#Siege of Jaffa

[fiercynn]

On October 11th, four days after Hamas’s attack and Israel’s declaration of war, thousands of Gazan workers logged on to the blue-and-white-colored defense ministry app Al Munaseq (“the coordinator”) to find that Israeli authorities had revoked their work permits, stripping them of their legal status. The change meant that these workers could no longer remain in Israel, but they also could not return home to Gaza, which Israel had placed under a hermetic siege and constant bombardment. “Our situation is very difficult right now,” Saleh, a Gazan who usually works in Jaffa, told Jewish Currents, using a pseudonym for fear of further retaliation. The permit revocation was ordered by the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, and came without any explanation or instruction. And just hours after the permits were revoked, Israeli authorities began detaining the now-illegal workers. By October 17th, 4,000 workers had been detained without trial to check if they “helped Hamas in planning the massacre, ” according to Israel’s Channel 12. Jessica Montell, the executive director of Israeli human rights organization HaMoked, told Jewish Currents that the arrest campaign is “unprecedented in both scope and lack of transparency,” noting that “overnight, thousands of people who had Israeli work permits became illegal aliens and have been rounded up.” Each of these moves is illegal under international law and a “prohibited act of vengeance against the workers,” according to a letter five Israeli human rights organizations sent to Israel’s defense minister, attorney general, and head of COGAT on October 12th. [x]

- jonathan shamir for jewish currents on october 19, 2023

[innerchorus]

“Tactically there were only two ways for infantry to beat cavalry in an open field battle: firepower and mass. Firepower could be provided by swarms of missiles. Mass could be provided by a tightly packed phalanx of men. Such tactics were long-established; the Romans used missile troops such as slingers, and the core infantry learned to deal with swarming enemy cavalrymen by forming a hollow square fenced with a solid hedge of iron pila (large javelins). Alexander the Great combined both methods in his clashes with the Asiatic horseman of Persia and India, screening his central infantry phalanx with slingers, archers and javelin-men, before unleashing his cavalry against the enemy. Both mass and firepower could be aided by a good tactical position, such as on a hill or on rough terrain, where enemy cavalry would have trouble manoeuvring.”

×

“Archers, for example, were essential in holding the fast-moving Muslim cavalry at bay—suppressing their firepower, and allowing the armoured knights to mount successful counter-attacks. Pikemen were important in screening the flanks.”

×

“Against Saladin's light cavalry at Jaffa (c. 1192) during the Crusades, Richard of England drew up a line of spearmen, kneeling on the ground with spear planted in front, forming an effectual 'hedge of steel' against the charging enemy horsemen. Behind the spear wall, crossbowmen stood ready, with assistants helping to reload. The Muslim armies attacked but the combined firepower of the archers and the steadiness of the wall of spears held.”

Some interesting little morsels I found regarding the role of infantry in battle!

I dread the day I have to do enough research to write a convincing full-scale battle set in the world of ArSen (though there's a good chance that maybe I will never need to). The Parsian army definitely have a reliance on their cavalry, specifically their cavalry charge on open ground but also tactics like feigned retreat or swift raids, where it's hard to envision the infantry playing a large role.

For bigger battles where they are fielding infantry units as well, perhaps they're used to give an initial volley of arrows (firepower, as mentioned above). I'm not sure where the infantry were at Atropatene but I assume behind the cavalry units, with the plan that they would move up to join them once the two sides had met? I did try to check the novels for details but aside from mentioning that the infantry were there, Tanaka didn't elaborate on their involvement. They're obviously separate from the Marzbans and their 10,000 cavalrymen, and I'd love to know how the two work together in terms of tactics and command etc.

There are situations where I could see infantry being better suited. Fortresses probably had a decent amount of infantry stationed there, especially those like Peshawar which were defending a border or access point. To take Peshawar Fortress as an example, there are 20,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry. And inside Ecbatana before it fell there were 20,000 cavalry and 45,000 infantry (and given that the infantry were slaves you can imagine how fast things turned bad when the slaves revolted). The cavalry are good for sallying out in a charge, but the infantry must be invaluable to help hold a fortress or walled city when it comes under siege.

The Parsian forces that protect the border with Misr are also primarily infantry, and there's good reason for that. Unlike the Kaveri River at the eastern border, the Didjireh River (the Tigris) is shallow and relatively easy to cross; therefore the defensive measures include a wall of fortifications along the banks, which are probably better defended by infantry as a cavalry charge would not be that practical.

Other situations in which I could see the infantry being utilised are when that famed Parsian cavalry charge just isn't possible because of the terrain, or because they are using that terrain to trap the enemy (archers atop the cliffs of a narrow valley, for example). But I really know very little on this subject as a whole, so these are just my thoughts.

I think, because of the heavy reliance on cavalry, it's unlikely that the Parsian infantry used tactics as sophisticated as the Roman infantry squares, though I'm sure they would form up with shields and spears as a wall if they did happen to find themselves facing a cavalry charge from an enemy. And the info above about defending the flanks from attack with spears seems like it could well apply.

It's probably worth reading into Persian infantry specifically. There's some info on historical tactics in general here, and also the sparabara, with the caveat that none of this is going to match up perfectly to the composition of the fictional Parsian army. My partner suggested also looking into the Mamluks in terms of slave soldiers but again it's not going to be directly comparable.

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #62: Hauteville!Nicolò di Genova

My major problem - the one that keeps me from actually writing any of the terrible fic ideas I have - is that I hyperfixate on details. Case in point, I was reading Crusaders by Dan Jones as background for eventual TOG headcanons - and was hit by how much the physical description of Bohemond I of Antioch resembled Nicky. So, naturally, I thought, why not?

Or: What if Nicolò di Genova was the bastard son of that famous crusader, Prince Bohemond I of Antioch?

Bear with me:

Eldest son of the Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard (aka "The Terror of the World"), Bohemond was declared a bastard when his parents' marriage was invalidated and, "discovered that the most reliable way to get ahead in the world was with a sword in one's hand, and he had been blessed with the physicality and family connections to do just that" (55). Alternately described, "a fine figure even among the greatest," "a hero of great stature," and "spiteful, malevolent, deceitful, treacherous, inconstant, greedy, bitter, [and] a congenial liar," even his detractors were forced to admit, "he was magnetically beautiful: tall, broad-chested and handsome, with large hands and a solid stance, captivating light blue eyes and a fair complexion, his hair cut short around his ears and his chin shaved quite smooth, both provocatively out of keeping with a world in which tresses and beards were the usual symbols of machismo" (54).

