Okay, I have to admit I did not see that stupid mens rights bullshit coming. To be honest, there are plenty of stronger rebuttals.
I realize you are ignoring the lowballed numbers that deliberately exclude those still under the rubble, and those dead from starvation and disease, and the point that these numbers are minimums, but really? That is your takeaway and your argument?
Out collective failure to stop Israel's war on Gaza has consequences for our every day lives, writes Dina Khadr. [Getty]
..palestinians get no voice no vote.
US says 'too soon' to weigh in on new Palestinian Cabinet
The Biden administration struck a note of caution Thursday after the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced the formation of a new Cabinet, saying it is too early to offer an assessment.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters during a virtual briefing that it is "too soon to make any broad judgments about this particular new government." He emphasized that the Biden administration has "long called" for reforms within the PA.
"We'll be looking for this new government to deliver on policies, and to implement those credible and far-reaching reforms," he said. "We've long talked about a revitalized Palestinian Authority, and how important that's going to be to eventually delivering results for the Palestinian people, and to help establish the conditions for stability both in the West Bank and in Gaza.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas approved the new government earlier Thursday, led by Mohammad Mustafa, making it the 19th in Palestine's history.
The new government has 23 ministers under the leadership of Mustafa, who retained his position as foreign minister. The government will take the constitutional oath before Abbas next Sunday, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.....
Okay, I have to admit I did not see that stupid mens rights bullshit coming. To be honest, there are plenty of stronger rebuttals.
I realize you are ignoring the lowballed numbers that deliberately exclude those still under the rubble, and those dead from starvation and disease, and the point that these numbers are minimums, but really? That is your takeaway and your argument?
I'm using the numbers you provided lol
Wait, wait I know.It's just the women and children numbers that are lowballed! For some reason there are no men under the rubble. Just women and children are under there.
And men aren't starving, just women and children (even though women survive longer then men when totally starved).
Out of curiosity though, do you know why the number of women and children deaths are lowballed but the men aren't?
Also nice job with the mens rights attempt lol
Gotta admit, Paladin. I have nothing to say to that. There really is no point.
BC teachers organize for education on Palestine
At the Annual General Meeting of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) two weekends ago, teacher delegates passed a historic motion about Palestine. The motion asked the BCTF to push the Ministry of Education to include the Nakba and the military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank in the BC curriculum. The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
This isn’t the first pro-Palestine motion that the BCTF has passed; a motion to call for a ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine also passed at a BCTF Representative Assembly in the Fall. But the fact that this new motion was passed by the more than 500 teacher delegates speaks not only to the shift in public opinion in support of Palestinian rights, but also to the impressive organizing that was done by teachers in groups such as Teachers for Palestine and the new Vancouver Chapter of Labour for Palestine.
Spring Magazine is fortunate to publish this interview between a Spring member who is a member of the BCTF, and K.Z., one of the teachers involved in organizing to pass this motion.....
Gotta admit, Paladin. I have nothing to say to that. There really is no point.
I appreciate the links you posted thank you.
..amazing strength, courage and spirit = a will to live. what cowards the zionists are = a will to destroy and hate.
At overburdened Gaza hospital, Palestinians try to instill Ramadan spirit
The European Hospital near Khan Younis is overflowing with thousands of Palestinians displaced and wounded by Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, which is now approaching its seventh month. Both the hospital’s corridors and its courtyard outside are filled with tents, the people’s suffering apparent for all to see. There are no verified figures on the exact number of people here — the hospital estimates about 30,000 people are crowded in the premises — but the families are clearly facing immense difficulties in obtaining the most basic needs, with the hospital ill-equipped to serve as a massive makeshift shelter.
But despite the horrors of the war, the Palestinians here are trying their best to mark the holy month of Ramadan, with Eid al-Fitr approaching in two weeks’ time. Families and hospital staff have put up some decorations and distributed them to children to adorn the tents and corridors, hoping to create a festive atmosphere amid their horrid conditions.
