Virtually every time Israel attacks Gaza it blames Gaza’s civilian casualties on Hamas “human shielding.” This propaganda works to neutralize criticism of Israel‘s war on Gaza, shifting the blame from the Zionist colonizer to the indigenous Palestinians who are simply defending their land and lives. Through its long-term, ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, Israel has concentrated them into smaller and smaller areas - especially Gaza - making it one of Earth’s most densely populated places.
Gaza’s civilians and militants are in such close proximity because Zionist Israel has forced them to be – just as Nazi Germany concentrated Jewish civilians and militants in the Warsaw Ghetto as a step toward eliminating them. Consequently, there’s virtually no place from which Gaza’s militants – like their Warsaw Ghetto counterparts – are/were able to resist other than from the proximity of their civilians.
There’s a world of difference between this and human shielding, which involves intentionally positioning civilians between the resistance and the enemy. These realities also make a mockery of Israel’s ceaseless efforts to portray Gaza’s civilian casualties as “proportional” to its military objectives. Israel has no legitimate military objectives in Gaza. Its aim to ethnically cleanse most of Palestine is the prime source of the horrendous death and destruction, and its framing of Palestinian resistance to its criminal agenda as “human shielding” is the height of Orwellian doublespeak. Hamas is not practicing it any more than the Warsaw Ghetto Jews were.
Best,
Greg
To the Editor:
There is an effort on the part of the Elting Library Board to censor free speech on library property. The First Amendment of our Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, as well as the right to assemble peacefully. The Constitution is the highest law in the land, far superseding library “policies.” The library is simply acting on the behalf of those who do not want the truth to be told. The truth about Israel’s genocide, war crimes, extermination, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. New Paltz Women In Black expose the truth about the savage year long slaughter, starvation, and brutalization of innocent Palestinian women, children, babies, and men which is fully supported and funded by our government and our tax dollars. The nonsense about library policy is simply a smokescreen designed to prevent the expression of a truth that Zionists want to keep hidden. The library has referenced the need for “neutrality.” As Bishop Desmond Tutu a frequent critic of Israel’s apartheid stated, ““If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” When a male dog is castrated it is called “neutering.” “Neutral” and “neutering” have the same origins. With that in mind, I hope the library board can stop hiding behind neutrality and “grow a pair.”
Eli Kassirer
New Paltz, NY
Where have we seen this
A video of the mass displacement of Palestinians from the north under threat of fire. We watch the struggling, exhausted women and children and elderly herded by a relentless military. Shooting stragglers or those who refuse to leave.
Where have we seen this?
In Zamosc, Poland, there were four "aktions" (the euphemistic term for the herding of Jews to death camps). The first was in April 1942, the last and final one in October 1942. In the first 3 aktions, Jews were forced onto trains, 100 people or more squeezed into freight cars made to carry no more than 40 people. Those slow to move, or who refused, were shot. Many died of suffocation or heat in the packed cars. The 'survivors' arrived at Belzec or Sobibor where they were gassed. During the final aktion, which took place in October 1942, for some reason there were no trains available. So the remaining Jews were marched to the town of Izbica, where there was a transit camp, 11 kilometers away. Those who lagged behind were shot. One well known citizen of Zamosc, Bronislawa Spiegelglass, a physician, slipped away to the side of a church (pointed out to me by Polish historians), and injected her 11 year old son and herself with a fatal dose of morphine.
My grandmother's niece, husband, and 4 year old daughter were rounded up for an earlier aktion. Her husband said to the Nazi guarding them: "You're going to kill us anyway. We're not leaving our home". They were told to stand against a wall, and all three were shot. Her husband and child died instantly, but she did not, and survived a few days with a bullet wound to her head.
This is happening right now in in Gaza. A family has said: "We can go no further" and been shot. Children have been shot. Babies have been shot. Old people, handicapped people, sick people, shot. People attached to IVs bombed, burned to death. Forced to keep moving. To where? To certain death. Only in a different place. A transit camp.
From above a line of human beings looks like ants. If one of the ants is felled, so what? What does it matter to the ubermenschen. What if a giant foot comes down and steps on the entire column? Well, the world leaders will say, the ants should have been following orders.
This heinous travesty. This massive war crime we're all funding.
This insane specter of "antisemitism" raised again and again to any who dare protest it. To silence us. I will tell you what is antisemitic. Associating being Jewish with Israel, with this horrific marauding entity which learned nothing, nothing at all from the holocaust, except how to perpetrate one.
