"“Most #Israelis don’t know much about #Palestinians. They think they are terrorists, all of them, or vague images with no names, no faces, no family, no homes, no hopes,”Baruchin said. “What I am trying to do in my posts is present Palestinians as #human beings.”
As pro-Palestinian #protests continued to escalate across the country, ofcls & students at #BrownUniversity set a rare example on Tues: They made a deal.
Demonstrators agreed to dismantle their encampment at #Brown, which had been removed by Tues evening, & university leaders said they would discuss, & later vote on, divesting funds from companies connected to the #IDF campaign in #Gaza.
"What I think we’re seeing among young American Jews is … that this is not a struggle of Jews against Palestinians; it’s a struggle of Jews and Palestinians and people of conscience from all around the world around a series of basic principles. The principle is that there has to be safety and freedom and decent lives for Palestinians, if there is ever going to be safety and decency and dignity for Israeli Jews, as well…."
#Palestinians, as well as some left-wing Jews, are being suspended from studies, fired from jobs, or arrested at night — all because of social media posts.
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu has suggested using nuclear weapons against Gaza.
Minister without Portfolio Gideon Sa’ar has suggested annexing parts of Gaza.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel have separately advocated for resettling Palestinians outside of Gaza.
Gamliel’s ministry circulated a paper on expelling the population of Gaza into the Sinai desert.
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter said that Israel is “rolling out the Gaza Nakba.”
Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu has threatened to hand over Gaza’s land to former Israeli settlers and current Israeli soldiers.
It’s really hard to understand the Israeli state’s explicit policy as anything other than ethnic cleansing, at the mildest—of killing enough Palestinians and making life sufficiently unbearable for the survivors that they have to flee.
Supporting Israel and supporting Palestinians are not at odds. In fact, I'd argue they're inexorably linked.
It means supporting the Palestinians in Gaza, who deserve dignity, self-actualization, and self-rule. It means supporting the folks in the West Bank and the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens (the folks we often call Arab Israelis) who were just as terrorized by Hamas on October 7th.
As Israel is shut down and on the brink of war, many of these people are unable to work and earn a living, and may even be subject to implicit or explicit bigotry, or at least distrust, simply because they look like other people who did awful things.
Compassion can and must exist through war. It means not ignoring the threat Israel is under or the loss of lives and security, while also believing in the rights of Arabs to live fulfilled, peaceful, and joyful lives as well.
Jason Stanley begins this important essay by stating that he speaks as someone whose life has been defined by the genocide of Jewish people. He lost multiple relatives in the Holocaust. Then he states,
"To me, with my background, that is just what it means to be Jewish – to empathize with the innocent victims of mass killing, no matter their identity."
The Israeli occupation's takeover of the #Rafah border crossing not only blocked the entry of humanitarian aid but forced the #WorldCentralKitchen TO HALT ITS OPERATIONS, forcing hundreds of Palestinians into even more difficulty in securing food.
In their statement, the WCK said, "Our field kitchens & community kitchens outside evacuation zones provided >168K meals in communities around Rafah & Deir al-Balah."
¨On Saturday morning, that fence was torn down, and with it the broader #Netanyahu doctrine — adopted by the Americans and many Arab states — that it is possible to make peace in the Middle East without the #Palestinians. As hundreds of militants crossed the border unhindered on their way to occupy army posts and infiltrate dozens of Israeli communities as far as 18 miles away, Hamas declared in the most clear, painful, and murderous way possible that the conflict that threatens Israelis’ lives is the conflict with the Palestinians, and the idea that they can be bypassed via Riyadh or Abu Dhabi, or that the 2 million Palestinians imprisoned in #Gaza will disappear if #Israel builds a sufficiently elaborate fence, is an illusion that is now being shattered at a terrible human cost.¨
That was the #Kuwait School, in #Gaza. It was FULL of refugees last night when #Israel and the #UnitedStates bombed it in the middle of the night. Slaughtering countless #Palestinians in their sleep.
Massacres are being committed still. Yesterday alone, 600 people have been killed by #israeli bombardment and almost no coverage or outrage. Don't get used to the rising numbers, the same massacre in the Baptist hospital has been committed on other schools and hospitals. Don't get used to it. Demand a ceasefire.
For people following the shooting of three Palestinian-American college students in Burlington, Vermont last night, VTDigger is a reliable independent local news source and it looks like they’re updating this story
Washington will not allow for the forced relocations of #Palestinians or any redrawing of the current border of the #Gaza Strip, US Vice President Kamala Harris said in a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
"Under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza”
“Two activists from a Jewish-Arab peace movement were recently detained in #Israel for putting up posters with a message that the police deemed to be offensive. The message was: “Jews and Arabs, we will get through this together.”” #Gaza#Palestinians
"There is no reason for the United States to be engaged with any government that can do this."
Then he excerpts a BBC report about the IDF of 7 food-charity workers of chef Andrés' World Central Kitchen on Monday, something the IDF is trying to dismiss as, "It just happened."
Heartbreaking post from Chef Andrès this morning addressed to his friend Zomi, a #WCK aid worker assassinated by the Israeli government while in #Gaza to feed starving #Palestinians.
"I’m sorry my friend…I wish I never founded @WCKitchen
..you would be alive somewhere today, smiling & making somebody somewhere feel like they were the most beloved person in the world…That how I always felt with you…"
"Keep this quote in mind from Dr. Martin Luther King’s critically important book 'Why We Can’t Wait' about the essential, urgent and imperative nature of socially conscious protest movements :
'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.'
Maybe it is the rest of us who should re-examine our approach and listen to what the students are saying."
"The college campus protests against Israel’s destruction of Gaza have been overwhelmingly peaceful. But elite reporters– following the lead of politicians of both parties – continue to refer to them as violent and chaotic."
(There are some typos and odd word choices, but English isn't his first language, he usually writes in Hebrew, I think. He expresses himself masterfully, nonetheless)