#jewish woman beaten

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Suspects allegedly involved in an antisemitic assault in London, on Dec 7, 2023. Source: Shomrim (Stamford Hill)

A Jewish woman was brutally assaulted in London this week by two suspects who pummeled her with punches and kicks for over a minute, according to footage posted on social media by Shomrim of Stamford Hill, a Jewish organization that reports on antisemitism.

The attack, which occurred on Thursday evening in the Stamford Hill neighborhood, left the woman unconscious and only ended after two female suspects reportedly said that the woman was “dead” after kicking her while she was on the ground for over thirty seconds, according to Shomrim, which also serves as a neighborhood watch group.

Metropolitan Police are currently searching for the female suspects. No arrests have been made.

Information on the condition of the victim was not immediately available.

The Stamford Hill section of London is no stranger to antisemitic incidents. In October, days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, two Jewish primary schools in the area were vandalized and doused with red paint.

London’s Metropolitan Police said antisemitic attacks in the city have increased by 1,353 per cent following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October.

[liatkolink]

For people still in denial whether Israel has committed war crimes, here is a comprehensive list of war crimes Israel has committed both before and after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the list being taken from the Wikipedia article of war crimes with some notable missing examples being the usage of chemical weapons, famine, disease and apartheid. The 7th of October attack did not occur in a vacuum, but is the product of decades of Israel not being held accountable for its war crimes.

Killing civilians:

Israel/Palestine: Unlawful Israeli Airstrikes Kill Civilians by Human Rights Watch on 15/Jul/2014

‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza – The Guardian on 2/Apr/2024

Israeli attack on Rafah tent camp kills 45, prompts international outcry by Reuters on 27/May/2024

Intentionally killing PoWs:

Israel’s Hush-Up Machine in Action: Denying Story Israel Executed Egyptian Prisoners by Washington Report on Middle East Affairs on 8/Apr/2010

Torture:

Israeli government report admits systematic torture of Palestinians by The Guardian on 10/Feb/2000

Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests by Amnesty International on 8/Nov/2023

Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured by Human Rights Watch on 26/Aug/2024

Taking hostages:

Infographic: How many Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel? by AlJazeera on 17/Apr/2022

The thousands of Palestinians Israel arrests, tortures, holds even in death by AlJazeera on 17/Apr/2024

UN report: Palestinian detainees held arbitrarily and secretly, subjected to torture and mistreatment by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on 31/Jul/2024

Unnecessarily destroying civilian property:

Israel destroys Gaza tower housing AP and Al Jazeera offices by Reuters on 15/May/2021

Israel targets infrastructure in Gaza to ramp up civilian pressure on Hamas, report claims by PBS News on 11/Dec/2023

Widespread destruction by Israeli Defence Forces of civilian infrastructure in Gaza by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on 8/Feb/2024

Deception by perfidy:

Israeli soldier gives 74-year-old Palestinian woman water then shoots her in the head by Middle East Monitor on 20/Jan/2015

Israeli special forces disguised as doctors kill three militants at West Bank hospital by The Guardian on 30/Jan/2024

NBC News investigation reveals Israel strikes on Gaza areas it said were safe by NBC News on 26/Apr/2024

Wartime sexual violence:

Stripped, beaten and blindfolded: new research reveals ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military by Save the Children on 10/Jul/2023

Israel/oPt: UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on 19/Feb/2024

‘Everything is legitimate’: Israeli leaders defend soldiers accused of rape by AlJazeera on 9/Aug/2024

Pillaging:

The Biblical Pseudo-Archeologists Pillaging the West Bank by The Atlantic on 28/Feb/2013

Jewish Soldiers and Civilians Looted Arab Neighbors' Property en Masse in '48. The Authorities Turned a Blind Eye by Haaretz on 3/Oct/2020

Israeli soldiers boast about looting from Gaza by AlJazeera on 14/Feb/2024

Any individual that is part of the command structure who orders any attempt to committing mass killings:

Netanyahu incites violence by casting protesters as clear and present danger by Middle East Eye on 30/Jul/2020

Israeli minister's call to 'erase' Palestinian village an incitement to violence, US says by Reuters on 1/Mar/2023

Netanyahu cites 'Amalek' Theory to justify Gaza Killings by Times of India on 29/Oct/2023

Database exposes 500 instances of Israeli incitement to genocide in Gaza by TRT World 4/Jan/2024

Genocide:

The Genocide of the Palestinian People: An International Law and Human Rights Perspective by Center for Constitutional Rights on 25/Aug/2016

Genocide Warning: Israel & Palestine by Genocide Watch on 21/May/2021

A top U.N. court says Gaza genocide is 'plausible' but does not order cease-fire by npr on 26/Jan/2024

‘Reasonable grounds’ to believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, UN rights expert says by CNN on 27/Mar/2024

Is Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza? New Report from BU School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic Lays Out Case from Boston University Today on 5/Jun/2024

Ethnic cleansing:

UN Human Rights Council: ‘Israel engaging in ethnic cleansing’ by the European Union Parliament on 23/Mar/2011

Israel's ethnic cleansing in Palestine is not history - it's still happening by Middle East Eye on 22/May/2019

UN expert warns of new instance of mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, calls for immediate ceasefire by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner on 14/Oct/2023

‘Plan for ethnic cleansing’: Israel’s north Gaza siege sets off alarms by AlJazeera on 22/Oct/2024

Granting of no quarter despite surrender:

White Flag Deaths Killings of Palestinian Civilians during Operation Cast Lead by Human Rights Watch on 13/Aug/2009

Investigators: Israel fired on Gaza civilians carrying white flags by The Electronic Intifada on 28/Jan/2015

3 hostages killed by Israeli soldier in Gaza were waving a white flag, Israel says by npr on 16/Dec/2023

A group of Palestinian men waving a white flag is shot at, killing 1 by NBC News on 24/Jan/2024

She was fleeing with her grandson, who was holding a white flag. Then she was shot by CNN on 26/Jan/2024

Two brothers shot by Israeli forces in Khan Younis, white flag ignored by AlJazeera on 29/Jan/2024

Conscription of children in the military: First one where I couldn't find anything. Way to go, Israel!

Flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity:

Israel violates the principles of necessity, proportionality in its attacks on Gaza by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor on 13/May/2023

Enough: Self-Defense and Proportionality in the Israel-Hamas Conflict by Just Security on 6/Nov/2023

War Crimes and Accountability: The Case Against Israel’s Military Operations in Gaza by JURIST News on 5/Jul/2024

[girlactionfigure]

 THURSDAY HERO: Glagolev Family

It is undeniable that the role of Ukraine in the Holocaust was shameful. Almost a million Jews were killed by Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, most of them shot and dumped into mass graves, many while still alive. Because of this ugly history, and at a time when the Ukraine itself is under threat, it is crucial to remember those Ukrainians who did the right thing, even at great risk to themselves.

