. There has to be a shred of hope somewhere.

Maybe there is just a glimmer, like a lone firefly on a hot summer night. 

Protests from around the world showed up on Facebook.

In New York they marched over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Then there were pictures from New York from Jewish Voice 4 Peace NYC

http://pic.twitter.com/guQkq7lTuJ

In Oakland, California, thousands gathered to protest an Israeli ship docking.http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/17/israeli-ship-remains-at-sea-thousands-protesters-gather

They kept it blocked for four straight days!

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/israeli-ship-blocked-unloading-oakland-four-straight-days?utm_source=EI+readers&utm_campaign=fbf67c6938-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e802a7602d-fbf67c6938-299155689

The London rally was amazing in size and intensity! http://www.london24.com/news/huge_rally_to_support_gaza_and_protest_against_israel_takes_place_in_london_1_3721166

One of the most impressive demonstrations was in Karachi, Pakistan, where thousands upon thousands of people flooded the streets as far as the eye could see! (Palestine Festival of Literature)

Did it have any effect? The tiniest firefly-glimmer of hope  begins to flicker.

Gallup poll shows young Americans overwhelmingly support Palestine.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/americas/13203-latest-gallup-poll-shows-young-americans-overwhelmingly-support-palestine

And Uruguay joined Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Venezuela in having an embassy in the Palestine   http://bit.ly/1u5l4Wr

More Palestinians made homeless in the wake of home demolition by Israel

Activists hold flags as they protest latest demolitions

Today another Palestinian village has been hit by devastating home demolitions. Sixty-six people were made homeless, including 36 children in the community of Ain el-Helwe in the Jordan Valley. The Jordan Valley has been continuously inhabited for 11,000 years. It has been home to Canaanites for thousands of years, and now many of their descendants are being forced from their ancestral homes. 

On Saturday, 1 February 2014, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories said, “I am deeply concerned about the ongoing displacement and dispossession of Palestinians… along the Jordan Valley where the number of structures demolished more than doubled in the last year.” (Picture and quote from: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/02/01/U-N-slams-Israel-destruction-of-Jordan-valley-homes-.html)

The Jordan Valley is only the latest of the home demolitions to be publicized on the internet. The demolitions in and around Jerusalem continue in near-total silence. The two videos below show recent activity in home demolition. You Tube has videos documenting home demolitions that date back seven years and more.

The short video shows how one man salvaged what he could from the wreckage of his home and moved his belongings into a nearby cave. In the short interview, he says that a judge forbid him from rebuilding. The man asked the judge where his family was supposed to live. The answer—that’s not my problem.

The next video talks about the very real possibility of new recently constructed apartment buildings being demolished. One local resident claims that no one will leave and the Israelis will have to demolish the building with the residents inside. A representative of a local NGO is quoted as saying, “That’s the way they clear land for future settlements.”