#hands off unrwa

[rhymeswithfart]

I hope this picture doesn't seem flippant or unserious, I'm just trying to catch as much attention for this as I can.

The Israeli Knesset is planning to ban UNRWA by the end of January. UNRWA, or the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is an irreplaceable lifeline for Palestinians during this genocide. Banning it would be devastating and deadly. Please look at the link for more information, actions, and a toolkit.

[xanthickee]

It's NOT MET GALA

It's ALL EYES ON RAFAH

🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑🛑

[its-zaina]

⚠️⚠️❗:

After the children, their mothers, and their fathers slept hungry in the Abdel Fattah Hammoud School in Gaza City, and the Asmaa School in Al-Shati Camp, they woke up surrounded by flames of fire that devoured their bodies, after the Israeli occupation army targeted the two schools that housed dozens of displaced people, which led to the kill of about 16 martyrs and the injury of dozens.

|

[usergrantaire]

i don’t know how to explain to americans that they should also care about foreign policy

[papasmoke]

September 20, 2024

October 1, 2024

You'll probably need a vpn to visit this page, the text of it reads:

In its sitting on Monday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in first reading the Bill for Cutting Off the State of Israel's Relations with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Declaring it a Terrorist Organization, 2024, sponsored by MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beitenu) and a group of MKs. In the vote, 50 Members of Knesset supported the bill, versus 10 who opposed it, and the bill will be returned to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for deliberation.

It is proposed to declare the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as a terrorist organization. It is further proposed that the State of Israel sever its relations with UNRWA, both directly and indirectly.

MK Malinovsky, the bill's sponsor: "We have to perform a surgical [cut] here and end the event. We are on the UN's blacklist in any case. All the excessive morality ended on October 7. UNRWA is a terrorist organization, and not only in Jerusalem. It is afifth-column within the State of Israel. And not just municipal property tax benefits-everything should be revoked from them. The fact that this hasn't happened until now, for seven months--is a disgrace. What is happening today is a badge of honor for the Knesset and for the Members of Knesset. The fact that we succeeded in joining hands, coalition and opposition--that is a very important statement for the Government. We did a wonderful job together with all the partners to these bills."

The explanatory notes to the bill state: "In the months after the outbreak of the Swords of Iron war, investigative reports were revealed regarding the involvement of the workers of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip in the murderous terrorist offensive that began on October 7, 2023, such as participation in acts of murder and massacre, kidnapping Israeli citizens to the Gaza Strip and providing vehicles and equipment for the purpose of the offensive. Reports were also published regarding the membership of these workers in the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations,

"The above attests to the close relationship that exists between UNRWA and terrorist activity for all intents and purposes, in a manner that is no different from the activity of organizations that have been declared as terrorist organizations by law. Therefore, it is proposed to declare that UNRWA is a terrorist organization as defined in the Counter-Terrorism Law, 2016."

October 7, 2024

October 8, 2024

In that same spirit, we are following with deep concern the Israeli legislative proposal that could alter UNRWA’s legal status, hindering its ability to communicate with Israeli officials, and removing privileges and immunities afforded to UN organizations and personnel around the globe. This legislative proposal reflects the significant distrust between Israel and UNRWA.

Israel has alleged – and the UN, in some cases, has confirmed – that a small percentage of UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups. Israel has also conveyed concerns about Hamas misusing UNRWA facilities and the United States shares these concerns.

At the same time, we know that UN personnel, including from UNRWA, are vital to the humanitarian response in Gaza and face tremendous danger while performing their work.

And so, Israel needs to provide UNRWA additional information regarding these allegations, and UNRWA needs to have in place a process to address these concerns seriously and urgently, and make faster progress on the much-needed reforms outlined in the Colonna report.

Simply put: It is in no one’s interest for the neutrality of UNRWA’s personnel to remain in doubt.

October 9, 2024

October 14, 2024

The bare minimum required from the US to curtail further Israeli atrocities would be the cessation or curtailing of munitions, logistical support, diplomatic cover, and US military presence in defense of Israel. None of these actions are on the table according to Biden, Harris, or Trump. Israel is creating a legal framework to justify the systemic targeting of UNRWA aid workers and facilities, a practice which the US has made it clear it will defend through inaction, if not active participation. It will issue hollow condemnations and statements of concern, urge Israel to investigate, then move on, pretending like nothing happened.

[centrally-unplanned]

The trick on the whole "Israel banning UNRWA" thing is that most militaries - like say the US in Afghanistan for example - directly provision aid. American soldiers would often be handing out food packages themselves, and even if they weren't the aid organizations would be directly contracting with the US government and the Department of Defense. You have a group in the military and the government that is like, okay, how do we feed people, let's hit those targets.

So if Congress decided to ban the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in 2006 from operating in the country or whatever, that bill would say like "we hand over its mission to USAID, which has been allocated $2.1 billion dollars in FY-2005 to do X Y Z". It would probably be a dumb move that would create unnecessary friction and cost lives for political bullshit, but that is also life, people dying for political bullshit is a universal constant. It would probably be pretty small bore in the scale of things, like switching over contractors.

