#Germany's blind support for Israel

[mariacallous]

Turkey’s recent effort to join South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip highlights a double standard that is all too common when it comes to the politics of genocide.

The Turkish state has little credibility being an arbiter of what constitutes genocide when it has spent the last 100 years denying the role of the Ottoman Empire in the 1915-16 Armenian genocide, during which more than 1 million Armenians were killed or died of starvation or disease, according to genocide scholars, as they were pushed by the Ottoman Turks out of Anatolia. Turkey refuses to acknowledge or apologize for these events to this day, despite recognition of the genocide by countries such as the United States, France, and Germany.

Ankara’s participation undermines the intent and moral seriousness of South Africa’s charges and highlights the unfettered hypocrisy that characterizes genocide allegations made by many governments. Turkey formally denies that the events of 1915-16 constitute genocide; its participation in many ways weakens the current ICJ case by giving Israel an opening to question the legitimacy of the charges.

For far too long, various governments, from the United States to Turkey to Israel, have leveled (or downplayed) genocide allegations in pursuit of various political objectives. But genocide is not a political football to be tossed around. It is a serious allegation that should never be used for political expediency. But sadly, that is what it has become.

Since the founding of NATO, Turkey has exploited its membership in the alliance to both curry favor with the West and avoid any culpability for its actions. It has used its crucial role within NATO as a bargaining chip to its advantage.

It is one of the reasons why U.S. presidents from both political parties have turned a blind eye to Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide by arguing that the country’s proximity to the Soviet Union was strategically valuable to the national interests of the United States. When the Cold War ended, the argument turned to Turkey’s importance as a “free” and “democratic” society in a sea of Islamic fundamentalists.

And over the last 20 years, U.S. presidents have largely overlooked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rising authoritarianism and egregious regional behavior on the grounds that having Ankara as an ally is strategically important for Washington. This type of transactional diplomacy not only is dangerous but also gives cover to leaders like Erdogan, who feel that they can say or do whatever they want with impunity.

It is unconscionable that Israel, a country founded in the wake of genocide, would deny the Armenian genocide. But that is largely what Israel has done for years—and it is politically motivated. Despite maintaining extensive ties with Turkey, until recently when trade between the countries was suspended, Israel has used the Armenian genocide to needle Ankara when they clash, as they are now over the conflict in Gaza.

Opportunistically referencing a genocide to shame a rival—as Israeli officials did for the first time regarding the Armenian genocide after Turkey decided to support the ICJ case—has no place in international relations. Governments either support a policy of denial or oppose it. There should be no equivocation.

Cherry-picking what represents genocide also sends the wrong message to would-be aggressors who see such vacillation as a green light to act with impunity and evade legal accountability.

It is how former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was able to direct the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in the Darfur region in the early 2000s and escape justice—despite being indicted and wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide. Because various governments did not recognize his acts as genocidal or failed to abide by the ICC indictment, Bashir was for years able to travel freely around the world to visit countries including China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia as well as Rome Statute signatories such as Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria and, most notably, South Africa—all of which failed to arrest him.

It is how China continues to persecute Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang with few repercussions, even from many Muslim-majority nations, such as Indonesia, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates—all of which have rejected a U.N. motion to hold a debate about China’s human rights abuses for political and economic reasons.

And it is how Azerbaijan, one of Turkey’s staunchest allies, has brazenly followed Ankara’s lead in denying the Armenian genocide while seeking to ethnically cleanse Armenians today following its 2023 military offensive in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Taking a page out of the Turkish playbook, Azerbaijan has been able to leverage political expediency to its benefit by using its vast natural resource wealth, namely oil and gas, to essentially buy a seat at the world’s table as it did when it was named the host country for this year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference.

It is also one of the reasons why Azerbaijan has been able to avoid any punishment from the international community for its mistreatment of ethnic Armenians in Karabakh. While Turkey has deftly used the cover of geopolitics to hide from its genocidal past, Azerbaijan is using global energy demand to obfuscate its own crimes today.

This lack of accountability gives authoritarian leaders and bad actors the wherewithal to ignore international organizations and human rights groups seeking to hold criminals accountable and prevent these types of crimes from happening in the future.

Playing politics with genocide sets a dangerous precedent. It denies victims justice and distracts from the actual merits of the crime. If the international community wants to take genocide seriously, then it must be consistent in its application of the law and its meaning.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Melanie Phillips

Most of the assistance coming in isn’t even being distributed by UNRWA. Israeli officials have said that aid agencies such as the World Food Program, World Central Kitchen and UNICEF have a bigger role in distributing Gaza’s aid supplies.

None of this is acknowledged by those claiming that the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza are starving and UNRWA is irreplaceable. Other aid agencies, they say, don’t provide health and education services.

But UNRWA’s schools have taught generations of Gaza’s children to hate and murder Jews. According to the IDF, every single UNRWA hospital and clinic has been used as a terrorist hub, with clinical staff doubling as Hamas members.

In any civilised universe, how can such a provision be deemed “irreplaceable”? Shouldn’t the appropriate response to the organisation that has facilitated such terrorist assistance be to shut it down?

Moreover, why should Israel be held responsible for providing Gaza with humanitarian assistance? Israel has been under bombardment from the coastal enclave for two decades. Gaza’s population elected Hamas to rule them. Opinion polling consistently reveals that even among those who now hate Hamas, the vast majority support the killing of Israelis.

