Managing Our Grief Over Gaza

This sounds like the most privileged title ever, doesn’t it? Families in Gaza or elsewhere with loved ones anyplace in Palestine are overwhelmed with grief as they watch little children being torn to shreds, burned beyond recognition, or exhumed from having been buried alive. Buried alive in mass graves at hospitals where they had taken refuge.

Those of us in other places differ markedly in our belief that these truths are self-evident depending on where we get our news. I gave up consuming U.S. corporate news decades ago, peeling off television early on to protect my children from it, and then eventually shedding the liberal print news and opinion sources I’d grown up on. Who wants to subscribe to or even read a publication that signals Donald Trump’s ascendance by putting him on their cover over and over again?

But right now I’m in Australia responding to a family medical crisis and so have been keeping folks company while watching corporate t.v. news in the evenings.

Latest emblem of the resistance? An empty water carboy as was wielded by students at Cal Poly Humboldt to successfully to ward off police rioting.

Last night I was brought to tears several times as the mangled bodies of children in Gaza were rushed to makeshift medical facilities (all the hospitals were long since destroyed by Israeli bombs). The ambulances of Gaza are now the able-bodied men who carry wounded kids while running as fast as their malnourished legs can go. Those horrific scenes – are they shown on corporate t.v. in the U.S.? You tell me.

Next came something sure to appear on “news” throughout the evil empire: Joe Biden claiming that U.S. weapons aren’t killing Palestinians. Did Australian newscasters call him out on this giant lie? Nope. And me yelling, “Liar!” in the privacy of the home where I’m staying is just venting on my part.

So, I turn to social media platforms run by Zionists where a little truth and the scorching eyewitness videos out of Gaza and the West Bank can still be found. Twitter is complicit, Instagram is complicit, and still I continue to guiltily use them. I’ve never really invested time in building up a news feed on TikTok, but I probably need to do that soonish. Telegram overwhelms me but again it’s probably my ineptitude as a user that creates the attempting to drink from a firehose effect.

My email inbox is also a good source for real news. As are certain substacks, MintPress News, Popular Resistance, Black Agenda Report, and many more I’ve named before.

How soon before all my access to authentic information is blocked? Time will tell.

These bullying Zionists (redundant, I know) do NOT represent me. How about you?

To return my original question, how or even why shall we manage our grief over Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people?

Speaking for myself, I can’t dwell on my emotional response or I become incapacitated. Turning angry grief into action feels like the right thing to do. Diverse actions present themselves and not only provide an outlet but they put me in touch with other people I can trust and respect. I met my husband while protesting the impending Shock and “Awe” attacks on Iraq in 2003, and together we’ve met many kind souls who sincerely engage in resisting imperial warmongering -- and not just when the Republican Party controls the White House.

Many people use their creativity to remain sane in a genocidal world. One example: the keffiyeh sticker cropping up in random places.

Another example currently going viral: rapper Macklemore's "Hind Hall." The artist has pledged to donate all proceeds to UNRWA.

A person I respect a lot recently revealed that they had neglected a peripheral task associated with our work and that this might cost them a lot of money. We’re all in this together so others in the group consoled them and offered monetary support while awaiting the outcome of skilled negotiators working on our behalf. One said, “Hope you are all giving yourselves grace.”

And that is as good an answer to my original question as any.

Police State Repression Adds Fuel To Flames Of Protest -- Who Could Have Guessed?

I'm traveling and not able to post as often as usual, so please bear with me. Just keeping up with current events is impossible as developments in the global resistance to Israel's genocide in Gaza are constant and rapid these days.

A few of the items that stood out in my news feeds:

https://twitter.com/probablyreadit/status/1785427534898737304

This comment nails why I felt that this event in particular was significant. Taxpayers employ police to block a major New York City train station in order to preemptively silence 1st amendment protected political speech?

Here's another one that has stayed with me:

It is a companion to the many posts on social media right now by parents of high school seniors saying some version of: I see you called the police to violently attack peaceful student protesters on campus. We are crossing (Columbia, NYU, Emory, UT Austin, etc.) off our list. 

What's that old saying, money talks and bullshit walks? Parents expressing these opinions are looking at shelling out a quarter to half a million dollars so their kids can earn degrees from these schools. Also, if they're white boomers like me they may remember when their own college protected students from police, not allowing cops on campus at will, and certainly not calling in stormtroopers to suppress dissent.

I don't know about President Roth of Wesleyan's conscience, but I do know a smart marketing move when I see one.

As I've noted before, commencements are going to be wild this year. I wish I was going to be back in time to post up at the University of Vermont in Burlington where students are planning to protest keynote speaker Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, for her complicity in no less than three vetoes of a ceasefire in Gaza.

You remember Burlington, right? That's where three Palestinian college students were gunned down last Thanksgiving weekend wearing keffiyehs and speaking Arabic while walking down a street (off campus).  

Cue the constant corporate media stories about "Jewish" (they really mean Zionist) students claiming they feel unsafe on campus. Then maybe check out the news from UCLA where Zionist mobs descend at night to attack the encampment there while police stand by and watch.

Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives in its wisdom just passed this mess. From Associated Press:

Several House committees will be tasked with a wide probe that ultimately threatens to withhold federal research grants and other government support to the universities, placing another pressure point on campus administrators who are struggling to manage pro-Palestinian encampments, allegations of discrimination against Jewish students and questions of how they are integrating free speech and campus safety.

Also, have you been wondering why pitching tents on the quad of so many universities is against regulations? To keep unhoused people out of course.

All these items add up to a sea change for post secondary education as we've known it, and that is fitting as a consequence of the genocidal horrors that our elected officials and university administrators and boards are supporting. 

One last tweet with my prediction that Columbia can kiss being the "top journalism school" in the U.S. goodbye.

https://twitter.com/zdroberts/status/1785781719603273893