#any solidarity with Palestine comes after that

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

This post used to hold a poem inspired by the Rev. Munther Isaac's declaration that "God is under the rubble in Gaza."

After a few anons and a conversation with a Jewish friend, I've decided to take the poem down because, regardless of my own intentions with it, it risks feeding the long and extremely harmful history of blood libel, because I included imagery of the infant Jesus and his parents being killed by an Israeli soldier, as many Palestinians are being killed now.

Before talking with that friend, I wrote in this response to an anon about my intentions with the poem — but while I do believe that intentions do matter, they don't matter nearly as much as impact does.

My friend helped me come to the conclusion that while the poem I wrote could be interpreted as I intended by people who already have all the context I wrote it in (see below), it could also all too easily be interpreted much more harmfully by those who lack that context — or worse, who are looking for more fuel for their antisemitism. The poem is not worth that risk, not at all.

___

Ultimately, I hold two things I believe to be true in tension:

that Christians throughout the ages have found deep comfort and encouragement in understanding Jesus as suffering in and with them. I support all Christian Palestinians who, like Rev. Isaac, experience God-with-them in this way — in this horrific time, they deserve any ounce of comfort they can derive. And them personally seeking and finding the Divine presence with them is not antisemitic.

that for Christians like myself in the USA, who live in the beating heart of Empire and Christian Supremacy, it is vital to take care in how we talk about this theology in this current situation, where the oppressors are Jewish. Providing more fuel for Christian antisemitism is inexcusable, and I deeply apologize for writing and sharing a piece that can be used in that way.

Because modern-day Israel is a Jewish state, exploring that Divine solidarity in this context comes with a great risk of perpetuating the long, harmful history of antisemitic blood libel and accusations of deicide. How do we affirm God’s presence with those suffering in Palestine without (implicitly or explicitly) adding to the poisonous lie that “the Jews killed Jesus”?

In wrestling with this complexity, I tried to write this poem to uplift both Jesus’s Jewishness and his solidarity with Palestinians. Jesus was born into a Jewish family, his entire worldview was shaped by his Jewishness, and he shared in his people’s suffering under the Roman Empire. His solidarity with Palestinians of various faiths suffering today does not erase that Jewishness. Nor does it mean that Jewish persons don’t “belong” in the region — only that modern Israel’s occupation of Palestine is in no way necessary for Jews to live and thrive there, or anywhere else in the world.

I also aimed to point out that Israel is by no means acting alone in this attack on Gaza or their decades-long occupation of Palestine. There is a much larger Empire at work, with my own country, the United States, at the helm. Israel is entangled in that imperial mess, and directly backed and funded by those forces — not because of what politicians claim, that we have to back Israel or else we’re antisemitic, but because Israel is our strategic foothold in the so-called Middle East. How do we name our complicity as our tax dollars are funneled into violence across the world, and act to end that violence?

___

I'm sorry this post isn't as articulate as I want it to be. All of this to say: I deeply apologize for any hurt my poem caused. I understand how horrific Christianity's history of — and ongoing present — antisemitism is, and how it poisons and warps so much that could have been beautiful. I'll keep educating myself; I'll keep having hard conversations; I'll keep working to uproot antisemitism in myself and my communities.

___

I'll close with a list of resources for learning about Palestine's history and getting involved.

#deeply grateful E that you were willing to have that conversation with me! #you didn't have to and i appreciate the time and energy you spent doing so. solidarity forever <3

[sayruq]

Here's more of what's been happening on the ground. (Once again I'm not an expert in war).

Palestinian fighters are still waging war on the state of Israel

It is clear that Hamas and other groups have access to anti aircraft weaponry and long range missiles, partly from looting Israeli bases but partly from (and this is unconfirmed) from the Russia-Ukraine war. It's not unexpected for weapons to end up smuggled into other countries during a war.

On the other hand, Israel went from swearing it would invade Gaza on the ground to doing just about anything but that

It's understandable why Israel would hesitate even with its 300,000 strong army

IDF is made up of mostly conscripted soldiers who normally act as civilians once they've served their 2.5 year mandatory conscription. Not only that, IDF acts more like a police force than an army. Its soldiers simply don't have the training or mentality to fight militia groups in their home turf.

America itself doubts its capabilities no matter how it words it. This is a country that has yet to win against a guerilla army so it has experience when it comes to this

Edit:

Edit 2: above Hamas states the obvious

In my previous post I highlighted how disorganised the Israel military was in response to Operation Flood Al Aqsa.

This hasn't changed in the days. Israel is behaving more like a cornered animal lashing out than the so called 'strongest army in the Middle East.'

It has been dropping bombs on Syria, Lebanon and Egypt aimlessly, more out of anger than calculated strategy

Its efforts to pushing back against the Palestinian militia isn't going well either

in addition to naked, barbaric cruelty towards Gaza because it is not producing results elsewhere

The tweet below is important as Russia is an Israeli ally. The Israeli right wing has been very favourable towards Putin, even willing to disagree with the US and EU policies on Russia. However Israel repeatedly bombing Syria is quickly souring Russia on the country. While Putin doesn't want to go against Israel at this point, he has become increasingly critical of the country in the past couple of days.

Saudi went from making a half-hearted 'both sides need to stop statements to cutting ties with Israel (ties Israel and America have worked very hard to form) to outrightly condemning Israel's treatment of the people of Gaza.

Naturally, with all of this happening, Israel has responded, not with ceasing the bombardment of Gaza, but by killing and assaulting journalists covering the genocide.

so that it could committ war crimes without it being documented and seen by the world. War crimes such as announcing that they'd bomb a hospital in Gaza and giving doctors and nurses just hours to evacuate their patients.

This, btw, is part of the reason they cut electricity so that Palestinians can't post their own genocide on social media. Israel brutality is costing them allies but they have no intention of stopping.

Despite all of this, there has been a great deal of support for Palestinians globally

In short, this war is not going the way Israel thought it would. They didn't crush Hamas and the other Palestinian military groups immediately after the battle of Re'im. In fact, they're still struggling against those groups right now. They've been humiliated in front of the world after being revealed to be paper tigers and as such, they're going after Palestinian civilians in increasingly horrific ways.

The Palestinian resistance is still optimistic and they're still carrying out their plan. There's still hope for a future without apartheid.

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #colonialism

[thats-very-like-a-whale]

I deleted Tumblr a few days ago after reading some of the rabid antisemitism circling on this website. But I felt the need to come back and post one thing.

The war going on in Israel is a war of genocide. Hamas’s sole purpose is not to end the occupation, and it’s not to free Palestine. Hamas is a terorrist organization funded and backed by the Iranian regime, whose only purpose is the death of all Jewish people.

The last time this number of Jews have been killed in one day was the Holocaust. And Hamas is working hard to finish what was started there.

If you’ve espoused Hamas rhetoric and argued that this war is about freedom for the Palestinian people, or resistance against the occupation, you’ve either fallen for the propoganda of a terrorist organization, or you want to see Jews slaughtered.

