#I am terrified every time the Israel-Palestine conflict makes the news here | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jewishbarbies · 1 month

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Look, I don't even know why I'm sending you this ask, but.. I don't know.

I'm not jew, I'm a goyim (I think that's the term). I'm from America (continent) and I'm terrified whit what is happening at the other side of the world.

What I read in your blog is that you defend jew people and by a extent the state of Israel. Plus multiple people calling you a zionist.

I saw photos of horrible things happening in Gaza. And I guess you will say it was "because of Hamas" and "Israel has horrible photos too" and idk. I'm an ignorant.

Do I think there's a genocide in Gaza? I do

Do I think a lot of the anti-zionism left movement blends with antisemitism? I do

It's everything so noisy and so confusing and so caothic and so cruel and so incomprehensibe. Like I'm pretty sure everyone in the same boat with USA has a very cruel and greedy agenda but they have bets in all the horses. I could call you zionist like I'm sure you have your inbox full and probably you are. And probably Hamas is even worse than I can even imagine and probably Israel is even worse that I can imagine and probably Palestine is even worse. And 30% of every single article is fake and people only read the hedlines and many of them are made with AI.

I have no fuckin clue why am I writing this. I'm not even confused. I saw videos of people in the border protesting and cheering for the death of people in Palestine. But they're cheering for the death of Hamas. And i don't even know.

How do you even dig to learn in a hole that's so fucking old??? How many years have this conflict?? And I'm quite sure Israel is a murder machine but behind is a machine even bigger and I'm sure they cry bitterly their loss families.

What do you do when things blend in the middle??

uh. I’m gonna assume English isn’t your first language so I don’t spend this whole response explaining why your wording is harmful and ignorant. I’m sure someone else will have the patience to do it in a reblog but I just don’t.

find sources you can confirm are in fact in the area. find verified news sources that actually fact check and wait the time needed to confirm before reporting (anyone immediately jumping into the conversation after an event is not waiting long enough to make sure their facts are accurate, for any situation). twitter users are not your friend. go to a library and check out some books on antisemitism and its history in the middle east. there are plenty of jewish bloggers here who have compiled lists of verified resources, either for news about the conflict or antisemitism etc, or for charities safe to donate to in the region.

I don’t know why you’re writing this either because if you know where you personally stand, you don’t need anything from me. I can’t tell if this is a genuine ask for advice or resources because of the whiplash of tone but I did my best.

#Asks #anonymoose #antisemitism #jumblr feel free to add #I’m not in the mood to deal with this today

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lecinemabraque · 4 years

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Divine Intervention: Elia Suleiman’s Symbolic Approach to a Distinctively Political Narrative

I moved to Palestine in 2018 having never been there before. I had never been to the middle-east before. I had very little familiarity with Islam. I did as much research as I could before moving there, but was given very little lead-time. So despite my best efforts, I arrived very much tainted with ignorance and unchallenged prejudices. I learned a tiny bit of Arabic (the wrong dialect) and familiarized myself with the basics of the conflict with Israel. Then, in the middle of the night, I arrived at the Tel-Aviv airport, slipped into an Arab taxi, crossed the threshold into the West Bank having never seen Israel by day, and into a tiny dormitory in the village of Abu Dis, just on the other side of the massive Apartheid wall on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

I learned, very quickly, that Abu Dis is about a mile or two from Ma’ale Adumim, an Israeli settlement. It’s the largest settlement in the West Bank. It is surrounded with walls and armed guards. The inhabitants fall into two groups: extremists who believe all the land in the West Bank is their god-given right, and ignorant bourgeoise who don’t even really realize they are in the West Bank, but simply a suburb of Jerusalem. This second group often cause more problems than the first one.

A few months before my arrival in Abu Dis, a settler from Ma’ale Adumim accidentally made a wrong turn, left the security of his settlement behind, and wound up in the village of Al Azarea. This is an area of the West Bank where neither the Palestinian Authority has a presence, nor the Israeli military. It’s the Wild West. Or Wild West Bank. The settler was noticed relatively quickly, and chased by the locals. Realizing his mistake, he fled through unknown roads, finally ending up in front of the dormitory I would eventually move to. The Palestinian locals surrounded his car with flaming dumpsters, broke his windows and attempted to extract and execute the man. I don’t know how long the incident lasted, but eventually the Israeli military stormed into the area, tear gassed everyone and brought the settler back to safety.