Thousands of those civilians took part in the October 7 atrocities in Israel and grossly abused the Israeli captives when they were dragged into Gaza. The IDF subsequently found evidence of ties to Hamas in virtually every house.

In what conceivable moral universe is a country targeted for such a remorseless and genocidal attack expected to look after the welfare of its murderous attackers?

The United Nations says Jerusalem has an obligation under international law to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza because Israel is the occupying power. But this is totally untrue. Israel is not occupying Gaza. It withdrew from it altogether in 2005.

It’s the United Nations that has failed to live up to its own international obligation not to fund and support violence. For years, the world body has turned a blind eye to UNRWA’s ties to terrorists. So have America, Britain and other countries. They still refuse to acknowledge this problem.

In a statement this week expressing “grave concern” over the Israeli ban, the foreign ministers of Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom claimed that UNRWA was tackling its employees’ support for terrorism by pursuing the recommendations made in last April’s independent review by the former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna.

That review was a travesty. Before the report was even written, Colonna said that her goal was to “enable donors … to regain confidence, when they have lost it or when they have doubts, in the way UNRWA operates”. Her report was drafted to achieve precisely that rather than stop the rot.

Far from tackling the agency’s terrorist ties, its commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has batted them away. He claimed implausibly that UNRWA didn’t know about the Hamas data centre underneath its Gaza headquarters.

He denied that it employed terrorists and said this claim was part of a “large-scale campaign aimed at undermining the agency”. Having suspended the teachers’ union head Abu el Amin under pressure over the revelation of his Hamas role, Lazzarini reinstated him three months later under pressure of a strike by UNRWA teachers supporting their union’s head.

[renatoferreiradasilva]

Fascism, Economic Elites, Big Tech, and the Massacre of Children in Palestine

The relationship between fascism, economic elites, and indifference to human suffering has deep roots in global political and economic history. This essay aims to explore how these forces interact in contemporary contexts, using the massacre of children in Palestine as a central point of analysis. Over the past decades, the expansion of Big Tech’s influence has significantly contributed to controlling information and reinforcing the power of economic elites at the expense of truth and human dignity. In this context, the systematic disregard for the suffering of Palestinian children goes hand-in-hand with close monitoring of financial and technological markets.

Fascism and Economic Elites: A Brief Historical Overview

Fascism, both as an ideology and as a system of government, is notorious for its brutality and disregard for human life, especially when that life is seen as an obstacle to economic progress or national and racial dominance. However, the close relationship between fascism and economic elites has often gone under-examined. Fascist regimes such as Benito Mussolini's Italy and Adolf Hitler's Germany relied on the support of large corporations and the industrial class, who saw these governments as a means to ensure social stability and protect their financial interests. The fear of communism and labor strikes drove industrialists to support authoritarian governments that promised to suppress internal opposition and preserve the economic order.

In this context, economic elites often turned a blind eye to the atrocities committed by fascist regimes, from political repression to genocide, such as the Holocaust. This same kind of indifference, driven by the logic of capital preservation, can be observed today regarding the massacre of children in Palestine. Large corporations and investors prefer to focus their attention on stock market performance, ignoring the human cost of wars and occupations that ensure their economic benefits.

The Economic Dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

The massacre of children in Palestine occurs within a global economic and political context, where the Israeli-Palestinian conflict takes on multiple dimensions. Israel, with its advanced and modern economy, heavily relies on the defense and security sector to maintain its geopolitical and military dominance in the Middle East. Major foreign investments and collaboration with Western powers ensure the continued prosperity of its economy, even during times of conflict.

On the other hand, Palestinians, especially in Gaza and the West Bank, live under extreme economic hardship due to the Israeli military occupation. Economic blockades, restrictions on movement, and the absence of basic infrastructure leave the Palestinian people in a constant state of vulnerability. In this oppressive environment, massacres of children and other forms of violence against civilians are seen by some as inevitable or even acceptable as long as they maintain geopolitical stability and protect global economic interests.

The Role of Big Tech: Controlling Information and Strategic Indifference

In the 21st century, Big Tech companies such as Google, Facebook (Meta), Amazon, and Microsoft play a central role in controlling information and shaping public discourse around global conflicts. These companies, through sophisticated algorithms, determine what people see, read, and talk about. In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, content showing the realities of violence, particularly the suffering of Palestinians, including the massacre of children, is often suppressed or censored.

This control of the narrative is crucial to protecting the interests of economic elites who benefit from the status quo. By restricting access to information that could spark popular outrage or global movements, Big Tech ensures continued economic and political stability, even in the face of crimes against humanity. Moreover, Big Tech companies have direct interests in the defense and security economy, signing lucrative contracts with governments, including the Israeli government, to provide surveillance, intelligence, and weaponry technologies.

Economic Elites: Profit Over Human Life

Global economic elites, comprising investors, multinational corporations, and financial conglomerates, exert a decisive influence on international policies and conflicts. Capital is often directed toward regions and sectors that promise the highest financial returns, regardless of the political or social conditions. These elites profit from the perpetuation of conflict and instability while remaining largely indifferent to the human suffering that ensues.