“Despite the wounds, martyrs, war, and destruction on our children, women, and elderly, we are still steadfast and trying to celebrate the advent of the fasting month,” said Jamal Al-Masry, 55, who had to flee his home in Al-Shati refugee camp and seek shelter at the European Hospital......
“Despite the wounds, martyrs, war, and destruction on our children, women, and elderly,
Mmmmhumm
Josie Fanon and her fidelity to Palestinian liberation
Throughout her almost thirty-year-long career as a journalist and political analyst, Josie Fanon’s gaze remained fixed on Palestine.
In June 1967, Josie Fanon sent an urgent telegram from her home in Algiers to the Paris office of Francois Maspero, the French publisher of Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth. In the telegram Josie instructed Maspero to ‘please immediately omit from all future editions Jean-Paul Sartre’s preface to Frantz Fanon’s book Les Damnes de la Terre because of the pro-Zionist and pro-imperialist position taken by its author with respect to Zionist aggression against Arab peoples’. A few weeks prior, Sartre had signed a manifesto of French intellectuals in favour of Israel’s security and sovereignty in the Six Day War. For Josie, anyone who had read Wretched of the Earth and did not show unwavering solidarity to the Palestinian cause had simply not understood the text.
quote:
In an article published in 1979 titled ‘Zionism is Racism’, Josie explored the decades long relationship between Israel and the National Party in South Africa that was based on ‘shared ideology, political and economic interests, and a common strategy towards African and Arab countries’. She argued that the media of the time downplayed this collaboration and insisted that it extends beyond the diplomatic visits and their alignment at the United Nations;
"But when, at the time of the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973, we learn that a South African Mirage has been shot down on the Suez front, or when, in 1976, we learn of the presence of Israeli instructors in the South African army in preparation for the invasion of Angola, we must assume that these occasional manifestations of military cooperation reflect an alliance on a much wider scale. The Israeli and South African intelligence services also collaborated closely in the repression of black nationalists and Palestinian militants. In 1974, for example, the trial of the Israeli commando accused of murdering Ahmed Bouchikhi in Norway revealed the participation of South African agents in this cooperation of international terrorism."......
..more from above.
quote:
Like many who shared her political commitments to the Third World, Josie’s criticism of the United Nations was not limited to Palestine. She was a vocal opponent of the dominant role of the US, and in 1979 published a dossier dedicated to Andrew Young; the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations who was forced to resign following a meeting with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official. The dossier explores both the likelihood and potential of a black pro-Palestinian lobby emerging at the UN, underscored by the understanding that any progressive lobby preaching ‘justice’ needed to be committed to Palestinian freedom.
Josie shared Angela Davis’ view that Palestine is a ‘moral litmus test’. As her reputation grew as a skilled and trusted interviewer giving her access to some of the most influential anti-colonial voices of the time (Che Guevara, Eldridge Cleaver, Julius Nyerere and George Silundika) she rarely missed the opportunity to bring up the importance of Palestinian solidarity.....
epaulo13 wrote:
Out collective failure to stop Israel's war on Gaza has consequences for our every day lives, writes Dina Khadr. [Getty]
End of quote.
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————
Our collective failure for almost two decades to stop Hamas from shooting rockets at Israel tens of thousands of times and our collective failure to stop Hamas from building a network of military tunnels that use civilians as military shields, has consequences for our every day lives.
Our collective failure for almost two decades to stop Hamas from shooting rockets at Israel tens of thousands of times and our collective failure to stop Hamas from building a network of military tunnels that use civilians as military shields, has consequences for our every day lives.
Imagine if they smuggled in a rocket size worth of food every 2 hours for 10 years.
Hamas's first priority is establishing an Islamic caliphate. They clearly say that in their manifesto that established Hamas. Hamas has never repudiated their charter.
Stop defending genocide! Long live the Palestinian Resistance! Down with Apartheid Israel! Down with Its Occupation! Free Palestine from the River to the Sea!
NDPP, maybe this isn't a zero sum game? Maybe both Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace? From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis can both be free living side by side in peace and harmony?
There is no indication of that. Polls indicate Israelis are overwhelmingly anti-Palestinian and pro-genocide.
