botaniqueer - Tumblr blog

[botaniqueer]

I'm also not asking people to be action heroes or anything, since it takes a very specific kind of person to do that sort of direct resistance. I'm asking for people to actually acknowledge and discuss the fact that there is a genocide going on, and to not pretend things are fine. (This applies to all social justice struggles. Acknowledgement helps normal conversations about it, and de-normalize the ignoring of it like we do for many social problems.)

Also there are many ways to support efforts for justice! The people doing direct action require people to support with costs, food, care supplies, etc. For everyone in a visible position, there are a lot of folks cooking as well.

As a Jew I wholeheartedly believe that, folks who are pretending nothing is wrong and Palestinians aren't being murdered every day would have absolutely ignored the Holocaust and let my folks get killed without blinking an eye.

Americans have a lot of heroic fantasies about what they would have done during the Holocaust or chattel slavery, and the answer for a lot of them is absolutely nothing. They would have complained about the people actually doing things for being too disruptive. We Jews did the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and they would have called this terrorism. They would have also complained about MLK and Malcolm X, the former of which took the economies of entire cities hostage. Modern day disruptions don't hold a candle to historical disruptions.

In a two of more decades, people are going to use excuses like "I didn't know!" or pretend they were supportive all along, making tear jerking films about the Palestinian plight. We need to not let them do this.

[botaniqueer]

As a Jew I wholeheartedly believe that, folks who are pretending nothing is wrong and Palestinians aren't being murdered every day would have absolutely ignored the Holocaust and let my folks get killed without blinking an eye.

Americans have a lot of heroic fantasies about what they would have done during the Holocaust or chattel slavery, and the answer for a lot of them is absolutely nothing. They would have complained about the people actually doing things for being too disruptive. We Jews did the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and they would have called this terrorism. They would have also complained about MLK and Malcolm X, the former of which took the economies of entire cities hostage. Modern day disruptions don't hold a candle to historical disruptions.

In a two of more decades, people are going to use excuses like "I didn't know!" or pretend they were supportive all along, making tear jerking films about the Palestinian plight. We need to not let them do this.

[botaniqueer]

The Big Damn List Of Stuff They Said You Didn't Know

Thousands and thousands of years back in three minutes:

But closer to the issue...

Five free eBooks on the colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine

Pluto Books Free Palestine Reading List 30-50% off

LGBT Activist Scott Long's Google Drive of Palestine Freedom Struggle Resources

(includes some of the reading material recced below)

The Cambridge UCU and Pal Society Resources List

List of Academic and Literary Books Compiled by Dr. Kiran Grewal

Academic Books (many available in Goldsmiths library)

Rosemary Sayigh (2007) The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Bloomsbury

Ilan Pappé (2002)(ed) The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge

(2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld Publications

(2011) The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel, Yale University Press

(2015) The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, Verso Books

(2017) The Biggest Prison on earth: A history of the Occupied territories, OneWorld Publications

(2022) A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge University Press

Rashid Khalidi (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, MacMillan

Andrew Ross (2019) Stone Men: the Palestinians who Built Israel, Verso Books

Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012) The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, Stanford University Press.

Ariella Azoulay (2011) From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, Pluto Press

Jeff Halper (2010) An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press

(2015) War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification

(2021) Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, Pluto Press

Anthony Loewenstein (2023) The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (CURRENTLY FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON VERSO)

Noura Erakat (2019) Justice for some: law and the question of Palestine, Stanford University Press

Neve Gordon (2008) Israel’s Occupation, University of California Press

Joseph Massad (2006) The persistence of the Palestinian question: essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, Routledge Edward Said (1979) The Question of Palestine, Random House

Memoirs, Novels & Poetry:

Voices from Gaza - Insaniyyat (The Society of Palestinian Anthropologists)

Letters From Gaza • Protean Magazine

Raja Shehadeh (2008) Palestinian Walks: forays into a Vanishing Landscape, Profile Books

Ghada Karmi (2009) In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Verso Books

Fatma Kassem (2011) Palestinian Women: Narratives, histories and gendered memory, Bloombsbury

Mourid Barghouti (2005) I saw Ramallah, Bloomsbury

Izzeldin Abuelaish (2011) I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, Bloomsbury

Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke (eds)(2015) Palestine Speaks: Narrative of Life under Occupation, Verso Books

The Works of Mahmoud Darwish

Human Rights Reports & Documents

Information on current International Court of Justice case on ‘Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’

