The Common Ills: 2023-10-08

I am under no obligation to condemn resistance to apartheid & colonization. https://t.co/Rq9sfQfoFL
— Luqman Nation Media (@luqmannation1) October 15, 2023

The assault on Gaza continues. Marwan Bishara (ALJAZEERA via COMMON DREAMS) notes:

Israeli and American officials, like many of their supporters, have called the Hamas incursion on Saturday “Israel’s 9/11”, drawing parallels between Hamas and al-Qaeda and between Israel and the United States.

“If the United States experienced what Israel is experiencing,” President Joe Biden said, “our response would be swift, decisive, and overwhelming.” The “brutality” and “the bloodthirstiness” of Hamas, he added, “brings to mind the worst rampages of ISIS.” He even repeated the sensationalist and unsubstantiated claims that Hamas fighters had “raped women” and “beheaded babies.”

Major European capitals reinforced the false analogy of 9/11 and the dangerous notion of “us vs them” by draping their most iconic buildings in Israeli flags as if to declare “they are all Israelis” just like they declared – with disastrous consequences – that “they are all Americans” after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, DC.

Like a well-rehearsed orchestra, Western powers condemned the “unprovoked” attacks on civilians and voiced their unconditional support for the fanatical Israeli government to do whatever it takes as long as it takes to “defend” its people against “evil.”

The degree of hysteria and the hypocrisy are as mind-boggling, as they are reckless.

Some of the images from Israel are no doubt gruesome – but the images from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, etc have been no less horrific. Two decades of Western and Israeli wars in the Middle East have led to not thousands, but millions of Arab and Palestinian casualties

In the eyes of the West, it seems, Israel has a “duty” to defend its people, but the Palestinians don’t have the right to protect themselves as if they are people of a lesser god! Israel seemingly also has a right to defend and even expand its occupation and apartheid regime, but the Palestinians have no right to express their frustration or struggle for freedom and justice after seven decades of dispossession, oppression, and siege.

Amnesty International, the United Nations and many around the globe see it much differently. Jeff Schuhrke and Sarah Lazare (IN THESE TIMES) observe, "A growing chorus of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli group B’Tselem, have said the Israeli government has embedded the conditions of apartheid and many have been sounding the alarm about the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza -- which has been under a land, air and sea blockade enforced by the Israeli military since 2007." US House Rep Rashida Tlaib released the following on Friday:

WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, Representative Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) released the following statement:

“I am calling for immediate de-escalation and ceasefire to save countless civilian lives, no matter their faith or ethnicity. Our government must lead with compassion for all civilians. I believe in my heart that the majority of Americans want the killing and violence to stop. War crimes cannot be answered with war crimes.

“Millions of people in Gaza—half of them children—have been given an impossible 24 hour evacuation order, but they have nowhere to go. They have been cut off from electricity, food, and water for days. Hospitals are running out of electricity to keep babies and the injured alive. The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians is a war crime, the confirmed use of white phosphorus bombs in Gaza is a war crime, yet there are no statements demanding these violations stop from the American political establishment. It is heartbreaking to witness the blanket disregard for saving civilians—including Americans—in Gaza. President Biden has not expressed one bit of empathy for the millions of Palestinian civilians facing brutal airstrikes and the threat of a ground invasion of Gaza that would intensify this humanitarian crisis.

“American Muslims and Arab Americans do not feel represented by our government right now. Many families in the U.S. seeking help to get their loved ones out of Gaza feel that Secretary Blinken is not making their safety a priority. The Biden Administration is failing in its duty to protect all civilian and American lives in Gaza. I cannot believe I have to beg our country to value every human life, no matter their faith or ethnicity. We cannot lose sight of the humanity in each other.”

###

Yes, there is little concern among officials in US government about the slaughter taking place in Gaza. People around the world are not unconcerned however. Marc Espanol (EL PAIS) notes:

From Egypt to Yemen and from Jordan to Iraq, thousands of people took to the streets this Friday or took to social media across the Middle East to show their commitment and solidarity with the Palestinian cause and denounce the total blockade and offensive launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip following the attack on Israeli territory by Hamas a week ago. The demonstration of brotherhood exhibited over the last week in the region — in contrast to the lukewarmness shown by the region’s governments and at times in defiance in banning demonstrations — has once again reflected the broad and sustained social support for Palestine, despite the acceleration over the last three years of the normalization of diplomatic and economic ties between Israel and several Arab countries. Protests also responded in some cases to calls for mobilization by Hamas leaders following prayers held after noon on Friday.

