Monica

[Monica @Gab_Mon]

@FranceskAlbs ¡Muy grande!

[Philippe Lazzarini @UNLazzarini]

A doctor who saved lives in #Gaza is now fighting for his own.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya - detained without charges for over 500 days- is reportedly being tortured & at an imminent risk of death in Israeli detention.

Abu Safiya is among 14 Gaza doctors (pediatricians, surgeons & other specialists) who remain detained without charge, many for more than a year.

Their continued detention deprives patients of vital care & further undermines Gaza’s shattered healthcare system.

Their release is essential to saving lives + restoring Gaza’s shattered healthcare system.

@DrTedros

[Lauro Jardim @laurojardim]

Uma tela submersa por três meses num lago na Itália https://t.co/3Y0wvUszZ2

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

There is some poetic justice in that Israel is the biggest loser in the US-Iran deal, since it was Israel who aggressively pushed for this idiotic war of choice.

And if it leads to Netanyahu losing the elections and ending up in jail, the justice will be near complete.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

The World Cup begins tomorrow, and many will watch the matches. Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together. Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney

[Olga Rodríguez Francisco ✍️ @olgarodriguezfr]

Israel ya ocupa el 64% de Gaza, arrinconando a más de dos millones de personas en el 36% restante, y anuncia que tomará el 70%.

La llamada línea amarilla, establecida con el plan de Trump, sigue avanzando y devorando terreno.

Las tropas israelíes aprovechan la noche para trasladar los bloques de cemento pintados de amarillo que señalizan —solo en algunos tramos— esa demarcación.

Cada vez que lo hacen, obligan a población palestina a desplazarse nuevamente.

A menudo se sirven de la violencia, disparando contra tiendas de campaña, escuelas y viviendas. Así mataron recientemente a la niña Ritaj Abdel Raouf Rihan, que asistía a clase en un campo de refugiados cercano a la línea amarilla.

El aniquilamiento sigue su curso
Artículo en el siguiente tuit ✍🏽↘️

[Agnes Callamard @AgnesCallamard]

Amnesty has an Urgent Action on behalf of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Israel must release him now. Why oh why such cruelty? Why oh why those with the power to hold Israel authorities accountable for their cruelty failing over and over?

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya should be with his loved ones, and caring for the many many people in need of his skills. The last place where he should be is solitary confinement.

https://t.co/ewJQfpEfpZ

[Monica @Gab_Mon]

@ori_goldberg I've been reading your posts for some time and you are an important voice. I wish you all the best.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

BREAKING! US court ha suspended the US sanctions against me!
As the judge says: "Protecting the Freedom of speech is always just the public interest".
Thanks to my daughter and my husband for stepping up to defend me, and everyone who has helped so far.

Together we are One.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

I rarely have reasons to be proud of France these days, but this is definitely one.

France's parliament just voted - unanimously, 170 votes to 0 - a law that institutionalizes the restitution of cultural artifacts looted during the colonial era (the law covers a massive 157-year period).

It's going absolutely viral in Chinese social media because of this speech 👇 by MP @JPatrierLeitus who noted in Parliament that it included items stolen to China during the joint British-French sack of the Summer Palace in 1860.

Patrier-Leitus cites Victor Hugo's famous 1861 letter to Captain Butler, the British officer who wrote to him seeking his endorsement of the expedition - and got the exact opposite.

Hugo wrote (whole letter here: https://t.co/zyWomXJYBn):

"One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned. Victory can be a thieving woman, or so it seems. The devastation of the Summer Palace was accomplished by the two victors acting jointly. Mixed up in all this is the name of Elgin, which inevitably calls to mind the Parthenon. What was done to the Parthenon was done to the Summer Palace, more thoroughly and better, so that nothing of it should be left. All the treasures of all our cathedrals put together could not equal this formidable and splendid museum of the Orient. It contained not only masterpieces of art, but masses of jewelry. What a great exploit, what a windfall! One of the two victors filled his pockets; when the other saw this he filled his coffers. And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away. Such is the story of the two bandits.

We Europeans are the civilized ones, and for us the Chinese are the barbarians. This is what civilization has done to barbarism.

Before history, one of the two bandits will be called France; the other will be called England. But I protest, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity! the crimes of those who lead are not the fault of those who are led; Governments are sometimes bandits, peoples never.

The French empire has pocketed half of this victory, and today with a kind of proprietorial naivety it displays the splendid bric-a-brac of the Summer Palace. I hope that a day will come when France, delivered and cleansed, will return this booty to despoiled China.

Meanwhile, there is a theft and two thieves. I take note.

This, Sir, is how much approval I give to the China expedition."

Hugo's letter is so revered in China that a bronze bust of him stands today at the Summer Palace ruins - I believe the only instance of a Westerner honored in China at the site of his own country's crime.

A powerful testament of how much a single act of intellectual honesty can redeem, if not a nation, then at least a name.

Hugo was also prescient: as Patrier-Leitus notes, that day "when France, delivered and cleansed, will return this booty to despoiled China" has indeed come (even though the "delivered and cleansed" part is, overall, pretty questionable in the current context).

