#al isra in english and arabic

[xtruss]

American Arab and Muslim Leaders Declined an Invitation From “War Criminal U.S. President Genocidal Joe Biden” to Attend the White House's Annual Ramadan Iftar Over His Support of “The Terrorist, Fascist, Illegal Occupier, Genocidal, Apartheid and The War Criminal Illegal Regime of 🐖 Isra-hell.”

The White House instead held a small meeting with some Muslim leaders. Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who spent time volunteering as a Doctor in Gaza earlier this year, walked out of the meeting after handing Biden a letter from an orphaned 8-year-old girl in Rafah.

[hussyknee]

People seem to think this is fake because it's written in English. Apart from the racism in believing that Arab doctors and nurses aren't fluent in English (a second or official language for half of Asia), Palestinians have deliberately been addressing their audience in English on every social media, from journalists to children, because they know speaking English to Westerners immediately makes people more human in their eyes. Because language is one of the ways the imperial cultural hegemony conditions us (yes, everyone in the world) to see who qualifies as "people" and who are simply a mass of bodies who were always made to suffer and die. Gazans know this deeply, which is why they have been using English to beg and plead through social media, "We're not numbers! We're not numbers! We're people like you, we speak your language, we deserve to live!" all the while they're systematically slaughtered.

Israeli forces also encircled Al Shifa Hospital yesterday and bombed it for several hours while shooting dead anyone trying to flee including medical staff moving between buildings. Not sure whether it's still continuing because WHO lost all communications with its staff there a few hours after. The last new report said that thirty-nine babies had been removed from the incubators before the power went out. It's extremely unlikely they will survive.

Please understand that these atrocities depend on the war of attrition between governments and public attention. The momentum of public outcry is difficult to sustain through repeated stonewalling and bureaucratic intractability. When we're flooded with these reports and a sense of futility and despair replaces the anger, it allows compassion fatigue to set in and the violence to become normalized. Massacring hospitals, killing sick children and openly targeting humanitarian aid workers (Netanyahu just declared the UNRWA is in league with Hamas) will become simply more news articles that fade into the background, and open genocides will soon become part of the "lesser evil".

Take care of yourselves how you can, take distance where needed, but please never tune out and give up on the two million people for whom we are the only witness and hope. Never stop boosting and sharing the news and posts you find, never stop getting out there and joining every protest you can, however small. Anger burns out, which is why activism must depend on an immovable sense of justice and uncompromising value for human life. It's not just about Gaza, it's about the kind of evil our generation will be coerced into accepting as unchangeable and inevitable hereafter.

[sportsaala]

Surah Al-Kahf

Surah Al-Kahf (in Arabic Text: الکهف) is 18th surah (chapter) of Holy Quran. The title surah in English means “The Cave”. Surah Al-Kahf consist of 110 Verses and 12 Ruku. Surah Al-Kahf is in Para Para 15. Surah Al-Kahf The Surah was revealed in Makkah, It known as Makki Surah. Read and Learn Surah Al-Kahf online in Arabic with English translation. Surah 1 – Al-Fatiha – الفَاتِحَة 2 – Al-Baqarah…

[northgazaupdates]

A group of journalists held a public appeal yesterday for an end to Israel’s siege of the northern Gaza Strip, where practically no food aid has entered since October 2023. People in the north are living and dying in famine due to the complete blockade by the IOF.

To make matters worse, most mainstream media outlets are ignoring the plight of north Gaza, as the journalists and other people remaining in the north are predominantly Arabic-speaking. The north of Gaza is starving in silence.

Instagram user faridaek has been kind enough to repost the appeal with English subtitles added. This is a significant undertaking that we greatly appreciate, and we ask everyone with an Instagram account to share the video.

The journalist speaking is Islam Bader. He and his colleagues are making this appeal on behalf of the people of northern Gaza. The journalists present include Abed Alqadr Sabbah, Mahmoud Al-Awadia, Momin Abu Owda, Mahmoud Sabbah, Mahmoud El-Shareef, Anas Al-Sharif, Islam Bader, Mohammed Ahmed, and Fadi Al-Whidi, among others. The subtitles read

From the north of the Gaza Strip, we, as journalists still stationed here in the north stand today driven by our ethical responsibility and national duty as a voice for all those who remain steadfast in Gaza and its north who are being subjected to a policy of extermination and a policy of starvation which is no less than extermination. The markets have been emptied of all essentials, and there is no flour available except in rare instances. The occupation does not allow aid to enter, maintaining its obstinate siege against our people and our families. We are of this people, and today we speak for Palestinians, for the besieged and for those denied life’s essentials. The most basic necessities have now become extremely rare in Gaza.

Therefore, we issue this call as a final warning, about a severe famine that is unprecedented on a global scale and impacting all facets of life, particularly children, individuals with chronic conditions and society’s most vulnerable groups. We hold the Israeli occupation and the international community especially the United States responsible for this starvation because it is happening in front of the eyes and ears of the entire world without any concrete action [on the ground] to stop it. The occupation’s claims of aid delivery are deceptive and unfounded. In reality, nothing has entered the north of the Gaza Strip.

Therefore, this final call, on behalf of all these people, on behalf of our fellow journalists, on behalf of our families and on behalf of Palestinians and the displaced in the north of the Gaza Strip is for the world to uphold its responsibility. North Gaza is starving, and this famine must be stopped.

