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#solidarity is our weapon
antifainternational · 18 days
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What happens when you defend a drag show from the armed transphobes who threatened to murder attendees? In Texas, first you get arrested on bullshit charges, then a "Christian fascist fraternity" sues you for violating their "right" to attack drag queens and their fans. When two people facing this situation contacted the International Anti-Facist Defence Fund, we stepped in to help them with their legal costs, because we have the backs of anyone willing to protect people from transphobic violence. You should too, here's how: Chris' crowdfunder Aeshna's crowdfunder If you also think that having a standing fund to come to the aid of anti-fascists in emergency situations like this = a good idea, you should contribute to that fund right here!
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rawliverandgoronspice · 3 months
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not dipping back there again after this, but my opinion on where the discourse re: us politics is heading is not getting any nicer.
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bookstoresmp3 · 2 years
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maybe if yall wanted me to defend white women, white women should try being less annoying
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imanes · 6 months
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"Refusal to handle military equipment for war in Palestine
While a genocide is underway in Palestine, workers at the various airports in Belgium are seeing weapons headed for war zones.
The loading and unloading of these weapons enables the resupplying of organizations killing innocent people.
We, the different unions active in the ground handling sector, call on our members not to handle flights that ship military material to Palestine/Israel as there were also clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine.
We call for an immediate ceasefire and ask the Belgian governments to be consistent and not to tolerate arms shipments through Belgian airports. As unions, we declare our solidarity with those who are taking action for peace.
The common trade union front"
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The Māori tino rangatiratanga [sovereignty, self-determination] flag flying alongside Palestinian flags. The tino rangatiratanga flag is black at the top and red at the bottom, the two colours separated by white lines forming a koru (spiral). The Palestinian flag has three horizontal stripes (black, white and green) with a red triangle on the left.
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"Pro-Palestine protest at Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Rarotonga"
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A young child holding an ili (Samoan woven fan) that says Samoa for Palestine
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A young boy holds a sign reading Justice the seed, peace the flower / Ko te mana whakaaiko hei kākano, kia puawai mai te maungarongo. Beneath is artwork of a fist breaking free from chains below blooming flowers.
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Left: the 1975 Māori Land March. Right: the 2018-2019 Palestinian Great March of Return.
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If we want to free Hawai'i... [Hawaiian flag] we must also free Palestine [Palestinian flag]. Credit to @ainamomona
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A young Māori boy holding a sign that reads MANA MOTUHAKE [independence/autonomy] 4 PALESTINE
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A Fijian woman holding a sign that reads Food is not a weapon of war! Stop starving Palestinians! Behind are two more signs. One says CEASEFIRE NOW and the other says DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT GAZA
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A group of Fijians holding candles and wearing shirts that read STOP THE GENOCIDE
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Left: a diagram of Palestinian land loss between 1946 and 2009. Right: a diagram of Māori land loss in the North Island of Aotearoa between 1860 and 2000.
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A sign reading TANGATA WHENUA [indigenous people] FOR PALESTINE [tino rangatiratanga symbol, Palestine flag symbol]
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Three Pasifika people holding signs. The first says MAI LE VAITAFE AGA'I I LE SAMI! [Samoan: from the river to the sea] FREE PALESTINE! The second sign says FROM OUR PASIFIKA OCEAN TO THE RIVER TO THE SEA FREE PALESTINE. The final sign shows the Palestinian and Tongan flags and says 'OFA KI PALESITAINE [Tongan: Love to Palestine]
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A group of Pasifika holding signs and banners. They say "HOW MANY MORE KILLINGS IS ENOUGH FOR YOU?" "KŪ'E! KŪ'E! [Hawaiian: Resist! Resist!] PASIFIKA STANDS WITH PALESTINE" "'OFA KI PALESTINE" "FROM THE PACIFIC TO THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE" "WHERE IS YOUR HUMANITY?" "SAMOANS FOR PALESTINE" "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA" "KŪ'E KŪ'E KANAKA WITH PALESTINE" "FREE PALESTINE CEASEFIRE NOW"
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A West Papuan man holding two signs. The first says WEST PAPUA STAND WITH MYANMAR. The second says WEST PAPUA STAND WITH PALESTINE
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Two signs. The first says PACIFIC ISLANDERS FOR PALESTINE. The second says #FREE PALESTINE #FREE WEST PAPUA #FREE CONGO #FREE SUDAN
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A Palestinian flag decorated with Samoan patterns. Words say 'AGA'I MAI LE VAITAFE E O'O ATU I LE SAMI FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA #Sāmoans4Palestine
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A tweet from Tamatha Paul (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Awa) on 29 June 2023. Another big win this week, courtesy of @Just4Pal and @nikau4poneke, we [Pōneke Wellington] will be Sister Cities with the Palestinian city of Ramallah 😍 Free Palestine!!!
