People-Power-Planet, and the P-Word in Between

June 2026 Bulletin

There was a time when kids in USA couldn't say the F-word, and adults couldn't say the P-word. Palestine was off-limits at the dinner table, just like religion, politics, or admitting you still sleep with a stuffed animal. Except this silence cost people their homes.

Then the unthinkable happened. Cairo, 4 June 2009. Barack Obama, the U.S. president then, did something so radical he acknowledged "the pain of the Palestinian people" and promised a "new beginning". Revolutionary stuff. That "new beginning" has been under construction for 16 years; like a pizza that says "30 minutes" but shows up cold, and half-eaten the next day.

The bulletin called for submissions on "People, Power, Planet: Palestine Under Pressure." Accurate. Though "under pressure" is like saying a drowning person is "a little wet." 

Here's the thing: the P-words pile up because the pain piles up. Power denies People their Planet. Pressure keeps everything in crisis mode. It's a cycle.

So let's try this instead, for the sake of that dodgy word possibility (that most cynical P-word, introduced by presidents and buried by diplomats): People are the power of the planet. Peace for Palestine. Simple. Direct. Dangerous.

You know, some Arabs find it difficult to pronounce the P sound. It comes out a B. A dear friend used to help: for the B sound, close your lips while pronouncing the V. For the P sound, close your lips while pronouncing the F. That’s one less-frequented relation between the F and P; one you can feel on your lips before you even say it. The more-frequented relation, however, is the 3arabizi creative solution: Falestine and Falestinians.

The P-word is finally out of the closet and the mouths. Now let's see how long before they try to shove it back in.

We invite you to read the bulletin with closed lips, but open heart …

We invite you to read the bulletin with closed lips, but open heart …