#israel but there is barely any coverage for what is happening in Palestine. one look at the comments tells you everything you need to know:

[save-the-villainous-cat]

wow isn't it cool that All Quiet on the Western Front won some Academy Awards in 2023, the same year in which Germany started to ban pro-Palestine protests :) isn't that amazing how we have learnt absolutely nothing?

[two-blue-stripes]

Right okay but when major news outlets like the BBC and Sky give barely any prominence to the accusation of war crimes but front page live coverage to Israel's defence, you see how there's an overt editorial bias there. The fact that you can find articles if you're looking for them doesn't prove neutrality when the prominence of that coverage at the time isn't included in context - having a full and balanced picture available when you're looking for one whilst still distorting the picture for most people who rely on these outlets not only for the actual coverage but also for an indication of what is going on at all to even read/view coverage of is classic sleight of hand by ostensibly "neutral" outlets.

It's not because ooooh Jews control the media or because the UK/US news is Zionist, and you're right that it's essential to be vigilant about letting the reslities be used to fuel those narratives. But distortion of coverage is happening, and it's because what's happening in Palestine is an artefact of European and American imperialism and to acknowledge their complicitity in war crimes or condemn what Israel is doing in Palestine would bring down the whole house of cards on which their global projection of power rests. So all they have is to double down. And if you think these major news outlets aren't heavily influenced by the governments and national narratives/mythologies I don't know what to tell you. No major US network is going to risk endorsing or admitting that the US using threat or supply of arms to control its global empire is the root cause of ongoing instability, hatred, or poverty in huge parts of the world. No major UK network is going to say that a huge number of border disputes with oceans of blood attributable to them in the last century is because of colonial borders drawn arbitrarily under British imperial rule and then lazy, vindictive, or petulant handling of withdrawal from those places.

I get the sensitivity and discomfort around the idea of Israel or Jewish people having this shadowy influence over everything because that's right out of the oldest antisemitic playbooks. But the truth is that the response to this latest escalation of atrocities, and especially the ICJ case, is pure, political self-interest on behalf of the western hegemony and the media outlets that prop it up. The fact that it's Israel is, in this sense, incidental.

[zmwinter15]

2024 Check-in

It's September 2024, and unfortunately Israel's actions have not de-escalated since last year's check-in post.

Last year's post in December was 60 days in to the current conflict, and I reflected on what I had learned about in the preceding nine years. This year, I want to look back at what's happened since, and reflect on how I continue to learn about my past ignorance.

Bottom Line Up Front: Arms Embargo Now

The post will be long and meandering as I try to share what I've learned in the hopes that others can also learn and grow too. However, I don't want to bury the most important part: calls for a ceasefire like I made last year have not been enough, most importantly I want readers to demand an arms embargo now. That is, the US government should stop selling weapons to Israel, which are immediately deployed to commit genocide. This year, the Uncommitted Movement has sprung up as a group of democratic delegates who have attempted to leverage their votes in the Democratic primary election, to use US influence to de-escalate the situation, and I am thankful for their clear-headed leadership in this space.

Last year's calls for a ceasefire have become watered down as the Biden Administration has voice abstract support for a ceasefire in Gaza, but as recently as August this year has still authorized $20B in weapons sales to Israel. And so, arms embargo now is the new bare minimum we can demand to de-escalate.

Taking one step back, I want to quickly explain why an arms embargo is so important. Israel would likely not be able to continue its attacks without US support. And it's important to prevent those attacks, for justice and fairness, and also to prevent more human suffering. The death toll numbers in Gaza are over 40,000 and by all accounts that must be an undercount, because so many of the survivors are seriously injured, maimed, and sick with things like polio that can be easily prevented with access to vaccines, the bare minimum of care.

You don't have to try very hard to dig up coverage of infants killed in Gaza. The linked article names a pair of twins, but there are countless more who go un-named. This is all to say, the Israeli attacks clearly constitute war crimes and don't show any sign of stopping.

