#any day now israel is held accountable

[sereniv]

anyway 4 alive people doesnt justify over 200 dead

[esyra]

Haven't heard from family in days. I feel like it's time to accept they're gone. I know in my heart Palestine will, one day, be free, but it wasn't supposed to be like this.

We feared another Nakba, and it happened. 700,000 pushed out of their homes in 1948 to 1 million being forced to leave their homes in 2023.

We thought it couldn't get worse or more deadly than the Israeli invasion in 2014, and it happened. We lost 2,251 people in 50 days then. Now we're past 2,300 in one week.

What I heard most from my grandmother the first days it's that "this time is different". And I feel like a rock is crushing my heart in pieces because i've been hoping that speaking out, teaching people about the historical oppresion of Palestine would help but it's not helping. Nothing is changing.

I feel like I'm screaming into a void. There's some sympathy from people online, until I see content documenting Palestinian oppresion being flagged as 'hate speech' or check the comments of any updates on Gaza and it's: "blame it on hamas", "tell them to give up hamas", "the hamas asked for it". They're not even among civilians!!!!!

My heart feels full seeing the manifestations in favor of Palestine, then I see police forces breaking protests apart and remember that the people that can actually save Gaza don't care.

If there's nothing left to do but to watch the extermination of my people, then I'm going to beg for anyone reading this to please don't forget. Please.

Israel is hiding behind Judaism to commit genocide against Gaza. Netanyahu supported the Hamas militant group to prevent the establishment of the Palestine State, and now he's using them to justify his agenda of ethnic cleansing. He abandoned Israelis and left them to die because he cares more about seeing Gazans dead!

Every single person and institution supporting and financing Israel is complicit. I hope the deaths of every Palestinian haunts you for the rest of your lives and that you never find an ounce of forgiveness, for you do not deserve it.

Just as in the Iraq War, the US government is financing and cheering for the slaughter of millions of innocent Arab lives. The media is complicit by engaging in biased propaganda and other nuclear powers, such as the UK and Germany, are complicit too. You are fascists and war criminals and every drop of Palestinian blood is in your hands. I hope every single day, for the rest of your lives, you look in the mirror and see nothing but the blood you've helped spill.

This serves as yet another proof that not a single Western in a position of power, be it in the media or in government, sees Arabs as humans beings.

For decades, the US has comitted terrorism and crimes against humanity in the Middle East and has NEVER been held accountable. Over one million in Iraq; over 150,000 in Afghanistan; and now they'll turn Gaza into a graveyard. Punishing selected soldiers over the years does not erase the fact that the American military and its government validates their crimes during execution and are never punished for it.

Please never forget: Joe Biden is a genocidal terrorist, Rishi Sunak is a genocidal terrorist, the American Democrat Party and UK's Labour Party are led by genocidal terrorists, the European Union is led by genocidal terrorists, fuckass Walt Disney Company is led by genocidal terrorists; every celebrity that called for Palestinian death or stood by silently while ignoring our suffering is a genocidal terrorist.

May Allah protect the people in Palestine and grant the martyrs the highest level of Jannah. Wallah what keeps me here is knowing that the Akhirah is theirs. May Almighty Allah grant us imaan and Taqwa as high as the people of Gaza. Ameen.

[heritageposts]

By Haidar Eid, associate Professor at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza.

Now that we have heard the interim judgement the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, we can confidently say a new world order is in the making. The World Court confirmed today that South Africa’s charge under the Genocide Convention that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza” is “plausible”. It has further ruled that Israel must “take all measures” to avoid acts of genocide in Gaza. The court has stopped short of calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, which has already been demanded by an absolute majority of world nations. Still, most of the “provisional measures” called for by the Republic of South Africa have been endorsed by the court. It is difficult to see how Israel can implement these measures and fulfil its obligations under the Genocide Convention, without agreeing to a ceasefire. There is no indication, of course, that Israel has any intention of heeding the Court’s provisions. In fact, since the ICJ heard South Africa’s case two weeks ago, Israel has doubled down on its genocidal acts in Gaza. In the past 24 hours alone, it carried out 21 mass killings, murdering 200 and injuring 370 civilians. So Israel’s message to the Court, and the world at large, is clear: It does not care for the opinion, demands or “measures” of any international institution – legal or political. It will do as it pleases. [...] Israel may not heed the court’s rulings and provisions, but South Africa’s historic stance will still have consequences. As stated by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa after the ICJ’s interim decision: “Third States are now on notice of the existence of a serious risk of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. They must, therefore, also act independently and immediately to prevent genocide by Israel and to ensure that they are not themselves in violation of the Genocide Convention, including by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide. This necessarily imposes an obligation on all States to cease funding and facilitating Israel’s military actions, which are plausibly genocidal.” With this case, South Africa has put not only Israel, but the entirety of the global justice system on trial. This case is a major turning point for humanity, because it marks the first time in history when a Global South country bravely crossed a red line drawn by the colonial West and demanded its favourite settler colony, Israel, be held to account for the crimes it has long been committing against an Indigenous people. Today, thanks to South Africa, the entire colonial West, and its centuries-long history of theft, dispossession, and injustice is on trial at the World Court. Future generations will remember January 26, 2024, as the day on which the world has finally decided to hold a genocide state, and its powerful backers, accountable for repeated, longstanding violations of international law. Yes, a new world order is in the making.

. . . full article on al jazeera (26 Jan 2024)

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Here's the thing that really broke me about the goyische left's response to the Hamas massacre: once again, the uncritical, antisemitic double standard for Israel and Jews versus literally anyone else has now expanded to assume that Jews do not deserve human rights or have lost them by virtue of being Israeli.

Let's say, for a moment, that you have been radicalized to really believe that the Hamas attack on civilians was a liberatory action, perhaps unfortunate that it targeted unarmed civilians, but what else were they supposed to do? Besides, Israel has visited similar and worse attacks on Palestine for years, so turnabout is fair play, especially in service of the struggle of liberation of a brutally oppressed group. [To be clear: I take issue with this and find it morally repugnant. But for the moment, let's accept arguendo this belief as a baseline.]

