esyra - Tumblr blog

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April 3, 2024. Journalist Zuher Dahlan was passing out candy and saw a little girl start crying. He asked her why she was crying and found out that he resembles her father, who has been missing since they left the north of Gaza.

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Please help the family of a non-verbal autistic child (who has been losing weight because he only eats certain kinds of food, largely unavailable during this time) leave Gaza!

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From Ghassan Abu Sitta, April 1, 2024. The massacres of Al Shifa Hospital and the IOF's 14 days siege of it.

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A tweet about the complicity of zionist academia:

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Incredibly alarming that talks of “peace” in Gaza seem to extend no further than a ceasefire. How do you think they’re gonna start off where they left off themselves? Their houses are destroyed, so many have lost mothers and fathers and brothers and children, they still have no clean water and no food. Any area Israel withdraws out of is an area it already knows has been rendered inhospitable. There was even a direct quote by some IOF soldier gleefully stating how he “wasn’t sure Palestinians could go back to their homes.” So what happens when the US “succeeds at negotiating a ceasefire”? Who will be responsible for helping the Palestinians rebuild all that they’ve lost?

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These updates are fucking insane. Israeli forces are currently besieging 3 hospitals: al-Amal Hospital, Nasser Hospital, and Shifa Hospital. They even executed a doctor, Muhammad al-Nono, for refusing to leave his patients, while a PRCS worker was killed in the al-Amal shelling (they are terrorizing these hospitals all at the same time). A Palestinian woman relayed that other women have been rounded up from Shifa hospital and subjected to rape and torture. There are also accounts of Christian Palestinians being denied access to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday—all while Israeli settlers stormed al-Aqsa Mosque on this same Sunday. My heart is aching for these Palestinians. So devastating there are no words.

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I saw a testimony on Al Jazeera that a woman was raped in front of family and children. There's reports of death squads leading dozens into separated rooms to execute them. A child testified to being put on a row to be executed but managed to escape.

I don't know what to even think, what amount of Palestinian suffering is enough? How can these kind of demons be unleashed onto earth during the Holy Month?

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I’m actually so physically sick reading this. These Palestinians were malnourished, sick, frail. They just wanted sustenance for themselves, for their children. And Israel knows this. It knows it has created a fish bowl where people are starving every day, where they’re so desperate for the smallest morsel of food that they’re willing to go anywhere to get it. So they deliberately—on purpose—planted aid in a certain location, stayed waiting while Palestinians all rushed over for this promise of food, and then they opened fire. Now 104 Palestinians are dead, and the footage of this is so heartbreaking it actually made me wanna throw up. I am so incredibly tired of Arab lives being dispensable, or fodder for shock value videos. And with the UN having cut entry for aid trucks, I don’t know what the surviving Palestinians will do. It’s hard living with the fact that people care for Arab people so little, they’re willing to watch this and do nothing. Why are we not human to you?

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UPDATE: MORE BLANKETS!

After two long weeks of looking, Hussam managed to find 500 blankets for displaced people! The nights in Gaza are quite cold, especially in a tent with little protection from the elements, so these will go a long way to help people stay warm!!

For those of you who have been following this, my tumblr ‘helpgazachildren’ was deleted for unknown reasons. In the meantime, I put together this notion site to help document all the receipts and videos of updates for people who want a backlog of information. I will be continuously updating this site.

Please consider donating today. Your donations go directly to people in need with NO middle man in between. No donation amount is too little, or if you’re unable to donate please spread the link today!!!

For those who cannot donate through paypal, here is Hussam’s gofundme! Please note that Paypal is still the preferred way to donate!

ID: Video of the 500 blankets which then cuts to the distribution of blankets to displaced peoples as they walk away. The three pictures are of people as they walk away with blankets atop their heads.

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the irony, as well, of accusing arab-americans of being single-issue voters or not knowing how to prioritize the lesser evil or harm reduction as though arab americans have not also been voting and living in a country that has been responsible for decimating their region!! as though arab americans haven't been voting since 9/11, through the invasion of iraq, through the 2006 war in lebanon, through the war in libya, through the war in syria, through the war in yemen

is nobody asking why for a region that has seen so much bloodshed this is a step too far? is nobody asking why yemenis and syrians and sudanis and libyans are all in complete agreement that this is too much? everyone said a line was crossed a while back. we made no secret of it. a line has been crossed, not just in tyranny but in the impunity of it. everyone is trying to return to some semblance of a rule of law, while the US and israel are telegraphing a future with no law and only force. of course it's too far. to call it a single issue—rather than a culmination of decades of issues—is both myopic and absurd. genocide is never a single issue, but if it was it would still be enough.

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Please consider spending time to learn more about Afro-Palestinian experiences and living under occupation while Black and Palestinian, along with Afro-Palestinian resistance efforts throughout the years. Here are some valuable articles and resources:

Articles:

In the heart of the Old City, generations of Afro-Palestinians persevere in the face of occupation by Mousa Qous

Putting the pieces together: Fragments of oral history in exile by Samah Fadil

‘Afro-Palestinians’ forge a unique identity in Israel by Isma'il Kushkush

The Africans of Jerusalem by Mousa Qous

The History Of Afro-Palestinians, Past And Present by Fayida Jailler

African-Palestinian community’s deep roots in liberation struggle by Electronic Intifada

Remembering Fatima Bernawi: Historic Palestinian fighter and liberated prisoner (1939-2022) on Samidoun

Fatima Barnawi, founder of Palestinian Women's Police and veteran prisoner, dies at 83 by Middle East Eye

On Fatima Bernawi, Women's Struggle, and Black-Palestinian Solidarity by Elom Tettey-Tamaklo

Afro Palestine: the African Diaspora in Palestine (not an article but a quick video summary of Afro-Palestinian history)

Note: highly recommend checking out Mousa Qous, the founder of the African Community Society, for his writings above all!

