#Palestine / This is what ethnocide looks like: Israel deliberate destruction of Palestinian academia.
On January 17th, the last remaining intact university in Gaza, Al-Aqsa University, was bombed and completely destroyed by the Israeli military. The bombing of #Gaza's universities is not collateral damage, but part of Israel's deliberate policy to destroy Palestinian academic and cultural life.
Israeli academic institutions have not spoken out against this destruction and its consequences.
Over the past 40 years, Palestinian universities have faced systematic harassment by #Israel, including campus closures and restrictions on faculty, students and academic cooperation.
Since October 7, the situation has severely intensified. In the occupied West Bank, most studies are online due to restrictions. In Gaza, all academic institutions have been destroyed, along with schools, libraries, archives and other educational sites.
Hundreds of students and faculty members have been killed in the bombings. At least 94 university staff members in Gaza are reported dead. Prominent academics have been specifically targeted and killed.
This represents an almost complete destruction of Palestinian academic life that will take years to rebuild. Surviving students and staff are traumatized, grieving and displaced.
Palestinian intellectual life is critical for society. Israel's systematic targeting of #academia is aimed at erasing not just physical infrastructure but Palestinian cultural and spiritual life.
Dr. Anat Matar (ענת מטר): "As Israeli academics, we must raise our voices against the killing of students and colleagues, mass arrests, and the annihilation of education in Gaza."
"High unemployment, severe shortages of electricity and clean water; a young, educated population with immense potential, and deliberate policy choices by Israel that deny movement, violate rights and block development."
Everything you need to know about the closure on Gaza. Special report produced by #Gisha and published October 28, 2023.
Gisha is “an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents." Gisha "promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.”
More information on Israel's de-Devlopment of Gaza and the rise of its unique "tunnel economy" due to the Israeli blockade, see: Roy, Sara. 2016. The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of de-Development. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies USA, Inc.
"High unemployment, severe shortages of electricity and clean water; a young, educated population with immense potential, and deliberate policy choices by Israel that deny movement, violate rights and block development."
Everything you need to know about the closure on Gaza. Special report produced by #Gisha and published October 28, 2023.
Gisha is “an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents." Gisha "promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.”
More information on Israel's de-Devlopment of Gaza and the rise of its unique "tunnel economy" due to the Israeli blockade, see: Roy, Sara. 2016. The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of de-Development. Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies USA, Inc.
#haaretz / Holocaust Researchers to Yad Vashem: Condemn the Public Discourse in Israel Calling for Genocide
[…] About 50 Holocaust researchers from Israel and abroad, whostudy the Holocaust and genocide, appealed today (Wednesday) to the chairman of Yad Vashem, Danny Dayan, demanding that he voice "an unambiguous moral opinion" condemning "the public discourse calling for destruction and the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza."
[…] The letter is signed by researchers from Tel Aviv University, Hebrew University, Haifa University, and Ben Gurion University, including Eva Illouz, Daniel Blatman, Omer Bartov, Rivka Brot, Amos Goldberg, Ariel Hirschfeld, Yehiam Weitz, Moshe Zimmerman, Moshe Zuckerman, Dalia Ofer, and Avraham Ronen.
The fact that Yad Vashem has been quite so far says everything.
#domicide must be recognised as an international crime
The massive, arbitrary destruction of civilian housing in violent conflict should be recognised as a crime under international law, the UN’s independent housing rights expert told the General Assembly today [28 October 2022].
While researching the work of the Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC, or UNCPP) , came across this quote from Conciliation Commission member Mark F. Ethridge in Moris' "The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited" (2012):
[...] Mark Ethridge, the Southern Baptist appointed by Truman to the PCC, quickly understood that the developing impasse over the refugees was lethal to any possibility of peace. Ethridge thought Shertok’s attitude – that the refugees were ‘essentially unassimilable’ in Israel and should all be resettled in the Arab world – ‘inhuman’. Israel’s views in this context, he said, were ‘similar to those which I heard Hitler express in Germany in 1933. It [sic] might be described as anti-Semitism toward the Arabs.’ At the same time, he believed that ‘it might be wise in long run to resettle greater portion Arab refugees in neighbouring Arab states’.
