#ukrainian civilian hostages

[capturedukrainians]

Askhab Alibekov announced 182 Ukrainians who were forcibly held as hostages in IK-5 of the Federal Penitentiary Service in the Krasnodar Territory. Immediately after his release from colony N5, the author of the “Wild Paratrooper” channel, Askhab Alibekov, reported that Russian security forces took more than 2,000 people from the Kherson region, who were distributed in groups of 200-300 people in the colonies of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the Krasnodar Territory. A civil activist reported that FSIN officers abuse Ukrainian prisoners, use harsh methods and force them to “cooperate” and obtain Russian citizenship.

According to Askhab Alibekov, more than 300 Ukrainians were previously held in IK-5; at the moment there are about 180 of them.

We invite employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service KK to cooperate and urge them to contact our e-mail gulagunett @ gmail. com details and details about it

[shattered-pieces]

Is there a reason Ukrainian civilian prisoners can't be part of international exchanges? Will it make russia more likely to take them? They're already kidnapping them. That doesn't stop exchanges with Russian and western political prisoners.

If there is some way to get them out before the war ends... perhaps it should be tried. Many won't last that long.

Many are missing and we don't even know where they are. Like prisoners of war, most are tortured, but there is no official way to exchange them because what russia is doing is illegal. (Would trying to exchange them be legalizing it/pretending to or...?) Most are not exchanged and simply disappeared. Many aren't in prisons but in black sites.

Russia wants Ukrainian civilian captives to disappear. We shouldn't do their work for them. Should at least speak of them so they aren't forgotten, even if we can't get to them.

[folklorespring]

Mariana, a civilian, was taken hostage by russia back in 2022 in Mariupol. UN and ICRC helped russia to commit this crime. Today Mariana and 74 more Ukrainians came back home from captivity.

According to her mother, Mariana experienced a lot of torture in captivity - she was starved, beaten, and abused in other ways. Due to the conditions of captivity, the girl's health worsened: respiratory tract diseases and tonsillitis turned into chronic bronchitis.

In video she says "Mommy, I'm home. Mommy, I'm in Ukraine".

[anastasiareyreed]

russians once again prove that they are terrorists and criminals

«I wanted to give the camera to the owners, but couldn't find them. hope you can help» — journalists received this message from a Ukrainian soldier who found a stolen camera abandoned by russians running away from Ukrainian forces.

in addition to old photos of the Ukrainian family who owned this camera and several photos of the russians themselves, the journalists found a terrible video showing the russians capturing civilians, blindfolding them, tying them all together and chaining them up. adults, children and animals.

important clarification: this video was not shot on the camera mentioned in the message. that camera stolen by the russians just belongs to the residents of the village in the video!

full video with investigation ‼️

the russians kept the hostages in the basements for about a month without food and water, tortured them. this is what Ukraine will look like if our partners stop helping us.

we have already seen similar footage in which the russians led captured Ukrainians and then shot them.

it is scary to imagine what other russian crimes we are not aware of. please do not let russian propaganda push Ukrainians out of the information field. all these horrors can be stopped only by defeating russia. there can be no talk of any "negotiations" and peace agreements with russia. all that russia wants is to destroy Ukrainians as a nation. stand with us in this fight. stand with Ukraine!

[chanaleah]

Interesting that you stand with one small country being bulldozed over by a larger country with significantly higher firearms for the sakes of expansion, while you call the other one that's currently being ethnically cleansed by an invading force that's backed by the US military as inherently evil. Odd. I wonder what makes you think those two small countries are different? Is it racism? Probably.

huh. odd. it seems you've never read a single thing that i've written on this blog.

I assume you're referring in this post to Ukraine and Palestine/Gaza. Maybe Syria? Honestly, I'm not sure. Maybe be more specific.

Anyways, if you're referring to Ukraine, let's first correct one thing. Ukraine is not a small country. Ukraine is actually quite a large country. However, it appears small next to Russia, which is a really really really large country due to centuries of colonialist expansion.

