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#especially the one that study in Jerusalem
jewish-sideblog · 4 months
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Boozhoo, I'm an indigenous American who loves the phrase "decolonization is not a metaphor" as an easy way to refer to laws and social changes to return sovereignty to indigenous peoples, but it's getting harder and harder to see that phrase (and other things relating to decolonization) be weaponized against Jewish people.
I've seen a lot of antisemitic nonsense from non-Native people, twisting around decolonization efforts in the Americas to justify violence against Jewish and Israeli people, but I've also seen it coming from other Native people who should KNOW better than to be spreading hateful lies like that. Seeing other Natives spread racist and antisemitic denials of Jewish connection to the Levant and Jerusalem especially, while pushing race science that hurts ALL indigenous people, is terrifying.
I believe in Palestinian liberation and the end of the violence in Gaza. I also believe that Jewish people deserve to live on their ancestral homeland safely if they so choose and that they should be able to live in the rest of the world without the threat of antisemitic violence. These things are not mutually exclusive.
I hope you have a good day.
Shalom! Thank you for sending an ask that I'm happy to receive. Those don't come in often!
It's difficult to see people of any indigeneity-- Palestinian, Jewish, Anishinaabe, hell, even Ukrainian-- acting like we don't all share the same struggle against colonialism, coloniality, and imperialism. Our struggles are one struggle because of our differences, not despite them, because our struggle is against those who would force us to accept assimilation and homogeneity. The fact that some of us can't see that? It's the result of colonial tactics.
One of the things that drove me to embrace Critical Theory and study sociology, instead of just "being a leftist", was that every year I saw people say:
"Fuck Christopher Columbus! Happy Indigenous People's Day!"
And the order of those phrases means everything to me. It's so clear that many people value the destruction of what they hate before they value the protection of those they purport to respect. You see this again with people who say "Fuck Nazis!" but never follow up with "Protect Jews". For many, it's not actually ever been about decolonization. It's simply been an excuse to justify violence against the forms of colonialism that negatively affect them.
I wish you peace and safety, חבר. In both the dark times of today and the dark times of the future. Your people and mine have both survived what was thought to be the impossible. Both of our people will live to see the future, despite whatever odds we may encounter.
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trans-girl-nausicaa · 2 months
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on western artistic chauvinism and islam.
As an American non-Muslim, i first learned about Islamic art and architecture in an academic context, when i was studying art history in college. one of the first things we studied was the complex geometric forms in islamic architecture. Some of the most striking, complex, and beautiful patterns in contemporary and historical islamic architecture are present in religious architecture.
Examples:
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Dome of the Selimiye mosque, Turkey, completed 1574 CE.
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Exterior of the Dome of the Rock, a shrine withing the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem, Palestine. Original construction was completed between 688 and 692 CE, and many alterations and repairs have been undertaken subsequently.
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Dome of the Gazi Husri-beg Mosque, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, constructed 1531 CE. (Fun fact: In 1898 this mosque became the first known mosque in the world to have electrical lighting installed!)
The origins of these incredibly complex patterns partly stem from the avoidance of art depicting living beings according to religious principles, also known as aniconism, which is not universal throughout Islamic historical art, but gradually became nearly universal, especially in religious art an architecture. However, there are historical examples of secular figural art made by Muslims. (Link to an article on Islamic figural art by the Met Museum.) The Arab world in general maintained in-depth studies of mathematics and geometry throughout what we may call the "medieval" era in Europe. Arabic translations of Aristotle were studied. Al-Khwarizmi invented Algebra in 830 CE.
So, as any good artist knows, within a "limitation," artistic techniques can become more specialized and refined. Indeed, Muslim artists as far back as the Ummayad caliphate had extemely sophisticated application of geometry within their designs.
In art class I studied some of the fundamentals of how to construct similar geometrically repeating patters. I grasped the fundamentals quickly, and I found it enjoyable to work within these structures. However, as you increase the complexity, the degree to which you need to understand geometry to get your patterns to work out seemingly increases exponentially.
If you want a step-by step study of some of these geometric patterns, please check out the tutorials of the Lebanese artist Joumana Medlej. She also has tutorials on figure drawing and Arabic calligraphy.
(Speaking of calligraphy, I wanted to add more to this piece regarding calligraphy and architecture, but I feel I'm getting really long already.)
Years later, after I was finished with school, I got the opportunity to go to the Balkans. While I was in Bosnia & Herzegovina, I visited several historical mosques and got to see in person the type of art that I had previously only seen in photographs.
But what does it mean to acknowledge that this art exists?
Well, the mere acknowledgement and knowledge of the history of Islamic art, architecture, calligraphy, indeed, all the elements of distinct cultural heritage across the world, are controversial in the West.
One of the darkest examples of European violence against Muslim peoples was the Bosnian Genocide in the 1990s. This genocide did not start or end with the infamous massacre of ~8000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) at Srebrenica, but also included systematic relocation of civilians, smaller massacres, and destruction of cultural heritage throughout Bosnia by both VRS and the Croatian Defense Council (HVO). Over one thousand mosques were destroyed. The VRS and the HVO both deliberately attempted to create "ethnically pure" Muslim-free statelets, and destroyed all the mosques in the territory that they held. The VRS burned down Sarajevo's National Library. The HVO blew up the Old Bridge of Mostar, a beautiful stone bridge in the middle of the city that had stood since the 16th century. (After the war, the stones were recovered from the river below and the bridge was reconstructed, and is used by Mostar residents every day.)
Israel refuses to acknowledge the historical and contemporary fact of the existence of a Palestinian people. As of February 2024, Israel has destroyed over one thousand mosques in the course of its bombardment of Gaza.
Many state and non-state actors within the U.S. and its allies also harbor these dark ideas of "bombing Muslims into the Stone Age." The invasion of Iraq was referred to as a "crusade" by President George W. Bush, and this attitude was aped by the Christian right wing in the USA.
All "they" see is a mythical horde from the East that must be destroyed.
But there is no horde. The people you share this earth with are your neighbors, regardless of their religion.
We live in a global society, and art anywhere is part of global cultural heritage. The acknowledgement, preservation, and study of Islamic art and architecture does not only culturally enrich Muslims, it enriches the whole world. Conversely, when you destroy Islamic art and architecture to harm Muslims, you also harm the rest of the world.
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fairuzfan · 5 months
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I have a question about passports. Are Palestinians in the WB, Gaza and occupied Jerusalem stateless? I know that Gaza has been under blockade, but how can Palestinians outside of Gaza travel? Do they have a special passport?
God be with Gaza and Palestine. The people are with you.
Hi anon, this is a great question! This is going to be long because it's actually one of the core reason why Israel is an Apartheid state, and contributes to the erasure of Palestinians.
First part of your question: yes, Palestinians are stateless. By definition, that means they often face trouble (click) accessing core state-based rights, like having legal jobs, owning property, being able to do build on property you own, and existing as a person with rights.
Now, since 1948, Palestinians have traveled around the world, there is an international diaspora (click on the "maps" section—although the map is not totally up to date and doesn't have totally complete data). For example, I grew up with many United States born Palestinians, meaning that they automatically are granted citizenship. However, according to international law, as my grandparents are refugees, their refugee status is passed down through generations—meaning that I am also a refugee.
I bring this up to analyze the complicated political status of the Palestinians, and why Palestinians, while citizens of different countries, don't have a clear political identity within the world. And when we get to Palestine itself, the Palestinians there face systematic statelessness enforced on them by the Zionist entity.
Palestinians in Palestine, have a passport... but even then, they aren't allowed to move freely. It does not have the same meaning as most countries' passports, because, as I said, Palestinians have no official state. There are different types of ways that Palestinians can travel depending on where they are from—for example, Palestinians in the West Bank are *not* allowed to use Ben Gurion Airport, and must go through the border to Jordan to use Aaliya to go wherever they want. But they do still have to report that they're leaving into Jordan and say where they're going. Occupied Jerusalem residents can use Ben Gurion but it's not very easy for them and they often face harassment. Gazans basically cannot travel, though, except if authorized access to study abroad and given written permission by the host country, which requires stringent verification and can be taken away at a moment's notice.
This is one of the core attributes of Apartheid—restriction of movement based on ethnic or racial or religious identity. This restriction allows for heavy monitoring of Palestinians, under the guise of "security threats."
Second Part of your question:
I actually had to consult a couple of different people I know who regularly travel to the West Bank, because each part of the territories have different rules. I've never been there so I get regularly confused with which places have which rules. I'm still not sure about the colors of the cards I mention so if someone has been there recently and would like to clarify, feel free to add to the post which cards belong to which.
As a whole, the people in the West Bank and Gaza are not citizens. Some people in Jerusalem do have citizenship, specified with a colored "card." Palestinians call their cards "Haweeyah," or identifications. Citizens also have a different colored license plate which tells the Zionist Entity that the people in the car are citizens. But the very existence of these cards, do not guarantee them rights as a citizen if they are Palestinians, especially if they are not Jewish. Palestinians are often detained without warning (called administrative detainees-click), denied to build on their own property, or even expelled and physically kicked out from their homes without notice, which is what happened in 2021 in Sheikh Jarrah, has happened before, and continues to have happened since.
In theory, these identification cards allow them to travel throughout Occupied Palestine, but they must go through militarized checkpoints where Palestinians are humiliated, tortured, and even murdered by the Zionist Entity. Every Palestinian has to go through these checkpoints, no matter what type of card you have. They are hundreds of them throughout Palestine (someone told me there are 630?), and often, people don't know whether or not they'll actually get through that checkpoint until they've gotten through it. There is no guarantee for Palestinians, no matter if you're a citizen or not, whether you'll even make it out of there alive depending on who's manning the checkpoint. I recommend reading this resource from people in Jerusalem about the checkpoint system and the division of Jerusalem (Al-Quds in arabic) for a much more in depth analysis of the checkpoint system (click).
