Keeponstalin
@Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
- Comment on Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable about people making such big deal out of whether they're "black" or "white"? 2 weeks ago:
Whiteness is an exclusionary concept used to create an ‘ingroup’ and ‘outgroup’. Hasan Piker gives a great breakdown of it here.
Historically, it comes from a justification of chattel slavery. Painting ‘whiteness’ as purity and superior and ‘blackness’ as inferior and subservient. Leeja Miller gives a great analysis about how this has influenced Eugenics in American history (which inspired the ideology of the Nazis) which is still practiced to this day in certain circumstances.
It’s long, but Knowing Better gives an extremely detailed history of neoslavery in American history. To understand why ‘whiteness’ is still so prevalent in America in modern day, it’s important to understand the history of systemic racism and how it persists to this day.
- Comment on Sydney University academics pursued for speaking out against Gaza atrocities 3 weeks ago:
Urban warfare is central to anti-Colonialist resistance, just look at the Vietcong. You’re just justifying genocide.
Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place.
This isnt about the hostages, this is Israel engaging in Genocide to eradicate and forcibly displace the Palestinian people. Gaza has never stopped being under Israeli occupation since 1967. Hamas only exists because of the Apartheid Occupation of Israel and the daily violence that has subjected Palestinians to for generations. Israel has always been the obstacle for peace, and has been the one preventing a ceasefire.
De-development via the Gaza Occupation
> Between July 1971 and February 1972, Sharon enjoyed considerable success. During this time, the entire Strip (apart from the Rafah area) was sealed off by a ring of security fences 53 miles in length, with few entrypoints. Today, their effects live on: there are only three points of entry to Gaza—Erez, Nahal Oz, and Rafah. > Perhaps the most dramatic and painful aspect of Sharon’s campaign was the widening of roads in the refugee camps to facilitate military access. Israel built nearly 200 miles of security roads and destroyed thousands of refugee dwellings as part of the widening process.’ In August 1971, for example, the Israeli army destroyed 7,729 rooms (approximately 2,000 houses) in three vola- tile camps, displacing 15,855 refugees: 7,217 from Jabalya, 4,836 from Shati, and 3,802 from Rafah. - Page 105 > Through 1993 Israel imposed a one-way system of tariffs and duties on the importation of goods through its borders; leaving Israel for Gaza, however, no tariffs or other regulations applied. Thus, for Israeli exports to Gaza, the Strip was treated as part of Israel; but for Gazan exports to Israel, the Strip was treated as a foreign entity subject to various “non-tariff barriers.” This placed Israel at a distinct advantage for trading and limited Gaza’s access to Israeli and foreign markets. Gazans had no recourse against such policies, being totally unable to protect themselves with tariffs or exchange rate controls. Thus, they had to pay more for highly protected Israeli products than they would if they had some control over their own economy. Such policies deprived the occupied territories of significant customs revenue, estimated at $118-$176 million in 1986. - page 240 >In a report released in May 2015, the World Bank revealed that as a result of Israel’s blockade and OPE, Gaza’s manufacturing sector shrank by as much as 60% over eight years while real per capita income is 31 percent lower than it was 20 years ago. The report also stated that the blockade alone is responsible for a 50% decrease in Gaza’s GDP since 2007. Furthermore, OPE (combined with the tunnel closure) exacerbated an already grave situation by reducing Gaza’s economy by an additional $460 million. - Page 402 - The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy
Blockade, including Aid
Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid. After the ‘disengagement’ in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of ‘dual-use’ Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted. - Gaza Policy Forum summary: Experts agree that Israel’s dual-use policy causes acute distress >The blockade and Israel’s repeated military offensives have had a heavy toll on Gaza’s essential infrastructure and further debilitated its health system and economy, leaving the area in a state of perpetual humanitarian crisis. Indeed, Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, the majority of whom are children, has created conditions inimical to human life due to shortages of housing, potable water and electricity, and lack of access to essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials. - Amnesty International Report pg 26-27
Peace Process and Solution
Both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a Two-State solution based on the 1967 borders for decades. Oslo and Camp David were used by Israel to continue settlements in the West Bank and maintain an Apartheid, while preventing any actual Two-State solution - (Oslo Accord Sources: MEE, NYT, Haaretz, AJ). How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution ‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe One State Solution, Foreign Affairs
Human Shields
Hamas: - HRW on Laws-of-War Violations 2009 - Agency Demands Full Respect for the Sanctity of Its Premises in Gaza - July 2014 - HRW - Palestinian Armed Groups’ October 7 Assault on Israel > Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects. Israel: - Israel/OPT: Israeli attacks targeting Hamas and other armed group fighters that killed scores of displaced civilians in Rafah should be investigated as war crimes - HRW - Gaza: Unlawful Israeli Hospital Strikes Worsen Health Crisis Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields: - IDF uses Human Shields, - Including Children (2013 Report) - Israel “Systematically” Uses Gaza Children as Human Shields, Rights Group Finds 2024 - Breaking The Silence - Testimonies from IDF Veterans
Deliberate Attacks on Civilians
Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so: - The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force - ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza - Lavender - Where’s Daddy Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.