I found out yesterday that a friend of mine was killed. He was drafted to the army a month ago, maybe two. Every couple minutes a missile alarm blares, and taking cover we can only wait in dread to find out if another loved one was killed. Mothers, fathers, the elderly, children and babies have been kidnapped and taken hostage in the Gaza Strip. Odds are we’ll never see most of them again.

If you support Hamas in any way in this war, then you can go straight to fucking hell right now. But maybe stop by to see the blood covering the streets of Otef Aza first.

And if you have any basic fucking human empathy, speak up and show solidarity. Don’t stay silent. Our friends and family are being massacred, kidnapped and raped. Don’t stay silent.

#israel #hamas #palestine #war #israel palestine war

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Bad King Richard got rich by exploiting workers at King’s Faire

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

King Richard's Faire is the largest renfaire in New England, and its owner, Dick Shapiro, extracts a reported $400k/day – a sum that is only possible thanks to systematic and likely illegal worker misclassification, which lets him pay performers sub-minimum wages and deny them benefits:

https://www.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/172267v/kings_faire_inc_aim%C3%A9e_bonnie_shapiro_nets_over/

Many of the performers at KRF are absolutely unpaid – these are the "villagers" – who mill about looking picturesque in exchange for free admission. They even have to buy their own turkey legs.

When the faire is rained out, all workers – "volunteers" and paid workers – are sent home without any compensation. Attendees are also sent home with rain-checks, many of which go unused (there's no refunds in the land of King Richard).

Staff work from 8am to 730pm and are paid a day-rate that works out to $6/hour. After heavy weather events, staff are ordered to show up early to do cleanup, but are not paid for their time. Staff don't get health benefits – instead, local community groups like the Elks put on fundraisers to cover the health-care costs of the performers.

Now, King Richard's worker mistreatment is not an outlier in the medieval reenactment industry. Think of how the knights at Medieval Times – who put on nightly, potentially lethal performances to generate profit for their employer – unionized in the face of exploitative labor relations. To add insult to injury, Medieval Times sued the union, arguing that its name – "Medieval Times Performers United" – was a trademark infringement:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medieval-times-sues-union-trademark_n_63485fa5e4b0b7f89f54546b

This trademark wheeze is the latest desperate tactic to be deployed by the ruling class in the face of a surging labor movement with broad public support. Starbucks – one of the world's most notorious unionbusters – is doing the same thing to its union, Starbucks Workers United:

https://seattle.eater.com/23923490/starbucks-workers-united-union-lawsuits-copyright-trademark-israel-hamas-palestine-social-media

These moves are wildly out of step with the current of public opinion, which has swung hard for union rights in a manner not seen in generations. The outpourings of public support for striking entertainment industry workers were handwaved away as exceptions driven by the public's love of actors and writers. But that doesn't explain the strong, ongoing support for the UAW in their strike against all of the Big Three automakers:

https://pro.morningconsult.com/instant-intel/uaw-strike-public-opinion-october-2023

Bosses have always tried to smash worker power by dividing workers – by race, gender, or "skill" – but workers are workers and solidarity is the source of worker power. That's why the whole labor movement backed Equity Stripper NoHo, the first strippers' union in a generation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

Creative workers are part of a class of workers who suffer from "vocational awe," the sense that because your job is satisfying and/or worthy, you don't deserve to get paid for it:

https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/

(Think of joke about the father who finds his runaway son at the circus shoveling elephant shit: "Son, come home!" "What, and quit show-business?")

Creative workers have long been encouraged to see themselves as "independent businesspeople" – LLCs with MFAs – and this mind-zap is augmented with our bosses' repeated insistence that the unions are for big burly blue-collar workers, not ethereal dreamers and pencil-pushers. Our bosses tell this story because it discourages us from forming unions and demanding fair pay and good working conditions (obviously).

Think of J Edward Keyes, the cartoon villain who serves as editorial director of Bandcamp. When the workers Keyes managed formed the Bandcamp United union, Keyes called them "white-collar tech workers…appropriating the language of the legitimately oppressed," adding "Fuuuuuck Bandcamp United":

https://www.404media.co/bandcamp-editorial-director-fuuuuuck-bandcamp-united/

Keyes's contempt notwithstanding, it's clear why Bandcamp workers need a union – after the company was flipped twice in rapid succession, its new owners, Epic Games and Songtradr, fired all its unionized workers. Keyes responded to coverage of this mass firing by calling the Pitchfork reporters who wrote about it "absloute amateur journalists."

The attempt to divide-and-rule "knowledge workers" from "industrial workers" is a transparent bid to shatter solidarity and make it easier to abuse and exploit all workers. Thankfully, workers are wise to that gambit, and understand that when all kinds of workers struggle together, they win.

Take the UAW strikes: for many years, the UAW was an objectively bad union, ruled over by a dirty-tricking clique who sold out the membership. It's normal to blame workers for bad leaders, but the UAW old guard had rigged union elections, making sure that they would stay in charge. It's not workers that like corrupt unions – it's bosses.

Before the UAW could fight back against their bosses, they had to fight back their bosses' minions in the upper ranks of their own union. That's where the the Harvard Grad Students' Union comes in. After years of worsening exploitation and working conditions, the Harvard Grad Students organized under the UAW, then joined forces with reformers in the union to oust the corrupt leadership.

During the leadership struggle, Harvard Grad Students helped their comrades from the auto-sector master the union's baroque constitution, so when the old guard tried to prevent motions from reaching the floor, the grad students were able to cite chapter and verse back at them. In the end, grad students and auto-workers together won the victory that paved the way for the strikes:

https://theintercept.com/2023/04/07/deconstructed-union-dhl-teamsters-uaw/

A strong, unified labor movement is necessary if America is to save itself from inequality, racism, the climate emergency – the whole polycrisis. The idea that creative workers aren't workers is bullshit – and so is the lie that all workers are uncreative. The "Worker As Futurist" project recruits Amazon drivers and warehouse writers to write science fiction about a future without Amazon:

https://jacobin.com/2023/09/amazon-workers-sci-fi-writing-bezos-imagination-speculative-future

They call this a "belief that rank-and-file workers, whose bodies and minds are exploited by capital, might have access to some knowledge about capitalism that is beyond even the most brilliant theorist or analyst of capitalism."

All workers can and should tell their own story. Doing so isn't just a way to change the narrative – it's also a way to change policy. The new merger guidelines from the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division explicitly incorporate labor-market effects into antitrust policy. As Brian Callaci and Sandeep Vaheesan write for The Sling, the testimony of workers and unions can help produce the evidentiary basis for blocking the mergers that lead to monopolies:

https://www.thesling.org/workers-are-an-untapped-resource-for-antitrust-enforcers/

The rising labor movement is a force for profound change in every part of our economy and politics. Workers can be our knights in shining armor.

https://www.thesling.org/workers-are-an-untapped-resource-for-antitrust-enforcers/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/25/huzzah/#bad-king-richard

#pluralistic #renfaires #labor class war #king richard #charter of the forest #harvard #teamsters #uaw #worker as futurist #bandcamp #bandcamp united #j edward keyes #medieval times #kings faire #kings faire inc

[leo-fie]

The sheer state of the German left right now...

