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embryhallowed · 8 months

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People get real mad when you point out that they don't actually have morals or core beliefs they follow in spite of current social opinion.

"You've abandoned the ideals of leftism if you say Israel is 'occupying' Palestine."

Ok. Hey, what do you call it when a country sends military forces outside of its border to remove, with deadly force, the people who have lived in this region for millennia? What do you call it when they send military forces who massacre civilians, burn villages to the ground, and depopulate cities to make room for new colonial settlers? What's the word for it when you go to a land, violently remove the people living there, and then say it's your land and only your people can live there? What do you call it when that country puts any remaining indigenous people behind a fence and have armed soldiers patrol their neighborhoods? When they detain those people without trial for years on end with no legal representation? Hmmm what's the word for that?

How do YOU define a military occupation? How do YOU define colonial violence and ethnic cleansing?

"You're anti-semitic and just hate Israel!"

Ok. I mean, I believe that everyone on this planet, every person of any ethnicity and any religion, has the right to exist in peace and safety, has the right to be governed through representation, has the right to observe their faith without harm or persecution. This applies to any and all people.

I also believe that making laws that discriminate against anyone for their religion or ethnicity is wholly and entirely wrong. I believe states who privilege certain religions and ethnicities above others, who enshrine this privilege into the law of the land, are wrong. I believe that states who deny a group of people the right to be governed through representation are wrong. Wholly and entirely wrong.

Jewish people have every right to exist and practice their faith in peace and safety. NO ONE has the right to say "hey guys I'm going to take this already populated land away from the people already living there and make a new state where all the people who look and think like me have all the rights and anyone else doesn't belong here."

Like IDK what you want me to say. Should I make exceptions to my morals? Say that it's ok because it's supposedly "gods chosen" or something? Claiming divine right to anything just tells me you're going to commit some huge sins against other humans and use God as a justification for it. I think that's obscene in multiple ways.

Being an American is wild. You'll see people cry about "kids in cages" and say "what about the children!!" but turn a blind eye to the decades in which Israel has casually slaughtered children.

You'll see people clutch their pearls about Ukraine, then cheer and say "glass Gaza!"

You'll see people proudly claim "liberty and justice for all" and then be absolute bloodthirsty ghouls calling for the extermination of Palestinian people.

Have you ever considered gaining some fucking morals?

Wild.

#sorry to the folks who followed me for the mass effect stuff #i will continue to be really annoying about Palestine for the foreseeable future #the people of Palestine deserve freedom and peace and JUSTICE #Israel has oppressed them for 70+ years #Israel was the aggressor who drove them off their lands #Israel has controlled their food and water and medicine #WHERE did Israel become the victim here??#WHEN did Israel become the victim to the people they've kept in an open air prison??#unfollow me if you want #I'm not going to shut up about it #free Palestine #end occupation #FREE PALESTINE NOW #I'm sorry if it's annoying to you that i actually have morals and beliefs and shit #they gave me a titanium spine and i simply cannot waste it by supporting a violent colonial ethnostate

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kingofmyborrowedheart · 7 months

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I’m sorry but you can’t cry “human rights violation!!!!” when you are actively carrying out a campaign of genocide.

#sorry but it doesn’t work like that!#you can’t decry humans rights violations of a group that doesn’t even represent a majority of innocent people (by the way)…#…if you are actively carrying out a genocide under the thinly veiled guise of going after that group #Genocide which is y’know one of the greatest violations of human rights since it seeks to completely eradicate one group of people.#like there are innocent people being caught in the crosshairs on both sides #not everyone living in Israel or who is Jewish supports the Israel government’s bombings of Gaza #not every Palestinian supports Hamas or condones their brutal attacks on innocent civilians #but to try and conflate the actions of a militant group to represent the thinking of all of the citizens and be an excuse to destroy them…#…isn’t right and deserves to be held accountable #also stop acting like there is not a massive power imbalance present #Israel has the Iron Dome and their own military forces and funding from the U.S.#Hamas has missels and stock piled resources from funding from Iran #Israel controls the food water fuel and medicine access to those that have been forced to live in Gaza #they are not in any way shape or form on equal footing which doesn’t make this a ‘war’#I can’t wrap my head around the fact that one of the groups persecuted in one of the most horrifying genocides is currently conducting…#…a genocide on another group of people #the rhetoric of gov’t officials from Israel dehumanizing innocent civilians points to the fact that this isn’t about retribution #but to conduct a genocide #if you don’t think that the current actions of the Israeli government aren’t wrong and are supporting it you can unfollow and block me!#like it’s not black and white but the actions that are currently happening are not acceptable

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secular-jew · 7 months

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From one of my Danish friends who works for an NGO in Gaza:

HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS LIE ABOUT THE HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN GAZA

Every single day we hear from various humanitarian organizations that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic and that there is now only fuel, water or medicine for a day before the famous one diesel generator in Gaza stops, the lights go out and the sick can be treated due to a lack of medicines.

It must be remembered that these organizations have an interest in exaggerating and dramatizing the situation - to put it nicely. In fact, they often lie, and they must know that themselves, because they have their own representatives on site. One must also remember that there is no independent media in Gaza that could check the many exaggerations and lies. Hamas strictly controls what is published, and it is dangerous to question or correct Hamas' censors.

The Israeli defense has a special unit that deals professionally with the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The unit regularly receives information from international organizations that are represented in Gaza, and also builds on knowledge that is generally available. From this we see a more realistic picture of the conditions than what the humanitarian organizations provide:

There is NO shortage of food in Gaza, but sufficient stocks for several weeks' needs. As far as drinking water is concerned, Gaza is 90% self-sufficient. Only 10% comes from Israel through 3 water supply pipes. Israel has recently opened 2 more supply lines.

Hamas has full control over the distribution of medicine and hospital equipment and decides how much the hospitals will receive and when. (Hamas probably needs these things themselves now that they are suffering daily heavy losses given the targeted Israeli attacks on the terrorist organization's numerous military facilities)

Hamas' many rocket attacks against Israel, which continue, have destroyed several of their own electrical lines that supply electricity to Gaza from Israel - moreover, on a larger scale than the generator the media keeps talking about.

All hospitals in Gaza have their own solar powered electrical systems to supplement diesel generators. Other generators scattered across Gaza territory are controlled by Hamas, which also stores large quantities of diesel oil in the underground tunnels. Three weeks have passed since the hospital administrations in Gaza declared that they only had diesel fuel for the next 24 hours. But the hospitals continue to function because Hamas supplies them with fuel.

Hamas is interested in the hospitals functioning because Hamas has their military headquarters inside and under the hospitals, which they have thereby made part of the military infrastructure.

Red Cross employees in the Gaza Strip are from the Red Crescent, they are Palestinians, they protect Hamas. Their monthly salary comes from the organization.

The Red Cross in Denmark, for example, does not talk about the 239 Israeli hostages to which the Red Cross has not had access.

According to international rules/laws, the Red Cross must have access to the hostages, some of whom are babies and small children, others are young and elderly. The Red Cross does not talk about the lack of supervision of the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.

Wonder why?