Gaza and The West Bank

I am embarrased to admit that one of the biggest things I've learned in the last year is the difference between Gaza and the West Bank. As a quick aside, I remember my sixth grade history/social studies teacher giving us an assignment to go and research various things for homework, this would have been probably 2002 or 2003. Two items on the list were Gaza and the West Bank. I probably Googled the terms and wrote down a sentence or two, but I am pretty sure the goal of the assignment was to better understand the Israel-Palestine conflict, which was nasty and lopsided even back then. Unfortunately, none of that got across to middle school me.

I never fully internalized this year how geographically separate Gaza and the West Bank are, and how for decades, the Israeli government has prevented free movement of Palestinians between those two parts. Sure, the whole area of Israel/Palestine is not so large, but it's large enough that preventing movement actively harms people. This was the year that I started to finally understand the "open air prison" term, describing the harsh restrictions the Israeli government has placed on the Palestinians for decades.

The biggest thing that I learned this year was how the two Palestinian areas, Gaza and the West Bank, have been governed differently. In 2007, voters in Gaza elected Hamas, the so-called terrorist organization, as their government. But that does not mean all Palestinians are members of Hamas, nor does it mean all Palestinians support Hamas. The West Bank continues to be governed by the Palestinian Authority instead, but that hasn't made a difference: while Israel blames Hamas for last year's October 7th attacks, they continues to aggressively invade the West Bank. Again, the West Bank is not governed by Hamas.

This is the year that I finally started to unpack how Gaza and the West Bank get to be conveniently confused in order to legitimize attacks on one or the other, even if the attacks on either are unjust.

I never watched anything from the late Anthony Bourdain, but this is the year I've come across the his 2013 Parts Unknown documentary episode where he goes to the West Bank and Gaza. In 2013 he voices frustration at the treatment of Palestinians, and things have gotten worse for the Palestinians since then.

Gaza Geography

This is also the year I learned much more about Gazan geography. Unfortunately, it has been at the expense of too many Palestinian lives.

Last year in December, Israel's attacks were focused on Gaza city in the north of the Gaza strip. In the time since, they have escalated to level most of the entire Gaza strip.

In January, Israel attacked Khan Yunis, slightly to the South. Palestinians were told that the city Rafah (all the way in the south) was safe, and that refugees from the other cities could relocate there. President Biden declared that if Israel attacked Rafah, that would cross a "red line" and that he would intervene.

Well, Israel attacked Rafah, crossing the so-called "red line", and Joe Biden didn't do anything meaningful.

The attacks have been so brutal that South Africa made a case against Israil in the ICJ, and the ICJ ordered Israel to stop. Of course, Israel ignored the orders. The US State Department chose to criticize the ICJ. Some articles echo a talking point that "the ICJ decisions are not binding" but I'm pretty sure that's incorrect.

So I guess, in learning about the geography of the Gaza Strip, so too have I learned about the American government's complete lack of a spine.

Yemen

While some folks spoke up against Israel's actions, the Houthi government put their money where their mouth is. The Houthis used their location at the mouth of the Red Sea to attack commercial ships bound for or linked to Israel. This key intervention lead to commercial ships re-routing all the way around Africa (instead of using the shorter Suez Canal route). I think it's incredible and admirable what a relatively small force was able to do, and to see how commercial interests were easily affected. It gives me more hope that that the BDS movement could be successful in influencing Israel.

The US government and military intervened, bombing Yemen. I'm disappointed in our government, to say the least.

Self-Immolation

In December, a person (whose name I'm not able to locate online), set themselves on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. They had a Palestinian flag and we can assume this was in support of Palestinians.

In February, 25-year old Aaron Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in DC. In recorded verbal statements, he explicitly did so as an act of protest against the US government and its active involvement in Israel's active genocide in Gaza.

And now, just last week a man named Matt Nelson also self-immolated outside the Israeli consolute in Boston.