That isn't how Israel does things. I might be wrong about this, Israel is deliberately opaque about these things and I just gave this the ol' half hour of googling, I am open to being contradicted here. But my current understanding of net spending by the government of Israel itself on aid to Gaza is...$0. They do not provide aid. They permit aid from other organizations, funded by other countries, to be provided! But they don't take responsibility for the provision; meeting targets, outcomes, etc, none of that is their job. (I am sure it isn't literally zero btw, but I think you get my point)

It is really telling that when you look up pro-Israel statements by say AIPAC on aid, their headlines are:

Israel Facilitates Humanitarian Aid to Gaza as Hamas Continues to Attack

And they criticize the UN because the UN trucks aren't being delivered:

The United Nations and other international agencies are largely responsible for the existing delays in aid deliveries into Gaza. The U.N. has not been able to distribute aid at the rate that Israel is processing it, causing back-ups at the border crossings after Israeli inspections are completed. On March 3, the U.N. received 234 trucks in Gaza but only distributed 131 trucks of aid to civilians in the enclave.

If this was the US military, and the UN was getting aid trucks and failing to send them, we would send more of our own trucks? That we have? Because aid is part of the military operation. But Israel doesn't do that - because it doesn't have any trucks. Because aid isn't part of the military operation.

Which is why the bill banning UNRWA that is being passed does not mention aid provision to Gaza:

The international community has raised alarm over the legislation, which was passed without a plan in place for a humanitarian agency to replace UNRWA.

Again going off news sources here, link for the actual bill is currently down, if I am wrong will correct here, but I think it all tracks. So in the article above, you get statements from the government when people ask about aid, they reply, oh yeah these other aid organizations will fill the gap.

Then you ask the aid organizations themselves and they go, no, we won't fill the gap! We don't have the resources to do that! Which is logical when you realize Israel isn't funding those orgs. They don't know or care about their funding status. Hopefully someone else will figure that out - aid is someone else's problem. Those government remarks are just off the cuff, they aren't a plan.

Which I want to loop back around to the casus belli for the ban - UNRWA having ties to Hamas. That, to me, is one of those "uh duh, and?" things - Hamas is the government of Gaza. UNRWA runs schools there? And medical clinics? You think they do that...without contact with the government? This is just silly, the UN Mission in Afghanistan obviously had connections to the US Government! Government officials, working in both, par for the course.

But, and this is far more important, it is irrelevant. I completely agree that UNRWA has many people who are sympathetic to Hamas in it, because obviously they do. You want to ban it, dumb but okay. You propose a bill outlining the $2 billion dollars and the 5 partnered aid organizations and the 400 IDF trucks that will deliver aid to replace their work, sure. Whatever man, do your small bore politics bullshit.

That is not what they are doing.

Now, Israel has in fact allowed a bunch of aid in Gaza, I don't doubt that like USAID and the non-profit community and the governments of the UK and Japan and so on are gonna pivot funding to a bunch of organizations that will do herculean work stepping up operations and interfacing with the IDF checkpoint system and get aid in. Maybe they will do such a bang-up job that the cost in suffering won't be that high. Israel did give 3 months after all, they aren't the literal worst they could be.

But I do think at a certain point, the line between indifference and malice just ceases to matter. The UNRWA bill isn't some breaking point or big policy shift - it is just a highly revealing moment in the Israeli approach, why the war there has gone the way that it has. And it is, as the kids say, not a good look.

(h/t @loving-n0t-heyting as this was initially a reblog of their post, but they mentioned getting drama in the notes so I split it off; sorry to deny you the precious +1 internet point)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Aya: My name is Aya Ahmed Abdullah Sa'id al-Banna. I study at [UNRWA's] Tulkarm Camp Girls' School.

Interviewer: Did you learn anything in school about the Right of Return?

Aya: Yes. The right of the brave, and we'll return to our land, stuff like that.

Interviewer: What do they teach you about Israel?

Aya: That we'll... That we'll shoot them

Interviewer: Do you hate the Jews?

Aya: Yes, a lot.

Interviewer: Why?

Aya: Because they're our enemies and we'll take back our right from them.

Interviewer: What do you think about the attack on Israel on October 7th and the war that happened after it? Is this connected to the Right of Return?

Aya: Yes. So that we can take Palestine, and so that our land returns to us.

Interviewer: Do you think Al-Aqsa is just symbolic?

Aya: No, I'm willing to fight for it.

Interviewer: Is there room for the Jews in Al-Aqsa?

Aya: No.

Interviewer: Do the Jews have the right to exist here in Palestine?

Aya: No. Because Palestine is ours, not theirs.

Interviewer: Is it possible to divide Palestine between the Jews and the Palestinians?

Aya: No. This is our land.

Interviewer: What do you like to watch the most on your phone?

Aya: I like to watch things about Palestine, the martyrs, the resistance fighters and Hamas.

Interviewer: So, would you want to join the resistance?

Aya: Yes.

Interviewer: Why?

Aya: So that I can fight, and take my rights from Israel and become a martyr.

Interviewer: What do you learn in school about peace?

