#forcibly displaced populations

[humansolidarityday]

Urging global action and solidarity with people forced to flee.

UNHCR launches ‘Hope Away from Home’ campaign urging global action and solidarity with people forced to flee.

[xannerz]

→ More than 100,000 (of 120,000) ethnic Armenians had to flee Artsakh to Armenia due to Azeri aggression. World leaders chose not to sanction Azerbaijan or offer any substantial intervention over the past 3 years while Armenians endured violence, shelling, and a nearly yearlong blockade - all on top of a global pandemic.

→ Azerbaijan deprived Artsakh of food, medical supplies, and outside aid, and took advantage of the West's reliance on its oil supply to force Artsakh to capitulate. With almost the entire population having fled out of fear of continued violence and ethnic cleansing, displaced Armenians are relying heavily on government and community support as they rebuild their lives.

→ "As tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians flee their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, several international experts say the exodus meets the conditions for the war crime of "deportation or forcible transfer", or even a crime against humanity."

Awareness and donations are critical at this time.

Kooyrigs Artsakh Housing Development Fund

VIVA: Doctors and volunteers for Armenia

Armenian Food Bank

[i-am-aprl]

💣 Israeli warplanes are heavily bombing a starving and defenseless population RIGHT NOW of mostly children, and Western leaders are cheering it on.

🩸Israel’s so-called #Rafah evacuation order is a declaration to attack the 600K children & their families, to attack remaining infrastructure sustaining life & any possibility of a future.

🚨Racist-colonial logic is what makes this a “policy debate” instead of a siren warning of yet more genocidal massacres.

⚠️ The “evacuation” of Rafah is illegal. There are no “humanitarian” or “safe zones.” Civilians are being forcibly displaced to areas totally unsuitable to human habitation. This is a crime against humanity.

Video by @mahmoudbassam8

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

Extremely normal and not at all ludicrously existentially revolting for the United States to make it so that a group of people can more or less be considered human under the law in one subnational district and in ruthlessly criminalized and dehumanized in another subnational district, so much so that subnational legislatures are constantly passing laws trying to protect populations forcibly displaced by other subnational governments. Cool how this is considered sane and effective government so much so that it keeps happening over and over again for 250 years.

[northgazaupdates]

26 May 2024

Journalist Anas Al-Sharif reports via Telegram the sudden and severe aerial bombardment of densely-populated downtown Gaza City. Bear in mind that while forcibly expelling people from Jabaliya, the occupation ordered those displaced to go to the west and south—exactly the direction of downtown Gaza City.

[ankle-beez]

To Our Guild Leadership and Staff: We are proud rank-and-file union and trade association members from every corner of our industry — working on screen, stage, set, and in the field — united in solidarity with the global call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and a just, lasting peace. As artists and storytellers, we cannot stand idly by as our industry refuses to tell the story of Palestinian humanity. Following SAG-AFTRA’s statement in sympathy with Israel regarding October 7, many SAG-AFTRA and sister guild members have watched in horror as the Israeli government wages a war of collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza — killing over 40,000 Palestinians, injuring over 90,000 more, forcibly displacing 2 million people, and openly targeting members of the press and their families. As the IDF continues its assault on “safe zones,” schools, and hospitals, and as civilians in Gaza die from starvation, dehydration, and lack of medical supplies and fuel, major human rights groups have labeled these acts as war crimes, human rights atrocities, and even genocide. The UN has described Gaza as a “graveyard for children” — and estimate that by mid-July “half of the population — more than a million people — could face death and starvation.” As of now, there is no end in sight — only escalation, death, and destruction.

Despite these clear violations of human rights and Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land and lives, our union leadership has remained silent. Thus, they have made conditional which atrocities we choose to condemn and which innocent lives we choose to acknowledge and mourn. Moreover, SAG-AFTRA and nearly all our sister guilds have remained silent in the face of flagrant and unprecedented attacks on freedom of the press, including the deliberate targeting and murder of Palestinian journalists and their families by the IDF. The Committee to Protect Journalists has declared the war on Gaza “the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since CPJ began tracking in 1992.” Some of those journalists were members of news organizations whose domestic affiliates are represented under SAG-AFTRA contracts. While SAG-AFTRA issued a public statement at the outset of the Ukraine war demanding that “journalists of all nations working in the war zone are kept safe,” its words now ring hollow if they only apply to some journalists of certain identities.

On December 13, 2023, Israeli forces attacked The Freedom Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp and kidnapped several of its members — fellow actors and directors, who have called for solidarity from theatre workers worldwide. Palestinian trade unions have called for international labor solidarity, reminding us that “the struggle for Palestinian justice and liberation is a lever for the liberation of all dispossessed and exploited people of the world.” Worldwide labor has heeded that call, including major Australian, British, Belgian, Indian, and American unions. On Nov 15, our British peer union, Equity UK, called for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, stating: “We send our solidarity to Palestinian artists suffering in the horrendous conditions created by Israeli bombing, occupation, and apartheid.” Since then, UAW International has called for a ceasefire and announced the formation of a Divestment and Just Transition working group; The Animation Guild (IATSE Local 839) became the first Hollywood union to call for a ceasefire in Gaza; five of the 10 largest American labor unions and federations have officially called for a ceasefire including the NEA (National Education Association), SEIU (Service Employees International Union), and the AFL-CIO; and unions collectively representing a majority of organized workers in the US formed The National Labor Network for Ceasefire. In July, 7 major unions representing over 6 million workers published a letter to President Biden demanding an arms embargo on Israel.

