Updates on Palestine: July 1st
- One of the children abducted by the IOF in Sheikh Jarrah was released. The IOF didn’t let his family celebrate when he came home
- Motasem Hmedat, a 15 year old teen from Silwan, was beaten and abducted by the IOF. 4 days after his release date, he’s still being held by the IOF. Rally for his release using the #FreeMotasem hashtag on social media
- They demolished a residential building in Silwan. Other people are demolishing their own homes just so they don’t have to pay the fine for the price of the bulldozers Israel uses to do it themselves.
- There are several videos of the families watching their homes being destroyed and I can’t emphasize enough how they don’t have opportunities to rebuild.
- 10 people were arrested in Silwan just in the first day of demolitions
- About Beita (to understand more about the invasion of Beita, here’s a good article showing settler’s violence against palestinian residents): Israeli settlers came to an agremeent with the Israeli government and they’re leaving the colony, but instead of that, they’re building a military base that settlers will be able to return to when Beita is declared “state owned”. These are their literal words, they will build a military base, and then when they can safely pretend it wasn’t Palestinian land, the settlers will move back in.
- On this topic, I’m linking this article from Decolonize Palestine about the Allon Colonization plan, and how building national parks and military bases has been a strategy used by Israel for decades to steal Palestinian land.
It’s disheartening to see entire Palestinian cities and neighborhoods laid under siege while ex-IOF talk about how beautiful the sunset is in Gaza. Be angry, because Israel is absolutely counting on the international community to look away. Organize and attend protests, let your representatives know you want Palestine to be free.
- Copy and paste this tweet calling for the release of Motasem Heimedat, a 15 year old abducted from Silwan today for protesting the demolition of his home
- Inform yourself but most importantly amplify Palestinian voices. Engagement in social medias (likes, retweets and using hashtags on Twitter, sharing on stories and saving on Instagram) are all ways you can manipulate the algorithm and make Silwan reach broader audiences.
- Linking some threads you can share. Tag your representatives in them and ask for accountability:
- This thread by @drosepali about why the destruction of Silwan isn’t a property matter
- This thread by Mohammed El Kurd
- This thread by USCPR
- Muna El Kurd’s Instagram
- IF YOU’RE IN THE US: Call Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer
- IF YOU’RE IN CANADA: Write to your MPs asking to stop selling arms to Israel
- This link has a series of petitions that you can sign from anywhere in the world
- Also, this toolkit by the Palestine Feminist Collective has resources on petitions, which representatives to call and BDS directions
- Sign this petiton in support of Huda, the high school student who was harassed for calling her fellow students to learn about Palestine
- Follow organizers so you can know when protests will happen. Some of them: USCPR, Palestinian Youth Movement, Within our Lifetime, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, and Mohammed El Kurd (he often posts calls for action from all over the world on his stories)
- Follow BDS, anywhere in the world. It is effective and you can see that in the fact Ben and Jerry hasn’t posted anything on their social media in over one month because all their comments were calling for them to get out of the settlements in Palestine
Feel free to add more resources