And Anthony Housefather, MP (for Israel) said in parliament that 95 % of Canadian Jews 'were Zionists' - like you.
Thank heavens the 5% are marching and demonstrating on the right side of Palestinian human and land rights and against Israel, Zionism and genocide.
You need to stop propagandizing on behalf of the genocidal Jewish State and come to your senses. Would you want a murderous psychopath like Israel that has always desired and tried to wipe you off the map and steal your land and resources living next door?
It's not up to me, but I think Zionist Israel is a murderous monster that cannot be trusted and deserves no more second chances. Such a monster should have no 'right to exist' anywhere, after all the things it's done.
There is no indication of that. Polls indicate Israelis are overwhelmingly anti-Palestinian and pro-genocide.
And Anthony Housefather, MP (for Israel) said in parliament that 95 % of Canadian Jews 'were Zionists' - like you.
Thank heavens the 5% are marching and demonstrating on the right side of Palestinian human and land rights and against Israel, Zionism and genocide.
You need to stop propagandizing on behalf of the genocidal Jewish State and come to your senses. Would you want a murderous psychopath like Israel that has always desired and tried to wipe you off the map and steal your land and resources living next door?
It's not up to me, but I think Zionist Israel is a murderous monster that cannot be trusted and deserves no more second chances. Such a monster should have no 'right to exist' anywhere, after all the things it's done.
Jews in the British Mandate and in Israel afterwards have supported and still support a two state solution in great numbers. Jews in the British Mandate were willing to negotiate and they accepted different partition plans. Jews in the partition plan were willing to negotiate. Israel has also accepted partition plans. Israel has also been willing to negotiate. Your characterization of 95% of Israelis and 95%,of Jews as being “monsters,” “psychopaths,” and being “pro-genocide” is both completely wrong and very deeply offensive. These are the kind of antisemitic attitudes that have fueled this conflict for over a century. Both Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace but that requires greater understanding by everyone and a strong will for peace from both sides.
NDPP, maybe this isn't a zero sum game? Maybe both Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace? From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis can both be free living side by side in peace and harmony?
NDPP would rather the jews just disappear.
..awesome! a victory inside the zionist fortress.
Hebrew University Reinstates Palestinian Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Following Outcry
Hebrew University in Jerusalem has reinstated Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, the internationally renowned feminist Palestinian professor, who was suspended earlier this month after saying in an interview Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Hebrew University reportedly did not demand she recant those remarks, but did reinstate her after she clarified her remarks on reports of sexual assaults during the October 7 attacks. Her suspension had been met with protests from students and faculty of the school. Click here to see our interview with Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian.
......
..from that interview.
quote:
So I guess it’s time to reconsider the Zionist ideology, because it started, since the early ’90s, with violence, with dispossession and with lots of massacres, and to call for a discussion that is away from that very racist and very unfair and inhumane ideology.....
Israel Lobbyists Tried to Cancel an Event on Mental Health and Palestine – but Failed
quote:
“Psychoanalysis at large often takes an anti-Palestine position,” said organiser Luke Manzarpour, from “collective of communist mental health workers” the Red Clinic. In this context, the event held particular significance – which is perhaps why it was targeted.
In a letter sent to museum director Guiseppe Albano on 14 March, and shared with Novara Media by the Red Clinic, UKLFI – a lobby group which describes itself as a “voluntary association of lawyers who support Israel” – urged the venue to “cancel this event in order to protect [its] reputation”.
UKLFI director Caroline Turner singled out panellist Lara Sheehi, who was at the centre of a dispute that sent ripples across the discipline last year, bringing psychoanalysis’s fraught relationship with Palestine to the fore, even before 7 October.
Sheehi was a clinical psychology professor at George Washington University when, in January 2023, Israel lobby group StandWithUs leapt on the concerns of a few Jewish students about a talk Sheehi helped to organise. The pro-Israel group complained to the US education department that Sheehi had discriminated against Jewish students by refusing to accept their definitions of antisemitism.
Sheehi said she experienced a “global smear campaign … by Zionists” as a result of the incident. Since 7 October, she said, there has been “a sharp uptick” in “abuse” – part of an agenda to “intimidate [and] suppress dissidents and purposefully harm anti-Zionists”.