Aya: It teaches me... that we don't like Israel.

Interviewer: Are the martyrs heroes?

Aya: Yes, they're big heroes.

Interviewer: Do you want to become a martyr?

Aya: Yes.

Interviewer: Why?

Aya: So that we can rise up to Allah.

==

UNRWA is just a front for Hamas.

Reminder that Al-Aqsa resides on the Temple Mount, and the existence of both the First and Second Temples at that location is well-established. Yes, the bible is fictional, but so is Spider-Man and we don't have to assume that New York is fictional too, because fiction can be set in real locations. And we don't have to blindly trust the fables of the bible when there is archaeological evidence.

No matter how much bogus postmodern academic gibberish Hamas supporters throw around, this is about Islamic hate for Jews. And always was.

"You should attack every Jew possible in all the world and kill them." -- Fathi Hamad, Hamas Interior Minister

"People of Jerusalem. We want you to cut off the heads of the Jews with knives. With your hand, cut their artery from here. A knife costs five shekels. Buy a knife, sharpen it, put it there, and just cut off [their heads]. It costs just five shekels." -- Fathi Hamad, Hamas Interior Minister

"... the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: 'The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'" -- Hamas Charter, 1988

[phoenixyfriend]

The Shift in America's Support of Israel as of 3/25/24

Okay, so there have been three specific incidents recently that I'd like to cover for you guys.

Chuck Schumer's speech calling for a new election in Israel, which I have spoken about here and here. (3/14/24)

Congress voting to ban UNRWA funding until 2025, which I've seen a lot of people talking about, but often without an actual understanding of what the situation actually is. (It's bad, but it's not the same type of bad as people think.) (3/24/24)

The US abstaining from a UN Security Council vote, which is effectively voting against Israel when they have thus far been the only ones to use veto power in this manner. (3/25/24)

I'm not going to go into detail about Schumer, since I've already covered it. tldr: it's a very specifically worded speech that does not explicitly threaten Israel, but if you do even the slightest bit of reading between the lines, that is absolutely what is happening.

Also, before I move forward: the US may not be donating to UNRWA for the rest of the fiscal year, but you can. They have direct donation links.

UNRWA funding has been on hold for a while, but this is... complicated. Not morally, because UNRWA does need funding and to defund it is truly unconscionable, but many of the "Biden signed it into law" posts are approaching it with this implied message that UNRWA would have funding if not for Biden signing it.

Except that isn't really how the US government works. Especially this government.

Funding for 2024 was supposed to be passed months ago. We are on the verge of another government shutdown. UNRWA funding is not on the table until the House swings blue. I hate to be the one to say this, but it's... like, it's not something I can change alone. I know you're tired of hearing it, but voting in November is the key to fixing a whole lot of problems.

One of the core duties of Congress is passing budgets. For those budgets to pass, they need to be approved by the House (Republican Majority), the Senate (Democrat Majority), and the President. The reason it has taken five months to pass a yearly budget (the deadline iirc was September or October) is because anything approved by one chamber is shot down by the other.

UNRWA's de-funding is tied to Ukraine funding (and a few other things). Biden refusing to sign would not have brought back UNRWA funding. The funding is already on hold. We do not have the votes to bring it back. We just straight up do not have enough seats in the House to make that happen. Biden refusing to sign would have resulted in both UNRWA and Ukraine not having funding, indefinitely. Signing it resulted in one of the two getting funding.

This is not a situation where funding was approved and now cut. This is not a situation where money was already flowing to UNRWA. This is a situation where money wasn't going anywhere, because Congress is a split shitshow.

Think of it like this: Funding is water coming from a spigot. Congress can turn it on or off, and it's currently off. Biden can smack away the hand coming to twist the valve, but he can't touch the valve himself. That's what the presidential veto is. Unfortunately, the spigot is already off, and Biden can't twist it back on when Congress isn't already reaching to do so.

Is this bad? Yes! UNRWA's funding should never have been cut! We should still be very, very upset about this! But I need you to understand that the way the US government works is not a dictatorship. Biden cannot just overrule Congress, especially when we're on the verge of another shutdown.

I do not think it is fair or even really acceptable that UNRWA's funding was viewed as an appropriate point of compromise. I'm just, unfortunately, also aware that this particular legislation is a tug-of-war that was never going to end with funding going to Palestine, not with the current Republican control of the House.

"But Biden sent money to Israel a bunch of times--" Yeah, and he's paying for it in the polls. He's aware that people are pissed at him. That choice is already biting him in the ass.

Biden is not perfect and I am never going to claim he is, but please recognize that the UNRWA funding pull is not a current action. It is a past action that is now being sustained because the House is red. You want to bring back UNRWA funding? Get rid of Marjorie Taylor Green and her entire cohort.

The other reason I'm less than eager to view that UNRWA thing as Biden being pro-Israel is because the US has finally abstained on a UN vote instead of vetoing.

When the US has been the only voice on Israel's side in the Security Council this whole time, abstention is functionally voting against them. We already knew that 13-14 of the other 14 members were going to vote pro-ceasefire. They have been this entire time. The US abstaining is functionally agreeing.