AL MAYADEEN adds:

Iraq will fulfill all of its duties toward the Palestinian people on numerous fronts, including aid and military assistance, Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) chairman Faleh Al-Fayyad said on Saturday as occupied Palestine suffers from a monstrous Israeli aggression.

"The plans to displace the people of Gaza are unrealistic and cannot be implemented," Al-Fayyad told Al Mayadeen. "It is impossible for Iraq to be a gateway to inflict harm on Palestinians; it will be a platform to support them."

"Operation Al-Aqsa Flood showed the Israeli occupation as shaken, and the United States is a key accomplice in the [Israeli] occupation's crimes," he said. "The Resistance's actions are all a reaction to the occupation's crimes."

The Iraqi Resistance chief underlined that his country would be the main pillar of support for the Palestinian Resistance, pledging to not allow the United States to support the occupation against the Palestinian people.

The Iraqi Parliament, al-Fayyad revealed, will hold an extraordinary session on Sunday in support of Gaza, and will collect donations to that end.

RUDAW seeks out a variety of opinions and we'll note this one:

Haider Barzanji, political scientist researcher

Decades have passed since the Palestinian issue first entered the global media and political landscape. Yet the international community continues to overlook this central issue.

Iraq has been and still is supportive of the Palestinian cause, and does not abandon it regardless of the consequences. This is a matter both of humanitarian concern and religious significance, as well as an issue of what’s right and wrong. In its clear and frank statement, the Iraqi government naturally supports the Palestinian people, as it’s the correct thing to do.

However, should the Iraqi government fail to provide tangible assistance to the Palestinian people, it would risk being seen by the Iraqi people as complicit in the human rights infringements and breaches of international law committed by Israel, including the Gaza attacks and the imposed blockade.

To address the Palestinian issue, it is imperative that effective international measures - Iraq included - be implemented to quell violence and promote peaceful resolutions. These efforts should stress the importance of justice and human rights.

UK SOCIALIST WORKER quotes Iraqi activst Alaa al-Arabyia stating, "We, as Iraqis, know the pain of having an occupier on our land." Exactly. It's a point that can't be missed.

At TRUTHOUT, Rabbi Brant Rosen notes, "I am filled with horror hearing the cries for vengeance voiced by the Israeli government and media, and witnessing the shattering military response that Israel has unleashed on the people of Gaza. Israel has now shut off all electricity and water for over 2 million Palestinians as the military wreaks complete and total devastation across that tiny strip, attacking hospitals, schools, mosques, marketplaces and apartment buildings. As of this writing, the death toll has risen to more than 1,500, with 5,600 wounded. More than 350,000 people have been rendered homeless -- and these numbers will almost certainly rise significantly in the coming days and weeks." For every thoughtful assessment like the Rabbi's, we are inflicted with idiots who know nothing. For example, Amy Schumer who Ruth rightly calls out in "Amy Schumer's an idiot." Is Schumer really that stupid (possibly) or is she part of an effort at opinion management? Former British Ambassador Craig Murray (ZNET) observes, "The bought and paid for media and political class in the west are extremely nervous, throughout the western world. Now they have come to the final genocide for which zionism has always aimed, they face a good deal of popular resistance." And that's why they try to clamp down on reality -- aided by (and catering to) the US State Dept which if shaking in fear over the thought that the American people might do the math themselves and figure out how they're being lied to. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) notes:

As Israel on Friday bombarded civilians in Gaza and prepared for a ground invasion in response to Hamas' recent attack, U.S. State Department leadership reportedly instructed officials not to publicly use some terms that would advocate for less violence.

According to HuffPost, which reviewed official emails, "State Department staff wrote that high-level officials do not want press materials to include three specific phrases: 'de-escalation/cease-fire,' 'end to violence/bloodshed,' and 'restoring calm.'"

HuffPost noted that "when reached for comment on the directive, a State Department official said they would not comment on internal communications." However, others were quick to blast the policy as "disgusting," "maddening," and "pretty shocking."