The global call for a ceasefire — from organized labor, artists and fellow SAG-AFTRA members, human rights groups, world leaders, and the majority of the American public — grows louder every day. And yet, our government continues to sponsor the Israeli forces’ assault on Palestinian civilians, and our industry union leadership still refuses to speak out. We reject this silence. Our calling as artists, news reporters, and storytellers is to bring truth to the world. To fight the erasure of life and culture. To unite for justice in the name of the most vulnerable among us. It’s exactly what we did during our historic strike in 2023.

We are the labor that built and sustains this business. When our leaders can’t stand up publicly for peace and justice, then we must do what we always do: organize, fight for change, and win. Our guild leadership must join the largest and most diverse peace movement in a generation — the integrity of our legacy demands nothing less. When confronted with genocide, oppression, and injustice, let us ring the bell for humanity and liberation. An injury to one is an injury to all. We, the undersigned members of SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, WGA, Teamsters, DGA, AEA, AFM, Hollywood Basic Crafts, CSA, PGA, and more, demand our leadership issue a public statement calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of all hostages — both Palestinian and Israeli, and immediate funding and delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid; to speak out against the targeting and killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, health workers, and our journalist colleagues; to condemn our industry’s McCarthyist repression of members who acknowledge Palestinian suffering; and to eliminate any doubt of our solidarity with workers, artists, and oppressed people worldwide.

[ahaura]

Zachary Foster, Ph.d, historian of Palestine, has made a thread of a brief history of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from 1890 to present. [His newsletter: Palestine, in Your Inbox] Pasted below:

Yesterday, on October 24, 2023, Israel's plans to expel Gaza's Palestinian population to Sinai, Egypt were leaked. Not surprisingly, this plan has a decades long history and dates to at least 2004, if not earlier. (Source)

Between Oct 7, 2023-present, Israel has displaced ~1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza through its campaign of indiscriminate bombing. (Source)

In May 2023, 178 Palestinian Bedouins were forced out of Ein Samiya (West Bank) after Israel repeatedly demolished their homes, threatened to destroy their only school & after their grazing land was taken by settlement expansion & b/c of settler violence: [Link]

In July 2022, the 100-person community in Ras a-Tin (WB) was pushed after a Jewish settler outpost was established 2km away. Since then, members of the Palestinian community have suffered from verbal abuse, harassment, theft & vandalism of property. [Link]

Between Aug 2022- August 2023, the 88-person community in al-Qabun was pushed out by Israeli Jewish settler violence & assaults by the Israeli army. [Link]

In July 2020, Israel made 70 Palestinians homeless in Khirbet Humsa for the 6th time. Israeli forces loaded the residents' personal belongings and dropped them off 7 miles away. [Link]

In 2019, 2 groups of Palestinian families near the Taybeh junction were pushed out:

Between June 1967 - 2016, Israel revoked the residency status--and thus the right to live in Jerusalem (or anywhere else in Israel) -- of at least 14,595 Palestinians from East Jerusalem in what amounts to "forcible transfers," according to @hrw. (Source)

Between 1968 -1971, Israel expelled 615 Gazan residents. Between, 1971-1988, Israel expelled another 90 Palestinains from Gaza. Source: Sara Roy, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development, p.110

In 1967, Israel expelled 250K-325K Palestinians, including from Imwas, Yalo, Bayt Nuba, Surit, Beit Awwa, Beit Mirsem, Shuyukh, Jiftlik, Agarith & Huseirat. (Source: one, two)

In 1948, Zionist forces expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. They also refused to allow ~750,000 Palestinians who were made refugees during the war back to their homes.

Source:

B/w 1891-1948, most Zionist leaders, inc. Theodor Herzl, Ahad Ha'am, Israel Zangwill, Arthur Rupin, M. Smilansky, L. Motzkin, Yoseph Weitz, Chaim Weizmann, M. Usshishkin, D. Ben Gurion, Moshe Shertok, thought it would be required to expel the Palestinians: [Quote Tweet]

Here are some additional screenshots if the statements of Zionist leaders from 1890-1948. And you wonder why so many people think Zionism was such a problematic, dare I say, racist idea?

[slotumn]

On today's edition of 3H worldbuilding that makes the setting even bleaker:

Headcanons about/overview of intra-Fódlan forced displacements throughout history

Nabatean exodus from everywhere north of current day Garreg Mach to the south, caused by genocide; my headcanons that the various other "saints" aside from the Five Saints were all Nabateans in disguise

Adrestia-Faerghus population exchange after Faerghan independence, mediated by Church; I'd wager that over centuries under imperial rule, plenty of ethnic Adrestians went up north and plenty of ethnic Faerghans came down south and mingled, but to make the independence process "cleaner" and "prevent future conflicts," they forced people to move (it sucked, many died in the process)

Ethnic cleansing of Adrestians in Leicester during Leicester rebellion; as there are no records of any treaties that ended this and instead just said that Faerghus annexed Leicester, I assume this was a violent shitshow. Also due to precedent of number 3, Faerghan government would also have been perfectly fine with continuing to kill/expell Adrestians in order to solidify their control over the region (little did they know this would backfire on them)

