Israel, Palestine & the Levant rolling events: Oct 23 on

https://t.co/EZqYAqZiY9 pic.twitter.com/RBt4y1Ne4y

— Marwa Fatafta مروة فطافطة (@marwasf) December 7, 2023

More on that:

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-men-stripped-detained-army

Seen his posts quite a bit on my TL. Now gone.

Refaat's final poem. Rest in power gentle soul 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/azL14CgeMD

— . (@ImReadinHere) December 7, 2023

such a completely heartbreaking loss https://t.co/EtWlptFPZZ

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) December 7, 2023

🕯️
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the tragic murder of Dr Ayman Jerjawi

Dr. Ayman, an exceptional anesthesia specialist, was killed today in an Israeli bombing. He remained in Beit Lahia, dedicating himself to treating patients at Kamal Idwan Hospital until last breath pic.twitter.com/HBkLavRG2d

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) December 7, 2023

Yair Wallach
@YairWallach
·
44m
The estimates I hear are that the heavy bombings will continue for another two or three weeks. And this thought is unbearable

Reuters long-read on the Israeli attack on Oct 13 that killed their reporter and wounded several other journalists: https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-LEBANON/JOURNALIST/akveabxrzvr/index.html

An Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on Oct. 13 by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel while the journalists were filming cross-border shelling, a Reuters investigation has found.

The two strikes killed Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, and severely wounded Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Christina Assi, 28, just over a kilometre from the Israeli border near the Lebanese village of Alma al-Chaab.

Reuters spoke to more than 30 government and security officials, military experts, forensic investigators, lawyers, medics and witnesses to piece together a detailed account of the incident. The news agency reviewed hours of video footage from eight media outlets in the area at the time and hundreds of photos from before and after the attack, including high-resolution satellite images.

As part of its investigation, Reuters also gathered and obtained evidence from the scene including shrapnel on the ground and embedded in a Reuters car, three flak jackets, a camera, tripod and a large piece of metal.

Reports and images of civilian Palestinian males being blindfolded and stripped to their underwear in the streets, lined up and in some cases summarily executed. And that's on top of the well-documented incident I linked to above.

Thread on one Refaat's lectures, and how poetry is silenced

---

I am watching this right and Refaat says the following: "Of course we always fall into this trap of saying, 'she [Fadwa Tuqan] was arrested for just writing poetry!' We do this a lot, even us believers in literature... https://t.co/ckeWl7E4Rs

— איישע (@protosemite) December 8, 2023

:( pic.twitter.com/KbRO1DFiXu

— Abeer Ayyoub (@Abeerayyoub) December 8, 2023

That's an ancient mosque. When ISIS was destroying beautiful things like this the West condemned it.

unconscionable.

It is all far, far too much.

The moment Aljazeera Journalist Momen Al-Sharafi breaks the news that his entire family of 21 members were just killed in an Israeli Airstrike in #Gaza.

The look he gives as he is no longer able to talk, is heartbreaking. pic.twitter.com/owIjR4jXLS

— Rami Jarrah (@RamiJarrah) December 7, 2023

unclear what israel is trying to accomplish planting flags in gaza pic.twitter.com/ujemKAdDU0

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) December 9, 2023

What’s more barbaric than setting food and water on fire while people are starving.

This is filmed in northern Gaza where people go on days without a meal or a sip of water. I have no words left. pic.twitter.com/IxbK9cXPZC

— Marwa Fatafta مروة فطافطة (@marwasf) December 10, 2023

As the screenshot show we have the technology to see these atrocities playing out in a way that is surely quite new.

Wonder what the outcomes might be. For now, there is nothing there. Lives cannot be saved.

“My name is Yafa. And I don't want to die and be mentioned in the media as a number.” 12 Oct 23

“The tanks are very close to us. And we are waiting for our imminent death.” 5 Dec 23

Yafa is killed now. Yafa is NOT A NUMBER. pic.twitter.com/ui7k4SIvy5

— Ahmed Alnaouq (@AlnaouqA) December 9, 2023

Front Line Defenders
@FrontLineHRD
#Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory:

🚨 We are saddened by the news that disability rights defender Bader Mosleh was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip on 7 December. He leaves a legacy of courage & dedication.

Read more: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/bader-mosleh

Field executions, torture, and threats of rape: In Gaza, Israel’s army replicates the crimes committed by Zionist gangs in 1948

Dark lol at the community note saying how Israeli soldiers pointing a gun at an ambulance is a tradition.

Israeli forces detain paramedics at gun point preventing them from saving lives in Gaza…🇵🇸💔 pic.twitter.com/KQ55RlY8N8

— Pelham (@Resist_05) December 8, 2023

Thread on further resolution from the UN.

BREAKING: Egypt & Mauritania have invoked UNGA Res 377 - Uniting for Peace - to address Gaza genocide.

Res.377 states that if UN Security Council, due to lack of unanimity of permanent 5 members, fails to exercise its primary responsibility to act to maintain intnl peace &… pic.twitter.com/LFEhjPNQ1w

— Huwaida Arraf (@huwaidaarraf) December 11, 2023

This is unbelievably disgusting.

The Abu Ghraib scandal sent shock waves through the Middle East with repercussions to this day. What's happening now is on a far larger scale than Abu Ghraib. This will be Biden's legacy. https://t.co/anln9fHJGl

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) December 12, 2023

here's a non-paywalled version of the Haaretz story--not that I necessarily recommend reading this, it's intensely disturbing: https://archive.is/E1B64

James Denselow
@jamesdenselow
It is with profound sadness we confirm that a staff member of Save the Children and his family have been killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.

