aflamethatneverdies reblogged
people aren't allowed to be cis
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
wow this is so brave. finally someone heroic enough to tell people they can be cis
these days, you'll be arrested and thrown in jail, just for saying you're cis
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
"How many of you like have you ever been to Jerusalem? Raise your hand if you have ever been to Jerusalem. We have 60 students here, and we have one... two, probably three... That's that's very few of you! I've never been to Jerusalem. We're Palestinians; we live in Gaza; we can't go to Jerusalem because of the Israeli occupation.
But we love Jerusalem, right? [A chorus of students saying "yes".] We love Jerusalem because of what it means to us. We've never been there, but believe me, when you go there you will feel that you've been there hundreds of times. Because you read about Jerusalem in literature, in stories. Of course it doesn't mean that that's it, that we should take the Jerusalem that's in the stories and that's it, no.
But in literature, Jerusalem comes back to us. It's true that there is suffering; there is pain; there is occupation, and that's why Tamim Al-Barghouti, as a young Palestinian poet, I think is doing a great service to the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian struggle.
When you listen to him reciting his poem from Al-Quds, or other poems, he takes you to Jerusalem. You live in Jerusalem. He takes you back to it. You liberate it for just a little bit of time.
And if there is hope; if you can imagine a free Palestine, a free Jerusalem, probably you will work towards that, and the same thing applies to occupied Palestine. We've never been to other parts of Palestine because of the Israeli occupation, but we've been told so many times by our parents and our grandparents, especially our mothers, they've been telling us stories about Palestine in the past, the good old days, when Palestine was all beautiful, unoccupied, unraped.
Therefore, I say in in this case how our homeland turns into a story. In reality, we can't have it; we don't have it, but it can turn into poems, into literature, into stories, so our homeland turns into a story. We love our homeland because of the story. We love our homeland because of the story, and we love the story because it's about our homeland, and this connection is significant.
Israel wants to sever this relationship, for example between Palestinians and the land; Palestinians and Jerusalem, and other places and cities, and literature attaches us back - connects us strongly to Palestine, so in my thinking, this is a very significant thing that literature contributes to. Creating realities; making the impossible sound possible.
In real life, again because we are here in Palestine and Gaza, I'll be giving you examples from Palestinian and Arab literature so we can compare and make things clearer. We all know Fadwa Tuqan, the Palestinian poet - and please do not introduce her as Ibrahim Tuqan's sister, let's talk about her as Fadwa Tuqan and then somewhere else mention that, "by the way, Ibrahim Tuqan was her brother". Let's not throw her under the shadow of a man, even if it's her brother, who was a great poet, we can't deny that.
So this is Fadwa Tuqan, a Palestinian poet, 40 years ago or 50 years ago, writing poetry... Of course, we always fall into this trap of saying "she was arrested for just writing poetry!" We do this, even us believers in literature, "Why would Israel arrest somebody or put somebody under house arrest if she only wrote a poem?!"
So we contradict ourselves sometimes. We believe in the power of literature, changing life as a means of resistance, a means of fighting back and in the end we say, "She just wrote a poem!" We shouldn't be saying that.
Moshe Daya, an Israeli general, said that the poems of Fadwa Tuqan were like facing 20 enemy fighters. Wow.
She didn't throw stones; she didn't shoot at the invading Israeli military jeeps. She just wrote poetry. And I'm falling for that again, I'm saying "she just wrote poetry".
So this is what how Israel's dealing with Palestinian poets, and the same thing happened to Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. She wrote poetry celebrating Palestinian struggle; encouraging Palestinians to resist, not to give up, to fight back. She was put under house arrest. She was sent to prison for years.
And therefore I end here with a very significant point. Don't forget that Palestine was first and foremost occupied in Zionist literature and Zionist poetry.
Palestine was presented as these things, I'll be mentioning some of them, but there's a contradiction here, there's a paradox always. "Palestine is a land without a people to our people without a land", "Palestine flows with milk and honey", "there's no one there, so let's go". We'll see how later on, how many even Jewish people were disappointed when they came to Palestine. Number one, there was no milk and honey, because "flowing with milk and honey" sounds like you're just going to be groping around, and milk and honey will be thrown at you - and there were people! There have always been people in Palestine.