The massacre of Palestinian children is a tragic consequence of a system in which financial markets and economic interests are prioritized over human life and dignity. Economic elites, backed by Big Tech’s control over information and fascism’s historical precedent of collusion with industry, enable a world where profits trump the moral obligation to protect innocent lives. In this context, the indifference to the suffering of Palestinian children reflects a broader failure of global economic structures to prioritize humanity over capital.

[starshipsys]

🛰️okay it is kind of concerning that a lot of pro-palestine quickly turns into antisemitism. Like, you guys have to be really vigilant and really pay attention because there’s a lot of people who have a lot to gain from shoehorning antisemitism into pro-palestine messaging. And I’m pretty sure a lot of people do not even understand what Zionism even means when they say they’re antizionist, and honestly if you aren’t super well researched about it then you really should just say you’re pro-palestine without talking about Zionism/antizionism. I mean it really stands to reason that if you don’t know what you’re talking about then you shouldn’t really talk about it, and if you’re not Jewish and aren’t close with any Jewish people and aren’t a historian, you probably don’t really know as much about Zionism and Israel as you think you do. And if you’re not close with any Palestinians then you probably don’t know as much about Palestine as you think you do.

There has been a huge uptick in antisemitism and it’s really scary. If you haven’t seen the uptick in antisemitism, then you are blind, and you are not listening to Jewish people. If you are wishing death upon zionists, that is antisemitic. Wishing death upon any specific group of people is targeted hatred. A lot of the people who say things like “hating deviant behavior will be co-opted to target all queer people” don’t seem to apply that logic to “hating zionists can easily be co-opted to hating all Jews” like. If you’re not constantly examining everything to check for antisemitism, you’re probably being complicit in it, not noticing it, or at worst, spreading antisemitic rhetoric. We say stuff like “it’s not enough to be not racist, you’ve gotta be antiracist” and that applies here, a lot. People are spreading antisemitism under the guise of being pro-Palestine. It is happening. People are trying to turn support for Palestine into hatred for Jews. You need to support Palestine more than you hate zionists, or Israel, or the IDF/IOF, and you need to be wary of anyone who is trying to get you to hate anyone. Hatred is ALWAYS the enemy. Ideas and rhetoric are more dangerous than any person. The pen is mightier than the sword.

To be clear, I do believe Palestine deserves to be free, and I do believe there is a genocide going on in Palestine against the Palestinians. It fits the definition of a genocide. But calling it a second Holocaust, comparing Israel to nazi germany, these things are antisemitic and dangerous. It’s Holocaust inversion. And if you don’t know what that is, you really, really, really need to look up the methods of antisemitism. I’m usually extremely conflict averse and normally I just reblog stuff without saying things, but this is really important. People need to research antisemitism so that they can be pro-Palestine without inadvertently enabling nazi rhetoric. Don’t spread nazi noise. You need to pay attention. I am afraid. I’m afraid for the Palestinians going through this horror, and I’m afraid for the Jews who are being targeted by bad faith actors that are disguising themselves as pro-Palestine activists. If someone is knowingly spreading antisemitism, they don’t care about Palestine. If someone is knowingly spreading antisemitism, they want Jews dead, and they’re not going to stop there. If someone is unknowingly spreading antisemitism, they’re giving Nazis a way in. Nazis want all of us dead or under total and complete control. Including the Palestinians that you’re trying to free! Do not spread nazi noise. The Nazis are still here, and they didn’t go away when ww2 ended. They went into hiding, and they’re trying to use this to make a comeback.

So please, double-check, triple-check, quadruple-check that post before reblogging, before spreading it to other platforms, before using its rhetoric in your arguments. Read up on antisemitic methods. Research the dogwhistles that nazis use. Pay attention to the imagery and symbolism. Follow the antisemitism tag. Make sure you’re following and listening to Jewish people on some platform. At the same time, make sure you’re following and uplifting the voices of Palestinians. And remember, this is not a simple issue, the history is not simple, and you probably don’t know as much as you think you do. I guarantee that unless you’re Israeli or Palestinian, you know next to nothing. So if the people you’re listening to aren’t the Palestinians themselves, and if the people you’re listening to aren’t Jewish people worried about the uptick in antisemitism, then the people that you’re listening to might have an ulterior motive for what they’re saying. Think critically and question everything. Please don’t let anyone trick you into promoting violence against Jewish people.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Please donate to Palestinian causes if you can and don’t forget your daily clicks. Keep boycotting and striking and protesting. If you’re American, please join the “uncommitted” voting protest to pressure biden to urge a ceasefire. But, if you’re going to spread messages about freeing Palestine, the Palestinian genocide, and especially antizionism, you need to research antisemitism so that you can catch it, and you need to proactively and very intently make sure your spaces are not antisemitic. And if you’re going to protest, watch out for nazi symbolism, and call it out when you see it.

[eldritchmirror]

im so fucking upset. i dont understand how the videos and the pictures of the destruction and the corpses and the dead kids and women and men and people in general being hurt and it's been going on for 75 years. it's still ongoing. i hate it here so much. it's been silent for 75 years and only now is it being exposed. i dont understand how people are still siding with israel. its a settler colony. its attacking palestine, not defending itself. its BEEN attacking palestine for seventy five fucking years. israel was created for the sole purpose of stealing land and killing people. it is NOT a country. it is NOT defending itself. its NOT. its killing people and innocent kids even under a year old. toddlers. infants. newborns. how are you this blind. israel is a settler colony and an oppressing force and if you still think otherwise you're a fucking idiot.

from the river to the sea, palestine will be free.

