#protect palestinian adults also

[m3-mianbo]

I conjole of y'all to donate to this charity, or any others in the same category of relevance, for the sake of the kids.

فلسطين حرة

Ազատ Պաղեստին

[blackpearlblast]

[ID: drawings of a golem animated by a palestinian flag painted on its forehead. it is seen: holding out its arms protectively in front of a crowd of children, the children also hold each other supportively; catching an air strike missile from the air and throwing it away or crushing it in its fist; turning its back so that a child can warm her hands by the earth oven built into its back, food in a pot is cooking on the fire and a boy holds a cup of steaming tea to his face and enjoys the aroma; clearing away rubble so a man can help up his wife who was buried underneath, she is clutching a baby to her chest; stooping down to look at a kitten a young boy is holding up to show it; and dissolving small flakes of clay from its finger into a glass of water, purifying it. end ID]

@fairuzfan asked people to create and share art for the strike. i wrote an artist statement and then set about trying to draw what i envisioned. artist statement below.

This golem is a protector that I wish I could gift to the children and adults in Gaza. The flag on its forehead is to show that love for the Palestinian people is an animating force for people fighting for a free Palestine all over the world, especially for those in Palestine who are trying to free themselves and their people. Love is the motivation for the call for a free Palestine, not hatred like people try to claim. It is very strong and fast and can catch air strikes out of midair and crush them to dust or throw them back in the direction they came from. It can lift all the rubble of a collapsed building very quickly so nobody can get trapped underneath. It has an earth oven in its back with an ever-burning flame that people can use to warm themselves and cook food and heat water to use to bathe themselves or make tea. Pieces of its clay can be crumbled up and mixed into water to make even the most brackish and unclean water pure and safe to drink.

The golem is always a bit of a tragic figure so I don't imagine it staying around forever once Palestine is free and it is no longer needed. I think it would use its great strength to help rebuild the destroyed houses, churches, schools, universities, hospitals, and mosques and then dive into the Jordan river and dissolve. It would clean the river of all pollution and make the water splash up over all the newly replanted fruit trees, causing them to grow big and strong. Its love for Palestine and its people can be tasted in the fruit they grow for generations.

I choose a specifically Jewish icon of protection because of how it feels to witness such horrors done in the supposed name of Judaism and the Jewish people. For many anti-zionist Jews, we feel like we are acting directly within the teachings of our stories and communities by opposing this genocide. It is difficult to understand how the very people and institutions who taught us these values now fight against them so fiercely. While obviously I would still oppose Israel were I not Jewish, the way I oppose Israel is directly informed by my Jewishness. I hope that someday, somehow, Judaism can bring as much joy and support to the Palestinian people as it has brought grief and destruction. That Jewish symbols used in the name of love and justice will bear more significance than the ones used in shows of hatred. Knowing the depth of the harm caused, I do not know if this is possible. But this artwork and everything I have dedicated myself to these past few months and continue to dedicate myself to in the future is born from this hope. I love you. Thank you for being on this planet with me. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! And it will be beautiful.

[opencommunion]

"The racism embedded in colonial logic often creates 'differentiation' between those people who are allowed to have a category of childhood and those who are at the margins of humanity and so are denied such a category. The deployment of such a differentiation is not unique to Zionism and its racialized concepts of Israeli sovereignty. Mbembe suggests that the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized can only be one of violence and domination, since the animalized colonized people cannot have an existence that is in any way equal to that of the colonizers. Caging the colonized in spaces of nonexistence enables the colonial power to persist while maintaining an inhumane image of the colonized. Caging reveals inherent contradictions, especially in Hebron where the act of confining Palestinians within their houses and communities is justified as a necessary measure to protect Israelis and to maintain the state’s 'security' as a mode of 'separating' two 'contesting' groups and/or to 'protect' the Palestinians from the violence of the settlers. Arbitrary justifications are also one of the distinctive features of colonial power, and the dynamics of caging can serve both to validate the perception of the Palestinians as animals that must be controlled and also as a group that is receiving the ostensibly benevolent protection of the state that has encaged them in this manner. ... Children in cages are treated no different than their elders. In fact, more often than not, they are considered more dangerous than adults, since the children are the builders of the future, and their speech and silences ... convey thoughts and plans about what they might do to liberate themselves from such a cage. The refusal of children to accept humiliation as part of their reality was a vivid and daily reminder to the occupier that the land is stolen; this is one reason for their caging." Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (2019)

[dlxxv-vetted-donations]

Ahmed can't save his family without our help.

My other promotion lists

Note: I do not often make posts for campaigns I am not focusing on, and I won't be updating this. I encourage others to adopt this campaign (because I can't right now) and make sure it gets the traction it needs.

Updated: Sep 21

Member(s): @ahmedpalestine

Verification: by @/gaza-evacuation-funds here, by @/bilal-salah0 (vetted sheet #132) here

Payment methods: Paypal, credit/debit

Summary: Ahmed is a Palestinian in Belgium whose family is stuck in Gaza. They are in Al-Maghazi refugee camp, which was and continues to be under attack. He's suffering watching the situation get worse while being unable to help evacuate them due to lack of consistent attention on his campaign. He also worries about how the children in the family will cope with inadequate shelter in winter.

Current progress:

€ 3,351 / 55,000

Campaign/family details:

Ahmed Khader is a Palestinian who left Gaza to Belgium in 2019.

He desperately needs consistent focus on his campaign, as it stagnates after people share his post once.

His family is still in North Gaza and enduring extreme suffering. They relocated multiple times in search of safety that they didn't find.