Alexei Glagolev was a Ukrainian Orthodox priest who practiced his Christian faith despite severe persecution from the Soviet communists. Together with his wife Tatiana and their children, Alexei hid Jews during World War II, a heroic act that almost cost the Glagolevs their own lives.

Born in Kiev in 1901, Alexei was raised in a devout Eastern Orthodox home. His father Alexander was a priest and professor at Kiev Theological Academy and known to be an ally to Jews at a time of rampant antisemitism. Alexei, a stand-out student in high school, enrolled in the Theological Academy in 1919, and studied there until 1923, even after it was shut down by the Bolsheviks and the students had to study in secret. Alexei married Tatiana Bulashevich, the daughter of a sugar plant owner, in 1926. They had three children, Magdalina, Nikolei and Maria.

In 1932 the Glagolevs’ world was rocked when Alexei was arrested by the communists for “anti-revolutionary acts.” He was freed after a week in custody, but was designated a “cult leader” and deprived of civil liberties. With his professional options severely curtailed due to his status as leader of a cult (the Soviets considered all religions to be cults), he labored as a construction worker and security guard. From 1936 to 1940 he studied Physics and Mathematics at the Kiev Pedagogy Institute, while secretly running an underground church. After the war in Eastern Europe began, Alexei was ordained as a priest and served in the Pokrov Church in Kiev.

In October, 1941, Alexei’s sister-in-law asked him to help her brother’s Jewish wife, Izabella Mirkina, who was in imminent danger of being murdered by the Nazis. Without hesitation, Alexei and Tatiana determined to do whatever they could to help persecuted Jews, despite caring for their own three children in difficult wartime conditions. Tatiana gave Izabella her own identity card and baptism certificate. In his memoirs, Father Alexei wrote, “My wife almost paid with her own life for her reckless action. The Gestapo was going from flat to flat asking for papers, and when they found out that Tatiana didn’t have a passport, they were going to arrest her. Very few people returned to their homes after such arrests. We begged and managed to persuade them to leave her alone after a few witnesses confirmed her identity.”

Even with Tatiana’s papers Izabella was unable to escape and returned to the Glagolevs in desperate need of a place to hide. Alexei later said, “Tormented, we searched for a way to save her. What kind of Christians would we be if we refused this poor woman, who was reaching out to us and pleading for help?” The Glagolevs welcomed Izabella and her daughter Irina into their own modest home. When other desperate Jews approached for help, Alexei gave them fake baptism certificates and hid them in his church, even though hiding Jews was a capital crime punishable by execution. The Glagolev children also helped care for the Jews and keep them safe and fed.

In 1943 Alexei moved out of his home and into the hospital at Pokrov Monastery, where he lived beside the Jews he was helping. This was very risky because the Germans had forbidden Ukrainians to live in that part of Kiev. He and his son Nikolei were arrested in fall of that year and deported to Germany, where Alexei was brutally beaten by the Nazis. Somehow they managed to escape and returned to Ukraine after the liberation from Germany in 1944. In 1945, Alexei wrote a letter to Nikita Khrushchev, Secretary of the Ukraine, about the Jews he had saved.

Alexei continued working as a priest in the Pokrov church until it closed in 1960. He worked in several other churches despite increasing ill health caused by his brutal treatment while imprisoned by the Nazis. Alexei died in 1972. Journalist Sergei Kokurin wrote in an article about Alexei, “It is hard to understand to an average man the determination with which Glagolev went against the tide. In 1936 this fragile-looking intellectual publicly carried the cross taken off the Church of Nikola the Kind, and despite threats from the communists kept it in his flat. He was the only priest in Kiev who refused in April 1942 to hold a church service to celebrate Hitler’s birthday.”

Alexei, Tatiana and their children were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israeli Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem in 1991. In January 2002, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Alexei Glagolev’s birth, a memorial plaque to him and his brave father Alexander was erected on the wall of the National University of Kiev.

For their heroic actions saving Jews, and for practicing their faith in defiance of Soviet persecution, we honor the Glagolev family as this week’s Thursday Heroes.

[saraannereads]

On the portrayal of Illyrian culture in ACOTAR

I’m Sara - by ethnic origin, I am Arabic and Turkish. I was othered my entire childhood and dealt with seriously atrocious racist attacks.

As I got older, those things lessened and people started assuming I was white or biracial in part due to my having dyed my hair blonde.

Since then, I’ve experienced racism of a different kind - I get told I am a “shallow white girl” who doesn’t have the right to speak about issues facing POC by people from all different ethnicities.

I’ve had enough of that. I may not look like your typical WOC but I am a woman of color. And I will not be silenced.

Why I am not offended by the portrayal of Illyrian culture in Sarah J Maas’s books:

1. I’m from a Muslim family and grew up going to mosques in the Western World, where some of the very oppressive and sexist ideals about women and their place in society were preached from the stands and actively shared by members of the community.

2. I was chronically shamed by my peers in the community for being into my education and for wearing makeup or for daring to speak to boys.

3. The above happened in the United States in the community I grew up in because oppressive, sexist ideals travel across immigration. I clawed my way out of this community and will never look back.

3. Honor killings still happen where I’m from. To this day.

4. Genital mutilation still happens in the regions where I’m from to this day.

5. Women are not allowed to drive in some countries in the region where I’m from to this day.

6. Women are publicly beaten or stoned to death in those regions to this day.

7. Women have to be fully covered up when they leave the house in the region where I’m from to this day.

8. Women are silenced and told not to speak in public - even just to talk to someone - and not to leave their houses without a male chaperone in the region where I’m from to this day.

9. Women are glorified birthing vessels and it is socially accepted for men to have multiple wives to have as many children as possible in the region where I’m from to this day.

10. Women do not have full equality or even basic, fundamental human rights in the the region where I’m from to this day.

How does this relate to Illyrian culture and ACOTAR?

Do I really need to explain the answer to that? I realize that some people may have grown up in Middle Eastern families and not had the experience I had. Some of my experience is also due to Islamic religious ideas and not simply cultural ideals. And there are some people who may love where they came from and have had a radically different experience than my own. That does NOT make my experience less valid, nor does it make my criticisms of the culture and countries I’m referring to less valid or accurate.

To me, the portrayal of the Illyrians is an accurate representation of what goes on in some pockets of the mid east, and for that very reason, I’m not offended.

In fact, wing clipping is essentially the fictional version of genital mutilation, which still happens in the cultures that people say Illyria is inspired by.

It is not racist to look at something and call it out for what it is. If I were to say, every single ME person I’ve ever met adheres to some of the more fundamentalist and sexist rhetoric I heard and continue to see, that would be racist and untrue.

