#Like helping the Palestinians go back to their home?

[cooking-with-hailstones]

In case you were wondering: are the campus protests even important? Do they matter? Are they making a difference?

Yes, yes. They are making a difference.

Video description: Bisan, a young Palestinian woman, is speaking directly to the camera. She is wearing a black shirt and a keffiyeh.

Video transcript (I did my best but missed a few words)

I’m 25 years old. I’ve lived my whole life in Gaza Strip. I’ve never felt hope like now. Never. I mean it’s magical feelings running in my veins right now. In my head, I’m in Gaza city, in the north of Gaza Strip rebuilding my city after this genocide has ended. Even started to dream that my friends from Yafa, Haifa (unsure), majdal, are returning to their cities after being displaced for 75 years. These young heroes in universities at America and around the world are stronger than the last occupation in history. And for the first time in our lives as Palestinians, we hear a voice louder than their voices and the sound of their bombs and even stronger than their control in all aspects of our lives. 

In the 70s, the occupation, Prime Minister said, after decades of killing Palestinians, stealing the lands, establishing the state of Israel over the lands that “the adults will die, and children will definitely forget.” 

Wait. Is that the greatest (unsure) in history? Because it’s children and youth who are leading the movement for a free Palestine. everything they have on the line to demand justice and end of the genocide, and a new era of the world, not based on oppression, exploitation or colonialism. 

Do you know what the best part is? demonstrations and calls for boycott in the academic institutions are not limited to a certain people from certain religion, culture, color, religion, race, or maybe economic level. We are all different so we can no longer be accused of anti-Semitism, serving some agendas from outside, we are just different people calling for the same thing. People to people and people to justice. 

200 days I’ve spent escaping death every single minute were not in vain. And those 40,000 innocent souls were killed during these days were not also in vain. And this is the first time to feel and tell you this. 

Keep going because you are our only hope and we promise we will hold our ground and tell you the truth always. And please, don’t let their violence scare you. In Arabic, we say (Arabic phrase). In English, that means “they don’t have other options, but trying to terrify and silence you” because you are demolishing decades of brainwashing. You are making the change. The real change. Their violence means that we’ve begun to affect them deeply. Believe me, we are in the bottom of this bottle and we’re very very close to the end of this genocide. Maybe even closer than anytime before. Thank you. Thank you for each one of you, because you made us, me and my people feel that we are free. We are heard. We’re going back to our homes, and land. 

(Through tears) I have spent the whole night thinking about every video I see, you shouting for Palestine, you protesting for Palestine, you are dancing, singing for Palestine I feel it here in my head that I am going back. And I am free, and one day, we will celebrate it in, in Gaza together. Keep going and we will too. Salaam. 

(if anyone can help with my transcript, it would be much appreciated!)

#Palestine #free palestine #wizard bisan #bisan owda #Gaza #columbia university #columbia protest #campus protests #yale university #emory university #video #described video #Instagram

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Hamza Howidy, Palestinian from Gaza City

Published: Apr 25, 2024

Protests are spreading across the United States at college campuses, where university students are gathering in the name of Palestinian rights and occupying campus spaces with tents. Sadly, not everyone who purports to support Palestinians is truly interested in safeguarding our rights.

It pains me to say this as a Palestinian from Gaza. As my home is destroyed and too many killed, I never thought I would find myself criticizing those speaking up. And yet, I cannot be silent about what I am seeing. The truth is that the manner in which many gather to voice their support for Palestinians does more to hurt our cause than help it.

You know what would help the Palestinians in Gaza? Condemning Hamas' atrocities. Instead, the protesters routinely chant their desire to "Globalize the Intifada." Apparently they do not realize that the Intifadas were disastrous for both Palestinians and Israelis, just as October 7 has been devastating for the people of Gaza.

They should be speaking up for the innocent victims of Hamas—both Palestinian and Israeli. Instead, they endorse Hamas's ideology with posters announcing resistance "by any means necessary" and chants of "from the river to the sea," effectively glorifying the Al-Qassam brigades, Hamas' military wing, whose ideology is entirely based on the elimination of more than 6 million Israelis from the land.

I assumed individuals who initiated these slogans were uninformed about what they were advocating for. I saw the LGBTQ flag frequently flown among people chanting lines from Hamas's charter, and I initially wanted to educate them, to warn them that the group they are honoring would most likely toss them from the top of a building or murder them like they did to Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander accused of homosexuality. Hamas harasses women who don't cover their heads. Hamas tortures those who demonstrate against their authoritarian rule, as they did me when I protested.

All of this seems to be lost on the people who have named themselves our allies, to our misfortune.

Hate speech on college campuses starting with the one at Columbia has recently reached a frightening pitch. I've seen people yelling antisemitic things at Jewish students, including "Jews go back to Poland" and other horrible phrases. It has deteriorated to the point that Jews are no longer attending university classes due to the current hostile environment, and they are attending their classes online to avoid the demonstrators.

It's unconscionable. But it's not just the antisemitism that has me despairing. It's the hypocrisy. Where were these caring young people when Hamas took over Gaza and slaughtered hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years? Why didn't they speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict, which resulted in more than 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured, according to Gazan municipal authorities? Where were they when Hamas's failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans on October 17, or when Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices?