For reference:

And secondly, you seem to miss one crucial fact.

The Israel-Hamas war was started by Hamas, not Israel. The war in Ukraine was started by Russia, not Ukraine.

Israel is fighting Hamas, not Gazan civilians. Unfortunately, Hamas' strategies of placing their bases under hospitals and schools and using aid vans as transport, as well as the fact that Hamas has stolen aid in the past and during this war (a fact even the PA has corroborated) have left Gazan civilians in a desperate state.

Considering that Israel did not start this war, but rather Hamas did by invading Israel's sovereign territory, burning kibbutzim, raping and murdering civilians, and taking over 200 people hostage including a baby, it is inaccurate to call Israel an "invading force".

Furthermore, it is clear that Russia's war in Ukraine is backed by expansion, as you mentioned. Russia and its predecessors -- the Russian Empire and the USSR -- have tried to heavily suppress Ukrainian language and culture and to this day Russia either denies that Ukrainians are an ethnic group separate from Russians or claims that Ukrainians are an inferior race.

However, Israel has offered peace time and time again, including completely pulling out of Gaza in 2005.

Additionally, I have never stated that I see Gazans as inherently evil. Like any other group of people, there are some that are evil and many that are not.

Maybe next time before sending a bad-faith ask like this you should do some research.

[matan4il]

We've lost so many people since the last time I could make a news update post, that I find it hard to write about them all. I guess at the very least, I need to write about 38 years old Elad Fingerhut, father of 3, who was murdered by Hezbollah on our Independence Day. He was a civilian, who happened to be nearby when a terrorist rocket attack on Israel's north started, he realized soldiers were hurt, and ran in to help. That's when he was hit directly by a following anti-tank missile fired at the same spot. He was murdered for being a decent human being, willing to help others even under fire.

The IDF has recovered the bodies of 4 Israeli hostages, all of them were murdered on Oct 7 and it was their bodies that the terrorists had kidnapped. The corpses were found thanks to military intel in a tunnel in northern Gaza, next to explosive devices, so Hamas was actually using these bodies as a booby trap to kill Israeli soldiers. I will never understand people stanning an organization capable of murdering innocent civilians, and then using their bodies like that. The four hostages were Shani Louk, Ron Benjamin, Itzhak Gelerenter, and Amit Buskila. As far as I'm aware, only Shani was confirmed as murdered on Oct 7 before this operation, so bringing the bodies back allows, in addition to proper burial of the murdered, for the families to finally know what happened to their loved ones, get to mourn, and hopefully start processing, and eventually, healing. As for Shani herself? Just a small reminder that on Oct 7 itself a vid was published, showing her body stripped down, leg broken, tossed into the back of a truck, guarded by armed terrorists, with a random Gazan teenager was spitting on her violated corpse, and after that, a Gaza "journalist" called her family to lie to them and claim Shani's alive, just injured, and being treated in a hospital for her wound. If that's not enough, a Gaza "photojournalist" won an award for taking a picture showing the Hamas terrorists riding the truck on top of her. Now her family can finally find comfort in knowing their kid is at rest.

There are at this time 128 hostages in Gaza still, at least 39 are believed to be bodies. This includes two Thai men who were kidnapped from Israel, for whom there is now evidence that they were murdered on Oct 7, and their corpses are held hostage.

May the memory of all Palestinian terrorists' victims be a blessing.