While researching something the work of the Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC, or UNCPP) , came across this quote from Conciliation Commission member Mark F. Ethridge in Moris' "The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited" (2012):
[...] Mark Ethridge, the Southern Baptist appointed by Truman to the PCC, quickly understood that the developing impasse over the refugees was lethal to any possibility of peace. Ethridge thought Shertok’s attitude – that the refugees were ‘essentially unassimilable’ in Israel and should all be resettled in the Arab world – ‘inhuman’. Israel’s views in this context, he said, were ‘similar to those which I heard Hitler express in Germany in 1933. It [sic] might be described as anti-Semitism toward the Arabs.’ At the same time, he believed that ‘it might be wise in long run to resettle greater portion Arab refugees in neighbouring Arab states’.
Voices from Gaza / Messages from Devastation (Society of Palestinian Anthropologists)
[…] Since the beginning of this current, most vicious, Israeli war on the people of #Gaza, family and friends, including members of our Insaniyyat community, have been anxiously trying to check on loved ones across Gaza. Below are translated transcripts of personal text messages, voice notes, and social media posts Gazan friends and loved ones have managed to send in response; intermittent messages composed in the midst of shelling and destruction, while overwhelmed by the news of constant deaths including of friends and relatives, without electricity, food, water, safe haven and hope.
[...] Magid's book dissects and critiques terms like Zionism, anti-Zionism, identity, Indigeneity and antisemitism – subjects that have dominated the public discourse over the past two and a half months.
[...] "But still, amidst the mourning and devastation, when the fog of war lifts and the mourners rise from shivah or take down their mourning tents, the same dilemma will exist: competing claims for rights, claims of ownership, and the land, the land, the land. … We can think – we must think – a way out of the cognitive trap of exceptionalism and exclusivity, rights and victimhood, on both sides, and the illusion of seeing violence as a solution, whether terrorism or state violence, even if we must do so through tears of grief, of sorrow, and of pain."
While researching the work of the Palestine Conciliation Commission (PCC, or UNCPP) , came across this quote from Conciliation Commission member Mark F. Ethridge in Moris' "The birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited" (2012):
[...] Mark Ethridge, the Southern Baptist appointed by Truman to the PCC, quickly understood that the developing impasse over the refugees was lethal to any possibility of peace. Ethridge thought Shertok’s attitude – that the refugees were ‘essentially unassimilable’ in Israel and should all be resettled in the Arab world – ‘inhuman’. Israel’s views in this context, he said, were ‘similar to those which I heard Hitler express in Germany in 1933. It [sic] might be described as anti-Semitism toward the Arabs.’ At the same time, he believed that ‘it might be wise in long run to resettle greater portion Arab refugees in neighbouring Arab states’.
#reference / Shlaim, Avi, Nadim Rouhana, Andre Zaaiman, and Na’eem Jeenah. 2012. “Pretending Democracy: Israel, an Ethnocratic State.”
My central thesis in this chapter is that the iron wall was a national strategy to which rival Zionist political camps subscribed during both the pre-independence and the post-independence periods. In other words, it will be argued that there was a remarkable convergence between main- stream Labour Zionism and right-wing Revisionist Zionism when it came to the Arab question and that this convergence persisted after 1948 under the Labor Party, Likud, and Kadima. To say this is not to deny the exist- ence of deep differences between the rival political camps. Clearly, there was always a European-style ideological divergence between the left and right wing on social, economic and political issues. Nor is it to deny that there were also significant differences when it came to the Arab question. Rather, the argument is that while left and right were divided on the territorial aims of Zionism, they were united on the strategy of the iron wall. Revisionist Zionism staked a claim to a Jewish state over the whole of the British mandate of Palestine, including Transjordan. Labour Zionists, on the other hand, accepted the principle of the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. At the risk of over-simplification, the two groups may therefore be described as territorial maximalists and territorial realists. Yet – and this is the crucial point – regardless of the extent of their territorial ambition, the two groups understood that, given the absolute Arab rejection of the whole idea, a Jewish state could be established only by force of arms.
#reference / Shlaim, Avi, Nadim Rouhana, Andre Zaaiman, and Na’eem Jeenah. 2012. “Pretending Democracy: Israel, an Ethnocratic State.”
The "Iron Wall" doctrine is a political strategy proposed by Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky in 1923. Knowing very well European Jewish presence in Palestine would never be accepted, It advocated for the establishment of a Jewish state as a so-called "iron wall". The doctrine argued that Zionists should prioritize building up their own military and economic power without making any concessions to Arab interests or seeking Arab cooperation.
