#great march of return

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸🇮🇱 I'm so tired of hearing about Hamas' "war crimes" against "Israeli civilians" even as Occupation Forces are on their 10th or 11th day of straight bombing residential neighborhoods in Gaza.

There is absolutely NOTHING civilian about Israeli settlers. They carry weapons publicly (which Palestinians cannot do) and use their positions of being a protected class under Israeli Law over Palestinians to beat, bully, rape, and murder them with impunity, and with the full backing of the Israeli Occupation Forces and the funding, arming, and training of the occupation forces by the United States Military.

Israeli settlers CHOOSE to bring their families to what is essentially a war zone where only one side has any significant weaponry. If you brought your child to Bakhmut and decided to settle into a home there and your home gets bombed by the Russians, are you blaming the Russians or yourself for knowingly bringing your family into danger?

It's so insane to call Hamas war criminals. You have to have no context for the present conflict to believe that.

For example, Hamas and the Palestinian people of Gaza previously tried non-violent protest in 2020 with the Great March of Return.

Palestinians in Gaza, with the full backing of Hamas, peacefully protested Israeli occupation near the fence that blockades Gaza in.

They had NO WEAPONS. They protested peacefully, non-violently; marching, chanting and singing and waving the Palestinian flag as they resisted Israeli occupation and oppression they've suffered under since the end of WWII.

And what happened?

Israeli Occupation Forces used snipers to gun down men, women and children peacefully protesting near the Israeli occupation fence, shooting civilians from Israeli territory into Gaza.

When the medics showed up to try saving the lives of those who were shot, Israeli Occupation Forces sniped the medics as well, killing many of them and resulting in the deaths of those they were trying to evacuate.

When journalists showed up to record the unprovoked violence, Occupation Forces shot them too, famously killing an Al Jazeera News journalists, Shireen Abu Akleh.

So what exactly are Palestinians supposed to do according to US and Israeli Elites?

The answer, of course, is leave or die. That is the proposition being offered by Israeli Occupation Forces and their Imperialist Western allies.

Leave or die.

So go ahead, call Hamas war criminals and terrorists if you like, but at the very least, remember they tried literally EVERYTHING before launching Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and just like generations before, they died for trying.

Israeli settlers are NOT civilians. They are Colonialist occupiers ethnically cleansing an entire nation since 1948. Just because all you see of Palestine now are a few small enclaves surrounded by occupied territory, does not mean that "Israeli" territory isn't part of Palestine, it's ALL Palestine.

And Palestinians have an inherent RIGHT under International Law to fight that occupation through violent and non-violent means however they see fit.

Israel itself as a Zionist State is a War Crime.

#FreePalestine #FreeGaza

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[pasparal]

Israel-Gaza War: Norman Finkelstein Debates The "Genocide" In Palestine | The Full Interview

Al Arabiya English

Jun 5, 2024

“Israel is carrying out a genocide in Gaza” American political scientist Norman Finkelstein told Al Arabiya English's Riz Khan.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Finkelstein said the population of Gaza “sealed off from the world” is facing a “death sentence” following the long-time denial of aid – primarily food, water, fuel and medical supply.

Finkelstein is an American academic whose forthright analysis of the Israel-Gaza conflict has provoked strong opinions over many years. He's no less outspoken in this exclusive interview, in which he delivers his own hard talking judgment on the international courts, the ICJ and the ICC.

[eretzyisrael]

by Hugh Fitzgerald

In mid-September, another march was held, starting from the Malka camp that is situated on the border with Israel. It was presented to the world as a “peaceful march,” but that description was belied by the large bomb the marchers brought with them, intending to place it where it then blow up next to IDF soldiers on the other side of the border. More on this march can be found here: “Only in Gaza are there huge bombs brought to a ‘peaceful march,’” Elder of Ziyon, September 13, 2023:

Safa  [the Palestinian new agency] reports, “Five young men were martyred and 25 others were injured this evening, Wednesday, as a result of an explosion during a peaceful march in Malka camp on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.” Palestine Today adds, According to the statement of the rebel youth, a number of Mujahideen from the Engineering Unit advanced to Malka Gate to detonate a heavy-caliber explosive device, but the occupation betrayed them and opened fire where they were to plant the device. The Mujahideen were unable to withdraw, which led to the explosion of the device….

