“Half of the Israeli public is no longer in favor of the war,” one friend told me Saturday night as we witnessed thousands of Israelis take to the streets to protest the Israeli government under the slogan, “Elections Now.” “Yes, but the other half is all-in, and REALLY in favor,” responded his wife. “And they are the more powerful group.”
She, of course, is right. For months, reports of torture and rape have emerged from Israel’s military base turned torture camp, Sde Teiman, where Israel has imprisoned thousands of Palestinians without charge. I wrote about it in a previous diary earlier this month. Palestinians who have emerged from this torture camp refer to it as the “slaughterhouse” with horrendous tales of torture, rape, abuse, and sleep deprivation being meted out by Israeli prison guards. Nearly 30 Palestinians have died while in Sde Teiman and other prisons, according to the information provided to date.
And while the precise chain of events is unclear, what we do know is that the Israeli military advocate general decided to dispatch the military police to question nine Israeli soldiers on suspicion of gang-raping and sodomizing a Palestinian man from Gaza at Sde Teiman. The man was rushed to the hospital where he exhibited signs of rape, including a ruptured bowel and broken ribs. It would be a mistake to simply think that Israel’s actions in prisons like Sde Teiman came only after October. Since becoming Israel’s national security minister in 2022, ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir has made prisons his target, with him authorizing abuse against Palestinians. He has also called for the death penalty to solve problems of overcrowding.
There is something we can do, but it takes unity, courage, willingness/resolve to suffer the consequences, regardless of the results. The first and last components are the hardest to muster, but they can be mustered. Time will tell.
Protesting against Israel in the USA quickly gets you pepper sprayed and beaten. This isn’t some theoretical.
And? People died to give us a 40 hour work week and voting rights, for some of us. The 40 hour week is gone and voting rights are shrinking. And neither major party is doing anything but moving miles right, economically. Socially left seems to be throwing a bone, while so many of us are overworked, underpaid, and still couch surfing, living rough and sick or dying. We have hard choices to make.
okay got it now what
What is your question?
i have unity, courage, and willingness/resolve to suffer the consequences. what action do i take now, or is the answer supposed to reveal itself?
Find like-minded individuals in your area. Direct action, mutual aid.
thankfully as a well-networkef furry and socialist i have also done this pretty well! now can i end the genocide?
Do you have a big and important enough network to shut down the economy and/or key infrastructure with a general strike? Because that’s the most effective non-violent way.
holy shit you’re right
the furries have the power to shut off the Internet…
Perhaps you and your friends can devise a plan for… Wait for it… Direct action and mutual aid.