The reality is there will also always be people who attack Sarah J Maas because she’s Jewish, especially at this time with conversations about Zionism running rampant. I married a Jewish man. I’ve seen anti-semitism firsthand. I also saw it growing up among the more nationalistic people I grew up with who hated the idea of an Israeli country.

What you can do:

Stand up for women around the world who don’t enjoy the same freedoms you do, and quit picking fights about a book series. Look to solve real problems instead of making some up.

Note - If you attack me in the comments, I will not respond. I will immediately block. This was not an easy post for me to make in any way, and I feel vulnerable having shared so much.

[anti-zionist-jew]

I had to start a new blog, so I figured I would reintroduce myself.

My name is Zara. I’m a Black Ashkenazi Jewish woman, 36 years of age, who grew up in one of the oldest majority Black synagogues in occupied Turtle Island (USA). Being a Black woman, and a Jewish woman, have shaped my entire identity and walk through life. I am proudly Black and Jewish. I have been on the “birthright” trip, and can attest first hand how that is two weeks of pure Zionist propaganda, and how none of this is about Judaism.

We do not need a country to all be shuffled into in order to be safe. Israel does not protect Jewish people, and it never has. Palestinian sovereignty is not and never will be antisemitic, and From the River to the Sea is not a call for genocide against the Jews. It is a call for liberation, a declaration of decolonization. Is “from sea to shining sea” a call for genocide? Or is it a declaration that the land from the Pacific to the Atlantic is the USA?

White westerners get to hide their antisemitism by “supporting Israel” and thus supporting the idea of shuffling Jews to the Middle East. They get to claim they are protecting a historically marginalized people, while sticking us on the other side of the world, where they can “be over there, and they can fight amongst themselves far away from us”

Israel is a settler state. They came in and murdered people to steal their homes. Occupied the land. Began controlling all access to resources. And then started committing genocide when Hamas retaliated. What Hamas did is not just unsurprising, it was inevitable. Tell me that you, in Podunk USA would let people come steal your house. Tell me you wouldn’t use the “stand your ground” or “castle doctrine” to shoot the thieves coming to rob you. Tell me you’ll voluntarily give your home to an indigenous American. You simply cannot. Explain to me how Jews living in Israel who stand against genocide are being arrested, beaten, exiled from their communities. Explain to me how they’re not an ethno state when they do not legally recognize interfaith marriage.

Israel is an apartheid state, Israel has its hands in the worst atrocities the world over. Yes, white Jew reading this in Brooklyn, what is happening to Palestinians will always be far worse than the pro Palestine protestor calling you a colonizer when you inserted yourself against their cause, and then wanted to pretend you were attacked for being Jewish. Zionism ≠ Judaism, and the world knows that now.

Even in the context of those arguments to indigenous to the land, please read a single book or paper published by an indigenous scholar. Multiple people can and are indigenous to the same regions.

Anyway, it’s Free Palestine. Free Congo. Free the Sudan. Release the chains from all oppressed and colonized people. Agitate, educate, organize. And long live the intifada

[ladyodium]

I Could Not Prevent It

S2x7

TW: I am going to be discussing some very heavy topics. I will ask that yall respect these topics. I will be going into Domestic Violence, Lynching, Racism, R/pe, and Gore. (SPOILERS IF YOU CONTINUE TO READ!)

So, as a Black Woman this was a hard watch. From the beginning of the lynching Louis, Claudia and Madeline were bagged and dragged off into an unknown place. Louis was being beaten on the floor while Claudia was thrown in the rat box and had people on top of it so she wouldn’t get out.

I want y’all to notice how only Madeleine is not harmed, Santiago is messing with her mind, but Claudia and Louis are being physical harmed. They all had their achilles tendons cut to the bone to prevent them from walking, they weren’t allowed to speak and if they did the coven vampires would punish them. Claudia and Louis lose their names, they are now “The accused”, Madeleine is the only one whose name is said.

The bagging, dragging, the torture, the beatings, and the mock trial all hit a little too close to home. You have two Black people and a Jewish person on stage and I can’t help but think how traumatizing this must be for Madeline. Who was dragged from her shop by an angry mob, forced on her knees and had her head shaved. Then she continued to have constant harassment on her shop and person, let’s not forget she was almost graped, and no one was going to save her. 

The film that shows in the back ground as Lestat is telling his “story” is such an important detail. “A white man who just came to New Orleans and is being Hunted by a Black male.” We the viewers know that this isn’t true. Lestat pursued Louis, Lestat wanted Louis, Lestat was obsessed with Louis. But Louis can’t convey that, he’s not allowed to speak, to defend himself. Claudia, Louis and Madeline have to sit and watch a Butch of white people laugh and mock them. They have to sit and suffer for something that was really their last option. 

Diction is very important. When Santiago is questioning Lestat he uses words like “you were forced to…you were manipulated….you were sad, and lonely….you had no choice.”

Lestat is the victim in this lynching, he was the one who was hurt, not Louis, not Claudia. He was a victim of love and passion! Of loneliness! Louis was the one who pursued him, manipulated him, made him lonely.

“I..,a vampire, was being hunted…”

“Louis was saying “come to me”…

“Speaking your own unspeakable desires…in hopes that I would come to you”

“Louis was deceptively agile with words”

“He abandoned me in our town house”

Lestat is not the victim in his relationship with Louis. Is Lestat a victim and an abuser? Yes, these two things can be true at the same time, but he was not the victim for what he did to Louis.

Claudia and Louis are described to be these two black vampires who killed their loving Maker (master). The flashback to the fight that happened really messed with me, so I’m just gonna believe that Louis, Lestat and Claudia’s versions of the fights some of them were true. The portrayal of trying to make Louis this monster who rejected Lestat and was an animal himself because he consumed animal blood is telling.

Often Black people are seen as monsters, they are the aggressors even when we are victims. I want people to understand how Louis and Claudia being Black played into their vampirism. They are immortal creatures of the night, but they are still BLACK. New Orleans was notorious for its lynching and Louis was not safe from that, no Black person was. People will say Louis was a pimp and he’s manipulating Armand and Lestat, but I feel like yall fail to understand that Louis didn’t have options. A black man in 1960 New Orleans didn’t have the options to become anything greater than what white people allowed him to be. We see that when he plays the poker game, when he helps Anderson and gets called a Nigger, and when the race riots happen and they burned down his business. 

“She called me an angel…..they burned her building because of me….”

(Context: Claudia thought Louis was God’s angel coming to save her and Louis feels guilty because she was going to die just because Louis was a black man dominating the market. )

Santiago has humiliated Claudia by making her this minstrel act. To have her sing, dance, and parade around like a fool in front of a white audience. He hates that Louis doesn’t want to join them, and that Louis is fine by himself. Louis grimacing as he watches Claudia was my face throughout that episode. He then displays her private diaries to an audience, he tells them to pass it around! Mocks her accent, makes fun at her pain and sorrows. I’m pretty sure he read what happened to her with that vampire who graped her.

