#green pass israel

[feelingbitch]

The European Parliament passed a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire under two conditions: the release of all hostages as well as the dismantling of Hamas

The adding of those two conditions is a victory for the political right, as the call for a ceasefire was originally supposed to be unconditional.

Political groups to the left of the EPP — including the Socialists and Democrats — wanted the Parliament to call for an unconditional cease-fire. In the end the EPP’s threat to kill the entire text if its conditions weren’t adopted passed by a narrow 13 votes, and was helped over the line by liberal and socialist lawmakers and a handful of Greens, who broke ranks with the majority of their groups.

“I would say this is a moral failure of the European Parliament,” said Palestine’s Deputy Head of Mission Adel Atieh. “With this vote, Europe is losing credibility,” he said. However, he said there are “positive” aspects of the vote, such as its call to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and support for the work of the International Court of Justice, where Israel is facing accusations of genocide.

Furthermore, the resolution condemns settler violence and calls for restrictive measures against extremist settlers, as well as underlining the urgency for humanitarian access to Gaza as well as the restoration of vital infrastructure.

[saddayfordemocracy]

How the Watermelon Became a Symbol of Palestinian Solidarity

The use of the watermelon as a Palestinian symbol is not new. It first emerged after the Six-day War in 1967, when Israel seized control of the West Bank and Gaza, and annexed East Jerusalem. At the time, the Israeli government made public displays of the Palestinian flag a criminal offense in Gaza and the West Bank. 

To circumvent the ban, Palestinians began using the watermelon because, when cut open, the fruit bears the national colors of the Palestinian flag—red, black, white, and green.  

The Israeli government didn't just crack down on the flag. Artist Sliman Mansour told The National in 2021 that Israeli officials in 1980 shut down an exhibition at 79 Gallery in Ramallah featuring his work and others, including Nabil Anani and Issam Badrl. “They told us that painting the Palestinian flag was forbidden, but also the colors were forbidden. So Issam said, ‘What if I were to make a flower of red, green, black and white?’, to which the officer replied angrily, ‘It will be confiscated. Even if you paint a watermelon, it will be confiscated,’” Mansour told the outlet.

Israel lifted the ban on the Palestinian flag in 1993, as part of the Oslo Accords, which entailed mutual recognition by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization and were the first formal agreements to try to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The flag was accepted as representing the Palestinian Authority, which would administer Gaza and the West Bank.

In the wake of the accords, the New York Times nodded to the role of watermelon as a stand-in symbol during the flag ban. “In the Gaza Strip, where young men were once arrested for carrying sliced watermelons—thus displaying the red, black and green Palestinian colors—soldiers stand by, blasé, as processions march by waving the once-banned flag,” wrote Times journalist John Kifner.

In 2007, just after the Second Intifada, artist Khaled Hourani created The Story of the Watermelon for a book entitled Subjective Atlas of Palestine. In 2013, he isolated one print and named it The Colours of the Palestinian Flag, which has since been seen by people across the globe.

The use of the watermelon as a symbol resurged in 2021, following an Israeli court ruling that Palestinian families based in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem would be evicted from their homes to make way for settlers.

The watermelon symbol today:

In January, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir gave police the power to confiscate Palestinian flags. This was later followed by a June vote on a bill to ban people from displaying the flag at state-funded institutions, including universities. (The bill passed preliminary approval but the government later collapsed.)

In June, Zazim, an Arab-Israeli community organization, launched a campaign to protest against the ensuing arrests and confiscation of flags. Images of watermelons were plastered on to 16 taxis operating in Tel Aviv, with the accompanying text reading, “This is not a Palestinian flag.”

“Our message to the government is clear: we will always find a way to circumvent any absurd ban and we will not stop fighting for freedom of expression and democracy,” said Zazim director Raluca Ganea. 

Amal Saad, a Palestinian from Haifa who worked on the Zazim campaign, told Al-Jazeera they had a clear message: “If you want to stop us, we’ll find another way to express ourselves.”