Naturally, having just finished watching The Old Guard for approximately the eighth time, I thought, who does that sound like? Luckily the timeline seems to work, and thus this headcanon was born.

Just imagine it:

Bohemond was born between 1050 and 1058. If the date was on the earlier side of things (or he was a bit precocious), it's not impossible for him to have fathered a bastard child born c. 1069. The mother is quickly married off to a minor noble in Genoa, earning her child the appellation di Genova.

As a child Nicolò saw little of his father, but was encouraged to follow in his footsteps. He received perhaps the best military education available at the time given his Hauteville relations and proved to be a prodigal swordsman. Unlike his extended male kin, however, Nicky had little desire to carve a principality out for himself.

Given the choice, Nicky would rather join a monastery than a military campaign. There are a variety of reasons for this, ranging from not wanting to be assassinated as a potential rival to a legitimate brother or cousin's throne to monasteries being great centers of learning to genuine religious feeling, but no religious house would dare cross his father or grandfather by allowing him to take holy orders without their permission. Which neither would ever give. Nicky was more useful to them as a knight than an abbot or bishop.

This stalemate goes on for a while, until the First Crusade. Although left behind in Italy to finish the siege of Amalfi in 1097, Nicky was summoned to the Holy Lands by his father after the siege of Antioch to help solidify his new position as prince of the same. Nicky delayed as long as possible, finally sailing to Jaffa in June 1099 with Guglielmo Embriaco to relieve the siege of Jerusalem.

Joe and Nicky kill each other for the first time on night of 14 July 1099, after the outer walls are breached (93). They repeat the process several times through the night, moving further and further away from the city each time. On the morning of 15 July they realize they're soulmates lay down arms, make their way back to the city, and arrive just in time to see the walls of Jerusalem fall.

They each die multiple times trying to protect the innocents caught up in the fighting and it's at that moment they each realize how easily they could fall in love with the other - though neither acts on their feelings until they arrive at Cairo some weeks later, having decided to leave the fighting behind and search the world together for answers to their immortality.

They go from Cairo to Alexandria to Tripoli to Mahdia, moving slowly and staying in each place for months to do research and earn coin for the next leg of the journey.

They are preparing to leave for Algiers when news arrives that Bohemond I has died, leaving the principality of Antioch to his infant son, Bohemond II, under the administration of his nephew Tancred. This should be the one and only moment Nicky has doubts about traveling with Joe, as Nicky considers returning to the Holy Land to protect the half-brother he's never met from those who might take advantage of a young ruler and leverage this guardianship to bring peace to the war-torn region. It is an agonizing night until Nicky realizes he made his decision long ago, and that he'd rather travel with someone who loves him and doing good where they can than fight for a land he's never seen for people who only ever saw him a weapon.

Nicky and Joe continue like this for several more years, going from Algiers to Tangier to Marrakesh to Al-Andalus to Sicily (where Joe finally learns Nicky is a descendant of those Hautevilles), finally making it to Constantinople shortly before the Second Crusade.

Honestly this is where this particular headcanon starts burning out, because I love the idea of Joe and Nicky's lives being shaped by (and shaping) the Crusades and as such is a part of all my headcanons for these two. (That, and Ibn Battuta-like journeys in between, visiting Aden, Mogadishu, and Mombasa before the Third and settling in Constantinople just in time for the Fourth.)

Specific to this headcanon is Nicky's journey being less one of religious deradicalization - though that is part of it - than confrontation of the consequences of his family's actions throughout the Mediterranean. Some part of him will always think that his immortality is necessary atonement for his and his family's sins, though that part grows less as the centuries pass.

Bonuses include: 1) Nicky confronting his cousin Tancred for failing to contain the violence in favor of ransacking the Dome of the Rock (95). Despite feeling betrayed - honestly having thought better of Tancred, - Nicky choses to walk away rather than kill his cousin. Years later, history will somehow mutate this into the basis for Jerusalem Delivered, getting all the important details wrong in the process; 2) Although not his mother tongue, Old Norman is the language Nicky always reverts to when needing particularly strong curse words. He blames his father for this; and 3) His highly annotated original copy of the Alexiad found its way into historians' hands in the 1800s and is considered an important contemporary Italo-Norman reading of the text. There is considerable academic debate as to the annotator's identity, with no one ever having gotten close to the truth.

That's all I really have that's specific to this character background - as I said, a lot of what happens after their first deaths is consistent across TOG headcanons for me. It's just getting them to Jerusalem that fluctuates. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[xenonsense]

[ID: a screenshot of a post by rosypirani, which reads "To anyone who thinks this started October 7:" with a screenshot underneath (part of the post) which says:

"1) Haifa Massacre 1937, 2) Jerusalem Massacre 1937, 3) Haifa Massacre 1938, 4) Balad al-Sheikh Massacre 1939, 5) Haifa Massacre 1939, 6) Haifa Massacre 1947, 7) Abbasiya Massacre 1947, 8) Al-Khisas Massacre 1947, 9) Bab al-Amud Massacre 1947, 10) Jerusalem Massacre 1947, 11) Sheikh Bureik Massacre 1947, 12) Jaffa Massacre 1948, 13) Khan Yunis Massacre 1956, 14) Jerusalem Massacre 1967, 15) Sabra and Shatila Massacre 1982, 16) Al-Aqsa Massacre 1990, 17) Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 1994, 18) Jenin Refugee Camp April 2002, 19) Gaza Massacre 2008-09, 20) Gaza Massacre 2012, 21) Gaza Massacre 2014, 22) Gaza Massacre 2018-19, 21) Gaza Massacre 2021, 22) Gaza Genocide 2023 still ongoing"

Another screenshot of an Instagram post by emanit, which contains a screenshot of a post by Prof Zenkus @/anthonyzenkus, which reads "In 2010, Israel illegally intercepted 6 ships in international waters that were bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. They boarded 3 ships and shot and killed 9 civilians.

Houthis try to blockade Israel for committing an actual genocide, no one is killed, and we bomb Yemen.

The caption of the post on Instagram reads "I was in Gaza that day and I remember it so well. We were standing at the Gaza port, waiting desperately for the Flotilla to arrive, for a glimpse of hope to see the siege easing or even miraculously lifting.

Israel faced no backlash from the Western world and absolutely nothing from the US for these crimes.

Our hearts broke as we knew many innocents were being murdered by Israel in the sea a few miles from us while we stood helplessly, unable to help them—all for bringing medicine, food, and toys to Gaza.