Now there are other types of cards as well. The card if you're from the West Bank, which we call Ad-Dhuffa, are not citizenship cards but they can allow you to move throughout the territories, albeit still through the checkpoints. The car plates are also a different color noncitizens. They specify that they are residents of the West Bank. These people cannot go into the Zionist Entity freely.
I do want to emphasize though—"citizenship" for those from Jerusalem can be taken away at a moment's notice, especially if the Zionist Entity finds out that people have citizenship elsewhere in an effort to force Palestinians out as much as possible. Most Jews (except for Ethiopians ones, wonder why) are encouraged to immigrate and are automatically given citizenship no matter what other passports they may hold, even paying millions of dollars for them to come to Palestine and settle.
Now it's clear that this is apartheid—the control of movement is one part, and separating even citizens as a second class status that may be taken away is how the Zionist entity encourages ethnic cleansing at a slower scale than the Nakba in '48, but still devastating nonetheless. But that heavy surveillance of movement can even be at a much, much, smaller scale.
I want to focus in on one city in particular in the West Bank—AlKhalil (some may call it Hebron or the Old City). This is the city where my dad's family is from, so I've heard stories about it since I was little.
AlKhalil is a segregated city to the max. Palestinians are not freely allowed to walk through the streets, with some designated as "Jews Only" streets. This means that even if their front door faces the "Jews Only" street, Palestinians can't go through it at risk of being shot by a settler or soldier, so they go climb over leave from the backdoor or even climb over rooftops to leave their houses. Settler Jews, however, are allowed to go anywhere they want, all while carrying heavy artillery and terrorizing Khalili residents.
This also illustrates another part of apartheid USAmerican might be most familiar with—calling imagery Jim Crow Era and sundown towns that still go on today. Fully segregated, prohibited from even walking down streets, Palestinians are denied even core human rights, KNOWING that they're second class residents (not citizens!) that are not even afforded the simple luxury of deciding how they can walk to work or school. In fact, shopkeepers on the ground level install metal nets separating the first and second floors, because the settlers on the second floor often throw trash onto the street or into their windows. There is a literal fence between Israelis and Palestinians with the Palestinians on the bottom.
The material reality of apartheid is segregation and it is justified by the notion of "security measures," but is in fact a concentrated effort to make the lives of Palestinians difficult enough to want to leave as soon as possible. One of the forms of colonialism is the effort to crush hope and make their lives absolutely as unlivable as possible, and if they can get Palestinians to just *leave,* then they can say: "Look! We didn't take it from them! They decided to leave on their own. So we can move in now, and they have no right to come back because, well, they left!" Because of that, apartheid is one of the tools of colonialism to rob the indigenous communities of their land, and is why I wanted to use this question to discuss this.
Thank you for this question, sorry it took so long! Here are some resources I found on Palestinians' experiences:
The weaponization of Jewish identity against Palestinians to expel them from their homes by Mohammed ElKurd (highly recommend): https://mondoweiss.net/2023/09/jewish-settlers-stole-my-house-its-not-my-fault-theyre-jewish/
Checkpoints, Part 1: Severing Jerusalem by JerusalemStory.com: https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/article/checkpoints-part-1-severing-jerusalem
Mapping Hebron Apartheid: https://www.hebronapartheid.org/
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drconstellation · 3 months
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Gabriel as a Shoulder Angel: S2 Study
Part 2: Ep.3 I Know Where I'm Going and Ep.5 The Ball
So far in this series we've covered S1 and the Job minisode in S2E2, where the classic Supreme Archangel Gabriel stands on the left-hand side of the archangels as their collective shoulder-demon. As he arrived at the bookshop at the beginning of S2 we see that we are getting a parallel to the opening of S1, with Gabriel becoming a mirror and a foil to Crowley.
Episode 3: I Know Where I'm Going
We open with a content and safe ex-archangel clad in archangel tartan (with Aziraphale's teal underneath,) observing the world below as it wakes up.
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Once he's dressed and downstairs at work, we get a centralized look at his hands holding a significant book. It's from the movie "A Matter of Life or Death," but you see it in the opening credit under it's US title release "Stairway to Heaven." The best meta I've seen describing the movie is here by @simonezitrone79
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Crowley is looking after Jim in the bookshop while Aziraphale has gone to Edinburgh at this point. He stays on the demonic left, and Jim on the angelic right while they have a discussion about gravity, and things staying where you put them - or not. The book and it's movie connection is relevant to this discussion. It alludes to returning an item to its rightful place. But how do you decide where that rightful place should be? Is it natural for angels to go upwards, and demons downwards? Do only flies have the ability to defy the laws of the universe set unchallenged since the beginning of time? They all have wings...
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Jim is still a puzzled and doubtful angel as Crowley describes his "Operation Lovebirds" plan. It sounds like there is some demonic mischief afoot!
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After the failure of the rainstorm to get Maggie and Nina together, Crowley turns to find Jim sitting in a chair - back on the left.
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Crowley's comment about a tempest triggers another possession of Jim, and an ominous prophetic warning of storms to come.
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Just as Jim snaps out of this, Crowley must rush outside to confront Shax. He decides he won't play her games, and retreats back inside the bookshop, where Shax can't follow. He suggests she might spot an archangel, and the camera focus slides from Crowley on the left to Jim on his angelic right, suggesting to us they are one and the same.
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But once Shax is gone, the real demon emerges to the suggested trouble-making demon, and threatens Jim with something awful if anything happens to Aziraphale.
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We don't see Jim during Episode 4, so on to the next one!
Episode 5: The Ball
At Aziraphale's suggestion, Crowley comes to talk to Gabriel, and finds him playing with a lamp light switch upstairs in the bookshop.
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Crowley enters the room blocked on the angelic right side at the start of the conversation, while Jim is demonized on the left.
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Crowley has often doubted that Gabriel has really lost him memory, and is just pretending to be vague and naive, so confronts him with his crimes against Aziraphale in Crowley's eyes. Jim is on the left-side while this occurs.
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But as he watches Jim begin to climb out the window, Crowley becomes the demon again. This is partly due the Temptation that is occurring here - the Second Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, leading up to his entry into Jerusalem, as Gabriel and Crowley also share the roles of Jesus in the underlying story line of the The Passion that is playing out throughout S2.
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Crowley stops him from falling, again, and Jim returns to the angel-side for the moment, while Crowley questions him further.
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"Where is your memory, then?" he asks? "Everywhere."
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Crowley eventually gives up, but seems to understand somewhat, and offers Jim a hot chocolate. Jim is now back in the center of the camera, in a neutral position.
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Its worth speaking a bit more about the hot chocolate at this point, as Jim is the only one who really drinks it during S2. And both Aziraphale and Crowley offering it is significant, especially in light of the coffee shop name. I've talked about it a couple of times, and when I look back on what I've said it is usually tinged with what ever was the topic being discussed at the time. But the guts of what I said remain the same. Crowley is essentially making an apology here to Jim for what he just did, but on another level the hot chocolate represents a choice that the others in S2 don't get.
Most of us get the two options, coffee, or death. But Jim has been given a third option, and he has grabbed it enthusiastically with both hands. Aziraphale has handed it to him in spades, even! That much will take a long time to get through, wouldn't it. It's a big generous gift, that Aziraphale understands well. Gabriel came to Aziraphale because he instinctively knew Aziraphale understood what he needed. Mr 'six-shots-of-espresso' loves his freedom, or liberty, and his life here on Earth. The humans who line up for their dose of Heaven every day do, too. Death is the option-that-is-not-an-option. It's duty [and obligation.] It's the tax we all have to pay for living. So the Metatron turns up and offers Aziraphale a coffee to one who doesn't drink coffee. Essentially the Metatrash offers a choice that isn't a choice. Aziraphale's only choice is to do his duty at this point, or else...well, we aren't shown it, but it seems the 'else' was too terrible to contemplate. (Or, as some people alternatively see it, the Metatron kept pushing until he was offered a carrot he couldn't refuse.) But Jim, he's been given the option that Aziraphale and Crowley really want, but can't quite have at this point. Freedom to love as they want, and openly in front of all Heaven, Hell and Humanity. They understand. They don't judge Jimbriel for this, they actually encourage it - they both make it happen right under [Heaven and Hell's] noses in the end! The irony of it! They give their arch-enemy the gift that they dream of. ...the sweet hot chocolate is Gabriel's special option, facilitated by Aziraphale and Crowley. He doesn't have to drink what the plebs drink, the bitter devotional duty to Heaven [or Hell.]
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Not long after, the Eldritch Ball starts, and we see Jim in his Gabriel-blue Liberace suit. In religious iconography Gabriel is associated with the right-hand side of Jesus, and when he's positioned there he wears blue. So it was only appropriate that Aziraphale dress him in that colour (plus it reflects the divine status of Heaven that he knows Gabriel to originate from.) Jim starts on the left-side...
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but soon finds himself center-stage again! Oh, dear, what an attention seeker. You're supposed to be in hiding, you silly angel!
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Look at the joy on his face! He's all right-hand side angel there.
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Then Shax and her Legion of the Damned break up the party. He offers to go outside and give himself up to save everyone. Wow - doesn't he do it in style, taking center stage yet again.
This is actually a deliberate pose, made to reference Jesus as he preaches to the masses, even though it looks like he's saying "here I am, come get me." Arms outstretched, his two lower fingers are also curled in on each side, much like Jesus is often pictured as well.
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Hey, Shax, it's me you want! Jim, short for James, but also Gabriel.
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Oh, you don't know the mistake you are making, Shax...
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So he returns inside, still taking center stage - in between Aziraphale on the demonic left, and Crowley on the angelic right, to report what happened outside.
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Gabriel exits, angelic stage right, defeated, while Crowley confronts Shax.
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The last we see of Jim in Ep.5 is in the background, over Aziraphale's left shoulder, so he's returned back to being a sinister-sided angel again, in his assistant book seller garb.