Words courtesy of BY ARMANI SYED / TIME

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Canada’s Parliament voted to successfully pass a motion calling for ceasefire and an end to arms exports to Israel on Monday.

The motion, which was amended at the last minute, was the source of division in the House— ultimately passing with 204 MPs voting in favour and 117 voting against. 

Ahead of the vote on the motion, Liberal MPs Steven MacKinnon and Mark Garretsen moved a last minute amendment to the motion, with changes including the removal of the recognition of the State of Palestine and sanctions on Israeli officials for inciting genocide.

Despite opposition from many MPs regarding the last minute changes and the fact that a debate could not take place on the amendments, the motion was ultimately passed, being supported by the entire NDP caucus, the Bloc Quebecois and the Green Party. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #3

Jan 26-Feb 2 2024

The House overwhelmingly passed a tax deal that will revive the expanded Child Tax Credit, this will effect 16 million American children and lift 400,000 out of poverty in the first year. The deal also supports the building of 200,000 housing units over the next two years, and provides tax relief for communities hit by disasters.

The Biden Administration has begun negotiations on drug prices for Medicare. Earlier this year the administration announced it would negotiate for the first time directly with drug manufacturers on the prices of 10 common medications. This week they sent their opening offers to the companies. The program is expected to save Medicare and enrollees billions over dollars over the long term and help push down drug prices for everyone.

The Department of Transportation has green lit $240 Million to modernize air ports across the country. Air Ports in 37 states will be able to get much needed updates and refurbishment.

The Biden Administration announced 10 sites across America as sites for innovation investment. They will receive up to 2 billion dollars each over the next 10 years. The goal is to stimulate economic growth and innovation in semiconductor manufacturing, clean energy, sustainable textiles, climate-resilient agriculture, regenerative medicine, and more.

The State Department reviews options for recognizing Palestinian Statehood. While as of yet there's been no policy change this review of options is a major shift in US diplomatic thinking which has long opposed Palestinian Statehood and shows a seriousness of reported Biden plans to push for Statehood as part of a post-war Israel-Saudi normalization deal.

President Biden imposes sanctions on Israeli settlers who have engaged in violence against Palestinians and peace activists. This marks the first time the US has leveled sanctions against Israelis and sets up a standard that could see the whole settlement movement cut off from the US financial system

the Department of Energy has tentatively agreed to a $1.5 Billion dollar loan to help reopen a Michigan nuclear power plant. This would mark the first time a closed nuclear plant has been brought back online. Closed in 2022 it's hoped that it could reopen in time to be generating power in late 2025. This is part of Biden's plan to decarbonize the electricity grid by 2035.

the Internal Revenue Service launched a program to allow tax fillers file for free directly with the government. In 2024 its a pilot program limited to 12 states, but plans for it to be nation wide by tax day 2025

The Department of Health and Human Services announced $28 million in grants to help with the treatment of substance use disorder, including a program aimed at pregnant and postpartum women, and expanded drug court aimed at directing people into treatment and out of the criminal justice system.

The Department of Energy announced $72 million for 46 hydroelectric projects across 19 states. This marks the single largest investment in Hydropower in US history.

The Senate confirmed President Biden's 175th federal judge. Biden has now appointed more federal judges in his first term in office than President Obama did in his, however still lags behind Trump's 186 judges. For the first time in history a majority of a President's nominees are not white men, 65% of them are women and 65% are people of color, President Biden has appointed more black women to judgeships than any administration in history.

[zvaigzdelasas]

19 Mar 24

[reasonsforhope]

Also, content-lock-free link. [Technically it's not a paywall but it is annoying]

Keep pressuring Western governments. This is proof that it can work.

--

"Canada will halt future arms sales to Israel following a non-binding vote in the house of commons. The foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, told the Toronto Star her government would halt future arms shipments. “It is a real thing,” she said on Tuesday [March 19].

