Israel/Palestine post 10/7 - follow-on events/thoughts as relate to other countries

The reality of people killing people in Congo or Sudan doesn’t erase dead Palestinian babies

Whataboutism is the very core of the Israeli government's approach to PR.

The UK is a bigger arms exporter to to Turkiye than to Israel so I don't think thats the reason per se. That being said, perception is more of a factor than actuality, and the UK govts are more vocally supportive of Israel than they are of Turkiye. I don't think there's any single reason behind why some protests are larger than others

🐦[People protesting the slaughter in Gaza are sometimes asked why they don’t protest about other atrocities, or why they’re protesting here in Britain, far away. Part of the answer is that the UK directly arms Israel. I wrote about it for the new @LRB🕸. https://t.co/p9SsVPJl8d🕸
— James B (@piercepenniless) November 11, 2023🕸]🐦

Higgins is more contemplative than angry, however. He has just returned from a state visit to Vietnam and Laos, and as he recounts his trip he remembers an encounter he once had with Henry Kissinger when the old cold war warrior was visiting Trinity College Dublin several years ago. “I remember I asked him if he regretted the illegal bombing of Laos and Cambodia (during the Vietnam war). He said: ‘I don’t think, Mr Higgins, I could ever find the regret that you would find sufficient’.”

who has actually heard of Western Sahara, West Papua

I had a realization the other day while I was having this same discussion about caring about one atrocity vs another, and it hit me that *I* care about Palestinians more than Rohingya because I care about and have connections to Israel. I can’t speak to what motivates other people. My views don’t fully square with most of the Free Palestine movement and I can’t pretend to be a part of it. But that’s why I have been spending probably 1/4 of my waking hours for the last month thinking and agonizing and reading and listening about these deaths, and not some other deaths.

For the people who demonstrated for us in London, thank you from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/MhBF4rBwNv

— Muhammad Smiry 🇵🇸 (@MuhammadSmiry) November 11, 2023

*I* care about Palestinians more than Rohingya because I care about and have connections to Israel

this is how I feel too

i have not been to any of the protests in my city up until now because i don't like flag waving and i don't want to participate in that from the river to the sea chant. i decided today that was not enough of a reason not to show up.

so, i went today. there was a bit of from the river to the sea chanting so i stood mute while that was happening, but that was just a tiny minority.

i listened to a much loved local actor recite 3 beautiful poems written by people from Gaza who have all been killed in the last 4 weeks. one was 9 years old and hers included the line Hands are for shaking with friends, not for shooting guns.

the turnout was quite overwhelming. i'd guesstimate that at least 75% of the people there had never been on a demo before in their lives. lots of families. lots of children. there were so many people there that the vast majority were unable to hear any of the speakers yet they stood there for hours, peacefully, in solidarity.

i heard someone say this is our Vietnam but that is too simplistic. i think it's bigger than that. i have been on hundreds of demos in my life for myriad causes but have never felt what i felt today. the sadness was almost too much.

i think these gatherings are going to get bigger by the week and at some point our overlords are going to get the fear, or at least i hope so. i'll be there every week i can.

Israel playing in Pristina tonight, pro-palestine march banned by the authorities

Man the replies to this tweet are so ghoulish and racist. Thankfully her mother (who is an amazing person Ash has posted many times about) is ok.

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Ash Sarkar
@AyoCaesar
Yesterday, after the demonstration, my mum was accosted by two men on the tube. One shoved her pro-Palestinian placard into her face, called her "disgusting" and an antisemite, told her to go back to where she comes from.

As for me I caught the fag end of the protest yesterday. All the chants were played. All hits.

“Rishi Sunak’s a wasteman” my personal favourite

^^^

A summary of events in Germany:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/13/germany-jewish-criticise-israel-tv-debate

"Some of the hostages held by Hamas have German citizenship, so when I asked a politician from Germany’s governing coalition what the government’s position was on those people, I was shocked when his response, in private, was: Das sind doch keine reinen Deutschen, which translates to: well, those aren’t pure Germans. He didn’t choose from a host of perfectly acceptable terms to refer to Germans with dual citizenship, he didn’t even use adjectives such as richtige or echte to refer to them not being full or proper Germans – instead, he used the old Nazi term to differentiate between Aryans and non-Aryans."