In a press release published on UKLFI’s website ahead of the Freud Museum event, Turner echoed this “campaign”, calling Sheehi “an extremist speaker” with an “antisemitic and pro-terror history”, below a photograph of the author, used without her permission.
Sheehi said: “Anyone who expects me to dignify the specious, Islamophobic and anti-Arab hate-mongering allegations made by a group of pro-Israeli genocide vigilantes who are best known for forcing the removal of paintings by Gazan children in a hospital in the UK (well before October 7) has already chosen the wrong side of history” – referring to past actions by UKLFI, which has targeted hospitals and art galleries.....
..from above.
quote:
The idea of ‘clinical neutrality’ can be central to psychoanalysis. But while this might refer to a therapist’s attempt to remain impartial – insofar as that as possible – it “is often a guise in which prejudice is allowed to be expressed,” Manzarpour said.
Groups like the Red Clinic seek to address this failure to acknowledge power within the discipline, including by showing explicit support for Palestine. Although they are in the minority, the history and present of psychoanalysis is replete with practitioners like Manzarpour and Sheehi who understand their radical politics as inextricable from their clinical work.
For Sheehi, centering Palestine is obvious. “If we’re attentive to the ways in which systems of oppression, whether that is racism, capitalism, imperialism, or settler colonialism, are central to the creation and perpetuation of psychic distress, it becomes an easy jump to be attentive to the ways in which Palestine needs to be centred in our fight,” she said.
NDPP, maybe this isn't a zero sum game? Maybe both Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace? From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis can both be free living side by side in peace and harmony?
NDPP would rather the jews just disappear.
NDPP seems to believe in Orwell’s 1984’s totalitarian idea of “War is Peace.”
epaulo13 wrote:Out collective failure to stop Israel's war on Gaza has consequences for our every day lives, writes Dina Khadr. [Getty]
End of quote.
————
————Our collective failure for almost two decades to stop Hamas from shooting rockets at Israel tens of thousands of times and our collective failure to stop Hamas from building a network of military tunnels that use civilians as military shields, has consequences for our every day lives.
Our collective failure to stop Israel from occupying a couple of million Palestinians for over five decades while denying them basic rights and letting Israel violate international law by building settlements on that militarily occupied land shames us all.
Hamas's first priority is establishing an Islamic caliphate. They clearly say that in their manifesto that established Hamas. Hamas has never repudiated their charter.
The Likud Party platform
a. The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and is linked with the right to security and peace; therefore, Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.
b. A plan which relinquishes parts of western Eretz Israel, undermines our right to the country, unavoidably leads to the establishment of a "Palestinian State," jeopardizes the security of the Jewish population, endangers the existence of the State of Israel. and frustrates any prospect of peace.
epaulo13 wrote:Out collective failure to stop Israel's war on Gaza has consequences for our every day lives, writes Dina Khadr. [Getty]
End of quote.
————
————Our collective failure for almost two decades to stop Hamas from shooting rockets at Israel tens of thousands of times and our collective failure to stop Hamas from building a network of military tunnels that use civilians as military shields, has consequences for our every day lives.
Our collective failure to stop Israel from occupying a couple of million Palestinians for over five decades while denying them basic rights and letting Israel violate international law by building settlements on that militarily occupied land shames us all.
In negotiations with Palestinian leaders Israeli leaders have agreed to the establishment of a two state solution as part of an overriding permanent peace agreement.
Israel still occupies over 2 million Palestinians and continues to construct illegal settlements on their land.
A permanent peace agreement has not been established between Palestinians and Israelis even though in the past Israel has agreed to permanent peace agreements during negotiations with Palestinian leaders. Unfortunately Palestinian leaders have walked away from signing those agreements. It took 42 years until the late 1970's for Egypt to sign a permanent peace agreement with Israel when Egypt finally recognized Israel's right to permanently exist in peace with Israel. It took almost fifty years for Jordan to finally agree and sign an agreement to respect Israel's right to exist permanently in peace. Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, are still at war with Israel. The rulers of Gaza, Iran's proxy Hamas, have been attacking Israel for over a decade and a half. A two state solution should be established as soon as possible but that requires that both Palestinians and Israelis negotiate an agreement that insures a permanent peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Hamas has been unwilling to recognize Israel's right to live permanently in peace. They have said they have the right to violently oppose Israel’s existence until Israel is destroyed. Hopefully Hamas will soon no longer be in a position to militarily oppose Israel's existence.