Guardian columnist Moira Donegan called it "a horror and a moral abdication that we, Americans, can never atone for."

Adam Shapiro, director of advocacy for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said that "if you work at the U.S. Department of State and you believe that you are there for diplomacy and making the world a better place—now is the time for resignations and collective action."

"This is unconscionable and will leave an indelible stain," added Shapiro, who was far from the only critic to call the directive " unconscionable."

Julia Conley (COMMON DREAMS) reports, "As the Biden administration's intent to silence dissent against the United States' backing of the Israel Defense Forces' onslaught in Gaza became increasingly clear Friday night, at least 80 Jewish Americans and other supporters of Palestinians' human rights were arrested for protesting outside the homes and offices of a number of Democratic lawmakers, where they demanded the U.S. government join growing calls for a cease-fire." Not everyone is falling in line with the propaganda as Brett Wilkins (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "55 House Democrats on Friday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to pressure Israel to limit harm to civilians ahead of an anticipated massive ground assault on the besieged territory, home to 2.3 million people." It's not just the US government spitting out lies as Stuart Littlewood (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out:

Our monarch King Charles III has graciously favoured us with a royal opinion. “His Majesty is appalled by and condemns the barbaric acts of terrorism in Israel,” a palace spokesperson said. And a spokes for Prince William and his wife, Kate, said they were “profoundly distressed by the devastating events that have unfolded in the past days. The horrors inflicted by Hamas’ terrorist attack upon Israel are appalling; they utterly condemn them. As Israel exercises its right of self-defence, all Israelis and Palestinians will continue to be stalked by grief, fear and anger in the time to come.” No mention of the “barbaric” day-to-day terror tactics by Israel which led up to the present crisis. Or the Palestinians’ right of self-defence.

A response to these attempts to humiliate and punish could simply be: “and when did you last condemn Israel for its 75 years of atrocities?” Or “if Hamas committed war crimes why is Israel responding with even bigger war crimes?”

More voices are needed to stop the slaughter, many more, let alone to push back on all the lies from various governments. Rebecca Marie Goldschmidt (COUNTERPUNCH) notes, "People will continue to die until we ALL demand the defunding of the Israeli military, an end to the occupation, the return of Palestinians to their homelands, and dignity for everyone. Listen to Palestinians. Listen to those who brought down Apartheid South Africa. Listen to the children, the cries of so many children and young people. Listen to the former soldiers and the war resisters. This is all just part of the larger scam of war profiteering and the corporate nuclear agenda that is holding us all hostage against each other." The refusal of some to speak out is why this assault continues and why so many people are being wounded and killed. Ibtisam Mahdi (THE NATION) reports:

Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director general of Dar Al-Shifa (House of Healing) Hospital and the chairman of the Emergency Committee in the Gaza Strip, has said that if the world does not intervene to stop Israel’s bombardment and intensified siege of the Gaza Strip, “We will be in a catastrophic health situation, and the health system at Al-Shifa Hospital will collapse within hours.”

Abu Salmiya spoke to me on Thursday afternoon from the hospital, trying to juggle his responsibilities to staff and patients with his determination to keep journalists informed about the crisis at the medical center. He was clearly exhausted and overwhelmed by the chaos.

“The scene is tragic. We are witnessing unprecedented numbers almost every hour, reaching 100 wounded and 20 martyrs every hour. We have never witnessed these numbers before.”

The capacity of Al-Shifa Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza Strip, has reached its limit, he said. Doctors have been forced to place the wounded in corridors, pathways, and on the floor to perform urgent treatment on them.

Al-Aqsa Flood Day 8

"Humanity is failing" Palestinians in Gaza

- 2,200 Palestinians killed by Israeli bombing; kids exterminated at a rate of 100 per day

- If children in Gaza aren't killed by Israeli bombs, they may soon start dying of dehydrationhttps://t.co/xi5kOFTCHP
— Maureen Murphy (@maureenclarem) October 15, 2023

The media won’t tell you Gaza is a warehouse of millions of ethnically cleansed Palestinian refugees that live trapped under brutal Israeli blockade. Here’s the forbidden historical context from #GazaFightsForFreedom: https://t.co/QSsU7fZ8N3
— Abby Martin (@AbbyMartin) October 8, 2023

