In 2009 I spoke to a demonstration of 300,000 in London against another Israeli massacre in Gaza, which coincidentally killed just over 1400 people, the same number claimed killed during the recent Hamas attacks. Strangely Western politicians did not shout out about Palestine’s right to self-defence. A lesson for those who think history began on 7 October 2023.
I am rather proud of this speech. Sadly, every word applicable today.
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Please folks could you all call the Irish ambassador to the UN asking for a Uniting for Peace Resolution – here is the link: https://twitter.com/rmackenz1/status/1719111481621365239 My understanding is that such a resolution by the General Assembly will by-pass the Security Council and its vetos. The Irish ambassador’s name is Fergal Mythen. Please ask him to call for an immediate UN Emergency General Assembly under the Uniting for Peace Resolution which is enforceable by the UN.
I found it on Twitter/X. Please pass it around.
If you’ve already done it, bless your hearts!
Rosemary, according to the UN website a reconvened (first called 1997) emergency general assembly met on Friday and passed the following resolution:
https://www.un.org/en/ga/sessions/emergency10th.shtml
They are to reconvene today in New York.
Also the resolutions of such a session are non-binding.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142922
Thanks ET. I was hopeful, but nothing really is binding on the US and western minions!
Major Chinese companies Alibaba online marketplace and leading search engine Baidu have removed the word “Israel” from their digital maps.
A few days ago I just happened to come across an ‘atrocity’ that I hadn’t come across before – i.e. that Hamas gouged a man’s eyes out – and just read the headline to the article and saved it, with the intention of posting it on here and a couple of other sites. Anyway, to save looking for it, I thought it would be quicker just to do a search and, as such, the following Daily Mail article came up near the top of the results, which has a whole bunch of other stuff, and is dated October 24th:
” ‘Eyes were gouged out, a woman’s breasts cut off and a daughter had her legs severed’: Horrific details of Hamas massacre emerge as rescue worker recounts how entire families were slaughtered’
Hamas terrorists killed a husband and gouged his eyes out before going on to cut his wife’s breasts off and chop his daughter’s leg off, a rescue worker has revealed as yet more horrific details of the terrorists’ savage attack continue to emerge.
Moshe Melayev told how entire families were slaughtered in their homes by the black-clad terrorists who were wielding assault rifles and grenades as they launched their surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Melayev, of Israel’s National Rescue Unit, said as he walked through kibbutzim close to the Gaza border, he saw the beheaded bodies of victims lying on the floors of their homes where they had hours earlier been drinking their morning coffee.
‘I saw beheaded bodies, I saw body parts,’ Melayev told Fox News. ‘In a house there was a husband and wife and two children.’
‘They killed the husband first, they took his eyes out, I saw the body myself. They cut the breasts of the woman off and they cut the leg off the girl. That’s the family that I saw with my own eyes,’ Melayev added, shaking his head as he recounted the horrors the Hamas terrorists inflicted on hundreds of families on October 7. ”
Now surely we would have heard of such atrocities before, along with the others, and yet it seems that this guy is the first to mention it, because it’s definitely the first time I’ve heard about them (and I assume the article I came across several days ago was based on what this guy said). And no-where in the article does it explain how he knew that they killed the husband first. Anyway, be sure to check out the links as well.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12666289/Eyes-gouged-womans-breasts-cut-daughter-legs-severed-Horrific-details-Hamas-massacre-emerge-rescue-worker-recounts-entire-families-slaughtered.html
PS. And Braverman isn’t just demonising the half-million or so who demonstrated in London last weekend, but also the millions demonstrating all around the world, and the millions more who would be if they hadn’t been banned from doing so, and the tens – hundreds – of millions more who feel the same way. She is truly evil.
Alan Howard the two sources you mention are notorious producers of extreme racist proganda, since their inception. amongst their many other failings as purveyors of information.. Why do think readers here wish to hear reheated atrocity proganda from such radicalised bad actors? I am sure the Mail did the Belgian Baby garbage a 100 years ago, don’t you know about it? I come to read here to get away from such vile bilge.
Is this information really relevant? You are aware as we chat Israel murders the innocent by their thousands in realtime , Yet you bring us this stuff. Why? Do you have an agenda or are you just insensitive? Can you not keep such dross to yourself?
Will
Why are you getting at Allan? I hope it’s because you misunderstand why he’s posting what he does. I recommend re-reading and then perhaps a gracious apology.
My interpretation is that Allan is highlighting examples of extreme propaganda in order to further discredit it, much as Caitlin Johnston does in her most recent substack article.
fair enough Aguirre, pretzelattack, it but if you think me out of order I will apologise to Mr Howard.
Alan Howard I am sorry if I have offended you by my behaviour I apologose to you . I wont do it again
it’s easy to make mistakes about people’s motivations in this current maelstrom of propaganda, I have done so, too. And concern trolls are everywhere, so that makes it harder still. I know I’m edgy and irritable (maybe I should say more on edge and more irritable than usual).
Thanks for this reply pretzelattack.
You are correct about the emotions behind all this – battered, bruised and occasionally bewildered.
I said to AG about the military flights arriving in Britain during the last few weeks, especially at night, which I hear all night long. I read recently America has been shipping atomic weapons to a base in East Anglia, Prior to Gaza, the sky was quiet at night. The deep rumble that these flights emit is having the effect on me that a Tiger’s roar produces on nearby mammals.
So called atrocity propaganda
Atrocity propaganda is the spreading of information about the crimes committed by an enemy, which can be factual, but often includes or features deliberate fabrications or exaggerations. This can involve photographs, videos, illustrations, interviews, and other forms of information presentation or reporting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocity_propaganda
#1 interview with Josh Paul, the guy who resigned from the State Department over Israel policy:
“Why I Resigned From the State Department”
An interview with Josh Paul
by Laura Flanders
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/josh-paul-resignation-interview/
* * *
#2 English article by German journalist Hanno Hauenstein about German police crackdowns on Palestine protest.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/germany-palestine-protest/
*This case is also of interest in regards of 1st amendment rights:
The difficulties the left is constantly running into by deciding what is and what is not an opinion worthy of representation prior to/lack of any open discussion.
