Palestine Summary: March 13 to March 15, 2024. From "Let's Talk Palestine". Quote:
March 13. Day 159
🇬🇧 In an unprecedented move for a Western state, UK granted asylum to Palestinian w/ Israeli citizenship, overturning their 2022 rejection. His request was largely based on risk of persecution under Israel’s “apartheid” regime. This is first official Western recognition Palestinian reality under Israeli apartheid, even if the UK didn’t explicitly label it apartheid. More on abuse of Palestinians w/ Israeli citizenship: https://tinyurl.com/292zvw7p
🇿🇦 South Africa announces that citizens enlisted in Israeli forces will be arrested upon returning + possibility of stripping citizenship from dual South African-Israeli citizens
• 13-year-old Rami Halhouli shot & killed by Israeli forces in Jerusalem (West Bank) while playing w/ fireworks; Israel National Security Minister Ben-Gvir praised this as “exceptional work”
🇺🇳 Israel bombs UNRWA aid distribution center in “safe zone” Rafah, 5+ killed incl. 1 UN staff
• 88 Palestinians killed, 135 injured in Gaza in past 24 hours
March 14.
Day 160
🚨 Another horrifying massacre of aid seekers in Gaza City as Israeli forces opened fire and killed 21+ Palestinians, injured 155+, death toll expected to rise. Israel’s blockade is obstructing entry & distribution of aid, purposefully starving Palestinians while they repeatedly massacre them as they seek the little aid allowed in
🇺🇸 US sanctions 3 more Israeli settlers + 2 outposts (settlements illegal under Israeli law) in West Bank; first US sanction of entire settlement over just individuals
• Israel witholds body of 13-year-old Palestinian killed by IOF to deter mourning gatherings & curtail attention to the killing of Palestinians; witholding remains of 65 Palestinians killed in West Bank since Oct 7
🇦🇺 Australia revoked visitor visas issued to Palestinians fleeing Gaza while enroute — saying they didn’t intend a “temporary” visit. Australia advising they apply for this visa, issuing the same visa’s to fleeing Ukranians without the expectation they were tourists
March 15, message.
🚨 Last night, Israel massacred Palestinians in Gaza City as they gathered waiting for aid trucks, killing over 40 people and injuring at least 160 more. Israeli forces fired live ammunition at the crowd from helicopters and tanks, leaving many to bleed out on the street.
This marks the 7th attack on aid seekers during this genocide, highlighting a pattern amidst the constant bombardment and targeted killings across Gaza.
Since January, Israel’s obstruction of the entry and distribution of aid has created a dire situation for Palestinians as dozens have since been recorded killed by starvation and dehydration. Many more remain in critical condition in barely functioning hospitals under Israel’s total siege and bombardment. Starving Palestinians is a key target of this genocidal campaign to try and force Gaza to submit to occupation.
We need to escalate our pressure.
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The description of the space station is based on my own experiences during a ten hour layover in Singapore.
"Are you alright? Do you have a bout of telesickness?" Brigadeiro Bun asked as Revati stared off into space.
"Telewhat?" Revati asked, her brain snapping back into place.
When Amma and Nanni heard that Revati was about to go off-world, they tried to prepare her.
"It's not like your other wasteland adventures where you wandered into a city on foot! You'll need to buy tickets; then apply for a tourism visa," Amma explained.
"My what?" Revati asked, completely confused.
"The actual teleporting takes less than a second, but you will have to spend at least an hour in customs and immigration and four hours in the teleport waiting your turn," Nanni added.
It was all incredibly exhausting and confusing.
The teleport hub they were waiting in was deliberately designed to make people forget they were waiting. Bright, expensive shops with intricate displays created pathways to different teleportation gates. Massive, giant flowering bushes surrounded by clouds of butterflies brushed against the glass ceiling. In the center of everything, there was a crystal pond. Robotic bronze mermaids swam up and down underneath the lily pads.
"Telesickness! It's okay, a lot of people not used to teleporting end up with upset stomachs," Brigadeiro reassured her, handing her something small and pink from his shirt pocket.