Source: Islam Bader et al via faridaek on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Farida EK (@faridaek)

[pal1cam]

Land Day - March 30th

Every year on the 30th of March, Palestinians all across Palestine, yet especially those living inside the 1948 green line (governed by the Israeli government) revive the memory of ‘The Land Day’ (in Arabic : Yawm Al-Ard), a day that first became of significance in the year 1976 when the Israeli government announced the plan that it had in mind, to take and expropriate thousands of dunams of land from Palestinian citizens for “state purposes”… this led the Palestinian citizens living under Israeli rule to take on a general strike and go out in protests and demonstrations in large number against such a decision that deprives them from the lands that they own privately.

On the protests of March 30th 1976 the IOF killed 6 Palestinians (Khadeejah Qasem Shawahneh, Kheir Ahmed Yassin, Raja Hussein Abu Rayya, Khader Eid Mahmoud Khalailah, Mohsen Hasan Sayyed Taha, Ra’afat Ali Zuheiri) while injuring and arresting hundreds more…

Many literary and artistic pieces have been dedicated to the memory of Palestinian Land Day by various authors and artists, the most famous piece being a poem written by the renowned Palestinian author and poet Mahmoud Darwish named “Al-Ard” (which translates to “The Land” in English).

The BDS movement is encouraging people from all over the world to organize huge protests and demonstrations on Land Day, as it is a day that holds a big part of the Palestinian struggle, which is the struggle to take back the stolen lands that were expropriated by the occupation’s government.

So what will you be doing this Land Day (March 30th 2024) to help raise Palestinian voices ?

[fiercynn]

queer palestinian short film: "houria"

queer short cuts is a biweekly newsletter where i share queer & trans short film recommendations. i’m featuring some of my favorite films on tumblr because why not

palestine | 7 minutes | 2010 | experimental short film audio in arabic; english subtitles embedded

houria | حـ(و)ـرية, an experimental film directed by raafat hattab, intercuts between a violinist (boodi el esawi) playing on a beach at manshiye who is joined unexpectedly by a mermaid (played by raafat hattab himself), a person getting their chest tattooed, and an interview with hattab’s grandmother, yousra, talking about her parents’ flight from their home in jamaseen al-garbi when she was a baby, during the 1948 nakba (“catastrophe”), during which thousands of palestinians were killed and an estimated 700,000 were displaced because of Israeli ethnic cleansing. The gender fluidity of hattab’s mermaid, the permanence of the tattoo, and the impermanence of palestinian life and homeland in yousra’s story come together to illustrate the paradoxes and grief of dislocation that palestinians face daily. - deepa's full review, including content notes at the end

watch on youtube, and learn more about creator raafat hattab, who is a queer palestinian interdisciplinary artist based in tel aviv, at his website

[matan4il]

Update post:

Most of this will be about the unprecedented attack of the Islamist regime of Iran against Israel, but first I have to take a second to mourn a 14 year old boy, who was murdered in a Palestinian attack on Friday. At around 6 in the morning, teenager Binyamin Achimeir led his sheep herd out of the farm he lives in, but a few hours later, the sheep returned to the farm without him. At first, it was feared that he had some accident, or was dehydrated, and thousands of people voluntarily joined the search for him. On Saturday, at around noon, the IDF found his body, with signs of brutal violence on it. Based on the forensic evidence, he was murdered by several Palestinian terrorists, and he fought back. The army is still hunting down the murderers. May Binyamin's memory be a blessing.

Right, back to the Islamist regime of Iran's attack on Israel. I posted about it as soon as the news started being aired here, in case someone didn't know about it. The news broke past the normal time when people watch news on TV in Israel, I noticed it by chance right before I was about to turn in for the night. I'm physically okay, but I didn't get that much sleep, I had to wake up early to take care of some stuff, so I AM very tired, which is why I'm not going to do the usual thing I do, which is to look for English journalistic sources for everything, but I have no doubt even the stuff I won't look up can all be easily found online.

On a personal note, I can tell you that at 1:43 in the morning I heard the first explosion, but no sirens went off. A few more explosions followed, and only then did we hear the sirens. It was scary, for a moment we couldn't tell whether we're hearing explosions of missiles from neighboring areas, or whether something went wrong with the sirens, and we need to hurry into the bomb shelter. It seems like in Jerusalem specifically there was some issue with the sirens, I heard a reporter mention it. Also, the alert app didn't go off, even though it should have, at the latest when the sirens did.

This is what the Temple Mount looked like from an Iranian attack that could have easily destroyed the al-Aqsa mosque (it's not in the frame, but it's right next to where this was filmed):

Quick background: Iran is the biggest financier of anti-Israel terrorism for decades now, including funding Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, all of which have been a part of a continuous attack on Israel since Oct 7 as Iran's proxies. Iran has sent its own military seniors to help and instruct those local terrorists, in places like Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. Israel has eliminated them whenever possible, this is not something new. On Apr 1, Israel carried out such a strike, in which it targeted 7 Iranian army seniors in Damascus, Syria's capital. Iran claimed Israel targeted the Iranian consulate in this city, but diplomatic buildings are all publicly listed. Iran has an embassy in Damascus (in a separate location) and no consulates. That's why the magnitude of Iran's response to this has taken Israel by surprise, because the Israeli strike wasn't that out of the ordinary. In fact, the US assassination of Iran's military commander, Qasem Soleimani, back in 2018, was a far graver blow for the Iranian regime, and yet it did not lead to an attack as massive as the one launched against Israel last night.