The decision follows a parliamentary motion, introduced by the New Democratic party (NDP), that called on the governing Liberals to halt future arms exports to Israel. The New Democrats, who are supporting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority government, have expressed frustration with what they see as his failure to do enough to protect civilians in Gaza.

The motion – which passed 204-117 with the support of Liberals, Bloc Québécois and the Green party – also called on Canada to work “towards the establishment of the state of Palestine.""

-via The Guardian, March 19, 2024

[spacelazarwolf]

i looked up the current candidates for the 2024 presidential election in the usa and it is. really fucking bleak.

democrats:

joe biden - current president. doing...ok. he's pro trans rights and has been doing some good stuff to fight climate change, but he's like a hundred years old and

robert f kennedy jr - seems to have decent opinions on a lot of policy, but thinks that chemicals in the water are making kids transgender and has suggested that covid is a conspiracy by ashkenazi jews and chinese people

marianne williamson - anti vaxxer apparently, also i guess thinks love is the only thing that will defeat trump

republicans:

ryan binkley - conservative pastor that thinks marriage is "between one man and one woman", anti choice, wants to Build A Wall

doug burgum - republican governor that has actively passed anti trans legislation, anti regulation (unless what you're regulating is trans people ig????)

chris christie - is apparently opposed to bans on gender affirming care, but vetoed a bill allowing trans people to change their gender marker, anti choice

ron desantis - i feel like i don't need to explain

larry elder - denies systemic racism and wants police to be harder on crime, anti crt and dei, pretty solidly anti trans

nikki haley - anti choice, extremely anti trans, anti immigrant, supports israel while also having an evangelical pastor who has a history of antisemitism and racism and queerphobia open for one of her events

will hurd - doesn't seem too horrendous, not noticeably anti trans, but supports 15 week abortion ban

asa hutchinson - great value brand trump

perry johnson - was republican candidate for governor of michigan but was disqualified due to fraudulent ballot signatures

mike pence - yeah

vivek ramaswamy - "anti wokeism", would pass a law requiring teachers to disclose to parents if they found out their kid is trans, supports bans on gender affirming care, wants to end sanctuary cities and address mental health through "faith based approaches", hedge fund bro

tim scott - said that america is not a racist country and the biggest problem facing black people is "fatherlessness incentivized by welfare", opposes same sex marriage and gender affirming care and thinks democrats are using school to "indoctrinate children"

corey stapleton - montana secretary of state, couldn't find much abt him

donald trump - donald trump

independent

cornel west (green party) - seems really cool actually but two party system will fuck him over

i hate the two party system so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also congrats to the dems for yet another milquetoast kennedy, and congrats to the republicans for having the most racially diverse list of racist and transphobic candidates!!!

[letaot-ze-magniv]

Infodump on birds in Israel? 👁️👁️ Pls go on

General guide to birds in Israel

This post is going to be very long

Level 1- really common ones

Hooded crow/o-rev a-for (gray crow)

These big boys are the most common birds in Israel. You can find them everywhere, especially in urban areas. They’re quite big, the average crow is 40-50 cm long with a wingspan of 1m. (That’s bigger then a pigeon).

Like all corvids, they are incredibly intelligent. They have an excellent memory, can recognise specific humans and pass on information through generations. They are fond of shiny things, have funerals, an understanding of games and a justice system. They can use tools and have a taste for peanuts and grapes.

Laughing dove/tzo-tze-let/yo-na

These are the second most common birds in Israel, and they’re also an invasive species. The vast majority of people call them “yona” and if you say “tzotzelet wont know what you mean. You can find them everywhere, especially in cities.

This is an invasive species, and is commonly thought of as the first invasive species in Israel. It was brought over by Muslims during the Ottoman occupation and has lived here since.

Domestic pigeon/yo-nat ha-Ba-it (house dove)/yo-na

Like the tzotzelet, most people call this bird “yona” too. That leads to the misconception that they’re the same species and confusion between the two. This pigeon is also extremely common, and you can find it in all urban spaces in Israel.

