sugarmiyu reblogged
Ramadan Kareem to all those who observe, may Allah accept our fasts and duaa and allow us growth and harmony over the course of the next month. May Allah ease the suffering of those in Gaza and across Falasteen, Sudan, Congo, Yemen, Tigray, Kashmir, West Papau, and all those who are oppressed around the world. May He grant them shifa, tranquility, steadfastness, and sabr. May He grant us the strength and ability to fight injustice wherever we see it, and victory over our oppressors.
Here is a list of resources for Gaza and Falasteen. Here is an even bigger list. Here’s a much smaller one. Here is one with resources for both Gaza and Sudan.
Here is the link to a GFM that is very important to me. Here is the link to a GFM for a family in urgent need of evacuation out of Gaza.
Here is a way to help out Sudan. Here are links for donations, Sudanese businesses to support, and brief education about Sudan. Here is a post with resources for education and updates about what's happening in Sudan.
Here is a post with resources for Tigray.
Here is a post with important information on boycotting for Congo. Here is a post with links to support Congo.
Here is a list of resources for education on various issues around the world, including but not limited to West Papau, Hawai'i, Kashmir, and Armenia.
You can check my resources tag for more. I know tumblr's searching system isn't the best, though, so I tried to put as many as I could from that tag here.
Ramadan Kareem. May every action we take towards justice bring us lasting freedom and tranquility 🌙
The machine demands blood…..
[Image Description: white text on a blue background reading: FROM AARON BUSHNELL'S WILL: "I am sorry to my brother and my friends for leaving you like this. Of course, if I was truly sorry, I wouldn't be doing it. But the machine demands blood. None of this is fair."
"I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine." /End ID]
source for anyone curious — shared by friends of his.
Please take the time to read this full article and know and understand Aaron Bushnell as he was, not how the Western media claims him to be. He was deeply intelligent, a man of deep convictions, and we can all learn something from him, even just by the way his friends speak about him. Please read this with an open mind and soft heart.
sugarmiyu reblogged
There’s a really deep and well researched podcast on these kinds of black community massacres called Dreams of Black Wall Street. It’s covered the Greenwood, Tulsa and Okoe massacres as well as Rosewood and others. I already knew these things happened generally, but the set up of context, scope, details of the events and the generational effects that it illuminates, have both blown my mind and given me an even deeper appreciation for black survival and joy in country the United States, even though I was already about my people.
If you care about the histories and liberation of oppressed peoples, this is an important one to listen to.
the imperialism, racism and respectability politics of it all when your life is on the line... i keep thinking about how the people in gaza who made it out are the ones with dual nationalities (people with american and british passports were let out before people with egyptian passports coming back to their own country) who could afford the 7000 USD bribe to egyptian authorities, or the ones like mosab abu toha who had bylines in the new yorker and a literary community to advocate for him (helpful if you're kidnapped by the idf, not so helpful if you're killed instantly by bombs like poet hiba abu nada). your ability to speak english and advocate for yourself in the middle east can save you from so much, but sometimes not enough. it reminds me of mohammed el-kurd's speech:
On the other hand, those of us who are victims, who are depicted in newspapers and documentaries as wounded, wailing, and weak, are sometimes given the microphone. But this mic comes at a steep price. There are prerequisites these victims must meet. They’re often women, children, the elderly. They carry US or European passports and perform humane professions or have disabilities. Everyone will tell you, “They would never hurt a fly.” And even if they were once wolves, they are now docile and defanged, only howling at the moon in agony. They never charge, attack, or hunt in a pack. Their campaigning is individualistic, centered only on their personal tragedies, incentivized by humanitarian need rather than political ideology. Let me tell you a story. Last year on May 11, I, like many around the globe, woke up to the news that the beloved Palestinian TV reporter Shireen Abu Akleh had been shot and killed by the Israeli occupation forces during a raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. Within minutes of the news breaking, I found an anonymous e-mail in my inbox, with a tip. The e-mail read: “Very urgent and necessary, please announce on Twitter and Facebook that Shireen Abu Akleh is an American citizen. This is a fact, not a rumor. The Israelis killed an American journalist.” I, of course, did not announce it. And when I wrote about the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, I made sure not to refer to her as an American citizen but rather as a holder of a US passport. But it didn’t matter. The news that Shireen was an American was out in the following hours, and her alleged Americanness suddenly made her human. [...] Now, obviously I’m not saying that people who engage in a politics of appeal should be burned at the stake. Lots of people do this in good faith. A lot of the time, they say it’s a strategy. When we say that Shireen Abu Akleh was American or that Alaa Abdel Fattah, the Egyptian political prisoner, is British, we say that there’s a strategy behind this. It’s going to make them more relatable to the American public; it’s going to make justice more attainable for them. But in fact, this only shrinks the scope of humanity for the rest of us and reinforces a hierarchy of suffering. It makes the requirement to become “human” a lot narrower and more difficult to attain. And such practices of what I’ll call “defanging” reproduce the mainstream cultural order in which Palestinians are robbed of their agency, their right to self-determination, and ultimately their permission to narrate, as the Palestinian scholar Edward Said once put it.