I assume everyone knows already that the (undemocratically elected) president of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, known as "the butcher of Tehran," has been killed in a helicopter crash. What people may not be aware of is that the UN has actually observed a moment of silence for the man who personally oversaw the murder of countless innocent Iranians, many of them as part of the Islamic regime's gender-targeted violence, and who, as part of the regime, was responsible for many more deaths of people around the world, including financing Hamas and so enabling the Oct 7 massacre. In fact, the UN secretary general has extended personal condolences to the people and government of Iran for Raisi's death, as per his official statement. Here's what the UN's one tweet about it looks like:

(I'm not surprised that the top comment is an angry one from a Ukrainian woman, since the Iranian regime does supply Russia with attack drones and missiles)

Meanwhile, do you know how long it took the UN to officially discuss for the first time the hostages abducted from Israel on Oct 7, as part of a massacre enabled by Iran? Seven and a half months (discussion held on May 16, five days ago). But sure, the UN isn't biased at all, and is totally reliable and a force for peace. Please keep this in mind as the UN's judicial arms, the ICJ and ICC, continue to make a mockery of justice and the idea of international humanitarian law. Hey, did you know that the ICC's chief prosecutor never asked for arrest warrants against Raisi?

Meanwhile, around the world, antisemitism has only been intensifying. Some recent incidents include an Israeli father living in Belgium being attack by an anti-Israel mob in front of his visiting daughter, in France they burned down a synagogue (great how I couldn't find a single headline where the synagogue attack was mentioned before the fate of the attacker following it), in Sweden there were shots fired near the Israeli embassy, and in NYC a man randomly stopped his bike by a group of religious Jewish kids playing on the street and physically attacked them...

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[dontforgetukraine]

"The Russian Federation sends a clear message: ‘Look, there is international humanitarian law, there are Geneva Conventions, there are rules of warfare. We absolutely, completely, and utterly do not care about them. See how we can violate them, and we won’t suffer any consequences for it.’"

—Nataliia Yashchuk, coordinator for the release of civilian hostages at the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties.

Source: Stuck in legal limbo, Ukrainian civilians endure torture in Russian prisons

[omeryotam4]

Supporting genocide is gross.

Right?

So why are you supporting genocide?

While war is awful, the Palestinians are not suffering a genocide. By definition:

"acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group"

We see that:

Israel holds one of the best citizen-combatant ratio, meaning it kills more terrorists and less civilians than in most wars in history.

Israel is performing its famous "roof knocking" methods, that include flyers, phone calls, warnings through other countries, and small "alarm bomb", that allows people to evacuate safely.

Israel takes responsibility and apologizes when accidents do happen, showing sympathy to its enemies. Legal actions are taken by the state itself against anyone who breaks the international law.

Israel is providing gaza with unprecedented amounts of humanitarian aid. The Ukrainians? Can only dream of these amounts. Sudan? No humanitarian aid goes there.. Syria? Nah, Assad will care for them... right?

Now let's take a look at what happened at October 7th:

Almost all the victims were civilians, unarmed.

The Hamas terrorists went in with the intent to catch as many Jews in their safe place, and to kill as many as possible. No need for warnings when you plan on cleansing the entire country of human life (yes, this was their goal. They were stopped before they reached central Israel).

Hamas took hostages, and is torturing them in underground tunnels and collaborative Palestinian houses. I guess it's an honor to torture a Jew in their community? Anyways, no apologies were given, mostly celebrations for how brutally they killed people.

Hamas is providing Israel with... more dead people. Throwing missiles (still have missiles!!) On strictly civilian areas, hospitals, schools, you name it. Every week there's a list of soldiers and citizens who died by the hands of Palestinians and Hamas.

The plan always was, and always will be, to get rid of all the Jews, so they can establish a Muslim-Arab country, enforcing Sharia laws.

This might start to sound like a genocide, and that's because this massacre is part of an on-and-off genocide the Palestinians are performing on the Jews. Every few years they perform a genocidal attack on Jews, dating back all the way to the moment they colonized the land in the 7th century. They collaborated with the Nazis to get rid of the Jews in all the transjordan area. It's not about Israel, never was. It was always about killing every last Jew on the planet.

And that's, my friend, what you call a genocide.

So yeah, supporting genocide is gross. I wonder why you support genocide so hard that you go to an ask box of a Jewish woman and write to her that ask. I really wonder what led a white western to support such ideas...