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But the night isn't finished yet, there is still much more to come!
This meta is part of a series on Gabriel
Gabriel as a Shoulder Angel: S1 Study
S2 Study Part 1: Ep.1 The Arrival and Ep. 2 The Clue
S2 Study Part 3: Ep.6 Every Day
First Order Archangels Part 1: Maybe You'll See An Archangel
First Order Archangels Part 2: Foils of War
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xtruss · 2 months
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‘You Become A Traitor And A Bad Jew’: “Illegal Regime of Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 Isra-Helli” Anti-War Activists Speak To RT About Their Country’s Actions
Despite the Extremely High Level of Support for the War in Isra-helli Society, Some Isra-hellis Advocate Peace and Condemn their Government
— January 30, 2024 | RT | Elizabeth Blade
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© RT/RT
For more than 115 days Israel has been fighting in Gaza, in a bid to free its 136 hostages and destroy Hamas, the Islamic militant organization responsible for the October 7 massacre that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis.
So far, over 26,000 Palestinians have died in the relentless Israeli shelling. Thousands more have been injured. Israel is facing strong international pressure to end the war, but officials in Jerusalem are refusing to budge, while a recent poll indicated that 87% of Israeli Jews support the operation and want it to continue.
Yet, there are also those who refuse to follow the majority view. RT spoke to two representatives of the so-called anti-war bloc, which is calling for an end to Israel’s occupation. Gaia Dan is a 23-year-old Jewish student originally from Haifa in northern Israel. Dr. Salim Abbas is an Arab Geologist. Both are concerned about the route Israel is taking, and have been resorting to demonstrations to change the reality.
‘There Is No Justification For The Murdering of Innocent Civilians’
RT: First of all, how did the events of October 7 impact you? What was your reaction?
Dan: I was at my place in Be’er Sheba, where I am renting an apartment for my studies. I had just come back from Canada and I was really sick. Suddenly the alarms went off and I was too sick and confused to understand what was going on. Only after two hours of alarms did I realize what was happening and went down to the neighborhood shelter. At the time they said there was an infiltration of terrorists... no one in my vicinity understood the magnitude of the incident. The next day I returned to Haifa and started to slowly realize what had actually occurred. At that moment what I felt was mainly great pain. We knew it would happen someday, because there is a limit to how much you can belittle and how arrogant you can be when it comes to Gaza, but the pain was enormous, the pain for the innocents who died and those who would die later.
Abbas: The events of October 7 surprised us all, and especially me, I did not believe that Palestinian freedom fighters could commit such atrocities and descend to such a disgusting and painful level as the behavior of the occupation army and the fascist settlers. I believed in a just struggle of an entire people living under continuous humiliation, oppression and murder but there is no justification for the murdering of innocent civilians.
On October 7, I was on my way to a Palestinian village in the occupied territories (near Qalqilya), where we were supposed to pick olives with Jewish friends. But the news did not stop pouring in. Even now, with after more than 105 days, the magnitude of the tragedy and the failure – due to which I lost good friends, and some are still kidnapped – have not been determined yet.
‘This Is Pure Revenge’
RT: What promoted you to take this path of demonstrating against the war?
Dan: When October 7 happened, I was in no hurry to leave the house with chants of protest. I believed there was still a chance for negotiations. But as time passed, and the bodies in Gaza piled up, I realized that it is not in our culture to negotiate; we only understand the militant language. They slaughtered us so we will slaughter them back. This is pure revenge.
But I’m not ready for them to act on my behalf. I am not ready for them to ignore the big picture of why the events of October 7 took place. I’m not ready for people to be massacred, or settlements inside our outside the Green Line to be erected. Not ready for them to lie that what they are doing is for our security.
Plus, I have an aversion to people who sit on the sidelines and are ready to watch the world burn. I don’t have this privilege.
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Gaia Dan, Anti-war Activist Participating in a Demonstration Demanding the End of the Operation in Gaza. Haifa, January 20, 2024
Abbas: I am a social activist and coordinator of a group of citizens against crime, which brought me to be at the heart of the current storm... I am not used to sitting on the fence as a citizen. What has been happening in recent years, the madness and the destruction caused by the fascist right-wing government hurts me. So as a citizen who has a dream and a vision for a reformed and equal democratic state for all its citizens, I wanted to act. This impulse comes from my parents, who were born in an uprooted village called Maalul (5km west of Nazareth), and I decided to go in the footsteps of my father, pursuing the just struggle that he fought for all his life. I have hope and optimism that it is possible to bring change for the better, that it is possible to build a reformed state that strives to live next to an independent Palestinian state, in peace.
‘We Can Only Dream of Raising The Flag of Palestine 🇵🇸’
RT: How freely can you actually protest? We are not seeing these protests that often...
Dan: Even before October 7 it was difficult to demonstrate. It was tough to raise Palestinian flags. We made countless attempts to do so during protests, but it all boiled down to the mood of the police officers. Sometimes our flags were taken away, sometimes we were arrested. Sometimes they were less violent and sometimes more. But we did manage to negotiate and even reach some understandings with the police – for example small Palestinian flags were indeed allowed.
Then came October 7, and now we can only dream of raising the flag of Palestine. Any attempt to demonstrate against the war is brutally dismantled, whether it is in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa. Gagging is everywhere. They tell you that the war is justified, that Israel didn’t have a choice. When you try to protest against it, you become a traitor, a bad Jew or an anti-Semite. Your opinions become irrelevant.
On Saturday we staged a demonstration after going through the High Court of Justice. There, too, the police were present. They checked each of our banners. Such words as “Massacre” or “Palestine” serve as a trigger for them, and prompt them to act violently. So we constantly need to think in what language and what exactly we will write on our banners so that they don’t take them away from us.
Police violence is a big problem for us, simply because people don’t want to leave the house, fearing they will be arrested or beaten up. Another issue is that the police remember you so if you happen to be a prominent activist in Haifa, you end up living with a constant feeling of political persecution. It frightens people, so this intimidation works.
Abbas: It has always been problematic to demonstrate against the occupation and its injustices, but in recent months the situation has worsened in the face of the political persecution of Arab and Jewish activists and the prohibition of demonstrations and protests against the massacre and the extermination of the people of Gaza.
We are facing more and more restrictions through the threats of the police and the Shin Ben [Israel’s internal security agency - ed.] – something that I have experienced myself. I can say that for the first time I felt fear and despair, something that brought me back to the period of martial law that was imposed on the Arab community within the country [from 1949 till 1966 - ed.], a period which included suppression, arrests and political persecution. Yet, these things only prompt us to go on and swim against the current. They make us strengthen our humane position against a mentality that sanctifies the horrific circle of blood.
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Salim Abbas: A Palestinian Anti-war Activist.
“Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 Terrorist Isra-hell” Wants Its Citizens To Be Violent
RT: Israel prides itself on its flourishing mass media that provides a platform for all opinions. Would you agree with this? And what do you think of Israel’s education system and the set of values it gives?
Dan: Only two local media outlets gave me the platform to express myself – Sikha Mekomit and Haaretz. Others don’t invite me. The media is mobilized for the war effort. We are being hidden because they don’t want to show that there are other options. They don’t want to show that people like me exist.
They are talking about the de-Nazification of Gaza but what about de-Nazification here? Listen to how people here are talking, they are calling for mass extermination, and this is exactly what they see in the news.
As for our education system. Israeli society is militant because we are in the mindset that everyone wants to kill us. People grow up on this ideology, in schools they pump you the narrative that everyone is against you so it gives you an existential dread.
We are a society where the discourse is violent. Your success in life is measured by what you did during your military service, and how combative you were. Israel wants its citizens to be violent. Of course, I can blame the education system and the media for the current mess, but the truth is that they are only tools in the hands of the government.
Abbas: State media tries to ignore the sane voice that fights for peace, equality and social justice for all citizens.
As for education, the problem is that the majority of Israeli society is militant. It comes from an education that is built on a militaristic mentality that raises generations of fighting machines and not normal human beings. This mentality is based on fear and terror while cynically exploiting the issue of the Holocaust and the concentration camps. It can thereby turn the young people into murder and hatred machines for anyone who opposes their spirit.
RT: Do you think the events of October 7 changed things for the worse?
Dan: I think that every incident of terror or violent resistance in which innocent people are involved changes Israeli society for the worse. What happened on October 7 was not an exception. Just like violent acts before, it brought out the demons in 90 percent of Israelis including in those who were initially supportive of peaceful solutions to the conflict, and following the events ditched that path.
Abbas: Such events always succeed in changing Israeli society for the worse because most of the citizens are led as a herd and the establishment media concentrates all its efforts in transmitting disinformation in favor of the government which has failed in the simplest task: to secure its own citizens. Let’s not forget that similar events on a smaller scale – such as Hamas’ suicide attacks from 1996 onwards – led to the radicalization of Israeli public opinion and resulted in the right-wing government and Bibi’s Likud coming to power [reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - ed.].
Unfortunately, the victims of Hamas have become the fig leaf of the Israeli occupation. They are now used by the Israeli government to incite the world public opinion and divert it from the daily injustices of the occupation.
‘Salvation Will Not Come From The Zionist Terrorist 🐖 🐖 🐖 Cunts Jews’
RT: Do you think a change is possible? What needs to happen for it to occur?
Dan: I do believe in change but for it to take place, it requires a reset of Israeli society as we know it. It requires us ditching the notion of a Jewish and democratic state because if you define yourself as Jewish, you cannot be democratic towards non-Jews; and it requires a lot of international pressure that will force Israel to reach a compromise.
For me, one thing is certain: salvation will not come from the Jews, the ones who will eventually end the occupation and bring about a revolution will be the Palestinian people themselves. What I can do as a Jew is to spur it on, speed it up and push it in every possible way as I am doing now.
Abbas: I do believe that the situation will change for the better despite the difficulty and madness that rages around us.
