#to elevating Palestinian voices !! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

baby-girl-aaron-dessner · 6 months

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“Oh Rascal Children of Gaza” by Palestinian poet, Khaled Juma.

He was born and raised in Al-Shaboura Palestinian Refugee Camp, in the Gaza Strip. He lives there to this day. Before Israel’s latest war crimes, he worked as a school teacher and writer.

#this one really hurts #the children of Gaza #elevating Palestinian voices #khaled juma #free gaza #free palestine #oh rascal children of gaza #palestinian genocide #palestinian art #palestine #palestinians #palestinian poetry #poems #poetry #art #writing #words

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crengarrion · 4 months

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edit: please read my additions at the bottom before reblogging this post. please do not reblog this post without also reblogging the others i've linked!

if you saw my reblog(s) of ahmed's donation posts in which he includes his crypto wallets (and my links to those posts), anyone else's posts explaining how to donate to him using those wallets, or any aid post that mentions his ability to accept cryptocurrency and decided to villianise him and accuse him of being hamas for it... you are repulsive. you are not welcome here.

people are dying. paypal and ko-fi take percentages. paypal has a monthly withdrawal limit. i'm the first to admit i know nothing about cryptocurrencies, but ahmed has said it goes directly to him without a service taking a cut. i assume there are fewer or no withdrawal limits. it is harder to track and less regulated, which, in this case, provides an additional layer of security for people being precision targeted. get over it.

anyway. donate to ahmed's ko-fi. donate to ahmed's paypal. follow ahmed @90-ghost for updates on how to help him, and check his ko-fi and tumblr posts for updates. send him a nice ask. reblog his posts depicting he and his family's life in gaza. read tumblr user neaeach (naoual sahe)'s interview with ahmed. bring hope. listen to palestinians, don't speak over them.

ahmed's reblog of his interview, with a link to it:

direct link to the interview:

edit: i don't need reblogs, but palestinians, muslims, arabs, and other people suffering directly due to zionism and islamophobia do! please reblog their posts!! @el-shab-hussein has also made a post about these accusations against ahmed, which @fairuzfan added onto. and please reblog this post with ahmed's latest ko-fi update and all the ways you can DIRECTLY donate to him! thank you

#[ whispers ]#i swear. people will do anything to derail. people need victims to fit into their perfect little box or else they deserve to suffer.#sickness. repulsive. help or get out.#ahmed is a man. a human being. his family are human. people. they want to live. they deserve to live.#how dire does it have to get for people to just. help. or at least stop trying to prevent help.#reiterating in tags: Please. please reblog ahmed's posts! please reblog palestinians' posts! elevate them directly! their voices and their #words are valuable and must be amplified. i'm just a native guy in new york. i'm just angry and scared and fighting. that is all i am.

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queerasian · 3 months

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since we’re on this topic, jeremy strong, sarah snook, and brian cox are the main succession cast members who publicly called for a ceasefire in gaza last year (along with a painfully short list of others in the industry). here's brian cox reading "If I Must Die" by Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer who was killed Dec 7.

so if we must spend time on celebrities’ voices (+ disproportionate cultural influence) on the current crisis we should at least elevate the right ones.

#for the record i think any attention and energy ppl have should be channelled towards supporting palestine instead of #expecting celebrities to be grand arbiters of truth and justice and activism like -#just because they're successful actors does not mean they have any knowledge about other areas of life #HOWEVER the reality we live in means that a ton of ppl rely on celebrities to inform their political views and knowledge #because of this association between fame/status and Being Right About Everything #so as long as that is the reality id much rather elevate the voices of those among them who at least try to use #their disproportionately powerful platform for good #anyways thats all i have to say about this. im so tired and like. palestinians are dying as i type this . this whole Thing of #GG actors showing up w ribbons for israel or whatever is just. obscene. and so out of touch with fucking reality #golden globes #succession #queerasian.txt

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stil-lindigo · 3 months

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Bisan is calling for another global strike!

I saw some posts just outlining Jan 21st, and wanted to clarify that Bisan has called for a full seven days of action.

What a global strike would look like is:

calling in sick to work

purchasing bare essentials ahead of the week so you can observe the general boycott of goods / buying as little as you genuinely can

putting in a concerted effort to elevate Palestinian voices and make it clear that this strike is in support of a permanent ceasefire!

