#so yeah this isn't about me it's about the people of gaza and the people of palestine

[matan4il]

To the Nonnie who asked me about the mass grave in Gaza, you're pretty close to the truth of it rather than the anti-Israel propaganda.

First of all, the mass grave next to the hospital in Gaza has been shown already to have been dug before Israel got there.

Now, it wasn't untouched by the Israeli army, but that is a result of two contributing factors, both of which linked to Hamas.

One is because of the bodies of terrorists, who were using the hospital, and were killed during the fighting. They had to be buried somewhere. This is the Nasser hospital, the biggest medical center which was still active in Gaza after the very biggest, the Shifa hospital, had to be raided twice, because Hamas terrorists returned and re-took it, after the IDF evacuated it to allow the place to function as normal. If during the second operation in the Shifa hospital, there were 200 terrorists killed there, and at least 900 more suspects arrested, of which at least 500 were confirmed terrorists as of the end of the operation on April 1, how many terrorists were fighting against the IDF from Nasser, the last big medical complex they could use, when we know the abuse of Gaza hospitals for murderous purposes by terrorists is systematic? (I'm not accepting any numbers claimed by "Gaza's health officials," where no terrorists are mentioned at all, because that's Hamas speaking) Where do people think all those terrorists went to, those who did not surrender? Do people think this is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and if you stake a villain through the heart, then their body just goes "poof" into thin air, and there's no need to bury it?

The second factor is that Israel did exhume corpses that had been previously buried on the Nasser hospital grounds, to test them for DNA, in case they were what was left of murdered Israeli hostages, still held captive.

This has been done for a while, before this mass grave by the Nasser hospital started making the social media "headlines," so no one can claim this is an excuse made up now, because of this, and in fact, several bodies of Israeli hostages were returned to Israel thanks to the IDF's work, and the first one that comes to mind is that of 19 years old Noa Marziano, because her body was exhumed from the Shifa hospital grounds. She was held hostage in an apartment near the hospital, then moved into Shifa itself, and murdered in its basement. So yeah, guess where they buried her... Together with Noa, Yehudit Weiss' body was also recovered from the Shifa hospital grounds, and returned to her family in Israel.

If people don't like that the Israeli army has had to check bodies buried on hospital grounds for DNA, and then re-bury them together in a mass grave in the same place, then they should take it up with Hamas for murdering people on hospital grounds and for holding corpses as hostages in the first place. We're all living in the twisted reality created by Hamas.

And you know how we can tell that this part, about the bodies being exhumed to check for DNA isn't made up? Because we have regular Palestinians themselves admitting the bodies they're currently looking for in the mass grave are of their loved ones who were already dead by the time Israel got there.

Just to summarize this lunacy, we are being accused of massacring terrorists (who are legitimate targets, killing them was not a massacre, even if we were really successful at it) and already dead people. Make it make sense.

As for the added accusations that Israel skinned the Gazans and stole their organs... The anti-Israel crowd literally claims Israel stole organs in Haiti, when all we did was to send our military emergency medical staff to set up a field hospital there (to help the victims of the earthquake in 2010), and these lies are currently being repeated in print by The Palestine Telegraph (which is based in Gaza. You know, the place where nothing is published if it goes against Hamas interests). If that act of kindness and help could be turned into something sinister and monstrous just because the Jewish state was involved, it's almost a given the same would happen when Israel is at present dragged against its will into a defensive war. It's a recycling of the age old antisemitic blood libels, portraying the Jews as bloodthirsty and capable of any monstrosity. It's antisemitism, pure and simple. THAT is why the Jewish state has to be "comically evil in every way imaginable," like you said. Remember how for centuries in Europe, the 'bloodthirsty Jew' trope served to lie that we kill Christians to use their blood when baking our Passover matzahs? The following cartoon isn't from the Middle Ages, it's from 2018, and depicts Gazans, not European Christians (see the tire in one Palestinian man's hand? In Hamas-organized violent riots that aimed to breach Israel's border in 2018, as they succeeded in doing on Oct 7, many participants burned tires to create a screen of black smoke that would impair IDF soldiers' vision):

Meanwhile, the Islamist terrorist organization and Hamas' buddy, Hezbollah (which has been intentionally firing at civilian communities in northern Israel for months), has killed yet another Israeli civilian overnight, Sharif Suad, an Israeli Arab Muslim Bedouin. Watch the anti-Israel crowd ignore his murder, just like they erase all Israeli civilians victimized. Arab deaths don't count if they can't be used against the Jewish state.

I hope this helped! Take care. xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

#israel #antisemitism #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #terrorism #anti terrorism #hamas #antisemitic #antisemites #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr #jewish #resources #ask #anon ask

[a-dream-deferred]

لله يحفظ أهلك, may God keep your family safe. ;_; And all the people of Palestine.

آمين ❤ thank you

#to clarify the only relatives of mine who live in gaza are my great aunt and a few of her children #i'm embarrassed to say that i barely even know their names - i'm not close to my dad's side of the family in general #so yeah this isn't about me it's about the people of gaza and the people of palestine #may Allah protect them all and provide them with strength and solace #and forgive us for not being able to do anything to help except pray

[prismatic-bell]

Levant history/present situation question: do you know why Egypt isn't taking in refugees from Gaza? Thanks for offering to answer questions

Hey! Sorry this took so long for me to answer; I just had a 72-hour work week and my brain was spaghetti. Let’s see what I can do here.

So first, I’m going to say a lot of this is going to be educated guesses because there’s a lot that’s unknown. With that said, I don’t think any of these guesses are unreasonable.

To begin with, Egypt’s stated reason is that they think if Palestinians are allowed to settle in Egypt, they’ll never be able to go back to Israel. I think this is true, as far as it goes; that’s certainly a valid concern about the current war.

With that said, I don’t think that’s the only reason. Until 1967, Egypt actually controlled the Gaza Strip; it lost possession thereof in the Six-Day War, which Israel initiated after Egypt blockaded all shipping to Israel. What it discovered during that time is that Palestine is difficult to maintain, manage, or rule; Israel offered to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt after its victory in the war but didn’t include Gaza in this offer, and Egypt didn’t fight for it. I suspect at least part of the lessons they learned before 1967 lead to their reluctance now. (Incidentally, Jordan also learned this lesson. They expelled their Palestinians and stopped trying to retake the West Bank around the same time.)

Palestinians also have a tendency to bring terrorism with them when they move. They’ve been expelled from several countries as a result, including Kuwait, where they backed Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation attempt. I’d imagine this plays a role, as well; the big players in Gaza (mostly Hamas these days) are open admirers of terrorism. Egypt has a peace agreement with Israel, and taking in a group known to commit pogroms and to have endorsed genocide of the Jewish people would probably not go over well for them, especially given the US backs Israel.

The third reason I suspect is at play is one that does disservice to Israelis and Palestinians both, and it’s another reason the UN and UNWRA are hopelessly corrupt. Let me show you three people living in America:

This is Ahmed. His parents were targeted in Afghanistan by al-Qaeda in the 1990s, and fled to America. Here, Ahmed put down roots, and applied for citizenship when he was 22.

This is a second Ahmed. His grandparents fled Iran when the Ayatollah took power. His parents were born in the US, and so was Ahmed.

This is a third Ahmed. His great-grandparents left Israel-Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Ahmed’s grandparents, parents, and Ahmed himself were all born on US soil. Ahmed has never set foot in the MENA region—not Palestine, not Israel, not Egypt or Iraq or Iran or Sudan or ANYWHERE. He grew up in a middle-class home in Illinois and speaks no Arabic; indeed, the only reason he has an Arabic name is because he was named for his grandfather. His friends mostly call him Eddie. Ahmed has expressed little to no interest in Palestine.

One of the three Ahmeds is considered a refugee by the UN. Do you know which one?

…..yeah.

