Mackenzie

🌈 #Blacklivesmatter

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

South Africa has launched a case at the UN's international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide. Israel has responded by (deep sigh) accusing South Africa of "blood libel".

Blood libel, for those who don't know, refers to the way medieval Europeans would falsely accuse Jews of murdering Christians in blood sacrifices in order to justify persecuting them. Which is to say, Israel has responded to South Africa's accusations by accusing South Africa of anti-semitism.

False accusations of anti-semitism are all Israel and its defenders have left. It's the only tool left in their toolbox. Once you've exhausted the "But Hamas!" and "But October 7!" excuses they make for Israel's deliberate butchery of civilians via airstrikes and siege warfare, false accusations of hating Jews is all that remains.

And it's so sick, because it exploits a healthy impulse in those of us who oppose racism and genocide, and does so *in order to defend racist acts of genocide*. It causes people who care deeply about human rights to take a step back and say "Hold on, am I guilty of embodying the same hateful prejudices which led to the Holocaust?" and shuts us down and shuts us up, even as Israel rolls out its own holocaust against Palestinians.

It exploits a noble, healthy inclination we cultivate in ourselves in good faith in order to support the horrific genocidal nightmare in Gaza in entirely bad faith. It exploits our good nature to advance a profoundly evil cause. It's despicable. It's depraved.

But fewer and fewer people are buying it. There's only so many times the boy can falsely cry wolf before the villagers stop running to his defense. Hopefully this desensitization that Israel and its apologists have created doesn't have dark consequences in the future. It's just one more ugly thing they have birthed into the world that the rest of us will have to bring consciousness to.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

You can’t both-sides everything. You can’t live your life that way.

Yes it’s possible to see both sides of every contentious issue. You’re supposed to be able to do that; it’s a sign of intellectual maturity. If you can’t see both sides of an issue your relationship with abstract concepts is too rigid, and you’re probably lacking in empathy. It’s just a basic part of growing up to learn how to stand in other people’s shoes and see where they’re coming from.

But just because you can see both sides doesn’t mean you should live your life as though they’re both equally true, or as though they both have equal merit. If you want to have a truth-based relationship with reality it’s not enough to see both sides; you’ve got to grapple with it and figure out which side is more truthful, which side has more merit. You’re neglecting a whole dimensionality of understanding if you just leave it at “well I can see both sides so I have no responsibility to pick one”.

There’s a type of personality that has a strong attraction to feeling like it’s above the fray; like it’s detached from the disputes and dichotomies of the common riff raff, looking down at it all from a lofty place of transcendent understanding. Such people are, without exception, insufferable wankers.

If you want to be an authentic human being, you’ve got to get down in the muck where the humanness is happening. It’s good to understand that all concepts are relative and that none contain absolute truth, but this necessarily means that some concepts are more relatively truthful than others. And we need to be real with ourselves about that.

And if we’re honest with ourselves, none of us live our lives as though all things are the same and all concepts are equally true. We don’t get up in the morning and pour ourselves a cup of bleach, we pour ourselves some coffee every time. When we want to go to the store we take a specific route to get there, we don’t just head out in some random direction and hope for the best. We all make abundant use of relative truths in our day to day lives.

So why should issues like Israel-Palestine be any different? There are a lot of people who’ve heard both sides of the argument and are content to just leave it there with a shrug, either because they don’t want the social backlash that comes from from picking a side, or because they don’t want to experience the cognitive discomfort of facing difficult truths and re-orienting their worldview, or because they just enjoy feeling smugly above it all. None of those positions are worthy of respect, in my opinion.

People are dying. Our western governments are helping Israel kill them. This threatens to expand into a much larger war in the middle east, which could end up affecting us and people we know very directly. If you’re working hard and raising kids or whatever and have no time to grapple with issues of foreign policy that’s one thing, but if you’re just psychologically compartmentalizing away from this issue for your own comfort that’s quite another. That’s just living the life of a coward.

This isn’t even that hard. Israel-Palestine is easily the simplest and most straightforward conflict I’ve had to cover in the time I’ve been at this commentary gig, and the Gaza massacre in particular is even easier to understand. It doesn’t take long to get lucid about this thing.

If you’ve got the time and the psychological wherewithal to engage this subject then you should do so, and you should do so until you have figured out who is more right and who is more wrong, because this is very important. Get down off that fence and come join the rest of us here in the muck. Come and be an authentic human being.