so much of this moment we are living through comes down to not being able to convince the american public that palestinians are as human as israelis. but another and more ominous part of this is that the american public's heirarchy of humanity has permeated our own countries. who american empire deems worthy, egyptians let through their borders. who american empire deems worthy, egyptians let out of their prisons. and we call this post-colonialism.
It's the end of the year and I need to make some more charitable donations. Could you suggest a few good organizations?
Hey! Its so nice that you're willing and able to do this. I'll recommend some that I have personally used/donated to: Islamic Relief: I donate to their efforts every year. They're raising for Palestine, Yemen, Philippines, Afghanistan and so much more. I like their level of transparency, especially around the operational issues in getting aid to places like Palestine and how they prepare for such scenarios.
E-sims for Gaza: Israel has cutoff all internet, cellular, and landline services in Gaza. This has made communication in/out of Gaza extremely difficult and so Mirna El-Helbawi decided to set up this amazing program to get e-sims in the hands of journalists and people so they can maintain comms with the outside world. I have personally sent numerous e-sims and suggest Simly's app. Its super easy to use and you can have insight into when the e-sim is activated and used. Note: please read the instructions in the link before purchasing/sending the qr code. SAPA: The Sudanese American Physicians Association directly operates hospitals on the ground in Sudan. They offer essential/life saving healthcare services on the ground as well as an amazing hunger relief program. They're also very transparent and have been operating on the ground since the 90s.
Save the Children, Friends of the Congo, and World Food Program are some other great/trusted charities to donate to.
i wake up thirsty and i think of palestine. i go to the doctor’s office and i think of palestine. a sign in the corner of the waiting room says ‘this is a place of healing, disruptive behavior will not be tolerated’ and i think of palestine. they probably weren’t thinking of bombs and snipers and mass graves in parking lots. i call my parents and i think of palestine. i drive to the grocery store and i think of palestine. i look at the clear blue sky and i think of palestine. i put the dishes away and i think of palestine. i feed my cat and i think of palestine. i listen to music and i think of palestine. i read poetry and i think of palestine. i text my friends and i think of palestine. i think of palestine and i think of palestine and i think of palestine
by mahmoud darwish
sugarmiyu reblogged
Sometimes self-care is, actually, NOT getting onto the computer and little treats and watching youtube videos. Sometimes those things are self-care, but sometimes they're also avoidant behaviors.
Sometimes self care is waking up and just. Fucking getting in the car. And driving to the bank. And the store. And buying the cat litter. And changing the cat boxes you've been avoiding because your brains been stuck in a hole. And picking up the trash you've been piling up. And getting a load into the wash. And mowing the lawn before the village council sends you a formal complaint and potential-fines warning.
Like its hard and annoying to do because it sucks. It sucks so much. But if I don't start working on this pile of bullshit I've let build up because it stinks and i was stuck in deer-in-headlights mode, I risk letting it turn into fuckery. I do not have the patience for fuckery that I once - foolishly! - thought I had.
Yup. Sometimes, self-care is being a grown-up and doing all these grown-up things that have to be done. But self-care can also consist of figuring out ways of ensuring these things are done, ways that doesn't feel as though we're punishing ourselves for the crime of existing as adults.
sugarmiyu reblogged
South Africa invoked the genocide convention.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — South Africa launched a case Friday at the United Nations' top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks — the first such challenge made at the court over the current war. Israel swiftly rejected the filing "with disgust."
South Africa's submission to the International Court of Justice alleges that "acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character" as they are committed with the intent "to destroy Palestinians in Gaza" as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.
South Africa has been a fierce critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Many there, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have compared Israel's policies regarding Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa's past apartheid regime of racial segregation.
South Africa asked The Hague-based court to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza. A hearing into that request is likely in the coming days or weeks. The case, if it goes ahead, will take years, but an interim order could be issued within weeks.