Yes, doesn’t everyone bring a large bomb along on a “peaceful march”? Well, perhaps not everyone, but the Palestinians certainly do. But this “heavy-caliber explosive device” apparently exploded after it had been so carefully planted by the “rebel youth,” the brave Islamic warriors or Mujahideen. Those IDF soldiers whom the “rebel youth” were dead set on blowing to smithereens instead “betrayed them” — how thoughtless of them — by firing on them as they were planting the explosive device. The gunfire prevented the Palestinians from retreating, and the bomb blew up before they had a chance to escape, just the way Wile E. Coyote is always hoist by his own petard of dynamite from the Acme Missile Co., when he tries, again and again, to blow up the Road-Runner. Elder of Ziyon adds:

And make no mistake, for a bomb to kill 5 and injure 25, it was quite big.

[heritageposts]

Nelson Mandela addressing Palestinians in Gaza:

Choose peace rather than confrontation. Except in cases where we cannot get, where we cannot proceed, where we cannot move forward. Then if the only alternative is violence, we will use violence.

[rivage-seulm]

Scott Ritter, Hamas, Terrorism, & the Judeo-Christian Tradition

Readings for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Malachi 1: 14b-2: 2b, 8-10; Psalm 131: 1-3; 1 Thessalonians 2: 7b-9, 13; Matthew 23: 1-12 The liturgical readings for this 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time are about the hypocrisy of national “leaders” who bring disgrace to their office and who become for their people a curse rather than a blessing. They pretend to know more than the ones they “serve.”…

[plitnick]

AIPAC strikes back with the help of cooperative Democrats

Hakeem Jeffries just led a delegation of two dozen congressional Democrats to Israel, with a token stop in Ramallah just to tick the box that they’d been there. But Jeffries and his fellow travelers had plenty to say about Israel and their host, Benjamin Netanyahu. At a time when Israel is defiantly annexing the West bank, massively increasing its already huge violence against Palestinians,…

[ferguswyrm]

[x]

[ladysternchen]

Curing Homesickness

"Elmo!"

His little brother does not stir.

Great. As though his aching back wasn't enough already.

"Elmo, time to get down. We are going to rest here today."

Elmo is barely awake when Elwë crouches down so he can climb down. Conscience stirs. He is by no means the only one who has a small child to care for. Is he pushing this too far? Is keeping up with Finwë really worth tiring his people so early into the journey? He knows what still lies ahead, after all. The great streams. The mountains. The marshes and endless plains. Woods that will cover the stars.

He is least scared of the woods. For one, he has never met a tree that was hostile towards them. For another, Lord Oromë leads them, and no wood would ever turn against him, now would it? But to keep up with Oromë, they must do better, go faster.

Elmo whines, tearing him from his thoughts. Of course. Wake a tired-out elfling so soon after they have fallen asleep. That can only end in disaster. He remembers this feeling, too. Of being woken like this when he was little. When nothing seems right, and there is really nothing for it but to hiss at anybody and anything and curl up to go back to sleep.

He tries to save a situation that he knows from the start cannot be saved, tries to offer Elmo food, but his brother will hear nothing of it.

"I want to go home! I don't want to be on this stupid journey anymore. It's too far!"

"I feel you there, little one."

Ouch.

Hearing that from Olwë stings, though Elwë knows he well deserves this. He has pushed Olwë even harder than he has pushed his own host, so that his brother has been caught between his own impatience and his host's unwillingness to make haste.

Elmo sniffs. Apparently, seeing Olwë again after so long spent apart does take his mind off his misery a little.

"I tell you what, Finwë and Ingwë are on their way here so that we can hold council now that we are all resting in the same place for once. And I bet they are all a little homesick, too."

"Really?"

"Let's find put and ask them. But I am almost certain of it."

Thank you, brother, for saving me. Once again.

"Will Lord Oromë come to that council as well?"

Elmo does not like Oromë much, and Elwë cannot exactly blame him. Not when Oromë has come to take him away so soon after their parents deaths. It must have felt to Elmo as though Oromë outright stole him.

"I would guess so. But you will not be part of that, anyway. You know that. Councils are bedtime."

They sit together not long thereafter, a fire burning merrily in their midst, food being passed around. Oromë sits between Finwë and Ingwë, and though Elmo sits on Elwë's lap and thus with his back turned towards him, he can sense the elfling glowering at the Vala. Good thing Oromë does not take offence in such things.

Ingwë does, though, shooting Elmo disapproving looks.

Please, Olwë, please don't start a row with Ingwë now. We both know his take on family differs from ours.

Olwë heeds his unspoken plea, thankfully. Not that Elwë finds it any less strange that Ingwë ever keeps his family away from his duties. More, when Oromë came to take them to Valinor, Ingwë went without regret, leaving a wife and baby behind. Elwë only left his little brother, and the pain of it was a constant stinging throughout their journey. Remembering it hurts even now.