The fact that Israel worked hard to ethnically cleanse Palestine, to kick Palestinians out, first and foremost in literature - yes, in politics and everything - shows how significant poetry is.
To sum up, Palestine was occupied metaphorically in the poem long before it was physically and militarily occupied in your life, so let's do the same. Let's fight back; let's restore Palestine in in our writings; in our poetry; in our stories."
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
azad ur username means rabbit in farsi right
ik khar means donkey and goosh means ear farsi is so silly i love her
OMG YEAH IT DOES. it is so silly i love it. olâgh(evil version) is the word for donkey too and the one i mostly hear. when dad is mad at us and what we do more than usual he says either khar too kharé or olâgh tur
shotor means camel and morgh means chicken. guess what ostrich is called? SHOTORMORGH
another fun thing is that farsi and arabic is one of the things that changed and borrowed from each other, aside from other cultural aspects, because of the spread of islam and the arabic conquest of persia. and then [more linguistics happenings]->arabic and farsi words got all the way to urdu, hindu, turkish (VERY SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION).
Before Atatürk's reforms osman turkish even used a variant of the perso-arabic script (the variant of arabic that farsi uses as a writing system).
Anyway i went off on this tangent just to tell you about the word mule and how romanian also uses it:
قاطر-catâr-katır
also @appsa told me that khargoosh got all the way to hindi too haha :3
#i understand some farsi and arabic#because urdu is made from them with bits of turkish thrown in there for good measure lmao#so am always like oh i know this word in farsi so khargosh is also a word here and also shotormurgh for ostrich#tho we have the arabic word for camel#someday i will learn farsi ;_;
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
This State Department official resigned over the Biden Administration's policy of breaking US law and international treaties to arm Israel.
This news story ran on October 19th, 2023.
Also, this guy had spent 11 years approving arms transfers for the US. He knows how corrupt it is.
His former classmate (the interviewer) describes him as: "as a sincere foot soldier of the American empire."
More exerpts:
The U.S. had helped create a unit called the Iraqi police commandos, which eventually became the Iraqi Special Police, with the intent of taking over some of the missions of U.S. Special Forces as they transitioned out. “It very quickly was taken over by former regime Baathists, who the U.S. was very closely allied with and was embedding Special Forces advisers with, but who were committing torture, and all sorts of human-rights abuses, and extrajudicial killings,” Paul said. “But the American view was it was all right because these were our guys.” Seeing how that played out, he went on, “was something that made me very uneasy.”
This torture and death squad made him "very uneasy" -- but not enough to quit.
Paul said, “Having made all these arms transfers and having made the ultimate decision that ‘Hey, these aren’t always bad,’ one of the differences I have with the left is that the perfect should not be the enemy of the good.”
He's the pinnacle of "lesser evil" and "harm reduction" thinking.
aul had spent the four years of the Trump Administration with a letter of resignation pre-written and tucked inside his desk, prepared for the worst. He never saw enough reason to submit it. When Biden was elected, he had been relieved: Biden’s foreign-policy advisers emphasized human rights, and his campaign proposals included some initiatives, among them further restrictions on the overseas transfers of guns, that Paul believed in.
So, what happened under Biden and Blinken last October?
“A very simple thing that would have made a difference for me is, you know, knowing that there are units in the Israeli security forces that are of concern because of their track record of extrajudicial killings, seeing that some effort was being made not to give them more weapons,” Paul said. “That was not the case. In fact, where there had been debate, there was now no longer debate. It was, ‘Let’s give them weapons. It doesn’t matter.’ ” Both he and the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor raised concerns about the lack of review of these arms transfers to certain Israeli units, Paul said. What they wanted, he went on, was to see “some space for, ‘O.K., we still have these values. We still have these concerns, they haven’t gone away.’ But there was none of that. It was, ‘Open doors. Go.’ ”
This is always the story of "harm reduction" and "lesser evil". It's seeking the maximum harm you can convince yourself is less than what you imagine. It's enacting ever worse evil because you imagine your opponent is worse.
I share this to say that the US's (and specifically Biden's) complicity and eager participation in genocide isn't new or unknown or surprising.
It's been openly reported in the most mainstream of media for 6 months and more -- by people with no idealism or illusions about how bad things are.
so i started playing de lol
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
Once again asking why there was a music festival at the edge of the world's largest open air prison where people were dancing and partying while people were being starved and imprisoned so close to them. How is that a "peaceful" festival.
