https://abbys-blog.journoportfolio.comRSS Feed for Abby's BlogenMon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://justvision.org/boycott/watchOver the past six years, unbeknownst to most Americans, 36 states passed laws intending to silence boycotts and other nonviolent measures aimed at pressuring Israel on its human rights record. These dangerous bills remove the legal protection that has been awarded to boycotts for generations, granting governments the power to condition jobs on political viewpoints. As this wave of anti-boycott legislation has swept through the country, so has a counter-wave in defense of freedom of speech. Everyday Americans are challenging these laws for their constitutionality in a nation-wide battle likely to go all the way to the Supreme Court. With full access to the plaintiffs and in revelatory moments with elected officials, Boycott chronicles one of the most consequential First Amendment battles of the past few decades and investigates the question – how did we get here?Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://justvision.org/boycott/watchhttps://electronicintifada.net/content/history-will-record-israel-committed-holocaust/45006It’s 8 pm in Gaza, Palestine right now, the end of my fourth day in Rafah and the first moment I’ve had to sit in a quiet place to reflect. I’ve tried to take notes, photos, mental images, but this moment is too big for a notepad or my struggling memory. Nothing prepared me for what I would witness. Before I made it across the Rafah-Egypt border, I read every bit of news coming out of Gaza or about Gaza. I did not look away from any video or image posted from the ground, no matter how gruesomeWed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://electronicintifada.net/content/history-will-record-israel-committed-holocaust/45006https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP0XoovKE7kThe Right To Boycott is a 5 minute film that shows our freedom of speech hangs by a thread. Both red and blue states are passing bills that can cost people their jobs for refusing to give up their 1st Amendment right to boycott Israeli apartheid. Now the same kind of bills are being passed targeting environmentalists, gun control advocates, reproductive rights and LGBTQIA+ activists and more. It's a battle for our rights. Watch the film and spread the word. Inspired by Just Vision's feature documentary, Boycott: www.justvision.org/boycott Right To Boycott | Feb 27, 2024Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP0XoovKE7khttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/742510137044090880/were-being-starved-dispatch-from-gaza-city-as?source=shareMohammed R Mhawish | Gaza City | 5 Feb 2024 "I do not write of the struggle we are living to engender sorrow. Had sorrow moved people, we wouldn’t be where we are now. I outline our struggle because, at this point, we have either already been killed or are in the process of being killed slowly. We are appealing to the healthy ones, the ones with a bed to sleep on, the ones whose voices can be heard outside this slaughterhouse. I write to equip you with the knowledge of what humanity is undergoing. We the Palestinians of Gaza are being starved, are sleeping on the streets with no cover from air strikes. We are being denied our humanity by an army that continues to inflict some of the most painful and inhumane practices of war we know in our modern day. It’s time for the world to defy the abuses, to give regard to human life, to keep it simple and basic, like the needs we require to maintain breath."Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/742510137044090880/were-being-starved-dispatch-from-gaza-city-as?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/742511291191656448/mcdonalds-and-starbucks-blame-the-israel-hamas?source=shareAmelia Lucas | Feb 5 2024 "Shares of McDonald’s fell nearly 4% on Monday, after it reported that a sales slowdown in the Middle East contributed to its fourth-quarter revenue miss. Starbucks’ stock has fallen roughly 2% since Tuesday, when the company reported that the war dented its U.S. sales in the final three months of the year, too. [...] Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said Tuesday that the company’s sales in the Middle East struggled, but boycotts also hurt its U.S. cafes. The chain’s U.S. same-store sales rose 5% in its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, but foot traffic fell. The lag in U.S. foot traffic largely came from customers who only visited occasionally, according to Narasimhan. Starbucks is looking to revive demand by offering more targeted promotions and introducing new drinks."Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/742511291191656448/mcdonalds-and-starbucks-blame-the-israel-hamas?source=sharehttps://media.journoportfolio.com/users/377731/uploads/fe3617e8-bd30-4f57-a405-ce2c93409ce6.pdfWed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/377731/uploads/fe3617e8-bd30-4f57-a405-ce2c93409ce6.pdfhttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741788751685124096/how-the-news-cycle-misses-the-predominant-violence?source=shareAlexei Sisulu Abrahams | February 2, 2024 "I say kinetic violence for the sake of distinguishing it from its complementary concept of structural violence. Whereas bombings or shootings are examples of kinetic violence, structural violence is exemplified by walls, barbed wire fences, or systems of discriminatory laws. When a bomb goes off, it is a discrete event that can be reported or remarked upon. Structures of violence, by contrast, are continuous features that rend reality in two. To get a glimpse of what it means for Palestinians to be the victims of structural violence, we can turn to the great Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, who once wrote that “our lives are as a straight line that marches in shame and silence beside the line of our destiny; but the two lie parallel, and shall never meet.” To live in the shadow of a wall, or on the wrong side of a fence, or on the receiving end of a discriminatory system, is to live “in the presence of absence,” to be haunted by the ghost of one’s potential self — the person you would have become were it not for this wall, this fence, this law, this structure. In Kanafani’s telling, the life that Palestinians were meant to live haunts their every footstep. It runs parallel, and in full view of their imagination, a daily reminder and humiliation, next to which they trudge in silence and shame."Thu, 08 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741788751685124096/how-the-news-cycle-misses-the-predominant-violence?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741617222564429824/in-july-2009-a-few-months-after-my-original-bds?source=shareNaomi Klein "Reading BDS documents from the mid- and late 2000s, I am most struck by the extent to which the political and human terrain has deteriorated. In the intervening years, Israel has built more walls, erected more checkpoints, unleashed more illegal settlers and launched far deadlier wars. Everything has gotten worse: the vitriol, the rage, the righteousness. Clearly, impunity – the sense of imperviousness and untouchability that underpins Israel’s treatment of Palestinians – is not a static force. It behaves more like an oil spill: once released, it seeps outwards, poisoning everything and everyone in its path. It spreads wide and sinks in deep. Since the original call for BDS was made in July 2005, the number of settlers living illegally in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has exploded, reaching an estimated 700,000 – close to the number of Palestinians expelled in the 1948 Nakba. As settler outposts have expanded, so has the violence of settler attacks on Palestinians, all while the ideology of Jewish supremacy and even overt fascism have moved to the center of the political culture in Israel."Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741617222564429824/in-july-2009-a-few-months-after-my-original-bds?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741619268049829888?source=shareAl Jazeera | 24 January 2024 "625,000 children are out of school. At least 346 schools in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged. Israel has destroyed every university in the Gaza Strip. On January 17, the Israeli military detonated 315 mines to destroy the strip's last standing university, Israa University, south of Gaza City. At least 4,327 students have been killed; 7,819 others injured. At least 231 teachers and administrators have been killed; 756 others injured."Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741619268049829888?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741616540766568448/know-their-names-palestinian-children-killed-in?source=shareAl Jazeera "The Gaza Strip is a graveyard for thousands of children, the United Nations has said. Since October 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 10,000 children, according to Palestinian officials. That is one Palestinian child killed every 15 minutes, or about one out of every 100 children in the Gaza Strip. Thousands more are missing under the rubble, most of them presumed dead. The surviving children, who have endured the traumatic impact of multiple wars, have spent their lives under the shadow of an Israeli blockade, influencing every aspect of their existence from birth."Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741616540766568448/know-their-names-palestinian-children-killed-in?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741537859116367872/western-coverage-of-gaza-a-textbook-case-of?source=shareVidya Krishnan "In coloniser’s journalism, language is a weapon that is used to erase the humanity of the colonised. In The Wretched of the Earth, in which he analysed the dehumanising effects of colonisation, philosopher Frantz Fanon wrote of Algerian suffering (during France’s imperial conquest) as being depicted in media reports as “hordes of vital statistics” about “hysterical masses” with “children who seem to belong to nobody”. The book was written in 1961, but its inferences apply perfectly to the Western media coverage of Palestinian suffering today. This dehumanising use of language has been most visible in the counting of deaths. In early November, The Times of London noted, “Israelis marked a month since Hamas killed 1,400 people and kidnapped 240, starting a war in which 10,300 Palestinians are said to have died”. In Western news, Israelis die in active voice – Hamas “killed” or “murdered” them – while Palestinians die passively. They “dehydrate to death as clean water runs out” as the Guardian once put it, as if this is not a wilful crime against humanity but a random act of God."Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741537859116367872/western-coverage-of-gaza-a-textbook-case-of?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741539719536590848/incredible-work-from-the-palestine-institute-for?source=shareMon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741539719536590848/incredible-work-from-the-palestine-institute-for?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741540419621486592/ceasefirenow-call-for-lgbtqia2s-organizations?source=shareRand Jitan | Adalah Justice Project "After more than 100 days of watching this horrific genocide livestreamed onto our phones, some of the largest LGBTQ+ organizations in the United States have still not said a word. Nothing about a ceasefire, no statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people, no generic statement about ending the violence, nothing. Organizations like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC); Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD); The Trevor Project; Parents, Family & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) are among those who have said nothing about the current genocide their government is bankrolling.Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/741540419621486592/ceasefirenow-call-for-lgbtqia2s-organizations?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740434093068730368/pijorg-weaponizing-israeli-national-parks-as-a?source=shareMazin B. Qumsiyeh and Haidee Clauer "Israel (within historic Palestine) has 530 “nature reserves” and “national parks” (NPs) comprising 25% of its relatively small land. Beginning in 1964, Israel has designated these parks and reserves with increasing frequency – with 19 new designations in 2021, and 33 in 2022. For “nature reserves,” recent work demonstrates that many, if not a majority, were promoted by the Jewish National Fund for the sake of political control of contested Palestinian lands, even at the expense of natural or historic land preservation."Wed, 24 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740434093068730368/pijorg-weaponizing-israeli-national-parks-as-a?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740354481808703489/reminder-day-110-of-the-ongoing-and-now?source=shareMazin Qumsiyeh | 23 January 34 "Israel is still killing 200-300 civilians daily in Gaza (half of them children) and injures twice as many daily. People injured have very little medical care and die regularly of infested wounds or get their limbs amputated with kitchen knives without anesthesia (1100 children had their limbs amputated as such). Casualties (injured and killed) are now 3.2% of the 2.3 million population (equivalent to 11.2 million US victims). IsraTue, 23 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740354481808703489/reminder-day-110-of-the-ongoing-and-now?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740356560755245056/israels-right-to-tyranny?source=share"As a European-borne, nationalist-cum-settler-colonial project, Zionism was essentially conceived as an engine for Jews to replicate the path of Western nations in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In that context, statehood was not merely about embodying self-determination: it entailed the right to dispossess other peoples’ lands, deprive “inferior” subjects of civil liberties, and inflict monstrous violence aimed at erasing the unwanted society and its culture. (In Israel’s case, state-building was aided in no small part by the draconian apparatus left by its British predecessors in Palestine.) The permission to pursue belated colonialism is a fundamental bargain Israel has struck with its Western allies, who to this day see the Jewish state as a convenient remedy to “repent” for their antisemitic history and the crimes of the Holocaust. On the occasions Israel does face scrutiny, it simply reverts to the mantra of being “the world’s only Jewish state” — the code that reminds the West of the pact to condone Israel’s brutal behavior. From the 1948 Nakba, to its military rule since 1967, to its current onslaught in Gaza, Israel has grounded its tyranny in the same rationale: “The West had its turn — now it’s ours.”Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740356560755245056/israels-right-to-tyranny?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740365421444775936/law-for-palestine-releases-database-with-500?source=shareDropping a link to South Africa's 84-page list of evidence supporting their indictment of Israel. Free Palestine.Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/740365421444775936/law-for-palestine-releases-database-with-500?