Do you really include rape, torture, killing children at all but especially in front of their parents, or killing parents in front of their children and taking hostages of the survivors, beheading infants, trapping and burning families hidden together alive, stripping and parading hostages naked through the street, mutilating and displaying the bodies of the dead proudly and celebrating their deaths, and doing all of this on a holy day where Jewish people the world over are supposed to be celebrating the end of the holiday season and the beginning of a new cycle of Torah learning. On a day that people will be resting, with their families, unarmed and in their holy spaces, and are explicitly commanded to be happy.

.......amongst the "unfortunate-but-necessary violent struggle?"

Like even if you believe in your heart of hearts that all Israelis should die or at least are acceptable casualties in the struggle, do you really believe that there is any excuse for the above atrocities? If you do, I need you to ask yourself some things:

Do you think there is any justification for the manner and cruelty of the deaths?

Do you really think that there is anything a person could do in order to deserve any of these actions as a sentence?

Was the cruel nature of this, designed to inflict the greatest amount of trauma on the survivors and the Jewish people at large, actually necessary to accomplishing the goal of liberation?

Would you accept any of these actions being done to any other group?

If you are a white American, do you think you personally deserve this yourself for everything the United States has done to the native population (never mind anyone else)?

Do you think that civilians can be held 100% accountable for their government's actions? Is that a standard you yourself would like to be judged by?

If context is important, how is the last 2000 years of brutal antisemitism from virtually every part of the world not also relevant context? How is the Holocaust not relevant? The Farhud?

Do you think refugees fleeing genocide should be able to live wherever they can and that other countries and peoples have a duty to step up and take them in? If so, would you call refugees of genocide colonists and settlers?

Do you think that children should have to answer for the crimes of adults? That it is ever okay to kill them in cold blood?

Do you think that non-combatant deaths should ever be celebrated?

Theoretically, if the only way Hamas could accomplish its goal (which we will assume arguendo is Palestinian liberation, despite the mounds of evidence against that) is to kill whatever Israelis they could get their hands on, don't you think that a valid liberation force would just kill people as efficiently as possible rather than take the time to brutalize and humiliate them first? Wouldn't that be the more morally understandable thing to do?

Do you think it's ever okay to mock or talk down to people grieving their dead, no matter who they were, especially if they were random citizens rather than, say, high-profile politicians?

These questions to me are unanswerable and the fact that they are even in question at all unjustifiable. The left has either actively participated in this or remained silent in the face of it. And too many friends who I thought were allies have failed to reach out to even ask if we're okay, let alone made even the weakest of condemnations of the brutality my people have experienced this week.

This tells me that you think my humanity, as a Jew, is conditional. That my right not to experience war crimes is up for debate.

How am I supposed to trust you ever again? Feel safe in your presence? Collaborate with you on other issues? Why should I?

For the people who are posting about the situation yet failed to condemn the torture and brutality against my people, please know that I will likely never fully believe you that you are for restorative justice, against the death penalty, against cruel and unusual punishment, against sexual violence, for children's rights and against the murder of children, against terrorism, against civilian casualties, for the rights and protection of refugees, for freedom of movement, support indigenous groups, and certainly certainly anyone claiming to be against antisemitism. There will forever and always be an asterisk next to your statements in favor of universal human rights which reads: *except Jews.

[abbyshands]

I can't even lie; I think a lot of the reason that TLOU fans specifically seem to be so angry about the strike and annoyed at having to hear about what's going on in Palestine is because they don't want to be reminded of the reasons why they should no longer buy anything in relation to the game. They don't want to be made to feel bad if they bought the remaster, or merch, or just bought the games in general even after finding out about Neil being a Zionist and sending money to Israel. It's sad, honestly.

anon. THIS! 100% percent. people are too full of themselves to want to feel responsible, to be held accountable. and it’s not like we’re saying to never play the game again, you know, never like it again? i don’t think people realize that it doesn’t even work like that. you can very well play the game (or watch someone else do it) or watch the show n’whatever, just make sure you’re getting it secondhand or pirating it, etc. what’s so hard about that? i hardly own a video game i didn’t buy secondhand, and i know i’m not the only one who’s watched a movie or show on some random ass site. it isn’t that difficult. and if you want to get merch? places like etsy have a million things you can buy, things even better than nd’s actual stuff (and, obviously, you’re not funding a zionist in the process).

like, it’s one thing when you’ve already purchased things before you knew. okay, well now you do, and here’s your chance to compensate for that, at least a little bit. but going out of your way to buy the remastered or saying you’re gonna keep watching the show & whatever (from hbo, i mean), when you know all of this? that shit’s just fucked. neil druckmann does not need you to dick ride him for being an actual pos. like, what?

i can’t even get what’s so hard about remaining aware of the media you consume, especially in our world. it’s not even just the last of us you need to do this for: it’s any show or movie you watch, any game you play, any book you read. you can’t just not do that considering the world we live in today. i believe that’s incredibly ignorant, and to be less scholarly, dumb. i never believed i’d see the day where a genocide wouldn’t be enough to make someone’s heart break. to make someone fucking cry. to make someone not want to speak out about it, to do their part to get it to end. god, i can’t believe it.

but on a bit of a better note, it makes my heart swell to see people on here, especially most of my mutuals, using their voices and followings to spread awareness about this. can’t even explain how much i love you, how much you deserve the world. or to people like this anon, who aren’t attacking me or anyone else for doing the right thing, & speaking actual common sense ♡

sorry this was such a long response, but you really spoke to me on this one, anon !!! keep spreading awareness about these people suffering before our eyes, backlash & ridicule or not. FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.

[angrybell]

The West - including the Biden Administration, the United Nations, the EU, and a host of “liberal” democracies - put the gun in the hand of the Hamas terrorist who killed her. They have excused, ignored, and funded Hamas and PA. They do this under the guise of “humanitarian” donations.

All those donations have done have ensured that something which should have been settled in one war in 1949 continues to this day. No other nation on this planet has had to deal with a situation like this. No other set of “refugees” are treated like the Arabs who fled during the 1948 - 1949 Israeli War of Independence.