[drsonnet]

"Today, in this upside-down world, we feverishly await the final vote in the U.N. General Assembly on the genocide in Srebrenica, while Gaza has been destroyed, and its people starved and denied water." (Illustration by Erhan Yalvaç)

Of villains, heroes and the final act

Of villains, heroes and the final act | Opinion (archive.org)

BY FARHAN MUJAHID CHAK - MAY 14, 2024

A UNGA resolution condemning the Srebrenica genocide is developed by countries like Germany and the U.S., despite their complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza by supporting Israel

Ino longer believe in fairy tales, although I once did.

Raised with ideals of sacredness in life, I was taught to honor the sanctity of humanity, to champion international law, and to cherish freedom of speech as the cornerstone of societal progress. I believe the Geneva Conventions were a manifestation of our collective conscience that mandated the rules of war and held nations to account. Women and children; hospitals and schools; the elderly and infirm were inviolable. I was taught that "peaceful protest" was the quintessential liberty of a sophisticated society that understood the relationship between civic activism, social change and progress. I listened, attentively, to the lofty rhetoric and was enthralled. I would utter high-sounding words on democracy, equality and freedom, and those grand glutinous words stuck to my teeth. I was – in a way, smitten.

Head-over-heels over values that deeply resonated in me, yet I slowly became disillusioned. It became evident those hollow words were never meant to be believed, only used to establish authority and reproach others with their inhumanity. Justice was not blind, and race, color and creed mattered in the application of the law. It is in this troubled context that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will vote on whether to declare July 11 "The International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the 1995 Srebrenica Genocide." The complex intersection of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the war on students and free speech on university campuses across the United States, Canada and Europe, and the former genocide in Srebrenica deserves closer scrutiny. The U.N. vote on the Bosnian genocide could not come at a more condemnable moment in world history.

On May 1, after considerable delay, a draft U.N. resolution on the Srebrenica genocide was submitted to the president of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly. Recall that in 1995, the town of Srebrenica was a U.N.-declared safe zone promised protection by a U.N. Dutch force. Dozens of able-bodied Muslim men in the town were asked to disarm, which they did. Despite that, fanatical Serb forces overran the safe zone and murdered 8,372 Muslim men and boys. Such is the perverse reality of the world we live in, that a U.N.-mandated safe haven, supposedly protected by U.N. forces, was invaded by terrorist Serb forces and a genocide ensued under their watch.

Bizarre irony

Now, a UNGA resolution on the Srebrenica genocide, partially modeled on a similar resolution for Rwanda, has been developed by several countries including Germany and the U.S. Absurdly, both are collaborators in the genocide currently underway in Gaza by direct military, economic and diplomatic support for Israel. This is the bizarre irony of being complicit in an ongoing genocide and putting forth a U.N. Resolution condemning the same.

What is the point of passing a resolution on genocide and turning a blind eye to one going on for the whole world to see? Sadly, villains need masks and no better cover than virtue. It is politics, not ethics, that is driving the U.N. Srebrenica vote. Of course, this does not diminish the necessity of it or the need to condemn the Srebrenica genocide and its denial. Still, the larger macro-level betrayal of the Geneva Conventions and International Human Rights Law by the U.S., U.K. and Germany is an indictment of the Western-led global order.

It is that outright duplicity, the sheer savagery of the genocide in Palestine, and the silencing of dissent that has provoked a whole generation of young people on campuses throughout the West. After all, they, too, were told stories about diversity, inclusion and pluralism. They were taught to condemn discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or gender. About equality before the law and the inviolability of non-combatants. They were raised to feel empowered and encouraged to peacefully organize and express their opinions. And, that society benefits when individuals exercise their civic duty. Now, they are witness to the flagrant disavowal of the moral archetypes that were instilled in them. They feel duped and are protesting, as heroes do, the enabling of genocide by their universities. Idealistic and courageous, they are sacrificing their education and careers to condemn the genocide in Palestine. Except rather than being celebrated, thousands of students have been beaten, harassed and arrested. Condemned for believing in the values that they were taught.

Now, we seem to be in the final act. One of impunity – if you will, in which we close our eyes to the genocide in Palestine, condemn students who protest it, and negotiate ways to commemorate a past genocide in Srebrenica – when ignoring it while it happened. Today, in this upside-down world, we feverishly await the final vote in the UNGA on the genocide in Srebrenica, while Gaza has been destroyed, and its people starved and denied water.

Yet, no matter the outcome of the resolution, it will not stop future genocides. Still, if nothing else, it will forever be a testament to the twisted dystopian reality in which we live and be a symbol of the urgent need for a new world order. Maybe, one faraway day, we can muster the will – for whatever purpose, and pass a U.N. resolution condemning it. Or name a highway after the martyrs. We will tell noble stories about those who were killed since it seems our twisted world only after their death feigns to honor them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor of International Affairs, Visiting Research Faculty at Al Waleed Center for Muslim Christian Understanding at Georgetown University

[bunni-v1]

Hi, so I guess I didn’t make this clear in my several posts about palestine. If you don’t stand for the freedom of Palestine and chose to be neutral or stand for Israel, unfollow me immediately.

If you’re neutral you’re okay with mass genocide. You have to understand that this conflict has been building for decades. Israel — Zionists, just to be specific, not all jewish people — has been slowly overtaking the land of Palestine and displacing the people from their land for decades.