On Sep 10, Israel bombed tents in the designated safe zone of Al-Maghazi refugee camp, where the family was staying. Ahmed desperately called his parents, panic increasing as there was no signal.

Ahmed feels extremely stressed and helpless as he cannot afford to protect them from their deteriorating situation.

They are 12 people: 6 adults (€5,000 each) and 6 children under 16 years old (€2,500 each). Evacuating everyone will cost €45,000, with an additional €10,000 allocated for survival needs.

The campaign isn't getting enough attention and Ahmed is in agony, unable to stop thinking about how to help them.

He reached out to me with the following message expressing concerns about his family's (particularly the children) inability to cope with colder temperatures in their tents. He gave me permission to share his message to me:

[ID in alt text]

[toychest321]

While I was looking into Fulla dolls, I found out another Muslim fashion doll was released around the same time!

Meet Razanne! (And be prepared for a loooooong deep dive under the Keep Reading lol)

From what I've been able to piece together from various sources, she was created by Palestinian-American Ammar Saadeh and his wife Noor in 1996, being initially launched through the internet before more publicly advertised to Middle-Eastern and American audiences in 2004. Their goal was to show Muslim girls that "what matters is what's inside you, not how you look" (quoted from an interview with Greensoboro News and Record). They wanted to give them a role model with an emphasis on education and religion, while also having a career! To reflect the diversity of the global Muslim ummah, each of her dolls came in three variants: Pakistani-Indian (olive skin w/ dark hair), Black (dark skin w/ dark hair), and Caucasian (fair skin w/ fair hair).

While unfortunately she's no longer in production, the WayBack machine has a record of all her dolls released through the Noorart website! Each doll listing also includes additional information to educate on Islamic culture!

First there's Schoolgirl Razanne, whose listing reads:

"Razanne loves school and is all ready with her bright red book bag to join her friends in class. For your information…Traditional uniforms are worn by schoolgirls in Islamic schools. In addition to the usual subjects, students also study the Arabic language and the Qur'an - the Muslim Holy Book."

Next we have Teacher Razanne, whose listing reads:

"What is a more honorable and specialized career than education? Our teacher Razanne comes full equipped with lap top computer, briefcase and all the necessary items for school. For your information... Many Muslim girls study to become educators. Two-piece suits with jacket and skirt are popular styles for Muslim women who work outside the home as teachers or other professionals."

There's Playday Razanne, who unlike the prior two came with no accessories, her listing reads:

"Dressing modestly doesn't keep Razanne from having fun! On the playground, Razanne plays in her scarf and a loose fitting jumper that gives her lots of room to run and jump. For your information... Dressing modestly doesn't prevent Muslim girls from having fun outdoors! Whether biking, skating, on the playground or at the park children manage to have fun no matter where they are!"

We also have a Muslim Scout Razanne, who came with a free audiotape of Muslim Scout Cheers and a preview of We Love Muhammad! Her listing reads:

"'I'm honest, kind and trustworthy.' Muslim Scouts' organizations all over the world help build character and skills for success in this life and the next. Razanne wears her merit badges and awards earned for community service, Islamic behavior and Qur'an memorization. Respect for Allah, parents and all members of the community are a top priority with Razanne. For your information…like all Scout troops, Muslim Scouts are encouraged to excel in personal attributes such as honesty, cooperation and leadership as well as taking an active part in community service and environmental protection."

Next up there's Eid Mubarak Razanne, which came two different color variants for her outfit, her listing reading:

"Razanne is all ready to celebrate the Muslim holiday. Dressed in her new floral fashions of pink or blue, Razanne has Eid cards addressed to all her friends and is ready to deocorate the party with balloons. The perfect Eid gift for any girl! For your information… Muslims celebrate two major festivals each year. One is the Eid Al Fitr following the month-long fast of Ramadan. A second holiday occurs during the annual Pilgrimage to Makkah. Children and adults look forward to these two special days with great anticipation. Before the Eid the entire family goes out shopping for new clothes to wear for Eid Day. Early Eid morning the family meets with other members of the community for an Eid Prayer then disperse to family gatherings and other celebrations. Children are often given gifts of toys or money and families exchange delectable sweets that differ according to the region in which they live. Muslims exchange greetings of Eid Mubarak,"Eid Congratulations", Eid Saeed, "Happy Eid" and wish each other a coming year full of God's blessings. Kul 'am wa anta bi khair!"

I wasn't able to find any other images for Prayer Razanne like the others unfortunately, and apparently she came with accessories too! Her listing reads:

"Allahu Akbar! God is the Greatest! It's time to pray and Razanne is ready! When it's time for prayer, many Muslim girls cover their everyday clothes with these traditional two-piece garments and stand to pray on colorful prayer rugs. We receive so many letters from customers that tell us that Razanne usually joins the family for salah! For your information… when it's time for prayer, many Muslim girls cover their everyday clothes with these traditional two-piece garments and stand to pray on colorful prayer rugs. Muslim women may pray in congregation at the Mosque but it is often more convenient to pray the five daily prayers at home."

And finally we have In And Out Razanne, whose listing reads:

"In and Out Razanne comes with a two-piece fashion set for wear inside and outside the home. At home Razanne loves to dress in all the latest fashions. In a minute she can be ready to go out with this traditional jilbaab coat. Razanne helps Muslim girls understand that in the home they can be the ultimate fashion statement yet still have attractive attire while dressing modestly outside the home. For your information…Razanne helps Muslim girls understand that in the home they can be the ultimate fashion statement yet still have attractive attire while dressing modestly outside the home."

I'm honestly so glad I found this, because doing research into this doll has been a blast! I love the vintage vibes of her outfits with the patterns and color choices, and it makes me really happy seeing this doll being used as an educational tool for Islamic culture and practices!