For those who will have to purchase necessary goods during this time, please observe the brands that the BDS movement is asking us to boycott!

♢♢♢

Right now is also a good time to mention some better uses for your money during this week.

Available e-sims in Gaza are running low!!

Mirna El Helbawi and her team are working round the clock to continue to connect Palestinians as Israel does its best to cut them off from the rest of the world.

You can learn how to purchase and send e-sims here, and below you’ll find a list of what is currently needed (the areas in brackets indicate what region you should select to buy e-sims in).

--

CareforGaza is an organisation that does verifiably good work, distributing supplies directly to Palestinian families.

They have a Gofundme set up at the moment, but because of Gofundme’s poor track record regarding refusing to transfer funds to Palestinians, I’d recommend continuing to donate directly to their PayPal here.

Good luck to all of you. Don't turn away from Palestine!

#i know that for some people their first instinct will be to scoff. how can anyone just not buy things for a full week?#what about groceries? rent?#and personally. i wanna say yes. there are some things that we have to spend money on to survive.#but it is possible still to make a concerted effort in your life #to carve out seven days where you can minimise that amount of money #i know its a lot.#for some people who are living on a tight budget. i know its not possible and i dont fault you for that #but i know for a fact that so many of us would be able to take out a few daily purchases in observance of this strike #do your best #dont turn away from palestine #free palestine #palestine #from the river to the sea #call to action

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fairuzfan · 3 months

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- Sephardi Jew here. Thank you for your posts concerning Palestinian Jews. Jewish people who are ethnically North African/West Asian are consistently left out of these conversations. Make no mistake - the word "Mizrahi" was invented by Israel to literally strip Palestinian Jews of their identities during the beginning of the occupation. The message was to either assimilate with the Ashkenazi, or die as a Palestinian. The entire reason people struggle to find resources about the history of Palestinian Jews is because it has been purposefully obscured by the occupation. While I am not Palestinian, (that I know of, the other funny thing, diaspora members of the Sephari community often have trouble pinning down our exact heritage, I'll let you guess why) my ethnic background is Moroccan, Libyan, Maltese. Jews from the Iberian Peninsula and Mediterranean Sea have always been here, will continue to be here. You don't have to answer this publicly or anything, btw, I just really try to reach out to people who elevate the voices of the Jewish people from this area of the world. It profoundly touches my heart.

of course, no need to thank me. an aspect of the occupation is a lot of palestinian jews have been erased from palestinian history which is pretty heartbreaking as someone who makes it their lifegoal to preserve palestinian cultural heritage and spread it to people.

it is really difficult finding resources on jewish history in SWANA before it was touched by the occupation despite it being a fundamental part of swana history.... and part of that is from european colonialism and the other part of it is collaboration with european colonialists and swana governments.

if anyone has sources on swana jewish history (i know of hadar cohen and avi shlaim rn), please do let me know so i can look into it!!

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pineappleciders · 3 months

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elevate palestinian voices

do not stop talking about the genocide in gaza

#free palestine #global strike for palestine #strike for gaza #strike for palestine #free gaza #palestine #gaza #🇵🇸#🍉#end israeli occupation #end israeli apartheid #end occupation #genocide in gaza #israel is a war criminal #israel is evil #israel is a terrorist state #boycott israel #important

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transfloridaresources · 3 months

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[Photo ID: A person standing in daylight amidst dark smoke holding a large, Palestinian flag that obscures their face. Black, white, green, and red text reads: 'Global Strike. Jan 21-28, 2024.' Then more text reads: 'The strongest governments and weapons manufacturers are supporting this genocide against my people, and you are our only hope! STRIKE globally and call for a ceasefire! Strike, protest, stop the economic movements and make pressure on your countries to stand against this and stop it, if ISRAhell don’t find the financial and weapons support, or governments to hide their crimes they will be forced to stop the genocide! Go to the streets, protest and Globally strike for a week, (21-28) January! YALLA Brave and free people of the world, CEASEFIRE NOW! - Bisan Owda (wizard_bisan1). January 21, 2024.' /End ID]