Israel is fighting an unequal “war” against citizens. The only military power that the people of Palestine have are in Hamas, and the power Hamas has is small at that.

I do not stand with Hamas, by the way. I stand with the civilians of Palestine that are uninvolved and are being attacked for their ethnicity. What Hamas did was inexcusable, but what Israel is doing in response is a million times worse. They are overreacting, clearly.

They are deliberately attacking civilian areas knowing the cost of human life. They are aware that they are killing more children than Hamas militants and they do not care. They attacked residential areas, hospitals, and REFUGEE CAMPS.

What’s worse? The largest countries in the world (not all, but many, specifically in the west) are backing them. I’m ashamed to call myself American, I’m ashamed of my country and the people who lead it.

They are asking them to evacuate, knowing damn well that they cannot and are making it exceptionally hard to do so. They want them to be displaced so they can take over Gaza. They cut water and power and are actively weakening any support for survivors to get help.

I’m going to say it again, they attacked refugee camps. They attacked refugee camps.

Oh, also, the school year has been canceled because most of the children in Gaza are dead. Yep, you read that right. What children are not dead are seriously injured.

And, I get it. The propaganda that the IDF is using is incredibly successful, especially among those who are zionists or are less educated about this long going conflict. But, let’s look back at where this type of propaganda has been used before.

The dehumanization of an ethnic group to justify the senseless killing and prove that your race is superior or deserves something more. Where have we seen this before? I wonder? Perhaps… Nazi Germany?

Hitler quite literally used the exact same tactics that the IDF is using today. Are we blind? Did we not all learn about the horrific acts of Nazi Germany? That’s the ironic thing, isn’t it? History repeats itself, it’s just crazy that the group that was undergoing the torture is now the one doing it. At a different level, I suppose, but my point stands.

It is NOT that hard to see if you have even a BASIC understanding of war and war crimes. This is genocide. Israel is committing war crimes. On purpose.

Staying neutral on genocide is supporting it. So if you’re neutral, unfollow me. I’m not here to debate this.

I’m sure I missed a million things, there is so much historical context that needs to be explained that I can’t do in one single post. But my point stands.

I will never be okay with genocide, and I stand with Palestine. These people have suffered for far to long, and we are far too late to notice.

[beardedmrbean]

King Willem-Alexander has said Jewish people must feel safe in the Netherlands, after a night of rioting targeted Israeli football fans in the centre of Amsterdam.

Youths on scooters had criss-crossed the Dutch capital in "hit-and-run" attacks on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters who were visiting Amsterdam for a Europa League match, the city's mayor said.

Police said five people were treated in hospital and others suffered minor injuries, while 62 arrests had been made.

The king spoke of a lesson from history and said "we cannot turn a blind eye to antisemitic behaviour on our streets".

"My heart goes out to the victims and to their families here and in Israel as well." Amsterdam's Mayor Femke Halsema told a press conference on Friday.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof flew back early from a summit of EU leaders in Budapest where he said he had been following developments with horror.

"The perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted," he promised.

Coming on the eve of commemorations marking the Nazi pogroms against Germany's Jews in 1938, the events that unfolded overnight into Friday were condemned by leaders in Germany and France, and led to shock in Israel.

Israeli fans describe violence in Amsterdam

Are you in Amsterdam? Please share your experiences here.

There had already been trouble and some arrests the night before Thursday's match, involving Maccabi fans as well as pro-Palestinian protesters.

Police chief Peter Holla confirmed there had been incidents "on both sides". Israeli supporters had removed a Palestinian flag from a wall and set it alight and attacked a taxi, although there had been no further trouble until the following night, he said.

There were also reports of supporters setting off fireworks and one unverified video showed fans going down an escalator chanting anti-Arab slogans.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned "anti-Arab chants" and an "attack on the Palestinian flag", calling on the Dutch government to "protect Palestinians and Arabs" living in the Netherlands.

There was widespread shock in the Netherlands that such an outbreak of antisemitism could happen in the Dutch capital, especially on the eve of the Nazi pogroms. Three-quarters of Dutch Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in World War Two.

The king said history had shown how intimidation could go from bad to worse, with terrible consequences: "Jews must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We put our arms around them and will not let them go.”

The national co-ordinator for combating antisemitism in the Netherlands said a line had been crossed and the "readiness to commit such violence was disgusting".

Mayor Halsema said Dutch counter-terror co-ordinator NCTV had not flagged any concrete threat about the game itself as there was no animosity between the fans of the two clubs. There was no trouble at the game in which Ajax inflicted a heavy 5-0 defeat on the visiting team.

But the unrest spiralled out of control soon afterwards. Halsema spoke of fans being "attacked, abused and pelted with fireworks" as they walked from the Johan Cruyff Arena to the centre of Amsterdam.

Police initially said it was unclear who had taken part in the riots, although the mayor later spoke of young men on scooters. The mayor was careful not to give details about the ethnic backgrounds of those involved in the attack, emphasising that it was part of the police investigation.

Several videos circulated on social media, with one showing a man being kicked and beaten on the ground and another showing someone being run over. In some videos, people could be heard shouting pro-Palestinian slogans, although the footage was not verified by the BBC. Two British visitors said they came under attack as they tried to help an Israeli beaten up by people on mopeds. Jacob, 33, told the BBC he saw "10 people stamping and kicking" the man, and that they had seen "lots of little gangs chasing people".