She’s not a victim anymore but a prop they can laugh at and mock for their own amusement. She was right when she said “this isn’t a trial, it’s a stoning.” It’s a lynching happening in real time. Notice how Madeleine is the only one allowed the option of redemption, she’s allowed to choose her fate. She chooses death with her companion, and she had my heart for that. She really was a ride or die.

Claudia’s last act is to perform her song to the masses one more time because that’s what she was, entertainment. The way Santiago picks up her yellow dress as some kind of token really made me think of how millions of white people would have picnics and bring their children to watch the burning, lynching of black people and then they would take tokens of the kill.

To conclude, this was a hard episode and Lestat was pissing me off. Also, ARMAND IN HIS LITTLE ASS PLAYPEN?! BFFR! Shout out to the actors! They really made this episode.

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Responding to yet more unhinged Anti zionists arguments

Because I am not going to waste my precious time and energy on replying to each ignorant person who believes Hamas are a "brave resistance group"

For the millionth time: I do not support the genocide of Palestinians when I say Israelis shouldn't die. I am not deflecting or denying anything, I am making posts about how I and other Israelis have been impacted by October 7th and the war ever since. I am allowed to mourn my people.

Released female Israeli hostages aren't "weaponizing Feminism". Just because some were "only" sexually assaulted and threatened with rape, doesn't mean others aren't raped. Israeli women were targeted on October 7th. Their assault, mutilation, and violent rape were all planned. Hamas terrorists who were caught and interrogated have said so themselves in published recorded interrogations. *** Regarding Mia Shem- I've said before: mocking her appearance isn't making you the great humane person you think you are. I've had some nutjob tell me "Oh well in an interview she said she was only groped and others were raped. She's using feminism and things people care about in order to gain sympathy." She was: -Kidnapped from a party and shot. -Operated on by a veterinarian while in captivity for over 50 days. -Starved ,beaten, mocked , groped and sexually assulted while constantly threatened with being raped. And you're mocking her. Wow that is a new low. Believe Jewish women.

You are constantly backing up your "facts" and statistics with un-credible sources. Let me make this clear one final time: Al Jazeera = racist and antisemitic supports terrorism There isn't a Gaza Ministry of Health- it's Hamas.

Palestinians and Hamas specifically are very racist towards Afro-Palestinian / black people. A quick Google search will lead you to this:

Anti-Black racism in Palestine

The State of Palestine has a community of Afro-Palestinians, many of whom are descendants of the victims of the historical Slavery in Palestine, which ended in the 20th-century.[43]

Racism against African Americans in Palestinian media (Wikipedia)

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been the subject of some viciously racial personal attacks, alongside vociferous criticism of her policies.[44] These included an anti-black racist cartoon in Palestinian Authority's controlled Press Al Quds. The New York Times reported in 2006:

Her comment that the Israel-Lebanon war represented the "birth pangs of a new Middle East"— coming at a time when television stations were showing images of dead Lebanese children — sparked ridicule and even racist cartoons. A Palestinian newspaper, Al Quds," which "depicted Ms. Rice as pregnant with an armed monkey, and a caption that read, "Rice speaks about the birth of a new Middle East.[45]

The Palestinian media has used racist terms including "black spinster" and "colored dark skin lady."[46][47]

.... The African Palestinians who now live in the two compounds near al-Aqsa mosque have called the area home since 1930.[12] They have experienced prejudice, with some Palestinian Arabs[21] referring to them as "slaves" (abeed) and to their neighbourhood as the "slaves' prison" (habs al-abeed), and their colour has led to objections against them marrying Palestinians with lighter skin.[9][3] According to Mousa Qous, director of the African Community Society and a former member of the PFLP, "Sometimes when a black Palestinian wants to marry a white Palestinian woman, some members of her family might object." Interracial marriage with Afro-Palestinians has become more common in recent years.[8] In colloquial Palestinian Arabic, standard usage prefers the word sumr (dark colour) over sawd, which has an uncouth connotation.[22]

-For further reading I found this research paper to be very detailed: https://d-nb.info/1204258597/34

*** I have to mention this as well since some anti-Zionist brought up MLK as an example for their argument against Israel: you clearly have no idea what you're talking about... he was a Zionist!

Jews and African Americans have historically been allies in their struggles for equality. He literally wrote an open letter titled "Letter to an Anti-Zionist friend", explaining why he supports Zionism. Do your research.

5. Gaza hasn't been under Israel's control since 2006, it is controlled by Hamas! Before that, it was governed by Fatah, Another terrorist organization (Hamas killed all of the Fatah members when they came to power). Hamas = terror organization leaching off the Palestinian people. They want to kill all Jews and are against everything that represents the West. UWNRA - Is filled with Hamas terrorists. UN & ICRC - Both have a long history of being biased against Jews and have failed the Jewish people once again.

6. Israelis don't deserve to die just because they are Israeli. They are not privileged to have a government that (relative to Hamas) cares about their civilians.

7. "From the river to the sea" Is a genocidal chant calling for the death of all Jews / Israelis. The final solution / one solution = killing all Jews, holocaust. Intifadas aren't peaceful or inspiring resistance. It's Terror attacks targeting civilians: Shootings, stabbings, lynchings, school buses exploding, etc.

I have an entire post explaining this, you're welcome to read it but the main takeaway should be: You don't get to decide what's anti-Semitic, Jews do. If Jews tell you this chant threatens them and is antisemitic- it is.

[kafkaesquetwink]

my great-great grandmothers wikipedia page does the “of jewish heritage” thing. she was jewish. she was a jewish woman who made jewish art and whose life was heavily defined by her judaism. SAY JEWISH. SAY IT. WHY DID SHE LEAVE GERMANY? WHY WAS HER BROTHER HELD IN “PROTECTIVE CUSTODY”? WHY WAS HER MOTHER BEATEN ON KRISTALLNACHT? WHY DID HER PASSPORT CALL HER “SARAH” WHEN THAT WASNT HER NAME??? people can have jewish heritage and not be jewish but that was not my great great grandmother.

[perrysoup]

As an arab who has lived in Israel, everyone's accusations that they are some kind of apartheid state? I don't understand where you get these ideas from? I think you conflate that idea with the things you Americans learned from your racist history of white and black people and your past of segregation and with the history of South Africa's past as well. I have never been othered or harassed as a Lebanese woman by my coworkers, bosses, or friends. I can read everything here becuase we have access to everything here, I cant read hebrew well, but I can read the arabic around the country. I'm not forbidden from places for being arab. I have had uncomfortable experiences in some areas, but never at the hands of a Israeli, but by men who assumed i was Israeli/ a jew and thought I couldn't understand what they would say about me/ my female family or friends with me.