[Photo ID: A photo Bisan took of herself in the smudged mirror of an elevator. She's holding her phone up to face level while looking at the screen. She's wearing a bright blue PRESS helmet and a bright blue PRESS vest. Text over the photo reads: 'Now, we are without any connection, neither the internet nor the cellular, we can’t reach each other’s inside Gaza, we don’t know if our families and friends are alive or not, wounded or not.. still in their places or not! We take hours of walking and searching to reach someone, while moving became very risky! We can’t reach to you as well! The footage, information and news from Gaza are not reaching you as before because the Israeli army intentionally destroyers the signal towers and the servers, even using the E-SIM requires being in a high place which is very risky!. I borrowed this vest to upload this post! - Bisan Owda (wizard_bisan1). January 21, 2024.' /End ID]

TFR is participating in the Global Strike called upon by @wizard_bisan1 for this week. No money will be spent & Palestinian voices will continue to be boosted, alongside other resources for how to best use this week in support of pressuring for a ceasefire.

Bisan's full message from January 21, 2024:

Hi everyone, it’s Bisan from Gaza, I am still alive Alhamdullah.. it’s been 107 days of genocide, 15 weeks, 2568 hours of killing us, taking over our homes and lands in Gaza Strip, and forcing us to choose between leaving or death.. and sometimes we can’t even choose.. the Israeli air strikes simply kill us without any warnings. Now, we are without any connection, neither the internet nor the cellular, we can’t reach each other’s inside Gaza, we don’t know if our families and friends are alive or not, wounded or not.. still in their places or not! We take hours of walking and searching to reach someone, while moving became very risky! We can’t reach to you as well! The footage, information and news from Gaza are not reaching you as before because the Israeli army intentionally destroyers the signal towers and the servers, even using the E-SIM requires being in a high place which is very risky!. I borrowed this vest to upload this post! I am not scared of death, but of being displaced, scared of losing my family or friends, scared of being wounded and can’t have my treatment because the health system is collapsed in Gaza, and to die in pain! I am not scared of the destruction.. I lost my work place.. my home and my family work place and source of income, I am terrified of being killed by an occupier, and to be forgotten, one oppressed Bisan of a whole occupied people. The strongest governments and weapons manufacturers are supporting this genocide against my people, and you are our only hope! STRIKE globally and call for a ceasefire! Strike, protest, stop the economic movements and make pressure on your countries to stand against this and stop it, if ISRAhell don’t find the financial and weapons support, or governments to hide their crimes they will be forced to stop the genocide! Go to the streets, protest and Globally strike for a week, (21-28) January! YALLA Brave and free people of the world, CEASEFIRE NOW!

#palestine #free palestine #bisan owda #wizard bisan #global strike #global strike for palestine #florida #trans #transgender #lgbt #solidarity #described

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edenfenixblogs · 5 months

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For the record, the man accused in the shooting of the three Palestinian men was NOT JEWISH.

Please do not allow this terrible event to contribute to antisemitism or retaliatory Islamophobic violence.

James J. Eaton, the accused, is a white Christian man whose mother thought he was decorating a Christmas tree she gave him at the time of the shooting.

Many of us—Jews/Muslims/Israelis/Palestinians/Arabs—have been BEGGING those who claim to be our allies to dispense with violence and violent rhetoric against all of our communities precisely because we all know that these kinds of things happen as a result.

When I say that the rhetoric and tone you use online and the dogwhistles you espouse thoughtlessly can get people killed, this is what I’m talking about.

We all know that you want to be on the “right” side of history. But you have to want peace for all MORE than you want the self righteously fulfilling feeling of being right. This is not a game. People in your country are dying because people who claim to want to help are hurting everyone instead.

The only sides in this conflict are peace vs war, love vs hate. We must all be united in our desire for peace, not by our (self-proclaimed)“righteous” fury.

If you are demonizing Israel and Israelis and Jews or Muslims and Arabs and Palestinians, you are not only on the wrong side. You are not even on a side that can possibly be right.

Your personal political identity is irrelevant. Being a leftist/liberal/progressive doesn’t mean you’re immune to being hateful and Islamophobic and antisemitic. Being right wing/conservative doesn’t meant you are, either.

So, once again, I’m BEGGING YOU ALL: please tone down your rhetoric. Learn what dog whistles affect all parties in this conflict and then stop using them. Elevate the voices of people working for peace, not victory. And spend more time learning from those more familiar with the conflict than you do from those speaking most loudly about it.

And for the love of G-d. Please learn to interrogate a source for credibility before sharing it.

#antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #islamophobia #Islamophobic violence #Palestine #Vermont shooting #I/P #i/p conflict #inflammatory rhetoric #physical assault #gun violence #gun violence TW #Palestinians #hate speech #hate crimes tw #hate crimes #jewish muslim solidarity

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givemearmstopraywith · 6 months

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quick palestine fact sheet:

there are nearly 7 million palestinian refugees globally

1.5 million individuals live in the 58 recognized palestine refugee camps around palestine (i.e. in gaza, syria, east jerusalem, etc) recognized by the unrwa

67% of gaza's population are refugees

there are 905,000 registered palestine refugee children: 635,000 in gaza and 269,000 in the west bank

palestinian refugees frequently cannot access public health insurance and are barred from many professions; some areas bar them from education and formal work

in gaza poverty rates are nearly 82% and the unemployment rate is some of the highest in the world at nearl 47% as of august 2022

one recent study showed that 88% of palestinian children show signs of war-related post traumatic stress disorder

37% of adults in the gaza strip qualify for diagnosis for ptsd; however, this number should be approached cautiously, accounting for preconceptions about mental health, access to diagnosis, and hermeneutic injustice: the number is likely far higher

48,000 people in gaza have some form of a disability: more than one fifth of this number are children

palestinians are not allowed, by israeli law, to have citizenship; they have no freedom of movement, and can be subject to forced evictions, detention, and torture.

the per capita gdp of palestine is US$3,678 as of december 2021; this is in comparison to a gdp per capita of USD$52,000 in israel

palestine does not have a formal military. the us stopped aid to palestine, around $60 million, in 2019. palestinian security services receives around $27 million from the national budget.

hamas, a separate entity from the pss, receives around $300 million per year. in comparison, israel spends in excess of USD$23.6 billion annually on their military.

in the midst of disinformation campaigns by global powers, fight facts with facts- and with protests, rallying, donating, elevating the voices of palestinians. keep showing up. keep educating yourself and others. never give up hope. palestine will be free.

#palestine #free palestine #palestinian genocide

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biggestsimponhere · 6 months

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STAND WITH PALESTINE. STAND AGAINST GENOCIDE. USE YOUR PLATFORM. YOU HAVE A VOICE THAT PALESTINIANS DO NOT. IT TAKES NOTHING TO SIGN A PETITION. PLEASE HELP PALESTINE. HOPE IS HOW TO HELP. BELIEVE THEY WILL BE FREE AND WORK TO HELP FREE THEM. ELEVATE PALESTINE. SIGN PETITIONS. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES. TWEET. POST. REPOST. DO YOUR PART TO HELP THE INNOCENT LIVES BEING STOLEN AWAY. HELP CALL FOR A CEASE FIRE NOW.

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baby-girl-aaron-dessner · 2 months

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“Only in Gaza” by Palestinian poet, Plestia Alaqad.

Plestia is a 22-year-old Palestinian exile who rose to global prominence after October 7th, when, as an aspiring journalist in Gaza, she began filming and sharing the effects of Israeli bombardment. Her social media feeds documenting life in the Palestinian territory fast became a record of the devastation of her home city.

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battyaboutbooksreviews · 1 month

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🍉 Women's Month: Books by Female Palestinian Authors 🍉

🍉 Celebrate Women's History Month by elevating and amplifying the voices of Palestinian women writers. Every book, whether it's fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, provides an opportunity for us to learn about the culture, history, and struggles of Palestinian people. Now more than ever, it's important that we support these narratives, shine a spotlight on these experiences, and stand in solidarity as Palestinians fight for liberation. Pay homage to these women, their identities, their ancestry, and ongoing resistance with these books!

🍉 Namesake: Reflections on A Warrior Woman - N.S. Nuseibeh 🍉 Against the Loveless World - Susan Abulhawa 🍉 Love is an Ex-Country - Randa Jarrar 🍉 The Parisian - Isabella Hammad

🍉 Fashioning the Modern Middle East: Gender, Body, and Nation - Reina Lewis and Yasmine Nachabe Taan 🍉 Hazardous Spirits - Anbara Salam 🍉 Water & Salt - Lena Khalaf Tuffaha 🍉 Salt Houses - Hala Alyan

🍉 You Exist Too Much - Zaina Arafat 🍉 Minor Detail - Adania Shibli 🍉 The Twenty-Ninth Year - Hala Alyan 🍉 We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders: A Memoir of Love and Resistance - Linda Sarsour