[...] My central thesis in this chapter is that the iron wall was a national strategy to which rival Zionist political camps subscribed during both the pre-independence and the post-independence periods. In other words, it will be argued that there was a remarkable convergence between mainstream Labour Zionism and right-wing Revisionist Zionism when it came to the Arab question and that this convergence persisted after 1948 under the Labor Party, Likud, and Kadima. To say this is not to deny the existence of deep differences between the rival political camps. Clearly, there was always a European-style ideological divergence between the left and right wing on social, economic and political issues. Nor is it to deny that there were also significant differences when it came to the Arab question. Rather, the argument is that while left and right were divided on the territorial aims of Zionism, they were united on the strategy of the iron wall. Revisionist Zionism staked a claim to a Jewish state over the whole of the British mandate of Palestine, including Transjordan. Labour Zionists, on the other hand, accepted the principle of the partition of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. At the risk of over-simplification, the two groups may therefore be described as territorial maximalists and territorial realists. Yet – and this is the crucial point – regardless of the extent of their territorial ambition, the two groups understood that, given the absolute Arab rejection of the whole idea, a Jewish state could be established only by force of arms.
#media / why are Israelis so indefernt to what IDF is doing in their name in Gaza?
Israeli TV news is accused of an uncritical, one-dimensional war coverage that avoids confronting difficult realities and serves the government's narrative. Critics urge more balanced, responsible journalism.
Ido David Chason identified the shift in the media coverage of the war on Gaza this way:
Israeli TV news coverage of the current Gaza war is criticized for becoming increasingly one-sided, uncritically repeating the Israeli military's version of events, downplaying Palestinian suffering, and engaging in self-censorship.
The news heavily relies on daily briefings by #IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav, treating him as an unimpeachable source of truth. Critical voices and context from #Gaza are largely missing.
This contrasts with the professional coverage in the initial aftermath of the October 7th terror attack. Since the IDF ground invasion began, TV news has aligned itself with the national mood, avoiding complex debates so as not to demoralize the public.
Experts argue this "rally around the flag" approach ultimately harms journalism's role. The public gets accustomed to dehumanizing the other side and not understanding why the world sympathizes with Palestinian victims.
The uniformly patriotic commentary panels also concern critics. They say more dissenting voices, especially from Israel's Arab community which has been excluded from the discourse, are sorely lacking.
Some see the drive to portray a victory, as the war's stated goal of decisively defeating #Hamas drifts further away, mainly motivated by economic incentives to retain viewers and advertisers. The coverage risks becoming purely propaganda.
“Look here!”: University of #Pennsylvania president resigns after furor over free speech and #antisemitism
The pro-Israel and Jewish lobby are able divert attention from the massacre in #Gaza by manufacturing crises, aided by the experts in this field, #GOP#MAGA.
“[…] Among those practicing self-censorship since the Israel-Hamas war began, 81 percent said they were withholding criticism of Israel, compared with 11 percent withholding criticism of the Palestinians. Concerns about offending students and pressure from external advocacy groups were cited as the top reasons.
1/2 Enraged Israeli spokes people are a very common sight on Western TV these days, but this exchange between Sky's Kay Burley and Israel's Eylon Levy seem to set a new low.
Speaking to Levy about Israel's decision to handover 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 50 Israeli children and babies, Burley said she had spoken “to a hostage negotiator” about the discrepancy in the numbers. He made the comparison between the 50 hostages that Hamas has promised to release as opposed to the 150 prisoners that are Palestinians and Israel has said that it will release, [...] Does Israel not think that Palestinian lives are valued as highly as Israeli lives?"
#SelfCensorship The article on the Gaza war and the Nakba was commissioned by HARVARD LAW REVIEW, edited, fact-checked, and prepared for publication — but was then blocked amid a climate of fear.
The article argued that events in #Gaza met the terms of #genocide as defined by the United Nations convention. The author also called for a legally recognised crime of “Nakba” (catastrophe), the Arab word used to describe the forced removal of Palestinians from their land and homes in 1948.
Israel’s #hasbara has officially gone into overdrive, or possibly becoming more desperate. This simulation of a terrorist attack in #London (guess it has nothing to do with London seeing the biggest demonstrations in support of #Palestine) on #Xmas day is supposed to “make Brits feel what it’s like to be ‘in our shoes’ for a minute or two,” according to one of the producers.
——-
London.
Christmas Day.
Your home and dear ones.
What if it were you?
In Israel these days, nothing gets past #hasbara unnoticed.
"People in #Israel, #Gaza and the West Bank are reeling from the repercussions of the 7 October attacks on Israel by the militant organization #Hamas ..."
#haaretz#editorial West Bank settlers are exploiting the “propitious moment” created by the war that #Hamas started to expel thousands of Palestinians from their homes and lands. They are terrorizing them through various means in order to drive them from their villages. Far from everyone’s eyes, the West Bank is changing almost irreversibly.