Posters for Palestine: Volume I
Pens, Brushes, and Swords
I have been boycotting brand after brand for nearly three months now. I’ve written emails to my representative and both senators in the US Congress. I’ve written blogs on Medium and Substack exploring and exposing the destructive beliefs of American evangelicalism which fuel American foreign policy and thus the oppression of the Palestinian people. I’ve liked and shared content on YouTube, Instagram, print news, and other social media to draw attention to this ongoing genocide.
But no one in power is listening. Our governments and Western media are largely complicit. Even though over 70% of the American people want a ceasefire, the US government is determined to send more weapons destined for the heads of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. The UN is hamstrung thanks to the United States’ ability to veto any resolution it wants in the Security Council aimed at aiding Gaza.
What else can we do in these supposed democracies? How many Palestinians, most of whom are women and children, have to be murdered by indiscriminate bombing campaigns or die in the midst of the desperate conditions they create before Western powers withdraw their unconditional support for the Israeli state? How long is the cowardice of the West going to continue?
In 1948, what had been known as Palestine for centuries was ripped apart by Western powers. Its history, people, culture, and land were all torn away. Relegated to refugee camps, occupied territories, and ghettos. (What is Gaza if not a ghetto?) Even though the Palestinian people have been separated from each other for the past 75 years — some as second-class Israeli citizens, others living under brutal occupation in both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as the diaspora spread across the rest of the world — their culture and history are still tied to the land situated between the river and the sea.
PALESTINIAN RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
There have been so many quotes and official statements from Israeli government and military officials equating Palestinians with non-human or sub-human entities. Humans are humans. No one is sub-human. Human rights are human rights because all human beings are equal. In theory if not yet in practice. The rights of Palestinians are the same rights as Israelis, Yemenis, Egyptians, Lebanese, French, Spanish, Americans, Canadians. Palestinian rights are human rights. Full stop.
Red, black, white, and green are the colors of the Palestinian flag. There are several theories as to the symbolism behind their flag, but there were two that stood out to me as the most significant. The first is the meaning of the colors.
Red for the thousands of Palestinians who have died over the past 75 years of occupation.
Black for the oppression they continue to suffer.
White for the hope of future peace.
And green for both Islam and the olive tree. Not only is the olive tree another symbol of peace, but the indigenous people of Palestine have farmed olives for thousands of years. It is part of their history, culture, economy, and way of life.
The other possible meaning I came across is that the flag represents the three major Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Three faiths joined together under one flag in the Holy Land. Whatever its meaning(s), these hopes for the future extend from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea.
These posters are FREE. You can send me an optional €1 through my Gumroad shop or join my Patreon if you want, but please do not feel like it’s necessary. Download them for free. Print them. Post them. Share them.