Feathering mutations are widespread among domestic pigeons, and they can also look like this:

House Sparrows/ dror ha-ba-it/dror

On the left, a female, on the right is a male. This birds are tiny and common and very cute. Can be found in all areas of Israel. They like eating small seeds and bugs, and you can feed them bread.

Monk parakeet/ tu-ki ne-zi-ri (commonly known as tu-ki)

They’re green, adorable, can speak, and you guessed it, are invasive! Like the maynas, monk parakeets were introduced to Israel in the 90s after they escaped the Tzafari. You can find them in all parts of Israel except the Negev, and they’re especially common in Tel aviv and it’s neighbouring cities. Monk parakeets are often confused with rose-ringed parakeets as they’re the only green birds in Israel.

Rose ringed parakeets/da-ra-ra

Above is the male, below is the female. Like monk parakeets, dararas are also an invasive species. I thought they were introduced in the 90s, but apparently they were introduced in the 1860s because they were kept as pets. Like monk parakeets, they can be found in all areas of Israel that aren’t deserts. It’s hard to tell them apart from monk parakeets if you can’t see their chests.

Eurasian Jackdaw/kak

Yet another corvid! Like all other corvids, jackdaws are extremely intelligent, have an understanding of death, can use tools, and so on. Jackdaws are unique in that they also have an understanding of monogamy and privacy around mating! They prefer to mate away from their murder (is murder what you call a flock of any corvid or is that exclusive to ravens?) and they also kill their ill. They can be found in all areas hooded crows are, but aren’t as common. Its possible to confuse them for a hooded crow, but they’re smaller and darker.

Hopoe/du-khi-fat

This lil girl isn’t extremely common, but it’s the national bird and is adorable so I HAD to include it. Hopoes tend to live near sources of water, and you can find them in coastal areas. There used to be more of them but sadly deforestation and invasive species hurt the population. They have a floofy feather thingy on their head that they can open and close and that’s adorable!

I’ll make a part 2 now about somewhat uncommon birds

If anyone is interested in learning more about the birds of Israel, I highly recommend אתר הצפרות הישראלי. They have detailed descriptions of the birds, they include scientific Hebrew and Arabic names, they have a map that shows you how common each bird is in what part of Israel, AND THEY HAVE RECORDINGS OF THE BIRD CALLS

They also have a page for every bird that was ever spotted in Israel, even if it was only once. Don’t ask me what they define as Israel, because I’ve wondered about it too and I don’t know

[adropofhumanity]

ireland's senate has just unanimously voted to impose sanctions against isreel. in a remarkable display of solidarity with the palestinian people, the irish senate unanimously passed a bill to impose sanctions on isreel and prevent the passage of US weapons through Irish airspace to isreel. the bill calls on the irish government to advocate for an international arms embargo on isreel and to refer Israel to the international criminal court for its war crimes and crimes against humanity in gaza and the west bank.

☑ the bill is based on the principle that isreel's illegal occupation, colonization, and apartheid policies in palestine constitute grave breaches of international law and human rights, and that ireland has a moral and legal obligation to take action to end its complicity and hold isreel accountable. the bill also recognizes the right of the palestinian people to self-determination, sovereignty, and dignity, and supports their legitimate resistance to Israeli oppression.

the bill is a historic step in the global movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against isreel, which aims to pressure Israel to comply with international law and respect palestinian rights. the bill has been welcomed by palestinian civil society organizations, human rights groups, and solidarity activists, who have praised ireland for its courage and leadership in standing up to Israel's impunity and injustice.

the bill now awaits the approval of the lower house of the Irish parliament, the dáil, where it faces opposition from the ruling coalition of fine gael and fianna fáil, who have close ties with isreel and the US. however, the bill enjoys widespread public support in ireland, as well as the backing of several opposition parties, including sinn féin, labour, and the green party" — via deepshallowdive on instagram

[gothhabiba]

To drive through the West Bank is to pass through a nature-scape of browns, oranges and reds. It’s rolling hills scattered with wild olive tree groves and crop rows, and views of sprawling cities in the distance, slightly obscured by the blur of a faint haze. That backdrop changes suddenly when confronted with an Israeli settlement. Desert shades are swapped for emerald greens, and olive trees for pine. Swaths of farmland suddenly host swimming pools and soccer fields, and dry farmland dry becomes lush greenery.

