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[mangocheesecakes]

From the Freedom Flotilla, April 27 2024:

On Thursday afternoon, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition was contacted by the Guinea Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR), requesting an inspection of our lead ship – Akdenez. This was a highly unusual request as our ship had already passed all required inspections; nevertheless, we agreed. The inspector arrived on Thursday evening. On Friday afternoon, before the inspection was completed, the GBISR, in a blatantly political move, informed the Freedom Flotilla Coalition that it had withdrawn the Guinea Bissau flag from two of the Freedom Flotilla’s ships, one of which is our cargo ship, already loaded with over 5000 tons of life-saving aid for the Palestinians of Gaza. In its communication informing us of this cancelation, the GBISR made specific reference to our planned mission to Gaza. It also made several extraordinary requests for information, including confirmation of the ships’ destination, any potential additional port calls, and the discharge port for humanitarian aid and estimated arrival dates and times. It further demanded a formal letter explicitly approving the transportation of humanitarian aid and a complete manifest of the cargo. Again, this is a highly unusual move from a flagging authority. Normally, national flagging authorities concern themselves only with safety and related standards on vessels bearing their flag, and are not concerned with the destination, route, cargo manifests or the nature of a specific voyage. Just like when you register your car, the authorities don’t require you to detail to them every place you are going to go with the car. Sadly, Guinea-Bissau has allowed itself to become complicit in Israel’s deliberate starvation, illegal siege and genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Israel is showing the world the extent to which it will go to deny Palestinians the aid they need to stay alive, in direct contravention of International Humanitarian Law, UN Security Council resolutions, and two orders of the International Court of Justice. [...] without a flag, we cannot sail. But, this is not the end. Israel cannot and will not crush our resolve to break its illegal siege and reach the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza and all of Palestine remain steadfast under the most horrific, unimaginable conditions. We take strength from their incredible, inexplicable ability to maintain their humanity, dignity and hope when the world has given them no reason to do so. It is our responsibility to keep that hope alive. WE WILL SAIL.

The Freedom Flotilla, which was set to depart from Turkey on the 27th of April with 5000 tons of life-saving aid, has now been delayed because Israel and the United States has pressured Guinea Bissau to withdraw its flag from the Flotilla's lead ship.

Seeing as how their tactics worked on Guinea Bissau, organizers now fear that Israel and the US will exert the same pressure on whichever country the Freedom Flotilla attempt to register their ship under next.

To help the Freedom Flotilla reach Gaza, please keep an eye out for further updates from the organizers. Right now, as of April 27th, they're asking people to help boost their visibility, and to donate to their member campaigns.

For more info, see their webpage.

[mangocheesecakes]

every single time taylor swift fans and apologists find themselves complimenting and defending her online they should send $50 to a Palestinian family's gofundme. $50 for one defensive/complimentary sentence, 20 words max. After that it's 50 per word.

[mangocheesecakes]

so it's lesbian visibility week anddd I've been so wiped by doctors/medication fees I think I might disappear 🙃 going to leave links here in case any of you would like to help out a mentally ill lesbian of colour. thanks, and no pressure

paypal | ko-fi | beem

[mangocheesecakes]

While we're at it: using language that downplays genocide is a form of genocide denial.

Joe Biden isn't doing a bad job, Joe Biden is providing material support for genocide.

Israel isn't handling the situation badly, Israel is committing genocide.

Employing euphemisms minimizes the reality of this genocide. It's disrespectful and dangerous.

If you are more uncomfortable with the word genocide than you are with the reality of genocide, then you are not prepared to be part of any serious discussion. Work on that on your own time.

[mangocheesecakes]

Mumia Abu-Jamal addressing the CUNY Gaza solidarity encampment.

[mangocheesecakes]

Something I’ve noticed is that liberal Zionists tag posts about Palestine as ‘i/p’ for some reason?

Yeah it stands for israel/palestine. It's a way to enforce israel's existence despite Palestinians asking everyone not to do that. It's also a very contentious discussion in Palestinian academia. Some people insist on palestine/israel, and some insist on complete rejection of israel and just saying Palestine. The second is more popular in casual spaces. I'm also a contender of using only "Palestine" both casually and in academia.

[mangocheesecakes]

some of my favorite replies to this tweet. happy lesbian visibility week!

[mangocheesecakes]

Hey, I just got an ask from @/almostoptimisticsheep asking for donations to support their family in Gaza. The linktree link on their pinned post that takes you to a paypal donation page for Jeff Owino. I saw one of your posts mentioning his name as a scammer and thought I'd bring it to your attention ASAP. The account was only created a day ago and is seemingly asking for $700 in donations.