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A Pasifika woman holding two signs. The first says FREE PALESTINE FREE PALESTINE END THE APARTHEID! END THE BLOCKADE! END THE ETHNIC CLEANSING! CEASE STATE SANCTIONED VIOLENCE! CEASE COLONIALISM! BOYCOTT ISRAEL! From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! The second sign has pictures of Palestinian and West Papuan flags. It says pacific islanders stand in solidarity with Palestine! #FREEWESTPAPUA #FREEPALESTINE CEASE COLONIALISM
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A sign that has the tino rangatiratanga flag at the top and Palestinian flag at the bottom. It says Mai te awa ki te moana [from the river to the sea] MĀORI LAW STUDENTS For a FREE PALESTINE
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A Pasifika woman holding a sign decorated with Pacific symbols. It says LONG LIVE PALESTINE - PASIFIKA 4 PALESTINE - FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE
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Another Samoan fan. This one says PALESTINE WILL BE FREE
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sayruq · 3 days
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Statement: Student organizations in the Gaza Strip in solidarity with the Student Intifada in the United States
In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful… We, the students of Gaza, salute the students of Columbia University, Yale University, New York University, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, and dozens of universities across the United States who are rising up in solidarity with Gaza and to put an end to the Zionist-U.S. genocide against our people in Gaza. As we remain under the bombs of occupation, resisting Nazi genocide, grieving for our martyred colleagues and faculty, and witnessing the destruction of our universities, we welcome the examples of solidarity offered by students facing arrest, police violence, suspension, eviction, and expulsion in order to demand that their universities end their complicity in the Zionist-U.S. genocide and renounce their support for the occupation and the war profiteers that arm it. We have seen hundreds of students arrested across the United States as they work to transform their universities into “Popular Universities for Gaza.” Students, faculty, and staff are disrupting university operations and making clear that while universities in Gaza are being bombed, university business cannot continue as usual in the United States. These actions come as university administrations collaborate with members of Congress to discredit conscientious student activists and faculty, expel students, ban events, shut down student organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine, and condemn activists working to end the Nazi genocide. At the same time, these same universities invest in the same companies that profit from the continued sale of weapons to the Zionist regime to continue its genocidal offensive. Our students – and our educational system as a whole – in occupied Palestine are subjected to ongoing genocidal aggression: our universities destroyed and bombed, our student organizations banned, and our student leaders subjected to torture, assassination and mass imprisonment. However, in Palestine and around the world, the student movement has always been a driving force of our struggle for liberation. When we see videos and images from American universities today, we are reminded of our history of student struggle as well as the student uprisings of 1968, which challenged imperialism from Vietnam to Palestine and reshaped the face of Europe and the United States. Now, in 2024, the student movement is once again leading the way. From here in Gaza, we see you and salute you. Your actions and activism matter, especially in the heart of the empire, in the United States. As members of Congress agree to provide $26 billion in additional weapons to bomb our people and continue the Zionist-U.S. genocide, you are taking meaningful action to shut down the war machine on your campuses. It is clear that a new generation is rising that will no longer accept Zionism, racism and genocide, and that stands with Palestine and our liberation from the river to the sea. Your global student solidarity is breaking boundaries, and it is time to smash the US imperialist war machine. From Gaza to Columbia, to Ann Arbor and Berkeley, our hands are joined to end Nazi genocide and achieve our collective liberation.