This new law doesn't only concern China and the Summer Palace: it concerns ALL stolen artifacts by France during the period ranging between November 1815 and April 1972 - corresponding to the start of the second French colonial empire to the entry into force of the UNESCO convention on cultural property.

It's a massive scope: 157 years, thousands of objects and dozens of nations with potential claims. It's France reckoning with its colonial past in an unprecedented way and the fact ALL of France's MPs voted in favor of the law, without a single exception, is also pretty remarkable.

Hopefully this will also serve as a signal to other countries, especially the UK - the other "bandit" in Hugo's letter.

There is this Chinese saying from the Zuo Zhuan (左传), one of the foundational Confucian classics:

"To err and be able to correct it - there is no greater virtue." ("过而能改，善莫大焉", "guò ér néng gǎi, shàn mò dà yān").

France, with this law, proved its virtue.

[Monica @Gab_Mon]

@pati_marins64 @BernardHudson18 Well deserved. I’ve followed you since the very start of the Iran war, and I’m truly impressed by the work you do.

[Steve Sweeney @SweeneySteve]

I$rael is shelling the town of Al Tayri in the south of Lebanon with white phosphorus

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

Justo hoy, Netanyahu lanza su ataque más duro contra el Líbano desde que empezó la ofensiva.

Su desprecio por la vida y el derecho internacional es intolerable.

Toca hablar claro:

- Líbano debe formar parte del alto al fuego.

- La comunidad internacional debe condenar esta nueva violación del derecho internacional.

- La Unión Europea debe suspender su Acuerdo de Asociación con Israel.

- Y no debe haber impunidad ante estos actos criminales.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

One month after starting the war in Iran, this is the statement of the President of the United States on Easter Sunday.

These are the ravings of a dangerous and mentally unbalanced individual. Congress has got to act NOW. End this war.

[Monica @Gab_Mon]

“Thank you, @UNLazzarini , for your tireless work on behalf of the courageous and dedicated team at UNRWA. You truly represent so many of us.”

[Pedro Sánchez @sanchezcastejon]

El Gobierno de España condena la pena de muerte contra palestinos que acaba de aprobar el parlamento de Israel. Se trata de una medida asimétrica que no se aplicaría a los israelíes que cometieran los mismos delitos.

Mismo crimen, distinta pena.

Eso no es justicia. Es un paso más hacia el apartheid.

El mundo no puede callar.

[Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti @MustafaBarghou1]

Dangerous development in Israel;
The Israeli Knesset’s National Security Committee approved tonight a bill to impose the death penalty on Palestinian prisoners, in preparation for presenting it for the second and third readings.

The proposal stipulates:
•Imposing the death penalty as mandatory, without the need for unanimity
•Carrying out executions by hanging through the prison service
•Implementing the sentence within a specified period not exceeding 90 days
•No possibility of pardon
The bill is scheduled to be brought to a vote in the Knesset next week during its second and third readings.
The Israeli fascist internal security minister Ben - Gvir ecorded previously a video saying he is proud of this proposed law which he is responsible for.

[Drop Site @DropSiteNews]

“They put me on a metal table, pressed my chest and head against it, cuffed my hands to end of the bed and pulled my legs apart forcefully.

I felt a penis penetrating my anus and a man raping me. I started screaming, and they beat me on my back and head.

While I was blindfolded, I felt a man who was raping me ejaculate inside my anus. I kept screaming and being beaten, and I could hear a camera, so I believe they were filming me.

I cannot describe what I felt. I wished for death. Every moment."

— UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese reads Palestinian survivor accounts of rape, torture, and killings in Israeli detention.

18,500+ have been detained since October 7. At least around a hundred, including a child, have died in custody. And some 4,000 are forcibly disappeared.

“What is lost in Palestine will be lost to us all.” — @FranceskAlbs told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

[Bilal R. Kaafarani @BilalRKaafarani]

I have been deliberately silent on social media for a while. I use all my social media platforms to promote education & make dreams come true for young minds. I rarely post anything about family or politics.
This morning, Israel demolished the building I have an apartment in. It took 22 years of my work here & 20 years of my wife’s work to own this apartment. This madness has to stop.

[Jan Egeland @NRC_Egeland]

The intense escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah is causing massive suffering in Lebanon.

In just one week, more than half a million people have been displaced, and more flee every day.

Many relive the same trauma as during the 2024 conflict, again fleeing their homes in fear of Israeli bombardment.

Families leave with almost nothing, searching for safety wherever they can. Displacement is worsened by Israel’s mass evacuation orders in southern Lebanon. Those who flee meet over-crowded shelters, and collapsing public services.

With large Syrian and Palestinian refugee populations, Lebanon cannot shoulder the enormous new needs on its own. NRC is scaling up our response, but all aid groups are over-whelmed by the exploding needs.

All the international promises to support Lebanon must now turn into concrete action:
Civilians must get more and better aid and protection, and, above all, a cease-fire that can stop the attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.