Now Yemen is being bombed for supporting Gaza to stop a genocide, with no reported deaths or casualties."]

[historyreimagined24]

The Rise and Fall of Richard the Lionheart: A Historical Reflection

Born in 1157, Richard the Lionheart is among the most famous characters from the Middle Ages.His life, marked by incredible bravery and military prowess, stands out against the backdrop of a turbulent era defined by the Crusades. However, his fate was not merely one of triumph; it was a complex tapestry woven with themes of ambition, conflict, and ultimately, tragedy.

Richard the Lionheart ascended to the English throne in 1189, inheriting a kingdom beset by internal strife and external threats. His reign was dominated by his passion for warfare, particularly during the Third Crusade, which aimed to reclaim Jerusalem from Saladin. Richard's courage in battle earned him the title "Lionheart," symbolizing his relentless spirit. His victories at the Siege of Acre and the Battle of Jaffa showcased his tactical genius, but they came at a high cost, both in terms of human lives and resources.

Despite his military achievements, Richard's fate took a dark turn upon his return to England. In 1192, he was captured by Leopold V of Austria while traveling home, a consequence of his precarious position as a ruler often embroiled in conflict. His imprisonment was a significant blow to England, plunging the kingdom into uncertainty. The subsequent ransom demanded for his release—an astronomical sum—led to financial strain on his subjects and resentment towards the crown.

After being freed in 1194, Richard returned to England, but his rule was never the same.The burden of the ransom and the divisions created during his absence left a lasting impact. He didn't spend much time in England because he was more interested in his continental lands. He was struck by a crossbow bolt in 1199 while under siege in France, and he died soon after. His death at just 41 years old cut short a vibrant life filled with adventure and conflict.

The legacy of fate Richard the Lionheart endures, however, as he became a symbol of chivalry and knightly virtues. His life is often romanticized in literature and popular culture, reflecting society's fascination with ideals of bravery and heroism. Yet, the reality of his fate serves as a poignant reminder of the transient nature of power and the sacrifices inherent in the pursuit of glory.

In the end, Richard's story is one of great valor overshadowed by the bittersweet realities of kingship. His life and legacy continue to captivate historians and enthusiasts alike, making Richard the Lionheart an enduring figure in the annals of history.

[athena5898]

Palestinian Territory - An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is imminent as the Israeli occupation tightens its siege on the Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip for the fourth consecutive day. Israel is accelerating the pace of its genocide against the Palestinians there by carrying out mass and planned killings, as well as widespread forced displacements. The international community, led by the United Nations, must act swiftly and decisively to save 10s of thousands of residents who are being subjected to one of the most violent campaigns of genocide the Strip has ever witnessed.

Israeli occupation forces have intensified their siege of the Jabalia camp and the surrounding neighborhoods, including Tal al-Zaatar, al-Sikka, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia. The Israeli forces have also taken up positions in the western region of the Gaza Strip, advancing as far as the Jaffa Cemetery and the Tawam Junction.

With airstrikes, fire belts, and artillery shelling—including bombing homes over the heads of their occupants—the Israeli occupation forces have been occupying large portions of northern Gaza since Saturday evening, 5 October. Dozens of people have been killed and injured as a result of this ongoing invasion.

Initial reports confirmed that five citizens—including a woman, a man, and his son—were executed by the occupation forces for trying to escape the Jabalia camp while waving white flags.

In an extremely dangerous development, Israeli army forces ordered the complete evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in the Beit Lahia project, north of Gaza. Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, reported that he received a call from the occupation forces telling him that if he did not get the patients and medical staff out of the hospital within a day, they would be put in danger.

Along with two other hospitals in northern Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, Kamal Adwan Hospital is partially operational after being raided and destroyed in the Israeli military’s first invasion of northern Gaza last December, during which the hospital’s medical staff, patients, and displaced persons were severely mistreated by the occupation forces. Kamal Adwan Hospital is currently being besieged by Israeli quadcopter aircraft for the second day in a row, with smoke bombs being detonated at its gate and dozens of raids on nearby buildings.

The sole road that ambulances used to move dozens of seriously injured patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Baptist Hospital has been cut off, following an Israeli bombing of a building in the vicinity. This was followed by the occupation forces’ tightening of the siege on the hospital, and the blocking of ambulances and any other methods of victim transport.

Earlier today, the occupation forces arrested a paramedic who was transporting patients from the Kamal Awdan Hospital to the Baptist Hospital, despite prior coordination with Israeli authorities.

The Euro-Med Monitor field team received testimonies from citizens, who were able to reach Gaza City, about witnessing dead bodies lying in the streets. The citizens also stated that they saw victims trapped beneath the debris of bombed-out houses, and that ambulance and civil defense crews were unable to reach the area as at least 20 houses were targeted by Israeli forces in a four-day period.

Thousands of people trapped in the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps are suffering from a near-total shortage of food supplies, which were already scarce due to Israel’s closure of the border crossings. The limited amount of goods and other aid that had previously been allowed to enter the area was blocked by Israel for more than a week prior to the new invasion.

Numerous families remain stuck in their homes, enduring harsh living conditions under the intensified and brutal Israeli bombing. Citizens are not even able to leave their homes in order to obtain water, and municipal crews and local committees are unable to assist them. As a result, thousands of residents face the threat of starvation, dehydration, or death, knowing full well that they are all victims of the catastrophic effects of malnutrition brought on by Israel’s year-long starvation policy.

The Israeli army is systematically working to empty northern Gaza of its residents and force them to move to the south, recently issuing several evacuation orders and dropping leaflets demanding their evacuation.

It is clear that the Israeli army’s latest operation has no military objective or necessity; rather, it is intended to finish the destructive operations that, during three prior incursions, have affected over 85% of the buildings in northern Gaza. Additionally, it is intended to target civilians and force them to flee the area, converting it into a full military zone.

Salah al-Din Road is now blocked from the Civil Administration side by an Israeli military checkpoint, and anyone attempting to use it to leave the camp is being searched. This afternoon, a paramedic was arrested despite prior coordination with the Red Cross, which belies Israel’s claims about the existence of “safe routes” for displaced people heading south.

The forcible deportation of a population is defined as a crime against humanity under the statute of the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations and the international community must intervene immediately to save 10s of thousands of Palestinian residents in northern Gaza who face ethnic cleansing by Israel. Furthermore, the UN and international community have a legal and moral obligation to put an end to the horrific crime of genocide being committed by the Israeli occupation for the second year in a row now.