By all accounts, each one of these is one of the most extreme acts of protest. While the Atlanta protestor's motivations may not have been as widely distributed, Bushnell's and Nelson's were. I wish more people were aware of their brave acts so that more of us could honor their sacrifices by agitating for a change.

The Jewish Calendar

The Jewish High Holidays are Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. These are in the S-tier of Jewish Holidays, the tier where observant Jews make sure to travel and visit family during them (they share this tier with Passover, but not Hannukah, that one is just conveniently close to Christmas and New Years.)

Coincidentally, the one-year anniversary of last year's Hamas attack, October 7, falls in between Rosh Hashanah. This period of time is sometimes referred to as the Ten Days of Repentance. I fully expect a full-court press of alligator tears from the Israeli government and their proxies. I can only imagine what will be demanded of Palestinians during this time.

Palestinians are not a religious monoculture, some Palestinians are Christian and some are Muslim. The Israeli government shows absolutely no mercy during important holidays or religous holidays such as Eid, but I expect any slight or criticism of Israel during this time will be treated as uncouth or insensitive.

Just like last year, it's important to remember that Israel and Judaism are not the same thing! Criticizing Israel, while there are Jewish people who live and create its policies, is not the same as condeming Judaism or all Jews! Anecdotally I feel like people in my bubble have gotten better at separating Israel the state from Judaism as a whole.

Lebanon

The last few months have also seen Israel escalate violence outside of Gaza into Lebanon, their neighbor to the north.

In Lebanon, hundreds of pagers exploded. Many of these pagers and the associated deaths and injuries were linked to Hezbollah, another organization that's an enemy of the state of Israel. However, many non-Hezbollah people were harmed in these attacks as well.

Sources linked these pagers to a years-long supply chain hack by Israel's Mossad. They're a cybersecurity person's worst nightmare, having what you assume to be consumer grade tech be augmented with military-grade explosives, being carried around in people's pockets. As somebody who is literally gleud to my iPhone, I can't imagine the trauma this has caused.

By all accounts, rigging consumer devices in this way also constitutes a terrorist attack. Israel's attacks continue to be unacceptable.

The United States

If it wasn't clear from the rest of the post, I am disappointed in President Biden and the US government as a whole. I was so relieved when Biden announced he would not be seeking re-election this fall, because he had been so vocally resistant to even ceasefire movements before.

I was extremely upset at how the Democrats treated the Uncommited Movement at the Democratic National Convention this year. The DNC had all sorts of speakers (Republicans, cops, Israelis), but refused to give any airtime to even the most watered down speech in support of Gaza.

As the Democratic Party's nominee, Kamala Harris has not indicated any sort of significant departure for the US from the status quo. A majority of Americans support an arms embargo yet Kamala Harris has not made any of that part of her platform. I don't follow the polling too closely, but I know that the presidential election is still a tight race. I wish that Kamala Harris would at minimum support an arms embargo to Israel, or otherwise do something to gain support from more potential voters.

Thanks

I want to take this time to thank my friends who have continued to share out information and stories, no matter how bloody, to their timelines. They've helped keep me in the loop and aware of these issues in Gaza and elsewhere, and they've had the courage to reshare things that I can barely stomach. The first friends that come to mind are Andres, Juan, Svetha and Liza, but I know others have shared invaluable information as well. And to the people I know of, but don't actually know on Twitter, on Bluesky and elsewhere, thank you too.

I want to end this post with a request. To find ways to help limit Israel's violence, to support the BDS Movement, the Uncommitted Movement, or anything that aims to de-escalate the situation.

Thanks for reading it this far, I hope that next year I won't have to make another follow-up post.

[un-mediaseminar-blog]

Opening remarks by H.E. Mr. Cheikh Niang, Permanent Representative of Senegal to the United Nations and Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

2020 International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East

8 December 2020

Excellencies,  

Mr. Secretary-General,  

Madam Under Secretary-General,  

Dear Colleagues,

At the outset, on behalf of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I would like to commend the Department of Global Communications for organizing this year’s panels on the “Israel-Palestine conflict and challenges of the new decade” (on 8 December), and - “A tale of two narratives: misinformation and disinformation” (on 9 December).