Thank you to limbedolls.blogspot.com, emel.com, Greensboro News and Record, and "Framing Muslims" by Peter Morey and Amina Yaqin for the information that went into this long-ass post!

Ramadan Kareem!

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Repost from @thesameerproject:

Winter in Gaza is here.

Rain, wind, and dipping temperatures combined with displacements, makeshift tents, and destroyed infrastructure, and the situation becomes a recipe for disaster.

We must act now. The Sameer Project is launching a Winter Campaign in order to prepare for and mitigate some of the suffering. Last winter half of Gazans still had shelter and not all vital infrastructure, particularly in the south, was out of operation. This winter is drastically different as 1.9 million people are internally displaced, water and sewage infrastructure has been destroyed, food aid is trickling in, and the healthcare system is at the brink of absolute collapse.

These families need your support. Picture what it would be like to have no roof, no warmth, no protection. We cannot allow this to happen. The Sameer Project aims to provide:

-100 sturdy weatherproof tents sheltering an estimated 1,000 people

-100 large waterproof tarps to winterize current shelters

-100 thick warm blankets to keep people from freezing

-100 winter outfits for children and adults who have nothing but summer clothing

YOU can directly be responsible for keeping someone warm and dry this winter. While we sit under our roofs, in our warm dwellings, please keep those in mind that have been stripped of all basic necessities and rights, while also experiencing unimaginable horrors and massacres around them.

Let’s make a difference. Find the Tents, Cash Aid, and Medical 🔗 in our bio and help prepare Gaza for winter.

[soon-palestine]

Who Is the Egyptian Tycoon Accused of Charging Palestinians to Escape Gaza?

Ibrahim al-Organi has close connections with the Egyptian government, diplomats say, and he has multiple business interests in Gaza.

By Vivian Yee, Emad Mekay and Adam Rasgon Vivian Yee and Emad Mekay reported from Cairo, and Adam Rasgon from Jerusalem.

June 20, 2024, 5:49 a.m. ET

He is an Egyptian mogul who is little known outside the region.

The tycoon, Ibrahim al-Organi, chairman of Organi Group, oversees a vast network of companies involved in construction, real estate and security. He maintains close connections to top Egyptian officials, three people who have tracked the relationship and who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their work in the region.

But it is Hala — a company that Organi Group has listed as one of its own — that has drawn the most scrutiny.

Hala has emerged as a lifeline for Palestinians who are trying to escape war-torn Gaza but has also been accused of squeezing desperate people with exorbitant fees.

In an interview this month, Mr. Organi spoke at length and in detail about Hala’s activities, though he said that his role in the company was limited and that he was just one of many shareholders.

Officials at Hala did not respond to questions sent by email.

What is Hala?

Hala had long been listed on Organi Group’s website as one of the conglomerate’s companies, but the reference appeared to have been removed recently.

Organi Group did not respond to a request for comment about why it had removed Hala from the website. Organi Group has at least eight businesses. The company lists Mr. Organi as its chairman and his son, Essameldin Organi, as the chief executive.

The older Mr. Organi, according to the company’s website, has built “a diverse business empire acting as an inseparable backbone to the Egyptian economy in countless fields.”

In the interview in his office in Cairo, Mr. Organi described Hala as a tourism company, “just like any company that exists at an airport.”

It was set up in 2017, he said, to provide V.I.P. services to Palestinian travelers who wanted an upgraded experience crossing through Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza. At the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in February.

Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters According to people who paid for its services during the war, Hala has charged most Gazans older than 16 years $5,000, and most of those younger than 16 half that, $2,500, to coordinate their exits. They also said V.I.P. service was missing. Mr. Organi says Hala charges $2,500 per adult — and nothing for children.

What are the mogul’s ties to Gaza?

Mr. Organi was born in 1974 in the Egyptian border town of Sheikh Zuweid near Gaza.

He says he is merely a shareholder or partner in any companies with business relating to Gaza. But in the interview, he said his companies played a key role in the reconstruction in Gaza, including the removal of rubble, after a previous round of war between Israel and Hamas in 2021. Sign up for the Israel-Hamas War Briefing. 

His Instagram account features several videos that show earth-moving equipment clearing destroyed buildings in Gaza City in 2021. Text below many videos note that the work was being carried out based on the “instructions from President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.”

Mr. Organi also leases trucks to aid groups transporting supplies into the territory and procures some of those same supplies. Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel that led to the war, Mr. Organi appeared at the border between Egypt and Gaza and pledged to support Palestinians in Gaza. “We won’t hesitate,” he said in remarks broadcast by the Egyptian news media. “They are our brothers.” Mr. Organi also says he is in talks about potentially participating in Gaza’s reconstruction after the war.

How is he linked to the Egyptian government?

Mr. Organi has maintained close relationships with members of the Egyptian government, using his influence to advance his business interests, according to two diplomats familiar with the matter. He was already a well-known businessman in Sinai when he rose to prominence in the 2010s after he partnered with the Egyptian military to fight militants in the peninsula who claimed affiliation with the Islamic State.

Trucks waiting near the Rafah border crossing in Egypt last month.

In the interview, Mr. Organi said he had led the Sinai Tribes’ Union, a statebacked group that helped to fight the militants in the peninsula.“God helped us gather the tribes again under the banner of the Union and put me as the head,” he said. “We decided to help the government wipe out terror groups completely.”

In 2022, Mr. el-Sisi appointed Mr. Organi as one of two nongovernment members on the Sinai Development Authority, which is responsible for development initiatives in the peninsula.

