#I truly hope that Palestine will know peace once more

[introvert-celeste]

It's so insane seeing all these atrocities continuing to take place for months and there are still people who whole-heartedly support Israel.

They will see the thousands of dead and dying Palestinian civilians, their bombed out homes and their leveled city and the IDF commiting the most heinous acts, and all they will think is "Hamas did this" and "but the hostages!" Nothing, absolutely NOTHING, can excuse the deaths of over 12,000 CHILDREN, not even if there were Hamas militants hiding behind each one. The Hamas are merely an excuse that they're using to decimate Palestine and colonize it for themselves. Land and profit are the zionists' end goals, and the governments who support this are the ones who stand to benefit.

Anyway, if hell exists I hope the monsters responsible for the Palestinian genocide go there soon.

[pink-amethyst-tarot]

What you need to hear right now - Pick A Card

The world is really fucking sad, so here is some good news

Here are some families and causes you can help that are in Palestine.

Song of the Day - Big Boy by Sikey M.

P I L E 1 ~ P I L E 2 ~ P I L E 3

P I L E 1 - Be Radical.

Eight of Pentacles (Reversed), Queen of Wands (Reversed), The Fool, The Emperor

You don't have to push yourself so hard. There is no need to overcompensate because you believe that you aren't worried or special. You are where you are because you are someone special and worthy and so much more than you know. Spirit wants you to take that leap of faith. Sometimes believing in yourself is radical. Sometimes loving yourself is a radical act. You would be so upset if someone treated someone you cared about the way you treat yourself. Image in you had to live as someone you cared about for one whole year. What you do for that person in that time? How would you take care of them? What good would you have them do for themselves? That is how you should treat yourself. You are not your enemy. The negative thoughts you may have about yourself were never something that just came out of nowhere for your own head. People and life told you that you were wrong either through verbal or nonverbal communication. If you did not create these thoughts, why should you keep them? This Emperor is who you are meant to be. Take the leap. Be radical.

Thank you so much for participating in this reading. Feel free to like, reblog and share. If you would like a personal reading, you can check that out by clicking here.

P I L E 2 - Let Me Be Your Peace.

The Emperor (Reversed), King of Pentacles, Four of Wands, King of Cups

"Let me be your peace." is what I keep hearing. This could be one person or more than one person that wants to come in and your support. You have had people in your life that would come in and just treat you so awful but this person or people that are coming in, will not be like the people from your past. I say, "person or people" but I feel like that even if it's one person, that one person is going to come with people if that makes sense. and for someone of you, you may be meeting someone romantically and I think that's why even if it's one person, it will turn into people. Meeting one person will lead you to the one. The people that are coming in want to pour into you and they want to commune with you. You don't have to show up with something to give; don't worry about "what you bring to the table". The fact that you showed up to the function is enough. Your presence is enough. YOUR PRESENCE IS ENOUGH. YOUR PRESENCE IS ENOUGH. I just felt the need to say that way more than once so I can make sure you know. Maybe it can be your affirmation. The people coming in are less worried about what you can do for them but rather what they can do for you. They want to pour into your cups. I don't think it's because they don't expect less of you or expect you do less. I think it's because they trust and believe you will do right by them so they will trust and do right by you. They trust you. They believe in you. For those of you that have a romantic partner coming in, I hope you are ready to settle down/get married/have babies. Whatever the big step is for you and how that fits into your life, you will be doing that with this person.

Thank you so much for participating in this reading. Feel free to like, reblog and share. If you would like a personal reading, you can check that out by clicking here.

P I L E 3

Three of Pentacles, Two of Wands, Queen of Cups, The Star

This is your path. No one can make the decisions for you. You might be scared to get it wrong but there is no need. Open your heart and do what you truly believe is right for you; even if others would disagree. (212, 12, 2112 and/or 211 might be significant to you.) You can talk to the people that you respect and trust most in your life to get their opinion but, ultimately, it's all up to you. I keep getting distracted while doing this reading, which is weird because I was so focused for the other two. Losing focus of what you need to do or finding ways to distract yourself could be something that you relate to. I feel like if that's you, you're doing it because you don't want to make decisions but THAT'S NOW HOW THIS WORKS! The time is going to pass anyway, so might as well buckle down and handle your business. Yes, you could wait until it's the last minute but then you'll be all stressed out and it will make it even harder for you. Why put yourself through more anguish than you already are in? I feel like no matter what you choose, it will lead to a new beginning that will be very healing for you. Almost like you will be made new. you'll be born again in some, way, shape or form. Also hearing something about others making decision for you. Maybe people have made choices for you for a long time, maybe even your whole life. It doesn't have to be like that forever though. You got this. Believe in yourself.

Thank you so much for participating in this reading. Feel free to like, reblog and share. If you would like a personal reading, you can check that out by clicking here.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THESE READINGS ARE FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. no guarantees are implied. These readings are not a substitute or replacement for any professional help or services. My readings are not a substitute for any form of professional legal, medical/psychiatric, relationship, religious/spiritual or financial/ business advice nor consultations. You should always see a professional legal/trained adviser for help in any matter. I am not responsible for any decisions/ actions you take.

[crumb]

please tell me you guys watched that video Noah Schnapp put out trying to backtrack and save his pathetic career. Please listen very carefully to the language and words he uses. He's choosing his wording VERY carefully in order to save his career and try to pacify those who support Palestine without actually denouncing genocide or zionism. "I feel my thoughts and beliefs have been so far misconstrued..." babe you were yelling from ig post to ig post about being pro israel, calling Palestinians terrorists, and being a proud zionist. How has that been misconstrued?? "I only want peace and safety and security for all innocent people affected by this conflict" He makes sure to use the qualifier 'innocent' several times in the video when referring to Palestinians, victims of a genocide not a conflict. But as we know, zionists don't see Palestinians as innocent so who is he talking about? This kind of tentative language helps him try to appear like he actually cares about Palestine while still condemning hamas without addressing the actual root of the issue—israel and the IOF. "We all hope for the same things..." Do we? You're a zionist. Zionism is settler colonialism and based in white supremacy. Please be more specific on what you hope for. "...That being, those innocent people being held hostage in Gaza be returned to their families. And equally hope for an end to the loss of innocent life in Palestine..." Zionists LOVE to go on and on about the hostages without mentioning the very real danger those hostages face from israel and the IOF bombs themselves. Israel is carpet bombing Palestine indiscriminately when they very much have the tech to make extremely detailed and targeted attacks. Did you see the way they targeted the specific apartment unit in Lebanon? In Gaza they're wiping out whole city blocks. Israel and the IOF don't actually care about the hostages. If they did they wouldn't be razing Gaza and boasting about their plans to use the land for beach condos. If israel and the IOF actually cared about israelis, why are they basically using the Hannibal Directive? Especially at the music festival on October 7th where the IOF killed a number of their own civilians. If israel cared about the hostages, why aren't they willing to release the hundreds of Palestinian hostages they have who are being jailed illegally and without charges? 'oh but they did! They released some during the pause so they could get hamas to release some israeli hostages' yeah and then the IOF rounded up and captured more Palestinians than they released that very same day. "...I think anyone with any ounce of humanity would hope for an end to the hostility on both sides. I stand against any killing of any innocent people" Once again with the manipulative qualifiers 'both sides' and 'innocent people'. How can you expect an occupied people who have been living through apartheid and genocide for 75 years to not eventually fight back? To not understand why October 7th happened you have to be either completely uneducated about even the most basic history of Palestine and/or so deeply entrenched in propaganda and denial that it doesn't even matter if you do know about the history because you truly believe you deserve an ethnostate on a piece of land that has inhabited several diverse groups over thousands of years. It was never a land of 1 singular homogeneous group. To want it to be that, is actually insane.

[intersectionalpraxis]

Hey can you please help me?

So I live in a country which is very very pro israel

And like my parents and most of my friends parents are pro israel.

So as our exams are ending soon we have planned to go out.

But my friends want to go to starbucks but I have alr boycotted them and stuff.

The thing is if my parents find out that I'm pro palestine they will be super mad at me (it has happened once before and me and my dad got into a huge huge fight) and I really don't want that to happen because there is a chance that my internet access might be cut off.

So can you please tell me the things wrong with starbucks other than the genocide so I can use it as an excuse?

I really don't want to support starbucks at all.

Thank you so much for reading this!

I live in Canada, and the government here has made it very clear they support the IOF and the ongoing genocide against Palestinian people. I have had a few folks reach out into my inbox before with similar sentiments, so I understand.

I am not sure how old you are, and I don't want to assume that you're under the age of 18 (because I know exams happen for high schoolers as much as they do for those in University), but no matter the context, I can see that there are power dynamics at play here, and in many ways you feel like you're not in a position where you feel comfortable to boycott or talk about Palestinian liberation in front of your family, which is heartbreaking.

I am by no means perfect, so I can't unfortunately provide you with the best response and recourse of action. I have had to cut multiple people out of my life who hold onto problematic views. When I was 17, I had enough of my ex-uncle and cousins actions (I haven't considered them family for nearly 15 years) -my ex-uncle is incredibly classist, ableist, and racist. My cousins were his enabler because they were greedy and insensitive. I called it out numerous times, and then shut them out completely. I have also cut out people from my life that I thought I would see them get married and have kids in the future because of their toxicity I could no longer ignore. It's always hard to do (that sounds like an understatement, it truly is beyond life altering), but it has done nothing but give me the emotional and mental peace I needed.

I also hold the people around me accountable, and if they won't 'listen' to me or are aggressive about supporting oppressors, then I won't argue with walls -that's their decision to remain bigoted, and I'm not responsible for their unlearning beyond a certain point. I can imagine how much you've tried to talk with your family about this, and how exhausting it can be (considering you probably feel belittled by them as well to a certain degree).

I'm also not sure what your dynamic with your family is like generally speaking, or with your friends, and I am in no way saying you should re-shape and reflect about your connections with them, but I wanted to say their 'punishments' against you (like taking your internet away, or yelling at you) for resisting and rebelling against a system which is killing and genociding people in any part of the world is just awful to me on many levels. And it's not just your parents, it's definitely a much larger issue here.

I hesitated with how to get back to you for a while now, so I don't know if you'll see this, because apart from giving you more reasons as to why you should also not go to Starbucks (there are articles about how they have used slave and child labour to farm their coffee beans, and how they shut down stores to prevent unionizing), it just leaves me feeling particularly empty and heartbroken for all the young kids and teens who want to see changes made to our current systems be shut down, bullied, and berated by the people who are supposed to protect and support them the most.

