Catherine Bayar

Treasure hunting, textile smitten. Global nomad designer/writer. Creative force for bridging cultures. 1/2 of @BazaarBayar

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood” (Is 1:15).

[Franklin Leonard @franklinleonard]

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” - James Baldwin

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

On behalf of the Christians of the #MiddleEast, and of all women and men of good will, I appeal to those responsible for this conflict: cease fire! May paths of dialogue be reopened! Violence can never lead to the justice, stability and peace for which the peoples are waiting.

[Catherine Bayar @CatherineBayar]

@patyale @HurstPublishers Tebrikler! A perfect Istanbook read.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Perhaps the most important piece you read today, this week, this month…

👀

[Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior]

New interview! On Trump, Venezuela, and the plan to divide and destroy the world https://t.co/i55ARW6YfV

[Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior]

Live in a way that would break an algorithm: https://t.co/ZNA7KlLuuz

[Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior]

"Every administration had people directly connected to Epstein in top positions. Barr, Blinken, Acosta, etc. You can play 'Six degrees of Jeffrey Epstein' but it's like, the guy down the hall. You don't have to look very far."
https://t.co/IIfg4mRPcB

[Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior]

"If someone discussing Epstein brings up Robert Maxwell, then I tend to think they're an honest broker. If they omit him and the backstory of this network going back to Iran-Contra and beyond, then I don't think they're serious about the truth."
https://t.co/IIfg4mSn29

[Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior]

Thread from 2020. This is why I wrote a book called THEY KNEW.

[Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder]

Please join me in raising funds for medical cargo buses and trucks with electric jamming capabilities for brigades of Ukraine's Khartiia Corps. These automobiles make the difference between whether people survive or not. We can do something very specific and very meaningful to help.
https://t.co/I4zzqAewHY

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

"As one of the few Jews on [the flotilla]...they asked me if I was Jewish...threw me in front of the Israeli flag... we were strip-searched... & blindfolded, & sent to this detention camp."

Horrifying testimony to Zeteo from freed activist David Adler:
https://t.co/LdjvGrff4M

[Yanis Varoufakis @yanisvaroufakis]

An illegally abducted Jew is languishing in a desert prison. While only one of several abductees held illegally, this man is especially targeted by his captors for being a Jew. Though a US citizen, no US Senator, Congresswoman or man, has lifted their little finger, or even said a word, to secure his safe release.

His name is David Adler, a colleague, dear friend, a member of our extended family. The notorious prison he is languishing in is called Ketziot and is in the Negev desert. His captors are the state of Israel whose operatives abducted David in international waters, along with hundreds of others – an act of (legally indisputable) piracy against the crews of the Global Sumud Flotilla who had set course for a land – the so-called Gaza Strip – that the International Court of Justice, on 19thJune 2024, had declared an illegally occupied territory that Israel had to vacate forthwith. Instead, during the past year, Israel reinforced its siege of Gaza and continued its calculated genocide of its people.

Israeli propaganda (always an essential tool for those seeking to whitewash their war crimes) put forward three gigantic lies by which to justify its piracy on the high seas: First, that David Adler and his comrades were recklessly entering a war zone and violating a security zone. Second, that if they were truly interested in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, they should have given it to Israel’s authorities who would then deliver it to the people of Gaza. Third, that the crews of the flotilla were funded and directed by Hamas.

That these are gigantic lies is ever so easy to demonstrate.

First, David Adler and his comrades were not entering a war zone but a genocide zone. It was Israel that violated international law by declaring a security zone around Gaza to safeguard their genocide inside Gaza, not the crews of the flotilla whose only weapons were baby formula and some grain.

Second, the people of Gaza are starving to death (when not being bombed to smithereens) because Israel, as several of its ministers have proclaimed, has meticulously connived to prevent food, water and medicine to enter Gaza. In this sense, the notion that the flotilla crews should have handed their aid over to Israel (to add to the existing huge stocks they are actively preventing from reaching Gaza) is laughable.

Third, calling David Adler and his colleagues Hamas-enablers or, even worse, instruments of Hamas smacks of the Israeli government’s desperation in seeking to plaster the Hamas logo on the forehead of anyone whom they want to kill, abduct or vilify.
You may ask: Why am I focusing on David Adler in this post? The reason becomes obvious in a post David uploaded before his much anticipated abduction:

“I almost never write ‘as a Jew’. I share the exhaustion of being forced to put Jewish feelings first… But today I felt compelled to write in that register — as one of the only Jews on this mission… If there’s any part of the Torah that I still remember, it is this obligation it bestows upon us: "Justice, justice you shall pursue."… How could we stand by while the State of Israel perverts this holy obligation, overseeing a holocaust of the Palestinian people? I joined this flotilla just like any other delegate — to defend humanity, before it is too late. But on Yom Kippur, I am reminded that I am also here because my Jewish heritage demands it.