Asked whether locals had been provoked by a Palestinian flag being torn down in the city, the mayor said what had happened in the centre of her city had nothing to do with protests about the situation in the Middle East, it was a crime.

"I am deeply ashamed of the behaviour that unfolded," Halsema told reporters. "On Telegram [messaging] groups people talked of going to hunt down Jews. It's so terrible I can't find the words for it."

The mayor confirmed reports that taxi drivers had been involved in the attacks, after the head of the Netherlands' Central Jewish Committee (CJO) said they had "moved in groups and cornered their targets".

Chanan Hertzberger said "videos are circulating of assaults and attempts to run over Israelis". Amsterdam's biggest taxi company said its drivers had not been involved.

Israeli airline El Al said it was operating two "rescue flights" to Amsterdam to bring passengers back to Israel.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke of a "pogrom" against Maccabi fans and Israeli citizens. Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders who leads the biggest party in parliament also spoke of a pogrom, saying "authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect the Israeli citizens".

Herzog said on X that he trusted the Dutch authorities would act immediately to "protect, locate and rescue all Israelis and Jews under attack".

The violence in Amsterdam has raised questions about security for Israeli fans elsewhere in Europe.

Israel's national security council urged fans to avoid a basketball game in the Italian city of Bologna on Friday evening because of the risk of "copycat actions".

[lady-byleth]

A thing specific to Germany I am witnessing right now is what I call the "enforced holocaust guilt effect"

To elaborate, Germany has perfected feeling guilty over the holocaust into a performative art, by which I mean it is force-fed into every generation constantly that they personally are responsible for the holocaust and need to atone for it

It's not "this is what happened, this is how it happened, this is how you do better" but "this is what happened and here is how you personally are at fault so you better feel bad now"

And its become such a deeply ingrained reflex that Israel, being a Jewish nation, CANNOT do anything wrong now because we MUST NOT EVER stand against Jewish people in any way

Which, in this case, not only makes our nation supporters of genocide but actively soaks our hands in the blood of Palestinians

Germany would rather be accomplice to a second genocide than think past this knee-jerk guilt and realize that the only true thing we can do to make up for the holocaust is preventing similar tragedies from happening

Yes, the holocaust falls squarely on German shoulders, it's our responsibility to learn from the loss and suffering our own family members caused. But it is not our responsibility to turn a blind eye to what Israel is doing and certainly not to excuse or worse, support it!

Palestinians have a right to life and freedom, the same as any other human on this planet. It is an atrocity against them and an insult to the Jewish people who were murdered during the second world war that the holocaust is used as a shield by governments all over the world to hide behind and ignore the genocide happening right now

Israel is openly, proudly committing genocide against the Palestinian people and every single country that stands by and let's it happen is willingly coating their hands in the blood of innocent people - innocent children.

Every single one is an accomplice and I, for my part, will never let them forget it. I may only be one voice among millions, but God help me am I going to scream until I can't anymore.

[madaras-tits]

I've been gaining a lot more followers recently, and I've noticed that a lot of you are German, like me. I wanted to use this chance to talk about how horribly Germany is handling the current situation in Palestine.

Germany, like most imperial core countries, is pro Israel. This is unfortunately no surprise, but I feel the need to point out the situation here specifically- because Germany is so much worse with this than so many other countries. Of course, being pro Israel is a bad thing already, but here in Germany, it's taken to its next level.

I dare you to try to find a pro palestinian article that was written by a German journalist, and published to a big news paper outlet. And once you do find one article, read it and count the amount of misinformation you'll read.

The reason why Germany is so pro-Israel, is because the German government apparently "feels entitled to the safety of Jewish people (in relation to the actions of WWII)", as paraphrased by multiple German politicians. Fellow Germans, don't buy into this. If Germany had really cared about its Jewish volk, they would have done so much more than whatever the foundation of Israel is. So many German people are blinded by this alleged guilt they feel due to the actions of Nazi Germany, but don't feel any of the same guilt to the other groups they chased and killed- This is a mere excuse, do not listen to people telling you this. Israel is little more than an American military base.

I'm not writing all this to tell people the already obvious- I'm here to remind my German followers, that you, especially you, need to act. Educate the people around you (they need it), Spread the word, donate to charities, do as much as you can. Don't shy away from this, this is necessary. You don't have some weird obligation to support zionism, and you shouldn't be scared to tell this to the people around you!

[dorkass-nerd]

so after doomscrolling through a friends blog and seeing the amount of

fuck how to describe it

the lack of understanding of anything

the blindly following false information and false ideas regardless of the facts places right in front of them

the absolute inability to change their opinion even when it's proven wrong

the unbelievable hatred people feel for israel and jews in general

and seeing how she's not here to stop me from being controversial i'm just gonna fucking say this. maybe it's already been said, but i dont care, i'm mad and im pissed off. sure maybe you shouldn't just say shit like this in the heat of emotion but i've had a little time to sit with this now so i'm just gonna fucking say this:

Hitler would be really proud of some of you so-called leftist.

he would be so proud of the state of the world in some places. the jew hate, the jew murder, the overwhelming wave of hatred the jews are once again facing. not that it ever went away of course. but it's definitely escalated in recent times

is that what you guys fucking want? you want to be doing "good" in the eyes of one of the most well known, infamous jew-haters? you want to follow in his footsteps?