African Community Society of Jerusalem:

Their website— organization centered around the Afro-Palestinian community in Jerusalem.

General info about the group

ACS's instagram to learn more about Afro-Palestinian history.

Here is a write-up about the African Community Society, their impact within Palestinian society, and Afro-Palestinian history in Jerusalem specifically. Highly recommend taking the time to read this if you can.

Please take the time to watch this Documentary by Stephen Graham about former Israeli prisoner Ali Jiddah where he takes the viewer on a tour throughout Jerusalem and describes the unique struggles the Afro-Palestinian community face. He is quite a friendly guy and very funny:

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❗The Russians killed a six-year-old girl and her grandfather in Velykyi Burluk.

They shelled the railway station, destroyed the building and killed civilians. Russian occupiers attacked the urban-type village of Velykyi Burluk. Previously, they were hit with an aerial bomb. A small child's legs were torn off - she was at the station with her mother and a 75-year-old grandfather. He died on the spot.

An ambulance took the girl to the hospital, but they could not save her. The mother was also hit by the shelling, now she is in a state of shock.

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Nothing is more devastating than this. The UN World Food Program has officially suspended aid delivery to northern Gaza, citing violence and lack of safety as major reasons the aid trucks aren’t getting through. Israeli officers are liberally shooting at Palestinians who try to approach the trucks in hopes of getting even the smallest morsels of food, despite the fact that Israel has allowed only one crossing for the already woefully low numbers of aid they’re permitting entry. Reportedly this number has fallen from 140 a day in January to just 60 a day this month, and now 16% of all Gazan children under 2 are “acutely malnourished.” Meanwhile, the US vetoes a call for a ceasefire for the third fucking time. It’s so inhumane in its cruelty it’s actually shocking to see it being allowed to go on and on, and on an international level no less.

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Remembering Afro-Palestinian Freedom Fighter Fatima Bernawi

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I'm a day late, sorry all!

Let's take today to remember Fatima Bernawi! an Afro-Palestinian freedom fighter!

May her legacy inspire other Oppressed People and those who claim to be our allies and accomplices to stand and FIGHT, to TAKE A STAND.

Let's prove her TIRELESS work was NOT in vain! DONT STOP TALKING AB PALESTINE, DONT STOP TALKING AB CONGO, AB SUDAN, AB NATIVES ALL ACROSS THE WORLD, STAND WITH BLACK PEOPLE AND ALL WHO ARE ALSO BEING OPPRESSED GLOBALLY !!!

please dont fall silent once this falls out of the public eye! KEEP MAKING NOISE! NOW AND FOREVER!!

(I'm doing my damnedest with all my disabilities including several Traumatic Brain Injuries that have DRASTICALLY lowered my reading comprehension and abilities to understand written/spoken words!)

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More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and some 700 others wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, health officials say, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis. The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday that at least 104 people were killed and more than 750 wounded, with the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning what it said was a cold-blooded “massacre”. [...] People had congregated at al-Rashid Street, where aid trucks carrying flour were believed to be on the way. Al Jazeera verified footage showing the bodies of dozens of killed and wounded Palestinians being carried onto trucks as no ambulances could reach the area. “We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” said one witness. Reporting from the scene, Al Jazeera’s Ismail al-Ghoul said that after opening fire, Israeli tanks advanced and ran over many of the dead and injured bodies. “It is a massacre, on top of the starvation threatening citizens in Gaza,” he said. The dead and wounded had been taken to four medical centres: al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, Ahli and the Jordanian hospitals. Ambulances could not reach the area as the roads had been “totally destroyed”, said al-Ghoul. “The numbers will rise. Hospitals are no longer able to accommodate the huge number of patients because they lack fuel, let alone medicine. Hospitals have also run out of blood.” Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said the Israeli military “initially tried to pin the blame on the crowd” saying that dozens were hurt as a consequence of being crushed and trampled when aid trucks arrived. “And then, after some pushing the Israelis went on to say that their troops felt threatened, that hundreds of troops approached their troops in a way they posed a threat to them so they responded by opening fire,” Smith added.

. . . continues at Al Jazeera (29 Feb 2024)

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in light of israel's looming invasion on rafah, south africa implored the icj to call for the protection of palestinians with new preliminary orders. the icj denied this request, insisting that its january orders would be sufficient in ensuring the safety of people residing in rafah.

we have all seen how israel responded to the icj verdict earlier this month. they have all but intensified their attacks on palestinians, their favorite of whom seem to be children. this will end in a bloodbath. palestinians, already malnourished and living in literal tents, will be bombarded, they will be shot, they will be slaughtered. and when i say palestinians, a lot of them are actual toddlers. the videos coming out of this are proof enough.

at this point, it has been made amply clear that palestinians will never experience safety in their own homeland. a lot of the families in gaza are trying to raise funds to get out of it, because there's nowhere left to go.

there is nowhere left to go. if these people don't get the funds necessary to escape, they will die.

it's vital that you go to operation olive branch's spreadsheet, choose a family that resonates with you, and donate as much as you can to their gofundme. every last dollar counts. one dollar could be the difference between life and death for a family. please don't fall victim to the bystander effect. your contribution matters, however little it may be. and whether you're able to donate or not, spread this to as many people as you can. each second we stay silent is a second an entire family is brutally massacred.