Thank you v much for this info. Yes, this one's a scammer. Jeff Owino is a known scam paypal account. They are also listed in Key's list of active scammers pretending to be from Palestine here. Please block and warn your friends and followers. Instead of their scam post, please consider boosting and donating to a legit fundraiser that's been vetted by other Palestinians:

Yousef and Mohamed Moner's fundraisers which are currently v low on funds and has little to no traction

Madleen Abu Jayyab's fundraiser to help especially her son Mohammed who's eye was injured from a rocket shrapnel

Or you can choose any one from @/el-shab-hussein's rotating list of priority fundraisers here

(Edit: scammer is now at @/severepandacomputer)

[mangocheesecakes]

Filipino-American activists protested Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to the United States for the first trilateral U.S.-Japan-Philippines leaders’ summit on April 11.

In a statement, Brittany Tabora of Anakbayan-DC and Bayan-DMV said that it is critical for Filipinos around the world to know that Filipinos in the US do not stand for Marcos.

For the progressive groups, the trilateral summit is among the series of efforts to leverage the Philippines’ strategic geo-political location for economic and military benefit as tensions rise between the U.S. and China, “at the expense of the sovereignty of the Philippines, the economic conditions of Filipino workers, and the health of the environment.”

"We’re here bringing the voices of the Filipino people to oppose the trilateral summit that’s happening around the US, Philippines and Japan. The US government talks about bringing economic growth, prosperity, clean energy and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. But we know this is a guise for more war and militarism in the Asia Pacific region and also an opportunity to perpetuate unequal economic and military agreements,” said Julie Jamora of Malaya Movement USA.

2024 Apr. 14

[mangocheesecakes]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yousef Moner (@you2.ef_)

Yousef Moner (@/you2.ef_) sent me a message on Insta and we've been messaging for a couple of days now. I believe this is a legit fundraiser based on what I've seen so far on his socials. He has a brother with another fundraiser (@/mohamed_moner1994 on insta).

Their gofundmes are being organized by Layla Ashoor (@/only_one_lulu on insta and 'Layla Ashoor' on FB).

Yousef is trying to evacuate with his sister and parents. I asked him where he is currently staying and he told me that they are in a small tent in Rafah at the moment. His gfm has only 3 donations amounting to £65 at the time I am making this post (04/21 here in the PH), while Mohamed is only at £1,150.

Please donate to him if you are able and share his fundraiser link to help him gain more donations.

Here is Yousef's gfm:

Here is his brother, Mohamed's gfm:

[mangocheesecakes]

I do get where you're coming from with this Hussein because I also had similar thoughts back when I started tracking Laura Deramas's scams. In fact, if you look at my Laura Deramas vs. Other Scammers tag where I compare Laura's typing styles with other scammers we've discovered, I don't actually point out what I find to be similar in their posts, I just put them side by side and asks everyone to compare them yourselves.

On my 'scam-spotting tips' tag, aside from my reblog of @kyra45's guides, for the most part I also don't pinpoint what exactly makes a blog a scam, and just give tips on what to do if you receive an ask and feel unsure if it's genuine. For example, the one advice I keep repeating is to look up the blog's url in the search tab in case someone's already identified them as a scam. Seeing as key keeps track of scam urls and other users have also started calling them out, I thought this would be a quick way to suss out scam blogs.

On the other hand, I get the intention behind Key's guides. In the past, before they started impersonating Palestinians, scam donation posts tend to blow up and gain a whole lot of notes and when they start getting traction before we are able to notice them, it's very hard to contain them. I used to send asks to every user who reblog the post to tell them that it was a scam and not to donate.

Some people understandably would question why I think the user is a scam, and what's bad is that the scammer would then use the goodwill and generosity of people who wanna give them the benefit of the doubt to insist that they are genuine. They'd say that they were being bullied and people are being cruel to a person in need. This was how Laura was able to fool a lot of people for such a long time. So I always made sure to never call out a blog until I have absolute proof that they are scamming, and I would post the proof as my pinned so that when I message other users they would immediately see it.

But given the nature of tumblr, still not everyone would see our callout posts and the scammer would keep finding people that would fall for the scams and give them money. This is still true today, if you try and enter the text of current scam asks right now, you would still find people answering them in good faith and telling their followers to donate. Worse is that scammers have now started targetting minors, who usually have no idea that there is even a scam ring going on.

So I get Key's intentions in wanting to inform people about certain red flags that a donation post may have. It's a quick way to disseminate info that people can refer to if they encounter "new" scam blogs. My preferred method myself is still sending out asks and replies and telling the users to warn their followers if they see them reblogging the scam posts. As I said, I don't have as detailed a guide as Key does and don't intend to ever make one.

If you say that in your experience, scam spotting guides are counter-productive then of course, I would take that into consideration and would also suggest to Key and Justin as well (@neechees) to consider what you said.

