how much ethnic cleansing was occurring on October six? Zero posters to this topic have been able to answer that question.
Just as you've refused to answer the question of when and how many dead Palestinians will quench the blood lust of Israel. Up to 28,858 with 70% women and children. But you know, Hamas.
That’s not an answer to the question.if Oct 7 didn’t happen, those unfortunate souls are likely alive today.
Israelis can vote out Netanyahu. I hope they do. Palestinians can’t vote out Hamas. That’s why it’s important to support democracies, because with Hamas, this war will never end even if we get a cease fire soon
how much ethnic cleansing was occurring on October six? Zero posters to this topic have been able to answer that question.
Just as you've refused to answer the question of when and how many dead Palestinians will quench the blood lust of Israel. Up to 28,858 with 70% women and children. But you know, Hamas.
That’s not an answer to the question.if Oct 7 didn’t happen, those unfortunate souls are likely alive today.
Israelis can vote out Netanyahu. I hope they do. Palestinians can’t vote out Hamas. That’s why it’s important to support democracies, because with Hamas, this war will never end even if we get a cease fire soon
And the ethnic cleansing that had occurred, as reported in my two subsequent posts, would have continued unabated. Now, how many dead Palestinians does there need to be to avenge the deaths of 1,200 Israelis?
Nasser Hospital no longer functional as Israeli raid continues, WHO says By Niha Masih, Jennifer Hassan and Steve Hendrix February 18, 2024 at 6:27 ET The Israeli raid at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis continued Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said, as World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the facility was no longer functioning. An estimated 200 patients remain inside the hospital, Tedros said in a social media post, adding that for the past two days, WHO workers had been denied entry to assess patients. Israel has turned the hospital complex “into a military barracks and put it out of service,” Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said in a Sunday statement, adding that 25 medical workers remained there. Electricity and water are cut off from the complex, he said, adding that the lack of oxygen has led to the deaths of seven patients. The Washington Post could not independently verify those claims. In a Sunday statement, the IDF said it was “continuing to operate” in Nasser Hospital and areas near it in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. It said it killed several militants with tank and aerial strikes and found weapons during the operation, now in its fourth day. Israeli forces arrested more than 150 people at the hospital, Israeli military radio reported Sunday. On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said “large numbers” of medical and administrative workers at the hospital were among those arrested. [Growing protests call on Netanyahu to bring Hamas hostages home] Here’s what else to know Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said further negotiations over a cease-fire to release hostages from Gaza were pointless given what he called Hamas’s “delusional demands,” which include Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons. “Clearly, we will not agree to them,” he said Saturday.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
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memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
fucking Palestinians sabotaging their own statehood all the time....
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
OK Mr secretary. that's good. very good. no fucking do something about it.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
0
Options
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
A US airman has died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC on Sunday, shouting "free Palestine".
Aaron Bushnell, 25, was taken to hospital after Secret Service officers extinguished the flames.
Before setting himself alight in what he called an "extreme act of protest", he said he would "no longer be complicit in genocide".
No embassy staff members were injured, a spokeswoman said.
A Pentagon spokesman called the incident, which happened at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT), a "tragic event".
In a video aired live on streaming site Twitch, Mr Bushnell, who was dressed in military uniform, identified himself and said he was a serving member of the Air Force.
Earlier, he had emailed a number of reporters as well as left-wing and anarchist news websites. The Atlanta Community Press Collective, one of the groups that received the email, provided a copy to the BBC.
"Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people," the email read, warning it would be "highly disturbing".
Mr Bushnell was taken to the hospital in a critical condition.
A bomb disposal unit was sent to the site over concerns about a suspicious vehicle that could have been connected to the individual. This was declared safe after no hazardous materials were found.
Washington police said officers were working with the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the incident.
Mr Bushnell, of San Antonio, Texas, was raised in Massachusetts and attended public schools on the Cape Cod peninsula, according to a statement from a local school district.
The Air Force would not confirm details of Mr Bushnell's service, citing family notification policies but Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper, reported that he had held the rank of senior airman.
continues....
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
On Sunday afternoon outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., 25-year-old Air Force service member Aaron Bushnell placed his phone on the ground to set up a livestream. He then stood before the embassy gates and lit himself on fire while shouting “Free Palestine” in a horrific protest against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Below is everything we know about Bushnell, who died from his wounds on Sunday night.
Aaron Bushnell’s background
Bushnell was a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force stationed at the Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio and originally from Whitman, Massachusetts. He joined the Air Force as an active-duty member in May 2020 and has since worked in information technology and development operations. On his LinkedIn page, Bushnell wrote that he was looking to “transition out of the US Air Force into software engineering.” In a statement on Monday, the Air Force stated that he was a cyber-defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron.
Bushnell grew up in a religious group on Cape Cod called the Community of Jesus, whose former members have come forward alleging abuse and a rigid social structure. According to a family friend and former Community of Jesus member who spoke with the Washington Post, he was raised in a religious compound in Orleans associated with the group. The friend told the Post that young people in the Community of Jesus often join the military, moving from “one high-control group to another high-control group.”
Friends who spoke with the Post say that while Bushnell was stationed in San Antonio, he was attending events for a socialist organization and delivered food to people on the street. Friends state that his contract with the military was to expire in May and he was looking for a career transition. Following the police killing of George Floyd, they say he had become more open in his objection to the military.
On Sunday, hours before he went to the Israeli embassy, Bushnell texted a friend who shared the message with the Post. “I hope you’ll understand. I love you,” Bushnell wrote. “This doesn’t even make sense, but I feel like I’m going to miss you.” Weeks earlier, Bushnell talked on the phone with the same friend about “their shared identities as anarchists and what kinds of risks and sacrifices were needed to be effective,” according to the Post.
The self-immolation at the embassy
Hours before lighting himself on fire, Bushnell posted a Twitch link on his Facebook page with the caption:
Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”
The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.
Shortly before 1 p.m. on Sunday, Bushnell began his livestream and walked toward the Israeli Embassy with an insulated water bottle full of flammable fluid. “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” he said in his video. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
Bushnell then placed his phone on the ground and walked to the gates of the embassy, where he doused himself in liquid from the bottle. “Free Palestine,” he said, as he struggled to light himself. A law-enforcement officer approached, asking, “Can I help you, sir?” At this point, Bushnell lit himself on fire, screaming, “Free Palestine.”