The road is still long but what prompts me and my partners in this struggle is the belief that we are fighting for future generations, for the sake of young men and women who deserve a bright and just future.
It seems that many things need to be done for us to reach that goal. First of all, is the establishment of a left wing, Arab-Jewish democratic bloc that will unite all human rights organizations, movements and parties. Then, later on, it will expand and grow stronger until it becomes a true partner in a government coalition. Such a development can also involve a serious ambition from political parties to design a constitution for the country through a referendum that can guarantee full rights and equality for all citizens.
— By Elizabeth Blade, RT Middle East Correspondent
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capricorn-0mnikorn · 13 days
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Extended excerpt:
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The sharp divisions over Israel's war in Gaza are also on full display inside Israeli politics. Far-left-wing lawmaker Ofer Cassif survived an effort last month to expel him from Israel's legislature, the Knesset, after he voiced support for South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Netanyahu's allies accused Cassif of supporting terrorism. Cassif told our colleague, Michel Martin, he believes the war is a pretext for Netanyahu to seize even more power.
OFER CASSIF: Everybody knows that the government tried to pursue a coup d'etat under the sugarcoated term of judicial reform, in order to turn Israel into a full-fledged dictatorship. So now they are doing the same but under the smokescreen of the war in Gaza. And my persecution and my colleagues' persecution and attempts to silence us is not only of members of the Parliament. But the citizens at large, especially Arab citizens in Israel, have been persecuted intensely since 7th of October. People have been fired from their workplaces and suspended from their university studies solely for expressing grief and sympathy for the innocent civilians in Gaza.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
What was your reaction when you saw this move to impeach you? How did you feel about that?
CASSIF: Believe it or not, I was not that worried about myself. I had life before the Knesset, and I guess that I live life after the Knesset if I'm not assassinated before.
MARTIN: Do you honestly feel that there may be an attempt on your life as a consequence of your positions?
CASSIF: Absolutely. It's very clear Israeli society, under the continuous incitement of Netanyahu and his bigots, Israeli society is not only polarized and enclaved, but even families of the hostages are under violent attack. The violence level in Israel, political violence and violence in general, but the violence - the political violence in Israel is on the rise.
[. . . . .]
CASSIF: There's no military solution. The fanatic Palestinians and the fanatic Israelis must understand there is no military solution to this situation, only a political one. And it was like that 75 years ago, 57 years ago when the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem began, and now. So no military option at all. The main factor that allows or enable this terrible carnage and bloodshed to continue is the administration of United States.
MARTIN: What role would you like to see the United States play, given everything that has happened so far, given where we are now?
CASSIF: When the United States continuously - and it doesn't matter which administration is in power, Democrats or Republicans. It's been going on like this for too many years that there is a blind support not for the people of Israel - I want to emphasize that - for the government of Israel. Those are not the same. If the United States wants really to assist and to stand with the people of Israel, like I do, they should do everything possible against the government of Israel. This specific government who supports Jewish supremacy and racial theory, literally and explicitly, once they support them, it is as if they supported David Duke. If the Biden administration and the people of America really want to help both the Israeli people and the Palestinian people, they must force the government of Israel to end it.
[End Excerpt]
(For those who don't know who David Duke is, and why that comparison is so devastating, here's a profile of him from The Southern Poverty Law Center)
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On the topic of Speaking in tongues
When I had just found God I was in university in Scotland. I was on fire for God even though I really didn't know anything. I'm grateful God found me. I studied theology and met young people from all over the world and we formed a little community. We were from different denominations and from different backgrounds. Some of us came from very christian backgrounds, some of us were from less christian backgrounds. It was fun to discuss religion! And it was fun to pray with different people. Especially for me who had just found Christ.
...and that's when I found myself praying with a girl from Kazakhstan. She was very cool. Exmuslim, had found Christ and defied her parents. Very mentally strong. She had several bibles with passages highlighted and I could tell she was trying to teach me. It was nice. Until she took my hands, closed her eyes and started praying. It started normally with words in English. Then it switched over to nonsense words. She was from the pentecostal church. I found it very strange, I remember opening my eyes and just looking at her. After the praying was done, she told me that it was praying words you don't understand because it's a divine language. Me, who didnt know anything, thought she was right. So the following days I tried to pray like that. But my heart is too traditionally Lutheran to manage.
Now that I'm older and - God help me - wiser I no longer believe that talking in tongues the way that the pentecostal church does is a thing. Tongues means language, like English, Swedish, Arabic etc. If I can bring your attention to The Book of Acts chapter 2:
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?" 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Above it says that when The Holy Spirit entered them they started speaking in different tongues. At that time there were Jews from all over the world there and they understood what the apostles were saying. The human Jews understood what the early Christians were saying. If it had been words that no humans could understand it wouldn't have been so.
They even ask "Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?" Which again they would only ask if they could understand what was being said.
It's a huge miracle that the Galileans could suddenly speak languages of the world that they had never spoken before! And that's that in my head.
...thanks for reading!
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witchywitchy · 2 months
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First of all I wanted to say that I’ve found your posts regarding Palestine to be extremely helpful, we need to keep talking about this! 🍉🍉
Anyway I just saw this post of yours about original names of Palestinian places (https://www.tumblr.com/witchywitchy/738333948920397825/heres-a-map-of-the-original-names-of-palestinian) and I’m just genuinely a little confused because I’m not terribly knowledgeable on the historical aspects of all this. I’m not really religious anymore but I remember reading the Bible in the past and seeing references to a place called Israel and a city called Jerusalem. If these are all name changes after colonization, did this colonization happen (or at least begin) thousands of years ago? Basically I’m wondering if these are not the true names of these particular places, was there ever a true historical Israel or a true historical Jerusalem?
I’m sorry if my questions are unclear, if they are please let me know and I can clarify. :)
Hello❤️❤️Thank you so much for your kind words. I truly appreciate it. Your question is clear and I'm gonna try my best to answer it.
Yes Israel is a name that existed long before the actual state of Israel. However, I must clarify that I'll answe from my religion Islam, as I did not read the bible and cannot answer from a Christian pov.
The name Israel in my religion is the name of Prophet Jacob. Sons of Israel = sons of Jacob. The illegitimate state of Israel is not tied to religion at all, but religion is merely used as a cover up to justify the colonization of Palestine. This is something I spoke about before, and I would always encourage doing more research on it. The problem is that Israel and the West keep trying to make this about religion, and they completely disregard that Palestinian lands have been stolen, destroyed, and had their natural resources exploited just like you see in history books when studying about the history of colonialism and imperialism. While the names cause confusion, the reality is thay this issue is completely tied to the West being the colonizers they've always been. That's the best answer I can give as of now. Again, more research is always encouraged, especially about the suffering that Palestinians had to endure starting from the Nakba.
I cannot give a solid answer to the idea of there being a true historical Israel or true historical Jerusalem, because I mainly focus on one issue which is what's happening to Palestine right now and the ongoing ethnic cleansing that must stop. I hope this makes sense.
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edwardseymour · 9 days
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soo ... about that seymour adaptation...
edward seymour
i adore his whole ‘prodigal son’ vibe; norton repeatedly calls him “the star of the seymour family”. scard recounts his position as the second son as: “the eldest surviving son, john, may have lived until he was about 20 but he appears to have been overshadowed from an early age by his brother edward”. because edward does have a good start to his career, in some ways paralleling anne boleyn: he is selected to be a page of honour to the king’s sister, mary, when he was about fourteen years old. he therefore spent time in france, with scard pointing out that edward was a part of “one of the grandest households in europe”, before being the first recorded seymour to study at oxford.
i think his treatment of his first wife and their children is probably less to do with any kind of quasi-incestuous, patrilineal affair between katherine and his father (although, i am not opposed to that being included in an adaptation — with the stipulation that her youth and john’s position of authority over her be sufficiently acknowledged; i really enjoy the dissonance of two teenagers playing at adulthood, playing house while edward’s father accommodated them) and more to do with a ruthless willingness to take advantage of the system for his own benefit. he would similarly meddle “very craftily” (according to cromwell and audley) and “aggressive[ly]” (according to scard) over land ownership. he was ruthlessly opportunistic, “adept at trying to manipulate legal loopholes for his own benefit”; he would later attempt the same with katherine parr (frustrating her so much that she ranted to his brother that she would have bitten him). one contemporary professed “it is hard trusting to his courtesy, for he hath small conscience”.
likewise, he also aggravated the howards, through being of lower birth and newer money. i do not care for whether or not it is factually accurate, i very much intend to have henry howard, who hated edward, punch him in the face. (also iirc, edward later struck gardiner in the face. fabulous.) i would very much want to keep that element as a throughline in an adaptation; this monstrous class system, with it's horrific wealth divides, and the absurdity of old versus new money — especially given edward’s later complicity in the desperately punitive vagrancy act. the aristocracy of england is monstrous, and the howards and seymour exemplify different facets of it’s monstrosity: the ancient, old feudal monopoly of lands and resources (and that sense of innate superiority to others), and the ruthless drive to bleed resources dry in a constant pursuit of more. i have no interest in shying away from that; the sumptuousness of edward's career was paid for with the toil of the commons. somerset house, the grand and beautiful renaissance residence he built, was built at the same time and nor far from the religious houses edward tore down for building materials: st john of jerusalem (smithfield), was “undermined and overthrown with gunpowder” for it’s stone, st paul’s cloister and charnel house was partially demolished for rubble, the bones of those laid to rest there dumped in finsbury. he was granted and spent thousands on syon abbey. plundering of religious buildings and desecration of human remains was inexorably tied to the wealth and prestige of edward seymour’s (and the howards) career; “if the seymours had drunk innocent blood, then the howards had allowed them to do so” (childs). (“and thus behold my kind, how that we differ far; [...] i can devour no yielding prey, you kill where you subdue. my kind is to desire the honour of the field, and you, with blood to slake your thirst of such as to you yield. [...] and if to light on you my hap so good shall be / i shall be glad to feed on that that would have fed on me.”)
i think his marriage to anne stanhope, would be fabulous as a relationship dynamic. it seems like a successful marriage; the pair are active at court and are, certainly, the centre of the seymour faction at court, in the 1530s. it is the pair who facilitate jane seymour’s courtship with henry viii, for example. under edward vi they occupy the awkward position of functional royalty, with no real claim to it (yet, who is to say they are an autocratic power-grabbers when assuming they have no legitimate claim to that power and wealth assumes it is possible to ever have a legitimate claim to that level of power and wealth). they had several children and through his disinheriting his children by katherine filliol, he sought to protect his family with anne, with the same ruthlessness we should come to expect from him.
good wolf imagery with anne stanhope's family emblem being a wolf. thumbs up.
his successful career as a military man, despite his inflexible, abrasive attitude makes me think that his otherwise promising career was handicapped by flaws in his personality rather than his skillset. van der delft recorded that edward was “looked down upon by everybody as a dry, sour, opinionated man”. i feel like he fundamentally failed to co-operate at court, amongst those more attuned to courtly love tropes etc., arguably in-keeping with the idea of the seymours being less chivalrous/romantic, and more practically minded, a la edward’s sisters being educated in bastard script.