This is also why Noam Chomsky´s approach has proven to be so significant since only epistemological consistency can offer just and viable solutions.
background scandal, “Mr. Hauenstein”:
Until one year ago, Nov. 2022, Mr. Hauenstein had been senior editor of the culture segment of the Berliner Zeitung. Then the paper´s publisher and owner, Hauenstein´s boss, Holger Friedrich who tries to open up discourse, arranged a panel with German PM Orbán during latter´s visit to the German Chancellor.
Hauenstein via Twitter had bitterly condemned publicly his publisher´s discussion with Orbán who Hauenstein has much disegard for. Eventually Hauenstein stayed with the paper but lost his position. Whether the quarrel was a cause or excuse or part of bigger problems is unclear.
above article excerpts:
“(…)
Sonnenallee runs through the Neukölln district’s northern part. Its eastern tail used to be cut off by the former GDR’s border, making it a prominent symbol of Berlin’s postwar history. Due to its concentration of Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian shops and restaurants, Sonnenallee is often referred to as “Arab Street.” The officer stomping out memorial candles here, of all places, seemed like a sad reminder of how far the crackdown has come and how insufficient justifications have been for such violent reaction to peaceful protest.
It could also be seen as a bitter parody of Germany’s partly parochial memory culture. Many Germans today place a performance of staunch pro-Israel rhetoric above moral or pluralistic integrity—in the name of coming to terms with their forefathers’ crimes. Such tendencies seem to connect seamlessly to populist stances of anti-Semitism as an “imported” phenomenon—one that is allegedly brought into Germany from outside by migrants. “The anti-Semitism that has been imported to Europe requires special efforts,” anti-Semitism commissioner for Hessen, Uwe Becker, said in 2017.
For Ben Mauk, a US journalist living in Berlin-Neukölln, the issue regarding what he describes as a crackdown on civil liberties in Germany is personal. When Mauk attended a demonstration on Sonnenallee, he was pepper-sprayed, even though he was holding up his press card. Following the incident, he decided, along with other Jewish artists, writers, and scholars in Berlin, including many Israelis, to initiate an open letter titled “Freedom for the One Who Thinks Differently,” published in English in n + 1. The letter strongly condemns both Hamas’s attacks on Israeli civilians and Israel’s killing of civilians in Gaza. It also explicitly opposes violations of civil liberties in Germany under the guise of Jewish safety. “As Jews,” it states, “we reject this pretext for racist violence and express full solidarity with our Arab, Muslim, and particularly Palestinian neighbors. We refuse to live in prejudicial fear. What frightens us is the prevailing atmosphere of racism and xenophobia in Germany.”
(…)”.
Perhaps you have already seen this?
Intelligence Ministry ‘concept paper’ proposes transferring Gazans to Egypt’s Sinai
https://www.timesofisrael.com/intelligence-ministry-concept-paper-proposes-transferring-gazans-to-egypts-sinai/
Expel all Palestinians from Gaza, recommends Israeli gov’t ministry
https://www.972mag.com/intelligence-ministry-gaza-population-transfer/
Still the gullible pro-israeli west still believe this war is about Hamas….
Making war by way of deception ? That claim of ethnic cleansing would require the co-operation of the Egyptians, some thing that is highly unlikely to be the case. Indeed pushing it would result in a major disruption of Egypt/Israel relations, something the USA will not want to see at all.
But it sets the scene for whatever the Israelis do actually do, as being less than the totally unacceptable.
I urge everyone to read this revisionist German-language interview in its entirety:
“Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? Historian Manfred Kittel says no
Manfred Kittel in an interview: No matter how you slice it, Israel’s military response is not genocide.”
Oct. 31st
https://archive.ph/nm7rs
attention: Historian Manfred Kittel´s latest study is about Raphael LEMKIN (we have talked about Lemkin recently):
“The Two Faces of Destruction. Raphael Lemkin’s UN Genocide Convention and the Expulsion of the Germans”
https://www.amazon.de/Die-zwei-Gesichter-Zerst%C3%B6rung-Genozidkonvention/dp/3428189051/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=2ARQ9O5K60GQG&keywords=Manfred+Kittel&qid=1698739479&sprefix=manfred+kittel%2Caps%2C82&sr=8-2
– see translation of interview below –
but just to quote one phrase: “After all, it is the terrorist organization Hamas that avowedly wants to exterminate all Jewish life between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. And its barbaric slaughter on October 7 has ruthlessly revealed this intention.”
So German historian Manfred Kittel (well known for his anti-RU position) argues that it´s not Israel but HAMAS committing genocide.
my note:
This is of particular significance since Mr. Kittel is not some nutty activist or politician but has tenure at the University of Regensburg (not a bad address) teaching history and was first director of the then newly founded “Foundation for Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation” 2009-2014. It is intended as a panel and forum to reconcile with Eastern European countries after the turmoil in the wake of the expulsions 1945 of people from East to the West, which still have not been entirely settled.
Kittel was forced to leave his post after several members of the board quit under protest.
Of course one can wonder what makes Kittel an expert on the question at hand regarding Israel/Palestine?
Nothing.
The interview is striking because he says almost nothing about the Palestine conflict.
He speaks about subjects he knows, which are e.g. the Holodomor and the German refugees after WWII.
(His verdicts are another matter again.)
This one book about Lemkin is therefore the justification to choose Kittel now?
That’s a bit weak. Especially as it only discusses Lemkin in the light of the Eastern European theatre between 1939 and 2023. (Holocaust, post war refugees, Bosnia War, War in Ukraine).
I doubt he has any real expertise on Palestine.
So you could argue this interview to be a malign form of misleading the readers of Berliner Zeitung.
Selling someone as trustworthy expert which he is in fact not.
Or is it not rather – which is often the case with Berliner Zeitung ( I have pointed this out in previous months re: UKR/RU) – for political sentiment and sympathies as I believe the staff is filled with people who hate Russia and love anything the US State Department does – which would take us to Palestine.
Which however is so blatantly unjust a case and embroiling the paper´s city – Berlin – itself – that support of Israel cannot be as unequivocal as they might like it to be (mere speculation from my side.) But this kind of stuff is constantly being published.
You could even argue: The paper´s publisher & owner, Mr. Friedrich, whom I mentioned in my above post, is more progressive (and informed) than members of his own staff and yet he won´t fire them.
Frankly, I find this serious shit, as this is, again, scholarship “talking” and offers the government tools to further the killings in Gaza.
