Omg guys can we get the rare goldie pull?!!!!?!!

wait ok this is actually one that has caused some contention before when I've talked to people about it. reblog and tag whether or not you check the weather prediction every day before going out

An unused colossus from Shadow of the Colossus called Spider

[ID: drawings of a golem animated by a palestinian flag painted on its forehead. it is seen: holding out its arms protectively in front of a crowd of children, the children also hold each other supportively; catching an air strike missile from the air and throwing it away or crushing it in its fist; turning its back so that a child can warm her hands by the earth oven built into its back, food in a pot is cooking on the fire and a boy holds a cup of steaming tea to his face and enjoys the aroma; clearing away rubble so a man can help up his wife who was buried underneath, she is clutching a baby to her chest; stooping down to look at a kitten a young boy is holding up to show it; and dissolving small flakes of clay from its finger into a glass of water, purifying it. end ID]

@fairuzfan asked people to create and share art for the strike. i wrote an artist statement and then set about trying to draw what i envisioned. artist statement below.

This golem is a protector that I wish I could gift to the children and adults in Gaza. The flag on its forehead is to show that love for the Palestinian people is an animating force for people fighting for a free Palestine all over the world, especially for those in Palestine who are trying to free themselves and their people. Love is the motivation for the call for a free Palestine, not hatred like people try to claim. It is very strong and fast and can catch air strikes out of midair and crush them to dust or throw them back in the direction they came from. It can lift all the rubble of a collapsed building very quickly so nobody can get trapped underneath. It has an earth oven in its back with an ever-burning flame that people can use to warm themselves and cook food and heat water to use to bathe themselves or make tea. Pieces of its clay can be crumbled up and mixed into water to make even the most brackish and unclean water pure and safe to drink.

The golem is always a bit of a tragic figure so I don't imagine it staying around forever once Palestine is free and it is no longer needed. I think it would use its great strength to help rebuild the destroyed houses, churches, schools, universities, hospitals, and mosques and then dive into the Jordan river and dissolve. It would clean the river of all pollution and make the water splash up over all the newly replanted fruit trees, causing them to grow big and strong. Its love for Palestine and its people can be tasted in the fruit they grow for generations.

I choose a specifically Jewish icon of protection because of how it feels to witness such horrors done in the supposed name of Judaism and the Jewish people. For many anti-zionist Jews, we feel like we are acting directly within the teachings of our stories and communities by opposing this genocide. It is difficult to understand how the very people and institutions who taught us these values now fight against them so fiercely. While obviously I would still oppose Israel were I not Jewish, the way I oppose Israel is directly informed by my Jewishness. I hope that someday, somehow, Judaism can bring as much joy and support to the Palestinian people as it has brought grief and destruction. That Jewish symbols used in the name of love and justice will bear more significance than the ones used in shows of hatred. Knowing the depth of the harm caused, I do not know if this is possible. But this artwork and everything I have dedicated myself to these past few months and continue to dedicate myself to in the future is born from this hope. I love you. Thank you for being on this planet with me. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! And it will be beautiful.

By the way y’all, as of today at around 8am EST, Bisan has posted about extending the strike to tomorrow because that’s when the UN General Assembly will be voting on a ceasefire.

i....found a rare shoegaze tape. legit. band does not exist online. tape is at least 20 years old. This is so Sam

rare tape.

ok ok....track for you from rare tape. ripped by me

I HAVE SOURCED MORE INFO!!!! from my friend who works at an nz audio archive and they HAVE THE TAPE THERE? COVER:

Final info ive put together after i have just looked over the insert notes (inside the other tape) sent to me by my friend:

This band had Steven Wells and Andrew Bain in it - they went on to be in a pretty popular NZ rock band called Fur Patrol from late 90s-2000s, so this is a precursor to that. in the notes they also thank Campbell Kneale, a prolific underground nz musician in bands like Birchville Cat Motel and Black Boned Angel. they also thank "Drinkwater".

alright everyone. after 33k+ notes on an obscure 90s indie song from Aotearoa i gotta admit many want to hear the rest, & as i cant think of a better format to supply this, here's the rest of the tape in this post. please let it stay here where it needs to be, don't spread it like its yours. its not mine either! i now present to you: Clayflower - Still (1993, Aotearoa, Cassette, Shoegaze/Indie Rock)

beautiful and cool obscure music like this is everywhere if you just wanna look for it even for a few minutes. dont let yourself think someone has to come along and show it to you <3

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:

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.

A Palestinian boy throws a rock during the first intifada

His name is Ramzi Abu Redwan. During the time the picture was taken he was 8 years old. Today he is 36 and has become a world-class solo musician and composer, playing the Oud, Buzuq, Violin and Viola. 

