Israel/Hamas War - Ceasefire

[Toggenburgsaregreat]

Each Saturday we are seeing demonstrations in London where people are marching with placards and calling for a ceasefire in the Hamas/Israel war.

However, it is difficult to know how the supporters of Palestine think this can be achieved? (Interestingly, no calls for Hamas to cease hostilities and return the hostages were heard - so is this really a call for unilateral disarmament?)

And who should Israel negotiate a ceasefire with? Hamas, ISIS, ISSP, The Muslim Brotherhood - all of these groups/any of these groups?

What is it the supporters of Palestine actually want?

I'm invested in not sliding back into the kind of world where people turn a blind eye to mistreatment of others. "First they came for...." type of thing.

Good bye so @Toggenburgsaregreat
It's good that we won’t waste your evening asking you to provide evidence that humanitarian aid has been systematically misappropriated by Hamas since the current escalation of this long running conflict started on 7/10. Most reliable agencies have put the blame firmly on Israel. The evidence from aid workers on the ground is overwhelming.
Yet again we are asked to ignore what Israel is doing- a supposed democracy. The massacre of 25,000 people in cold blood is just collateral to you but not to the rest of the world. Nice

Sending a prayer for them all and sorry for your loss.
So many innocent lives lost on both sides

Everything you have said!!! With bells on!

Personally, I am "overly invested" for ...

• My friend from university, who went back to Gaza and may or may not be alive
• my former in-law, who languishes in a prison, convicted without legal representation by a kangaroo court with an ~100% conviction rate
• my ex-FIL, whose heart broke the day settlers uprooted his orange trees for, seemingly, no reason whatsoever - except: they could!
• my lovely friend who - upon me making a throwaway remark about how stupid I was aged 16 - responded "I would not know, I was in prison, remember?"
• for Rachel Corrie, whom I had the privilege of getting to meet - and who was killed trying to protect the people of Gaza
• and, most of all, for my English student, who was shot to death in front of my very eyes
• and for everyone else I have known and loved!

... but, most of all, more than all of this even, I am "overly invested" because, ultimately, the reason I got to know and care about all of these people was that I care about equality and justice!

And before you even try to "whatabout" me: yes, I have been involved in a whole number of causes! Yes, I have been to protests for other things! I have spent some 20% of my adult life actively volunteering ...

Call me a hopeless idealist! But, hey, at least I am not genocidal nor a cynic, so there is always THAT!

@HeidiInTheBigCity While we still stand for what's right, a part of Rachel will live on. When I find myself feeling like I can't keep going, I remember Dawud's song and remind myself to live the life that Rachel chose. She was and is an inspiration, but more than that, she was a genuinely lovely and brave person.

I'd rather be over invested in my concern over genocide than ambivalent over it.

I did ...

... just: we felt so untouchable then, so invincible, before Rachel was killed!!!

I remember that one day in Nablus: there was a total curfew, snipers were everywhere - as were tanks and other deployed troops. I remember getting a shout out that a rescue was needed at a certain place - and going there, on foot!

I was holding my British passport, hands over my head and shouting "do not shoot, British citizen!" all along the way. And ... I was NOT shot! Not only that: I was utterly CONVINCED that I would not be - I was not even afraid!!!

We thought that was the literal "abracadabra", that - if there were just enough of us - we could stop the killing and dying. I, for one, genuinely believed that back then!

... and then, they ran over her with a bulldozer! And all of our naive illusions died alongside her, in that pile of rubble in Rafah!

I hear you. Up until that moment, I had been so confident that the bulldozers would stop when the alternative to stopping was looking someone in the eye and killing them. I think some part of all of us died that day, but created spaces in which Rachel's memory and her courage can live on.

Strange to think that, as strangers on the internet, we have people in common and may have moved in similar circles all those years ago.

A Palestinian American teenager only 17 years old was killed in the occupied territories just a few days ago. They still don't know if he was shot by the IDF or a armed settler as both were together.
The US have asked for a full probe but doubt that will do anything

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68038149

Small world!