or are you guys all so fucking blinded by wanting to support "the good guys" that you don't see the damage you're doing to the other side?

i don't know which is worse

doing this deliberately to hate on jews

or doing this without even realising because of your blind support for a cause

the absolute refusal to listen to facts, to read anything that contradicts your opinions, refusing to have a healthy debate with someone and maybe learning something. immediately jumping to calling people trying to educate you as a zionist as if its a slur.

does it make you feel good? does it make you feel nice and warm inside knowing that jews are facing such a wave of hate that so many of them are scared to go outside? scared to exist in non jewish communities? scared to be visibly jewish?

i'm fucking despairing dude.

reading my friends blog made me genuinely fucking depressed

how can people be like this? how did happen seemingly overnight? why is jew hatred so fucking embedded in society? and now that all those people have a "reason" to hate on them it just fucking spiraled into the shitshow we have right now, seeping out of the woodwork. everyone just in a massive echo chamber rattling their hatred back and forth and reinforcing their opinions and "reasons" to hate a whole ass group of people and lumping them together as one

we are not that far away from the future that hitler wanted if you guys fucking keep this up

but rather than it being localised mostly to hitlers germany with most of the rest of the world being like "hang on a minute" it feels like most of the world is on board with this idea that jews arent.... human?!? that they don't deserve compassion and human deceny?

they're still fucking human beings you donuts

and i know for a fucking fact that they're not going anywhere

(should i be saying we instead of they? am i allowed to group myself in with y'all as a not-yet-but-really-want-to-be-jew?)

they're gonna keep thriving

they're gonna keep existing

no matter what you guys fucking throw their way

they're gonna dance again

and you

fuckers

aren't going to stop that

[girlactionfigure]

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are 15m Jews on the planet, about 8m of them in Israel. That is 15m out of 8b people in the world. 

How do you explain the absolute obsession with the Jews and its one and only microscopic state without using the word antisemitism? 

Why is the news coverage about Israel so disproportionate to the tiny number of Jews or Israelis in the world?

Why are 60% of crimes against religions targeting Jews? 

What is the obsession? 

The Jews have done more to make the world a better place than anyone, so how do you explain it? 

If you’re reading this post, chances are the device you’re reading it on has Israeli tech in it. 

Do you know that Israelis invented drip irrigation? How about cherry tomatoes? Waze? The USB thumb drive? 

What is there to hate? 

Really? The Middle East conflict is the most important news item for the past 5 decades? More important than the literal atrocities happening in Iran, Russia, and Syria every single day? 

Really? It’s 2023 and we are reviving all the good ol’ antisemitic tropes? The Jews control the media and the banks? We’re doing this again? For real?

I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that in today’s “civilized” world, the oldest hatred in the world is not only alive and kicking, it’s actually growing rampant. 

It’s equally sad and terrifying. 

I had so many questions about the holocaust growing up. 

- How was the world silent? They knew what was happening. Why didn’t anyone defend the Jews?

- How could a “civilized” culture like Germany allow this to happen? Where was their moral compass?

- How did the Jews not see what was happening and run for their lives? How did their comfort and total assimilation make them so blind to what was happening? 

I have had all those questions answered in the past five years, only replace ‘Germany’ with ‘America’. 

Growing up, I always dismissed the saying “Never again” because I thought the holocaust **could** never happen again. The world would never support violence against Jews ever again. 

And yet, here we are…

Hillel Fuld

@HilzFuld

[dhaaruni]

Further, unless Biden does a 180, little to no hope exists of electing a President in 2024 who will turn the screws on Israel. There is zero chance of that happening in the foreseeable future. If there ever was, it died on October 7th. If leftists got their heads out of their asses long enough to think strategically and thoroughly about the situation, they would realize the only hope Palestinians have is a shift in politics within Israel, the collapse of the current Netanyahu regime, and the rise of a more moderate government in Jerusalem that seeks to restart peace negotiations. The only way that happens is if powerful Western leaders, with the American President the biggest among them, are popular enough within Israel to affect internal Israeli politics. In offering unconditional support to Israel since October 7th – that “bear hug of Bibi” the Left hates so much – Biden has won good graces among the public in Israel and become the first Democrat since Bill Clinton to be popular there. That could parlay into having significant influence over the Israeli electorate. Barack Obama never had it and, indeed, his existence was antagonistic – he opposed settlement expansion in the West Bank – and Netanyahu leveraged that to gain and hold power. With Netanyahu’s political career on the ropes because of Israeli anger toward his dropping the ball on October 7th, now is the time to strike. Only Biden, with the support of like-minded leaders in the UK, Germany, and other Western countries, can possibly affect any political change in Israel in a direction that favors Palestinians. If Trump, who is also quite popular in Israel, were to win, he would simply prop up Netanyahu indefinitely and, in hopes of winning Jewish votes and support, allow him to annex and settle Gaza and the West Bank, leaving Palestinians stateless. We know he would do this because he already has. While president, he supported Israel annexing Golan Heights. Trump will also use his business influences to bribe Arab states with money and weapons to put down any domestic uprisings and eventually tacitly support Israel’s existence. Currently, the most prominent Muslim country supporting Palestinians is Iran, a Shia nation funding the Houthis in Yemen, the extremist gang firing on ships in the Red Sea, and who are fighting against the Sunni Yemeni government, backed by Sunni Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. Trump would leverage the internal Shia-Sunni Islamic strife with Arabs on one side and anti-Israel Iranians and their proxies on the other to push Arab countries to turn a blind eye to further ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and if you know your history, Arab powers never cared for them anyway. They *especially* do not want an Iranian proxy state (Hamas-controlled Palestine) bordering Egypt and Jordan. The only hope for Palestine is Hamas’ destruction and Biden’s reelection.

