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‘To say goodbye is to die a little’: Palestinian farmers struggle for survival

Vivien Sansour shares her thoughts and experiences about what is taking place in the West Bank village of Battir

To be Palestinian is to learn how to say goodbye over and over again – not just to people, but to places, trees, valleys and childhood foods.

I am no stranger to this as a woman and a Palestinian, who has spent my whole life bidding farewells and trying to make sense of it all. This is precisely the reason, a few years ago, I became obsessed with seeds. Heirloom seeds gave me the opportunity to salvage some old stories, things we were saying goodbye to, and to give them new contemporary twists, subsequently reviving them for the sake of the future. I was trying to avoid another goodbye, and to hopefully offer a new generation at least fragments of their food heritage so they can know where they come from and what they come from.

This is why I started the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library and why, with our team, we invested a lot of time, attention and resources in developing an agroecological site in the heart of the mountain village of Battir – a few kilometers south of Jerusalem and west of Bethlehem and a UNESCO world heritage site. Battir is a major agricultural landscape comprised of ancient stone terraces and a traditional irrigation system dating back thousands of years. For two years now, we have worked hard to reclaim the land and restore the soil. The terrain required significant rehabilitation, including terracing – itself an art which is disappearing.

But all these things that we are working hard to conserve are under threat. Not only from climate change but from the increase in Israeli settlements, illegal under international law and with a presence that is both militant and damaging to the natural terrain. Construction of settlements, along with plans for roads and business parks, carve up ancient landscapes, pollute and damage water sources and harm biodiversity. For us, this is not a story we read in the paper – it is our daily life and thus our daily conversation: how do we persevere in our attempt to salvage the bioculture of this place, while at the same time managing military and settlement expansion?

In the global conversation about conservation and sustainability, we often find ourselves lonely if not misunderstood. How can the world that claims to care about sustainability, be so dismissive of social and political justice? How can we speak of the lost watermelon or the disappearing tomato without having a real conversation about the people who cultivated these varieties and the lands that were once their farms and their homes? And how can we understand food without understanding its people and the systems in which each food practice or variety was created? In Palestine, when we speak of food sovereignty, we are speaking not only about the quality of food or its value, we are speaking about survival. We are speaking of an agri-resistance movement that is defying all odds.

Credit: auturkishculturalclub on Instagram

Look to the first reblog for links and more sources

Please read it and reblog people have to hear about what happened today. There are videos of nationalists beating people (teenagers) just because they were walking nearby or throwing firecrackers. These are the people that our president was willing to go side by side during the independence day. We can't rely on the government doing something so please don't sleep on it, let prople know about things happening in Poland right now.

SPREAD THE WORD, TUMBLR! The Russian lgbtqa+ activist Yelena Grigoryeva was killed. She was a huge human rights proponent and lgbtqa+ activist, as well as an open bisexual. Don't let this murder go unnoticed by the worldwide lgbtqa+ community!!!

Okay look, I understand that really important things are happening in the world at the moment, the queens’s funeral, Trump getting sued, Adam Levine cheating on his wife… but people in Iran are being murdered. This began by the cruel murder of a 22 year old girl, Mahsa Amini, last week by the police because she wasn’t wearing appropriate hijab. This has been going on in Iran for decades, women have been going through this.

Some people will want to jot this down as islamphobia, but that is nothing even close to reality. If women are burning their headscarves now, it’s not out of the hatred of Islam, it’s an act of protest to the loss of religious freedom. It’s not just that, if someone is born from muslim parents in Iran they are automatically assumed to be a muslim and they have no right to changing their religion without serious persecution. The Islamic Republic has given an evil face to Islam. The poeple of Iran don’t hate Islam. We hate governments who will force religion on women. Historically this has been a recurring event. Before the revolution in the ‘30s Reza Shah forced women to discard their hijab and now for decades the opposite is happening. All the people of Iran have ever asked for is freedom and all they’ve got in return has been cruelty, violence and death.

The cruelty doesn’t end there. Few months ago the southern and western parts of Iran had no water, they also did peaceful protests against that situation and they too were awarded with fire arms and violence. All for asking for the most basic need a person has. A need for water. Iran may not have a lot of water but there is enough for this not to happen. This is evident by the fact that the government is now using that said water against the protesters by blasting them with it.

For the past week the people of Iran of all races and ages and religions are fighting against the regime. The government has been imprisoning defenseless people. They are killing people to show the world they didn’t kill Mahsa Amini. They are using military grade equipment. In some cities they are using tanks, they are using guns and tear gas and batons. They may be using acid in some areas. They are using ambulances to arrest protesters and bring soldiers into crowds. They are doing this so that if the protesters attack these ambulances to free innocent people, they can have proof of people destroying public property. The only weapon people have against this immense level of violence is their bare hands and their courage.