[…]
South Africa can bring the case under the Genocide Convention because both it and Israel are signatories to it.
Whether the case will succeed in halting the war remains to be seen. While the court's orders are legally binding, they are not always followed. In March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow flouted as it pressed ahead with its attacks.
[…]
The ICC prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, while the International Court of Justice settles disputes between nations.
Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said South Africa's case "provides an important opportunity for the International Court of Justice to scrutinize Israel's actions in Gaza using the Genocide Convention of 1948." She said South Africa is looking to the United Nations' highest judicial body "to provide clear, definitive answers on the question of whether Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people."
Jarrah stressed that the ICJ case "is not a criminal case against individual alleged perpetrators, and it does not involve the International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate body. But the ICJ case should also propel greater international support for impartial justice at the ICC and other credible venues."
The UN has made the claim that they distribute food in Gaza twice a week. They have made similar claims several times, explaining that hunger is still an issue because they are only able to distribute food two times a week.
However, some on the ground in north Gaza say this statement is dishonest. When the UN makes these statements, it implies that it is servicing the entire Gaza Strip. They are not. Due to Israeli blockade, absolutely no aid of any kind has reached northern Gaza in about two months.
People in northern Gaza are starving to death because there is no food, none. Some report having to make bread out of animal feed, eat cardboard, and drink seawater and dirty puddles. What little food can be scrounged up is not enough to support anyone’s nutritional needs, let alone those of 800,000 people.
If people in the central and southern regions are still starving, even with the UN and partners brining in food twice a week, imagine the state of people in the north. If even adults in the north are reporting severe hunger pains, imagine what children are experiencing.
The point of this post is not *necessarily* to lambast the UN, although there is plenty of reason to do so. Rather, it is to address one source of misunderstanding which is impeding some people’s ability to grasp the full breadth of the catastrophe in the north.
zionists will really say anything to stop you from reminding them that they've murdered 10,000 children in 75 days. you can derail, discourse, distract. we won't forgive or forget what you've made us complicit in.
Thinking about what journalist Momen Alsharafi said, after having lost 21 members of his family, that he is so worried about what will happen after the war.
"The question that haunts me is what should I do then? After the war, after the work pressure ends, in my free time, what should I do? What should I work on? How do I fill my free time? It's going to be long. No brothers, no sisters, no father or mother, not even the children I used to play with, my nieces and nephews."
This is going to be the reality of tens of thousands of people in Gaza who had lost everyone. Who will they go to for comfort? Who will be there to help them through? Who will they visit on holidays?
Israeli crimes aren't just what's happening at this moment, their impact is for a lifetime. Fuck israel.
Please do things to strengthen your attention span. It stresses me out so much when people just accept their small attention spans and cater to them without any acknowledgment that they are making it worse by doing that.
There is a reason attention spans are worse now and it didn’t just happen by chance. Media and the internet designed it that way and we went with it because it was easier.
Some of us with ADHD and brain fog need to meet ourselves where we’re at and lengthen our exercise span by watching a two minute video instead of a one minute video. Some of us need to sit down and read a novel with our phones turned off.
Wherever you’re at, just realize that not doing things that feel hard will keep making your attention span worse.
sugarmiyu reblogged
will never forget the parents who lost all 8 of their kids saying "they slept hungry, we were trying to get them a piece of bread but they were killed"
we are witnessing a population run out of food. WFP said a few days ago that half of the population are starving, nine out of 10 are not eating every day.
keep in mind that not having enough food, even when you're not literally starving to death, makes your body heal slower so all these people (who have all sorts of wounds from the bombing and everything else) are all physically healing much more slowly than they would be if they had any food to eat. it also causes you to have difficulty regulating body temperature which means that these people (who had to leave their homes with no winter clothes to speak of) are much more susceptible to the cold than they would be if they just had food.
the current problems every gazan is facing right now all exacerbate each other.
Hind is constantly tweeting about being overwhelmed and hopeless. Bisan is sharing videos of children dying--literally someone trying to give a child chest compressions before giving up, the camera lingering on the child's limp, dead body. Today, Motaz posted video of his bombed out neighborhood--footage of a hand that does not end in an arm but ends in frayed and tattered meat. His neighborhood lost 45 people, his cousin also died.
His last tweet, 16 minutes ago, is him in the rain, the caption begs for the genocide to stop. "Please god, stop this."