This jarring polarity is a constant reminder of the Israeli occupation, says Fokha, whose village of Tubas is encircled by such settlements. “They have all these things, and we’ve been stripped of our way of life,” he says. “All I want is enough water to sustain my family and my land.”

It’s also the most effective way to permanently damage the Palestinian food system, say multiple experts.

Given the dry conditions, water access long been weaponized in the conflict. So much so, that the Oslo Accords sought to address it. It stipulated that for an interim period of five years, Israel would gain access to 80 percent of the water pumped from the West Bank and Palestinians would get the remaining 20 percent. It also limited the amount of water Palestine could drill from the shared mountain aquifer, while allowing Israel unlimited access, and required Israel sell a pre-determined amount of water to Palestinians annually. B’tselem calls what’s transpired since a “largely manmade” water shortage that allows Mekorot, the state-run Israeli water company, to control the entire grid, giving preferential access to settlers while while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live without for weeks every year.

Palestinian farmers all over the West Bank can no longer survive as a result. Fokha, who has been working the same land since he was 18 years old, only gets enough access to water to grow for one season—August to March—which halves his yield. The soil’s suffered from the droughts, so it can no longer grow watermelon, potatoes, and certain types of cucumber, he says. Yosef Salmon has been a farmer in Beit Jala, an area outside of Bethlehem, for nearly 45 years. He says there used to be five water springs in the Makhrour Valley. Today, he can access only one, he says. His neighbor, Basem, who asked to keep his last name private, couldn’t irrigate half his crops last year, so he lost money and couldn’t live off the anticipated harvest. “Without water, we can have no progress. Without water we can’t do anything. It is life,” Basem says.

—Carly Graf, "Food Is the First Frontier of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," 2019.

[drtanner]

Genuinely wish I had the energy to talk more about UK politics here given that Tumblr is so US-centric and desperately needs the added perspective, but there's genuinely fuck all happening here that hasn't been par for the course for the last ~14 years. Tories gonna Tory.

A brief rundown for interested parties:

After a long and arduous battle to convince everyone that it should be legal to do so, our government has commenced with its plan to shove asylum seekers who attempt an extremely dangerous Channel crossing on small boats to find safety here onto planes and ship them off to Rwanda, a country with significant human rights issues. There does not seem to be any desire to do anything about the "criminal gangs" who are supposedly trafficking these asylum seekers and sending them here, or to ask any questions about what might make people so desperate that they'd risk crossing the Channel in a tiny boat in the first place.

Having sent everyone back to the office despite COVID still very much being a thing so that we can oil the wheels of the UK economy with our blood and to prevent their portfolios from losing value, the same ghouls are now proposing that disabled people "do their duty" by being forced to work from home, or else lose their benefits. They're also proposing mandatory work placements for people who fail to find work within 18 months.

Transphobia remains the culture war du jour, despite all evidence showing that it is a vote loser. Our government continues to be obsessed with policing the genitals of children and ensuring that trans people receive abuse from every possible direction, having recently released "guidance" for schools that essentially instructs them to deny trans kids any kind of shelter or agency whatsoever and to refuse their requests for basic dignity whenever the opportunity to do so arises, whilst simultaneously attempting to introduce the term "gender ideology" into mainstream parlance.

The Online Safety Bill, which proposes that social media sites should require ID in order to sign up, is also a porn ban.

We (and the US) are still bombing people in another country, without it having been approved by vote beforehand, in order to prevent Israel from suffering any economic hardship while it continues to commit a genocide using weapons that we (and the US) provide. Our government assures us that this will continue for as long as Israel wants it to, and is still talking about "humanitarian pauses" instead of any kind of actual, real ceasefire.