- Comment on Has anyone ever come up with what a Palestinian State would look like without wiping Israel of the map? If so have both sides ever been presented the offer? If not why? 3 weeks ago:
Zionism is antithetical to peace. Palestinians have been advocating for peace for generations. Whatever you think doesn’t change that reality.
The settlements represent land-grabbing, and land-grabbing and peace-making don’t go together, it is one or the other. By its actions, if not always in its rhetoric, Israel has opted for land-grabbing and as we speak Israel is expanding settlements. So, Israel has been systematically destroying the basis for a viable Palestinian state and this is the declared objective of the Likud and Netanyahu who used to pretend to accept a two-state solution. In the lead up to the last election, he said there will be no Palestinian state on his watch. The expansion of settlements and the wall mean that there cannot be a viable Palestinian state with territorial contiguity. The most that the Palestinians can hope for is Bantustans, a series of enclaves surrounded by Israeli settlements and Israeli military bases.
- Avi Shlaim
How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution
‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe
One State Solution, Foreign Affairs
Peace Process and Solution
Both Hamas and Fatah have agreed to a Two-State solution based on the 1967 borders for decades. Oslo and Camp David were used by Israel to continue settlements in the West Bank and maintain an Apartheid, while preventing any actual Two-State solution How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution ‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe One State Solution, Foreign Affairs Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place. - latimes.com/…/rivals-hamas-and-fatah-sign-a-decla…
Historian Works on the History
- Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History - Nur Masalha - The Concept of Transfer 1882-1948 - Nur Masalha - A History of Modern Palestine - Ilan Pappe - The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine - Rashid Khalidi - The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - Ilan Pappe - The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences - Avi Shlaim - The Biggest Prison on Earth: A History of the Occupied Territories - Ilan Pappe - The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development - Sara Roy - 10 Myths About Israel - Ilan Pappe (summery)
- Comment on Has anyone ever come up with what a Palestinian State would look like without wiping Israel of the map? If so have both sides ever been presented the offer? If not why? 3 weeks ago:
You’re the one justifying the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, I’m the one advocating for equal rights. I don’t care about whatever mental gymnastics you use to justify it, ethnic cleansing is never acceptable nor justifiable. I’m interested and an advocate for actual solutions to the present day situation, you clearly aren’t.
- Comment on Has anyone ever come up with what a Palestinian State would look like without wiping Israel of the map? If so have both sides ever been presented the offer? If not why? 3 weeks ago:
Equal rights and reparations for native Americans? Give me a break, how is that in any way acceptable after slaughtering them to take an entire continent?
It’s not. It’s the bare minimum
If that’s all that’s needed, then maybe Israel should just eject all Palestinians entirely into Egypt, Jordan, etc, then send them a gift basket for a housewarming in their new location
No, they could just have a One-State Solution with equal rights. Nothing justifies ethnic cleansing.
- Comment on Has anyone ever come up with what a Palestinian State would look like without wiping Israel of the map? If so have both sides ever been presented the offer? If not why? 3 weeks ago:
Zionism is a settler colonialism project that was able to really start with the support of British Imperialism. Zionism as a political movement started with Theodore Herzl in the 1880s as a ‘modern’ way to ‘solve’ the ‘Jewish Question’ of Europe. Western Nations supported this instead of instituting legal protections and refuge for Jewish people fleeing persecution.
Adi Callai, an Israeli, does a great analysis of how Antisemitism has been weaponized by Zionism during its history.
Since at least the 1860’s, Europe was increasingly antisemitic and hostile to Jewish people. Zionism was explicitly a Setter Colonialist movement and the native Palestinians were not considered People but Savages by the Europeans. While Zionist Colonization began before it, the Balfor Declaration is when Britain gave it’s backing of the movement in order to ‘solve’ the ‘Jewish Question’ while also creating a Colony in the newly conquered Middle East after WWI in order to exhibit military force in the region and extract natural resources.
That’s when Zionist immigration started to pick up, out of necessity for most as Europe became more hostile and antisemitic. That continued into and during WWII, European countries and even the US refused to expand immigration quotas for Jewish people seeking asylum. The idea that the creation of Israel is a reparation for Jewish people is an after-the-fact justification. While most Jewish immigrants had no choice and just wanted a place to live in peace, it was the Zionist Leadership that developed and implemented the forced transfer, ethnic cleansing, of the native population, Palestinians. Without any Occupation, Apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, there would not be any Palestinian resistance to it.