Marcy
Review of film at the African Roots Library in Kingston
From the Palestine Chronicle two comments from members of the Freedom Flotilla speaking of their experiences and feelings
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/from-the-river-to-the-sea-and-all-around-the-world-warm-welcome-home-for-freedom-flotilla-crew/
Their pain but hopefulness and commitment with calls for others to do the same is in contrast to the Palestine film "Wanted" that I went to see yesterday as the African Roots Library in Kingston. That film had a light vein throughout as the cows were presented in living cartoon
characters as well as their real selves. The film mirrors the Freedom Flotilla's point the Palestinians made about being freer than their Israeli occupiers. The film portrayed the incredible creativity of the town's people based on the unity they had amongst themselves. No matter what the Israeli tactics to destroy this push back the people always found a way to resist. But a point of hope at the end of the film was marred for me by one of the men, a boy when this episode with the cows was occurring, was a sad note on which they ended the film.
The Oslo Accords ramped up the Occupation killing one of the towns leaders, a young man. The result for this man was a sense of defeat, betrayal in fact. The film would have been so much more powerful if it ended with a man who kept looking for the one cow that was set free to ensure survival of the cows (people) with hope to see that it survived in hiding. One cannot be or feel free when allowing repressive forces to destroy hope and resilience. It is one form of power the people can always have no matter the repressive efforts to destroy that hope and resilience.
It is what spurs revolutionary movements the strength to continue the struggle for freedom and peace. FYI, the cows were a symbol of the push for freedom. The town people were fed up with being forced to be dependent on Israel for all their services and supplies. They went to Israel and bought a few cows to provide milk for their children. A seemingly small effort on their part raised the ire of Israel and the IDF which continued to destroy this one very small effort at free choice, independence and self-esteem. The IDF waged a fight of increasing threats and repression with the people finding more ways to withstand the sanctions and lockdowns and even imprisonment. It reminded me of how the Black community in particular used the prisons to educate others incarcerated, studying and planning ways to resist the repression. The cows were eventually taken/destroyed with one small one let loose to try and survive for the community.
It a lighter way than is common, this film was very moving providing many lessons for those who need to learn them and others to be reminded of the power of unity and resistance.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/from-the-river-to-the-sea-and-all-around-the-world-warm-welcome-home-for-freedom-flotilla-crew/
Their pain but hopefulness and commitment with calls for others to do the same is in contrast to the Palestine film "Wanted" that I went to see yesterday as the African Roots Library in Kingston. That film had a light vein throughout as the cows were presented in living cartoon
characters as well as their real selves. The film mirrors the Freedom Flotilla's point the Palestinians made about being freer than their Israeli occupiers. The film portrayed the incredible creativity of the town's people based on the unity they had amongst themselves. No matter what the Israeli tactics to destroy this push back the people always found a way to resist. But a point of hope at the end of the film was marred for me by one of the men, a boy when this episode with the cows was occurring, was a sad note on which they ended the film.
The Oslo Accords ramped up the Occupation killing one of the towns leaders, a young man. The result for this man was a sense of defeat, betrayal in fact. The film would have been so much more powerful if it ended with a man who kept looking for the one cow that was set free to ensure survival of the cows (people) with hope to see that it survived in hiding. One cannot be or feel free when allowing repressive forces to destroy hope and resilience. It is one form of power the people can always have no matter the repressive efforts to destroy that hope and resilience.
It is what spurs revolutionary movements the strength to continue the struggle for freedom and peace. FYI, the cows were a symbol of the push for freedom. The town people were fed up with being forced to be dependent on Israel for all their services and supplies. They went to Israel and bought a few cows to provide milk for their children. A seemingly small effort on their part raised the ire of Israel and the IDF which continued to destroy this one very small effort at free choice, independence and self-esteem. The IDF waged a fight of increasing threats and repression with the people finding more ways to withstand the sanctions and lockdowns and even imprisonment. It reminded me of how the Black community in particular used the prisons to educate others incarcerated, studying and planning ways to resist the repression. The cows were eventually taken/destroyed with one small one let loose to try and survive for the community.
It a lighter way than is common, this film was very moving providing many lessons for those who need to learn them and others to be reminded of the power of unity and resistance.
Tanya
Genocide Blue, Genocide Red, or Neither
If you think it is liberating to have a woman of color actively aiding and abetting apartheid and genocide on indigenous non-European people and mass-killing women and children, then for sure, Kamala Harris is the presidential candidate for you. As an added bonus, with her you also get treated to an attorney who flouts the law by providing a safe haven for an international war criminal. But wait, there’s more— you’d also get a president committed to planeticide via fracking, GMOs, and pesticides, and who felt "honored" by endorsement from Halliburton’s GOP Dick Cheney.
Meanwhile, in the local Congressional races, Dem Pat Ryan who has long boasted about his military role in the unjust invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan under GOP Bush/Cheney, has allied himself in Congress with Q-Anon GOP Marjorie Taylor Greene, in order to censure Dem Rashida Tlaib for objecting to the US funding (with our taxes) Israel’s genocide of its native population. Ryan has consistently pushed for more and more tens of billions for US funding for Israel’s weapons of genocide, even opposing the short-lived “pauses” that even Biden had recommended. The other local Dem Congressional candidate Josh Riley views other countries as our enemies, rather than as our neighbors, and seems a good bet to follow in Pat Ryan’s violent and costly footsteps.
