I am not pro-Palestine or anti-Israel. This isn’t a football game between two equally-matched teams where you support your favourite. I am anti-genocide and Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
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.
“Palestinians are forbidden from gathering rain water for domestic or agricultural needs.”
– Third Periodic Report of Israel’s violations of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with regard to the human rights to water and sanitation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
“The most shocking thing about my time over there was how uncomplicated it actually is,” says Coates, who calls segregation in Palestine and Israel “evil.”
“There’s no way for me, as an African American, to come back and stand before you, to witness segregation and not say anything…”
Coates acknowledges the suppression of those advocating for Palestinian rights … “I have to measure my fear against the misery that I saw.”
South African photographer who documented apartheid
“I did not want to leave the country to find another life. I was going to stay and fight with my camera as my gun. I did not want to kill anyone, though. I wanted to kill apartheid.”
On this day in 1980, the South African government banned Pink Floyd's single 'Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)' after Black children adopted the song as their anthem in protest against inferior education.
“They will move… they will move… The Arabs will move … if we don’t give them food, if we don’t give the Arabs anything, they will have to leave”
– Daniella Weiss at Gaza settlement conference in Israel when asked what will happen to the Arabs living in Gaza when the Israelis settle on their land.
Israel destroyed Gaza's oldest mosque built in 15th century.
#IDF is working hard to flatten out Gaza, erase it's history, make it uninhabitable and at the end getting rid of the Palestinians in the name of "right to defend itself" with the money, support and weapons of #US and it's allies in #NATO.
When Notre Dame was burned, the whole world was upset and made collections and support France to rebuild it.
Israel has in 2 months destroyed the 3rd oldest #church in the world and now the oldest #mosque in n #Gaza, all without a single condemnation by the "world leaders".
United Nations humanitarian chief: ‘Gaza is a carnage, worst crisis ever’
CNN's Christiane Amanpour (22 Nov): —How do you assess what's happening right now in terms of humanitarian needs in Gaza?
Martin Griffiths, United Nations' humanitarian agency chief (OCHA): —The worst ever, Christiane, and I don't say that lightly. I started off in my 20s dealing with the #KhmerRouge, and you remember how bad that was, the killing fields and so forth. But 68% of the people killed in Gaza are women and children. [...] It's complete and utter carnage.
He also says he has confidence in the numbers provided by Gaza's health ministry, because #UNRWA has been running relief institutions in #Gaza for decades.
GENTLE REQUEST
let's use #StudentSpring to mark the #BDS protests spreading across USA campuses. hopefully, like the Spring and Summer of 1968, these will gain momentum across the world.
for those new to BDS: it's the 1980s strategy used for successfully organizing citizens against #Apartheid:
Boycott
Divest
Sanction
Bishop Desmond Tutu compared #Israel's treatment of Palestinians as not just apartheid but the kind of humiliation that leads to #genocide.