I wish the best for you, and I'm sorry this has been happening to you. I hope you keep resisting in many ways, and that in our lifetime Palestine is free.

[jefferkyleson]

As a Jew who has recently been undergoing an identity crisis about my Judaism due to my father's passing and the conflict in Israel and Palestine, I just want to say, try to assume good in people.

First of all, genocide is horrible and what the Israeli government is doing is reprehensible. I will not indulge in a both sides argument. The numbers of civilians deaths speak for themselves.

Real quick, let me tell you a story. My father was Jewish. He grew up in a rural town in America. You can imagine how that went. Day after day he was belittled and beaten. He was mostly known as "Jew" and would often be called that followed by a swift punch to the gut.

As he got older, things didn't get much better. In High School, he and his friend were in the same class. He got a B, she got an A. They both knew each other well and knew he got better scores, so they went to the teacher for clarification. The teacher had a simple response. "You're the Jewish kid, right?" he said. My dad responded, "Yeah?" "That's all I need," he said. If he wasn't Jewish, he probably would've had straight A's.

Throughout his career, again, little changed. Dog whistles and insults and fear were thrown around wherever he went. And after he had me, that fear only grew. Of course it did. You would do anything to protect your child and you fear whatever the world may do to hurt them.

Now, only 8 years ago, he had to watch a man become president who was being openly supported by nazis. He had to watch people march in the street and chant "Jews will not replace us!" He had to watch as some of the last holocaust survivors started to die out and he had to watch as the neo-nazis grew louder and bolder.

To drive my point home, I've only ever seen this man cry once. It was when he watched Schindler's List with me in the room.

So when my father spoke about supporting Israel, I was confused. "How could he stand for genocide?" "How could he support colonialism?" "Is everything he taught me about the middle east a lie?"

But I knew my father well.

He did not support genocide. He has always stood for equality and peace. He did not support colonialism. At home, he has helped support native populations in every way his job allowed. He knew a lot about the middle east. He had a PhD and had bookshelves of history books.

I think deep down, Judaism can often be tied to fear. When you look at Jewish history, it's hard to notice anything but enslavement and genocide. When you live a Jewish life, it's hard to notice anything but fear and hate.

All he wanted was for Jews everywhere to be safe. All he wanted was for me to be safe. All he wanted was to be safe. So when he stood with Israel, he still did not support the genocide. But he grew up in fear and hoped that Israel could one day become a peaceful place where Jews could be safe.

Did I agree with him on everything? No. He would always jokingly call me a Commie. We did not agree on the situation on Israel. But I knew him. I understood where he was coming from. I understood what he meant and what he was truly fighting for. He wanted a world where everyone could be safe. He personally felt that Jews could be safe in Israel and lived a life that made him feel like we couldn't be safe anywhere else. He also felt that Israel's actions were wrong and that Israel needed to undergo a lot of changes so that the middle east could be safe for everyone. He did not support genocide, he did not support Israel's current actions, but he still supported Israel. And you know what, maybe with more time, he would've condemned Israel entirely, but when he passed, he still supported Israel, and the least I can do is understand where he was coming from.

This has gotten pretty long-winded, but what I'm trying to say is, look at who people truly are. When my dad grew up, "Zionist" was often code for "Jew" and "From the River to the Sea" may as well have been saying "Jews will not replace us." But when I see the people calling for an end to genocide, I believe that is what they are fighting for. When I see Jewish organizations, politicians, teachers, rabbis, and kids on splatoon saying "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," I truly believe they are against genocide and are advocating for freedom, equality, and peace. And when I see celebrities and Jewish organizations and my dad supporting Israel, I truly believe they are against genocide and are advocating for freedom, equality, and peace. And when I think of the millions of people in the middle east, I know the vast majority of them just want to live lives of freedom, equality, and peace.

Now don't get me wrong. Again, I'm not trying to make a both sides argument. I personally believe that what Israel is doing is wrong and the bloodshed needs to stop immediately.

I also know that there is going to be the occasional douchebag who hides behind rhetoric in order to be hateful. I also know this situation is extremely complicated with history and experiences going back for thousands of years. I also know people have things they need to learn and things they need to unlearn and that process might take more than a week.

But before we go firing and censuring and yelling at other people, all I ask is, look at who they really are, what they are really trying to say, where they are coming from, be patient and understanding with them, and try to assume they are coming from a place of good before you assume they are coming from a place of hate.

[4alley2kat0]

Yk how everyone has a historical fascination (Greece, ww2, 911, serial killers, Pearl Harbor, the renaissance era, etc)

Something so dark you hate learning more but you just have to know everything about it

Well mines the holocaust and dbh showing in detail in a modern way what happened had my mouth agape the entire time

Innocent people were taken from their homes because of a belief that if one was “evil” they all must be…all the while events leading up to the camps showed an image of fear and injustice displayed from the so called “evil”

Thousands of “people” who once worked for you, bought groceries at the same shops you did, stood in line with you at school in wait for children who loved them, tended to plants just across the streets from you, took care of your elderly loved ones you dismissed, took the abuse from others because no one cared to acknowledge they were more than just “something” died. Because they were seen as less then human.

They rioted in the streets and they had peaceful protest, they ran in fear and they turned themselves in in fear of a worse fate at running, they took violent measures to fight violent attacks and they took humane measures to fight violent attacks. They stayed hopefull and they lost hope.

None the less. Different actions. Different endings. The thing that remains true is beings with emotions no different than that of those around them were treated differently because they believe, live, and look differently. Not people that are evil, not violent, not full of hate. But people of a different yoke.

The point is DBH is a game

The holocaust and the internment of Japanese people happened in the 1940s, and it’s very real. our entire lives we’ve been told history repeats itself. I always understood that but I never thought I’d live to see the mass genocide of a group of innocent people. I never understood how people didn’t know or didn’t do anything but I’m sitting here now seeing how media is being represented among different platforms and it makes it somewhat more obvious.

When a dirty system runs on one side it’s not gonna show the truth to the other side. Now and days I’m more aware of the truth behind these atrocities because of social media. that being said the people experiencing these atrocities can’t communicate and use their voice and even with the internet to do so constant attacks makes it impossible when they have to value the safety of themselves and the ones they love. We have the capability to use our voice for them and we can’t stop being their voice until Palestine has a truly happy ending.

[david-goldrock]

Hello! I'm pro palestine - in the sense that I do think that Israel is founded on colonialism (no, i don't blame the jews. just was how it was) and I hope for a two state solution where Israel genuinely leaves the West bank and Gaza alone entirely.

Israel was founded largely thanks to British aid. The Brits Lied to Al Hussein (McMahon-Hussein Correspondence) claiming that if they fought of the Ottomans, they'd help them set up Palestine. They had promised to the Jews in the Balfour declaration in 1917. But all that was a lie, they'd already arranged a split with France (Sykes-Picot agreement), and both these entities would ultimately be under foreign rule. Anyway, this got them Mesopotamia, Jordan, and the Palestine region, and they split Palestine up 20% 80% in the 1937 Peel Commission.

You know, at the time where jews made up 6% of the population in the region. This was deeply disrespectful to the Arab population at the time, and while most countries have black roots nowadays, that should be acknowledged. There's a reason Arabs kept initiating the wars - and it's not because Arabs have less moral fiber than Jews.

It's because they were there first, and Jews came because their great great great great great grandmother was there. Also, there's writings at the time to imply that the British support of Israel's creation was largely a result of not wanting to deal with living with Jewish people.

Arthur James Balfour literally wrote that he hoped that the creation of Israel would mean British people wouldn't have to deal with an "alien body" anymore.

The foundation of Israel is not only built on a lot of violence (that the jews did not directly start but was unavoidable by virtue of them seeking to take over the area, and the british lies that were deeply disrespectful), but also on British colonialism and anti-semitism. It has resulted in the displacement of Palestinians all over the middle east, because they were uprooted from their homes because of Zionism.

In other words - I don't think Zionism is a solution to anti-semitism nor do I think it has done good to the world. It wasn't peaceful, and it never could have been. Colonialism is never a peaceful endeavor.

I understand the 12 israeli tribes/Kingdom of Israel were forced into a diaspora, and I am truly sorry about how the jewish people have suffered. I understand the desire for a jewish state - even if I think it was wrong to take something where people were already living, even if that was once where your great great great great great great grandmothers and grandfathers lived.

That doesn't justify the violence the Palestinians face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xottY-7m3k

in this video, around 50:35, you can see some videos of IDF soldiers committing several heinous acts, including destroying humanitarian aid. around 52:45, you can see an IDF soldier using a civilian as a human shield.

https://twitter.com/poke_farmer/status/1790718768198361513 https://twitter.com/AnonOpsSE/status/1567233393565306880

some more videos, a residential area bombed, and a group of idf members harassing people holding up a coffin of a journalist.

I've heard claims that Hamas is forcing Israel to commit things that are like war crimes - like bombing hospitals and schools casualties - because of how it works. If Hamas really has underground tunnels in these areas and that's why Israel is bombing them, what's the proof of that being the case? If Hamas is telling Palestinians to stay home even if the IDF sends them texts before bombing them - where's the proof of that?

I will admit - I don't personally follow any IDF or Palestinian social media. You seem like you would be more connected - which is why I'm asking you.

I will admit - I only watched a bit of Memri.tv and that's all I know about palestinian tv. I've seen the Hamas leader who said you can kill a jew for 5 shekels (meaning, with a knife). I know that for sure several palestinians do hate jews.

The same is true of the israelis. A lot of them hate arabs. https://twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/1725391062448087143 https://twitter.com/amalikabeer98/status/1782129171709210724

This is actually more of a reflection of Israelis. Hamas has been unfairly taking a 20 year term, so it's easy to say the Palestinians aren't reflected in the government. Israel is democratic. The country's government largely represents the people.

Everything I've mentioned so far and more can be found in the youtube video I linked by the way - I highly recommend you give it a watch.

People often view support of Palestine as being...entirely unresearched and misunderstood. I can't deny that several people seem to view this issue as another thing on the Leftist Checklist To Support And Also I Can Hate Jewish People Now which I won't lie - it disgusts me as much as it should disgust any sane person.

But I fundamentally cannot agree with how the country Israel operates, and I believe it has gone way too far, even given October 7th. Hamas' attack on October 7th only explains what's going on in Gaza - it explains nothing about the IDF's actions against the West Bank, which is not under Hamas. It's under Palestinian Authority.