Gina is dead because the rest of the world never said “enough”, the matter has been decided and moved on. They never required the Egyptians, Jordanians, Syrians, and Lebanese to end the apartheid practices, practices which deny basic liberties to people who are born with their borders from attaining, among other things, citizenship, employment in their chosen professions, ownership of land, and host of other things that reduced the Arabs to islands of concentration refugee camps in Arab countries.

Egypt and Jordan bear particular blame. Both controlled sections of occupied Israel, sections that they cynically renamed as colonizers do. Changing the Judea and Samaria into “The West Bank” while Egypt kept the Gaza Strip. Both had the power to establish a “Palestinian State”. Neither did. Rather they incorporated the land into their countries but denied the people living there full citizenship. They keep the camps quiet by promising them that they would eventually help them establish a “Palestinian” state once Israel had been eradicated.

And the West allowed this status quo to remain. They allowed and funded a network of refugee camps to exist. They turned a blind eye when they were transformed into cesspools of hate, preaching revenge against an enemy that had the temerity to not roll over and die. UNWRA schools for generations have taught antisemitism that even Hitler would say was over the top.

So, financed by the west, with no incentive to do anything but remain obdurate and unwilling to compromise, fermented terror groups, each more extreme than the other, sometimes only distinguished by whether they were Marxist in their ideology or whether they were Islamist.

No matter what atrocity, the money never stopped flowing to the Arabs. Raid across the border? Here’s your money. Smash the head of a baby open with a Kalashnikov becuase you don’t think the Jewish baby is worth the cost of a bullet? Here’s money to pay for more. They always claim that the money is subject to oversight, to make sure what it is not spent on anything but “humanitarian” goods. But the fact of the matter remains that every dollar, pound, duetschmark, and euro that the Arabs don;t have to have to spend on infrastructure is one that they can spend on the next bomb, suicide attacker, rocket, or rifle.

And, for all the “humanitarian” supplies that are purchased with the West’s money, does it make it to the, supposedly, innocent Gazans? Most of it doesn’t. Hams doesn’t even try to hide it. They released a video showing how they took pipes meant for Gaza’s water infrastructure and turned them into rockets. What did the west do? Protested Israel’s attempt to deprive Hamas of more materials to built rockets and tunnels.

And is Hamas ever held accountable for what it does? Have the Bow Street runners ever tried to serve a warrant on one of theirs when they visit the UK?

No.

Instead they target, harass, and hold back Israel. When Israel had the gall to destroy the nuclear weapons facility at Osirak, was it congratulated? No. Reagan with held weapons supplies.

Has Biden ever turned off the funds to Hamas prior to the most recent attack? I can’t find any evidence of that. Actually, we may still be funding the UNWRA camps right now. The progressive do a good show of commiserating with Israel and the Jews when Hamas kills Jews. Personally, I think they like seeing dead Jews. I think it allows the progressives show some moral outrage.

But is it followed up by anything concrete? Not really. They say “oh we’re sorry your people died. … But no, you can’t go in and finish off the people who kill your people. You have to follow all the rules that the terrorists brazenly ignore or we will sick the ICC - which admits it has no jurisdiction but is willing to say it does have jurisdiction despite its own rules - on you so that your people will be subject to arrest if they travel anywhere.

Is that unfair? I don’t really care.

Progressives/Liberals, whatever they are called, don’t care about Jews unless its how much the Jews are donating to their campaigns. The fact that Reform Judaism does not recognize this is as serious a lapse as when the American Jewish community gave FDR a pass for not calling out Hitler’s treatment of the Jews prior to and during the war. We as a Jewish community in the US and the world need to recognize that blind obedience to leftist groups is not something we should be doing, and quite frankly, is not something we will survive given the bigotry festering those parties which is becoming more and more mainstream.

Don’t believe me? Ilham Omar and Rashida Tlaib are congresswomen who have repeatedly made it clear they hate the Jews. And they have been barely censured. They have been funded by the Democratic Party and suffered no lack of support in primary season.

The argument is always that Israel hasn’t gone far enough to appease the Arabs. What more did Israel have to do to show they would appease them than when they put Jerusalem on the table back during the Clinton Administration’s brokered talks. Arafat rejected it because it wasn’t enough. He wanted an undefined more.

And the argument is even more ridiculous when it comes to Hamas. Hamas’ charter and statements are clear: they will not negotiate any settlement with Israel. Their goal is the destruction of the Jewish state and the removal or death of all Jews between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Incidentally, for those who don’t know, that is exactly what the various terror groups mean when they say “From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be free.” Its is a statement of intent to commit genocide.

But the West keeps trying to a force a settlement where the PA and Hamas do not want a settlement. Only Israel does. That has been the same story since 1947 when the UN tried to create two states and failed. It failed, not because the Jewish yishuv rejected the plan. They accepted the plan even though it would mean the loss of Jersusalem and a small country bisected in part by an Arab state filled with people who had demonstrated history of trying to kill them. No, the Arabs rejected the proposal.

A Hamas coward killed her. But the West handed him the loaded weapon.

[matan4il]

To the anon who wrote me about the bodies...

If you have an issue with bodies being held hostage, you should hold accountable the party that introduced that element to the Israeli-Arab conflict. That would be Egypt, back in 1954. The Syrians have also followed suit since 1965.

Hamas and Hezbollah have taken this one step further, intentionally keeping Israel in the dark over whether those that these terrorists are holding hostage are alive or dead. Case in point, on Oct 7, 2000 Hezbollah murdered and kidnapped the bodies of 3 Israeli soldiers. The IDF was able to confirm by the next day that the soldiers were all at the very least wounded during the kidnapping. In June 2001, it turned out the UN had material about the kidnapping, that it did not share with Israel, despite its obligation to do so. On Oct 29, 2001 (a year after the kidnapping), Israel was able to announce the 3 soldiers had been murdered. Hezbollah continued to lie about it even after the confirmation. I don't remember at which point it was exactly, but I remember that Hezbollah released a pic that was supposed to be these soldiers alive. I remember that by this point, while the announcement that the soldiers are dead wasn't official yet, it was pretty clear they were, and I remember thinking how cruel Hezbollah was to intentionally torment the families with false hope. A similar thing happened again on Jul 12, 2006, when Hezbollah killed 5 Israeli soldiers, and then kidnapped the bodies of 2 of them. The terrorists lied about it. So imagine the shock and pain the families experienced, when a hostage deal was conducted in Jul 2008, and after two years of hoping and waiting, they got bodies instead of to be reunited with their living loved ones.