Mr. Organi recently announced that he, along with other tribal figures, would build a city named for Mr. elSisi in Sinai. He said that did not mean he had a special relationship with the president, and that others were involved. “We are known for strongly supporting President Sisi and we love him,” Mr. Organi said, “but it’s not that we are the only ones.”

Vivian Yee is a Times reporter covering North Africa and the broader Middle East. She is based in Cairo.

Yee Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.

[ursa-the-stranger]

Op had to restrict replies but I wanted to reblog so heres a copy paste of it sans op's name. I will take this down if they ask however.

I have been noodling over posting this for several days but I think it's important for some people to hear.

At a March on Saturday, at a pro Palestine march, my group and I were targeted by by nazis. Not targeted for violence, but targeted for recruitment. They weren't wearing swastikas, they weren't spewing blatant antisemitic hate speech. They seemed like two normal dudes. They marched with us, talked about how awful everything in Palestine was, how we wished world leaders would grow a pair and hold Israel responsible for fucking war crimes, how existing in the world right now was hard. They were empathetic, they were kind, they seemed like genuine good dudes.

Until we passed a synagogue where people were handing our water to marchers. They had signs defending Palestine on their table. But the tone of the conversation changed. These two seemingly normal dudes started talking about how "performative" the gesture felt, that Jewish people should be doing more. That they needed to PROVE it. They started talking about "Zionist" propaganda in the US, about how it was deeply entrenched in capitalism. Things that, on the surface, seemed reasonable but it set off alarm bells in my head.

When I was a kid, I remember getting the speech of "don't repeat anything your uncle or cousin so and so says and don't argue with them. Try to avoid them but if you can't be polite." Because those uncles and cousins said a lot of hateful things about anyone who wasn't like them, but their favorite targets were black people and Jewish people. I would find out as an adult it was because many of those uncles and cousins were in the Klan. When I studied hate symbols for a class in college, I found my self looking at images I'd seen on arms and necks and hands my whole life, because I live in an area of the US where the KKK is still around. And standing in that crowd, listening to these guys talk, i had the most horrible realization I've had in a long time.

We were being fished by Nazis. We were a group of able body, white American leftists. At a march in support of stopping the murder and genocide of Palestinians, these motherfuckers were out here, trying to find people they could get to hate Jewish folks. I wasn't the only one in my group who clocked it, and when we called them on it, the masks came off. They called us a bunch of "Jew loving bitches" before they moved on.

But we're marched with these guys for a couple hours, talked with them, laughed with them, brought them into our circle. For a moment we forgot we also weren't immune to propaganda, we weren't immune to people who make hate sound reasonable and that people like that never start out saying the quiet part out loud, they lean on your anger and your sense of helplessness to move you where they want you. If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that fascists know how to adjust to the times, to work with what they got, to recruit. They know how to radicalize people, how to weaponize anger and helplessness. And I'm sitting here, every day, seeing posts that sound exactly like these guys did and it worries me.

I know I'm talking to the No Reading Comprehension Website, but I'm begging you guys to develop some now.

You are not immune to propaganda. We are all angry, as we fucking should be. We are watching an entire culture, thousands of lives, whole bloodlines, being wiped out in real time, and for many of us our nations are at best, wringing their hands, and at worst, shipping them weapons, all to protect capitalist greed. It's monstrous, it's disgusting. But look, REALLY LOOK, at the things you are tweeting, sharing, look at the language and how it's used. Take the time to educate yourself about how hate groups use social justice causes and civil unrest to recruit, research the posts your spreading, check your sources. If you are out protesting, be situationally aware, and do not be afraid to clock and call out Nazis. Listen to Jewish people, listen to their concerns, educate yourself on what Zionism and antisemitism actually are and how they can be weaponized. It doesn't feel as good as rage, it doesn't feel as good as having a group you can functionally rail against in a way we can't against a nation a world away, but it's a skill that's going to help you and a lot of other people in the long run.

[kendrixtermina]

The grimy, racist core of the "but Hamas" thing is not that Hamas is like secretly all perfect rainbow sparkles wonderful, but that Palestinians are expected to have a perfect flawless government before their desire for self-determination & right to resist are taken seriously

Somehow past violence disqualifies Palestinian authorities (at least those that won't be stooges) but it is NEVER treated as invalidating Israel's credibility though they did all the same violence and more ten times over, and also, they STARTED it.

Palestinians are held to an impossible standard.

Or its not even that, because the west bank government became Vichy France level stooges & that didn't lead to a Palestinian state, it was used to prevent that. It's a rigged, no win game.

Hamas (which is only one leading faction in a larger coalition of Palestinian resistance fighters that includes socialists as well) doesn't need to be perfect for Palestinians to have a right to self-determination & to resist occupation.

After all its not like western governments are perfect... far from it... and the Israeli government & military are a heart of darkness and a wretched hive of sin, theres no other way to put what I've learned from all the books, documentaries & tentimonies I've been looking at over the last few weeks as well as the real time events unfolding. There is no evil they wont stoop to.

It's the same basic flaw that creates problematic legal grey zones in USA reservations - can't give the "savages" juristiction over "our" citizens so you can just go in there & do a crime. Or the original sin of the UN, which is the veto power.

The rich countries need to finally stop acting like they are by default the adults at the table even if they're acting like toddlers.

All the world is for Palestine! All the world. This includes most ppl under 40 in the West, just that our shitty old man politicians don't represent us. But overwhelmingly most UN states voted to censure Israel time & time again & the USA keeps protecting them. All the world is against this! They're not all stupid. The USA is not more enlightened. They're just another self-serving superpower just like China & Russia. Yes those regimes suck - but the USA sucks! And ppl in India & Africa do admire China for making cheap tech products accessible to less rich countries. The USA (& by extension most the leadership of the western block) is letting Israel do every conceivable evil right now, there IS no moral high ground.