Seriously, if I wouldn't see it, I would not believe it. And I'm only seeing the small sample on Mastodon.

Antizionism, critique of Israel, suppost for Palestine get's thrown in with antisemitism so much that's it's basically impossible to figure out what's going on anymore.

Examples from Mastodon:

This picture shows a pro-palestine demonstration, we see people, palestinian flags and two signs reading "freedom for palestine" and "stop the israeli massacres in palestine". The left research network RABA writes: "After the attempted genocide of Jews with thousands of victims by the barbarous Hamas, the palestinian community Bonn and Cologne shows their ideological and personal closeness to the Hamas war. Replaying antisemitic, djihadi propaganda: transparent victim blaming"

Did they see the same picture as me? Do they know more than me? Or do they think any support of palestine is antisemitic by default?

This account called "punch a nazi" is in solidarity with Israel and against antisemitism. Thereby implying that anyone against Israel is antisemitic.

Same account saying: "The antisemitism bubbling to the surface all over the world right now is nothing less than disgusting. Openly disguised as "critique of Israel" or between the lines. Against all antisemitism!"

So no critique of Israel allowed ever? But no one is above criticism, especially not governments. Or do we make an exception for Israel?

Amadeu Antonio Foundation is a widely respected antiracist, antifascist group founded in the memory of a man murdered by nazis in 1990, Amadeu Antionio Kiowa. Here they say as part of a thread for teachers: "The antisemitism refering to Israel is to be differentiated from critique at Israeli government policy, a big challenge for teachers. With the practical handout teachers can react to slogans like "With the policy Israel is doing, I can understand why someone wouldn't like jews" or "Israel is an apartheid state" and catch insecurities and emotions."

Now, if you ask me, the first slogan is clearly antisemitic, the second is just true. How is that differenciating anything?

taz is a left leaning daily newspaper, basically the only one with any reach in Germany. It's staunchly zionist. While it is also showing the plight of the palestinian people, it is also joining in the chorus of other newspapers comparing Israel to Ukraine and therefore Hamas to Putin's Russia. This reads: The German peoples' demostration of solidarity with Israel are poor compared to the war in Ukraine. The actual test is still pending." The headline reads: Pro-Israel-Demonstrations: We don't care"

Same newspaper: "Dozens chant "free Palestine", a schoolground conflict get's political - but there are also other, quieter voices. A week in Neukölln (a neighborhood in Berlin)" With the headline: "Near-East-Conflict in Berlin: Symbol Sonennallee (a street)"

What's wrong with "free Palestine"? Does the palestinian people not have a right to self determination?

Rote Flora is an autonomous center in Hamburg since 1989. They fly a banner reading "Killing Jews is not fighting for freedom! We are in solidarity with all humans in Israel and all jews in the world. You are not alone." Someone posted this picture with the caption: Rote Flora stabil. which is kinda like saying it's based.

Examples end.

This is what I get from left and left leaning groups. Our public broadcast is of course zionist af, but to the point where American news like CNN are nuanced in comparasion.

The conflation of antisemitism and antizionism is just off the charts. I already lost one account for pointing out that these are different things, so I have to mute everything lest I blow up at any of these.

How can anyone look at the situation of the palestinian people and come away with anything but antizionism? That's why we have the term. Who but left and left leaning folks can look at this though a materialist lens? Isn't that our thing?

#israel #palestine #gaza #leftism #germany #mastodon #antisemitism #antizionism #free palestine #rant #taz #amadeu antonio stiftung #rote flora #berlin #hamburg #cologne #bonn #köln #news from the twilight zone

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

Harvard University denounced an antisemitic image depicting a Jew lynching an African American and an Arab which was posted on social media by an anti-Zionist faculty group.

“The university is aware of social media posts today containing deeply offensive antisemitic tropes and messages from organizations whose membership includes Harvard affiliates,” the university said, speaking from its Instagram account. “Such despicable messages have no place in the Harvard community. We condemn these posts in the strongest possible terms.”

Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), a group which describes itself as a “collective” committed to falsely accusing Israel of genocide and dispossession — terms one finds on the fringes of the extreme right — initiated this latest controversy. The image it shared shows a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David containing a dollar sign at its center dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose. In its posterior, an arm belonging to an unknown person of color wields a machete that says, “Liberation Movement.”

“African people have a profound understanding of apartheid and occupation,” says a graphic in which the image appears. “The historical roots of solidarity between Black liberation movements and Palestinian liberation began in the late 1960s. This period was marked by a heightened awareness among Black organizations in the United States.”

It continued, “The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC] linked Zionism to an imperial project while the Black Panther Party aligned itself with the Palestinian resistance, framing both struggles as part of a unified front against racism, Zionism, and imperialism.”

On Monday, Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine — whose 112 founding members include professors Walter Johnson, Jennifer Brody, Diane Moore, Charlie Prodger, Leslie Fernandez, Khameer Kidia, and Duncan Kennedy — apologized for sharing the image and suggested that it was unaware of its own social media activity.

“It has come to our attention that a post featuring antiquated cartoons which used offensive antisemitic tropes was linked to our account,” the group said. “We removed the content as soon as it came to our attention. We apologize for the hurt that these images have caused and do not condone them in any way.”

Two other student groups have apologized for sharing the image, according to The Harvard Crimson. In a joint statement, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee and the African and American Resistance Organization said “our mutual goals for liberation will always include the Jewish community — and we regret inadvertently including an image that played upon antisemitic tropes.”

The past four months have been described by critics of Harvard as a low-point in the history of the school, America’s oldest and, arguably, most prestigious institution of higher education. Since the October 7 massacre by Hamas, Harvard has been accused of fostering a culture of racial grievance and antisemitism, while important donors have suspended funding for programs. Its first Black president, Claudine Gay, resigned in disgrace last month after being outed as a serial plagiarist. Her tenure was the shortest in the school’s history.

As scenes of Hamas terrorists abducting children and desecrating dead bodies circulated worldwide, 31 student groups at Harvard, led by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and accusing the Jewish state of operating an “open air prison” in Gaza, despite that the Israeli military withdrew from the territory in 2005. In the weeks that followed, anti-Zionists stormed the campus screaming “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “globalize the intifada,” terrorizing Jewish students and preventing some from attending class.

In November, a mob of anti-Zionists — including Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — followed, surrounded, and intimidated a Jewish student. “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” the crush of people screamed in a call-and-response chant into the ears of the student who —as seen in the footage — was forced to duck and dash the crowd to free himself from the cluster of bodies that encircled him.

The university is currently being investigated by the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce. It was recently subpoenaed by the body after weeks of allegedly obstructing the inquiry.

#harvard #harvard university #hamas #gaza #palestine solidarity committee #antisemitic image #antisemitism

[screamingfromuz]

Honest question because I've seen this phrase and I reblogged it in a post, but what is wrong with "from the river to the sea"? No prob if you don't want to answer btw, thank you anyway and I hope you're feeling better

Oh boy, this is a big question. Let's start with what the basic meaning of the phrase is. "From the river to the sea" is a description of the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean sea. This land was the land left after the British split the British Mandate Palestine to the land between the Mediterranean sea to the Jordan river, and the land past the river Jordan. The land past the river Jordan was called "Trans-Jordan" was given to Adullah I bin Al-Hussein, and is modern day Jordan. The land that was left- from the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea is the place most people think when they talk about the conflict.