The only conclusion that can be drawn from these demonstrators' silence concerning Hamas' atrocities and their antisemitic chanting is that they are not concerned with protecting Palestinians. They are out in their tents because of a hatred of Jews and Israelis.

As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the protesters and the organizers of these protests to know that their hateful speech harms us. The Jewish person or Israeli you are intimidating during your rally may be the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor or a family member of an Israeli slain or abducted by Hamas on October 7. These folks would be your partners if the protests were about achieving lasting peace and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.

I do not accept hateful speech or terrorist chants, and all of these foolish dreams about eradicating Israel are disgusting—and will never be achieved. Both of us—Palestinians and Israelis—are here to stay.

But the protesters aren't interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.

If the protesters cared about Palestinians, they would have one central demand: Hamas must surrender, because we have all suffered from Hamas and can no longer live under the rule of a terrorist group. Only then can a ceasefire be achieved.

Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate.

==

Told you so.

I've been calling these protestors "pro-Hamas" not "pro-Palestine" for months. I've invited dozens to condemn Hamas and none of them will. The "ceasefire" they want is for Israel to surrender so Hamas can murder them all, as they've consistently promised to.

Imagine people who pretend to want a "ceasefire" not just chanting for "intifada" (violence) and celebrating barbarous Islamic terrorism but blocking actual Palestinian peace activists. This was never about peace. It still isn't. They're useful idiots whose antisemitism is being used by Islamic supremacists to undermine western society.

#Hamza Howidy #Gaza #free Gaza #antisemitism #israel #pro palestine #palestine #hamas supporters #islamic terrorism #pro hamas #terrorism supporters #intifada #intifada revolution #useful idiots #by all means #islam #islamic supremacy #religion #religion is a mental illness

[oghotonghoton-potiushi]

So if it's hamas who kidnapped Israelis and hamas who bombed Palestinians then what the FUCK is idf soldiers doing other than dancing on TikTok?

#Palestine #Israel #Don't they have work to do? #Like helping the Palestinians go back to their home? #Or help em with water and food and meds #Since they are the good guys who NEVER kidnapped a civilian #And they are neighbors? #Idk #I thought they were supposed to be doing more thank Killin ooops dancing #Find the hostages at least? #Lame

[esyra]

After the hospital bombing, I finally heard back from my grandmother and confirmed that several of my relatives were murdered by Israeli bombing. Seven of them, to be precise. Three are still going, including her. We've been talking constantly ever since.

Asked if it was possible to head south, and was told they did but were also bombed there. So they decided to go back home, in Zeitoun. Their home was bombed and they were pulled out of the rumble, then driven by ambulances to the al-Ahli Arab Hospital. There were people in every corner. Gazans sheltering, sleeping on the floor. Gazans dying on the floor, waiting for beds.

Four were declared dead on arrival, three were in need of surgery and other three were just bandaged. Then, a bomb was dropped in the parking lot that made parts of the ceiling collapse, like Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah reported in that horrific conference/interview. Those in need of surgery died.

By the way, just in case you didn't know: the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the third oldest in history, bombed by Israel a few days back, was located near the hospital.

When looking for new shelter, they saw schools with signs hanging outside, "We can't take any more families." They met families, sympathetic but already sheltering too many people. They're now staying in an apartment building they found empty. Sleeping in the corner of the living room. If the family comes back, they'll apologize and leave.

Told me she was saving her phone battery for when the bombing stopped, and she had to ask for help to rebuilt the neighborhood. But she doesn't think it's gonna stop anymore. The ones still with her are mute most of the time, like they're saving energy, but she feels lonely and wanted to talk. There's no internet and to connect to WhatsApp, people are buying "a card from the supermarket, there's a password and username." Not sure what she meant. Still, the internet is inconsistent and won't load neither videos or images nor pages, so she doesn't know what's happening on the outside world.

Told her there were a lot of people protesting to stop the genocide, she replied, "The bombings are getting worse by the day." The bombing yesterday was the worst she ever witnessed. The entire neighborhood is infested with the smell of death, of decomposing bodies. Bodies are piling up in the streets and she's not sure if it's because they ran out of places to store them, but most of them are in bags. The smoke of the bombings hide the blue sky—she hasn't seen the clouds for a while.

Asked if I could share their pictures, names and dreams with people and was told, of which I partly agree, "they're not entertainment." If anyone genuinely cared, they would be alive—I'd argue there are people who do care, but I'm not gonna lecture her pain. And they don't deserve to be used to fulfill someone's sick fantasy. Told me to remember what some Israelis do with pictures of dead Palestinians. And I do.

For those of you who are not familiar, many times before settlers got together to celebrate the murder of Palestinians. For one, in 2015, Israeli settlers set a house in Duma, West Bank on fire. An 18-month old baby, Ali Dawbsheh, was burnt alive. Both parents later died of wounds and only a 5-year-old, Ahmad, survived, although severely injured.

Two celebrations of their murder are widely known, one at a wedding and others outside the court in which two were indicted for the terrorist attack. In the wedding, guests stabbed a photo of the toddler, Ali, while others waved guns, knives and Molotov cocktails. Israel's Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was present.

