#AND anti military

[apollos-constant-crisis]

my favorite part of my new favorite video game.

Credit to @jelloapocalypse for streaming I Am Your Beast (jelloplaysgames on YouTube)

[bread-and-roses-too]

Not feminist as in "women should be included in the draft" but feminist as in "being drafted is a violation of bodily autonomy for any gender".

The draft should not exist. Drafting people into the military is a violation of human rights. You should not be able to force someone to risk their life. If you can't find enough people who care about a conflict to keep it going then it simply shouldn't keep going. You can't even force someone to donate a kidney using government power, why the fuck can you force them to donate their whole body and life to a cause they don't agree with or don't care about?

[kropotkindersurprise]

February 28, 2024 - American military veterans burn their uniforms calling for a free Palestine, at a vigil for Aaron Bushnell in Portland, Oregon. [source]

[communistkenobi]

This is moreover complicated by the fact that the [South African] apartheid state did not acknowledge itself as engaged in a war. The apartheid state in the late 1970s saw itself as engaged in a ‘total onslaught’, preferring to refer to its ‘enemy’ as terrorists rather than declaring an outright war. According to Cock and Nathan, the choice for the apartheid state to define the conflict as unrest or terrorism as opposed to war implied that liberation movement fighters were denied the prisoner of war status granted by the Geneva Protocols to those engaged in war against colonial powers.

— Women combatants and the liberation movements in South Africa (2015) by Siphokazi Magadla

its refreshing to see this so plainly laid out in writing. a terrorist is just someone the state has decided has no rights

[superemeralds]

welcome to the promised land

[no-passaran]

Spain lied about not selling weapons to Israel.

Even after October 7th, Spain has sold more than 1 million € of weapons to Israel. Norway and Finland make it possible.

In January, Spain made headlines word-wide when the government's Minister of Exteriors, José Manuel Albares (PSOE), claimed in Congress and later again in a radio interview that Spain had stopped selling weapons to Israel ever since October 7th. Israel's intensification of violence in Gaza following October 7th meant that, on top of decades of apartheid and ethnic cleansing, between October 7th and January 23rd Israel had already killed 28,000 people and forced 2 million out of their home. In this context, many people were demanding their governments stop arming and funding the genocide of the Palestinian people, and here on Tumblr and other social media sites like Twitter I think we all saw the many posts praising the Spanish government for this.

Well, it turns out it was a lie.

According to Albares, "Since October 7th there are no more weapons exportations [from Spain] to Israel". But in November alone, Spain exported weapons to Israel for 987,000€, as was published on the Spanish Government's official website dedicated to exterior commerce (Comex). A researcher from Centre Delàs (an independent centre for peace studies) found it and published it, and it has also been verified by newspapers such as elDiario.es.

This 987,000€ worth of weapons in November was not the only ammunition that Spain has sent to Israel in 2023. In 2023, Spain exported a total of 1.48 million € in war material to Israel.

All of the weapons sent in November come from the factory of Nammo Palencia (Castilla y León), a corporation that is 50% property of the Government of Norway and 50% owned by a public Finnish business. However, even if the owners are foreigners, the ammunition was sent from Spain and thus it had to be authorized by the an organism of the Spanish Government named Junta Interministerial de Defensa y Doble Uso, whose deliberations on whether a weapons exportation is accepted or denied are kept secret. The only cases where they have denied exporting weapons to Israel have been when they thought that Israel would re-sell these weapons to the Philippines.

Spain has had a close relation with Israel for years. As published by the Spanish Government, Spain has sold 20 million € of weapons to Israel between 2012 and 2022. Spain also buys weapons and military software from Israel (for example, the Spanish Intelligence Service has been using the Israeli software Pegasus to illegally spy on Catalan activists, journalists, politicians and civil society members and their relatives to attack the Catalan independence movement), and Spain has continued buying from Israel and allocating defense contracts to Israel even after the October 7th attacks. It is very difficult to track the concessions of public contracts such as buying weapons, but some contracts have been known. For example, on November 24th 2023, Spain bought 287.5 million € of missiles from Israel. This is not unusual: between 2011 and 2021, it is publicly known that Spain bought war material from Israel for at least 268 million €, but experts say that the real number could be two or three times as much.