(x)

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

I am constantly on the verge of self immolation from my hatred of the west. The insidiousness of these white devils knows no bounds. The lack of empathy is showcased by these colonial powers is a cancer on humanity and should be treated accordingly and dealt with without mercy. The constant moral virtue signaling by these countries in the global north shows how little they have changed from their slaver and colonizing past. The constant litany of “we are a beacon of morality and freedom” they spew to cover up their own crimes against humanity that is perpetuated day in and day out blinds their citizens and makes them feel as though they can do no wrong.

We see it constantly in how they manufacture consent for their imperialistic wars, and how they feed propaganda to the masses to justify their atrocities committed against the global south with impunity. They did it 200 years ago to justify cutting up my country and having my countrymen serve as indentured servants on the railroads and they did it again with the non stop “war against terror” in the early 21st century. And now we’re seeing it again with their compliance in the on going genocide against the Palestinian people. The west as we know needs to be dismantled. The entire premise of “the west” needs to be done away with if we, in the global south, can ever want to live in peace.

We will see in the coming days the mental gymnastics the west will jump through to deny any legitimacy in the ICJ’s decision against Israel. We will see how they will twist the narrative to make it seem to their citizens that Israel still “has a right to defend itself” when it doesn’t and never has. The USA already is doing everything in their power to twist the narrative against the rulings. Germany would still be a staunch supporter of this atrocity. They will continue to manufacture consent for Israel and the Zionists to continue in their goal of destroying Gaza completely and their citizens would stand by and do nothing that isn’t supported by the party line.

[readingsquotes]

"We write this as workers, students, farmers, parents – as Palestinians, as queer Palestinians. We write this not because our queerness exceptionalizes our positions but because, in the same way, we have been othered as queers, we are now facing patriarchal colonial tactics that seek to further alienate us as queer Palestinians.

... There is no possibility of any liberatory political and social movement to achieve life and dignity if it is aligned with the genocidal death machine of Israel. Israel is founded on blood and is sustained through blood.

During these times, and in line with its long-standing exploitation of liberal identity politics, Israel has been weaponizing queer bodies to counter any support for Palestine and any critique of its settler-colonial project. ....

We refuse the instrumentalization of our queerness, our bodies, and the violence we face as queer people to demonize and dehumanize our communities, especially in service of imperial and genocidal acts. We refuse that Palestinian sexuality and Palestinian attitudes towards diverse sexualities become parameters for assigning humanity to any colonized society. We deserve life because we are human, with the multitude of our imperfections, and not because of our proximity to colonial modes of liberal humanity. We refuse colonial and imperialist tactics that seek to alienate us from our society and alienate our society from us, on the basis of our queerness. We are fighting interconnected systems of oppression, including patriarchy and capitalism, and our dreams of autonomy, community, and liberation are inherently tied to our desire for self-determination. No queer liberation can be achieved with settler-colonization, and no queer solidarity can be fostered if it stands blind to the racialized, capitalist, fascist, and imperial structures that dominate us.

We call on queer and feminist activists and groups around the world to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance to displacement, land theft, and ethnic cleansing and their struggle for the liberation of their lands and futures from Zionist settler-colonialism. This call cannot be answered only by sharing statements and signing letters but by an active engagement with decolonial and liberatory struggles in Palestine and around the globe. Our unequivocal demands are as follows:

Reject Israeli funding, refuse collaborations with all Israeli institutions, and join the BDS movement.

Strike: Silently or publicly, refuse that your exploited labor be used for the silencing of Palestine activism or the funding, support, and endorsement of military settler colonization and genocide.

Do what anti-colonial queers have done for decades, reclaim the narrative, and set the terms of the conversation, this time about Palestine. What is happening in Palestine is Genocide. Israel is a Settler-Colony. Palestinians are a Militarily Occupied and Colonized Society. Under international law, Israel Does Not have the right to “defend” itself against the population it occupies, while Palestinians Have the right to Resist their occupation. Demanding Ceasefire is the first step in holding Israel accountable for its crimes against humanity. We must also demand to break the siege on Gaza and the dismantlement of the Zionist settler-colony.

Contact your local representatives to pressure them into defunding the genocide, ending their military, diplomatic, and political support with Israel. Speak up against the ongoing and complicit criminalization of solidarity with Palestine and the colonial and Islamophobic projection of European Antisemitism on Palestinian and racialized voices, as we are witnessing particularly in France, the UK, the US, and Germany. UK template; US.

Shut down main streets. Organize a sit-in in your local central station. Interrupt the flow of commerce. Complacency is a choice.

We, queer Palestinians, are an integral part of our society, and we are informing you: from the heavily militarized alleys of Jerusalem to Huwara’s scorched lands, to Jaffa’s surveilled streets and cutting across Gaza’s besieging walls, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.