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najia-cooks · 8 months

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[ID: A small glass bowl of a rust-colored dip; a granite mortar and pestle and a copper tajine are in the background. End ID]

طحينة الاحمر / Tahina al-hmr (Gazan red tahina)

Red tahina (tahini) is a variety of sesame paste originating in Gaza; it gives color and rich, nutty flavor to regional stews, salads, and dips. Red tahina is made with sesame seeds that have been roasted over direct heat to a rich golden brown—a lengthier process and one that produces a deeper, toastier flavor than the steaming or brief toasting that sesame seeds undergo to produce white tahina (طحينة بيضاء / tahina bayda').

This Palestinian speciality is disappearing in Gaza, as Israel has for decades issued punitive import laws controlling the movement of food, medicine, and other necessary supplies into Gaza and Palestinian occupied territory. Cheaper and more accessible white tahina, an import from Israel, is usually used—though the sesame seeds to create red tahina are sometimes smuggled into Gaza from Egypt. Home cooks may also toast Israeli white tahina with a little olive oil to recreate the taste of red tahina.

Today, Israel's total siege of Gaza continues as civilians run out of food, water, power, and medical supplies. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has put out an urgent call for donations to provide medical supplies to hospitals when supply lines reopen. Also contact your representatives in the USA, UK, and Canada.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white or red hulled sesame seeds (or 1 part hulled and 1 part unhulled)

2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (optional)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

The inclusion of toasted flour in red tahina is, according to some, an innovation. It is possibly intended as a thickener, or to stretch the tahina with a cheaper ingredient. It may be omitted with no injury.

Instructions:

1. In a large dry skillet or wok on medium-low heat, toast hulled sesame seeds, stirring constantly. The roasted sesame seeds should be darkly golden brown, with a few more darkly brown in color.

Sesame seeds of increasingly darker colors.

2. (Optional) Add flour and toast, stirring constantly, for another several minutes until it is lightly golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

3. Grind all sesame seeds and flour together in a blender or mortar and pestle. Add oil and continue to grind or blend until smooth.

#Palestinian #Gazan #sauces #tahina #tahini

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capybaracorn · 4 months

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Satellite photos show Egypt building Gaza buffer zone as Rafah push looms

Despite its opposition to displacement of Palestinians, Cairo appears to be preparing for a scenario forced by Israel.

A satellite image shows the construction of a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border near Rafah on February 15, 2024 [Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]

Egypt is building a fortified buffer zone near its border with the Gaza Strip as fears mount of an imminent Israeli ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, which could displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across the frontier, according to satellite images and media reports.

Footage from the site in the Sinai desert and satellite photos show that an area that could offer basic shelter to tens of thousands of Palestinians is being constructed with concrete walls being set up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, the only non-Israeli-controlled crossing to and from Gaza.

The new compound is part of contingency plans if large numbers of Palestinians manage to cross into Egypt and could accommodate more than 100,000 people, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing Egyptian officials.

It is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlements. Large numbers of tents have been delivered to the site, the report said.

Videos taken by the United Kingdom-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show trucks and bulldozers clearing debris from a plot of land of about 8sq miles (21sq km), according to The Washington Post, which obtained satellite images that show 2sq miles (5sq km) was cleared between February 6 and Wednesday.

Mohamed Abdelfadil Shousha, the governor of North Sinai, the Egyptian governorate that borders Gaza and Israel, has reportedly denied that Egypt is building a refugee camp along the border in case of an exodus by Palestinians forced by the Israeli military.

The Sinai Foundation, an activist organisation that has a monitoring team in northern Sinai, said in a report this week that the gated area will be surrounded by 7-metre-high (23ft-high) cement walls.

Israel has said it wants to take over the Philadelphi Corridor, the fortified border area between Gaza and Egypt, to secure it. Egypt has threatened that this would jeopardise the peace treaty the two countries signed four decades ago.

Cairo has emphasised that it does not want Palestinians to be displaced from their land by Israel, comparing such a scenario to the 1948 Nakba, the forced displacement of about 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in the war that led to Israel’s creation.

Tel Aviv’s insistence on going ahead with its planned attack on Rafah despite international pressure has been unshaken even though the area is where 1.4 million Palestinians are living, the vast majority of whom have been forcibly displaced – some multiple times – by Israeli bombardments and ground operations.

Palestinians displaced to Rafah are suffering from a lack of sufficient shelter, food, water and medicine, and the United Nations and human rights groups have warned that the humanitarian disaster in the besieged enclave is rapidly worsening.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the army to work on a plan of evacuation for more than half of the 2.3 million people of the Gaza Strip who are now crammed into Rafah, but has provided no detailed steps.

He has suggested Palestinians could be sent to areas north of Rafah that the Israeli military has already cleared through a ground invasion backed by bombings.

Avi Dichter, Israel’s minister of agriculture and rural development, has suggested areas west of Rafah and the bombed al-Mawasi refugee camp near the Mediterranean coast, where many are already sheltering.

A satellite image shows new construction and earth grading along the Egypt-Gaza border near Rafah on February 10, 2024 [Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters]

The United States and a number of other key allies of Israel have said they oppose a ground assault on Rafah, some warning it would be “catastrophic”.

US President Joe Biden “has been clear that we do not support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza”, the Reuters news agency quoted a US Department of State spokesperson as saying on Friday. “The US is not funding camps in Egypt for displaced Palestinians.”

Israel on Wednesday pulled out of US- and Arab-mediated talks with Hamas because it said the Palestinian armed group has had “ludicrous demands” that have included Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet have continued to push for “total victory” with the prime minister calling Rafah the “last bastion” of Hamas.

For weeks, the fiercest fighting in the Gaza Strip has been taking place in Khan Younis, also located in southern Gaza, with the Israeli military claiming its attacks are aimed at destroying Hamas battalions in the area.

Using shelling, sniper fire and drones, the Israeli army has also for weeks been laying siege to Nasser Hospital, the largest medical facility in the area, which has hundreds of patients and staff and has been a shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians.

Dr Nahed Abu Taima, the hospital’s director, told Al Jazeera on Friday that Israeli forces were rounding up patients and civilians and had cut off electricity to the medical complex.

“We stand helpless, unable to provide any form of medical assistance to the patients inside the hospital or the victims flooding into the hospital every single minute,” he said.

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,775 Palestinians and wounded 68,552 since October 7, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Several thousand more are missing, presumably buried under rubble.

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decolonize-the-left · 2 months

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I love your blog and I respect you a lot so please if it possible i want to ask you something. No one seems to care much for the fate of the egyptian protesters who were imprisoned yesterday and many of them were elderly. Egyptians prisons are a living nightmare where even medicine is denied and they live in crowded cells infested with mosquitos. Please we need to do somethimg this is horrifying they may die from lack of medical care and torture when all they did was protest for aid to enter Gaza.

Hi!

I can't find a method of how to help or where to direct people to donate! I assume it's because it's written in another language? I can't even see the page for the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.

That said, here are some articles I found regarding all this so I can at least help spread some awareness.

Activists shared videos of one of the protesters chanting against business tycoon and government ally Ibrahim al-Organi, whose companies have been charging Palestinians thousands of dollars to exit Gaza.

The government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has been criticised for failing to challenge Israel's siege on Gaza during the current conflict, and for allowing state-linked companies to profit from the movement of people and aid via the Rafah crossing. The Rafah crossing in northeast Egypt is the only gateway for Gaza that is not directly controlled by Israel. But since 7 October it has opened only intermittently. Egypt blames Israel for the closure of the crossing, as Israel has imposed strict checks on all trucks entering Gaza via Rafah.