Currently, Hamas has been holding the bodies of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul since 2014. For over 9 years. For over 9 years, their families can't hold a funeral, and they get no closure.

And this one's maybe the most important point regarding the part of my post you quoted. Hamas isn't just holding the bodies hostage. Israel and Hamas agreed on the release of women and kids, and Israel made it clear it will not make any hostage deals, before all the living women and children are back in Israel, safe and sound. Intel shows Hamas is still holding at least 19 living women that it could release. That's... taking into account that the Bibas family, with 4 years old Ariel, and baby Kfir, might have been killed. Even then, Hamas could easily stick to the deal, and release the women it's holding, who are alive. Hamas is intentionally trying to force Israel to take dead bodies instead, while having to release living convicted terrorists in exchange, based on the current deal, which was made to free living women and kids. We know that statistically speaking, roughly 60% of released Palestinian terrorists return to terrorist activity, and attempt to murder again. That means Hamas is trying to force Israel's hand, to put the lives of even more Israelis on the line, without even getting our living hostages in return.

Hadar Goldin:

Oron Shaul:

Hamas is now holding the bodies of at least 6 murdered Israeli civilians. Most are old men and women. Possibly the bodies of a child and a baby. They're not soldiers. They're def not terrorists, who chose to try and carry out the murder of civilians. Here are their faces:

And that's not counting the bodies of our soldiers. We know Hamas is holding the kidnapped bodies of at least 3 of them. I just wanna remind you, most Israeli soldiers do not choose the army as a career. Their service is mandatory, and is a result of the on going terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, which started before there even was a State of Israel, when the terrorist attacks were simply on Jews. Our soldiers, are mostly young people, they're our 19 and 20 years old kids, called to defend our 3 and 10 and 12 years old kids.They're human beings, too. They deserve burial, and their families deserve closure as well.

So how would you suggest Israel deals with this kind of inhumane depravity? What is it that we're allowed to do, when we're trying to get back the bodies, restore the dignity of our dead, and stop the torment of our grieving families and friends?

[xclowniex]

I want to talk about the recent situation where some Palestinians are trying to drag black people into the role of "oppressor" because black people are wanting to vote for Kamala as well as that there are black people in the US military.

Here is a good video by a black creator on the matter to open things with.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by לילך לוגן🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱 (@lilaq_logan98)

I would also like to preface before I get into my own personal take, that I am not black, this is simply my opinion. Please do listen to black voices on this matter more than my own. Now, onto my thoughts.

I'm not sure if this is a jew specific thing which has just spread to black people, or if it's a general thing which jews just happened to be the first ones to be subject to this, but there is a lot of history being erased by pro Palestinians, to further make themselves seem like the most oppressed group.

And this is not to say that they aren't oppressed, as they very much are. It's just that what Palestinians are going through is bad enough, distorting and lying about history is not needed for what Palestinians are going through to be bad.

There is also just a lack of awareness surrounding oppression other groups are experiencing. I would share a source however I don't want to dox myself, but I have shared the source on another social media with some close mutual on here, but in a report done by my synagogue, in New Zealand since Oct 7th, antisemitism has increased 600%. The reason you see a lot of jews speaking out about antisemitism, is because our safety is at stake currently. This is similar with black people in the US. If trump gets in, it's fucking over for any minority, especially black folk in the states. Of course they are going to vote for Kamala. Not only does she ensure that they have the same or more safety, her policies surrounding Palestine is better than trumps policy!

Secondly, there is also a distortion of history. Black folk for centuries have been oppressed by arabs. With slaves trades and sex trafficking, which still happens today! The houthi sex traffick women from Ethiopia and run child slavery rings. It's not like this shit happend centuries ago and it's all flowers and sunshine now, it is still happening to this day.

Now, onto the claim surrounding black US soldiers. Yes, black people do serve in the military. However any issue with the US military, is to do with the US military, not black people as a race. Let me say this again, the issue lies with the US military, not black people as a race or collective group.

Now, this isn't to at all say that there isn't any anti arab racism held by black people, as there most definately is. Racism knows no bounds, and no group is excempt from being racist. There is just a difference between "this group actively oppresses arabs" and "this group holds anti arab sentiment".

And circling back to my opening thought of jews also experiencing this same rhetoric, in my opinion, antisemitism is also involved potentially. Like it depends on someones specific thoughts but there are a few different lines of thinking which leads someone to think that rhetoric.

Israel is an extension of the US/the US is an extension of Israel/The US is allied with Israel - and Israel bad, jews bad so I am going to take the same tactic being used against jews to be bigoted to another minority in the US (the antisemitic option)

This is all just a continuation of arab oppression against black people, by using a similar tactic which is used against jews, but not relating black people to jews, just simply using a similar tactic (not antisemitic just anti black option)

Political fuckery by creating divisiveness within the left so the left essentially just turns on each other so propaganda is easier to spread (not glaringly antisemitic or racist, but using jews and black people as props for your politcal gain is both antisemitic and racist)

It is important to note that with any conversation surronding this, it is important to note that a lot of bot accounts/psyop accounts will be participating in this. Whilst it seems like this rhetoric was either mainly started by or perpetuated by a real person as a video was created with a real person in it, bots and psyops will be jumping all over this for their own gain for whatever group is behind those accounts. Whilst I hope for now that this means its not a wide spread belief held by real people, if people do not recognize bots and psyops, there is a chance it could become more widespread.

Also I would like to say again, that this is all my opinion, please do listen to black creators on this matter, and I will be continuing to do so too as it gets talked about more moving forward.