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Palestinian trade unions issue an urgent global call to action, calling on workers everywhere to halt the sale and funding of arms to Israel — and related military research. As Israel escalates its military campaign, Palestinian trade unions call on our counterparts internationally and all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes - most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding and military research. The time for action is now - Palestinian lives hang in the balance.  This urgent, genocidal situation can only be prevented by a mass increase of global solidarity with the people of Palestine and that can restrain the Israeli war machine. We need you to take immediate action - wherever you are in the world - to prevent the arming of the Israeli state and the companies involved in the infrastructure of the blockade. We take inspiration from previous mobilisations by trade unions in Italy, South Africa and the United States, and similar international mobilisations against the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, the fascist dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s and elsewhere where global solidarity limited the extent of colonial brutality.  We are calling on trade unions in relevant industries: 1. To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel. 2. To refuse to transport weapons to Israel. 3. To pass motions in their trade union to this effect. 4. To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.  5. Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it. We make this call as we see attempts to ban and silence all forms of solidarity with the Palestinian people. We ask you to speak out and take action in the face of injustice as trade unions have done historically. We make this call in the belief that the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is not only a regionally and globally determined struggle. It is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.
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fairuzfan · 2 months
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Have you heard about the global day of action on March 2?
Yes! I have! Here's more info about it (click). Here, from the "About" section:
There is a growing global movement for a Free Palestine. Across the world, millions of people are engaging in demonstrations and organizing major marches in solidarity with Palestine. Our demands for an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel, and lifting the siege on Gaza have broader support than ever. On November 4th, over 500,000 gathered in Washington DC for the largest march in recent times to stand in solidarity with Palestine. Protests with half a million people erupted on the streets of London, constituents across Canada occupied over 17 MP offices from coast to coast, and Belgian dock workers' unions have refused to transport weapons by plane or sea that are destined for Israel.  We must keep building momentum and increase the pressure with more marches, walk-outs, sit-ins, and other forms of direct action directed at the political offices, businesses, and workplaces that fund, invest, and collaborate with Israeli genocide and occupation. NOW is the time for our mobilizations to grow in size, frequency, and focus; building a political climate that makes Israel’s business of genocide unsustainable.
Already protesters have shut down highways, train stations, and bridges in the United States; activists have targeted Israeli weapons manufacturers; Belgian dockworkers’ unions have refused to handle weapons transports to Israel; Bolivia has cut diplomatic ties with Israel while Jordan, Chile, and Colombia have recalled their Israeli ambassadors. Be part of the change, take action, and make your voice heard as the global struggle for Palestine enters a new phase.
Join the Shutdown for Palestine on Friday, December 8, 2023. We call on movements, organized labor, youth, students, media and healthcare workers, and all members of society to join us in demanding an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel, and lifting the siege on Gaza. This call to action started on November 9, but we will continue to build up the momentum with ongoing days of action. No business as usual until Palestine is Free!
Walk out from work and/or school
Picket Israeli embassies and consulates
Picket against companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Elbit Systems)
Host speak outs
Wear kuffiyehs
Wear black armbands
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antifainternational · 9 months
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Yesterday = the International Day of Solidarity with Antifascist Prisoners.
We're declaring today the International Day of Keeping Antifascists From Becoming Prisoners.
Since 2014, The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fundhas provided over $200,000USD in emergency legal support to more than 700 anti-fascists in 25 countries, keeping them out of prison by ensuring they have competent legal teams backing them when they need it.
But we can't do it without your help. Click here to help us keep antifascists free.
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luthienne · 6 months
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i keep seeing rhetoric among usamericans like 'we have enough problems here, i'm staying out of this' regarding the genocide in palestine — but there is no staying out of this. you cannot stay out of this. you are already involved. even were it not just a social obligation as a person who lives in this world, it is largely our usamerican tax dollars, our military aid, & our weapons that is making this ongoing genocide against palestinians a reality. and so we are complicit and have been complicit in the forced expulsion & ethnic cleansing of the palestinian people. we are already involved. & we must dissent. we have a responsibility to educate ourselves, to write and call our representatives, to demand a ceasefire, to march when possible in solidarity, to amplify palestinian voices, to support bds in its boycotts, to call for sanctions against the apartheid state of israel, & to do everything in our power to stand up with palestinians
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It's time y'all.
Let's talk about HOBIE & RACE
- It is not problematic to say that Hobie would display black solidarity by finding black women in specific attractive.
- It is not problematic to say that Hobie would possibly like a partner who could understand his experiences with racism.
- It is not problematic to say he would possibly like a partner who understands how to take care of his hair, or shares the same hair texture.
- It is not problematic to say that Hobie would find beauty in features specific to the black race - when we have been told those features are undesirable in every way for centuries.
We gotta talk about how Colorblindness is forced on Black Characters - Hobie in Specific
Y'all - it's time we have a VERY VERY overdue conversation about Hobie Brown and Race.
Because it is a necessary one.