Is Kittel actually aware of what he is doing even though his knowledge appears to be so limited? I doubt it very much.
And rest assured this interview will be put to use in upcoming weeks to silence protest.
* * *
Translation:
“(…)
Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? Historian Manfred Kittel says no
Manfred Kittel in an interview: No matter how you slice it, Israel’s military response is not genocide.
Hamas accuses Israel of genocide – the opposite is the case, says Regensburg-based contemporary historian Manfred Kittel. In an interview with Tilman A. Fischer, he explains how the reception history of the concept of genocide in Germany influences the perception of military conflicts – not least in Ukraine.
Q: Professor Kittel, the recent escalation of the Middle East conflict has once again given the concept of genocide a boom. Hamas even classifies Israel’s military response to the Hamas terrorist attack as genocide. Rightly so?
KITTEL: No, Israel’s military response is not genocide – regardless of whether one uses narrower or broader definitions of the term.
Q: What are they?
K: The broad concept of genocide describes – in the wording of the UN Genocide Convention of 1948 – acts aimed at “destroying in whole or in part” a “national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such,” i.e. in its unity and uniformity. According to the narrow definition – which is also advocated by international lawyers, but was by no means clearly accepted in 1948 when the Genocide Convention was drafted – genocide means exclusively the physical extermination of national groups or entire peoples. However, neither the intention of destroying the group as such nor that of physical extermination applies to Israel’s Gaza policy: The actions of democratic Israel are clearly aimed at the military capacities of the deeply hostile Islamist Hamas. I have not yet been able to discern an Israeli intention to destroy the national group of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as such. Anyone who claims this is engaging in perpetrator-victim reversal in its worst form. After all, it is the terrorist organization Hamas that avowedly wants to exterminate all Jewish life between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. And its barbaric slaughter on October 7 has ruthlessly revealed this intention.
Q: Against this background, would it not be more appropriate to speak of genocidal intent on the part of the rulers in the Gaza Strip?
K: That is exactly how it is.
Q: It seems that ultra-left Hamas sympathizers in this country are unable to acknowledge this. This may be related to the history of the reception of the concept of genocide since the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, which you have dealt with intensively in your new book. Can you outline the broad lines of this history?
K: It can perhaps be exemplified by the handling of the genocide against the Herero, which the German foreign minister recognized in 2021. Twenty years earlier, both Christian Democrats like Ruprecht Polenz and Social Democrats like Gerd Weisskirchen were unanimous in their position: the Herero war must not have been a genocide, because otherwise that would mean relativizing the singularity of the Holocaust and thus also the concept of genocide.
Q: What are the roots of this older narrowing of the concept of genocide?
K: After the signing of the UN Genocide Convention by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1954, a broad concept of genocide in the sense of group destruction was initially dominant in Germany, from the CDU to the SPD. At the end of the 1970s, however – especially in the wake of the 1979 “Holocaust” film – the full dimension of the National Socialist breach of civilization first entered the German culture of remembrance. This was accompanied by the reflex to equate genocide with the Holocaust as the most extreme form of extermination policy – albeit in contrast to the intention of the father of the convention, Raphael Lemkin: The Polish-Jewish lawyer had lost almost his entire family in the Holocaust, but nevertheless represented an understanding of genocide that included destruction genocides in addition to extermination genocides. Among these, Lemkin clearly counted the expulsion of the Germans at the end of the Second World War, which may come as a surprise to some.
Q: But the Bundestag has recognized a whole series of genocides in recent years: the Armenian genocide in 2016, the Herero genocide in 2021, the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932/1933 last year, and most recently the IS crimes against the Yazidis.
K: And with this, the House ultimately contradicts exactly what, as I said, only twenty years ago politicians of both once large national parties had expressed in unison. This is a highly exciting development in German politics of remembrance. The background to the new willingness to recognize genocides includes the postcolonial discourses that have been driven forward in recent years by identity politics movements around the world with remarkable media force. In the course of coming to terms with colonialism, racism and slavery, however one sees it, a new paradigm of memory culture has thus emerged. It holds opportunities, but also incalculable risks.
Q: What are they?
K: This paradigm shift has paved the way for the recognition of various genocides, such as the recent Holodomor, and has brought them out of the memory shadow. On the other hand, this is accompanied by an inflation of the term under the sign of postcolonial and identity-political positions, which can then also lead to the instrumentalization of the concept of genocide against Israel.
Q: In view of the atrocities committed by Hamas, the German government clearly shows solidarity with Israel. However, there were also phases in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany when solidarity with Israel was not so strong. Michael Wolffsohn once pointed out a correlation between historical and day-to-day politics with regard to Germany’s Israel policy since the Brandt government: “The more heated the day-to-day political controversies with Israel, the more spotless the normative-historical political vest had to be vis-à-vis the Jewish state and, more generally, before the Jewish world, not least the American Jewish world.” – You already alluded to the recognition of the Holodomor. How does it relate to the Ukraine policy of the German government, which critics accuse of a lack of support?
K: The Holodomor resolution of the Bundestag is declared to be strongly connected with the Ukrainian war – but it contains a whole series of contradictions. First of all, one thing seems remarkable to me: The question to what extent the “Holo-caust” could be relativized by the terminology “Holo-domor” already because of the linguistic proximity has fallen under the table. Moreover, more recent scientific findings about the Holodomor cannot have been the trigger for the resolution.
Q: Which would these be?
K: Among historians, the Holodomor is still discussed in very differentiated terms with regard to its genocidal character. The Holodomor should be seen in the context of the class struggle against the richer peasants, the kulaks, in the Stalinist Soviet Union – even if the class struggle was mixed with ethnic conflicts. But what is most striking about the Holodomor explanation is that it refers almost exclusively to Ukraine, even though the Holodomor had affected the Kazakh people even more, whose death rate was much higher in percentage terms. One may wonder why there was not also a declaration of the Holodomor on the Kazakhs.
Q: And precisely what the relationship is between a decision based on memory policy and decisions based on foreign and defense policy.