[lightdancer1]

Khalidi oversells by a significant margin what he actually writes here:

Having fully read this I come away from it with some rather strong dissatisfaction at some key, and very dishonest, omissions on some very important details. The nature of violence in the Mandate is noted but the massacres of Jewish women and children in Hebron, Tiberias, Safed, and Jaffa that followed in multiple years through the 1920s are not. The PLO/Fatah charter gets great focus and attention, the Hamas platform with its blatant promise to slaughter every Jewish person in the entire world for the crime of existing while Jewish also does not.

Hajj Amin Al-Husseini, the man driving events in Palestine via local organizations and then the Arab Higher Committee, is a cipher who gets a single paragraph vaguely alluding to his pro-Hitler sentiment and completely neglecting that he was a literal propagandist who recruited a Bosniak Waffen-SS force he served as the chaplain to.

Likewise the Soviet Union's role in giving the PLO the ability to fight that lengthy siege in Beirut as long as it did gets a single pair of lines in a long paragraph that skips over the inconvenient truth that until 1991 Palestinian resistance movements, at least, really did lavishly benefit from a superpower that spent money it did not have to spend and which contributed to its own demise here as elsewhere.

These are omissions significant enough to render the book primarily a good look from a Palestinian who in a Palestine without colonialism would have been one of the aristocrats and who's very well aware of that fact, but nothing close to a narrative that benefits anyone in any way besides that.....which is at least considerable.

Mr. Khalidi has written excellent, nuanced takes. This is not one of them.

4/10.

[berylian]

Image ID:

Image 1: A side-by-side chart comparing South Africa's Apartheid (Afrikaans: [aˈpartɦɛit] past tense); and Israel's Hafrada (Hebrew: [הפרדה] present tense), with Apartheid on the left and Hafrada on the right (this pattern will continue through the photoset).

Land expropriation. Apartheid: 1913 Natives Land Act. Hafrada 1950 Absentee Property Law

Racial Classification: Apartheid 1952 Pass Laws Act. Hafrada 1982 Identity Card Act

Mass Displacement: Apartheid 1960-1983 Forced Evictions. Hafrada 1948 & 1967 Forced Displacement

Violent Repression: Apartheid 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. Hafrada 2018 Great March of Return

Token Independence: Apartheid 1970-1981 South African Bantustans. Hafrada 1995-present Palestinian Authority

The following images provide more information on each point.

Image 2: A side-by-side comparison of Apartheid and Hafrada, covering point 1: Land Expropriation. On the left, there is a diagram of South Africa covered mostly in black, where the black coloring means "No Black Ownership." On the right, there is a diagram of Israel/Palestine with the southern end and parts of the west covered in black where the coloring means "Israeli 'state land' ."

Apartheid. 1913 Natives Land Act. The first of a series of laws that were designed to outlaw Black land ownership and segregate "population groups" by race.

Hafrada. 1950 Absentee Property Law. The first of a series of laws bringing the land of displaced Palestinians under Israeli state control for the benefit of Jewish-only settlement.

Image 3: A side-by-side comparison of Apartheid and Hafrada, covering point 2: Racial Classification. There are photos on both sides of the types of identification each group was forced to carry.

Apartheid. 1952 Pass Laws Act: Required all Black people in South Africa over the age of 16 to carry a "pass book" while in White areas.

Hafrada. 1982 Identity Card Act: Requires all people in Israel, West Bank, and Gaza over the age of 16 to carry an Israeli-issued ID card which can be used to identify their ethnicity.

Image 4: A side-by-side comparison of Apartheid and Hafrada, covering point 3: Mass Displacement. There are photos of ruined homes on each side. The left depicts District Six, Capetown, c. 1974. The right depicts Manishiyya neighbourhood, Jaffa, c. 1948.

Apartheid. 1960-1983 Forced Evictions: 3.5 million Black South Africans removed from their homes in order to establish residential segregation.

Hafrada. 1948 & 1967 Forced Displacement: Over 1.1 million Palestinians forcibly displaced during the 1948 Nakba ("catastrophe"} and 1967 Naksa ("setback").

Image 5: A side-by-side comparison of Apartheid and Hafrada, covering point 4: Violent Repression. On the left is a poster saying "Remember Sharpeville." There is a photo from the event, followed by "Mass meeting. Wednesday 21 SSI. 12:30." On the right is a photo of the Great March with a caption in Arabic at the top.

Apartheid. 1960 Sharpevill Massacre: 69 unarmed South Africans killed during peaceful protests against the racist "pass laws" ID system.

Hafrada. 2018 Great March of Return: 42 unarmed Palestinians killed in Gaza in one day during peaceful protests calling for end to Israeli siege and return of refugees.

Image 6: A side-by-side comparison of Apartheid and Hafrada covering segregation.

On the left is an aerial photo of South Africa showing the disparity between Bloubosrand -a White gated community, and Kya Sands -a Black township. Bloubosrand has higher quality living with clearly defined large buildings and greenery, while Kya Sands has much smaller buildings almost resembling ruins from its aerial perspective, and no visible greenery.

On the right is a photo of Israel/Palestine showing a similar disparity between Pisgat Ze'ev East -an illegal Israeli settlement, and Shuafat -a Palestinian refugee camp. The buildings in Pisgat Ze'ev are larger and flanked by trees and other greenery, while the buildings in Shuafat are crammed together and lack greenery.

Apartheid. 1. "Separateness": the state of being separate, literally "apart-hood." 2. name used to describe South Africa's state policy of segregation by race, 1948-1990.

Hafrada. 1. "Separations": the act of separating things (or people) from each other. 2. name used to describe Israel's state policy of segregation by ethnicity, 1948-present.

Image 7: A side-by-side comparison of Apartheid and Hafrada, covering point 5: Token Independence. The photo on the left depicts a map of South Africa with a few small areas toward the north and southwest colored in black. The coloring indicates Black "homeland." The photo on the right depicts a map of Israel/Palestine with a few areas in the center (West Bank) and the Gaza Strip highlighted in black. The coloring indicates Palestinian administered.

Apartheid. 1970-1981 South African Bantustans: Apartheid government defined ten fragmented Black "homelands," each run by a puppet authority.

Hafrada. 1995-present Palestinian Authority: Palestinian Authority set up in coordination with Israel to govern disconnected fragments of the West Bank and Gaza.

Underneath each image is the source for the photoset.