It is now known that some of the attack waves against Israel were intercepted by other countries, including The US, the UK, France and Jordan. It's been said that there's at least one more Arab country that helped in intercepting Iran's attack, but it can't be publicized. Many countries denounced Iran for attacking Israel.

We don't have numbers regarding the full size of the attack. Out of all the countries who participated in curtailing this attack, we know that the US has intercepted at least 70 suicide drones and 3 cruise missiles, while Israel has intercepted at least 185 suicide drones, 36 cruise missile and 110 ballistic missiles (that last one is the missile type that causes the most damage). Israel's interceptions are said to have been 99% successful, but like I said, no defence system is perfect. A small number of ballistic missiles did land inside Israel. One hit an Israeli air Force base in the south. There's over 30 people who got injured when rushing to the bomb shelter in the middle of the night (elderly people, including Holocaust survivors, have died from such injuries), and over 30 more ended up in hospital due to severe mental health reactions. On top of that, there's a 7 years old Muslim Bedouine girl who was injured by interceptors debris. A friend of her family that I heard being interviewed said the family wanted to go to the communal bomb shelter, but before they even had a chance to make it out of the house, the girl was hit by the debris piercing into their home, and she is suffering from severe head injuries. The hospital is currently fighting for her life.

The estimate of how much it cost Israel to defend its citizens from this one attack last night is 5 BILLION shekels (which is over 1.3 BILLION US dollars). That's for one night.

Israel will respond. According to one reporter I heard, that was decided as soon as it was clear how big the attack is, so this isn't about how much damage Iran caused, it's about how it crossed several red lines. This is the first time Iran itself attacked Israel itself, it's not an attack on an extension of Israel, nor was it done by using proxy terrorists. Israel has had terrorist organizations attacking it continuously since 2001, but this is the first attack from a fellow sovereign country since Iraq (led by tyrant Saddam Hussein) in 1991, so that in itself is crossing a red line. The size of the attack is also considered an escalation on Iran's part. In 2019, Iran launched a smaller scaled suicde drone attack on Saudi Arabia, and the latter's western allies refused to launch a counter attack, which led to these countries being seen as unreliable, and some Middle Eastern countries renewed their ties with Iran. That's why how it would seen in the Middle East if Israel doesn't react to an even bigger attack, and how it might drive more moderate countries to grow closer to Iran, is another consideration in why Israel must respond. Not to mention that launching such a mass attack basically caused a paralysis of the country once the first intel became known. For example, all educational activity (schools, universities, you name it) has been canceled, Israel's air space had to be closed, every single ambulance across the country had to be manned, and so on. That is not something any country can simply shrug off. Not to mention, Israel financially can't afford this reality to become normalized.

Not to mention, Israel tried to contain Hamas, PIJ and Hezbollah's rocket attacks for decades. What we got for it was the invasion and massacre on Oct 7. The lesson for most Israelis is that containing mass attacks on our population only leads to worse ones.

That said, there's also no desire here of getting dragged into a war on another front while we're still in the middle of one in Gaza and with Iran's proxies on several more fronts. So, Israel is looking for a balanced response, one that won't let this mass attack slide, but hopefully doesn't make matters much worse.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[fairuzfan]

shalom sister. i love your blog and your writing. reading your posts always fills me with fire, i can tell you have a good heart. donating to your campaign makes me feel so good because i trust you and truly you are doing gds work. anyway i wanted to ask you a question!

when i hear new things from gaza, stories of hamas doing X and IOF doing Y, i ask around and i’m not sure what parts of that story is true, if any. anyway idk what to believe all i know is that israel is committing acts of genocide and while the rest of the world is allowing this greatest evil, israel pretends that to be jewish is to be a colonizer. anyway some of my family are zionists, but i cannot sway them because they only know farsi persian and hebrew, aka only trust extremely biased sources.

anyway i am fluent in english farsi and hebrew but my arabic is trash ): so i feel like i can’t get the full picture from palestinians. all i can read are bonkers iranian papers and the disgusting zionist articles, it’s horrible because i know they’re both lying, just about different things. a palestinian opinion is the only opinion i care about right now! anyway it got me thinking. i just wanted to know if you have tips for verifying online research? or go-to non arabic websites? or even a translation app haha. i just want my family to see the truth!

shalom<3

shalom! thank you so much for reaching out, i really appreciate it.

personally, i use different sources for different material. i use middle east eye (specifically maha hussaini) and also mahmoud abusalama for videos of what it's like in the north. i use the electronic intifada interview podcasts to learn about specific things happening (i just finished watching this one about the collapse of healthcare in gaza). i would check out @northgazaupdates on here too. there's euromedmonitor as well.

and really, there are a lot of diaspora palestinians who are relaying what their family tells them, and they post on twitter a lot. someone i know does this is samah fadil. there's also @el-shab-hussein who translates things from Mona. here's mohammad smiry who is in gaza and tweets primarily in english. dr. mustafa elmasri also tweets in english too.

i would use al-jazeera, i have a fact checking guide here about any news source really. i don't use it as much but there's also the palestine chronicle. sometimes i use quds news network.

i really don't know much about hebrew media so i can't really tell you about sources i recommend there. i don't know if @bringmemyrocks or @rodeodeparis can perhaps provide some input?

i will say, if you're looking for hebrew palestinian media, i dont think there's too much because there's a ridiculous amount of censorship in '48 right now (honestly it's been going on for years atp) but what a lot of palestinians are doing is relying on internal networks. if you want, there are some israeli historians like Ilan Pappe and Avi Shlaim but I'm not sure if they write in hebrew. but they for sure write in english and provide a historical perspective from within israeli society itself.

this is what comes to mind rn honestly, but i haven't even touched on instagram because i haven't been on it in a while. i might add on later if i remember any really vital ones that i recommend.