Ralph Schoenman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08wDBXgfPU8
"The hidden history of Zionism..."
Zionist Israel has been malevolent and murderous, long before the present Palestinian resistance movement Hamas existed for Israel to blame for its inherent longstanding genocidal imperative.
Fall Israel! Free Palestine! From the River to the Sea! Victory to the Resistance!
..from the global front.
People’s movements to launch massive Land Day mobilizations in solidarity with Palestine
The International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA), representing political organizations and people’s movements across five continents, has called for massive mobilizations worldwide to mark the Yawm al-Ard (Land Day)—a day to celebrate the struggle of Palestinians against occupation.
Land Day marks the anniversary of the killing of six protesters by the Israeli occupation on March 30, 1976, in response to a general strike and marches organized by Palestinians. On that day, large-scale demonstrations were carried out by Palestinians across historic Palestine against the Israeli government’s plan to expropriate thousands of dunums of Arab-owned land near the sea of Galilee (Lake Tiberias). Over 100 were wounded in the protests as well, and hundreds were arrested.
“For almost six months we have witnessed a criminal genocide in Palestine carried out with impunity by Israel and with the unwavering support of the United States,” stated the IPA. “This March 30, we highlight the targeted repression, imprisonment and violence against Palestinian youth and students. The occupation has targeted more than 350 educational institutions for destruction, in an effort to dismantle Palestinian civil society.”.....
Photos from the massive Palestine solidarity demonstration on March 2 which saw the participation of several government ministers and leaders of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela in Caracas
..more.
quote:
The demands highlighted by the IPA include a call for an end to “genocide, starvation and displacement” of the Palestinian people, and “immediate and unhampered entry of humanitarian aid” into Palestine, an end to “aggressions against Yemen, Lebanon, Syria and other countries in the region,” an end “to all actions of repression against students, student movements and youth and defend the Palestinian’s right to resistance” and the release of the over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners detained by Israeli occupation forces.
The Arab and Maghreb Youth Student Front Against Normalization and in Support of People’s Struggle, which has been struggling against the normalization of relations with Israel across West Asia and North Africa, put out an international call to action for Land Day, with the following demands, “Cease the Zionist entity’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and release all prisoners. Facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza by opening border crossings. Terminate all normalization agreements with the Zionist entity.”
“Let’s make Palestinian Land Day an international day of solidarity with the Palestinian people,” the student front stated......
Thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel protest for Gaza on Land Day
Thousands of Palestinians living within Israel’s 1948 borders have protested on the 48thanniversary of Land Day, calling for an end to Israel’s indiscriminate war on the Gaza Strip.
On 30th March 1976, Israeli troops killed six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel who were protesting against a planned seizure of huge swathes of Palestinian land in the Galilee region by the Israeli government.
That event has been commemorated worldwide by Palestinians and their supporters ever since as Land Day, a symbol of the Palestinian national struggle.
It was among the first and most significant acts of resistance against Israel by its Palestinian citizens.
Palestinian citizens of Israel make up just over 20% of Israel’s population. They are the descendants of Palestinians who were not expelled from their homes by Zionist militias during the creation of Israel.....
Thousands of Palestinians commemorated Land Day in Deir Hana
Palestinian factions on Saturday rejected any international or Arab force entering the Gaza Strip, warning that it would be considered an "occupying force" and "will be dealt with accordingly."
The warning was issued in a statement issued by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas after a meeting of the Follow-up Committee for National and Islamic Forces, which included the majority of Palestinian factions, on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the March 30 Palestinian Land Day.
The statement was also issued in response to Israeli media reports on Friday, which claimed that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "progress" in talks with the US over a proposal to deploy a multinational force in Gaza.