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Universities across the world are facing pressure—from students but also from academic staff—to cut ties with Israeli institutions over the war in Gaza. In the US, a dozen universities have struck agreements with activists and partly conceded to their demands, including divestment from Israeli companies. In Europe, dozens of Spanish universities and five Norwegian universities have resolved to sever all ties with Israeli partners deemed “complicit” in the war in Gaza. Several Belgian universities have now suspended all collaborations with Israeli universities because of their collaborations with the IDF. Even without a formal boycott, pressure from anti-Israel protests and the BDS movement has already led to pervasive exclusion of Israeli scientists and students. In the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz, over 60 academics have testified what this amounts to: cancelled invitations to lectures and committees, desk rejections of papers on political grounds, freezing of ongoing collaborations, disrupted guest lectures, and withdrawn co-authorships.Damned in Amsterdam: A Bizarre DeplatformingWe wanted to give a talk on how ideological bias hampers science—and were disinvited because of our politics.QuilletteJerry A. Coyne

What arguments are there for such a boycott? An open letter at Ghent University signed by more than 1500 students and staff, including dozens of professors (mainly from the humanities), denounces the stark “contrast” between the treatment of Israel and that of Russia in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, when many Western universities cut all ties with Russian universities. According to the signatories, Israel is currently committing a “genocide” in Gaza, and they demand that any cooperation with Israeli universities be suspended “as long as the current war continues.”

However, the “contrast” in reactions to both conflicts is perfectly defensible. Ukraine was brutally invaded by Russia without any prior provocation or military threat, simply because Putin imagines that Ukraine is a “fictional” nation that has no right to exist. If thousands of Ukrainian fighters had committed a gruesome massacre on Russian soil in January 2022, methodically slaughtering 1,200 innocent men, women, and children and taking another 250 hostages, only then would there be any semblance of similarity between both conflicts (as with many open letters from pro-Palestinian protestors, the letter completely ignores the terrorist attack of 7 October). It should also be noted that almost all Russian universities pledged their unequivocal support of the invasion of Ukraine, in a statement released by the Russian Union of Rectors and signed by more than 300 academic institutions.

As for the genocide charge, we believe it is as obscene as it is baseless. The tragic death of civilians as an unwanted side-effect of legitimate military objectives is completely different from the deliberate and methodical killing of civilians. It is perfectly reasonable to criticise Israel’s current military strategies and to question the sufficiency of measures taken to prevent civilian casualties, but it is absurd to pretend that the IDF is pursuing the opposite goal. The only genocidal party in this conflict is Hamas, which in its founding charter fantasises about the killing of the last Jew on earth.

In any event, a call for an “immediate and permanent ceasefire” and a boycott “as long as the war continues,” as the open letter demands, entails that no form of warfare against Hamas is deemed acceptable, which amounts to a de facto denial of Israel’s right to self-defence under the international law of war. No country would tolerate a terrorist group like Hamas at its border, least of all after a pogrom like that of 7 October.

Israel has the right to eliminate Hamas’s military capacity in Gaza, but unfortunately this terrorist entity has been digging hundreds of kilometres of reinforced tunnels for over 17 years (but not a single shelter for its civilian population). Hamas also has a long history of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and deliberately firing rockets from hospitals, schools, UN buildings, mosques, and in the vicinity of humanitarian zones. All these reprehensible tactics are mainly aimed at getting as many “martyrs” as possible in front of cameras, in order to manipulate Western political opinion and turn it against Israel. Judging by the sentiments prevalent on many college campuses, Hamas’s cynical strategy has been a resounding success.

No one in their right mind would deny that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is horrific, and no one can remain indifferent to the unacceptable suffering of Palestinian children. We would all like to see an end to the violence as soon as possible. Still, to demand that Israel accept a permanent ceasefire without any further conditions (the elimination of Hamas’s military capability and the release of hostages) amounts to an unequivocal choice for Hamas and against Israel.

