I am begging you all once more to understand - the point of bringing up the decades long and systematic abuse, apartheid, and Occupation by the Israeli government of Palestinians ISN'T to "excuse" Hamas. It's to point out that it will be IMPOSSIBLE to build a lasting peace even IF Hamas is removed, as long the deliberate and ongoing IDF and Occupation violence continues.
Israel just bombed a tent city full of #refugees who fled North #Gaza for #Rafah on the #IDF's orders.
Horrifying photos show families frantically rummaging through the carnage for the limbs of their family members. I won't reproduce them here, but they can be found on the bird site from @gazanotifications
They are murdering poor people trapped in a concentration camp, in the places they were told to flee for safety. They are killing impoverished, innocent, starving Palestinians, mostly under 30, with nowhere else to go.
This brutality is unparalleled in my lifetime. All studies show that Israel is in a class of its own, outdoing the Dresden bombings by a landslide. Saying this is not antisemitic: it is your duty, whoever you are.
I am #Jewish: spiritually, scholarly, and Litvak Ashkenazi. It's not antisemitic for me, OR ANY NON-JEW to say. In fact, its every human's duty to call for this bloodshed to cease IMMEDIATELY, and to even call for this genocidal Zionist occupation to be dismantled before there is any more blood shed. Nothing keeps my heart beating like my Arab and Muslim comrades speaking out against this barabarism every day. All while facing the harshest consequences of anyone! This ugliness would quite literally drive me to kill myself if I didn't know so many people who are so brave.
I have been doing activism in Palestine since 2012, both boots-on-the-ground defense of protestors, and teaching programming. These are not antisemites; my Palestinian friends are as close to me as any others. And I have had 6 students murdered in Gaza in 120 days. All the others are starving, fleeing from tent city to tent city, trying to survive the most hellish circumstances of drone democide any people have ever witnessed in the history of humanity. Thats a simple fact now.
If you are a goy and claim to support this in our name, WE WILL REMEMBER. The vast majority of #Jews outside of Israel who are under 40 years old are anti-Zionists today. All the fastest growing Jewish organizations of the past decade are anti-Zionist. And we will not forget those who cheered on a 21st century #Holocaust while evoking the memory of our family members killed by Nazi #Germany. Especially not the #Germans, who have been by far the worst inciters and supporters of genocide outside of #Israel.
"Understanding #Hamas and #Hezbollah as social movements that are #progressive, that are on the left, that are part of a global left, is extremely important. That does not stop us from being critical of certain dimensions of both movements."
There is a mass, international, peaceful movement to end the violence in #Palestine, with both Palestinians and Jews at the forefront, one that everyone who wants peace should support unwavering. Its the movement to Boycott, Divest from, and Sanction #Israel until they adhere to international law by granting Palestinians their full rights including following through on Resolution 194, which they agreed to as a condition for gaining recognition by the UN. Until Israel has to face consequences and international pressure for the crime of apartheid, the only recourse that Palestinians will have at their disposal is violence. They have no government, no passports, no real hospitals, no genuine representation, no course of action that could produce change available to them.
Unfortunately, #BDS is illegal in 12 US states, including NY, which I called home until it became illegal for any non-profit that receives US grants to hire me, and I used to make a living as a media artist, very much reliant on such orgs. My earnings have been cut in half of what they were before, as have most of my comrades who participated in the International Solidarity Movement from the start. Those laws aren't merely symbolic, they are aimed to destroy anyone who attempts to chart a path towards sustained peace, truth and reconciliation.
On the left is an image of the destruction wrought on #Gaza, on the right is the grisliest photo of #Mariupol I could find from Ukraine.
Both are results of sadistic violence. #Ukraine was attacked by the Russian Military, a completely merciless and well equipped army, and it is notable that the Ukrainian side, too had billions of dollars in funding and modern artillery. Fighting had been ongoing for several weeks before they reached this point. There is no doubt that war crimes were committed.
The image on the left is noticeably different because the buildings have, for the most part, been reduced to dust, an #extermination mission that seeks to leave no trace of the victims. This was after #Hamas's first significant offensive in over a decade. Hamas has little funding, no advanced weapons capability, or anything. They are a guerilla government in an enclave that they are trapped in, with no control over their lives, living in conditions of unspeakable poverty and suffering.