Why did the US not just vote for the ceasefire, then? No idea. Might be a treaty thing. I don't really need to know, because the result is that the UN Security Council has finally passed a measure against Israel, and those things are legally binding, and we know it's a big step because Israel's government is not happy.

When paired with the Schumer speech from a week and a half ago, it indicates a major shift in US foreign policy.

From the Al Jazeera article:

The US had repeatedly blocked Security Council resolutions that put pressure on Israel but has increasingly shown frustration with its ally as civilian casualties mount and the UN warns of impending famine in Gaza. Speaking after the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield blamed Hamas for the delay in passing a ceasefire resolution. “We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” which she said was the reason why the US abstained. “Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas,” Thomas-Greenfield said. [...] The White House said the final resolution did not have language the US considers essential and its abstention does not represent a shift in policy. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the US failure to veto the resolution is a “clear retreat” from its previous position and would hurt war efforts against Hamas as well as efforts to release Israeli captives held in Gaza.

This action has also resulted in Israel pulling plans for "a high-level delegation" to visit the US for discussions on the invasion of Rafah (which Biden has purportedly been warning against for a while).

“We’re very disappointed that they won’t be coming to Washington, DC, to allow us to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to them going in on the ground in Rafah,” [John] Kirby told reporters. [...] Last week, Netanyahu promised to defy US appeals and expand Israel’s military campaign to Rafah even without its ally’s support.

There are other complications and details here, such as that the resolution does not call for a permanent ceasefire, and that US tensions with Russia and China are still somehow playing a role in the negotiations over the ceasefire text, but ultimately...

The US abstaining is a good thing. Schumer's speech is a good thing. They are not enough, but they are good things. They are steps forward.

The pull of funding from UNRWA is not a good thing. It is, in fact, a very, very bad thing. It just also looks a lot like it was unavoidable.

So call your reps, and vote come November. It's a long slog and we all know it, but we can't make change without dedication.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

[i-am-aprl]

So the US can instantly cut off funds for UNRWA’s life-saving work in Gaza based on unproven allegations against a tiny handful of its employees but won’t stop arming and funding an Israeli military that the highest court in the world says is possibly committing genocide. There are 13,000 Palestinians working for UNRWA. There are allegations against 12 staff members - or 0.092% - and that’s what they are, allegations based on Israeli “interrogations” of prisoners. This logic would mean cutting off funding to every single agency on earth.

[pregnantseinfeld]

While the relevance of this topic may change rapidly as we desperately wait for ceasefire news, I did want to talk a bit more about the lack of aid getting into Gaza. From the outside this has affected questions of when and where our political organizations should send funds, and now I've got to heard first-hand from those in Gaza how rare it is to see any aid.

While numbers have fluctuated, the reporting seems consistent that aid the zionist entity allowed in went from little to next to nothing in the second year of this genocide. (x, x) And consider this is after the US and other countries abandoned UNRWA on flimsy pretext.

You've all likely already heard about the IOF attacks on aid warehouse and aid convoys. Last time I mentioned this I brought up this story about IOF ignoring a robbery of an aid convoy. With this section being of great interest to me-

The Washington Post said it had obtained an internal UN memo from October that said the gangs in Gaza “may be benefitting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli army. One gang leader, the memo said, had established a “military-like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF (Israeli army)”. Earlier this month, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on armed Palestinian gangs routinely raiding aid convoys entering through Karem Abu Salem, an area ostensibly under the control of the Israeli army.

When I first heard 'looters' I had imagined desperate individuals, like we see in natural disasters, but there's no shortage of sources you can find pointing to organized crime- that's not only being ignored but assisted by those facilitating this genocide, laid out in more pointed articles on that connection. But to go further down that rabbit hole would likely be off topic.

There's info on this I recall others posting in the last couple months that I'm sure I'm forgetting... so please feel free to add more context.

I hope this makes it a little clearer why there's an abundance of fundraising for families and community kitchens on here. Many avenues that are more traditional have collapsed!

[dyinginfandom]

Been trying to put my frustration with what Israel is doing in Gaza into words for months. But I’m done with the bullshit from Zionists and their supporters

My grandfather was Hungarian and as part of a non political paramilitary youth organisation likely had to have a hand in the war I know this from his POW papers from 1945 in an American pow camp in Germany . He would later flee the soviets in Hungary after taking part in their attempted revolution. He abandoned his family; a wife and son and we don’t know what their fates were. He first went to Austria then to Turkey then the uk where he met my gran and they married in 1963 and moved away from her entire support system to a city with many Hungarian refugees like him working in cutlery works and steel factories. He’d never talk of the war or of his first family past them existing, his siblings families don’t know their fates other and with no one from his generation left we can only guess. He was an awful man who died an awful death alone because of his own actions.

I use this to preface what I’m about to say

He was forced to take part in a genocide and support it, I’m watching my government do that now, watching as universities label anti Zionism as antisemitism while my uni hosts one of the Brits who went over and fought for the IDF and was allowed to return while a girl who joined isis almost a decade ago just lost her appeal for her citizenship back. Both went over to partake in a foreign war and commit acts of terror, one is stateless and the other is allowed to walk around with no consequences. We aren’t allowed to protest on campus so the Palestine society held one off campus to try and stop him from visiting.