Urban warfare is always hell, and was no less so in Mosul and Raqqa, when a Western alliance carried out a massive bombing campaign against the Islamic State, with broad support from almost the entire Western world. We now know that thousands of civilians died in Mosul alone, and unlike in Gaza, people had little or no opportunity to evacuate.

How many academics in Europe or the US would adopt the same anti-war attitude if a terrorist group had slaughtered over 1,200 of their compatriots (the equivalent of 13 times the casualties of 9/11 for the US) and proudly live-streamed their atrocities? And not on “occupied” or “colonised” land, but on internationally recognised territory. Many Westerners, accustomed to decades of peace and security, no longer understand what it means to live in a fragile democracy (the only one in the region), which has been under existential threat since its founding and is currently surrounded by multiple terrorist groups committed to wiping it off the map.

[mariacallous]

In recent months, Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has experienced population expansion on a dramatic scale. Before the war, the Rafah area, which abuts the Egyptian border, was home to around 275,000 people. Now, an estimated 1.5 million people are crammed in there, many in tent cities visible in satellite images.

In February, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that an Israeli military operation in Rafah, as Israeli officials have repeatedly said they are planning to do, “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences.”

This latest armed conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups perpetrated mass atrocities against Israel, including killings, brutal mutilations, torture, and sexual assaults. More than 200 Israelis and other nationals were abducted, ranging in age from 10 months to 86 years. More than 100 remain unaccounted for.

In response, Israel unleashed a military campaign of extraordinary intensity. The civilian death toll in Gaza is intolerably high, especially the estimated 14,000 Palestinian children who have been killed. Israel says Rafah is the last stronghold of Hamas and in the absence of a hostage deal it is intent on continuing its military campaign.

According to the United Nations, famine is imminent. The World Bank and U.N. also estimate that more than 60 percent of all homes in the territory have been damaged or destroyed as well as vital medical and civilian infrastructure. In all, some 1.7 million Palestinians have been internally displaced.

So why, in a war of this intensity, are there no refugees? Or perhaps the question should be asked in a slightly different way: Where are the refugees from Gaza?

The simple answer is that most Palestinians are trapped within Gaza behind fortified borders, impregnable to all but those with international passports or exceptional connections. According to the Egyptian government, nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated into the country for medical treatment along with their families. A further 67,000 foreign and dual nationals have also been able to leave, but these are not refugees, and most foreign and dual nationals will have since moved on from Egypt.

By way of comparison, at the end of last year 6.5 million refugees from Syria and nearly 6 million Ukrainians were being provided protection outside their countries. In any conflict of this scale and with this magnitude of pain and suffering, one would anticipate a mass influx of refugees into surrounding countries. There have been few situations in living memory where an entire blockade has prevented people from escaping imminent threats to life and limb.

It is remarkable that more than six months into this conflict so few people have had the chance to leave, even though there are daily statements from international organizations that there is no safe place in Gaza; even though UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, says it cannot provide protection or assistance; and even as the international community says humanitarian relief is not reaching those most in need.

Wherever people flee from or to, states are prohibited from sending anyone to face risks of war, torture, or persecution. This universal obligation includes letting people escape, giving sanctuary for as long as the threat persists and to return safely when conditions allow.

These rights originate in the teachings of the monotheistic religions. According to Islamic migration law, individuals have the right to seek and be granted asylum in any Muslim state. Judaism, whose people have long fled persecution, has a biblical principle of welcoming and protecting the stranger.

Torture in the conflict is widespread. I have reviewed evidence of the extreme torture perpetrated during the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters, as well as reports of ongoing violations against hostages. My office has received allegations of torture and mistreatment by Israeli forces against detained Palestinians. The collective punishment of the Palestinian people is, in my legal opinion, tantamount to torture.

While there is little legal ambiguity and the right to asylum is an apolitical right, there are few more politicized regions than the Middle East. Neighboring Arab countries have historically borne the greatest burden of influxes of fleeing Palestinians, and these influxes have often caused significant political instability in their own states. Israel has an abysmal track record of allowing Palestinians who have fled to reenter.