Sameh Ewaida, 39, was the proud father of four children – Mohammad (12), Heba (11), Zeina (3), and Zein (2)

From the minister of Communications in Israel (Likud party):
http://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did%3Aplc%3At46sqvutibvsmjgwn6r6izve/bafkreihc36srli4hmyupf7jscmjkqqybz3zywvjff63v347v74gt37cwpu@jpeg

akm, can you link to that tweet? I want to post it.

I got it off bluesky where Yashar Ali reposted it, so you might want to check his twitter/x account

here's the bsky link, no idea if this works for non-users

https://bsky.app/profile/yasharali.bsky.social/post/3kgeyopzurl2z

here's the Nitter post

https://nitter.net/shlomo_karhi/status/1734631075043778670#m

Jeremy Scahill?! There's a name I haven't seen in a while.

I mean that's kind of been the policy platform of Likkud for a while now (no Palestinian state, Oslo failed, no partner for peace, etc.), so it's not surprising.

Yeah good point

Israel has been attacking Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank for over 30 hours, destroying infrastructure, demolishing houses & murdering Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/AyrpYaXZ3n

— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) December 13, 2023

More war crimes.

Six weeks ago I posted that annexation was seeming more-and-more like the only possible endgame here. Thoughts about that now?

I haven't been posting as much on the topic because the feeling is increasingly feeling like I'm screaming at a forest fire. I march every weekend and don't know what else to do

I’ve thought that from the beginning, I mean you have elements in the government actively saying it, and their actions so far are not inconsistent with replanting Gaza with settlements.

No idea but I’ve never felt the term genocide fit as well as ethnic cleansing. It reminds me very much of the Balkans.

Everything emerging is just increasingly horrific. Don’t even know what to say.

I’ve never felt the term genocide fit as well as ethnic cleansing.

Had this same thought the other day. And yeah, it really seems like they're increasingly mask-off about their intention to simply take over Gaza (and possibly the West Bank, since they're now attacking there, too).

What are the differences between those two terms?

What are the differences between those two terms?

_I’ve never felt the term genocide fit as well as ethnic cleansing._

Had this same thought the other day. And yeah, it really seems like they're increasingly mask-off about their intention to simply take over Gaza (and possibly the West Bank, since they're now attacking there, too).

thanks, gyac, I hadn't encountered that distinction before

idk if the distinctions are so easy to make in practice but the biggest issue with genocide as a concept is that it hinges on the intent of the perpetrators - it should be enough that mass murder is happening but it seems the g word is necessary to provoke a certain level of outrage from the international community - so you often have to make assumptions about what perpetrators are trying to achieve

(also if the original formulation of the genocide concept was consistently taken seriously many currently highly controversial claims of genocide would be much less so but the meaning has drifted)

It's enough that mass murder is happening.

For me, pushing 'genocide' is more to do with this sounding worse than ethnic cleansing, and that the urgency would push more people to march. And maybe more action.

As it is rn this is all a scream into the void.

it’s not but it’s terribly “why not both?”

There can be individual acts of genocide or genocidal acts without ripening into what people might accept as a full genocide, just like people can make individual racist or antisemitic statements and still not "be" antisemites or racists.

Going by intent, 10/7 included deliberate acts of genocide. The Hamas Charter states genocidal intent. There is a lot of gaslighting about whether the perpetrators of 10/7 were targeting military targets only.

Also saying mass killing of Palestinians is not a "genocide" based on rising populations is abhorrent.

The reason people debate "river to the sea" is that *some people* think it's perceived as calling for ethnic cleansing of the population of Israel. According to a WSJ poll, many students do not know what river or sea they are talking about. I've seen videos of people being asked where the current population should go - they don't know, or say "Back to Europe, back to Brooklyn, who cares!"

I know some here have said people should not be upset because really this is a call for a utopian 1-state solution. Ok, that seemed pretty fraught in Algeria, in Egypt, in most other Arab states.

I have been thinking about this idea that killing large portions of a population only creates terrorists. Perhaps that explains why some view Israel as a terrorist country. Who created that - the UN? No solutions here, just it's an extremely sad situation.

I should clarify upthread for “Why distinguish” is that when eventually the bombardment stops, Gaza will be largely uninhabitable. The majority of Palestinians will still be alive, but they won’t have a home to return to. That’s the goal of ethnic cleansing and why I specifically distinguished. Not to minimise anything that’s happening.

The reason people debate "river to the sea" is that *some people* think it's perceived as calling for ethnic cleansing of the population of Israel. According to a WSJ poll, many students do not know what river or sea they are talking about. I've seen videos of people being asked where the current population should go - they don't know, or say "Back to Europe, back to Brooklyn, who cares!"

Whereas those Israelis who believe the Jewish state should be from the river to the sea know exactly where the Palestinians should go.

"Free Palestine" has also been tone policed like this too. It's an attempt to silence pro-Palestinian movements in the two months since 10/7. Its reactionary politics.

. And also that Free Palestine has been weaponized and attacked in the UK.
Right, like I said no solutions, just sadness. And a bit of skeptism that UN meddling has ever done anything but bring death and bloodinesd to the area.

I think there is bit of a culture clash when discussing protest on the internet that makes context opaque. The US accords peaceful protest the highest level of protection under the First Amendment. That tolerance is theoretically the price of livung in a democracy. I accept UK accounts that large scale protests have been peaceful.

That's a bit different from blockading students fom using libraries or intimidating students of certain religions for practicing their faith.

I heard whether this is restriction on free speech or harassment depends on context.

Whereas those Israelis who believe the Jewish state should be from the river to the sea know exactly where the Palestinians should go.

― Free Ass Ange (Tom D.), Wednesday, December 13, 2023 3:36 PM bookmarkflaglink

I have read that too. No shortage of hatred to go around.