I was gonna write out a different full response but frankly I don't believe you. You are asking as an anonymous person so you could very well be one of the Zionists who keeps complaining I don't have sympathy for the PTSD coming from MURDERING PEOPLE AND LAUGHING ABOUT IT! Or you may be telling the truth but the slew of go fund me scams claiming to be people that are really sets the bar high for someone being anonymous.

I have seen orthodox Jews on the streets of Israel beaten to an inch of their life for trying to stop a Palestinian from being harassed by police.

I have seen the videos about the Israeli government beat back protestors for wanting aid through.

I have seen rallies where people in Israel screamed "Death to all Muslim"

I have see a fucking girl torn to shreds and shoved on rebar like meat by the IOF so politely don't fucking tell me how YOUR experience defines the entire group currently being genocided and tortured.

Do you really expect me to think that just cause things were okay for YOU that the murders I saw with my own eyes aren't real?

Side note: Everyone in the Middle East is Arab, that's a regional cultural identity, not a religion or even a descriptor of which country they were born in. Jews in Palestine are Arab and Muslims in Israel are Arab.

"Arab identity (Arabic: الهوية العربية) is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab and as relating to being Arab. Like other cultural identities, it relies on a common culture, a traditional lineage, the common land in history, shared experiences including underlying conflicts and confrontations. These commonalities are regional and in historical contexts, tribal. Arab identity is defined independently of religious identity, and pre-dates the spread of Islam and before spread of Judaism and Christianity, with historically attested Arab Muslim tribes and Arab Christian tribes and Arab Jewish tribes. Arabs are a diverse group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. Most Arabs are Muslim, with a minority adhering to other faiths, largely Christianity,[1] but also Druze and Baháʼí.[2][3]"

Edit: to add an item on this, I’ll trust South Africa on if Israel is an segregation/apartheid state over you

[askmeaboutmyknome]

Sometimes when I'm cold I can't help but be thankful I have the life I do. I have so much freedom. I have the freedom to feel as many emotions as possible and to choose what to do with them. I have the freedom to go out with my best friends, to go to stores and go bowling, to see my boyfriend, to take a hot bath whenever I'd like to. I could have been born in so many different lives. As a house wife being beaten by her alcoholic husband in America in the 50s, as an enslaved Jewish woman in Germany in the 40s, as a rich pop star hooked on drugs in Hollywood in the 90s. I could've been born in a war torn country where I need to fight for my right to survive (and likely die trying). I still don't know what made me so deserving of this life, where I can post on this stupid little website from the comfort of my warm bed. But when I'm cold, I acknowledge the girl on the other side of the world, just like me, wishing she was warm again. What made her less deserving than me.

[jewish-vents]

I am about ready to scream at goyim going "imagine if a country that was mostly one religion committed genocide other than Israel! imagine any other country being that awful!" I AM JEWISH AND CHOCTAW. My people have been massacred, forced off our land, raped, beaten, killed, death marched down to Oklahoma, forced into residential schools, been denied tribal membership and access to the reservation (and our own fucking culture) for being too light-skinned, Christians came in and beat and killed and raped everyone trying to practice our ancestral religion, Christian charity was contingent on you being willing to go along with Christianity, the government that has its' boot on our neck to this day is Christian, and goyim really want to act like NO ONE religious has ever done anything bad other than (((some people)))?! Choctaw women are STILL raped and beaten by police at four times the rate of white people and you know what the dominant religion in the state it's being done is? Hint, it's not Judaism!

Do you know why my ancestors converted, goyim? It's because the only people who ever offered them any kindness or support who weren't asking them to give up their language, culture and way of life were Jewish. The only people who agreed being forced off of your land and death marched to Oklahoma was fucked up were Jewish people. The only one who would let my great-great-great-great grandfather work for an honest day's pay and pay him the same amount they would a white person was a Jewish man. When white people wanted to take my great-great-great grandfather and his sister and put them in an Evangelical school to indoctrinate and mistreat them, it was a Jewish woman who straight up lied to them and went, "oh they're not Native, they're my kids, actually! no need to take them anywhere, they're not Native, they're white, the father of my bastards is just tan from working outside a lot!" and thus kept them out of there. They converted because they saw the love of G-d and it sure as shit wasn't from Christians!

And people see me and they think, "oh, he's not white, so he must not be Jewish. I can say antisemitic shit in front of him" and it makes me want to go fucking feral. Do they think I just forgot why my ass is in Oklahoma and why I can speak English and Yiddish and not fluent Choctaw? Do they think I forgot who gave my family a plot of land to live on when my ancestors were declared too light skinned to be allowed to live on the reservation while also not being able to return home because white Christians had built a town atop the ruins of my people's land? Because it wasn't you, Karen. You would have been saying Native kids were better off at a residential school and we both know it! We know it because you're fine hating a minority if you just have something you can spin into an excuse and you're fine dehumanizing people if the opportunity presents itself. "Imagine if any other religion-" I don't have to imagine. I'm in Okla-fucking-homa, Karen!

I've been observant all my life but this has switched it from 'lazily observant' to 'digging my heels in and being as Jewish as humanly possible' for the same reason I work my ass off learning Choctaw despite the obstacles: white goyim do not own me and I do not owe it to them to conform to their culture and expectations.

Am Yisrael Chai Akostininchi li Yisrael

(yes I know how to say it in Choctaw, my parents embedded that in my psyche, even if the rest of our knowledge of the language is spotty)

.

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Hannah Senesh

Hannah Senesh was a young Jewish poet from Budapest who escaped Hungary in 1939 but parachuted back into Europe five years later as an Allied spy on a doomed mission to save Jewish lives.

Hannah was born in Budapest in 1921 to a secular Jewish family of writers and intellectuals. Her father Bela Senesh, a noted playwright, died when she was only six years old, and she was raised by her devoted mother Katherine. As soon as she could read, Hannah became a writer. She started keeping a diary at 13, which she continued for rest of her life.

Although Hannah was assimilated, that didn’t protect her family against rising antisemitism in Hungary. She joined Maccabea, a Zionist youth group, and for the first time in her life, cared about being Jewish and was proud of her identity. At age 18, after graduating from high school, she made aliyah – moved to the Land of Israel, then the British Mandate of Palestine. She settled on Kibbutz Sdot Yam in 1939.

Life at the kibbutz was difficult and Hannah wrote vividly in her diary about working long hours in the kitchen and laundry. She continued her creative writing, penning poems as well as a lively play about the kibbutz community. Hannah hadn’t forgotten the world she left behind in Hungary, and was determined to help her Jewish brethren escape from Europe, which was quickly becoming a deathtrap for Jews. In 1941 she joined the Haganah, the paramilitary group that later became the Israel Defense Forces. Two years later, she joined the British Woman’s Auxiliary Air Force as an Aircraftwoman 2nd Class.