K: My impression is that this declaration, which did not cost much, was intended to soothe one’s own guilty conscience toward one’s Ukrainian neighbors – by means of symbolic substitute actions – because, as far as arms deliveries are concerned, to this day, see Taurus, one does not act as if one really wanted quick military successes for Kiev. It would have been much more important to revise a fundamentally wrong Bundestag decision from October 2020: Despite Russia’s ongoing occupation of Crimea and anachronistic reparations demands from Warsaw, the House at the time saw fit to build its own memorial to Polish Nazi victims at a cost of 150 million euros, but to deny Ukraine a similar gesture. Although Ukraine also suffered hardly less in the Second World War. We are miles away from a sustainable German culture of remembrance.
Q: Doesn’t the German Chancellor’s refusal to recognize Putin’s war against Ukraine as genocide then also belong in this context? Why could he not do this – unlike President Biden, for example?
K: Joe Biden spoke of genocide in 2022 because Putin wanted to erase the idea of being Ukrainian, to destroy Ukraine as a nation. Biden was obviously assuming a broad concept of genocide. The Chancellor, on the other hand, obviously uses the narrower concept of genocide, which is aimed at physical extermination. And an extermination of the entire Ukrainian people does not seem to be Vladimir Putin’s intention. On the contrary, in the run-up to the war he has repeatedly stated that he ultimately sees the Ukrainians as part of the Russian people. He wants to destroy them as an independent nation, to re-educate them as Russians, but not to murder them all.
Q: So are both Biden and Scholz right?
K: That is ultimately a question of definition. However, I myself very much advocate the broader concept of genocide, also in line with the case law of the Federal Supreme Court, for example in the trial against a Bosnian Serb in 1999. With its help, it is much more possible to awaken the world’s conscience and to point out the destruction of national groups by the most diverse methods. These are always despicable enough to mobilize all forces against them even with the sharpest semantic weapon – the accusation of genocide – and perhaps prevent even worse. If one would really say that first the intention of the complete physical extermination must be recognizable, in order to speak of genocide, this would be for the purpose of its “prevention” often already too late.
(…)”.
Would you happen to know the forename of Manfred Kittel’s father?
nothing that I could find so far.
I believe I did read that Kittel came from a family of refugees from the East.
But none of the known Kittels in German history seem to fit (Kittel was born 1962 I think).
He did his entire academic career in the West, mainly South Germany.
There is another professor, but sciences, at Würzburg Univer., also by the name of Kittel, 4 years younger. Can be a brother or nothing at all.
Since he did include a Japanese perspective into his first major studies there seem to be Japanese interviews with him, where he might have been more open about private life but I didn´t find any of those either
sry
“This is of particular significance since Mr. Kittel is not some nutty activist or politician but has tenure at the University of Regensburg (not a bad address) teaching history and was first director of the then newly founded “Foundation for Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation” 2009-2014.”
I think you are more likely to be given the posts Mr.Kittel has if you are a nutty activist.
Analyse it in terms of property rights. What’s interesting is the left says property rights are important for Palestinians.
Why then do they not think that property rights matter for brits?
It’s difficult for Palestinians to have property rights when it’s looking like there’ll be very little property left standing.
Property rights are rights of exclusive occupation of land, nothing to do with the buildings on it. Those are the rights that are being taken away from the Palestinians.
The UK US, as well as the murderous Zionist’s knew this planned atrocity/genocide has to happen before they could safely extract the gas reserves off Gaza’s coast, they were prepared to sacrifice fellow Jews in order to secure 50+ years of energy security
First they stole Palestine with violence, bringing their children up with fear of Arabs, then they eradicated Palestinians by the thousands during the Nakhba.
With every violent step they took they put two fingers up to the UN who graciously granted them equal rights in Palestine to live in peace side by side
This rogue Zionist gang never had the intention to let me in peace with anyone, not even their Jewish brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, Sudan, or Egypt. Apartheid within their own diaspora, favouring eastern Europe’s terror mongers such as Ben Gurion and his fellow Zionist’s.
True Judaism does not support these violent crooks and child killers.
Rogue state’s that preach and act out genocide and let ving by war and stealing of land, disregarding all rules established by a world population in the UN, should be expelled from it like a bad smell.
As for coming here and threatening our host with violence, because they licked Bidens cheeks for the liquor they deserve, go do one Saddo.
Onit
The Times reported that McDonald Labour party MP recited the ‘From the river to the sea’ chant – the Palestinian freedom call that supporters of Israel misrepresent as a call for their eradication – during the protest. But this was completely untrue and the paper was quickly forced to apologise for smearing the lawyer MP:
Sir Keir Starmer has tonight suspended a Labour MP who called for peace between Israel & Palestine.
Seeking peace now a purgeable offence in Labour. https://skwawkbox.org/2023/10/30/mp-mcdonald-suspended-for-something-he-didnt-say-as-starmer-screws-up-again-over-gaza/
Meanwhile Agreeing with and encouraging collective punishment, withholding food, water and energy from over 2 million innocent Palestinians, in other words sentencing then to death is, according to Starmer perfectly justified [see LBC interview] Starmer is a Genocidal monster.who sould be hounded out of the country or jailed for life.
Associated Press reports that Israel planned to move more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt.
An Israeli ministry, in a ‘concept paper,’ proposes transferring Gaza civilians to Egypt’s Sinai
https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-population-transfer-hamas-egypt-palestinians-refugees-5f99378c0af6aca183a90c631fa4da5a
How do you find this? Is it a norm that a state may plan to move an ethnic group to another state? Reminds me of Kiev’s attitude towards Crimeans and Donbassians, in a way like ‘it’s our land, if you don’t like it here then you can move to Russia’.
Well, now I understand why Egypt objected to receive refugees. Back then I found the statement strange, now I see the full context.
Egypt controls Gaza Strip’s southern border, under an agreement between it and Israel. Israel is trying to now to void this agreement. Because establishing full control, is obviously required to complete their evil expulsion plan. Egypt has officially warned Israel they will not accept it. This, after Israel moved tanks along the border, all the way to the Rafah crossing, in the last few days.
The silence in Western capitals is deafening about these plans to cut Gaza in half, steal the upper half, then presumably come back later for the second phase involving full expulsion of Gazans into Egypt? The awful possibility is that the Zionist dominated US State Dept probably knows about this too.
Israel’s sanction-free impunity vs Russia’s Western imposed near-pariah status, is forcing Europeans to ask just who is running the show.
Israel doesn’t even have Russia’s excuse of a persecuted Russian speaking minority to defend here, it’s just ethnic cleansing for a brazen land grab.