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Hobie Brown, The Black!Reader, & Representation -
aka Black people are not Colorblind - and neither is Hobie Brown -
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[let Diane hop on the mic right quick Chile]
Stop acting like Black Fictional Characters would be colorblind.
Black people can't be colorblind, because our color is weaponized against us from birth. We HAVE to see race - because we have to protect ourselves and know our own history
So when we decide to make spaces specifically for us - spaces where black people and black women in specific can be desired and uplifted, I don't see why people have a problem with it.
Hobie Brown loves, yes. But he also lives in 1978. Racial segregation was outlawed in his country in 1965.
Hobie Brown loves, but he's also a black guy who grew up under racial segregation and racism. He's a black guy who fights cops.
The Writers made Spiderpunk - The Spiderperson who fights oppressive cops - black for a REASON.
The Writers chose to have a black guy save Miles for a REASON. To uplift black people.
Writers here on Tumblr made Black!Readers black for same reason.
If Black Lives Matter doesn't mean White Lives Don't Matter -
Then 'Hobie Brown finds black chicks especially attractive' DOESN'T mean 'white women are unattractive'. This isn't about y'all.
And even for the people that say Hobie would like ONLY black people - okay??? They can say that - it's a literal headcanon.
It's not true if you don't want it to be. You don't have to believe it.
But seeing Black people be protective of a black character, and making black content for other black fans - and then saying 'what - stop that. that's wrong. break this up so I can join'
BEFORE you question why they do it - NOT COOL.
That's like asking for more Captain America in Black Panther. Like ?????
That's like hearing a Riot Grrrl say 'All the women to the front!!' and going 'Uhh, all genders are equal, why can't the men stand in the front too?'
Like yes, all genders are equal. But also - This isn't about them. It's about representation.
Stop preaching equality when we're asking for representation.
Cause there are dozens, hundreds, of white characters who only have white on-screen romances.
And their fandoms do not write black!readers. They do not care enough to say 'oh the show isn't representing this, let us do it.'
The media nor the fandom represent black women. They are an afterthought, always.
And you never see posts for them like -
'Dean Winchester loves black women. Dean Winchester loves latinas -'
When it's a white character only dating white women, with xReaders that always imply whiteness, y'all never call for diversity. At all.
You wouldn't make this post for Miguel.
But when it's a black character and someone suggests they only date black women, or people begin to write xReaders that imply blackness instead of your default-
Suddenly you care about diversity.
Because the first time, you're not represented.
Because let's be honest. Let's be real. No one is writing Hobie x White!Reader. Barely anyone is writing Hobie x Latina!Reader.
It's the Black!Reader you have a problem with. Let's just say it.
Allow black people to have their space, without unfairly calling for 'diversity'.
(aka the right to access to black safe spaces, comfort characters, and labor)
Hobie is an attractive, educated black guy who fights and protects people from the aggressors we ourselves genuinely fear everyday.
He is a character like we've never had before. He has so much emotional weight to us.
Let us enjoy him as we please. We aren't hurting anyone else.
We're just not catering to you. We don't have to.
If a black person wants to center Hobie's love on Black people, they have the right.
And I'm not saying you can't write him with a race neutral or even a White!Reader. Go ahead and write that if you want but just know-
1) If you want to write him with an explicitly white or non-black reader - you should approach the topic of race. You should approach and mention the cultural differences. Him going through racism. Don't erase that because you think it makes your writing ugly or sad.
And if you don't put it in, your erasing the reality and black experience because you find something wrong or uncomfortable about it.
2) If you want to write a race neutral reader - make sure they're really race neutral. Don't include details about hair texture, hairstyle, or skin color.
3) If you are asking black writers for requests - do not get mad if they make the request Black.
You cannot get mad at a black writer for interjecting their own experience when writing about a black character. You're basically asking them to strip their blackness from their writing so you can enjoy it more.
Why should they have to second guess and dial back their blackness when we're expected to do that everywhere? If they want to take a break, and write Black!Readers they can.
3) Understand that the black people are going to keep their safe spaces. And they're going to keep Hobie in their corner.
Because honestly, and I'm going to put this brazenly:
Hobie Brown as a character - and what he represents - means more to black fans than it does nonblack fans.
Does that mean he doesn't matter to y'all? No, not at all. Hobie absolutely holds real emotional weight and meaning to you on multiple levels.