         Through its General Assembly mandated advocacy and awareness raising work on the Question of Palestine, our Committee disseminates and shares information with partners and the public at large using various tools. The Committee’s social media presence includes Twitter @UNISPAL, the Facebook page of the Committee @UN.palestinianrights, Instagram, and its YouTube channel. Its website at www.un.org/unispal, contains all information on our Committee’s activities and also hosts the UN Information System on the question of Palestine”- the world’s largest online repository of UN documents on the Question of Palestine which features over 36,000 documents.

In the course of delivering on its mandate, the Committee faces many challenges, including that of countering disinformation on the question of Palestine. For this reason, we see working together with media as an integral and important element of the Committee’s work.

The year 2020 will be remembered as one in which humanity faced a common enemy: the coronavirus pandemic which has changed our way of life, including how we communicate and interact with each other.  It has affected some far more than others and especially the Palestinian people.  

         The burden of endless occupation and an increasingly fragile economy has pushed to the brink the public health system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. These are times when the Palestinian people need not only expressions of solidarity, but also our empathetic action.

And yet, we find that there is barely adequate coverage of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the international media.  Media attention in recent years has been diverted to other conflicts in the region or has tended to focus on some aspects of the conflict, ignoring the peaceful efforts of millions of Palestinians to live a life of dignity.  We are also seeing incessant efforts to distract the media from the fact that the only route to peace in the Middle East is through peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

         The responsibility of the media is not limited to raising awareness and informing public opinion. The media also plays a critical role in documenting history in progress. As we stand at the threshold of a new decade, I urge all participants here from the media to reflect if they are documenting history objectively or are buying into disinformation on the question of Palestine.

Dear colleagues,

I urge you in the media fraternity to seriously consider how history will judge our generation if we were to wrong the Palestinian people twice over – first by standing aside while their rights are denied, and then by misreporting or not reporting what is happening. This would be tantamount to a miscarriage of justice.

         We all have a duty to recommit ourselves to reporting truth, and to speak truth to power. And the truth is that General Assembly resolution 181 (ii) of 1947 called for carving two States out of mandate Palestine.  Yet, more than 73 years later, one of the States – the Palestinian State, is yet to be established. The truth is that since 1967, millions of Palestinians have found themselves living under siege on their own land or as refugees unable to return home.  They are constantly facing violations of their human rights, confiscation of their land and property, and constant affronts to their dignity.  International law is clear on the fact that the occupation and settlement by Israel of Palestinian land is illegal and that it must end. We urge colleagues in the media to never lose sight of these truths.

I sometimes hear friends in the media say that there are always two sides to a story. I could not agree more. The occupation has extracted a heavy social and economic price on Israeli citizens too.  This is yet another reason why the untenable situation in Israel and Palestine must end. The illegal blockade on Gaza, now entering its 13th year, is neither legally sustainable nor morally justifiable. The unrestrained plans for settlement expansion and construction amount to blatant disregard for international opinion by Israel as the occupying Power. Hence, it is time for us to recognize that the time for finger-pointing has passed.  It is incumbent on all of us to not let international readers and viewers lose sight of what is happening in Palestine, to report accurately what is taking place, and ensure a truthful historical account.

         The President of the State of Palestine has called for an international peace conference in 2021 to resolve the question of Palestine. The Committee fully supports this proposal. We would vastly appreciate your efforts to positively highlight the ongoing attempts to encourage the parties to reach a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine, including by holding of the conference.  

The road ahead is not easy. What we want for the Palestinian people is exactly what we want for any our own people – a life of peace, justice and dignity. I look forward to the support of media in this endeavor and wish the seminar all success.

Thank you.  