@ Tatyana
“plan to move an ethnic group to another state? Reminds me of Kiev’s attitude towards Crimeans and Donbassians, ”
Or indeed of Moscow’s (Stalin’s) attitude towards the Tartars, Volga Germans and a few other ethnic groups.
Yes, I thought it’s weird to condemn bad tyrannical Stalin’s deportation when planning a good democratic Netaniahu’s deportation.
Just as weird as calling zionism a bullshit, while saying that Crimea should belong to Tatars.
I wish one day we have truly universal principles to apply equally to all people.
Just changed channels and, lo and behold, Starmer is on BBC News 24 spouting about Israel-Gaza, at length. I totally loath the guy, but I’m forcing myself to listen. Oh, he’s just finished, and now taking questions.
He really is spouting B/S……. As with others, he says that if there was a ceasefire, Hamas would just keep on attacking. Of course they wouldn’t, but what he’s saying is aimed at the millions who have swallowed all the B/S and believe all the atrocity propaganda, and are unaware of the reality and believe Hamas are just evil blood-thirsty Jew-hating barbarians who want to kill all Jews etc, etc, and such people will of course believe such nonsense. The reality is that if there was a ceasefire and serious negotiations began to address the plight of the Palestinians, and Governments all around the world were involved, and Israel’s allies changed their tune and stopped deceiving hundreds of millions of people, along with their respective (mostly) corporate media, then the problem and the ongoing conflict could be finally brought to an end.
The problem is that we’re dealing with psychopaths who are devoid of a conscience and empathy, and who live by the dictum that Might is Right. And they are all mega-sadists on a level that most of us can’t begin to comprehend, and they are more than happy to let their good mate Bibi kill and maim and destroy and devastate until his black heart is satiated, and all under the guise of Israel defending itself.
Starmer is Israel’s UK call-boy with a mandate to seduce the swallowers.
BBC reports are now barely watchable. It’s been reported ministers have been demanding changes to coverage at their meetings with their Tory placeman, Director General, Tim Davie.
According to the BBC, what the the Israelis are doing in Gaza, including bombing hospitals and schools (UN verified reports) concern only, ‘Hamas targets’. Whereas reports out of Gaza, are qualified with “according to Hamas” and/or “Hamas are a proscribed terrorist organisation”. The BBC are now little more than apologists for ethnic cleansing.
And where to begin on, Israel’s UN diplomatic team, including their ambassador, wearing yellow badges stars, with ‘Jude’. Are they so out of excuses justifying their current behaviour they have to constantly revisit Jewish persecution from nearly a hundred years ago. Many in Israel are rightly disgusted by this stunt , cheapening the memory of the holocaust.
BBC just asked UNICEF spokesman if the numbers can be trusted.?
It is hard to watch!
Just watch Al Jazeera. They aren’t obsessed with sob stories and publicity stunts on the Israeli side from what happened over three weeks ago, like the BBC are.
Blinken visited the home of Al Jazeera to urge they tone down the coverage of Palestinian suffering in Arab countries. But the US can’t really threaten Qatar for various reasons.
Ah, Blinken, Blinken. I came across the name of Samuel Pisar in Tom Bower’s book about the crook Robert Maxwell. It seems he acted as a lawyer for one or other (or perhaps several) of Maxwell’s companies. So he was one of the crook’s lawyers. Then I came across a very laudatory entry for Mr Pisar in Wikipedia. And finally, in the Wikipedia entry for Mr Antony Blinken, I came across the fact – lo and behold! – that Mr Pisar was Blinken’s step-father. Blinken is of course acting on behalf of another crook, known as Bibi Netanyahu, although perhaps not in a legal capacity.
Funny old world!
I too had this aha-moment.
Biden´s step-Dad was in his own time a major Hollywood agent and thus deal-breaker. Biden´s wife´s a movie producer – so that part of the propaganda equation is all solved.
p.s. if you want to read horrifying statements about Palestinians, look into Wikileaks´ “Sony-leaks”. Some major studio bosses have some serious issues on that level too…those of course have never been addressed by any me-too campaign.
p.s. an since you mention Bibi – some of Bibi´s old pals who made their fortunes as arms dealers later on invested in some (good) Hollywood productions.
I mostly do and your comment regarding 3 weeks ago is 100% right like the mantra you mentioned before.. Every rapport mentions 1400 killed.
I do!
You are 100% right about 1400 killed 3 weeks ago.
Pigeon English
It’s so mantralike and unnatural that it must have been ordered from on high.
Political and commercial independence. The BBC is required by its charter to be free from both political and commercial influence and answers only to its viewers and listeners.
There are reports of staff being in tears. Why can’t staff just remind these Tory Zionist asshats, what the charter requires?
The reason the right admire ethnostate Israel so much. Is because it’s the nearest thing to the white UK ethnostate they can’t have.
When I searched for UN verified report of hospital bombing, I found a UN press release Thursday 19th Oct. “UN experts* today expressed outrage against the deadly strike at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. … “The strike against Al Ahli Arab Hospital is an atrocity.”
*9 authors listed, “The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.”. “Special Procedures experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organisation and serve in their individual capacity.”
Friday Oct 20th
“There is a clear need for an investigation, an independent investigation into what happened,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, said during a news conference in Geneva on Friday.
Kill the fucking licence fee.
Keep the licence fee. If it was abolished, the Establishment would get the government to fund the BBC from general revenue and we would all end up paying for it, something we can currently avoid by not watching any of the rubbish they produce.
WSWS reports that Socialist Worker has revealed that it and the rest of the British press have been issued with a D notice to suppress reporting of current activities of the SAS in Gaza.
Staggering if true. ICC, war crimes?
staggering indeed. they are dragging UK history into the mud. British soldiers murdered by the Hagenah, hanging in barbed wire and from trees are being dissed by those who send the SAS to help to in genocide.
Stripped And Shot, as I recall, that’s how the IRA dealt with these ‘heroes’.
Goose, they did this before, so when desperation needs be.
https://www.financialmirror.com/2023/10/31/sas-on-standby-in-cyprus-to-rescue-britons-in-gaza/
Why staggering? Surely you know that every military need to keep its lads well trained? Keeping that cutting edge well honed?
Of course not. The ICC is there to support the Rules Based International Order. This states that anything done by the Anglos and colonisers in support of the global American Empire is good. Everybody else is bad.