Time we had real equality. Time we expunged the last vestiges of colonialism. In the UN, in western countries, and in occupied Palestine, where it is the strongest.

[palms-upturned]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-escape-gaza-a-mothers-plea-for-safety

Dear friends and supporters,

My name is Nada, and I am reaching out to you with a heavy heart and a sense of urgency.

Here in Gaza, there is a small tent standing alone in the corner of a refugee camp. Inside it, I sit with my young children, trying to protect them in every way possible and provide them with comfort and safety despite the hardships.

My children and I are now in great danger and need your help to evacuate from Gaza to safety. The situation worsens every day with limited access to drinking water, food, and medicine, along with facing the horrors of war.

The war has swept away our homes and dreams, and now we live in a tent, surrounded by hunger, fear, and diseases. My youngest son suffers from hepatitis due to pollution and lack of healthcare.

The days pass very slowly, and the situation deteriorates further each day. The need for food, medicine, water, shelter, and safety has become nearly impossible.

I have launched a fundraising campaign to facilitate our evacuation to Egypt and to start our lives anew. The ticket price to enter Egypt is $5,000 for each adult and $2,500 for children.

Your contribution, no matter how big or small, will make a significant difference in our lives and give us a chance for a brighter future. With your donation, you can be the light that illuminates our lives.

Please save my children; I do not want them to die in Gaza. If I cannot survive, please do not forget them. Protect them after I am gone.🙏🏼❤️

Of course Nada 💙

Everyone, this is a legitimate fundraiser, and one that is very low on funds! Nada has only raised around €500 out of €15,000 so please donate what you can and spread this campaign!

Palestinian user ibtisams vouches for this campaign!

EDIT: Nada is also number 182 on this spreadsheet compiled by el-shab-hussein and nabulsi!

[mariacallous]

In April, when a group of pro-Palestinian activists pressured Florence’s city hall to have the local honorary Israeli consul resign, they also took aim at a politician, Sara Funaro, who was running for mayor.

“We’re sorry that we haven’t heard one word of condemnation of the Israeli government’s behavior from Marco Carrai,” the honorary consul, the activists said. “Just as striking is the silence of Councilor Funaro, who has actually wished this person well in his work.”

Funaro didn’t respond — and doesn’t appear to have publicly addressed the statement at all. Two months later, she won the mayoral election, becoming the first woman and first Jew to lead the city known as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance.

The April petition incident reflects how Funaro, 48, has navigated being a Jewish politician in Italy.

She has expressed support for Israel, talked about what led her to embrace Judaism as an adult and, after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, received police protection due to antisemitic attacks.

But she also has not placed Judaism or Israel at the center of her career, instead trying to respond to hate against her with a poker face and framing her public persona around her family’s deep roots in the Tuscan city.

“When you put yourself out there in the context of an electoral campaign as mayor, you know that someone will try to exploit certain things against you,” Funaro told Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian newspaper, after facing antisemitic invective last year on social media. “It happened also in the past. I have always responded with great peace of mind.”

Funaro, who declined the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s request for an interview, comes from a family that has taken leading roles in Florence’s politics as well as its Jewish community.

The Jewish community was mentioned in writing as far back as the 14th century, according to its website. Today the city has around 1,000 Jews among a total population of more than 350,000, and a grand synagogue famous for its late 19th-century Moorish Revival architecture. Funaro’s father, an architect by profession, serves as president of the Opera del Tempio Ebraico di Firenze, a not-for-profit organization established to maintain the synagogue.

Funaro’s mother, a Catholic, is the daughter of Piero Bargellini, a centrist who served as the mayor of Florence in the 1960s. His term is best known for the catastrophic 1966 flood of the Arno River, which killed dozens and devastated the city and many of its artworks. He later served as an Italian senator.

Funaro was born and raised in Florence, where she studied psychology at the local Università di Firenze. When she was 20, she started working with children with disabilities, and shortly afterward, she became an educator in a care home for psychiatric patients.

Funaro says she and her brother were raised without any formal religion. But two decades ago, during a stint working with underprivileged children in Brazil, she decided to formally convert to Judaism. Italy’s official Jewish communities, like traditional Jewish movements globally, adhere to the standard that only those born to a Jewish mother are Jewish, but Funaro told the Corriere della Sera, “In reality I didn’t have a conversion: I embraced Judaism.”

“Both my dad and mom had a very strong religiosity, but they understood it was a very important individual choice,” she recalled in an interview with the paper. “Growing up, I began studying Torah and Talmud. I held long conversations with the rabbi. At 26, during my experience in Brazil among needy children, I made my decision.”

Funaro has remained involved in the city’s Jewish community, attending synagogue on holidays, said Ugo Caffaz, a friend of her father. “She studied for many years to get converted; she really wanted it,” he said.

She first ran for City Council under the leadership of the center-left mayoral candidate, and future Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi. She lost, but won a seat five years later with the center-left Democratic Party, and was reelected in 2019.

In the council, Mayor Dario Nardella tapped her to lead efforts concerning welfare, housing,integration and the advancement of women. She’s focused her political career on making Florence more inclusive, supporting the underprivileged, and fostering diversity. She has made a point of attending the city’s Pride parade and helped establish Florence’s first mosque.

She has also spoken up against antisemitism, denouncing the use of yellow stars, a symbol of the Holocaust, by anti-vaccine protesters during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she criticized an event organized by two far-left Florence municipal council members whose posters described Israel as an apartheid state.