[bisexualseraphim]

I gotta say, I am seriously fucking concerned with the amount of people here who seem to wholeheartedly believe that the correct answer to the genocide against Palestine is ANOTHER genocide except the other way around. Please stand back for 2 minutes and seriously think about whether you think it’s ever a helpful or just cause to advocate for the deaths of millions of people, especially when plenty of said people are Jews whose families fled there after barely surviving the Holocaust because hardly anywhere else would treat them like human beings or accept them at all since the antisemitism that allowed the Holocaust to happen was not solely in Germany and didn’t magically disappear after the war ended.

Look. The situation is simple when you boil it down to this: Israel is bombing and starving Palestinians like fish in a barrel and doesn’t want to allow aid to Gaza, which consists of a population of over 50% children. Israel allowed the Nakba and displacement of Palestinians for decades and tries to hide it from public view. This is genocide. The Israeli government is at fault for this. Israel holds the power here because they have the power to bomb and starve millions of people and force them out of their homes, and Palestine certainly does not. It’s an utterly horrific, inhumane thing to do with no excuses for it and it needs to stop. This is the simple part that is glaringly obvious for everyone to see and it’s almost laughable for anyone to deny it.

Okay. You’ve successfully identified the main problem and the “bad guy,” if you want to put it in childish simplistic terms. So the question now is: what next? Say Israel agrees to an immediate ceasefire. What do you, impassioned activist on the internet, propose should be done to solve this situation after that? What should be done to free the Israeli hostages? Do you think the UK and the US, two of the most powerful countries in the world who actively help Israel commit its atrocities against Palestine, will ever do anything to help the Palestinians once Israel loses its power, even if better governments are eventually elected? How should the Palestinian land be claimed back? Where should all the Israeli citizens go? Should they all be forced out to Europe and America, even if that isn’t where they originate from, where the already-rife antisemitism has spiked even further since October 7th and Jews who live thousands of miles from Israel and have nothing to do with Israel’s actions face horrific hate crimes every day? Do Israeli children deserve that? Who’s going to pay for their travel and accommodation? Or, should they all be allowed to stay there and live side by side with the Palestinians? Do you think most Palestinians would be happy to remain neighbours with the citizens of the country that has oppressed them so fiercely for over 75 years, even if said citizens didn’t partake in it or in fact opposed it? What about the 20% of Israeli citizens who are Arab or Palestinian? Do you hold the same opinion of foreign settlers in Israel as you do its citizens whom have made a home there for many generations? How do you discern between settlers and “real” Israelis? Do you see any difference between them at all? Why? And what should be done about Hamas, the group that openly calls for the genocide of all Jews around the world and commits war crimes against Israeli citizens? How much of the history behind Israel’s occupation of Palestine are you aware of? Do you think the British government should be held accountable for splitting Palestine in the first place? How would you go about that? Would it be fair to punish the British people for their government’s actions when British citizens didn’t vote for it? How does that compare to your view of Israel and its citizens, and why?

I am absolutely NOT asking trick questions here or trying to “gotcha!” anyone. I am asking these questions precisely BECAUSE they are extremely difficult to answer, with several of them contradicting each other, and they are meant to get an emotional reaction out of you. I certainly don’t know what the “correct” answers to most of those questions are, and that’s exactly my point: there is no simple answer to a problem that has been going on for decades with such a wide, complex history. Historians and political experts who know all the facts and have studied this shit for years don’t know the answer and it’s honestly insulting to all the people suffering to log on every day and see so many people go “actually 😌 I, a random 20-30 something year old on the internet who isn’t even touched by what’s happening in Palestine, have figured it out before everyone else! Just delete an entire country and all its citizens off the map 😊 This is a moral thing to suggest! And if you disagree with me you’re promoting Zionism/terrorism 😘” There are no simple answers and if you think there is one — and especially if you think that answer is to kick citizens out of the country their family has lived in for generations — then you are both wilfully ignorant and evidently fuelled more by hatred than an actual desire for peace and an end to death and oppression and I don’t believe there is a crumb of sincerity in your activism.

Am I naive enough to think that fighting against oppression and occupation is always going to be peaceful? Obviously not. But you’ve got to think about where and when said violence is actually going to be beneficial, and where and when it’s violence purely for the sake of violence, which is NEVER justified. You can’t advocate for human rights and then turn around and say “oh, but not for you.” EVERYONE deserves food and water. EVERYONE deserves shelter. EVERYONE deserves to receive treatment for sickness or injury. NOBODY deserves cruel and unusual punishment or torture. And EVERYONE deserves to be alive. Those are essential human rights that should never, ever be denied wherever it is possible to give them, and disagreeing with that reflects extremely poorly on you and your principles. Think about what narrative you are pushing when you claim an entire people “deserves” bad things. The constant dehumanisation I see happening in online activism (and far too often in real life too) is actually terrifying and if you want to do some real good in the world, I need everyone reading this to examine their potential internal prejudices, even the ones you don’t think you have, and think about who exactly you’re helping when you express thoughts that perpetuate them, and who you may be harming in the process.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

Here are some useful resources if you want to make a difference and help people:

Standing Together (an Israeli movement advocating for ceasefire and peace between Israelis and Palestinians)

Zochrot (an Instagram page that seeks to educate the public about the Nakba)

Parents’ Circle (an organisation run by relatives of Israelis and Palestinians killed in the conflict who advocate for peace)

Operation Olive Branch (a Google Doc of Palestinian families seeking evacuation)

Mesarvot Network (an Instagram page run by young Israelis seeking to refuse the IDF draft and end military violence committed by both Hamas and the IDF)

Other Gaza aid organisations to donate to

[jewishbarbies]

So I debated for a long time whether to send this or not bc I explicitly do not want to equate what's happening in I/P to fiction or in any way trivialize the very real people who have died

But I find it incredibly ironic (in a bad way) how the leftist circles screaming about Zionism are the same circles that are STILL openly proudly fans of tv shows/books/movies that depict war in genuinely nuanced ways. Ways that EXPLICITLY contradict the black and white narratives exploding in leftist spaces.