🍉 Wild Thorns - Sahar Khalifeh 🍉 Behind You Is The Sea - Susan Muaddi Dharaj 🍉 Mother of Strangers - Suad Amiry 🍉 A Woman is No Man - Etaf Rum

🍉 Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad 🍉 They Fell Like Stars From the Sky & Other Stories - Sheikha Helawy 🍉 The Beauty of Your Face - Sahar Mustafah 🍉 Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow. - Noor Hindi

🍉 Mornings in Jenin - Susan Abulhawa 🍉 Balcony on the Moon: Coming of Age in Palestine - Ibtisam Barakat 🍉 My First and Only Love - Sahar Khalifeh 🍉 The Book of Ramallah - Maya Abu Al-Hayat

#palestinian books #save palestine #free palestine #womens history month #women writers #international women's day #palestine #batty about books #battyaboutbooks

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bfpnola · 6 months

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ID 1: “These are your reminders that:

Decolonization is not a metaphor or an abstract theory.

Every action/idea is born within context. This is not happening within a vacuum or the void.

It is not our place to dictate what the “proper response” is to 70+ years of occupation, genocide, and apartheid.

In 1923, even pioneering Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinksy acknowledged Zionism as a colonial project, impossible with the consent of natives.

Americans, your tax dollars (a planned $38 billion from 2017-2028) kill Palestinians. Contact your representatives.

The issue lies in settler-colonialism, not Jewish residents, as Palestine’s rich history demonstrates.

The two-state proposal is conceptually flawed, making it unsuitable for resolving conflict. How? It ignores the root issue of Zionist settler colonialism and the displacement of indigenous Palestinians. It offers solutions to symptoms.

This is not a fair fight. The resistance of indigenous people within the confines of an open-air prison ≠ the might of a nuclear-armed military superpower.

The colonial seeds of Zionism were planted nearly a century before the Holocaust.” End ID.

ID 2: “Statement from 09/08/23: Better Future Program has always, is always, and will always be a staunch ally of the Palestinian people.

Through this statement, BFP reaffirms its commitment to the Free Palestine movement, and stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in the pursuit of their liberation from settler sovereignty, colonial dispossession, carceral culture, racial apartheid, and European/USAmerican imperialism.

BFP also denounces the Zionist agenda, which seeks to suppress the rightful claim of the Palestinian people to their ancestral homeland, and we reject the notion of a "two-state solution." This "solution" eclipses the fundamentally asymmetrical power difference between the settler-state of "israel" and the nation of Palestine.

Furthermore, BFP rejects the ideals of homonationalism and pinkwashing. For far too long, non-racialized members of the LGBTQ+ community have been complacent in the war crimes committed against Palestinians, all because of the alleged "modernity" of israeli queer life versus the "barbarity” of Palestine.” End ID.

ID 3: “It is time to reject the idea that queerness absolves whiteness/imperialism, and non-queerness justifies the abuse of generations of innocent people.

At BFP, we recognize the need to decolonize the narrative of "israel vs. Palestine" and endeavor to do so by elevating Palestinian scholarship and voices. It is wholly inappropriate to assume expertise where there is none, or to speak over Palestinian activists during dialogue regarding Palestinian liberation.

To summarize, BFP reaffirms that we will always defend Palestine and her people. BFP rejects the Zionist agenda, and its colonial, imperial, and racist trappings. Further, we reject all ideas of homonationalism and pinkwashing applied to israel's conquest of Palestine. Finally, and most importantly, BFP seeks to elevate the voices and expertise of actual Palestinians in this fight against a widespread colonial and genocidal mindset.

— BFP's Muslim + Decolonization Youth Advocate.” End ID.

ID 4: Excerpt from The Jewish Paradox by Nahum Goldman [former president of the World Zionist Organization], p. 99:

“I don't understand your optimism," Ben-Gurion [1st Prime Minister of israel] declared. "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? They may perhaps forget in one or two generations' time, but for the moment there is no chance. So it's simple: we have to stay strong and maintain a powerful army. Our whole policy is there. Otherwise the Arabs will wipes us out".

"But how can you sleep with that prospect in mind," I broke in, "and be Prime Minister of israel too?"

"Who says I sleep?" he answered simply.” End ID.