Watch and listen to the uncompromising truths spoken by BAP Coordinating Committee member and @AAPRP organizer, Rafiki Morris at the DC rally to Free Palestine 🇵🇸 on Friday Oct. 14th in front of the Washington Post. #FreePalestine! 📷https://t.co/GhwnFrN4Vx pic.twitter.com/yYrjTB0mVc
— Black Alliance for Peace (@Blacks4Peace) October 14, 2023

ZNET speaks with international law expert Francesca Albanese:

Asked whether we are standing witness – again – to the international crimes of genocide or ethnic cleansing and whether the repeat of the mass atrocities can be prevented, her answer was unequivocal. “It must. It must be prevented. It is difficult to talk about international law in a context where there is no one single provision of human rights or humanitarian law that has not been violated. And yet: because of the level of destruction of Palestinian people – physically – and the destruction of the civilian infrastructure that is essential to people’s lives; hospitals, water cisterns, water plants, electricity … at this moment when 2,3 million people are being heavily bombarded, the international community has the obligation to prevent the possible destruction of the Palestinian people or part of the Palestinian people. This is what international obligations are about. Including to prevent the possible crime of genocide – I do not exclude it at all.”

The international law expert and the author of two pivotal UN reports on the question of Palestine continued to explain that ethnic cleansing is nothing new. It has happened during Nakba or Palestinian Catastrophe, between 1947 and 1949, accompanying the establishment of the state of Israel, and in 1967. It has been steadily unfolding in the occupied Palestinian territory by confiscations of the Palestinians’ land and forcible displacements of Palestinian people, by terrorizing them, revoking residency permits, destroying homes and schools. This abuse of power by the Israeli state has been well documented by Israeli, international and Palestinian human rights organizations, as well as by the UN. Yet no state sanctions or boycotts, worthy of mention, have been taken to ensure the respect of the international law. “Western countries, the Global North have huge responsibilities,” said Francesca Albanese. “But where are the rest? Where are the African countries, where are the Asian countries, where are the Arab countries?” She warned of the move into the opposite direction: “Now we see that even solidarity with the Palestinian people under occupation either coming from the Diaspora, international activists or from the Jewish communities has been quashed.”

The focus, especially in Western countries on battling anti-Semitism has been in the last decade with the imposition of the definition by the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) hijacked to try to silence any criticism of Israel. Francesca Albanese clearly emphasizes that anti-Semitism remains a problem and a challenge we have not dealt with yet. “But to scrutinize Israeli practices as any other UN member state’s and to hold Israel to the same international standards that apply or should apply to the rest of the international community is not anti-Semitism,” she said. Instead, such extension of the definition of anti-Semitism represents an instrumentalisation that is to preserve immunity and impunity of Israel, she added.

There's a real effort going on to suppress the truth. There are 76 (maybe more but I've counted 76) e-mails to the public account from people I've never heard from before telling me that they will stop visiting this site immediately if I do not drop the defense of the Palestinian people.

Really?

Are you like the hundreds that have been griping for four weeks now in e-mails to the public account that there are too many African-America programs and artists highlighted at this site? If you are, please note, I'm still highlighting them -- maybe more so. Or maybe you're like the 'friends' who've showed up for a couple of months now telling me that defending LGBTQ+ persons makes them want to stop visiting this site? Check the snapshots, I haven't dropped my defense of the community and I won't.

I'm really not someone who responds to threats or, for that matter, who honestly worries how many people visit this site. And I don't respond well -- online or offline -- to people who think they can push me around or silence me.

We highlighted someone today, a YOUTUBER, who feels differently on Gaza. We didn't highlight him on that topic -- I'm not interested in playing faux both sides -- but we did note on another topic. And I do feel for him that he can't understand why audiences are turning on him. They're turning on him because he's wrong on this issue. He's out of touch with his own audience. But, as he noted, it's his audience. They're people who've long shown support but are now walking the other way.

I don't have that problem. We could lose all drive-bys and just focus on the community that built this site and made this site. I don't need any outsiders. Keesha early on described this site as a private conversation in a public space. And that's what this is. If we're telling truth here, that's more important than any number.

