Fiona Lang

Fiction writer interested in human/animal interactions, anomalous animals, animals of myth/imagination/history: all the animals. She/her @[email protected]

[Fiona Lang @fiona_lang]

I'm still here but also there. I'm staying to see what happens on Twitter, but I'm also over on Mastodon if anyone wants to follow me there: https://t.co/q3HBkvKwUx

Just chasing the magic....

Illustrations: Margaret Tarrant (1888-1959)

[Maxine Ross @Fluffy_LeMonde]

Teefs

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

UN humanitarian coordinator from northern Gaza: “This is not a place for humans to survive. This must end. This misery must end. This war must end. This is beyond imagination. https://t.co/HXWytMTDr0

[United Nations Geneva @UNGeneva]

“The plight of Palestinian civilians trapped in North #Gaza is unbearable.

In the name of humanity, I reiterate my call for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law.” - @antonioguterres

[Chaucer Doth Tweet @LeVostreGC]

It doth appear the rare bees have broughte their A game.

[Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana]

Israel’s indiscriminate attack on Jabalia has killed over 50 children in 48 hours.

Since last year, 16,700+ children have been killed & 20,000+ are missing.

The UK is actively participating in genocide.

Full arms embargo, sanctions & an end to diplomatic support to Israel NOW.

[God @TheTweetOfGod]

Only one religion is right but I won't say which one because I want you to figure it out by hating and killing each other while I watch.

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

This woman is a complete hero, as courageous as she is persistent and persuasive. In years to come, when a free Palestinian state sits alongside Israel and Netanyahu sits in a cell in the Hague, she will no doubt be awarded the Nobel Prize she so deserves.

[Middle East Eye @MiddleEastEye]

Students, staff, and community members at the University of Manchester disrupted a controversial event accused of trying to portray anti-Zionism as antisemitism.

Organised as what the university says was a debate between Abdullah Al-Andalusi from the Muslim Debate Initiative and Zionist advocate Raphi Bloom, the event faced strong opposition from protesters demanding its cancellation.

Tensions escalated as protesters interrupted the discussion, resulting in confrontations with pro-Israel attendees and security removing several speakers, including a Palestinian.

Students and staff condemned the university for hosting a harmful platform, and called instead for an end to institutional ties with Israel and defence contractors.

[Dr. Jennifer Cassidy @OxfordDiplomat]

If you hear any words today. Let them
Be this. @FranceskAlbs speaking truth to power. As the United Nations Special Rapporteur, here she is passionately condemning the global community's silence and lack of empathy for the Palestinian people. United we stand 🕊️

[Stephen Flynn @StephenFlynnSNP]

Blocking aid whilst bombing.

It’s sinister.

It’s collective punishment.

#Gaza

[Chris Law MP @ChrisLawSNP]

The rhetoric about the ongoing war in Gaza from some Israeli politicians is deeply alarming. I have called on the Foreign Secretary to sanction Yair Golan, a politician who attended Labour's conference and who described the act of starving Palestinians as "completely legitimate".

[Dr. Jennifer Cassidy @OxfordDiplomat]

Every single reporter from a country backing and supporting this regime of evil, needs to the hear the words of this powerful woman Rahma Zein : You own the narrative. You own the United Nations. You own Hollywood. You own all these mouthpieces. Where are OUR voices?

Rahma said this nearly one year ago. What has changed. Rightfully confronting the American media outside Gaza.

[Hugh Harrop Wildlife @HughHarrop]

A newly-arrived migrant Long-eared Owl in the quarry at Sumburgh, Shetland this afternoon.

[frank. @McDivergence]

think the scottish government should appoint an envoy to london just to see if starmer thinks it's weird when we do it

[PalMedia @PalMediaOrg]

Hamza Yousef seriously embarrasses Sky News presenter:

[JOHN NICOLSON 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇪🇺 @MrJohnNicolson]

Anyone else have a cat who brings flowers? When she first came to live with us Grace would, each night, surround our bed with white flowers from a neighbour's garden. Their extension means she can no longer get to the flowers. Now she brings white napkins instead. #Caturday

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Israel’s genocidal mayhem has given me a hideous understanding into the great horrors of the past.

How could so many people who regard themselves as decent, humane, ‘moderate’ become complicit in unspeakable atrocities? It’s something I’ve always wondered.

After all, only a tiny proportion of any society are actually sociopaths.

Well, this great crime of our age offers the answers.

The British media and political elites are full of people who aren’t even pretending.

Their worldview is clear. Israelis are “us”. Palestinians are “them”.

Accordingly, every Israeli life has meaning and value - it is inherently precious.

A Palestinian life is worth virtually nothing. It is less than cheap. A bag of rats drowned in a lake is likely to elicit more sympathy.

Violence against a single Israeli life - “us” - is therefore seen as intolerable and unbearable.

Endless violence against countless Palestinians, on the other hand, doesn’t even produce a genuine emotional response.

We’ve seen this tested to destruction.

It doesn’t matter what the atrocity is.

Newborns cooked alive in rubble, or left to suffocate and rot in bombed hospitals.

6 year olds shot in the head by snipers.

Terrified children deliberately blown apart in their families’ cars by tanks, the paramedics sent to save them butchered, too.

Entire family bloodlines exterminated in moments.

Detainees gang raped. Bodies thrown from roofs. Civilians riddled with bullets while trying to get food.

The worst imaginable atrocities committed over and over again, but because the victims are Palestinian, no outrage or horror or anguished demands that this must stop, whatever it takes.

There is, at best, empty handwringing and platitudes, while our government continues to arm the perpetrators.

But when an attack is launched against Israel in which not a single Israeli is killed, then there is wall to wall horror, disgust, outrage from our political and media elites.

So if you’re wondering how so many who regarded themselves as decent, modest, upstanding, morally sophisticated citizens actively made themselves complicit in all the horrors of the past you read about in books - well, now you know.

What mattered to them was who was “us” and who was “them”.

I used to passionately disagree with these elites - I work, after all, in the British media, and have now for 13 years: even hold them in contempt. But it took this genocide to make me realise:

I don’t live in the same moral universe as these people. They now disgust me: I am repulsed by them. It is what it is: my job is to be honest about my opinions, and I could pretend this isn’t how I feel, but for what moral reason?

I’m not telling you because it’s cathartic, even though it is. It’s because what I feel is felt by many others, and that matters - a lot.

Millions of people in every country, on every continent, are feeling this, and it gets stronger with every passing day,

The consequences will be felt for many, many generations.

[Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana]

UK polls show that:

• 84% of the public think Netanyahu should be arrested if he comes to the UK

• 67% think Israel has committed war crimes

• 56% support blocking all arms sales to Israel

The British public are on the right side of history. Our political leaders are not.