@iyad_elbaghdadi Oct 18, 2023:
Good afternoon (or morning, or evening). I went dark yesterday, really dark. But I managed to sleep and I have some clarity about the Al Ahli hospital massacre that I want to share with you. I’ll only tweet this rambling thread today and then log off. Please read and share.
I want to first thank everyone who checked on me. A Palestinian friend thanked me for openly saying that I’m struggling, she sounded like she’s struggling even more than me. Remember, it’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay to reach out for help. There’s a lot of love out there.
I also want to say that our grief and our deep triggers aren’t because of any single incident. We are a nation of refugees, survivors of erasure, of relentless violence. We carry not only our own wounds but the wounds of our ancestors. All of our wounds are open and bleeding now.
For 10 days we’ve been hearing openly genocidal statements fully supported and sometimes even endorsed by Western leaders, leaders who are supposed to stand up for “democracy”, “human rights”, etc. But not only for 10 days. This has been our entire lives. This has been 75 years.
I also want to say that even in the deepest darkness of my anguish and my triggers I did not desire revenge. Not even a little bit. I didn’t want anyone hurt to quench my pain. All I want in the moment was for our lives to be protected and our humanity to be acknowledged.
I also want to say that I hold Jewish life to be as sacred as Palestinian life. This is a truth for which I live and for which I’ll die if necessary. This isn’t a slogan, it’s an article of faith that I believe as deeply and passionately as I believe that there is no god but God.
I want to acknowledge anger and rage at how the news about the hospital propagated. But this isn’t another “proof” type thread. I want you to understand the psychology of this, and why at this point, this is no longer a problem of which facts are true or false. We’re past that.
It’s important to understand that we were primed to expect bloody massacres. For 10 days there’s been a long list of genocidal statements, clearly saying that everyone is a target, there are no civilian vs combatant distinction, hospitals aren’t safe, and vengeance will be severe
All of this was in our psyche *before* the news broke. That’s why when the frantic news came (I got it by whatsapp first) we were already primed to believe it. Because we were long expecting a bloodbath and every single second was a worse nightmare, wishing the worst won’t happen
This explains the virality of the news. What actually happened? There are lots of threads offering educated & uneducated guesses both ways and I’ll ignore all of them. There are few journalists on the ground. And we know there won’t be an independent investigation anytime soon.
This is no longer about a specific hospital and what happened there. The news were a watershed moment for a lot of pent up anger about a million things, bottled up for a long time, to explode. Confirming or debunking won’t help. This is no longer about facts but about psychology
For now this anger is about Palestine. But the reason why Arab governments are so scared right now is because pent up anger, when it comes out, just brings forth all other grievances. Many protesters are already criticizing their own governments. This can still massively escalate
And I must say that even pro-Israel people need to question Israel’s media strategy. Reckless statements, a long history of brutality, and reliance on disinformation has primed a large proportion of the world to fully expect Israel to commit massacres and then lie about them
Now. Every friend I talk to is deeply triggered. For Palestinians the triggers are intergenerational. We grew up seeing our people getting blown up or humiliated or subjugated or shot or beaten. Our parents grew up with that. Our grandparents. All of our trauma is exploding.
Our brethren are equally triggered. The scenes of body parts and mangled babies reminds of what Syrians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Yemenis, Kurds, Afghans, and others have seen for years. The humiliation, double standards, silence, and shame triggers everyone across much of the world
Remember that we’re not wise when we’re triggered. Remember that this horror isn’t going to end anytime soon. Remember that our work and energy and voices are needed now and tomorrow. Remember that it’s okay to not be okay, it’s okay to say “I need help”.
I was really struggling yesterday. Thankfully there were people who caught me when I fell. Today and tomorrow I want to be that to others. I’m going to log off today and perhaps also tomorrow and just reach out to people who are struggling. I’m here if you need to talk.
And please, please, please, don’t forget our Jewish sisters and brothers (thread from earlier here). Check on them too. Some of the people who checked on me first were Jewish people. They’re also not okay. Send them some love.