As if Britain hasn’t done enough damage to Palestinians historically, with the outrageous Balfour Declaration. Which started this fiasco, by giving away land that wasn’t ours to give away.
We’ve got King Charles in Kenya, apologising for colonial activities. The govt has never apologised to the Palestinians.
I read today that Charles will not be apologising??
Not issuing a formal apology i.e it’ll be in a personal capacity. Probably not wanting to open the UK up to claims for financial reparations. That could snowball, given the extent of Britain’s colonial misdeeds.
The UK right love Israel’s cocky, arrogant swagger. Amazing how their defenders these days are basically those who hold extreme far right views; neoliberal hawks, plus Islamophobes and those associated with hardline anti-immigration positions.
The political left in Israel has been all but eviscerated. There really are no moderate voices in Israel besides for sections of the population. The Netanyahu government’s plan to weaken the justice system, weakening the Supreme Court while strengthening the legislative branch, will further consolidate his power. Any politician in the West saying, ” we must get two-states back on the agenda” is being wholly disingenuous. Israel’s aim is clear: a one-state solution, and the Palestinians aren’t included. And the scary thing is, it looks like the way is clear for that to become a reality.
Not only the British right, Goose, also the French right. With them it’s mainly islamophobia, in which Monsieur Eric Zemmour is a leading stakeholder. Purely coincidentally, Monsieur Zemmour is French, of the Jewish faith, and from North Africa. Marine Le Pen is also on board, having ditched (it seems) the anti-semitic part of her father’s stall and keeping just the Islamophobic part.
As always, the Lobby is on high alert, as illustrated very recently in the French weekly “L’Express” by a certain Monsieur Marc Knobel, who takes to task with considerable indignation and lots of steam, the author of a article in “Le Monde” of 11 September 2023 claiming that there is a serious split in the French Jewish community with a large number of the latter having moved over to support the Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour camps.
It’s a rum old world!
Is not Ms Le Pen hitched up with an Israeli boyfriend ?
Rings a vague bell..
Perhaps fellow-commenter Laguerre, who often pronounces on matters French, could confirm?
There is no end to the cruelty by Israel
Israeli army ‘indiscriminately’ used white phosphorous in attack in Lebanon: Amnesty
https://www.dawn.com/news/1785287/israeli-army-indiscriminately-used-white-phosphorous-in-attack-in-lebanon-amnesty
All the support by the west gave early on to Israel was taken as a green light to do all these crimes now.
Since Israel refuse to accept a ceasefire the arab lackey states must act, how can they be passive like this, humilating themselves. Not even pretending.
Only Iran, Hezbollah seems to be the only parties with a brain and a heart on this matter:
‘Israel’s plan is to crush you and your people,’ Hezbollah warns Arab states
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/10/29/713656/Lebanese-Hezbollah-resistance-movement-Sheikh-Naim-Qassem-Israeli-occupation-brutality-
To demonstrate the meaning of “double standard” just today the German government responded to a parliamentary inquiry concerning Julian Assange.
After Bundestag last year had officially decided to demand his realese to this day nothing happened as the German government still has, quote:
“no doubt that the British judiciary applies the principles of the rule of law and respects human rights.” As a matter of principle, no comment is made on ongoing proceedings or confidential discussions with other governments.”
see German report:
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/politik-gesellschaft/baerbocks-aussenministerium-schweigt-zu-julian-assange-linke-vollkommen-inakzeptabel-li.2153901
These criminals are spineless cowards and the fact that they are in fact in power is just infuriating. They should evaporate into thin air out of disgust and being ashamed of themselves.
At the same time German Minister of the Interior Faeser has stated that Hamas and Samidoun will soon be abolished.
p.s. some sane words:
“Gaza: Colonialism in the 21st Century”
By Boaventura de Sousa Santos
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/gaza-colonialism-in-the-21st-century/
“It is nowadays pretty much consensual in the social sciences that colonialism did not end with the political independence of the European colonies that took place between the beginning of the 19th century and the end of the 20th
(…)
Palestine is therefore one of the remaining situations of historical colonialism. The war being fought is a colonial war on the part of the Israelis and an anti-colonial liberation war on the part of the Palestinians. The Portuguese should understand this better than any other European country, given that only fifty years ago they were living in the same situation. In a war, terrorist acts are committed whenever civilian populations are intentionally targeted, whether they are committed by anti-colonial fighters or by states (the latter being called state terrorism). This was the case in the Algerian war, the wars in Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique. Just fifty years ago, in 1973, Amílcar Cabral (until his death) (Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands), Agostinho Neto (Angola), Jonas Savimbi (Angola), Holden Roberto (Angola), and Samora Machel (Mozambique), were terrorists, and were portrayed as such in the Portuguese press. One year later, they were heroes of anti-colonial liberation, and as such celebrated in their countries and in Portugal. Why are there no liberation heroes in Palestine, only terrorists? Because colonialism continues to subjugate Palestine. The transformation of terrorists into heroes is generally not as rapid as that of Portuguese colonialism. We only have to remember the case of Nelson Mandela who, although apartheid ended in 1994 and he was elected president of the Republic of South Africa on that date, was only removed from the US list of terrorists in… 2008.”
If the Zionists can’t get the weapons then they can’t fire them.
“Belgian transport unions refuse to load and unload weapons going to Israel (both via ports and airports) and call for an immediate ceasefire.”
https://nitter.net/peter_mertens/status/1719312314548007226#m
The Zionists are still targeting Palestinian journalists.
“Palestinian journalists Majed Kishko and Imad Wahidi, two correspondents for the Palestine TV, were just confirmed killed in an Israeli airstrike last night on Gaza.”
https://nitter.net/QudsNen/status/1719324500242714629#m
“Pro-Palestine protesters interrupt Blinken’s speech in Congress and demanded a ceasefire”
One protestor is man handled out of the meeting, whilst others raise a blood soaked hand when the vote is taken, at the start of the meeting Blinken looks rattled.
https://nitter.net/QudsNen/status/1719360192888905935#m
News reports filtering through that the Zionists have bombed a refugee camp and the death toll is said to be high.
“According to the head of the Indonesian Hospital, over 100 citizens have been killed and over 300 others injured in Israeli strikes on the heavily populated Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza.”
https://nitter.net/QudsNen/status/1719357318368821464#m
If true surely this another war crime committed by the Zionists.
