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Gonna be honest with you. If you make a callout post for some random trans woman you need to kill yourself immediately. No ifs or buts. Same for if you reblog them. "But what if it's for real this time!" it wasn't for real any other time. Each time you shitheads spend a week or two trying to run a random trans woman off the site and smearing her name at any opportunity. 99.999% of the time OP's proof that this trans woman needs to be ostracised is "she interacted with some other person I don't like this one time" or "she likes to call her girlfriend mommy" but people reblog this shit like it's their moral duty anyways. Some of you then have the fucking audacity to go "oh I just didn't know!" like you're not going to do it again next week.

The only correct course of action us to just stop fucking reblogging these. Stop looking in the stupid callout posts if you even slightly give a shit about trans women. They're never even anything worthwhile. It's all pedojacketing based on nothing or just calling the trans woman a degenerate.

The last person for some reason prefaced the stupid callout post with "I'm not a terf or a transmisogynist". Like. You spent weeks stalking a random trans woman to compile a bunch of screenshots of her and start a harassment campaign based on like nothing. What's the point of the disclaimer? Why not be a terf? You'd do numbers in their circles.

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Speaking of Lin Manuel Miranda...have you guys read the Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda? It's not possible to watch the play I fear. I couldn't find the recordings. But the script alone is funny.

#YES AND I FINALLY GOT TO SEE IT IN 2020 #NUYORICAN POETS SOCIETY STREAMED IT FOR FOLKS ON YOUTUBE LIVE #if you email them btw you may be able to obtain a recording if you ask for it #nuyorican poets society email is: [email protected] #ishmael reed also wrote a couple of articles and scathing reviews of hamilton when it was released #let me just say i jumped out of my seat seeing the haunting of lin-manuel miranda mentioned on my dash like #i mention it to other people semi regularly because ishmael reed is a fantastic writer and playwright #and i hate lmm with a firey burning passion for everything but especially for his promesa bullshit

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I am joining ibtisam on her hunger strike.

I will be following the same guideline as @ibtisams here, but since this is my first ever hunger strike, i am initially settling for a sponsored 10-day strike. I will continue with the remaining 5 days if I (1) face no health complications after 10 days and (2) am sponsored.

We will be starting on May 1st, and I will also not be doing a dry hunger strike, rather, having fluids.

“Sponsor me” on my hunger strike!

If you send me proof of a $50 USD donation to Anera (the equivalent of feeding 180 Palestinians), I will add ONE day to my hunger strike (initially a maximum of 10 days, and 5 more days later if all is well.)

I will be following the same guidelines mentioned in the (1) (2) links from ibtisam's post, with a little research of my own.

This hunger strike is solely in solidarity and to raise money for Anera. While i consider food as a basic right and take it for granted, people in northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of 245 calories a day - less than a can of fava beans - since January. Such form of protest is quite similar to the plight of the people of Gaza, thank you to @ibtisams for coming up with this great idea.

Please spread this so more people can donate/participate in Ibtisam’s strike if they are able.

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Palestinian artist Asmaa Aljueithni shares a photo of the only thing that survived the airstrike that left her Gaza home in ruins: one of her paintings.

#art

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Free Palestine protesters shut down the Golden Gate Bridge and 880 freeway in Oakland. This is huge🫡

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Heartbreaking scenes captured by @feras_.nader.99 of Palestinians in Rafah visiting loved ones killed by the occupation in the last 6 months.

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Occupation forces have released 150 kidnapped Palestinians from the Gaza Strip after they were subjected to several months of detention and torture

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Is Israeli academia about to enter a whole new phase? All signs are that it already has. In the past few weeks, Haaretz spoke with more than 60 Israeli scholars from a wide range of disciplines and academic institutions, from young scientists and university presidents about their experiences with colleagues abroad since the war broke out in the Gaza Strip after Hamas' massacre on October 7.

They recounted dozens of incidents: cancellation of invitations to conferences, a freeze on their appointments in foreign institutions, rejection of scientific articles on political grounds, disruption of lectures abroad, cessation of collaborative efforts with colleagues abroad, refusal by such colleagues to take part in the promotion process their Israeli counterparts must undergo at local institutions, and even a sweeping boycott of local colleges and universities. The following examples, all from recent months and backed up by documents and emails, are being made public here for the first time. The plethora of events leaves no room for doubt: Israel is feeling the brunt of an unprecedented academic boycott, which is only gathering momentum.

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It once seemed as if the social sciences and humanities are more vulnerable to political struggles. Indeed, such departments in Israel were familiar with the impact of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement long before October 7. However, the cessation of collaboration – whether in conducting research, co-authoring articles or in other areas – is now being seen as a widespread phenomenon in all fields.

A few months ago, Nir Davidson, a physics professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, suggested to an Italian colleague that they try together to request a grant from a competitive research foundation. "Because of the atrocities your country is perpetrating against innocent civilians, thousands of professors and researchers have signed a petition calling for all research collaboration to be blocked," the colleague replied, noting that he "fondly recalls" a visit he made to Israel in 2020, but adding, "I'm afraid that what your country has done and is continuing to do will never be forgotten or forgiven."

