After an IDF sniper from Chicago kills an unarmed civilian in Gaza, he then snipes and kills his unarmed younger brother trying to retrieve his brother's body. US-funded serial killer from Chicago says: "I mean, what was so important about that corpse?"
an attached screenshot reads: Daniel Raab shows no hesitation as he watches footage of 19-year-old Salem Doghmosh crumpling to the ground beside his brother in a street in northern Gaza.
"That was my first elimination," he says. The video, shot by a drone, lasts just a few seconds. The Palestinian teenager appears to be unarmed when he is shot in the head.
Raab, a former varsity basketball player from a Chicago suburb who became an Israeli sniper, concedes he knew that. He says he shot Salem simply because he tried to retrieve the body of his beloved older brother Mohammed.
"It's hard for me to understand why he [did that] and it also doesn't really interest me," Raab says in a video interview posted on X. "I mean, what was so important about that corpse?"
"a former varsity basketball player from a Chicago suburb".
USians travel thousand of kilometres to go terrorise Palestinians, and people still have the temerity to wonder why the resistance fighters had to fight.
When is a dead human a crime - and when is it archaeology?
Inspired by @rainneondecay thanks for asking!
Edit: written from the 21th century POV of a Western European field archaeologist.
Thereâs no real set of rules or standards or⊠but there is logic. And a seriously long post coming up. Ready? Set? Go!
First of all, archaeology is reading the remains of human activity within the soil. If you can read it from a book or⊠you know⊠ask someone, than itâs not really archaeology. You need to kinda be dead long enough to become archaeology. The people/institute who were alive with you/responsible for you have to be gone long enough and there should only be a skeleton left of you. Archaeologists will never use the word âcorpseâ. Only âhuman remainsâ. Because thatâs what you need to be. Just bones and additional grave goods. No soft tissue apart from maybe hair and the utmost rarity of mummies.
A human becomes archaeology based on three things: place, date and context.
1) place. if you dig in a (former) church yard: bodies overload. Itâs no surprise to find any human remains there. If you dig a Roman house, not so likely to find any remains there. But medieval people are weird and police are not stupid. When they come and look at the bones, theyâll confirm itâs old and we can continue
2) date. We look for any clues that tell us that a body is old. Sand is too acidic and eats your calcium build bones. If the bones are in super bad shape, it means the body has been there for at least centuries. Grave finds such as jewelry and dress elements provide us with datable evidence for when a person died. The grave filling is important too. If itâs compacted and light in color, itâs quit old already. If itâs loose and the finds are recent and ⊠bodies donât decay that that fast⊠itâs recent. And we for sure need police.
3) context. This is such an important one. People luckily donât commit deadly crimes left, right and centre. But crimes committed in the past can reach archaeologists. Medieval people who committed crimes were buried on their stomachs. People who are not baptized are buried outside of church grounds. Thereâs plagues and war. You want those dead people as far away from your village as possible. Kind of a positive that victims of those kind of events are not just a single person but rather a bunch all at once.
When does it become dodgy? Starting from WW1 and even more so WWII because we didnât do a lot of nice things to each other back than. Thereâs colonialism and racial segregation. You can do archaeology on them, but thereâs still people who you can take accountable for. Nunneries and red light districts are also kind of creapy because both institutions were notorious for getting rid of unwanted children. Christian institutions/beliefs are guilty of a looooot of crimes towards humanity. And Christian power has only been decreasing since veeeeeeery recently.
On a more positive note, people are usually nice enough to give no matter who a burial. And usually they will do it in or near a place where other people have been burying people since ages. Thereâs Frankish graves around Bronze Age burial mounts. Thatâs a time span between 3000 BC and 1000 AD. Than we had church yards and Muslim and Jewish graveyards where we as humans took the time and effort to dig identifiable graves. Thatâs actually beautiful when you think about it.
My empathy is wack so I think I can handle it probably. Obviously I'll feel bad about what happened but I think I can handle most topics.
okay so. tw for massacres and artificial famine. answer will be under the cut
okay so. first of all there's a Wikipedia page about list of massacres in India. you can go to the colonial India section and look.
in particular, i want to draw your attention to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. I'll copy paste the introduction from Wikipedia here.