[bisexualbaker]

Crochet Pattern for Palestine and Israel Relief

At long last, it's done!

This crochet pattern is for small cats, of a good size to make into keychains, magnets, or even hair clips! There are six PDF versions available:

- US stitch names in 12 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - US stitch names in 22 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - US stitch names in 22 point Comic Sans

- UK stitch names in 12 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - UK stitch names in 22 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - UK stitch names in 22 point Comic Sans

Between those six options, that should cover most pattern accessibility needs. If you need something else, though, let me know! I'm prepared to offer a .doc or similar file on an individual basis if you need a screenreader to access crochet patterns, and have a sheet I can use to translate things to German stitch terms (though more in-depth instructions would still be in English). The pattern is worked primarily in (US) single crochet/(UK) double crochet, with the ears in (US) double crochet/(UK) treble crochet popcorn stitches, and is bundled with similar file options of a popcorn stitch tutorial PDF (no stitch names used).

"Socchan," you say, "These cats are super cute! And you said that this pattern is for charity? How does that work exactly?"

I'm glad you asked! Simply donate a minimum of $3 or close-enough local equivalent to a related charity, then take a screencap of your receipt/proof of donation. Block out any information that could doxx you; it's nice if you trust me, but it's not impossible that my email could get hacked, and I want you to be safe! Finally, email the altered screencap to socchan (at) protonmail (dot) com.

Once I get and check the screencap, I will email you back with a link to a MediaFire folder and the password you'll need to open the PDFs. Yes, it is a bit of a pain to need a password to open these files, but this was the simplest way I could figure out how to do things without needing to upload and send a minimum of six files to every person. Download as many of the variations as you want, keep a copy of the password somewhere safe (and don't delete the email with it), and go to town!

As a bonus, if you take your donation up to at least $5 (or close-enough local equivalent), I'll throw in an additional link and password for a very cute little flower pattern!

"That sounds pretty easy," you go on to say, "but where should I donate? There are so many options to choose from!"

No problem! Here's a couple of short lists of options that can help you narrow things down:

Palestine: Palestine Children's Relief Fund - Focuses on medical aid to children in Palestine Medical Aid for Palestine - "[H]elp MAP respond to the ongoing emergency in Gaza, as well as provide medical supplies, support healthcare services and deliver long term development to healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon." MAP reportedly has a team on the ground in Gaza, providing critical medical aid. Anera - Providing food, hygiene kits, and medical care in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Palestine Red Crescent - More medical support in Palestine; the rest of the webpage is in Arabic, so be prepared if you want to click around at all. Basically the Palestinian Red Cross. Gaza Cemetery Project - "Al-Hamdulillah, a ​​5,500 square meters’ piece of land has been secured to create a public cemetery for the city and neighbouring areas." This area still needs a fence to protect the burial plots before it can be used.

Israel: Zaka - A group of first responders and people who identify bodies and prepare them for burial (sadly, sorely needed right now); they are in need of safety equipment, medical supplies, first aid kits, and more. Red Magen David - The Israeli/Jewish equivalent of the Red Cross; first responder medical support and similar. (This one has some pretty immediate upsetting text, so take care!) Hatzalah - Similar to Red Magen David, another first responder and emergency medical group. The Koby Mandell Foundation - Focuses on bereavement aid in Israel for people who have lost loved ones in traumatic circumstances; they've got support hotlines and can arrange for support visits, among other things. The Refuser Solidarity Network - Providing support for Israeli citizens who refuse government mandatory military service.

I think that's everything, aside from: Please Signal Boost! If I end up having to send out two hundred emails in the next couple of days, that still won't be too many.

[firstfullmoon]

In 1981, Israeli Mossad agents assassinated Palestinian Liberation Organization member, writer, and intellectual Majed Abu Sharar in his hotel room in Rome. Abu Sharar was a close friend of the Palestinian poet and writer Mahmoud Darwish. In 1984, in his collection A Siege for the Eulogies of the Sea (Hissar li-Mada’h el-Bahr), Darwish included the final version of his long elegy to his friend, “The Final Meeting in Rome.” This poem in particular is largely untranslatable in English. The untranslatability is not so much due to the technical demands of the surreal lyric’s transformation of song into an act of liberation. Instead, the untranslatability relates primarily to the question of audience. There remains little room in English to receive openly, unequivocally, the freedom song of Palestinians in its myriad forms.

But I can simplify all this jargon in a single word, a name: Majed. Majed’s name permeates the text of “The Final Meeting in Rome.” In a moment of genius, in the penultimate section of the text, Darwish explodes language with his friend’s name through an unexpected refrain—as if Darwish had been writing the previous pages for the sole purpose of arriving at this stanza: “Good morning, Majed, / good morning, / get up to recite Surat al-‘Aaed.”