Palestinians are the only group on earth for whom this is true, by the way. If you’re a refugee from anywhere else, you stop being a refugee the moment you get citizenship in a new country, and only people who actually fled a country—not their descendants born elsewhere—are considered refugees. Hell, Palestinians BORN IN GAZA OR THE WEST BANK AND STILL LIVING THERE are considered refugees. You literally cannot be of Palestinian descent and not be a refugee.

So my suspicion for the actual biggest reason is this special treatment Palestinians receive from the UN. Egypt would be in a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation in which giving the Palestinians citizenship would be seen as “ceding to Israel” but not doing so would be “contributing to the plight of Palestinians,” and no amount of aid they provided would ever be considered enough. Frankly if I was the leader of a country I wouldn’t want to take them in under those conditions either. (Hence why I say the UN is doing a disservice to the Palestinians with this—they’re disincentivizing countries that might otherwise help.)

So there you have it: their stated reason and also what I think are some reasonable suppositions as to further reasons.

#you ask nina answers #Nina blogs Judaism

[unbidden-yidden]

Ok so I can't screenshot so I'm putting this in the asks but people are talking about netanyahu because he's getting the attention right now. And that's because he's genociding Gaza right now and nothing else of that scale happened since. So of course he's the it girl rn.

Like I wholeheartedly agree with you, we shouldn't be saying people "deserve to die", I just want to point out that I don't like it whenever people go "but why are people talking about this figure (who's getting all the attention right now) and not these other figures? (Who aren't getting attention)"

But TLDR netanyahu's doing some fuck shit that's getting reported on so obviously he's getting talked about the most generally.

To bring it back to the original conversation, people were talking about Putin when the Russo Ukraine war was going on. I saw people get excited at the idea that he might have cancer when that lump on his face showed up. Putin was the it girl and now it's netanyahu.

Look I'm sure you don't mean it this way, but the original comment I was responding to was antisemitic and your comments excusing it are microaggressions.

[Original post for reference]

There are a few things going on here:

1. People are giving a hugely disproportionate amount of attention to Israel's military response to the October 7th massacre in Gaza because they are antisemitic. There have been plenty of humanitarian crises affecting Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt, yet the world literally only cares about them if they can use it as a cudgel against Jews. Obviously it's a humanitarian crisis and it deserves attention, and Israel deserves scrutiny and accountability for its actions. But the laser focus on Israel and only Israel belies the true motivation.

2. There are numerous other humanitarian crises happening right now that affect substantially more people, and which are unquestionably genocide. Can you name them? Can you tell me the relevant major players by name? Can you tell me the number of people murdered? Why or why not?

3. Specifically naming Bibi out of every possible vile human one could name, to me, specifically, a Jew - that's extra sus. Taken in combination with the previous points? Yeah, it's antisemitic.

4. The genocide of Ukraine by Russia is still ongoing, and ignorance about it is leading to dwindling support to such an extent that Ukrainians are having to ration bullets to defend themselves with. This one isn't meant as a scold, by the way — the plight of Ukraine is getting intentionally buried. Please don't stop talking about Ukraine, they need all the help they can get.

[And in b4 someone thinks I'm trying to say you shouldn't pay attention to what is happening in Gaza: please DO keep paying attention to Gaza and keep holding Bibi's feet to the fire. He's awful, his policies are awful, and he's encouraging the absolute worst members of Israeli society for his own selfish reasons. The people of Gaza are going through hell and need our help. Just please, for the love of G-d fact check things first and make sure you're not "supporting Palestine" by being antisemitic. Also make sure you are holding Hamas responsible for its part in the humanitarian crisis.]

[reasonsforhope]

Btw, if anyone cares to know, my position on Biden and the 2024 election is this:

Starting September* 1, 2024, I will be doing whatever I can to make sure that Trump does not get a second term as president

Until that day, I'm going to be doing whatever I can to push for an end to the genocide in Gaza and an immediate ceasefire, and that includes criticizing, protesting, and lambasting Biden for funding and providing weapons for Israel's genocide

ETA: I will still be posting about significant good things the Biden administration has done, though, because some of it is a really big deal that people deserve to know about

ETA: But I will not be defending Biden from any criticism around Palestine/Israel/war crimes

*This originally said October 1st but someone pointed out to me that there are a few states where early voting starts in late September, including a couple swing states, so I changed it because that's a very good point

I don't plan to tell anyone not to vote for Biden in the meantime, myself, because shitty two party system and I'm really serious about Trump not getting reelected

But I'm also not going to do anything to discourage people who are seriously rallying against Biden, because he is, you know, literally bypassing Congress to make sure he can fund crimes against humanity

I never want to diminish that reality.

And more than that: If we want genocide to actually be a dealbreaker for politicians and presidents... then we need to start acting like it could be.

--

Details/related thoughts:

I will still be posting about good things Biden and his administration are doing, because they are the ones running the US government and Congress is super deadlocked, so a lot of the national-level good news in the US has been done by his administration, and I'm not going to stop posting about that good news

Shout-out to the anon who accused me of being a US government propagandist with a whole PR team bc I posted about Biden a few days in a row. I promise you I'm blogging from my bed in my pjs and do not have a PR team lol

Also, for people who don't think we should be spreading serious criticism about Biden, for fear of Trump winning in 2024: I hear you--that's an incredibly valid fear. I've struggled with that myself, in the process of coming to this(/these) decision(s). But consider this: it's better that we really pile on the criticism and pressure now, because a) people are dying, and b) Biden's chances will be much worse if Israel is still bombing/decimating Gaza on election day

Relatedly, for anyone who's tempted to think Trump would be better when it comes to the Gaza genocide, again, it's really understandable to want to put your hope in any viable alternative. However, I promise you that is not going to happen. Joe Biden at least conditionally gives a couple shits about human life. Trump doesn't. Remember Trump's Muslim ban? In all likelihood, Trump would just tell Israel to bomb Gaza harder and ban Palestinian refugees from entering the US

Last thing on Trump: maybe this is naive of me, but for a lot of reasons, I'm not actually particularly worried about Trump winning in 2024. If I was, I might have made some different calls here. I have a few asks about this in my inbox and will probably make a post at some point about the reasons why, but yeah, Democrats have mostly been wanting to run against Trump instead of DeSantis or Haley or whoever for some very real reasons

You're welcome to disagree with me/this post in any direction, btw

Seriously, I'm just a random person who doesn't speak for anyone besides myself and my own blog. I'm not saying these are categorically the right answers, or that any of this is what everyone should be doing. This is simply the system I have settled on (right now) for how I personally want to handle all of this

You're welcome to disagree with me but please don't send me any angry asks about any of it. Not that I in any way get a lot of those, thankfully! But yeah, this isn't something I'm interested in debating, this is mostly for notification/explanation purposes

#palestine #cw war #cw genocide #us politics #biden #not news #me #reminder that all my posts related to the war/genocide are tagged as “palestine” and “cw war” #and if you need to filter reminders about all of this then you should #esp coming from you know a good news blog #Far better to engage with all of this news/info deliberately when/where you're in a place to handle it #then to keep spiraling and spiraling because it keeps surprising you in the middle of your dash #that's what I do actually I have several related tags filtered on here #and then when I'm up for it I go read a bunch of news articles and look up protest listings #and you know actually go to protests or post about it on here etc. etc.

[fuckyeah-bears]

not that i truly care what rando losers on tumblr dot com think about me but i did just get an obnoxious as fuck message telling me about how internet activism and sharing things online isn't actually activism, trying to shame me into not posting as much or "torturing myself" by watching and sharing pictures and videos of what's going on in gaza. and it pissed me off enough to say this:

One, Palestinians have asked people to share and boost their content. That is a direct fucking ask from people in Gaza and Palestinians around the world. I will keep watching and sharing these photos and videos because it is what we have been asked to do by the people who are themselves experiencing genocide. Yes, it is depressing, yes it emotionally and mentally fucks me up. 100%. But i will keep doing it.

