Israel is setting up a complex system of checkpoints that will prevent men of “military age” from fleeing Rafah in preparation for its offensive on the southern Gaza border city, a senior western official familiar with Israel’s plans has told Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity. The checkpoints are designed to allow some women and children to leave Rafah ahead of an expected Israeli offensive, but unarmed, civilian Palestinian men will likely be separated from their families and remain trapped in Rafah during an expected Israeli assault. The previously unreported disclosure of Israel’s construction of a ring of checkpoints around Rafah underscores how Israel is pushing ahead with plans to attack the city where over one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in tents and makeshift camps. The creation of gender-based checkpoints around Rafah would put a spotlight back on Israel’s practice of stripping and forcibly detaining male Palestinian men and children, as it faces rising scrutiny in the West of its conduct in the war. The rounding up of Palestinian males in Gaza and photographing them stripped to their underwear drew condemnation in December, with the US calling the images “deeply disturbing”. Relatives of many of the men photographed recognised them and said they had nothing to do with Hamas. Israel's military was later accused of staging footage of men surrounding weapons. “Israel considers every male a Hamas fighter until proven otherwise,” Abbas Dahouk, a former senior military advisor at the State Department and military attache in the Middle East told Middle East Eye. “It’s not a sound move. Cordoning Rafah is a daunting task and good luck separating fathers and sons from their families.”

hi hello this is your reminder that google are hypocrites(and bds)

the lay offs were on the 18th this month, pretending to celebrate a native culture as you help the military that is actively ethnically cleansing them, and has been for years, is highly hypocritical and just an attempt to save face

in case someone forgot, google is on BDS' "pressure" list, which means it isn't necessary a 100% boycott but rather a target for pressuring and limiting your use of their services to push them towards cutting ties with israel

additional context on dabka:

it is a folk dance from levantine countries like lebanon, jordan, syria, and palestine. with possible origins in ancient phoenician and/or canaanite cultures

Free Palestine stencil seen in Denver, Colorado

when doctors ask if i have any history of cancer in my family and i have to say that yes my grandmother had 2 types of gastrointestinal cancer and they're like oh wow okay so we'll keep an eye out for that but i'm like no it was probably just all the nuclear radiation and they're like ok hm ok what the fuck do you mean and it's very weird seeing the look on american doctors' faces when you have to explain to them that believe it or not atomic bombs were dropped on this earth 2 generations ago and it did have consequences

"We'll be back to rebuild it" Gaza, 2024

🚨EMERGENCY! PLEASE READ!🚨

Moataz @moatazart, Mariam, and baby Maria are set to make the dangerous journey from Gaza City in the north to Rafah in the south. From there, God willing, they will enter Egypt.

HOWEVER, the money they had allocated to procure shelter and food while in Egypt was utterly depleted by exploitative fees and hidden costs, which we break down in this post. Moataz speaks more on the situation in this post and on his own blog @moatazart, which we ask people to follow and boost. They have a fund going to raise the remaining money, but the fund only has a week and a half left before it closes! They are not even halfway to their goal!

Please share what you can with Moataz’s family so they can find safety and security in Egypt! They have no one in Egypt with whom they can stay and currently nowhere near enough money to secure shelter! After all they have survived, please don’t let this young family be left vulnerable! If they cannot procure food and shelter, they will be extremely vulnerable not only to the dangers of homelessness, but to groups and individuals who prey on refugees!

Safety for Gazan refugees does not end with leaving Gaza! If this campaign is not finished in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS, they will be homeless in Egypt! They are so close to a fresh start, please don’t let all the risks they are taking to find safety be for nothing!

Wild how I’ve been saying this since day 1 and have been called an anti-Semite, a terrorist, and been scolded for “blaming a people for their government’s actions.”

The situation of the Congo Genocide is complicated because we are all implicated in it. We can’t ascribe it to a foreign policy state interest as we can regarding Palestine. It is something we, as consumers, all have a hand in and given the ubiquity of the resources involved, a lot of us are caught off of guard by this premonition of the type of wars to come. This is that nasty intersection of neo-colonialism and hyper capitalism that pits the Global South against the Global North. It’s a war of sustaining a way of life means imposing slavery and genocide on others. This is an instance of global capitalism and hyper consumption as a lifestyle and convenience is being pitted against the humanity of those we deem expendable.

companies are delusional if they think consumers don't notice shrinkflation. less food in the package, less medicine in the jar, less whatever in the wherever, it doesn't matter where and it's almost always noticeable. like i just finished one box of medicine and we opened another allegedly identical one that we just bought and lo and behold, the four middle medicine segments were gone from the package. they took out four pills from the same sized box and sold it at the same price without any indication on the box other than the small number in the corner. ridiculous

They’re finally putting it in the news!!