For Gaza
As the US media fills with bellicose advocacy of genocidal violence, there are also some remarkable openings for Palestinian voices and historical context
Watching TV in the US right now is an appalling, sobering experience. As the headline of one article (linked below) puts it, have we learned nothing? Perhaps less than nothing it seems. The Hamas attack on Israel is covered as if it happened in a vacuum, and we are all goaded, lashed, harrassed to support genocidal retaliation that constitutes a second Nakba. One Zionist on X/twitter hoped that Gaza would be turned into a parking lot.
But along with the vast historical human tragedy and injustice taking place right now, extending decades of oppression and injustice toward Palestinians, there are some remarkable openings for Palestinian voices, anti-Zionist arguments and historical context. Social media is suppressing the articles and videos bubbling up through this opening—shadowbanning Palestinian solidarity statements, censoring via algorithim, using AI across the board to identify and hide news and opinion for Palestine. So today I will just do my tiny little bit to circulate some of these suppressed materials, by sharing links to some very useful sites.
For news and opinion:
The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU)
Articles and videos:
We Had Dreams: The Gazans Living and Dying Under Siege (video essay)
Noura Erakat, “The Violence of Demanding Perfect Victims” in Jadaliyya
Rashid Khalidi, “The U.S. Should Think Twice About Israel’s Plans for Gaza” NYT
Samera Esmeir, To Say and Think A Life Beyond What Settler Colonialism Has Made,” MadaMasr
Statement of the Union of Employees of Birzeit University, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
Judith Butler, “The Compass of Mourning,” LRB
Gabriel Winant, “On Mourning and Statehood,” Dissent
Masha Gessen, “The Tangled Grief of Israel’s Anti-Occupation Activists,” New Yorker
David Klion, “Have We Learned Nothing?” N+1
Sarah Schulman, “Explanations Are Not Excuses,” New York Magazine
Arielle Angel, “We Can Not Cross Until We Carry Each Other, “ Jewish Currents
In addition to these links in online publications, check out Richard Seymour’s Patreon and Vicky Osterweil’s Substack—their pieces require subscriptions, but they are worth it!
Now I need to go take some drugs or something to live through this……..and find all the protests, petitions and places to DO something. Perhaps another post soon with some of that info…… It feels right now like the record anti-Iraq war protests after 9/11 that could not stop the carnage. We have to try, though, don’t we?