🇵🇸 دمي فلسطيني 🇵🇸
🇵🇸 دمي فلسطيني 🇵🇸
"People will be like 'idk i'm on the fence abt this issue' and the issue will be a genocide"
Now that we got that out of the way, and everyone know where I stand, where I have always stood, and where I will always stand, let’s get going.
Let’s start with some laughter before we get into the nitty gritty because we all need some giggles nowadays.
Algeria said naw, we g2g, can’t be around for nonsensicals.
My people: the Algerian delegation walks out of the UN as the Israel diplomat starts giving a speech. #shifttowardstheatricalandimlovingit
Also, South Africa and Algeria kicked the Israeli envoy Israeli out of the African Union summit in Ethiopia saying that the envoy was removed because she was not duly accredited. #youcantsitwithus
Israel said that Algeria and South Africa were holding the AU hostage and were driven by “hate”. #orthefacttheydontlikeapartheidorcolonialist
Now we start:
Azul loved & lucky ones,
We are dedicating this issue to Palestine, celebrating her past, grieving her current slaughter, and praying for her free future.
Let’s start with definitions:
genocide /ˈdʒɛnəsʌɪd/ noun
the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
Despite what they told you, the term’s usage is not limited to a specific people.
Although as Al Jazeera columnist Andrew Mitrovica said so plainly “dehumanisation of Palestinians is as central to Israel’s war strategy as the deadly missiles it wields.”
The deep and lasting human consequences of Israel’s terrifying, perpetual war on Palestinians have been plain for anyone willing, or inclined to see, for generations. The exhausting cycle of having to rebuild, then watching all the promise and possibility turn, in an instant, to dust. The wholesale imprisonment of a people penned like cattle behind walls and barbed wire fences, where water and electricity, food and fuel, are switched on and off on a colonial power’s whim.
I feel like I’m dropping acid sometimes, on a bad hallucinogenic trip that won’t end. One of those Ala Albaba’s painting of the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah, Palestine:
Just every time I read:watch the news it just highlights pure absurdity; this insane schism between societal reality and individual morals - like the world is cool with a genocide? Since when?
Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt.
I feel like I’m always holding back tears because everything is irregular. I broke down just yesterday when I was washing the dishes after putting the baby down. I was set off by Netanyahu describing the expanding war as Israel's “second war of independence. Independence??? !!!!!! From who???
What kind of settler-colonialist shenanagins are these; fucking snake oil salesmen.
I’m volcanic with misery.
It’s all kinds of insanity too, all these ploys and tricks and imagination exercises; making up whole new realities. Palestinian voices are frequently subject to aggressive censorship. The song I started the newsletter with, ‘Dammi Falastini’ was removed from Spotify for “inciting against Israel,” but was later returned but is now gone again (I just checked - October 30, 2023). Mohammad Assaf, a Gazan Palestinian pop singer who won Arab Idol in 2013, is outspoken against the Israeli occupation of his homeland and usually performs wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh as a symbol of his resistance. The folks who had an issue with the song, the Israeli group We Believe in Israel (WBII) launched a petition urging the streaming platforms to eliminate “violent extremist anti-Semitic content.”
So to be proud to be Palestinian constitutes as violent, extremist anti-Semitic content????? !!!!.
Like I said - this here is a bad trip that won’t end, this is the shadow twilight zone.
Even if Palestine isn’t your national or political issue, don’t forget that it is a human issue in the first place. But, of course, much of the mainstream Western media won’t acknowledge these facts and outrages.
Mitrovica, in the article, goes on to say the quiet part out loud: in this myopic calculus, Israel is always the victim, never the perpetrator. Israel’s understanding of history matters; Palestinians’ reading not only of the past but of the present and the future too, does not count. And, perhaps most indecent of all, Israeli lives and deaths matter; Palestinian lives and deaths don’t.
Let’s check out this wild and true example:
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that the Hamas attack on October 7 in which 1,400 people were killed “did not happen in a vacuum.”
He went on to say “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
That is nuance. There are layers. We get it, the issue is complicated.
In response Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called for Guterres’ resignation saying he is not fit to lead the UN.
Like none of us can call you out on shit, eh?
I think Algeria's Supreme Security Council has the best idea"the radical solution does not lie in genocide or forced displacement, but rather in establishing* the Palestinian state." *re-establishing Give people their basic human rights.
Segway on calling people out on shit- let’s talk about Arabs right quick:
I am big mad.
Just turn off the faucet, uncles. Make it simple - you want oil; give Gaza bandaids and water.
Regionally there is, of course, some support. The GCC has called for an immediate ceasefire and lifting siege on Gaza and also launched an urgent relief operation of $100m in aid for Palestinians in Gaza. I just don’t think it’s enough though. Also necessary to note that GCC economy is solid despite the conflict, we all know that the homies do not mix trade with politics but it’s going to get harder to navigate Israel ties with very pro-Palestinian public opinion as the genocide continues.
Please @ me if I’m acting out of pocket.
Also - let me say something because everyone is moving silly nowadays, sure Hamas was wilding out but unprovoked no. I have to be real clear because there are too many fugazis around these parts: Hamas’s violence does not reflect the desire of all, or even most, Palestinians who seek rights and freedoms but their actions are part of a broader dissatisfaction with how Israel, with Western support, has subjected Palestinians to real fuckery (my background is in political science and I assure you this is real jargon we use in the sector).
We can use a bit of colonial theory and try to make it make sense. Fanon saw violence as the only language colonizers truly understand. Through violence, imperialists instilled a sense of inferiority in the colonized, and it was therefore through violence that the colonized could regain a sense of self, a sense of culture, and the physical reality of statehood.
As Auntie Assata Shakur said: “Where there is oppression, there will be resistance.”
Let me tell y’all - the only faith I commit to is one based on tolerance, coexistence, respect for the dignity of all, and is one founded on real basic shit like not being a colonizer/ imperialist/ missionary and by extension not killing other folks’ spirits or bodies. Real simple stuff.
In our powerlessness, we can at least bear witness as Elie Wiesel said with words engraved in stone on the walls of the Holocaust Museum, “for the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
We can also give money.
Let me direct your attention to Medical Aid for Palestinians. As catastrophes mount in Gaza, MAP has prioritized access to urgent healthcare, especially in light of the horrific results of recent bombings, including at hospitals and clinics. Even more essential until a comprehensive ceasefire is declared, access to healthcare must always be protected. MAP works in partnership with Palestinian communities to uphold their rights to health and dignity. Also, small shout out to the e-flux Shop who are donating all the profits to MAP. So get merch and make sure that money lands well.
Also speaking about platforms that are moving beyond empty words 4,000+ Canadian Artists and Cultural Workers Sign Palestine Solidarity Letter stating “As artists, cultural workers, and academics, we stand strong in support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and against all forms of racism and settler-colonial violence,” but they take it to the next level, and pledge to refuse professional invitations and funding from institutions linked to the Israeli government until it “complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.” #meantwhatisaid
I leave you with "From Gaza, With Love” by Marwan Abdelhamid, who has a French-Algerian mother and a Palestinian-Serbian father, and spent his early childhood in Gaza before fleeing to Jordan with his family. Regarding the song he explains: "We are much more than the dehumanizing images you see in Western media. This song is a message to the world, and I sign it with love."
(dying at the genius of the backdrop reminiscent of 1980s public access television.)
I want us to chop life, all of us.
This is my only wish.
Until next time.
All my love,
Wided
xo