Two, literally none of you have ANY fucking idea what i am doing in real life to fight for Palestinian liberation. I don't need anyone on tumblr dot com's validation or approval and i'm certainly not stupid enough to dox myself online when every zionist shitbag, the police, and every employer out there is already trying to do that. but believe me when i say i have dropped pretty much everything else in my life to fight as hard as i fucking can to stop this genocide and work towards the Palestinian liberation.

Three, everyone needs to be doing shit in real life to fight to end the genocides going on right now. Only posting online does not count as activism, true. So take your conversations offline as well. Talk to people you know about Palestine, Sudan, and Congo. Read books and learn the histories. Write to and/or call your elected officials and government leaders and even the fucking bureaucrats. Join local solidarity and action groups working towards Palestinian liberation: Dissenters; DSA; JVP; SJP; AMP; IfNotNow are all US based groups that have local state chapters (idk too many groups outside of the US, sorry international friends). Participate in BDS, personally boycotting brands yourself, demanding your schools, workplaces, organizations, institutions, and governments divest from Israel. Attend rallies and protests and disruptions and vigils. Write to your local, state, and larger newspapers and demand they cover this genocide without bias, call them out for their shitty zionist reporting; write op-eds and letters to the editors. Sign up for webinars. If you can't leave the house or attend in-person events, you can make signs and banners for people and groups who can go. Start or join a campaign to pass a ceasefire resolution in your town/city; testify at town/city council or public comment about it & write to your local elected leaders. Donate to Palestinian and and relief orgs and charities if you can. And yeah, keep fucking sharing and uplifting and boosting Palestinian posts and voices online. The media is trying to repress the fuck out of them, so you we need to do our part to make sure their voices are seen and heard as widely and as loudly as possible.

And four, don't be a pretentious dick to strangers on the internet. You don't know shit about what people are doing in their real lives. This is just common fucking courtesy

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

#free palestine 🇵🇸 #free palestine #palestine #free gaza #gaza #gaza genocide #eyes on sudan #congo genocide #free congo #free sudan #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #🇵🇸

[munamania]

tried to type up a quick transcript of motaz's stories featuring the anonymous phone calls. it's baffling.

(i think my recording software might have cut off the end of some clips, and i may have misheard/mistyped slightly as the audio is muddled, so if you can go listen for yourself)

transcript under 'keep reading'

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

caller: hello?

motaz: hello

caller: hello motaz, how are you?

motaz: i'm fine

caller: fine? fine day to go to the beach?

motaz: yeah, sounds lovely

caller: hm?

motaz: yeah, who are you?

caller: i don't understand

motaz: (slowly) who are you?

caller: ehh... i'm nobody. but anyways, um, can you like, post a story maybe condemning hamas so this can all end?

motaz: what?

caller: can you post a story maybe against hamas?

[next clip]

motaz: it's been going on since 1948, okay? and for us, we believe this is our land, and you believe it's your land, and this is the fight we'll never end until the last day of this life. okay? but i'm not understanding why you need me to show you what you want to show, because i'm palestinian. what do you expect me to show? show that -

caller: i expect you - i expect you to - what i think is best for you is - obviously you're a camera man, and i don't think you would harm - let's say you're - you're just a person you know

motaz: yeah, but if you are afraid from the pictures, you are so weak. you should know that. if the pictures are harming you, you should know there's something wrong with you.

caller: no -

motaz: because as you said, i can't harm anyone

caller: let's think for a second. gaza is divided into two. the north fled to the south

[next clip]

caller: i can say, all the people that are marching, protesting in the street, saying 'free palestine' they don't really care. honestly, motaz. if they cared, they would go fight the war together. people are fake. all the people that say in the comments when you post a post 'may Allah save you guys, may Allah -' no they don't - they care about it to a certain point. they don't really know anything about it. they're going to go down today, like - they're not going to do anything. they are just making noise.

motaz: yeah, making noise, but if this is annoying for you or for israel it's your problem, because you are killing people, okay? you are genociding my people. so if, if i'm gonna stand and watch - i don't know who the hell who are you, okay? and uh.. but believe me after what i saw, after what i experienced, i don't care about my life, okay? you destroyed the whole strip, like, the only part we were happy about having, a small part of our country, okay? and it's now destroyed. and you were right when you called the first time that there'll be [the army?] there'll be more bombing, more killing, 'don't go to the borders, don't go to the north,' and i try, uh, to be careful, but, uh, the killing never stops. i mean, i'm in the south, i'm in the middle area, eh, you can't -

caller: isn't it possible for your people to flee to egypt?

motaz: why to flee to egypt, man? it's not our country. why to flee? we have our country. why flee to egypt? be reasonable, okay, be reasonable when you are talking.

caller: i care about life.

motaz: you care about life? stop the killing, man. stop the killing. you are going to have the most powerful weapons in the whole world -

[new clip]

motaz: i'll say it to you, the first time you called me, i was terrified, because a lot of journalists have lost their lives. but now, believe me, now i swear to god i don't give a fuck, because we are all gonna die. so, at least, i will, if i die, i die while trying to do something for my people. this is from my side. eh, something else - you expect me to affect on my people, or to give them advice to go to, to egypt? to flee from the strip?

caller: yeah, it's not about right and wrong, it's about surviving. if you wanna die in the name of Allah, you can, you can say 'i don't care about dying anymore.'

-video cuts off-

[END TRANSCRIPT]

#i apologize if this is a really messy typed up version my speakers are shit. feel free to rb with translations if you can #but i think people need to see. just absolutely insane #keep talking #palestine #free palestine #israel #motaz azaiza

[fairuzfan]

Hey, sorry to bother, unsure if you're the best person to ask this but you seem to have a lot of knowledge and a big platform, so..

I saw this post claiming there are no Palestinian Jews, that all the ones in Gaza were forced out and the ones in the west bank are not Palestinians and are actually settlers. So Jews in Palestine have only existed in historical Palestine.

I want to doubt it, because to me it's hard to believe, but I'm not sure... any source you can point me to about this?

https://www.tumblr.com/applesauce42069/740878769339924480/palestinian-jews-are-being-ethnically-cleansed?source=share

This is kind of a reductive argument to have because it ignores the fact that a lot of Palestinian Jews from "Mandate Palestine" (aka, when the british were the colonizers) either were forced out or automatically considered citizens of Israel when Israel came about. So yeah, Palestinian Jews *were* and *are* ethnically cleansed because their status as a "Palestinian Jew" was superseded by Israeli Law and even in modern day I wouldn't be surprised if Jews in Palestine from Palestinian descent still consider themselves Palestinian Jews. I can't say that I know too much about this specifically though. Massoud Hayoun, who is not Palestinian but a North African Jew, talks about how his "arabness" is an essential part of his identity and how colonialism caused him to doubt that part of himself.

But there are Palestinian Jews who still have israeli citizenship and identify as Palestinian or not as Israeli as far as I can tell. Hadar Cohen, who lives in Jerusalem with generations of families from Jerusalem, talks about being an "Arab Jew" which according to Avi Shlaim, the definition of "Arab Jew" is a Jew who lived in an Arab country, which he identifies as, since he was born in Iraq. All this to say I think its a little odd to know how every person identifies in Occupied Palestine (in other words Israel) and make an absolute assertion that "there are no Jewish Palestinians."

As far as I personally know, yes, many, many, if not most, Jews in the west bank are settlers and violently displacing Palestinians. I will never negate that and it's important to recognize that. Many Jews in gaza who were forced to leave Gaza in the 2000's were settlers themselves. But I can't say for certain whether or not ALL of them identified as "Israeli" and not "Palestinian." Jews are automatically subject to Israeli citizenship most of the time. So like yeah there might not be "Non-Israeli" jews in Palestine but theres also a legal framework involved that you can't discount in defining people who "identify" as Israeli.

Also, Palestinian with Israeli citizenship are legally called "Israeli Arabs" so like you have to acknowledge that yeah some people of Palestinian descent consider themselves Israelis but maybe not necessarily because they want to but because they have to. When we say "ethnically cleansed" we mean their identities as PALESTINIAN jews, people who practice and participate in Palestinian society and customs and traditions, were folded into the title of "israeli" with no identification of their Palestinian routes.