Following the protest, 10 activists were arrested at their homes and detained for 15 days on charges of spreading false information and joining a terrorist group, often a reference to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization in 2013, following the removal of President Mohammed Morsi from power. Since then, the government has cracked down on political dissent and banned protests, leading to the arrest of critics and activists who speak out against government policies.

During that trip, towards the prison near the Egyptian-Libyan border, detainees were scared and tired. Some of them had to urinate inside the car, using plastic bottles they had, after they were denied access to bathrooms.

He told MEMO: “One of us had diarrhoea and had to use the bathroom. We surrounded him with a curtain made up of our clothes so he wouldn’t get exposed. He had to defecate in the car, cleaned himself with some water he had and collected the faeces in a plastic bag. He was in so much pain: the pain in his stomach and the pain of injustice and oppression.”

About an hour after sunset, the deportation car arrived, carrying ten detainees of different ages. They took sips of water and ate some dates, before beginning a second journey into one of the country’s most infamous prisons. Officials in this prison, named Al-Manfa, or the exile, are known to “honour” new detainees by torturing, abusing, beating and insulting them upon their arrival. The prison has 216 cells and the abuse is often directed at opponents of Al-Sisi.

And of course, if anyone knows more direct ways of helping such as where to donate or about calls to action or solidarity requests being made by those in Egypt then I think anon and I would really appreciate it!!

#egypt #current events #news #asked #answered #this is awful omg #free palestine #rafah #Egyptian prisons #human rights #abolish prisons #leftist #capitalism #palestine

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workersolidarity · 8 months

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A short while ago, the ongoing battle of Sderot between the Zionists and the resistance fighters

-Hamas

🇵🇸🇮🇱 If you suffocate a population, don't be surprised when they claw their way to the surface gasping for a breath of fresh air.

Gaza is living under complete blockade; denied access to the most basic food, medicine, medical technology, infrastructure such as water and sewage or garbage collection; the Palestinian population of Gaza is clearly being suffocated one day at a time.

And now, we see them clawing their way to the surface for air. Within Israel, it is apartheid, militarized checkpoints and invasive state oppression, and without Israel it is blockade, regular military bombardment and raids.

Wherever Palestinians exist, they are being suffocated. We cannot act surprised when they lash out or conduct retribution when we're talking about two populations opposed to each other where one has hegemonic control over land, sea and air, as well as the military domination of those spaces, and a dysfunctional, colonial style governance over the people there, while the other is being dominated in all spaces.

Regardless how someone feels about the so-called "right" for Israel to exist, a colonialist project of ethnic displacement, replacement and genocide, the Palestinians have a RIGHT TO LIFE.

If you deny that to them, they will choose to die fighting.

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probablyasocialecologist · 7 months

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Following Israel’s occupation in 1967, the government established settlements between the main Palestinian population centres in Gaza itself. The largest was Gush Katif, near Rafah on the Egyptian border; in total, Israeli colonies covered 20 per cent of Gaza’s territory. In the early 1980s the area in and around Gaza also absorbed many Israeli settlers evacuated from Sinai after the peace accord with Egypt. The first fence around the territory was built between 1994 and 1996 – a time seen as the height of the ‘peace process’. Gaza was now being isolated from the rest of the world. When, in response to Palestinian resistance, Israel’s Gaza colonies were dismantled in 2005, some of the evacuees chose to relocate to settlements close to Gaza’s borders. A second, more advanced fencing system was completed shortly after. In 2007, a year after Hamas took power in Gaza, Israel began its full-scale siege, controlling and limiting incoming flows of life-sustaining provisions such as food, medicine, electricity and petrol. The Israeli army calibrates the privation to a level that brings life in Gaza to an almost complete standstill. Together with a series of bombing campaigns, which according to the UN resulted in 3500 Palestinian deaths between 2008 and September this year, the siege has brought humanitarian disaster on an unprecedented scale: civil institutions, hospitals, water and hygiene systems are barely able to function, with electricity available for only around half the day. Almost half of Gaza’s population is unemployed and more than 80 per cent rely on aid to meet basic needs.

Eyal Weizman, Exchange Rate

#palestine #israel #gaza

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 3 months

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There is also a border with Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. And, lest anyone forget, there is a maze of underground tunnels one recently-freed Israeli hostage calls "Lower Gaza" which presents numerous illegal exit opportunities.

As Ari Zivotofsky observes in the Jerusalem Post, a September 19, 2023, episode of the Palestinian television show Emigration claimed that, "in the past 15 years a quarter of a million young Palestinians left for abroad." In 2022, over 15,000 of them who lived abroad (having apparently escaped the "prison") willingly returned to it to celebrate the feast of Eid al-Adha.

This is not how prisons work.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has been running a series on "Gaza Before October 7" refuting the "concentration camp" and "open-air prison" claims with pictures and videos. The first two episodes follow Palestinian "influencer" Yousef Alhelou as he travels around Gaza, showing off the top spots for tourists, including a gold market. Subsequent episodes include an Al-Jazeera feature of the economic boom in Gaza, Turkish television reports on the markets of Gaza, and various Arab media outlets covering the many sporting events in Gaza.

Hamas propagandists argue that Gazans are denied goods and services they are entitled to because of Israel's "land, water, and sea blockade," but Israel only blocks weapons from entering Gaza. Even after October 7, Israel has continued to supply electricity, food, and medicine.

What the "pro-Palestine" luminaries will never admit is that Israel has been forced into controlling Gaza's ports by the long history of weapons shipped there. In 2001, two vessels, the Calypso and the Santorini, were seized with weapons destined for Palestinian terrorists, and in 2002, a Palestinian ship called the Karine A was seized with 50 tons of Iranian weapons destined for Gaza. Since then, Israel has acted to prevent further shipments of weapons from reaching Gaza by sea. In 2007, after Hamas took over Gaza completely, Israel imposed an inspections regime and began more aggressively searching ships for smuggled weapons. Food and medicine are not prevented from entering Gaza.

Poor access to healthcare is another complaint about life in the Gaza "open-air prison." In April 2023, the Jerusalem-based anti-Israel activist group B'Tselem faulted Israel for preventing Palestinians from leaving Gaza in order to be treated in Israeli hospitals. But Israel treats plenty of Palestinians. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sends his entire family to Israel for medical care. In 2013 his 1-year-old granddaughter was treated in an Israeli hospital; in 2014 his daughter was treated at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital and his mother-in-law was treated at Jerusalem's Augusta Victoria Hospital; in 2021 his niece was treated at Ichilov Hospital. Just this month, it was reported that Haniyeh's grandniece was being treated at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. But why should any Gazans be treated in Israeli hospitals? There are 36 hospitals in Gaza, many of which are run by foreign nations (Indonesia, Turkey, Jordan, European countries) serving a population of around 2 million.

Of course, hospitals in Gaza are dual-purpose buildings, offering both healthcare and camouflage for the entrances to Hamas's elaborate subterranean infrastructure. An IDF spokesman said that "Hamas systematically built the Indonesian Hospital to disguise its underground terror infrastructure." The Al-Shifa hospital, where IDF soldiers found a stash of rifles, ammunition, and ballistic vests, also sits atop a major tunnel junction. IDF soldiers recently found unopened boxes of medicine for Israeli hostages at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

If Gaza is a prison, Hamas is the jailer.