[nancygduarteus]

<em>The Atlantic</em> Daily: Stopgap Deal, Risky Diplomacy, Grown-Ups' Grandparents

What We’re Following

Open for the Public: Lawmakers have reached a deal to fund the government for three more weeks after disagreements over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, defense spending, and other matters led to a three-day shutdown over the weekend. Senate Democrats had been holding out for DACA protections in particular, but Monday’s agreement included only a promise to debate such legislation before the next funding deadline, leaving immigration advocates disappointed. For their part, Republicans are claiming a “Win for [the] White House,” although President Trump appeared to have very little to do with the deal.

El Salvador: The U.S. Catholic Church is pushing back against Trump’s recent decision to suspend Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Salvadorans, which has put nearly 200,000 immigrants—many of them longtime U.S. residents and active parishioners—at risk of deportation. TPS protects people who are unable to return to their home countries out of fear for their safety. The dangerous conditions in El Salvador over the past few decades have included not only a devastating earthquake, but also a bloody civil war in which the U.S. played a role.

Diplomatic Deals: On a visit to Jerusalem, Vice President Mike Pence affirmed Washington’s support of Israel and called for continued work toward peace with Palestine—yet the Trump administration’s controversial decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital may have complicated that process. Trump’s continued calls for improvements to the Iran nuclear deal likewise carry a risk of undermining the agreement. Meanwhile, North and South Korea have reached a historic breakthrough with their agreement to send a joint women’s hockey team to the Winter Olympics next month—but they’re on thin political ice.

—Rosa Inocencio Smith

Snapshot

People participate in the Women’s March for Truth in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 20, 2018—one of many demonstrations held around the world on Saturday in support of women’s rights and in opposition to President Trump. Read Lena Felton’s coverage from New York City here, and see Emily Jan’s photos from Washington, D.C., here. (Whitney Curtis / Getty)

Evening Read

Claire Berman reflects on a visit from her 20-year-old granddaughter, Rachel:

We were excited, but wary as well. It had been a long time since we’d had a young person living with us. Would we find ourselves waiting up until we heard her key in the door? What were the rules? What were our roles? And what if something should happen to her while on our watch? I found myself having dreams about my own grandmother, Bubbe Chana, who wore sensible Oxfords, smelled faintly of lavender, and would hold my hand too tightly whenever we came to a crossing. Like my bubbe, I wanted to love and protect my granddaughter. But I’d barely celebrated my eighth birthday when my grandmother died. Rachel was too old to be led by the hand.

Instead, we’d have to navigate a relationship that is more common today than it was when I was Rachel’s age. At around 70 million people, grandparents represent a bigger chunk of America’s population than ever before, according to data released by the Census Bureau. That number is expected to go even higher as more baby boomers join the senior ranks. Americans are living more than half a decade longer than they were 50 years ago, too. Many grandparents now have the ability to be in their grandchildren’s lives for many years. But how does the grandparent role change as grandchildren age?

Keep reading here, as Berman describes how she and Rachel worked things out.

What Do You Know … About Education?

Issues of sex and consent have been dominating the headlines as the “Weinstein Effect” spreads across American industries, but college campuses have been grappling with these same questions for years, and their methods could serve as a blueprint—or a warning—for today’s movement. Meanwhile, many nonwhite students in rural America don’t even see college as an option, and their enrollment rates are alarmingly low.

Can you remember the other key facts from this week’s education coverage? Test your knowledge below:

1. Answers to a recent poll revealed that Americans were more likely to disapprove of school-choice programs if they were called “____________.”

Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.

2. Almost ____________ percent of college students are unemployed upon graduating, according to 2016 data.

Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.

3. __________ percent of young people raised by parents with college diplomas report being encouraged to attend a four-year college, compared with 29 percent of students raised by parents without degrees.

Scroll down for the answer, or find it here.