Ethnic cleansing of Faerghans in Leicester during Crescent Moon War; also a violent shitshow, remember that this war went on for 20 years and probably took on the form of multiple civil wars within each territory rather than a big organized Leicester vs Faerghus clash, which probably made death tolls worse. I think there wouldn't even have been any official treaty/plan for population transfer like with Adrestia-Faerghus, as instead of mutually expelling people under a treaty, Leicester probably just exterminated Faerghans until Faerghus couldn't justify controlling them anymore and went "ok fine have your independence"

Ethnic Leicesterians in Adrestia/Faerghus being killed or sent to Leicester alongside/in response the above two, although the degree to which the movement was forced varies compared to most others on the list; plenty moved to Leicester voluntarily for economic reasons

Faerghan (Machian?) exodus to Leicester or outside of Fódlan + Adrestians moving into western Kingdom and southern Leicester during Unification War; top down on the Empire's part to solidify/justify control over those areas

The recently moved Faerghans in Leicester and Adrestians in western Kingdom/south Leicester (alongside Faerghan/Adrestian minorities who managed to stay in the other lands through the previous waves of displacement) getting kicked right back out after/near the end of the Unification War, depending in the route; led or started by violent mobs but allowed/encouraged by authorities

Displacement/transfers/immigration waves outside of Fódlan/Fódlanis

Elites exodus to Dagda, caused by defeat in War of Heroes; confirmed in Balthus and Hapi paralogue

Srengi exodus further north or across Whitehorn to Almyra, caused by Faerghan land seizure, but also Faerghans from Gautier moving across Whitehorn Sea to Almyra because of the ongoing conflict

Some people from Southern Church moved not to Eastern Church but further abroad (Almyra? Morfis?)

There are probably some Leicesterians who moved to Almyra during Crescent Moon War, although there probably was/continues to be immigration for economic reasons

If there was an Almyran minority in Leicester at any point they mostly got killed/expelled/forcibly assimilated after the big Almyran invasion

Probably a sizeable Brigidan population in Dagda? Maybe some in Adrestia after the most recent subjugation, although it's far more limited compared to Dagda due to Fódlani isolationism

I'd put Duscurians here but the implication seems to be that enough didn't survive to flee elsewhere post-Tragedy

I'd also put the Sothis vs Agarthans war somewhere but that just seems to have been near-annihilation for both sides

All this does assume that Adrestians/Faerghans/Leicesterians consider themselves to be different ethnicities from one another, rather than everyone being "Fódlani." But I think that's more likely to be the case than not; dev interview said Fódlan is about 2/3 size of Europe, which is about Europe minus Russia, and there's certainly more than one ethnicity in there. As a matter of fact I'd actually think that there are further divisions than just Adrestian/Faerghan/Leicesterian, ex: Machians and possibly people in different territories of Leicester consider themselves to be different ethnicities. (I think Adrestians for the most part all consider themselves Adrestian though, due to how old the Empire is)

I like to think that there aren't any more forced displacements/ethnic cleansing post-unification (esp when Byleth is ruler) since it's all one country now, but the real problem would be the fact the worst of it already happened and they gotta figure out how to give reparations for that + not make the resentment split the nation apart again. All while the economy is in the shitters because they just got out of a continent-wide war.

Really I think that would be the biggest post-war challenge no matter the route; the "you were fighting and killing them until recently, now you gotta rule over them and integrate them into the nation." Especially because, again, I don't think the Adrestians/Faerghans/Leicesterians, including the laypeople, would have good sentiments towards one another post-Unification War. Like I think they already didn't like one another before, but the war re-opened every single past ethnic resentment/made the simmering tensions underneath the veneer of peace explode.

[fairuzfan]

Normalization is an English translation of the Arabic word tatbi’, making something abnormal appear normal. As stated before by PACBI:

It is helpful to think of normalization as a “colonization of the mind,” whereby the oppressed subject comes to believe that the oppressor’s reality is the only “normal” reality that must be subscribed to, and that the oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with. Those who engage in normalization either ignore this oppression, or accept it as the status quo that can be lived with.  In an attempt to whitewash its violations of international law and human rights, Israel attempts to re-brand itself, or present itself as normal -- even “enlightened” -- through an intricate array of relations and activities encompassing hi-tech, cultural, legal, LGBT and other realms. [3] Another aspect of normalization is the attempt to use Palestinians and/or Arabs as “fig leaves” [4].  In the context of applying the BDS movement’s guidelines for the international academic and cultural boycott of Israel, PACBI sometimes faces scenarios where boycott bashers attempt to redeem their conscience, and with it some moral ground, by using token Palestinians (or more rarely other Arabs) as a fig leaf to cover up their complicity in Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian rights.  While the pool of available “fig leaves” is diminishing every year, thanks to the recent impressive spread of BDS consciousness among Palestinians and in the Arab world, there are still those who are ready to accept for their names to be manipulated in the cynical political agendas of international boycott violators. From the above, one can see that normalization applies to relationships that convey a misleading or deceptive image of normalcy, of symmetry, of parity, for a patently abnormal and asymmetric relationship of colonial oppression and apartheid [5].

[...]