But please understand, for black people - we connect to Hobie on an emotional, often trauma-fueled front.
One that you'll never understand.
There is a level that we connect with him on that nonblack people can't. As a dark skinned black guy, a black guy with natural hair, an alt black guy,
As a black guy who has canonically faced police brutality on-screen
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To you, this screenshot is most likely Hobie flipping the camera off, edgy and punk. It's funny, tongue in check. ACAB and all that.
To us, this screenshot is of Hobie - a low income black guy - being physically restrained by police and refusing to stop even when they're taking his mugshot. It's a black guy openly flipping off the police and fighting them off and refusing to go down no matter how much they beat him and he's winning YES
After so many videos over SO many years of cops doing that to black men and them.. not winning.
And them just dying and us having to watch. And add another name to list.
When you see his laces, you most likely think ACAB.
When we see his laces, we see that he's a black man who took on a cop and lived to tell the tale. Which is a RARITY.
Because many of them lose the battle.
For us, the context and connection are completely different.
Fanfiction may just be a way for you to kiss up on random characters or comfort yourself, but for us - that's not the case.
For us, fanfiction is a way to show our experiences and features in a media and world that has collectively ignored them. Shunned them, called them ugly.
Maybe make a post or send an ask to a creator - and ask what Black!Readers mean for them, why they find it important.
Hobie Brown likes Black Girls.
He finds them beautiful. He likes wide lips and broad noses and kinky hair. He loves melanin, and brown skin in the sunlight, and seeing a them in a silk bonnet in the morning.
He loves not having to explain his culture, sharing coconut oil and shea butter. He likes seeing waist beads. He likes people who speak AAVE, with twang in their talk.
He likes ghetto black girls with the acrylic nails. He likes Stallions 6 foot tall. He likes masc girls. And fem ones. He loves black nonbinary people because we do not have to cosign to colonialist ideas of gender. And he loves him some black men too - a good fade will make him go crazy, he loves men with long locs and pretty smiles.
Hobie Brown finds the beauty in Black People that have been erased and demonized again and again by White Society.
Hobie Brown holds blackness dear. And he wants black people to do well.
Hobie Brown loves Black People. Hobie Brown loves Black Girls.
And that's on, what?
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This has been a PSA from Diane Pastors. Y'all stay blessed out there 😌💗
Anyway what y'all wearing to carnival since we going to carnival and cropover and labor day with Hobie and bringing out all the flags. 🇧🇧🇧🇧 I'm bringing him to cropover in Barbados yeah I said it we're all going to carnival with him.
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northern-passage · 5 months
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Read the full call to action here.
Tomorrow, November 29th, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, the #BDS movement is calling for an all day social media storm. Our physical and digital actions can be used together to strengthen our demands: Permanent ceasefire and lifting the siege to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Lawful sanctions on Israel, including a #MilitaryEmbargo. Pressure on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. Click here for prepared messages and images to use for the social media storm. Over the last 7 weeks, millions of you have taken to the streets for the largest protests the world has seen in the last 20 years! We are grateful to each one of you who, through your voices and creative actions, have built up unprecedented grassroots power to end Israel’s genocidal war against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Yet, Western governments are continuing to arm, fund and provide political cover for Israel’s genocide. We must act urgently to end all state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime. Palestinian lives and livelihoods literally depend on it. To this end, and as time has shown, BDS is the most effective form of solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. Tomorrow, we call for escalating worldwide peaceful mobilizations and expressions of meaningful solidarity to stop the genocide including: 1. Whenever feasible, organizing peaceful disruptions, sit-ins, occupations, etc. targeting  policymakers, as well as the corporate enablers of genocide and apartheid (arms manufacturers, investment firms), and institutions (media, universities, cultural spaces, etc.). 2. Disrupting the transport of weapons, or weapon parts, to Israel, including in transit states, by supporting trade unions refusing to handle such shipments, as has been done in Belgium, US, and the Spanish State, and as expressed by trade unions in India, Turkey, Italy and Greece.  3. Pressuring parliaments and governments to cancel existing military contracts and agreements with Israel, as Colombia’s president publicly espoused, and as demanded by the BDS movement in Brazil, a demand supported by civil society and more than 60 parliamentarians in the country. 4. Intensifying all strategic economic boycott and divestment campaigns against complicit corporations, and escalating campaigns to cut all ties to apartheid Israel and its complicit academic and cultural institutions as well as sports teams. Mobilizing your community, trade union, association, church, social network, student government/union, city council, cultural center, or other organization to declare itself an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ) on November 29th, if it hasn’t already, and organize a solidarity event or action on November 29th. 5. Pressuring your elected officials, where relevant, through direct communication or collective direct action, to demand real pressure on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently prosecute Netanyahu and all other Israeli officials responsible for genocide, apartheid, and war crimes. If not now, when? In solidarity, The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
ABOUT THE BDS MOVEMENT
Cultural boycott guidelines
Economic boycott for consumers
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gothhabiba · 4 months
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An Appeal to Our Food and Hospitality Community to Take Action Now for Gaza
Dear Industry Friends, 
We have come together as chefs, farmers, media makers, business owners, beverage professionals, and food workers from across our industry to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes. We must break the silence around the genocide in Gaza. As of today, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been massacred in less than three weeks. Nearly half of them are children. Over 8,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza, killing a Palestinian every 5 minutes. After hospitals run out of fuel,  the death toll will rise exponentially. Every second we choose to stay silent, without demanding that our government stop arming Israel with billions of our tax dollars, we allow another massacre to take place. 
