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Saj Issa for Art & Ecology
Saj Issa is a Palestinian-American visual artist based in North America. Her work spans across a variety of mediums including painting, performance, and sculpture. At this point of her practice, her work is anti-nationalist and anti-flag, with a larger scope focused on the land and the people instead of a government entity within art activism.
PSA-STL is a public art project that features text installations throughout St. Louis. Issa is the current artist presenting her banner install last month.
The banners say, “What Garden will you assemble when the walls are torn down?”. She uses this prompt as a metaphorical question, to have the audience think about who their community will be when we no longer have imperialist structures looming over us.
Since the start of the genocide, Issa has been making a single poppy painting a day, spending five minutes on each one. (Early in the war, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the U.N. said that a Palestinian child is killed every five minutes in Gaza. On the backs of these paintings is written, “Return to Saj. Return to Palestine”. She believes that “whether they be Palestinians in the diaspora or fellow Palestinian activists who have never been, it’s everyone’s right to be able to visit.”
These paintings are distributed and held in marches since October. Saj specifically intends to focus on language like anti-war within her work and spaces her work is in, because she feels that Western media and society tends to shift the focus of the larger issue at hand: ecocide and genocide. Ecocide is the destruction of a land and ecosystems.
Issa’s collection of Poppy Paintings will be on display at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in September on a reworked larger scale.
“The acts of war associated with Ecocide also include the use of arms of mass destruction (nuclear, biological or chemical), attempts to provoke natural disasters (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or floods), the military use of defoliants and explosives, the leveling of forests, attempts at climate modification and the forced, permanent displacement of species for military objectives.” — Nathalie de Pompignan, 2007
The Palestinian plight is not only the genocide of the people but also the ecocide of the land, and not exclusively for Palestinians but all lands that are war torn. The genocide has included a systemic destruction of Palestine’s ecology and agricultural landscape, to prevent abundant life from existing there. Over 40% of the agricultural land previously used for food production and a third of the region’s greenhouses have been intentionally destroyed.
What does anti-nationalism mean?
Anti-nationalism is the opposition to nationalism or to the interests of a specific nation. Are you loyal to a government entity or are you loyal to humanity?
Why are you anti-flag?
“Flags tend to hold a lot of history of politics and bureaucracy that many people don’t always agree with. So if they want to distance themselves from the conflicts that a specific government has inflicted, it’s important to find ways to unite a people apart from the imperialist structure. Flags are so quick to create division amongst people, in my experience of showing up to demonstrations, it was beautiful to witness the variety of things people were able to identify with and still stand 10 toes down next to each other. I believe it doesn’t require a flag to do so.”
What symbolizes Falasteen to you outside of the flag?
My ancestors, the fertile land, aromatic jasmines, the seductive bougainvilleas that spread over railings and fences. Any and all of its beauty that emboldens nostalgia and purity.
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"article":
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"title" : "Saj Issa for Art & Ecology",
"author" : "Saj Issa, Yassa Almokhamad-Sarkisian",
"category" : "interviews",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/saj-issa-art-ecology",
"date" : "2024-07-02 14:59:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/FXT58969_Palestine-Saj-Issa.jpg",
"excerpt" : "",
"content" : "Saj Issa is a Palestinian-American visual artist based in North America. Her work spans across a variety of mediums including painting, performance, and sculpture. At this point of her practice, her work is anti-nationalist and anti-flag, with a larger scope focused on the land and the people instead of a government entity within art activism.PSA-STL is a public art project that features text installations throughout St. Louis. Issa is the current artist presenting her banner install last month.The banners say, “What Garden will you assemble when the walls are torn down?”. She uses this prompt as a metaphorical question, to have the audience think about who their community will be when we no longer have imperialist structures looming over us.Since the start of the genocide, Issa has been making a single poppy painting a day, spending five minutes on each one. (Early in the war, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the U.N. said that a Palestinian child is killed every five minutes in Gaza. On the backs of these paintings is written, “Return to Saj. Return to Palestine”. She believes that “whether they be Palestinians in the diaspora or fellow Palestinian activists who have never been, it’s everyone’s right to be able to visit.”These paintings are distributed and held in marches since October. Saj specifically intends to focus on language like anti-war within her work and spaces her work is in, because she feels that Western media and society tends to shift the focus of the larger issue at hand: ecocide and genocide. Ecocide is the destruction of a land and ecosystems.Issa’s collection of Poppy Paintings will be on display at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in September on a reworked larger scale.“The acts of war associated with Ecocide also include the use of arms of mass destruction (nuclear, biological or chemical), attempts to provoke natural disasters (volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or floods), the military use of defoliants and explosives, the leveling of forests, attempts at climate modification and the forced, permanent displacement of species for military objectives.” — Nathalie de Pompignan, 2007The Palestinian plight is not only the genocide of the people but also the ecocide of the land, and not exclusively for Palestinians but all lands that are war torn. The genocide has included a systemic destruction of Palestine’s ecology and agricultural landscape, to prevent abundant life from existing there. Over 40% of the agricultural land previously used for food production and a third of the region’s greenhouses have been intentionally destroyed.What does anti-nationalism mean?Anti-nationalism is the opposition to nationalism or to the interests of a specific nation. Are you loyal to a government entity or are you loyal to humanity?Why are you anti-flag?“Flags tend to hold a lot of history of politics and bureaucracy that many people don’t always agree with. So if they want to distance themselves from the conflicts that a specific government has inflicted, it’s important to find ways to unite a people apart from the imperialist structure. Flags are so quick to create division amongst people, in my experience of showing up to demonstrations, it was beautiful to witness the variety of things people were able to identify with and still stand 10 toes down next to each other. I believe it doesn’t require a flag to do so.”What symbolizes Falasteen to you outside of the flag?My ancestors, the fertile land, aromatic jasmines, the seductive bougainvilleas that spread over railings and fences. Any and all of its beauty that emboldens nostalgia and purity."