Sa'ed Atshan (TRUTHOUT) writes, "Part of being Palestinian American is having to watch Israel treated as the U.S.’s “special ally” and essentially the 51st state. This week, that feeling is particularly acute as the U.S. is planning to augment its aid to Israel with an additional $2 billion, even as Israeli officials call for genocidal acts, horrific human rights abuses and collective punishment in the Gaza Strip. In these moments, Palestinian Americans like me face the constant guilt that our tax dollars are funding the oppression and apartheid conditions faced by our families and people in Israeli-occupied Palestine." Ralph Nader (COMMON DREAMS) also points to the absurdity where only one group has a right to self-defense, "Our government still hasn’t learned from the history of this region. This is the fifth war on Gaza with the most modern weaponry against Hamas’s fortunately feeble rockets, now intercepted. Over the decades, innocent Palestinian casualties, fatalities, injuries, disease and loss of livelihoods are hundreds of times larger than those suffered by innocent Israelis. Yet Washington, knowing that the oppressors, occupiers, and blockaders surrounding and infiltrating Gaza keep saying Israel has a right to defend itself without adding that the crushed Palestinians have a similar right to defend themselves under international law and the norms of equity." Jeffrey St. Clair (COUNTERPUNCH) also calls out this 'logic' noting, "Only Israel is allowed to act in “self-defense.” It is a term reserved for the powerful, a shield against the daily acts of violence, coercion, land theft, illegal detention and economic strangulation imposed on a captive population, whose own self-defense is termed “terrorism” and thus becomes yet another justification for inflicting more overwhelming state violence–what any rational person would call “terrorism”–on impoverished and largely defenseless people."

Earlier this week, Black Alliance for Peace issued the following statement:

The Black Alliance for Peace stands in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all Palestinians under occupation in the racist, apartheid settler state of Israel. We recognize the right of Palestine to exist and the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation. We call on African/Black people to remember our long tradition of solidarity with Palestine.

We condemn the monstrous and cowardly actions of the racist Zionist entity which is committing mass atrocities against the two million people who are locked in the open air prison of Gaza. As the crazed Zionists indiscriminately bomb civilians in Gaza, while characterizing Palestinians as “animals,” we are witnessing an international crime in real time - a genocide. This is a genocide that is fully supported and celebrated by other Western racist settler states - the morally depraved “international community.”

The real world, that is the world beyond the 10% of the global population that is the “collective West,” is outraged by the systematic barbarism it is witnessing with the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. What is their crime? To rise up against their occupying power, to take the daily war that they have to endure as Israel murders and incarcerates their children, bombs their infrastructure, denies them medical care, cuts off their water and supplies – to take that war to the occupying power itself.

The Black Alliance for Peace condemns the barbarism of the illegal zionist settler-colonial, apartheid state. We fully support the Palestinian people’s right to fight against occupation, and we defend Palestinian calls for decolonization and their right to self-determination. Since there is currently no fair and just “international law” to support the Palestinian peoples, we will continue to call for the right of all peoples to struggle for national liberation, self-determination, and people(s)-centered human rights.

The Congressional Black Caucus in the U.S. congress, as well as most congressional representatives, including the phony “progressive caucus,” have abandoned the Palestinian people and given their support to Israeli apartheid.

But we remember the solidarity that Black people in the U.S. received from Palestinians in 2020 as they fought against the Israeli-trained police forces across the U.S. during the George Floyd protests. We also say that the attack on Gaza mirrors the pending attack on Haiti by the racist, Western colonialist forces. Both represent the racist violence and absolute contempt for human life that has been the cornerstone of the rise of European rule over the planet. The Black Alliance for Peace will not abandon the Palestinian people. Solidarity must be reciprocal. Our peoples both suffer the consequences of living in a white supremacist settler-colonial state; we are bound together in that reality and our collective struggles.

With the full support of the Western “international community,” the insane, fascist Netanyahu government has temporarily displaced the consequences of the internal contradictions in Israel with this war it is waging on Palestinian people. But the ultimate contradiction, the contradiction between the colonial state and the colonized peoples, will be resolved with the victory of all colonized peoples. Of that, we are certain.

Palestine will be free!

The following sites updated:

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Tlaib Calls on Biden Administration to Do More to Save Civilian Lives

Friday, October 13, 2023