About a month ago, a scientist from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was ejected from an international group that submits research proposals to the European Union in the realm of environmental studies. The explanation he was given by one of his colleagues was, "I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to not select Israel as a partner for the project. In fact, some partners do not wish to be involved in the project if Israel is a partner, particularly given the current political context. I am truly sorry, and I hope that we will have the opportunity to work together on another research project. Thank you for your understanding and I wish you all the best for the future."

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"I am writing to let you know that I have decided to step down from the Ph.D. committee [reviewing a student's thesis]," a foreign social sciences scholar wrote the Hebrew University recently. "Following the university's recent declaration of commitment to Zionism in the context of the war that is raging in Gaza, I feel I can no longer be associated with this institution. I have enjoyed working with you all and it is with a heavy heart that I am making this decision."

The "commitment to Zionism" the professor cited was part of the fierce public condemnation the university issued against sharp remarks by Israeli-Palestinian Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, of its law faculty, against Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza. "As a proud Israeli, public, and Zionist institution," the university stated, it condemned her comments and suspended her, before reinstating her two weeks later.

The email from the foreign academic who asked to stop advising the Hebrew University doctoral student is only one example of an apparently growing phenomenon whereby scholars overseas no longer want to help prepare the next generation of lecturers and researchers at Israeli institutions: Sources at a few such institutions admit that they find it increasingly difficult to obtain the letters of evaluation from academics abroad that must be submitted in advance of discussions of staff promotions in Israel.

For the present, it looks as though the latter trend is particularly noticeable in the social sciences and the humanities: in sociology and anthropology, Middle Eastern studies and literature. But according to a source at one university, the field of law is also falling victim to such dwindling collaboration with foreign schools.

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"If the Israeli government commits irrevocably to either a two-state (within 1967 borders) or one-state solution in which all Palestinians in both Israel and the occupied territories have equal rights to Israelis – I will be happy to engage with Israeli institutions," a senior researcher at a prestigious institution in Europe wrote recently, in response to a request to write an evaluation for an Israeli academic. "Until that day, no." Another European academic wrote: "I do not believe that this suffering of civilians can be justified and I believe that Israel is not acting in accordance with international human rights law. In light of that, I feel I cannot collaborate with any Israeli institution at the moment."

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"The dam has burst," Drori declares now. "Talking about an academic boycott of scientists in Israel has become legitimate. It's a whole new world. We are in a very extreme situation, and I don't know whether and how it will be possible to reverse things. The boycott is severing our ability to be involved in the forefront of research. All scientific research that does not involve the international community is research that is less good. The severance from the world is suffocating us."

If the pool of international experts who are willing to cooperate with Israel does continue to shrink, Israeli academics will face discouraging alternatives: to approach less senior academics from less well-regarded universities (which, according to a knowledgeable source, is already happening in some cases), or to increase the proportion of assessments provided by local faculty – not a particularly palatable solution.

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A number of universities and academic organizations in Belgium, Spain, Italy and Norway recently announced full boycotts or a suspension of ties with Israeli institutions until they receive clarifications with regard to topics ranging from the state of academic freedom on their campuses, to their moral, financial and material support for Israel's defense forces. For one, Ghent University recently requested such information from its counterpart in Haifa.

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"The best-case scenario is that within a short time we will return to some sort of stability," says American studies professor Milette Shamir, vice president of Tel Aviv University and director of its international academic collaborations. "Our standing in the world will be rehabilitated and we will be able to return to the situation we were in, to very extensive international activity."

But Shamir acknowledges that she "doesn't know whether that scenario is realistic." Two weeks ago, she was in Australia to attend an academic fair at the University of Sydney. When she arrived, pro-Palestinian demonstrators shouted that Tel Aviv University shares in crimes against the Palestinians and that all collaborations with Israel should end.

"The worst-case scenario is that we are headed in the direction of South Africa [in the apartheid period]," she says, "with boycotts that keep mounting to the point of paralyzing the system. The result will be a mortal blow to Israeli academia. It will take on a provincial character and we will not be able to integrate into the forefront of the world's research."

— 'I Won't Work With You. You're Committing Genocide': Israeli Academia Faces an Unprecedented Global Boycott. Or Kashti, Haaretz, April 14 2024

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Girls performing Eid al-Fitr prayers on April 10 next to their families’ tents, set up near the Egyptian border at the Rafah camp

Photo by Haitham Imad

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two of these fit on a sheet of cardstock to make postcards

easily printed to 11x14 for posters, wheatpaste is easy and cheap to make

fits on thermal printer labels for quick stickers

Ceasefire now, Free Palestine

#art

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Disgusted yet not surprised.

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"It sickens me that it is the spectacle that has finally moved the people of the world to listen to Palestinians about our struggle. Somehow, we needed to have our guts on display, disemboweled on the ground, before our humanity can be proven by vivisection." -Sonia Sulaiman

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a little mock postage stamp i did a while ago. free to download (X) and print as stickers, posters or whatever you like.

#art

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This campaign is relatively new but I have it on very good authority that it is legitimate.

Hussam needs to evacuate 13 of his family members from Gaza, including his sister who gave birth in February and now has an infant to care for as well as a young daughter. He’s already lost more than 18 of his family members, and now his remaining family are spread out in refugee camps across southern Gaza.

Any donation makes a difference. Sincerely, if everyone who sees this gives $5 that’s already a great step forward.