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{
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"author" : "Collis Browne",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/100-years-of-genocidal-intent",
"date" : "2025-10-07 18:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/1920-jerusalem.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:",
"content" : "Every single Israeli prime minister, president, and major Zionist leader has voiced clear intent to erase the Palestinian people from their lands, either by forced expulsion, or military violence. From Herzl and Chaim Weizmann to Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu, the record is not ambiguous:{% for person in site.data.genocidalquotes %}{{ person.name }}{% if person.title %}<p class=\"title-xs\">{{ person.title }}</p>{% endif %}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}"
}
,
{
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"author" : "Cheb Gado",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/dignity-before-stadiums",
"date" : "2025-10-02 09:08:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Morocco_GenZ.jpg",
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"content" : "No one expected a generation raised on smartphones and TikTok clips to ignite a spark of protest shaking Morocco’s streets. But Gen Z, the children of the internet and speed, have stepped forward to write a new chapter in the history of uprisings, in their own style.The wave of anger began with everyday struggles that cut deep into young people’s lives: soaring prices, lack of social justice, and the silencing of their voices in politics. They didn’t need traditional leaders or party manifestos; the movement was born out of a single hashtag that spread like wildfire, transforming individual frustration into collective momentum.One of the sharpest contradictions fueling the protests was the billions poured into World Cup-related preparations, while ordinary citizens remained marginalized when it came to healthcare and education.This awareness quickly turned into chants and slogans echoing through the streets: “Dignity begins with schools and hospitals, not with putting on a show for the world.”What set this movement apart was not only its presence on the streets, but also the way it reinvented protest itself:Live filming: Phone cameras revealed events moment by moment, exposing abuses instantly.Memes and satire: A powerful weapon to dismantle authority’s aura, turning complex political discourse into viral, shareable content.Decentralized networks: No leader, no party, just small, fast-moving groups connected online, able to appear and disappear with agility.This generation doesn’t believe in grand speeches or delayed promises. They demand change here and now. Moving seamlessly between the physical and digital realms, they turn the street into a stage of revolt, and Instagram Live into an alternative media outlet.What’s happening in Morocco strongly recalls the Arab Spring of 2011, when young people flooded the streets with the same passion and spontaneity, armed only with belief in their power to spark change. But Gen Z added their own twist, digital tools, meme culture, and the pace of a hyper-connected world.Morocco’s Gen Z uprising is not just another protest, but a living experiment in how a digital generation can redefine politics itself. The spark may fade, but the mark it leaves on young people’s collective consciousness cannot be erased.Photo credits: Mosa’ab Elshamy, Zacaria Garcia, Abdel Majid Bizouat, Marouane Beslem"
}
,
{
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"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/a-shutdown-exposes-how-fragile-us-governance-really-is",
"date" : "2025-10-01 22:13:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Cover_Gov_ShutDown.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.",
"content" : "Each time the federal government shutters its doors, we hear the same reassurances: essential services will continue, Social Security checks will still arrive, planes won’t fall from the sky. This isn’t the first Governmental shutdown, they’ve happened 22 times since 1976, and their toll is real.Shutdowns don’t mean the government stops functioning. They mean millions of federal workers are asked to keep the system running without pay. Air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, food inspectors — people whose jobs underpin both public safety and economic life — are told their labor matters, but their livelihoods don’t. People have to pay the price of bad bureaucracy in the world’s most powerful country, if governance is stalled, workers must pay with their salaries and their groceries.In 1995 and 1996, clashes between President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich triggered two shutdowns totaling 27 days. In 2013, a 16-day standoff over the Affordable Care Act furloughed 850,000 workers. And in 2018–2019, the longest shutdown in U.S. history stretched 35 days, as President Trump refused to reopen the government without funding for a border wall. That impasse left 800,000 federal employees without paychecks and cost the U.S. economy an estimated $11 billion — $3 billion of it permanently lost.More troubling is what happens when crises strike during shutdowns. The United States is living in an age of accelerating climate disasters: historic floods in Vermont, wildfire smoke choking New York, hurricanes pounding Florida. These emergencies do not pause while Congress fights over budgets. Yet a shutdown means furloughed NOAA meteorologists, suspended EPA enforcement, and delayed FEMA programs. In the most climate-vulnerable decade of our lifetimes, we are choosing paralysis over preparedness.This vulnerability didn’t emerge overnight. For decades, the American state has been hollowed out under the logic of austerity and privatization, while military spending has remained sacrosanct. That imbalance is why budgets collapse under the weight of endless resources for war abroad, too few for resilience at home.Shutdowns send a dangerous message. They normalize instability. They tell workers they are disposable. They make clear that in our system, climate resilience and public health aren’t pillars of our democracy but rather insignificant in the face of power and greed. And each time the government closes, it becomes easier to imagine a future where this isn’t the exception but the rule.The United States cannot afford to keep running on shutdown politics. The climate crisis, economic inequality, and the challenges of sustaining democracy itself demand continuity, not collapse. We need a politics that treats stability and resilience not as partisan victories, but as basic commitments to one another. Otherwise, the real shutdown isn’t just of the government — it’s of democracy itself."
}
]
}