BDS is not about saving Israel as an apartheid state, giving up some occupied lands that are densely populated by Palestinians to make Israel a more pure apartheid, and to prolong the life of this apartheid for several more years. BDS is all about achieving Palestinian rights, paramount among which is the inalienable right to self determination, by ending Israel’s three-tiered system of colonial and racial oppression: colonialism, occupation and apartheid. Of course, PACBI and the BDS National Committee (BNC) advocate a complete boycott until Israel ends its three tiered system of oppression, not simply its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The main reason for this position is that, according to international law, Israel, as the Occupying Power, bears responsibility for the occupation and all its manifestations (colonies, wall, siege, house demolitions, etc.), not to mention the other grave violations of international law outside the realm of occupation, such as forcible displacement, denial of refugee rights, and the crime of apartheid (which an increasing number of legal scholars is now convinced Israel is guilty of). The BDS movement calls for boycotting Israel as the state responsible for denying Palestinian rights, just as South Africa was the target of boycott due to its apartheid regime, and China is the target of some boycotts due to its occupation of Tibet, and Sudan is the target of some boycotts due to its crimes in Darfur. Only in Israel's case do we hear objections to boycotting the state that is responsible for egregious violations of international law, and do we hear suggestions instead to boycott only some manifestation of these violations (settlements), not the root cause.

[zanderlisle]

Because I struggled to find information on the Sudanese genocide, here's a collection of info I've found, complete with sources and ways to help.

Note: Most of these stats are coming from October of 2023, and numbers have climbed since. Content warning for genocide, war crimes, sexual violence, and more. Please correct me on anything you notice is incorrect.

In April of 2023, the Rapid Support Forces attacked Sudanese Armed Forces bases across Sudan. including the Sudanese capital Khartoum with a population of 6,344,348. While this was initially described as a war between the RSF & SAF, it quickly became a matter that murdered, injured, & displaced millions of civilians. The most notable of the casualties - actress Asia Abdelmajid, singer Shaden Gardood, and former football player Fozi el-Mardi with his daughter Alaa. el-Mardi's wife. Zeinat Ahmed Othman was also wounded by a bullet.

There have been over 9,000 deaths, 12,000 injuries, and 5.4M displacements. There have been a total of 55 foreign deaths from the countries of Ethiopia (15), Syria (15), Congo (10), Eritrea (9), Egypt (2), The USA (2), India (1), and Turkey (1). Journalists and humanitarian workers have been injured, killed, and/or detained.

As of July, there have been 88 reports of sexual assault against women in Sudan blamed on the RSF. Activist Hala al-Karib stated that war rape had become an everyday occurrence with both fighting parties participating.

Over 1.3M people have fled Sudan as refugees. "The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 1,200 children had died from disease outbreaks in refugee camps in White Nile State since May. In Central Darfur, the head of the Hamidiya refugee camp said at least 43 children had died in the camp since July. UNICEF also estimated that the conflict had led to the number of children being out of school in Sudan to rise from seven million prior to the fighting to 19 million in October 2023." - War in Sudan 2023 Wikipedia

An imminent epidemic of cholera and a collapse of the healthcare system - How to help: donate to SAPA at https://sapa-usa.org

Women are at risk of sexual violence (especially in areas like Darfur) - The Darfur Women Action Group has a donation link AND sample emails to send to your officials They also accept volunteers with media experience

Menstruation doesn’t stop due to war. - Donate to provide Sudanese girls and women with menstrual products

Another IMPORTANT organization currently providing direct medical care in a few states including Khartoum

will hopefully update with more reliable links or resources Also check

@Hometaxsd on Twitter (X) and eyesonsudan.net for other reliable donation sites

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65284945…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65467934…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65585746…

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-military-rsf-conflict-khartoum-f12975eb72c830ed86ed6a7a49e9658d…

https://dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/violations-against-journalists-in-sudan-war…

https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/dtm-sudan-monthly-displacement-overview-october-2023…

https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/4296896/diplomat-says-15-syrians-killed-amid-clashes-sudan…

https://theguardian.com/world/2023/may/07/eritrea-accused-of-forcibly-repatriating-civilians-caught-up-in-sudan-fighting…

https://abcnews.go.com/US/2nd-american-dies-amid-violence-sudan-state-department/story?id=98877370

dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/more-than-40-children-die-in-central-darfur-camps-as-fighting-escalates…

https://dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/19-million-children-in-sudan-are-out-of-school-says-unicef

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/turkish-toddler-killed-in-ongoing-clashes-in-sudan/2875179

bnnbreaking.com/breaking-news/egyptian-doctors-killed-in-sudan-conflict-buried-in-backyard/…

https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-65821597…

https://africanews.com/2023/09/19/un-raises-alarm-over-child-deaths-in-sudan-as-health-crisis-deepens/…

https://aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/2/fighting-reignites-between-sudan-army-rsf-in-khartoum

The linked source is a more detailed Twitter thread of Sudan's timeline starting in December 2018 by Kandakat_alhaqq.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

"THERE'S NO MENTAL HEALTH UNDER BOMBING AND COLONIAL OCCUPATION": Open letter from Brazilian psychology associations calling for an end to the violence against the Palestinian people

We call on all people, the international community, especially mental health professionals, to work towards a non-violent and definitive solution to the ongoing conflict, to take concrete actions for an immediate ceasefire in the area, and for the ending of the brutal colonialism in place. We also emphasize the importance of opening the borders to humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people.