There is a D-Notice in place to stop UK media reporting on SAS role in Gaza.

But we know SAS has deployed to UK base on Cyprus. We also know 33 RAF transport flights have flown from Cyprus to Tel Aviv in past month.

All media acceding to the D-Notice are complicit. pic.twitter.com/HN95HMGmqC

— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) November 12, 2023

Hamilton Nola has thoughts about how the political response in the U.S. has redrawn some lines for "the Left."

I have loved Bernie for years, and I am not writing this to relitigate anyone’s legacy, or to pose as some sort of moral arbiter. (I also know from long experience that there is nothing more foolish than purporting to Speak For The Left; I am only speaking for my own thoughts.) I am just making, I guess, a prediction, but even that would be overstating it. I’m just making an observation, of something that is already happening but maybe has not been fully digested yet. The Bernie Era of the American Left is over. I don’t know if another single most prominent hero will rise up behind him, or whether we’ll just have a period of many different people doing different things, but I am sure that the leaders who failed to find the moral clarity or courage to be in the right place on the issue of Gaza’s decimation have lost their credibility to a degree that will make it impossible for them to maintain their status as leaders on the Left.

https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/the-new-leaders-of-the-left

Nolan, obv.

Thread detailing a protest in Chicago today.

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Jinx Press
@JinxPress
·
6h
HAPPENING NOW: Hundreds of activists occupying Chicago's Ogilvie Transportation Center.

Escalators have been shut down, protesters sitting on them.

Chants of "CEASEFIRE NOW!" ringing through every level.

That thread:
https://nitter.net/JinxPress/status/1724077488559583700

I'm here with Jewish Voice For Peace (@jvplive) where hundreds of us rushed in and occupied the Federal Building in Oakland.

The govt of Israel does not act on behalf of, nor represent, Jewish people.#CeasefireNOW #LetGazaLive #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/KUorzUOaWl

— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) November 14, 2023

Others will know better than me, but that JVP organization posted 'The Myth of "Civilian Israelis"' one their IG (albeit prior to October). I think they're like DSA or BLM in that they have different chapters so may not be representative of the whole thing (in this case it was Detroit)

Make own judgements on how much, or if, that matters, but worth mentioning at least

Layla 🪬
@itslaylas
first lawsuit is here for the doxxing truck at columbia university.
A student is filing a lawsuit for defamation, violation of civil rights, & intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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People starting to sue for being called "pro-Hamas" and anti-Semitic.

I have mixed feelings about JVP eg for reasons stated above, also because they do weird caricatured versions of Jewish prayers/rituals seemingly in order to lend themselves legitimacy, which bothers me on a gut level, like if you don't wear tefillin as part of your normal practice that's fine, neither do I, but don't get up on a national stage and put them on wrong just to look more "Jewish." I also have friends who very sincerely protest with them and I don't think it's a bad thing overall.

Tracy Fuad
@tracyfuad
A museum in Germany cancelled an Afrofuturism exhibition the day before installation citing that the curator's posts on Instagram

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You can guess the content of these posts.

were they pro-palestine or were they virulently anti-semitic?

I do not have Insta but was able to see this:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Czl3iUyuvoz/?hl=en&img_index=1

that sounds like some bullshit

could be that some were deleted, but nothing struck me as particularly offensive on the page

It's best to begin any sentence with "I disavow the actions of Hamas" this month regardless of what follows. It was a little confusing at the McDonalds drive thru, but you can never be too cautious

"Sir, this is a Wendy's"

According to the letter posted in the Instagram account, Germany passed a resolution in 2019 declaring support for BDS antisemitic.

(Just fyi, I don't have an opinion on BDS.)