That's what happens in an apartheid. Palestinians are so abused by authorities that their "innocent civilians" come to accept the brutality as necessary or are desensitized by our suffering. After all, it's been 75 years—get used to it!

So I won't risk the image of my loved ones, in fear they are used in these kinds of depravity. I will say, though, the world lost a young footballer. Lost a female writer and an aspiring ballerina. Lost a kind father, who was also a great cook, and a loving mother that enjoyed sewing and other types of handicraft art. Lost a math teacher and a child that wanted to become one.

People think Israel is testing new weapons on them. There's civilians arriving at the hospital with severe burns, which they thought was from white phosphorus, but apparently the pattern is different from the one caused by white phosphorus. It's widely believed Israel tests weapons in Palestinians.

Jeff Halper, author of War Against the People, a book on Israel's arms and surveillance technology industries, said: "Israel has kept the occupation because it's a laboratory for weapons."

They've ran out of drinkable water and the "aid" Biden sent was only for the South of Gaza and no fuel, for hospitals, was allowed in. Many shelves in the supermarket are empty. She said many are convinced that if they don't die from the bombing, they'll die from starvation or dehydration, or whatever disease will develop from the dirty water they're drinking.

Told me all people do now is pray, cry and die. Told me she hopes West Bank is spared. Told her Israel bombed a mosque in West Bank and dozens of Palestinians in West Bank are being murdered by settlers, so she bided me goodbye.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #may allah protect them #may almighty allah see our pain #hopefully she'll message me tomorrow

[yeetus-feetus]

Today my mother made me go to the beach. And while I was there I let myself enjoy the water and sand between my toes.

After a little while I felt like crying.

I felt like crying because remembered the videos I had seen of Palestinian children playing in the water of their beaches, of parents chasing children around while they laughed, of people enjoying the water and feeling the sand between their toes.

Then I thought about how these people don't get to enjoy their beaches anymore. Because Israel won't let them, because Israel is bombing the families who used to play in the sand.

When we got in the car my mum rolled all the windows down, said something about the fresh air. And as we drove I felt the cool wind against my face, in my hair.

And I wanted to cry.

Because the people in Gaza don't get to just enjoy the fresh air. Because all they're breathing in is debris from destroyed buildings and white phosphorus, and the smell of the dead.

I looked out my window and saw my old school as we passed. And I felt guilty, because I dropped out. But their are children in Palestine who are crying and begging to go back to school and they can't.

The children in Gaza can't go back to school because Israel has destroyed and bombed them.

And I think about the displaced people taking refuge in those very schools while Israel attacked them. I think about how unfair and cruel that is.

And then I see the trees. My favourite trees, Gum trees that are native to my land. And I think about how the native trees in Gaza are being destroyed and bulldozed, very important trees that mean a lot to the Palestinian people. And those trees are being taken away by Israel.

Then there are houses, homes and people going about their day. I watch them from my car window and I want to cry still. Because the people in Gaza have no homes, they don't get to go about their day.

I think about the displaced people in Gaza, who are lucky to have a tent to sleep in. Because Israel has bombed their homes, rained white phosphorus above their homes, bulldozed over their homes, forced the Palestinian people to flee from their homes.

I'm barely holding in my tears, because I'm in the car on the way to my own home and the people in Gaza don't get to do that.

We pass the shops, and my throat starts to close up because there's people buying ice cream and groceries for their families. And the people in Gaza are being starved by Israel.

The people in Gaza don't get to have ice cream, they can't do their grocery shopping. They don't even have enough food for their own children because Israel refuses to let any aid trucks in, because they control all the borders and entries into Gaza.

We pass by a chemist in particular and I think about all the children in Gaza not being able to receive medical care. Because the hospitals are being attacked by Israel. Because no medical aid can get in. Because they have doctors being killed.

And then we pass by the park. The park is empty. And I think about the empty parks in Gaza. Because there are no children to play on the swings, no children to run and laugh. Because the children are crying instead. The children have no legs to play because they've been bombed. They can't laugh because white phosphorus has burned through their faces. They can't do anything because they are frozen in fear.

Theses children who should be filling up empty parks are holding their baby siblings, trying to keep them alive because their parents, aunt's and uncles, have all been slaughtered by the IDF. These children who should be laughing are screaming out for help because members of the IDF are raping them.

These children who should be having fun at the park are prisoners of Israel for throwing rocks at tanks like the boy David who threw a rock at the giant Goliath to save his people. And these children are being tortured in these prisons because they were hopeful and brave.

These children who should be with their families at the park are dying. Are dead. A lying beneath the ruble. Are cold and limp with no air in their lungs. These children are in pieces scattered across the blood drenched ground.

They should have been at the park today.

I can hear a man talking on the radio, and he's talking about unimportant nonsense things and I feel angry. I feel frustrated. Because why is no one else talking about this!? Why is no one talking about what's happening to these people!??

We pass by the fresh water creak right before my house and I want to scream! Because I know there's no fresh water in Gaza. I know there are Palestinians dying of dehydration and yet there is fresh, drinkable water running right there! But the water in Palestine has been polluted by blood and disease, and the seawater Israel has flooded their water supply with.

And when I get to my bed I finally scream and cry and punch my mattress to get all my emotions out.

