nothing-terribly-new:
Matilda of Canossa gets her epithet from the name of her family fortress. It’s a rare badass indeed who can claim that they’re named after a castle, but if anybody in Medieval Europe is worthy of that distinction, it’s probably Matilda. For 60 years, this hardcore warrior woman kicked asses in Northern Italy, providing the main military defense force for none other than the Roman Popes, single-handedly taking on any challenges to the Papacy. She’s now one of the few women from the Middle Ages known for her prowess in combat, and her role as the Pope’s personal badass isn’t the sort of honor that got handed out to any douchebag with a castle. She was tough, nobody fucked with her, and – more importantly – as long as she was around nobody fucked with the Pope without thinking twice about it first.
Whole history.
A sign at the Cambodia Trust's Kompong Chhnang rehabilitation centre, reassuring clients that all services are free of charge.
Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests.
To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.
I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy
Here’s some more from later in the article
The mainstream media was declaring continually “OWS has no message”. Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online “What is it you want?” answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.
The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.
No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
sigh
“I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”
—
Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (Mills College, 1983)
this passage planted itself in my consciousness when i was 24, and 10 years later, it informs so much of my approach to living, thinking, creating.
The Big Damn List Of Stuff They Said You Didn't Know
(includes some of the reading material recced below)
Academic Books (many available in Goldsmiths library)
Rosemary Sayigh (2007) The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries, Bloomsbury
Ilan Pappé (2002)(ed) The Israel/Palestine Question, Routledge
(2006) The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, OneWorld Publications
(2011) The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians in Israel, Yale University Press
(2015) The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge, Verso Books
(2017) The Biggest Prison on earth: A history of the Occupied territories, OneWorld Publications
(2022) A History of Modern Palestine, Cambridge University Press
Rashid Khalidi (2020) The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, MacMillan
Andrew Ross (2019) Stone Men: the Palestinians who Built Israel, Verso Books
Ariella Azoulay and Adi Ophir (2012) The One-State Condition: Occupation and Democracy in Israel/Palestine, Stanford University Press.
Ariella Azoulay (2011) From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction and State Formation, 1947-1950, Pluto Press
Jeff Halper (2010) An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Pluto Press
(2015) War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification
(2021) Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State, Pluto Press
Anthony Loewenstein (2023) The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the Technology of Occupation around the World (CURRENTLY FREE TO DOWNLOAD ON VERSO)
Noura Erakat (2019) Justice for some: law and the question of Palestine, Stanford University Press
Neve Gordon (2008) Israel’s Occupation, University of California Press
Joseph Massad (2006) The persistence of the Palestinian question: essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, Routledge Edward Said (1979) The Question of Palestine, Random House
Memoirs, Novels & Poetry:
Voices from Gaza - Insaniyyat (The Society of Palestinian Anthropologists)
Letters From Gaza • Protean Magazine
Raja Shehadeh (2008) Palestinian Walks: forays into a Vanishing Landscape, Profile Books
Ghada Karmi (2009) In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, Verso Books
Fatma Kassem (2011) Palestinian Women: Narratives, histories and gendered memory, Bloombsbury
Mourid Barghouti (2005) I saw Ramallah, Bloomsbury
Izzeldin Abuelaish (2011) I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity, Bloomsbury
Cate Malek and Mateo Hoke (eds)(2015) Palestine Speaks: Narrative of Life under Occupation, Verso Books
The Works of Mahmoud Darwish
Human Rights Reports & Documents
Information on current International Court of Justice case on ‘Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’
UN Commission of Inquiry Report 2022
UN Special Rapporteur Report on Apartheid 2022
Amnesty International Report on Apartheid 2022
Human Rights Watch Report on Apartheid 2021
Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict’ 2009 (‘The Goldstone Report’)
Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, International Court of Justice, 9 July 2004
Films
Lemon Tree (2008)
Where Should The Birds Fly (2013)
Naila and the Uprising (2017)
Waltz with Bashir (2008)
Omar (2013)
Paradise Now (2005)
5 Broken Cameras (2011)
The Gatekeepers (2012)
Foxtrot (2017)
Gaza Mon Amour (2020)
The Viewing Booth (2020)
Innocence (2022) - Innocence (2022) | IDFA Archive
The Village Under the Forest (2013)
Palestine Film Institute's films on Gaza
Abby Martin - Gaza Fights For Freedom (2019) | Full Documentary | Directed by Abby Martin
Dan Cohen - Gaza Fights Back | MintPress News Original Documentary
‘The Promise’, directed by Peter Kosminsky (2010) (4 part miniseries on the creation of Israel)
Sources:
https://www.972mag.com/
https://jewishcurrents.org/
Jadaliyya ‘Gaza in Context’ Series
Jadaliyya “War on Palestine” podcast - The War on Palestine Podcast: Episode 1
Border Chronicle, Interview with Israeli anthropologist Jeff Halper
NGOs
B’Tselem
Breaking the Silence
Al Haq
Palestinian Feminist Collective
Yesh Din
DAWN
Amnesty International
Human Rights Watch
Gisha
Forensic Architecture
Instagram Accounts
gazangirl
mohammedelkurd
khaledbeydoun
motaz_azaiza
wizard_bisan1
etafrum
sara_mardini963
Twitter(X) Accounts
@PalStudies - Institute for Palestine Studies
@medicalaidpal
@middleeastmatters
@KenRoth - former executive director of Human Rights Watch
@YairWallach - Reader in Israel Studies at SOAS
@ PhilipProudfoot - researcher on development, humanitarianism and Arab states
@btselem - Israeli human rights documentation centre
@MairavZ - Senior Israel-Palestine Analyst at Crisis Group
@rohantalbot - Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at MedicalAidPal
@sarahleah1 - Executive Director of DAWN (democracy and human rights in MENA)
@alhaq_org - Palestinian human rights organisation
@FranceskAlbs - UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories
@Yesh_Din - Israeli human rights organisation
@sfardm - Michael Sfard, Israeli Human Rights Lawyer
@EphstainItay - Israeli international humanitarian lawyer
@saribashi - Program director for Human Rights Watch (Israeli living in Palestine)
@Gisha_Access - Israeli NGO
@_ZachFoster - Historian
(if any links are broken let me know. Or pull up the current post to check whether it's fixed.)
(I took the first video down because turns out the animator is a terf and it links to her blog. Really sorry for any distress.)
Woodkid - Iron (Iron EP 2011)
Deep in the ocean, dead and cast away Where innocence’s burn in flames A million mile from home, I’m walking ahead I’m frozen to the bones, I am…
A soldier on my own, I don’t know the way I’m riding up the heights of shame I’m waiting for the call, the hand on the chest I’m ready for the fight, and fate
The sound of iron shocks is stuck in my head, The thunder of the drums dictates The rhythm of the falls, the number of dead The rising of the horns, ahead
From the dawn of time to the end of days I will have to run, away I want to feel the pain and the bitter taste Of the blood on my lips, again
This deadly burst of snow is burning my hands, I’m frozen to the bones, I am A million mile from home, I’m walking away I can’t remind your eyes, your face
something genuinely insane about going somewhere and getting to feel “i had some of the worst years of my life here” and “i was loved here, once” simultaneously.