It might be helpful to remember that countries outside the US do not have a First Amendment (freedom of speech or freedom of association). As far as I know some countries have in fact made illegal certain forms of speech that are not illegal in the US.

Feel free to correct me if I am wrong but I believe France apparently makes certain forms of antisemitic speech a violation of the penal code.

yes that is true, but I still think it's BS for Germany to declare that stating support for Palestine is anti-semitic because it wasn't prefaced with "of course October 7th was wrong". I mean I kind of think that's a given. That said, maybe it isn't for some people.

Yeah, you'd hope that they could have a video call, the museum could explain about the 2019 resolution, and the one slide about BDS could be taken down from the curator's insta if that were the issue so the Afrofuturism exhibit could go on.

Knowing Anais through friends, there is no way they would take down a post about BDS. Fuck that museum— but hey, at least Anais got the honorarium.

Also BDS isn’t antisemitic. Period.

Yes, I agree.

this like the museum being afraid of running afoul of german law

Most social media is ad-supported. So the entire social media industry is financially motivated to encourage controversy and grift. People are incentivized to stoke outrage and conflict by getting attention and clicks.

A few facts can be plucked out and sensationalized. People start doing their own research like they did with Covid.

No idea if avoiding controversy or creating controversy is in the best interest of the curator, the museum or the artists in this Afrofuturism exhibit. Because of where we are, a perceived failure to read the room has these kinds of outcomes. I feel bad for all the artists who won't have their work shown.

One of the most insidious things about calling BDS “antisemitic” is that it presumes that consumers— whether individual, corporate, or state-related— serve corporations, and that by refusing to buy from or invest in corporations based on values, those consumers are running afoul of basic human decency. It’s corporate interests legislating ethics, and that should make people feel queasy no matter whether it’s BDS or any other type of boycott or divestment.

Museum rep also states that BDS "questions Israel's right to exist", which seems a pretty nonsensical statement to me.

imo that 2019 resolution fucking sucks and curators falling foul of it are right to stand their ground, and if artists don’t get exhibited as a result that is the fault of the suck resolution and not of the curators

Was reading this thread earlier today on boycotts (wrt to the goings on in the Congo). It's strongly put, which is how I like it.

I can't boycott this, I can't stop watching that, I can't stop drinking this shit I can't stop eating that shit etc etc. Evaluate yourself because it is extremely sad how unable you are to be human.

— K.Diallo ☭ (@nyeusi_waasi) November 14, 2023

UEFA "looking into" Kosovo fans booing and whistling Israels national anthem. They recently fined Romania for "Kosovo is Serbia" banners in a recent qualifier (which in itself is contentious as Romania doesn't recognize Kosovo so the banners were a restatement of the Romanian governments official position)

Reading about the "March for Israel"

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philip lewis
@Phil_Lewis_
Van Jones at the March for Israel: “I’m a peace guy, I pray for peace. No more rockets from Gaza, and no more bombs falling down on the people of Gaza.”

The crowd breaks out into a “NO CEASEFIRE” chant shortly after

Which country is that in?

an ad I was just served

https://i.postimg.cc/rybz1Kgw/Screenshot-20231115-085407.jpg

abominable

Every post on Threads, the failed response to Twitter that IG/Meta continues to try to push, is just the most ludicrous, racist pro-Israel stuff. I normally wouldn’t notice but there are ads for it when I scroll.

This is the report on a press conference on the situation with the International Law UN expert:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/14/australia-and-other-western-governments-paralysed-in-response-to-gaza-conflict-says-un-expert

Clip found through social media of the reporter asking the question on "domination", and getting a fairly contemptuous reply:

Daniel Hurst from The Guardian.
Allegedly he's the Foreign Affairs correspondent.
He tried to smear Francesca with gotcha question focusing on the word "domination".

Francesca is smarter than this media hack.
She chooses words bc there's legal justification. pic.twitter.com/Vi8md4RIvD

— Dean Rosario (@DeanRosario) November 14, 2023