Howell Harris

Retired university teacher of US (business) history. Welsh & European. Durham resident. Not looking for followers, will block freely incl bots, trolls & anons.

[Howell Harris @trefeca]

The last episode in my 10-part serial about wildlife crime & conservation on the Pembrokeshire bird-islands. It’s been a great pleasure to get this stuff out where somebody might actually read it. Previous episodes at https://t.co/1yQgvEdNj5.

[Nation.Cymru @NationCymru]

The final episode of the Gannets of Grassholm reflects on how the protections which evolved following the terrible events of 1890 have helped create the third largest colony of northern gannets on Earth
✍️@trefeca 👉https://t.co/kF5mWWuTqi
https://t.co/T83DTZvF5M

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Yesterday, the UN Human Rights Office reported that Israel is systematically targeting public servants in Gaza—collapsing public order—as Palestinians continue to be killed and maimed.

You might not know since it got no coverage. Because why would ongoing genocide be newsworthy?

[Shaiel Ben-Ephraim @academic_la]

The 1948 Nakba is very well known, but the ethnic cleansing of 1967 is discussed far lesn, ad it was utterly horrific. Historian Adam Raz has p,ublishsed a well-resourced account in Haaretz today, built on Israeli documents. Here are the main findings:

1) Israel expelled and drove out roughly 300,000 Arabs in 1967, about 200,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza, and about 120,000 Syrians from the Golan, where only some 6,000 of an estimated 130,000 remained. One soldier described the Gaza raids: "We grabbed guys, stood them up and eliminated them. In hindsight it looks like murder."

2) This was not an accident; it was intentional policy, prepared for since the early 1960s. Defense Minister Dayan wanted the West Bank emptied and repeatedly welcomed reports of flight. Many villages were destroyed. The KKL later planted Canada Park over the ruins of Imwas, Beit Nuba and Yalu. One soldier said the columns of expelled families reminded him of Jews "trudging through occupied Europe," and his heart sank at the sight.

3) Those trying to return were slaughtered. Troops were ordered to shoot to kill without warning. When one soldier asked whether to fire even if he heard babies crying, the answer was: "Don't be a girl." The IDF itself reported nearly 150 Palestinians killed this way by early September, and Chief of Staff Rabin confirmed these were the standing orders.

4) Crimes were widespread: systematic looting, the execution of unarmed prisoners and civilians, and the bulldozing of Golan villages "so there'd be nowhere to return to." One of the officers who ordered prisoners executed was Moshe Levi — later IDF Chief of Staff. A soldier wrote to his girlfriend that they had turned Sinai into a "valley of slaughter," adding: "I saw too many murders to cry."

5) The legal warnings were ignored. In December 1967, Foreign Ministry legal adviser Theodor Meron wrote that the expulsions were "a grave breach of the Geneva Convention." His summary line captures the whole episode: the Ministerial Committee for Security Affairs "decided to approve the policy anyway."

This sounds incredibly familiar, doesn't it? This is the Israeli way of war, based one slaughter and ethnic cleansing. Nothing changed.

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

The Trump administration is sending ships to rip 900 ocean sensors out of the Atlantic and Pacific — and Congress already told them twice they couldn't do it.**
They're doing it anyway.

[Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין @MairavZ]

Israel is at war with journalists

[Jan Egeland @NRC_Egeland]

On Monday, Israeli airstrikes (see previous post) *again* damaged our NRC office in Tyre, South Lebanon.

The indiscriminate attack caused severe damage to Jabal Amel Hospital. Four people were killed, and 127 injured.

Patients, who should have been safe inside the hospital, were injured. So were 39 hospital staff, including doctors, nurses and employees who should have been protected while caring for others.

Hospitals must never be targeted. To strike them is a war crime under international law.

For how much longer will these strikes in densely packed urban areas be allowed to continue with such impunity?