I would not consider myself a Zionist for reasons I've stated - but it's not as though I believe the jewish people in Israel who are living there right now deserve eviction. As I said at the start - I support a two state solution where Israel and the West Bank + Gaza become separate entities.

I think that: a) since Israel had the power in this situation, it should be the one to bring about peace. If Hamas puts down its soldiers, it will not turn out well for Gaza at this point.

b) mainly British action and some Israeli action are a large part of why the Palestinians feel wronged, and that should be acknowledged

Imma be honest, I think you are deeply misunderstanding a fuck ton of history. I was prepared to correct you but I cannot find any question in this post

Why'd you send me this? Sorry for the harsh words, but did you feel a need to share your opinion? That it mattered? I don't know who you are, you're on anon, and you came into my askbox spitting half-correct history and opinions with no relevance to me, so I must ask, why?

[notetaeker]

Hey, my dear friend.

I just wanted to say, I’m so grateful and awed by your online activism. It’s small stuff, but these reblogs and posts make information accessible to those want to educate themselves, myself included.

So thank you, for continuing to do what you can in small ways. I hope you are well, and will feel better if not. (Also your walls are till gorgeous and I got my bedroom’s curtains in the same shade of teal)

Hey!

Thanks for the lovely message! I'm really glad that you feel that way honestly lol because it's not my usual content. It's the least I can do tbh, just spread some of the insightful and revealing media that others share. Once someone peels back one layer of injustice to reveal another layer, it really makes you feel like ! EVERYONE should know this.

I really believe that the only way people can be against Palestine is either because they don't know the facts or they don't want to know the facts. There is no way any regular person can know all the facts and still support Israel. That's why I try my best to spread the facts. At least I'll have something to say to God when he asks me what I did when my fellow humans suffered. I can say that I tried within my means. It really breaks my heart, the situation has gotten so much worse. But it does give me some hope seeing the increase in people who have taken up the cause of Palestine, despite all the efforts of the oppressors. I hope we can keep it up until this apartheid state is no more and people of all faiths can live in peace, as they did before the zionist state was staked into the heart of the holy land.

In other news (;_;) hearing about your teal curtains makes me so happy lol! It truly is such a joyous color reminiscent of the sky and the ocean and water 💕always makes my day whenever I see any of the teal / turquoise thing I own

[volja4ua]

Hello, I hope you're doing well.. My name is Mahmoud, and I'm a 17-year-old from Gaza. The ongoing war has devastated my city, destroyed my school, and made daily life incredibly challenging. Despite these hardships, I'm determined to continue my education and build a better future. I've been given a chance to study abroad, but I need help to cover the costs of leaving Gaza, as well as living expenses and other essentials abroad once the crossing opens. If you can, please consider donating or sharing, your kindness can truly make a difference. Thank you. https://gofund.me/bd3ccf0b

Hello Mahmoud! I don’t have any money, but I will definitely implore anyone who happens to read this to give. I’m just a random tumblr user, probably nobody is going to see this, but your cause is a noble one.

Since this is a Palestine related post I’d just like to clarify my position on Israel/Palestine. I stand not with Israel or Palestine, but with the peace-loving people of both nations. Hamas and Likud are the same. Israeli terrorists (what else am I supposed to call people who kill children for political reasons) ought to be treated the same way as Palestinian terrorists. Like the activist John Aziz, I want to see a day when Palestine is an independent nation, participates in global competition, wins awards for music and food and sports, and otherwise is known for things not related to war. It might seem idealistic and naïve, but I believe in this vision of Gaza. I’m not going to compromise on what I know to be true (killing children is wrong) for some sort of moral expediency.

I’d like to clear up one last thing. Just because I talk about Israel/Palestine less than Russia/Ukraine doesn’t mean I care less about Palestinian suffering. The truth is, RU/UA is probably more fixable. Just give UA weapons and let them into NATO. On the other hand Israel/Palestine can’t be solved by just giving one side more weapons, that would end with genocide of one side or the other. The only solution is peace, and that’s a lot harder. Plus, it’s the Middle East! There’s a reason ‘peace in the middle east” is listed in the same breath as “curing cancer”. So in short, all victims of war and displacement have equal dignity. But in triage, you have to prioritize. When two patients are equally sick, you choose the one who can be cured faster. I wish you luck, Mahmoud, on all of your endeavors. Free Palestine.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

by J.R. Miller

Pilate Sentencing Jesus (John 19:1-16)

Pilate's portrait is hung up in the gallery of the world's great criminals. His is one of the names which never will be forgotten. The incident of the scourging is one of the darkest blots in the story of that terrible Friday. Pilate claimed that he could find no fault in Jesus, and that He should be released - yet, hoping that it would satisfy the Jews, he ordered Him to be scourged. The scourging must be considered as a part of Christ's sufferings as the world's Redeemer. The shame and indignity of being tied like a slave to a whipping post and then beaten until He seemed dead, we never can realize, for, thanks to the softening influence of the religion of Christ, such treatment even of the worst criminals is now unknown in civilized lands. There is, however, a word in Isaiah which gives a fresh meaning to this part of Christ's suffering. "With His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5), says the prophet. The peace we enjoy is ours, because the rod of chastisement fell upon Him - because He was smitten. Our soul's diseases are healed, their wounds made whole, because the body of Jesus was gashed and lacerated by the horrible scourge!

After the cruel scourging came the crowning with thorns and the mockery of Jesus as a King. "The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head." We ought to look with great love and reverence at the picture - Jesus the Son of God, our Savior, standing there in the midst of heathen soldiers, mocked and insulted by them. We know how truly He is a King, and what a glorious King He is.

When the crusaders had captured the Holy City, Palestine became an independent kingdom. Godfrey, of Bouillon, was made king of Jerusalem, and it was proposed that he be crowned with a golden crown. But Godfrey's noble answer was, "I will not wear a crown of gold in the city where my Savior wore a crown of thorns."

It is a sweet thought, too, that because Jesus wore a crown of thorns in the day of His shame - His redeemed ones shall wear crowns of glory in the life to come.

In one sense this mock coronation of Jesus was very significant. Was He really ever more a King than when He was enduring His cross? All through John's gospel we have seen that Jesus spoke of His going to His cross - as His being glorified. His cross really was His throne. It was on the cross that He fought the great battle and won the great victory of redemption. The cross was the ladder that led up to His throne. His crown of thorns, too, was fitter for Him than a crown of gold would have been, for He was the King of sorrow ; He reached His glory - by His sufferings; He saved His people - by dying for them. He is adored and worshiped now as the King who has lifted men up by His own sorrows and blood to eternal life and blessedness.

Pilate showed pitiful weakness at every step in his dealing with Jesus. He knew there was no sin in Him, and yet he brought Him out to the people and surrendered Him to them. "Behold the Man!" Our eyes should be fixed upon Jesus as He stands there in the presence of the multitude. On His head - is the crown of thorns, and around His torn and bleeding body - is a purple robe, mock emblems of royalty. Behold the Man! Behold the Man enduring shame and contempt, set forth as a spectacle of mockery, that He might be presented at last in glory, and honored before angels and the Father. Behold the Man, reviled - yet reviling not again; hated - but still loving on; cruelly wronged - but speaking no resentful word. Behold the Man, the God-Man, wearing humanity, the Son of God humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto shame and death - that He might save our souls! Behold the Man, holy, sinless, undefiled, separate from sinners - yet bearing upon His own head as the Lamb of God, the sin of the world.

The only righteous thing for a just judge to do when he finds his prisoner innocent - is to set him free. Pilate brought Jesus out to the people - but said plainly, "I find no fault in Him." Nobody could. Nobody ever did. The rulers tried zealously enough to find something that they use as a pretext - but they found nothing. They tried false witnesses - but even these could not agree in their witnessing. Now the keen Roman judge inquires into His character, into His life, into His motives - but finds nothing against Him. No other man has lived in whom no fault could be found. The holiest men have sinned. But Jesus was absolutely sinless. Why then did He suffer as a sinner? We know well the answer. They were our sins that they laid upon Him. "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). Christ also has suffered once for sins, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." "Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree."

We never should forget this. In these days perhaps there is a tendency to forget the sacrifice of Christ, in thinking of His salvation. Between us in our curse and our blessing - stands the cross of our Savior. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Let us praise the grace that took our sins, that we may stand whiter than snow before the throne of judgment!

The silences of Jesus are always as significant as His words. He was silent to Pilate. He understood Pilate's weak insincerity. Pilate had had opportunity enough to do the right thing for Jesus - but he had thrown away His opportunity. Now Jesus would answer no more of His questions. One lesson we must get from this silence - is that if we reject Christ's offer of mercy and grace over and over, the time may come, will come, when Christ will be silent to us. And of all calamities that can possibly ever come to any soul - none could be so great as that Christ should be silent to its prayers. "Then shall they call upon me - but I will not answer; they shall seek me early - but they shall not find me" (Proverbs 1:28).

Another lesson we may learn from Christ's example, is that there come times in all our lives, when silence is better than speech. Often to words of reviling or to insult - silence is the only true Christian answer. To many of the assaults of skeptics on our religion and on our Lord - it is better that we remain silent than that we speak. There is a time to speak boldly and without fear in the presence of Christ's enemies - Christ did speak several times in reply to Pilate - but there are also times when we should keep silence, attempting no answer.

Pilate tried to compel Jesus to answer him. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" The answer of Jesus is very clear. "You would have no power over me - if it were not given to you from above." No man's power belongs to himself, to do with as he pleases; it is given him from God, the Source of all power. This is true of the authority of parents and teachers, and of the power possessed by civil magistrates. Men are eager to obtain positions of power, and they do not always realize the responsibility which is attached to such positions. Power belongs to God, and must be used for God, or its misuse will bring its sore penalty. It is a talent which is given to us to be accounted for, and no treason is worse than malfeasance in the employing of power. This is true all the way from the power of the child on the playground or in the home, up to the power of the president of the nation or of the king on His throne. "You would have no power over me - if it were not given to you from above."

There is another sweet thought suggested by the words "against me" in this sentence. Christ in this world was under the protection of His Father, and no one on earth could lift a finger against Him but by the Father's divine permission. What was true of Him, the Son of God, is true of each one of the sons of God in all their earthly life. Each believer, the humblest, the weakest, is kept in this world as the apple of God's eye. No one can lift a finger to touch one of God's little ones, except by divine permission. This shows how secure we are, amid all the world's dangers and enmities, while we trust ourselves, like little children, in our Father's keeping.