Herzl himself explicitly considered Zionism a Settler Colonialist project, Setter Colonialism is always violent. The difficulty in creating a democratic Jewish state in an area inhabited by people who are not Jewish, is that enough Palestinian people need to be ‘Transferred’ to have a demographic majority that is Jewish. Ben-Gurion explicitly rejected Secular Bi-national state solutions in favor of partition.
Over 12000 Palestinians fought alongside Jewish forces against Nazi Germany. Nor would ethnic cleansing be justified if that wasn’t the case.
I support equal rights and reparations for Native Americans in America, which they still don’t currently have. So what’s your point. I’m advocating for equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians too.
- Comment on Has anyone ever come up with what a Palestinian State would look like without wiping Israel of the map? If so have both sides ever been presented the offer? If not why? 3 weeks ago:
After the ethnic cleansing of hundreds of Palestinian cities
Ethnic Cleansing is fundamental to Zionism
>Zionism’s aims in Palestine, its deeply-held conviction that the Land of Israel belonged exclusively to the Jewish people as a whole, and the idea of Palestine’s “civilizational barrenness" or “emptiness” against the background of European imperialist ideologies all converged in the logical conclusion that the native population should make way for thenewcomers. > The idea that the Palestinian Arabs must find a place for themselves elsewhere was articulated early on. Indeed, the founder of the movement, Theodor Herzl, provided an early reference to transfer even before he formally outlined his theory of Zionist rebirth in his Judenstat. > An 1895 entry in his diary provides in embryonic form many of the elements that were to be demonstrated repeatedly in the Zionist quest for solutions to the “Arab problem ”-the idea of dealing with state governments over the heads of the indigenous population, Jewish acquisition of property that would be inalienable, “Hebrew Land" and “Hebrew Labor,” and the removal of the native population.
Settlements and Occupation
Israel justifies the settlements and military bases in the West Bank in the name of Security. However, the reality of the settlements on-the-ground has been the cause of violent resistance and a significant obstacle to peace, as it has been for decades. This type of settlement, where the native population gets ‘Transferred’ to make room for the settlers, is a long standing practice. - The Transfer Committee, and the JNF Ethnic Cleansing, which led to Forced Displacement of 100,000 Palestinians throughout the mandate before the Nakba The mass ethnic cleansing campaign of 1948: - Plan Dalet - Declassified Massacres of 1948 - Details of Plan C (May 1946) and Plan D (March 1948) . Further, declassified Israeli documents show that the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip were deliberately planned before being executed in 1967: - Haaretz, Forward While the peace process was exploited to continue de-facto annexation of the West Bank via Settlements - (Oslo Accord Sources: MEE, NYT, Haaretz, AJ). The settlements are maintained through a violent apartheid that routinely employs violence towards Palestinians and denies human rights like water access, civil rights, etc. This kind of control gives rise to violent resistance to the Apartheid occupation, jeopardizing the safety of Israeli civilians. > The apartheid regime is based on organized, systemic violence against Palestinians, which is carried out by numerous agents: the government, the military, the Civil Administration, the Supreme Court, the Israel Police, the Israel Security Agency, the Israel Prison Service, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and others. Settlers are another item on this list, and the state incorporates their violence into its own official acts of violence. Settler violence sometimes precedes instances of official violence by Israeli authorities, and at other times is incorporated into them. Like state violence, settler violence is organized, institutionalized, well-equipped and implemented in order to achieve a defined strategic goal. - m.btselem.org/settler_violence
- Comment on Has anyone ever come up with what a Palestinian State would look like without wiping Israel of the map? If so have both sides ever been presented the offer? If not why? 3 weeks ago:
There is the Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Isratin proposal:
The Gaddafi Isratin proposal intended to permanently resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict through a secular, federalist, republican one-state solution, which was first articulated by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, at the Chatham House in London and later adopted by Muammar Gaddafi himself.
Its main points are:
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Creation of a binational Jewish-Palestinian state called the “Federal Republic of the Holy Land”;
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Partition of the state into five administrative regions, with Jerusalem as a city-state;
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Return of all Palestinian refugees;
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Supervision by the United Nations of free and fair elections on the first and second occasions;
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Removal of weapons of mass destruction from the state;
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Recognition of the state by the Arab League.
Similar to the Binational State Solution advocated by the Palestinian leadership and some others prior to the Nakba.
This ongoing Settler Colonialism annexing the West Bank continues to make a Two State Solution less possible, it has already divided the West Bank into hundreds of isolated enclaves. This Apartheid State needs to end as a binational state for all Palestinians and Israelis.