This isn't me saying "actually all of the people with Palestinian Jewish ancestry all absolutely identify as Palestinian always" this is me saying perhaps we should consider that not every palestinian jew with israeli citizenship identifies themselves as "israeli" and not "Palestinian." I'm saying this mostly because there's got to be resistance efforts of Palestinian Jews within Israel that I just don't hear about as often. Sim Kern talks about early Palestinian Jewish resistance to zionism. Here is the article they refer to in the video. Is it so weird to think NO Palestinian Jew still resists in Palestine...?

Anyways, there are Palestinian jews in diaspora who are also experiencing ethnic cleansing right now by virtue of being Palestinian and identifying as Palestinian and watching their people die and get pushed out of their land.

to clarify though to really drive it home: MOST of the jews in the west bank are settlers. dont discount that at all. my critique is mostly of how people assume there are no people who identify as palestinian jews in israel at all.

#palestine

[qqueenofhades]

People are apparently saying "well I'm not gonna vote/vote for trump if tik tok is banned!"

I'm pretty sure they were already going to do that, this is just their excuse of the week

But more importantly, if a stupid app matters more to you than the actual lives trump and the republicans will deliberately destroy, well that says more about them don't it?

But wait... I thought they weren't going to vote because of Gaza/because Biden hasn't personally forgiven THEIR student loan/because something something corporate centrism/because something something garble garble??! Does this mean their excuses just change by the week according to whatever's in the headlines and have no actual logical coherence or adherence to a guiding principle? Surely you jest, good internet sir and/or madam. Shocking.

Anyway, also... they realize that this effort is being spearheaded by Republicans and is pretty transparently an attempt to get another huge social media platform (after the Bird App Formerly Known as Twitter) into the ownership of an ex-Trump Cabinet official and an investor group with Russian ties? And that voting for Trump would directly play into those people's hands? And that... wait, never mind. I still expect logic or reason to have any place in this discussion, and it doesn't. Just tell me Why They Aren't Voting For Biden!!! next week and maybe I can get ahead of the curve for once.

This, however, is likewise why I oppose this rushed and Republican-driven move to "ban TikTok!!" in a highly consequential election year and think somebody needs to talk some sense into Biden and/or the Senate that this is a stupid idea and should be shelved (or at the least, heavily revised or modified). Yes, TikTok being owned by a group with Chinese government ties isn't great, but there's no morally pure ultra-megacorp that's going to rush in to fill the void. Forcing the Chinese owners to divest will just create an opening for Trump's ex-Treasury Secretary and his Russian businessmen buddies to step in instead, and I don't know about you, but I don't think that's a net positive in terms of keeping Americans' personal data out of the hands of hostile foreign entities. We already have Musk shilling for the alt-right and the Russian government every chance he gets, using Twitter to prop up their narratives and their operations, and selling TikTok to a Trump/Russian-linked consortium in fucking 2024 would be an incredibly massive own goal and give MAGA and company virtually hegemonic control over American social media content. That is why I think this is a stupid idea and should be opposed, but also, I agree that people who are using this as their Excuse of the Week to not vote were deeply, deeply unlikely to vote in the first place.

This is also a perfect example of why "well now I won't vote >:[!!!!" as a threat/temper tantrum backfires every single time. If there are young people who are concerned about TikTok possibly being banned, and their response is to immediately throw temper tantrums about not voting, all that does is reinforce to elected officials that young people never vote, there is no need to make legislation that champions their interests, and they don't need to fear any electoral backlash because these people have already spent years announcing their intention to Not Vote at every opportunity and clearly aren't about to start now. They remove themselves further from the civic process at every turn, and they reinforce the narrative that young people as a group are not worth having their concerns or ideas prioritized, because even when politicians do other things that young people like and/or support, young people are poised to turn against them and urge No Vote!!! :( at the drop of a fucking hat. So, yeah. "Don't vote!" is always a stupid and self-defeating message, but I can't see how it's possibly supposed to convince politicians that a group of people already predisposed not to vote is going to make any difference from what they already do. So yeah. Like. Not that this surprises me, but it's literally the same threat they've echoed at every single turn, doesn't represent anything new, and will probably be changed 10 times before the election anyway.

#short-wooloo #ask #politics for ts #vote and get off my lawn

[decolonize-the-left]

Okay, I'm also a little on the confused train. I vote third party and independent in my local elections when their policies (as they often are) are better than the local democrats. I vote for some local democrats when they, as in my community they happen to be, black activists who organized the entire of the blm movement in my city and then moved to campaigning for city council and stuff. I participate in mutual aid, I use my free time to bake bread for, and then deliver the bread and naltrexone to unhoused encampments. I advocate for every school in my area to teach actual native history. I distribute land back and esims for gaza pamphlets all over my city. I volunteer at soup kitchens a couple times a month, ect. I "donate" monthly "rent" to the tribes on whos land i live. I am currently at the least protest voting uncommitted in my states primary.

But like, I do bump up against... I don't want to vote for Biden. But if Trump wins, he's states he's going to put his everything into not only the genocide in Palestine, but hella racist internal policies beyond what we already have, stripping voting rights, stripping any existing social safety nets, removing anit hate crime protections, ect

So like. Yes. I am thinking about how indigenous communities would be impacted, at least in the short term. Among many others.

My final vote isn't decided yet

Do you really think it will prevent harm to vulnerable people to risk another trump term?

Not trying to be an asshole, asking you bc I respect you

*scare quotes are to imply that I think that language is shallow and not useful but I don't know what else to say

Please don't block me I'm being completely sincere about being deeply empathetic to your anger and share in it, but also confused and scared about the right course of action and the reasoning behind it

My opinions stem from my own organizing and activism.

I think it's going over a lot of heads that the same way we organize for landback or BLM and leave zines around to have progress in dismantling those, we ALSO need to be organizing behind 3rd party candidates to dismantle the 2 party system.

Like how helpful would it be to Any of those causes if someone said that instead of organizing for landback or donating or helping houseless people you should just vote for Biden?

That'd be ridiculous. Biden doesn't have any intention of significantly helping with any of those things and he's no substitute for the activism that's being done or still needed right?

So why are we as organizers accepting this logic when it comes to one of the most powerful positions in the world?

Why are we settling and saying he's the "realistic" choice and accepting it when we Know there are other options and avenues because we've Already worked in them?

I don't understand this and if You could shed some light I would in All Honesty appreciate it.

It's ACTUALLY confusing as hell to me that people I respect and work with and see as peers and comrades think that harm reduction is the best way to vote. It's confusing that instead of advocating for other avenues and educating people about other options or working for 3rd party campaigns or leaving educational zines around throughout election cycles and campaigns..... They say they're just gonna vote for Biden.

Yeah Trump sucks. I'd never deny that. I'd never deny he's dangerous. I just Also don't see how Blue Fascism is different from Red Fascism. It's all fascism and idk why we think Blue Fascism is an acceptable trade off when we literally Do Not have to keep making this trade.

The fact so many of us regularly feel like we don't have a choice is a testament to democracy already being dead, you know? Idk what we're saying 'yeah but the other fascists could be worse so let's just keep our heads down' as leftists.

I'm gonna be very real here, my concern is the future of humanity at this point. Point blank. White supremacy is an evil ideology that has harmed every person it touches while also making sure they help perpetuate it. In the last 5 years I've watched Nazis come back, several genocides, climate change and the death of winter, and police kill a man trying to protect a forest. Our president is more concerned with his campaign than the people he's killing or the families he's exploiting to do it.

Someone is going to have to risk something in order to stop a machine this big from killing all of us. The earth my child is going to inherit is going to be unrecognizable to me. She'll be lucky if she's never a climate refugee, just as it's Only luck that she's here in the first place after the USA tried to kill off the native Americans.

My concern is Everyone. And I know it seems backwards as hell to risk something so awful, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices to have something better.