Her goal was to return to Europe to fight the Nazis and save her fellow Jews. She was recruited into the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a secret British spy organization, and underwent intensive military training in Egypt. Her performance was so exceptional that she became one of 33 people selected for the high-stakes mission. In March 1944, she parachuted into Yugoslavia, where she joined the Partisans, a highly effective resistance group led by Josip Tito, later to be the long-serving prime minister of the country. At this time she wrote the poem, “Blessed is the March.”

Germany invaded Hungary in March, 1944, and immediately started deporting and murdering Jews with shocking speed. Fearlessly, Hannah snuck into Hungary on June 7, ready to do whatever it took to save her Jewish brothers and sisters. Tragically, she was caught soon after by Hungarian police, working with the Nazis. They found her British military transmitter, used to communicate with the SOE, and promptly arrested her and threw her in prison. Immediately upon arriving at the prison, she was stripped naked and tied to a chair for three days, during which she was whipped and beaten with a club. She lost several teeth as they tried to force her to reveal the code for her transmitter so they could catch other resistance workers and parachutists.

Desperate for Hannah to reveal information about resistance activities, they tracked down her mother, hiding in Budapest, and arrested her, hoping that Hannah would talk to protect her mother. Katherine, who had no idea Hannah was even in Hungary, was shocked to see her daughter for the first time in five years – missing teeth, covered in bruises, and malnourished. Together the two Senesh women agreed they wouldn’t help their captors in any way. Katherine was eventually released from prison and sent on the infamous Budapest “Death March,” but managed to escape. She hid in Budapest until it was liberated by the Soviets in January 1945.

During several months of imprisonment, Hannah was beaten and tortured daily, but she amazingly refused to share any information about Resistance activities. From her squalid cell, she used a mirror to flash signals out the window to other prisoners. She drew a Jewish star in the dust outside her window so those outside could see her Jewish pride.

She was put on trial in Budapest for treason in October 1944. She used her moment in the spotlight to eloquently denounce Nazism, and Hungarian complicity in genocide against the Jews. She refused to apologize for her actions or request mercy from the court.

Hannah was sentenced to death. On the last day of her life, she wrote letters to her mother and her comrades in the resistance. As she was taken to face the firing squad in a snow-covered courtyard, she refused to wear a blindfold, forcing her killers to look her in the eye as they shot her. Hannah was only 23 years old. Somebody at the prison, whose identity remains a mystery, made sure Hannah was laid to rest in the Jewish cemetery in Budapest. Her body was brought to Israel in 1950 and buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. In 1993, Hungary officially exonerated Hannah Senesh.

After Hannah’s death, poems were found in her prison cell, many of which have become songs written and performed by prominent Jewish singers such as Ofra Haza and Regina Spektor. Her diary and other writings were published in Israel – in fifteen editions so far. Hannah’s tragic, inspiring story has been the subject of multiple books and plays. A kibbutz and several streets are named after her, and every Israeli schoolchild knows of this legendary Jewish martyr.

One of Hannah’s most famous poems is known as Eli, Eli (“My God, My God.”). It was put to music by composer David Zahavi. The poem reads in part,

My God, My God,

I pray that these things never end,

The sand and the sea,

The rustle of the waters,

Lightning of the Heavens,

The prayer of Man.

For risking her life to save her fellow Hungarian Jews, and inspiring generations of Israelis, we honor Hannah Senesh as this week’s Thursday Hero

[djuvlipen]

If you came here to block me, especially if you're a Romani girl, PLEASE READ THIS FIRST.

Romani women are oppressed because of what we were born as: our biological sex.

Some Romani communities practice sex-selective abortions: when they learn a fetus is female, they abort it, because a girl is considered a burden. (x) "The birth of a daughter is quite a tragedy for a family, whilst the birth of a son, glossed metonymically as ‘birth of happiness’ (bucurie) is always an outstanding event (see also Gay y Blasco)." (x)

Romani women were sexually abused all throughout slavery. Assaulting Romani women was essential to slavery because it terrorized us into subjugation. It also allowed the slaveholder to control Romani women's reproductive abilities: birthing children meant more livestock for them. (x)

Romani women were shipped as slaves to American colonies to be bred with plantation slaves and, once again, increasing the number of slaves. (x)

During the Holocaust, Romani women were once again targeted by sexual violence, at higher rates than Romani men. Romani women were forced to serve in military brothels by the Romanian army allied with the Nazis (Anton Weiss-Wendt, The Nazi Genocide of the Roma). Romani women were also forced to serve in Nazi camp brothels (Sonja M. Hedgepeth, Rochelle G. Saidel (eds.), Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust).

Romani women have had our reproductive rights threaten times and times again, we were sterilized in Sweden (x), in Hungary (x), and in Czechoslovakia (x) during the 20th century (not to even mention the forced sterilization of Romani women in Nazi camps).

Romani women are among the first victims of the sex trade in Europe, we are trafficked at alarming rates by our relatives, friends or strangers, Romani or not. (x)

Because we are female, we are impacted by racism in a way that Romani men aren't: Romani women are more likely to have complications and to die during pregnancy and labor. (x)

Biological sex is relevant, even essential, to studying and challenging violence against Romani women. In all these instances, a privileged sex group (males) oppressed another sex group (female Roma) to dominate us.

Sex is an observable fact and distinct from gender. Gender refers to a set of roles ascribed to one sex in one given society. Gender is enforced by violence. You are socialized into a specific gender, whether you want it or not. For the Roma who are born female, that means:

You are expected to marry a man. A man whom your family approves of. Some Romani communities practice arranged marriages for their daughters, some of them are not even adult yet (x). It's not racist to state this, Romani women deserve bodily autonomy just as much as White women.

You are expected to remain a virgin until you're married. This is once again enforced with violence: in Spain, Romani women insert a handkerchief with their finger in the vagina of the bride to make sure she's a virgin, lest the entire family is dishonoured. (x)

In traditional communities, you are expected to stay at home, cook, and clean for your husband. You are expected to respect a strict dress code.

If you disobey to those rules, if you don't dress modestly, if you are a lesbian, you can be beaten, shunned, excluded by your Romani community. This is something I've personally seen and of which testimonies are easy to find.

These gendered expectations are part of the reason why Romani women are hit more harshly than Romani men by structural anti-Romani racism:

Romani women are more likely not to complete education.