Here are resources by Historians about a One-State Solution. In many ways, it’s already a One-State, an Apartheid State, this change would be the emancipation of Palestinians to bring forth a One-State with equal rights.
The settlements represent land-grabbing, and land-grabbing and peace-making don’t go together, it is one or the other. By its actions, if not always in its rhetoric, Israel has opted for land-grabbing and as we speak Israel is expanding settlements. So, Israel has been systematically destroying the basis for a viable Palestinian state and this is the declared objective of the Likud and Netanyahu who used to pretend to accept a two-state solution. In the lead up to the last election, he said there will be no Palestinian state on his watch. The expansion of settlements and the wall mean that there cannot be a viable Palestinian state with territorial contiguity. The most that the Palestinians can hope for is Bantustans, a series of enclaves surrounded by Israeli settlements and Israeli military bases.
- Avi Shlaim
How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution
‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe
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- Comment on Sydney University academics pursued for speaking out against Gaza atrocities 4 weeks ago:
It’s a genocide
Genocide
Image - De-Gaza: A Year of Israel’s Genocide and the Collapse of World Order - Euro-Med Monitor Report see Chapter 2 and 3 > On 26 January 2024, the ICJ said that it was plausible that Israel had breached the Genocide Convention. As an emergency measure, it ordered Israel ensure that its army refrained from genocidal acts against Palestinians. > The ICJ reported, as part of its decisions in March and May, that the situation in Gaza had deteriorated and that Israel had failed to abide by its order in January. - Israel’s war on Gaza: What the international courts have said > So, when we look at the actions taken, the dropping of thousands and thousands of bombs in a couple of days, including phosphorus bombs, as we heard, on one of the most densely populated areas around the world, together with these proclamations of intent, this indeed constitutes genocidal killing, which is the first act, according to the convention, of genocide. And Israel, I must say, is also perpetrating act number two and three — that is, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and creating condition designed to bring about the destruction of the group by cutting off water, food, supply of energy, bombing hospitals, ordering the fast evictions of hospitals, which the World Health Organization has declared to be, quote, “a death sentence.” So, we’re seeing the combination of genocidal acts with special intent. This is indeed a textbook case of genocide. - “A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza > More than 800 scholars of international law and genocide have signed a public statement arguing that the Israeli military may be committing genocidal acts against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as the total siege and relentless airstrikes continue to inflict devastation on the occupied territory. - 800+ Legal Scholars Say Israel May Be Perpetrating ‘Crime of Genocide’ in Gaza > An independent United Nations expert warned Monday that “Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole” as Western governments, corporations, and other institutions keep up their support for the Israeli military, which stands accused of grave war crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. - UN Expert Says Impunity for Israel Must End as ‘Genocidal Violence’ Spreads to West Bank > Our documentation encompasses over 500 incitements of violence and genocidal incitement, appearing in the forms of social media posts, television interviews, and official statements from Israeli politicians, army personnel, journalists, and other influential personalities. - Law for Palestine Releases Database with 500+ Instances of Israeli Incitement to Genocide – Continuously Updated Others: AP News, Time, Reuters, Vox, CBC
Deliberate Attacks on Civilians
Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so: - The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force - ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza - Lavender - Where’s Daddy Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.
- Comment on Why does it seem most people, mainly conservatives, against Trans people? Unless I am wrong I never heard of one shooting up a school church or whatever. The ones I have met have been pretty cool. 4 weeks ago:
- Comment on US finds that Israel is not impeding assistance to Gaza; aid groups disagree 5 weeks ago:
No, it’s not. Anti-zionism is not Antisemitism. Zionism is not Judaism.
- Comment on US finds that Israel is not impeding assistance to Gaza; aid groups disagree 5 weeks ago:
On Tuesday, a group of eight humanitarian aid organizations jointly said the Israeli government “not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza.”
Israel’s actions failed to meet any of the specific criteria set out in the U.S. letter. Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in Northern Gaza. That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago. The principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee now assess that “the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence.” The findings of this scorecard underscore Israel’s failure to comply with U.S. demands and international obligations. Israel should be held accountable for the end result of failing to ensure the adequate provision of food, medical, and other supplies to reach people in need.
- Comment on The Environmental Disaster In Ecuador No One Knows About 2 months ago:
The campaign
- Comment on The Real Reason Housing Is So Expensive by Second Thought 2 months ago:
All the sources I provided are data driven with empirical evidence
- Comment on The Real Reason Housing Is So Expensive by Second Thought 2 months ago:
I implore you to read more from the sources than just what I quoted. You’re right that it’s not all about money, Pro-immigration should come from a morality standpoint, not just economic. People are people, everyone deserves asylum. There is no reason to curb immigration from anywhere.