I'd give anything to save my daughter from the future she's currently on track to inherit. And that doesn't mean that I don't love her. It's a testament to how much worse I genuinely believe things will get if we continue down this path accepting anything As Long As It's Not As Awful As It Could Be.

We would lie down and Vote to have robot dogs surveil our neighborhoods for immigrants and drag queens at this point "as long as it's not trump" and doesn't that terrify you more than he does?

It terrifies me.

There's no way that's harm reduction when we are NOT being harmed that way right now. That's Increasing the harm. A harm guarantee that you were tricked you into signing under threat of something worse.

#asked #answered #electoral politics #trump #leftist #socialist #anarchist #communist

[jewishvitya]

Do you live in Israel or are you just from there? If you do live there, is it scary to be pro-Palestine? I am kind of unclear on what the long-term plan would be when we free Palestine and that seems like the sort of thing you would know, can you help me out? Would settlers continue to live there?

I live in Israel, yeah.

It can be... Isolating. Sad. Horrifying. I lost friends, I can't speak to family members. Scary is... I don't know if that's the word?

Living in a reality of violence is scary, and I do have trauma from the things I experienced. Thunder sounds too much like explosions, if I don't expect it I can get panic attacks just from that. But being pro-Palestine isn't really a factor there.

Yesterday I spoke to an Israeli Palestinian and we spoke about Gaza. We spoke about how I'm worried for several people I personally talked to, how I'm worried for their families and friends and all the fear and grief they're dealing with, how he's been crying every day. We talked about how unnecessary this all is. About how "getting rid of Hamas" is such a useless goal when the destruction will just create the next generation of fighters, and we're killing so many people and ruining so many lives for nothing. We both have children and talked about how we can't imagine having to starve just to make sure the bits of food we have go to them, because children succumb to death from starvation and dehydration first.

He told me, "If a police officer heard us now, we'd both be arrested." He told me he wants to keep his head down, make money to take care of his children, go back home, live his life. And he told me "You know how strong the racism is, because they're racist to you for caring about us." And I wouldn't really put it in these terms, they're not racist to me. But I'm in the splash zone, in a way, by positioning myself close to Palestinians through sympathy and through trying to align myself with their liberation as best I can. And I do feel it. I'm worried about how I might get treated sometimes. It can impact so many things in my life.

But the person I talked to, being in his position is scary.

Me, I'm heartbroken. I'm furious. Seriously, I'm so fucking angry. Not really scared. That's privilege, I guess.

I'm not sure I can answer that too well. Palestinians write about what liberation looks like for them, and my reading process is very slow. So I can't give you any clarity.

If I'm speculating, I'd imagine Palestinians will want their lands back. I don't think we should get to just keep what we stole. This doesn't mean there will be no place for us at all. But I'd imagine a lot of things will have to change and move.

I mean, I spoke to a person from Gaza and I told him what city I live in. He didn't say "Get out of there, how dare you." He said something along the lines of, "I wish I could visit. My close friend is from there. He should have been your neighbor."

The desire to visit came up in conversations with multiple people, it genuinely breaks my heart.

Obviously I can't control what the solution will look like, and the long term will depend on so many factors. But conversations like this one are where I get my picture of what I should be aiming for, if that makes sense. Until I read what I need to and I'm better informed about what Palestinians want this to look like.

#riki babbles

[phoenixyfriend]

Hey do you ever see a journalist approach a story in the most wildly inappropriate way?

This isn't the worst case but it's Not Great: 10:34 in the BBC Global News Podcast, early hours March 6th, 2024. Link contains transcript of full episode, but the summary is this:

Israel is messing about with GPS technology, and it is affecting people in Lebanon. Some Lebanese people's GPS tech is so badly impacted that their phones are placing them in Israel, and so they are being shown Israeli dating profiles on apps like Tinder.

The local journalist being interviewed is very focused on how the GPS on her phone is being impacted, making many features useless, and mentions how a lot of Lebanese people are deleting their apps because they're upset about the apps showing them Israeli people, because the two countries are on the brink of war (and, understandably, the people of Lebanon are incredibly angry about what is happening in Gaza).

The BBC reporter, on the other hand, keeps trying to turn it into something... cutesy?

Unfortunately, they don't have the Lebanese journalist's name written anywhere (and the BBC reporters say her name three different ways, and I've tried like five spellings), and I can't find her online with various search terms, so I'll just be referring to her as LJ here.

LJ: Yeah, exactly. So it has the dating apps, but you can imagine that it's not just the dating apps, it's basically any application that uses the user's location. So for instance, when I was traveling in South Lebanon, the GPS was so bad that it would put me in Beirut, it would put me in the sea, it would put me in Israel. It has a very weird impact for like just Lebanese especially also because for Lebanese it is actually forbidden to have any kind of contacts with Israelis. BBC: Hang on, did you just say that in Lebanon you're not allowed to have contact with Israelis? LJ: Yeah, not even like talk to them. So not swipe on them. So that would be something completely forbidden because, no, Israel and but and Lebanon are on the brink of the war. BBC: But as you say, [LJ], what's absolutely fascinating here is that essentially two countries that are in a, a kind of very fragile tense state with each other. The citizens, if they happen to be using these apps, are getting exposure to the other side. They're seeing the interests, the photos of Israelis, Lebanese, the people that they're not really interested in or not meant to be interested in. LJ, sounding a little irritated: It's extremely, yeah, baffling and and surprising when you, when you find like so many Israeli profiles, it has triggered some theories in Lebanon that there might be moat spies trying to get information. I also saw people being quite angry at it and saying that they're not choosing the apps anymore 'cause there's no use in it. BBC, with a forced cheery 'work with me here' tone: I just wonder whether it does promote a bit of understanding. I mean, across the border you do basically see that the other people are not that different to you. They're just on an app trying to find somebody. LJ, audibly fed up: I think like some people have these very romantic ideas of forbidden love, but overall, I think would be still quite annoyed of, you know, seeing so many profiles that they're deemed as like belonging to the enemy.

Sir, literally what made you think that was a good idea?

#lebanon #israel #current events #united kingdom #bbc #read the room #politics #dating apps #phoenix politics

[irhabiya]

Hi! Hope you don't mind me sending this ask. I want to make it clear that I'm 100% anti-Zionist and I'm not trying to make discourse about anyone but something has been bothering me for a while now in this movement and I wanted to get it off my chest and see what you think. I hate how many accounts just post tweets without linking any sources and we're supposed to take them at their word, battling disinformation in a movement isn't only debunking Zionist propaganda but also making sure we don't spread misinformation within our movement too. Like how difficult is it to link to an article? And the amount of scammers and grifters worming their way into anti-Zionist circles is so concerning

yeah that's why maybe you should just fucking listen to palestinians as your main source? jesus fucking christ how many times do we have to go over this

palestinian bloggers on here are diligently adding their sources or posting live updates from palestinians on the ground in gaza, calling out scammers and grifters, making sure they promote organizations that actually reach palestinians or fundraisers from palestinians themselves and y'all will listen to anyone on earth but them.

yes of fucking course it's annoying that people are taking advantage of current events to promote themselves and post nonsense but that would be very easily rectified if you people would listen to the people who are leading the antizionist movement first and foremost, palestinians.

also maybe practice going out of your way to look up stuff every once in a while instead of holding up microphones to palestinians asking them to drop their bibliographies for every single fucking thing.

#😐 #inbox #this isn't directed specifically at you but i've gotten a few asks along these lines it's annoying

[autismserenity]

Me, looking through books on Palestine: "Ilan Pappé wrote one called 'The Biggest Prison On Earth?!' People in Gaza hate it being called a prison. There's an entire hashtag for it. There's been an account dedicated to collecting pics and videos of #TheGazaYouDontSee for 6 years.

"Is Pappé even Palestinian? oh god wait I can tell already. this is gonna be an 'Israeli apologist' isn't it." Internet: "Yeah, Pappé's Israeli."

Me: "For fuck's--- so people will believe Israelis unquestioningly if they're shit-talking Israel, but in all other situations, Israelis are all liars?"

