Kulani Jenkins

Island hopper: O’ahu 🤙🏼 to Manhattan 🍎 Mom 😴 My name is Kaneaikūlani.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

Everyone listen to what he's saying here. He's giving the whole game away. This is why this new protest movement is so important, and it's why the empire managers are frantically scrambling to shut it down. Don't ever let them tell you what you're doing doesn't matter.

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@JackDexterity @roslynbraun31 @jacobkornbluh Bingo.

[katie smith @probablyreadit]

NOW: Pro-Palestine protestors in NYC unfurl a giant quilt on the steps of the Met

Protestors are chanting “free, free Palestine!”

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

The life of (my) life, soul of my soul

I have been calling my daughter what translates from Hebrew as "the life of life" or "love of love" for some years now; this is a modern, Israeli take of an Arabic use of language.

I grew up in a very Zionist place and time. But I was lucky enough to grow among Mizrahi, Arab Jews; both my father and my beloved uncle spoke Arabic as their first language, and the two, childhood friends, marries two sisters, my mom ant aunt, born in Morocco to Jewish parents.

Arab music was part of the soundtrack of my childhood, and from a young age I knew the names and would recognize the voices of legends such as Farid al-Atrash, Abdel Halim Hafez, Warda, Umm Kulthum, Fairuz and others. My father would also take me with him to work occacionally (he was am aluminum worker in construction), and his teammate Isaa, an Arab from Nazareth, was almost a family friend. We all knew him, and loved and welcomed him whoever we would meet.

I never forgot how one cold winter morning, when I tagged along with my father on a work day, Issa's wife made us coffee and tea, accompanied by sweet, delicious sugar powder-covered cookies, as they wouldn't let us just pick Issa up and go (I certainly can't speak for all Arabs homes but I know enough to say with confidence that you don't just pass through an Arab home: you sit and have coffee and eat something and have some small talk. Arabs Jews are also similar in that regard).

Like many second and 3rd generation Mizrahi Jews, I can't speak Arabic, but I pick up quite a lot of it, and the musicality of the language always sounds a little like home to me.

fortunate to have been exposed to Arabs, Jews and just Arabs, from a young age, I was never intimidated by anything Arab. On the contrary: I grew immensely fond of the gentleness, the warmth of heart, the humor, the special sweetness of an Arab street, store or home.

In later years, I was lamenting the forced disconnect between me and my Arab roots created by Israel's paranoid mentality. Like many other Arab Jews of my generation I was not an Arab anymore, but not really an Israeli as well to this day I am not sure what being Israeli means, really, apart from a negation of Jewish experiences and denial of current realities).

Israeli, just like American or English, connotes whiteness. And white we Mizrahi Jews are not, nor will we ever be.

Unlike many Mizrahi Jews, I refused to become an empty shell, filled only with the ideological content of the state: A de-Arabized Arab Jew. That I wouldn't be. I chose to be free instead.
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When I heard of the way Nur's grandfather, Khaled, called her, and how similar it was to the way I call my daughter, and when I see the suffering, wounds, burns, pain and death of Gaza's children, the memory and consciousness of me and my roots, both known and simply genetic, springs to life immediately, undeniable and bare. These kids are not foreign or alien to me. They are me and mine, too. I feel their pain and fear, I understand the terms of endearment and the farewells of their grief-stricken parents, even as I really understand but a few words here and there. My soul understands Arabic is the way I'd put it.

Zionism's message of fear, hate and suspicion towards Arabs and Palestinians is totally and forever lost on me, and I consider it a personal triumph. I will never hate Arab people.

And I ache the terrible dehumanization of Arab people, societies and communities that have so much beauty, gentleness and love in them. The world will know the truth. I am sure of that, and I will do whatever I can to help bring this day about, which is why I write this.

(and that's me and my daughter)

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

They are actually. Demanding a ceasefire is the only way we’ll stop the hemorrhaging of life AND get the hostages out of there.

[Michal @itsmichalll]

How come a baby is celebrating his first birthday in captivity, and the world is not SCREAMING about it?

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@SenGillibrand @gillibrandny Was an absolute clown on the @BrianLehrer Show today. I cannot wait to actively organize against her.

[Olivia Becker @oliviaLbecker]

Just to add, @SenGillibrand specifically went on a vitriolic rant to the sole Arab-American caller, who she called a supporter of terrorism (he asked her about the unprecedented killing of women and children in Gaza)

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@prem_thakker Thank you @maziehirono Shame @brianschatz

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@talha_hw @_waleedshahid No notes.

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@SenGillibrand Just called DC, NYC, and Albany offices; wasn’t allowed to leave a voicemail at all 3…

Vote NO on the Israel Supplemental Appropriations Fund. #CeasefireForGaza

[noah kulwin @nkulw]

Hard to overstate what a brave piece of journalism this is https://t.co/TW779nEPDw

[Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts]

This is back to school in America.

Run, hide, fight.
Jump out of windows.
Barricade behind doors in classrooms, dorms and bathrooms.
Duck and cover.
Hide under desks.
Text your parents goodbye.

[Jolie McCullough @jsmccullou]

Yesterday, I was laid off by @TexasTribune after nearly 9 years.

New leadership got rid of its longest-tenured reporters and said they’ll no longer cover the criminal justice beat.

No one on police, prisons, courts, the death penalty. In Texas.

Here’s some of what we’ll lose:

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@tanzinavega @CivilBeat does great work.

[Dr Charlie Gardner (also on the blue place) @CharlieJGardner]

Happy 111th birthday to this little one

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@EastSideGadfly We had a classroom sit empty all of last year that should’ve been a transitional-bilingual classroom for asylum-seeking students because we couldn’t find a solid bilingual teacher. Our other two transitional classrooms were super successful.

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@thehill You can’t be serious.

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@VPrasadMDMPH @RobertKennedyJr @TheFP I have not reached a final verdict on a man who’s anti-vax activist group is majorly responsible for the deaths of 70+ children and thousands of hospitalizations in Samoa. Cool.

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

This is unhinged.

[Dana Rubinstein @danarubinstein]

At his Father's Day remarks at Lenox Road Baptist Church on Sunday, the mayor reprises his contention that being mayor is not as hard as it's cracked up to be: "When does the hard part start?"

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

@peterbakernyt It’s incredible that they are still able to shock me.

[Kulani Jenkins @motherthink]

We haven’t had a crossing guard on 10th AVENUE where there is both an elementary AND high-school, getting let out at the same time, directly across the street from each other in MONTHS.