We can prevent this violence by refusing to allow our government to fund and arm Israel’s decades-long military occupation. History has shown us that peace and safety for all in the region cannot come from the violent subjugation of Palestinians. We grieve the loss of all innocent life. However, violence begets violence, and we know this latest eruption did not occur in a vacuum. For 75 years, Palestinians have been killed, imprisoned, tortured, and robbed of their land and homes. In Gaza, 2.2 million people — more than half of whom are children — have been living under an inhumane siege for almost 17 years, and are cut off from the world, without access to water, food, or basic amenities needed to live a dignified and healthy life. For those living in Gaza, the last decade has been a slow genocide. 
As cultural stewards in this country, we have the power to counter the dehumanization of Palestinians. Israel has long weaponized food, erasing Palestinian people while claiming their cuisine. Here in the U.S., the appropriation of Palestinian foods as “Israeli” has led to more than Israelis profiting off of Palestinian culture; it is an erasure that has had real implications for Palestinians. It allows us to negate their cultural currency, and turn our attention away with more ease when we see Palestinian death. 
We must join our voices with Palestinians pleading for justice and protection right now. The situation is dire, and no amount of media coverage has discouraged Israel from its policy of ethnic cleansing and land theft as the U.S. government continues to protect Israel from global pressure for a ceasefire. We have been called upon by Palestinian civil society to join their struggle for freedom by joining the global movement for divestment and cultural boycott of Israel until it ends its horrific human rights abuses.
We ask our fellow food and beverage community to take a stand against genocide and ethnic cleansing and commit to three actions with us:
Call your congressional representatives to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to unconditional U.S. funding of Israel. 
Divest from products, events, and trips that promote Israel until it dismantles its apartheid system and military occupation. 
Invest in events and projects that promote justice for Palestinians, whether connecting to a local organization to learn how to support, or amplify Palestinian voices and support them to share their food and culture on their own terms.
We recognize that this may be difficult given the frightening pressure put on us to remain silent. McCarthyist tactics cannot marginalize and divide us – we know we are not alone as the whole world is rising up against injustice and genocide. Thousands of artists worldwide have publicly endorsed BDS and the cultural boycott of Israel, including musicians, DJs, filmmakers and actors, visual artists, Black artists, Latin American artists, and countless others across all fields and continents. This is in spite of efforts made by Israeli government-linked lobby groups to suppress this solidarity. 
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We are all in this industry to affirm life and dignity for everyone. As those who care for others, it is our moral imperative to actively contribute to the care that Palestinians need right now as they struggle to survive and get free. Food and beverage colleagues – it’s time for our community to extend our hospitality and join the movement for a Free Palestine.
Add your name – sign the pledge
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sayruq · 7 months
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Here's more of what's been happening on the ground. (Once again I'm not an expert in war).
Palestinian fighters are still waging war on the state of Israel
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It is clear that Hamas and other groups have access to anti aircraft weaponry and long range missiles, partly from looting Israeli bases but partly from (and this is unconfirmed) from the Russia-Ukraine war. It's not unexpected for weapons to end up smuggled into other countries during a war.