“Florence has always been a city of peace and dialogue and does not tolerate divisive messages that incite hatred,” she said at the time. “Putting up posters in the city stating that Israel is an apartheid state is not acceptable.”

In the summer of 2023, she was the subject of an antisemitic attack on social media. An Instagram user called her a “Zionist to the bone” and a lobbyist for Israel. Later, Funaro received death threats, and according to Corriere della Sera, the Italian authorities assigned her police protection beginning in October 2023, the month of the Hamas attack on Israel.

The 2023 Instagram post drew condemnation from Nardella, who called it “mean and revolting,” and added, “Sara is a strong and intelligent woman, and I am sure she isn’t intimidated by these insulting attacks.”

Like the leader of the Italian Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, who also has a Jewish father, Funaro has said she “absolutely” supports the two-state solution, which would see a Palestinian state established alongside Israel. “Anyone who has been to Israel and Palestine realizes that the only possibility of resolving this conflict is a recognition of the peoples, identities and cultures of belonging,” she told Corriere della Sera in July.

In the days following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, she said, “We need to keep living in the day-to-day, as we have always done,” a message she said she heard from local and national Jewish leaders as well. She added, “I think that’s the right spirit, of course with a view to the concern and the pain from what has happened.”

As in the rest of Italy and globally, antisemitism spiked in Florence following the Oct. 7 attack.

“Some Jewish kids were bullied at school, there have been antisemitic insults against people as they were leaving the synagogue, graffiti, and some unpleasant situations in the university,” said Enrico Fink, president of the Jewish Community of Florence. “At the same time, we have always felt supported by the authorities who increased security at Jewish sites.”

Funaro’s Jewish identity, or her position on Israel, was not a focus of this year’s campaign and did not stir controversy, despite the April petition criticizing her. She has continued to shy away from weighing in on the issue while in office, including declining to comment after the Florence City Council’s vote, just days before the first anniversary of Oct. 7, to urge Italy to recognize the state of Palestine.

Agnese Pini, the editor-in-chief of Florence’s newspaper La Nazione, said Florentine voters do not see their new mayor in terms of her religion.

“I think that if anything, for the people of Florence, Funaro is the heir of [her grandfather] Bargellini, I do not think that her religion played a role in her election, neither positively nor negatively,” Pini said. “Like many others, she received attention from internet trolls, but more for being a woman than for being Jewish.”

But Fink said that in the post-Oct. 7 world, Funaro’s election is a positive sign for the local Jewish community.

“I know Sara very well, and I believe she is a good person and capable politician,” he said. “She has always taken pride in her identity and history, the Jewish and the non-Jewish parts, and in Florence, everyone knows it, so there was no reason for further discussing the topic during her campaign.”

Funaro campaigned under the slogan “Florence in the plural – Many ideas, one city.” Her 89-page platform focused on fostering equality, security, sustainability and welfare, including proposals such as a minimum wage for city employees, keeping public daycares and elementary schools open until 6:30 p.m. to help parents, stationing police in a public park with high crime rates and increasing the number of affordable apartments in the city.

Pini said she would not be surprised to see Funaro entering the national political arena someday.

“Serving as the mayor of Florence opens up many opportunities,” said Pini. “All Florence mayors went on doing something at the national or international level. If Funaro decides to pursue this path, she will definitely have a good chance of succeeding.”

In the meantime, the mayor told the Corriere della Sera that she is not scared, despite the attacks against her. “I have always felt safe in my city,” she said.

[wadebae]

[copy pasta post because OP needed to turn off reblogs due to harassment. Another person asked them about doing this and they said it's fine, they just can't personally handle the harassment right now. These are not my words. Not giving credit solely to protect OP's inbox. Reblog or don't, but I wanted this on my blog.]

I have been noodling over posting this for several days but I think it's important for some people to hear.

At a March on Saturday, at a pro Palestine march, my group and I were targeted by by nazis. Not targeted for violence, but targeted for recruitment. They weren't wearing swastikas, they weren't spewing blatant antisemitic hate speech. They seemed like two normal dudes. They marched with us, talked about how awful everything in Palestine was, how we wished world leaders would grow a pair and hold Israel responsible for fucking war crimes, how existing in the world right now was hard. They were empathetic, they were kind, they seemed like genuine good dudes.

Until we passed a synagogue where people were handing our water to marchers. They had signs defending Palestine on their table. But the tone of the conversation changed. These two seemingly normal dudes started talking about how "performative" the gesture felt, that Jewish people should be doing more. That they needed to PROVE it. They started talking about "Zionist" propaganda in the US, about how it was deeply entrenched in capitalism. Things that, on the surface, seemed reasonable but it set off alarm bells in my head.

When I was a kid, I remember getting the speech of "don't repeat anything your uncle or cousin so and so says and don't argue with them. Try to avoid them but if you can't be polite." Because those uncles and cousins said a lot of hateful things about anyone who wasn't like them, but their favorite targets were black people and Jewish people. I would find out as an adult it was because many of those uncles and cousins were in the Klan. When I studied hate symbols for a class in college, I found my self looking at images I'd seen on arms and necks and hands my whole life, because I live in an area of the US where the KKK is still around. And standing in that crowd, listening to these guys talk, i had the most horrible realization I've had in a long time.

We were being fished by Nazis. We were a group of able body, white American leftists. At a march in support of stopping the murder and genocide of Palestinians, these motherfuckers were out here, trying to find people they could get to hate Jewish folks. I wasn't the only one in my group who clocked it, and when we called them on it, the masks came off. They called us a bunch of "Jew loving bitches" before they moved on.