As Bushnell screamed in pain, a law-enforcement officer off-camera yells at him to “get on the ground.” A second officer yelled at the first: “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers.” By the time D.C. Fire and EMS arrived on the scene, the fire had been put out.
The aftermath and Bushnell’s death
An incident report filed by a Secret Service agent states that they “received a distress call regarding an individual exhibiting signs of mental distress outside the Israeli embassy.” (The Secret Service is responsible for foreign-embassy security.) “Before the Secret Service officers could engage, [Bushnell] doused himself with an unidentified liquid and set himself on fire. The Secret Service officers promptly intervened, extinguishing the flames before the arrival of the fire department. [Bushnell] was subsequently transported to a local hospital due to the burns sustained from the incident. The report states that Bushnell was pronounced dead at 10:06 p.m. on Sunday.”
In the hours before his death, Bushnell emailed several left-leaning websites alerting them to his “highly disturbing” final act. “Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people,” read the email, which was forwarded to the BBC.
Bushnell’s video was taken down by Twitch for violating its terms of service, though edited versions blurring out his burning figure are circulating on social media. The Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident along with the Metropolitan Police Department. Prior to his death, he emailed several left-leaning websites, stating that he was “planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Bushnell’s act was not the first self-immolation in apparent protest of the Israel-Hamas war. In December, a woman lit herself on fire in front of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta in what police described as an act of “extreme political protest” over the war. The woman survived, but sustained third-degree burns over her entire body and was hospitalized in critical condition. Her identity has not been released by police. A 61-year-old Army veteran who worked as a security guard at the consulate suffered severe burns when he attempted to save the woman.
Since the Vietnam War, self-immolation has been a dramatic but rare act of protest in the U.S. Vigils were held throughout the country on Monday night in memory of Bushnell, including at the Israeli embassy where he held his final protest.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway
Home. Park. Zoo. School. Bakery. Mosque. These are just some of the fundamentals of Gazan life that have been blasted, bombarded and bulldozed since the Israeli siege began this past October. As of this writing, more than two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. More than 4 out of every 5 Gazans — some 1.9 million people — have been displaced. Architectural historians have come to refer to infrastructural devastation at this scale as “urbicide,” or “violence against the city.” Sometimes, it can be hard to imagine what this place was like before the war.
The experience of catastrophic loss is not new. One could say it has been integral to the experience of being Palestinian since 1948, when some 700,000 people were expelled from their homes and rendered refugees during the mass dispossession occasioned by the founding of Israel. Many of them ended up in Gaza, an ancient trading city on the Mediterranean Sea.
Gaza, which has been under a crippling blockade since Hamasseized power in 2007, is often characterized as the world’s largest open-air prison. The metaphor is powerful but misleading. Gaza is a hodgepodge of coastal villages, cities and refugee camps, home to 2.1 million people who live and work, study and worship, vacation and play. Despite everything, life goes on here.
Over the past weeks, I invited Gazans to share memories of places they have lost. The result is an oral history of buildings and locales that are at once iconic and sentimental. Some of these are many centuries old, built and rebuilt after earlier devastations. Some are new, emerging only in the past decade. All of them testify to lives lived against terrible odds. Places that have become unrecognizable; in the words of one resident, “reduced to dust.”
Al-Ailat Bakery
Deena Kishawi, physician
My father’s parents lived around the corner from Al-Ailat, the largest bakery in Gaza. Al-Ailat, which means “the family” in Arabic, is run by the Shehada clan, Christians who have been in Gaza for centuries. While the bakery started as a storefront in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, it has expanded over the years to occupy half of an entire block. Al-Ailat is more than a bakery; there’s a cafe with cute bistro chairs where you can eat sweets and drink coffee. The place is famous for its ka’ak, a kind of sesame-covered biscuit, as well as the mouajanat, a bread pie filled with spinach or cheese. When I was younger, we’d buy steaming hot pita bread there and then run across the street to Abu Talal, the popular hummus shop. The combination was heaven. The bakery was bombed on Nov. 4 and Nov. 9 and is now inoperable.
The Gaza corniche
Hooda Shawa, writer
When I was a kid, the mishwar al bahar(seaside car ride) was a highlight of the week. My father would drive along the narrow meandering coastal road, flanked by dusty dunes carpeted with trees and shrubs, lettuce beds and the wild white beach lilies that emerged from the sand like ghostly exoskeletons. We would stop to take in the sea air, digging our bare feet into the beach as paper kites with sinewy tails filled the skies. The beach has long been a popular destination on Friday afternoons, a chance to bump into friends and family. Driving past the Muntada Beach Club, we would occasionally stop at an archaeological site. As visitors approached, the elderly caretaker would rush to lift a tarpaulin off the Byzantine-era mosaic floor, with its ornate beasts and birds. But the best part of our Friday mishwarwas the final stop at Kazem Ice Cafe on Omar al-Mukhtar Street for its famous barrad — the Gaza granita that launched a thousand Proustian madeleine moments. Parts of the Gaza coastline have been repurposed as Israeli military stations. Countless cafes and homes have been destroyed.
In 1995, I was 15, the Palestinian Authority was newly in power, and my family had moved back to Gaza. My parents had moved around Europe when I was little — we’d last lived in Scotland — and after our return, my mother worked to make sure we maintained a connection to the English language. One summer evening, my sister Basma and I went to see a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center. The modernist concrete building, brutalist in style, was named for a beloved former mayor of Gaza and was known for its public talks, dabke performances, and plays such as this one, performed by England’s Roehampton Players. I remember the lush set design, depicting the forest world and its magical creatures, fairies and nymphs. As a teenage boy, I was especially taken with Titania, the fairy queen — and also, perhaps, inspired by the tale of a young couple rebelling against the dictates of a ruling and imperialist power, even if only for a single, magical night. The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center was bombed on Nov. 25. Hundreds of people were sheltering there at the time.