Pure hatred, pure racial hatred, this is what this is about. Bombing a refugee site, and it is not the first time, prove the racist, psychopathic intent by the israelis.
Even if the arab world is too pathetic to intervene they could easily smuggle in arms to the palestinians to defend themselves after massacre after massacre but not even that they can do.
Expect them to blame the blast on an errant Gazan missile.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the ethnic cleansing is ramped up, out of sight of the media, as villagers are expelled at gunpoint from the villages they took refuge in after being expelled from their homes in Israel:
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2023/october/ethnic-cleansing-in-the-west-bank
Absolutely unforgivable crimes amidst the brutal racist violence.
One of the reasons why you people keep getting massacred in arguments, is that you keep claiming ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ for a population which is growing at a rate faster than any in the Middle East. If Israel is trying to inflict ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’, all I can say is that they’re not very good at it.
Jim
I guess there was no Holocaust by Hitler then since there are million of jews today.
Apparently Hitler was not “very good at it”.
Jack. The population of Jews today has still not recovered to pre-war levels.
Happy to have cleared things up for you.
Fillybuster
There was about as many jews in the 30s as there is today.
— In 1939, the global population of Jewish people worldwide peaked at around 16.6 million.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/07/02/has-the-global-jewish-population-finally-rebounded-from-the-holocaust-not-exactly/
But…good try.
‘world’s Jewish population was finally approaching 16.6 million again…’
Well, it took almost eight decades. As opposed to the ‘Palestinian’ (sic) population, which has been climbing steadily since well before 1948. You know, during all those years of ‘genocide’.
Yes because it is not a genocide where a people is wiped off the map in 2 weeks but incrementally and thus Israel can fool people like yourself that what they do is not ethnic cleansing, is not genocide.
Ilan Pappé talked about this fact some weeks back: https://youtu.be/d6TI2ekYEg0?t=719
You’re welcome!
It is not ‘genocide’ when the population in question has one of the highest rates of growth in the region. FFS, how much more do I have to shrink the words, to get you to understand?
Jim
Easy now, as I made clear earlier, there were jews that Hitler did not catch, was the Holocaust not a genocide because of that?
You see, genocide do not mean you have to kill every single individual of a group.
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
Just say that you support genocide against palestinians do not beat around the bush.
Goodbye
‘Just say that you support genocide against palestinians ‘
Where did I imply that, Jack?
Jim C
It is usually said that denying the Holocaust genocide implies anti-semitism.
I’m sure you’d agree with that.
I wonder if you’d also agree that denying there’s a slow genocide going on against the Palestinians implies hatred of the Palestinians?
Your argument is really bad.
Following you logic If European Jews had 3,4, kids and recovered we could argue that genocide did not happen.
“mowing a lawn” comes to my mind
Further more
Those Palestinians breed so much that killing a million want be a genocide.
Hmm that’s why you kill women and children. You people are psychopaths
Moving people from Gaza to Egypt it’s not ethnic cleansing but humanitarian endeavour. Why not open the gates to Israel in the North? I know, women and children are national security risks to ….
Jim C, there is a difference between “genocide” and “extermination” which you appear not to appreciate. The Holocaust was genocide, despite the fact that there were still 10 million Jews left in the world after it.
I just came across a Telegraph article posted today which is taking the demonisation of protesters one giant step further. Most of it is behind a paywall of course, but the headline and sub-headline are more than enough to get the gist of it. And it’s ugly, really ugly, and fascistic to the core:
A few short step[s] from protests to murderous mob violence (Telegraph, 31 Oct 2023) – archived
Those who have taken to British streets are creating the environment for hatred to get out of control
Yeah, you see we should all be cheering on the mass murder of thousands of Palestinians and the maiming and crippling of thousands more, and the destruction of their homes and towns and the infrastructure of Gaza and turning it all to rubble, and be creating an environment of peace and love as such, instead of being out on the streets together, calling for a ceasefire and an end to the siege etc. in our hundreds of thousands, along with millions more around the world, because it’s creating an environment of hatred, an environment of hatred towards us by the ruling elite(s), otherwise known as The Mob.
Absolute disgusting: Old israelis soldiers reminiscence with joy and laughter how they murdered, raped palestinians from their land
For historical context, this is probably the most important video you’ll ever watch. Let Israelis tell you in their own words how they stole other people’s land, how they raped young girls, how they tortured and massacred innocent civilians.
Video https://twitter.com/Trickyjabs/status/1718887609211011208
They talk like they are some nazis.
Wow, brilliant find Jack! Just did a search and came across this Intercept article/review from last year:
“Tantura” Exposes the Lie at the Heart of Israel’s Founding Myth
https://theintercept.com/2022/11/25/tantura-movie-israel-palestine/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ziwuaWLy8A&list=PLKbAOjR-oTwoajWr8yHkseywJjG4oTSqz&index=9
From the 1985 series, End of Empire. A quite balanced docu that amazingly has some of the Jewish players from 48, who were still hale and hearty when the proggy was made, being quite forthright about their employment of methods that we now see that proscribed group using.
“Jewish players from 48”
Do you mean the war criminals who carried out the “Nabka” or the war criminals who ordered it? Or both?
Israel built on terror, bent on genocide
Friend of genocide masquerading as Labour leader thinks we’re all fools. https://skwawkbox.org/2023/10/31/starmer-stopping-killing-in-gaza-might-lead-to-more-violence-but-keeping-bombing-brings-peace/
Keir Starmer, the hollowed-out shell of a man currently masquerading as leader of the Labour party, has said he ‘understands’ calls for a ceasefire, but can’t agree with them.
His rationale, he claims, is that a ceasefire might lead to more violence – presumably, as opposed to creating less violence by continuing to slaughter thousands of children, women, elderly people and United Nations teachers and medics. Almost five hundred children a day are currently said to be dying in Israel’s mass bombing of the tiny Gaza strip.
As well as the more than 3,000 children confirmed dead so far, many thousands more are suffering life-changing physical and psychological injury:
This is absurd on so many levels:
Israel considers settling Palestinians in Sinai in exchange for writing off Egypt’s debt: Newspaper
https://www.egyptindependent.com/israel-considers-settling-palestinians-in-sinai-in-exchange-for-writing-off-egypts-debt-newspaper/
Except of course it’d be the Yankee Doodle Dandies who’d be providing the moolah! Certainly not Israel.