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739895489317797889/remember-that-the-children-depicted-by-this?source=shareRemember that the children depicted by this graphic are not numbers. Each and every one of them were human beings with hopes and dreams and friends and families who loved them. They felt love and fear and joy and anger. They are missed every single day.Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739895489317797889/remember-that-the-children-depicted-by-this?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739896831270666241/indigenous-african-americans-asians-arabs?source=shareIndigenous, African-Americans, Asians, Arabs, Muslims, Puerto Ricans… Thousands of protesters gather in Washington DC to demand an ‘immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza’. Organisers describe t…Thu, 18 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739896831270666241/indigenous-african-americans-asians-arabs?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739255924903067648/we-charge-genocide-support-the-south-african?source=share"From the very beginning, Israeli officials have made their genocidal intentions in Gaza clear. And in the three months since October 7, they’ve followed through on their promises, inflicting incomprehensible suffering on the over two million Palestinians trapped in Gaza. Now, South Africa is charging Israel with genocide in Gaza, bringing its case to the International Court of Justice, the court of the United Nations. Hearings in the Hague began today, and will continue in the next week to determine immediate provisional measures. And in the U.S., the Center for Constitutional Rights is suing President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Secretary Austin for abetting Israel’s “genocide of the Palestinian people.” In this Wire, we’ll explain that Israel is committing genocide — and why Israel’s prosecution under international law matters for our movement as Jews for Palestinian freedom."Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739255924903067648/we-charge-genocide-support-the-south-african?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739265537794818048/the-cats-of-gaza-or-why-nakba-is-a-multispecies?source=shareAllegra Lab "What the cats of Gaza teach us is that Palestine’s trauma is a multispecies trauma. They do not teach us that Palestinians are human, too, for that is an iteration that continues to define the human against something that it is not, something that will always be excluded and abject and therefore excisable. Palestinians and their cats I think are so compelling to many of us because they challenge liberal understandings of humanity and expose them to be colonial ways of defining the world, personhood, and imaginings of freedom. “Humanity” will never lead us to a universal justice and peace. The ongoing Nakba since 1948 is a structure of violence that attacks all life—and therefore Palestinian multispecies world-making is central to resisting this occupation. In our support for Palestinian life, then, perhaps we should stop appealing to humanity and to proving who is human enough to live—what would our forms of resistance and fights against occupation look like if we abandoned the idea of shared humanity and centered radical multispecies kinship instead?"Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/thatsgoodweather/739265537794818048/the-cats-of-gaza-or-why-nakba-is-a-multispecies?source=sharehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCh043-gLIMWater is one of the most precious resources in Israel and the Palestinian territories. But there is a stark imbalance in how this resource is distributed. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli-owned farms are flourishing, while Palestinians often do not have enough water to drink. And in Gaza, Palestinians are facing deadly levels of water shortage. Josh Toussaint-Strauss examines how Israel took control of the region's water supply and created a deadly scarcity crisis for Palestinians. The Guardian | 23 November 2023Thu, 23 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCh043-gLIMhttps://www.tumblr.com/sidebee-hive/733445761093844992?source=shareAl Jazeera More than 300 Ukrainian scholars, activists and artists express their solidarity with Palestinians in an open letter.Wed, 08 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000https://www.tumblr.com/sidebee-hive/733445761093844992?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/nerdygaymormon/725775225171689473?source=share12% of people regret getting a tattoo. Up to 20% of people regret their knee replacement. 21% of people regret their corrective spinal surgery. The regret rate across all surgeries is about 14%. 10% of people regret having children. 52% of people regret taking out student loans.Tue, 15 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0100https://www.tumblr.com/nerdygaymormon/725775225171689473?source=sharehttps://www.tumblr.com/depsidase/681028833479131136?source=shareMon, 08 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0100https://www.tumblr.com/depsidase/681028833479131136?source=share