Islamic University of Gaza
Rawan Yaghi, journalist
Gaza had no institutions of higher education until the late 1970s, so Palestinians had to go abroad to study (if they were lucky). The Islamic University of Gaza, established in 1978, was a boon. By the time I studied there in the early 2010s, it was enormous, with faculties of medicine, education, sharia, the arts and much more. I was encouraged to study English literature by Refaat Alareer, the poet and Shakespeare scholar with whom I took classes during high school. Refaat, who also taught at the Islamic University, introduced me to “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and the diaries of the Palestinian writer and architect Suad Amiry, among other texts. At his urging, I memorized the monologues of Hamlet and was introduced to Pirandello, Petrarch and Dante. At Oxford, where I went next, I often thought back to those fateful days at the Islamic University. Israeli forces bombed the university on Oct. 11. On Dec. 2, the university’s president, Professor Sufyan Tayeh, was killed along with his family in an airstrike on the Jabalya refugee camp. Five days later, Refaat Alareer and his family were killed in a targeted strike.
Gaza Zoo
Yehya Al-Sarraj, mayor of Gaza City
The Gaza Zoo opened in 2010 on a repurposed garbage dump. It was where Palestinians of every age could get acquainted with more than 100 species of animals. Within its bounds are a small amusement park, gardens and a cafeteria. Among the animals were foxes, wolves, turtles, pheasants, peacocks, lions and a camel. Because of the Israeli blockade around Gaza, most of them had been smuggled in from Egypt through underground tunnels. A few years back, another zoo in Gaza made international headlines when, unable to acquire zebras, an enterprising zookeeper painted two white donkeys with black stripes. They looked as good as real. As the aggression against Gaza began, zookeepers had to abandon the premises. They were able to return only in late November during a pause in fighting — to find that 90 percent of the animals had starved to death.
Visiting the Great Omari Mosque, the oldest mosque in Gaza, was like going back in time. You could smell history there, the air perfumed by the wares of spice sellers and butchers. In ancient times, the site, not far from the gold market, is said to have housed a Philistine temple honoring Dagon, a pagan god of prosperity. In the 5th century, the Byzantines built a church there, which in turn was transformed into a mosque after the Muslims arrived in the 7th century. Ibn Battuta, the 14th-century scholar, wrote about it in his travelogues. The first time I visited the mosque, when I was in primary school, I was intrigued by the huge columns and the many doors. El Omari was a place where people went to pray or take a break from their stressful lives. Interestingly, it wasn’t segregated by gender as Gaza’s other mosques are, so men and women prayed together in the same hall. On Dec. 8, an Israeli airstrike leveled the mosque, leaving only its damaged minaret standing amid the rubble.
Friends Club
Salma Shawa, content creator
I’ve been riding horses since I was in the 8th grade. A lot of people in Gaza ride, especially along the Mediterranean Sea. I started at the Friends Club a few months after the Israelis destroyed my school, the American International School. Riding was an escape, a way to de-stress. My horse was named Tiger, a gentle orange-brown horse that loathed crowds. As I got better, I desperately wanted to take part in international equestrian competitions, but that was impossible because of the blockade. Still, the Friends Club served as a sort of community center for horse lovers, a sanctuary for me and for so many others. The Israeli military has bulldozed the club.
Al-Azhar University
Shahd Abusalama, academic and writer
I was born during the first intifada, in 1991 — the year that Al-Azhar University opened its doors. I studied at Al-Azhar, graduating in 2013 with a degree in English literature. The university is a short walk from the sea, so in our off hours my friends and I would stroll down to the beach. On campus, I loved the murals featuring iconic Palestinians, such as the former militant Leila Khaled or the cartoonist Naji al-Ali. During each aggression by Israeli forces, the university was a place to mobilize and mourn. In my classes, I read books that changed me, including George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” which felt as though it had extra relevance to our lives as Palestinians. Remember the line “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”? Al-Azhar University facilities have been destroyed by Israeli missile fire.
AbuShahla family orange farm
Deena AbuShahla, community worker
Our family is old — we like to say that the AbuShahlas have been around since Jesus was a Jew. This orange farm has been in our family for generations. The oranges in Gaza are unique: at once sour and sweet, and always juicy. They taste better than oranges in the West Bank, which are overly sweet, if you ask me. My father is a nephrologist — a kidney doctor — but the farm has always been our primary source of income. Over the years, every time there’s been an aggression by Israeli forces, and there have been many, my father would start over, replanting the groves again. It was a ritual, you might say. We come from a Sufi background, so rituals are important. Every Friday morning, the family would gather in the garden to drink fresh juice and eat pastries laced with za’atar. The farm was struck by missiles in November, while the family house was bombed the previous month, on Oct. 9. Seven members of the AbuShahla family were caught inside; all were able to crawl out from the rubble.
There are probably 200 active tennis players in Gaza, about half of whom I have taught. We make do with four tennis courts, one of which I built myself a few years ago, with funds I raised from friends. Four courts for 2.1 million people. Imagine. My court is in the compound of the Al-Amal Institute for Orphans, a large orphanage founded in 1949, right after the Nakba. I believe that tennis teaches children discipline and self-reliance. It did for me — I was a table tennis player in my youth, and then picked up the real thing while attending university in the United States. When I came back, I won the Palestinian National Championship, then started coaching. Two years ago, the court at Al-Amal began to crack under the weight of Israeli bombardment. Still, the kids make do. Both the tennis court and Al-Amal were damaged by Israeli bombing. Children and orphanage staff had been sheltering in tents set up on the court and an adjacent soccer field.
The Church of St. Porphyrius
Hadi Hakoura, academic
One of my earliest memories is of going to St. Porphyrius on Palm Sunday, my siblings and I passing around palm branches until an adult asked us to stop. My family belongs to Gaza’s Christian community, which today is 1,000 strong, mostly Orthodox like us. Growing up, we were told that St. Porphyrius was the oldest church in Gaza, which was technically true, since the first church is now a mosque. Built by crusaders around 1150, St. Porphyrius is named for the 5th-century bishop who closed the last pagan temples in Gaza; his remains are buried there. Inside the church, a blue-domed ceiling is illustrated with biblical scenes, and a gilded altar is decorated with the faces of saints. In good times and bad, we go to St. Porphyrius. During the 2014 Israeli aggression, many people of all faiths sheltered there. The head of the church, a wonderful man named Alexias, is from Greece, so he speaks Arabic with an unusual accent. Israeli missiles struck St. Porphyrius on Oct. 19, killing 20 Palestinian civilians sheltering inside and injuring dozens of others.