Spain has also continued allocating concessions to Israel. For example, on December 15th 2023 Spain allocated a contract worth over 576 million € to Israel for a rocket launcher programme. On November 22nd, Spain allocated another another Israeli company to provide missiles for 237 million € at the same time as the Spanish army bought Israeli inhibitors for 1.4 million €. The very next day, November 23rd, Spain signed another military allocation to Israel for 82,600€. The following week, Spain signed yet another allocation with a different Israeli military corporation for 3.7 million €.

Spain also allows Israeli weapon manufacturing companies to produce weapons through their branches located in Spain. This way, Israeli weapons make their way to markets with which Israel doesn't have diplomatic ties but Spain does, like Saudi Arabia. And since Spain is a member of NATO, Israeli weapons produced in Spain are approved according to NATO standards and access it easily. In the same way, these Israeli weapons manufacturers also access European Union defense funds through their branches in Spain. (source).

As I said, I saw a lot of positive posts around when Albares said Spain was going to embargo, but I haven't seen any post about how they didn't do it. I also (personally) haven't seen anything on international media, and barely anything on Spanish media, which is already busy with the PSOE covid material corruption scandal. So I share this in the hope of helping put pressure on Spain to cut all ties with Israel immediately.

SHAME ON EVERYONE WHO GIVES ISRAEL THE MATERIAL AND MONEY THAT WILL BE USED TO MASSACRE THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE. SHAME ON SPAIN, NORWAY, AND FINLAND.

[radicalgraff]

"Refuse Damn it!"

Anti-militarist graffiti seen on a wall outside Kiriya military base in Tel Aviv / Jaffa

[directactionforhope]

U.S. Free Palestine Protests this Weekend: 2/17 through 2/19

2/17 Denver, Colorado Indianapolis, Indiana San Diego, California Seattle, Washington

2/18 Boone, North Carolina Milwaukee, Wisconsin New Orleans, Louisiana

2/19 Aransas Pass, Texas Chicago, Illinois Los Angeles, California - Jews for Ceasefire All-Day Shiva

And there are many more! Check out the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Code Pink, and your local Palestinian and/or Muslim groups for protests in your area!

[troythecatfish]

US Army Major resigns in protest against Israel's Gaza genocide

Harrison Mann, who works for a US intelligence agency, has resigned over his government's support for Israel. He argues it has "enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians."

Source: Mintpress

[nando161mando]

People power ✊

[thashining]

[kropotkindersurprise]

May 2024 - A Palestinian man, determined to stay in Gaza after Israel bombed his home, is rebuilding a shelter on his property. He is using discarded Israeli mlitary equipment, paid for by USA taxpayers through Biden's multi-billion dollar weapons transfers meant to aid the fascist Israeli government in their genocide. [video]

[ethicallysourcedsustainablepolls]

Maybe I lose some followers along the way but that is okayyy I am not sorry to see them go ✌️

[randooffthestreet]

While Call of Duty is still very much military propaganda, it is also ironically a very good criticism of the military.

We have Ghost, who is known as one of their best soldiers for his proficiency in the field. He's given everything to the military, he's the perfect soldier.

What we see from both the comics and the games, however, is that while Ghost tries his best in his work, the military hasn't given him shit back. He was captured and tortured for months on end, and after surviving all of that, his family is slaughtered, and was framed as their murderer.

What does the military give him in return? "Oh yeah we won't arrest you, but you have to work for us and and oh btw you're legally dead :3"

(I mean, they don't even give him a higher rank than Lieutenant for fuck's sake???)

Then in the games, we meet someone who finally brings Simon out of Ghost, and his name is John Soap MacTavish. Finally, Ghost gets one good thing out of the military, someone he can trust to watch his six.

AND WHAT HAPPENS??

Soap, Johnny dies. He's cruelly ripped away from Ghost because on military orders, Soap wasn't allowed to kill Makarov. There's no big ceremony for Soap, there's no flags or procession, his ashes are spread on the mountains to be forgotten by everyone but those closest to him.

No matter how much you give to the military, no matter how efficient you are, they do not give a fuck about you. You are just another body they can throw at the bullets to keep the fire away from them. You are a human shield that they do not view as a person.

Ghost deserved better. Soap deserved better. Every young person that the military roped into serving deserved better.

[cid5]

Finnish 20 mm anti-tank rifle Lahti l-39. Lahti l-39 in the Finnish war.

[wishchip106]

LET HIM GET UP LET HIM GET UP