The university of east anglia has labelled these two quotes graffitied on campus as antisemitic and the BBC is reporting on this as such, antisemitism. They are anti Zionist. ‘Judaism opposes Zionism’ and ‘Zionism = colonialism’.

Aaron Bushnell an active duty US service man set himself on fire in protest of the war on Gaza.

Brazil’s president spoke out against the Zionism and Israel decided to have a word with the Brazilian ambassador but knowing what was coming Brazil recalled him

China has called out that Hamas should not be labelled as terrorist under international law as it is armed resistance.

Countries have cut funding to the UNRWA a relief group that exists because Israel refuses to call the Palestinians refugees or allow their return to their ancestral homes once it has stolen it

Israel is knowingly committing a genocide and has said it won’t listen to the ICJ

They are killing their own hostages that are being held by Palestine then cheering when 2 are saved while others lay dead murdered by their own hands.

They are executing young children in front of their parents who are then carrying them to hospital to hope for salvation.

They’re stealing belongings from walking canes to underwear from those they’ve killed or displaced to humiliate them for owning normal things.

They killed the Family of a six year old girl, Hind, while she was in the car with them then when the Red Crescent ambulance arrived which they allowed in they bombed it and killed her and the two paramedics, Ahmed and Yousef, who were there to save her.

During the Super Bowl they displayed propaganda while they bombed Rafah, the safe Zone they had told people to go to. There was a little girl, Sidra, hanging from a window!

They are targeting journalists and their families. Wael’s family was killed while he worked and he was reported, he was attacked with his camera man who was killed and he reported on it. Over 25 journalists killed

They have attacked every place where documents can be found to destroy them, mosques, churches, government buildings, universities, everything gone.

Egypt is building a buffer zone in the desert, Bissan a brave young journalist has talked of her fear of this desert buffer zone killing them

Canada has removed Palestine as a country of birth on passports

ITV filmed as a man with a white flag they had just interviewed and was walking way as he was murdered by a sniper

In the West Bank IDF shot a teenager at a family bbq then prevented his family getting him to an ambulance

Also in West Bank IDF dressed up as civilians walked into a hospital and assassinated a man incapacitated in a hospital bed and those at his bedside

THEY HAVE LABELLED ALL PALESTINIANS AS TERRORISTS!

Heck they’re allowed to stay in Eurovision, ‘October rain’ in name alone has political connotations meanwhile Russia and Belarus are banned and the Palestine flag has been banned - Iceland was fined the other year for a free Palestine banner.

This occupation, this genocide has been happening for over 75 years since the creation of Israel in the aftermath of ww2 but their want for this land goes back further. When Zionism was founded in the late 1800s they chose Palestine, a peaceful place where the abrahamic religions lived in peace, to be their land and no one else’s (did we not learn from the crusades?) in 1903 they got the support of the British govement then ww2 and the Holocaust happened and Britain ‘owning’ Palestine gave them what they wanted, Palestinians who had not been consulted or considered in this who’s homes were stolen fought against it and you get the war of 1948 where this kicks off.

When you look at their defenses for this we have ‘self defence for October 7th’ that isn’t an excuse for genocide and reminds me of Germany faking a polish invasion to invade them and kick off ww2. ‘They have hostages’ so do you and you’ve refused to exchange hostages for a ceasefire heck you’ve killed your own hostages in Gaza. ‘Palestine started it’ see my very very cut down explanation of the history.

Then there’s the classic ‘we can’t be committing a holocaust cos that happened to us’ see the cycle of abuse, the number of Holocaust survivors in poverty in Israel, and the other victims of the Holocaust cos everyone focuses just on the Jewish casualties of the Holocaust that 6 million number cos they’re the biggest proportion but there were 5 million other victims, political enemies of the reich, disabled people, lgbt, poc, Romani, Soviet pows, by making the Holocaust just a Jewish genocide in discussion you erase the rest of that genocide.

I put on les mis for a fanfic I’m writing and all I can think about instead of what I’m writing is what Palestine was and how we treat Palestine today.

I was labelled a nazi for my heritage growing up, just like Israel is calling Palestinian children Hamas. Only difference is that Hamas is closer to those of the Warsaw Getto or the French resistance than the Nazis. Because Israel’s laws against Palestine are extremely close to the Nazi laws against the Jews.

End Zionism on Israel and return Palestine to the Palestinians

FREE PALESTINE

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸⚔️🇮🇱 🚨

ISRAELI OCCUPATION ARMY CLAIMS TO HAVE FOUND "SECRET HAMAS DATA CENTER" UNDER UNRWA HEADQUARTERS

The Zionist media is reporting the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) claim to have discovered a "subterranean data center" conveniently located under UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City.

According to the claims, made by the Israeli military, soldiers found a "subterranean data center" in a tunnel network under UNRWA headquarters, "complete with an electrical room, industrial battery power banks and living quarters for Hamas" fighters supposedly operating the equipment.