"You know, Elmo and I both feel a little homesick today, and we wondered if you were, too?" Olwë starts the conversation Elwë has known all along he would start.

"I am. Not today, but on many days. I miss my family."

Elwë would have quite liked to hug his friend. Finwë has left his parents, his siblings, everyone behind, and Elwë cannot fathom how much this must hurt sometimes.

"But I have Míriel, and we will have a family of our own in Aman. And besides, I parted from them in love. We all did what makes us the happiest, and that's the most important thing, after all. Pity only it had to be different paths."

"I miss just living." Olwë chimes in "Just waking and having nothing on my mind but going down to the water with Nowë and seeing how well our new boats will do."

Ouch.

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Elwë reaches over to press his brother's hand. Not that this is enough, not that this silent thanks comes even close to expressing how grateful he is for Olwë's help.

"But then, as you say, Finwë, it will be over once we reach Aman. I look forward to that. See if Elwë has told the truth or just exaggerated."

"You will like it." Elwë assures him, and means it.

"Are you homesick sometimes, too?" Elmo asks him in a very small and very tired voice.

"I miss our parents, and things how they were when they still lived. But to that, there is no returning, anyway. And the place we go to is just as beautiful, different from Cuiviénen, certainly, but wonderful."

Is that the whole truth, he wonders? He knows he will miss the starlight more than anything else, and the lake. But those memories belong to a boy who is no more, who would go out to play and explore and come home to a loving home. Elwë has laid this part of himself to rest together with the mangled remains of his father. No, leaving Cuivíenen really is the only way forward.

"And after all" he says again aloud "There is no harm in remembering a place lovingly, even if that love hurts. That just means it will always be part of you."

"Wise words" says Lord Oromë, and he smiles.

"I never knew. I am so sorry to hear that."

Ingwë sounds genuinely sympathetic. Has he really left nothing behind that he loved, Elwë wonders. Nothing at all?

"But I agree with you, Elwë. I too shall think back to Cuiviénen with love, and hold the place of my birth dear. The place of Ingwion's birth. If there is one regret I have, then it is the memories I do not have, of the years of Ingwion's life I missed. But then, it was for the good of all the Quendi, after all. My pain is little price for that."

It was good to know that Ingwë did care, after all. Even if he did things differently.

Elmo has fallen asleep on Elwë's lap by the time they have finished eating and turn their conversation to more practical things, marking waypoints on which to wait for each other, decide which parts of the journey they will make alone, and which will require the help of the Vala. Elwë decides against moving his youngest brother, cradling him softly instead. Undisturbed sleep, and a few cuddles, and knowing that one is not alone, is the best cure for homesickness, after all. That, and the hope that it will all turn out well in the end.

(@march-of-the-noldor, my contribution for this week's prompt 😁)

[stillgotscars]

guess whose cystic acne has returned 😔

[kitocrystal]

THE TEASERSJEJDJFHR

[starlightshadowsworld]

The Great March of Return was a peaceful protest.

Every Friday from 2018 to 2019, the Palestinians would march to the border of Gaza and peacefully protest.

To ask that the blockade, that the occupation end.

Israeli forces responded to this peaceful protest, by shooting tear gas at bullets at the unarmed Palestinians. Over 214 killed and over 36, 100 injured. With 46 of the deaths being children and around 8,800 children injured.

If they protest peacefully they are killed.

If they protest violently they are killed.

And in neither case to they deserve this, they don't deserve ANY of this.

Source

Source

[machiavelli]

what’s up with me and plane crashing dreams. perhaps my life long obsession with the show air crash investigations is hitting or smth

[reasonsforhope]

"In one of Africa’s last great wildernesses, a remarkable thing has happened—the scimitar-horned oryx, once declared extinct in the wild, is now classified only as endangered.

It’s the first time the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest conservation organization, has ever moved a species on its Red List from ‘Extinct in the Wild’ to ‘Endangered.’

The recovery was down to the conservation work of zoos around the world, but also from game breeders in the Texas hill country, who kept the oryx alive while the governments of Abu Dhabi and Chad worked together on a reintroduction program.

Chad... ranks second-lowest on the UN Development Index. Nevertheless, it is within this North African country that can be found the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve, a piece of protected desert and savannah the size of Scotland—around 30,000 square miles, or 10 times the size of Yellowstone.

At a workshop in Chad’s capital of N’Djamena, in 2012, Environment Abu Dhabi, the government of Chad, the Sahara Conservation Fund, and the Zoological Society of London, all secured the support of local landowners and nomadic herders for the reintroduction of the scimitar-horned oryx to the reserve.