If you fully support Ukrainians but you don't express horror at the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian, then you need to be honest that you are a modern, liberal white supremacist.
met my bestie when we were transfer undergrad students at #NYU trying to navigate a new city and new culture as twenty-something n00bs.
they called to discuss the #StudentProtests. they don't use social media and still depend on legacy media.
they said you would not know these protests were organized with the blessing of Jewish Voices for Peace and in solidarity with Jewish student organizations. she doesn't recall seeing anything about Seders on campus protests. 🧵
"It is now 24 hours since Israel invaded al-Shifa hospital. No sprawling Hamas command-and-control center. No arms caches in the tunnels. No secret passageways. No nothing except: DEAD BABIS IN INCUBATORS WITHOUT FUEL."
-- Norman Finkelstein
#antisemitism vs #apartheid "The academic world is rising up against us": Hidden boycott threatens Israeli scientific research
Last week, a Zoom meeting was held with senior members of Israel's academia and young researchers. The senior academics expressed concern about what is happening and conveyed a sense of emergency. The President of the University of Haifa, Prof. Ron Rubin, recounted in a conversation that he visited the US during the war and felt manifestations of antisemitism "seeping into places where they have never been before. There is a hostile attitude towards Israelis even in places like medical schools. It is terrifying to the nth degree. In the past, the problem was focused on faculties for the humanities and social sciences, but the phenomenon is spreading to additional fields."
The missing word in this article must be #aprtheid... I do see #BDS and antisemitism mentioned, many times, but not a word about the fact the USA and European boycott of Israeli academia is a refusal to cooperate with a perceived apartheid regime.
'The US company said the restaurants, operations and employees would be retained "on equivalent terms" and that it remained "committed to the Israeli market".'
"There is a difference between applying consistent ethical principles and legitimate criticism of foreign governments and what some have tried to do, by targeting just one individual state - for example the world's only Jewish state - or worse, to use the cover of these issues to whip up prejudice or discrimination. This is completely wrong."
Angela Rayner in Parliament yesterday, speaking about BDS during the Anti-Boycott Bill.
FUCK HER AND FUCK LABOUR. #UKPolitics#StopBombingGaza#BDS
I've seen some people suggest that it's out of touch or naive for Americans to call for a #ceasefire and shows we aren't listening to people in the Middle East. But these calls for ceasefire resolutions are coming directly from the real, thriving Palestinian community of #Texas, even in the face of violence.
I wonder if people said the same thing about the calls to boycott apartheid South Africa? I definitely see it with modern #BDS, even though that movement stems directly from a Palestinian call-to-action.
Here's a more detailed list of brands and companies supporting Israel. I can't believe the Body Shop is on there. Anita Roddick must be turning in her grave.
Al-Jazeera's special investigation into the bombing of #Ahli hospital in #Gaza debunks every argument I've heard from the US/Israeli side. Its clear: #Israel committed the horrific war crime of reducing one of Gaza's few hospitals to rubble. Thousands will continue to die due to this attack, and each attack from here will produce greater casualties due to the extremely limited medical capacities of Gaza, which hardly has water, mostly no electricity, and cell phone access has been cut and is currently only accessible via radio techniques. The US is entirely complicit and is encouraging this criminiality by sending Marines and billions of dollars in money and weapons to Israel.
This following is excerpted from a piece by Isaac Scher that appeared in the Jewish Currents newsletter in April, 2022, titled "The End of Nonviolent Resistance":
Many companies are complicit in Israel’s genocidal war against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. All peaceful popular efforts, including boycott and divestment, to hold these entities accountable for their support of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians are justified. #BDS
Wie radikal sind Palästinenser-Gruppen in Deutschland?
Mehrere palästinensische Vereinigungen rücken ins Visier deutscher Sicherheitsbehörden. Welche gibt es, wie gefährlich sind sie, und wie will die Regierung mit ihnen umgehen? Ein Überblick. Von M. Götschenberg und H. Schmidt.