"This should help, their stomach stabilizers! I bought them in the bathroom," Brigadeiro smiled helpfully, and Revati took one, popping it into her mouth before promptly spitting it out.
"It tastes like gasoline," Revati grimaced.
"You're not supposed to eat it! You rub it on your temples," Brigadeiro explained gently before picking the stomach stabilizer up off her lap.
"Please don't rub that all over my temples; it has my spit on it," Revati pointed out, shutting her eyes.
"Are you sure you're not sick?" Brigadeiro asked.
"I'm just exhausted; we've teleported so many times I have no idea where we are," Revati sighed, closing her gritty eyes.
"We're at the Anh Do memorial teleport hub; he was a figure from southwest Sydney legends! When he was a baby, he was on a boat attacked by pirates. Then he grew up to become a famous children's writer and artist," Brigadeiro rattled on.
Revati felt herself slump to one side with exhaustion, her head landing on something soft.
Brigadeiro's home wasn't even technically a planet. Rather, it was a series of six space stations, each representing different areas of a land once known as "Australia." The Southwest Sydney Station was so big it had its own weather patterns, ecosystem, and geography. Most of it consisted of expensive tourist resorts, beachside towns, and theme parks. Brigadeiro had explained many times before that his family was part of the 15 million-strong workforce that lived in the secret employee-only towns and cities. Someone, hopefully Brigadeiro, was gently massaging her scalp, and Revati felt herself fall into a drowsy, dark state.
Revati wasn't sure how long she had been snoozing when the screaming sirens suddenly filled the air. Revati's self-preservation instincts kicked in, and her eyes snapped open. Within seconds, she was back on her feet, reaching for her mace.
"You had to leave the weapon at security back on Mars," Brigadeiro reminded her as hundreds of people suddenly started flowing out of the teleport gates. The air was thick with sirens and flashing blue lights as the crowd swelled around her. Brigadeiro snatched her hand, and together they were swept forward in the tidal wave of chaos.
People were everywhere, their faces blurred by the rapidity of the moment, their shouts and cries a blurry nonsense of at least a dozen different languages. In a second of terror, Revati found herself thrown down. Feet pounded on her back as she curled herself up into a ball. There was a sudden break in people, and Revati saw a glimpse of the mermaid pool. Revati forced herself forward and grabbed the pool's safety fence, hauling herself over the edge. She landed with a splash into the shallow water. For a few moments, all Revati could hear was the pounding of the mob and sirens.
All Revati could feel was her body as the robot mermaids bumped into her before swimming away. The glass ceiling above had clouded over, turning an eerie white. There was a sudden buzzing on Revati's wrist, indicating her bangle had an incoming call. It was the android. Of course, it was.
"Ignore," Revati groaned, sitting up, and a tiny mermaid bounced off her cleavage. Somehow, half her shirt had managed to get ripped off. The crowd wasn't as thick, but people were still charging past the shops heading to some unknown destination. The sirens suddenly stopped.
"All interstellar teleport gates have been switched off temporarily! We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused," a lady's voice chimed over the speakers. People slowly stopped running and instead began to shuffle around.
Tiny first aid drones began to zoom out of the shops, attending to the fallen. Through it all, Revati scanned and searched. Spotting Brigadeiro was far harder than usual since many people in the hub had pink, curly hair. Finally, she saw him across the crowd in the doorway of a chocolate shop. A woman was lying at his feet. Revati slowly stood, her legs wobbling, before climbing out of the pond. By the time she managed to push her way through to the storefront, she had heard several whispers. There had been an attack on another Space Station known as “Cairnes”. The crowd consisted of tourists and travelers who fled when an employee opened up a teleportation gate during the attack. Brigadeiro was attending to the woman who was bleeding all over the shop floor from a gash on her temples.
"Oh, thank Goup!" Brigadeiro cried, wrapping Revati in a smothering hug. Brigadeiro was, of course, a little shorter than her, and he nuzzled his face into her shoulder, sobbing.
"It's alright, I'm fine," Revati assured him, petting his back, and Brigadeiro sobbed.