#hamas #gaza #open air prison

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stephobrien · 4 months

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The ICJ ruled that it's plausible that Israel's assault on Gaza could amount to a genocide.

Being a signatory the Genocide Convention means America has an obligation to prevent genocide.

And yet, America's ambassador just vetoed yet another attempt to pass a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.

According to the above article, "She told reporters the Arab draft did not link the release of the hostages to a cease-fire, which would give Hamas a halt to fighting without requiring it to take any action. That would mean “that the fighting would have continued because without the hostage releases we know that the fighting is going to continue,” she said."

This excuse seems to ignore the fact that that Hamas has offered a deal that would involve both the release of the hostages AND an end to the fighting.

It's the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is the most reluctant to stop the fighting. And he's been very clear about the fact that, despite Israel having given a nod to international law by participating in the ICJ hearing, he has no intention of actually abiding by the ruling.

“No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else," Netanyahu said in televised remarks.

In a statement to media, he also said, "We’re continuing the war to the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed — until victory…until all the goals we set are met: destroying Hamas, releasing our hostages and removing the threat from Gaza."

(If you think this sounds reasonable, imagine if Hamas had killed 29,000 Israelis, restricted most of Israel's access to food, water, and medicine to the point where Israelis were starving, and damaged or destroyed over half of all the buildings in Israel, and then said they would continue until the Likud and IDF were completely destroyed, so they could never attack Palestinians again.)

Netanyahu has long opposed a two-state solution, even going so far as to prop up Hamas. He endangered innocent Israelis' lives so he could use Hamas as an excuse to avoid real negotiations, which could lead to Palestinian statehood and a chance for REAL peace that's based on justice and equality rather than oppression and control.

His policies and rhetoric have drawn criticism from his fellow Israelis, including thousands of protestors, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the latter of whom said:

“It isn’t fashionable to trust Palestinians, any Palestinians. This is the time when you’re meant to hate them. But this is bullshit. When I argue with people, sometimes I say, ‘What is the solution? What do you think can be done? Do you think that we can continue to control 4.5 million people without rights, with unlimited occupation, forever? Do you think that can work?’ Then they, of course, don’t have an answer.”

Netanyahu won't end the war, or abide by international law, willingly. We need to keep pressuring our governments to take TANGIBLE ACTION to make the Israeli government stop, whether that's sanctions, cessation of aid and military cooperation, or whatever your country is in a position to do.

Don't stop contacting your representatives, and urging them to put pressure on the Israeli government.

And for those who need to be reminded: please direct your anger toward the government officials who are in a position to do something about this, and toward the companies that are complicit in Israel's violence.

Do NOT direct it toward random Jewish people, businesses, or places of worship that have absolutely no influence on or complicity in the violence you're protesting.

#Palestine #Free Palestine #Gaza #Gaza genocide #Israel Palestine conflict #Israel Palestine war #Israel #collective punishment #Netanyahu is a war criminal #genocide Joe #Canada is complicit #America is complicit #UNSC #UN security council

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mariacallous · 8 months

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(JTA) — President Joe Biden secured an agreement from Israel to allow the transfer of humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip during his visit to Israel on Wednesday, and said the United States would provide $100 million in humanitarian to the Palestinians.

“Based on the understanding that there will be inspections that the aid will go to civilians not to Hamas, Israel agreed humanitarian assistance can begin to move from Egypt to Gaza,” Biden said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later confirmed the agreement.

Coming away from the trip with tangible progress toward relief for Palestinians in Gaza was a critical takeaway for Biden. The president hopes to sustain international support for Israel as it strikes back at Hamas after the terrorist group’s deadly invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, in which terrorists killed 1,400, wounded thousands and took 200 people captive. Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza have since killed more than 3,200 people.

Biden’s trip was complicated by a blast at a hospital in Gaza City yesterday that Hamas said killed hundreds. Israel has said the explosion was caused by a rocket that was misfired by a terrorist group inside the Gaza Strip — an assessment the Pentagon and Biden have backed up after viewing intelligence. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority blamed the explosion on an Israeli airstrike.

Arab capitals erupted in protests after the hospital was hit, and the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority pulled out of a summit Biden had called for in Amman, Jordan, that was focused on getting humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.

He nonetheless appeared to come away with a deal. Israel confirmed that it would not object to the assistance if it was delivered across the Egypt-Gaza border, rather than via Israel.

“In light of President Biden’s request, Israel will not prevent humanitarian assistance from Egypt as long as it is only food, water and medicine for the civilian population located in the southern Gaza Strip or which is evacuating to there, and as long as these supplies do not reach Hamas,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “Any supplies that reach Hamas will be prevented.”

What “prevented” means was not clear, as Israel does not control the Gaza-Egypt border. But Israel has in the past conducted airstrikes against weapons transfers to terrorist groups.

In a social media post after his speech, Biden said the U.S. assistance would not reach Hamas. “This money will support over 1 million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians,” said the post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “And we will have mechanisms in place so this aid reaches those in need – not Hamas or terrorist groups.”

Biden emphasized in his speech, as he has since Hamas invaded Israel, that Israel must observe the rules of war and must distinguish Hamas terrorists from Palestinian civilians. Israeli is on the verge of a potential large-scale ground invasion of Gaza.

“The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas,” Biden said.

“Like the United States, you don’t live by the rules of terrorists, you live by the rule of law,” he said. “What sets us apart from a terrorist? Because we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life, Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian, everyone. You can’t give up on what makes you who you are. If you give that up, the terrorists win, and we can never let them win.”

Biden — who also met with a group of Israelis who have become local heroes for rescuing people on Oct. 7 — began his speech with a vivid description of the stages of grief now assailing the loved ones of the 1,400 Israelis who were killed in the Hamas invasion. He referenced Jewish customs of mourning in the address.

“It’s like there’s a black hole in the middle of your chest,” he said. “You feel like you’ve been sucked into it. The survivor’s remorse, the anger, the questions of faith and your soul. Starting with staring at an empty chair, sitting Shiva. The first Sabbath without them. There are the everyday things, the small things you miss the most. the scent when you open the closet door. The morning coffee you share together. The bend of a smile, the perfect pitch of a laugh.”

As he did when he first arrived in Israel in the morning, he said Israelis should not feel abandoned. “You are not alone,” he said. “The United States stands with you.” He repeated his warning to any adversary of Israel plotting to exploit its vulnerability at a time of war, noting that he had moved U.S. troops into the region. “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t,” he said.

He finished his speech by apologizing for not being able to pronounce a phrase in Hebrew that he favors.

“I’m such a terrible linguist,” he said. “I’ll say it in English. The people of Israel live. The people of Israel live.”

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the-incorrigible-chaia · 8 months

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This'll probably be my final post on this subject, tbh, it's exhausting. Also, it's long. TW: Oppression, anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, settler-colonialism, pogroms.

EMBRACE COMPLEXITY. TURN AWAY FROM SIMPLISTIC NARRATIVES.

A lot of people are treating this like it's a football match, and that their "side" can do no wrong, when in reality it is entirely possible to be aware of and hold both violences in your mind, while also being aware of the power dynamics in play.