When Pilate ceased His weak efforts to have Jesus released, saying to the rulers, "Behold Your King!" they cried out, "Away with him, crucify him!" Thus they finally rejected their Messiah. We read at the beginning of John's gospel that "He came unto His own - and His own received him not" (1:11 ). The whole story of His life was an illustration of this rejection of Him. Wherever He went they received Him not. Here and there a home opened its doors to Him, and now and then there was a devout heart that made hospitality for Him - but these receptions were so few that they could easily be counted. Crowds of the common people thronged after Him, and many heard Him gladly - but very few became His true disciples. Even on Palm Sunday, five days before He died, there was a vast multitude to cry, "Hosanna!" and wave palm branches; but soon the palms lay withered in the streets, and on Friday only cries of "Crucify him!" were heard in the air. "He came unto His own - and His own received Him not."

It is the saddest event in all history, this coming of the Son of God to this earth, bearing in His hands all divine and heavenly blessings - but finding only shut doors and shut hearts, being compelled to take away His gifts because men would not receive them. We read this old story and wonder how His own people could have treated Him so; yet how is it with us? Do we treat Him any better? We do not cry, "Crucify him!" but we shut the doors of our hearts in His face and keep Him out. We reject and refuse His gifts which He comes all the way from heaven to bring to us. We may not with angry voice exclaim, "Away with him!" but in our hearts many of us do keep Him away.

The struggle had ceased, and "Pilate delivered him therefore unto them to be crucified." He first tried every way to avoid the issue; then he temporized, hoping in some way to evade the responsibility. At least he yielded, and his name goes down through history pilloried forever, as the man who delivered Jesus to be crucified, knowing and confessing that He was free from any crime. He was known in the world by no other act. Surely it is an unenviable notoriety. It had been a thousand times better for him if he had never been horn, or if he had remained forever in quiet obscurity, instead of going to that high place of power in the land, in which he had to meet and deal with this most monentous question of history.

We read in one of the Gospels that Pilate took water in the presence of the people and washed his hands, thus by symbol declaring that he was not responsible for the sentencing of Jesus to die. But the water did not wash away one particle of the stain of the guilt of that terrible sin! Pilate had the misfortune to be the only man in all the province who could send Jesus to the cross. Upon him, therefore, the final responsibility rested, no matter the pressure that was brought to bear upon him by the enemies of Jesus.

Just so, the fact that others urge us to sin - does not take away our guilt for that sin. No being in the universe can compel us to do wrong; if, then, we do wrong - the sin is our own. True, Jesus said there was one other whose guilt was even greater than Pilate's - that was the high priest. His sin was not only that he himself was determined to do wrong - but that he dragged others with him. We remember that the rulers replied to Pilate's act of washing his hands, "His blood be on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27:25). No one who has read the story of the next forty years can doubt that this self-imprecation was fulfilled. Forty years later, thousands of the people were scourged and crucified. The crime of the rulers was successful - but what came of the success in the end? Let us learn that sin brings always terrible woe, and that the worst of all sin - is sin against the Lord Jesus Christ.

[thoughtlessghost]

Salem ou alekoum fellow disbelievers,

I decided to write this story down because one of my friends is currently questioning Islam. She said it might be a good idea for me to share my journey to help her and others find inner peace once you have walk out of something you grew up thinking was correct. I think I will make this a 2-3 parts series depending on interest and how she deals with just part 1. There's a lot to go through, and I will try to be brief, but I do not mind elaborating on any section in the comments or private. I am very open and confident about who and what I am. Finally, I want to have at least one part dedicated to my current worldview with the hopes of helping you guys create your moral landscape.

Finally, I would like to complete this preface by saying that I know that we all have personal reasons for leaving a Religion. Some of you have left the faith because you felt as though it was too controlling; others may have felt that God was simply too cruel. I will say that in the end, those were not the deciding factors for me. In my view, only Truth matters. Therefore, for me to stop believing in a concept, it merely has to be proven untrue, whether scientifically or logically. So my journey of leaving Islam did not originate because I had problems with its takes on the world. They occurred in large part because I feel as though Islam is inconsistent with our understanding of the natural world. Given the purpose of writing this is to help people, and that most people don't make decisions based on logic, I will try and emphasize how events and not thoughts affected my worldview to help illustrate how and when the transition occurred.

1. Humble beginnings: I know everybody has a different upbringing, so I would like to give you guys some context of how familiar I was with Islam growing up as a child (4-12). For starters, I am the eldest son of first-generation Algerian immigrants to Canada. This is just to tell you I'm brown, and I went to a school surrounded by non-muslims. In school, I was a troublemaker. I was basically this brainy kid who cared so little of rules and norms that I was almost transferred to this school for a learning disability. In response, my dad would beat the shit out of me every day for not being an obedient student despite my grades being decent (during that period B to B+). Despite his sincerest efforts, I never learned or changed. I'm only saying this because it made Arabic school impossible for my parents to manage since I simply refused to do my regular homework from school. My thinking was something like this: "What's the point of going to ANOTHER school on the weekend and spend all of my time off doing pointless alphabetical exercises in a language no one other than my parents spoke?" This, in turn, limited my exposure to Islam since I didn't interact with other Muslim kids. Finally, my parents bestowed upon me few Islamic teachings or practices. For instance, I fasted, I didn't eat pepperoni pizza, I was a relatively good kid, and I knew of prayer. Still, it wasn't something we did in our household. So I basically ended up with the same amount of knowledge of Islam and Arabic as Mohammed did when he was visited by Gabriel.

2. The quest begins: By the time I reached 14, I began to change mentally (One would only hope). I had stopped being this rebellious kid and became a book worm. I read encyclopedias, watched documentaries, binged read Wikipedia and genuinely wanted to learn everything the world had to offer. Therefore, religion seemed like the next logical step. Another reason that pushed me to that position is my first adolescent trip to Algeria. It was the first time I had truly been exposed to Islam, and I felt like I got a good whiff of what it meant to be a Muslim. And so, I decided I had now come of age and was of sufficient maturity to read the Quran and become a proper Muslim. I purchased a translated version of the Holy Book and waited until nightfall to open it. I vividly remember the mindset I put myself in before opening the book. I told myself the following things:

1. Bismillah. (YAH BOY) 2. I am about to read a book written by a being that is not human. (how fucking cool is that?!) 3. It is a book of ultimate and limitless knowledge and is the literal word of God.   4. It will guide me now and forever, for it is a timeless work meant to guide all of humanity.

By the time I made it halfway through Al-Baqarah, the second chapter of the book, I was mortified. For whatever reason, God presented himself as a terrifying merciless being. So many verses spoke about how powerful God was, and for some reason, it felt weird to me. It's almost like Bill Gates flaunting billions at a homeless person or a fisherman trying to shame a fish on how it cant breathe once it's out of water. I also felt as though too many verses spoke about eternal damnation instead of collective upbringing. In essence, it wasn't the book I expected. I was hoping for the key to save my soul and help humanity. All that ran through my head was that I was unworthy and had to dedicate myself or else face the consequences. But I persevered. Over the next few days, I kept reading while trying to keep an open mind, but I was definitely feeling perplexed. What I could not wrap my head around was the following: If God can indeed do anything, why can't he have a son?  Like all this talk about how Powerful he is, but he can't have a son?

It was around this time I started to explore other religions. However, there were so many religions that existed that it would take an eternity to study and contemplate every single one. So I elaborated the following shortcuts:

1. I skipped Judaism because a "true" faith can't have fewer subscribers than the city of New York. That also threw a bunch of other religions out the window. In my view, a Divine being should do a good job of spreading his work even if he has to do it remotely. 2. I skipped polytheistic religions like Hinduism because multiple Gods seemed odd to me. 3. Buddhism didn't have a deity, can we, therefore, call it a religion?

By that flawless logic (lol), I thought that Christianity was likely to be the One True Faith. But there were inconsistencies. For starters, the faith had multiple subdivisions and multiple versions given the Bible was written after the life of Jesus. Suffice to say, I agreed with most Muslim criticisms towards Christianity's essence manipulated by men. If Christianity is the real deal, then God would have cared a little more. As a side note to my thinking, the book of Narnia really helped me appreciate Christianity. It portrayed a more merciful caring version of God that wanted what was best for his disciples and all that existed. Yet the feeling of a merciful and just God was simply not sufficient to make me convert.

And so I started to think about atheism. However, I could still feel the presence of God. In the end, I just felt discouraged. I wrapped my head around the whole thing when I realized there was a possibility I was simply too immature to understand Islam or the Quran. So, in the end, I decided to postpone my immersion in the faith until later.

3. I committed: By the time I reached 16, I had started rereading the Quran, which actually flowed better this time around. I was relieved to know that my 14-year-old self was simply too childish. Eventually, I stumbled upon a verse akin to the following: Oh, Believers look into the world, and you shall see evidence of Islam. It felt as though God challenged me to learn science and search for proof of his existence in the natural world. And so, I did.

So one thing that occurred to me growing up is that I wanted to learn everything. By the time I reached 12, I thought to myself that if I knew every word in the dictionary, I would end up knowing everything. But the dictionary was dull. So, I decided that if I know how all things came about by reading history, then I would end up knowing everything. So when I read that verse that said learn science, I was ecstatic.  I just doubled down on my readings and started to focus more on scientific theories. I read about physics and the origin of the universe. I read on chemistry and the nature of matter and atomic bonds. By the time I reached biology, Darwinism quickly became very problematic. I thought really long and hard about how to counter it. I started to read into Intelligent Design and watched Islamic Scholars debate atheists. Still, it didn't make sense to me since the evidence for evolution was just overwhelming.

I voiced some of my concerns to a Muslim friend of mine in High School, and we had this long-winded conversation in which he convinced me he was right. I wish I remembered exactly what he said, but I remember him instilling upon me enough doubt to make me not drop the faith. Following that conversation, I decided it was time to commit to Islam finally. Here are a few things I started to do: 1. I started praying 5-7 times per day. 2. I read the Quran. 3. I would watch videos daily on what it meant to be a Muslim and how I can improve on my practice. 4. I would fast every once a while. 5. I went to the mosque whenever I could since it was far from where I lived. 6. I even helped start our prayer group in High School. In that group, we would all sit and eat together. We shared food, laughter and drinks. We were a brotherhood through and through, and for a time, it was good.

