Francesca Albanese: “People continue to say ‘But Hamas, Hamas, Hamas’... I don't think people have any idea what Hamas is. Hamas is a political force that won the 2005 elections—whether we like it or not. Hamas built schools, public facilities, hospitals. It was simply the authority, the de facto authority.”
“So it is critical that you understand, that when you think of Hamas, you should not necessarily think of cut-throats, people armed to the teeth, or fighters. It's not like that.”
1/ Don’t trust anyone who claims “Palestinian & Israeli lives are intertwined.” No they aren’t. Israel is a genocidal settler colonial ethnostate illegally squatting on stolen Palestinian land. Israel should not exist & Palestinians should be free to determine their own future.
A much better question than "What was Israel supposed to do in response to October 7?" is "What were Palestinians supposed to do in response to all of Israel's abuses prior to October 7?"
Nobody's ever been able to give me a serious response to this question which doesn't entail mountains of lies and/or the dehumanizing expectation that Palestinians should accept conditions that none of us would willingly accept ourselves.
That's why you never see me criticizing Hamas. If someone could tell me what specifically Palestinians should have done in response to Israel's tyranny that they haven't already tried in order to obtain real material justice, I'd happily say Hamas should have taken that option instead of resorting to violent force. But if that option truly existed, Hamas never would have been created in the first place. That's why nobody's been able to tell me what such an option would have looked like without lying.
What was Israel supposed to do after October 7? Same thing they should have done before October 7: dismantle the apartheid state, give everyone equal rights, pay massive reparations, and right all the wrongs of the past. October 7 was a response to the tyranny and abuse of Israel; the correct thing to do when things finally came to a head with the Hamas attack would have been to remove all the tyranny and abuse which gave rise to it.
That's what Israel should have done. Of course Israel was never going to do this, for the same reason they spent decade after decade murdering, displacing and oppressing Palestinians since Israel was created. Israel would never allow justice and equality after October 7 for the same reason Israel would never allow justice and equality before October 7: because Israel has always been a settler-colonialist project that can only be sustained by nonstop violence and tyranny and theft and abuse and lies and breathtaking immorality.
That is the reason October 7 happened, and it's the problem all decent people in the world are trying to address right now.
Supporting Israel now should be equivalent to supporting the continuation and rehabilitation of the Third Reich in 1945. Zionism needs to be rooted out across the west. From our politics, media, culture, institutions. And Israel needs to be dissolved. One state. Palestine
When I said in 2022 that Jews have never faced systemic oppression in American history, half of the people on this app with any left-leaning political affiliation made it their mission to brand me as an antisemite.
Ah well.
I'll believe Judaism isn't Zionism when a majority of Jewish groups break with Israel, demand a one-state solution, reparations for Palestinians and trials for all Israeli and non-Israeli Jews implicated in genocide. Until then evidence for the statement is extraordinarily weak
Turning Jews into perpetual victims created the cultural cover for their state to apply their final solution against the Palestinians. And still now, with the Jewish state in the orgiastic throes of genocidal impunity, we're commanded to see Jews as victims. It's grotesque
for those unaware, there is a hysterical media and political class meltdown in the UK because Diane Abbott, a black woman MP, said Jews don't face the same racism as black people. This is a truism that is not allowed to be spoken. Here is Norman Finkelstein stating the obvious:
Not totally correct, @BernieSanders!
It’s not just Netanyahu or his current government. Every Israeli government—past, present, and future—has upheld the same system of violence and oppression. And whether knowingly or not, you are enabling this barbarism.
As a Palestinian, I’m telling you this plainly:
The Palestinian people—and many Americans—see clearly that Israel’s decades-long war on our people is not only barbaric, but also a gross violation of international law and basic human morality.
But recognizing this is not enough.
Calling for an arms embargo is not enough.
You must go further. You must forcefully demand an end to the Israeli occupation and the full establishment of an independent Palestinian state—where Palestinians can live in freedom, dignity, and peace.
So that's now Lillard, Tatum, Steph, Cavs 3 All-Stars in these playoffs. Looked for awhile we were maybe dodging the injury bug, but for the 3rd time in 5 years injuries are perhaps THE story of the NBA playoffs.
some anti-genocide people unfurled a Free Palestine flag behind Bernie Sanders at his rally just now and police thugs arrested them as Bernie Sanders looked on and let it happen without saying a word. A minute earlier Sanders said "Israel has the right to defend itself" and repeated his lie about "not one more nickel to Netanyahu" when he opposes sanctions and an actual arms embargo and to this day refuses to recognize the genocide
Tonight wouldn’t have happened btw if the Lakers fouled up by 3
BAN FOULING UP BY 3 IDC‼️‼️‼️
These last plays should never be decided by a prolonged free throw contest
They invade your country, colonize you, assassinate your progressive leaders, interfere in your affairs, loot your mineral resources and then turn around and blame you for being poor.
Zionists think the lesson of the Holocaust was “the Nazis were uniquely evil and the Holocaust was a unique occurrence” when the actual lesson was “fascism is extremely seductive and anyone can become a Nazi.”
On 22 October, peacekeepers on duty at a permanent observation post near Dhayra were observing IDF soldiers conducting house clearing operations nearby. Upon realizing they were being observed, the IDF soldiers fired at the post. The duty guards withdrew to avoid being shot.