This was a terrifying story to learn of only two or three days into my commitment to making Abu Dis my new home. I’m a Germanic American foreigner. One of only two that I knew about in town. What’s to protect me from being mistaken as a settler? Am I a colonizer here to scrape away the dregs of the culture and land these people have been struggling to protect for 70 years? Not too long after, I was told I was safe because I didn’t dress like a settler. You can tell from the outfit. Settlers have the long curls on their head, the tassels at their hips, beards, black hats and vests. I was clearly just a foreigner, which isn’t the same thing.

In Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention (2002) we begin with a scene eerily familiar to the one that occurred outside my eventual home in Abu Dis, but with a single major variation. The locals are chasing the settler, easily identifiable by his striking attire, though his clothing is not the clothing of religious orthodoxy; it is distinctively agnostic. He is dressed as Santa Claus.

This film elevates Santa Claus, the innocuous symbol of Christmastime for all religions, to that of a colonial settler. A figure so hated that a wrong turn in the West Bank could prove fatal. A figure which immediately conjures the erasure of their culture, the murder of their children, and the expulsion of their friends and family from their homeland for nearly a century. It is interesting to approach this creative decision from the perspective of an American, because the closest cultural connection I have is the common refrain by religious dogmatics in America when confronted with non-religious symbols throughout the month of December. “Happy Holidays” draws the ire of many of my neighbors here. You’ll not be hard pressed to find yard signs that say “Merry Christmas Spoken Here”.

Isn’t Santa Claus the ultimate “Happy Holidays?” He, by his very nature, takes the Christ out of Christmas, as the popular refrain goes. He can sell you a Coca-Cola for the holidays regardless of your personal beliefs. Christmas is a time for presents. He shifts the entire narrative of the holiday towards the act of giving (or possibly receiving) rather than the birth of Christ.

How does this relate to Palestine and Israeli settlers? For those of us who were raised Christian, it’s hard to separate the birth of Christ with the town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is located in the West Bank, on the other side of the Israeli separation wall. The people of Bethlehem live under military occupation. Bethlehem is also home to Dheisheh refugee camp, the largest refugee camp in the West Bank. It is filled with families of those who were displaced by the Israelis when they took over Palestine in 1948. Removing the Christ from Christmas is also removing Palestine from Christmas. It is the erasure of its historical and cultural significance. It is cultural colonialism. Just as the settlers steal the land from the Palestinians, and claim that it was always theirs… so too does capitalism extricate the political, social, and historical realities from that land and the holiday associated with it. A Santa Claus costume is indeed the garb of a settler. He is colonizing the mind of the world, utilizing the resources he finds most useful and erasing the narratives he finds politically inconvenient.

From this uncomfortable equation, we get our opening images of the film. Something familiar: a group of children chasing Santa Claus. But they are not after his presents. They are after him (as the knife jutting out of his chest reveals.) Moreover, they are after the narrative he has co-opted. He needs to be extinguished so they can make an attempt at reclaiming their history, their culture, and their land. All this… and we haven’t even reached the opening credits yet.

It is with this that Suleiman indicates to the audience the mode within which he is working. He tells a single narrative, but one that feels like a series of disparate vignettes à la Roy Andersson. He is telling us that the apparent incongruity is not as it seems. He is also showing us that in Palestine, everything is political. Every Palestinian’s existence has been so thoroughly politicized that simple absurd images cannot help but become pregnant with subversive meaning. If you choose to remain blind to the politics, you can. You may even find much to enjoy in the comically deadpan mise-en-scène of the film. However, Suleiman offers an indictment of these audience members as well.

A young French tourist approaches an Israeli policeman looking for directions. The policeman doesn’t know the way, and so he enlists the help of his Palestinian prisoner from the back of the van. Bound and with a blindfold over his eyes, the Palestinian offers three clear ways for her to get to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher. There are two ways to read the scene. Both reveal the political anger brewing just below the droll surface of the gag. The first is simply that the Palestinian knows this land so well that he can give you directions while blindfolded. While the Israeli cop has no idea where to go. He is a foreigner here too. He may have political and military authority, but he is not truly of this land, while his prisoner is.

The second interpretation is the indictment of the apolitical audience member. We can visit Israel as tourists (or visit this film as a sort of cinematic tourist) gaze at the wonderful architecture, eat the food, enjoy the beaches and the lovely weather, all while turning a blind eye to the near century of racist exploitation, disenfranchisement, and genocide occurring right in front of us. It'd be all too obvious if we’d bother to simply engage beyond our own immediate pleasure and convenience.