In the Quran, there is no chapter, or Surah, titled al-‘Aaed—a word that means the returnee. Some may argue that one solution for translating the stanza would reside in changing Majed’s name to Ali, for example, so that the impact of the rhyme is maintained: Ali/the Surah of the returnee. But that is self-deluding. English, much as it likes to argue otherwise, still struggles to accept at least two major points about this linguistic construct in Arabic. The first is the beautiful, divine presence of the Quran to elegize a Palestinian martyr (irrespective of their religious affiliation, if any). The second is the Palestinian right of return, dead and alive.

Darwish stuns his audience by blurring the boundaries of blasphemy. He is not echoing a specific Quranic text. He elevates the Palestinian question to touch the moral arc that bends toward justice in the universe. He delivers a mystical experience no one objects to in Arabic. He invents a Surah in the Quran and attributes its title to his “friend, brother, and last love.” The entire Palestinian body in one named Majed. The entire human history of return in a Surah.

Among the poem’s memorable lines, there is this couplet: “As if I could protect my heart / from hope. My heart is ill.” This ailing heart arrives near the end of the poem and disseminates into Palestinian flesh. What Darwish manages to describe, in topical yet visionary manner, is astounding, precisely because the poem does not claim to see the future. Yet here we are, more than forty years later, and every word of the closing salvo that I have translated is true.

I took liberties with this last, translatable section of “The Final Meeting in Rome.” Since one aspect of the original untranslatability is in the name—Majed—I clearly see that today, Gaza is the untranslatable name in the poem.

[love-3-crimes]

Kansas stands with Palestine 🫶🏽

Resources down below!

DECOLONIZE PALESTINE

List of resources for those to want to learn more about Palestine. Whether that be their history, myths surrounding them, reading lists, and more.

THE PALESTINE ACADEMY

Contains digital “classes” about the history of Palestine, broken up into chapters. Tells what is happening and how to help, including general resources to start with if it’s too overwhelming

AL JAZEERA (ENGLISH)

24-Hour News channel keeping track of what's happening in Gaza. Has different news sections for other countries as well

PALESTINE-ISRAEL JOURNALS/DIGITAL BOOKS

Google Drive of resources

PALESTINE CARRD

Learn about what’s happening in Palestine, and how to help. Includes books, documentaries, and a history section.

ADVOCATING FOR PALESTINE

Guide to dismantling Israeli propaganda. Available in English, Arabic, German, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish.

BRIEF HISTORY OF ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT

Youtube video, run time 41:58

SCENES FROM UNDER OCCUPATION IN GAZA (1973)

Youtube video, run time 13:44

“The film “Scenes from Occupation in Gaza” is a documentary that presents some of the Israeli occupation measurements against Palestinians, and a profile of the struggle of Palestinian people in Gaza.” - Palestine Cinema

[probablyasocialecologist]

Hamas appears to have three goals corresponding to the short, medium and long term. In the short term, Hamas appears to have taken over 150 Israelis captive, and reports suggest around three quarters of those are military or security personnel. These hostages, Hamas hopes, will act as a shield against Israeli counterattacks and a bargaining chip to be traded for some of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and in the ongoing neverending negotiations over the blockade on Gaza. In the medium term Hamas hopes to intervene politically in Israel, both domestically and within its surrounding network of relations with Arab states. Netanyahu’s bluster has correctly been judged to be lying on shaky foundations – his civil power grab has deeply polarised Zionist opinion both within Israel and internationally, and his alliance with far right provocateurs has not been universally welcomed. In fact that alliance may well become untenable now that Israel has suffered serious military losses while its troops were off chaperoning a bunch of fascist goons. There are echoes here of the 2006 attack on Lebanon when Israel found to its cost that soldiers accustomed to brutalising teenagers in the West Bank were less impressive when up against a rooted, disciplined and equipped resistance militia. Moreover, part of Netanyahu’s domestic political appeal within Israel is the promise of the so-called Abraham Accords, treaties normalising diplomatic and trade relations with the Israeli state signed so far by UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – but not, as yet, Saudi Arabia. This process had already been overshadowed by China’s surprise intervention earlier this year in brokering a treaty between Saudi and Iran to end the war in Yemen. And the reactions of the Gulf states have been noticeably cooler towards Israel than one might have expected. These peace treaties, for what they are worth, now seem dead in the water. But it’s the third long-term goal of Hamas’s intervention that is the most important. The ongoing and seemingly neverending humiliation of the Palestinians at the hands of Israel has been responded to. Hamas statements at the outset of the conflict, relayed on Al-Jazeera English (which has been invaluable – no wonder Israeli snipers murdered Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last year), emphasised that this was a general call for Palestinian resistance, and invited other groups and factions to join. This echoes Hamas’s earlier, much smaller, rocket attack on Israel in May 2021, which came in response to Israeli police outrages at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. As with this time, Israel was caught off guard when Hamas retaliated: its assumption had been that al-Aqsa was not in Gaza, therefore Hamas would not strike back. What we saw that year, flickering briefly, was a three-pronged Palestinian resistance movement comprising Hamas in Gaza (which has an overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population), assorted militant groups in the West Bank, as well as Palestinians within Israel’s borders itself, who organised and delivered a one-day general strike. These glimmers of a new Palestinian resistance movement come as the old order, represented by Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas are despised, discredited and in their senescence. They have at best proved impotent at protecting Palestinians in the West Bank and at worst actively collaborated with the Israeli occupation. A new Palestinian resistance movement will need a new leadership, and Hamas are positioning themselves at the head of that.