Internet: "Pretty much. Also, at best, Ilan Pappé must be one of the world’s sloppiest historians."

Me, admittedly in full schadenfreude now: "What?!?!"

Internet: "Benny Morris. That historian who's extremely hard-core about primary source documentation, who wrote that detailed book about how and why each group of Palestinian refugees left in 1947-9. He reviewed three books about Palestine."

Me: "Holy shit. And the book by Pappé is about the Husaynis. The family that Nazi war criminal Amin al-Husseini came from, the guy who fucked absolutely everything up for both Israel and Palestine."

Internet: "That's the one. Morris wrote, 'At best, Ilan Pappe must be one of the world’s sloppiest historians; at worst, one of the most dishonest. In truth, he probably merits a place somewhere between the two.'"

Me: "Why??"

Internet: "He says, 'Here is a clear and typical example—in detail, which is where the devil resides—of Pappe’s handiwork. I take this example from The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'....

"Blah blah blah, basically in 1947 the UN voted to partition the land into Palestine and Israel, and extremist militias started shooting at Jewish towns and people. David Ben-Gurion was the leader of the Jewish community there, and his journal describes a visit from a scientist named Aharon Katzir, telling him about an experiment codenamed "Shimshon." Morris gives us the journal entry:

...An experiment was conducted on animals. The researchers were clothed in gas masks and suit. The suit costs 20 grush, the mask about 20 grush (all must be bought immediately). The operation [or experiment] went well. No animal died, the [animals] remained dazzled [as when a car’s headlights dazzle an oncoming driver] for 24 hours. There are some 50 kilos [of the gas]. [They] were moved to Tel Aviv. The [production] equipment is being moved here. On the laboratory level, some 20 kilos can be produced per day.

"Morris says, 'This is the only accessible source that exists, to the best of my knowledge, about the meeting and the gas experiment, and it is the sole source cited by Pappe for his description of the meeting and the "Shimshon" project. But this is how Pappe gives the passage in English:

Katzir reported to Ben-Gurion: 'We are experimenting with animals. Our researchers were wearing gas masks and adequate outfit. Good results. The animals did not die (they were just blinded). We can produce 20 kilos a day of this stuff.'

"'The translation is flecked with inaccuracies, but the outrage is in Pappe’s perversion of "dazzled," or sunveru, to "blinded"—in Hebrew "blinded" would be uvru, the verb not used by Ben-Gurion—coupled with the willful omission of the qualifier '"for 24 hours."'

"'Pappe’s version of this text is driven by something other than linguistic and historiographical accuracy. Published in English for the English-speaking world, where animal-lovers are legion and deliberately blinding animals would be regarded as a barbaric act, the passage, as published by Pappe, cannot fail to provoke a strong aversion to Ben-Gurion and to Israel.

"'Such distortions, large and small, characterize almost every page of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. So I should add, to make the historical context perfectly clear, that no gas was ever used in the war of 1948 by any of the participants. [Or, he later notes, by either Israel or Palestine ever.] Pappe never tells the reader this.

"'Raising the subject of gas is historical irrelevance. But the paragraph will dangle in the reader’s imagination as a dark possibility, or worse, a dark reality: the Jews, gassed by the Nazis three years before, were about to gas, or were gassing, Arabs.'"

Me: "Uuuuggghhhhhhhhh. Yeah, it will."

Internet: "He does say, 'Palestinian Dynasty was a good idea.' Then he does some really detailed historian-dragging about the lack of primary sources and reliance on people's interpretations of what they say instead.

"'Almost all of Pappe’s references direct the reader to books and articles in English, Hebrew, and Arabic by other scholars, or to the memoirs of various Arab politicians, which are not the most reliable of sources. Occasionally there is a reference to an Arab or Western travelogue or genealogy, or to a diplomat’s memoir; but there is barely an allusion to documents in the relevant British, American, and Zionist/Israeli archives.

"'When referring to the content of American consular reports about Arab riots in the 1920s, for example, Pappe invariably directs the reader to an article in Hebrew by Gideon Biger—“The American Consulate in Jerusalem and the Events of 1920-1921,” in Cathedra, September 1988—and not to the documents themselves, which are easily accessible in the United States National Archive.

"'Those who falsify history routinely take the path of omission. They ignore crucial facts and important pieces of evidence while cherry-picking from the documentation to prove a case. 

"'Those who falsify history routinely take the path of omission. They ignore crucial facts and important pieces of evidence while cherry-picking from the documentation to prove a case. 

"'But Pappe is more brazen. He, too, often omits and ignores significant evidence, and he, too, alleges that a source tells us the opposite of what it in fact says, but he will also simply and straightforwardly falsify evidence.

"'Consider his handling of the Arab anti-Jewish riots of the 1920s.

"'Pappe writes of the “Nabi Musa” riots in April 1920: “The [British] Palin Commission... reported that the Jewish presence in the country was provoking the Arab population and was the cause of the riots.” He also quotes at length Musa Kazim al-Husayni, the clan’s leading notable at the time, to the effect that “it was not the [Arab] Hebronites who had started the riots but the Jews.”

"'But the (never published) [Palin Commission Report], while forthrightly anti-Zionist, thereby accurately reflecting the prevailing views in the British military government that ruled Palestine until mid-1920, flatly and strikingly charged the Arabs with responsibility for the bloodshed.

"'The team chaired by Major-General P.C. Palin wrote that “it is perfectly clear that with... few exceptions the Jews were the sufferers, and were, moreover, the victims of a peculiarly brutal and cowardly attack, the majority of the casualties being old men, women and children.” The inquiry pointed out that whereas 216 Jews were killed or injured, the British security forces and the Jews, in defending themselves or in retaliatory attacks, caused only twenty-five Arab casualties.'"

Me: "Yeah. I'm looking at that report right now and it says there had been an explosion, and then people were looting Jewish stores and beating Jews with stones, and in one case stabbing someone. Some people said that some Jews got up on the roof of a hotel and retaliated by throwing stones themselves.

"And then it literally says, 'The point as to the retaliation by Jews is of importance because it seems to have impressed the Military and led them to imagine that the Jews were to some extent responsible for provoking the rising.' That's the only thing it really says about anyone blaming the Jews.

"Except.... the very beginning gives some historical context. And it does say that when the Balfour Declaration came out, Muslims and Christians 'considered that they were to be handed over to an oppression which they hated far more than the Turk's and were aghast at the thought of this domination....

"'If this intensity of feeling proceeded merely from wounded pride of race and disappointment in political aspirations, it would be easier to criticise and rebuke: but it must be borne in mind that at the bottom of all is a deepseated fear of the Jew, both as a possible ruler and as an economic competitor. Rightly or wrongly they fear the Jew as a ruler, regarding his race as one of the most intolerant known to history....

"'The prospect of extensive Jewish immigration fills him with a panic fear, which may be exaggerated, but is none the less genuine. He sees the ablest race intellectually in the world, past-masters in all the arts of ousting competitors whether on the market, in the farm or the bureaucratic offices, backed by apparently inexhaustible funds given by their compatriots in all lands and possessed of powerful influence in the councils of the nations, prepared to enter the lists against him in every one of his normal occupations, backed by the one thing wanted to make them irresistible, the physical force of a great Imperial Power, and he feels himself overmastered and defeated before the contest is begun.'

"Wow! What a great fucking example of how 'positive' stereotypes are actually used to fuck people over! We're not antisemitic, we actually think Jews are the smartest, most powerful, richest group with tremendous global power! So positive!! Not at all being used here to justify antisemitic violence!

"Also, immigration from all over the world actually meant that different agricultural and manufacturing techniques were brought into the region, and yes, financial investments to start businesses sometimes, which meant that Arab Palestinians there had the highest per capita income in the Middle East, the highest daily wages, and started a lot of businesses of their own. But go off, I guess."