(also arguably a foil to anne boleyn in that idea of two up-and-coming, humanist leaning, reformist courtiers (with slightly controversial betrothal/marriage histories prior to court) whose talent is undermined by their arguably ‘unpalatable’ personalities and their overreaching ambition... could be fun to play on that as edward undermines anne in 1536, especially when he has to carry her motherless (made motherless by his actions) daughter for his nephew’s baptism, and ultimately they wind up buried together.)
tbh the way i envisage edward is summed up nicely by this quote from tudor times: “it may be that his talents fitted him to be a second-in-command, but that the very attention to detail that had made him a successful commander in the field, made him unsuited to the strategic vision and ability to delegate and consult that mark out the true leader. consequently, he became defensive, unwilling to take advice, and quick to take offence”.
primary sources: margaret scard, tudor king in all but name: the life of edward seymour; stephen alford, kingship and politics in the reign of edward vi; diarmaid macculloch, tudor church militant: edward vi and the protestant reformation
henry seymour
kind of obsessed with second sons, the embodiment of ‘the spare’ (henry was born around the same time as henry viii ascended to the throne, so he’s named after another spare).
he entered royal service in 1526, so a few years ahead of jane seymour probably going to court — which is also interesting considering they both joined catherine of aragon's household. i actually would like their relationship explored more — jane’s will bequeathed him “several valuable chains”, and he named his daughter after her.
i actually have zero interest in the idea that henry was the ‘good’ brother… he was clearly very much part of the seymour ‘faction’ of the 1530s — he was willing to pick at the carcass of anne boleyn’s household, as he took mark smeaton’s position after anne boleyn’s fall. likewise, jane rewarded him with several offices and entrusted him with administering her estates as queen. so, whilst he may not have been as ambitious as his brothers, he was clearly an active part of the seymour family’s ambitions, and was adaptive and willing to reap his spoils at court.
in spite of norton describing him as “content to remain in the country”, a man who “never sought the glittering careers of his siblings”, he was at court for a significant time, occupying significant positions. he ultimately did not seek, or at least did not achieve (as we don’t know enough about him to conclude he did not want them) the kind of promotions his brothers achieved, but i don’t honestly think his career was distinctly less ‘glittering’ than thomas’ or his father’s…
and his court career otherwise argues for him to be of more significance than he gets recognised for. the idea that henry “remained in the shadows” (scard) is rather difficult to reconcile with someone who held onto such a ridiculously expensive and coveted position such as queen’s carver under multiple queens. given the prominence of strict hierarchy in carving and serving food, henry would surely have been well-versed in the court dynamics, the politics of meat (to steal the phrase).
his responsibilities and seeming skill as carver also lend itself to imagery of hunting and butchery that goes so well with wolf hall and savernake forest. henry would have been skilled at carving and dismembering animal carcasses for the queen — which would be potent imagery to play with considering the seymour rise (like a phoenix) out of the ashes of anne boleyn, an old, dead bird (falcon); more bluntly with the imagery of carving and meat and picking at the remains of anne boleyn's carcass....
(fabulous wolf imagery continues with him marrying barbara wolfe.)
i think it’s interesting that of all john’s sons, henry’s seems to follow his most closely. he has a decent career at court, and clearly enjoys favour (being made knight of the bath & receiving royal grants of land under edward vi) with some military positions, but never seems to establish himself as a major personality. he ultimately establishes himself more locally, elected the mp for hampshire, and serving as high sheriff of hampshire between 1568-69.
as for family motivations, he may well have been close to his family as he was the sole executor of his mother's will. but when edward seymour asked him to send troops for support, henry supposedly ignored him and did not reply. he also did well under john dudley's administration, showing the same ability to reap the spoils of someone's fall as he did during anne's fall, only this time it was his own brothers.
it must also have been a challenging time for him in the 1560s-1570s; he was with his mother when she died, and had (at this point) lost his father, jane, thomas, edward, and three other siblings. it seems like he had lost a few children of his own at this point, too. his niece, mary seymour, quietly disappears from the record, and probably dies young, removed from her seymour family. he is presumed to be the last seymour child of this generation to die.
therefore, henry seymour (alongside sisters dorothy and elizabeth) becomes witness to the decline of the seymour family that he knew — the family would remain prominent (edward’s children, for example, retained careers and significance at court) — but in many respects the seymour ‘faction’ was obsolete at this point, and because he was at court, i feel like his perspective of this decline is the most significant: he would have seen the highest highs, in ways his sisters would not have.
primary sources: david loades, the seymours of wolf hall; elizabeth norton, jane seymour: henry viii’s true love
thomas seymour
🐀
firstly, i think it’s profoundly significant that thomas seymour would have been at wolf hall when katherine filliol came into his father’s house. he and katherine were around the same age. he would have been about eleven when katherine gave birth to her baby, john, in 1518. i think it’s really worth remembering that thomas seymour may well have witnessed his father groom his teenage ward. the set up for thomas’ relationship with lady elizabeth is there from the beginning.
his first position, under francis bryan, can be dated to the mid 1520s — so there seems to have been a mass exodus of seymour children from the family home to court (as henry and jane also come to court around this time), and in more than one case, probably in connection to francis bryan. which i think makes for fun potential, considering the dormer’s allegedly not wanting to associate with the seymour's on account of scandal, which has been attributed to the vicar of hell’s reputation.
in an adaptation, he’s a fabulous foil to edward: he seems to have been considerably less able, his career far more being credited to the successes of his immediate relatives, his blood carrying him further than any innate talent. throckmorton’s decription of him — “hardy, wise and liberal […] fierce in courage, courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice magnificent, but somewhat empty of matter” — creates this fun parallel of thomas having the charisma that edward lacked, but none of his ability; as elizabeth described him, thomas was “a man of much wit, but very little judgement”, or, according to nicholas throckmorton, “somewhat empty of matter”. norton likewise describes him as: “he was not a man of half measures. he entered into everything with gusto and determination, but not always skill or foresight.”
and there is something poignantly frustrating about how impotent and insignificant thomas seymour is, as the youngest seymour son (even if henry arguably had a less distinctive career, it seems considerably more stable, and he was with their mother when she died). his personality was praised, he seems to be popular with members of court, but he seems to fail to achieve much off of that in his own right. his first known role was in the service of his kinsman, described as “servant to sir francis bryan”, so a minor role at court and likely a family affair. he was made a gentleman of the privy chamber in october 1536, almost certainly on account of his sister's marriage to the king, and had the honour of being one of the gentlement who held the canopy over baby prince edward’s canopy at his christening in 1537, and knighted at the same ceremony that saw edward made earl of hertford. numerous grants of lands and titles probably can be attributed to his (and his family’s) friendship with thomas cromwell — “these two are more likely to have come via cromwell's mediation rather than that of the queen”. whilst edward was inducted into the order of the garter in 1541, thomas took longer to get there, despite being nominated every year from 1543 to the year of his eventual induction: 1547.
so there is this strong set up for a resentment and jealousy, not specific to edward, but to this general sense of resistance to his own juvenile status. which is, to some extent, an inevitability within a system that relies of primogeniture: he is the third surviving son, after all. he has no claim to a solid inheritance. but it also smacks of entitlement when you remember how privileged he was, and how many rewards he enjoyed on behalf of his family. we can’t identify these thoughts or feelings in the historical man, and assuming them of him would be an anachronism, but i think it would be interesting to explore in an adaptation.
still, i think he could be interesting as a man desperate to assert himself: loades speculates that presumably thomas was a gentleman volunteer on the king’s ships for some considerable time before his being made captain of the sweepstake in 1537, as such a position would demand experience of which no evidence survives. i do enjoy the idea of this, and would like to carry it through into an adaptation - of thomas throwing himself at opportunities to try and make his mark. clearly, he otherwise must have proved himself, since he did receive rewards in 1532 - his first grant, forester of enfield chase, which he likely did not obtain through his brother or bryan, and certainly not his sister jane. so, it would not be unreasonable that thomas was capable of progressing his career on his own merit. but, i think there’s something significant in the fact that most of his ‘achievements’ were granted by virtue of his blood rather than any personal achievement, both as an indication of how parasitic the court world of tudor nobility was, but also as characterisation of a man who had a lifelong relationship with doing the utmost to climb to the top of said parasitic ladder. thomas was a monster a monstrous system created.
so he's tossed about in marriage negotiations with mary howard, up until around 1540, which he seems enthusiastic about (irrespective of the fact that mary very much is not), and these two families that do not like each other are forcibly trying to force themselves to be tied to each other, all in the name of the prestige of being a little closer to the royal circle.