In these last days, Israel’s brutal and cruel bombing in the Gaza Strip – a territory that has been besieged by Israel for the last 17 years – has resulted in  the deaths of more than 8,000 Palestinian (including more than 3,400 children), and more than 20,000 injured people. Alongside, millions of people have been forcibly displaced and deprived of basic needs (PRCS, 2023)[1].

However, the figures fail to represent the current reality, as the death toll and injuries rise second by second.Israeli air strikes destroyed more than half of Palestinian residences, besides deliberate attacks on hospitals, schools and universities, erupting a massive humanitarian crisis.

We also condemn and deplore the violence against Israeli civilians, victims of Hamas’ violent retaliation, especially because it has affected innocent people, many of whom are still kidnapped.

Recent statements released by an official representative of the Israeli governmentrefered to Palestinian people as “human animals”[2]. Accordingly, the entire Gaza population  be held like hostages, through a complete blockade of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicines. Israel very recently blocked access to internet signals, isolating Gaza from the rest of world. (MSF, 2023)[3]

The collective punishing of innocent people constitutes a war crime and, hence, must be strongly condemned. (ICRC, 2022).[4] We consider that Israeli government pronouncements have amplified the racist ideology, relying on international impunity and compliance. Xenophobia reinforcement turns migrants, refugees and stateless people – not just Palestinians – the main victims of the dehumanising discourse.

It’s crucial to keep an eye on what’s going on in Gaza: 2.2 million people – most of whom were already displaced migrants from historic Palestinian territories irregularly occupied by Israel – have been living in an open-air prison for 17 years[5]. Israel determines what comes in and out of Gaza: people, energy, food, medicine, fuel and humanitarian aid. Whole families have their homes destroyed by bombings, children are born and die surrounded by walls, and their national identity and existence as a people have been denied for decades.

The systematic ethnic cleansing of a walls-confined population living under a military siege by air, land and sea is undoubtedly a horrendous crime.. The colonial measure imposed on this population, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank and other parts of historic Palestine, has already produced 6.1 million Palestinian refugees (UNRWA, 2023)[6].

While witnessing the unacceptable thousands of deaths, we note with concern the harassment and attempt to silence supports of Palestinian rights. Under any circumstance, it should be acceptable to persecute those who denounce the existence of stateless people living in apartheid conditions.

These claims are incontestable. The UN Human Rights Council 2022[7] presented a report pointing out 3 essential elements: Palestine is strictly an open-air prison, the largest prison in the world; there is an apartheid regime throughout Palestine; and some aspects of everyday life in Gaza share similarities to a concentration camp. None of this began on the 7th of October 2023. There is nothing new except for the intensification of war propaganda against the Palestinian people. That can be named as Media Genocide, which is the intentional elimination of a people through war propaganda and, the circulation of false news and narratives.

The Palestinian struggle is also a struggle to be waged in Brazil.. We perceive the Palestinian tragedy as deeply connected to the war against the poor, Black people and traditional communities in our country. The same logic of racial and ethnic supremacy relies on Brazilian whiteness, which justifies police incursions into favelas systematically murdering Black people including children, teenagers and young people. It is important to emphasise that there are numerous agreements between the Brazilian security forces and the Israeli armed forces, with Brazil being one of the biggest markets of Israel’s arms industry[8]. Israeli ammunition finds Black and peripheral Brazilian bodies.

The supremacist rhetoric of brutalisation and dehumanisation has historically been denounced by the Black movement in Brazil, for example in the context of the former South African apartheid regime and also in international solidarity actions for the Palestinian people. Black liberation movements have also experienced the ideological condemnation of their freedom efforts, which were labelled under the rubric of “terrorists”. The dehumanisation of Black people is also the dehumanisation of the Arab people, a violence consolidated by the whiteness global alliance and its genocide and ethnocide practice.

THE SOCIAL COMMITMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY IN DEFENSE OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE

We, as psychologists committed to every human life’s dignity, guided by the Fundamental Principles of our Ethic Code, urge for a radical commitment to the anti-racist and anti-genocide struggle, which is connected to the ethical and political duty of psychology.

We call on our professional category and psychology students to bravely tackle this issue affecting the whole world. A call to fulfill  our ethical duty to uphold human dignity, by keeping a critical distance from war propaganda and demanding humane and dignified relations throughout all the ongoing situations.

Almost every child or teenager in Gaza has been born in a state of segregation, a situation that combined with constant attacks, and the side effects of the siege and occupation has been triggering severe psychological distress and psychiatric disorders[9]. The colonial and apartheid regime imposed on Palestinians, described in six reports released by United Nations and recognised by several humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International,  are social determinants of mental health deterioration.[10].

Therefore, a historical analysis of the Israeli occupation in Palestine, the Nakba effects and the 1948 catastrophe is essential. Psychology, as a science and a profession, must reject superficial or improper analyses in this sense. We criticize institutions and associations in the mental health field whose statements endorse the dehumanising rhetoric worldwide spread. For instance, the APA declaration[11] neglected the Palestinian historical context, disregardingthe violence imposed on the besieged Gaza population. There is no mention of the terrible bombing of the small enclave [a territory or part of a territory surrounded by another state] affecting Palestinians in an incomparable way to Israelis. We consider that these statements[12] ignore contingencies such as precarious mental health, besides amplifying the collective trauma resulting from decades of oppression, continuous violence, humiliation and injustice inflicted by Israel’s occupation.