UN Commission of Inquiry Report 2022

UN Special Rapporteur Report on Apartheid 2022

Amnesty International Report on Apartheid 2022

Human Rights Watch Report on Apartheid 2021

Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ 2009 (‘The Goldstone Report’)

Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, International Court of Justice, 9 July 2004

Films

Lemon Tree (2008)

Where Should The Birds Fly (2013)

Naila and the Uprising (2017)

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Omar (2013)

Paradise Now (2005)

5 Broken Cameras (2011)

The Gatekeepers (2012)

Foxtrot (2017)

Gaza Mon Amour (2020)

The Viewing Booth (2020)

Innocence (2022) - Innocence (2022) | IDFA Archive

The Village Under the Forest (2013)

Palestine Film Institute's films on Gaza

Abby Martin - Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019) | Full Documentary | Directed by Abby Martin

Dan Cohen - Gaza Fights Back | MintPress News Original Documentary

‘The Promise’, directed by Peter Kosminsky (2010) (4 part miniseries on the creation of Israel)

Sources:

https://www.972mag.com/

https://jewishcurrents.org/

Jadaliyya ‘Gaza in Context’ Series

Jadaliyya “War on Palestine” podcast - The War on Palestine Podcast: Episode 1

Border Chronicle, Interview with Israeli anthropologist Jeff Halper

NGOs

B’Tselem

Breaking the Silence

Al Haq

Palestinian Feminist Collective

Yesh Din

DAWN

Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch

Gisha

Forensic Architecture

Instagram Accounts

gazangirl

mohammedelkurd

khaledbeydoun

motaz_azaiza

wizard_bisan1

etafrum

sara_mardini963

Twitter(X) Accounts

@PalStudies - Institute for Palestine Studies

@medicalaidpal

@middleeastmatters

@KenRoth - former executive director of Human Rights Watch

@YairWallach - Reader in Israel Studies at SOAS

@ PhilipProudfoot - researcher on development, humanitarianism and Arab states

@btselem - Israeli human rights documentation centre

@MairavZ - Senior Israel-Palestine Analyst at Crisis Group

@rohantalbot - Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at MedicalAidPal

@sarahleah1 - Executive Director of DAWN (democracy and human rights in MENA)

@alhaq_org - Palestinian human rights organisation

@FranceskAlbs - UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories

@Yesh_Din - Israeli human rights organisation

@sfardm - Michael Sfard, Israeli Human Rights Lawyer

@EphstainItay - Israeli international humanitarian lawyer

@saribashi - Program director for Human Rights Watch (Israeli living in Palestine)

@Gisha_Access - Israeli NGO

@_ZachFoster - Historian

Share widely!

(if any links are broken let me know. Or pull up the current post to check whether it's fixed.)

From River To The Sea Palestine Will Be Free 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

[botaniqueer]

"I didn't know my government could do this" is a wild statement to me not only because I've grown up being aware of many war crimes and genocides done by the USA and other such countries, but that information is really not that hard to find. People complain about their education system a lot but there are thousands of books, documentaries, essays, articles- hell, even videos -about the numerous atrocities committed by the USAmerican government that they should be looking for. The main thing people tell others to do is educate themselves. I'm just.

[botaniqueer]

My Black Pearl peppers are starting to flower! Love my edgy goth pepps.

[botaniqueer]

Pumping out the grafts! I’ve only had a few failures this year! A far cry from last year where only one of mine worked out. Tomatillos especially are easy to graft it seems. For the rootstock I’m using a landrace the sellers had evolve to suit the PNW better, thinking it’ll help out the more Mexico-focused varieties that I hadn’t had as much luck with here.

The next stage of this is the continue grafting more on each plant so each of them has multiple genomes, letting me have more genetic diversity on fewer plants to save space.

[botaniqueer]

bail funds for pro-palestine activists

a15 bail and legal defense fund (supporting community members criminalized in the us for solidarity with palestine)

university of texas at austin students bail fund venmo @ psc_atx (livestream)

columbia students bail fund venmo @ bcabolitioncollective

the palestine legal defense fund supports acitvists across the united states

palestine legal defence also supplies free legal support for activists

the national bail fund network may update with local bail fund efforts as events continue to unfold

this list is updated as of 24 april 10pm EST. i'll try to update as i find further bail funds and legal supports: if you know of other funds or if information shared here is incorrect, please reblog with updated info (+ a timestamp) so people can give and access support.

palestine will be free, solidarity forever 🍉 🇵🇸

[botaniqueer]

North Atlantic Seabirds 🌊

[botaniqueer]

Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators have been arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire and urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel.

