Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): One of the reasons I often pivot to poetry and emotion-laden prose in my commentary on Gaza is because it’s so very easy to let ourselves become numb to the horrors of what’s being done there day after day and month after month — but it’s so very, very important not to.
To think in my State, we citizens must beg our Legislators to pass a Resolution requesting our Congressional to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, to end Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. If Legislators and Congressional were good human beings, it would already be done, all support of Israel would be nil!
Yes, don’t let them numb you. Recently I’ve noticed the horrific images on SM are being replaced with posts about Iran/Israel conflict and politics. I deliberately continue to repost the horrific images, even though I’ve had an exceptionally distressing week because the carnage continues. For me, my son, Palestine and teaching job are the centre of my focus…everything else is peripheral.
I can never be content or truly happy while the slaughter continues, nor am I desensitised to the horrors. Yesterday it was a drone with a recording of a baby crying to lure people out for killing. Today, it’s a baby with an amputated hand, fractured arm and face full of stitches. Don’t look away!
"The more westerners can be psychologically shoved into throwing up their hands and filing Gaza away in our mental “bad things in the world I try not to think about” drawer, the easier it is for Israel and its imperial backers to do the monstrous things they want to do there."
Orwell wrote in 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” This is why we can't let these sociopaths control what we think and feel TODAY. It's key to understanding and empathizing with the history of the Palestinian people, and it's key to building a brighter future for everyone on this sorry rock orbiting the sun. Take charge of your today and your thoughts and feelings--and don't let anyone ever manipulate or attempt to take them away from you.
We honor our ancestors when we don't forget what all they suffered for us to be here. We protect our children's future when we share our history with them today.
In all honesty Caitlin, sitting comfortably in my living room, sometimes I feel I couldn't handle anymore of this cortisol levels caused by this constant barrage of horrors we're seeing/reading about for about seven months now, till I remember that the people in Palestine have been enduring the real-life horrors for over 75 years now, and some reporters, activists and historians have devoted a significant portion of their lives on this issue. Makes one feel like a woose.
Thank you Caitlin. Just as your powerful poetry about the children of Gaza dared us not to forget, your Newsletter today challenges us not to look away. A relentless grief of six months have passed for the people of Gaza. What is our shock and horror as mere onlookers compared to their suffering. Your Newsletter (and our comments for whatever they are worth ) helps enormously for bearing witness and telling the truth of a tragedy, a tragedy like never before - from losing its impact; from making it normal. Keeping the Israel/US/West accountable for a genocide.
Hopefully this alternative to the mass of propaganda, will contribute in creating a groundswell of opinion and protests and influence. And a foundation for further action.
The people of Gaza needs us to care and empathise and be compassionate. It is the least we can do.
"So I do what I can to help keep the reality of what’s happening in Gaza on the surface, not just in terms of the factual truth but the emotional truth of it as well. The horror. The suffering."
Thank you for your daily writings on the horrors that are happening to the Palestinians. Some days it’s hard to read again what they are enduring, but read about it we must.
"Feel the grief. Feel the outrage. Feel the anger. Feel the pain."
The 2024 Oscar winning film The Zone of Interest focuses on the happy and cheerful German bourgeois life created by the family of Auschwitz Camp Commander Rudolf Hess. Meanwhile thousands are being murdered and cremated just the other side of their garden wall with almost no intrusion on their bucolic existence.
Meanwhile in Australia this genocide in Gaza goes relatively unreported until an Australian aid worker is killed by the Israeli Defence Force. Their approved and clearly identified convoy was "accidentally" bombed not once, but three times.
So back to the movie and what it says about people's astounding ability to ignore daily horrors when we should be outraged and demanding that they stop. Go and see it and check out your own empathy levels for all those suffering from the many unjust wars and invasions around the planet.
"Don’t let them take that away from you. Feelings are meant to be felt. Feel the grief. Feel the outrage. Feel the anger. Feel the pain."
Caitlin sets a good example expressing their feelings through poetry. I've tried writing some poetry and it helped gather together some of the grief and anger I'm feeling about what's happening in Palestine. I even wrote a short short story recently to express what my deepest hopes are... We can't let the bastards grind us down. We have to remember and record our feelings, even the painful ones.
Thank you for your unrelenting commitment and strength Caitlin, without which it would be difficult for us to sustain the rage we need in sympathy with Palestine. The drivel from the pathetic media here in Aotearoa is as maddening as you described.
Google wants to fire all Palestine Aware workers. Columbia will jail you now with your Free Palestine from the River to the Sea poster. Coachella is where all the fucking navel gazing and lobotomizing takes place.
There are a million and one distractions (intentional) this dirty Crony and Corrupt Capitalism dishes out.
Anything but talk about why, how, what, when, where, who, and then, you think families are having real discussions about the dirty dirty dealings of the dirty dirty Jews of Jewish Destroyed and Occupied and Raped and Razed and Polluted Palestine?
This past week someone commented on my latest article, calling me an Antisemite. When I told him I was Jewish, he switched the narrative to calling me a self-hating Jew. I told him: "in the future, at some point, people will look back at this genocide and ask, "how did this happen"? How did the world sit back and allow this". My only hope is that they find the conversation we just had. That will explain much to them about how the world consented".
To think in my State, we citizens must beg our Legislators to pass a Resolution requesting our Congressional to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, to end Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. If Legislators and Congressional were good human beings, it would already be done, all support of Israel would be nil!