There's gotta be a way to help people suss out scam blogs without alerting scammers about their 'tells'. Like maybe instead of a list of how you can tell that a blog is a scam, make a list of steps to take before entertaining a donation ask to make sure they're genuine?

So, for example, to answer the question sent by your asker, I would simply say, please browse my 'donation scam' tag and read up on the posts we have compiled regarding the blog they were referring to. If they are able to see the similarities of this 'genuine-looking blog' to past scammers, then they might be able to figure out by themselves how we determine whether a fundraiser is a scam or not without us explicitly saying what makes them a scam.

What do you guys think of this? If you have any other advice or ideas, I would be glad and grateful to hear it.

I'm curious, how do you know some of these are scams? One of the was posting pretty realistically like a Palestinian or supporter thrmmmm

but you seemed pretty sure it was a scam. How do you figure this out? I'm not necessarily questioning your judgement I'm just curious what your method of determining which fundraisers are scam or not? Like I said, nor doubting you , just curious about your methods. Would help me as well... I never know which ones are legit so thank you for compiling that list!!!!

Which one did you think was convincing? Lemme guess? It was the one that had google translated Arabic in the bio?

Also I've said it about a hundred times and I know you're a long time follower. I don't post the reasons I can identify a scam because it'll make them better at getting away with it. Another user that goes by @kyra45 has compiled a list of identifying features of these scams pretending to be Palestinian, which I entirely object to, and now people like you who aren't Arab and who aren't Palestinian and who haven't been keeping up with this are being fooled by them because they know how to look more legit now.

[mangocheesecakes]

Updates from Madleen:

They were finally able to reach 30,000 which is the amount she mentioned she was waiting for so that they can register to travel to Egypt. Madleen said that the money will be transferred to Turkey then Egypt and will be received by her brother who will then register them.

30k is still only less than half their original goal, however, so I still would encourage everyone to keep sharing, and donate whatever you can to help them reach it. Madleen said that according to the doctor, Mohammed needs to have surgery for his eye 💔

Here is a picture Madleen sent me today. She said that this was an activity she made with Mohammed to lift his mood. She told him about the protests that's been happening around the world and in universities in particular and she said it made them feel that they are not alone and that the world is with them. Mohammed told her that when he grows up he wants to help other people survive the way they are helping them survive. He's such a kind, sweet, strong boy, and very patient, as his mother said.

Please follow, share, and interact with Madleen @palestinianmother's videos on tiktok to help bring more awareness to her campaign. Here is the link to her tiktok page:

Please also share her gfm link and donate if you can:

[mangocheesecakes]

When I made this post just ten days ago, it was about mass graves discovered at Al Shifa hospital and now we have learned that the same had happened at Nasser hospital in Gaza. The same genocidal pattern: a hospital is put under siege, patients and medical staff are abducted, tortured and buried in mass graves.

But to build on the last point I wanted to bring attention to in the previous post, it is very crucial to also keep in mind is that the Palestinian Civil Defence have reported that Israel had deliberately concealed the identities of those it killed and buried in these mass graves. Close to 400 bodies have been buried in these mass graves, 58% of the recovered bodies have not been identified.

In a press conference, a spokesperson of the civil defence in Gaza said that Israel had intentionally disfigured the bodies postmortem in order to remove any identifying markers such as birthmarks. He also mentioned that they suspect that the bodies have been placed in body bags that expedited the decomposition process, destroying any possibility of them being identified.

One of the main and only ways families have been able to identify the bodies of their loved ones is through the clothes they remember them wearing the last time they saw them. I saw a video of a mother identifying her son by his striped jacket. You can see the grief mixed with relief that she will be able to give her son proper burial.

Remember when months ago I said that to be identified and buried in Gaza has become a luxury? This is very much still the case.

[mangocheesecakes]

[mangocheesecakes]

Important and urgent, reblog please 😞

Today, a family's home near us was bombed. We have 3,000 dollars left to be able to cover our travel expenses. Help us evacuate before it is too late. Thank you.

Important update: There are 11 days left until the campaign ends

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Moataz (@moataz_art)

[mangocheesecakes]

this is unbearable. just a little while ago when the baby was born we were lamenting that refaat never got to meet his grandkid and now his grandkid, son in law, and daughter are dead too?! ايه القهر ده!

[mangocheesecakes]

hi! i just wanted to ask if you could help me verify if these are real user's fundraisers or not, i've been getting a lot of these in my inbox lately

https://www.tumblr.com/generouslovewolf

https://www.tumblr.com/zanybaloonpeacee

https://www.tumblr.com/delightfultragedyllama

Hi! Yes, all of these blogs are scams. I suggest you should take note of the asks they sent you so that if they remake and send you the same ask you can just block them. These scammers often reuse the same ask even after they've been caught. You could also try looking up their url on the search tab to see if someone has already tagged them as a scam.