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18 hours agoIt’s both a policy and messaging issue. On both fronts the campaign did not take either seriously enough
Say no to authoritarianism, say yes to socialism. Free Palestine 🇵🇸 Everyone deserves Human Rights
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Cake day: August 18th, 2023
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0·6 days agoIsrael’s occupation and Blockade has been throttling the food available to Palestinians in Gaza to below what’s needed for decades. The full blockade and famine is simply an extension of a longstanding practice.
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”
- Yoav Gallant, Minister of Defense
One of the over 500 instances of Israeli incitement of genocide
Israel also arbitrarily limits how far Palestinians can fish in the sea and shoot them on sight. Gaza fisherfolk can only ‘dream of fishing freely’ under Israel’s blockade
De-development via the Gaza Occupation
Between July 1971 and February 1972, Sharon enjoyed considerable success. During this time, the entire Strip (apart from the Rafah area) was sealed off by a ring of security fences 53 miles in length, with few entrypoints. Today, their effects live on: there are only three points of entry to Gaza—Erez, Nahal Oz, and Rafah.
Perhaps the most dramatic and painful aspect of Sharon’s campaign was the widening of roads in the refugee camps to facilitate military access. Israel built nearly 200 miles of security roads and destroyed thousands of refugee dwellings as part of the widening process.’ In August 1971, for example, the Israeli army destroyed 7,729 rooms (approximately 2,000 houses) in three vola- tile camps, displacing 15,855 refugees: 7,217 from Jabalya, 4,836 from Shati, and 3,802 from Rafah.
- Page 105
Through 1993 Israel imposed a one-way system of tariffs and duties on the importation of goods through its borders; leaving Israel for Gaza, however, no tariffs or other regulations applied. Thus, for Israeli exports to Gaza, the Strip was treated as part of Israel; but for Gazan exports to Israel, the Strip was treated as a foreign entity subject to various “non-tariff barriers.” This placed Israel at a distinct advantage for trading and limited Gaza’s access to Israeli and foreign markets. Gazans had no recourse against such policies, being totally unable to protect themselves with tariffs or exchange rate controls. Thus, they had to pay more for highly protected Israeli products than they would if they had some control over their own economy. Such policies deprived the occupied territories of significant customs revenue, estimated at $118-$176 million in 1986.
- page 240
In a report released in May 2015, the World Bank revealed that as a result of Israel’s blockade and OPE, Gaza’s manufacturing sector shrank by as much as 60% over eight years while real per capita income is 31 percent lower than it was 20 years ago. The report also stated that the blockade alone is responsible for a 50% decrease in Gaza’s GDP since 2007. Furthermore, OPE (combined with the tunnel closure) exacerbated an already grave situation by reducing Gaza’s economy by an additional $460 million.
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Page 402
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The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development - Third Edition by Sara M. Roy
Blockade, including Aid
Hamas began twenty years into the occupation during the first Intifada, with the goal of ending the occupation. Collective punishment has been a deliberate Israeli tactic for decades with the Dahiya doctrine. Violence such as suicide bombings and rockets escalated in response to Israeli enforcement of the occupation and apartheid.
After the ‘disengagement’ in 2007, this turned into a full blockade; where Israel has had control over the airspace, borders, and sea. Under the guise of ‘dual-use’ Israel has restricted food, allocating a minimum supply leading to over half of Gaza being food insecure; construction materials, medical supplies, and other basic necessities have also been restricted.
The blockade and Israel’s repeated military offensives have had a heavy toll on Gaza’s essential infrastructure and further debilitated its health system and economy, leaving the area in a state of perpetual humanitarian crisis. Indeed, Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population, the majority of whom are children, has created conditions inimical to human life due to shortages of housing, potable water and electricity, and lack of access to essential medicines and medical care, food, educational equipment and building materials.
- Amnesty International Report pg 26-27
The resolution that was put to a vote “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
The release of all the hostages has always been a part of the ceasefire negotiations, that has never changed. Hamas proposed a full prisoner swap as early as Oct 8th, and agreed to the US proposed UN Permanent Ceasefire Resolution. Additionally, Hamas has already agreed to no longer govern the Gaza Strip, as long as Palestinians receive liberation and a unified government can take place.
We’ve had mixed reports of treatment of Israeli hostages by Hamas (1, 2, 3) We know of at least one instance of sexual assault and rape, multiple accounts of abuse, how widespread it is we won’t know until all the hostages are released, which Israel has been preventing.
Israel does torture, rape, and kill Palestinians (including children), and has been for decades.
Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Prisons
Palestinians are jailed without charge, forced into false confessions, routinely tortured, raped, denied medical attention, and some killed as a result. This includes hundreds of children.
Palestinians denied civil rights (HRW) including Military Court (B’TSelem)
Palestinian Prisoners in Israel (wiki)
Children are jailed and abused in Israeli prisons (Save The Children)
Torture and Abuse in Interrogations (B’TSelem)
Thousands of Palestinians are held without charge under Israeli detention policy (NPR)
This isnt about the hostages to the Israeli Government, this is Israel engaging in Genocide to eradicate and forcibly displace the Palestinian people. Gaza has never stopped being under Israeli occupation since 1967. Hamas only exists because of the Apartheid Occupation of Israel and the daily violence that has subjected Palestinians to for generations. Israel has always been the obstacle for peace, and has been the one preventing a ceasefire.
Human Shields
Hamas:
Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects.
Israel:
Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields:
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Including Children (2013 Report)
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Israel “Systematically” Uses Gaza Children as Human Shields, Rights Group Finds 2024
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Breaking The Silence - Testimonies from IDF Veterans
Deliberate Attacks on Civilians
Israel deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:
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The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force
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‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
Israel also targets Israeli Soldiers and Civilians to prevent them being leveraged as hostages, known as the Hannibal Directive. Which was also used on Oct 7th.
I’m laughing at the patently absurd and ridiculous conspiracy theory that the local Palestinian gangs lead by the Palestinian Abu Shabab are “backed by Israel”. A claim that has literally zero evidence or basis in fact behind it.
There is evidence
An internal UN memo obtained by the Washington Post concluded in October that the gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli army.
The memo said that one gang leader established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled" by the Israeli army.
With the collapse of civil order due to Israel’s targeting and killing of members of Gaza’s police force, few people are left to guard humanitarian aid convoys.
Aid organisations say Israel has denied most of their requests for better measures to ensure the safety of convoys. As the occupying force, Israel is legally responsible for ensuring aid supplies to civilian populations
Only 57 trucks a day were allowed to cross into Gaza in October, far lower than the 350 the US had requested, and the 600 a day aid agencies say are required to meet basic needs. Meanwhile, food prices have skyrocketed.
Gaza police battle gang members accused of stealing humanitarian aid
This isn’t about me, other than the fact that this is about Palestinian thugs stealing the humanitarian aid that my taxes have helped pay for from other Palestinians
This entire famine created by Israel is deliberate and intentional. If you’re worried taxes, you should be focused on the magnitudes more, over 17 billion, going to the weapons being used to facilitate this genocide. All this chaos only goes to show how woefully inadequate the humanitarian aid has been and how much more is needed.
How do you read that 2 million people are being deliberately forcibly displayed, starved, and targeted; and respond with a laughing emoji. It’s not surprising that everybody in Gaza is desperate for food and aid when they’ve been starved and bombed nonstop for an entire year. How do you read that and laugh?
From the Haaretz article:
A school in northern Gaza burned down on Monday, hours after humanitarian aid trucks had arrived to it, according to photos and accounts by locals. Residents of the area said Israeli soldiers had set the fire that consumed the school.
A video seen on social media on Sunday, taken by an IDF soldier, showed two Israeli armored vehicles leaving the school surroundings as it was engulfed in flames
Staff from the UN World Food Program, which sent the aid, as well as other international sources, said Gazans did not even have time to collect the aid. They said the military launched an attack in the area and soldiers had surrounded the building before the food was distributed.
The convoy, consisting of two trucks and a water tanker, was the first to be approved by the military to enter northern Gaza after a month and a half of siege. The decision followed international pressure over the failure to deliver aid to Gazans.
Witnesses said soldiers forced civilians away from the area, preventing them from collecting the aid, which was later destroyed by the fire. Reports also said civilians had been killed at the site. The soldiers involved belonged to the Rotem Battalion in the Givati Brigade, the reports said.
Other footage was posted on Thursday showing fires at schools in northern Gaza. A video from the Jabalya refugee camp showed a soldier standing in the yard of a burning school. Another video showed a large blaze in the Salah al-Din School in Gaza City, which had been serving as a shelter for refugees.
Israeli soldiers have also set a school on fire right after it got aid to prevent the starving population from getting any aid
I disagree, from the article those candidates had more anti-corporate policies that addressed the issue of cost of living. The closest thing Harris ran on was to crack down on Price gouging, which was/is one of her most popular positions, yet she also did not campaign enough on that front and contrasted it with housing deregulation