Both of these interpretations are effective. Both are true. But the tourist is the one who allows this to continue indefinitely. She witnesses injustice and chooses comfort. The Israeli is blind to the irony of his evil. He thinks this is his land. The foreigner has the benefit of an objective vantage point, and remains aloof. So who is the real villain here?

Suleiman has combined the aesthetics of Jacques Tati with a uniquely Palestinian political fervor and sense of subversion. The film needs to be read as the synthesis of both of these elements.

#palestine #elia suleiman #divine intervention #jacques tati #israel #palestinian cinema #cinema #film #auteur #political film #film directing #directing #middle east #arab cinema

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ai-wandering-mind · 3 years

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Reflect How These Impacted Me

Everything Is Connected – Connecting This Learning Experience with My Past, Current Life Experiences and Future Goals

In the previous semester, I anticipated going back to the campus and experience face-to-face learning again. Because online learning is just so problematic in so many ways. I also wrote this in my reflection last time,

“All in all, I hope to improve at elaborations after going through this course for this semester. I find myself able to understand the things taught to us, but not the why’s in a coherent and proper manner. I am glad however that I still managed to salvage some understanding from this course.”

I have to say, I am much better at elaborating points now -- the main key being confident and having read/research on the topic before talking about it. As well as making sure the main points are coherent first. I am not able to focus as good as before nor progress with my works well (due to health issues) but I realize at the very least, I am able to approach topics with better care and caution.

A lot of things are still going on but the start of 2021 was absolutely terrifying and anxiety-inducing. Israel-Palestine conflict seem to worsen every year though. The change of their leader is not an improvement. Here is a post that manages to mention/pin-point the horrible things Naftali Bennett, Israel’s new prime minister had said. A movement through social media with the various hashtags of condemning or dissing Israel is hilariously effective. While I disagree with the cuss words sometimes thrown out, an absolute solidarity achieved and shown through the online movement is magnificent.

So yeah, this is basically how I connect things from my past experience to the most recent one.

I have to say though, I genuinely prefer learning through Telegram discussions like the last two semesters -- there’s more input for me compared to online lectures where I get tired of trying to focus alone.

But all in all, it has not been a fruitless learning experience. I still gained something and I figured out a couple of ways to help myself -- recording the lessons, playing with a fidget cube to help focus and have snacks or sweet drinks or cold beverages to stimulate myself so I can digest some parts of the lecture.

(back to masterlist)

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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In full: Mahathir’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly

NEW YORK: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed spoke on Friday (Sep 28) at the United Nations General Assembly after a 15-year absence from the world body.

In his speech, Mahathir noted that the world is worse off today than it was 15 years ago and called for a reform of the United Nations.

Here is the full text of his speech:

Madam President,

I would like to join others in congratulating you on your election as the President of the Seventy-Third (73rd) Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

I am confident with your wisdom and vast experience; this session will achieve the objectives of the theme for this session. I assure you of Malaysia’s fullest support and cooperation towards achieving these noble goals.

Allow me to also pay tribute to your predecessor, His Excellency Miroslav Lajcak, for his dedication and stewardship in successfully completing the work of the 72nd Session of the General Assembly.

I commend the Secretary-General and the United Nations staff for their tireless efforts in steering and managing UN activities globally.

In particular, I pay tribute to the late Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the UN from 1997 – 2006, who sadly passed away in August this year. Malaysia had a positively strong and active engagement with the UN during his tenure.

Madam President,

The theme of this 73rd Session of General Assembly, “Making the United Nations Relevant to All People: Global Leadership and Shared Responsibilities for Peaceful, Equitable and Sustainable Societies” remains true to the aspiration of our founding fathers. The theme is most relevant and timely. It is especially pertinent in the context of the new Malaysia. The new Government of Malaysia, recently empowered with a strong mandate from its people, is committed to ensure that every Malaysian has an equitable share in the prosperity and wealth of the nation.

A new Malaysia emerged after the 14th General Election in May this year. Malaysians decided to change their government, which had been in power for 61 years, i.e., since independence. We did this because the immediate past Government indulged in the politics of hatred, of racial and religious bigotry, as well as widespread corruption. The process of change was achieved democratically, without violence or loss of lives.