"The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large, peaceful crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, to protest the Rowlatt Act and arrest of pro-independence activists Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal. In response to the public gathering, the temporary brigadier general R. E. H. Dyer, surrounded the protesters with his Gurkha, Baloch, Rajput and Sikh troops from 2-9th Gurkhas, the 54th Sikhs and the 59th Scinde Rifles of the British Indian Army.[4] The Jallianwala Bagh could only be exited on one side, as its other three sides were enclosed by buildings. After blocking the exit with his troops, he ordered them to shoot at the crowd, continuing to fire even as the protestors tried to flee. The troops kept on firing until their ammunition was exhausted.[5] Estimates of those killed vary from 379 to 1,500 or more people[1] and over 1,200 other people were injured of whom 192 were seriously injured.[6][7]"
this was like the turning point for Indian Independence movement. the sheer cruelty of the British soldiers at a peaceful gathering shocked the colonial world at that time. the perpetrator, General Dyer, was dismissed from service after this. no other punishment. none. in fact, wait!
this is what he got for massacring over a thousand unarmed people. yeah.
And this is just one incident. one incident of colonial British cruelty upon Indians because we were inferior to them.
oh, I haven't talked of the Bengal famine right?
quoting this article here:
"Policy lapses such as prioritising distribution of vital supplies to the military, civil services and others as well as stopping rice imports and not declaring Bengal famine hit were among the factors that led to the magnitude of the tragedy, historians have maintained."
again, towards the end,
"According to experts, following the Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942, rice imports stopped, and Bengal's market supplies and transport systems were disrupted. The British government also prioritised distribution of vital supplies to the military, civil servants and other "priority classes".
The policy failures began with the provincial government's denial that a famine existed. Humanitarian aid was ineffective through the worst months of the food crisis, and the government never formally declared a state of famine.
It first attempted to influence the price of rice, but these measures created a black market and encouraged sellers to withhold stocks."
so they literally caused a famine in Bengal. my home area. which caused the death of about 1-4 million people. i kid you not
And this does not even scratch the surface of what went on in colonial India
This is. not even 1% of what the British did to colonial India
they never teach you these things because they don't want you people to know the atrocities they'd committed in the past. they just want to paint the picture of a proud nation. no hate to you btw im just a bit mad that they do not teach y'all whatever wrong things they did to other countries. sigh
In recent weeks, the renowned author and academic Siddharth Kara released his latest book, Cobalt Red: How the Congo Powers our Lives. The book sheds light on the labor conditions and living standards in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where cobalt mining is prevalent. Cobalt is a crucial metal in the global energy transition, and the book argues that Western consumers who use products containing Congolese cobalt are complicit in a human rights and environmental catastrophe.
Commenting on the book's wide readership in the West, journalist Howard French once said, "It allows us, meaning the general public [in the US], to become interested in Africa in ways that respond to some pre-existing notions we have of Africa. That Africa should be a certain kind of way. That Africa should provide an escalating sense of horror in order to get us interested in it."
True to French's opinion, the book has garnered widespread attention in America and Europe, quickly becoming a bestseller and receiving accolades from numerous publications. Kara has even been invited to speak about the book on a popular podcast. However, the book's popularity stems from its ability to tap into pre-existing Western perceptions of Africa. Cobalt Red employs vivid language and imagery to evoke sympathy for the Congolese people.
Unfortunately, the book follows a well-worn narrative of Western writers traveling to Africa to tell stories that paint the continent as a place of suffering and despair. This narrative also perpetuates the idea that the Western world is the only hope for Africa. This is a grossly unfair portrayal of Africa, as the continent is not helpless and does not need saving by the West.
While Cobalt Red has brought much-needed attention to the plight of cobalt miners in the Congo, it is crucial to remember that Africa is not a continent in need of rescue by the West. We must be mindful of falling into the trap of viewing Africa solely through a lens of suffering and despair.