But we're marched with these guys for a couple hours, talked with them, laughed with them, brought them into our circle. For a moment we forgot we also weren't immune to propaganda, we weren't immune to people who make hate sound reasonable and that people like that never start out saying the quiet part out loud, they lean on your anger and your sense of helplessness to move you where they want you. If the last eight years has taught us anything, it's that fascists know how to adjust to the times, to work with what they got, to recruit. They know how to radicalize people, how to weaponize anger and helplessness. And I'm sitting here, every day, seeing posts that sound exactly like these guys did and it worries me.

I know I'm talking to the No Reading Comprehension Website, but I'm begging you guys to develop some now.

You are not immune to propaganda. We are all angry, as we fucking should be. We are watching an entire culture, thousands of lives, whole bloodlines, being wiped out in real time, and for many of us our nations are at best, wringing their hands, and at worst, shipping them weapons, all to protect capitalist greed. It's monstrous, it's disgusting. But look, REALLY LOOK, at the things you are tweeting, sharing, look at the language and how it's used. Take the time to educate yourself about how hate groups use social justice causes and civil unrest to recruit, research the posts your spreading, check your sources. If you are out protesting, be situationally aware, and do not be afraid to clock and call out Nazis. Listen to Jewish people, listen to their concerns, educate yourself on what Zionism and antisemitism actually are and how they can be weaponized. It doesn't feel as good as rage, it doesn't feel as good as having a group you can functionally rail against in a way we can't against a nation a world away, but it's a skill that's going to help you and a lot of other people in the long run.

[secular-jew]

Cheryl is a badass and excellent geopolitical analyst. Be like Cheryl:

Dear world,

I’d like to clarify something in advance so that there are no misunderstandings, misconceptions or any other confusion.

There are many commentators ooing and ahing about what’s happened in Syria. Many celebrating Assad’s downfall, and we’ve all by now been inundated with images and videos of weapons and equipment “abandoned” by Assad’s army.

Assad amassed a fortune and he built a fairly decent military. They were very well armed and had a shedload of weapons, munitions, mortars, artillery, tanks, rockets, missiles, helicopters and fighter jets. And yet the entire collapse happened in a matter of days, and a bunch of bloodthirsty jihadists just got their hands on one motherload of weaponry for free and with the full freedom to use it. Syrians all around the world are celebrating. World leaders are now celebrating and lauding it.

Yet these jihadists have already made their intentions clear. They will continue taking control of Syria, and then they’re coming for Jerusalem. Syria has 500,000 refugees labeling themselves as “Palestinians”. Under Assad they were oppressed. But now? And UNRWA is deeply entrenched in Syria, meaning that the same indoctrination of hate that exists in Gaza also exists in Syria. The rebels will also now have millions of fighting age young fighters and adults happy to join them, and with enough weapons now to arm every last one.

So, when these rebels and their “civilian” supporters decide to turn their attention to Israel which has always been the goal for all jihadists since the day the man rode a flying donkey, we will defend ourselves. And we will not be dropping leaflets and sending text messages. We will not be preparing thousands of truckloads of aid for them. And we certainly will not give a flying fuck what you want, think, demand or otherwise.

We will stand by the Kurds who deserve an independent country of their own in the North because they are indigenous unlike the parasites living next door to us. We will stand with the Druze communities because many stand with us and many Druze live in Israel. But the jihadists are none of those. And we will not wait or ask permission.

So please be prepared. We want peace. We do not want war with them or anyone else. But the split second their attention turns towards Israel and our people, we will turn Syria to glass and the casualty numbers will be on your heads and theirs. Our job and our sole responsibility is to protect our people and our country. That’s it. That is our obligation. So please kindly take your already-prepared UN resolutions and shove them up your asses. There will be peace or there will be bloodshed. Damascus will be uninhabitable for centuries.

So whatever it is you feel you want to do to prevent it, do that now. Just make sure these jihadists stay very far away from Israel. Because of they don’t, there will be no forgiveness and no mercy and no care in the world for their children or their pets.

Thanks

The People of Israel

[eretzyisrael]

by Abraham Wyner

Taken together, what does this all imply? While the evidence is not dispositive, it is highly suggestive that a process unconnected or loosely connected to reality was used to report the numbers. Most likely, the Hamas ministry settled on a daily total arbitrarily. We know this because the daily totals increase too consistently to be real. Then they assigned about 70% of the total to be women and children, splitting that amount randomly from day to day. Then they in-filled the number of men as set by the predetermined total. This explains all the data observed.

There are other obvious red flags. The Gaza Health Ministry has consistently claimed that about 70% of the casualties are women or children. This total is far higher than the numbers reported in earlier conflicts with Israel. Another red flag, raised by Salo Aizenberg and written about extensively, is that if 70% of the casualties are women and children and 25% of the population is adult male, then either Israel is not successfully eliminating Hamas fighters or adult male casualty counts are extremely low. This by itself strongly suggests that the numbers are at a minimum grossly inaccurate and quite probably outright faked. Finally, on Feb. 15, Hamas admitted to losing 6,000 of its fighters, which represents more than 20% of the total number of casualties reported.

Taken together, Hamas is reporting not only that 70% of casualties are women and children but also that 20% are fighters. This is not possible unless Israel is somehow not killing noncombatant men, or else Hamas is claiming that almost all the men in Gaza are Hamas fighters.