Now I'm numb and writing this so that someone will see it, hoping that someone will understand, hoping that someone will fight even harder for the people of Palestine.

I'm hoping that they can enjoy their beaches again. I hope that's sometime soon.

#palestine #free palestine #save palestine #save gaza #gaza #i stand with palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #isreal #idf #fuck the idf #fuck isreal #end the occupation #occupied palestine

[probablyasocialecologist]

A scenario that Gaza’s rescue workers have been encountering regularly is having to try to calm children who are stuck beneath the ruins of their home. “The children call out from the rubble asking about their family members,” Musa continued. “We sometimes lie and tell them everyone is okay so that they don’t go into shock. Other times, they call out to tell us that a family member lying next to them has been martyred.” For Musa, it often feels like he and his colleagues are fighting a losing battle. “It’s not one or two houses being bombed, but entire residential complexes,” he explained. “The whole area is completely erased and becomes a single pile of rubble. We need to dig with our hands to remove injured people who are still alive. We try to be careful because the weight of the rubble on their bodies could mean that we could injure them, even costing them limbs, in our attempts to save them.”

[...]

Despite the horrors they are facing, Musa and Abu Khudair both find real purpose in their work. “We feel that these are our children, our siblings, our families whom we are saving,” Musa explained. “We feel a sense of victory when we succeed in safely removing someone from the rubble. But when we hear the cries of help from children under the rubble, none of us can hold back our tears.”  “This is our work,” said Abu Khudair. “Even though Israel does not respect international law, the law is on our side and we are protected by the will of God.”

#palestine #israel #gaza #Palestinian Civil Defence

[comicaurora]

Sorry to drop a hella irl-political question on your mostly webcomic blog, but have you/any of the OSP gang heard of/been participating in the week-long strike for palestine that's been (presumably) all over tumblr/the internet?

For some background info: Following the attack on Oct. 7th by the hamas militant group (a terrorist org. Or resistance group, depending who you ask), the state of israel (which is practically a mass colonial settlement on Palestinian land since '48) has taken the attack as an excuse to indiscriminately bomb the homes of thousands if not millions of homes while forcebly displacing almost all of the ~2.3 million people crammed in the gaza strip with no escape.

'Israel' has also tightened it's blockade on the strip of land such that a growing majority of people there are experiencing catastrophic starvation, disease from sewage-infested drinking water (as water aid is too scarce). Soon even deaths by preventable causes such as diabetes will occur since insulin pens for children have been blocked from entering by israel, who controls gaza's borders, water, power, food supplies, and shoreline. Civilians in Gaza are very frequently and indiscriminately killed often in places they were told were safe zones to evacuate to. It's agreed upon by both experts and laymen worldwide that what is happening (and has BEEN happening before Oct.7th) is nothing short of genocide.

In the occupied Palestinian west bank, where there is no hamas whatsoever to use as an excuse, Palestinians are still arrested without a fair trial for years, abused, prevented from using certain roads, shot, and often straight-up have their houses stolen by armed or military-backed israeli settlers (many of whom have no ancestral connection to the land at all) in a system often compared to or outright stated to be apartheid.

Very recently, a journalist in Gaza by the name of Bisan Owda called for a strike from January 21st to January 28th. The conditions of the strike can be paraphrased as:

Cease all unnecessary purchases or payments, avoid generating ad revenue when possible

Do not go to work or school if you can possibly avoid it

Pay for things only in cash if you must

Use social media exclusively to flood the internet with palestinian voices and resources about the ongoing genocide against the palestinian people

Attend protests if you can

Be visible.

It's the 26th now, but joining late would be far better than to not join at all and stay silent.

I figured I'd ask since since OSP has covered various topics about history and/or politics and we're kinda watching some awful history unfolding, the kind of history where neutrality doesn't really work and a side needs to be taken.

Opinions? (Sorry if I'm coming across as condescending! I just really want my favorite blogs to be aware and take a stance rather than being silent hhhghf)

Okay, here's my answer.

OSP has been supporting calls for a ceasefire for months, and we were fundraising in direct support of it via Doctors Without Borders all through November and December. Total, we raised over $30,000. If we include the UNICEF fundraiser we ran on the Spider-Man streams, the total is over $40,000.

During our charity livestreams, we have made our positions clear – we support a ceasefire, Israel is perpetuating settler-colonialist violence and has been for decades, Hamas is a terrorist organization that endangers Israelis and Palestinians alike, the innocent people of both Palestine and Israel deserve safety and peace. We concluded that the best thing we could do under the circumstances was empower those who are in a real position to actually help by providing funding for their work. We believe this is significantly more beneficial than adding Another Angry Internet Post to the pile of insular outrage on Internet Land. Fundraising for the organizations with boots on the ground feels like it does a lot more good than being loud online for the benefit of other online people.

This is not the first time I've heard reference to the strike, but it is the first time I've seen the parameters of the strike laid out, which to me indicates that it wasn't spread as widely or effectively as it could've been.

I understand and appreciate why you sent this ask, but your premise worries me. I know this may surprise and startle us denizens of the internet, but being extremely loud on the internet is not the only or the most effective form of activism, and people not being extremely loud on the internet with every account they have is not the same thing as silent complicity in war crimes, and people acting like those two things are the same thing has been unbelievably frustrating to watch.