Tumblr has a community of people who pride themselves on social justice and wanting to help people’s voices be heard. What is happening in Iran is no less than what has happened in other countries during the past few years. Iranians are so alone, they have no help. No country is out there helping the people of Iran. At least their voices can be heard. At least people should be aware of what is happening. Tens of people have been killed and hundreds injured just for protesting police brutality, the irony is evident.

Right as all these things are happening, the president of Iran another pillar in this evil government is in the US, talking about the freedom of Iranians and their fortunate lives.

About five years ago after a protest in Tehran; Telegram and Instagram, platforms that were widely used by Iranian were blocked by the government. They were added to the list of social media platforms that were blocked then, like Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr. After a while Instagram was unblocked but Telegram has been blocked since. All of this is just so people from the outside of Iran don’t find out about what is really happening in Iran so the government can lie on their behalf. Like they are doing right now, lying about how Iranian women wear hijab out of sheer will while the reality is that they are dying to gain freedom. About 4 years ago, the internet was completely shut off for about a month. This was following a protest regarding the extremely high price of gas in a country that has all the gas to last a hundred lifetimes. When the internet was shut down people didn’t know for how long. We were kept in the dark and the government was reining while ensuing terror in people with the threat of more restrictions. Just imagine having no internet, it was an insane time. They are restricting the internet again. Last night they shut off the internet partly and they may do it again indefinitely and the voices of the people may not reach anyone again. There isn’t much time.

Then they shot two rockets at a Ukrainian plane that had lifted from Iranian grounds. There were Irannian students on the plane, 176 people who all died for no reason. The government of the Islamic Republic killed all those people for nothing. And all the world did was light a few candles. They need to be held responsible for all these lives they are taking away. All these young people they are killing.

I know that this is long. I know that this is inconvenient. It’s upsetting and I get that but help is truely needed. People can’t keep dying for nothing. The government can’t keep getting away with everything. They have no one to answer to and they can do anything. They kill and torture and imprison. I am just asking people to educate themselves and maybe help spread the word. Go on Twitter and watch the videos if you can. I won’t put them on here because it may be too upsetting. There is blood, there is gunshot wounds, there is violence and there is terror.

❗️TIME SENSITIVE❗️

Hello 👋🏽 I am a physically disabled black woman, an artist, and the sole caretaker of my autistic brother.

Last year, our home was sold from underneath us after our father passed away and my brother and I were left with almost nothing, and nowhere to go. We lost everything. And since, have been struggling every single day to survive and keep a roof over our heads.

We are fighting the system for assistance for my brother, but have been denied twice despite full proof of the extent of disability.

They Do Not Want Us To Live.

But we don't want to give up. We're raising funds for housing so that we can keep trying to survive together. Black Disabled Lives Matter. We should be allowed the same tools to live as everyone else. So we ask for your help.

Please help us, share our GoFundMe, share our story, donate if you can. Help us keep a roof over our heads so that we can KEEP TRYING.

Thank you 🙏🏽💜

gofundme.com

Help 2 Black & Disabled Siblings After Losing Home, organized by Dave Davis

PLEASE READ MOST RECENT UPDATE AT END OF STORY! We have lost the home … Dave Davis needs your support for Help 2 Black & Disabled Siblings

Advise on a stray/ abandoned cat! -Signed a panicked woman

Hi! I was taking the trash out and there was this white cat on my porch and it was meowing at me. I assumed it was hungry so I gave it some food. I think it’s either a lost cat or abandoned one because I have seen it around my neighborhood but I just assumed that it was someone’s outside cat. Insert pics: but now I’m thinking differently. It’s tail is dirty and its collar is kinda raggedy. Every time I came outside it meowed at me. I looked online what to do and one thing it said was to take it to the vet and foster it. That is the problem there bc I live with a relative that doesn’t want animals in her house. She just barely tolerates my cat. I won’t be able to take care of this cat but I don’t want to see it suffer. I am a panicked mess. Any advice would be very appreciated!

So, India is dying.

Look, I know a good number of you are from the US and things aren't amazing there either, but my country is literally on the brink of collapse. So I'd love it if we could talk about that for a minute.

If you can't do anything else, please just read and reblog.

A second COVID wave has taken out the healthcare system. There are no more hospital beds. There's an oxygen shortage. There's a critical vaccine shortage. The Central Government has thrown its hands up and is passing the baton to the State Governments to do what they can.

There are over 16 million covid cases. A record 330,000 new cases reported yesterday - comparable to the US at its peak. 187,000 dead as of today.

There is no plan.

Mass cremations are taking place. The cremation grounds are running day and night and they are short on wood. People are watching their loved ones die while waiting for a hospital bed, and then they're unable to give them the proper burial rights.

Hospitals are overwhelmed. Patients are being confined, two to a bed. They're the lucky ones.