Labour (the supposed "opposition" party) has wholeheartedly supported every part of this and in some cases seems to think that the current government doesn't go far enough.

We're still in the middle of a cost of living crisis, by the way. Also the climate crisis, with more and more people losing their homes and livelihoods to flooding with every passing year. No one's talking about any of that, though. There might be a transgender child receiving lifesaving healthcare somewhere, or maybe an immigrant being treated with respect, which is obviously much worse.

So that's where we are right now. We've been promised an election this year but given that Labour haven't opposed any part of the cruelty this government has been visiting upon everyone but the white, cishet, ablebodied rich, it's unclear whether getting the Tories out will actually materially improve anything. If you've got the Greens or Lib Dems as candidates in your constituency, I guess it's time to make peace with voting for them instead of Labour, maybe.

So, yeah. v( ._.)v

[phoenixyfriend]

Calls for Action, Call Your Reps: 2/13/24

This is USA-specific, as that is the place I live and know.

Find your elected officials.

Today, much of my information is coming from Democracy Now!, which I generally listen to as a podcast (functionally, it is a radio news broadcast, like NPR or BBC), and I am quoting from the text versions on their website.

The Senate passed a $95 billion military funding package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan in the pre-dawn hours this morning. But the bill’s fate remains unclear after House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed the measure over its failure to include hard-line immigration restrictions. This comes after Johnson and other Republicans rejected an earlier version of the bill which did contain the border crackdown they had demanded. Johnson has told Republican congressmembers he will call a House vote on a stand-alone funding bill for Israel.

From the same page, we are hearing that President Biden is urging Israel to refrain from invading Rafah, where a million or so Palestinians are currently sheltering, but is not actually threatening any kind of repercussions for said invasion. Reports from both official sources (e.g. the Hamas-run health ministry) and less official (e.g. American doctors returning from relief services in Palestine) indicate that over half of the deaths in Palestine are children.

I am not going to pretend that I know what is going through Biden's head.

Both House and Senate:

Reinstate funding for UNRWA. While the claims made by Israel that employees of the relief agency were involved in Oct. 7th are troubling, THEY are not well supported, and western officials did not do their duty in investigating the claims before cutting funding. This arm of the UN is currently providing food, water, shelter, and medical care to the 2.3 million displaced peoples of Gaza. It is especially disturbing and concerning that the many children of Gaza, who are already suffering due to this conflict, are now having this support revoked. Many sources are also claiming that the evidence is flimsy at best.

Urge both Senate and House to refrain from funding Israel, or to at least put some strings on it. The IDF cannot be given funding without some regulations on what they can do with it. They have proven that they are unwilling to take steps to protect civilians.

FOR THE SENATE: Urge your senator to put their support behind Bernie Sanders and his motion to restrict funding to Israel until a humanitarian review of the IDF’s actions in Gaza has been completed. Cite it as Senate Resolution 504 if your Senator is right-wing enough to react negatively to the mention of Sanders by name. NOTE: This resolution was TABLED by the Senate on 1/16, but it is being brought back in as conditions continue to escalate.

FOR THE HOUSE: Urge your representative to put their support behind Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s petition for the US government to recognize the IDF’s actions in Gaza as ethnic cleansing and forced displacement, and put a stop to it. ALTERNATELY: recommend that they support House Resolution 786, introduced by Rep. Cori Bush, Calling for an immediate deescalation and cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.

On the House Floor this week, to call your rep about:

H.Res. 994: Married persons tax break. Vote nay. Loses billions in tax revenue and explicitly targets green energy.

H.R. 2766 and H.R. 4039: Condemnation of China's actions against the Uyghurs. Can't tell you which way to talk on this. Seems good on the surface, but given who's presenting it, I worry there's something worse tucked into the text. Hopefully someone can provide a better take.