If we act like everything is a binary moral choice between "scream your loudest, most angry opinions online every time you feel angry about them" and "not doing that is literally the same thing as participating in genocide", we are creating a very strong pressure to flood the internet with our angriest, most unformed thoughts, lest we be branded as complicit in war crimes. Social media sites live and die on engagement, hence why twitter has rapidly trended towards doomscrolling and encouraging inflammatory clickbait - angry shouty people are traffic and traffic is money. The cynical part of me is utterly unsurprised that social media encourages the idea that the only true form of activism is being loud on social media.

It sounds like you had the feeling that sending me this ask was weird and a boundary overstep, and you were correct. My platform is not world-changing or in any way politically powerful beyond our ability to create charity fundraisers for causes we believe in, and we are doing what we can to help in the tiny ways that we can from halfway across the world, from a position of absolutely zero political weight beyond emailing our representatives. You are just asking me to also shout about it online loudly enough that I measure up to an artificial loudness metric, because my existing shouting was not already loud or omnipresent enough.

You are not entitled to know every thought in my head or every action I take in my life. I am not online to perform outrage and live up to an arbitrary moral standard of Shouting Enough. I am especially not online on my fantasy webcomic blog to do those things. Please understand that what you see of me is what I choose to share, and I am under no obligation, moral or otherwise, to share more.

#asks #not aurora #taking a big risk putting this on the reading comprehension website #turned off reblogs just so I don't stress all night

[newsfromstolenland]

The murder of 700+ Jewish people isn't something to be celebrated. I'm against Israeli government and what they've done to the people of Palestine. But there is nothing to encourage or support, this was a terrorist act. We haven't had this many people die in a single day since the Holocaust, and the attack happened on a Jewish holiday. Have some respect.

this isn't an antisemitic attack?? this is people who have been subjected to more than half a century of ethnic cleansing and colonization at the hands of Israeli settlers fighting back against their oppressors

you're ignoring the death toll of Palestinians over the years to make them out to be "terrorists" when all they're doing is fighting back in self defense. when colonists kill brown people it's a "complicated conflict with good people on both sides", but when those brown people fight back they're "terrorists". it's so fucking transparent.

the occupation of Palestine is brutal and genocidal, and you're comparing the people perpetrating said genocide to holocaust victims?? bullshit.

you say you support Palestinians, but what would you have them do? keep asking for help from countries that only end up arming the Israeli state? keep being killed in their homes and schools and hospitals and places of worship because fighting back makes them the bad guys? fuck you

this isn't Palestinians being antisemitic and attacking jewish people (not to mention that there are plenty of jewish Palestinians), this is about a colonized people fighting back against those who are colonizing them. it's about fighting an oppressive colonial state, not persecuting jewish people.

your rhetoric is the same as France's rhetoric when Algerians fought back against the french occupation, and as Britain's when Indians fought back against colonization. colonists slaughter at will but the colonized fighting back get called terrorists. you're on the wrong side of history, and I'd like to cordially invite you to go fuck yourself

#asks #anonymous #mine #un-fucking-believable #palestine #free palestine #israel #zionism #colonialism #genocide #ethnic cleansing #colonialism tw #genocide tw #ethnic cleansing tw

[matan4il]

As I promised to update, I'm back from the hospital and I'm okay.

Food was starting to run out (only had enough left for about half a day), I really didn't want to go to the store when it's dangerous to be away from the bomb shelter, but had no choice. Got food, but there's no bottled water to be found anywhere, exactly when Israeli citizens were instructed last night to stock up our bomb shelters with enough dry food and bottled water for at least three days.

The number of confirmed dead is officially at 900 (still not final), the number of wounded is at over 2,600, the number of kidnapped is at least 150. The number of terrorists who breached Israel's border and massacred civilians on Saturday is estimated to be at least 1,500.

I mentioned Mor and her grandmother already, but I felt like hearing her telling their story is important enough to share this vid. Testimonies like this are coming out in incomprehensible numbers.

Since the beginning of this war on Israel on Saturday, five independent terrorist attacks were attempted and stopped. Thankfully, no one was reported to have been murdered, though there are casualties.

In Egypt, a soldier guarding tourists (likely inspired by Hamas' massacre) opened fire at a group from Israel. He murdered two Israelis and their Egyptian local tour guide. At least one more person was also wounded in this terror attack.

There have been rockets fired into Israel from the north by Hezbollah (while Hamas fires thousands of rockets from the south) and there was also a breach of Israel from the north by another terrorist organization named Islamist Jihad. During this, Israel's northern citizens were instructed to lock themselves inside their homes. All of the terrorists who infiltrated Israel from the north were killed, but so was an Israeli commander, Alim Abdallah. He was supposed to finish his army service this coming Sunday. May his memory be a blessing.

On a personal note, my former boss' son was killed (may his memory be a blessing. ז"ל), and one of my colleagues has been kidnapped and is held hostage in Gaza.

Another personal story is that of Lior Asulin. He was a talented soccer player. Among other clubs, he played for an Arab team and helped it become Israel's soccer champion. He was murdered at the music festival that he went to in order to celebrate his birthday, and where at least 270 young people were butchered (ז"ל).