"Anyfuckingway.... it basically says that the Muslims and Christians were angry and scared, the Jews were too quick to set up the functioning government that the Brits were supposed to be there to help both sides create -- and which the Arab leaders completely refused to create for Palestine, because (1) fascists and (2) didn't want Jews nearby -- and that they were "ready prey for any form of agitation hostile to the British Government and the Jews." Then it says the movement for a United Syria was agitating them real hard, and so were the Sherifians.

"Is that what Ilan Passe, I mean Pappe, meant by the Palin Report blaming the Jews?! That when it says it's understandable the Arabs were freaking out, because antisemitism, Pappe thinks it's saying the Jews were provoking them?!"

Internet: "I don't know. I kinda tuned out after the first hour you were talking."

Me: "OGH MY GOD"

Internet: "So anyway, then Morris ALSO says, 'About the 1929 “Temple Mount” riots, which included two large-scale massacres of Jews, in Hebron and in Safed, Pappe writes: “The opposite camp, Zionist and British, was no less ruthless [than the Arabs]. In Jaffa a Jewish mob murdered seven Palestinians.”

Me: "What the ENTIRE FUCK? There was no united 'Zionist and British' camp! The Brits would barely let any Holocaust refugees in, ffs!"

Internet: "Morris says, 'Actually, there were no massacres of Arabs by Jews, though a number of Arabs were killed when Jews defended themselves or retaliated after Arab violence.

"'Pappe adds that the British “Shaw Commission,” so-called because it was chaired by Sir Walter Shaw (a former chief justice of the Straits Settlements), which investigated the riots, “upheld the basic Arab claim that Jewish provocations had caused the violent outbreak. ‘The principal cause... was twelve years of pro-Zionist [British] policy.’”

"'It is unclear what Pappe is quoting from. I did not find this sentence in the commission’s report. Pappe’s bibliography refers, under “Primary Sources,” simply to “The Shaw Commission.” The report? The deliberations? Memoranda by or about? Who can tell?

"'The footnote attached to the quote, presumably to give its source, says, simply, “Ibid.”

"'The one before it says, “Ibid., p. 103.”

"'The one before that says, “The Shaw Commission, session 46, p. 92.”

"'But the quoted passage does not appear on page 103 of the report.

"In the text of Palestinian Dynasty, Pappe states that “Shaw wrote [this] after leaving the country [Palestine].” But if it is not in the report, where did Shaw “write” it?'"

Me: "I'M ON IT. [rapid-fire googling] OMG. This is.... Not the first time. In 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,' he reported that in a 1937 letter to his son, David Ben-Gurion declared: 'The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as war.'

"It's not in the source he gave. It's not in any of the three different sources he's given for it.

"He apparently has never responded to any requests for an explanation, either from the journal he published in, or from other historians. But it says he did "obliquely [acknowledge] the controversy in an article in Electronic Intifada, in which he portrayed himself as the victim of intimidation at the hands of “Zionist hooligans.”'

"This is absolutely fucking wild. THEN it says the chair of the Ethics Committee where he was teaching eventually said that the second part of the quote ('but one needs,' etc) was a (combined?) paraphrase of a diary entry and a speech Ben-Gurion gave, and that the first half is 'based on' a letter to his son.

"And it's so convincing! The chair says, 'Shabtai Teveth[,] Ben Gurion’s biographer, Benny Morris and the historian Nur Maslaha have all quoted this letter. In fact their translation was stronger than the quotation from Professor Pappé: ‘We must expel the Arabs and take their place.’ Professor Pappé has documentary evidence of these quotations and the source will ensure that this is correctly cited in any future editions of the publication or related studies.'

"And IT'S NOT EVEN TRUE?!

"Ben-Gurion's actual diary entry (not a letter) says the opposite.

“'We do not want and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places.... All our aspiration is built on the assumption – proven throughout all our activity – that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.'

"Benny Morris misquoted it as "We must expel the Arabs and take their places" in the English version of his 1987 book The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, although it was correct in the Hebrew version. He corrected himself in the 2001 book Righteous Victims.

"Teveth also misquoted it in the English version of his 1985 book Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs, but again, had it correct in the Hebrew edition.

"And both Morris and Teveth explicitly point out the rest of the entry. The part about all their aspiration being built on the assumption and experience that there was enough room in the country for everyone.

"Historian Efraim Karsh’s 1997 book Fabricating Israeli History pointed out and corrected their mistakes.

"This is apparently a very well-known issue among historians of Israel and Palestine. It was a big deal in 2003, when an evangelist Christian publisher put out a book FULL of disinformation, which not only used the same quote as Pappe does, but also could not give a real source for it.

"But Pappe STILL USED THE MISQUOTE AND DOUBLED DOWN ON IT EVERY SINGLE TIME."

Internet: "Are you done? I know all this already."

Me: "Also, there are literally only two places where the phrase 'twelve years of pro-Zionist policy' shows up online, and they're both about Pappe making quotes up.

"NOW I'm done."

Benny Morris wasn't, though. The review continues at the link below. And the next part starts, "To the deliberate slanting of history Pappe adds a profound ignorance of basic facts. Together these sins and deficiencies render his “histories” worthless as representations of the past, though they are important as documents in the current political and historiographic disputations about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Pappe’s grasp of the facts of World War I, for example, is weak in the extreme."

#i hate people misrepresenting history in general #i extra hate it when people do it with malice aforethought #ilan pappe #is a lying liar and people need to stop recommending his bullshit when it's been so thoroughly debunked #this is a good example of anti-Zionism being antisemitism tbh. I have yet to see anti-Zionist accounts of history that are accurate #like if you have to victim-blame people who were baked in ovens during an anti-Jewish riot you are PROBABLY in the wrong #I was looking for a piece explaining the 1920 and 1929 anti-Jewish riots that I could link here that wasn't from an explicitly Jewish sourc #because I don't trust people to take an article from the Jewish Virtual Library or whatever without being like “this is Zionist propaganda! #even if it's about an extremely violent massacre of Jews #so I clicked specifically on the Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question and similar sources #and what all of them did was gloss right over the massacres and violence and just vaguely mention “the demonstrations in 1920” #or not mention them at all of course #I guess that makes sense but wow. now I understand more of how ignorant people are about the entire history here #not only has it all been presented to you as “this started in 1947 or 48! the Jews stole all the land! it's been genocide ever since!” #so that people literally tell me “they invaded in 1947 and kicked out the Palestinians and took their land” #but also you have to fill in anything before that yourself #and the only propaganda you have access to usually is this myth that everyone was perfectly happy together until Israel... killed everyone? #it's really super weird to see people say that Jews and Muslims and Christians all lived happily together before this #like what do you think happened? everyone was happy and suddenly the jews were like “fuck you we're taking over and killing everyone?” #that probably is what people think happened tbh #they don't need for there to be any motivation or for that to make sense because they've bought the idea that it's just pure evil ig #for some reason people have to reverse-engineer hamas's massacre and imagine that israel did even worse to justify it #a terrorist group doesn't come out of nowhere! i don't think you know what terrorism is tbh #but they're happy to assume that whatever they think israel did came out of nowhere #god i'm fucking tired #anyway fuck ilan pappe #there are WAY BETTER HISTORIES OF PALESTINE #i've heard good things about Gaza: A History but of course that's not all of palestine #long post #such a long post

[gloombeauty]

I finally stopped following Marina today. I'm sick and tired of her saying nothing in defense to the innocent people who were raped, kidnapped and murdered Oct 7. She only sympathizes with Gaza and Palestine. Not a single word for the Israeli women who were brutally raped or murdered. Not a word on all the Israeli children slaughtered and burned alive. Not a single word on any of the victims of Oct 7. It's literally everyday she posts about this and not a sympathetic word for Israeli children, women and all who suffered on Oct 7. She's suppose to be a feminist. 🙄 I think I'm done posting about Marina on my page. These are her recent posts. Sexy pictures while defending one side of the war and ignoring the other. No neutrality. Loudly anti-Semitic.

I am so disappointed by a lot of people this year (who showed their true colors) but none more then Marina.