Nevertheless, the committee said in its statement: "The talk by the (Israeli) occupation leaders about forming an international or Arab force for the Gaza Strip is mere illusions, and any force entering Gaza is rejected and unacceptable, considered an occupying force and we will deal with it accordingly."
Palestinian factions praised Arab countries for rejecting participation and cooperation with the "occupation leaders" proposal to form the force.
The factions emphasized that “managing the Palestinian reality is a Palestinian national issue that we will not allow anyone to interfere with.”......
Sounds like Hamas's hold on power is slipping and they're desperately threatening Palestinians and Arabs in order to somehow hang on to power. What will Gaza look like over the near future if Hamas does manage somehow to hang on to power? Palestinians and Israelis desperately need leaders who will open a mutually beneficial dialogue and work with each other in good faith.
Israel has never had or shown any 'good faith' except in its own ability to mass murder and expel the Palestinians, steal and occupy their lands, and have 'friends' abroad cover for these genocidal Zionist crimes, so well written, recorded and related recently, both by the UN special rapporteur... and at the ICJ.
NDPP, you obviously have no interest in the peaceful establishment of mutually beneficial peace. In this conflict you obviously only care that Israel be destroyed. You seem very perturbed that Israel is able to defend itself, denying your wishes for their destruction. NDPP, maybe it's time to give up on a violent solution and start supporting a peaceful solution?
'WE'RE BEING SLAUGHTERED...'
https://twitter.com/MariamBarghouti/status/1752056053955498404
"By a nation of imported psychopaths."
..from the global front.
Palestine Action Permanently Shutsdown Israeli Military Contractor Elbit Plant in UK
Relentless direct action has secured another victory in the fight against Israel’s arms trade, as Elbit Systems are forced to sell their ‘Elite KL’ factory in Tamworth, England. The company had previously manufactured cooling and power management systems for military vehicles, but was sold after stating that it faced falling profits and increased security costs resulting from Palestine Action’s efforts.
After the sale was completed last month, Elite KL’s new owners, listed as Griffin Newco Ltd, confirmed in an email to Palestine Action that they will have nothing to do with the previous owners, Elbit, and have discontinued any arms manufacturing:
“Following the recent acquisition of Elite KL Limited by a UK investment syndicate, the newly appointed board has unanimously agreed to withdraw from all future defence contracts and terminate its association with its former parent company.”
..more from the global front.
Landslide victory for Gaza surgeon at the University of Glasgow
On 26 March 2024, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah was elected rector of the University of Glasgow. Dr Abu-Sittah is the British-Palestinian surgeon who operated in Gaza for the first forty days of Israel’s genocidal assault.
After a two-month campaign by the Palestinian Society and Stop the War activists on campus, Dr Abu-Sittah was elected with an astonishing 80% of the vote, doubling the turnout of the previous rector election. Rector is one of two positions representing the interests and concerns of students in the University Court and is a position voted for by students. It is a centuries-old and prestigious position that students have used to elect political rectors such as Winnie Mandela, Jimmy Reid, Mordecai Vanunu and Edward Snowden.
Dr Abu-Sittah’s platform consisted of several aims, from getting the University to condemn the genocide in Gaza and strengthening and establishing new links with Palestinian universities, to divesting the £6.8 million the University of Glasgow has invested in the arms trade and repealing the IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism that conflates criticisms of Israel with anti-Semitism. Dr Abu-Sittah has since indicated his intention to support the UCU strikes and tackle student housing, poverty and gender-based violence—issues he has attributed to the corporatisation of universities.
Victory
Dr Abu-Sittah’s election success represents a victory for the pro-Palestine and anti-imperialist movements in Scotland. In an interview with the Herald, he said the ‘Glasgow that I knew is the Glasgow that is an internationalist city whose people have always been at the front not just of the [anti-] apartheid movement but all acts of solidarity with people across the globe.’.......