on that note, it would be interesting to adapt his time as ambassador to the king of hungary in 1542, where he travels to nuremberg with charles howard, both brothers to late queens of england (katherine howard, and jane seymour), especially after thomas seymour was the one to confiscate the queen’s jewels from katherine. fun foreshadowing for the later drama between his wife (katherine parr) and anne stanhope, as well as a play on the timeline of his relationship with katherine parr, as their courtship is interrupted by henry viii’s marrying katherine, in an ironic repetition of recent history as the same seems to have taken place between katherine howard and thomas culpeper.
by 1543, he has met katherine parr, and she later claims that she would have married thomas after latimer died, but it's not known what thomas felt about her. perhaps controversially? i do think he had feelings for her: she was an attractive, resolved and intelligent woman. norton points out that they shared a common interest in religious reform, and arguably one can see a compatibility between them, considering parr’s noted love of finery. and moreso in an adaptation, if we characterise thomas as ambitious and trying to accumulate more wealth, power and prestige for himself, i don’t think parr was enough of a notably, wealthy widow to be that attractive to him without some kind of personal incentive. and i am not interested in characterising thomas (or any of these people) as fundamentally incapable of love.
and i do think thomas, with that constant, entitled sense of juvenile inadequacy, raging against the patriarchal, primogeniture system, while still determined to co-operate within it, and seemingly only able to cope with it if he is able to be at the top of the pecking order he feels he is oppressed by... being in a competition over a woman with henry viii, himself an aberration against the ideal of masculinity (old, obese, his virility thoroughly undermined in both his ability to father sons and his being cuckolded). well, i adore exploring toxic masculinity with sensitivity, but also, it’s fascinating and very funny. it completely exposes the ridiculousness of these systems and structures.
it’s the same with his relationship with edward vi: whilst i don't doubt he may well have felt genuine affection for his nephew (and i did like how the brothers saw edward, in part, as an extension of their dead sister in becoming elizabeth — and i am shamelessly stealing that idea), edward vi is also the embodiment of peak masculinity whilst inherently an inversion of it by virtue of his age.
primary sources: david loades, the seymours of wolf hall; elizabeth norton, catherine parr; elizabeth norton, the temptation of princess elizabeth; stephen alford, kingship and politics in the reign of edward vi
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rhaenyraslaena · 9 months
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Duty is the Death of Love Chapter VIII
The Plague of Heaven
Available Here: ao3
Between the white gloved fingers a rosary of carnelian and turquoise beads is held gingerly, accompanied by a cross of shining, polished olive wood rosary with the body of Christ ornately carved into it.
A gift from Eulalia in their years of childhood – apparently she had managed to find a beautiful collection of carnelian and turquoise to shape and polish, before stranding the beads together, and carving the crucifixion out of the wood herself. A girl of ten years with fingers torn and ragged by hours of creation and carving, her smile as warm as the summer she had given to him.
“Oh, you’re really quite terrible at your prayers, Baldwin! Especially your Latin and your Greek! This is to help you.” She had teased him so relentlessly for it – the piousness did not come with as much ease to him as it did with members of his family. “You’re heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem – the best one there would ever be if you studied your prayers.”
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watchmenanon · 5 months
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OCTOBER 31, 2019
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinian Christians that Nobody is Talking About BY RAMZY BAROUD
Palestine’s Christian population is dwindling at an alarming rate. The world’s most ancient Christian community is moving elsewhere. And the reason for this is Israel.
Christian leaders from Palestine and South Africa sounded the alarm at a conference in Johannesburg on October 15. Their gathering was titled: “The Holy Land: A Palestinian Christian Perspective”.
One major issue that highlighted itself at the meetings is the rapidly declining number of Palestinian Christians in Palestine.
There are varied estimates on how many Palestinian Christians are still living in Palestine today, compared with the period before 1948 when the state of Israel was established atop Palestinian towns and villages. Regardless of the source of the various studies, there is near consensus that the number of Christian inhabitants of Palestine has dropped by nearly ten-fold in the last 70 years.
A population census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017 concluded that there are 47,000 Palestinian Christians living in Palestine – with reference to the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. 98 percent of Palestine’s Christians live in the West Bank – concentrated mostly in the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem – while the remainder, a tiny Christian community of merely 1,100 people, lives in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The demographic crisis that had afflicted the Christian community decades ago is now brewing.
For example, 70 years ago, Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ, was 86 percent Christian. The demographics of the city, however, have fundamentally shifted, especially after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in June 1967, and the construction of the illegal Israeli apartheid wall, starting in 2002. Parts of the wall were meant to cut off Bethlehem from Jerusalem and to isolate the former from the rest of the West Bank.
“The Wall encircles Bethlehem by continuing south of East Jerusalem in both the east and west,” the ‘Open Bethlehem’ organization said, describing the devastating impact of the wall on the Palestinian city. “With the land isolated by the Wall, annexed for settlements, and closed under various pretexts, only 13% of the Bethlehem district is available for Palestinian use.”
Increasingly beleaguered, Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem have been driven out from their historic city in large numbers. According to the city’s mayor, Vera Baboun, as of 2016, the Christian population of Bethlehem has dropped to 12 percent, merely 11,000 people.
The most optimistic estimates place the overall number of Palestinian Christians in the whole of Occupied Palestine at less than two percent.
The correlation between the shrinking Christian population in Palestine, and the Israeli occupation and apartheid should be unmistakable, as it is obvious to Palestine’s Christian and Muslim population alike.
A study conducted by Dar al-Kalima University in the West Bank town of Beit Jala and published in December 2017, interviewed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, half of them Christian and the other half Muslim. One of the main goals of the research was to understand the reason behind the depleting Christian population in Palestine.
The study concluded that “the pressure of Israeli occupation, ongoing constraints, discriminatory policies, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of lands added to the general sense of hopelessness among Palestinian Christians,” who are finding themselves in “a despairing situation where they can no longer perceive a future for their offspring or for themselves”.
Unfounded claims that Palestinian Christians are leaving because of religious tensions between them and their Muslim brethren are, therefore, irrelevant.
Gaza is another case in point. Only 2 percent of Palestine’s Christians live in the impoverished and besieged Gaza Strip. When Israel occupied Gaza along with the rest of historic Palestine in 1967, an estimated 2,300 Christians lived in the Strip. However, merely 1,100 Christians still live in Gaza today. Years of occupation, horrific wars and an unforgiving siege can do that to a community, whose historic roots date back to two millennia.
Like Gaza’s Muslims, these Christians are cut off from the rest of the world, including the holy sites in the West Bank. Every year, Gaza’s Christians apply for permits from the Israeli military to join Easter services in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Last April, only 200 Christians were granted permits, but on the condition that they must be 55 years of age or older and that they are not allowed to visit Jerusalem.
The Israeli rights group, Gisha, described the Israeli army decision as “a further violation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights to freedom of movement, religious freedom and family life”, and, rightly, accused Israel of attempting to “deepen the separation” between Gaza and the West Bank.
In fact, Israel aims at doing more than that. Separating Palestinian Christians from one another, and from their holy sites (as is the case for Muslims, as well), the Israeli government hopes to weaken the socio-cultural and spiritual connections that give Palestinians their collective identity.
Israel’s strategy is predicated on the idea that a combination of factors – immense economic hardships, permanent siege and apartheid, the severing of communal and spiritual bonds – will eventually drive all Christians out of their Palestinian homeland.
Israel is keen to present the ‘conflict’ in Palestine as a religious one so that it could, in turn, brand itself as a beleaguered Jewish state in the midst of a massive Muslim population in the Middle East. The continued existence of Palestinian Christians does not factor nicely into this Israeli agenda.
Sadly, however, Israel has succeeded in misrepresenting the struggle in Palestine – from that of political and human rights struggle against settler colonialism – into a religious one. Equally disturbing, Israel’s most ardent supporters in the United States and elsewhere are religious Christians.
It must be understood that Palestinian Christians are neither aliens nor bystanders in Palestine. They have been victimized equally as their Muslim brethren, and have also played a major role in defining the modern Palestinian identity, through their resistance, spirituality, deep connection to the land, artistic contributions and burgeoning scholarship.
Israel must not be allowed to ostracize the world’s most ancient Christian community from their ancestral land so that it may score a few points in its deeply disturbing drive for racial supremacy.
Equally important, our understanding of the legendary Palestinian ‘soumoud’ – steadfastness – and of solidarity cannot be complete without fully appreciating the centrality of Palestinian Christians to the modern Palestinian narrative and identity.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/10/31/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestinian-christians-that-nobody-is-talking-about/
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scholarlypidgeot · 1 year
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This is going to sound horrible but.. is God.. is God really any better than that Oxford comma degenerate.. There are parts of the Bible where He says “because you have sinned, I will cause horrors to fall upon you” including death and sexual violence (Deuteronomy 28, Isaiah 13). Now on one hand we can say “God can kill people and punish cultures for their sin by allowing bad things to happen to them, He’s God”, but.. is that mental gymnastics? This is a genuine question. This is not a “gotcha” or a “troll”. I have legitimately been discerning conversion for many years I just.. become troubled.. sometimes..
God bless
Okay so. I don't think the Bible ever condones sexual violence. Not in the places you describe nor anywhere else. In fact if anything he punishes sexual sin above many others -- including rape, as seen in the story of Lot and that one husband from Benjamin who had to give up his wife to save the rest of his family.
So the lines from Deuteronomy you're describing - I think 28: 15 to the end of the chapter? Aside from the curse of getting cuckolded in verse 30 I'm not seeing anything sexual at all in the Douay-Rheims version that I use. The same version also explains this curse:
[15] "All these curses": Thus God dealt with the transgressors of his law in the Old Testament: but now he often suffers sinners to prosper in this world, rewarding them for some little good they have done, and reserving their punishment for the other world.