The 300 or so arrests took place on Tuesday night at Grand Army Plaza, on the doorstep of Schumer’s Brooklyn residence, where thousands of mostly Jewish New Yorkers gathered for the seder, a ritual that marked the second night of the holiday celebrated as a festival of freedom by Jews worldwide.

The seder came just before the US Senate resoundingly passed a military package that includes $26bn for Israel.

[botaniqueer]

It’s a little more off topic than I usually am (though I do post SFF on here when it’s related to nature or science) but is anyone else here into the Cosmere? I caught up on the Stormlight Archive a while back, and now I’m going through the Kickstarter books! I just need to finish the Sunlit Man.

(Though I probably will do a post on Rosharan denizens since that includes a really cool reef-like terrestrial system with weird plants adapted to a constantly stormy world.)

[botaniqueer]

Herders

Out on the plains, a group of herders watches over its flock. At around 15 feet in height, the Magnavindix have flat tops, good for catching the sun’s rays to supplement their energy requirements through photosynthesis. The majority of their sustenance however, comes from the placid, defenseless Iumentus creatures they tend to. Imposing in stature and well armed, they play the role of defender, shepherd, and also matchmaker, bringing a pair of Iumentus together when their biolights signal readiness to breed. Indeed this symbiosis has grown so exclusive that the Magnavindix have evolved specialized appendages that are only useful in carrying the Iumentus. Having no concern for danger, the livestock are free to grow fat and slow as they wander the open plain, grazing on the expanse of the fibrous purple carpet creature that dominates this land. Other species benefit from this arrangement too. The shy Brush-faced Verecundas stay close to the herd as their giant guardians deter nearly all predators that would attempt to approach.

[botaniqueer]

A Universe Below

Almost no sunlight penetrates the thick canopy of the glow forest. As a result, organisms in this ancient biome have evolved a massive array of survival strategies using bioluminescence. Some emit light to attract mates or warn against predators. And some, strangely, illuminate themselves in order to be eaten.

[botaniqueer]

Happy Earth Day to the best planet in the known universe for 3.5 billion years and counting.

[botaniqueer]

"In a historic “first-of-its-kind” agreement the government of British Colombia has acknowledged the aboriginal ownership of 200 islands off the west coast of Canada.

The owners are the Haida nation, and rather than the Canadian government giving something to a First Nation, the agreement admits that the “Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai” or the “islands at the end of world,” always belonged to them, a subtle yet powerful difference in the wording of First Nations negotiating.

BC Premier David Eby called the treaty “long overdue” and once signed, will clear the way for half a million hectares (1.3 million acres) of land to be managed by the Haida.

Postal service, shipping lanes, school and community services, private property rights, and local government jurisdiction, will all be unaffected by the agreement, which will essentially outline that the Haida decide what to do with the 200 or so islands and islets.

“We could be facing each other in a courtroom, we could have been fighting each other for years and years, but we chose a different path,” said Minister of Indigenous Relations of BC, Murray Rankin at the signing ceremony, who added that it took creativity and courage to “create a better world for our children.”

Indeed, making the agreement outside the courts of the formal treaty process reflects a vastly different way of negotiating than has been the norm for Canada.

“This agreement won’t only raise all boats here on Haida Gwaii – increase opportunity and prosperity for the Haida people and for the whole community and for the whole province – but it will also be an example and another way for nations – not just in British Columbia, but right across Canada – to have their title recognized,” said Eby.

In other words, by deciding this outside court, Eby and the province of BC hope to set a new standard for how such land title agreements are struck."

-via Good News Network, April 18, 2024

[botaniqueer]

No one person here is Pharaoh though. It's fallacious thinking attributing system-level problems to a single person. As much as I despise Reagan and think his grave should be tossed into the sea, I also don't like using him as a singular supervillain because it ignores that the things he accelerated were always featural to American society, even if some of them were waiting to emerge.

Similarly, Trump, Biden, and Netanyahu are focused on as aberrations or supervillains, when that distracts from the reality that colonialism and capitalism create terrible people like them and give rise to them naturally. Focusing on them as "Pharaoh" means that the base conditions are never dealt with, and more Reagans, Bushes, and Netanyahus will be created in the future.

It's Passover! May Palestinians be freed from their bondage in their own Mitzrayim, and be able to cross into the promised land.

[botaniqueer]

It's Passover! May Palestinians be freed from their bondage in their own Mitzrayim, and be able to cross into the promised land.

[botaniqueer]

Turkey tail mushroom