[girlactionfigure]

Israel journalist @Roi_Yanovsky just published an amazing piece in Hebrew about what Gaza is REALLY like, based on his personal observations there. Here is an English translation that you NEED to read🧵

100 reserve days officially ended yesterday. Some initial insights: 

1. Gaza is seen as a backward area, the "most densely populated in the world" which has been under Israeli "siege" for years. There is no bigger lie than this. Gaza is a modern, beautiful, developed city, with large modern houses, wide boulevards, public spaces, a promenade 

by the sea and parks. Looks much better than any other Arab city from the Jordan to the sea, much more similar to Tel Aviv than to Kfar Qasim or Umm Al Fahem. And of course it is very far from being "the densest in the world". 

2. If it's a siege, let me live in a siege. the houses are bursting with goods and food from all countries of the Middle East, latest furniture, electronics and whatnot. There are also luxurious mansions that wouldn’t embarrass Savion and Kfar Shemariahu (rich areas in Israel) 

There is absolutely no shortage of wealth in Gaza. In general, most of the houses I've been in were much bigger than the apartment I live in in Tel Aviv. The sentence "If only they had a chance for a good life, they wouldn't fight in Israel" is simply not relevant to Gaza. 

3. The most common thing in the houses of the Gaza Strip: a map of the Land of Israel the heading "Map of Palestine". There is no mention of Israel or Israeli towns in general. And it is found in almost every home, in every school and in every public institution, the goal of 

erasing the State of Israel is neither hidden nor suppressed, it is almost everywhere. The historical distortion of this map which is taught from age 0 is a topic for another discussion that only emphasizes the distorted perception of reality by the residents of Gaza. 

4. In all the neighborhoods we were in, there are ready-made Hamas combat complexes - weapons, tunnels, charges, launching complexes, all inside residential houses, some of which are also prepared with openings in the walls for passing between buildings and what not. 

The residents of the Gaza Strip who live in the combat zones know this, they have received countless notices to evacuate. Long before the IDF entered. IDF announcements are still there everywhere. Those who decided to stay in the fighting areas are either Hamas members in 

various positions or people who consciously decided to stay in the areas used by Hamas for fighting, for their own reasons. 

5. Hamas members rarely walk around armed. They are neither stupid nor suckers. They know they won't be shot if they go in "civilian" guise. 

They prepare the weaponry ahead of time at the entrances to the buildings and arm themselves just a moment before they attack. That’s why the fighting is much more complex than any other arena. those judge from the outside why soldiers shot X or didn’t shoot Y - 

enter Gaza for a week or 2 and you’ll return with insights. 6. The circle enabling Hamas is much larger than its tens of thousands of terrorists. The ideology of Hamas is found in almost every home, in pictures, in propaganda materials. Hamas in Gaza is like Messi in Argentina. 

7. The strengthening of Hamas at this level requires active assistance of a population. There is no way that the residents of the compounds where we located rockets and weapons did not know that the place is used as a launching complex where they try to massacre Israelis daily. 

And I find it hard to believe that the parents in the kindergarten where there was a tunnel shaft do not know this. Who chooses to send their children to a kindergarten that serves as a terrorist infrastructure? 

8. Hamas's strongest weapon is lies and propaganda. It's his fuel. This is how you will maintain the "siege" lie for years, this is how they are doing now with the photos of the innocent victims and the killing of the "journalists" who turn out to be terrorist operatives. 

Gaza is the only place in the world where 500 deaths are reported half an hour after an explosion. Even in earthquakes and heavy disasters it takes the rescue forces a few days to identify and estimate the number of dead, but the Palestinian Ministry of Health already knows 

a minute after the explosion what the damage is. This is ridiculous and the world media quoting the numbers as living words of God is pathetic. I would attribute the same level of credibility to the reports this week about "hunger" in Rafah. 

Gaza is the only place in the world where 500 deaths are reported half an hour after an explosion. Even in earthquakes and heavy disasters it takes the rescue forces a few days to identify and estimate the number of dead, but the Palestinian Ministry of Health already knows 

a minute after the explosion what the damage is. This is ridiculous and the world media quoting the numbers as living words of God is pathetic. I would attribute the same level of credibility to the reports this week about "hunger" in Rafah. 

Unroll available on Thread Reader (Hebrew)

ShipofTheseus

@JewishSpaceLazr

[eretzyisrael]

by Chaim Lax

A popular adage states that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

In this day and age of social media and up-to-the-minute news, it has never been faster for a lie to travel around the world — and it’s been even harder for the truth to try and catch up.

That was the case last week, when Al Jazeera spread a malicious libel about Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian women in Al-Shifa Hospital during the IDF’s ongoing campaign against entrenched Hamas forces there, before quietly removing the story and trying to silently bury it.

On the morning of March 24, Al Jazeera Arabic’s principal news presenter, Elsy Abi Assi (who is no stranger to antisemitism and denial of Hamas atrocities), interviewed a Gazan woman by the name of Jamila Al-Hessi on live TV. She claimed that Israeli soldiers operating in Al-Shifa Hospital were raping Palestinian women and brutally murdering other Palestinians sheltering in the medical complex.

These allegations soon spread like wildfire on social media, with popular anti-Israel accounts picking up the story and disseminating it to their large English-speaking audiences.