To make clear, BFP does not rejoice over the deaths of civilians. But in the words of Jewish director of ProjectLETS, Stefanie L. Kaufman-Mthimkhulu, “All death & loss is not the same. Violence in response to genocide & ethnic cleansing is NOT = violence for the sake of colonial land expansion. … Jewish people in Israel are not being targeted or killed because they are Jewish. This is the logical outcome of a colonized & dispossessed people's fight to EXIST and not be wiped off the fucking Earth or continue to live under a death-making apartheid state. Please understand."

No more band-aids or superficial fixes! We WOULD NOT be here if not for settler-colonialism, apartheid, genocide, occupation. We WOULD NOT be here if not for hundreds to thousands of Palestinian deaths at the hands of the IDF every year. The historical truths, even acknowledged by Zionist leaders and British records, cannot be hidden any longer. It is journalistic malpractice to continue to obscure the context that begets Palestinians’ desperately warranted responses.

And to those who may have forgotten, ALL OF OUR STRUGGLES ARE INTERCONNECTED. This has to do with YOU too. This is OUR struggle too. Open your eyes. Please.

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intersectionalpraxis · 6 months

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My tiktok account was banned because zionists were mass reporting it and you know what, I feel rather honoured someone would consider my content threatening enough that they needed to shut my page down entirely.

I can state, as I have said resoundingly so since I first started learning about Palestinian struggles to liberation for nearly a decade now, is this: my solidarity has and will always be with Palestinian people. That I, like many, will NEVER accept Israel's (and the United States government) ongoing systematic and unilateral, colonial-settler violence against Palestinian people.

if you support Israel, you have blood on your hands.

If you support Israel, you're a genocide apologist.

If you support Israel, you condone an illegal occupation and the bombing of innocent civilians.

If you support Israel, you support the mass dehumanization and demonization of Palestinian people.

If you support Israel, you support their propaganda campaigns they have consistently pushed out on their sns accounts, which mimic Nazi Germany characterizations of Jewish people, and overall; colonial and imperial powers animalization of an ethnic group they are seeking to ethnically cleanse.

Is you support Israel, you support their indiscriminate strikes against schools, places of worship, hospitals, and refugee camps -you support WAR CRIMINALS.

So much more can be said, but I will leave it on this note: I will keep re-posting. I will keep making content. I will not be silent when so many people are suffering in this world. My voice may be small, but I will elevate and spread Palestinian voices as much as humanely possible because they all deserve to be seen, to be heard, to be supported, to be free like us all.

Anyone else who thinks otherwise, I sincerely question your humanity.

#feminist #feminism #social justice #tiktok #israel is an apartheid state #palestine #free palestine #freepalastine🇵🇸#free gaza #gaza #genocide #ethnic cleansing #anti zionisim #intersectionality

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sir-josh-of-art · 5 months

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PLEASE READ:

There seems to a wave of tired fatigue where people are beginning to get tired of the constant news of attrocities in the world and subsequently stop posting about them.

Unfortunately it is this falling-out that those accountable are waiting for, they're waiting for you to get bored and give up so they can continue to stamp out the Palestinian people.

So what to do? You can't ignore Gaza in way of your own interests, that'd be selfish, but you still want to post and read about those interests as well. Complicated, right? WRONG!:

Here's a handful of ideas to combat this "fatigue":

Set a goal each day for how many posts about Gaza/Palestine you want to write or reblog. Doesn't have to be a hundred, but the more the better. Even one will help. (This is what I plan on doing.)

Find alternative brands, products, and businesses to make boycotting easier.

Know that none of the tags about Palestine interfere with those about any of your favorite Jokes/Pictures/Art/Fandoms/etc, you can and will always get to post about those. Posting/reblogging 1-2 things about Palestine each day makes no impediment on your ability to post what you want on top of that.

Find easy ways to make the biggest impact. Find ways to contact local politicians and call them out, attend protests when you are physically healthy enough to do so.

Elevate what's already been said by Palestinians, their voices are infinitely more important than whatever you could spend hours writing about them.

You are not expected to give up all the joys in your life for Palestine.

You are not excused from helping at all, either.

#palestine #free palestine #free gaza #gaza #israel #genocideingaza #gaza genocide

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themathomhouse · 3 months

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I haven't seen this posted about here but it's going round Twitter and tiktok, and I'm so beyond angry I can't let it go.

