I did a blackout book. The book that I used is specific to criminal constitutional law for the state of Texas. I use this book because one it was old and just lying around and I don’t like to ruin like actual books too. I use this book because I think that there is a sense of symbolism when talking about social issues and legality and how legality can like affect that and or how that legality only applies to certain groups of people. so I’ll start with the background. The background is very obviously a Palestinian flag. It’s a little faded and that’s kind of on purpose. I think that the flag is vague enough to the point where I don’t have to do much work otherwise in order to describe what’s happening within the poem and the flag is vegan up to the point where I don’t have to pinpoint a certain concept that the like book is etching out. The poem itself if you can call it, a poem is all Freeman or no man shall be disqualified. Every person shall be at liberty to speak right or publish opinions. The truth thereof may be given in evidence the people, their persons houses, papers and possessions supported by affirmation hell to answer for a criminal offense and punishment is imprisonment and war. I think that this poem opens up a lot of different arguments as to what this could mean I think one of the interpretations could be of how journalist and people who are documenting the Palestinian and genocide in Gaza are being written out of their own stories because the journals are being killed or because of a propaganda that Trump‘s But the truth is. I think that the part that says every person shall be at liberty to speak right or publish opinions. The truth shall therefore be given in evidence I think that this directly points out the disinformation that can come from both Israel in the United States or any other source that kind of negate what’s happening in Gaza or like genocide denial if I die because there is legitimate evidence of a genocide, and then the line directly after that is that the people, their possessions and their houses are all supported by affirmations I think that this key part about what it means to be supported by an affirmation is also what it means to be supported for the hope that there is a tomorrow for Palestinians, the sense of futurity that drives motive against settler, colonial estates like Israel and functions as a tool for anti-imperialism written large. A lot of in indigenous tribes in the United States kind of like territory all have some sort of idea of futurity in order to push past genocidal logic that works to alienate assimilate and kill natives. A good example of this is the Cherokee nation having the generational storytelling be passed down as like the seven generations I asked theory where Cherokee bodies are supposed to do what is best for them and what is best For the next seven generations in order to guarantee that the Cherokee nation lives on. The same logic has applied for Palestinians and Syrians for that matter with everything that’s going on in Syria right now with them being freed in the sense of futurity that they’ve locked onto and then how that’s still intact even though Israel has invaded Syria.. I think that the most openly interpreted line within this book can be the all men are all Freeman and no man shall be disqualified. I took this as something that like has to do with almost social death where you can be free and liberated in your own sense but also like you’re a nobody compared to like the oppressor like because there’s such a big death toll in Gaza and there’s nothing that’s really preventing that from happening if anything like the United States is fueling that more to where those lives don’t matter anymore and a lot of the world views the West Bank or Gaza in general as something that is already been dead something that is already like has no ontological nuance to it I think that by pointing out like this, dichotomy it points out the ontological position of the Palestinian or the Muslim, I think the next line of about disqualification can be interpreted to have a tie to what it means to be legitimate and like whether you’re qualified to do something or not a lot of people think that Palestine isn’t qualified as a nation because that Arabs are barbaric because Arabs Can’t have like a civil government on their own because all it does this lead to war, etc., which is why there is so much western influence not in its entirety, but a lot of western influence in the Middle East comes from feminizing the Middle East not letting the Middle East have access to certain weapons not letting the Middle East like Finn for themselves without a military invasion or Western influence to either make problems worse or to cause problems in the first place, so that’s why the first line is all Freeman or no man should be disqualified and that’s like the ontological standpoint of what it means to be Palestinian and then what it means to be qualified enough to be recognized as a state to be recognized as alive to be recognized as Liberated as free as happy. Lastly, I put a bunch of stickers on it and made it look more scrapbook. I think that the more that it looks like a scrapbook the more homemade it feels. I wanted this to be a key focus or something that like it catches your attention first because a lot of the documentation of what’s happening in Gaza is written in diaries. It’s written and like peoples notes apps on their phones it’s recorded and then Kind of pushed to the side of the Internet. We’re not a whole lot of people are seeing it and reference to how much they’re seeing US and Israel or Israeli propaganda of what’s happening and I think that this documentation is important from somebody who is actually in Gaza for somebody who is experiencing what it is like to be Palestinian right now and what it was like to be Palestinian 50 years ago that’s why I wanted to make it look like a scrapbook because the scrapbook implies it like kind of a first primary source the first person perspective of what it means to be Arab.