Reflecting on this period, I was one standard deviation from being in a CIA hit list. I literally messaged Benjamin Netanyahu on YT, encouraging him to stop his occupation of Palestine and to seak a peaceful approach when engaging with my brothers and sisters. Despite these friendly messages, some darker thoughts flowed through me. So I will say that there definitely is some credence to the idea that the more radical a Muslim is, the more you should worry about him, especially if he is a dude.

So when I say I genuinely believed 100% of what the Quran said, I really did. Some people will say: "Well, yea, I also used to be that way too." Well, I think I took it to another degree. For instance, when I used to walk, I would think to myself there are two people next to me—these immortal, holy beings made of light were sent by God to watch over my every move. I must, therefore, walk and behave in the utmost perfect ways to not only impress them but also uphold my honour. I was 16. 

4.The Masturbation/sleep problem:

Now I'm going to say that the period mentioned above lasted about 6 months. During this period, despite my holier than thou behaviour, I was still a man, and I had urges dawg. Every once in awhile, i.e, once a week, I would lament hypothetically at my hypocrisy. Repression creates obsession; truer words have never been spoken. The more I fought my urges not to masturbate, THE MORE I HAD TO. I created this whole inner mathematical system based on the number 19 since its a particular Islamic number. Basically, I would only masturbate around times when I could calculate 19. To me, it meant God approved of my addiction. I ended up using the time since my alarm clock was next to me. Its such warped logic don't look too much into it for when there is a will there is a way and I can get creative. Here are a few noteworthy examples:

1.Its 1:09 AM. Shit that's 19 to me since all you have to do is ignore the 0, and you have 19. 2. Its 1:45 AM. You guessed it 19. 3.7:00 PM. 19. 4. 12:07 PM. Unzip. 5. 12:17. PM shit, that's 19 too. 12+(1 times 7). Guess its Time for round 2.   6. 12:35 PM. FUCK I have to again you see 1+2+35=38, which is 19 times 2. EYYYY

[Insert COOMER MEME.]

To get over this dissonance, the Devil was responsible for these intrusive thoughts. I was a holy man of God, after all. But the voice that told me to unzip my pants and wax my carrot was the EXACT same voice that told me to go bed when I didn't want too. In the end, I knew deep down temptation doesn't come from the Devil. It comes from me. I decide what I do with my life, not some off-world entity. Keep in mind for later its just this thing I noticed. The Mosque event: So the day started like any other Friday prayer. The Imam began to speak about how God has no equal. He went on about how great and awesome of a sky Chad he was. He said that although he had no equal, there was another being that was insanely powerful as well. My eyes lit up, for I loved Islamic lore. He said that among non-God entities, the strongest was Gabriel. Eventually, he went on to say how to associate any other thing to God's power was literally the worst crime a human could commit. Shirk was worse than murder, he said. It literally guarantees you a trip to Hell.

And so given that I was human when I am told not to think about something, I immediately start to think about it. So I began to think well what if Gabriel stood up to God. I do not know what came over me but I got a literal panic attack from this. [Insert meme it was at this moment he knew he fucked up]

As the Imam had so eloquently put it to associate anything to God, you just committed the worst sin ever. I kept trying to tell myself not to think about it. Still, it just kept repeating it over and over again despite my sincerest efforts. I legit left the mosque and went back home and prayed all night, hoping God would forgive me.

The next morning was wild. I was basically schizophrenic since I kept thinking God was going to smite me for I have sinned. Crossing the street was so hard since I felt God would turn a car invisible and run me over or would simply kill me there where I stood. I lived in utter fear since I felt as though I had a bounty on my head. The inner world that I worked so hard to create had fallen apart from stupid, intrusive, thoughts. How the mighty have fallen.

5.Rethinking the Conspiracies:

A few days later, I started to rethink everything inside my head once I started to calm down. I felt as though my fears were way too irrational for the type of person I usually am and that I could not regain my sanity by thinking I was unworthy. I just simply had to work my way back up to the top fam.

During this time, I also began to rethink my understanding of the political world. For starters, as far back as I can remember, I have always been anti-authority. I believed in political realism, and so large corporations or governments always used their powers to oppress others. And so, what began as a soft-hearted liberal who thought 911 was an inside job turned into a cult of devil worshippers who rule the world and are trying to get us into the End Times.

This political worldview of a small elite who use the Devil to gain off-world power was further validated my understanding of Islam. In my view, the END WAS NEAR. Eventually, people took my ideas and thoughts in High School, and it became its own thing. Just to give you context on the time here, but it was when Lady Gaga dropped Bad Romance, and Kanye West and Jay-Z dropped Watch The Throne. We would analyze the videos and look for satanic imagery, but I always felt like that was a tad bit too far. Why are they being so apparent about something that's supposed to be secret? Predictive-Programming can only go so far after all. I began to pushback on this worldview, and I went so far back that Islam was caught in the cross-fire.

This turned into a three-month-long journey. I started by revisiting natural selection, and I realized that I duped myself. I just did not understand natural selection well enough to defend my position 6 months ago. I read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I binged watched George Carlin, and he really helped me overcome any anxiety I had towards leaving my faith because, like him, I really did want to believe in a deity, but I started to realize all of the inconsistencies. [I will elaborate more on this in a later part]

5. The social consequences: By the time I left my faith, I was open about it. I have always been vocal about what I believe in, and I simply told all of my prayer brothers why I stopped going to prayer. Needless to say, they weren't pleased about it. Unlike Elementary School and as a result of our immigration policies, High School had more Muslims in it, and many hated or criticized me for questioning the faith. As time went on, they became more toxic and vicious in their opposition, and so I called them out on their shit. I told them that I am on a journey like each and every one of them, and if they don't want to talk to me anymore, I would not care, and if they wanted to fight me, then bring it on. It was the last time any of them said anything to my face that was negative. Some of them never spoke to me again, some spoke to me less. I respected their choice and moved on; whether they respected mine mattered not. All that I cared about was that I felt that I was moving forward in my life. Eventually, the Muslim prayer group fell apart, and everything went back to normal in my High School.

Now, all of what I wrote happened about 10 years ago, and despite standing up to my fellow peers, I still haven't mustered up the courage to tell my parents. Honestly, I'm glad I still haven't. To this day, I have a good relationship with them, and they are far more religious now than they were. It seems like an egregiously unnecessary thing to do that will not only sour my relationship with them but also with their future grandkids. That just seems too selfish for my liking despite my usual vocal tendencies.

End of part 1.

[jewish-privilege]

...It was a hot summer afternoon in New Delhi and as I carelessly threw around words like ‘genocide,’ ‘apartheid,’ and ‘illegal state,’ I saw the understanding nods of the audience and the knowing, sympathetic smiles of the examination panel. I had successfully proven that the deadly blood diamond trade of Central African Republic was the fault of Israel. And that it used the money it made from these conflict diamonds to fund its ethnic cleansing in Palestine. I railed against Israel and wondered out loud how it could treat the Palestinians this way when Jews themselves have suffered so much through history. It did not cross my mind that the businessmen involved in the conflict diamond trade do not represent the state of Israel. I also did not bother to mention that most if not all countries involved in the diamond trade were guilty and that they were collectively (including Israel) making an effort to combat the menace of conflict diamonds.

I singled out Israel as the source of the problem. And my conscience did not hurt. Ironically, I had submitted a term paper discussing the Holocaust in media from 1950 to 1960 only two days ago. In my paper, I had made references to Anne Frank, my childhood hero.

...That was two years ago. I am a journalist today. I don’t buy diamonds.

I also don’t boycott Israel.

Some of my friends would call me a hypocrite. How could I have gone back on my own words? How can I boycott chocolate brands like Nestlé for their bad trade practices while eating Sabra hummus which is owned by an Israeli company? How can I be so sensitive to the sufferings of Syrian refugees while ignoring those of the Palestinians?

And as someone did ask me, “How could you abandon your principles and become a Zionist?”

I understand their disbelief and anger. I used to be one of them. They are not anti-Semites. Neither was I. It is just that I gained perspective over the last two years while they continue to see only what social media shows them. Most of them have never met a Jew, let alone an Israeli. And many in South Asia are emotionally invested in the fate of Palestine because of Jerusalem’s religious significance. Personally, I haven’t stopped caring about the Palestinians. I have simply started caring about the Israelis as well. To boycott Israel seemed like a good idea two years ago. Afterall, the boycott had worked in South Africa. There was no reason to think it wouldn’t work in Israel. It took me a while to realize that the story in the Middle East is not one of white supremacy vs. People of Color and that the boycott called for total economic, cultural, and academic isolation of Israel, civil society included.

For the most part, I had based my research on articles published by Electronic Intifada, a heavily pro-Palestine website. And since they seemed to support BDS and a one-state solution, I went along with it. It seemed pretty straightforward that since Israel was not going to stop settlement construction, the only moral thing to do was to absorb all the Palestinians into the country and make them full citizens. The demographic threat argument felt racist and flimsy back then.

But that was before I met people who lived through the Second World War, lost family members in the Shoah, and found their only refuge in Israel.

Some of these people fought in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war knowing that to stay and fight was their only option. Israel was all they had and there were no homes in Europe to return to. They were fighting to survive yet again. And for that reason alone, Israel had to be a Jewish state— that should a second Holocaust happen, they would not be at the mercy of other countries that had turned them away and condemned them to Hitler’s extermination camps not too long ago.

Seventy years later, a second Holocaust seems like a highly unlikely thing. However, history has shown us that it takes but a few sparks of bigotry to start a wildfire of mass insanity. Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, the partition of India and Pakistan, the liberation of Bangladesh, and the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people are a few examples of how empty the words ‘Never Again’ are when hatred goes mainstream.

These genocides also prove that we don’t live in a perfect post-nationalist world. If people cannot live together peacefully, then separation is the only answer, preferably without a civil war. The two deadly intifadas, the hateful rhetoric of the Hamas charter, and the rising tide of far-right anti-Semitism alongside far-left anti-Zionism is a sad testimony to the current reality which cannot be ignored. That is my reason for supporting a two-state solution now.

Unfortunately, the BDS movement only distances us from that option. Israelis and Palestinians need to engage with each other in order to find an answer to this decades-long intractability that continues to claim innocent lives every year. I am not an uncritical supporter of Israel and the images coming out of Gaza over the last few days have given me sleepless nights. It would be easy to cut all ties with Israel now and assuage the guilt we feel over what happened. But that is only counterproductive. By boycotting the entire country, we only close the channels of communication that are vital to peace.