So I have a question for our local Dem luminaries, such as Ulster County Exec Jen Metzger, and Ulster County legislator Manna Jo Greene, and for local Dem committees. You all supporting these people, who make genocide and planeticide realities?
For voters who favor atrocities and planetcide, just pick your favorite color, Red or Blue. For NYS voters who aren’t thrilled with crimes against humanity and the planet, you will have to do write-ins (thanks to the so-called Democrats who control the voting regulations in NYS). Two presidential tickets with excellent and detailed platforms for peace and planet (in sharp contrast to the Red and Blue ones) are Jill Stein/Butch Ware and Cornel West/Melina Abdullah. Pick one ticket and write them in. For Congress, you can pick a decent local person and write in their name, if enabling genocide and planetcide disgusts you.
Barbara Kidney
Is your money that good?
Cognitive dissidence keeps me up at night. On one side, my country preaches human rights and democracy. But at the same time, it sends Israel one ton "Biden Bombs" to blow up what is left of Gaza.
There is very little left. Two million refugees are huddled under makeshift tents, waiting for food that never comes. Yet our sweet land of liberty keeps sending billions in military aid to keep the Palestinian genocide going. What perverse monster could think of doing such a thing to other human beings? What government bureaucrat would carry out such murderous orders?
The ongoing extermination of two million Palestinians is Gaza isn't hidden very well. Skeletal children are holding out their metal pots for any little scrap of food. They have to drink contaminated water because the electricity is gone and the pipes all destroyed. School for these children is just a memory of long ago. There are no school buildings left, nor any colleges. Nothing but rubble as the Palestinian people prepare their children to die.
I don't want to be a citizen of a country that does that to millions. Our pro-Zionist Congressional representatives get hundreds of thousands from the insanely rich Israel Lobby. That just makes people like Pat Ryan nothing but hired killers. He has already gotten over $163,000 this year in Israeli bribes. (opensecrets.org)
"Let me ask you one question. Is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could?" -Bob Dylan
There is very little left. Two million refugees are huddled under makeshift tents, waiting for food that never comes. Yet our sweet land of liberty keeps sending billions in military aid to keep the Palestinian genocide going. What perverse monster could think of doing such a thing to other human beings? What government bureaucrat would carry out such murderous orders?
The ongoing extermination of two million Palestinians is Gaza isn't hidden very well. Skeletal children are holding out their metal pots for any little scrap of food. They have to drink contaminated water because the electricity is gone and the pipes all destroyed. School for these children is just a memory of long ago. There are no school buildings left, nor any colleges. Nothing but rubble as the Palestinian people prepare their children to die.
I don't want to be a citizen of a country that does that to millions. Our pro-Zionist Congressional representatives get hundreds of thousands from the insanely rich Israel Lobby. That just makes people like Pat Ryan nothing but hired killers. He has already gotten over $163,000 this year in Israeli bribes. (opensecrets.org)
"Let me ask you one question. Is your money that good? Will it buy you forgiveness, do you think that it could?" -Bob Dylan
Fred Nagel
How to describe Israel’s latest horror?
How to describe Israel’s latest horror? Intercepting and sabotaging pagers and walkie-talkies, then remotely detonating them so that thousands of people in another country –on the streets, in their homes, at work, grocery shopping—are blown up. Diabolical. Revolting. Unspeakable. All of the above.
My dear friend who is a Syrian-Lebanese refugee in Europe writes:
“For years now, I’ve been aware of Palestine’s ongoing struggle for freedom. But today, everything feels different, heavier. I’ve survived so much already—the war in Syria, being kidnapped by militias in Lebanon, living in terror of politicians, and being hunted by the Syrian regime. Each of these events left a deep mark on me, but somehow, I made it through.
Now, I'm dealing with the consequences. Doctors give me different labels—PTSD, complex trauma, depression—but none of these words truly capture the weight I carry. Every morning I wake up feeling scared, suffocated, and in pain. The nightmares never let me go.
I'm trying to make sense of my life, to understand the world around me, but what’s happening today in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria—it’s overwhelming. It’s terrifying.
They are killing us. Erasing us. Wiping our existence from the land that belongs to us. And no matter how much I’ve survived, this is something I can't comprehend. The fear is all-consuming, and I don't know how much more I can endure.”
Another Lebanese friend, a mother of young children, writes: “Oh scared is the word that says it all, resilience is tiring! What happened yesterday and today is beyond our minds to understand, the kids are no longer coming near their phones and tablets in fear of explosions.”
Our taxes fund this escalating catastrophe. We citizens must demand that the US immediately halt the flow of money and weapons to Israel’s murderous regime. We are responsible.
--Jo
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