On the other hand, Israel went from swearing it would invade Gaza on the ground to doing just about anything but that
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It's understandable why Israel would hesitate even with its 300,000 strong army
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IDF is made up of mostly conscripted soldiers who normally act as civilians once they've served their 2.5 year mandatory conscription. Not only that, IDF acts more like a police force than an army. Its soldiers simply don't have the training or mentality to fight militia groups in their home turf.
America itself doubts its capabilities no matter how it words it. This is a country that has yet to win against a guerilla army so it has experience when it comes to this
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Edit:
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Edit 2: above Hamas states the obvious
In my previous post I highlighted how disorganised the Israel military was in response to Operation Flood Al Aqsa.
This hasn't changed in the days. Israel is behaving more like a cornered animal lashing out than the so called 'strongest army in the Middle East.'
It has been dropping bombs on Syria, Lebanon and Egypt aimlessly, more out of anger than calculated strategy
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Its efforts to pushing back against the Palestinian militia isn't going well either
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in addition to naked, barbaric cruelty towards Gaza because it is not producing results elsewhere
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The tweet below is important as Russia is an Israeli ally. The Israeli right wing has been very favourable towards Putin, even willing to disagree with the US and EU policies on Russia. However Israel repeatedly bombing Syria is quickly souring Russia on the country. While Putin doesn't want to go against Israel at this point, he has become increasingly critical of the country in the past couple of days.
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Saudi went from making a half-hearted 'both sides need to stop statements to cutting ties with Israel (ties Israel and America have worked very hard to form) to outrightly condemning Israel's treatment of the people of Gaza.
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Naturally, with all of this happening, Israel has responded, not with ceasing the bombardment of Gaza, but by killing and assaulting journalists covering the genocide.
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so that it could committ war crimes without it being documented and seen by the world. War crimes such as announcing that they'd bomb a hospital in Gaza and giving doctors and nurses just hours to evacuate their patients.
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This, btw, is part of the reason they cut electricity so that Palestinians can't post their own genocide on social media. Israel brutality is costing them allies but they have no intention of stopping.
Despite all of this, there has been a great deal of support for Palestinians globally
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In short, this war is not going the way Israel thought it would. They didn't crush Hamas and the other Palestinian military groups immediately after the battle of Re'im. In fact, they're still struggling against those groups right now. They've been humiliated in front of the world after being revealed to be paper tigers and as such, they're going after Palestinian civilians in increasingly horrific ways.
The Palestinian resistance is still optimistic and they're still carrying out their plan. There's still hope for a future without apartheid.
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trans-axolotl · 1 year
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saw a post talking about how intersex bodies are natural bodies, just like dyadic bodies, and how intersex bodies are not a medical condition or a "birth defect." this is not something that i disagree with--I think that intersex people suffer when our bodies are medicalized, I think it puts us in a position where we are much more vulnerable to "corrective" abuse and I think it promotes self hatred by making us think that doctors are here to fix something broken about us.
But as an intersex person who is multiply disabled and who is disabled by my intersex variation, I wonder if we could extend this idea further. I think that we need to be able to embrace the idea that disability is natural and that many, many disabled people are harmed by the medicalization of our bodies. These concepts of "normal" and "abnormal" that are weaponized towards us as a way to justify sterilization and forced hormones are the same concepts of "normal" and "abnormal" used to justify eugenic abortion, used to deny sign language access to Deaf children, used to promote psychiatric incarceration. Yes, Intersex bodies are just as natural as dyadic bodies and do not inherently cause us impairment, and at the same time, disabled bodies are just as natural as abled bodies--being disabled is a natural way of being. Saying that some of our intersex variations can be a disability does not mean that we need to accept the idea that it's our sex characteristics that are "abnormal" or causing us impairment, and it does not mean we have to agree with doctors who want to treat the existence of people outside the sex binary as a problem in need of a cure.
I think it's vital that as intersex people we fight against medicalization, but I think that in recognizing the ways that medicalization has so deeply harmed us, this is also an opportunity to recognize the ways that the dehumanization of medicalization harms so many people. I'm not sure there is the mythical disabled and ill person or some specific diagnosis that is helped by medicalization, and I think that instead of trying to separate ourselves away from disabled community, we have the opportunity to build intentional solidarity on our own terms.
Intersex bodies are beautiful and natural and whole, and we are allowed to acknowledge the ways in which our intersex bodies might sometimes be disabled while still rejecting medicalization and the ideology of cure that doctors want us to accept as truth.
okay to reblog, but dyadic people please think carefully before adding on.
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