As a mere adolescent, my grandfather Jacques Adler (pictured) joined the Parisian resistance against the Nazis, putting his life on the line to sabotage their operations even as his friends and family were sent to their deaths in concentration camps. That is the tradition to which I am called, and the definition of “justice” that feels true to my Jewish identity — as the same genocidal rage that targeted my ancestors is now taken up by its principal victims… If Israeli forces intercept us on Yom Kippur, then let them see what true atonement looks like. Not fasting in comfort while starving their neighbors. Not praying in safety while dropping bombs over their heads. Atonement means action. So as the sun sets tonight, and the fasting begins, I hope that fellow Jews will join me in redefining their approach to atonement — together with silent prayer, and toward courageous action to put an end to this horrific genocide. G'mar chatima tova.”

So, THIS is why I am focusing my post on my friend David Adler, without of course neglecting or discounting the sacrifices of our other comrades in Israeli captivity: Because David is the only Jew in the clasps of Israeli war criminals who believe they are perpetrating a genocide on behalf of the Jewish people.

Genocidal maniacs, like Israeli Security Minister Itavar Ben-Gvir, hate an upstanding Jewish man like David Adler more than they hate even Hamas. For it is David Adler’s brave stance that exposes the lie that the Global Sumud Flotilla was an antisemitic fleet of deluded Westerners. For he is a living, breathing reminder (just as his Nazi-resisting grandfather was decades ago) of the error, the criminality, of the ways of those who place a whole people on death row – a splendid example of the Jewish people’s longstanding opposition to orchestrated misanthropy, to pogroms, to genocide.

And this is my reason for fearing for David Adler’s life and limb more than for any of his abducted comrades: because his genocidal abductors feel ever so tiny, ever so small, in the presence of this Jewish man.

[Omar Hamad | عُـمَـرْ 𓂆 @OmarHamadD]

It seems like this is the end. I don’t mean the genocide, I mean the end of us entirely. Whether in silence or with people speaking about us, our extermination continues. The killing continues, the ethnic cleansing continues, the slaughter, the uprooting, the torture — it all continues.

Half of my family had to flee to the south of Gaza, while I remain with the other half here in Gaza City. I tried to stand strong and endure, but I am powerless. My body is more exhausted than my soul. And while despair and sorrow consume me, my European friends from their couches tell me that I must rise and persevere: “We will pray for you.” But the bombs that have devoured my ears and filled my eyes with dust do not understand such words. The bombs that fall endlessly upon us do not understand the language of the deaf either. They pierce my deaf sister’s eardrum until she bleeds red blood. What should I do, what can I do? Am I supposed to rise again? If that’s possible, then can someone tell me how to rise!!

Perhaps our story ends here, on this dark road that I always tried to light with my words. But the words have gone out, never to return, and death has become nothing more than a matter of time.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

So much disinformation on this site tonight in the wake of the horrific Kirk murder, with conservatives cynically suggesting that all of the political violence in this country comes from the left.

In fact it’s the opposite. Here are the facts for those with short memories:

The man who targeted and killed Democratic state Rep Melissa Hortman was a Trump supporter.

The man who targeted the home of Dem Governor Josh Shapiro was a Trump supporter.

The men who wanted to hang Mike Pence on Jan 6th were Trump supporters.

The man who targeted and killed the son of Obama-appointed District Judge Esther Salas was a Trump supporter.

The man who tried to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her husband was a Trump supporter.

The men who were convicted trying to kidnap Dem Governor Gretchen Whitmer were Trump supporters.

The man who sent pipe bombs to the homes of Obama and Biden was a Trump supporter.

There is no equivalent or even similar list of Obama or Biden supporters who have carried out similar murders, attempted murders, or violent attacks.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

This camera should be exhibited one day in the Genocide Memorial built in memory of the innumerable victims of Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Shame on all journalists not raising their voice against the massacre of their brave Palestinian colleagues while documenting the genocide.

[Hind Khoudary @Hind_Gaza]

I will not speak to foreign media about the killing of Palestinian journalists.
I will not sit on your global channels to be part of a segment you’ll forget by tomorrow.

To you, we are just a headline — a tragedy to consume, not colleagues to defend.

We are being hunted and killed in Gaza while you watch in silence.
For two years, your fellow journalists here have been slaughtered.

What did you do?
Nothing.

Or maybe it’s because we are Palestinian journalists — we don’t count as “real” colleagues in your eyes.

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Entire news crew wiped out: 2 journalists + 2 cameramen.

Killed by Israel which has killed more journalists than died in WW1, WW2, Vietnam, Afghanistan & Yugoslavia combined.

[Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior]

https://t.co/PMnq8Uh0NX