When some things end in your life, often there is a certain moment, a certain episode, where you know you cannot do it any longer. You know it's over. I had my final and complete disillusionment with my country the summer they shot and killed 223 and wounded thousands of demonstrators using live fire during the 'The Great March of Return'. Every weekend, from March 2018 until December 2019, Gazans would gather along the border with Israel, with thousands and thousands in attendance. They wanted to break the siege and attract the world's attention to their plight and oppression under so many years of brutal occupation, with no end in sight.

They were quiet demonstrations: no Israeli soldier was hurt in any of them (there may have been one case of counter-violence by Palestinians, and maybe not even that). Israel's murderous overreaction that time was placing tens, or maybe even hundreds of snipers in positions overlooking the border and the adjacent Gaza lands.

Those snipers shot and shot and shot people in unbelievable numbers. on May 14th, 2018, 52 Palestinians were killed in one demonstration. Rouzan al-Najjar, a 20-year-old nurse, was sniped to death two weeks later, on the 1st of June. She was hundreds if meters away from the fence. Her death may have been what broke me. Or maybe it was the complete obedience of everyone in the IDF. No one said: we cannot do that. This is insane. No one felt bad about it. I felt like I was losing my mind. Or maybe it was the big live concert at the center of Tel Aviv that very summer, given by Israel's fresh Eurovision winner, a day or two after one of the bloodiest weekends in The Great March of Return. It was a big deal, and everyone was happy and celebrating and proud.

- On Local Call, the Hebrew version of +972 Magazine, I wrote an article titled "Accept that it is over". In that article, I also wrote that I was not going to vote in Israeli elections again, as there was no point, particularly as so many people who are ruled by Israel cannot vote.

- 2018 seems like so long ago now. It was before Covid, before October 7th, before the genocide. But it was that summer, that year, that I knew I lost my country.

And the absolutely beautiful, angelic face of Rouzan al-Najjar brings tears to my eyes to this day. To this moment. It is such a heartache. Such a loss to this world. Such a stupid, monstrous crime.

There has to be justice for Palestine someday. There simply must be.

- Alon Mizrahi (on X)

#journalism #zionism #death #genocide #gaza #palestine #israel #usa

I focus mostly here on climate breakdown and ecological devastation, connected problems that both stem from capitalism's senseless drive for economic growth at all costs.

But just as threatening to human life everywhere, not to mention the health of our biosphere, is WAR. The article excerpted below goes into depth on the tragic results of a dominant geopolitical system that demands total obedience, or else.
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This is not just about Gaza. The slaughter there may be the worst thing in the world, but similar atrocities are happening all over, and for similar reasons. The corporate colonial Empire centered on the USA and spearheaded by Israel insists on consuming and dominating everything, and they are destroying the world to keep control over it.

They are wreaking extreme violence everywhere, including within the imperial nations themselves. If you want to see what the future holds, look at Gaza. Or Haiti, or Congo, or Libya, or any of a dozen other places.

Don’t think it’s only poor, Black, or Brown people who become Gazified. Look at what happens to the colonizing countries. In Israel, Germany, the UK, and America, people are being locked up or losing their jobs for opposing genocide and war. Demonstrations and free speech are stopped or curtailed if they oppose war.

It is very difficult to avoid war when military corporations control your foreign policy. Corporate capitalism prepares for nuclear war — which would instantly turn the world into Gaza — because the alternative of a more peaceful, just order is unprofitable and thus unthinkable.
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The message delivered in this piece may not be easy to accept, but it's vitally important. I hope you'll read the whole thing.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://archive.ph/Oac22

#USA #Israel #Gaza #Politics #Environment #Climate