Sep 2018

Sources bit.ly/vp-hafrada

visualizingpalestine.org

Symbols indicating a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Deed: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

facebook @visualizingpalestine

twitter/x @visualizingpal

Instagram @visualizing_palestine

HAFRADA / APARTHEID

These five features of apartheid SouthAfrica are echoed in Israeli policies toward Palestinians today: 1. land expropriation, 2. racial classification, 3. mass displacement, 4. violent repression, and 5. token independence.

This series will be exhibited for the first time in London on Nov. 3, in partnership with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK, at their Justice in Palestine conference on ending Israeli apartheid. PSCJusticeConf

Download the visuals: HERE

[instereospace]

We are almost the oldest restaurant in Bethlehem. We have been here since ‘48. So since our parents’ days, of course. Altogether it’s seventy years. When we were first established, we came as immigrants, from ‘the ‘48’ [the Nakba displacement]. My father was born in Jaffa; I was born here. [When] we started, we were [only] falafel. Then we developed; we opened a restaurant. It wasn’t here, the store here. First, we were in the [Manger] Square. After they demolished the square – there were old constructions – they gave us stores here. [During the 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity,] everything was closed. 42 days we were closed. Of course it affected me. And not only me, everyone. [But] we’ve kept this store and we’ve expanded. We had a small store and we’ve expanded it. God has blessed it.  

Here, everything is going well. We say that if they visit Bethlehem without visiting Afteem, they didn’t visit Bethlehem. They intend it: they intend to go to the church, and go to Afteem. Our specialty is falafel. It’s special. So we still stick to the same pattern. Nothing has changed; we didn’t change. Then it’s them, the Jewish-Israelis, who claim that they make it. That’s it’s their own popular dish. We are contrariwise: it’s a Palestinian dish and everyone knows it. We make it with chickpeas. You know chickpeas? You put them in water for six, seven hours. Then after this, we rinse [and] put them in the [blender]. We add parsley, onions, garlic. There are some spices; we always put spices. And then salt. I mean, our style is easy – but food is a question of taste.  – Afteem

[catdotjpeg]

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. To gather our words and energies requires an enormous effort. We are sickened that amidst these moments of spectacular brutality and carnage projected onto Palestinian bodies, including rape, torture, mutilation, and maiming, we are diverted from grieving and organizing to make a demand. [...] 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.

-- From "A Liberatory Demand from Queers in Palestine," an open letter and list of demands available to read in Arabic, English, Spanish, Italian, French, Catalan, Brazilian Portuguese, and German.

The letter and demands are available as graphics for sharing and distributing. Organizations and collectives are invited to sign on as well.

[thefree-online]

A Nuclear Superpower and a Dispossessed People

An Anarchist from Jaffa on the Violence in Palestine and Israeli Repression Source: CrimethInc On October 7, Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, breached the siege wall surrounding them to carry out a series of attacks. The Israeli government has responded with a full military operation. While both sides have targeted civilians as…A Nuclear Superpower and a Dispossessed People

[egyptonlinetours1]

Amman, Dead Sea and Petra Jordan Tours

Amman, Dead Sea and Petra Jordan Tours

Explore our Holy Land tours to explore Amman, Dead Sea and Petra Jordan Tours in one of the best multi-Centre Holidays, you will be able to get an unforgettable experience about different Cultures in the three countries and more you will discover with Maestro Online Travel .

Have an unforgettable holiday with Amman, the Dead Sea, and Petra Jordan Tours, enjoy holy land tours that combine 2 countries, start your tour by exploring Egypt sightseeing, and then you have to explore Jordan attractions, also have an excursion to Amman, which prepare yourself to enjoy the best time while exploring Israel attractions, explore Jaffa and arrive at Tel Aviv, after that move to Caesarea Maritima, watch the excavations, the Roman theatre, and aqueduct.

You have to explore Mount Carmel, watch the panoramic view of Haifa Bay, also you have to explore the sea of Galilee and sailing as the disciples did 2000 years ago, and then you can watch the mount of beatitudes, also have best tour to Jerusalem new city and watch the Israel Parliament (Knesset), then continue to Ein Kareem, also visit Bethlehem to watch the Church of the Nativity, also you can visit the Garden Tomb.

Day 1: Jordan Tours and Travel Package to Amman

Upon your arrival in Jordan, our tour leader will meet you at Aliaa airport, transfer you to your hotel, and overnight in Amman.

Day 2: Jordan Travel Package & Day Tours/ Amman Tours

Enjoy your breakfast, day tour to visit Amman attractions, the Theatre, then the citadel, Amman's traditional markets, enjoy lunch meal in local restaurant, back to hotel, overnight in Amman (B)

Day 3: Mt Nebo, Shobak Castle & the Dead Sea

Enjoy your breakfast in Petra, then start your tour from Petra to visit best of Jordan attractions, start the tour by visiting Shobak was originally called Krak. It was Built in 1115, it was the first of many fortifications built beyond the Jordan by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem to guard the road from Egypt to Damascus.It successfully resisted a number of sieges until it fell to Saladin's troops in 1189. then you will proceed the tour to Madaba, Located just 86km south of Amman, Madaba has been inhabited for at least 4,500 years, and is mentioned in the Bible as the Moabite town of Medeba, visit St. George Greek Orthodox Church, then proceed to Nbo mountain, Mount Nebo is the mountain where Moses was allowed to see the Holy land, is approximately 817 metres (2680 feet) above sea level, in what is now western Jordan, from Nbo mountain you will see the Holy land, the Jordan River 7 the Dead Sea, It is thought that Moses was buried on Nbo mountain & his final resting place is unknown, you will visit the old church dates to the fourth century, Then Proceed travelling to Jordan Dead Sea, enjoy your free time for leisure at the oldest natural spa in all the world ( The Dead Sea ). Dead Sea (B)

Day 4: Jordan Tours and Travel Package to Dead Sea

Enjoy free time in Dead Sea, Natural healthy salted water, Now you are visiting the lowest point of all the earth, Overnight in Dead Sea

Day 5: Petra Day Tour

Enjoy your breakfast, drive to spend the day tour exploring the Rose City ( Perta ), 2000 years ago Petra was the capital of the Nabataean , and for centuries & centuries was forgotten and lost, then it was discovered in 1812 by the Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. Now it is one of the new 7 wonders of the world, it is very big and you will enjoy not only visiting it but trying to discover it, the main things to see are the Siq, the treasury, the roman theatre, the Roman collonade streets. If you're feeling energetic ascend the hundreds of rock-cut steps leading to Al-Deir, Al-Deir means the Monastery, It has a similar facade to that of the Treasury, but is far bigger and the views from the nearby cliff-tops are incredible views! Drive to Amman and overnight. (B)

