As the much-discussed ground invasion into Gaza begins, a new video of the Israeli hostages shows them clearly upset with the apartheid Israeli prime minister Netanyahu for using their lives as bargaining chips in his ongoing genocidal campaign. At this point, news correspondents are being threatened by the Israeli military and some are actively being attacked while broadcasting live on-air.
What little news is available is all bad; endless death and destruction, collapsed and desperate medical facilities for the wounded, no feasible options for evacuation. In three weeks, more than 800 Palestinian families have been removed from the civil registry. That’s all the people in the family, sons, daughters, grandparents, everybody gone.
While the attention has mostly been focused on Gaza, the West Bank has also been under heavy attack, with Jenin refugee camp being raided last night and having its iconic arched entrance demolished. Across the occupied West Bank, illegal Israeli settlers are carrying out village-to-village expulsions, targeting rural communities and anyone audacious enough to hold their ground. In many Palestinian villages, settlers have threatened a menacing ultimatum: if the villagers don’t vacate within 24 hours, these settlers will return and kill anyone remaining. This is a live look at Israeli settler colonialism. 30 Israeli human rights and civil society groups put out a statement calling on the international community “to act urgently to stop the state-backed wave of settler violence which has led, and is leading to, the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”
Meanwhile **New Israeli hostage fantasy just dropped**: After claiming (with no evidence) that 40 beheaded babies were found, and then claiming (also without evidence), that hostages were raped on October 7th, now the latest story is Israeli military officials claiming that a baby was burned in an oven by Hamas. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the source on that claim, it’s always some propaganda machine in Israel, working overtime to try and justify a reason why 6-year olds in Gaza have to pay for this incomprehensible crime. All the while these same crimes have been documented as committed by Israeli gangs and soldiers to the Palestinians during and since the Nakba.
What can we do now but continue to speak out and learn and educate the people around us about Palestine. Keeping up with the news can be draining, but it’s essential that we keep our eyes open and continue to witness this history.
Take 50 seconds to see the Palestinian resolve and pride that exists for such an oppressed but beautiful group of people.
Take 10 minutes today to watch this video on the past and present of the Nakba helpfully narrated by Dr. Yara Hawari.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to claim and the West continues to mourn the “1400 innocent dead”. But I’m curious why Gaza, under relentless bombardment, can produce a detailed, up-to-date list of more than 8000 of Israel’s victims, but Israel, after 3 weeks, still can’t provide a list of these 1400 dead? The only list known to me, at Ha’aretz, currently shows 901 names, many without ages listed and many members of the military and police. And with no breakdown as to babies, children, women, elderly, or military/police, after three weeks, I think it’s more than slightly noteworthy.
Side Items
No More Mike Pence: With all the drama of the 2024 presidential race, it’s nice that we can confidently identify one man that will definitely NOT be serving as president. Former vice president Mike “Hang Mike Pence” Pence suspended his presidential campaign on Saturday, with his campaign running low on money #brokeboi and the republican party moving in a different direction than the dinosaur of a conservative from Indiana. Specifically it appears the party is moving in the direction of still wanting his head for refusing to go along with their attempted scam at an election result