Malaysians want a new Malaysia that upholds the principles of fairness, good governance, integrity and the rule of law. They want a Malaysia that is a friend to all and enemy of none. A Malaysia that remains neutral and non-aligned. A Malaysia that detests and abhors wars and violence. They also want a Malaysia that will speak its mind on what is right and wrong, without fear or favour. A new Malaysia that believes in co-operation based on mutual respect, for mutual gain. The new Malaysia that offers a partnership based on our philosophy of ‘prosper-thy-neighbour’. We believe in the goodness of cooperation, that a prosperous and stable neighbour would contribute to our own prosperity and stability.

The new Malaysia will firmly espouse the principles promoted by the UN in our international engagements. These include the principles of truth, human rights, the rule of law, justice, fairness, responsibility and accountability, as well as sustainability. It is within this context that the new government of Malaysia has pledged to ratify all remaining core UN instruments related to the protection of human rights. It will not be easy for us because Malaysia is multi-ethnic, multireligious, multicultural and multilingual. We will accord space and time for all to deliberate and to decide freely based on democracy.

Madam President,

When I last spoke here in 2003, I lamented how the world had lost its way. I bemoaned the fact that small countries continued to be at the mercy of the powerful. I argued the need for the developing world to push for reform, to enhance capacity building and diversify the economy. We need to maintain control of our destiny.

But today, 15 years later the world has not changed much. If at all the world is far worse than 15 years ago. Today the world is in a state of turmoil economically, socially and politically.

There is a trade war going on between the two most powerful economies. And the rest of the world feel the pain.

Socially new values undermine the stability of nations and their people. Freedom has led to the negation of the concept of marriage and families, of moral codes, of respect etc.

But the worse turmoil is in the political arena. We are seeing acts of terror everywhere. People are tying bombs to their bodies and blowing themselves up in crowded places. Trucks are driven into holiday crowds. Wars are fought and people beheaded with short knives. Acts of brutality are broadcast to the world live. Masses of people risk their lives to migrate only to be denied asylum, sleeping in the open and freezing to death. Thousands starve and tens of thousands die in epidemics of cholera.

No one, no country is safe. Security checks inconvenience travellers. No liquids on planes. The slightest suspicion leads to detention and unpleasant questioning.

To fight the “terrorists” all kinds of security measures, all kinds of gadgets and equipment are deployed. Big brother is watching. But the acts of terror continues.

Malaysia fought the bandits and terrorists at independence and defeated them. We did use the military. But alongside and more importantly we campaigned to win the hearts of minds of these people.

This present war against the terrorist will not end until the root causes are found and removed and hearts and minds are won.

What are the root causes? In 1948, Palestinian land was seized to form the state of Israel. The Palestinians were massacred and forced to leave their land. Their houses and farms were seized.

They tried to fight a conventional war with help from sympathetic neighbours. The friends of Israel ensured this attempt failed. More Palestinian land was seized. And Israeli settlements were built on more and more Palestinian land and the Palestinians are denied access to these settlements built on their land.

The Palestinians initially tried to fight with catapults and stones. They were shot with live bullets and arrested. Thousands are incarcerated.

Frustrated and angry, unable to fight a conventional war, the Palestinians resort to what we call terrorism.

The world does not care even when Israel breaks international laws, seizing ships carrying medicine, food and building materials in international waters. The Palestinians fired ineffective rockets which hurt no one. Massive retaliations were mounted by Israel, rocketing and bombing hospitals, schools and other buildings, killing innocent civilians including school children and hospital patients. And more.

The world rewards Israel, deliberately provoking Palestine by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

It is the anger and frustration of the Palestinians and their sympathisers that cause them to resort to what we call terrorism. But it is important to acknowledge that any act which terrify people also constitute terrorism. And states dropping bombs or launching rockets which maim and kill innocent people also terrify people. These are also acts of terrorism.

Malaysia hates terrorism. We will fight them. But we believe that the only way to fight terrorism is to remove the cause. Let the Palestinians return to reclaim their land. Let there be a state of Palestine. Let there be justice and the rule of law. Warring against them will not stop terrorism. Nor will out-terrorising them succeed.

We need to remind ourselves that the United Nations Organisation, like the League of Nations before, was conceived for the noble purpose of ending wars between nations.

Wars are about killing people. Modern wars are about mass killings and total destruction countrywide. Civilised nations claim they abhor killing for any reason. When a man kills, he commits the crime of murder. And the punishment for murder may be death.