For Jews, this is the largest pogrom since the Shoah. (And yes, I'm calling it a pogrom. That seems more accurate to me than "terrorist attack".) The terror and distress resulting from that is built on millennia of pogroms, not just settler fears the way white USAmericans would fear a reprisal from Indigenous people. Half of all Jews in the world live in Israel, and nearly every Jewish person in the world at least knows someone who's lost someone in this attack. The fear is real. As I type this, my aunt and uncle who live in northern Israel were instructed to shelter in a safe room because a Hezbollah [Edit: Hamas] bomb was just dropped on the Ofer Forest.

For Palestinians, armed reprisal was pretty much the only option left after decades of apartheid and oppression by the Israeli government. Just in 2014, for example, Operation Protective Edge killed over 2000 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians. Even in reaction to this very attack, the Israeli government's response was to commit a war crime and impose a total blockade on Gaza, blocking food, water, medicine, fuel, and electricity to approximately 2.3 million people. The fact that they even can do that speaks to the tremendous power imbalance at play, to say nothing of Israel's alleged nuclear capabilities that I'm sure the USA knows absolutely nothing about because if they did Israel would be in violation of nuclear nonproliferation treaties and the US would be obligated to sanction them.

So, I honestly don't know what to say. I don't want to say "it's different when Palestinians do it", because at the end of the day it was still a pogrom, and it's hurt more non-IDF Jews than any single attack since the Shoah, and a lot of people are in mourning. But I also don't want to say "how dare they, I condemn this," because what the hell else are Palestinians supposed to do? They have a fundamental right to live freely and equally in Palestine. They've tried everything else, and the Israeli government's response has consistently been to just bomb the shit out of Gaza, or flood the West Bank with settlers and soldiers, or deny life-sustaining utilities that Israel controls like water and electricity to millions of people. What else is left but armed resistance, at that point?

I mean, shit, we could question whether Hamas really represents the interests of the Gazans it governs or not, or we could debate whether their constitution change in 2017 (they scrubbed most of the religious wording, explicitly denounced antisemitism and specifically condemned colonialism, and even expressed a willingness to acknowledge pre-1967 Israeli borders) is sincere, or whether branding them as simply terrorists is in any way useful, or we could even talk about how Netanyahu supported the funding of Hamas to sap support from Fatah's more progressive stance and forestall any real dialogue.

Or we could debate the concept of "civilian" in a settler colony where the only reason Israeli civilians can even live there as Israelis is through the brutal violence inflicted by the IDF, or the dynamics of how a country with mandatory army service for everyone blurs the distinction between soldier and civilian in the first place, or how the Israeli government has gone hard-right over the past year and an attack like this is exactly what Likud needed in silencing dissent within Israel.

(As for my personal opinion, I think the Likud government damn near deliberately provoked this pogrom with their bullshit on al-Aqsa as an opportunity to manufacture outrage and look strong, knowing full well how many people would get hurt, so that the issue of judicial review gets swept under the rug in the fires of war and revenge. The Israeli government cares more about hurting Palestinians and defending the idea of a "Jewish state" than actually protecting Israeli lives, otherwise they'd have been working to de-escalate and end their apartheid decades ago.)

Shit's complicated. But that's fine. People can understand complicated things. It just takes longer than reading something short and quippy, and it requires you to interrogate your own internal narratives for both antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism. Also, leave people who are in mourning the fuck alone.

#jumblr #israel #palestine

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what-shitfuckery-is-this-ew · 8 months

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I remember when I was talking to someone about a book character (who shall remain nameless bc I don't want opinions on that character messing up my point), and I said "from an outside perspective they look like a murderer" and they told me that 'from an outside perspective' is a technique oppressors use to show the victims as the bad guys. And it's true. From an outside perspective the character I was talking about looked like the bad guy. But they were only defending themselves from people who tried to kill them.

You're absolutely right. Context is always going to be important because people don't live in a vacuum.

Sure Palestine may look like the villain, if you strip the context behind the HAMAS attack, the hostages, etc,

But if you remember that Hamas was an organisation made initially by Israel as a way to throw Palestinian political forces into dissaray and sow conflict, then what picture do you see?

If you remember that Palestine lives under occupation (with Israel controlling their food, water, electricity, medicine, etc) and has went through displacement and genocide since 1947, then what picture do you see?

If you remember that Zionism wasn't a religious creation, then what picture do you see? Sure Zionism is mentioned, but in Herbrew it's a different word from the one they use now. The Zionism we refer to is a nationalist movement founded by Theodor Herzl, and later continued by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who wrote in his essay: "Zionism is a colonising adventure and it therefore stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot—or else I am through with playing at colonization". Sure Jewish people need a safe place to exist free from anti-semitism - but creating that space through colonisation and hurting other Semite groups will never be ok.

If you remember the racism that founded Israel and continues today, then what picture do you see? Do you not care of the Beta Jews who were forcibly sterilised or the Arab Jews who are treated as second class citizens?

If you remember that Media outlets are using pictures of Palestinian children as Israeli children, lying, using stereotypes and using fake ai generated images of beheaded children, what picture do you see? If you remember how Israelis refer to Palestinians as animals. If you rememeber that Israeli's watched with popcorn in their hands cheering at the IDF bombing Palestine, then what picture do you see?

If you remember that Hamas holds IDF soldiers hostage in order to free the Palestinian people, the children included hostage to Israel, both in open air prison and in jails without being told their 'crimes' then what picture do you see? If you're not willing to read the article the stats: 5200 Palestinians are in Israeli jails, including 33 women, 170 minors and more than 1200 placed under administrative detention.

If you remember that. if you remember the colonisation. Then you see a different picture. But how will you see that full picture without the media?

If you remember the genocide. if you remember the colonisation. Then you see a different picture. If you research youself, (because trust me when i say this is just a small amount of the horrors that Palestine is forced to endure), you will find what the media has hidden. The full picture.

FROM RIVER TO SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE

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andnowanowl · 4 months

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Since "Palestine Speaks: Narratives of Life Under Occupation" is suspiciously not available in the US in the form of an e-book, I purchased a physical copy and wanted to share it here for anyone else also unable to get access.

WAFA AL-UDAINI

NGO worker, 26

Born in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza

Interviewed in Gaza City, Gaza

When we first meet, Wafa tells us that her goal is to correct the stereotypical images permeating western media about Palestinian people. Standing in her small office in a dingy building in the middle of Gaza City, this seems like a daunting task, but it's one she is clearly passionate about. She is a small, poised woman with boundless energy wearing a white niqab that covers her head and face. Working with a group of other young men and women, she puts together videos to send to universities around the world featuring ordinary Gazans explaining their hopes and dreams.

She also runs a Facebook page, does regular interviews with the media, and has a wide network of friends around the world. She speaks simply but powerfully in English. When asked about the water quality, she bursts into laughter and asks if we've tried to wash our hair with it yet. Wafa manages to retain her sense of humor, despite Gaza's many deprivations.

Movement of people and goods between Israel and Gaza has been restricted since at least the First Intifada. However, Gaza in the 1990s maintained strong economic and administrative ties to both Israel and the West Bank. Thousands of workers passed through the Erez border crossing from northern Gaza into Israel every day. Travel between Gaza and the West Bank was possible for many Palestinians, even if a bit of a bureaucratic hassle. All of that changed in 2000 at the start of the Second Intifada. Israel began closing the borders to Gaza in what it claims was a response to rocket attacks and suicide bombings. It also destroyed Gaza's only airport. In 2001, Israel began the construction of a massive barrier wall around the entire Gaza Strip and set up a military buffer zone around the perimeter of Gaza, which now takes up 14 percent of Gaza's land area (and which expanded to roughly 44 percent of Gaza's land area during Israel's July 2014 invasion). Israel also significantly restricted movement between the strip and the West Bank for most Palestinians. The border closures devastated the Gazan economy.