Now, this is used by the population to describe the land, but is used as a propaganda tool by both Palestinians and Israelis.

For the Pro-Palestinian movement, this is a promise to abolish the state of Israel and establish the state of Palestine through the entire piece of land. Now, some will claim that this is not a call to abolish Jewish presence in the space between the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea, and the Jews will be allowed to stay in the state of Palestine, but many, MANY do call for abolishing Jewish presence in the region. And in blunt terms, in order to abolish Jewish presence in the region, is at the least making 7 million Jewish people refugees, or straight up murdering all the Jewish people in the region. Both of those options have been explicitly presented as favorable outcome by Palestinian representatives. I hope you can see why many Israelis are not fond of an expression that call for them being murdered or made refugees. Add to that the 2000 year old Jewish trauma of eternal unwanted refugees... and many Jewish Israelis have a very unpleasant gut response yo hearing that phrase in that context.

The other main use of this phrase is by Israeli religious right wing extremists. Practically very similar to the less friendly option from the Pro-Palestinian movement- a call for a Jewish only state in the land between the Jordan river to the Mediterranean sea. This mean the forceful deportation of all Palestinians outside the border to neighboring countries- Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, or to any country that will take them. It is less known, but oh boy it is just as shitty. This is a far less known use outside of Israel, but it exist.

This is why I immediately distrust people using this phrase, despite it originating from a literal territory description.

I will add that the phrase "from the river to the sea" is used in some peace movements. AKA, "two states from the river to the sea", "solidarity/peace for all from the river to the sea" etc.

TLDR- the phrase is a description of the piece of land, and is mostly used by Pro Palestinian activists as a call of abolishing Israel and all that come from that, or by Jewish right wing fundamentalists as a call to expel all Palestinians from said piece of land. Both are things that call for ethnic cleansing at the least, and a genocide at max.

ps- I do feel better! the joys of modern medicine!

#israel #palestine #antisemitism #i/p #from the river to the sea #ask uz

[tieflingkisser]

The War on Education—in Gaza and at Home

The Right is using Palestine to further its assault on higher ed and recruit centrists to its cause.

On January 17, after having first occupied it as a military base and interrogation center, the Israeli army employed scores of landmines to blow up Israa University, the last institution of higher learning then left standing in Gaza. While the terms ​“scholasticide,” ​“educide” and ​“epistemicide” have long been used to describe the assault on Palestinian intellectual life and infrastructure, they have become grimly literal as Israel’s war on Gaza effects what journalist Eman Alhaj Ali calls the erasure of Gaza’s education system. The logic of elimination undergirding Israel’s effort to make Gaza uninhabitable has included the demolition of academic buildings, the lethal targeting of its scholars and intellectuals — from the poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer to the rector of the Islamic University and scientist Sufyan Tayeh — as well as the slaughter of countless students. Genocide, to borrow from literary scholar and Al-Aqsa professor Haidar Eid, has gone hand-in-hand with sociocide and ideocide. Any discussion of the latest phase in the United States’ so-called ​“campus wars” must start from here, and not just to check the language we use to talk about conflict. Ever since the 1960s, intense fights over political speech, protest and curricula have periodically roiled U.S. universities. But the current war against Palestinian life and culture, which many young people correctly perceive as an Israeli-American war, has marked a new phase in these ideological and discursive conflicts, one whose violence has not just been metaphorical — recall the shooting of three Palestinian students near the University of Vermont in late November. Over the last four months, as Israel has ratcheted up its long-term attacks on Palestinian intellectual life, pro-Israel political actors in the United States have tied the silencing of Palestinian solidarity to ongoing campaigns against critical and progressive agendas in education. In so doing, they are also bringing together the political center and far Right in ways that trouble the narrative of a coming battle between a broad liberal front and a proto-fascist Trumpism.

#us politics #usa #free palestine

[batmanego]

in light of all of this im reminded of the yom kippur services i attended wherein (among other things), the rabbi very wisely discussed restorative vs apocalyptic messianism, and how resorative messianism seeks to bring about the messiah and the world to come (or the religious/secular equivalent: messianism in this context doesn't necessarily mean a literal religious messiah, more just a concept of "there will come a day when everything is better and we're all okay!") by creating that world ourselves, whereas apocalyptic messianism is focused on an endless crusade against the "other" because apocalyptic messianists believe that the only way to bring about the world to come is through a great struggle and trials and tribulations beforehand. if you believe that the world to come can only be reached after a struggle against those you consider the heathen other, you will bring that struggle about yourself. he explicitly discussed how both america and israel are nations with a strong core of apocalyptic messianism. in america, the apocalyptic messianism is typically more xtian in nature, calling to mind january 6th and charlottesville and the plague of xtian and xtian-adjacent doomsday (and doomsday-adjacent) cults. in israel, however, the apocalyptic messianism is jewish. i've been thinking about this a lot lately. i don't have a good ending to this post or anywhere to go with it other than even as anti-zionists, we can fall prey to apocalyptic messianism and its beliefs because it is easier to believe that suffering happens in the name of something greater. its incredibly difficult for most people to wrap their heads around apartheid, ethnic cleansing, ineffective governing bodies, fascism, and genocide and how anyone could perpetrate such acts. but people can and people do and we must not succumb to the idea that it is in the name of anything other than what it is: genocide, bigotry, fascism, etc. apocalyptic messianism must be recognized even in the most well-meaning of communities and we must believe that if we want a better world, we reach it through collaboration and solidarity and helping those who need it, rather than mass killings of swathes of people. i dont know how much of this made any kind of sense but it's been on my mind a lot lately as my heart hurts for the people of palestine

[thoughtportal]

An altar honoring Aaron’s life, at a vigil his friends held in remembrance of him on February 27.

As Aaron recounted to his comrades in a mutual aid group in San Antonio, he grew up in a very Christian conservative white enclave in Cape Cod. He was 18 years old when Donald Trump was elected; he joined the Air Force in 2019. While in the Air Force, he arrived at anarchist politics through a process of self-education.

In February 2023, Aaron prepared a document aimed at helping this group to become more cohesive. As another participant in the group told us, “Aaron sought to formalize and mature some of our organizing methods, and he felt that having deep and open discussion was a crucial first step for building long-term trust. He created a list of questions as a way for our ragtag group of lefties doing mutual aid to start a conversation with each other.”

In his own answers to these questions, Aaron states:

I am an anarchist, which means I believe in the abolition of all hierarchical power structures, especially capitalism and the state… I view the work we do as fighting back in the class war which the capitalist class wages on the rest of humanity. This also informs the way in which I want to organize, as I believe that any hierarchical power structure is bound to reproduce class dynamics and oppression. Thus, I want to engage in egalitarian forms of organizing that produce horizontal power structures based on mutual aid and solidarity, which are capable of liberating humans… I favor consensus-based decision-making over “democratic” or voting-based governance.