Why are you trying so hard to single certain people out as ‘unworthy’ of being allowed in as immigrants? You’ve provided no evidence that justifies it even from an economic standpoint. I’m sure you’re not talking about any European or First World country, but instead some Third World Country. Of which those people aren’t deserving of immigration to the US for some arbitrary reason. It’s white nativism, which is a form of racism, whether you are aware or not. I’m going to assume you’re not aware, which is why I linked the wiki about nativsm so you can see the history of this kind of sentiment and where it comes from.
- Comment on As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi 2 months ago:
I gave you multiple resources for different sources that show how holocaust and genocide scholars consider this a genocide. You chose to not read them. I quoted relevant paragraphs that showed the analysis of one of those scholars and the much higher death toll. You chose to not read them. I gave an extremely detailed report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and even gave the exact page that describes, in detail, exactly how this genocide fits the definition given in international law. You also chose to not read that.
Then you say that I’m a liar? I’m done talking with you
- Comment on As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi 2 months ago:
What are you talking about, the definition is clearly listed on page 17 of the linked report. Nothing has been changed, the point of recognizing a genocide is to stop it.
- Comment on As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi 2 months ago:
If you looked at the report, you would see exactly how it fits the international definition of genocide. The point of these definitions is to prevent genocide before it gets to the kind of scale we have seen in the past.
- Comment on As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi 2 months ago:
You are ignoring a significant amount to rationalize this as not an act of genocide
It’s well-known what the Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on 9th of October declaring a complete siege on Gaza, cutting off water, food, fuel, stating that “We’re fighting human animals,” and we will react “accordingly.” He also said that “We will eliminate everything.” We know that Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, for example, acknowledged wanton destruction and said explicitly, “The emphasis on damage and not on accuracy.” So we’re seeing the special intent on full display. And really, I have to say, if this is not special intent to commit genocide, I really don’t know what is.
So, when we look at the actions taken, the dropping of thousands and thousands of bombs in a couple of days, including phosphorus bombs, as we heard, on one of the most densely populated areas around the world, together with these proclamations of intent, this indeed constitutes genocidal killing, which is the first act, according to the convention, of genocide. And Israel, I must say, is also perpetrating act number two and three — that is, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and creating condition designed to bring about the destruction of the group by cutting off water, food, supply of energy, bombing hospitals, ordering the fast evictions of hospitals, which the World Health Organization has declared to be, quote, “a death sentence.” So, we’re seeing the combination of genocidal acts with special intent. This is indeed a textbook case of genocide.
- third source under Genocide
Euro-Med Monitor’s death count differs from that reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health — which currently stands at roughly 42,000 — as it accounts for reports by the human rights groups’ field team. But the true death toll is likely to be far, far higher; estimates from health experts have ranged from 100,000 to over 330,000, or about 15 percent of Gaza’s population.
In its over 100-page report, Euro-Med Monitor lays out some of the worst atrocities carried out by Israeli forces over the past year. It details the “systematic acts of genocide committed in Gaza, such as the targeted killing of civilians in homes, shelters, displacement camps, and humanitarian-declared zones,” and too many other examples to list.
- Comment on As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi 2 months ago:
- Comment on As a Palestinian living in the US, I have lost friends, job opportunities – and my faith in humanity | Arwa Mahdawi 2 months ago:
Apartheid
Amnesty Report Human Rights Watch Report B’TSelem Report with quick Explainer
Genocide
Holocaust scholar to discuss his conclusion that Gaza campaign constitutes genocide UN Expert Says Impunity for Israel Must End as ‘Genocidal Violence’ Spreads to West Bank “A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza 800+ Legal Scholars Say Israel May Be Perpetrating ‘Crime of Genocide’ in Gaza Law for Palestine Releases Database with 500+ Instances of Israeli Incitement to Genocide – Continuously Updated AP News, Time, Reuters, Vox, CBC
- Comment on The Real Reason Housing Is So Expensive by Second Thought 2 months ago:
The ‘Big Lie’ is that Immigrants are bringing crime & drugs across the border, that they negatively impact the economy, and that they take away jobs from & lower wages of US Citizens. These are fabrications not based on any evidence and what the Republican party has run for for years. This is a nativist sentiment.
There is plenty of evidence that disprove those sentiments.
Economic Impact
Myth : Immigrants are a drain on the U.S. Economy and Reducing Immigration would make our economy stronger. Fact : The United States needs immigrants to stay competitive and drive economic growth, Particularly as our economy starts to reopen, individuals who create jobs are absolutely critical to our recovery. Immigrants are innovators, job creators, and consumers with an enormous spending power that drives our economy, and creates employment opportunities for all Americans. Immigrants added $2 trillion to the U.S. GDP in 2016 and $458.7 billion to state, local, and federal taxes in 2018. In 2018, after immigrants spent billions of dollars on state and local, and federal taxes, they were left with $1.2 trillion in spending power, which they used to purchase goods and services, stimulating local business activity. Proposed cuts to our legal immigration system would have devastating effects on our economy, decreasing GDP by 2% over twenty years, shrinking growth by 12.5%, and cutting 4.6 million jobs. Rust Belt states would be hit particularly hard, as they rely on immigration to stabilize their populations and revive their economies.