Thread: The Conspiracy Theory Israel 'Created' Hamas
https://twitter.com/NAlhq47125/status/1773584801770934579
"Many people, even those who are pro-Palestine, keep talking about how Netanyahu 'propped up' Hamas and are repeating the conspiracy theory that Israel 'created' Hamas - while in reality, it was the Fatah PA that Israel helped create and support against Hamas and other Palestinians..."
Land Day in Toronto.
Thread: The Conspiracy Theory Israel 'Created' Hamas
https://twitter.com/NAlhq47125/status/1773584801770934579
"Many people, even those who are pro-Palestine, keep talking about how Netanyahu 'propped up' Hamas and are repeating the conspiracy theory that Israel 'created' Hamas - while in reality, it was the Fatah PA that Israel helped create and support against Hamas and other Palestinians..."
No evidence cited there.
The fact Netanyahu has supported Hamas is hardly a conspiracy theory. It is a fact his government has helped them get money, and members of his cabinet have called Hamas an "asset"
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035
Palestinians’ Right of Return Is a Basic Question of Justice
Current Affairs editor Nathan J. Robinson recently debated internet-based political commentator Steven Bonnell on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At one point, Robinson argued that a two-state partition could be achieved if the United States used its considerable leverage with its close ally Israel to pressure the Israelis to accept a deal.
One of Bonnell’s main counterarguments was that Palestinians would hold up any such deal by insisting on a “right of return” for Palestinian refugees from the ethnic cleansing carried out by Israeli forces during Israel’s “War of Independence” in 1948 — an event Palestinians call the “Nakba” (catastrophe). Bonnell portrayed this as an obviously absurd demand which would make peace impossible. After all, allowing millions of Palestinians to migrate back to Israel would completely change the demographic composition of the country. In response, Robinson argued that Palestinian negotiators would quite likely be willing to compromise on this point.
Robinson is almost certainly right about that. Back in 2002, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times entitled “The Palestinian Vision of Peace,” in which he said:
We seek a fair and just solution to the plight of Palestinian refugees who for 54 years have not been permitted to return to their homes. We understand Israel’s demographic concerns and understand that the right of return of Palestinian refugees, a right guaranteed under international law and United Nations Resolution 194, must be implemented in a way that takes into account such concerns.
quote:
If Ethnic Cleansing Is Wrong, so Is Denying the Right of Return
During the various wars Israel fought in the twentieth century, Israeli leaders frequently argued that Israel had its back to the wall and faced a prospect of imminent conquest and genocide. They would say that if Israel lost any of those wars their enemies would “drive the Jews to the sea.”
A closer look at the history of those wars will show that Israel was often the aggressor, its enemies tended to be in a comparatively weak position, and the fears about what a loss would entail tended to be wildly overstated for propaganda purposes. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that outright conquest of Israel, complete with widespread ethnic cleansing of Israeli Jews, really was in the cards if Israel had lost one of those wars.
In that case, ask yourself a simple question: How would you feel in such a scenario about the survivors of these atrocities and their descendants being denied the right to come home because of demographic concerns, i.e., the concern that if they were allowed to come back the percentage of Jews living in the territory would be too high? If your gut tells you that anyone expressing this “concern” was a grotesque antisemite, then why are Israel’s demographic concerns any more legitimate?
No country anywhere has a “right” to ensure that its current ethnic majority never becomes a minority — especially if the only way to secure this outcome is to deny basic rights to others. Ethnic cleansing is unjust. No one, anywhere, should ever be removed from the area where they live just because they have the wrong ethnic, racial, or religious background. And if this does happen to anyone, anywhere, of course they should have a right to come back.
Some apologists for Israel argue that the Palestinian case is different because, while many Palestinian villages were razed to the ground in Israeli war crimes, other Palestinians left voluntarily. But this is a non sequitur. Even in the absence of the kind of widespread atrocities carried out by Israeli forces in 1948 — which are well documented by Israeli historians, including some, like Benny Morris, who aren’t particularly sympathetic to Palestinian rights — all civilians everywhere have a right to flee from war zones with the expectation that they’ll be allowed to return home when the fighting is over. Barring them from exercising that right because of blatantly racist demographic concerns is a moral obscenity.....
epaulo13 wrote;
But let’s assume for the sake of argument that outright conquest of Israel, complete with widespread ethnic cleansing of Israeli Jews, really was in the cards if Israel had lost one of those wars.