Literally the one question no one has an answer to. Why were they there. Why did the Israeli government let them have a party there. Out of everywhere in "Israel", why did you have a party near the largest concentration camp as a citizen of an occupying nation.
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
The bombing is so intense, Gaza’s Civil Defense is unable to respond
The humanitarian situation is getting so much worse
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
Many, many individual reports are coming in of how violent this night has been.
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
Holy shit. The Israeli whistleblower story CNN just broke is insane. I cannot believe what I’m reading
Rare firsthand accounts by Israeli whistleblowers cast light on the horrific conditions in the Sde Teiman torture camp in Naqab Desert. Palestinians are stripped down, blindfolded, forced in diapers, and forbidden from speaking. They are subjected to beatings and mental degradation regularly. So much depravity that has gone unseen. Doctors performing procedures outside of their expertise, amputations due to zip-typing of abductees’ wrists, having large dogs unleashed on them at night. Being fed food through straws. I can’t believe it. I am truly in shock. And this is just one whistleblower accounting of this. Who knows what else is happening beyond our knowledge
My heart is breaking into a million pieces
Worth mentioning that multiple Palestinians have recounted these stories before, as direct victims detailing their experiences. What's unique about these accounts from CNN Israeli whistle-blower is that they're from an Israeli, therefore people are more likely to take this seriously.
This last bit is the most heartbreaking to me. There's so much unsaid between these words. I don't know how to describe this. There were videos a few months back of Palestinians saying "Wallah, we love life" (in arabic) as a way to convince people to help them survive. Imagine how they got to this point to say this.
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
I would like to emphasize the serious need for funds in Mahmoud Qassas' case. His brother in law has quadriplegic cerebral palsy and he needs medical attention RIGHT AWAY. For months they've been in tents unable to care for him properly and without regular access to the medical care he needs to survive but right now the Rafah invasion and the destruction of local hospitals has made it completely impossible to access. He is immunocompromised and even a minor illness can nearly kill him or even cause asphyxiation. They've had so many health scares with him and taking care of him in a tent with no medical equipment is a battle everyday.
Please help them get to Egypt so his brother in law can have the care he needs.
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
Here is EVERY deal Hamas has tried to strike with Israel. It was never about the hostages.
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
universities linking to mental health resources in their press releases about student encampments r so disgusting like they constantly pivot to “mental health” as the framework for presenting ideological conflict, people are “understandably upset” about “difficult topics” and then they link to suicide hotlines and social worker appointment schedules like the thing people opposing genocide and apartheid really need is a therapist. & I know this is nothing new like institutions use psychiatry as a tool of controlling and managing oppressed people everywhere but it’s just another reminder in a sea of a thousand reminders that HR offices are one of the frontline ghouls of this fucking death spiral of imperialism. all to protect the right to massacre children
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
Palestinian artist Haneen Nazzal, 2022. "A Palestinian independent visual artist focused on art's role in liberation movements and indigenous identity. Her multidisciplinary art practice combines illustration, calligraphy, animation, poster art, and experimental design. Through initiatives and collaborations with community organizations, she actively advocates for decolonization, social justice, and human rights, encouraging a proper understanding of the Palestinian cause."
بعد إحراق بلادي ورفاقي وترابي كيف لا تصبح أشعاري بنادق
_ من قصيدة ضد، للشاعر راشد حسين
After burning my country, my comrades, and my land / How can my poems not become rifles?
_From "Against", by Rashid Hussein
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
Izutsumi || Dungeon Meshi 1x19
aflamethatneverdies reblogged
"A third mass grave has been discovered in the ruins of Gaza's al-Shifa hospital, the largest medical complex in the Palestinian enclave.
At least 49 bodies have been recovered so far from the mass grave, the government media office in Gaza said on Wednesday.
'Government crews are still recovering more bodies until now,' it said. 'The exhumation operations have not finished, and we expect to find dozens of new bodies.'
Footage shared online by local journalists showed bodies being uncovered and examined by civil defence teams amid the wreckage of the medical facility, which has been ravaged by Israeli attacks.
Israeli forces withdrew from al-Shifa in early April, after a two-week seige that left the entire complex destroyed and piles of bodies in its wake."
8 May 24