Sunday, January 29: Generational Death
It’s a mistake to normalize the violence in Palestine as routine and forget that each death and every loss contributes to a steady escalation of violence. This cycle might not be new, but it’s incredibly unequal, unsustainable, and getting worse every day.
Two more Palestinian men were shot and killed overnight by Israeli forces in separate incidents, bringing the total up to 34 Palestinians killed this month. Meanwhile, Israeli police identified the shooter in Neve Yaakov as a 21-year-old east Jerusalem resident, who was eventually killed in a shootout with officers after fleeing the predominantly ultra-Orthodox illegal settlement. Relatives of the shooter, Khairi Alqam, said his grandfather, for whom he was named, was killed in a 1998 stabbing in Jerusalem. That killing remains conveniently unsolved to this day, but a Jewish extremist was arrested back in 2010 in connection with a string of attacks on Palestinians. This suspect in the 2010 arrest was assisted by none other than Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s current national security minister/everyone’s least-favorite racist uncle. Back then, Ben-Gvir was just a far-right activist looking to make his name by accompanying the extremist to court. My my, just look at how he’s grown up.
Israeli prime minister Netanyahu said that, “We sealed the home of the terrorist who carried out the horrendous attack in Jerusalem, and his home will be demolished.” This is one of several punitive measures approved by Netanyahu’s cabinet overnight. The army also said that in the aftermath of the shootings, it would be deploying troops to help police harass and intimidate people in the city and areas along the separation barrier. I’m sure that will go well.
Side Items
Scorpion Pigs: The Memphis police department said yesterday that it disbanded the specialized group known as the Scorpion Unit after five of its members were charged with second-degree murder. The state of reporting on police violence is so shambolic that The New York Times, one of the most famous rags in this country, described this tepid response to Tyre Nichols’ murder by saying things like, “The department’s relatively swift action reflects a national shift in how the authorities respond to police violence.”. Kinda completely ignores the fact that people are dying at the hands of police at an increasing rate
The Search Is On: Here’s a wonderfully idiotic story about how our friends Down Undah are desperately searching for a tiny super radioactive sensor that fell off the back of a truck. This plot could be straight out of a Pixar movie, if only the sensor didn’t contain a small amount of cesium-137, which is exactly as dangerously radioactive as it sounds. An hour of exposure at about a meter away would be like the equivalent of having 10 X-rays, and prolonged contact with this little guy can cause skin burns, acute radiation sickness and cancer, all the hits. The sensor these authorities are looking for is smaller than a penny, while the search zone is a dusty stretch of desert highway about as long as California’s coastline. Oh nar!!