Politics and mental health cannot be dichotomised. One cannot analyse the occupation of Palestine without examining the strategies of dehumanisation, and the stripping of dignity and life of the Palestinian people.

The dehumanisation of Palestinian lives – whether in deeds or speeches – normalises Palestinian suffering, as if it was natural, obvious and impossible to stop. Palestinians have been vocalising their suffering for decades and pleading for visibility to the international community. They do so in countless non-violent ways: resisting every minute, every second, to avoid disappearing. They produce art, music, and poetry. They cultivate and care for their original land and territory.

Until we see a Palestine free of Israeli colonial domination, no number of bombs will extinguish the innate desire to live with dignity. In this way, the Palestinian resistance is incurable, quoting Mahmoud Darwish.

As psychologists, we understand and accept the historic call to stand alongside the Palestinian people. The complicity with mass genocide, ethnic cleansing and the murder of children in particular, shall not be in our name.

We condemn the system of segregation, discrimination and collective punishment imposed on Palestine. There is an urgent need to build peace, which only comes through the consolidation of the Palestinian State and establishing a regime that respects the universal rights of all those who live in the region.

The Palestinian people – like all people in their self-determination – need to be able to exist beyond the imposed walls, the barbed wires, the refugee camps and all the dehumanisation: they need to be able to make their contribution to the beautiful story, yet to be built, of collective emancipation and the development of the humankind.

Link to the letter.

Link if you wish to sign it.

[humansolidarityday]

International community shows solidarity with efforts to enhance protection and find solutions for people forced to flee and host communities.

The international community today reaffirmed its solidarity with forcibly displaced populations and host communities in Central America and Mexico during a Solidarity Event on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The event was co-hosted by the Governments of Canada and the United States, in partnership with the Government of Honduras. It included the participation of the seven countries that make up the Comprehensive Regional Protection and Solutions Framework (MIRPS), and MIRPS Support Platform Members, as well as other international agencies and financial institutions, the private sector, and civil society.

Consistent with commitments under the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, participants discussed ways to enhance protection and to promote lasting and complementary solutions for displaced people and those at risk of being displaced.

[shifa-ameen]

More than 75% of Gaza's population has been displaced multiple times since Israel unleashed its onslaught, but the forcible displacement of Palestinians began long ago.

As the anniversary of Nakba, "the catastrophe," nears, here is the story of 100 years of Palestinian displacement.

Credit -TRTWorld

[nohkalikai]

We are a group of individuals and collectives in revolutionary solidarity with the people of  Palestine. As a response to the feminist call to strike for Gaza on the 8th of March (International Women’s Day), we feel the need to put out this statement to recognise the occupational, genocidal deprivations perpetrated by the terrorist settler-colonial Zionist state of Israel that has led to a death toll of over 30000 Palestinians with countless trapped under rubble, decomposed, and millions displaced. We bear witness to the carceral violence, torture, humiliation and murder of Palestinians, especially those held captive in besieged Gaza and hostages taken by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). This includes a wide range of carceral forms of torture including the use of  Palestinian men as human shields, widely circulated dehumanising images of public sexual violation of Palestinian men, sexual assault of Palestinian women in Zionist prisons, enforced disappearance of children, and other acts of violence and debilitation. These largely go unreported, under-reported or misreported because of the Zionist hold over mainstream media.

Humanitarian aid is being withheld by Israel to intentionally starve Gazans as an instrument of ethnic cleansing and genocide. When the few aid trucks are allowed by Israel to finally cross into Gaza, or aid is airdropped by other countries attempting to break Israel’s siege, the Zionist army bomb, shoot, kill, and run over Palestinians rushing to food trucks as seen in multiple incidents including the recent flour massacre. Children continue to die from starvation and severe climate conditions; and those not dead yet are severely malnourished. Since October 7, Israel has incessantly bombed Gaza from F16s using 2,000-pound US-supplied bombs that blow up whole neighborhoods, internationally banned white phosphorus, and smaller lethal bombs dropped from the constantly circling drones. Israel has destroyed the 70% of the housing stock in Gaza, rendered all hospitals unable to provide care, and has further destroyed medical facilities, desalination plants that supplies clean water, schools and universities, public archives, cultural and historical landmarks, mosques  and churches, bakeries, roads and highways, and all civilian resources and infrastructure crucial for survival rendering Gaza unlivable. The sustained targeted attack on medical facilities have necessitated medical procedures like amputations and C-sections without anesthetics while the  neonatals and infants are dying on hospital beds and ICUs for lack of oxygen. Palestinian medics are not only overworked and severely under-resourced but under direct attack. Mass graves continue to pile up and Israel strips Palestinians of dignity even in death. Palestinian families are not allowed to recover bodies. Instead, the occupying forces attack and bomb graveyards and steal dead bodies for organs and skin to be used in Israeli forensic institutes. We have also seen the insidious images of Israeli soldiers posing with looted Palestinian women’s lingerie, mannequins, stealing children’s toys and making videos cooking inside houses Gazans have been forcibly displaced from. The entire population of Gaza has been subjected to collective punishment directed towards the acts of resistance forces, which is, in fact, the right of a colonized people for self-determination and autonomy. Israel has carried out  targeted attacks on journalists, medics, artists, academics and anyone who can help save lives and ensure the survival of Palestinian culture. The Zionist regime has killed over a 100 journalists to suppress news coming out of Gaza. Murdering journalists has been a tool to silence Palestinian voices throughout the 75 years of occupation. We recall the targeted killing of journalists like Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 in occupied West Bank. We honour and learn from resilient voices like Wael Al-Dahdouh who survived an Israeli attack and whose entire family was murdered by Israel.

