Dispatch #145 White Lesbian Age 72 Considers Israel’s Exploitation of Fear to Justify Genocide and Use of Terror and Torture to Crush Resistance.

July 16th 2024     1273 Days Since Inauguration of First Woman Vice-President

111 Days Until 2024 Presidential Elections 11/5/2024

752 Days Since SCOTUS Ruled American Women Don’t Have Human Rights

284 Days Since Israel Began Genocidal Assault on Palestinians in Gaza

Fear is a powerful weapon. When expertly exploited to promote aggression and hatred in service of “safety,” fear will overcome reason and destroy one’s humanity.  

What really happened at college campuses according to Jewish students.  Students described scenes of camaraderie, faith, and community building; and said the media took their cues from administrators and pro-Israel group. Azad Essa June 20, 2024 Middle East Eye 

It was mid-March and the death toll from Israel's war on Gaza was continuing to spiral.   Watching the horrors unfold in real-time, David Rosenburg*, a 19-year-old student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, was angry and frustrated that Israeli forces, supported by the United States and other western powers, were carrying out widespread atrocities in Gaza as part of a supposedly "justified" response to the 7 October attacks on southern Israel. Determined to not be a bystander, Rosenburg began to organise against the war on campus. He also read voraciously about the region. Whilst reading Frantz Fanon's seminal book, A Dying Colonialism, about the Algerian revolutionary war against the French, he came across a statement by a group of Jews from the Algerian city of Constantine that finally addressed an unanswered question. The group said they would commit themselves to resisting the French because they knew of the history of co-existence between Muslims and Jews in Algeria prior to colonialism and understood that Europe, with its long history of antisemitism, was no friend of theirs.  Rosenburg said the quote perfectly addressed what he had been thinking and wondering for months: the concept of Jewish safety.  It made him realise that when it came to Jewish safety, it was not going to be found with Israel, a state built on ethnic cleansing or the subjugation of another people.

Lin, the Jewish organiser from UCLA, recalled her time as a 16-year-old organising for Aipac and their fear-based method to garner commitment to Israel, and compared it to the motivation for struggling for the liberation of Palestine. "This movement is not based on fear. It is based on a deep care for people. A deep, deep commitment to build a world we want to live in," Lin said. "The encampment was an example of that. We made that world," Lin added.

Similarly, Alwan, the Palestinian organiser from Columbia University, said that despite the students being accused of creating "unsafe spaces" and "disrupting" university life, for many who were brave enough to take part in the encampments itself, it allowed them to see glimpses of the past and the future. "My friends tell me about conversations they had with their grandparents where they cannot fathom that their grand kids could envision a world where Jewish safety no longer comes at the expense of Palestinian lives and freedom and I would say that we have lived that within the micro-worlds of the encampments, where Jewish students would cover the praying Muslims to protect them from harassment and then organise an interfaith Seder or Shabbat celebration," Alwan said. "My Jewish friends have been so integral to this fight that I cannot imagine a free Palestine without them living side by side with us, in the same way that my grandparents told me they used to be friends and neighbours with Jews before the violent Zionist project was realised."  https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/us-jewish-students-led-encampments-solidarity-gaza-palestine 

The New Desaparecidos: Israel and the Enforced Disappearance of Palestinians from Gaza. Inaam Adib Barkouk July 7, 2024 Middle East Monitor

Israel has used all means to target Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in addition to internationally prohibited weapons that wiped out people, trees and stones, Israeli forces have randomly arrested thousands of civilians including women and children, doctors, journalists from different areas of the Strip during the ground military operations since the beginning of the war. And the violations did not stop there, as they turned into enforced disappearances, with families left with no information about the fate of their loved ones. 

It is a strategic method that dates back centuries and was a feature of dictatorships in Latin America and is used in wars to spread terror in society as a whole, but Israel claims it is arresting fighters or people connected to Hamas to investigate them. This is false. Israel’s first and primary goal is to violate the civil rights of Palestinian civilians and deliberately humiliate them, and undermine their freedom in a manner that violates humanitarian and legal standards. This is what was revealed in the testimonies of released Palestinian detainees from Gaza Strip, who spoke of the horrors of their detention and of systematic torture based on preventing them from food and drink, and subjecting them to insults and other abuses which constitute a violation of international laws. 

Israel’s second goal is to psychologically torture the families of the detainees, who are left with no details of the fate of their children after their arrest. Enforced disappearance causes anxiety and despair to the families of those detained and increases their suffering.

https://www.juancole.com/2024/07/desaparecidos-disappearance-palestinians.html 

Courtesy of the US, Israel sees no bounds in executing its campaign of genocide and terror in Gaza. Countries and communities continue to watch the unfathomable suffering of the Palestinians, likely understanding that a moral compass of humanity is breaking.  If a country can kill trapped and defenseless human beings at will, then no one is safe.

Israel bombs without warning Palestinians camping in Al Mawasi, an Israeli-designated safe areas, and then bombs the ambulances and civil defense people coming to the rescue.  Israel massacres 90+ Palestinians purportedly to kill one Hamas official, wounding 300 many of whom will die from their wounds due to decimated healthcare system.   

Evidence indicates that Israel again used a 2,000lb bomb – aka bunker buster – against Palestinians in tents in the sand. The kill zone -- aka lethal radius -- for such a bomb is up to 360 meters or 400 yards – 4 football fields. The blast waves of such a weapon can create a very great concussive effect; a 2,000lb bomb can be expected to cause severe injury and damage as far as 800 meters – more than 8 football fields -- in all directions from the point of impact.

They Were Told They Were in a Safe Area. Then Came the Missiles. www.nytimes.com/2024/07/15/world/middleeast/israel-hamas-strike-gaza-al-mawasi.html 

Israel Struck Twice in Its Attack on Al-Mawasi, Videos and Photos Show www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/world/middleeast/israel-mawasi-strike-vehicles.html 

Israel kills at least 90 Palestinians in Gaza "safe zone” https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israel-kills-least-90-palestinians-gaza-safe-zone  

Slaughter in a “safe zone”  Razan Abu Salem 16 July 2024 https://electronicintifada.net/content/slaughter-safe-zone/47756 

Death toll from Israeli attack on displaced people in Al-Mawasi rises to 90, half of them women, children, with 300 others injured: Gaza Health Ministry www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240712-is-israel-a-real-partner-for-peace-in-gaza/ 

90 Palestinians killed in Israeli 'massacres' in Khan Younis and Gaza City www.middleeasteye.net/live/gaza-live-israel-orders-evacuation-ahli-hospital