"It's not that; Cairnes has been destroyed! Millions are dead," Brigadeiro's voice choked.
"Destroyed?" Revati gasped. The bleeding lady on the ground twitched, and Revati let go of Brigadeiro in order to check her. The lady was a bit older than Revati, probably in her late twenties. She had the pale, sickly skin and brighter blue hair of those who came from the northern parts of Mars. Her haircut, however, was similar to the trendy “mushroom cap” style she had seen on the space station – short with a blunt fringe. Revati reached into one of her pants pockets, pulling out a trusty medibandage, and stuck it onto the woman’s temple. Even while unconscious, she had the expression of someone fully capable of starting a riot in a coffee shop. It clashed violently with her bright purple tropical print shirt and neon pink watch. The watch. Revati grabbed the unconscious lady's hand to examine the watch.
"SOS Emergency Medical Information," she said to the watch. Its screen flickered, and a tiny 3D hologram of the lady appeared.
"My name is Pauletta Chuchotor, I am twenty-nine years old! My blood type is B- and I'm allergic to Venusian swamp gas," the hologram said cheerfully, and suddenly the hologram switched off as tight fingers wrapped themselves around Revati's wrist.
Revati glanced at the lady who was now staring at her with bloodshot green eyes.
"My personal information isn't for you," she said in a deep, raspy voice.
"Good to know," Revati said. Pauletta Chuchotor was staring at her curiously.
"I don't forget faces easily," she said, her fingernails still digging into Revati's wrist.
"Ok," Revati replied uneasily, wondering if the lady had a brain injury.
"You look a little like someone I met a long time ago," Pauletta said, as if accusing Revati of something terrible.
"I got a message from Dad; the news says all the teleporting hubs have been shut down! He says we should leave the hub and take the workers' bullet train back to Paprika Station before they stop running," Brigadeiro said, gesturing to his grey bracelet.
"A bullet train? Like the one in Olde Landon? I thought this space station was supposed to be super advanced?" Revati asked, completely confused.
"It is, but teleportation has a weight limit of six hundred kilograms; the trains are used when we need to transport bulk goods and supplies to different resorts," Brigadeiro explained.
"I also need to go to this Paprika Station; I will follow you," Pauletta Chuchotor remarked, and Revati exchanged a look with Brigadeiro.
"I mean, it's not like we can stop her," Brigadeiro pointed out.
The train ride to Paprika Station turned out to be far more exhausting, bewildering, and strangely smelly than teleporting. Everyone seemed to know Brigadeiro Bun, and by extension, everyone seemed to know Revati.
"Bridgadeiro! Your mama said you would be back for Applefestus! And is this the famous Revati from Mars?" An old lady with orange hair said to them as they waited for the train.
"I may have mentioned you in my messages home; this is my mother's friend Mrs. Jambalaya from church," Brigadeiro said as the old lady descended onto Revati in a cloud of vanilla perfume.
"Oh, she's so pretty! Such big amber eyes! And who's that?" She asked, nodding at Pauletta, who was standing several feet away from them, staring into the distance.
"No idea, we think she's an injured tourist," Brigadeiro admitted as Revati quietly blushed. No one in Olde Landon had ever called her pretty.
"Bridge! Did you hear about the terrorist attack? My dad said appliances from Mars did it," someone yelled when they finally got onto the cramped train. A teenage boy with dark skin and fuchsia braids was waving at them from a row of seats.
"We were at the capital telehub when it happened! Revati, this is my cousin Pecan," Brigadeiro explained as they sat down.
Pecan gasped with horror. "Oh, Goup! You're the girl Bridge is bringing home for Applefestus! You probably don't want us talking about the war," Pecan remarked.
"It's fine; I'm too tired and freaked out to care," Revati assured him.
"Why don't you take a nap? The ride to Paprika Station takes around four hours," Brigadeiro said, tapping his shoulder. Revati sighed gratefully, her head dropping onto his shoulder. Before her eyes shut, she spotted Pauletta standing on the other side of the carriage, staring at her with dried blood still in her hair.
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