Noam Shuster Eliassi@ShusterNoam:
I am absolutely going to receive an insane amount of hate and threats but this has to be said even though fear is so numbing. Palestinian citizens in Israel are being arrested for “liking” a wrong post. My leftist friends are being threatened, silenced and heavily monitored >>
The sound of the warplanes is overshadowing the cry of the kidnapped families for help. They too, fear to criticize the government scared it might affect the efforts to bring hostages back. The govt is absolutely taking advantage of the grief to carry revenge>>
Campaign in Gaza that burns your soul if you’re a decent human. We are scared to speak up but it is so insane that on one hand there’s huge public blame on this government for what happened oct 7th and on the other hand consensus around the actions now>>
What can we do ? Why is our grief being used by war maniacs ? Why is the govt ignoring the kidnapped families? Why is the world letting this happen ? What will be here the day after ? We all know the answers. Silence is numbing. Shame on us.
And please share this. Regardless what anyone thinks, nobody will exterminate anybody. When this is all over, be it in 20, 50, or 100 years, there will be Jews and Palestinians – our children – living in the Holy Land. May it be in peace, love & equality.
Unfortunately, there might not be time for that. Humanity is quickly killing earth’s livability via extreme pollution, including from incessant bombing and warring.
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MUST WATCH: Nelson Mandela: What the South African icon said about Palestine 2020
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MUST WATCH: “Divide and Rule”: How Israel Helped Start Hamas to Weaken Palestinian Hopes for Statehood by Democracy Now, Oct 20, 2023
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is urging Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, where the death toll from Israel’s two-week bombardment has topped 4,100. Israel says a ground invasion may be imminent. “This isn’t an effort to try to quell, to destroy Hamas specifically,” says Tareq Baconi, Palestinian analyst and author of _Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance_. “This is an effort to pursue an ethnic cleansing campaign in the Gaza Strip and beyond the Gaza Strip, as we see the violence rising in the West Bank.” Baconi lays out Israel’s history of enabling Hamas while designating them as terrorists in order to maintain tight control over Gaza. After the October 7 attack, Baconi says, “that equilibrium has now shattered.”
Transcript: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/…
One of the comments:
@timh4110@timh41:
Anyone who has watched events in the Holy Land over the last several decades know that the Israeli Government has encouraged and allowed expansion/settlement building into Palestinian territory CONTINUOUSLY despite ignored pleas from the Palestinian Authority to National leaders to come to their defense. This is aside to continuing humanitarian abuses of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem mainly…but also carried into the West Bank. I believe it it religious zealots in western governments that have spearheaded the effort to unconditionally support the Israeli Government and turning a blind eye to atrocities committed against the Palestinian people. I’m just surprised things didn’t blow up sooner.The UN needs to get involved in a neutral role and demand Israeli people return behind lines that were last defined as separating Israeli and Palestinian territory and Israel stand down from blockades and restrictions of the Palestinian people. Firmly declaring the divided territory as a Israel State and a Palestinian State. Any violations dealt with swiftly and forcefully from the international community on either side.
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Sharon’s Rules for Talking About Israel/Palestine by Sharon Astyk, October 9, 2023
[Ed. Note: perhaps this wise list of common agreements and guidelines would be useful in your community. That’s why I put it here. — Moriarty]
Hi Folks. I just want to set down rules for any discussion of Israel/Palestine/ProtoWWIII.
Here are the rules.
FIRST AND FOREMOST:
MORE THAN ONE THING CAN BE TRUE AT THE SAME TIME, INCLUDING BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY:
Jews were mass murdered over and over again and have a justifiable fear of being murdered again AND that fear has made us do horrifying things to the Palestinians over and over again that are not justified in any way.
Jews have lived in Israel for thousands of years, and have a historic claim to it AND we use religious language and assumptions that may be mythological to most. AND real Palestinian people lost their homes unfairly. More than one people can have a historic claim to the same place.
The Palestinians were cruelly displaced AND the Arab countries around declined to take them in even though they had kicked out hundreds of thousands of Jews into Israel. Everyone was a fucking refugee, and refugees don’t have good choices.