Italiano pizzeria
Ola Edwan, pharmacist
My uncle Abdulrahman Abuamara opened the Italiano pizza restaurant after getting a master’s degree in Madrid. He’d studied engineering there but supported himself by working at a pizzeria, where he learned the tricks of the trade — especially how to make the perfect crust. When he returned to Gaza in 2013, work was hard to find, so he got a small loan from his father and started his own pizzeria in the Al Nasr neighborhood. Soon, demand for his pizza was so great, he moved to a bigger space nearby and trained his two brothers to make pizza, too. The most popular pie at Italiano was “the Siciliano,” stacked with salami and olives. Ask anyone: Italiano was hands down the best pizzeria in Gaza. The Italiano restaurant was struck by a missile on Nov. 6. Abuamara and his elderly parents were killed.
al-Shifa Hospital
Lana Zakaria, academic
From the late 1960s to the early ’90s, my mother, Ferial Albanna, ran the obstetrics and gynecology department at al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza. She delivered hundreds of babies there. I remember running through the corridors wearing oversized lab coats and gloves, pretending to be a doctor. When my friends and I were a little older, al-Shifa became a sanctuary for kids hiding from Israeli occupation forces. We would hide in the hospital’s labyrinthine interior, which had served as British military barracks during the Mandate era. During the first intifada, when I was 13, I was shot in the leg during a protest, and al-Shifa’s emergency department came to the rescue. In mid-November, al-Shifa was encircled and closed off by Israeli forces, with thousands of Palestinians stranded inside. On Nov. 15, Israeli forces entered the hospital, claiming that a Hamas command center was located underneath it.
Most days, Jundi Park offered a reprieve from the soundtrack of our city — the honking of wedding convoys, the intermittent stream of artillery fire, the bellowing of donkey-cart vendors. Located on Omar al-Mukhtar Street in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, not far from the parliament building, Jundi was distinguished by luscious grass and a central fountain that was often out of service because of Gaza’s frequent power outages. Some people refer to the park as the Square of the Unknown Soldier, named for a man buried there who was killed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Jundi was also my neighborhood park, where I used to take my son for evening walks. Some images spring to mind even now: the vibrant hibiscus flowers that line the paths; vendors hawking roasted groundnuts and handmade barrad, a slushy yellow fruit dessert popular in Gaza; picnicking families; elderly men playing backgammon. Jundi Park was where we could, for a moment, let go and forget the weight of the occupation. Jundi Park has been razed by Israeli forces, its trees felled.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Democrat warns US is violating aid conditions law by sending money to Israel
Former
senator Patrick Leahy says ‘the number of civilians who are being
injured or killed by US paid armaments’ means the nation is in violation
of the foreign aid laws named after him
Patrick Leahy, a former senator, said the US is violating its own law by sending aid to Israel
(Getty Images)
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A retired Democratic senator has warned that the US may have violated its own laws around foreign aid by sending arms to Israel.
Patrick Leahy, a former Senator from Vermont,
is best known for championing his namesake Leahy Law, which refers to
two statutory provisions that prevent the federal government from using
funds to assist foreign governments when there is credible information
that they have committed “gross violations of human rights”.
When The Independent asked
the former senator if the US sending aid to Israel complies with the
law, his answer was clear: “No. Is that succinct enough for you?”
Mr
Leahy, who retired from the Senate in 2023 after first being elected in
1975, said “the number of civilians who are being injured or killed by
US paid armaments” comes in violation to the foreign aid laws named
after him.
“There’s supposed to be restrictions on accounting,” he continued.
The US has repeatedly
sent bombs and other weapons to Israel after Hamas launched a surprise
attack on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and
around 200 were taken hostage. Since then, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 30,000 Palestinians since October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Questions arose as to whether the nation has violated the Leahy Law when the president released a new memo on foreign aid requirements last month, with some Democrats hailing it as a step towards potentially conditioning military aid to Israel.
However, the memo only outlined existing laws stating that countries
receiving US aid must follow humanitarian guidelines, such as providing
“credible and reliable written assurances” that they are complying with
international law and humanitarian standards.
The White House also denied that it would have an impact on billions of dollars of military aid slated for the longtime US ally.
The United Nations warned
last month that some 576,000 people, or one-quarter of Gaza’s
population, are “one step away from famine”. It has also accused Israel
of “systematically” blocking aid deliveries into Gaza and of opening fire on convoys that do make it through.
Senator
Peter Welch, Mr Leahy’s successor in the Senate, supports a ceasefire
and said the port for Gaza is a good start but more work still needs to
be done.
“We gotta face the contradiction,” he told The Independent.
“You know we're dropping food in on Monday and Israel’s dropping bombs
on Tuesday. And American taxpayers are paying for both. A ceasefire is
what we need in order to get aid in and hostages out.”
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Israel says it plans to direct Palestinians out of Rafah ahead of anticipated offensive
By TIA GOLDENBERG
Yesterday
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military said Wednesday it plans to direct a significant portion of the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town of Rafah toward “humanitarian islands” in the center of the territory ahead of its planned offensive in the area.
The fate of the people in Rafah has been a major area of concern of Israel’s allies — including the United States — and humanitarian groups, worried an offensive in the region densely crowded with so many displaced people would be a catastrophe. Rafah is also Gaza’s main entry point for desperately needed aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a Rafah offensive is crucial to achieve Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas following the militants’ Oct. 7 attack in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 250 taken hostage and brought into Gaza. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed more than 31,000, according to Gaza health officials, left much of the enclave in ruins and displaced some 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said moving those in Rafah to the designated areas, which he said would be done in coordination with international actors, was a key part of the military’s preparations for its anticipated invasion of Rafah, where Israel says Hamas maintains four battalions it wants to destroy.