There's news from other countries about anti-Israeli demonstrations where the massacre of innocent Israelis is celebrated, in Australia the pro-Palestinian demonstrators shouted "Fuck the Jews" as well as "Gas the Jews."

In at least one protest a pro-Israeli demonstrator was beaten up:

And already there are antisemitic incidents, where Jewish establishments outside of Israel are being targeted.

Countries whose citizens are known to have been kidnapped or murdered by Hamas in the attack on Israel:

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

#israel #israeli #israel news #israel under attack #israel under fire #israelunderattack #antisemitism #jewish #jews #jew #judaism #jumblr #frumblr

[tamamita]

I'm not Jewish and haven't read the Torah, but I have seen Jewish ppl say that even the Torah doesn't claim Jewish people are Indigenous to Israel. Abraham was born in modern day Iraq and finds Israel, in which there are people already there.

Also, other countries were considered to build Israel on, like Guyana and Australia, but the British landed on Palestine

Jewish people ARE historically and biblically indigenous to the Holy Land. There is no doubt about this and I don't think removing their indigeneity is gonna do any of us good.

However, Jewish people are not the FIRST people to have settled in the land of Canaan, many indigenous groups did exist there from the beginning, such as the Midianites, Philistines (not related to Palestinians) Hittites, Moabites and etc. Interestingly enough, Abraham (a) was a Canaanite himself, so Arabs and Israelites do share a common ancestry through Ishmael (a) and Isaaq (a) respectively. This is attested in Islamic manuscripts as well. With that said, I'm not gonna go through religious texts, because they aren't exactly helpful as a historical source. Most secular sources attest the fact that there was an Israelite kingdom, however, it does not correspond to the borders of today's settler state. The difference is that there was already a group of people that had settled in the holy land for 1400 years and have lives side by side with the Jewish and Christian people, these people are indigenous to that land, so for a group of people to come back centuries later and throw these natives out of their homes is simply not right.

But I think it's important that Jewish people aren't the only people who are indigenous, Samaritans are also indigenous and have remained so even before the Arab conquest. While they don't consider themselves Jewish, despite following the Mosaic laws, they are not given the same rights as their Jewish counterparts.

[jewishvitya]

Hi, I stumbled upon your political posts (and then Yuri, you might get me to watch it now) and I find your perspective fascinating. Maybe it's because I grew up with rather a lot of exposure to Palestinians and various peace movements, but your experience is alien to me, and I am really thankful to be able to read it.

I would like to ask, what do you define as Zionism? As the last month taught me that no two people define this term the same. For me it is the ability for the Jewish people to control our own life in a land that we are bound to, and that has no contradiction with the Palestinian doing the same on this land, that they are bound to it as well. No pressure to answer, just pure curiosity.

And if I may offer some hope for our future? On the fourth day of the war, someone who helps in one of the donation centres for the displaced Israelis ask in the group chat if there is a way to pass the extra clothing and equipment to the people of Gaza. In the past two month I got invites for over a dozes or meeting between Israelis and Palestinians, meetings were both sides shared their sorrows and hopes. When an acquaintance was raising money to help a Bedouin family whose house was hit by a rocket, he has to tell people to stop donating. People in my surrounding have been talking about the day after, building plans so they could help build a better place for both people. A long-fought battle in the courts was won, and a group of settlers were ordered to evacuate Palestinian land. Activists have been going to assist in the olive harvests in the West Bank, despite it all.

There is hope for us here.

Hi! Thank you! If you do watch YOI I hope you enjoy it lol.

I know my experience is not very common. Even other Israelis get shocked by the depth of the hatred and the indoctrination sometimes. I try to emphasize that it comes from the most extremist community we have, because I have no idea what the schooling looks like in other areas.

And sure, I'll try to explain, and maybe also why I choose to label myself as anti-zionist.

I don't know that I can give you a dictionary definition, because I define zionism mainly by what it did in practice - the colonizing of Palestine. And when I say colonizing, I'm not making claims about indigeniety or lack of it. I'm defining it through our tactics and our actions. Especially because early in the movement they openly used colonialist frameworks.

Some of the softer definitions of zionism, things like our right to self determination, our right to seek safety - these aren't things I'm against. And I understand that within zionism there were other proposed ideas that weren't necessarily meant to end up with an ethnostate, resulting in ethnic cleansing. So I know zionism is more complicated than what we see in Israel. But what we see now is the reality people are living as the outcome.

If we came here and said "we've been longing to go back here for such a long time, we suffered so much abuse, we want to live alongside you in our shared homeland, can we find a way to ensure our safety and yours" - this would have been a different conversation. Still complicated, because mass immigration is complicated, but different.

In reality, we destroyed communities to manufacture an ethnic majority. Tore a whole society apart and shattered it, spread it all over the world. We killed and expelled and traumatized. I called it the cycle of abuse on the scale of nations - taking horrors we suffered and inflicting them on others. So given the practical results of the zionist movement, I can't treat those softer definitions as the "true" definitions that people should go by.

I keep thinking about Jewish refugees being given the homes of Palestinians with meals still on the table. Because of course we have a right to food and shelter, but not at their expense. And I know you agree with me on this.

When I say I oppose zionism, that's generally because I'm talking about the reality, the impact the movement had on human lives, not an idealized version we might imagine or a philosophy someone wrote about that never came to be.