He was discovered by a Palestinian musician who recognized his natural talent at the viola, and later received a scholarship to study at a conservatory in France. He could have stayed there and lived a comfortable life in Paris, but instead, he chose to return home and give back the gift of music by openning music schools in Palestinian towns and refugee camps.

he’s got a spotify btw!! if you’ve never heard a oud, i def encourage listening to his work. it’s a beautiful instrument from a beautiful people ❤🖤🤍💚

here’s my personal fave of what i’ve heard so far from his top 5

Omar Bartov, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, who has been for a while saying "it could be genocide and there's genocidal intent" but has been holding off on outright calling it a genocide for a while now like raz segal has. seems to be changing his mind.

I'm so done with the claim that this is "ethnic cleansing" but stops short of genocide

the fact that "genocide" was coined by a genocide survivor while "ethnic cleansing" was coined by a genocide perpetrator says it all imo

This is an incredibly sad thing to share but I feel like I have to. I’m not a defeatist but I don’t want to downplay the human toll, either.

I’d have to look up some words (it’s not in dialect) or have some help from someone better at this than me to do a better and more direct translation, but the gist of what Motaz is saying is that the pause has ended and it’s about survival now. He’s been transferred(? Moved around?) through all of it and he swears he’s done what he could in service of his country. He lives now in a new period of internal siege; there’s no escape from any direction. He is surrounded by Israeli tanks in central Gaza in a tragedy beyond imagination. He wants us to remember that Palestinians are not content to be consumed, they’re a people being murdered and a cause to protect from erasure…he ends with an expression of loneliness and abandonment and that’s why I can’t not share this. Those of us who are physically safe need to stay steadfast and keep pushing.

Thank you @masriyyah

[1st id: a black and white photo of Motaz Azaiza with english and arabic text overlaid onto it. the english text reads "Its about life or death now. I did what i could. We are surrounded by israeli tanks". the arabic text is translated in the text of the post, and more directly in the 2nd id.]

[2nd id: translation of the arabic text in the first image by @/masriyyah. "Hello. The phase of taking risks to photograph the situation has ended and now the phase of survival has begun. I have documented more than enough and I bear witness to God that it was for him and for the sake of my country.

We are living now in the start of an internal siege. We can't leave whether from the North or the South, the Israeli tanks have surrounded the middle area from the north and south. Our situation now is an unimaginable tragedy.

Remember that we are not merely content to be shared, we are a people slaughtered and a case trying not to be erased from existence. Oh, how alone we are." end id.]

I think it’s right to emphasize that Palestinian men don’t deserve this and it’s also right to rally around Palestinian children, children being the most vulnerable members of any society and also being half of Gaza’s population

Like particularly in the case of Palestine. The idea that we, Palestinian adults, are uniquely hateful towards Palestinian children, and that Palestinian children come out of the womb clamoring for blood, is pretty integral to how Palestinians are dehumanized. Israeli politicians from Golda Meir to Ayelet Shaked have said as much, and Palestinian children are the only group of children in the world to be tried in military courts.

I think maybe the fact that a group of Palestinian kids sheltering in a hospital held a makeshift press conference in English and the gist of it was “can you please stop letting us get killed? We want to go to school” was forgotten a bit too fast

I know most of you have seen the videos of "Gaza before October 7" and it shows the beautiful sunsets, horses, gorgeous beaches of Gaza

It makes total sense that these videos are made by Palestinian living in Gaza

But it is suuuuuuper weird to blindly repost these without really acknowledging the enormous shadow looming over each of these wholesome, colourful clips

In the background of these clips is a population of 2.2 million, 1.7 million of whom are refugees, crammed in one of the most densely populated areas globally, often described as an open air prison

The same area has been placed under a brutal siege by Israel since 2007

This siege means that no one/nothing can enter or leave Gaza without obtaining permission from Israel which they more often than not deny.

This resulted in over 60% of the population are food insecure as Israel controls all the food that enters Gaza, placing the whole population on a controlled diet.

In turn, 80% of the population depends on humanitarian assistance.

This also meant that over 80% of people in Gaza live below the poverty line with ~50% unemployment rate.

When it comes to water and electricity, 97% of Gaza's water is unfit for human consumption and Gaza receives only 30% of its needed electricity.

On top of that, as part of the siege, people who need treatment outside of Gaza are usually denied permits by Israel and are left to die under siege.

So clearly Israel didn't begin bombing Gaza in October 2023, rather this can only be described as an acceleration of its ongoing violence and bombardment of the besieged strip, not to mention its regular shooting of fishermen at sea as another arbitrary act of violence against the besieged civilian population of Gaza.

Yes, Gaza is beautiful despite everything and it will be most beautiful in the eyes of its residents. But we (us, you and me who aren't in Gaza) should be smarter than to just repost "Gaza before October 7" without any additional context, furthering the assumption that the history of the Palestinian struggle started on October 7.

A boy enjoys the sun atop a donkey grazing in a field in the northern Gaza Strip on April 29, 2015. (Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Corbis)