We see in the book of Hosea that he wishes to forgive sinners and despite Israel's disloyalty, wishes to see her return to him rather than destroyed. She is destroyed, as we see in the Babylonian Captivity, when she fails to place her trust in Him.
Now I do see your point in Isaiah 13:16 especially, but given what I know about Babylon at the time (and especially at the time Isaiah was foreseeing) this seems to be a cry for vengeance against wrongs already done against Israel. This is the list of crimes committed against Jerusalem turned back against her aggressor. This reversal and vengeance against those who sin against Israel is a common theme in prophesy, and while it's described as something the Lord would bring down it's more of something the Lord permitted, as Babylon herself was sacked in the late B.C. era. This is a curse, yes, but it's also a vision of things that would come which were not brought about at the hand of the Israelites.
I think I rambled there at the end and I apologize for that. I am not personally a biblical theologian but I have studied some biblical theology, so I'm open to other sources that might indicate otherwise and polite debate. Anyway I hope I made my point clear, at least. God bless and thank you for the ask!
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cassianus · 1 year
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Feast of St. Luke, October 18
Saint Luke came from the city of Antioch, probably of a pagan family. From his youth he applied himself to seek after wisdom and to study the arts and sciences. He traveled all over the world to quench his thirst for knowledge, and had particular skill as a physician and in painting. The Gospel he wrote shows his excellent command of Greek; he also knew Hebrew and Aramaic.
There is a tradition that Luke was one of the Seventy Disciples that the Lord Jesus Christ sent before Him, two by two, to announce salvation in the towns and villages. Luke was in Jerusalem at the time of the life-giving Passion and, on Easter morning, walked with Cleopas (October 30) towards the village of Emmaus, distraught at the loss of the Master. But sadness was turned into unspeakable joy when Christ, whom they were unable to recognize when He joined them on the way, revealed to them in the breaking of bread that He was really and truly risen (Luke 24:35). After the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Luke remained for a time in Jerusalem where there were already disciples. Some say that on his way back to Antioch he stopped to preach the Good News at Sebaste in Samaria, where he obtained the relic of the right hand of the Holy Forerunner, which he took as a precious trophy to his own city. It was, therefore, at Antioch where he met Saint Paul in the course of his second missionary journey and accompanied him thence to proclaim salvation in Greece.
But another tradition says that Luke did not know the Lord during His earthly sojourn, and that he met Saint Paul while working as a physician at Thebes in Boeotia during the reign of Claudius (c. 42 AD). The Apostle’s fiery words convinced him of he Truth that he had vainly sought in the wisdom of this world for so many years. Without hesitation, he gave up all that he had and his profession in physical medicine to follow Paul and become the beloved physician (Colossians 4:14) of souls.
He went with the Apostle in his journeys from Troas to Philippi, where Paul left him to nurture the newly born Church. Luke remained in Macedonia for some years and, when Paul visited Philippi again during his third journey (AD 58), he sent him to Corinth to receive the collection made by the faithful there for the needs of the poor at Jerusalem. They went together to the Holy City, strengthening the Churches on their way. When Paul was arrested in Jerusalem and transferred to Caesarea, Luke remained with him. He accompanied Paul to Rome and describes their difficult and eventful voyage at the end of the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 27-28).
Luke wrote his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles at Rome in obedience to Paul, dedicating the Acts to Theophilus, the Governor of Achaia, who was a convert. In his Gospel, Luke adds details which are not found in the first two evangelists: in telling of the Savior’s life, he especially stresses His mercy and compassion for sinful humanity that He has come to visit as a Physician (Luke 4:23; 5:31). And in the Acts, after telling of all that happened in the foundation of the Church at Jerusalem, he gives most attention to the work of his master, Saint Paul, who labored more abundantly than all the other Apostles in spreading the glad tidings of salvation.
After two years of imprisonment in Rome, Paul was released and immediately resumed his traveling ministry, followed by his faithful disciple Luke. But Nero launched his furious persecution of the Christians in Rome soon after, and Paul returned to the city at the risk of his life to strengthen the faithful there. He was arrested, put in chains, and held in far worse conditions than before. Luke remained steadfastly faithful to his master while others forsook him (Timothy 4:11), and he was probably present at Saint Paul’s martyrdom, although he left no written testimony to the fact.
After the glorious death of the Apostle of the Gentiles, Luke made his way back to Achaia, preaching the Gospel in Italy, Dalmatia and Macedonia. It is said that, in his old age, amid great tribulations, he also evangelized the idolaters in Egypt. He is supposed to have gone as far as the remote Thebaid and to have consecrated Saint Abile, the second Bishop of Alexandria.
On his return to Greece, Luke became Bishop of Thebes in Boeotia; he ordained priests and deacons, established churches and healed the sick in soul and body by his prayer. The idolaters arrested him there when he was eighty-four years old. They flayed him alive and crucified him on an olive tree. Many miracles were wrought afterwards by a miraculous myron trickling from his tomb, which was particularly effective in the cure of eye diseases for those who, in faith, anointed themselves with it.
Many years later, the Emperor Constantius, the son of Saint Constantine the Great, sent Saint Artemius (October 20) to Thebes to bring the relics of the Apostle Luke to Constantinople, where they were placed under the altar of the Church of the Holy Apostles with the relics of the Apostles Andrew and Timothy.
It is the tradition of the Church that Saint Luke was the first iconographer and that he painted an image of the Holy Mother of God in her earthly lifetime. The All Holy Virgin praised this representation and said, “May the grace of Him who was born of me be upon this image.” Saint Luke afterwards painted other images of the All Holy Virgin and of the Apostles, giving rise in the Church to the devout and holy tradition of veneration of the icons of Christ and of His Saints. For this reason, Saint Luke is honored as the patron of iconographers.
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crusader-kings · 2 years
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I made Firestar on Crusader kings 3, here’s how it went;
Firestar, king of Thunderclan (Brittany, I renamed it) vowed to make Thunderclan a place for every culture
unfortunately, he had terrible stats and his councellors had awfully bad stats as him as well
he married to sandstorm and since I cant control how many kids he has and the gender i just kinda had to make up some characters as i went
he had 5 kids; leafpool, squirrelflight, shrinelight, lightingfalls and shallowkit (who died at birth)
leafpool was a cynical drunkard, shrinelight was an homosexual athletic steward (with amazing stats i may add) he murdered his own mother later on
but the story gets better on squirrelflight, you see, after firestar made a deal with france for protection (thunderclan was an independent kingdom) he, would automatically be apart of the first crusade of jerusalem
after winning the crusade, the pope requested each nation that participated for a benefactor, each one would get a piece of the holy land
Squirrelflight was Firestar’s benefactor that just HAPPENED to inherit the title of queen of jerusalem
as the queen of jerusalem, she, like her father, vowed to make the holy kingdom a place for all cultures and religions alike (which is absurdily difficult), like her father, she also swore vassalage to the closest empire for protection, as playing as an small independent kingdom is difficult, ESPECIALLY if you are one that holds an holy site like jerusalem
she would have difficulties in bearing children, only having 2 sons and 2 daughters (hollyleaf, lionblaze, jayfeather and sparklepelt) usually, in crusader kings youd have around 7-14 kids
hollyleaf was a humble, compassionate and brave character, her studies focused on adminstration of income and theological texts, during her lifetime, she would furthey stray away from the light of god and become a witch and in retaliation she would get excommunicated but since she was the daughter of the queen, she would not get executed or arrested, despite the people of jerusalem rioting every now and then about having a witch on the royal family
lionblaze would show to be a promising marshal as a kid, but as he grew he became more interessed in diplomatic measures, attending diplomatic college and become the chancellor for his mother
after 50 years of development, jerusalem became a safe haven for all sorts of people, squirrelflight would die at the age of 69 (nice) and the throne would be passed down to jayfeather
well. after countless hours on crusader kings, jayfeather is the most overpowered character ive ever encountered- not played as, encountered,
again, if you dont know about how crusader kings stats works, heres an example;
0-5 points is terrible
5-9 points is poor
9- 10 is average
11 - 14 is good
and anything up is excellent
now heres the thing, its HARD to find characters that are excellent in one stats, its even HARDER to find characters that excellent in two stats, usually you’ll be good at one thing and terrible/poor in the other stats, if youre good at this game or focusing towards a especific build you might excel in one stats and be average at the rest
but not jayfeather
this man has EXCELLENT stats on 4 SKILLS OUT OF 6, which might be the best character ive ever seem in general, and his learning skill is 50. FIFTY (the highest ive seem before? 22.)
jayfeather, since birth was a goddamn genius, he was studying anatomy and medicine when he was 4,by the time he was 16, he was a doctor and a theologist, the moment he became king i just everything BOOSTED to an insane degree, so jayfeather, a man-made god, started his journey
he would stray away from trying to make jerusalem a cultural place, and focused more on its development, being insanely smart, the development of technologies on jerusalem SKYROCKED, even surpassing the byzantine empire
the cities there are so absurdily developed compared to the rest of the world that its laughable, the city of jerusalem is making 20 gold a month, twenty fucking gold. a month (the average city produces 1.5 gold a month)
in the end, jayfeather outlived literally everyone in his family, even the kids, he’s 82 years old now and he’s still thriving and continuing to make heaven on earth like always did and let us hope his heir will follow his steps
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Beacon of Love
As I'm seeing videos in YouTube about Judas Iscariot, the Judas/Love Tree (Cersis Siliquastrum), the Field of Blood (Akeldama) and the Gehenna Valley (Hell on Earth), I came with a thought.
To anyone who studied the Holy Books or at least know a bit of Hebrew History, Gehenna have quite a violent background (with wars and human sacrifices on the area) and even Jesus himself called this place as Hell on Earth (hence the name). So, we could say even in a holy city as Jerusalem, it took a dark part of history in this very valley.