So it is unsurprising that Arab leaders are now deeply sensitive to any charge of helping to facilitate the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. This would be a “red line,” according to King Abdullah II of Jordan. The possibility of Palestinians fleeing en masse in a repeat of the Nakba—the displacement of around half the Arab population of Palestine in 1948—haunts leaders in Cairo, throughout the region, and well beyond.

In due course, the International Court of Justice will determine whether there has been a genocide in Gaza. The court’s provisional measures recognize that all states have obligations to prevent genocide, which would include preventing the killings of members of a national group, by, for example, letting them leave the territory.

Despite the complexities of the politics of this conflict, the legal reality is that states cannot pick and choose which human rights obligations to implement. It is self-evident that Israel will not open its borders to Palestinian refugees, but the Israeli state and Egypt have legal obligations to do so. Egypt’s decision to seal its border with Gaza violates international humanitarian law and international refugee law.

Egypt cites security concerns as a reason for not letting in Palestinian refugees, especially given the challenges of militancy in the Sinai Peninsula potentially being aggravated by the arrival of battle-hardened fighters from Gaza alongside civilians. While that threat certainly exists, the international legal framework includes safeguards to protect against this, and robust screening processes must be put in place to ensure that militants do not cross the border alongside civilians.

Early in the conflict, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNBC that he could see “no reason why Egypt, which is hosting 9 million refugees—hosting them and providing them integration into our society at considerable burden on our economy—should have to bear solely [the] additional influx of Gazans.”

That figure appears to be way off the mark, at least based on the latest UNHCR statistics. The U.N. Refugee Agency says Egypt currently hosts 575,000 registered refugees and asylum-seekers from 61 countries, while another nearly 250,000 refugees have not yet been registered. More than half of those registered are Sudanese, with Syrians forming the next largest group. The estimated number of Palestinians in Egypt is unclear as they are not included in any official figures, but may number in the hundreds of thousands.

Shoukry is right, though, to say that Egypt should not have to bear responsibility for Palestinian refugees alone. Other states and international organizations must support them.

UNRWA serves Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, responsibility transfers to UNHCR outside these areas. In other words, UNHCR is required to support Palestinian refugees who reach Egypt. The Refugee Convention stresses that international cooperation is a foundational principle and that all states must play their part.

There have been reports that Egypt has been clearing land near the border preparing for refugees in the event of widescale fighting in Rafah. The international community and the U.N. have been right to call for a cease-fire and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. With negotiations still proceeding, the humanitarian imperative to save lives must be paramount.

Whenever peace is achieved, the level of destruction will take years to repair. Where and how are Palestinians from Gaza to live in the meantime?

The fact remains that the right to flee and to seek asylum under law is an individual right. Palestinian families, as they consider their future, must be able make this decision for themselves. The U.N.—whether it is UNRWA within the territories or UNHCR in Egypt and beyond��must support Palestinian civilians.

Short-term planning to help relieve pressure on Egypt and other countries receiving any refugees should include offers of medical evacuations, family reunification, and temporary protection transfers into third countries. There must be commitments of return to Gaza as soon as conditions allow. There are many precedents around the world of similar comprehensive strategies by the international community.

Right now, though, civilians in Gaza have no ability to determine their fate. Starvation is becoming ever more likely, and death could come at any moment. Palestinians deserve the opportunity to choose whether they wish to flee, however painful a decision it is.

Alice Jill Edwards is the United Nations special rapporteur on torture.

[lindefishway]

Vovchansk

Right now yet another ukrainian city is being erased to the ground by russians

please share so more people know about Vovchansk while it still exists

A city with a population of 18k people is under heavy artillery and aerial attacks, hit by tanks and mortars, more than 40 civilians were taken hostage and some were already executed by russian military.