So like. Did y'all miss the point or do you think nuance is for fiction only? There are innocent civilians on every side in war and civilians shouldn't be blamed for the actions of their governments --but only in fiction? In the real world it's fine to celebrate civilian casualties as long as they're Israeli? Guilt by association in fiction is bad but every Jewish person should be held accountable for the Israeli military???

Like I'm intentionally not naming any fandoms bc this SHOULDN'T be about fandoms, but the hypocrisy is killing me. They claim to be fans of the "killing civilians is bad even when they're from the Bad Culture™" shows but they're out in the real world denying (or worse celebrating) Oct 7th? They love the fictional characters who say "killing civilians is bad" but can't stand Jewish people mourning the civilians in israel? What???

(again, I'm really not trying to make this extremely real problem about fiction. I just mean the complete lack of self awareness I see every day has me ready to explode. )

no, i get what you mean. i definitely think there's a link between the massive drop in critical thinking and media literacy and the fandomization of real world issues. there's some statistic that gen z is the most politically active of most previous generations and while that's inherently a good thing, they're not engaging with politics and conflicts in responsible ways. they'll do a lot of organizing for a cause here in america and get something done, and then think they can do the same thing for international plights and just end up stepping on everyone's toes, inadvertently perpetuating that america-centric attitude they claim to be against, bc they don't listen.

a lot of people these days refuse to engage with media in the way it's intended and therefore ignore or flat out miss its entire message. you'll have a movie/show/book/whatever about the nuances of war, like the hunger games (which gen z is so completely misinterpreting), and how easy it is to become the person you're fighting against if you let yourself do the things they do eye for an eye style, and they'll come away from that comparing hamas to katniss. it makes no sense within the context of the book's narrative, yet that's the conclusion they draw because they refuse to properly engage. it contradicts their second-hand anger. they're mad about their own shitty life in the states and the powerlessness we all feel here as our rights are being threatened every single day, and they'll look for somewhere else to put it all. so they butt in to situations they don't belong in and make it worse like bulls in a china closet.

bottom line is that they see what they want to see because of their lack of self reflection and self awareness, thus allowing their lack of media literacy, critical thinking, and confirmation bias run the way they think and believe. they've taken "it's fiction" to the point where none of them would pass a basic english class and now palestinians and hamas are all blorbos in The Real World Show.

[jakelopezzz]

We have been witnessing the most atrocious violations of human rights through Israel's genocidal war in Gaza. For the past the 75 years, the apartheid state's occupation of Palestinian land destroyed the lives of millions and continues to do so as it reaches its peak these past 5 months. Experts and institutions have been speaking up about the alarming neglect of humanitarian standards this war has brought up, while the world's supposed superpowers just stands complicit as they enable Israel's existence. Just this day, US President Joe Biden finally called an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after the death of 7 World Central Kitchen workers due to an Israeli airstrike. At the same time, the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. As much as the tides are turning against Netanyahu and Israel in general, these actions would have prevented the 30,000 people killed and over 1 million people displaced if its taken into action way before this war escalated. These supposed heroic narratives of the West will not change the fact that they sustained Israel's capacity to serve their interests and maintain their grip in the Middle East. Right now, as the events are getting worse and worse, we must stand and unite in solidarity, stronger THAN ever, to put an end in the 75 year colonial apartheid, that is Israel, and to dismantle the root of this imperialistic terror, that is Zionism.

Let us continue to work in all spaces of community to support not only Palestinian's struggle, but also every single nation in the world controlled and destroyed by the West, by imperialism. Fight the twisted indoctrination of hate in social media, educate as much as you can, continue to share the news that the Western mainstream news outlets purposely neglecting, boycott the brands and companies that supports the genocide in any way, and most importantly, share words of solidarity and encouragement for Palestinians, reminding them that the spirit of community is still guided by eagerness to fight for a better world for all of us.

No one will be free until all of us are free. Free Palestine.

[starlightshadowsworld]

The identity of the man leading Israeli protesters to block aid trucks coming into Gaza, has been revealed.

His name is Andy Green. He's an American and a suspect in the 1985 assassination of Palestinian-American activist, Alexander Odeh.

Subtitles aren't the best so I've transcribed the video:

[It turns out that the guy leading Israeli protesters to block humanitarian aid into Gaza is an American.

The story goes that Andy Green fled to Israel because he's suspected of murdering a major Palestinian-American figure named Alexander Odeh.

Alexander Odeh was a Palestinian activist and the West Coast regional director of the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee. He was assassinsted in a bombing in 1985.

Israeli Frey, an Israeli journalist who previously went into hiding after his house was attacked by a radical Israeli mob over his solidarity with Palestinians just exposed Andys identity.

A couple of days ago, Frey posted that one of the groups organising protesters to block humanitarian aid trucks, published an appeal for donations.

And the address in the register of associations is the same office of Andy Green. In the late 80's, Green was widely reported as a suspect in Odeh's assassination.

Instead of being held accountable, he moved to Israel, changed his name to Baroh Ben Yosef, became a lawyer and is now publically involved in Israel's thriving extremist political movements.

In fact it seems as though he's spearheading racist anti Palestinians actions as we speak. Since late January, Israeli protesters have been stopping aid trucks at the Karem Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Egypt.

As Gaza faces a famine.

A growing number of Palestinians especially children have died of starvation. ABC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub says:.

"The involvement of a suspect in the assassination of Alex Odeh in current events, particularly in actions in actions that hinder humanitarian aid, is a stark reminder of the unresolved injustices faced by the Arab American community.

We call upon the Department of Justice to intensify its investigation into Green and end the impunity that let's him continue his commitment to anti Palestinian terror."

My question is, why hasn't Biden or any other President ever extradited this suspected terrorist. If we want to get aid into Gaza, then Andy Green should be bought to justice right now.

End transcript.]