[Jeffrey Kaye @jeff_kaye]

I know what antisemitism is. I had pennies thrown at me as a kid. A Catholic kid beat me up in middle school because I was Jewish. In the late 1980s, I was chased by antisemites in a pickup truck in SF's North Beach. My father was assaulted by KKK types in No. Cal. in 1981. BUT when I hear fellow Jews complain that criticism of Israel makes them feel unsafe, I feel sick. Israel is deeply inhumanely murdering Palestinians, driving them in terror from their homes & communities in an attempt to empty Gaza (and later the West Bank) for Zionist settlement. I've never been ashamed to be a Jew until now. I hate how I was propagandized for decades. American Zionism in particular carries the whiff of cultism to it, a strange messianic concatenation of racism and personal entitlement.

To my fellow Jews I say, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!"

[Shree Paradkar//श्री पराडकर 🍁 @ShreeParadkar]

New from me: History needs to know we saw this happening, we understood what it was and we did nothing to prevent it.
We need to know that to be on the right side of history requires that we grow a backbone in the present. #Gazagenocide
https://t.co/jANaVBtMzW

[Jeffrey Smith @Smith_JeffreyT]

Thulani Maseko liked to quote Joseph, who is recorded in scripture as having said: "You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good."

Seeing the global response to his murder, let's use that energy for good. Let's carry on his fight for reform in Africa's last monarchy.

[UN Human Rights @UNHumanRights]

UN Human Rights Chief @volker_turk condemns brutal killing of leading Eswatini human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko. Authorities must ensure an effective investigation and protect safety of rights defenders, journalists, political activists & civic space.
👉https://t.co/o7PJrtTKCU

[STACKY @stacky_t]

Death be not proud … Rest in Power Cde @maseko_r . @EswatiniGovern1 nilibambe lingashoni.

[tdebly @tdebly1]

@PScotlandCSG @commonwealthsec @SenatorWong @melaniejoly @FCDOGovUK
When will you notice Commonwealth, when will you act?
How many assassinations will it take?
@mymackenziejane @jacquisalmond @SDNationBuilder @HleliLuhlanga @CBCNews @BBCAfrica

[Mackenzie @mymackenziejane]

@CanHCMozambique Who is conducting this "full, prompt, and independent" investigation? No one connecting with the King can be independent.

[Hleli Luhlanga @HleliLuhlanga]

Still stuck at the meaning and functionality of regionalism. A toothless dog has been unmasked. @TenilleEBrown @silricchi @Essenbi @mymackenziejane @glanyline @graceruvimbo
Sadc meeting postponed due to Eswatini’s 'unavailability' https://t.co/eoWEhMMqbk

[Robyn Maynard @policingblack]

After all the supposed “dangers” critical race theory has been accused of posing to society (namely, *some* white peoples mild discomfort), the great replacement theory has long represented a genuine threat to Black peoples very lives, and to the lives of many, many, others.

[Sabina Ciofu @SabinaCiofu]

Awful times, beautiful people. Thousands of Romanians drove to the border with Ukraine to pick up refugees and offer them a ride and a place to stay. Queues on one side to escape, queues on the other to help. #StandWithUkraine

[Hleli Luhlanga @HleliLuhlanga]

Take action now and demand to @Eswatinigovern1 to immediately release MP Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and MP Mthandeni Dube, and all others arbitrarily detained for exercising their rights. https://t.co/5mTrbIuvuY

[Hleli Luhlanga @HleliLuhlanga]

Please add your signatures and help us get the @IntlCrimCourt to intervene.
https://t.co/A4k7eEoKAq

[Nic Cheeseman @Fromagehomme]

The bravery of these protestors is amazing.

And there demand for democracy deserves to be heard.

[UN Eswatini @UNEswatini]

Today, protestors gathered in peace in front of the UN House to deliver a petition explaining the EmaSwati people's grievances to the UN Resident Coordinator.

Many young people joined the peaceful protest, whilst reps of the Political Party Assembly (PPA) delivered the petition.

[TheBridge_News @SwaziBridgeNews]

The women changing the face of the Swazi struggle https://t.co/orQzLDHxRA

[Swazi-Canadian Diaspora Network @NetworkSwazi]

Count down to the #Globalweekofaction #6SeptemberIbhemile
#kungahlwakwenile @SADC_News @Taiwan_diaspora @eddie_tsini @riotRT @stacky_t @CBCToronto @TorontoStar @globalnewsto @CanadaFP @tdebly1 @jacquisalmond

[Mackenzie @mymackenziejane]

@CheeksMnguni, remember me from UniSwa? I think it is the same Cheeks that I met in 200...5?

[tdebly @tdebly1]

From Human Rights Lawyer in #Eswatini @CanadianPM @MPWayneLong @SvenTrueNorth @CDinOT @MarcGarneau @CanadaFP @CanHCMozambique