Environment Abu Dhabi started the project, assembling captive animals from zoos and private collections the world over to ensure genetic diversity. In March 2016, the first 21 animals from this “world herd” were released over time into a fenced-off part of the reserve where they could acclimatize. Ranging over 30 miles, one female gave birth—the first oryx born into its once-native habitat in over three decades.

In late January 2017, 14 more animals were flown to the reserve in Chad from Abu Dhabi.

In 2022, the rewilded species was officially assessed by the IUCN’s Red List, and determined them to be just ‘Endangered,’ and not ‘Critically Endangered,’ with a population of between 140 and 160 individuals that was increasing, not decreasing.

It’s a tremendous achievement of international scientific and governmental collaboration and a sign that zoological efforts to breed endangered and even extinct animals in captivity can truly work if suitable habitat remains for them to return to."

-via Good News Network, December 13, 2023

[khanger]

@abeerayman asthmatic mother of ten, two of whom also suffer from asthma. Her family campaign has been struggling to get any donations since September 1st. Donate and help this mother who will do anything to feed and clothe her children.

DONATE HERE

Vetted by gazavetters #153

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[hero-israel]

That article by Sharif Abdel Kouddous is irrelevant both to Israeli Arabs and to peaceful protests, since it is about Palestinians in Gaza during their 2018 "Great March of Return." You know, that thing that was so peaceful that Hamas said on camera they were sending people to breach the wall and murder whoever they could find on the other side, and where they later admitted that most of the people killed by Israeli snipers had been Hamas agents.

[montereybayaquarium]

Remembering Rosa the sea otter

Hello Aquarium family. It’s with great sadness that we share that our beloved sea otter Rosa passed away today. At 24 years old, Rosa was the oldest resident otter at the Aquarium and one of our most experienced surrogate moms, having raised 15 stranded sea otter pups in her time with us. 

While Rosa spent the last few months behind the scenes getting extra special care from our staff, she was the matriarch of the Sea Otters exhibit. Beloved and cherished by millions of visitors and fans of the live Sea Otter Cam, she was instantly recognizable thanks to her blonde head (eclipsed only by Ivy as our most grizzled of kelp grizzlies) and her signature head-all-the-way-back swimming style.

“Rosa was one of our most playful sea otters, and even at 24 years old, she would still be seen frolicking and wrestling with the younger otters when she instigated it,” said Melanie Oerter, curator of mammals. “Rosa was usually found sleeping against the window while on exhibit with her chin tucked tight into her chest and her tail swishing back and forth.”

After being found stranded as a four-week-old pup in September 1999, Rosa became part of the Aquarium family before our sea otter surrogacy program even took shape. Our Sea Otter Program staff raised her by hand for nearly seven months before releasing her to the wild. 

Rosa eventually returned to the Aquarium once again in March 2002 when she didn’t take to life outside of human care, and she immediately became a fixture in the formative years of our sea otter surrogacy program as a caring adoptive mother for rescued pups destined for wild release.

She was a delight to work with, though she certainly had her expectations of our staff according to the many Sea Otter Mammalogists who trained (were trained by?) Rosa over the years. 

"Rosa was an incredibly smart otter! Generally calm and patient with the staff. However, she could be defiant at times and there would be no convincing her to do something she did not want to do," said Oerter. "She would often just look at us or swim away. I believe she was the one who was really training us all of these years. I certainly learned a lot from working with such an incredible otter. It has been a privilege and to say we will miss her is understated."

Rosa relaxed into retirement from surrogacy in 2019, acting as a companion and cornerstone in the ever-changing raft of otters in our care. 

Wild female sea otters live between 15 and 20 years, and reaching the age of 24 is a testament to the exceptional care Rosa received throughout her life from our Veterinary and Animal Care teams. In recent years, she began showing signs of age-related health concerns.  In the last few weeks, her health had been deteriorating. After an exam, the veterinary and animal care teams made the difficult choice to humanely euthanize Rosa because those health conditions were compromising her quality of life. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by her caretakers.

Rosa’s legacy lives on both at the Aquarium with our other resident sea otters Kit, Selka, Ivy, and Ruby, and in the wild, where sea otter pups she raised continue to raise pups of their own, contributing to the recovery of their species and their ecosystems along the California coast. 

Rosa was an inspiration to millions as a charismatic ambassador for her threatened species while playing a leading role in the story of sea otter recovery from near-extinction during the fur trade. Rosa will be greatly missed by all of us who got to know her over the years.

To celebrate Rosa’s long life, please feel free to share photos and stories of your encounters with Rosa at the Aquarium in the comment section on this post, in her memory and for the staff and volunteers grieving her loss. Thank you all for being such a big part of Rosa’s life. 🦦♥️