Such joy

Statement in Solidarity with the Intern. Assoc. of Genocide Scholars by the Genocide & Holocaust Studies Crisis Network: We condemn attacks on the IAGS Gaza genocide resolution & abhor the denialism & bad faith that persist among some in the fields of Holocaust & Genocide Studies.

Kaouthar Ben Hania's "Voice of Hind Rajab" received an unprecedented 22-min ovation at the Venice film festival. The reviews from both Variety and Hollywood Reporter seem to mark a watershed in film biz engagement with Gaza, as both reviewers openly speak of apartheid and genocide.

A scholarly consensus

A reflective break, a sigh, from the wonderfully talented Avin Ahmadi:

[In an effort to diversify the content on my feed] I just discovered that some good person has digitized a 7" record released by a band I was in with @jeffgbk.bsky.social and @kcampisano.bsky.social many years ago. As a diversion for those who may be interested (in '90s experimental indie rock):

At some point there needs to be a broader understanding we will have to pay for such services one way or another - whether by subs or thru data mining of personal info, oligarch ownership, ads etc.

Mood

The dissolution of the Palestinian Stories list on Netflix caused havoc for my students who were using the list for their research projects. While many great Palestinian films are still accessible on other platforms, the Netflix list was a well-curated one-stop collection.

They will never understand how they annihilated us then annihilated us, then annihilated us, and yet could not erase from their mirrors our shining image nor could they erase from our faces that hazy, oblivious light, that pure, radiant smile.

I was wondering when people would begin to remember how dismally lame Oasis was, other than as ironic karaoke fodder

Walter Johnson: “Our university has punished you for believing in the things that we have taught you.”

Excellent piece on the classic film The Dupes (1972) and its relationship to the history of Palestinian resistance cinema

Satire as policy: “Mr. Katz’s proposal did not explicitly include plans to relocate Palestinians to the island, according to the European officials.”

Famine has arrived to Gaza. "“We don’t have the numbers but we can say that children are dying as a result of the humanitarian situation on the ground as well as due to the direct impact of the fighting,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children Fund, who is in Rafah."

The South African presentation accusing Israel of breaching the genocide convention at the ICJ is just devastating: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k11...

“The world faces the prospect of almost a quarter of Gaza’s 2 million population - close to half a million human beings - dying within a year. These would be largely deaths from preventable health causes and the collapse of the medical system.“

"That raises critical questions, legal and humanitarian experts say, about whether the civilian harm caused by Israel’s military operations against the hospital — encircling, besieging and ultimately raiding the facility and the tunnel beneath it — were proportionate to the assessed threat."

Refaat Al-Areer, (1979-2023)

As a TA for a large lecture class w 3 other TAs, we caught a group of blatant cheaters during the in-class bluebook final exam. Professor later exploded at us, berating us for giving him work in having to file paperwork re honor code violations etc.

Terrifying: "Another reason for the large number of targets, and the extensive harm to civilian life in Gaza, is the widespread use of a system ... largely built on artificial intelligence and can 'generate' targets almost automatically at a rate that far exceeds what was previously possible."

The coincidental juxtaposition of Shane MacGowan and Henry Kissinger may just be a divine message illustrating the pathways to heaven and hell, respectively.

The indirect human costs of war often outpace those killed/injured directly, are usually uncounted and unreported.

Omer Bartov: "We may be watching an ethnic cleansing operation that could quickly devolve into genocide, as has happened more than once in the past... this is the time to stand up and raise our voices, before Israel’s leadership plunges it and its neighbors into the abyss."

Friends in Philly

Sharing coping mechanisms: nourishing a newfound passion for crosswords, rereading Middlemarch during my nightly 3am awakenings

No doubt there’s a very normal explanation for why

Disclaimer: Commentary I may offer on this platform in the immediate future may not be able to fully encompass the wide range of emotions or modes of analysis that are necessary to begin to speak about what is happening in Gaza. Let's begin with: every human life is precious, even sacred. Every.