Millions of Palestinians across the West Bank observed a general strike yesterday as they mourned the killing of six Palestinians by Israeli forces. Demonstrations were held in the Gaza Strip and across Nablus, including the governorates of Rafah, Khan Yunis, and Gaza City, as schools and stores closed early in all cities.
The West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin have been targeted by near-daily raids, arrests and killings by occupying Israeli forces over the past year. Israeli soldiers have killed 184 Palestinians since the start of the year, including 51 in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry. This has led to the growing organization of small armed resistance groups in the two cities.
The Israeli army in turn has put Nablus under siege for two weeks, placing heavy restrictions on the movement of ~420,000 Palestinians and allowing a sharp increase in settler attacks on Palestinians. The siege was initially imposed as Israeli soldiers searched for suspects in an October 11 checkpoint shooting in which one Israeli soldier was killed northwest of Nablus. The conflict is quickly reaching a breaking point, as the siege on Nablus limits access to critical services.
“Nablus has been living in a state of war for about a month. There are constant surveillance drones in the sky, there are extremely heavy restrictions on exit from the city and surrounding areas.”
-Bakr Abdelhaq, Palestinian journalist on the ground in Nablus
Side Items
Appeal Denied for Griner: Yesterday a Russian court upheld its original decision, sentencing Brittney Griner to nine years in a penal colony for smuggling a minuscule amount of THC concentrate. The American basketball star’s best hope for freedom lies in delicate talks between the US and Russia, two governments whose relations have seen better days
Climate Catastrophe Grows Closer: The UN released a report yesterday detailing how countries around the world are failing to live up to their commitments to fight climate change. This trend points our planet toward a future marked by more intense flooding, wildfires, drought, heat waves and species extinction; nothing to worry about I’m sure
RIP Mike Davis: The writer, activist, historian, and so-called “Prophet of Doom” passed yesterday after battling esophageal cancer for years. I’ll leave you with a quote of his, one of my favorites:
‘Hope’ is not a scientific category. Nor is it a necessary obligation in polemical writing. On the other hand, intellectual honesty is and I try to call it as I see it, however wrongheaded my ideas and analyses may be. I manifestly do believe that we have arrived at a ‘final conflict’ that will decide the survival of a large part of poor humanity over the next half century. Against this future we must fight like the Red Army in the rubble of Stalingrad. Fight with hope, fight without hope, but fight absolutely.