[capturedukrainians]

Russia Runs a Hidden Prison System for Ukrainian Detainees—In Crimea | Vanity Fair

[shattered-pieces]

Information about 1.5 thousand civilian hostages detained by Russia has been confirmed in Ukraine - NGO "Civilians in Captivity" ➜ ZMINA

[russianprotesters]

Friends, this is me. After more than two years of prison, solitary confinement and isolation from the world and human communication, I am re-learning basic things. Talking to children, using a phone, walking the streets, driving a car. It is very unusual that you can just go wherever you want - without handcuffs and without an escort. And it still seems like some kind of movie. A very good one - but still unreal. Vladimir Bukovsky, recalling his exchange in 1976, compared this experience to the sensations of a diver who is suddenly brought to the surface. A very accurate metaphor. And we will all need some time to adapt to reality again. A huge thank you to everyone who has not forgotten about political prisoners all these years and demanded our freedom. Public opinion can move mountains, as we saw again on August 1. For us and our families, this personal hell is over — but hundreds of Russian prisoners of conscience and thousands of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages remain in Putin's prisons. We will seek the release of each of them. A special, inexpressible thank you to my wife Evgenia. Just like two centuries ago, everything in Russia still rests on strong women.

- Vladimir Kara-Murza, August 7, 2024

https://t.me/vkaramurza2022/1684

[werkot2]

Because they hate us and want to kill us all. It's like you don't watch Western movies where a good Russian is a dead Russian since 1945. If we want to look for something rational in this medieval barbarity, then this is just another provocation and a distraction from Russia’s victory on the battlefield. Plus it's an act of intimidation, only all this does not frighten Russians, but makes them angry. This is what the West needs. For Russia to lose it and strike a direct blow at NATO. Therefore, NATO will continue its terrorist attacks on the civilian population of Russia, trying to force Russia to react. They used similar tactics in Ukraine, when they killed civilians in Donbas for 10 years, forcing Russia to intervene and planning to destroy Russia from within with the help of sanctions. All of this is because the Anglo-Saxon civilization has no time. So the US and UK need a war between Europe and Russia so that the US itself can deal with China in the meantime while Russia is busy. US and UK are not allies, each of them have its own game and plans on the continent. European politicians are their hostages and they will cooperate because no one wants to end up like the Bayesian passengers. Well and how was your day?

We have a nice joke about it in Russia.

Auschwitz. Celebrating the liberation of the concentration camp. Jews: We were kept in this camp. This is our holiday. Germans: We kept Jews in this camp. This is our holiday. Poles: We helped Germans to put Jews in this camp. This is our holiday. Ukrainians: We were guards in this camp. This is our holiday. Russians: And what about us? All in chorus: And you came uninvited and ruined everything!

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

A 70 years old Israeli farmer has been killed by Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebaon at Israel. May his memory be a blessing.

The death toll of the IDF ground operation in Gaza is now at 87.

Following the US congress discussion on antisemitism, where the presidents of prestigious universities couldn't clearly define calls to genocide the Jews as bullying and harassment, an Israeli professor at Standford, Jonathan Levav, who has lived there for years, and who said he's raising his two kids as typical American teenagers, was interviewed by his journalist friend in Israel. He talked about the fact that since Oct 7, he has felt antisemitism in the US and on his college campus in a way he never has before. "I would rather be in Israel right now," said the professor. "Really!?" asked his journalist friend, his voice making it clear that he's completely astonished. After all, our lives are currently under threat from several fronts. The professor reaffirmed the sentiment. "It's better to be hit by rockets in the face, than by knives in the back."

Here's another reminder that "Free Gaza from Hamas" isn't just a slogan, we're actually listening to people in Gaza who are pleading for a better life, and to even have a future:

And while some Gazans suffer immeasurably under Hamas, this terrorist organization's leaders and those affiliated with them live like kings. Better than most Israelis, in fact. The IDF revealed receipts for purchases made by Hamas people of luxury items, including jewelry. A single receipt was sometimes for a sum of money equivalent to two years worth of work on Gaza's average salary. Among the receipts found, were ones for purchases made by the son of Hamas's leader, Ismail Hanyieh. While Gazans suffer the consequences of Hamas' massacre of innocent civilians in Israel, Hanyieh is living in a luxury hotel in Qatar. Hanyieh's personal wealth is estimated to be 4 billion dollars, roughly 4 times greater than Taylor Swift's (Google says she has a net worth of 1.1 billion dollars).

