Israel Assassinates More Journalists To Hide Its Planned War Crimes
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
Ahead of a planned Israeli assault on Gaza City which UN officials warn will further exacerbate death and suffering for the Palestinian people, Israel has chosen to assassinate five Al Jazeera journalists who’ve been stationed there. Among those killed was Anas al-Sharif, one of the most high-profile surviving reporters in Gaza.
The IDF is of course claiming that al-Sharif was Hamas, because that’s what they always do. They’ve been murdering a historically unprecedented number of journalists and defending their systematic effort to blind the world to their actions in Gaza by claiming that every journalist they kill is Hamas. The journalists are Hamas, the hospitals are Hamas, the UN is Hamas, the peace activists are Hamas, the demonstrations are Hamas, telling the truth is Hamas, human empathy is Hamas, objective reality is Hamas. It’s all Hamas.
That Israel would feel the need to draw attention to its depravity with this targeted strike at this time shows it has some very ugly intentions for Gaza City that it doesn’t want the world to see.
❖
One of the many plot holes in Israel’s claim that it can’t let foreign journalists into Gaza because it’s not safe is that there are now huge areas which have been completely captured and controlled by the IDF. That’s where the GHF sites are, which is where journalists are most sorely needed right now.
It’s not like it’s 2023/2024 and journalists would need to follow Israeli forces into Gaza City to document gun battles with Hamas or take their crews through areas where the IDF could be carrying out air strikes. They could safely just set up their cameras at aid distribution sites and document what’s happening.
The only reason this hasn’t occurred is because Israel doesn’t want the world to see what it’s doing at those aid distribution sites. There is absolutely no other explanation.
❖
British police arrested 522 people for holding signs saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action” in response to their government banning the activist group as a terrorist organization. Nearly half of those arrested were over sixty years old.
When I was young and naive I thought terrorism looks like someone detonating a car bomb or crashing planes into skyscrapers. Now that I’m mature and educated I know that terrorism actually looks like an elderly woman holding a sign saying people should be allowed to oppose genocide.
This is a society that has gone stark raving insane.
❖
U2 frontman Bono has finally issued a statement calling for peace in Gaza two years into a genocide, and however bad you expected it to be I guarantee it’s worse.
He works his way through pretty much every pro-genocide Israeli talking point while pretending to care about Palestinians. He spends paragraphs on October 7, mentions the word “Hamas” 14 times, falsely claims “Hamas are using starvation as a weapon in the war,” says “Hamas had deliberately positioned themselves under civilian targets, having tunneled their way from school to mosque to hospital,” babbles about the 1988 Hamas charter while ignoring its 2017 revisions, blames the whole thing on Netanyahu, and of course mentions “Israel’s right to exist.”
I seriously think he hit every major hasbara talking point. I don’t think he missed a single one. It’s genocide propaganda disguised as humanitarianism. Bono is a piece of shit.
❖
I judge the character of Jewish people based on how much they oppose the genocide in Gaza. This is also how I judge the character of anyone who is not Jewish.
❖
As soon as someone says they support Israel for religious reasons, you can dismiss anything they say in defense of Israel’s actions, because you know they’ll tell any lie and promote any kind of propaganda in order to advance their religious mission. They’re not engaging the subject to share facts and communicate, they’re engaging it to obtain promised rewards in the afterlife and please an invisible deity. They’ll say whatever they need to say in order to make this happen.
Think about it. If you sincerely held the religious belief that Israel needs to be supported no matter what in order to fulfill some kind of prophecy, or that if you don’t promote the interests of Israel you’ll be tortured for eternity in Hell, or that Actual Metaphysical Yahweh has commanded that helping Israel is the single most important thing in the world, would you not say whatever you need to say and promote whatever narratives you need to promote in order to help make that happen? Of course you would. It’s not about facts and truth for such people, it’s about getting into Heaven and bringing back Jesus and stuff.
The instant someone admits to supporting Israel for religious reasons, there’s no reason to believe anything else they say. Because you know they’ll say things they don’t really know to be true and pretend to believe things they don’t really believe in order to do what they’ve been told is the most important thing they can possibly do with their lives. It’s impossible to have a truth-based conversation with such a person.
_____________
The best way to make sure you see everything I write is to get on my free mailing list. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Click here for links for my social media, books, merch, and audio/video versions of each article. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.
Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2
Feature image is a screen grab from Al Jazeera English (Fair Use).
Bono is beyond a piece of shit. He’s a glittering vacuity and a disgrace to the many Irish people who staunchly oppose Israel.
There are not enough tears to weep about this travesty. I'm an author, a journalist, and I have taught journalists.
I've covered human rights violations and horrendous regimes but now I feel so ashamed of so many of my colleagues. So many journalists - even some I taught - have turned away from reporting the truth that this is a genocide, they don't care that their comrades are being gunned down. This makes them sociopaths.
Where is humanitarian journalism? Where is human rights journalism? Oh there's click bait social media but the mainstream is a sick stream. It breeds violence and that breeds despair.
Our leaders don't only want to kill Palestinians, they want to shackle us, they want to stop the poor from speaking out, they want to exploit workers, and they see nature as a resource to exploit. That is their agenda. It is a policy of 'mass murder so there will be more for me'.
We are ruled by selfish childish leaders who are bullies, who want to stockpile weapons the way bully boys stock pile toys. They don't want to let the good kids eat or drink. They don't want to let them have homes. They shoot them. And they shoot those who tell on them.
The real heroes, the real truth seekers and truth tellers are being felled. Those heroes, so many of them are gone. They can't hug their wives, they can't kiss their children, they will never look at another sky or sing another song.
All the bystanders who watched this, all the Police who carry out the orders of despotic governments and arrest good people, are culpable.
If we free Palestinians we free ourselves. Only the most evil people would see extermination for expansion as a good thing. This isn't slavery of the past, or massacres of the past, it is the enslavement of a people, now, it is the massacre of people now.
The US, Israel, the nations who keep manufacturing this mass murder, this deranged killing spree, must be stopped.
Thank you Caitlin for your campaign against injustice and for being a word warrior for liberation, for raging against the dying of so many lights.