today, may 15th 2021, marks 73rd year since al nakba, or “the catastrophe”, the 1948 forced expulsion of 750,000 palestinians from their homes in order to establish the state of israel. the nakba is ongoing and has not ended. at the moment, israel is committing massacres, war crimes and an active genocide of palestinians.
30+ families are facing forced displacement by israeli forces in the neighborhood of sheikh jarrah in east jerusalem. their houses are to be taken over by colonial settler organizations. [x]
gaza is being bombed actively in illegal attacks and that has been going on for six days. the number of victims is as of right now, evening of may 15th, 145 martyrs, including 40 children. israel dropped phosphorous bombs on unarmed palestinian civilians. white phosphorous is specifically internationally prohibited to use on civilians because it can melt skin and penetrate to your bones. white phosphorus burns are slow, agonizing, can cause organ failure. if you don’t die, you’ll live with holes in your skin for the rest of your life. this is a literal war crime.
pogroms are going on. israeli settlers and israeli police are going door-to-door in palestinian homes, breaking in, beating, kidnapping, burning, shooting every palestinian in sight. they are marking palestinian houses to attack at night.
words are not enough to convey the horror of what’s going on. IDF soldiers detaining sedated palestinian children are joking about selling them. israel bombed an orphanage. a palestinian father found out about his four children being killed by an israeli missile in gaza. a baby was the only survivor of an attack on his family’s house. a guy reporting casualties in a hospital in gaza ended up finding the dead bodies of two of his siblings. and more. watch these videos. see the atrocities palestinians endure with your own eyes.
palestinians have specifically asked for social media activism and coverage. israel cares deeply for their international image: they pay students to defend them online, an israeli airstrike destroyed the al jazeera office in gaza which also houses the AP and other media outlets. consistency in your online activism is essential. sharing videos and posts and photos posted by people in palestine of everything that is happening is essential. israel wants a media blackout. posts about sheikh jarrah are being censored, people have been losing internet in protest sites in the West Bank, there is a threat to israeli bombardment to the main transmission tower for internet services in gaza. by being constantly and consistently vocal, you are aiding more than you think.
the situation is not “complicated”. there is no “two sides” to take into account or whatever bs zionists are trying to feed you. on one side there are colonizers, settlers, protected by an iron dome and bomb shelters that look like hotel rooms, and on another a dispossessed people who are being pulled out from under the rubble because they do not have anywhere to hide from the bombs that are raining down on them. on one side you have people going to the beach and to brunch while crying to the media about the inconvenience they have to endure, and on another you have people who are defenseless, have nowhere to run, don’t have a roof over their head, who are going through a clean water shortage are being bombed a few feet away from those same settlers. israel has killed more people in gaza the past 24 hours than hamas rockets have killed in the past 20 years.
while boosting palestinian voices and sharing every kind of content you see capturing what is happening in palestine specifically from palestinians, please take this time to learn more about palestine, and more on how to help:
decolonize palestine is a website created by palestinians to debunk myths, explain history, answer FAQs, etc. please read thoroughly through it.
support the bds (boycott, divest, and sanctions) movement: an explanation of what it is and the official site to learn more. for example: ben & jerry’s is a company to boycott, as they actively support apartheid, and profit from sales in israeli settlements. also, in 2014, when israel killed so many palestinians it ran out of morgue space, they used ben & jerry’s ice cream freezers to store their bodies.
demand your trade unions to endorse bds.
protest israeli terror. a lot of protest are happening today on the occasion of the nakba.
if you are american, call your local state reps. demand they end all aid to israel. america gives 3.8 billion dollars each year to israel.
demand your governments to stop arming israel. materially challenge the ability of the occupation to continue attacks on palestinians. for example, today in livorno, italy, dockers refused to load weapons on ship destined to israel.
if your city is doing police exchanges with the IOF, demand they stop.
donate to the palestinian children’s relief fund, which provides free medical care and humanitarian aid to youth in palestine.
share the meal is an app made by the wfp and they currently have a campaign going on for families in palestine. a meal costs less than a dollar. please donate if you can.
center palestinian voices. muhammed el kurd (@/m7mdkurd on twitter and @/mohammedelkurd on instagram) from sheikh jarrah has been the main spokesperson of this violent dispossession on various media outlets. please watch his interviews and listen to what he has to say. here’s a twitter list to follow for live updates about palestine and the occupation’s crimes. please follow it. this post is only a general overview of everything that went on the past few days, it’s nowhere near enough to be informed.)
as someone who’s been involved in all kinds of pro-palestinian, anti-zionist activism for as long as i can remember, i don’t want to be too hopeful, but it feels different now. all israeli propaganda is collapsing. their narrative is not sticking anymore. people are becoming aware of its genocidal reality. please use your social capital and voice and keep doing so consistently.