As for Judas Iscariot, we know that after betraying Jesus, he was fill with horror, regret and sorrow. He tried to give back the coins to the priests, and they refused that. Throw the coins and ran to the place where he died.
The legend said that the tree he picked for his demise, originally had white flowers. Then when Judas committed suicide, the whole tree changed. The flowers turn white to pink/purplish color. It said it was because of Judas' blood or out of shame. Even the whole tree has detail about Judas himself. The buds where the seeds are placed looked like a hanged man. And the round leaves when fell to the ground and dry out, turn a bit of a silvery color. Reminds of the silver pieces.
This tree became the Judas Tree (Cersis siliquastrum) for the rest of history.
But also, it became a symbol beauty and romantic love. The tree is also known as the Love Tree. Also in Arabic, it means "Bride of the Forest", A very romantic symbolism for a tree where Judas Iscariot hanged himself, no?
In my honest opinion, after seeing lots of interpretations about the real reasons of Judas' actions (either in popular culture or Biblical study), could be beyond just accepting coins.
According to the Gospel of Judas, Jesus himself asked him to betray him, as Judas was especially close to him, his most devoted disciple. Surely, he could actually be the Beloved Disciple called in the Gospel of John (and people mistake this disciple as John, not Judas). Also, the fact that instead of giving any other signal, Judas kissed Jesus. That could be a possibility that Judas' feelings for Jesus was beyond a just a devotion of an apostle to their Rabbi.
Maybe romantic love.
But we know that homosexual love wasn't accepted in those times, so Judas had to hide his true feelings somehow, only expressing those when he and Jesus were alone.
If Judas' love was that intense that even transforms a whole tree... I mean, something so strong as love could even overcome any other negative feelings such a shame. There's no grief without love, and Judas grieved because he loved Jesus dearly.
As for Akeldama, the silver coins were used to purchase the area where all the unknown and non-Jew could have a resting area. A graveyard. And despite the name of Field of Blood, it became a resting place for all souls who needed somewhere to be buried properly. A place of respect and prayers. The Field of Blood became a sacred area.
And finally, Akeldama is located in the Gehenna Valley, the hellish place named in the Bible.
Maybe even in the most desperate and darkest places, there could be a beacon of light somehow?
For example, in the ending of the Comic of Judas, after accepting his new mission as the Shepeard of the lost and grieving souls in hell, he on his own became a beacon of light, of hope and love for all those who needs comfort. And Judas Iscariot became the symbol of light and divine comfort they needed in that hopeless world.
The existence of Judas, the Judas/Love Tree and Akeldama became a Beacon of Love in Gehenna on Earth.
Just as Judas Iscariot himself became the Beacon of Love in Hell for all the dammed souls trapped there.
So, even in the darkest place one could even imagine, there's still some light somewhere. Where hope and love are still possible.
Judas Iscariot became the Tree and Shepeard of Love on Earth and in Hell, to show that his intense romantic love and devotion for Jesus Christ, still resonates. And it's up to us to open arms and accepting his message of hope, forgiveness and the most beautiful feeling the universe could had ever created.
Love
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thegcldenguard · 2 years
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I hear Jerusalem bells a-ringin' Roman cavalry choirs are singin' Be my mirror, my sword and shield My missionaries in a foreign field For some reason I can't explain I know Saint Peter won't call my name Never an honest word But that was when I ruled the world
Birthday — December 25, 2001 Zodiac Sign — Capricorn Sun, Taurus Moon, Virgo Rising MBTI — ISTJ Enneagram — Type 1 Wing 2  Moral Alignment —  Lawful Neutral Primary Vice —  Pride Primary Virtue —  Diligence Element — Earth
Overview:
Mother —  Unknown 
Father —  Unknown
Mother’s Occupation — Unknown
Father’s Occupation —  Unknown
Family Finances —  Unknown
Birth Order —  Unknown
Brothers —  Unknown
Sisters — Unknown
Other Close Family — Emperor Belos, adoptive guardian 
Best Friend — None
Other Friends — None 
Enemies —  Everyone wanted to be him
Pets — Belos thought they were a waste of space and resources 
Home Life During Childhood — parents died when he was really little, lived with distant aunt and uncle till Belos adopted him — it was strict, but he got more attention and was able to focus his magic and he just loved the Boiling Isles 
Town or City Name(s) — Boiling Isles, before that… who knows?
What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like — incredibly plain with little to no personal items 
Any Sports or Clubs — Coven training!! 
Favorite Toy or Game — none lmao 
Schooling — Homeschooled by Belos in both regular studies and magic
Favorite Subject — spellcasting
Popular or Loner — loner but he didn’t mind
Important Experiences or Events — getting adopted by Belos, when he noticed his magic wasn’t as powerful as it once was
Nationality — Boiling Islander
Culture — Boiling Islandish
Religion and beliefs — The Titan 
Physical Appearance
Face Claim —  Casil McArthur
Complexion — Pale
Hair Colour — Blonde
Eye Colour —  Hazel-grey 
Height — 6’1
Build — Slender
Tattoos — has a lot of runes all over his body, but he is rarely shirtless because he is self-conscious about a lot of the more intense ones that he did to himself for more power
Piercings — his ears
Common Hairstyle — I am sorry to invoke this image, but very Tom Felton in the first Harry Potter movie as Draco, but he can NEVER get it to stay slicked back so it pops up all the time and he kinda pretends it’s intentional 
Clothing Style —  Boiling Isles chic — aka a very stylish and elegant Goth ™ 
Mannerisms — incredibly formal, incredibly straight posture 
Usual Expression —  something like this >:| 
Health
Overall (do they get sick easily)? — since his accident, he’s been feeling under the weather :/ 
Physical Ailments — cardiac arrhythmia
Neurological Conditions — none
Allergies —  none
Grooming Habits — clean, very clean
Sleeping Habits — he used to go to bed at 10 pm and wake up at 6 am sharp, but he’s been having a hard time falling asleep 
Eating Habits — a very balanced diet
Exercise Habits —   keeps very fit with fighting and training 
Emotional Stability — levelheaded, but gets flustered easily especially around people 
Body Temperature — finally, this is useful! He is… colder than a normal person :) 
Sociability — Would prefer not to, thanks
Addictions — None
Drug Use — None
Alcohol Use — socially 
Your Character’s Character: 
Bad Habits — A bit obsessive, takes himself too seriously, completely devoted to Belos in a deeply unhealthy way lmao, rigid, inflexible 
Good Habits — Passionate, responsible, sensible, ambitious, goal-oriented, hard-working 
Best Characteristic — Dedicated
Worst Characteristic — uhhhh blind loyalty 
Worst Memory — well NOW it’s dying lmao 
Best Memory — Belos adopting him :) 
Proud of — BEING THE GOLDEN GUARD AND BRINGING GLORY TO THE BOILING ISLES 
Embarrassed by — where he came from — NO ONE KNOWS THIS 
Driving Style — he does not know how to drive
Strong Points — dedicated, hardworking,  intelligent 
Attitude — self-important, serious, self-assured
Weakness — he has no friends or loved ones :( 
Fears — that Belos will realize he is useless and get rid of him :( 
Phobias — see above
Secrets — his past before Belos adopted him, the fact that something seems wrong with him now 
Regrets — DYING
Feels Vulnerable When — talking about his USELESSNESS
Pet Peeves — when people don’t use coasters  
Conflicts — he doesn’t realize it but his devotion to Belos is incredibly unhealthy 
Motivation — make Belos proud of him 
Short Term Goals and Hopes —  find the Seal of Solomon 
Long Term Goals and Hopes — Rise in the ranks of the Emperor’s Coven
Sexuality —  Bisexual
Exercise Routine  —keeps a strict regimen
Day or Night Person —  Day
Introvert or Extrovert — introvert — not that he is shy, he just would prefer not to socialize, thanks (why is this so many of my characters)
Optimist or Pessimist — Realist
Greatest Want — rise in the ranks of the Emperor’s Coven and prove his worth to Belos
Greatest Need — be loved unconditionally :( 
Likes and Styles:
Music — The Boiling Isles national anthem, of course! Just kidding, he actually loves like heavier rock and pop punk but keeps it a secret from Belos
Books — Belos’s Autobiography // jk he likes big thick books like Moby Dick, and also Ruler’s Reach by popular Boiling Isles author King 
Foods — Pancakes :3
Drinks — some sort of magic tea 
Animals — birds! He has a fondness for cardinals, which he has never seen in person, but he’s seen pictures and he is excited to see them in person — NOT THAT HE WOULD TELL ANYONE THAT, GOSH 
Sports —  watches grudgby, does not participate
Social Issues —  Magick Rights, BOILING ISLES SUPREMACY (that is not a social issue)
Favorite Saying — whatever the Emperor’s Coven slogan is 
Color — Gold!
Clothing — He likes an elevated Goth witchy look
Jewelry — Usually has some sort of gold ring, bracelet, or necklace
Games —  solitaire :( I think he would really like board games but he has n o one to play them with 
Websites — I don’t think he has social media because Belos thought it was a waste of time… but he will now… 
TV Shows — does not watch a lot of TV, but I think he would love anime so someone get him on that 
Movies — see above
Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:
Home —  a dorm in Pride University 
Household furnishings — dorm furnishings :) little to no personal effects lmao 
Favorite Possession — His wand, which is a metal baton that expands into a polearm 
Most Cherished Possession — his signed copy of Ruler’s Reach
Married Before —  Nope!
Significant Other Before —  Nope!
Children —  Nope!
Relationship with Family —  Belos, most revered
Car —  None!
Career —  Student!
Dream Career — Head of the Emperor’s Coven
Dream Life — Serving Belos for his whole life and eventually rising as head of the Emperor’s Coven 
Love Life —  nonexistent 
Talents or Skills — Good at battle magic 
Intelligence Level — smart! And in the areas he is not good at, he works hard enough to make up for it 
Finances — has a stipend provided to him by Belos 
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