We are on the verge of people dying in the streets.

This is the second-most populous country in the world. The largest democracy. A country that encapsulates over 15,000 years of recorded human history and has endured everything from famine to invasion to colonisation.

We might be at the end. This might be the thing that does us in.

People are dying.

People are dying.

People are dying and there is no plan.

More good news? Variants are popping up. A double mutation strain has shown up. It is resistant to current vaccines. This will not go away. This is the devastation they warned of when the anti-maskers were out protesting the minor inconvenience of covering their face in public.

My country is on the verge of an emergency state. Our government has failed us. This is as dire a situation as it ever could be.

Look. I don't do much with my life. I write fics, some of you have read them and that's pretty much it. I spend my days with my head in the clouds because that's where I like to be.

But two days ago, my grandmother tested positive, had to be taken to hospital and the ambulance caught fire.

She barely made it to the urgent care she needs.

So, here I am, using whatever meager platform I have to cobble this request together. Because I have to do something.

If you can, donate.

Or spread the word.

Help. Please.

🚨 Urgent Appeal: Do Not Scroll Past This! 🚨

🚨 This GoFundMe is VETTED here

We've been able to raise only 120$ so far

Dear Tumblr Friends,

I’m begging you—please, do not scroll past this post. Mohammed, his family, and his young niece are in a desperate situation, and they need our help urgently.

The airstrike that shattered their lives has claimed the lives of everyone in his niece's family—leaving her completely alone. They have lost everything: their loved ones, their home, and their sense of security. 😢💔

Now, they are living in a tent, struggling daily with no fresh water and barely any food. To make matters worse, Mohammed’s brother is still missing. Their situation is critical and time is running out. 🚨

Mohammed is trying to escape to safety in Egypt, but the cost is staggering: $5,000 per person. Without these funds, their chance to flee their nightmare is slipping away. 😔💔

Here’s how you can make a REAL difference:

Donate: Every dollar counts. Your contribution can help cover the crossing fees and offer Mohammed and his family a glimmer of hope for a safer future. 🌟💪

Share: Spread their story. The more people who hear this, the closer we get to our goal. Your voice matters! 📢💬

Offer Support: If you have any resources, connections, or ideas to help, don’t hesitate to reach out. Every bit of assistance can change their lives. 🤝💖

Please, don't let this opportunity to help slip away. Their lives depend on our collective action. Your support can mean everything to them in this critical time.

gofundme.com

Donate to help me save my family from the war on Gaza, organized by mohammad alwadyeh

My name is Mohammed Alwadiya. I’m a math teacher, I have a doctorate deg… mohammad alwadyeh needs your support for help me save my family fr

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kindness and support. Together, we can make a life-saving difference. 🙏✨

This a call for help.

My partner and I both have a very hard time asking for help but we are in a situation now where we cannot go without it and we don’t have family we can rely on or turn to for help.

We are currently in danger of not being able to afford our food and our home.

I know many other people are in similar situations but if you can’t help by donating, please pass this along. 💕

About a year ago my partner sprained their ankle on the job and was not reimbursed for missed hours. They are still paying off the medical bills as am I. Because of this, my sweetie and I had to move in with some dear friends into, well- -basically an old college party house for the cheap. I love our roommates but our paychecks don’t align and the heat is currently shut off and it’s starting to get cold.

I was recently let go from a steady (read: insurance included)- but god awful- job for bringing up the need for diversity training in the workplace as well as equal treatment. They gathered up other reasons so they didn’t have to say this was the actual reason.

We are both freelance artists and between our art and side gigs the money doesn’t always add up- even though we each have more than three jobs. It’s very difficult to find jobs that are fair to non binary queers (my partner and I) and to poc (myself) where we live. The town is so focused on who you knooow. So much so that I recently had to start a group for queer and/or trans people of colour in town to build a community.

We finally found a new place to rent together that is reasonable for us and our two cute kitties. They raised the rent from what they originally quoted us after we applied and then neglected to mention a $500 pet fee until after receiving our deposit and days before our move. In the area we live, there is no way to find a less expensive place because of severe gentrification across the city and we have already given notice that we are moving out.  

To add to the worries, my car has stopped working properly and it isn’t in drivable condition. So not only are we down to one car (whilst we each have three separate jobs) but we have to find a way to replace the other car before winter.

We have very little time to work this all out and even less due to constant working and awful doubles.

Please help us and our kitties stay afloat through this transition. Even $10 helps sooo much. My talented partner has offered to draw a rendering of your profile picture or other portraits if you donate $15 or more. Send it through Venmo and then send me a message that reads something like, “Draw me like one of your French girls”.  With the name you use on Venmo.

We appreciate your support and love so much.

Queerly Yours,

B+B 💚

PayPal: paypal.me/blissss

Venmo: https://venmo.com/code?user_id=1935080268234752934