The Zionist entity also has a long history of pinkwashing, touting itself as a queer haven, and using that as a justification for genocide. We see IDF soldiers proudly upholding rainbow flags on rubble or others proposing to their partners amidst the horrors they inflict on the Palestinians. We see from various archives of queerness that Palestinian queers have always resisted this. Queer people all over the world reject Israel’s pinkwashing with the slogans, ‘Not in our name’, ‘Not Gay as in Happy but Queer as in Free Palestine’ and ‘No Pride in Apartheid’, and lately, ‘No Pride in Genocide’. We call for all queer comrades to include the liberation of Palestine in their imagination of queer liberation. Amidst the excruciating, incomprehensible ongoing physical and emotional trauma genocidal occupation inflicts, we call on our mad, queer, crip comrades to unflinchingly demand a free Palestine because disability and queer justice is intimately tied to Palestinian liberation.

On January 26 2024, in the case against Israel brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that through the actions of Israel, Gaza is experiencing a plausible genocide. The ICJ ordered six Provisional Measures that under law, Israel must fulfill. The ICJ ordered Israel to take measures within its power to prevent genocidal acts, including preventing and punishing incitement to genocide, ensuring aid and services reach the Palestinian population in Gaza, and preserving evidence of crimes committed in Gaza. As we can see, Israel has completely ignored and defied all Provisional Measures.This also shows the impunity Israel enjoys because it is backed by imperial regimes. It reveals how colonial imperialism undergirds international law that has historically failed the colonised by protecting the interests of colonial imperialist regimes. Yet, the colonised have stood strong in their struggle for freedom and liberation, which has historically led to the downfall of colonial empires.

We understand that our liberation as oppressed people is deeply intertwined with struggles of the oppressed worldwide. We recognise India’s complicity in enabling the genocide and occupation of Palestine. A recent report by Pew Research Center, shows that India leads in support for autocracy and military rule among surveyed nations. Indian right-wing accounts are among leading amplifiers of anti-Palestinian fake news and have used it to fan and escalate anti-Muslim violence in India. As Azad Essa traces in his book Hostile Homelands, despite its official stance supporting the 1975 UN resolution that concluded Zionism as racism, India continued maintaining relations with Israel through security and defense engagements. For example, India adopted Israeli security systems in response to the November 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai. Thereafter India bought its mass surveillance systems infrastructure – the Central Monitoring System – from Israel, which can operate without court orders and access any individual’s communication data. The BJP-led Hindutva regime (under whose fascist vision of ‘Hindu Rashtra (state)’ crimes against Muslims, Christians, Dalits, Adivasis is at an all time high) upgraded this relation to a ‘strategic partnership’ following Modi’s 2017 Israel visit where the two parties signed a defense deal worth 2 billion USD. This deal included the Israeli spyware Pegasus, that the government used to arrest journalists, government critics, students, especially Dalit and Muslim organisers and throttle political opposition. India is now the top arms buyer from Israel, and our taxes fund Hermes 900 drones manufactured by the Adani Elbit UAV Complex (the first facility in India and outside Israel to manufacture this drone) which Israel uses to massacre Palestinians. Israeli drones ‘field-tested’ on Palestinians are imported to be used on Kashmiris, thwart Adivasi movements in Bastar, and are being used against the ongoing Farmers’ protest.

Much like Israel, the Indian state is a settler-colonial state occupying Kashmir. The abrogation of article 370 in Kashmir in 2019 that catapulted the facilitation of Indian citizens settling in Kashmir is starkly similar to Israeli settler-colonial policies. Kashmir has thus had a long history of what Ather Zia calls ‘affective solidarity’ with Palestine embodied through various ways of resisting whereby the Palestinian struggle is ‘inspirational, cathartic’ to Kashmiris. Following the article 370 abrogation, Palestine-Kashmir solidarity strengthened with the BDS movement’s call for solidarity for Kashmir. Pro-Palestine protests in Kashmir continue to be repressed, a history that goes back to 2014 where amidst chants of ‘Save Gaza’ and ‘Go India, Go Back’, the Indian Armed Forces shot at young boys who were stone pelting, killing a 14 year-old.