I have, literally, met someone who knows one of my "people" in Palestine by pure chance at a protest - and I have been able to re-connect with someone else I used to know from then and there via a seemingly random "mutual friend" on Facebook that I met years later ... I would like to think that this is because we are just so many - realistically speaking: the actual reason is that - outside of my professional life - I live in an activist bubble!

That said - and this really, really gave me hope this week: Germany, of all places, has been so staunchly pro-Israel that their weird, unconditional brand of "support rationalised as the literal "raison d'être" of the entire German state" has been the subject of opinion pieces in the global press ...

... this week - I have posted on here before about how I work with Germany a lot - I went for dinner with people. It was a "technically, we know each other from work, but: we are not expensing the cost, we also just get along, so: this is a private affair" sort of thing.

Three drinks in, one of my German business friends sitting at the table cautiously opened with "so ... you are British ... what is it like where you are from. You know, Gaza? Because, I guess, we have a government opinion in common?"

At that point, again: not expensed, technically there "in a personal capacity", I did not hold back - neither did he! Neither did any of the other three people present.

Long story short: EVERYONE was utterly and completely horrified - both at what is happening and at the German government! Everyone agreed that the horror needed to be stopped immediately. These are "very business, neoliberalism personified" type people. They are just also ... people! And not utterly devoid of humanity!

I left that dinner feeling more positive than I ever had since around mid October!

@Scirocco and @HeidiInTheBigCity

I am sorry for your losses, and thank you for sharing your experiences.

I had never heard of Rachel Corrie, and I won’t forget her now.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/rachel-corrie-death-parents-gaza-idf-b2303078.html

Let’s not forget how long this has been going on for.

Thank you.

To use a Jewish phrase ... and: I am not a religious person - but I have always sort of loved this one: "May her memory be a blessing!"

But also: as someone who has met her, who was deeply personally affected by her brutal murder, who, had it been another day, could have been her: let us not over-emphasise her!

It is not what she would have wanted!!!

Rachel died. No, in fact, just to be clear: an Israeli soldier crushed her to death by running her over with a fucking bulldozer! She was wearing a high-visibility vest. He saw her when he decided to charge ahead! Her last words were something along the lines of "I think they broke my back". She lived through the entire horror of being bulldozed and was conscious. It's fucking horrifying!

But also: just because she was a lovely, brave, blonde American does not mean that her death matters any more than those of the Palestinians that she saw die and was trying to save. That I saw die that I was trying to save.

It's not about us. Not about her. She wouldn't have wanted to "be remembered more". Even though she is and forever will be!

It wasn't about her for her - it was about the people she died trying to save!

Let us honour her memory by trying to live up to her promise to herself - not by mourning a white American girl over everyone else. She would have fucking hated the idea!

Just to be clear: I was not a close friend of hers or anything. I met her once, briefly, just after she had arrived. I had been there for a while.

I might not remember her if she had lived! There were so many of us!

Nevertheless, NONE of us arrived there for us to be "the focal point". Every single one of us was there because we believed that other people mattered as much as we did!

@HeidiInTheBigCity well said

Nz, Australia and Canada request together a ceasefire
https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1758116011276976189

Finally! Only took them 4 months to!

What a dreadful act on the part of the IDF and bulldozer driver. Putinesque.

Rachel's words twenty years ago.
“Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I’m witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I’m really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature.”

Belgian prime minister statement requesting ceasefire

https://twitter.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1758496150414381338

The US have yet again vetoed a ceasefire for the 3rd time.

Why? Absolutely disgusting! Their hands are drenched in blood.

@Auvergne63 The World Food Programme have also paused aid delivery in North Gaza.

Awful.

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/2/20/israels-war-on-gaza-live-un-fears-explosion-in-child-deaths-in-gaza

I believe they were the only one to veto it. They make you so angry.

😡😡😡

Disgusting. And the UK abstained 😡