A better idea might be for the US to take on the cost of removing all Israeli settlers from the West Bank and re-settling them in Israel proper. If this were to look too expensive, the US could reallocate some of the moolah it sends to Israel every year for military and budgetary purposes.
Jack – It won’t happen like that. The problem is not Egypt’s debt, but that Sisi would be destabilised if he accepted. So he won’t, or he risks being strung up from a lamppost.
A whole array of discussions by Judge Napolitano today, focal point Israel:
Matthew Hoh, Mike Benz, Karen Kwiatkowski, Scott Ritter, Larry Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/@judgingfreedom/streams
Ilan Pappé speaking with Amy Goodman from Haifa.
I wonder in how far he is being subject to any harassment or not, or to surveillance and whether he doesn´t care any more. (it´s a bit like Craig Murray´s position vs. the state he lives in I would guess.)
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/31/ilan_pappe_israel_invades_gaza
More news on bombed refugee camp filtering through now.
“Just received video from Jabaliya refugee camp after carpet bombing by the Zionist genocide regime using American bombs.”
Apparently there around 400 dead.
https://nitter.net/AliAbunimah/status/1719357500066058395#m
An IDF spokesman coldly stated in a TV interview that they had intelligence suggesting a senior Hamas commander was among them.
Which is probably BS? But even if what he said is actually true, and they had some intel. 400 killed in the hope a Hamas commander might be among the dead. What sort of country does that?
Just reverse, and imagine 400 are gunned down in an Israeli shopping mall. And a Hamas spokesman says, it doesn’t matter because one was a senior IDF commander. Would any US or UK politician say, or any reasonable human being say, well that’s fair enough then?
Just to clarify my comment.
The point being: mass deliberate killing of civilians is never acceptable.
And the distinction of someone wearing a uniform and doing the killing with high-tech, expensive, military hardware doesn’t somehow legitimise it.
Israeli-British historian Avi Shlaim: ‘Western powers will be complicit in Israel’s attack on Gaza’
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-10-23/israeli-british-historian-avi-shlaim-western-powers-will-be-complicit-in-israels-attack-on-gaza.html
It is too bad that the non-western world do not call out western complicit in the crimes now unfolding and put sanctions on them.
Another new good interview with Avi Shalim
‘Israel Does Not Want Palestine as Partner in Peace, Wants To Maintain Control Over It’
And one last sentence about the ICC, because that’s another illustration of Western double standards. The chief prosecutor instituted a full investigation of war crimes but the present chief prosecutor Karim Khan, a British barrister, has completely failed to make progress in that investigation.
On the other hand, when Russia invaded Ukraine, within two days, he announced that he was going to institute a war crimes investigation, and within a week, he sent an advance team to Kyiv to start gathering the evidence for a war crimes investigation and trial. So, you couldn’t have a starker example of Western hypocrisy than condoning everything, all the war crimes that Israel commits, but supporting the ICC in its pursuit of Russian war crimes in the Ukraine.
https://thewire.in/world/full-text-israel-palestine-karan-thapar-avi-shlaim
Atleast 1 state with a heart on the right place:
Bolivia breaks off diplomatic ties with Israel
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/31/israel-hamas-war-live-israeli-air-attacks-continue-across-gaza
They did the same after 2009 assault (together with a couple other Latin american nations)
https://www.haaretz.com/2009-01-14/ty-article/bolivia-cuts-ties-with-israel-seeks-genocide-charges-against-israeli-officials/0000017f-f7ba-d47e-a37f-ffbedd810000
Meanwhile Israel killed another teenager in the Westbank
Israeli forces have shot and killed a 16-year-old boy in the town of Beit Ummar near Hebron.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/31/israel-hamas-war-live-israeli-air-attacks-continue-across-gaza
And US/Egypt announced that they will start opening the Rafah border to atleast some palestinians.
The corrupt Egypt will likely be bribed into opening the border in total and save Israel.
It seems like the corrupt western/israeli aligned arab leaders have totally eradicated pro-palestinian views in gov. and amongst the population.
Yemen has declared war on Israel. Ok, this might seem ridiculous at first glance. They do have some missile and drone capability though. And Israel do have regional interests, for example in Eritrea across the Red Sea. Yemen’s a large country that’s emerging from a war and has a population of 34.5 million people. Look at its population trend graph line.
It puts into perspective how eliminating Hamas as a movement, is all but impossible.
Israel’s outrageous behaviour is the best recruiting sergeant Hamas could hope for.
Houthis are the de facto government.
I’d not followed developments in Yemen all that closely recently. Found this interesting, information rich article from earlier this year for those interested: https://www.mei.edu/publications/saudi-houthi-deal-wont-bring-lasting-peace-yemen
I have to apologize in advance, I’m in my philosophical era today.
Here in Russia we have cult science fiction writers – the Strugatsky brothers. Nathan and Arkady (Jews, by the way, but this is absolutely unimportant for the time when they worked, and for the point of view that I am going to express).
In one of their works they used a poetic epigraph:
‘стояли звери
около двери
в них стреляли
они умирали’
*’there were animals
near the door
they were shot at
they were dying’
These stanzas later received a continuation, presumably fan fiction:
‘нашлись те кто их пожалели
и открыли для них тяжелые двери
зверей встретили шутки и смех
звери вошли и убили всех’
*’there were those who felt sorry for them
and opened heavy doors for them
the animals were greeted with jokes and laughter
the animals came in and killed everyone’
—
I find this artistic lines more than suitable for describing how the Jews were allowed to create their own state in Palestine, in order to avoid the Holocaust in Europe, and what do they do now to the country that became their refuge
‘The beetle in the anthill’. I read it recently. A very sad commentary on human intolerance for difference. Apparently the poem was written by the, at the time, very young son of Boris (not Nathan) Strugatsky. ‘Roadside picnic’ is my favourite of the brothers; I read it as a critique of capitalism.
Thanks, Simon, and sorry for mixing the name. Natan was the father of Boris and Arkadiy, somehow the name appeared in my head.
I myself now listen to the audiobooks, instead of music, and Strugatsky’s are on my daily playlist. My favourite is ‘Monday starts on Saturday’, perhaps because I myself is pretty much of an enthusiastic workaholic.