H.R. 3016: IGO Anti-Boycott Act. Vote Nay. This appears to be intended to force US companies to do business with US allies instead of participating in boycotts. This appears, to me, to be an attack on movements like BDS. To Dem Reps, argue that this refuses the right of peaceful protest to US citizens. To Republican Reps, argue that this is a dangerous government overreach and that it is not the right of the government to force US citizens to purchase products and materials from specific foreign partners.

H.Res. 966: Condemnation of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7. Vote Nay. We know sexual violence is bad. Hamas has already been condemned for their actions. This is, at best, lip service. It is a waste of time. There are much bigger, more impactful things to work on, and this is going to waste time and resources in the Senate if it passes.

If you wish to support my political blogging, I am accepting donations on ko-fi.

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸 🚨

DISEASE, ALONG WITH A LACK OF MEDICAL SUPPLIES AND SANITATION RISKS FURTHER DISASTER IN THE GAZA STRIP

📹 A Palestinian man shows green, algae-filled water buildup in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israel's ongoing bombing and shelling, describing how disease is spreading through the Palestinian population displaced by the Israeli genocide.

The Palestinian man describes the situation as an "environmental and health catastrophe" that risks spreading disease among the population of the Gaza Strip.

"The situation has reached a critical point after government and health authorities reported an outbreak affecting half a million people," the man tells the viewer.

"The outbreak is linked to a variety of diseases caused by parasites, bacteria, and other viral illnesses," he says, adding that "the crises in the Gaza Strip has been exacerbated by the occupation's targeting of intersections, streets, and large swaths of land, leading to the bursting of sewage lines that pass through these areas."

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the risk of disease is also being exacerbated by several other factors, including, "overcrowding, inadequate water and sanitation, disruption of routine healthcare services, and a dysfunctional health system" as a result of Israel's ongoing aggression.

The WHO emphasizes the importance of "ensuring ensuring access to safe water, sanitation, the importance of hand hygiene, the availability of [Infection Prevention and Control] IPC supplies, and the appropriate selection and use of personal protective equipment based on risk assessment," all of which is being hampered by continued bombing, shelling and blockade enforced by the Israeli occupation army.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[convolutings]

Canada might have universal healthcare and better gun laws than the U.S. but it for sure isn’t showing that it’s better for the Jews. I lived there for four years getting my bachelors degree and both my parents are still there.

Three days ago, on March 19, a big Jewish cultural event was cancelled. They used the same old excuse of “security concerns.” But it’s just another example of Canada not protecting Jews and not giving us space to celebrate our culture in film and media.

This comes shortly after Canada announced that they would no longer be selling weapons to Israel. Canada only provides 1% of Israel’s military aid so practically it doesn’t mean a lot. But symbolically this is a huge deal.

A day after the cancellation of the event, a Montreal newspaper printed an antisemitic cartoon. And not “Jews are overreaching” antisemitic, but “this could’ve been found in a German newspaper in the 1940s” antisemitic. It’s horrific that so many people had to sign off on this in order for it to be printed and it got approved.

And that’s just in the last few days.

On March 7 this was found on a bus stop sign in Toronto:

And back in November this happened at the Starbucks I worked at for almost 2 years. It is located in the middle of a community with a large Jewish population, just down the street from multiple Kosher restaurants. I messaged my previous co-workers to see if they were okay but no one messaged me or checked in on me.

And I'm sure there's so much more that I don't know of.

The Jewish community in Canada is feeling angry and disappointed for good reason. This is not okay, and the things that happened this week pushed me over the edge to make this post. I don’t know how to feel, and I’m worried about my friends and family.

[eretzyisrael]

by Dave Rich

On the other hand, some of those central London synagogues have got into the habit of changing their service times on days when there are anti-Israel demonstrations so their congregants can vacate the area before the protestors turn up; and there are usually police stationed outside, just in case. And a lot of other Jewish Londoners, the ones who live in the suburbs and might otherwise go into central London on a Saturday to shop, visit an exhibition or a museum or do whatever other people do in central London at the weekend, will be staying at home. So maybe not a no-go zone, but also not a normal, sustainable state of affairs.