In the same document, Aaron explained why he was committed to doing mutual aid work in solidarity with the unhoused:

I’ve always been bothered by the reality of homelessness, even back when I was growing up in a conservative community. I have come to believe in the importance of solidarity politics and I view the enforcement of homelessness as a major front in the class war which must be challenged for all our sakes. I view helping my houseless neighbors as a moral obligation, a matter of social justice, and a matter of good politics. If I don’t stand with those more marginalized than me today then who will be left to stand with me tomorrow. I view enforced homelessness as a societal failing and a crime against humanity. I believe that no one deserves to be deprived of basic human necessities. I believe that homelessness as an involuntary condition must be abolished.

In the following three accounts, Aaron’s friends share their memories of who he was and how his life touched their lives.

Aaron and friends watching a solar eclipse.

“Aaron Will Live Forever”

Lupe

Aaron will live forever. I know this, because everyone who was loved by Aaron will carry a bit of him in their soul, and everyone who witnessed his sacrifice will carry him in their minds. Aaron cherished life. He knew that in giving up his own, he could give the people of Palestine a chance to keep theirs. Aaron has permanently changed the fabric of your being. You know this because for the rest of your life, you will wrestle with the thought of what you will sacrifice for the liberation of others.

Aaron Bushnell.

“He Was Someone We Really Needed”

T Bear

It seems a lot of people just saw Aaron as someone in the military. Online lefties and liberal media alike were quick to dispose of his words and actions, and choose instead to judge him based on puritanical ideals just as bad as the ones he’s been trying to escape his entire adult life.

I write this knowing it will be read by comrades. I want to say something profound that can make us reflect on why we have such a tendency to be so quick to treat others as disposable, but I don’t think I can. I hope that instead, you will carry the burden of finding an answer to that with me.

After a lifetime of engaging with anarchists, it was this recently radicalized, 25-year-old active-duty airman I spent two years with who showed me my chains—long before his decision to leave this earth. Aaron had this effect on every single person he met. He was incredibly committed to developing relationships based on deep trust and understanding—and would be the first to give you the raised brows for a snarky answer to an important question. He never let a potential harm go unaddressed. He embodied more than anyone I know the anarchist spirit, “that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people.”1

An altar honoring Aaron’s life, at a vigil his friends held in remembrance of him on February 27.

“My Friend Aaron”

E

My friend Aaron was kind, compassionate, and principled, sometimes to the point of being annoying, and he was incredibly reflective and willing to change to meet my needs in our relationship. He was one of my quickest and best friends.

An altar honoring Aaron’s life at the vigil at which Aaron’s friend read this text aloud.

Cult

I want to provide some background context on Aaron’s life. He shared this with me in confidence, but I feel OK sharing it with you all now because he is gone and I want to help contextualize him for you all. The press has also reached out to people from his past so it will be coming out regardless and I think it’s better y’all learn from a comrade.

Being raised in a cult, essentially a small society with different cultural norms than ours, gave Aaron the ability to see and better identify the norms and qualities of our society that are harder for us to see because we have been conditioned within it. He could see the latent fascist logic and cult-like tendencies that we swim through every day. He could see and feel them in ways that I struggle to feel and understand beyond an intellectual level. He was always very cagey about his past and did his best not to lie. You may recall him saying things like “sort of” or “something like that” whenever he was asked questions about being in theatre or band.

Times He Changed and Reflected

We would text and I would accuse him of texting like a straight man (which he was). He would never use reaction emojis or punctuation or expressions of laughter like lol. It was incredibly annoying. And he made such an active effort to do those things after I asked him to, very quickly and consistently.

Aaron with his beloved cat, Sugar.

Principled

Aaron saw hierarchy and injustice and his role in those systems and hated it. He felt a lot of guilt because of the situation he was raised in; guilt was the primary emotion through which he engaged with most things. I feel very sad that he was not able to heal from that fully before this.

He had so much love for his cats. The contradictions of owning someone you love weighed on him heavily. He was constantly thinking of how to best accommodate them and navigate this relationship of domination, complete control of their agency. I saw how it genuinely distressed him.

Aaron refused to say words like crazy, insane, or lame due to their roots in ableism and he got on me for my use of the word lame constantly. He wouldn’t say the word fuck because he saw its roots in misogyny and hetero-patriarchy.

Aaron also didn’t like the word democracy for reasons that are too long to explain; we would argue about it a lot, it was kind of a recurring bit.

Aaron serving food in Ohio as part of the mutual aid organization Serve the People Akron. “Aaron was a valued member of our organization and the community who immediately jumped in to help the unhoused and any project that came up. He was dependable and persistent with the mutual aid work he did in a city that was still new to him. We will be forever grateful for the effort he put in to make Akron a better place.”

Excerpts

I was very vulnerable and open with Aaron and I am proud of that. Vulnerability builds trust and deepens our bonds with each other; it is something that I actively work to cultivate in myself. To that end, I would like to share excerpts from two things I wrote to Aaron.

All of our relationships change us, shape us. When I look at the people, the friends, who I love the most, the people who I have the most secure loving relationships with, I can mark the ways that they have changed me. The mannerisms, habits, forms of speech, or worldviews that I adopted from them. It makes me feel so proud and thankful. There is no doubt that you have already changed me in ways that I will be proud of and thankful for, but I feel that one of the things that hurts most is mourning the loss of the ways that you could change me… I wish I could know you more. There are so many other things I want to know about you and so many other things I want you to know about me. I wish I could get to see firsthand your continuing political development and I wish we could have closer impacts on each other’s development. I wish you could see mine, to change it and make me into a better revolutionary. I want to see you in struggle, to learn how to struggle next to you and to struggle with you. I want you to be here.

I keep imagining you here. Upon reflecting I am imagining you here but not as I know you, I am imagining you here and free. Free of your military indenturement. It brings me so much joy to imagine you free and in struggle, to imagine your joy.

Conclusion

I think it will be hard to grieve this loss without being able to be with his body. To not get to experience the physical and psychological effects of being with his body after he is gone.

I am feeling tiny and crushed by the magnitude and inertia of the systems we are fighting against. I feel tiny and helpless in the face of these systems that have existed for hundreds of years and will likely exist for hundreds more. I normally feel quite the opposite but right now I feel so small. How in this world do we find peace that is not complicity? I hope Aaron found his.

Aaron and his friends.

I want to end with two things, some words from Aaron’s will and a poem that he had been practicing to recite once he was out of the military.

From Aaron’s will:

“I am sorry to my brother and my friends for leaving you like this. Of course, if I was truly sorry, I wouldn’t be doing it. But the machine demands blood. None of this is fair.”

“I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine.”