Taxes and Essential Services
Myth : Immigrants are a burden to essential services like schools, hospitals, and highways. Fact: Immigrants make significant contributions to our economy on virtually every front - including on tax revenue, where they contribute $458.7 billion to state, local, and federal taxes in 2018. This includes undocumented immigrants, who contribute roughly $11.74 billion a year in state and local taxes, including more than $7 billion in sales and excise taxes, $3.6 billion in property taxes, and $1.1 billion in personal income taxes. These billions of tax dollars fund our schools, hospitals, emergency response services, highways, and other essential services. These revenues would increase by $2.18 billion annually if undocumented immigrants were given legal status as part of an immigration reform package. Additionally, immigrants make enormous contributions to Social Security. If current legal immigration levels were cut by 50%, the Social Security fund would lose $1.5 trillion in revenue over the next 75 years.
IRI
> There are 45 million immigrants living in the United States. Making up 14 percent of the national population, immigrants are a vital part of the social, economic, and cultural life of all American communities. > The economic role of immigrants has frequently been misunderstood. On the one hand, immigrants are a big and important part of the economy. And, on the other hand, immigrants are disproportionately concentrated in low-wage jobs. Both things are true at the same time.
Other sources:
- Comment on The Real Reason Housing Is So Expensive by Second Thought 2 months ago:
The problem with housing is not the demand. Housing is a necessity. Blaming a supply problem on demand does not make sense. The issue is with supply. I’m addition to the points I made earlier about making housing more affordable and available, workers are needed to build new housing. More job programs are the answer to that, not restricting immigration.
Immigrants across the board improve the economy and put more into welfare than they take out. So no, they are not a drain on the economy in any respect.
Please, share the negative effects of immigration. Because it isn’t crime either. Immigrants are responsible for less crime per capita than US citizens. And the vast majority of drug trafficking is done by US citizens.
- Comment on The Real Reason Housing Is So Expensive by Second Thought 2 months ago:
lowering immigration
Immigration isn’t the problem with housing, and immigrants aren’t a problem. So why put the blame on them? Are they ‘poisoning the blood of our country’ as certain people would say?
The only problem with immigration is that it’s not easier to become documented, which creates a two-tier immigration system for the benefit of companies and detriment of workers.
Housing can be fixed with actually good public housing, rent caps, and removing zoning laws that prevent dense housing from being built.
- Comment on 💸💸💸 2 months ago:
De-development via the Gaza Occupation
The Israeli imposed closure on Gaza began in 1991, temporarily, becoming permanent in 1993. The barrier began around Gaza around 1972. > Between July 1971 and February 1972, Sharon enjoyed considerable success. During this time, the entire Strip (apart from the Rafah area) was sealed off by a ring of security fences 53 miles in length, with few entrypoints. Today, their effects live on: there are only three points of entry to Gaza—Erez, Nahal Oz, and Rafah. > Perhaps the most dramatic and painful aspect of Sharon’s campaign was the widening of roads in the refugee camps to facilitate military access. Israel built nearly 200 miles of security roads and destroyed thousands of refugee dwellings as part of the widening process.’ In August 1971, for example, the Israeli army destroyed 7,729 rooms (approximately 2,000 houses) in three vola- tile camps, displacing 15,855 refugees: 7,217 from Jabalya, 4,836 from Shati, and 3,802 from Rafah. - Page 105 > Through 1993 Israel imposed a one-way system of tariffs and duties on the importation of goods through its borders; leaving Israel for Gaza, however, no tariffs or other regulations applied. Thus, for Israeli exports to Gaza, the Strip was treated as part of Israel; but for Gazan exports to Israel, the Strip was treated as a foreign entity subject to various “non-tariff barriers.” This placed Israel at a distinct advantage for trading and limited Gaza’s access to Israeli and foreign markets. Gazans had no recourse against such policies, being totally unable to protect themselves with tariffs or exchange rate controls. Thus, they had to pay more for highly protected Israeli products than they would if they had some control over their own economy. Such policies deprived the occupied territories of significant customs revenue, estimated at $118-$176 million in 1986. (Arguably, the economic terms of the Gaza—Jericho Agreement modify the situation only slightly.') - page 240 >In a report released in May 2015, the World Bank revealed that as a result of Israel’s blockade and OPE, Gaza’s manufacturing sector shrank by as much as 60 percent over eight years while real per capita income is 31 percent lower than it was 20 years ago. The report also stated that the blockade alone is responsible for a 50 percent decrease in Gaza’s GDP since 2007. Furthermore, OPE (com- bined with the tunnel closure) exacerbated an already grave situation by reducing Gaza’s economy by an additional $460 million. - Page 402
- The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy
Blockade, including Aid
Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid. After the ‘disengagement’ in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of ‘dual-use’ Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted. - Gaza Policy Forum summary: Experts agree that Israel’s dual-use policy causes acute distress >The blockade and Israel’s repeated military offensives have had a heavy toll on Gaza’s essential infrastructure and further debilitated its health system and economy, leaving the area in a state of perpetual humanitarian crisis. Indeed, Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, the majority of whom are children, has created conditions inimical to human life due to shortages of housing, potable water and electricity, and lack of access to essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials. - Amnesty International Report pg 26-27
Hamas Rockets, Aid, and Tunnels
No evidence of Theft of Aid: - newsnationnow.com/…/hamas-not-hijacking-gaza-aid-… - pbs.org/…/u-s-envoy-says-israel-has-not-shown-evi… Hamas Rockets are created from unexploded Israeli missiles and old unused water pipes. There is no evidence that they dismantle their own water system. - latimes.com/…/hamas-amass-arsenal-rockets-strike-… How did Hamas get the materials needed to build the tunnels? I’m not sure, I have not found any evidence either way. It’s possible that construction materials from humanitarian aid was used, despite being heavily restricted already, it’s also possible that the materials were smuggled in since they are restricted. The tunnels are not a new concept, this is also how the Vietcong fought off Colonists Powers. - www.nytimes.com/…/hamas-gaza-tunnels.html - johnspenceronline.com/mini-manual-urbandefender
Hamas and other armed resistance groups only end with the end of the Apartheid. That is the reason for their existence and continuation.
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What Is Hamas? - Council on Foreign Relations
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What Does Hamas Actually Want? - NY Mag
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Hamas Election - Snopes
Other reports about how Israel is an Apartheid State: Human Rights Watch Report, B’TSelem Report with quick Explainer
- Comment on Wait a minute, we've been going about this all the wrong way! 2 months ago:
No, it’s not. If you want to make a Nazi comparison, it would be a comparison with Israel. But that doesn’t justify the targeting of Israeli civilians anymore than the justification of targeting Nazi Germany civilians like the Dresden bombings, which was a war crime and not justified.
Einstein along with any others compared the fascist actions of Zionism to Nazi Germany back in 1948, in wake of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
archive.org/…/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTim…
In the Shadow of the Holocaust by Masha Gessen, the situation in Gaza is compared to the Warsaw Ghettos. The comparison was also made by a Palestinian poet who was later killed by an Israeli airstrike. Adi Callai, an Israeli, has also written on the parallels in his article The Gaza Ghetto Uprising and expanded upon in his corresponding video
- Comment on Wait a minute, we've been going about this all the wrong way! 2 months ago:
Not all of Hezbollah are militants, there are many social workers and politicians
Hezbollah organizes an extensive social development program and runs hospitals, news services, educational facilities, and encouragement of Nikah mut‘ah. Some of its established institutions are: Emdad committee for Islamic Charity, Hezbollah Central Press Office, Al Jarha Association, and Jihad Al Binaa Developmental Association. Jihad Al Binna’s Reconstruction Campaign is responsible for numerous economic and infrastructure development projects in Lebanon. Hezbollah has set up a Martyr’s Institute (Al-Shahid Social Association), which guarantees to provide living and education expenses for the families of fighters who die in battle.
Hezbollah holds 14 of the 128 seats in the Parliament of Lebanon and is a member of the Resistance and Development Bloc. According to Daniel L. Byman, it is “the most powerful single political movement in Lebanon.” Hezbollah, along with the Amal Movement, represents most of Lebanese Shi’a.
- Comment on Wait a minute, we've been going about this all the wrong way! 2 months ago:
Leaked official documents show that that wasn’t really the case as the public was led to believe
Quotes
> The White House and Pentagon boast that the targeted killing program is precise and that civilian deaths are minimal. However, documents detailing a special operations campaign in northeastern Afghanistan, Operation Haymaker, show that between January 2012 and February 2013, U.S. special operations airstrikes killed more than 200 people. Of those, only 35 were the intended targets. During one five-month period of the operation, according to the documents, nearly 90 percent of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended targets. In Yemen and Somalia, where the U.S. has far more limited intelligence capabilities to confirm the people killed are the intended targets, the equivalent ratios may well be much worse. > The documents show that the military designated people it killed in targeted strikes as EKIA — “enemy killed in action” — even if they were not the intended targets of the strike. Unless evidence posthumously emerged to prove the males killed were not terrorists or “unlawful enemy combatants,” EKIA remained their designation, according to the source. That process, he said, “is insane. But we’ve made ourselves comfortable with that. The intelligence community, JSOC, the CIA, and everybody that helps support and prop up these programs, they’re comfortable with that idea.” > The source described official U.S. government statements minimizing the number of civilian casualties inflicted by drone strikes as “exaggerating at best, if not outright lies.”