...My grandmother came to India as a refugee from Pakistan with nothing but the clothes on her back. She lost family members in the genocide that followed the partition. And to a large extent, I grew up hating Pakistan and all its people. That is, until I met one through an academic exchange program. I was very surprised at how much he and I had in common, that his grandma had also lost people in the partition, and that he spoke fluent Shahpuri, the Punjabi dialect spoken by the elders in my family. Of course, it did not undo the terrible history of our countries but it humanized us for each other in a way soldiers and politicians cannot. I understand that India and Pakistan will probably never be one country. But I am hopeful that someday we will truly be friends working alongside each other for our people.

My hope for Israel and Palestine is the same. It is true that talks have failed many times before. But let us not forget, they need to be successful just once for things to change. And maybe the people who will lead us to that glorious day will meet at a sociology conference in Tel Aviv or a jazz concert in Jerusalem. Of course, that won’t happen if we engage in a boycott. So let us not. Now more than ever.

Read Ankur Dang’s full piece at Forward.

[schraubd]

A Modest Speech Before the Zionist Organization of America

Of course, I'd never be invited to give a speech to a ZOA. This, rather, is an advance copy of a speech to be delivered before that august organization of Israel-defenders by my possibly-imaginary-alter-ego, Judah ben Samaria.

Fellow Zionists.

I come before you more optimistic about the survival and success of our beloved Jewish state than I’ve felt at any time since … well, since at least 2008.

I need not remind you of the great victory President Donald Trump—a true friend of Israel—has given us at the end of his first year in office. But perhaps I can take a moment to emphasize its scope.

It is not just his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital, though we have since time immemorial yearned for recognition of this historical truth.

And it is not just that he has abandoned the foolish insistence on blindly pursuing the “two-state delusion,” though it has long since been demonstrated that no peace will come from dividing the holy land.

No, there is a greater accomplishment here still. Through the President’s bold leadership, he has accomplished something that all the talking heads and State Department Arabists had assumed to be impossible: He has gotten the Palestinians to finally accept that they will never have their own state carved out from the territory of the historic Jewish homeland.

The Palestinian’s own chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has forthrightly acknowledged it:  “President Trump has delivered a message to the Palestinian people: the two-state solution is over.”

This is what we’ve fought for, is it not? From this point forward, the question is no longer how much land Israel will have to cede to create some mythic, concocted “Palestinian” state. If you are in Eretz Yisrael, you are in Israel. There are no more “settlers”, and there are no more “refugees”. The era of arbitrary divisions across the entirety of the Holy Land can now enter history’s dustbin, right alongside the arbitrary division of Israel’s capital.

This is an opportunity we cannot miss. By ignoring the naysayers and the doubters, President Trump has actually forged a consensus between the Palestinian leadership and the committed friends of Israel who populate this room. Having abandoned the delusion of an independent Palestinian state, and the obstinate refusal to accept Israel’s existence, “Palestinian” leaders are finally taking a different tack. Now, instead of fighting a genocidal war against Israel, they are willing to pursue a path of true peace: working with us to ensure that each and every person currently living under Israeli sovereignty is given all the rights and prerogatives of citizenship inside of a single, unified state. Erekat accepted that this was the only possible route forward following President Trump’s diplomatic powerplay: “Now is the time to transform the struggle for one-state with equal rights for everyone living in historic Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

There’s no need to wait. Now that it is clear that Jerusalem is and will remain an undivided city, the 350,000 Arabs living in “East” Jerusalem who have stubbornly refused the opportunity for Israeli citizenship should welcome the opportunity to integrate into Israel as equal voters, residents, and co-nationals.

But why stop there? There’s no need to wait for “negotiations”—negotiations with who? Getting bogged down in a chimerical “peace process” has only led Israel astray; and in any event, Israel is the sole legitimate governing body between the River and the Sea—it’s time it acted like it. Israel should immediately annex Judea and Samaria—and Gaza, while we're at it—in their entirety, and say once and for all: If you live in any part of our territory, you are an Israeli citizen—with all the rights and freedoms that entails. Whether you are among the 400,000 so-called “settlers” or the nearly three million so-called “Palestinians” will no longer matter. President Trump has paved the way for all to be equal citizens of one, undivided nation. By the next general election, I hope that all those living in Judea and Samaria—regardless of religion or ethnicity—come in hordes to the polls and cast a ballot in a single, unified election. Then we will finally know that our Zionist dream has come to full fruition.

Our enemies have long slandered committed Zionists by accusing us of desiring an “apartheid” state, where Jews and Arabs have unequal rights and the former oppress the latter. But it was the libel of “occupation” that allowed so-called liberals to justify keeping West Bank Arabs stateless—awaiting the conjuration of a non-existent “Palestinian” country. Once the Arabs and the world accepts that there is and will ever be only one state in the Holy Land, then all residents inside of it can enjoy complete and total equality as citizens within.

Now is the time for us here at ZOA to stand up for what a one-state solution truly means. After all, if there is no such thing as “Palestine”, then the only other possible label for so-called “Palestinians” living in Judea and Sameria is “Israeli.” Erekat’s pivot to “one-state with equal rights for everyone” shows that he gets it. Many of us have long observed that, in all practicality, there is only one state already. But it will not be a truly unified state until Israel gives full enfranchisement to the totality of the population of Judea and Sameria. That final coup de grace is all that stands between us and a true, globally acknowledged, “one-state solution.”

We often like to joke that the Palestinians “never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” But—in the spirit of the new era of peace and unity that Donald Trump has ushered in—perhaps we can congratulate them for, finally, seeing the writing on the wall. The two-state delusion is dead; Donald Trump has killed it. And in doing so, he has given us an opportunity to seize as well. We must adopt a new slogan, one which can separate the allies of Israel from her enemies, and clearly articulates our vision for a unified state across the entire territory in Mandatory Palestine within which all who reside are equal.

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”

This is the future Donald Trump holds out for us. And whenever we hear anyone sing chant, we here at ZOA will know we've found a friend.

via The Debate Link http://ift.tt/2BXwfYV

[labourpress]

Emily Thornberry speech to Labour Party Conference

Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

  ***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

    Chair, Conference - It’s a pleasure to be back here in Brighton and Hove.

  A city which we can say - once again - has no Tory MPs. And it’s a pleasure to be taking part in a debate where our delegates have such a strong voice,

  And we should all thank Kate Osamor and Nia Griffith who have allowed me to speak on their behalf today so our delegates could have more time. And let me say as well - it’s an honour to be on this stage with our leader, my friend, this country’s next Prime Minister - Jeremy Corbyn.

  You know, some people might remember a certain viral video from election night of a bit of high-fiving gone wrong. But that’s not how I’ll remember that evening. I’ll just remember seeing a friend of mine who had defied all the pundits, all the doubters

and all the expectations. Someone who had proved during the election, who has proved throughout his leadership, who has proved all his life, that nothing is stronger, nothing on earth than a person of principle.

  And it is that strength and those principles, those unshakeable values that are going to take Jeremy into Downing Street and put Labour back into power. After all, it was on this very stage two years ago that Jeremy declared his mission:

  “To put Labour values -- the people’s values -- back - into - politics.”

  And he has achieved that. But thanks to Jeremy’s inspirational leadership, thanks to the brilliant efforts of everyone in this room, we can now set our sights even higher.

It is time to put Labour values, the people’s values back into Government.

Because if June’s election taught us one thing, it’s that if we stand behind Jeremy’s principled leadership, if we stand united as a Party, and if we stand on a radical manifesto, there is absolutely no seat that we can’t win.  And no Tory that we can’t bin.

  So next time, we've got to take the fight into their backyard. Let's go round the coast to Hastings. And end the ambitions of Amber Rudd. Let's go to Chingford. And send Iain Duncan Smith to the Job Centre. Then let's go to Uxbridge. And make sure Boris Johnson never, ever gets into No.10.

  But Conference, please let’s just take a second to sympathise with poor old Boris. Oh come on, just a second. He’s not been happy lately. Apparently he's sick of being blamed for the way Brexit is going and all the broken promises of the Leave campaign.

  I'm sorry, Conference? I'm sorry? Who does he think made all those promises? Who does he think was in charge  of the Leave Campaign?

  I know Boris doesn’t like paternity tests, but we might need one for Brexit. We need to get him in a studio with Jeremy Kyle.

  “Yes, I'm sorry, Mr Johnson…

“We've got the results back…

“It looks like this one is yours…

“It must have been that wild night out you had with Michael Gove.

“I've calculated your maintenance payments…

“That’ll be 350 million a week.”

  But Conference, what a contrast. Here on this stage, you’ve got Labour’s Brexit team - myself, Keir and Barry working every day in harness with Jeremy, John and Diane. All pulling in the same direction.  All focused on the same three priorities. The three priorities we’ve had since Day One after the Referendum - Jobs, Jobs and Jobs.

  While next week in Manchester, we’re going to see six Tory rats, fighting in a sack, not worried about protecting the jobs of the British people. Just every one of them looking out for their own.

  Last Friday, Theresa May said we need to be “creative and imaginative” to get a good outcome from Brexit. Well I’ve got a creative idea for her step aside, end your shambles of a Government, and let the grown-ups on this stage take charge.

  And talking of grown-ups I’m proud to be here representing our great Shadow Foreign Office team: Liz McInnes; Fabian Hamilton; Khalid Mahmood; Helen Goodman and Ray Collins. And I’m proud as well to be speaking on behalf of my friends, Kate Osamor and Nia Griffith. Kate, our Shadow Secretary of State For International Development, facing a world in now constant humanitarian crisis,

not least as a result of climate change.

  As Kate would say, in that world, we’ve got a decision to make. Either tackle head on the root causes of these crises or spend more and more every year dealing with the consequences.  And, under a Labour government. That is a decision we will not duck.

  And Nia, our Shadow Defence Secretary, who has shown that Britain under Labour

will be a strong leader within NATO, committed to spend 2 per cent of our national income on defence. And committed to ensure that those who put their lives on the line for this country the real-terms pay rises and the decent living conditions that their service and their sacrifice deserves.

  In dark, dangerous times for our world Britain must be equally strong and equally committed to defence, development and diplomacy. That is what we offer on this stage. And that is what Labour in government will guarantee. 