The timing of the report draws questions over the recent accusations made by the Israeli entity's officials that UNRWA had a handful of employees, out of thousands in Gaza, who the officials claim participated directly or indirectly in the events of October 7th, 2023.

That accusation came directly on the heels of the ruling made by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), finding that enough evidence has been presented by South Africa to proceed with an investigation into acts of genocide by Israel in Gaza.

The ICJ went further, ordering Israel to cease and disist from performing any acts of genocide, and ordered Israel to implement effective protections for Palestinian civilians as it proceeds with its war in the Gaza Strip, and report back to the court in a few months with evidence of the implementation of such protections.

Now the timing of accusations against UNRWA suggests the Israeli authorities want to change the conversation and control the narrative around its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, even as they push allied governments throughout Europe, in addition to the United States, into cutting off funding to the humanitarian organization.

Several humanitarian organizations, in addition to the United Nations itself, have warned that the cessation of international funding to UNRWA spells a death sentence for Palestinian civilians who depend nearly entirely on UNRWA housing, food and medical aid, schools and other humanitarian assistance for their survival.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[set-phasers-to-whump]

(not) a sweeping success

prompt: unconventional weapon

whumpee: river cartwright

fandom: slough house/slow horses

hi all and welcome to my first (and certainly not last) fic for these books/show. i saw the prompt and was immediately like 'oh that's perfect for river' lmao. hope you like!

River tears through the empty building, searching desperately for anything he can use to either hide or defend himself. The maniac with the knife follows close behind, and he’s keenly aware of how quickly he needs to find something. 

He rounds a corner and there—a door. He flings it open, jumps inside, pulls it shut behind him. 

It’s a supply closet. Fucking hell. 

It’s mostly empty, too, save for a broom and dustpan and assorted dusty cleaning supplies. 

For lack of a better option, he grabs the broom, and then leans against the door to keep it closed as the madman with the knife pounds on it.  There is no lock and nothing to barricade himself with. A quick look around reveals no vents or windows or anything with which he might make an escape. 

His choices are thus: wait for the psycho with the knife to break the door down, or open the door himself and go on the attack. 

With his broom. 

Jesus. 

He grips the handle tightly, then spins around and wrenches the door open. 

The other man falls forwards for a second, then lashes out with the knife. 

River smacks him with the broom. This stops the knife’s movement but accomplishes little else. The madman laughs. 

River charges at him, out of the little closet, swinging the broom wildly in the hopes of keeping some distance between them. 

Except his opponent is not terribly put off by the broom. He ducks it, lets it hit him, all the while inching closer, knife at the ready. 

He lunges out and catches River on the back of the hand. It stings. His grip on the broom falters, but he forces his hand to continue cooperating. 

He swings the broom again, and the movement makes the gash on his hand tear. Blood flows down towards his wrist, soaking his sleeve. 

Another attack with the knife, parried by the broom. A grazing of sharp metal against his cheek. A solid smack when the wooden handle connects with a shoulder. 

The next time he swings the broom, his opponent grabs it one-handed, tries to wrench it away. But River has two hands, pulls back, nearly falls when the other man relinquishes his grasp. 

In that split second of unbalance, the maniac makes his move. His knife sinks into the outside of River’s shoulder and is then torn away roughly. River howls, and in a blinding flash of pain and anger takes two steps back and then swings the broom like a baseball bat, directly at his opponent’s head. 

There’s a loud crack, and the man drops to the floor. 

River drops the broom and starts to run. 

thanks for reading! i may or may not do a second part to this, we'll see :)

also, i am aware that i'm literally posting a silly little fanfiction rn but. since today marks one year since the intensification of the attacks on the palestinian people, if you've enjoyed my stuff and if you're able to, it would mean so so much to me if you could donate to an organization like UNRWA, PCRF, or the fundraiser of literally any palestinian family. everything we do can help!!!

[beardedmrbean]

JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian security forces have launched a rare crackdown against local militant groups in the northern West Bank, sending in armored cars and engaging in fierce gunbattles that have killed at least two people in the volatile area.

The raid marks an unusual step for the Palestinian Authority, the governing body for semi-autonomous pockets in the occupied West Bank that is internationally recognized but has largely lost control of militant strongholds such as Jenin, where forces operated through the weekend and into Monday.

Israeli troops have stepped into the vacuum in recent years, particularly since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militant attack that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza. Palestinian health officials say 811 Palestinians have been killed since then in the West Bank, most by Israeli raids into Palestinian cities and towns. Israel says most of the dead have been militants.

On Saturday, Palestinian security forces said they had begun the operation in the Jenin refugee camp, a longtime militant stronghold. The operation was continuing Monday, with AP reporters hearing heavy gunfire and spotting at least two Palestinian armored vehicles roaming the outskirts of the camp.

The U.N. humanitarian office said that security forces took over part of a hospital in Jenin, using it as a base and shooting from inside. Forces detained at least eight men, pulling one out of the hospital on a stretcher, the U.N. said.

The main U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, suspended its services, including schooling.

The militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas operate freely across Jenin, and its streets are regularly lined with posters depicting slain fighters as martyrs to the Palestinian struggle. Young men carrying walkie-talkies patrol the alleys.

Israel says the militant groups are part of the Iranian “axis of resistance.” Both groups receive funding and other support from Iran, but they are deeply rooted in Palestinian society.

The security forces are “operating according to a clear political vision” from Palestinian leadership “on the importance of imposing order, establishing the rule of law, restoring civil peace and societal security,” spokesman Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab said. The troops were focused on “eradicating” Iran-backed groups that were trying to incite “chaos and anarchy,” he added.

Palestinian security forces have reported the deaths of two men in the crackdown: a 19-year-old civilian, Rabhi Shalabi, shot riding a motorcycle, and an Islamic Jihad militant, Yazi Jaayseh.

Security forces, which initially denied killing Shalabi before admitting it in a statement Friday, have not said why they targeted the young man. His 15-year-old cousin, who was also on the motorcycle, was shot in the head and wounded. U.N. officials, citing local video footage, have said the pair were unarmed and delivering food from a family restaurant when they were shot, and that Shalabi raised both in the air hands before he was killed.

It was not immediately clear why the Palestinian Authority decided to launch the crackdown now. Such actions are unpopular with the Palestinian public, where many accuse the Palestinian security forces of collaborating with Israel.

The Israeli military said it was not involved in the operation and did not comment further.

Hamas senior official Mahmoud Mardawi slammed the Palestinian Authority operating in Jenin as an “attempt to end the resistance.” In comments released by Hamas late Monday, he urged the Palestinian Authority to immediately stop its “unpatriotic behavior that serves the occupation.”

The U.S. has sought to strengthen the Palestinian Authority, hoping it will help run the Gaza Strip after the war.

White House officials declined to comment publicly on their position on the Jenin operation. Officials at the U.S. National Security Council also declined to comment.

Overall, since the start of the war, the U.N. says that at least seven Palestinians have been killed by Palestinian security forces, and at least 24 Israelis have also been killed by Palestinian attackers in the West Bank.

[bloghrexach]

✊🏽 … YES!! Macklemore — remember his ‘LGBTQ anthem”?

By: Reem Ghunaim, Strategic Leadership, from LinkedIn …

“Make it go viral! — 👉🍉 — https://lnkd.in/gJU-nmuj

Send the link to everyone you know to raise more funds for UNRWA.

📣 Let this song be our virtual protest, showing those who seek to silence us just how powerful our voices can be.

HIND'S HALL —👇🍉

Written and Produced by Macklemore

Lyrics:

The people they won’t leave

What is threatening

about divesting and wanting peace?

The problem isn’t the protests

it’s what they’re protesting

Cause it goes against

what our country is funding

Block the barricade until Palestine is free

Block the barricade until Palestine is free

When I was 7 I learned a lesson

from Cube and Eazy E

What was it again?

oh yea

fuck the police

Actors in badges

protecting property

And a system that was designed

by white supremacy

But the people are in the streets

You can pay off meta

you can’t pay off me

Politicians who serve by any means

AIPAC, CUFI and all the companies

You see we sell fear around the land of the free

But this generation here

is about to cut the strings

You can ban tik Tok

take us out the algothim

But it’s too late

we’ve seen the truth we bare witness

We’ve seen the ruble the buildings

the mothers the children

And all the men that you murdered

and then we see how they spin it

Who gets to the right to defend

and who gets the right of resistance

Has always been about dollars

and the color of your pigment

But White supremacy is finally on blast

Screaming free Palestine

until they’re home at last

We see the lies in them

Claiming it’s anti-semetic

to be anti-zionist

I’ve seen jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding

In solidarity and screaming

free Palestine with em

Organizing, unlearning

and finally cutting ties with a

State

that’s gotta rely on an apartheid system

To uphold an occupying violent

History been repeating for the last 75

The Nakba never ended,

the colonizer lied

If some kids in tents,

posted on the lawn

occupying the quad

is really against the law

And a reason to call

in the police and their squad

where does genocide land

in your definition huh?

destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque

pushing everyone into rafah and dropping bombs

The blood is on your hands Biden,

we can see it all

And fuck no

I’m not voting for you in the fall

Undecided,

you can’t twist the truth

The people out here

united

never be defeated when Freedom’s on the

horizon

Yet the music industry’s quiet

complicit in their platform of silence

What happened to the artist

what do you got to say?

If I was on a label,

you could drop me today

And be fine with it

cause the heart fed my page

I want a ceasefire

fuck a response from drake

What you willing to risk?

What you willing to give?

What if you were Gaza?

what if those were your kids?

If the west was pretending that you didn’t exist

You’d want the world to stand up

And the students finally did

Let’s get it”!! … ✊🏽

#FreePalestine … #HindsHall … #Macklemore … @hrexach

[soon-palestine]

@RBatniji is one of the most respected entrepreneurs in Silicon valley. He lost 37 members of his family on 18th Nov by an Israeli airstrike. He recently met with Secretary Blinken and here is what he shared,

"I am Rajaie Batniji. I take no pride and no honor in being here.