Are there better numbers? Some objective commentators have acknowledged Hamas’ numbers in previous battles with Israel to be roughly accurate. Nevertheless, this war is wholly unlike its predecessors in scale or scope; international observers who were able to monitor previous wars are now completely absent, so the past can’t be assumed to be a reliable guide. The fog of war is especially thick in Gaza, making it impossible to quickly determine civilian death totals with any accuracy. Not only do official Palestinian death counts fail to differentiate soldiers from children, but Hamas also blames all deaths on Israel even if caused by Hamas’ own misfired rockets, accidental explosions, deliberate killings, or internal battles. One group of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health compared Hamas reports to data on UNRWA workers. They argued that because the death rates were approximately similar, Hamas’ numbers must not be inflated. But their argument relied on a crucial and unverified assumption: that UNRWA workers are not disproportionately more likely to be killed than the general population. That premise exploded when it was uncovered that a sizable fraction of UNRWA workers are affiliated with Hamas. Some were even exposed as having participated in the Oct. 7 massacre itself.

The truth can’t yet be known and probably never will be. The total civilian casualty count is likely to be extremely overstated. Israel estimates that at least 12,000 fighters have been killed. If that number proves to be even reasonably accurate, then the ratio of noncombatant casualties to combatants is remarkably low: at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1. By historical standards of urban warfare, where combatants are embedded above and below into civilian population centers, this is a remarkable and successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians.

The data used in the article can be found here, with thanks to Salo Aizenberg who helped check and correct these numbers.

[mercifullymad]

okay i have a serious question. a few nights ago i posted (& then immediately quickly deleted) a rant about how every post i saw reporting on the words of the palestinian children, some as young five years old, who want to die (because of the overall situation in palestine and/or because all of their family members are dead) was being tagged "suicidal ideation tw" or "cw suicidal ideation" by nearly every user tagging it, & this deeply disturbed me for reasons i found difficult to enunciate. the closest i could come to enunciating the logic of this disturbance was that the function of trigger/content warnings is to protect the most vulnerable in our communities from being re-traumatized or reminded of their trauma unnecessarily, when they could otherwise choose to avoid triggering content had they the knowledge that allowed them to do so. and in this case, the most vulnerable in our communities are these children: children experiencing genocide, and children experiencing "suicidal ideation" (a term i think over-psychiatrizes and obscures the root cause of these feelings: GENOCIDE!!). THEY are the most vulnerable in our global community, and they are also the population in most need of attention and care. they cannot consent to the way their words are being distributed, interpreted, and framed (as a "suicidal ideation trigger warning" when they are. five years old.). and i think that ALL of us, yes even those of us who are suicidal, owe them this attention and care. if we are not actively experiencing genocide ourselves and their words leave us feeling triggered, we have the ability to call a warmline, talk with peers, text our therapists, etc etc. they do not.

i deleted this post because it seemed like too controversial a topic, & i am not palestinian and do not want to speak over others. but then aaron bushnell self-immolated and i am once again feeling angry at the double-standard. i have yet to see a post tagged "suicide tw" regarding bushnell's self-immolation, and he was a grown adult who made the choice to kill himself when he had nearly every other option of protest to choose from, especially as a white male army member (burn down/destroy whatever government buildings or weapons he had access to; burn important official papers; organize with other service members to engage in a mass movement of conscientious objection). aaron bushnell killed himself as an adult, freely, as a form of protest, and with many other options at his disposal as a white USA citizen. and yet nearly no one tags his posts "tw suicide" — in fact, i've seen many more posts about why we shouldn't consider self-immolation "suicide." meanwhile, palestinian children, who have no other protest options at their disposal, who are in a carceral situation, who simply SPEAK about wanting to die from the desperation of experiencing genocide and the loneliness of being the last member of their family alive — THEIR words are "suicidal ideation" trigger warning'ed to hell and back? i truly do not understand the logic. to return to my initial question, which i ask with sincerity: what makes these children more triggering than aaron bushnell?

[wheelie-sick]

Genuine questions with good intentions, and I’m sorry if this comes off as rude, I’m just trying to learn more about politics since they’re hard for me to understand.

What will you gain by not voting for Harris (I assume voting 3rd party is what you’re doing?)… I highly doubt anyone except Trump or Harris will win. Is it a personal morality thing?

What about the lives of trans kids and kids in abusive families and disabled kids and queer kids and adults in the US? Palestine is very very very important, I understand that, and your decision not to vote for Harris would make sense to me if Project 2025 didn’t exist… but it does, and considering you’re part of a lot of groups/situations they’d want to eliminate, I’m confused on why you’re not voting against that. Not just for yourself, but for all the other trans people or people in abusive situations or GNC people, etc.

Sorry if I got anything wrong. I hope you have a lovely day!

okay I wanted to put a little disclaimer this this isn't an angry response and I'm not mad at you

1. I'm not voting at all. initially I was planning on it but after talking more and more to other people in my circle I decided against it. I'm going to attempt to quote someone I really look up to who made me change my mind on this because they definitely explain it better than I do.

"I don't vote because the system does not and has never served my people"

this really... rang true for me? every president has worked to harm me and my people as well as the peoples I care about. no president has protected my people. no president will protect trans people, or disabled people, or Palestinians, or Indigenous people, or Black people, and so on.

2. there is a little bit of personal morality going on I won't lie. I do not feel like voting for a genocidaire would align with my own views and values. there's also leverage going on. my refusal to vote is a threat to Harris. other people's refusal to vote is a threat to Harris. I'm not entirely opposed to voting if she were to change her stance (which she will not do) I respect that some people believe in change through voting and I think that's fine (as long as they can look the fact that they're voting for a genocidaire in the eyes) but it's not how I work to create change in the world.

3. project 2025 will exist regardless of whether Harris wins. republicans currently are expected to continue to control the house and have a potential of taking the senate too. this is not even touching on the supreme court. even if the president was further left than Harris they can barely do anything without house and senate control.

ultimately though I just don't believe in the ballot. other people do, that's fine, but I prefer to make change more directly