Yes, don’t let them numb you. Recently I’ve noticed the horrific images on SM are being replaced with posts about Iran/Israel conflict and politics. I deliberately continue to repost the horrific images, even though I’ve had an exceptionally distressing week because the carnage continues. For me, my son, Palestine and teaching job are the centre of my focus…everything else is peripheral.
I can never be content or truly happy while the slaughter continues, nor am I desensitised to the horrors. Yesterday it was a drone with a recording of a baby crying to lure people out for killing. Today, it’s a baby with an amputated hand, fractured arm and face full of stitches. Don’t look away!
"The more westerners can be psychologically shoved into throwing up their hands and filing Gaza away in our mental “bad things in the world I try not to think about” drawer, the easier it is for Israel and its imperial backers to do the monstrous things they want to do there."
Orwell wrote in 1984, “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” This is why we can't let these sociopaths control what we think and feel TODAY. It's key to understanding and empathizing with the history of the Palestinian people, and it's key to building a brighter future for everyone on this sorry rock orbiting the sun. Take charge of your today and your thoughts and feelings--and don't let anyone ever manipulate or attempt to take them away from you.
We honor our ancestors when we don't forget what all they suffered for us to be here. We protect our children's future when we share our history with them today.
In all honesty Caitlin, sitting comfortably in my living room, sometimes I feel I couldn't handle anymore of this cortisol levels caused by this constant barrage of horrors we're seeing/reading about for about seven months now, till I remember that the people in Palestine have been enduring the real-life horrors for over 75 years now, and some reporters, activists and historians have devoted a significant portion of their lives on this issue. Makes one feel like a woose.
Thank you Caitlin. Just as your powerful poetry about the children of Gaza dared us not to forget, your Newsletter today challenges us not to look away. A relentless grief of six months have passed for the people of Gaza. What is our shock and horror as mere onlookers compared to their suffering. Your Newsletter (and our comments for whatever they are worth ) helps enormously for bearing witness and telling the truth of a tragedy, a tragedy like never before - from losing its impact; from making it normal. Keeping the Israel/US/West accountable for a genocide.
Hopefully this alternative to the mass of propaganda, will contribute in creating a groundswell of opinion and protests and influence. And a foundation for further action.
The people of Gaza needs us to care and empathise and be compassionate. It is the least we can do.
I think its a massive victory to continue to care.
You do it so well.
"So I do what I can to help keep the reality of what’s happening in Gaza on the surface, not just in terms of the factual truth but the emotional truth of it as well. The horror. The suffering."
Thank you for your daily writings on the horrors that are happening to the Palestinians. Some days it’s hard to read again what they are enduring, but read about it we must.
"Feel the grief. Feel the outrage. Feel the anger. Feel the pain."
Indeed.
I do.
Or distract you with trumpian histrionics.
The 2024 Oscar winning film The Zone of Interest focuses on the happy and cheerful German bourgeois life created by the family of Auschwitz Camp Commander Rudolf Hess. Meanwhile thousands are being murdered and cremated just the other side of their garden wall with almost no intrusion on their bucolic existence.
Meanwhile in Australia this genocide in Gaza goes relatively unreported until an Australian aid worker is killed by the Israeli Defence Force. Their approved and clearly identified convoy was "accidentally" bombed not once, but three times.
So back to the movie and what it says about people's astounding ability to ignore daily horrors when we should be outraged and demanding that they stop. Go and see it and check out your own empathy levels for all those suffering from the many unjust wars and invasions around the planet.
"Don’t let them take that away from you. Feelings are meant to be felt. Feel the grief. Feel the outrage. Feel the anger. Feel the pain."
Caitlin sets a good example expressing their feelings through poetry. I've tried writing some poetry and it helped gather together some of the grief and anger I'm feeling about what's happening in Palestine. I even wrote a short short story recently to express what my deepest hopes are... We can't let the bastards grind us down. We have to remember and record our feelings, even the painful ones.
"The Miracle" (a short short story) https://therevolutioncontinues.substack.com/p/the-miracle
Thank you for your unrelenting commitment and strength Caitlin, without which it would be difficult for us to sustain the rage we need in sympathy with Palestine. The drivel from the pathetic media here in Aotearoa is as maddening as you described.
The embodiment of Evil, Schindler's List: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZMNmQwNdiq0
Google wants to fire all Palestine Aware workers. Columbia will jail you now with your Free Palestine from the River to the Sea poster. Coachella is where all the fucking navel gazing and lobotomizing takes place.
There are a million and one distractions (intentional) this dirty Crony and Corrupt Capitalism dishes out.
https://paulokirk.substack.com/p/google-tells-me-to-go-backstage-at
Anything but talk about why, how, what, when, where, who, and then, you think families are having real discussions about the dirty dirty dealings of the dirty dirty Jews of Jewish Destroyed and Occupied and Raped and Razed and Polluted Palestine?
https://paulokirk.substack.com/p/google-tells-me-to-go-backstage-at
Israeli Professor Lee Mordechai is documenting the horrors in Gaza. His second tweet in this thread links to the pdf.
https://x.com/leemordechai/status/1780034934444331325?s=46&t=y6oNMuRlA05SmDXZA1sw4Q
This past week someone commented on my latest article, calling me an Antisemite. When I told him I was Jewish, he switched the narrative to calling me a self-hating Jew. I told him: "in the future, at some point, people will look back at this genocide and ask, "how did this happen"? How did the world sit back and allow this". My only hope is that they find the conversation we just had. That will explain much to them about how the world consented".
Thank you to the Brave students of Columbia standing in the face of Genocidal Power. Aaron Bushnell, Yemen, Iran, Lebanon and South Africa heroes all.