  But Conference, make no mistake. These are indeed dark and dangerous times for the world. And too many times, the problems we face come down to people abusing their power and ignoring the rules and values that should govern our world.

  From Venezuela to The Philippines we see the rule of law ignored and originally democratic governments turning into increasingly autocratic regimes. From Myanmar to Yemen we see human rights ignored and flagrant attacks against ordinary civilians qll too often using British-made weapons.

  From Kashmir to Israel and Palestine we see efforts at diplomacy ignored and actions taken on both sides which will make peace harder to achieve.

  From Syria to Sudan, we see the Geneva Conventions ignored and despots committing war crimes with total freedom and impunity. 

  All across Europe we see the basic rules of humanity and the basic lessons of history ignored as cowardly terrorists stalk our city streets and vicious extremist parties rise in the polls.

  And of course, in North Korea  we see the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ignored with all the terrifying consequences the world is now facing today.

  Taken altogether what we are seeing today is the biggest challenge to the world order since the 1930s and the collapse of the League of Nations.  And if you believe as I do in what Jeremy has called…“A world based on rules and laws” then this is the time, more than ever, when we need our leaders to stand up for that world order. To stand up for human rights and international treaties. And to insist on working through the United Nations for peace.

  But instead, Conference we now have a President of the United States who believes that none of these rules and laws apply to him.

  - Imposing a travel ban on Muslims;

  - Equivocating over illegal settlements;

  - Reneging on the Paris climate treaty;

  - Imperilling the nuclear deal with Iran;

  - And threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea. A country of 20 million men and women. And 5 million children.

This is not what we need from the leader of the free world.

  To be honest, Conference it’s more like what we would expect from a rogue dictator. And what makes it even worse is to see this Tory government and this Tory Prime Minister pathetically going along with it all walking hand-in-hand with Trump at the White House, supine, sycophantic and spineless.

  And why? All in the vain hope that Trump will ride to the rescue after Brexit with some fantasy free trade deal. Because, for this Tory government that’s what their foreign policy has come down to no values or ethics, no rules or principles just a simple case of what works best for the bottom line. How else do they explain why - last week - Theresa May was in New York, finally announcing the suspension of cooperation with the military in Myanmar because of their actions in Rakhine.

  While on the very same day, Michael Fallon was in Jeddah, signing a deal to increase our cooperation with the military in Saudi Arabia wantonly ignoring their actions in Yemen. It is rank hypocrisy. But it also illustrates a basic fact that the world we want to see – a world governed by ethics and values, a world based on rules and laws will never truly exist as long as governments and world leaders get to decide for themselves when it suits them to play by the rules and when the rules can be safely ignored.

  The world we want will never exist when governments like Theresa May’s think it’s perfectly OK to loudly condemn those they regard as enemies but then fall utterly silent when it is their friends in Bahrain rounding up, torturing and executing civilian protestors or their friends in Saudi Arabia dropping cluster bombs on innocent children in Yemen.

  In fact, if they were just silent that would be an improvement. Instead, we have to listen to Michael Fallon saying that the thousands of children killed and injured by air strikes in Yemen are just a consequence of Saudi Arabia “defending itself”…

…“Defending itself”.

  But Conference, it does not have to be this way. Labour can and will do things differently when we are back in power.

And there is one concrete step we can commit to today.

For too long successive governments in this country have taken decisions on granting arms export licences behind closed doors and shrouded in secrecy.

  Just two months ago we had the ludicrous situation where the campaigners trying to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen had their Judicial Review rejected on the basis of government evidence presented in closed court a secret court so they were not even allowed to hear the evidence let alone challenge it.

  The fact is that arms export decisions made by Tory Ministers are entirely subjective assessments taken without proper Parliamentary scrutiny without listening to independent, expert advice, but listening far too much to lobbyists for the arms trade and repressive foreign regimes.  A process that leads to nonsensical double-standards, where the Government can decide too late that selling arms to Myanmar is wrong but immediately increase its sales to Saudi. It is an arms control regime that was already outdated. but which the Tories have systematically abused, undermined and left fatally discredited.

  And as the four shadow ministers responsible, Barry, Nia, Kate and I have agreed that it must change. So just as the new Labour Governments elected in 1997 and 2001 Immediately reformed the way decisions were made on monetary policy and competition policy, the next Labour Government will immediately reform the way decisions are made on the export of arms.

  A wholesale reform of the legal and regulatory framework fully implementing the International Arms Trade Treaty with clear rules, tests and criteria for decision-making, based on independent, expert advice and the objective assessment of evidence. A new system, that will prevent the misuse or abuse of licences and adhere to the principles of transparency, true Parliamentary accountability and freedom from undue influence.

  Because Conference, it is not enough for us just to be better than the Tories, we must set an entirely new standard for Britain and a shining example to the world.

And if that sounds like setting our ambitions high, well you’re damn right it is and we should not apologise for that.

  You know, I heard Chuka say yesterday:

“Overpromising and under-delivering…

“…Is one of the reasons…

“…there was such fury with the Blair government.”

  And when it comes to foreign policy, I totally agree with that statement. But the way we avoid that mistake next time round isn’t to water down the promises we make, it’s to keep the promises we make and make sure we deliver them.

We will be a Government that will never put the interest of the rich and powerful above human Rights, The Rule of Law, and the lives of innocent children in Yemen…

A Government that will never put our principles up for auction.

And if we are going to be the kind of government we could be, we do not just need what Robin Cook called for, twenty years ago, when he set out his Mission Statement for the Foreign Office.

  We do not just need an “ethical dimension” to our foreign policy, we need to go much further than that.

  We need what Martin Luther King called for 50 years ago, when he set out his case against the Vietnam War.

  - We need “a revolution of values”.

  - “A genuine revolution of values”.

  - “A radical revolution of values”.

  Because if our mission back when Jeremy was elected, was to put Labour values back into politics and our mission today is to put those values back into Government, then our mission for the years to come must be equally ambitious and equally radical. It must be to put Labour values at the heart of the world order, to be a beacon in every corner of the globe for the values we believe in here at home.

  We have the leader in Jeremy to do it. We have the team on this stage to do it. We have the members in this hall, and all across the country, who will hold us to it.

  So let us make that our mission. And this time -- this time -- let us make it our record.

[swawesome-wow]

If you wanted people to be informed, you'd have mentioned Palestinian terrorists and Hamas. You'd have mentioned the suicide bombings and hundreds of murdered innocent Israelis. You'd have mentioned the Palestinian leadership that first declined coexistence in 1948 and rejected every offer of peace since then. You'd have mentioned lies and propaganda and blood libel against Jews, thought in Palestinian schools. You care about playing the victim. But it's an old game. And you'll lose.

I wasn’t going to take the time to respond, but it’s summer break, and I refuse to let you hide behind anonymity and not learn a little something while you’re there.

1. “If you wanted people to be informed, you’d have mentioned Palestinian terrorists and Hamas. You’d have mentioned the suicide bombings and hundreds of murdered innocent Israelis.”

Oh yes, how could I forget to talk about Palestinian terrorists and Hamas. The thousands upon thousands of innocent Israelis killed. Wait, what’s that? 1,213 Israelis have been killed since September 29, 2000. 9,478 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000. I have never claimed that Palestinians have not killed innocent Israelis. Those numbers are only since the year 2000. Israel has occupied Palestine for 50 years, give or take, as you yourself aptly admitted by bringing up the conference in 1948. There is immense loss on both sides, though one has lost nearly 9x as many lives. However, comparing it numerically is extremely reductive, not only are you wrong numerically, you’re ignoring why people have been slaughtered on both sides, and what brought everyone to this point. There is no “justifying” the murder of Israelis by Palestinians, there is only understanding why these killings happened, holistically, and understanding the context.

People refer to it now as the Israeli-Palestinian “Conflict, Divide, etc.” But before recent, heavy political and monetary support of Israel, it was called the Palestinian Genocide, for good reason. 

2. “You’d have mentioned the Palestinian leadership that first declined coexistence in 1948 and rejected every offer of peace since then.”

Let me make this very, painfully clear. 

Palestine does not owe coexistence to Israel. Israel is an occupying state, an oppressive state, and one that has committed genocide against the Palestinian people. 

To bring it down to your level of understanding, the Palestinians were there first. Palestinians of EVERY religion, including Judaism, though I’ll touch on that later. The Palestinian leadership has been lamentable, no one is denying that. But let me put it this way:

Let’s say America was invaded today, by, say, Canada. (Sorry Canada, you were the first country to pop into my head, since I owe half my citizenship to you.) After things calm down enough for the leaders to meet, Trudeau says to *shudder* Trump (or even Obama, in this fake scenario, would make the same decision), “Hey man, I know you were here first and everything, and I know we bloodily invaded you, but like, let’s just coexist, like on that bumper sticker you guys are so fond of.” Do you honestly think the President of the United States of America, would EVER agree to something like that? Seriously? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. Even 50 years later, America would still be fighting for its freedom from its maple-drenched oppressors. So why are you holding Palestine to such ridiculous standards? 

I am truly saddened by the violence that has stemmed from this entire situation, but until Israeli soldiers stop wrongfully arresting, imprisoning, and killing Palestinians, even children, I don’t think you can possibly hope for “peace.”

My grandmother, a few years back on a return visit to Palestine after she fled so many years ago to Canada, was stopped at the border wall (yes, there is a wall there, in case people were unaware) for eight hours, for no reason. She was not charged with anything, neither were her daughters, my aunts, that were with her. Her crime was being Palestinian. I wonder what that sounds like. 

Oh yes, and because of that wall, the already pitiful economy of the Gaza Strip has crumbled, and they have no way of rebuilding it. Even if Palestinians find jobs in Israel, they’re backed up for hours each day just trying to get processed through the wall in either direction. They’ve been economically choked off from the rest of the world, yet Israel continues to receive monetary aid as if they’re in desperate need.

3. “You’d have mentioned lies and propaganda and blood libel against Jews, thought in Palestinian schools. You care about playing the victim. But it’s an old game. And you’ll lose.”

Once again, I need to make something crystal clear. So listen up. \

Palestinians do not hate Jews. They hate the Israeli government. Not Israelis, not Jews, the Israeli government, because that is the body that is responsible for Palestinian suffering. 