[that-rad-jewish-girl]

Do you know anything about claims that Israel just blocked the 3 biggest organizations preventing famine in Gaza—UNWRA, ANERA and World Central Kitchen? Saw a friend share it online and it seemed pretty dumb and far-fetched, but I know you’re way more versed on what’s actually going on than myself, and also know most news outlets in Canada (where I am) are bent towards Gaza/against the Jewish People

Hello! Thank you for this ask. This is a lot, so bear with me.

Israel is not “blocking” these organizations - though there was a recent incident with World Central Kitchen (WCK). Very recently a WCK aid truck was hit by a military strike which resulted in 7 deaths. Israel did take full responsibility and accountability is underway. They’ve started with the firing of several top military officials responsible for the bad call. I imagine more is to come on this - possibly legal accountability as well. WCK is an unbiased third party to this war, so this is extremely tragic for all involved. They work to provide food for individuals affected by any type of conflict or disaster - they do amazing work.

UNWRA and ANERA are a separate story. To be clear, Israel is still not “blocking” these two organizations. Though Israel has stopped funding both organizations.

ANERA has been under scrutiny multiple times in the past for misusage of donation funds. They essentially gave a lot of money to Hamas and used their charity donations to help build terrorist centers in Gaza. They’ve admitted to donating funds to the Gazan fund for martyrs and their families (i.e. terrorists who attempted to kill or did kill Israelis). ANERA has also made several claims that Israel is responsible for ALL of the humanitarian suffering in the region. Even during the second intifada, ANERA was refusing to admit Palestinian involvement in terrorism and was actively funding terrorism. The second intifada saw parents strapping bombs to their children, sending them into Israel, and blowing up random civilian areas. The borders between Israel and Gaza were not anything like today before the second intifada. This is largely why people say if Palestinians cared about their children more than they care about killing Jews, the wars would end.

UNWRA has been repeatedly exposed for helping terrorism in the region. It is run by Hamas. Their schools openly teach children to become “martyrs for the cause”, and you can see videos of UNWRA school teachers chanting with their students “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be Arab”. Many of the hostages released and/or rescued from Gaza have said they were transported and held hostage by UNWRA associates. Several UNWRA teachers were seen in videos participating in Oct. 7th. After Oct. 7th, the UNWRA schools announced a day off to honor martyrs. Several UNWRA staffers posted on their socials about honoring the terrorists, celebrating the “great October massacre”, and Allah being great for allowing the massacre to happen.

Since you are from Canada, I’ll add in here that there are several Canadians families suing your government right now over the funding of UNRWA. Although Canada suspended their funding for UNWRA after their involvement in the 7th came out, they have recently resumed it. Several Canadian families of Canadian hostages held in Gaza still have come together to sue the Canadian government for funding terrorism. Funding the same orgs that participated in the murder, kidnapping, and rape of Canadians, as well as several other nationalities.

[art-the-f-up]

If I came across as snippy or trying to start something, I apologize, I'm barely holding myself together right now. I just saw some of the comments people have made about the situation on your Palestine AU and got frustrated. I want to be sure people have the whole picture, but whenever I try, people shut me down without really listening and blocking me. A guy got my original account deleted for "hate speech" when I posted my story just because they didn't like what I said. That's why I'm staying anon.

The truth is, I have someone over there who's being held in the middle of it all. She went on a school trip a few months ago and was reported missing. My family panicked not knowing what happened, and then a few weeks later all hell broke loose with this war.

My family was furious with Israel, and jumped to the conclusion it was like Russia & Ukraine, but later found out they were trying to take out Hamas, who had taken her and some of her classmates hostage.

No one knows what it's like to have someone over there, and no one seems to try to understand or even care. In their minds, Israel is the big bully and Palestine is the sole victim, but things aren't that black and white. Hell, Israel negotiating for hostage releases is the only reason a couple of her classmates have come home.

Meanwhile, everyone online seems to keep preaching about how Palestine must be free and how they need to stop supporting this war while offering no real alternatives to stopping Hamas, even going so far as to say they are a bunch of freedom fighters who need the support. Sometimes the only options you have are bad ones... But you still have to choose...

I'm not saying what's happening to the innocent people in Palestine isn't a tragedy, or trying to just brush it off, but men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with. I wouldn't wish this on anyone; knowing those monsters have her is a living hell, and not a day goes by that we don't hope and pray that they'll be stopped, just so my sister can come home.

Sorry for rambling, I just really needed that release. I've said my peace, I promise I won't bother you about it again.

Hey, I completely understand your situation. But we have to admit this is a sensitive topic for many. NOT forbidden, just sensitive. You can expect me to listen to what you have to say and even understand your perspective, but you won't find many people like that when it comes to this topic and that is just what the internet is like. Just because I am understanding you doesn't mean other people are, and they each have their own right to being exhausted with justifications of crimes on any side. If there's anything I've learned it's that pointing fingers in an argument is not going to get anyone anywhere. I am someone who has been trying to hear out both israelis and Palestinians because like anyone else, after oct 7 I wanted to get the whole picture, as you say.

But your entire discussion started with being biased instead of trying to show the whole situation. You started with saying "israel is not the bad guy" but also said "Hamas is a terrorist organization" and I want you to really look at the use of words if you want people to see the "entire picture". Otherwise you ARE going to get shut down. The entire point of starting an argument online is that you first have to claim you've tried to study the complexity thoroughly. Chalking it up to Hamas being a terrorist organization and justifying a genocide is not going to cut that.

I am completely against trying to shut down someone's grief no matter how big or small it is. Everything comes down to the fact that we are all human, we all have feelings and every life matters. I can only send my condolences to the family that's going through this first hand. First of all, if you are actually someone who has been so closely impacted by this, trying to show the 'bigger picture' on the other accounts instead of your own is ALREADY a pretty dangerous thing for you to do, let alone to the art account of a local tribal artist in the north of some little country.

Now I really want you to evaluate your situation. Your family is tensed, is grieving, they are beside themselves with worry. Just thinking about it makes me sad and I sincerely hope that everything safely gets resolved for you and hopefully everyone is safe. But can you seriously say that as soon as your family found out "oh, Israel is just trying to eradicate a terrorist organization by blowing up the very place where the hostages could potentially be" they were…. okay with it?