In 2005, toward the end of the Second Intifada, Israel unilaterally withdrew its military from Gaza and evacuated all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, effectively handing administrative and security control to the Palestinian Authority while opening up some of the closed border crossings to Gaza. However, after the political party Hamas won full control of Gaza in 2007, Israel again closed the borders and imposed a blockade of goods into Gaza by land, air, and sea.

For Gazans such as Wafa Al-Udaini, the border closings would have made life nearly impossible if not for smuggler's tunnels that allowed goods to pass from Egypt into Gaza. Though seen as a military threat by Israel (a means of weapons smuggling to Hamas), the network of over 1,200 tunnels also provided Gazans with food, construction material, medicine, and occasional luxury goods that wouldn't otherwise be available to them.

A LOT OF KIDS SKIPPED SCHOOL TO DEMONSTRATE OR THROW ROCKS

I was born in a hospital in Gaza City in 1988. I'm from a big family - I have five brothers and six sisters. I'm the youngest. The town I grew up in is called Deir Al-Balah. It's right in the middle of the Gaza Strip, about a half-hour drive south of Gaza City.¹

I grew up used to seeing soldiers in the streets while I played. They'd always be chasing someone who'd thrown stones. Especially by the start of the Second Intifada around 2000, there were so many soldiers around all the time.² I remember Israeli soldiers came into our home once to arrest two of my brothers. One brother was seventeen at the time, and the other was just thirteen. They banged on the door until my mother opened it, and then the soldiers hit her on their way in to get my brothers. I was so scared. The soldiers claimed my brothers were throwing stones, but really they might have arrested my brothers just for looking at them funny. That happened a lot. I cried and cried after they left, it was so frightening.

My seventeen-year-old brother was studying for his tawjihi exams at the time, and after he was sent home after being detained for a couple of months, he was too frustrated to continue studying.³ My younger brother was released right away, but he stopped going to school. During the Second Intifada, a lot of kids skipped school to demonstrate in the streets or throw rocks. But I stayed in school and continued to high school during the Second Intifada. Then suddenly, in 2005, Israeli soldiers left Gaza.⁴ For the first time we didn't see the soldiers in the streets, only Gazans. But at the same time, Israel was sealing the borders, so it was hard for people to go to work. Then Hamas got elected, and a lot of aid into Gaza was cut off.⁵

Not long after that, I passed my tawjihi exams and got accepted into Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City. I began studying education at Al-Aqsa around 2006, and then after my first year of school, the blockade started. The first thing I remember was the blackouts. Suddenly, we only had power a few hours a day at most. And there was no propane gas to cook with anymore, so we had to hoard it. Really basic things-formula and diapers, for instance-weren't available, at least at first. But then so much of what we needed started coming through the tunnels. Before long you could get just about anything you wanted-European chocolate, designer clothes, anything.

EVERYWHERE I LOOKED I SAW SMOKE

I was nineteen and still a student during the air strikes in 2008 and 2009. The first day of the strikes, December 27, 2008, was quite memorable. I left the university early because I only had one lecture that day. Just before I reached my house, I heard many explosions. I said to myself, Oh my God, what's happening? There's so much smoke, and I can't see. I ran home and went upstairs to see what was going on from our roof, and everywhere I looked I saw smoke, but I didn't know exactly what was happening-there was no electricity so I couldn't find out what was going on from the TV. I tried to call out to my brothers and my sisters, but they were out of the house and nobody replied.

I was so worried. My neighbors said that Israeli fighter jets had targeted a place in Khan Younis, but some other neighbors said that they targeted a place in Gaza City, and then some others said, no, it was in the south.⁶ Everyone had a different idea about what was going on. I thought, Oh my God, who should I believe? When I looked up, the sky was full of airplanes and helicopters. The first day, the fighter jets bombed hundreds of places, including mosques. They must have targeted every mosque in the Gaza Strip. Our house is close to a mosque, and some of our neighbors were so afraid, because the Israelis could have attacked the mosque at any time and destroyed our building in the process. So our neighbors wanted to go to another, safer place. But we told them there was no safe place in the Gaza Strip. Wherever you went, you would find danger there. The jets ended up bombing the mosque and our house shook violently during the explosion, but nobody was hurt. Only the windows of our building were damaged.

It's a funny story, actually. Okay, it's not funny, but our relatives lived near the border with Israel, and they came to live with us near the coast where it was a little safer. But unfortunately, the night they came to our house, the Israelis targeted the mosque. They were so scared! Our relatives left our house saying, "Oh my God! No place is safe to live! We'd rather die in our own house than die in yours!"

I remember the drones showing up. They buzzed through the skies, and the sound they made was like they were whispering, "I'm going to attack you, I'm going to target your house, your family, your friends." But now we're used to the sound of drones. The last war, in 2012 was more difficult, actually, because in 2008, to some extent, the Israeli army was coming into Gaza. But in 2012, it was just planes. They hit many places, not just police stations and mosques, but houses—really everything in the Gaza Strip.

By 2012, I had graduated and become a teacher. I was a substitute, and would fill in where I was needed. When I was a teacher, I had a very smart student, and I loved her so much. She was an excellent student. She was in the first grade when I taught her. But just about five months after the air strikes in 2012, I met her again, and I was shocked when I saw her. She had lost her mind, and she was walking down the street as if she didn't know anybody. I went to her and asked, "Do you remember me? I was at your school. Do you remember?" The girl looked at me and laughed. She didn't remember anything. I spoke with her mom and she told me the girl's uncle was killed in front of her eyes. The Israelis bombed the place where he was sitting. He was a civilian, not involved in the resistance at all. He was just sitting in front of his house. And, unfortunately, they also traumatized this girl. And really, I was so shocked and so sad when I saw her.

WHEN THERE WAS NO ELECTRICITY, MY MIND WOULD FEEL SO SLEEPY

Since 2007, we've suffered a lot from power cuts. We might get six or eight hours a day on good days. And power might be on in the morning or at night. Every week we get a new schedule, published in the papers and announced on TV or radio. Everything is affected by the power cuts. So it's hard to establish a daily routine.

We never had a generator at my family's house, because I have a lot of nieces and a lot of nephews, and we were so afraid that one of them would touch it and get burned. You know, you hear many stories of generators blowing up and whole families dying. So we preferred to live without electricity than to see our families injured. We wouldn't use candles either because they're dangerous. Instead, we had battery-operated lights that can be charged during the limited time that power is on. They're safer.

I lived in my parents' household until this past year. There were about twenty-five, twenty-six people in our household-mostly my brothers' families. All my sisters had married and moved out. During that time, when the power went out, we'd go to the upstairs of the house. I'd sit with my extended family, chatting and having fun. Sometimes if most of the family was out, I'd read books or write.