Then, that night, Yasser Abuhilalah, an Al Jazeera columnist and former director, tweeted that a Hamas investigation into these allegations had concluded that they were not true, and that Jamila Al-Hessi had justified her on-air deception by claiming that she had exaggerated her claims in order to “arouse the nation’s fervor and brotherhood.”

According to some analysts, Hamas had decided to issue a rare public denial of these claims since its dissemination among Palestinians in northern Gaza was having the opposite effect than was intended: Instead of producing enmity against Israel, these allegations had caused Palestinians to flee the area in fear for their safety.

By the next day, Al Jazeera had removed references to Al-Hessi’s claims from its online platforms, but never formally retracted these libels, even though it had uncritically aired them in the first place.

However, by that point, it was too late. The damage to Israel’s reputation had already been done.

In less than 24 hours, millions of people had already viewed Jamila Al-Hessi’s lies on social media and, despite the denial by Hamas itself, continue to do so through a variety of anti-Israel accounts.

As of this last Thursday alone, the story had been viewed 2.3 million times on the X (formerly Twitter) account of Middle East Eye, 918,000 times on the X account of “investigative journalist” Sulaiman Ahmed, 405,000 times on the X account of “human rights activist”/Hamas supporter Ramy Abdu, and over 305,000 times on the X account of alternative media outlet The Cradle.

Some (including Sana Saeed, a journalist affiliated with Al Jazeera) have even gone so far as to voice skepticism of Hamas’ discrediting of Al-Hessi’s story.

The allegation of rape by IDF soldiers in Al-Shifa Hospital is not the first lie about Israel and the IDF that has been spread since Hamas’ October 7 terror attack and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza.

However, in this case, it was not spread by a lone social media activist or a fringe news source, but by a news organization that enjoys a veneer of respectability among both news consumers and media outlets around the world.

Despite it serving as an official mouthpiece of the authoritarian Qatari regime, and being accused of echoing Hamas talking points, Al Jazeera is viewed as a trusted source of information about Israel and the Palestinians during the current conflict, as well as over the past several years.

In 2022, HonestReporting uncovered that Al Jazeera had been cited by 16 “top-tier news outlets” 116 times in Israel-related news stories, with most never mentioning the Qatari media organization’s inherent bias.

Also, if not for Hamas deciding that the libel about rapes in Al-Shifa Hospital was not in its best interest and issuing a denial of the allegations, it is highly likely that Al Jazeera would have continued to run with this fabrication as a trusted news story.

In this age of the 24-hour news cycle and instant access to news from around the world, Al Jazeera is serving as a valuable tool in Hamas’ propaganda war, spreading misinformation and sullying Israel’s image around the world at record speeds.

Al Jazeera’s malign influence on the views of social media users is concerning. For mainstream media outlets to rely on it as a source for Israel-related stories is downright journalistic malpractice.

[northgazaupdates]

8 June 2024

Journalist Wadea Abu Alsaoud reports from Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in north Gaza on the beginning of the 9th month of the IOF assault on the Gaza Strip. Instagram user mydxb2024 provides a full English translation:

Wadea: The war on Gaza enters it ninth month today, and the American-Zionist machine continues to bomb us from east to west and from north to south. The (victims) are thousands of civilians, among which are martyrs, missing, and wounded. I mean, this here (small child with severe injuries) is the primary target of the Israeli Occupation on the 247th day of this continued genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. As you are now seeing, this little girl is the primary target of the Israeli Occupation!

Mother of one of the children: I'll kiss all of your feet! I'll kiss all of your feet! Just give her to me!

WARNING: GRAPHIC AND DISTRESSING! Viewer discretion advised!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by وديع ابو السعود (@wadeaa_.9)

[pal1cam]

Support Palestinian Musicians & Artists :

Here is a list of Palestinian musical artists, musical groups & bands, to make it easier for you to stop supporting musicians and artists who support genocide and occupation…

Faraj Sulieman : a solo musician who makes musical works that are very piano & jazz infused with a hint of rock n’ roll. He has performed in many countries in Europe and the Middle East. He has released 10 albums in the last 10 years, one of them being a children’s musical album called “Faheem” that found major success with the voices of the 2 kids, Faheem Abu Hilu and Hala Qassis, that were very dominant in the album alongside the sound of classical piano played by Faraj Sulieman himself. He also made the soundtrack for the Palestinian movie “200 meters” directed by Ameen Nayfeh. (Recommended Works : Better Than Berlin / Second Verse / Upright Piano)

DAM : a rap band founded in 1999 by the 2 brothers Tamer and Suhel Nafar along with their friend Mahmoud Jrere, the 3 rappers who came out of the city Lod [a mixed city that has indigenous Palestinian citizens & zionist Israeli settlers] make songs mostly about the inequality in the authorities’ treatment towards Palestinians, and songs criticizing the Palestinian society living in occupied territory under the Israeli Government… They primarily rap in Arabic, yet they sometimes use English & Hebrew as well. In recent years the female artist Maysa Daw has joined the band replacing Suhel Nafar and adding a feminine perspective to the band’s niche. It’s also important to mention that DAM was the first ever hip-hop band in the entirety of the Middle East. (Recommended Works : Ben Haana Wa Maana / i don’t have freedom)

Tamer Nafar : as mentioned before, he is a Palestinian rapper and actor and one of the founding members of DAM. Besides his works with DAM he also produces music under his own name, sometimes collaborating with various Palestinian & international artists. He also participated in making the soundtrack for the film ‘Junction 48’. (Recommended Works : The Beat Never Goes Off / Johnnie Mashi)