Romani women are more likely not to know how to read and write. (x)

Romani women are more likely to be unemployed. (x)

Gender non-conformity is strictly punished, because people have a fixed idea of what being a woman is, and they will punish you if you try to act otherwise. The solution to this is not to say that a Romani woman who wants to pursue a career, doesn't dress modestly, or date other women, is actually a man or non-binary. The solution is to fight gender roles and get rid of gender altogether. Radical feminism is about fighting for the rights of those born female (women) against the domination established by the privileged sex class (men). The way to do this is to dismantle gender roles.

Stating this is not transphobic in any capacity. If you want to call me a "transmisogynist" or a "fascist" and block me, I want you to think really hard on why you are so ready to silence Romani women fighting to end the sex-based oppression we suffer from, do you think you are really a good ally by doing this?

[starrclownshazbinblog]

can we get more general angst :3 i breathe off angst

When I was writing that post I was thinking that no one would even like that post because why would you wanna know sad facts about my rewrite.

It's one of my top liked posts.

Ya'll really like sad stuff huh. Good thing I'm a artist!!

TRIGGERWARNING: GENERAL DISGUSTING TOPICS. PLEASE READ AT YOUR OWN RISK

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Henroin did everything he could to help Angel when his wife died. Angel, Molly, and Arackniss's mother also died in child birth because she was a POC. Angel cried over his shoulder multiple times. He didn't shame him, he just helped his baby.

Husk's father was extremely abusive to himself, his mother, and half brother.

Considering Vox is Jewish and lived during World War II he never got to be as out there as he wanted too. Yes he had his own small TV show but if he wasn't Jewish, he would have more funding.

Most people didn't like Velvette's fashion brand when she was alive. Velvette is a chubby girl, no one liked the chubby fashion designer's clothes for plus sized people. (This was me just venting at this point.)

Madame Pentious struggled alot as a human woman. She is a undiagnosed Autistic person. This caused issues in her life because she didn't know how to fix the internal problems she has. She was also around alot of things that triggered her sensory issues.

The smudgy dark lines that run down Mimzy's face us runny makeup. Mimzy was crying pretty hard when her manager chocked her up. Hell decided to remind her she died crying.

Valerie's limbs can break off VERY easily considering she's a porcelain doll. If this happens when she's alone or outside she can't do much about it because she can't speak. This causes her to panic. At one point this happened and Valerie tried to scream for help. 2 hours later Angel found her exhausted on the ground from screaming and crying. It wasn't pretty.

Considering Nifty has undiagnosed ADHD, she runs around alot and can forget things easily. This lead to other school girls calling her stupid for being so clumsy and forgetful. They told her no man would want her. This only strived her obsession to getting married and being wanted.

Valerie was bullied pretty heavily in school. For a matter of reasons, being Salvadoran, being lesbian (no one knew yet, they were just assuming, having a accent, being incredibly skinny. School was hell, so was home. The dance studio was her only safe place.

Angel used to struggle really bad with English. He's not from America and his family only spoke Italian so he didn't learn English when he was a child. He had to adapt pretty quickly so his family would fit in. Angel still gets upset if he messes up a English word.

Both Angel and his wife Carmilla are queer. Angel is gay and Carmilla is a lesbian. They were friends so they decided to get married so they can fake being straight. They didn't want to be kicked out of the mob or worse, murdered. They then had their daughter Isabella because of social pressure. They didn't want Isabella but they worked through it together. Isabella never got to meet Carmilla.

All three of the Spider Siblings died from suicide. Angel went first, then Molly, then Arackniss. They couldn't stand being away from each other.

Lucifer has the ability to take the magic out if Charlie. If this is too happen then Charlie falls lifeless, like if you cut a puppets strings. This happened once when Charlie and Lucifer got into a bad fight about her hotel. Lilith demanded he bring her back to life. He did very quickly, it was just a mistake. Charlie still hasn't forgotten it.

People rioted when Alastor's radio broadcasts began to take off on air. They weren't comfortable with a black man having unapologetic and truthful radio show.

Cherrie is obsessed with being strong enough to defend herself because she used to get the shit beaten out of her.

I could list more but I wanna be silly 😋

Asks are open, art is here, feel free to follow, reblog, ask questions, and things along those lines.

- ⭐️StarClown⭐️

[beardedmrbean]

A Jewish mom and her husband were attacked and beaten at a Brooklyn elementary school graduation by an Arabic-speakingfamily — who taunted them with shouts of “Free Palestine!” “Gaza is Ours!” and “Death to Israel!” she told The Post.

The mayhem erupted at PS 682 in Gravesend just after the school’s fifth-grade graduation — which was themed, ironically, “All you need is love.”

Instead, the Jewish woman’s husband was thrown to the ground by members of the other family. One man put him in a chokehold, he said. Others grabbed his legs as they kicked and punched him. One woman repeatedly whacked him with the sharp heel of a black stiletto, the mom told police.

“They targeted my family because we are Jewish,” said the mother, whose 10-year-old twins witnessed the assaults.

“A graduation event that was supposed to be joyous and memorable turned into a violent and traumatizing one.”

It was one of the worst outbursts of antisemitism in NYC public schools since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack in Israel and war in Gaza, because it escalated beyond words, said Tova Plaut, a city educator and advocate for Jewish peers.

“We consistently warned that tolerating overtly antisemitic views would create a toxic environment for Jewish students and families, inevitably leading to physical violence,” Plaut said. “This has now occurred.”

The Jewish mom, Lana, and her husband Johan, a Dominican who is Catholic, recounted their horrific experience to The Post in frustration because the NYPD did not classify the incident as a hate crime.

But after the couple urged the NYPD to reconsider, a spokesperson said Saturday, “The Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating the incident.”

The Post is withholding the couple’s last names to protect their children’s privacy and safety.

The graduation ceremony itself was uneventful, but Lana’s mother was upset when one student marched across the stage wearing his graduate cap marked  “Free Palestine” and waving a small Palestinian flag. The grandma walked out.

A school administrator told another parent that the city Department of Education’s legal staff had okayed the display as an expression of free speech.

After the event concluded, Lana and Johan started to take pictures with their two kids in front of a PS 682 banner and balloons when relatives of the boy with the flag tried to push them out of the way, she said.

“We told them there was space for both families,” Lana said. “An older man turned to us and said ‘Free Palestine!’ for no reason. My husband told him this was not the time or place for that but the man cursed at him in Arabic, and shouted, “Free Palestine, Gaza is Ours, Death to Israel.”

While Johan argued with the older man and told him to back off, another man “just came out of nowhere, punched me in the head and it was a scuffle,” he said. “From there, I don’t remember, because there was so much going on and so many people on top of me. Then I was put on a chokehold. Somebody was holding my leg. It was chaotic.”

Their 16-year- old son tried to help his dad, but he was punched in the face.