It shouldn’t be hard to understand why this is the case. Imagine you are a Jewish person who lives in Golders Green. On the morning of Monday 9th October you woke up to find that somebody had painted “FREE PALESTINE” in massive letters across the two railway bridges that you walk under on your way to the tube station to get to work. I find it hard to believe it’s a coincidence that this happened in the best-known Jewish neighbourhood in the whole country: it looked very much like an attempt to intimidate the Jewish community.

Or perhaps you are one of the hundreds of British Jews who has had “Free Palestine” shouted at you in the street by a random stranger, in an act of racist hostility because they spotted a Jew. It’s unsurprising you might not want to put yourself in that same position again, but this time with tens of thousands shouting that same slogan.

I’ve written before about the unknowability of how many of these marchers are simply expressing genuine human rights concerns; how many are motivated by utter hatred of Israel; and how many are using it as a cloak for their antisemitism. We do know that all three types are present on most of these demonstrations, and we like to tell ourselves that the ones fuelled by hatred of Israel and Jews rather than compassion for Palestinians are in the minority, but really, who knows? Especially now that the hundreds of thousands of part-time protestors have drifted away and the demonstrations have reduced down to a hardcore of 20,000 or so true believers.

When people think of a “hate march” they tend to picture mobs of skinheads rampaging through neighbourhoods, beating up anyone they take a dislike to. Or perhaps violent jihadists seeking out their next terror victim. That is not what is happening in central London each weekend. These marches are mostly well-behaved with hardly any violence at all. If you are Jewish and happen to be standing by the side of the road as one of these marches passes by, you will probably be fine.

But a lot hinges on that word: “probably”. Nobody wants to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and since 7 October there have been a lot more wrong places and wrong times for Jews than previously. Just ask Duche Sorotzkin, who was attacked in Trafalgar Square after one march.

[dailyhistoryposts]

Welcome back, C/2022 E3 (ZTF)! Here's what you missed:

The "green comet" was discovered on March 2nd, 2022, by the Zwicky Transient Factory, and February 1st, 2023, will be its closest time to the Earth and visible to the naked eye!

The last time C/2022 E3 (ZTF) passed this close to Earth was 50,000 years ago. What was that Earth like?

Looking at 48,000 BCE, the Earth had humans! In fact, it had more kinds of humans than it does now. Homo neanderthalensis, our cousins the Neanderthals, were present mainly in continental Europe, and Homo floresiensis, sometimes called Hobbits, lived on the island of Flores, Indonesia. And the Denoisovans, Homo denisova, were covering Asia.

Homo sapiens were at the beginning of our Holocene period, part of the Upper Paleolithic (Old Stone) Age. We had spread from East Africa into the rest of the continent and Asia, along the southern coast, and were just starting to get into Oceania and Europe from Asia.

These people had temporary settlements in the form of campsites but no permanent ones. Art in the form of music, carvings, and paintings was abundant. We were hunters, gatherers, and even sometimes fishers, and our stone tools were starting to get more specialized. We had bow and arrow technology, as well as spears. Both our tools and our art were starting to grow distinct from those of Neanderthals. We had control of fire for a very long time at this point and cooked our food, which differed from region to region.

The Emiran culture in the Fertile Crescent (Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Arabia), the oldest known Upper Paleolithic culture, exists. Very little is known about them except for their distinct stone-knapping style.

We'll never know if any of the early humans of any species, or this earliest culture, watched the stars. And if they did, we could never know if they watched close enough to see C/2022 E3 (ZTF) pass by--without binoculars or a telescope, it's just a small smudge. But the sky was darker back them. So I think they probably did see it, just like us.

View a tracker of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) here Tips of how to find comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) can be found here

I should note here that the numbers I used have low precision. The comet did not pass by precisely 50,000 years ago rather than 50,010 or 49,090 years ago. Likewise, our methods of dating human presence and activity are limited in precision and are reliant on bones or material culture being preserved, which doesn't always happen. I picked things that we're pretty confident happened around the time period, which is the best anyone could do.