#article #aaron bushnell

[xxxjarchiexxx]

Richmond City Council yesterday voted 5-1 in favour of approving a resolution that recognises the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing. After a debate that took seven hours, the vote was held a little after 1am yesterday, with the one council who voted against doing so not because he doesn’t support Palestine but because he believes more needs to be done to bring Palestinians and Israelis together. Mayor Eduardo Martinez and Vice Mayor Gayle McLaughlin sponsored the resolution, which states the “city of Richmond stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people of Gaza, who are currently facing a campaign of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment by the state of Israel.” Responding to accusations that such criticism of Israeli policy is anti-Semitic, Martinez said: “I reject the notion that speaking out against Israel’s military and right wing government is anti-Semitic… We should never stay silent when it comes to any group. The Palestinian people are currently dealing with what the United Nations calls war crimes by the state of Israel.” Though many questioned why the council had decided to go ahead with the vote, when local issues could have been discussed, councillors said the fact that US tax dollars were being used to support Israel in its bombing of Gaza meant the vote was vital and timely.

26 October 2023

#free palestine

[ukrfeminism]

When three Muslim women accompanied Laura Marks to her packed synagogue for Friday night prayers just days after the Hamas attacks in Gaza, worshippers were “bowled over and grateful” for the gesture, she said.

Marks now wants to take a group of Jewish women to attend Friday prayers at a mosque in another offer of friendship and solidarity at a time when there is “so much pain and so much upset” in both Jewish and Muslim communities.

Marks, who chairs the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, co-founded the network Nisa-Nashim with Julie Siddiqi, a Muslim who is the former director of the Islamic Society of Britain. The name of the organisation is taken from the words for “women” in Arabic and Hebrew to show that even the two languages have much in common.

It is a network that brings Jewish and Muslim women together in pairs around the country to lead community outreach and interfaith projects in their local area, including book clubs, playground trips and groups for lawyers and teachers, each with about 30 members.

For Jewish and Muslim women to simply “be seen together” in partnership and friendship is powerful, she said. “For Jews and Muslims to reach out to the other side is very difficult right now.”

On Sunday night up to 60 local leaders from Nisa-Nashim will come together online for a virtual vigil, with Jewish and Muslim prayers. “We will try to feel each other’s pain and won’t be getting into politics,” Marks said.

On Friday a “peace vigil” was planned in Blackburn Town Hall Square, organised by the Blackburn with Darwen Interfaith Forum. Its chairman, Abdul Kheratkar, said: “The targeting of innocent civilians can never be excused or justified and we therefore call for peace to enable a way forward to be found and ask for prayers for peace from everyone.”

On Thursday evening, at Centenary Square, in Bradford, a “prayer vigil for Israel-Palestine” was held, with a note on invitations that it was “not a political rally” for any side in the conflict.

In Maidenhead the synagogue’s rabbi and the mosque’s imam came together to discuss the conflict, agreeing to remind their congregations that “this is a political conflict, not a religious one” and that “local Jews and Muslims will continue to live in harmony in Maidenhead and elsewhere”.

A number of churches and cathedrals have offered prayers for peace and a group of senior imams have denounced the Hamas attack and the “excessive” Israeli response, and called for an end to antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks in the UK.

There have been strong statements from senior figures, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, and Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, a prominent imam from Leicester, but at a local level there have been relatively few examples of joint vigils or outreach events between neighbouring mosques, synagogues and churches.

Marks said: “It is really hard for people to do it right now as feelings are so raw. Last Friday three Muslim women came to [the Alyth Gardens] synagogue [in north London] with me.”

She said it would not have been easy for them but added: “It was such a powerful symbol of friendship. I have been talking to them about what mosque I could go to with a group of Jewish women.

“The whole synagogue was heaving on Friday as it was the first time Jews had gathered since the attacks. They saw these women sitting in the second row in shul and were so bowled over and grateful to them. That sort of thing is extremely powerful.”

She said of the Nisa-Nashim network: “We have Jewish and Muslim women that hold together groups around the country. Most of them didn’t know each other until we put them in touch, even if they had been living on the same street; the two communities often don’t connect.”

She said the women sometimes volunteer together at foodbanks or participate in public events: “[It is about] being seen together ... You don’t expect to see a Jewish and a Muslim woman out together and when you see them in a café, people stop and stare and talk about it.”

#Articles #community #organisations

[thebunnybooknook]

Palestinian Book of the Day

I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti

Barred from his homeland after 1967’s Six-Day War, the poet Mourid Barghouti spent thirty years in exile—shuttling among the world’s cities, yet secure in none of them; separated from his family for years at a time; never certain whether he was a visitor, a refugee, a citizen, or a guest. As he returns home for the first time since the Israeli occupation, Barghouti crosses a wooden bridge over the Jordan River into Ramallah and is unable to recognize the city of his youth. Sifting through memories of the old Palestine as they come up against what he now encounters in this mere “idea of Palestine,” he discovers what it means to be deprived not only of a homeland but of “the habitual place and status of a person.” A tour de force of memory and reflection, lamentation and resilience, I Saw Ramallah is a deeply humane book, essential to any balanced understanding of today’s Middle East.

Be sure not to buy from Amazon or Audible to aboid supporting the genocide instead look for secondhand on sites like ebay!

and before anyone comes at me for my tags: this account is the official book club for the coquette subculture and I would be doing a disservice to not only show solidarity with the Palestinians who likely exist within my subculture but also by not using my platform to spread information to those getting misinformation and also those who want to help but do not know how.

#bunnyburrow #free palestine #coquette #coquette aesthetic #faunlet #faunlet aesthetic

[the-light-of-stars]

It took a while to translate but here is the link to an article that transcribed the German Vice-Chancellor's speech from yesterday evening, in which he makes clear his and the government's stance as completely on the side of Israel, saying that there are no 'both sides' but only one.

Mind, the points made about the horror of antisemitism and how antisemitic bigotry and violence have to be prevented are true, antisemitism is terrible and just like any bigotry cannot be tolerated, however the clearly one sided approach, the criminalisation of anticolonialist/pro-palestinian demonstrations as 'islamistic and glorifying terror' , the clearly biased, racist descriptions as only (!) Hamas' actions as barbaric and 'beastly' while completely endorsing Israel's attack on civilians as not only justified but as a safety measure whose support must be germany's main goal, the downplaying of palestinian deaths as sad but not as important as israeli lives, the threat that attending pro-palestine demonstrations will lead to prosecution by law and for non-german citizens to potential deportation, the claim that 'certainly muslims in germany have a right of protection from right wing attacks but if they don't condemn the protests now this right is waived' while at the same time stating there is no space for religious intolerance in germany , the condemnation of showings of solidarity after racist attacks being made quickly in contrast to solidarity with israel being rarer, are frankly terrifying and the use of antisemitism and the real fears and anxieties of jewish people as a moral shield - especially when so many jewish people are protesting for the rights of palestinians in New York and around the world, and especially considering Habeck's notion that antisemitism has come back to germany only now in the wake of the palestine protests, when for years the german government has done nothing to prevent far right antisemitism and in fact allowed and still allows white supremacist demonstrations under the right of free speech and with police protection - is upsetting and jewish people deserve so much better than to be used to justify racist and islamophobic crackdowns on minorities and people protesting genocide by politicians that only care about antisemitism when it can be used or the topic is making headlines.