Lana walked toward her son and managed to record a glimpse of the scene with her cell phone — capturing a group holding her husband down, jostling and loud shrieks — before she, too, was assaulted.

“A woman from the group came up from behind me, pulled me by the hair, and knocked me down on the ground, shouting, ‘I will kill you,’” she said.

Lana screamed, “Call the cops! Call the cops!”

No security was on site. Two male teachers rushed over to break up the attack. 

Johan was taken to Maimonides Medical Center with scrapes, bruises and swelling on his head, face and body, photos show. Lana suffered a gash on her leg. Their teen son had a bloody nose. 

Cops made one arrest:  Ez-Al Dean Bazar, 26, who punched and dragged Johan, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. The complaint makes no mention of his motive.

Bazar was released on his own recognizance. He and his lawyer did not return messages seeking comment.

DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer refused to say how school officials classified the fracas.

“Graduations should be times of celebration and joy, and we strongly denounce anyone who acts in a violent or aggressive way during such events,” he said.

But he shifted blame to Lana and Johan as well: “Initial reports we have received from multiple witnesses indicate that both families engaged in aggressive behavior, but we are still investigating the matter and are simultaneously engaging with families as we work towards a resolution.”

Lana disputed the statement, insisting no one in her family provoked the attack, and that school staff told the arresting officer that members of the other family were the aggressors.

“My husband was trying to de-escalate the situation,” she said. “The DOE is trying to sweep it under the rug to avoid further scrutiny of this heinous antisemitic act.” 

[torchflies]

She Loves Them; Girl!Slider, Jewish!Slider

Something that's been kicking around in my drafts and listening to TTPD brought it back out 😂

Slider does anything she can for the boys she loves.

—

Ronnie Kerner never expected to be a blushing bride. 

But she never expected to be sitting in the middle of her childhood bedroom crying either, sitting cross-legged in her wedding gown, in a puddle of tulle and taffeta. 

She scrubs at her face with a handful of wet wipes, knowing she’ll need to redo her makeup before the ceremony begins — she can't let Tommy down. 

She's never been able to let him down, not then as her seven-year-old butterball of a best-friend with bruises and hurts that she could never hope to heal and not now as her pilot, her oldest friend, the man she lov — no. She can't, she can't say that. She can't.

Ice loves her, she knows he does. He loves her like a sister, like his RIO, his best-friend, like a body in his bed; a poor compromise for the one he really wants to hold.

She's never been able to deny him anything. 

Now, in a few hours, she’ll be his wife, his forever cover story, his canopy of protection so that he can be with the man he loves. She’ll be his wife to keep him safe, to make their families happy, to give him the children he wants. 

She loves Tom. She loves him in every way someone can love. How was she supposed to say no when he asked her? 

“It's just until you find someone,” Ice said that first night, his head tucked against her shoulder the way he's always done, “When you want the divorce, just say when and it’ll be done, Ron. I promise.”

It's only ever been you, she didn't say.

“I'm happy you found someone, Tommy.” She said instead, socking him in the gut to make him cough and laugh. “Even if it is Mav.”

She fixes her makeup with a small, handheld compact mirror and is perfectly presentable by the time her father, Ice and his parents appear at her door. They do things a bit out of order, having already signed the ketubah the day before, so she simply holds out her veil for the bedeken. The lace is delicate but thick and layered, designed to obscure her entire face as tradition dictates. Ice lays the tiara on her waterfall of red-brown curls and tucks the veil over her face, hiding her amongst the white blooms. 

The Bible says that Jacob was tricked into marrying the wrong woman because she was already veiled, so the groom must do the veiling — to be sure that he's marrying the right person. 

“Thank you.” Ice breathes, barely a whisper and she nearly shudders at the sound. 

This is wrong. 

I'm Leah, aren't I? 

Tom goes first, led out of her room and down the stairs to where the chuppah has been erected in their backyard. He is led arm-in-arm by his cold Admiral father — the man Ronnie has hated with a passion since the day she was old enough to understand the reason why her best-friend was always beaten black and blue and jumped at the slightest of sounds — and his soft-spoken doormat of a mother. Ronnie is led next, by her father, the Rabbi. He holds her tightly so she doesn't fall, whispering how proud he is. She just fights back another wave of tears. 

She joins the man she loves under the chuppah, circles him seven times for the home they're going to build together and she smiles in front of their family and the men they fly with, those who have become their brothers in all but name. They are the only ones who know the truth, well, not her truth but Ice’s. 

Hollywood’s shout of mazel tov! is the loudest and a beat behind everyone else’s. Sunny and Chip nearly throw Tommy off his chair during the Hora to a chorus of whoops and Mav’s abject horror.

While Wolf steals her away for a dance that leaves her laughing and smiling genuinely for the first time all night. “Are you okay?” He whispers, the moment they get close enough. She debates what to say for several more steps, so long that he prods her with a soft, “Sli?”

She eventually brushes his concerns away with a smile composed of more broken glass than their future mezuzah will be, “I’m fine, Wolfie.” His own smile wavers, like he doesn't believe her. But she's swept away before he can say anything else. 

Eventually, she bumps into Maverick. 

Maverick Mitchell himself, the jumped-up little idiot who stole her pilot’s heart and ran away with it. At least he always comes back — with Tom’s heart at least, she has no idea what Mav has done to her own. 

“Don’t you look lovely, Sli!” He teases and she whips off a heel to mime bludgeoning him with it. 

He’s too used to her to be scared though, just holds his nose with a grin. “Geez, put that back on before you stink up the joint.” He tacks on nasally and she rolls her eyes. 

Before she can be tugged away, back into the fray, he presses a Budweiser into her hand. She looks from the closed top and down to her fluffy wedding dress in one swift motion that has him snatching the bottle back with a scoff and popping it open on those ridiculous rabbit teeth of his. 

“Here then, Mrs. Kazansky.” He snaps, with enough venom to surprise them both. “I didn’t… I’m sorry, Sli. I know this is helping, I’m just…” 

She nudges his shoulder with the bottle, he’s wearing his bomber jacket over his khakis. It’s ridiculously out of regs, but he looks adorable. “It’s okay, Maverick.” She sighs, gentle and fond. “I get it.”

She doesn't take a sip though, she can't. 

She presses the bottle back into his hands. 

He looks down at the bottle, then at her, then lower and goes pale. 

She squeezes his hand, “It's a commandment, you know, for us to be fruitful and multiply.” 

“Veronica, I —” She shakes her head, cutting him off. It's strange to hear him call her Veronica. No one calls her Veronica. 

“I hope you have a good night, Mav. Caspian Hotel, down the strip, your room is 228, if he hasn't told you yet. Enjoy your night.” She whispers, a parting gift, before she holds her head up high and disappears into the crowd of her own wedding party, wondering how it is that she’s managed to have her heart broken twice in one evening.