For me, if I want to talk about our safety in our ancestral homeland and detach it from the horrors committed by Israel, zionism isn't the right framework. And after all the destruction we caused the land to conquer and colonize it, if I want to talk about our connection to it, I think zionism shouldn't be the word I'm using.

There's also an aspect of, by insisting on defining zionism through a nicer idea rather than harm done to real people, I see it as taking away a language that oppressed people are using to talk about their oppression.

I hope that makes sense.

I really want us to find a different way to work towards safety, without it being at the expense of another group of people.

And thank you for that last paragraph. I definitely have hope. It's hard, seeing videos of our soldiers being so gleeful about the destruction. I lost a friend of over ten years because of the callous and cruel things he said over the past couple of months, and I can't bring myself to repeat them. But I know that better things are possible, and I'm glad we're building towards them. I'm terrified that our government won't let us move in that direction, but we're going to push there anyway.

#riki babbles

[fairiedance]

Edit: It's back

I just received notice that one of my most popular works, this dove, has been taken down for review. It should hopefully be back up by tomorrow, this was likely just triggered by my updating the product description. Every single work I've made related to Palestine has needed manual review at least once, it's default for "controversial" topics. In the mean time I have plenty of other designs in my shop here including a few variations on this one.

ALL PROCEEDS from my work are for my Palestinian best friend, to help him support his girlfriend in remaining in America until it's safe for her to travel back home and to help his friends and family in Palestine and around the rest of the Levant who are being hurt directly and/or financially by the attacks on Gaza, the raids and economic devastation in the West Bank and the collateral damage in surrounding countries. He will donate anything his family doesn't need to the Palestinian charities he works with.

Here are some examples of some of my other designs that should still be available:

Designs are available on shirts, stickers, bags, pins, notebooks and a bunch of other things. To see a design on other products click on the display product and scroll down or go here to browse by design. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #save palestine #فلسطين #gaza strip #colonialism #decolonisation #human rights #social justice #middle east #palestine art #art for palestine #art #palestinian solidarity #palestinian genocide

[homochadensistm]

I house ukrainian refugees and they're fantastic people. (cook way too much good food, i put on so much weight. Georgian good is the best!!"), but though they've gone back two or three times to collect some things from home, they know damn well there is no point trying to rebuild right now. All these people asking donations to help rebuild in Gaza just confuse me - there's still a war going on, guys.

I also see people get really pissed that Palestinians cannot go back to Gaza - as if the fact it's literally an active war-zone isn't a good enough reason to stay the hell away from there. My heart bleeds for Palestinians, but it always sounds like Hamas supporters just really want as many palestinian victims to waltz right in front of those tanks and just suffer martyrdom for their cause.

If you play jenga during an earthquake, are you really allowed to cry when you lose before the game even starts? Does that make sense?

anon ur last paragraph needs to be printed on a shirt jqhefbjkahfb

#israel #palestine #also ur absolutely correct #almost like its a capital S Scam

[coolspork]

I think one of the most heartbreaking things about the genocide in Gaza is that all the videos of people mourning and holding their loved ones wrapped in sheets and talking to social media and interviewers begging for their family and friends back is that the reaction burning in the back of my mind is to get the cameras out of their faces and let them mourn let them process, but we can't. If the cameras stop and turn away it's over. The fact that we have to record children crying that if their parents come back they promise to behave, people curled up on the gurneys silently holding bloody bodies wrapped in white, or else the world will just turn away and let them be wiped off the planet is absolutely abhorrent. The fact that the only way to keep aid and support for them going is to record moments that no one should ever be forced to share is so abysmally disheartening.

I'm a secular Jew but there's a part of me that prays to something that these people are given the time and space they deserve when there is a world that is safe for them. I can't stop thinking about how I have processed grief and how even in the best of circumstances it still felt like I was helpless while something inside me was thrashing and splitting me open and swallowing me whole, and I can't stop thinking about how it must feel to try and process that when you're fleeing for your life with entire families disappearing around you and to have someone on the other side of the world sitting in their safe, comfortable home see you grieving and try to tell you that you're a liar or that you deserved it or that you are a terrorist. It's fucking unfathomable and yet millions of people in Gaza are living it every day.

I see people around me side with right wing extremists and fascists just because someone told them opposing Israel is antisemitic and day after day post videos made by colonizers on "why palestinians are homophobic" and stupid pointless bullshit like that when entire families are dying just a few miles away from them. Pinkwashing, greenwashing, sitting in your pristine house trying to convince people that those children somehow deserved it. The amount of beautiful art I've seen because someone made a tribute video to a victim, knowing no more of it will be made, the videos of childrens birthday parties just a few months ago knowing they had their whole lives ahead of them, and someone somewhere is currently recording another condescending tiktok about why these people deserved to be erased.

