// Palestine Sunbird - Tumblr Posts

Today's Fat Bird Friday, I wanted to honour the Palestine Sunbird (Cinnyris osea).

In 2015, the 'orange-tufted sunbird' was declared a Palestinian national bird after Israeli authorities tried to change its name in their efforts to erase Palestinian identity. [x] [x]

Not to be confused with the Cinnyris bouvieri, who shares the same name, 'orange-tufted sunbird'. This is the accurate, correct bird for this stamp, apologies for the major error.

I drew a stamp of Palestine Sunbird hanging on an olive branch, (olive trees representative of Palestine), top right signifying the 75th anniversary of Nakba, and last but not least, the quote at the top right corner: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is the hope in Palestine being free one day.

Let your voice be heard and write to your representatives, or send a pre-written message! (Link available for Canada, USA, Australia, and the UK)

Also for Canadian folks: there is a Parliament of Canada petition. Expires by Nov 23rd, 2023.

Time-lapse below:

Also, normally reserve the time-lapse for Patreon members, but I feel like it's not the move to monetize this. So here is the time-lapse from CSP (the last touches were done on Photoshop, which is why it wasn't recorded).

© Harlen Chen

The Palestinian sunbird, symbol of freedom and resilience.

We must keep fighting for a FREE PALESTINE. We won't stop fighting until PALESTINE IS FREE.

How can we help 😔

Gaza Funds

Donate if you can. Spread this if you can't. Direct support to these families is the best thing we can do right now.

"Resistance"

2023

It has been a maddening, miserable three months.

When last I posted about Palestine, the death toll in Gaza had just about leveled with the dead count in Israel. Some people may have called that justice; an eye for an eye, and all. Yet as I knew would happen, as any person with sense knew would happen, the state of Israel has dropped any pretense of seeking justice and gone full force on a savage, genocidal campaign. I can't put into words how demoralizing it has been to watch a tragedy of this scope unfold in real time on our screens; how infuriating to witness people and institutions that profess loving diversity and human rights back openly and shamelessly a fascist ethnostate. The world, and more concretely the western world, has utterly set aside the lessons of the War on Terror and slid back into a miasma of Islamophobic hysteria and lust for blood.

I've lost count of all the times that the state of Israel and their enablers have lied. Zionist discourse around this topic is rife with misinformation, unconfirmed rumors, and just plain, willful dishonesty. I take hope in knowing that more and more people, all over the world but especially so in the Global South, are less and less willing to believe the propaganda. Zionists wouldn't be as hysterical as they are if they didn't feel their wall of lies was crumbling. Nevertheless, here are some of the facts:

- Israel is an ethnocratic, settler-colonial state. This is not me saying it; the ideologues and pioneers of Zionism themselves described their project as colonial. From the very beginning, their stated aims have been control and subjugation, not coexistence. Only in later decades, with colonialism taking a bad connotation, did Israel rebrand itself as some sort of indigenous rights movement (an idea that is too absurd for words). But early Zionists were remarkably honest about who they were and what they wanted. The facts on the ground now, with the actions and rhetoric surrounding Gaza and with the encroachment of illegal settlements on the West Bank, all but confirm Israel's colonial aspirations.

If you're unconvinced, consider this: people in the Global South, people who know all too well what colonialism looks like, are far more likely to sympathize with Palestine than with Israel. And who supports Israel, then? Former and current colonial powers. Does it seem at all likely that countries like the United States and Britain would ever back indigenous national aspirations? I think not.

- Israel enforces a system of apartheid against Palestinians under their control. Again, this isn't me saying it; Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and even Israeli human rights organizations like B'tselem have confirmed this and published reports about it. Google and read them for yourselves, by all means.

And if you're still unconvinced, consider this: black people in South Africa, including Nelson Mandela himself, have always sympathized with Palestine, and have also drawn parallels between the apartheid they lived through and what Israel does. Do you really think you have any moral or intellectual authority to tell those people that they don't know what they're talking about? Because you don't.

- Under international law, an occupied people has the right to resist their occupiers. An occupying entity however does not have the right of self defense against the people it occupies. You can say that killing civilians is not legitimate resistance. That's fine. But then I expect you to apply that same principle to Israel and their indiscriminate bombing of Gaza. I also expect you to ponder wether Hamas targeting only military personnel would have made any difference in how you feel about the attacks. I know for a fact that even when only their soldiers are attacked, Israeli reprisals have always been savage, disproportionate, and deadly.

And if you're one of those (deluded) people who insists there's no occupation, I will say only this: when this started, Israeli officials stated loud and clear their intent to cut all electricity, fuel, food and water to the Gaza Strip, and then did just so. What kind of country has that amount of power over another? An occupier, that's who.

- Hamas was founded in 1987, and came to power in 2006 with 44.45% of voter support. That makes 36 years since its founding, and 17 years governing Gaza (note: Gaza. They do not govern the West Bank). Given these facts, you cannot possibly claim that the problems in the region start and end with Hamas, and you also cannot claim that Gazans collectively are to blame for their own destruction, what with half the population on the Strip being underage and all. If you insist on this, then I expect you to apply that same reasoning to Israelis. Netanyahu is the longest serving prime minister in his country's history, and has repeatedly been voted into power despite mounting evidence of corruption and war-mongering. Israelis are also required to serve in the military, and there isn't really a big movement to end it (those few that do refuse the draft are hella brave, by the way, and heroes in my book). Still, the majority of Israelis are, have been, or will be a part of their country's war machine at some point in their lives. I'd say that makes their society complicit, at least much more so than Palestinians are. Would you say that a people who consistently vote for the same war-mongers and that stand unconditionally with their military deserve to be blown to smithereens? I mean...that's your argument, dears, not mine.