- Comment on Wait a minute, we've been going about this all the wrong way! 2 months ago:
That’s not really true unless you believe IDF propaganda
Security
Israel does justify the settlements and military bases in the West Bank in the name of Security. However, the reality of the settlements on-the-ground has been the cause of violent resistance and a significant obstacle to peace, as it has been for decades. This type of settlement, where the native population gets ‘Transferred’ to make room for the settlers, is a long standing practice. See: The Concept of Transfer 1882-1948, the Transfer Committee, and the JNF which led to Forced Displacement of 100,000 Palestinians throughout the mandate, before the mass ethnic cleansing campaign of 1948: Plan Dalet, Declassified Massacres of 1948, and Details of Plan C (May 1946) and Plan D (March 1948) . Further, declassified Israeli documents show that the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip were deliberately planned before being executed in 1967: Haaretz, Forward; while the peace process was exploited to continue de-facto annexation of the West Bank via Settlements (Oslo Accord Sources: MEE, NYT, Haaretz, AJ). The settlements are maintained through a violent apartheid that routinely employs violence towards Palestinians and denies human rights like water access, civil rights, etc. This kind of control gives rise to violent resistance to the Apartheid occupation, jeopardizing the safety of Israeli civilians. >The settlements represent land-grabbing, and land-grabbing and peace-making don’t go together, it is one or the other. By its actions, if not always in its rhetoric, Israel has opted for land-grabbing and as we speak Israel is expanding settlements. So, Israel has been systematically destroying the basis for a viable Palestinian state and this is the declared objective of the Likud and Netanyahu who used to pretend to accept a two-state solution. In the lead up to the last election, he said there will be no Palestinian state on his watch. The expansion of settlements and the wall mean that there cannot be a viable Palestinian state with territorial contiguity. The most that the Palestinians can hope for is Bantustans, a series of enclaves surrounded by Israeli settlements and Israeli military bases. - Avi Shlaim How Avi Shlaim moved from two-state solution to one-state solution ‘One state is a game changer’: A conversation with Ilan Pappe > State violence – official and otherwise – is part and parcel of Israel’s apartheid regime, which aims to create a Jewish-only space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The regime treats land as a resource designed to serve the Jewish public, and accordingly uses it almost exclusively to develop and expand existing Jewish residential communities and to build new ones. At the same time, the regime fragments Palestinian space, dispossesses Palestinians of their land and relegates them to living in small, over-populated enclaves. > The apartheid regime is based on organized, systemic violence against Palestinians, which is carried out by numerous agents: the government, the military, the Civil Administration, the Supreme Court, the Israel Police, the Israel Security Agency, the Israel Prison Service, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and others. Settlers are another item on this list, and the state incorporates their violence into its own official acts of violence. Settler violence sometimes precedes instances of official violence by Israeli authorities, and at other times is incorporated into them. Like state violence, settler violence is organized, institutionalized, well-equipped and implemented in order to achieve a defined strategic goal. - m.btselem.org/settler_violence Image
Civilian Deaths and Human Shields:
Israel does deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so: ‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza, Lavender, and Where’s Daddy. When it comes to Israeli Soldiers and Civilians, there is also the use of the Hannibal Directive, which was also used on Oct 7th.
Hundreds of Genocide Scholars have described this ethnic cleansing campaign as genocide because of the deliberate targeting of children/civilians and expressed intent by Israeli officials: “A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza, 800+ Legal Scholars Say Israel May Be Perpetrating ‘Crime of Genocide’ in Gaza , Law for Palestine Releases Database with 500+ Instances of Israeli Incitement to Genocide – Continuously Updated.
On the subject of Human Shields, there are some independent reports for past conflicts of Hamas jeopardizing the safety of civilians via Rocket fire in dense urban areas, two instances during Oct 7th, but no independent verification since then so far. None of which absolve Israel of the crime of targeting civilians under international law:
Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects.
Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields: IDF uses Human Shields, including Children (2013 Report), and in the latest war Israel “Systematically” Uses Gaza Children as Human Shields, Rights Group Finds
- Comment on Why limit immigration? 3 months ago:
From an economical standpoint, immigrants bring in more taxes and labor, which can go towards infrastructure and social infrastructure like education and housing