But when there was no electricity, my mind would feel so sleepy! This was always a major problem for me. I'd lose concentration for reading or studying for my exams, for example. When I was still a student, I'd have to prepare an assignment for our professor at the university, but I couldn't rely on an internet connection because power would go in and out, so maybe I wouldn't finish in time. Plus, many times the lights wouldn't last for more than two hours, so I had this tiny window to do all my studying. It was a lot of pressure.

As for housework, I couldn't use the washing machine much of the time. I couldn't even make tea with the electric kettle. And I really suffered from not being able to iron my clothes. After I graduated and started teaching, I'd be late to work many times because I was waiting for the electricity to come on to iron. Sometimes I'd go to my friend's house in another city where they had power that day, just to do some ironing.⁹ Since the blockade began, we've had a shortage of cooking gas too. Icannot make sweets or bake a cake. Every time I want to make one, I can't because I don't have any propane gas.

Then there are the water problems. The water is affected by the electricity. There is a water pump in town, so when there is no power, for sure there will be no water. Then the water is polluted. It's saltwater, not for human use.¹⁰ We buy water for drinking and cooking. The other water cannot be used for even animals. We only use it to wash our dishes, clean the house, and wash clothes. Even in the shower, the water ruins our hair. We wash our hair with the sweet water, but not all the time. We can't manage to have a shower with only sweet water. It's not free. So maybe for a wedding, we'll wash our hair well. We have to pay for everything, and a lot of people here in Gaza are unemployed. So they can't pay for the electricity, they can't pay for the gas or the water.

We depended on the tunnels to bring us our basic needs-our food, our clothes, our medicine, everything. When the tunnels were open, we'd go to the store and find all sorts of things. But Egypt and Israel have destroyed the tunnels now, so there's hardly anything in the stores.

MY WEDDING DRESS MIGHT HAVE BEEN BROUGHT THROUGH THE TUNNELS

This year, I got married. Planning for the wedding was a bit of a challenge! One thing I remember was visiting the market to buy my wedding dress. I asked the merchant if all the dresses had been made in Gaza, and he said that many had been sewn in Turkey or Egypt and brought through the tunnels. It's amazing to think of these beautiful dresses being carried fifty feet under the ground through dark, muddy tunnels.

My husband and I were married on March 24, 2014. The day of the wedding, we had to improvise a little. Normally families would prepare food themselves for a wedding in Gaza, but cooking gas was too hard to find. We had to hire a restaurant to cater the wedding for us, since restaurants had an easier time finding cooking fuel. Of course it was all very expensive. We rented a wedding hall, but nobody could afford to take a taxi to the wedding hall because gasoline is expensive, and cabs are nearly unaffordable. We had everyone coming from the neighborhood meet at the bus stop, and we all went to the wedding hall from there. Still, it was a beautiful wedding, and I was happy even in my wedding dress that might have been brought through the tunnels.

Now that the tunnels are closed and nothing can get through Egypt, things are getting harder. Nobody has any money, and basic necessities like food are more expensive than ever. There is so much that needs to change in Gaza, but if I could change just one thing, I'd fix the poverty that's making life so difficult for so many Gazans.

Wafa and her family were especially hard hit by the bombing assault on Gaza that began July 8. They had no water for days at a time, and their access to electricity dwindled. Wafa was unable to use internet or even charge her cell phone, making it impossible to talk with her to get a full update. When she had electricity, she posted brief messages on Facebook and Twitter assuring her followers she was still alive. On July 8, she posted that the Israeli air force sent a warning to the twenty-five family members living in her father-in-law's house (seventeen of whom were children), telling them to leave their home. The family was able to leave before the house was destroyed. On July 25, Wafa wrote, "(Two weeks ago) they bombed my father in law's house, and today Israeli planes bombed my house, our only shelter, for no reason, and no evidence, just to (make) us kneel, but we'll never ever leave our country for them. Pray for us."

---

Footnotes

¹ Deir Al-Balah is a city of about 55,000 people located nine miles south of Gaza City. The vast majority of residents in Deir Al-Balah are refugees who settled in the city after the war in 1948. The city is known for its date palms, and it has a history that stretches back to fortifications used by pharaohs in the fourteenth century BCE.

² The Second Intifada was also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. It was the first major conflict between Israel and Palestine following the Oslo accords, and it lasted from 2000 to 2005.

³ An exit exam for high school.

⁴ Israel unilaterally decided to disengage from Gaza in 2004, and the plan went into effect in the late summer of 2005. Under Israel's plan, twenty-one settlements in the Gaza Strip would be evacuated, and the settlers compensated. The Israeli military would leave Gaza completely and leave the entire strip to the administrative and security control of the Palestinian Authority.

⁵ After Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, parliamentary elections were held in 2006, and Hamas won the majority of the seats.

⁶ Al-Aqsa University is one of a half dozen or so colleges and universities in Gaza. It serves around 6,000 graduates.

⁷ Economic sanctions began in 2006 after the election of Hamas, but the full blockade wasn't imposed until a year later, after bloody fighting between Hamas and Fatah in June 2007 drove Fatah out of Gaza.

⁸ Khan Younis is a major city in Gaza located about twenty miles south of Gaza City. It has a population of around 250,000.

⁹ The electricity outages rotate throughout the Gaza Strip, so different cities lose power at different times of the day.

¹⁰ Up to 95 percent of Gaza's water is not fresh. Aside from salt, most of Gaza's water also contains organic and inorganic toxins. Most drinking water is purchased in tanks in Gaza's markets. Salt water is frequently used for showering and cleaning.

#palestine speaks #palestinian voices #book excerpt #part 11 of 16 #i don't know if she is alive

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indizombie · 4 months

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In 1947, the U.N. formally partitioned Palestine and allotted 55 per cent of Palestine’s land to the Zionists. Within a year, they had captured 76 per cent. On the 14th of May 1948 the State of Israel was declared. Minutes after the declaration, the United States recognized Israel. The West Bank was annexed by Jordan. The Gaza Strip came under Egyptian military control, and Palestine formally ceased to exist except in the minds and hearts of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people who became refugees. In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Over the decades there have been uprisings, wars, intifadas. Tens of thousands have lost their lives. Accords and treaties have been signed. Cease-fires declared and violated. But the bloodshed doesn’t end. Palestine still remains illegally occupied. Its people live in inhuman conditions, in virtual Bantustans, where they are subjected to collective punishments, 24-hour curfews, where they are humiliated and brutalized on a daily basis. They never know when their homes will be demolished, when their children will be shot, when their precious trees will be cut, when their roads will be closed, when they will be allowed to walk down to the market to buy food and medicine. And when they will not. They live with no semblance of dignity. With not much hope in sight. They have no control over their lands, their security, their movement, their communication, their water supply. So when accords are signed, and words like “autonomy” and even “statehood” bandied about, it’s always worth asking: What sort of autonomy? What sort of State? What sort of rights will its citizens have?

Arundhati Roy, ‘Our country has lost its moral compass’, Hindu

#Hindu #Arundhati Roy #Palestine #Zionists #United States #Egypt #Jordan #Gaza Strip #West Bank #Israel

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beardedmrbean · 3 months

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A highly anticipated report from the United Nations’ top investigative agency is poised to shed new light on Israel’s allegations that U.N. workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, with the fate of the U.N.’s aid agency for Palestinians hanging in the balance.