I would also note that Netanyahu himself was caught on mic admitting to have propped up Hamas to thwart any possibility of establishing a Palestinian state. So...make of that what you will. It isn't the first time a colonial power props up radical militants to undermine secular, more moderate groups.

- And while we're on the subject of reasonability and compromise: in their 2017 charter, Hamas states its willingness to compromise on a temporary two-state solution. In the past, they have suggested long-term truces in exchange of assurances. Hell, last month's temporary ceasefire shows that they are a party that can be reasoned and negotiated with. But compromise and negotiation are not in the interest of the Israeli State. Since the earliest beginnings of the Zionist movement, total control over the land of Palestine has been their ultimate goal. And that goal has often come at the expense not only of Palestinians, but of their own people as well, as recent events showcase perfectly.

I know many of you are only too willing to believe that Muslim militants have no motives other than hatred, and no tools other than wanton violence. But whatever they may be, whatever we may think of them, the truth is that Hamas has been the more flexible party. They have concrete political aims, some of which are not that unreasonable. If Israel and the West refuse outright to even consider any of their terms, then perhaps the world ought to reconsider who the rash, irrational party is in this scenario.

- On the subject of violence: that story of the forty beheaded babies was a ruse; as in, there's no evidence for it. None. But again, don't take my word for it! The IDF, the White House, mainstream media outlets and the Israeli press, all of which amplified and spread this rumor and none of which are particularly sympathetic to Palestinians, they all walked back on their claims. You might want to consider what made you so willing to believe this lie, and maybe why you continue to believe it even after the people who first told you about it have said it's not true. It isn't the first time the state of Israel has made wild claims with either insufficient or non-existent evidence to support them.

That's not all. Mounting evidence, published by the Israeli press no less, shows that at least some Israeli civilians were killed in the crossfire between the IDF and Hamas. Hell, there is also evidence, provided by survivors, that the IDF may have killed its own citizens deliberately in an effort to wipe out the Hamas militants that held them hostage. The Israeli government have also revised their casualty numbers from 1400 to less than 1200, and it wouldn't surprise me if that number were to get lower still.

Regardless of wether Hamas killed all those people or not, the truth is this: there are at least 21,822 people killed in Gaza. That's over eighteen times the total Israeli death count. 8,800 of those killed are children. That's more than two hundred times the number of fake beheaded babies. The death toll and displacement have reached historic proportions, surpassing even the Nakba of 1948. Yet by all accounts, no more Israeli civilians have been killed by Palestinian militants since the first days of the escalation, that is, unless any hostages in Gaza have been executed (though they have more likely been killed by the Israeli military itself, as has indeed been proven to be the case). It is Palestinians who are dying now, and who have been dying over these months, over this year, and over these decades. I don't want to see you shed crocodile tears over civilian deaths if the only time you bother to turn your attention to this conflict is when Israelis die. You have no business pointing fingers at me if you support Israel's colonial, genocidal enterprise. As for me, I know where I stand. I regret all civilian loss of life, but if I am made to choose between colonizer and colonized, between oppressor and oppressed, between the people who are busy making TikToks and the people who are busy dying, my choice will always be clear.  

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Free Palestine

In order to show my support for palestine, I thought I would make a post— in typical bird nerd fashion— highlighting some information about one of the many symbols of freedom for the palestinian people: the palestine sunbird.

you’ve seen this bird everywhere lately I’m sure,

so, you may be wondering.. why is this bird so important?

In 2013, Israel campaigned to remove ‘palestine’ from the bird’s name. this failed, however, when the palestine wildlife society (PWS) petitioned to instead adopt it as palestine’s national bird as a direct defiance of the campaign.

in 2015, the palestine sunbird was officially declared the national bird of palestine.

the palestinian artist khaled jarrar designed a border control stamp featuring the sunbird with which he stamped passports as a cry for freedom.

more recently, khaled jarrar has also created these postal stamps for the same message— in defiance of israel’s efforts to erase palestine.

here you can find an incredible, short documentary detailing his work across the years to use his art as a protest against the plight of the palestinian people.

another palestinian artist, rasha eleyan, uses the sunbird in her work as a motif for the strength and boldness of palestinian women:

(source)

the palestinian poet tamim al-barghouti has tied the palestine sunbird’s beauty to resilience, in saying: “whenever you face injustice or roughness, remember to defend yourself by finding beauty… document, prove, and defend it because all beauty is resistance.”

the palestine sunbird is a symbol of hope and strength. It’s a symbol of fighting back against the odds and refusal to go quietly into the night— refusal to be erased.

continue to support palestinian artists.

continue to support palestine.

raise the voices of those who now, more than ever, need to be heard.

from the river to the sea, palestine will be free.

palestine sunbird

e-sims for gaza | palestine children's relief fund | call/email your reps

orders for our fundraiser items also close tonight! (midnight EST)

preorder here

Palestine will be free in our lifetime 🇵🇸🍉🕊️ Don't look away, and let's keep supporting Palestine in any way we can.