Day 6: Jordan Travel Package & Day Tours / Departure

Enjoy your breakfast, check out, and meet our tour rep to transfer you to Aliaa airport for final departure

For more info

info@egyptonlinetours.com

[rodneymckays]

stargate episodes that should have been, part 62: jack is on a fishing trip and has turned off his phone and locked it in a box. so he misses the thirty-eight calls from general hammond about the alien invasion currently happening. meanwhile, the rest of sg-1 is busy offworld trying to get a hold of thor to let him know that hey, the goa’uld are invading, and doesn’t that violate our treaty? unfortunately for them, thor is also currently up at jack’s cabin in minnesota, fishing. none of the asgard know where he is and they can’t get a hold of him, because jack made him also lock his asgard phone in the box. on earth, it’s currently just the sgc under siege, but they need to wrap this up quickly before the secret’s out. hammond is switching between phone calls with the president and russia every five seconds, and major davis is there. clearly, this is a Bad Situation. just when it seems that the jaffa are about to breach the base, sg-1 returns! they don’t have thor or any other asgard, but they brought the next best thing: yu. as one of the system lords who originally negotiated the treaty, he’s pretty well-equipped to deal with the situation. he insisted on bringing his first prime with him, but that’s ok because his first prime is a bro. a temporary cease-fire is called while yu and daniel go up to the attacking ha’tak to negotiate. yu’s first prime stays in the sgc. he has a staring contest with teal’c. it’s getting late, and jack and thor go inside to have dinner. (not fish—they didn’t catch any.) thor tries to check his messages on his asgard phone but jack doesn’t let him. they turn on the news and see discussion of a mysterious crater that appeared near washington dc. the government is saying it’s from a meteorite, but footage of what made the crater looks like, well, not a meteorite. specifically, it looks like weapons fire from a ha’tak, but obviously the news people don’t know that. jack begrudgingly unlocks the phone box. up on the ha’tak, yu and daniel are in a cell. yu is doing what goa’ulds do best: whining about it. turns out some minor goa’uld is trying to make a play for power and doesn’t want to listen to any system lords. fortunately, thor’s ship is in orbit. he and jack beam aboard and take care of the situation by threatening the goa’uld. the ha’tak makes to leave, but thor is able to beam daniel and yu off before it jumps away. jack tries to convince yu to come fishing with him, without success.

u know when the pentagon is getting involved in stargate affairs, its serious business 😂

imagine every crop circle/flying saucer/mysterious crater phenomenon in the stargate universe is really a remnant of a near-miss alien incursion on earth. I WANT TO BELIEVE.

also, yu doesn't know what he's missing!

[lochnessies]

I'm so sorry to send you this but I can't tell if its parody or not and it's killing me.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Edelgard/comments/opl226/an_analysis_of_the_roles_of_the_actors_in_the_new/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

ok i’m going to leave the link for other people to find bc holy shit i’m still laughing! go nuts

“edelgard crowned by the goddess’s angel, the wings of the hegemon (byleth). entrusting her to lead humanity to tangible freedom.

fun fact! the angel crowning byleth is not actually a divine angel. it’s based off of the roman goddess victoria, the goddess of victory.

she’s holding a laurel crown which was given to the winner in war. so no, edelgard isn’t being crowned by byleth. in fact, byleth isn’t even in this mural at all. also ‘tangible freedom’? as opposed to ‘intangible freedom??’ LMAO

“the wings of the hegemon lovingly invites all commoners to reach for their destiny”

no?? we’ve already established that it isn’t byleth and victoria isn’t looking at the people. only edelgard.

“the first and second estate now down and give up their political and military power.”

when have estates ever been brought up in the game? that’s not the ‘estates’ that’s the people of the alliance, kingdom, and church since they are the ones laying down the flags at edelgard’s feet. it’s the people she’s conquered and stole a national and religious identity from.

“the third estate, commoners, throw their caps, join their hands and rejoice in ecstasy.” / “commoners moving to grasp their newfound political strength.”

that’s not the ‘third estate’ it’s the people of adrestia as a whole and yeah they’re happy the war is fucking over. not to mention edel put out a manifesto that she used to sway the people to her war since they were unhappy when she declared it.

“edelgard and byleth jointly step on the flags of the oppression to free the people from their shackles”

not byleth. stop pushing it. and she’s not stepping on the flags of the oppressors, she is the oppressor. she’s the one who by force took land, wealth, and support from unwilling masses who fought back against her control, you buffoon.

“crimson flower’s ending mural is inspired by a real life historical painting, solidifying its position as the canonical true end of fire emblem: three houses”

are you sure you want to die on this hill? napoleon is known as the first modern dictator. not a good look

napoleon compromised the gains of the french revolution by bringing back monarchical rule.

he truncated the powers of the legislature, rewarded his supporters rather than the people, had himself proclaimed emperor, presided over an extravagant court, and showered his family with wealth, positions and privileges.

he reduced the rights of women.

stole art.

he ended freedom of the press, constrained freedom of association, and created a new, greedy nobility.

he kept europe at war for 15 years. which left an estimated 3.5 million to 6 million deaths, and millions wounded. numerous cities, towns and villages were looted, bombarded, or burned. thousands were left homeless. an unknown number of women and girls were raped.

institutions were shattered in the territories he conquered, and the economic life of europe was severely disrupted.

he was the one who chose to invade spain and russia. he refused to take opportunities for peace when they were offered.

he was also responsible for the massacre at jaffa. during the egyptian campaign in 1799, the french laid siege to the city of jaffa. after capturing the city, napoleon allowed his troops to spend at least two days looting the place and raping and slaughtering its inhabitants, including the elderly, women, and children. he also ordered the execution of up to 3,000 prisoners of war (mainly albanians), even though they had been promised mercy when they surrendered to napoleon’s stepson, eugène de beauharnais. the prisoners were marched to the beach and shot or bayoneted. overall, an estimated 4,100 people were massacred by the french at jaffa.

he also left france in a weaker position than when he started. they were exhausted by war, out of money, confined to borders that were smaller than when he came to power, shorn of most of her overseas colonies, and at the mercy of victorious allies.

so yeah that’s just a short list of his crimes. not a good person to compare her to if you want to make her look good. though now i’m tempted to add a part to my essay about their similarities.

also silver snow is also based off of an actual art piece:

so what’s this about cf being the one true end? also the devs said all routes are canon. none are the true end.