I was born in Gaza and immigrated to California as a young child. I am Rajaie Batniji. I take no pride and no honor in being here. Many of my fellow Palestinian Americans discouraged me from speaking with you today, concerned that this discussion was solely performative. I share their concern.

I come here out of a sense of duty, to try – as futile as it may be – to save my family in Gaza from being killed. I was born in Gaza and immigrated to California as a young child. I grew up visiting Gaza often, and those visits shaped me in many ways. I personally experienced some of the violence of occupation.

I studied the history of the region at Stanford, completed my doctorate in international relations at Oxford as a Marshall Scholar – honoring the legacy of one of your predecessors in this office – and became a physician focused on the health of those that have the least privilege. I’m an entrepreneur who builds teams and technologies that improve American health care.

I would rather not be here today. Mr. Secretary, you have provided the weapons and the political cover that enabled the murder of 65 members of my family, mostly women and children, over the past four months. In strikes in mid-November, three generations of my family were killed by missiles as they sought shelter and safety. I carry their memories with me. I see their crushed bodies when I close my eyes.

The survivors in my family are homeless. Some 70% of homes in Gaza have been destroyed, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal, along with almost all the schools, all the universities, many of the hospitals, the mosques, the churches, the historical sites and the public records.

My paternal grandparents’ home in Shejaiya had been among the last homes of my family still standing. This is the home where I was born. It collapsed in a “controlled demolition” just before the new year.

According to our own US intelligence agencies, Israel used 29,000 air-to-ground munitions during the first two months of its assault on Gaza. That’s more than were used in the years of the Iraq War – and Gaza is less than one thousandth the size.

No one I know in Gaza has a home, or possessions beyond what they carried as they fled Israeli bombardment.

My family may be better off than most in Gaza and they are still hungry. I spoke with my mom’s brother this week, and he told me he has lost almost 20 kilograms (44 pounds). Despite your promises, food aid has not been able to reach Gaza to come anywhere near meeting the need. It is blocked at every opportunity, including by Israeli protestors at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, and by Israeli inspections and within Gaza by the Israeli military. According to the United Nations, 4 out of 5 of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza. You know that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, provides food for most Gazans and critical infrastructure for other aid organizations. Yet, after Israel made unverified allegations that a handful of UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 attacks, you cut the funding for UNRWA in what I can understand only as an act of collective punishment. I fear this makes you, and me – as an American – party to the use of starvation as a weapon of war.

My cousins in Gaza, who are physicians like me, have no place to practice medicine. Their hospitals have been destroyed or incapacitated. After moving from Shifa to al-Aqsa hospital, only to be evacuated from each by the Israeli military after seeing patients and colleagues killed, they are now living in tents in Rafah and al-Mawasi, using their surgical skills to repair leaks in their tents while the bodies of wounded Palestinians go untreated, and often unretrieved.

I have worked extensively in global health and wrote a series of research papers in 2009 on what we thought then was a Palestinian health crisis. We could never, though, have imagined this – the complete destruction of Gaza’s health care system is unprecedented.

Even the dead among my family were not spared. Satellite images show that Israeli bulldozers and tanks desecrated the graveyards where my grandparents and great grandparents were resting. I hope to bury their remains again one day.

What do you wish to be your legacy, Secretary Blinken? You cannot say you didn’t know. You cannot say that you did not knowingly and materially support these deaths, which a US federal court and the International Court of Justice have both determined plausibly constitute genocide. I am the father of three young children in San Francisco. As adults, I am certain they will reflect on this “genocide” with horror. It will be taught in our classrooms and remembered in our museums as we vow never to repeat it.

I ask you to use the full power of your office and every bit of leverage the US has to allow aid to reach all of Gaza, including in the north, where hundreds of thousands of people remain in desperation. And, to resume the funding for UNRWA, which will be essential to the distribution of any aid. I ask you to uphold a rules-based order – which serves our long-term interests – by calling Israel’s indiscriminate bombing that has largely killed women and children, the attacks on health care and the use of starvation as a weapon of war as the war crimes you and I know they are. Your words matter, Mr. Secretary.

I feel indignity sitting before you in this comfortable conference room while my family desperately awaits word about a ceasefire, in the dark, hungry, and in tents in fear that the Israeli military will kill them at any moment.

In a dignified world, I would be asking for justice, not mercy. That day will come.

I hope that you, and this administration, can act quickly to bring our nation to the right side of history before it is far too late.I ask you to uphold a rules-based order – which serves our long-term interests – by calling Israel’s indiscriminate bombing that has largely killed women and children, the attacks on health care and the use of starvation as a weapon of war as the war crimes you and I know they are. Your words matter, Mr. Secretary.

I feel indignity sitting before you in this comfortable conference room while my family desperately awaits word about a ceasefire, in the dark, hungry, and in tents in fear that the Israeli military will kill them at any moment.

In a dignified world, I would be asking for justice, not mercy. That day will come.

I hope that you, and this administration, can act quickly to bring our nation to the right side of history before it is far too late.