We also stand with the workers of India who have made their solidarity to the Palestinian cause clear – the water transport workers who have refused to aid the shipment of arms to Israel on 14/02/2024 as well as the major Indian trade unions who, on 09/11/2023, rejected the Indian government’s move to replace Palestinian workers with Indian workers in Israel. We extend our revolutionary solidarity to the workers of the world resisting the ongoing genocide. We stand with the students who have organised for Palestine and whose protests have been met with repression by several Indian universities. Indian academia continues to receive funding from and collaborates with Israel. We call for an immediate cessation of this act of enabling occupation. We call for a total academic boycott of the Zionist entity – no more enabling of the coloniser’s knowledge production, which is a tool for genocide. The Zionist regime continues to murder academics and destroy schools, universities and libraries. We recall and honour the memory of professor, writer and poet Refaat Alareer. We urge Indian academics to see how Zionism is directly connected to the Hindutva machinery that continues to imprison Indian scholars like Hany Babu, GN Saibaba among others and student organisers like Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid, Gulfisha Fatima, among others, arrested for being dissenting voices. Our universities have long been bastions of resistance and we should strengthen our solidarities in knowledge production with the people worldwide facing violence. We learn from and honour Palestinian resistance in every form and remember Rafeef Ziadeh’s words, ‘We Teach Life, Sir! 

Following the call for strike on 8th March we put out this statement and will be participating with various actions in individual and collective capacities in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We learn from and honour Palestinian resistance in every form and remember Rafeef Ziadeh’s words, ‘We Teach Life, Sir! Actions can range from actively engaging in the Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, raising awareness in-person and on media platforms, sending emails to government representatives to send aid to Gaza and push for permanent ceasefire, amplifying fundraisers, donating e-sims, and more. From Palestine to Sudan, Congo, Western Sahara, Kurdistan, Balochistan, Kashmir all the way to Haiti and Tigray—no one is free until everyone is free. We call for economic, academic, cultural and social boycott. We call upon organisers to honour the call for the strike by addressing and embracing the call for a free Palestine in their 8 March programs and events. We call for the end of patriarchal, capitalist, colonial regimes that oppress us. We demand immediate permanent ceasefire, end of the siege on Gaza, end to settler-colonial occupation and the dismantling of the Zionist state of Israel. We demand a free Palestine from the river to the sea.

Do make your support for the statement heard by posting on social media and handing out the handouts we have made here .

Do comment your organization’s name below to be added to the list of signatories.

Signed

Trans Queer Feminists in Solidarity with Palestine Feminists in Resistance, Kolkata  LGBT Academics collective, India COLLECTIVE, Delhi

[its-zaina]

رفح، واحدة من محافظات قطاع غزَّة، صنفها الاحتلال الإسرائيلي النازيّ منذُ بداية عدوانه الغاشم على القطاع أنَّها منطقة آمنة، وأجبر النَّاس على النُّزوح إليها قسراً: حيث عمِد

على تجويع شمال قطاع غزة وأمرَ الأنوروا بمغادرته، ومَنَعَ المساعدات الإنسانية والغذائية -على شُحِها- مِنَ الوصول إلى أهله ودمّر وحاصرَ المستشفيات ومدارس الأونروا هناك، ومَن صَمَدَ في الشمال أخذ يقارِعُ المَجاعة وانعدامَ سُبلِ الحياة..

Rafah, one of the governorates of the Gaza Strip, was classified by the Nazi Israeli occupation as a safe area since the beginning of its brutal aggression against the Strip, and people were forced to move there forcibly; The Israeli occupation deliberately starved out the northern Gaza Strip, ordered UNRWA to leave it, prevented humanitarian and food aid - although limited - from reaching its people, and destroyed and besieged UNRWA schools and hospitals there. Those who remained steadfast in the north began to face famine and the difficulty of life there..

وباتَ أكثرُ من ١,٤ مليون نازحٍ في رفح، يواجهون البردَ في خِيامٍ لا تقي من مطرٍ أو ريحٍ بظروف إنسانيةٍ كارثيّةٍ..

More than 1.4 million displaced people are now in Rafah, facing the cold in tents that do not protect from rain or wind, in disastrous humanitarian conditions.

مساحة رفح ٥٥ كم² وفيها الآن مليون ونصف المليون نازح تقريبًا، ما يعني أن كل كم² واحد من مساحتها فيه ٢٧,٢٧٢ فلسطينيّ ما يجعلُ من رفح الأعلى كثافةً سكانيّةً في الكوكب.. اللهم الطُف بِهم..

The area of ​​Rafah is 55 square kilometers, and it now has approximately one and a half million displaced people, which means that every one square kilometer of its area contains 27,272 Palestinians, which makes Rafah the highest population density on the planet.. And the fucking Israeli army says it wants to enter Rafah.. Where are all these innocent people supposed to go? To northern Gaza? after you destroyed infrastructure, hospitals and places of refuge Or to Egypt, which refuses to displace the Palestinians?

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[halalchampagnesocialist]

A massacre is unfolding in Rafah, where the population of two-thirds of the besieged Gaza strip—over 1.5 million Palestinians—has been forcibly displaced. News that the Egyptian state is building a prison camp to receive Palestinians, presumably after the impending Israeli ground invasion will have shocked the conscience of many, while footage already emerging day after day is harrowing: body parts strewn on the road; families, their homes, and a mosque burned to piles of ash; the shredded corpse of a young girl hanging off a wall, where it had been thrown by a blast. For Palestinians across the globe who are waiting, watching, and hanging on every moment, the feeling of dread suffocates us—we realize fully the simple fact that nobody is coming to save us. Meanwhile the colonizers post videos of themselves smiling while blowing up our homes, cook meals in our occupied kitchens while starving us to death, pose with our undergarments as trophies while calling us whores, and dance in merriment alongside a line of our blindfolded prisoners.