I understand people have their opinions and whatever, but when your opinion is so grossly wrong...and you insist in that grossly wrong opinion daily...like come on.

I stopped paying attention to Marina. I stopped like a month ago. Her posts on IG was a daily dose of "cease fire" , "save the poor children of Gaza", "help Palestine"...etc. without a single mention of the atrocities Israel went through. Nothing on the Israeli babies placed in ovens and tortured to death. Nothing on bringing home the hostages. Nothing on all the little girls and women who were raped then executed. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Talk about a feminist. Yeah right.

The same thing goes with Shirley Manson. Not a single thing about what Israeli people have gone through, the horrible rapes, the hostages....all about saving Palestine and Palestinian children. What about Israeli children? Then Shirley goes on a rage when anyone brings up why she leaves out any sympathy for Israel's children.

The weapon here is children. And don't get me wrong, Palestinian children are innocent and as well as victims of Hamas and this war, but ignoring Israel and their children? What about the raped little girls and women? There were teenage girls literally raped and sodomized at that festival ground. Women too. One woman was decapitated and had her breast cut off. This was all on film. Why no sympathy for them? Or the hostages? Some of the young female hostages that were released are finally talking. Many of them were raped by their captors. Any sympathy from Marina or Shirley? No.

That's why if you noticed, Garbage's official IG has lost some followers these past few months. Shirley's the only one posting under the Garbage IG. The other guys are too old to give a shit about social media.

Marina's follower count is stuck in 1 million. It's been like that for the past 2 years. Stagnant, which tells me she doesn't get much follows.

You can smell a closeted antisemitic person just by what they post every damn day.

I remember when Lana signed that cease fire petition. That is all she did and she never promoted it on her social media. I don't agree with that petition at all, but Lana isn't badgering her followers every damn day about saving this country or that or opinionating about the war. That's why I'm still interested in her music.

Natasha Khan (Bat For Lashes) posted only one time about saving Palestinian children. That was months ago. That was her only post. She's not badgering people daily. That's why I'm still interested in her music.

I took Marina and Garbage off my music library. I have physical CD's of them I plan on giving away for FREE. Like, these two women are basically dead to me. It saddens me because I was a fan of both for years. I have thousands of posts on my Tumblr site going back to 2011. If I had the time and energy, I would delete them all.

However, I don't have to pay them any mind or support their closeted antisemitic asses anymore.

On a side note, thank God Lana is no longer friends with Marina.

Marina was the one who fled and stopped following Lana after that Culture essay Lana wrote.

What a blessing it is that Marina isn't loyal to anyone.

#marina diamandis #shirley manson #lana del rey #bat for lashes #i support israel

[thatdebaterguy]

Usually I would go anon but I am at the point where I don't care what people think anymore. I would rather be honest and have these people off my blog than keep doing it in secret.

Anyways, I was scrolling through a post (because I hate myself). Tumblr wouldn't let me put the link for some reason:

This isn't the whole post, but 2/3 of it. It's about how Israel was "tricking" children into picking up bombs that looked like food cans. Someone corrected this in the comment section.

And in response to the correction (there was more than one person correcting):

This is a massive issue I've seen with that side of the conflict. They don't care if the information they spread is true as long as it fits the narrative of "Palestine = weak, helpless, 100% good and pure victim. Israel: evil, colonists, eats Palestine babies for breakfast." And it's almost scary the lack of critical thinking to make sure everything fits into this mindset.

I once corrected someone's mistranslation on Pinterest of all places, where someone said a Hebrew translation was ""May this (bomb) lands on innocent people". It was just the company name. I was attacked and told I was a "genocidal zionist" and there was my favorite, "well it doesn't matter if it's true or not, it's what they mean".

So basically, "yeah it doesn't matter if it's fake information, it fits with MY beliefs, so it's okay."

I hate the Pro-Palestinian cult.

It is genuinely depressing to see blatant misinformation spread, for example I've been given the link to a site that takes supposed quotes from Israeli officials completely out of context, half the time a complete lie, and told it's some kind of proof Israel is the epitome of moral sin, despite being the most equal state in the middle east. I saw this post and saw another one debunking how the imagine has been altered in a misleading way, just as I saw a post of a server room that's linked to a Hamas database under an UNRWA facility, and someone said it powered a solar panel. Keep in mind they didn't lie for the Palestinian civilians, that was to straight up cover for Hamas.

The screenshot of someone calling Hamas 'freedom fighters' is actually scary.

this is the first thing you see when you search for the ideology of Hamas. Yk the worst part? This would be called zionist propaganda just because it says Hamas have committed terrorism, and October 7th happened. These are literal facts though, Hamas are proud of October 7th, proud of killing thousands, kidnapping hundreds, committing acts of terrorism. If you have any sense of morality, you cannot defend Hamas, even if you see them as on the right side or as freedom fighters, their methods alone make them a monstrous organisation. They wear plain civilian clothes in war, a war crime, they have been verified to use civilian buildings for cover, a war crime, they've killed thousands of innocents purposefully, a war crime, they've openly called for the annexation and occupation of Israel, a sovereign country with millions of ethnic Jews who would be 3rd class citizens in a Hamas ruled Palestine.

Israel doesn't want Gaza. They don't want to destroy it, to own it, they wish they never had to hear about it again, let alone invade it to remove Hamas from power. And the fact that people are scared to voice their beliefs against a literal terror group, against misinformation, is insane. You know, the only reason I'm on Israel's side is because when it comes to debates I follow the science, the figures, the statistics, a fixed code of morality and logic, and that leads to me to Israel because they've never instigated a conflict in their entire history, they've voluntarily surrendered land in pursuit of peace, aided the countries that have invaded them, they're by the definition not committing genocide, they're legally and factually in a war of self defence to topple an extremist dictatorial government, the figures show as far as modern urban warfare goes, the civilian-military death ratio is lower than most conflicts, they factually have a historical claim to the land, they built Tel Aviv, built Jerusalem, 400,000 Jews lived the region of Israel before its existence as a modern state, it just all points to Israel.

But I support the people of Palestine, I empathise with them, I want them to be free of the dictators who lead them to this war and suffering they must endure, and I pray they'll get the liberation they deserve. They deserve better than the nightmare of a government that rule over Gaza. And yet none of the Palestinian supporters protest Hamas. They don't realise, protesting against Hamas doesn't weaken the right for civilians to receive aid, because they're forced into this mindset that the Palestinian government and movement has always been one of perfect ineffable morality and one that you must be insanely villainous to even have any contradicting thoughts on. I'm a more conservative guy who's best friend of 4 years recently told me that they're genderfluid, in a polyamorous relationship with a trans man, and have a 'fursona' but since I know they're a person with good intentions in life I support them in finding happiness and getting better. I'd say that makes me fairly open minded, without tooting my own horn too much. But I will never be open to the idea that Hamas have ever wanted what's best for Palestine. Their actions are selfish, their goals are psychopathic, their behaviour is unwarranted, and their care for being a successful governing body is minimal. Gaza, whether prospering before October 7th or not, was legally an independent, sovereign region of the nation of Palestine, who have their own government, constitution, voting system, currencies they operate with, culture, freedom of movement, unless it's to Israel of course, and have been so since Israel pulled out of Gaza.

Israel actually occupied Gaza once. It was better maintained, the people were more looked after. In the years before Israel pulled out of Gaza, the Palestinian economy grew by the largest margin in at least 20 years, and then under Hamas, became incredibly stagnant, with foreign aid being the only thing propping it up. They let unemployment skyrocket despite the opening of more high tech facilities, once again thanks to foreign aid. Now, Israel doesn't want Gaza back, nor should they have it, but when the people of the nationality that Hamas wish to destroy, governed their land even better despite not even being the sovereign owners of that land and just the occupiers, it says a lot. Don't be afraid to speak out against Hamas, since you have no love for the Palestinian people if you don't want them to be free from the suffering Hamas has brought.

#israel #politics #palestine #gaza #current events #hamas