The UK imprint of Simon and Schuster have announced a history of Gaza is forthcoming from writer and academic Dr Anne Irfan. She's a professor at UCL specialising in Palestinian refugees and their treatment under the UNRWA. She's done extensive work and volunteering in refugee camps, advocates for Palestinians in the UK directly to government, works with a number of projects including in asylum applications, and writes articles both in academic journals and in newspapers about Palestine. Whilst studying for her thesis, she was denied entry into Palestine by Israel.

Sounds like a highly qualified person to write a history of Gaza, right?

WRONG!

According to activists on social media - all of whom have comparable work backgrounds and experience I'm sure - it's completely unacceptable for her to write this book!!! Some of which is due to her being a white woman (we'll get to that), and some is due to her husband being a soldier in the IDF and clapping for genocide (we'll get to that too).

The vitriol and backlash has been awful, and I haven't seen many takedowns so under the cut I will dissect the issues here.

1) she's not Palestinian.

This one seems to be true, and I do think that it's important that we allow people from a region to tell their own stories. This isn't the worst criticism, however given the other problems people have I think it's being brought up disengenuously.

She is an expert though, and I am deeply concerned about this progression to an idea that we should only learn about or discuss our own cultures. Palestinian voices not being elevated is a systemic issue, not the fault of one woman who we can at least say possesses the requisite expertise to write a history book.

She's actually already written one book - Refuge and Resistance: Palestinians and the international refugee system.

Here's a list of recent news articles she's written.

2) she's white.

This one I can't verify. There are claims from people purporting to be former students of hers who say she's Jordanian and has family in Palestine. Certainly her surname is Arabic and she's listed as being fluent in Arabic on her academic profiles, so I'm not willing to assume from the single photograph I've seen that she's white.

We have also seen from the rise in antisemitism recently that whiteness is entirely conditional, and I think in this case it's being thrust upon her to justify saying she has no business writing a book. I think this is trying to get at systemic issues with publishing, but without any of the facts.

Source:

3) her husband is an IDF soldier.

Her partner (not husband as far as I can tell) tweeted out the book announcement. He's a fucking marketing data guy who works for Twitter. He's not in the IDF. He's just Israeli and so probably did national service, but that's an assumption as he lives in London.

Source:

I can't add his LinkedIn or other profiles as they've all been deleted, likely due to this shit. This will have to do.

4) he supports genocide.

No.

He had a take that I don't personally agree with - saying Israel shouldn't agree to a ceasefire until the hostages have been returned - but that is an extremely far cry from any kind of support for genocide. His Twitter has been deleted so I've only seen screenshots, possibly someone made this claim but failed to procure the correct evidence; but that seems extremely unlikely.

Even the original person who tweeted about this has tried to walk it back (not the husband part but some of the other stuff).

There were no receipts by the way, possibly due to a change of heart.

Babe you called it coloniser apologia and attacked her personally as well as her partner, you're kind of the one who made it personal. Feel bad all you want but this is just you being defensive.

What now?

If you are going to make claims about someone supporting genocide or any of this shit, be really fucking sure before you throw a Molotov cocktail into the dumpster fire of this discourse. The publisher, an unrelated book news website, her editor (who's made her account private after being @ed in the comments), and she and her partner (both deleted Twitter) have been inundated with tweets and videos on tiktok yelling about it - most of which has been at best unhelpful, but comes from a place of xenophobia and an entirely misapplied desire to crusade for justice - and I'm being generous calling it that.

Has this helped? Has it? Did posting her university email and calling for people to call her a fascist in her work inbox manifest some Palestinian writers? Has tweeting shit like this helped?

Getting rid of academia is definitely A Good Take and not the step authoritarians take.

I've personally written to the publisher to express my sadness at this whole thing, agreeing that Palestinian voices are extremely important to uplift but also saying that Dr Irfan is clearly more than qualified to write this book. I admire all of the work she has already done spending more than a decade working with Palestinian refugees, and I hope very much that everyone involved is doing okay.

I don't know what else to do. All I can do is once again say that people need to really, properly fact-check before you post. This woman is actually doing the activism. She's an historian, yes; but also does work directly in camps and with the preservation of archives. Her crime seems to me to be that her partner is Israeli, and if that's where we're at then I don't even want to know where we're going.

#i/p #antisemitism #xenophobia #anne irfan #don't make me regret tagging this #long post

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