I understand what it's like. I understand and I care. I grew UP on the stories of people going missing, people being blown up, people getting martyred in Palestine. Trust me I understand what you are going through.

I will never try to justify what happened to civilians on oct 7. it is horrible. What happened on oct 7 and what has been happening in Palestine for years makes no one but the innocent suffer at the hands of evil powers. But you cannot, with all due respect, try to say you're showing a 'bigger picture' when you clearly failed to mention the entire history.

Everyone living in Israel knows they are, first and foremost, living in an apartheid state. It is not that difficult for anyone mature enough to see the situation around them and look up and research to come to that conclusion. And many Israelis have. And many have left. Because they knew what living being such a place will entail for them.

And keep in mind I am also NOT in support of trying to make any Israelis leave, who have documented proof of any of their ancestors being from that land and/or don't have second citizenship somewhere else in the world. I hold them to the same level of rights as I do Palestinians.

I don't need to get into overcomplicated finger-pointing and yelling. You can look up Israeli soldiers shooting their own hostages in Gaza despite them shouting in Hebrew and holding up white flags. And the army only apologized because they were identified as Israeli citizens. How does that differentiate the Israeli army from Hamas? I don't need to pull up multiple sources or proof provided by the Israelis themselves. They are already everywhere. What I've heard and what I've seen from October seven, I'm seeing more and more of it being done by the Israeli Army. So we need to be really careful trying to call one side a terrorist, because that will automatically mean calling the other side the same. Which is true. In terms of definitions, what's happening in Gaza is blatant terrorism.

If Palestine was an apartheid state, you would see me speaking out against them. If Palestine was a colonizer apartheid and the people stood up to fight back against a powerful army with resources far more than that of them, you would see me calling them freedom fighters, not terrorists. Because I did happen to read a little bit about the international laws. I do happen to be from a family with a history of armed freedom fighters.

So yes, I am incredibly sorry that this is impacting you mentally, I hope you and you family stays safe and united, but if the impact is making you say biased things, it's better to go offline, take a break from social media, and spend this time trying to pray for your family and spending time with them.

[plethoraworldatlas]

Do you remember President Biden's swift and strong response when pro-Israel extremists reportedly blasted the chemical weapon "skunk spray" on students peacefully protesting at Columbia University earlier this year? Do you remember how the White House condemned the attack, demanded accountability, and called on the school to protect students from such hate?

No? You don't remember? Of course you don't. Because none of it happened. President Biden didn't respond swiftly or strongly to the skunk spray attack. He didn't respond at all.

How about President Biden's response when a Texas man hurled racist slurs at a group of Palestinian Americans after a ceasefire protest at the University of Texas in Austin, ripped a Palestinian flagpole off their car, dragged one of them out of the backseat, and stabbed him?

Then again, the White House said nothing—even after our civil rights and advocacy organization directly alerted the White House about the incident.

The Biden administration's silence is nothing new.

On Stanford University’s campus, a driver yelling"F—k you and your people" reportedly used his car to ram an Arab Muslim student attending a ceasefire protest, sending him to the hospital. No response from the White House.

At the University of Texas, pro-Israel extremists disrupted a Palestine Solidarity Committee meeting and hurled profanities at the attendees. No response.

In Arizona, Texas, Georgia, New York and other states, law enforcement agencies have brutalized students and even professors who attended peaceful protests against the genocide in Gaza. Again, no response.

Now contrast the White House's lack of response to violent actions motivated by anti-Palestinian hate with the White House's vocal response to inflammatory words that a small number of individuals have allegedly made at or near pro-ceasefire protests on college campuses.

“I condemn the antisemitic protests, that’s why I set up a program to deal with that,” the president said, broadly mischaracterizing the sit-ins led mostly by Jewish and Palestinian students.

In a statementmarking Passover, Biden said, “Even in recent days, we’ve seen harassment and calls for violence against Jews. This blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous – and it has absolutely no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country.”

Just this week, the White House condemned protesters at Columbia for taking over Hamilton Hall—something students protesting the Vietnam War did, which the school now celebrates on its website—and curiously declared the use of a banner with the Arabic word "intifada" hate speech.

At the same time, the White House conveniently ignored the fact that most prominent banner displayed was "Hind's Hall," named after the 6-year-old girl murdered by Israeli forces while waiting for medics—also murdered—to save her.

Hypocrisy does not begin to describe the White House's inconsistency, which extends well beyond college campuses.

Last fall, the White House rushed to falsely claim that ceasefire protesters in Philadelphia were antisemitic for demonstrating outside a kosher restaurant—the protesters actually targeted the business because it held a fundraiser benefiting the IDF.

But the White House said nothing when protesters at November's March for Israel chanted genocidal slogans. On the contrary, a prominent Biden administration official spoke at the march, sharing the stage with notoriously anti-Muslim and antisemitic pastor John Hagee.

While the administration is quick to condemn any allegation of antisemitism at protests, whether verified or manufactured, the administration has repeatedly failed to condemn verified incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on college campuses (not to mention the antisemitism that pro-Israel extremists have directed at Jewish students advocating for a ceasefire, such as calling them "kapos.")

...

By instead validating slanders against pro-Palestinian protesters and downplaying anti-Palestinian racism on college campuses, the Biden administration has sent a signal that the hurt feelings of pro-war students who cannot tolerate hearing any criticism of the Israeli government are more worthy of attention than the violated rights and injured bodies of anti-war students.

The administration also gave law enforcement agencies and pro-Israel mobs cover to escalate their targeting of students, leading to horrific attacks on students at the University of California Los Angeles.

This inconsistency—this utter hypocrisy—must end. If President Biden is going to comment on every controversy that erupts at a protest or on a college campus, he must do so with moral consistency. He can start by condemning the ongoing efforts to defame and brutalize anti-genocide students before we see more attacks on protesters or, God forbid, a repeat of the Kent State massacre.

Just like during Vietnam, a young generation of students is on the right side of history. It's long past time for President Biden to join them.