Photo by Ahmed Abu Hameeda on Unsplash In the long history of Palestine, there was a time when the resistance was not shaped by guns but by pens, ideas, and voices. Some poets, writers, diplomats, and intellectuals gave the Palestinian struggle for freedom its cultural strength and political vision. They wrote words so that the whole world could feel the pain of a Palestinian and understand what it is like to be in an occupied land. In the 1970s, Israel systematically targeted and assassinated several of these intellectuals. The aim was to silence the brains of resistance and leave the movement without its most powerful voices. Five of the most prominent among them were Wael Zwaiter, Ghassan Kanafani, Kamal Nasser, Ezzedine Kalak, and Naim Khader. Each was killed far from the land they belonged to, yet each left a legacy that no bullet or bomb could erase. Let’s talk about these freedom fighters. 1. Ghassan Kanafani — Ghassan Kanafani via Palestine Po...
When we talk about genocides, we mostly talk about the Rwandan, Cambodian, or Bosnian genocide. But the case of Timor-Leste is lost and forgotten. One of the horrific crimes of the 20th century happened in Timor-Leste by the dictator Suharto and the Indonesian occupation of the small island country of Timor-Leste. Buried in the Cold War archives, the East Timor Massacre's blood-soaked chapter rarely makes it to global headlines. This is a tragic tale of colonial hangovers, military occupation, and shameless complicity by Western powers. A Colonial Legacy: From Portugal to Indonesia — The island of Timor was divided into two parts in the 16th century. Portugal took the eastern part, while the Dutch took the western part. After Indonesia gained independence from the Netherlands in 1949, the western part became a part of Indonesia, while the eastern part remained a neglected Portuguese colony till 1975. East Timor declared its independence on November 28, 1975, but it didn’t la...