Rafah has swelled in size in the last months as Palestinians in Gaza have fled fighting in nearly every other corner of the territory. The town is covered in tents.
“We need to make sure that 1.4 million people or at least a significant amount of the 1.4 million will move. Where? To humanitarian islands that we will create with the international community,” Hagari told reporters at a briefing.
Hagari said those islands would provide temporary housing, food, water and other necessities to evacuated Palestinians. He did not say when Rafah’s evacuation would occur, nor when the Rafah offensive would begin, saying that Israel wanted the timing to be right operationally and to be coordinated with neighboring Egypt, which has said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing its border.
The U.S. has been firm with Israel over its concerns about Rafah, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington had yet to receive from Israel its plans for civilians there.
“We need to see a plan that will get civilians out of harm’s way if there’s a military operation in Rafah,” he told reporters in Washington after convening a virtual ministerial meeting on Gaza aid with officials from the UN, the EU, Britain. Cyprus, Qatar and the UAE. "We’ve not yet seen such a plan.”
At the start of the war, Israel directed evacuees to a slice of undeveloped land along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that it designated as a safe zone. But aid groups said there were no real plans in place to receive large numbers of displaced there. Israeli strikes also targeted the area.
More than 31,270 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and most of its 2.3 million people forced from their homes, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Israel blames the civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The military has said it has killed 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
Meanwhile, fighting continued across Gaza. An Israeli strike Wednesday hit a food distribution site in southern Gaza run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that works with Palestinian refugees, killing one staff member from the agency and wounding 22 others.
The death brings to 165 the number of workers for the agency killed during the past five months of fighting, according to UNRWA.
Gaza’s health authorities said a total of five people were killed in the strike on the yard of an UNRWA warehouse.
Hagari said the army was looking into the report.
The conflict has sparked a humanitarian disaster that has led to growing hunger. Aid delivery has been hobbled by Israeli restrictions, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order inside Gaza, according to the United Nations. Israel denies it is restricting the entry of aid.
The crisis has been particularly acute in northern Gaza, Israel's initial target in the early weeks of the war.
Hagari said Wednesday Israel plans to “flood the area” with aid, with plans to scale up the entry of goods from multiple points in northern Gaza, after half a dozen trucks delivered aid entered from the north on Tuesday as part of a pilot program. He did not say how many more trucks were expected to enter and at what frequency.
Hagari also said representatives from the U.S. military were expected in Israel this week to further coordinate a planned U.S. floating pier that will be built off the coast of Gaza, which he said would be “significant” for northern Gaza.
The U.S. and other countries have also been airdropping food into northern Gaza in recent weeks to help alleviate the crisis. Aid groups said air drops and bringing sea shipments are far less efficient and effective than bringing in food by truck.
___
Associated Press writer Matt Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel says it plans to direct Palestinians out of Rafah ahead of anticipated offensive
By TIA GOLDENBERG
Yesterday
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military said Wednesday it plans to direct a significant portion of the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town of Rafah toward “humanitarian islands” in the center of the territory ahead of its planned offensive in the area.
The fate of the people in Rafah has been a major area of concern of Israel’s allies — including the United States — and humanitarian groups, worried an offensive in the region densely crowded with so many displaced people would be a catastrophe. Rafah is also Gaza’s main entry point for desperately needed aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a Rafah offensive is crucial to achieve Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas following the militants’ Oct. 7 attack in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 250 taken hostage and brought into Gaza. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed more than 31,000, according to Gaza health officials, left much of the enclave in ruins and displaced some 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said moving those in Rafah to the designated areas, which he said would be done in coordination with international actors, was a key part of the military’s preparations for its anticipated invasion of Rafah, where Israel says Hamas maintains four battalions it wants to destroy.
Rafah has swelled in size in the last months as Palestinians in Gaza have fled fighting in nearly every other corner of the territory. The town is covered in tents.
“We need to make sure that 1.4 million people or at least a significant amount of the 1.4 million will move. Where? To humanitarian islands that we will create with the international community,” Hagari told reporters at a briefing.
Hagari said those islands would provide temporary housing, food, water and other necessities to evacuated Palestinians. He did not say when Rafah’s evacuation would occur, nor when the Rafah offensive would begin, saying that Israel wanted the timing to be right operationally and to be coordinated with neighboring Egypt, which has said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing its border.
The U.S. has been firm with Israel over its concerns about Rafah, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington had yet to receive from Israel its plans for civilians there.
“We need to see a plan that will get civilians out of harm’s way if there’s a military operation in Rafah,” he told reporters in Washington after convening a virtual ministerial meeting on Gaza aid with officials from the UN, the EU, Britain. Cyprus, Qatar and the UAE. "We’ve not yet seen such a plan.”
At the start of the war, Israel directed evacuees to a slice of undeveloped land along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that it designated as a safe zone. But aid groups said there were no real plans in place to receive large numbers of displaced there. Israeli strikes also targeted the area.
More than 31,270 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and most of its 2.3 million people forced from their homes, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Israel blames the civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The military has said it has killed 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
Meanwhile, fighting continued across Gaza. An Israeli strike Wednesday hit a food distribution site in southern Gaza run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that works with Palestinian refugees, killing one staff member from the agency and wounding 22 others.
The death brings to 165 the number of workers for the agency killed during the past five months of fighting, according to UNRWA.
Gaza’s health authorities said a total of five people were killed in the strike on the yard of an UNRWA warehouse.
Hagari said the army was looking into the report.
The conflict has sparked a humanitarian disaster that has led to growing hunger. Aid delivery has been hobbled by Israeli restrictions, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order inside Gaza, according to the United Nations. Israel denies it is restricting the entry of aid.
The crisis has been particularly acute in northern Gaza, Israel's initial target in the early weeks of the war.
Hagari said Wednesday Israel plans to “flood the area” with aid, with plans to scale up the entry of goods from multiple points in northern Gaza, after half a dozen trucks delivered aid entered from the north on Tuesday as part of a pilot program. He did not say how many more trucks were expected to enter and at what frequency.
Hagari also said representatives from the U.S. military were expected in Israel this week to further coordinate a planned U.S. floating pier that will be built off the coast of Gaza, which he said would be “significant” for northern Gaza.