This BBC news footage is filmed from metres from our office in Tyre:
https://t.co/cWVjQR6Rw9

[Haaretz.com @haaretzcom]

Israel begins seizing Palestinian land around West Bank archeological site https://t.co/NLOjDCraRJ

[Suzie rizzio @Suzierizzo1]

This was how beautiful the Rose Garden was and that was the beautiful Jackie Kennedy attending to it! Who would have ever thought it would look like a dump now! What a disgrace.

[Howell Harris @trefeca]

Becoming?

[Greta Berlin @Truegreta]

I stood at this pool, at both monuments and saw both reflections…
He’s a God damn idiot, as are the fools that support him. The “Reflection Pool” wasn’t designed by American architect Henry Bacon a hundred years ago to look like a swimming pool. It’s designed to have a darkened characteristics that has reflective qualities to reflect the monuments.
That way, the Washington Monument is reflective to you when at the Lincoln Memorial, and when at the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial is reflective to you.
It’s designed to enhance the grandeur of monuments, create an illusion of reflection, and inclusion of expansive space of unity.
He’s a tacky vulgar person that vulgarizes everything he touches. America isn’t becoming great, it’s becoming vulgar.

Credit - Mathew Reed

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

Every settlement unit that advances means a Palestinian home demolished.

The settlers are illegal. The settlements are illegal.

[Claudia Webbe @ClaudiaWebbe]

Rape with objects. Gang rape. Rape by trained dogs. Targeted genital shooting. Filmed. Photographed. Archived by the perpetrators. Across 12 named Israel detention sites.

The UN calls it a pattern. B’Tselem calls it a network of torture camps. Both are correct.

[casinobutter @ZachWritesStuff]

Bone chilling description of Gaza

[Ihab Hassan @IhabHassane]

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian homes in Jaba in the West Bank. Palestinians called the Israeli police and army to arrest the settlers — the army arrived and arrested the Palestinians.

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel executed Theodosia today in Qlayaa, South Lebanon.

She was on her way to take her exams.

Israel dropped a bomb on her car, killing her and her parents.

[Dave Throup @DaveThroup]

Apparently I’m a cultist for believing the peer reviewed research and findings of thousands of experts.

But someone who hangs on every word of Terry Duckwit’s blog post on a conspiracy site is entirely rational.

Funny old world.

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Israel is forcibly expelling a religious group from a geographic area through violence. That’s the definition of ethnic cleansing.

[Michael Rosen 💙💙🎓🎓 NICE 爷爷 @MichaelRosenYes]

Think this one through. Beautiful olive trees that grow and mature and serve as the livelihoods of families. People who think they are righteous and devoted to an all-seeing god, burn them down. And it happens again and again and again.

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Months since Gaza’s nominal ceasefire began, Israeli forces continue to kill and maim Palestinians in drone and airstrikes, including the enclave’s police. They are civilians, not combatants, so not legitimate targets. They are needed to keep the peace. https://t.co/plKYxwzjKJ

[Ghassan Abu Sitta, Chair of Conflict Medicine AUB @GhassanAbuSitt1]

I had 20 patients in my Pediatric War Injuries Clinic today, for follow-up care.

Of the 20 children, Israel had killed one or both parents of 19 of them.

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

Israel is weaponizing mountains of garbage in Gaza against the population. The Israeli army is blocking access to Gaza's landfill & banning the entry of trucks or other heavy equipment to the enclave

This created a giant overpopulation of rodents, insects, scorpions & snakes, & rapid spread of diseases

UN says it'd take 180 days to clear out those piles if 50 trucks are used each day

Israeli general (res.) Giora Eiland has called for the deliberate weaponization of disease & starvation in the genocide

[Mohammad Alsaafin @malsaafin]

There was a point, 3 yrs ago, when Israel felt compelled to explain its attacks on hospitals. Then it realized Western govts aren’t fussed about such war crimes & Western media was happy to justify them. And so here we are: dozens of hospitals bombed in Gaza, Iran & Lebanon.