Notices by James M Branum - Activist ☮ (jmb@okpeace.org)

I'm considering closing my own #mastodon server (okpeace.org) to save money on the shared hosting account. I do have an alt account that I use often at babka.social (a Jewish-themed server) but I would prefer to transition my okpeace account to one at a more general-themed server, but with a 1000 character limit ideally, and one that does not bar posting about political/activist topics.

I would welcome suggestions on good instances to check into.

#Instance

More coverage from the LA Times on the horrific attacks by the counter-protestors of the #UCLA Gaza-solidarity encampment.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-30/ucla-moves-to-shut-down-pro-palestinian-encampment-as-unlawful

#Gaza #Palestine #ShalomSalaam #Peace #Israel #FreeSpeech #CampusProtests

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-rep-tim-walberg-suggests-gaza-handled-nagasaki-hiroshima-rcna145752

#GOP Congressman Tim #Walberg is advocating for #genocide and is promoting the commission of #WarCrimes

P.S. The atomic bomb attacks on #Hiroshima and #Nagasaki were war crimes. Unfortunately, the US got away with it.

It is hard to take seriously the claims that the state of #Israel is taking all necessary steps to prevent civilian casualties, when they end up attacking a known food convoy.

Exclusive: Israeli forces fired on food convoy in Gaza, UN documents and satellite analysis reveals | CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/21/middleeast/un-food-convoy-gaza-israel-strike-cmd-intl/index.html

#WarCrimes #Gaza #Palestine #Peace #CeasefireNOW

Worst vacation ever!

#Fasicsm #ChristianNationalism #WhiteChristianNationalism
#NeoFascist

https://libertypastors.ticketspice.com/lp-georgia

I would have heckled the rabbi too. I have been to a similar such event, this time sponsored by AIPAC, where the "moderator" censored the audience questions and only allowed softball questions to be asked. It is infuriating and disrespectful to the audience when this kind of thing happens.

As to the documentary #Israelism, I have seen it and it is thought-provoking. It is sad that there couldn't have been an actual discussion after the film

https://forward.com/news/573561/rabbi-andy-bachman-israelism-hunter-college-erin-axelman/

#Israel #Palestine #Mazeldon

Also here is a a post written by the rabbi in question. He argues that he was simply seeking to engage in balance discourse, but he is not addressing the issue of him controlling the cards we are attendees submitted their questions.

In other words it was only his questions, in his opinion, that deserve to be answered.

https://andybachman.substack.com/p/a-difficult-and-necessary-truth

In case it gets deleted later, here is the comment I left on Rabbi Bachman's substance:

Having read the article in the Forward about what happened, I have to say that I'm pretty sympathetic to the hecklers.

You had a wide assortment of questions on index cards given to you, but instead you chose questions with only one ideological bent, which is not dialogue.

Continued...

I've had this happen before, when I attended an event in Oklahoma sponsored by AIPAC. The presentation solicited questions from the audience on index cards, but then the moderators preceded to only ask easy softball questions and to not ask any questions that had the slightest hint of criticism of the agenda that the presenters had.
Continued...

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/pedestrians-already-dying-record-levels-now-face-elon-musks-cybertruck-rcna128603

Excerpt: “Unlike Europe, the U.S. doesn’t require cars be tested for safety before they are allowed to be sold to the public,” said David Zipper, a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School whose work focuses on transportation policy.

“We let car companies decide for themselves when it’s safe,” he explained.

#Pedestrian #Cybertruck #Elon #Musk #FuckElon

Lessons of growing up #black and #Jewish - New Statesman
https://www.newstatesman.com/international-content/2023/11/lessons-growing-up-black-jewish

#Mazeldon #Jewdiverse #Zionism #Antizionism

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-hamas-war-jews-arabs-jaffa-civil-guard-urban-unrest-fear-rcna122111

Tremendously hopeful news of Jewish and Arab solidarity in Israel, working together for #peace

#ShalomSalaam

#Mazeldon

Also, FYI - this story highlights a significant complexity to the current conflict (that many in the US are not aware of) --- that fact there are many Palestinians in Israel that have citizenship in Israel, which means that sometimes families are split between those who have Israeli citizenship and those that do not, much like many families in the border region of the US and Mexico might have different citizenships, and hence different access to social services.

#Israel #Palestine #Law

Continued...

Every one of us knows someone who has been tragically affected. We could go on and on about their cruel and criminal actions, or focus on how our Jewish-supremacist government brought us to this point. But as hard as it is, our job as former Israeli soldiers is to talk about what we were sent to do.

Israel's security policy, for decades now, has been to “manage the conflict”. . .

(2/thread)

Continued...

Successive Israeli governments insist on round after round of violence as if any of it will make a difference. They talk about “security”, “deterrence”, “changing the equation”.
All of these are code words for bombing the Gaza Strip to a pulp, always justified as targeting terrorists, yet always with heavy civilian casualties. In between these rounds of violence we make life impossible for Gazans, and then act surprised when it all boils over.

(3/thread)

We talk about "normalization" with the UAE and now Saudi Arabia, while hoping the world will turn a blind eye to the open-air prison we built in our backyard. Apart from the unfathomable violation of human rights, we've created a massive security liability for our own citizens.

(4/thread)

The question Israelis are all asking is - where were the soldiers yesterday? Why was the IDF seemingly absent while hundreds of Israelis were slaughtered in their homes and on the streets? The unfortunate truth is that they were “preoccupied”. In the West Bank.
We send soldiers to secure settler incursions into the Palestinian city of Nablus, to chase Palestinian children in Hebron, to protect settlers as they carry out pogroms.

(5/thread)

Sharing this important statement from Breaking the Silence, an org. of Israeli military veterans who have served since 2000:

"Hamas's attack and the events unfolding since yesterday are unspeakable. We are heartbroken to watch terrified civilians besieged in their homes, innocent people murdered in cold blood on the streets, at parties, and at home. Dozens taken hostage and dragged into the Gaza Strip. . .

1/thread

#Peace #ShalomSalaam #Israel #Gaza

My patience level today with those is who excuse attacks on civilian populations in war is pretty much zero.

If you are the kind of person who thinks that the deaths of civilians is ever justified for the sake of your nation/cause (leftwing, right wing, or otherwise), please do me a favor and unfollow me.

Thanks.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/israel-opt-civilians-on-both-sides-paying-the-price-of-unprecedented-escalation-in-hostilities-between-israel-and-gaza-as-death-toll-mounts/

Thank you #AmnestyInternational for speaking with clarity about the dangers of civilian casualties in #Israel and #Gaza right now and the urgency of following established norms of #InternationalLaw.

#Peace #ShalomSalaam