The U.S. and other countries have also been airdropping food into northern Gaza in recent weeks to help alleviate the crisis. Aid groups said air drops and bringing sea shipments are far less efficient and effective than bringing in food by truck.
___
Associated Press writer Matt Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
Comments
Israelis can vote out Netanyahu. I hope they do. Palestinians can’t vote out Hamas. That’s why it’s important to support democracies, because with Hamas, this war will never end even if we get a cease fire soon
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By Niha Masih, Jennifer Hassan and Steve Hendrix
February 18, 2024 at 6:27 ET
The Israeli raid at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis continued Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said, as World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the facility was no longer functioning.
An estimated 200 patients remain inside the hospital, Tedros said in a social media post, adding that for the past two days, WHO workers had been denied entry to assess patients.
Israel has turned the hospital complex “into a military barracks and put it out of service,” Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, said in a Sunday statement, adding that 25 medical workers remained there. Electricity and water are cut off from the complex, he said, adding that the lack of oxygen has led to the deaths of seven patients. The Washington Post could not independently verify those claims.
In a Sunday statement, the IDF said it was “continuing to operate” in Nasser Hospital and areas near it in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. It said it killed several militants with tank and aerial strikes and found weapons during the operation, now in its fourth day.
Israeli forces arrested more than 150 people at the hospital, Israeli military radio reported Sunday. On Saturday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said “large numbers” of medical and administrative workers at the hospital were among those arrested.
[Growing protests call on Netanyahu to bring Hamas hostages home]
Here’s what else to know
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said further negotiations over a cease-fire to release hostages from Gaza were pointless given what he called Hamas’s “delusional demands,” which include Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons. “Clearly, we will not agree to them,” he said Saturday.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
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another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
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memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Aaron Bushnell: US airman dies after setting himself on fire outside Israeli embassy in Washington
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68405119
A US airman has died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC on Sunday, shouting "free Palestine".
Aaron Bushnell, 25, was taken to hospital after Secret Service officers extinguished the flames.
Before setting himself alight in what he called an "extreme act of protest", he said he would "no longer be complicit in genocide".
No embassy staff members were injured, a spokeswoman said.
A Pentagon spokesman called the incident, which happened at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT), a "tragic event".
In a video aired live on streaming site Twitch, Mr Bushnell, who was dressed in military uniform, identified himself and said he was a serving member of the Air Force.
Earlier, he had emailed a number of reporters as well as left-wing and anarchist news websites. The Atlanta Community Press Collective, one of the groups that received the email, provided a copy to the BBC.
"Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people," the email read, warning it would be "highly disturbing".
Mr Bushnell was taken to the hospital in a critical condition.
A bomb disposal unit was sent to the site over concerns about a suspicious vehicle that could have been connected to the individual. This was declared safe after no hazardous materials were found.
Washington police said officers were working with the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the incident.
Mr Bushnell, of San Antonio, Texas, was raised in Massachusetts and attended public schools on the Cape Cod peninsula, according to a statement from a local school district.
The Air Force would not confirm details of Mr Bushnell's service, citing family notification policies but Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper, reported that he had held the rank of senior airman.
continues....
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
What We Know About the Man Who Self-Immolated in Front of the Israeli Embassy
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/aaron-bushnell-self-immolation-what-we-know.html
On Sunday afternoon outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., 25-year-old Air Force service member Aaron Bushnell placed his phone on the ground to set up a livestream. He then stood before the embassy gates and lit himself on fire while shouting “Free Palestine” in a horrific protest against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Below is everything we know about Bushnell, who died from his wounds on Sunday night.
Aaron Bushnell’s background
Bushnell was a 25-year-old member of the U.S. Air Force stationed at the Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio and originally from Whitman, Massachusetts. He joined the Air Force as an active-duty member in May 2020 and has since worked in information technology and development operations. On his LinkedIn page, Bushnell wrote that he was looking to “transition out of the US Air Force into software engineering.” In a statement on Monday, the Air Force stated that he was a cyber-defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Support Squadron.
Bushnell grew up in a religious group on Cape Cod called the Community of Jesus, whose former members have come forward alleging abuse and a rigid social structure. According to a family friend and former Community of Jesus member who spoke with the Washington Post, he was raised in a religious compound in Orleans associated with the group. The friend told the Post that young people in the Community of Jesus often join the military, moving from “one high-control group to another high-control group.”
Friends who spoke with the Post say that while Bushnell was stationed in San Antonio, he was attending events for a socialist organization and delivered food to people on the street. Friends state that his contract with the military was to expire in May and he was looking for a career transition. Following the police killing of George Floyd, they say he had become more open in his objection to the military.
On Sunday, hours before he went to the Israeli embassy, Bushnell texted a friend who shared the message with the Post. “I hope you’ll understand. I love you,” Bushnell wrote. “This doesn’t even make sense, but I feel like I’m going to miss you.” Weeks earlier, Bushnell talked on the phone with the same friend about “their shared identities as anarchists and what kinds of risks and sacrifices were needed to be effective,” according to the Post.
The self-immolation at the embassy
Hours before lighting himself on fire, Bushnell posted a Twitch link on his Facebook page with the caption:
Shortly before 1 p.m. on Sunday, Bushnell began his livestream and walked toward the Israeli Embassy with an insulated water bottle full of flammable fluid. “I will no longer be complicit in genocide,” he said in his video. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest. But compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
Bushnell then placed his phone on the ground and walked to the gates of the embassy, where he doused himself in liquid from the bottle. “Free Palestine,” he said, as he struggled to light himself. A law-enforcement officer approached, asking, “Can I help you, sir?” At this point, Bushnell lit himself on fire, screaming, “Free Palestine.”
As Bushnell screamed in pain, a law-enforcement officer off-camera yells at him to “get on the ground.” A second officer yelled at the first: “I don’t need guns, I need fire extinguishers.” By the time D.C. Fire and EMS arrived on the scene, the fire had been put out.