Anyways, here is an english translation of the whole article under the cut - paragraphs in round brackets () are part of the article but not part of the speech, paragraphs in square brackets [] are context explanations by me for those readers who aren't german. Important to note that when the terms "jewish people" or "the jewish community" are used it is not a literal translation since the literal translation of the words Habeck , german vice chancellor, used ( "Juden und Jüdinnen" and "Judentum" ) literally translate to "jews and jewesses" and "jew-dom" which are the politicially correct terms in german but to my awareness are not politically correct to use in direct english translation, so I changed those. Boldening is mine as well.

(In a video Vice-chancellor and federal minister of economy Robert Habeck has expressed himself about the war in near-east and to antisemitism in Germany. His speech is much observed. Here it is in direct transcript.

Vice-chancellor federal minister of economy Robert Habeck has has called his much-observed video about solidarity with Isreal and the jewish people a contribution [of opinion] , of which there can't be enough. After many talks with representatives of the jewish community and jewish friends over the weekend he has given thoughts to "detangle the convoluted debate situation a bit" , as the Greens-politician said on Thursday.

In a video that his ministry had shared on X (formerly Twitter) on wednesday evening Habeck had admonished antisemitism in Germany harshly and urged for solidarity with jewish people in Germany. According to the platform until thursday morning this video has already been watched more than four million times and has been shared thousands of times. Politicians, also of the CDU [conservative/ center-right party] , have lauded the appeal.

Here the speech in direct transcript:)

"The terror attack by Hamas on Isreal has now been almost four weeks ago. A lot has since happened: politically though mostly for the people, so many people whose lives are eaten up by fear and sorrow. The public debate has heated up since the attack, in parts it is convoluted. With this video I want to make a contribution to untangle it.

(Habeck: Jewish people in Germany are afraid)

To me, too much seems to be mixed up too fast. The sentence "The security of Israel is german Reason of State" was never an empty phrase and must not become one. It says that the security of Israel is necessary for us as a state. This special relationship with Israel grows from our historical responsibility: it was the generation of my grandparents who wanted to exterminate jewish life in Germany and Europe. The founding of Israel was after this, after the holocaust, the promise of protection for the jewish people - and Germany is bound to help that this promise can be made reality. This is a historical foundation of this republic.

The responsibility of our history also means that jewish people in Germany can live free and secure. That they never have to be afraid again to show their religion and culture openly. But this fear has come back now.

Recently I have met with members of the jewish community in Frankfurt. In an intense and painful talk the community representatives told me that their children are afraid of going to school, that they don't go to sports club meetings, that they - on their parents suggestion - leave the necklace with the star of David at home. Today, here in Germany, almost 80 years after the holocaust.

(Contextualisation must not lead to relativisation)

They told me that they themselves are afraid of stepping into a taxi [for context: a lot of german taxi drivers are members of muslim minorities, mostly turkish] , that they aren't sending letters with their addresses on them anymore, to protect their recipients. Today, here in Germany, almost 80 years after the holocaust.

And one jewish friend told me about his fear, his despair, his feelings of loneliness.

The jewish communities are warning their members to avoid certain places - for their own safety. And this today, here in germany, almost 80 years after the holocaust.

The antisemitism shows in protests, it shows in statements, it shows in attacks on jewish stores, in threats. While there quickly are waves of solidarity when it comes to racist attacks , this solidarity is very brittle when it comes to Israel. Then it is said 'the context is complicated' . But here contextualisation mustn't lead to relativisation.

Certainly there is often too much outrage in our culture of debate. But here we cannot be outraged enough. It now needs clarity and no obfusciation. And part of this clarity is: antisemitism must not be tolerated in any form - in none of them.

(There is no space in Germany for religious intolerance)

The extent of the islamistic demonstrations in Berlin and other german cities is unacceptable and requires a hard political answer. It also needs it from the muslim communities. Some have decidedly distanced themselves from the actions of Hamas and from antisemitism, have reached out for conversation. But not all of them, and some too hesitantly and, in my opinion, generally too few of them.

The muslims living here have a right to be protected from far right violence, rightfully so. When they get attacked this right must be cashed in and they must now cash out the same thing, when jewish people are getting attacked. They must decidedly distance themselves from antisemitism now to not lose their own right on tolerance. There is no space in Germany for religious intolerance. Those who live here live here according to the rules of the country. And those who come here also must know that this is how it is and that it will be enforced.

(Habeck warns of 'entrenched antisemitism' in germany)

Our constitution protects and gives rights, but it also issues responsibilities that have to be fulfilled by everyone. You cannot separate one from the other. In this case tolerance cannot bear intolerance. This is the core of our living-together in this republic.

This means: the burning of israeli flags is a crime, the lauding of the terror of hamas is a crime as well. Those who are german will have to account for this in court, those who aren't german additionally risk their status of residence [that is, their right to stay living in germany]. For those who don't have a status of residence yet [that is, refugees] , this gives a reason to be deported.

(Anticolonialism mustn't lead to antisemitism)

The islamist antisemitism should not cover up that even in Germany we have entrenched antisemitism: it's just that the far right are currently holding back on it out of purely tactical reasons, so they can agitate against muslims [context: a lot of germany's far right tends to be pro-Israel] . The relativisation of the second world war, of the nazi regime as a 'fly's shit' [context: far right groups tend to deny the holocaust or call it 'just a fly's shit on history', 'fly's shit' here being a common phrase to mean 'an annoying but negligible tiny little issue'] isn't just a relativisation of the holocaust, it is a punch into the face of the victims and survivors.

Everyone that listens can and must know this. The second world war was a war-of-extermination against jewish people. For the nazi regime the extermination of the european jewish peoples was the main goal. And because there are quite a few Putin friends among the far right: Putin lets himself get photographed with representatives of Hamas and the iranian government and laments the civilian victims in the Gaza strip while creating civilian victims in Ukraine. His friends in germany are certainly not friends of jewish people.

But I am also worried about the antisemitism in parts of the political left , sadly especially amongst young activists. Anticolonialism shouldn't lead to antisemitism. Thus this part of the left should check their arguments and should not trust the great tale of [anticolonial] resistance. The 'both sides' argument here leads astray. The Hamas is a murderous terror-group who fights for the eradication of the state of Israel and the death of all jewish people. On the other hand the clarity with which for example the german section of Fridays for Future has stated this [that is, the aforementioned statement about Hamas as well as there not being two sides to the situation] even in disagreement with their international friends is more than commendable.

( It was Hamas that beast-like murdered children, parents, grandparents in their homes )

When I briefly was in Turkey, I was reproached about the fact that in Germany pro-Palestine demonstrations are prohibited. And that Germany should also extend its humanitarian efforts towards the people in Gaza. I explained that of course criticism of Israel is allowed here. And that it isn't prohibited to speak up about the rights of Palestinians and their right to their own state. But this call to violence against jewish people and this celebration of violence against jewish people are prohibited - and rightly so!

Sure, life in Gaza is a life without perspectives and in poverty. Sure, the settlement movement in the West Bank is causing strife and takes the hope and rights of Palestinians and increasingly also lives. And the suffering of the civilian populace now in war is a fact, an awful fact. Every dead child is one too many. Even I call for humanitarian aid and advocate for water, medicine and aid to come to Gaza and that the refugees are protected.