Nothing New, History Repeating Itself
Kara's story follows the same pattern as the conflict minerals playbook from the 2000s, which did not end well. Christoph Vogel's Conflict Minerals Inc. delves into the multiple drivers of violence in the Congo, unlike the simplistic single narratives that Western advocacy on "conflict minerals" relied on. These colonial frames led to policies that perpetuated structural violence, and the crude misrepresentation of conflict in the eastern Congo as being driven by greedy warlords trying to access minerals fed into equally blunt policies that harmed many of the people they sought to support.
However, the reality was that mining was the largest employer in the region after agriculture, and for all the mine sites with links to conflict financing, there were just as many without such links. These mines provided a vital source of income to hundreds of thousands of workers and their households, often at a wage level higher than available alternatives and in a context of widespread local unemployment. Unfortunately, these nuances did not fit into stereotypical Western stories or the simplistic campaign against conflict minerals, which drove down demand for eastern Congolese minerals. The impact of this on people in the region was severe, sustained, and widespread. Meanwhile, the conflict itself continued unabated, making international headlines in recent months with the resurgence of M23.
It is crucial to understand local mining in the Congo as Wainaina's landscape in which people laugh, struggle, and make do in usually mundane circumstances, rather than Kara's "grim wasteland of utter ruin." Otherwise, history will repeat itself, and the impact on people in the region will be severe, sustained, and widespread. Western tech and electric vehicle companies always put their faith in foreign-owned industrial mines or dubious mineral traceability and certification schemes to secure Congolese cobalt, which only soothes their consciences.
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A three day mass killing of 27,000 people in Darfur is one of the deadliest 72 hour massacres recorded since the Second World War, comparable only to Babi Yar and the most intense days of the Rwandan genocide.
BOYCOTT THE UAE.
According to Adalah and confirmed by the Embassy of Brazil in Israel, flotilla activists Thiago de Avila and Saif Abukeshek, kidnapped by Israeli occupation naval forces in international waters on April 30, have been beaten, blindfolded, held in stress positions, and interrogated by Shin Bet.
De Avila lost consciousness twice and faces possible Mossad interrogation on "terrorist" suspicion. Both are on hunger strike and are due in court on May 3.
Sudan Doctors Network: 10 civilians, including five women from the same family, were killed after their vehicle was allegedly struck by a drone on the Export Road west of Omdurman while they were traveling to attend a wedding. According to the network, the vehicle caught fire, killing everyone on board. The network accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of carrying out the attack, describing the targeting of civilians and civilian vehicles as a violation of international humanitarian law. It further claimed that the strike was deliberate and carried out using a guided drone. The Sudan Doctors Network called on international organizations to intervene and pressure the RSF leadership to stop what it described as the deliberate targeting of civilians. The claims have not been independently verified, and there has been no immediate comment from the RSF regarding the allegations.
Meanwhile, in Brasil, according to a member of Parliament, the colonialists in Palestine are threatening Thiago with killing his family.
Glauber had contact with Lara, wife of @thiagoavilabr.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) informed Parliamentarian @Glauber_Braga (PSOL-RJ) that the State of Israel is threatening to assassinate the entire family of Brazilian activist @thiagoavilabr, kidnapped by the Mossad while he was traveling in Greece, under the pretext of âeliminating terrorismâ! According to the Brazilian Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israeli authorities showed Thiago photos of spies depicting the places most frequented by his family members
The new fact reported now by @Glauber_Braga is extremely serious. The family of Brazilian Thiago Ãvila is being subjected to threats that go beyond any limit. Israeli soldiers are showing, IN REAL TIME, photos and videos of his family â wife, daughter, and other close people â while stating that they can kill them at any moment. Do you grasp the magnitude of what this means? This is not just psychological violence. This is a brutal form of intimidation that affects not only the detainee but his entire family. It is a level of perversity that exposes the type of practice being adopted. Until when? Until when will a State feel authorized to threaten the lives of Brazilian citizens in this way? Until when will this be treated as something normalized in the international arena? And here comes a fundamental question: what is the limit of criticism? @tabataamaralsp , until when will projects and speeches try to frame or criminalize precisely this type of denunciation? Because that's what we're talking about: denouncing extremely serious human rights violations. If this type of denunciation is silenced, what will be left? Silence in the face of absurdity has never been an option.