In the weeks since Israel issued the shocking allegations, key donor nations including the United States have suspended funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, whose role providing food, water, medicine and shelter in the Gaza Strip is a critical lifeline for civilians. Yet the allegations have fueled a raging debate about the limited evidence Israel has produced.

The allegations were conveyed in Israeli officials’ public statements as well as a diplomatic document known as the “UNRWA File,” which was not distributed widely but was given to NBC News.

They center on the claim that at least a dozen UNRWA staffers took part in the Oct 7. attacks and that 1,468 employees — or more than 11% — are “active members” of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most prominent militant group in Gaza. NBC News can’t verify the identities of the staffers Israel says participated in the attacks, or the veracity of the claims about the evidence.

An initial report from the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services, which investigates wrongdoing by U.N. staff, is expected in the coming weeks. The U.N. secretary-general’s spokesperson said late last month that the office was still waiting for Israel to hand over evidence and expected to receive it “shortly.” No further updates have been released.

“The investigation remains ongoing,” said U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, adding that investigators planned to visit Israel “soon.” The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, says it’s waiting for that report before deciding whether to restore badly needed funding to UNRWA.

Yet some experts doubt the U.N. can competently investigate itself.

Peter Gallo, a former OIOS investigator, said that the agency’s authority is limited to investigating and punishing U.N. employees and has no mandate to force broader UNRWA reforms. In this case, UNRWA has already terminated the staffers initially accused by Israel.

“So they have no control over them,” Gallo told NBC News. “They can’t require them to turn up for an interview. They can’t threaten them with anything, because they’ve already been fired.”

The UNRWA allegations mark a new low in a fraught relationship between Israel and the U.N. that has further deteriorated since the start of the war.

Israeli officials have long campaigned for UNRWA to be disbanded. A recent UNRWA report also alleged Palestinian detainees were physically and sexually abused in Israeli custody, while a separate U.N. report found “convincing” evidence that Israeli hostages in Gaza have been raped.

NBC News takes a look at the UNRWA allegations:

Israel’s allegation: Staffers participated in Oct. 7 attacks

In late January, Israel accused 12 UNRWA staffers of involvement in the attacks, according to UNRWA and Israeli officials’ public statements. In the following days, UNRWA said two of those 12 were confirmed dead, although it’s not clear how they died., although it’s not clear how they died.

The number later grew to 13, according to a diplomatic memo known as the “UNRWA File,” first referenced by Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz during the Munich Security Conference in February.

According to a copy of the 13-page document, Israel alleges that six staffers infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, while another four are said to have helped kidnap Israelis. The memo alleges three employees were summoned by text message the day before the attacks to “arrive armed at the assembly point.”

In addition to those 13, the memo says that “at least one UNRWA employee supplied logistical support to the infiltration attack and an additional employee was directed to establish an OPS room on Oct. 8,” referring to an operations room.

Israel’s defense minister later raised the number of those allegedly involved further, saying more than 30 UNRWA employees either killed Israeli civilians, kidnapped soldiers or helped detain them.

What Israel says:

In mid-February, Israel’s military identified the 12 staffers initially accused of involvement, including their photos, dates of birth and job titles. Israel named two that it said were found or arrested inside Israel.

The disclosure included a photo and CCTV footage Israel said showed one of the staffers, an UNRWA social worker, inside Kibbutz Be’eri on Oct. 7 helping move the limp body of an Israeli into a Jeep.

NBC News verified the location of the CCTV footage as Kibbutz Be’eri, but can’t independently confirm the identities of the staffers named by Israel.

An intelligence dossier containing what Israel says is additional evidence was also transmitted to the U.S. and other allies, but has not been made public.

Last week, Israel’s military also released two phone recordings it says further prove UNRWA staffers’ involvement.

In one, a man Israel says was an UNRWA teacher says in Arabic, “We have female captives” and “I captured one.” In the other recording, another man also identified by Israel as an UNRWA teacher says, “I’m inside with the Jews.”

NBC News can’t independently confirm who is speaking in the recordings, or whether these were edited.

What the U.N. says:

On Jan. 26, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the allegations and immediately launched an investigation.

UNRWA said it immediately fired 10 of the 12 staffers initially accused by Israel who were still alive. It has promised that anyone involved in terrorism “will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”

UNRWA said Israel hadn’t presented it with any evidence substantiating that more than 30 staffers were involved. It noted that this number would be a tiny fraction of the agency’s roughly 13,000 staffers in Gaza.

Israel’s allegation: UNRWA’s staff is filled with Hamas operatives

In addition to having an armed wing, Hamas is a social movement and the governing authority in Gaza.

Last week, Israel said 450 UNRWA employees are military operatives enrolled in Gaza terror groups.

What Israel says:

Israel has not publicly provided evidence documenting large numbers of UNRWA employees being members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

What the U.N. says:

UNRWA says it first learned about this allegation in the media and has received no evidence from Israel or any other nation to support it. It says it has zero tolerance for terrorism and that the “overwhelming majority” of staff adhere to U.N. principles.

The agency says it conducts “detailed reference checks” on recruits and regularly provides lists to Israel of all its staffers, including their names, job titles and I.D. numbers. UNRWA says Israel has never previously voiced concern about anyone on the list — including the 12 originally accused of participating in Oct. 7.

Last week, UNRWA alleged in a report reviewed by Reuters that some UNRWA staffers, while in Israeli detention during the war, were coerced by Israel into falsely confessing ties between the agency and Hamas, and the involvement of UNRWA staffers in Oct. 7.

UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma confirmed to NBC News that UNRWA collected written testimonies from previously detained staffers released into Gaza that included those allegations, but said it was unclear whether those testimonies will be made public. Israel has not responded specifically to those allegations other than to say that its military follows international law regarding detainees.

Israel’s allegation: Hamas uses UNRWA facilities for terrorism

Israel says that UNRWA schools, aid depots and headquarters throughout the Gaza Strip have been used by Hamas to launch rockets, store weapons and plan operations.

What Israel says:

Last month, Israel said its forces found a tunnel underneath UNRWA’s main Gaza headquarters containing large quantities of weapons and explosives. Israel said electrical lines directly connected to UNRWA’s headquarters above provided the underground Hamas facility with power.

The Israel Defense Forces released drone footage, video of the weapons it says it found, and video of its troops conducting the operation. NBC News can’t independently verify what the IDF presented.

Israel has also released videos it says show rocket launches from inside an UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun.

NBC News geolocated the video to an UNRWA primary school in Beit Hanoun, but cannot confirm who launched projectiles seen in the video provided by Israeli officials or when it was filmed.

What the U.N. says:

UNRWA’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, did not dispute the Israeli allegations about the tunnel, but said UNRWA “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.” He said that during peacetime UNRWA inspects its facilities quarterly, but has been unable to access the site since abandoning it on Oct. 12, when Israel ordered that the area be evacuated.

Lazzarini did not specifically address the allegations that the Hamas underground facility was receiving electricity from the UNRWA headquarters above.

UNRWA has said there have been instances since the mid-2000s, when “armed actors from both sides” have violated the agency’s neutrality, including rockets placed in its schools. The agency says it has “systematically condemned” those violations, protested to Gaza authorities and informed Israel when it occurred.

The agency also said that when it finds suspected tunnels, it seals them by injecting cement and discloses the discoveries publicly.

#nunyas news #tear it down #after how they handled the sex for food thing #they have even less credibility #when it comes to investigating itself

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