(Habeck: The security of Israel is our responsibilty, Germany knows this)

But together with our American friends we continually ensure Israel that the protection of their civilian populace is vital. Sure the death and suffering that now is coming over the people in the Gaza strip is bad. To say that is necessary and legitimate. But this does not legitimize systematic violence against jewish people. It does not justify antisemitism. Of course Israel should hold itself to international law and international standards. But the difference is: Who would ever formulate such demands towards the Hamas?

And because abroad I recently was confronted with how the attack on Israel from the 7th of October has been trivialised as an - quote - "unfortunate incident" , yes even the facts of it had been questioned, here once again to call it back to memory: It was Hamas who like beasts murdered children, parents and grandparents at home. Whose fighters have mutilated corpses, kidnapped humans and , laughing, exposed them to public humiliation. These are reports of pure horror - and still people celebrate Hamas as a freedom movement? That is a reversal of facts that we cannot leave standing.

And this brings me to my last point: The attack on Israel happens in a phase of an approach of multiple muslim states towards Israel. There is the Abraham-agreement between Israel and muslim states in the region. Jordan and Israel are working together on a big drinking water project. Saudi-Arabia was on its way to normalise its relation to Israel. But a peaceful cooperation of isreal and its neighbors, of jews and muslims, the perspective of a two-state solution - all of this the Hamas and its supporters, especially the iranian government, do not want. They want to destroy it.

Those who have not lost the hope for peace in the region, who believes in the palestinian's right to an own state and a true perspective - and we do - must differentiate in these weeks of trial. And to this differentiation belongs that the murderous deeds of Hamas want to prevent peace. Hamas does not want reconciliation with Israel, but the destruction of Israel. And that's why it is uncompromisable: Israel's right to existence must not be relativized. The security of Israel is our main responsibility, Germany knows this. "

#politics #palestine #israel #antisemitism #islamophobia #absolutely vile to use the suffering of jewish people as a shield like this while not doing anything to help them otherwise #absolutely vile to trivialise palestinian deaths as 'sure thosw things happened too and they're bad' while saying that the protection of #the civilians of the country currently relentlessly attacking them is more important and the main goal #and the condemnation of the left and of people standing up against genocide as bigots that lie in bed with terrorists while also saying #they fully support the deaths of civilians as part of a 'right of self protection'

[beardedmrbean]

A prestigious Big Apple law firm has revoked job offers to three students at Harvard and Columbia universities after the Ivy League students signed controversial letters supporting the Palestinians in the wake of Hamas’ deadly slaughter in Israel.

Davis Polk & Wardwell alerted staffers on Tuesday that it had rescinded the offers because the prospective employees held leadership positions within the student organizations that issued last week’s statements blaming Israel for the attacks.

“These statements are simply contrary to our firm’s values and we thus concluded that rescinding these offers was appropriate in upholding our responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive work environment for all Davis Polk employees,” Davis Polk managing partner Neil Barr said in the email.

A spokesperson for the firm declined to identify the students.

Two of the Columbia students held leadership roles in groups that signed onto a letter released by the Ivy League’s Palestine Solidarity Groups, the New York Times reported.

The other student belonged to the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, which released a letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ mass slaughter.

The firm, which reps financial institutions and corporations, said it was still “in dialogue” with two of the students as of Tuesday after they had argued they didn’t authorize or individually sign the letters.

Reps for Harvard Law and Columbia Law declined to comment.

Davis Polk’s decision comes a week after another law firm, Winston & Strawn, said it had revoked a job offer to former New York University Student Bar Association president Ryna Workman following a controversial pro-Hamas column cheering the Hamas attack.

The firm said the former summer associate’s comments “profoundly conflict with Winston & Strawn’s values as a firm.”

“Winston stands in solidarity with Israel’s right to exist in peace and condemns Hamas and the violence and destruction it has ignited in the strongest terms possible,” the firm’s statement said.

NYU law dean Troy McKenzie sought to distance the school from Workman’s comments last week, saying the student’s message was not from the school and didn’t speak for its leadership.

Workman, who identifies as non-binary, doubled down on the incendiary rhetoric, telling the Intercept on Tuesday they will “continue to speak out and show up.”

“What’s been driving me is the resilience of Palestinians in this moment,” Workman told the outlet in their first media interview since the scandal.

“The fact that they are still using their voice, that they are still standing strong, that they are still here, and that they are asking us to continue to speak out and show up for them through this and to not let this be their end,” they said.

The move from the law firms comes after Bill Ackman, the billionaire founder of hedge fund giant Pershing Square Capital Management, vowed to make sure any student who signed the controversial Ivy League letters won’t work on Wall Street.

At least a dozen business executives later endorsed Ackman’s call to refuse to hire members of the student groups.

#nunyas news #ok then

[eretzyisrael]

by Dione J. Pierre

Across the US, dozens of college student groups declared solidarity with Hamas on Sunday, cheering the Palestinian terrorist group one day after it invaded Israel from its enclave in Gaza and murdered hundreds of Israelis and took dozens more captive in a shocking surprise attack.

Scenes of Hamas terrorists abducting children and desecrating dead bodies have circulated worldwide and invoked global outrage. However, several chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at places such as Brown University, the University of Maryland, Tufts University, and the University of California-Los Angeles have described the attacks as a form of “resistance,” demanding others accept “our right to liberate our homeland by any means necessary.”

Additionally, 31 student groups at Harvard University issued a statement blaming Israel for the attack and accusing the Jewish state of operating an “open air prison” in Gaza, despite the Israeli military having withdrawn from the territory in 2005.

“We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence,” said the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee. “In the coming days, Palestinians will be forced to bear the full brunt of Israel’s violence.”

Responding to the statement, Larry Summers, former US Secretary of the Treasury under the Clinton administration and former president of Harvard University, criticized the student groups for justifying terrorist violence and called out the school’s administration for not disavowing support for terrorism.

“The silence from Harvard’s leadership, so far, coupled with a vocal and widely reported student groups’ statement blaming Israel solely, has allowed Harvard to appear at best neutral towards act of terror against the Jewish state of Israel,” Summers tweeted on Monday. “I cannot fathom the administration’s failure to disassociate the university and condemn this statement.”

Public intellectual Robert P. George, in his own statement said, “31 — yes 31 — Harvard organizations have declared that the murders, rapes, kidnappings, and other atrocities committed by Hamas against innocent people are in now way the fault of Hamas but are rather entirely the fault of…Israel. Something is deeply, deeply wrong in academia.”

On Monday, Columbia University students issued a separate statement accusing “fascist, racist, and colonial Israeli governments” of oppressing Palestinians and violating human rights.

Asaf Romirowsky, a Middle East expert and the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, told The Algemeiner that the statements issued by anti-Zionist college students  are “morally obscene.”

“Cheering mass murder in the name of de-colonialism should be the final red line exemplified by the latest student groups who ‘hold the Israeli regime responsible for all unfolding violence,'” said Romirowsky. “Endorsing horrific mass murder is reprehensible on every level, and if we do not isolate these actions and comments, Islamic antisemitic terrorism in the academy will proliferate and rot our institutions of higher education.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

#by any means necessary #solidarity #hamas terrorists