In that case, ask yourself a simple question: How would you feel in such a scenario about the survivors of these atrocities and their descendants being denied the right to come home because of demographic concerns, i.e., the concern that if they were allowed to come back the percentage of Jews living in the territory would be too high?
End of quote.
————
————
Great question. If Israel had lost one of those wars, Jewish Israelis would have had no place to go to except the Mediterranean Sea or death, as they did in the 1948 War. In the 1948 War Jews in the areas Arab armies controlled were either killed or forced to flee and become refugees in Israel. No Jews were allowed to stay in areas under Arab control. Arab militaries killed all Israelis that were not able to get to Israel. On the other hand over 20% of Israel’s population after the 1948 War were Arab Israelis. Israel allowed Arabs to stay in Israel while Arabs did not allow any Jews to stay alive in the areas of the British Mandate they controlled.
Smith College Students Continue Occupation Calling for School to Divest From Weapons Manufacturers
Students at Smith College in Massachusetts have entered their sixth day occupying an administrative building. The students are calling on the school to divest from weapons manufacturers. The protest is being led by the Smith chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Mass Protests in Israel Call for Ceasefire & Removal of Benjamin Netanyahu
On Sunday, tens of thousands rallied across Israel calling for the removal of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the largest protests since the October 7 attacks. In Jerusalem, police fired skunk spray at demonstrators blocking a major highway. The protesters called for a ceasefire and the release of all hostages. This is Zahiro-Shahar Mor, whose elderly uncle has been held in Gaza for nearly six months.
Zahiro-Shahar Mor: “Today we declared that Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister Netanyahu, is the obstacle between us and getting our hostages back. And we will relentlessly fight — legally, of course — to have him removed from power and get someone else that can do the job and worthy of the situation that can bring our beloved ones back. Until then, Benjamin Netanyahu is the main obstacle.”
As calls mount for his resignation, Benjamin Netanyahu is now recovering after undergoing a hernia surgery on Sunday night.
In other news from Israel, police have arrested the sister of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh. Sabah Haniyeh, who is an Israeli citizen, was detained in the Israeli town of Tel Sheva.
Violent Crackdown at Land Day March
Police ride horses through crowd, injure several and arrest three on Saturday at rally much like the ones each weekend since October. Officers pinned some people to the ground to make arrests, including a bystander unaffiliated with the march.....
..the global front.
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We can only imagine how horrifying such armaments are here in the West. Gazans don’t have to imagine. These instruments of annihilation have generated a neverending nightmare. Even the Washington Post says these bombs “are almost never used any more by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.” But Israel has used them extensively.
At least Biden’s hypocrisy is being reported in the Washington Post. And we are seeing a broad movement in progressive circles to end Israel’s immunity to international law.
Harvard Law School’s student government voted for the university to divest from Israel. The global activist network Avaaz has got half a million signatures calling for a cutoff of U.S. aid to Israel.
America is Israel’s biggest arms dealer. You are giving American weapons to a government that is blocking life-saving aid and violating international law. This will only stop when you demand it stops.“
Public opinion is also horrified. A Gallup poll finds that 55 percent of Americans oppose Israel’s months-long military campaign (while 36 percent approve). “A mere 18% of Democratic voters approve of Israel’s effort.” And 75 percent disapprove.
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Joe Rogan called it “genocide” and a “holocaust” this week. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Israel was going too far. Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, trying to run from his own past, ran a piece saying, “U.S. Support for Israel’s War Has Become Indefensible.”
And at the Stimson Center this week, when Barbara Slavin said it’s not genocide because it’s not equivalent to the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda or the Nazis killing 6 million Jews, Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace shot down that defense.
The definition of genocide under international law does not require it to meet that bar… It does not have to rise to, Trying to kill every member of a race in the world [to be a genocide. The idea that] ‘it can’t be genocide if it doesn’t kill everybody.’ That isn’t what it means under international law.
So the genocide is having consequences, even in the cowardly seat of empire.....
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