Since I was in elementary school, any time someone found out I had Palestinian parents, they immediately made quips or even stated directly that I must hate Jewish people. I had someone say “oh, so you’re anti-Semitic.” I’ve had people ask me if myself or my parents are terrorists (and I used to be Christian, now I don’t practice anything, my point being that I can’t imagine how hard it is for any Muslims). This misconception is so widespread that it’s toxic, killing any reasonable discourse on the subject by people stamping me with the anti-Semite sticker. So, I’m sorry, I haven’t had the chance to play the victim. Let me know how that goes for you. 

What I said earlier, about all religions coexisting? Let me elaborate.

For the thousands of years that Palestine has existed, Christians, Muslims, Jews, ~whatever~ lived side by side, happily and comfortably. Another misconception is that the Israeli movement came from within Palestine, which is just plain misinformation. This is a very, very reductive explanation of what actually happened, forgive me for not being more detailed:

When the second World War ended, there were thousands upon thousands of displaced European Jews (mostly German as you might imagine, but elsewhere as well). When Europe (and America) tried to figure out where to help these people relocate, no one wanted to take them in, deciding it would be too difficult to reintegrate. Palestine had the room and the kind heart needed to take them in, so that’s where many were relocated, en masse. But it was a finite time that Palestine agreed to host these refugees as refugees, they would eventually need to either integrate with the Palestinian people (gain citizenship, etc), or decide where they would want to move, if not stay there. But the relationship began to change, as some began to perpetuate the idea that they belonged there all along, and that the Palestinians were the ones that needed to leave or integrate elsewhere. As with most conflict, religion took a match and set it to kerosene, as suddenly Jerusalem was the center of the occupier’s claims to the land. While I won’t try to argue about it as I’m not informed enough on religious history, I will say that it is entirely possible to create a religious homeland without literally invading the country and creating a religious state. Church and state are separate for a reason, and have to cooperate, not override one another. 

So there are plenty of Palestinian Jews that understand and are outraged at the Israeli government, though they have been left out of intentional eviction, arrests, torture, and killings. 

COMIC RELIEF BREAK that is actually somewhat related but I promise it’s funny:

One time my mom was telling me about something that happened over in Palestine to friends of our family so word made it back to us. Like I said, the three major religions were living pretty happily together, especially where these friends lived. The IDF was evicting all the Palestinians from a neighborhood to allow Israeli settlers to take over. Our friends were one of the families kicked out, and they were best friends with the Jewish family next door! So when the IDF came knocking on the Jewish family’s door to offer them the keys to their best friends’ house, (they were Jews so they were allowed to stay with the new Israelis coming in), the husband of the family was FURIOUS. He started to back-talk, offended at the very thought, but his wife (the really clever one in this story) shut him up and took the keys. The husband couldn’t believe his wife would betray their best friends like that, but she just rolled her eyes in a “you idiot” fashion. They had the keys now, and they promptly gave them back to their best friends so they could reclaim their property! I always thought that story was hilarious :D

While I am disgusted at the thought that you could somehow compare this entire subject to a game, if that’s the only way you can comprehend such a vast discourse, I’m happy to oblige the metaphor: The only “loser” here is the one who can’t think for themselves and hasn’t done a little goddamn research, you soggy walnut. 

Speaking of research! Here are a couple of resources for those who have been following along! I honestly can’t say that the second is an unbiased source, however if you’re looking for straight statistics and numbers, check out the first link! It’s where I got the exact numbers I used above. If you want the international law/human rights perspective, check out the third link. Thanks y’all!

http://ifamericaknew.org

http://www.globalresearch.ca/israels-genocide-towards-palestinian-arabs/5591341 (thanks canada)

https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective (really good source explaining the international law and human rights perspective on the issue)

[randomrichards]

Northwestfest; Edmonton’s annual documentary and media arts festival. From May 5-14th, movie goers previewed ground breaking and entertaining documentaries from around the world.[1] This year presented the theme of Resistance is the Only Option, showcasing documentaries focusing on some form of resistance, whether it’s hockey star Theo Fluery lobbying for stricter laws against child molesters (Victor Walk) or Jane Jacobs’ battle for the soul of New York City (Citizen Jane). This festival even has a trilogy of documentaries centering around a Scottish homeowner’s battle against Donald Trump (You’ve Been Trumped, You’ve Been Trumped Too and A Dangerous Game). While not all the films follow this theme, it does serve a common theme. After watching these films, I’ve decided to write a countdown of the 5 films I’d recommend the most. [1][1] Among them the Academy Award Nominated Life, Animated. 5) TOKYO IDOLS Examining the teen pop idol phenomenon in Japan, Tokyo Idols strips the glamour to reveal the unsettling side of the fanbase. With ages ranging from 12-19, A select few girls don Lolita attire and sing pop songs. Many gain a major cult following, with some performing on stadiums. It seems like no different than your other teen pop stars. At least in North America, the fan base are around the same age as the singer. In Japan, however, the fanbase consists of grown ass men ranging from aged twenty to middle aged. Their obsession puts Bieber’s fans to shame. Many follow their favourite idols across the country, worshiping their idol like she was Venus. Then they wait in line for autographs and photo ops. Hell, they even pay just for a handshake. You don’t know whether to regard this as sad or horrifying, especially when you see a middle aged man cover his walls with photos of Idols. But we begin to see their humanity through Koji, a 43 year old fan who leads the “Brothers”, a fanbase of idol RiRi. With a large fanbase at his domain, he leads a campaign to elevate Riri from an Idol to a serious artist. Through his one on one interviews, Koji becomes the modern tragic figure, an awkward, depressed man for whom this fanbase is his sole place of belonging and where a paid handshake is his only means of communicating with women. Admitting to having no personal life, Koji would have been heartbreaking if his life wasn’t so creepy. What makes this complicated is that RiRi is actually a brilliant young entrepreneur who knows how to manage her career. Now turning 19, Riri now wants to be taken seriously as a singer, throwing off the Idol label. Director Kyoko Miyake uses the Idol phenomenon to condemn Japan’s sexualization of young girls. As one analyst states, Japan seems to be determined to protect male sexual fantasies, which would explain how you see middle aged men gazing at a 12-year-old Idol. It also depicts people’s disconnection with each other, most notable the disconnection between men and women. It should be noted that some people will find this film too creepy to watch and I don’t blame you. 4) OUT OF THIN AIR Aka Iceland’s Making a Murderer. Let me present the scenario; In December 1975, 2 men mysteriously disappeared, sparking a national crisis in a small country not used to disappearances. After a tough search, six young people confessed to the murder of the two missing folks, bringing the investigation to an end. That is, until you take a second look at the evidence. The case doesn’t seem so cut and dry when the confessions start to contradict each other, further emphasized by re-enactments. Soon, it becomes clear the suspects were subjected to questionable interrogations and extended periods of solitary confinement. What we get is an unflinching depiction of the consequences of a justice system that cares more about making arrests than serving justice. It also brings up some uncomfortable questions about memories. Not understanding their rights, the suspects were placed under such severe pressure that they start internalizing the accusations. Soon they start distorting their own memories until they believe themselves guilty. In a heartbreaking interview, one suspect finds herself with no faith in her own memories. Add the fact that she may have lost decades of her life for a crime she didn’t commit. 3) 78/52 When it comes to entertainment documentaries, it’s always a challenge to prove the best one. This year includes a showcase of movie scores (Score: A Film Music Documentary), a look at Robbie Knievel (Chasing Evel: The Robbie Knievel Story) and celebration of a literary LBGT icon (The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin). I decided to go with 78/52, an examination of the immortal shower scene from Psycho. Well, it’s more accurate to say the film’s both an analysis of the whole movie and an examination of the legacy. With detailed journey and interviews from the likes of Eli Roth, Guillermo del Toro and Peter Bogdanovich, behind the scenes of the film, this is a must see for fans. But when it gets to the shower scene, we are given a glimpse to the minutia of intention that goes into every shot. And we do go into a lot of details from finding the right fruit to create a stabbing sound effect to how to hide Mrs. Bates’ face during the shower scene. You’ll come to understand why it took seven days for a one minute scene. What makes this film unique is the delivery. The interviews were show in black and white, shot in a Bates Motel room. Surprisingly, this adds to the mood of the documentary. 2) SHADOW WORLD “The thing about politicians is that they’re very much like prostitutes. But only more expensive.” From the mouth of an arms dealer, these words summarize the theme of this vicious takedown of the Global Arms Trade. Based on the book by Andrew Feinstein, Shadow World examines the history of arms lobbyists and its roles in wars and conflicts. The film goes into too much detail to go into. At its core, the film focuses on the Western Governments arms deals with Saudi Arabia. From there, we see world leaders from both ends of the spectrum being in the pockets of the Arabic prince and various arms industries including BAE Systems and Red Diamond. We see how this has lead to the manufacturing of war, undermining diplomacy. Not to mention the United States having a higher arms budget most 1st world countries put together. I’d recommend watching also watching Do Not Resist, where you see how the arms budget led to the over militarization of police. 1) DISTURBING THE PEACE Sometimes the bravest thing a soldier can do is lay down his/her arms, as the ex soldiers of Israel and ex-freedom fighters of Palestine prove in this captivating and hopeful documentary. Born in a land of conflict, these people witnessed tragedy at the hands of the other side. They joined forces on their sides to defeat their enemy. But somewhere along the way, they were reminded of the “others” humanity. Thus, begins a series of events that lead them to come together to form an activist group determined to break the cycle of atrocities and begin the first step to peace. Directors Stephen Apkon and Andrew Young presents their lives with sincere empathy. Each activist brings us into his/her childhood tragedies, one Israeli ex-solder recalling having to take refuge in a bomb shelter and a Palestinian ex-freedom fighter watching his little brother gunned down by Israeli soldiers. From these moments, they are seduced into different ideologies. Then comes the epiphany moments for all of them, when they start seeing the humanity of the other side. This leads to them meeting each other, truly seeing each other as human beings, and eventually friends. They eventually stand hand in hand in a series of sit ins, demanding peace between their nations. But as this film proves this is not an easy feat. First, they had to get past their own prejudices, with the Israeli thinking the Palestinians were setting them up for a trap. But then they face the very ideologies they once followed. Israeli activists constantly face their screaming, extremist neighbours accusing them of treason for quitting the army. In a film’s best moment, one Palestinian activist debates his non-violent methods to his wife, who remembers the atrocities the Israeli solders committed against her neighbours. Still, they stand around the walls, calling for the soldiers to lay down their arms and join their brothers. [1][1] Among them the Academy Award Nominated Life, Animated.