Gaza is a monstrous construction, a huge open-air prison with horrific mistreatment of the Palestinians that is absolutely evil and wrong AND Palestinians kept choosing leadership that wants to murder all Jews. [ed. note: the last election in Gaza was held in 2006. Technically, elections are ‘suspended’ at this time, but an election has not been held in 17 years. – Moriarty]
Y’all live on stolen land, and have no intention of giving it back, but you want the Israelis to give back the land they stole and have lived on. AND when America is attacked, we go on to conquer countries that weren’t even involved, but when Israeli is attacked, they should show more restraint. AND Israeli disproportionately attacking civilians is reprehensible.
Israelis were attacked shamefully by Hamas during a religious holiday causing mass death, AND Israelis have engaged in colonial provocation and colonization is generally overthrown by violence.
Europe offloaded its “Jewish problem” to the Middle East rather than give up Bavaria for a Jewish homeland, which should have happened, and translated its profound and loathsome historic antisemitism into anti-Zionism (which are not the same things, but can be hard to sort out), AND Jews then created a situation so horrifying that many leftist Jews became anti-Zionist too.
This is a proxy conflict for a number of countries (and has been since before Israel existed – actually, pretty much for the entire history of the area for thousands of years) and is being played out in part in the lives of people who do not deserve it on both sides. And it should scare us all – not just for the victims, but for how this could light a larger fire.
You don’t have to agree with me on any of these things, but I will not put up with any behavior here. Absolute rules.
- If it is antisemitic or antimuslim or anti-Palestinian or racist in any way, you get banned. Yes, anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism, but it is a fine fucking line, and if you aren’t good at walking it, do it carefully. And if you want to make historic statements, get them right. With citations.
- I don’t care how justified you think Palestinian or Israeli violence is in the circumstances, if you argue that the sexual abuse of women, torture, parading naked corpses through the streets or mass bombing civilians BY ANYONE is an acceptable response, you have crossed the line. Those are war crimes.
- This has more actors than just the Israelis and the Palestinians and has throughout everything. The technology for those drone strikes came from somewhere. The Israeli intelligence failures came from somewhere. Nations are choosing up sides in a proxy conflict, and that’s dangerous as hell. Remember that – no one is acting alone here, so if you ascribe everything to one party, you are missing important stuff.
- This is a climate change problem as well. There is a very good chance we are starting a global war over a place where NEITHER national group will be able to live in 50 years due to extreme heat and lack of water.
- This is just fucking sad and awful and horrible. And the people who suffer the most will be the ones with the fewest choices and least power. And most of the people involved have no safe place to retreat to. This will be a long nightmare. It is fine to be sad and angry here. It is not fine to blanket blame any people, who all pretty much feel about their governments much the way we do about ours, and often don’t have a lot of good choices.
Play nice or go bye bye.
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Revenge (2020) by Canadian artist Marianna Gartner
Refer also to:
2023 10 19: SATIRE (but too truthful to be funny) by The Onion: Biden Urges Americans Not To Let Dangerous Online Rhetoric Humanize Palestinians
WASHINGTON—Upon returning from his brief diplomatic trip to the Middle East, President Joe Biden urged the nation Thursday not to let dangerous online rhetoric humanize Palestinians. “As the war between Israel and Hamas rages on, I urge my fellow Americans to remain vigilant, and not fall for any false propaganda that claims people living in Gaza and the West Bank are worthy of human life,” said the 46th president, adding that since the war had begun, U.S. intelligence had discovered countless bad actors flooding the internet with reports that many Palestinians were mothers, fathers, and children who were not terrorists and did not deserve to be trapped without food, water, or fuel while being carpet-bombed into submission. “If you hear a Palestinian being described with terminology like ‘son,’ ‘daughter,’ or ‘in desperate need of medical attention,’ then you should be aware that what you are reading has been specifically designed to stoke empathy.” At press time, Biden added that Americans should also avoid dangerous propaganda that wrongly asserts the billions of dollars in military aid the United States has sent to Israel could be spent on things like healthcare, education, or alleviating poverty at home.
2020: Jamaal Bowman wins big – more powerful justice for humanity than from any judge! “I believe Palestinians have the same rights to freedom and dignity as my Jewish brothers and sisters. I will fight for their liberation just as hard as I will fight for yours.”My favourite article of 2020.