The aftermath and Bushnell’s death
An incident report filed by a Secret Service agent states that they “received a distress call regarding an individual exhibiting signs of mental distress outside the Israeli embassy.” (The Secret Service is responsible for foreign-embassy security.) “Before the Secret Service officers could engage, [Bushnell] doused himself with an unidentified liquid and set himself on fire. The Secret Service officers promptly intervened, extinguishing the flames before the arrival of the fire department. [Bushnell] was subsequently transported to a local hospital due to the burns sustained from the incident. The report states that Bushnell was pronounced dead at 10:06 p.m. on Sunday.”
In the hours before his death, Bushnell emailed several left-leaning websites alerting them to his “highly disturbing” final act. “Today, I am planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people,” read the email, which was forwarded to the BBC.
Bushnell’s video was taken down by Twitch for violating its terms of service, though edited versions blurring out his burning figure are circulating on social media. The Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident along with the Metropolitan Police Department. Prior to his death, he emailed several left-leaning websites, stating that he was “planning to engage in an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Bushnell’s act was not the first self-immolation in apparent protest of the Israel-Hamas war. In December, a woman lit herself on fire in front of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta in what police described as an act of “extreme political protest” over the war. The woman survived, but sustained third-degree burns over her entire body and was hospitalized in critical condition. Her identity has not been released by police. A 61-year-old Army veteran who worked as a security guard at the consulate suffered severe burns when he attempted to save the woman.
Since the Vietnam War, self-immolation has been a dramatic but rare act of protest in the U.S. Vigils were held throughout the country on Monday night in memory of Bushnell, including at the Israeli embassy where he held his final protest.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Opinion
Home. Park. Zoo. School. Bakery. Mosque. These are just some of the fundamentals of Gazan life that have been blasted, bombarded and bulldozed since the Israeli siege began this past October. As of this writing, more than two-thirds of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes. More than 4 out of every 5 Gazans — some 1.9 million people — have been displaced. Architectural historians have come to refer to infrastructural devastation at this scale as “urbicide,” or “violence against the city.” Sometimes, it can be hard to imagine what this place was like before the war.
The experience of catastrophic loss is not new. One could say it has been integral to the experience of being Palestinian since 1948, when some 700,000 people were expelled from their homes and rendered refugees during the mass dispossession occasioned by the founding of Israel. Many of them ended up in Gaza, an ancient trading city on the Mediterranean Sea.
Gaza, which has been under a crippling blockade since Hamasseized power in 2007, is often characterized as the world’s largest open-air prison. The metaphor is powerful but misleading. Gaza is a hodgepodge of coastal villages, cities and refugee camps, home to 2.1 million people who live and work, study and worship, vacation and play. Despite everything, life goes on here.
Over the past weeks, I invited Gazans to share memories of places they have lost. The result is an oral history of buildings and locales that are at once iconic and sentimental. Some of these are many centuries old, built and rebuilt after earlier devastations. Some are new, emerging only in the past decade. All of them testify to lives lived against terrible odds. Places that have become unrecognizable; in the words of one resident, “reduced to dust.”
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In 1995, I was 15, the Palestinian Authority was newly in power, and my family had moved back to Gaza. My parents had moved around Europe when I was little — we’d last lived in Scotland — and after our return, my mother worked to make sure we maintained a connection to the English language. One summer evening, my sister Basma and I went to see a production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Rashad Shawa Cultural Center. The modernist concrete building, brutalist in style, was named for a beloved former mayor of Gaza and was known for its public talks, dabke performances, and plays such as this one, performed by England’s Roehampton Players. I remember the lush set design, depicting the forest world and its magical creatures, fairies and nymphs. As a teenage boy, I was especially taken with Titania, the fairy queen — and also, perhaps, inspired by the tale of a young couple rebelling against the dictates of a ruling and imperialist power, even if only for a single, magical night. The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center was bombed on Nov. 25. Hundreds of people were sheltering there at the time.
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I’ve been riding horses since I was in the 8th grade. A lot of people in Gaza ride, especially along the Mediterranean Sea. I started at the Friends Club a few months after the Israelis destroyed my school, the American International School. Riding was an escape, a way to de-stress. My horse was named Tiger, a gentle orange-brown horse that loathed crowds. As I got better, I desperately wanted to take part in international equestrian competitions, but that was impossible because of the blockade. Still, the Friends Club served as a sort of community center for horse lovers, a sanctuary for me and for so many others. The Israeli military has bulldozed the club.
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There are probably 200 active tennis players in Gaza, about half of whom I have taught. We make do with four tennis courts, one of which I built myself a few years ago, with funds I raised from friends. Four courts for 2.1 million people. Imagine. My court is in the compound of the Al-Amal Institute for Orphans, a large orphanage founded in 1949, right after the Nakba. I believe that tennis teaches children discipline and self-reliance. It did for me — I was a table tennis player in my youth, and then picked up the real thing while attending university in the United States. When I came back, I won the Palestinian National Championship, then started coaching. Two years ago, the court at Al-Amal began to crack under the weight of Israeli bombardment. Still, the kids make do. Both the tennis court and Al-Amal were damaged by Israeli bombing. Children and orphanage staff had been sheltering in tents set up on the court and an adjacent soccer field.
From the late 1960s to the early ’90s, my mother, Ferial Albanna, ran the obstetrics and gynecology department at al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex in Gaza. She delivered hundreds of babies there. I remember running through the corridors wearing oversized lab coats and gloves, pretending to be a doctor. When my friends and I were a little older, al-Shifa became a sanctuary for kids hiding from Israeli occupation forces. We would hide in the hospital’s labyrinthine interior, which had served as British military barracks during the Mandate era. During the first intifada, when I was 13, I was shot in the leg during a protest, and al-Shifa’s emergency department came to the rescue. In mid-November, al-Shifa was encircled and closed off by Israeli forces, with thousands of Palestinians stranded inside. On Nov. 15, Israeli forces entered the hospital, claiming that a Hamas command center was located underneath it.
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Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Prague Krakow Berlin 2018. Berlin 2022
EV, Taormina 1+2 2017.
I wish i was the souvenir you kept your house key on..