But wars, we all know encourage and legitimise killing. Indeed the killings are regarded as noble, and the killers are hailed as heroes. They get medals stuck to their chest and statues erected in their honour, have their names mentioned in history books.

There is something wrong with our way of thinking, with our value system. Kill one man, it is murder, kill a million and you become a hero. And so we still believe that conflict between nations can be resolved with war.

And because we still do, we must prepare for war. The old adage says “to have peace, prepare for war”. And we are forever preparing for war, inventing more and more destructive weapons. We now have nuclear bombs, capable of destroying whole cities. But now we know that the radiation emanating from the explosion will affect even the country using the bomb. A nuclear war would destroy the world.

This fear has caused the countries of Europe and North America to maintain peace for over 70 years. But that is not for other countries. Wars in these other countries can help live test the new weapons being invented.

And so they sell them to warring countries. We see their arms in wars fought between smaller countries. These are not world wars but they are no less destructive. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, whole countries devastated and nations bankrupted because of these fantastic new weapons.

But these wars give handsome dividends to the arms manufacturers and traders. The arms business is now the biggest business in the world. They profit shamelessly from the deaths and destructions they cause. Indeed, so-called peace-loving countries often promote this shameful business.

Today’s weapons cost millions. Fighter jets cost about 100 million dollars. And maintaining them cost tens of millions. But the poor countries are persuaded to buy them even if they cannot afford. They are told their neighbours or their enemies have them. It is imperative that they too have them.

So, while their people starve and suffer from all kinds of deprivations, a huge percentage of their budget is allocated to the purchase of arms. That their buyers may never have to use them bothers the purveyors not at all.

Madam President,

In Myanmar, Muslims in Rakhine state are being murdered, their homes torched and a million refugees had been forced to flee, to drown in the high seas, to live in makeshift huts, without water or food, without the most primitive sanitation. Yet the authorities of Myanmar including a Nobel Peace Laureate deny that this is happening. I believe in non-interference in the internal affairs of nations. But does the world watch massacres being carried out and do nothing? Nations are independent. But does this mean they have a right to massacre their own people, because they are independent?

Madam President,

On the other hand, in terms of trade, nations are no longer independent. Free trade means no protection by small countries of their infant industries. They must abandon tariff restrictions and open their countries to invasion by products of the rich and the powerful. Yet the simple products of the poor are subjected to clever barriers so that they cannot penetrate the market of the rich. Malaysian palm oil is labelled as dangerous to health and the estates are destroying the habitat of animals. Food products of the rich declare that they are palm oil free. Now palm diesel are condemned because they are decimating virgin jungles. These caring people forget that their boycott is depriving hundreds of thousands of people from jobs and a decent life.

We in Malaysia care for the environment. Some 48% of our country remains virgin jungle. Can our detractors claim the same for their own countries?

Madam President,

Malaysia is committed to sustainable development. We have taken steps, for example in improving production methods to ensure that our palm oil production is sustainable. By December 2019, the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) standard will become mandatory. This will ensure that every drop of palm oil produced in Malaysia will be certified sustainable by 2020.

Madam President,

All around the world, we observe a dangerous trend to inward-looking nationalism, of governments pandering to populism, retreating from international collaborations and shutting their borders to free movements of people, goods and services even as they talk of a borderless world, of free trade. While globalisation has indeed brought us some benefits, the impacts have proven to be threatening to the independence of small nations. We cannot even talk or move around without having our voices and movement recorded and often used against us. Data on everyone is captured and traded by powerful nations and their corporations.

Malaysia lauds the UN in its endeavours to end poverty, protect our planet and try to ensure everyone enjoys peace and prosperity. But I would like to refer to the need for reform in the organisation. Five countries on the basis of their victories 70 over years ago cannot claim to have a right to hold the world to ransom forever. They cannot take the moral high ground, preaching democracy and regime change in the countries of the world when they deny democracy in this organisation.

I had suggested that the veto should not be by just one permanent member but by at least two powers backed by three non-permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly should then back the decision with a simple majority. I will not say more.

I must admit that the world without the UN would be disastrous. We need the UN, we need to sustain it with sufficient funds. No one should threaten it with financial deprivation.

Madam President

After 15 years and at 93, I return to this podium with the heavy task of bringing the voice and hope of the new Malaysia to the world stage. The people of Malaysia, proud of their recent democratic achievement, have high hopes that around the world – we will see peace, progress and prosperity. In this we look toward the UN to hear our pleas.

I thank you, Madam President.

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