Dozens of men in Gaza turned themselves over to the IDF today, they were arrested, not killed, a reminder that all Hamas needs to do for everyone to live is surrender.

The following infographic is a bit outdated (from roughly 3 weeks ago, I think), but it shows how much more attention the dead in Gaza get, than the dead anywhere else in the world, in conflicts far bloodier. Even more than in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. So what stands out about this, what makes everyone pay more attention to dead Gazan civilians than to dead Ukrainian civilians? My personal guess is that it's not the Gazans themselves. When Palestinians are killed by other Arabs in Lebanon, Syria or Jordan, no one pays attention to them. When Palestinians are killed by their own leadership, whether Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, no one talks about it. What changes suddenly, when Israel is a part of the picture? My guess is that it's the fact that then, it can be used to attack the Jewish state, excuse the massacre of Jews, and inspire attacks against Jewish people all over the world. Even on the campuses of the most prestigious US universities.

Why do I bring this up now?

The UN secretary general had been silent on the rape of Israeli women for almost two months following the Hamas massacre, had barely talked about Hamas' war crimes, had failed to talk about Hamas' use of Palestinians as human shields, and his workers had collaborated with Hamas for years, in turning a blind eye to Hamas' use of UN schools and hospitals to attack Israelis from, as well as since the Oct 7 massacre, in holding an Israeli kid hostage without providing him with enough food.

This man is now invoking article 99 of the UN charter.

This article allows him to call a special session of the UN security council, based on his concern for world peace.

He did not use this article during any other conflict, no matter how bloody. Not during his years in office while the civil war in Syria continues to rage for over a decade, with hundreds of thousands killed, and millions displaced. He did not invoke it during the war between Russia and Ukraine, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on both sides in less than two years.

Or let's put aside at the number of victims, and look at the possible risk to world peace.

The global power that is Russia is in the middle of a war, with all the allies it has, and the places where it exerts its influence, such as Syria, and all the countries that are looking at Russia, waiting to see what they can learn from the war's results, and that doesn't make the UN secretary general concerned enough for world peace to call a special session! I'm not even going to talk about the geopolitical results of the war in Syria, which was a training ground for Islamists from other countries as well (for example, we know Hezbollah's terrorists returned from the war in Syria with more military experience than anything they got before). But that wasn't concerning enough!

There's so much that was said over the years about the UN's anti-Israel bias, but it feels like this one really takes the cake.

Once again, the only conflict involving the one Jewish state is also the only one getting disproportionate attention, which essentially (please excuse my language, but I am angry) fucks over every other victim of every other conflict. Never forget that antisemitism doesn't just hurt Jews, there are non-Jews who pay the price for it as well.

On the first night of Hanukkah, there will be 138 hanukkiot (Hanukkah menorahs) lit at the Western Wall, the same number of the hostages who are still being held in Gaza. (this is a small reminder that Hanukkah is a Zionist holiday)

This is 25 years old Gal Meir Eizenkott.

It was published just minutes ago that he was killed in the fighting in Gaza. Gal is the son of Gadi Eizenkott, who is currently an Israeli minister, and the former IDF Chief of Staff. NOBODY in Israel is sending the soldiers off to fight without a care in the world. Pictured below is Gal with his dad. May his memory be a blessing.

These are 3 years old Emma and Yuli Kunyo, twins.

They were held hostage by Hamas. We know now that at a certain point, Yuli was separated from the rest of her captured family, and kept alone. The two girls were released in the hostage deal, together with their 34 years old mom. Today, these girls were discharged from the hospital. They still don't have a home to return to.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)