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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Democrat warns US is violating aid conditions law by sending money to Israel
Former senator Patrick Leahy says ‘the number of civilians who are being injured or killed by US paid armaments’ means the nation is in violation of the foreign aid laws named after him
Patrick Leahy, a former senator, said the US is violating its own law by sending aid to Israel
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A retired Democratic senator has warned that the US may have violated its own laws around foreign aid by sending arms to Israel.
Patrick Leahy, a former Senator from Vermont, is best known for championing his namesake Leahy Law, which refers to two statutory provisions that prevent the federal government from using funds to assist foreign governments when there is credible information that they have committed “gross violations of human rights”.
When The Independent asked the former senator if the US sending aid to Israel complies with the law, his answer was clear: “No. Is that succinct enough for you?”
Mr Leahy, who retired from the Senate in 2023 after first being elected in 1975, said “the number of civilians who are being injured or killed by US paid armaments” comes in violation to the foreign aid laws named after him.
“There’s supposed to be restrictions on accounting,” he continued.
The US has repeatedly sent bombs and other weapons to Israel after Hamas launched a surprise attack on 7 October, in which at least 1,200 people were killed and around 200 were taken hostage. Since then, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed at least 30,000 Palestinians since October, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Questions arose as to whether the nation has violated the Leahy Law when the president released a new memo on foreign aid requirements last month, with some Democrats hailing it as a step towards potentially conditioning military aid to Israel. However, the memo only outlined existing laws stating that countries receiving US aid must follow humanitarian guidelines, such as providing “credible and reliable written assurances” that they are complying with international law and humanitarian standards.
The White House also denied that it would have an impact on billions of dollars of military aid slated for the longtime US ally.
His comments came as news broke that President Joe Bidenwill order US forces to build an aid seaport on the Gaza coast. Last week, the president also announced that US forces would also be airdropping humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The United Nations warned last month that some 576,000 people, or one-quarter of Gaza’s population, are “one step away from famine”. It has also accused Israel of “systematically” blocking aid deliveries into Gaza and of opening fire on convoys that do make it through.
Senator Peter Welch, Mr Leahy’s successor in the Senate, supports a ceasefire and said the port for Gaza is a good start but more work still needs to be done.
“We gotta face the contradiction,” he told The Independent. “You know we're dropping food in on Monday and Israel’s dropping bombs on Tuesday. And American taxpayers are paying for both. A ceasefire is what we need in order to get aid in and hostages out.”
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2CommentsNot today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The Israeli military said Wednesday it plans to direct a significant portion of the 1.4 million displaced Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost town of Rafah toward “humanitarian islands” in the center of the territory ahead of its planned offensive in the area.
The fate of the people in Rafah has been a major area of concern of Israel’s allies — including the United States — and humanitarian groups, worried an offensive in the region densely crowded with so many displaced people would be a catastrophe. Rafah is also Gaza’s main entry point for desperately needed aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a Rafah offensive is crucial to achieve Israel’s stated aim of destroying Hamas following the militants’ Oct. 7 attack in which about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and around 250 taken hostage and brought into Gaza. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed more than 31,000, according to Gaza health officials, left much of the enclave in ruins and displaced some 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.
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Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said moving those in Rafah to the designated areas, which he said would be done in coordination with international actors, was a key part of the military’s preparations for its anticipated invasion of Rafah, where Israel says Hamas maintains four battalions it wants to destroy.
Rafah has swelled in size in the last months as Palestinians in Gaza have fled fighting in nearly every other corner of the territory. The town is covered in tents.
“We need to make sure that 1.4 million people or at least a significant amount of the 1.4 million will move. Where? To humanitarian islands that we will create with the international community,” Hagari told reporters at a briefing.
Hagari said those islands would provide temporary housing, food, water and other necessities to evacuated Palestinians. He did not say when Rafah’s evacuation would occur, nor when the Rafah offensive would begin, saying that Israel wanted the timing to be right operationally and to be coordinated with neighboring Egypt, which has said it does not want an influx of displaced Palestinians crossing its border.
The U.S. has been firm with Israel over its concerns about Rafah, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Washington had yet to receive from Israel its plans for civilians there.
“We need to see a plan that will get civilians out of harm’s way if there’s a military operation in Rafah,” he told reporters in Washington after convening a virtual ministerial meeting on Gaza aid with officials from the UN, the EU, Britain. Cyprus, Qatar and the UAE. "We’ve not yet seen such a plan.”
At the start of the war, Israel directed evacuees to a slice of undeveloped land along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast that it designated as a safe zone. But aid groups said there were no real plans in place to receive large numbers of displaced there. Israeli strikes also targeted the area.
More than 31,270 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and most of its 2.3 million people forced from their homes, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
Israel blames the civilian death toll on Hamas because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The military has said it has killed 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
Meanwhile, fighting continued across Gaza. An Israeli strike Wednesday hit a food distribution site in southern Gaza run by UNRWA, the U.N. agency that works with Palestinian refugees, killing one staff member from the agency and wounding 22 others.
The death brings to 165 the number of workers for the agency killed during the past five months of fighting, according to UNRWA.
Gaza’s health authorities said a total of five people were killed in the strike on the yard of an UNRWA warehouse.
Hagari said the army was looking into the report.
The conflict has sparked a humanitarian disaster that has led to growing hunger. Aid delivery has been hobbled by Israeli restrictions, the ongoing hostilities and the breakdown of order inside Gaza, according to the United Nations. Israel denies it is restricting the entry of aid.
The crisis has been particularly acute in northern Gaza, Israel's initial target in the early weeks of the war.
Hagari said Wednesday Israel plans to “flood the area” with aid, with plans to scale up the entry of goods from multiple points in northern Gaza, after half a dozen trucks delivered aid entered from the north on Tuesday as part of a pilot program. He did not say how many more trucks were expected to enter and at what frequency.
Hagari also said representatives from the U.S. military were expected in Israel this week to further coordinate a planned U.S. floating pier that will be built off the coast of Gaza, which he said would be “significant” for northern Gaza.
The U.S. and other countries have also been airdropping food into northern Gaza in recent weeks to help alleviate the crisis. Aid groups said air drops and bringing sea shipments are far less efficient and effective than bringing in food by truck.
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Associated Press writer Matt Lee contributed to this report from Washington.
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Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
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