Things have been dire and are getting more bleak. Using these people as inspiration porn--repeated lines of "Palestinians haven't lost hope, so we shouldn't other"--grows useless as it is clear it is very hard for them to manage hope. Hind has flat out admitted to being overwhelmed and losing feeling. The dead child, whose face was drenched in blood, cannot hope. It is not their fault, it isn't a matter of them not trying enough. It is a sign of Israel's cruelty.
How bad it is gotten--how much worse it is getting as Israel faces little resistance from the international community, as lack of food and medical care and sanitation spreads disease, how much the rain and cold sucks out the capacity to do anything other than survive and stress--means we should push harder. Fueled by righteous fury at injustice and needless suffering, not human beings turned into mascots, we must push and pull things harder until the system of suffering breaks.
I don't even know what that means. Every call to action feels so pathetically weak in the wake of all of this. But we must figure out what pushing harder means and fast.
Every day spent doing nothing or the bare minimum is more lives lost, more hope lost.
Running a movement on someone else's hope--on the victimized group's hope--is cruel. It is not a failure to face fucking genocide and rain and an empty stomach and then feel hopeless.
None of these people owe the world their hope.
But we the world owe them life. Decent, good, free lives.
Even if they can't frame their suffering in a way that is encouraging for outsiders to see.
Palestine will be free. But that only happens if WE don't give up. If WE do more.
If you haven't done anything yet, start today.
If you've only done something small so far, do something bigger.
If you've done something big, do it again.
Ask someone you know if they want to do it with you.
Be fueled by anger. Indignation. Fear. Belief in a better tomorrow. Whatever you have inside you that gets you going, get going.
But it's not fair to ask for that feeling to be supplied by the people who are doing all they can just to survive.
If you want to honor Mr. Rafaat's memory in light of his passing, please download the book here:
And don't stop talking about Palestine!!
Image Transcript:
(screenshot of Tweets)
Refaat in Gaza @/itranslate123:
As of last week, more than 30k downloaded this book by @/haymarketbooks: Please download a free copy of "Light in Gaza" and read (at least) the first chapter Gaza asks: When Shall this pass? It's one of the most painful things I wrote. Edited by @JehadAbusalim and @JBing215 Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks (October 12, 2023)
Quote Tweet of @/haymarketbooks
"FREE Ebook: Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, edited by @/JehadAbusalim, @JBing215, and Mike Merryman-Lotze…"
Article Link Headline:
"Reports: Writer and Translator Refaat al-Areer Killed in Israeli Airstrike"
i truly do not want to still be constantly posting about how the nyt sucks but oh come on
these headline changes are so fucking absurd and they keep doing it
anyways:
As a journalist, I’m used to reporting the nightmares others live through. I’ve seen mass graves filled with women and children. I’ve walked through entire cities reduced to rubble. I’ve heard the screams of people who have lost everything and everyone they loved in an instant. I used to think that the enormity of the horrors I’ve seen others endure would allow me to bear my own with some perspective when it was my turn.
But it hasn’t. To live through a nightmare and to witness others living through theirs are two very different things. There are limits to the human capacity to feel others’ pain.
Issam was just one of over 60 journalists and media workers who have been killed, mostly from Israeli airstrikes, since the Israel-Gaza war began last month. The Committee to Protect Journalists says it has been the deadliest conflict for media workers since it started keeping records more than three decades ago.
On the day Issam was killed, Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., said that his country never targets journalists, though he conceded that “in a state of war, things might happen.” But a preliminary independent investigation by Reporters Without Borders concluded that Issam and the journalists with him were “explicitly targeted” in the attack, which came from the direction of Israel. This was consistent with eyewitness accounts from other journalists injured in the attack, who were, like Issam, wearing protective gear clearly marking them as press and were miles away from active combat.
…
I doubt there will ever be justice for Issam. But I know that for him, justice wasn’t something anyone could give or take away. It was something he felt a personal duty to bring into the world every single day through his work.
As more and more journalists continue to be killed in this war, mostly in Gaza, I hope that their deaths will not be for nothing, that people will demand their protection as loudly as possible and will continue to remember them. It’s something Issam himself did, in his final Instagram post dedicated to Shireen.
I know the pain of losing my friend is nothing compared with the nightmare people in Gaza are living every day. Entire families have no remaining survivors, while those who do are left to gather the remaining shreds of their loved ones in plastic bags. We are familiar with these scenes only because of the courage of the journalists among them. Every morning, I check their social media accounts to see who survived the night.
btw just found out they changed it back after a lot of journalists started tweeting about it
good news apparently publicly bullying the nyt does sometimes work