Maysa Daw : a solo musician, singer & songwriter, and as mentioned before the freshest and newest member of the band DAM, and a member of the newly formed female group called Kallemi, She was featured in Vogue Arabia 2019 as one of 5 Arab stars setting the world of art, culture and entertainment. She is also the daughter of the actor and director Salim Daw. (Recommended Works : Asli Barri / Between City Walls)

47SOUL : a group of four men who are all originally from Palestine that have created a new music genre called “Shamstep” which is an electronic dance movement mixed with the sound of Palestinian & Middle Eastern folklore. The musical group was formed back in 2013, and since then they’ve become pioneers in that unique style of theirs and have been on tours all over the world from the US to the UK and of course the Middle East. They’ve performed in NPR’s tiny desk in 2019 which helped them gain even more international recognition. (Recommended Works : Shamstep / Semitics / Shireen)

El far3i : he is a Palestinian-Jordanian rapper, singer, songwriter, and percussionist. He is currently a member of the Shamstep band 47Soul, and was formerly a member of the Arabic rock band El Morabba3. He started his career in 2012, and has since released six solo albums. (Recommended Works : Tghayarti)

Shabjdeed : Straight out of the restless town of Kufr Aqab, Palestine, emerged a talent by the name of Abu Othaina. With his controversial takes and raw skills Shabjdeed was an instant addition to the Palestinian rap scene. After gaining traction from his self-titled track, he caught the attention of Al Nather, a local producer, and worked with him to create the alter-ego Shabjdeed; an act that can easily be considered one of the most influential and popular in the region. The duo developed their own niche dark hip-hop and trap style combining Shabjdeed’s nihilistic and daringly personal delivery style with Al Nather’s colourful and rhythmic instrumentals. From the beginning they have been able to build a dedicated fanbase, grossing over 1.5 million total streams on Soundcloud across two years whilst only relying on word-of-mouth advertisement. The duo have created together a record label and named it BLTNM Records which was brought to it’s biggest success with the release of Shabjdeed’s first full length album called “Sindibad el Ward”. And today Shabjdeed’s music is the modern voice for not only the Palestinian revolution, yet for the entire revolution in the Middle East caused by youth that dream of a better future and go against their capitalist and money hungry governments. (Recommended Works : Fi Harb / Aadi / inn ann / Ko7ol w 3atme)

Daboor : A Jerusalemite rapper to the bone, Daboor’s debut single “Liter Black'' was released in 2020 to much fanfare and critical acclaim. His unique style and raw talent cemented his status in the rap scene and he was soon signed to BLTNM Records. Daboor’s words touch on the violence of the occupation, and his delivery mimics it with brutal bursts of staccato. (Recommended Works : Inn Ann / Dolab)

Lina Makhoul : an independent American-born Palestinian singer-songwriter & producer. She was raised in the city of Acre in occupied Palestine since the age of 4 and according to her she has showed interest in music and dance since a young age. She started her career in 2012 and has since released 1 full length album as well as a number of hit singles, She also opened for Queen+ Adam Lambert in 2016 and toured with Little Mix in 2017. (Recommended Works : Shway Shway / Fish Masari / 3 sneen)

Elyanna : a Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter who started her career in 2018 and has since released 1 full length album and a number of singles, and she has collaborated with artists with significant recognition such as Massari. She performed in Coachella 2023 to become the 1st ever Middle Eastern & Palestinian artist to perform in Coachella in Arabic. (Recommended Works : Ana Lahale / Ghareeb Alay)

Noel Kharman : She is best known for doing mashup covers where she mixes Middle Eastern and Western music, creating a unique bridge between these two worlds through her powerful and angelic voice. She started her career on Youtube with covers of viral songs, but her big breakthrough happened in 2015 when she published her first mash-up cover which was a mix of ‘Hello’ by Adele with Fairuz. The cover went viral overnight and since then, she became an instant internet sensation. The cover has gained over 30 million views on YouTube. Today she has released many songs of her own after being signed to a record label and has collaborated with various artists and went on tour in many cities in the Middle Eastern region. (Recommended Works : Ya Lali)

The Synaptik : This Palestinian-Jordanian artist based in Palestine started making music at the age of 17. The Synaptik studied medicine for 7 years and graduated. His stage name is derived from his fascination with the nervous system, neurotransmitters and his personal experience with ADHD, which led to calling himself The Synaptik: “…because that’s where things happen.” The Synaptik has pioneered a new wave of sound for the Arab youth. His honest and potent lyrics are highlighted by his songwriting style that merges singing and rapping effortlessly. With a tsunami of a first album under his belt, dozens of local, regional, and international shows and a much-anticipated second album, The Synaptik has cemented his status as one of the pillars in the Hip Hop scene in the region. The Synaptik has collaborated with numerous artists from all over the Middle East such as rap superstars Abyusif, Wegz, Marwan Mousa, Chyno with a Why?, Shabjdeed and more. (Recommended Works : Sabelek)

Apo & The Apostles : Apo & the Apostles started out late 2013 in Jerusalem-Bethlehem with their first release in March 2014. Since then, they've been taking their music to whoever and wherever they are welcomed. The band is known for their energetic performances that turn to parties and after-parties. (Recommended Works : Baji Wenek)