—Isabel Fattal

Answers: vouchers / 6 / 80

Look Back

From our August 1908 issue, Ellis Meredith quotes another leader of the women’s suffrage movement, Sarah Platt Decker, on what it means to have the right to vote:

“You can’t exactly explain why suffrage is desirable. If you were to post a notice that all the workmen of this state would be disfranchised at the next general election, you would have war and bloody war. Why? Does it make any particular difference to any individual workman whether Roosevelt or Bryan is elected? Not a particle. Then why does he want to vote? Because the vote is an indefinable something that makes you part of the plan of the world. It means the same to women that it does to men. You never ask a boy, ‘Have you closed the saloons, have you purified politics and driven all the political tricksters out of the state?’ No, you put your hand on his shoulder and you say, “To-day, my boy, you are an American citizen,’ and that is what you say to your daughter.”

Read more here, and find more stories from our archives here.

Reader Response

On Friday, a reader named Dan who had voted for Trump as the “[lesser] of two evils” described his feelings of anger and disappointment as the presidency hits the one-year mark. Another reader, Anthony, writes from Virginia:

While my expectations were and continue to be low, what I did not expect was the amount of cultural stress I would feel on a daily basis since his inauguration … With the exception of the Charlottesville debacle (I am Jewish), no policy or action may have directly impacted myself, but I feel the ramifications on everyone around me … For example, I am a graduate student, and am surrounded by a strong international presence (Nepalese, Chinese, Iranian, Saudi, Peruvian, Turkish, British, Greek, and more). There is not a day that goes by where these students, who are merely here for an education, do not feel inherently threatened and unwelcome. Some have even been accosted in grocery stores to “return to their country” or asked “Why are you here?”

Carly in Galesburg, Illinois, describes a similar sense of stress:

Every day I open up the news with a renewed sick sense of dread. I’m exhausted. After I leave school I have no idea how I’ll get funding for graduate school, afford healthcare, or find decent wages. These, obviously, have never been set in stone, however, during our last presidency I was hopeful about my chances to make a good life for myself, but so much of that hope has been slashed in the past year. It’s heartbreaking; it’s worse than I ever thought it would be.

Read about why politics can cause depression here. Go here for psychologists’ advice on how to cope with Trump-related stress. And stay tuned for more reader perspectives in the coming week.

Verbs

Showman succeeds, board games invade, refugees rally, trust falls.

Time of Your Life

Happy birthday to Dwarkanath (a year younger than sunscreen); to Kristina’s daughter Hayley (twice the age of Instagram); to Ron, who shares a birthday with Beckett (both are a year younger than universal credit cards); to Michael’s partner, Stephen (the same age as the first handheld scientific calculator); to Jamie’s client and dear friend Diane (born around the time of the Selma to Montgomery march); and to Natalie (twice the age of hip-hop records).

From yesterday, happy birthday from Liz to Carolyn (a year younger than T-shirts); to JoAnn’s husband, Rick (18 years older than the Concorde aircraft); to M (twice the age of The Simpsons); to Coulter (a year younger than the World Wide Web); to Anna’s twin brothers Michael and Stephen (twice the age of The Oprah Winfrey Show); to Barbara (a year younger than James Bond); to Courtenay’s spouse (a year younger than The Cat in the Hat); and to Andrei’s wife (twice the age of the iTunes Store).

Do you or a loved one have a birthday coming up? Sign up for a birthday shout-out here, and click here to explore the Timeline feature for yourself.

Most Popular on The Atlantic

Many of you have written in to ask what happened to the “Most Popular” list. Normally, that section gets added automatically, but there’s a bug in the process, and we’re still working on getting it fixed. In the meantime, here are five of the most popular articles on our site today:

1. The Democrats Relent

2. The Invasion of the German Board Games

3. The Problem With Courting Amazon

4. The Disappearing Dealmaker

5. Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?

Meet The Atlantic Daily’s team here, and contact us here.

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from Health News And Updates https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2018/01/the-atlantic-daily-january-22-2018/551171/?utm_source=feed