“the divine wings that surround the hegemon delivering the goddesses’ final message for a free humanity”

where the fuck is that communicated?

“destitute commoners unable to feed themselves, quenching for handouts from the rich church” / a country made up of the eternally destitute, ruled by two powerful institutions who they have to depend on”

MRBDKAKSNXJSKSKN fellas is it bad for a government to have a welfare system to help those who were hurt by the war and are struggling to feed themselves? dimitri should just let them starve. if they were really hungry then they would work for it instead of asking for handouts! 😤🙄

“byleth, taking the role of a commissar, counts the possessions of the proletariat”

HELLO?

oh my god this person is a hardcore capitalist! they’ll just label everything communism with no provocation it would seem. byleth is literally handing out money. not taking shit from the commoners what are you on? crack cocaine?

“dimitri, like a demented man, ignoring his responsibilities while he is absorbed in pandering to his preferred minorities.”

oh no dimitri has made peace with duscur and is repairing international relations and makes sure children are taken cared of! what a maniac!

“the army emerges as a new power in this militaristic society.”

the army is handing out food… for people who were hurt by edelgard’s war… they’re not fighting. in fact, weapons are sheathed and dimitri’s relic is covered in a duscur patterned cozy as a symbol of peace. there’s no need for weapons.

“commoners on their knees begging for food from the army.”

the people are smiling. they’re happy. they’re being provided relief and the soldiers aren’t hording it

“byleth is a faceless bureaucrat turning their back on the viewer to become another cog in a world ruled by class and status.”

byleth’s face is hidden to mask the gender. plus they’re talking to somebody behind them so that’s where they’re facing

[liberty1776]

Richard storms ashore to relieve the siege of Jaffa summer 1192.

Richard Lionheart at Acre by Giuseppe Rava

[with-my-murder-flute]

Initial sketch notes of my historical research on Islamic experiences of the Siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, posted August 6, 2020.  This is the long version of “Why might Yusuf al-Kaysani, who is from the Maghreb, have been fighting at Jerusalem in 1099?”

Trigger Warning: Graphic violence, slavery, and genocide

Notes taken from reading Paul M. Cobb’s The Race for Paradise: An Isamic History of the Crusades and supplemented by Dr. Google. I’m reading Cobb’s book partly because it’s on audiobook (though it is a fricking Audible Exclusive) and partly because it’s written for Western non-Muslim audiences, which helps get me up to speed.

The Old Guard Through History video says Joe and Nicky met during the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099, so I’ve focused most of my research on that.

Historians generally agree that in the 11th century the Islamic* world did not have a “Muslims vs Christians” worldview like the one Christians were beginning to develop. Their experience led them to expect Christians to be allies as often as enemies. Around the 1060s Christians began a new paradigm of religious war against Muslims, which Muslims didn’t really realize at the time--they responded to times when Christians would choose religious affiliation over clear strategic gain as shocking and bizarre, a departure from the status quo

(*Islamic: Society predominantly defined by Muslim rule and culture, but containing people of many different religions)

The Islamic response to the First Crusade was decentralized and diverse. There were a lot of different groups in the Levant*, many of whom had deep divisions, rivalries, and feuds. They mostly saw the Crusaders as a new factor that might affect their existing rivalries with other Islamic states, and were used to being able to broker deals or treaties with Christian groups to turn local warfare to their advantage.

(*Levant: A term used to describe countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially those with traditional religious significance to the Abrahamic religions - modern-day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Egypt and Turkey. Comes from the French word for “rising”, in the sense of “where the sun rises”)

Additional term I’m going to be using a lot: “Frank”. It’s the Islamic term for, basically, “Western European” (of both the pagan and Roman Catholic varieties). It’s easier than saying “the Roman Catholics” or “The Crusaders” (which is putting a later cultural construct on people who didn’t call themselves that)

The biggest division of Islamic society in this area is, roughly, the Seljuq Turks and the Fatimid Caliphate. 

In the year 1000, the Fatimids were riding high: They ruled Egypt and North Africa stretching across to the Atlantic, much of the Levant, the island of Sicily, and bits of the Arabian Peninsula around the Red Sea. 

Then in the mid-11th century the Seljuqs came BLASTING OUTTA NOWHERE like holy shit calm your jets and conquered a lot of Fatimid and Byzantine territory (we’re talking the yellow parts of the map, they’ll destroy the Byzantines entirely later)

In addition to losing land to the Seljuqs, the Fatimids also lost Sicily to the Normans (who don’t even GO THERE but anyway), and North Africa through?? Independence movements?? Sheer carelessness??? I’m not quite certain.

The Seljuqs were Sunni, the Fatimids were Shi’ite, I... am not gonna try to explain that whole thing. Here’s a video.

(Small note for Yusuf character reasons: A big motivation behind the move of Ifriqiya [modern Tunisia and parts of Algieria and Libya] out of Fatimid control was that most of their populations were also Sunni)

So the Franks left Constantinople and travelled through what is now Turkey but was at the time the Byzantine Empire, and then moved into Seljuq lands. Most of the fighting in the First Crusade was against Seljuqs--mostly against tribes who fought for themselves, I think? Although in Damascus (which was a huge city the Franks just breezed by in favour of historically significant ghost towns) there was a general jihad preached like “Hey somebody should do something about all these Europeans”, so some of the people fighting were like... random people from Damascus.

While the Seljuqs were distracted, the Fatimids thought they could win some land back from THOSE UPSTARTS, so they snuck in and grabbed Jerusalem.  As Peter Konieczny reports, there are scholars who think the Fatimids thought, partly because they had a lot of experience ruling Egypt’s Coptic Christian population, that they could reach a mutually satisfactory alliance with the Franks, especially since it seemed like most of the Franks didn’t intend to settle in the area, but return to Europe once they ensured pilgrim access to Jerusalem, which had mostly been hindered by banditry in Seljuq-controlled areas. 

When I read stuff just generally about the Fatimid army, it’s described as being composed of two groups:

Berber tribesmen (Kutama and Sanhaja) (I’m struggling to find more info about them)

Mamluks, who are... a cross between slaves and mercenaries? Basically, they were captives from non-Muslim territory (in the Fatimids’ case, mostly Circassia in central Asia) who were brought to Muslim lands and trained as soldiers, but once active as soldiers, were paid and hired by different groups, able to achieve freedom, often gained important government posts, and occasionally toppled the government they served and ruled the roost.