I can't afford healthcare because my government is using that money to help erase an entire culture and people are still defending that choice. The fact that it's even up for debate is disgusting

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

#free palestine #free gaza #rant #jews for palestine #ceasefire #jews for ceasefire #palestine #gaza #I'm sorry this got really long #i just see video after video of people going through hell and then turn around to see my neighbors and community trying to justify it

[lily-orchard]

The fierce assaults against Israel - not just its government but its whole society, culture, and its very right to exist - are unlike any hostility aimed at rogue states like Russia, China and North Korea. Why? Amtisemitism, yes, that too. But bear with me. There’s more to it. People go berserk with their Israel hatred because something is hitting them close to home. Because at the back of their minds they can’t help wondering what they would feel like if they went through 7/10, with their spouses and children and parents, holding desperately to their saferoom door while Hamas is shooting at the keyhole

It's because Israel can't go a year without murdering children and evicting more Palestinians from their homes and stealing their land.

[allbeforee]

Words from a Palestinian (Eman Basher)

Translation of this tweet.

ID and plain text broken up version below

Image ID:

Let me tell a few things clearly and in Arabic: Regardless of October 7th incidents, Israel has constantly been bombing Gaza. I work at a school affiliated with the UNRWA near the borders. We're always asked to wear loose clothing to help us escape in the event of bombing. More than half of the female students in the class, not only have martyr relatives, they also witnessed the death of martyrs before their eyes.

Meaning, more than three-quarters of the students in my school have psychological trauma. More than once we fled from school under random bombing. More than once we hide in our classes and sit on the floor (like the CNN broadcaster), but this time I have 40 students in the class and I am charged with protecting them, and I cannot even protect myself.

Many times we would go back to school when we were not in a state of war, and we would find a girl who had been martyred, or in the hospital seriously injured because a soldier on the border had targeted her while she was in her home.

The residents of Beit Hanoun, all of their agricultural land, which is their livelihood, is on the border. Go and ask them about the tragedies they experience day in and day out. How many times have their crops been burned? How many times have they been targeted while they were farming safely?

Before October 7th, Israel constantly assaulted women on their way to prayers in Jerusalem, preventing them from reaching Al-Aqsa Mosque for days. Celebrations are held in vain and repeatedly, and they chant racist slogans to provoke the Palestinian people of Jerusalem.

Gazans need a permit to enter the West Bank, which is often denied (for education, work, treatment, all the same, forbidden).

On a personal note, I am 32 years old and have never visited Jerusalem or the rest of the cities of Palestine. Patients with serious medical conditions that require a transfer to the West Bank die while waiting for the approval of the transfer.

Checkpoints are widespread in the West Bank on every street, to the point that you take 2 hours to reach a place that you can normally reach in 15 mins because you have to stop and wait many times. Israel arrests men, women, and children, imprisons them without charge or trial, abuses them, and tortures them in prisons without supervision. If it releases them in deals - something that happens once in a lifetime - it exiles them to another city far from their family, that if it doesn't take them captive again!

Settlers occupy houses in the West Bank, steal them and live in them (just like that, imagine!), and the Palestinian who yesterday was still sleeping in this house is expelled under the cover of the occupation government. Even the Palestinians inside Israel, who are supposed to have Israeli identity cards, were not spared. They are treated as second-class citizens and are considered a minority.

They are prevented from many jobs. Armed Israeli gangs constantly assault them in the streets and in their homes. They are killed without any accountability. Rather, their killing is encouraged because they are causing a crisis for the occupying state.

In Gaza, if you order something online, it will take a year and we will be answered verbatim "it's up to the mood of the Israeli soldier working at the crossing". Three-quarters of the items Israel considers to be dual-use and refuses to enter the Gaza Strip, the most important of which is reinforced iron, which can be used in building shelters to protect civilians in wars.

I once ordered diving goggles, and they were returned because they were classified as dual use. Everything entering the sector is subject to inspection. Israel rations the Gaza Strip's food supplies so that the food that enters is not enough for a single person. It updates its data after each war to account for the sector's decrease in population due to martyrdom (articles are widespread and numerous, for example how it rations the entry of chocolate into the sector according to its own specific calculation).

Fishermen are hunted at sea and they're falsely accused of getting close to the border. The fishing area keeps shrinking that they now have a tiny area from which they can make a living.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the occupation's practices against the Palestinians in general and Gaza in particular.

Israel did not need October 7th except to inflame people's feelings, remind them of the Jewish tragedy, and wipe out the Gaza Strip, with the world giving it the green light. If October 7th hadn't happened, Israel would have bombed the Gaza Strip and said that a Gazan dog walked near the border and denied the Holocaust.

Resistance, tunnels, return marches, and demonstrations are all forms of oppressed people trying to defend themselves. Whether they succeed or fail, they are all attempts to say that we died with dignity, and at least we tried not to let them kill us while they were happy. As Naseer said, "If it were not for the resistance, your mother would've been washing an Israeli soldier's feet in a basin right now."

The occupation is not the enemy of the resistance itself. The occupation is my enemy, the enemy of my students, the enemy of my children, the enemy of my family members, and the enemy of my people. If God allowed us to live, I would like to let my children and students grow up cursing Israel. The battle is not over yet. This is not a post of justification, I don't have to justify to the world why we resist.

This is for some of my people who seem to believe the occupation's repeated narrative that its goal is to eliminate Hamas. And to remind them that in the past there was no Hamas, but your grandfather and grandmother were still killed. My son and your son are not Hamas, but my son and your son are still being killed.

End ID

#free gaza #free palestine #gaza #gaza genocide #gaza strip #gazaunderattack #palestine