Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a war against terrorism.
Since Israel’s assault on Gaza began in October 2023, I have lost my father, my brother, his wife and their daughter. They are still buried under the rubble. My house, where we lived with my husband’s family, was destroyed by Israeli bombing. In 2024, after months of bombardments, flight and displacement, I managed to escape with my family to Egypt. I’ve been living here ever since, but the memories of life in Gaza are always with me. What happened to me reflects the reality that Palestinian women in Gaza continue to face during the genocide.
... full articleThe intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself.
No me sorprende que se hable tanto de Puerto Rico por estos días. Hace unas semanas estuve allí, reunido con un grupo de colegas para hablar de lo que le ocurre a la lengua española en los Estados Unidos de Trump, y pude constatarlo: en esa isla paradójica, nación y colonia al mismo tiempo, el lugar de nuestra lengua está en el centro de la conversación. Lo está desde hace unas semanas, cuando, en el intermedio de un partido de eso que llaman fútbol americano, un cantante cuya música yo nunca había escuchado (y no he escuchado todavía, para ser sincero) convirtió esa pausa rutinaria, meditadamente diseñada para la inanidad y el más bobo consumismo, en una asombrosa declaración de rebeldía. Y, si me apuran, de coraje cívico: pues para hacer lo que hizo Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio en esos pocos minutos se necesita un arrojo que no se encuentra con facilidad en nuestros días, porque requiere enfrentarse a fuerzas muy poderosas que cuentan con altavoces muy potentes. Que a uno le guste o no su música es, para todos los efectos, lo de menos.
... full articleCruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.
o, you’re not hallucinating: western governments really are condemning Israel, one-by-one, without equivocation. Not because of the ongoing genocide in Gaza that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, of course, but because of a PR stunt in which Israel’s national security minister filmed himself taunting foreign activists.
On Wednesday morning, Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the port where Israel had detained hundreds of participants in an international aid flotilla that was attempting to breach the naval blockade of Gaza. In a video he posted to social media, the minister can be seen mocking the activists as they are forced to kneel in rows with their heads on the ground and hands bound with zip ties. Israel’s national anthem can be heard blasting over loudspeakers, before we see Ben-Gvir waving an Israeli flag and shouting: “Welcome to Israel. We are the landlords here.”
... full articleBeing a Jew, one learns to believe in the reality of cruelty and one learns to recognize indifference to human suffering as a fact.