This next bit is based on fairly standard histories of the Siege of Jerusalem that rely a lot on Western sources, like this article by Michael D. Hull and this article by Michael Cartwright. Which... have to be taken with a grain of salt, because medieval military histories don’t tend to line up super well with archaeology or plain logistics. Generally, it isn’t wise to take medieval European sources at their word when they say “the army had 10,000 people” or “they killed every last person”. They’re often written after the fact and with clear biases, and, when it comes to the Crusades, with an imperfect understanding of the culture they’re describing. I’d like to have better sources, but this is where I’m starting from, especially since I have limited access to academic sources during the summer.

So, the standard history says that Jerusalem was taken in 1098 by  Emir  al-Afdal Shahinshah, but by 1099, governor Iftikhar al-Daula was in command of the defenses. and that he had a “garrison of Arab cavalry and Sudanese archers.” Cartwright reports it as “perhaps several thousand infantry and an elite cavalry corps of 400 Egyptians.” I currently have no way of knowing which of these troops were Mamluks and which weren’t.

According to Hull, when the Fatimids in Jerusalem realized they would have to face a siege, they expelled all Christians of any denomination from the city, as well as all Jews “except for those of a sect for whom it was mandatory to reside in the Holy City”. Cartwright reports it as “...all Christians were kicked out if the city. In contrast, the Jewish population were allowed to stay”. Cartwright reports that Jerusalem’s population, 70,000 at the beginning of the year, was lowered to 30,000 by the expulsions (though some people were also coming into the city to take refuge from the oncoming Frankish army). Additional preparations included poisoning wells outside of Jerusalem to deny the Frankish army water, and emptying the land around the city of livestock and people. 

The Fatimids were also expecting the arrival of an army marching north from Egypt to help them out relatively soon, which explains why their strategy was mostly “hunker down and wait” with very limited attacks outside the city.

The Franks came southward down the coast to Jaffa, where they took the nearest port to Jerusalem, and then approached the city.

June 7, 1099: The Frankish army shows up at Jerusalem with about 15,000 people total and less than 1,500 armed knights. They split into two camps, one attacking from the south, one from the north. They were in rough shape and didn’t have any siege weapons, so the Fatimid defenders were able to sit up on the walls, taunt them, and shoot arrows. They enlivened the tedium by sending cavalry units outside the walls to harass Franks who were scavenging for food and water.

June 13, 1099: Some Franks on the north side of the city managed to scrabble together siege ladders and try to climb up and assault the walls; they were repelled pretty easily by the defenders.

June 17, 1099: English and Genoese ships land at Jaffa, carrying siege equipment and fresh supplies. Hull reports that the Fatimids dispatched troops, 400 Arabs and 200 Turks, to attack the supply chain between Jaffa and Jerusalem; Hull reports that the Franks only lost 5 of the force of maybe 150-200 knights, and “all of the archers” (about 50?)

It takes about three weeks to transport the supplies to Jerusalem and for the siege towers to be built; the Genoese played an especially large role in building the siege equipment, and their chief engineer is named as  William Embriaco.

On July 10 the siege engines were finished and wheeled to the walls. That night everyone inside the city and out sat over campfires, showing each other pictures of their families and trying to humanize themselves for the audience to make their impending deaths more impactful

(I kid)

(mostly)

June 13-15: Almost continuous fighting between the Franks, who are trying to move their siege engines close enough to make it onto the walls of Jerusalem, and the Fatimid defenders, who were trying to fight them off and burn their towers down. 

June 15: The Franks breach the walls and begin pouring inside, killing and looting its inhabitants. There is well-documented destruction of Muslim and Jewish holy places, where Muslims and Jews fled for refuge and were killed. This part is. Sickening. Tens of thousands of people dead; the streets running with blood. 

The Fatimid governor and various others (possibly the remainders of the army? Possibly important citizens? Some Jews appear to be in this group?) took refuge in the Tower of David, and were able to negotiate to leave Jerusalem safely. The Fatimid soldiers who left the city that way joined the advancing Fatimid army at Ascalon, southwest of Jerusalem.

It’s unclear who the survivors were--the sources mention people left aside being made into slaves, being allowed to leave the city, or being ransomed by rich relatives outside the city. The fact that we have Jewish and Muslim accounts of what happened during this time means there were survivors

But let’s face it: The survivors were the minority. The majority of people, thousands of them, were slaughtered by the Franks as they took over the city.

Epilogue: The Fatimids tried to take Jerusalem back a month later, and failed. Jerusalem was in Crusader hands.

It’s taken me three days to write this up and I’m ending it feeling really blah and drained by the enormity of this shit. I... 

The Race for Paradise has this bit that talks about two Western ways of talking about the Crusades: 

The Traditional paradigm, where this was a great moment for Christianity, whew we kicked those guys’ BUTTS!

The Lachrymose (Latin for “full of tears”) paradigm, coming to popularity since the Enlightenment, where this was horrific mass slaughter caused by religious zealotry and it was bad and everything was bad 

But the thing is, we can’t actually stop there. Or, that is: It’s not actually useful for our only narratives about the Crusades to be either “Christians kill everyone and it’s awesome” or “Christians kill everyone and it’s terrible”. It’s not true; it feeds into the overall false narrative of “European Christians only interacted with [Muslims/Middle Easterners/People of Colour] very rarely, and only when there was an atrocity happening.” It means we fail to acknowledge all the cross-cultural contacts that happened without an atrocity, and fail to realize that a lot of these atrocities came out of the context of incredibly warlike countries whose economies depended on warfare and conquest.

Another element is... during the 11th century, when all of this happened, the Normans also invaded England. Their conquest was absolutely brutal. England was ethnically and linguistically divided for centuries between a French-speaking colonial upper class, and the English-speaking peasantry. But over the centuries, these two groups came to live together peacefully and build a distinctly new society. Most peoples’ narratives of medieval England are not “a land of massacre, genocide, and ethnic strife”, even though those things definitely happened. We just have much stronger associations with medieval English art, literature, culture, fashion, and architecture than its slaughters.

So basically: The challenge for us in the 21st century is to develop a richer understanding of the past. We know a hell of a lot about battles and armies; we know way less about merchants and farmers, and about the long decades between battles and armies. Military history tells us about waging war, but if we can look past that, we can find out about waging peace.

Now I’m going to go collapse into my bed, and in a day or five I’ll write up a TL;DR version about what I think the likeliest backstories for Joe are (Briefly: probably a Fatimid cavalry soldier or an ordinary person who thought it was safe to be in Jerusalem at the time, and had to defend himself and his servants etc when the city fell)