"The partition is simply another vehicle for annexation. This is no Marshall Plan for Palestinians, to say the least, but effectively a fire sale of their land and resources." An essay on how we got here from Aslı Ü. Bâli and Aziz Rana: www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

The #NYT: consistently outperforming itself

🧵Have you ever heard of LLM-authored books being used as part of an disinformation operation? Well now you have! #AI #Disinformation open.substack.com/pub/marcowen...

If you've ever found your name on a list, or feared landing there, you're not alone. Today, doxxing is imbued with terrifying state powers, but it's an old strategy of deputization that has terrorized people for centuries. The power of lists is division, but we can draw from histories of refusal.

A statement from university presidents in Gaza: "Constant bombardment, starvation, restrictions on internet access, unstable electricity, and the ongoing horrors of genocide have not broken our will. We are still here, still teaching, and still committed to the future of education in Gaza."

The ‘alphabet soup’ of databases on which CBP is drawing in airports to secondary search, detain and deport

NEW — Per Homeland Security & State Department sources, the Trump administration is staking its entire case to deport Mahmoud Kahlil not on whether he broke a law, but on Secretary of State Marco Rubio “personally” deciding Khalil would “compromise” US foreign policy.

(Recent graduate, but the legality point stands)

The Elastic Empire framework can also allow us to avoid the traps set by the flaming dumpster fire of bipartisan politics & navigate the harms caused by the US as one that’s moves through various iterations/performances of imperialism.

Activism/academia: Not sure continuing to issue public statements, as if political conditions haven't shifted, is a great idea. US leftists have something to learn from activists operating in authoritarian and other openly violent spaces. (Photo: Eject resistance symbol. Artist: Asim Butt

this is gutting

The NYT asked me to write an op-ed on Musk and the Treasury and then took a pass. I hope it will still get read.

Trump is calling for ethnic cleansing—“clean out that whole thing” was his phrase!—but the NYT manages to make him sound like a humanitarian.

Starting to hear news of human rights NGOs from a bit everywhere losing much if not all of their fundings due to the Trump cuts. I can’t legally share yet but I suspect the news will come out soon if it hasn’t already. This includes groups that investigate crimes against humanity

So excited - congratulations, @lbhungalia.bsky.social! I think this might have been the very first book for which I was part of the acquisitions discussion at @stanfordpress.bsky.social; it knocked my socks off then, and knocks my socks off still. So pleased to see it gain this recognition.

Sednaya prison outside of Damascus is called the human slaughterhouse. The things that I read happened there will never leave me. Just the absolute most twisted things a human can come up with. The fact that we’re counting down the minutes to it being obliterated is beyond. Just incredible.

A book I’m very much looking forward to reading, “Elastic Empire: Refashioning War Through Aid in Palestine,” which recently received both the 2024 Albert Hourani Book Award and the 2024 Palestine Book Awards.

I made a starter pack of a motley crew of folks I enjoy. Let me know if you’d like to be added to this list (or taken off)! go.bsky.app/9yxgizB

Today the US vetoed a UNSC res calling for a ceasefire in Gaza marking the 49th time it has wielded its veto power against Israel-related UNSC draft resolutions & the 4th time in the past year The UNSC voted 14-1 in favor, the US being the only opposed www.middleeasteye.net/news/49-time...

This is an excellent interview with @lbhungalia.bsky.social on Israel’s war on UNRWA, and the weaponisation of aid as “asphyxiatory violence”. I also highly recommend the book Elastic Empire to anyone interested in humanitarianism and the politics of sanctions www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/l...

The Knesset designating the UNRWA and the Biden admin entirely defunding it constitute asphyxiatory violence, a master class on the decisions and their horrific impact by @lbhungalia.bsky.social for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social www.phenomenalworld.org/interviews/l...

It is not only with weapons and vetoes at the UN Security Council, but also through aid, that the US inscribes its imperial influence on Palestine. I review Lisa Bhungalia's “Elastic Empire: Refashioning War through Aid in Palestine” for Informed Comment. www.juancole.com/2024/08/refa...

For the history books

and, in lockstep, it did

A smart, incisive convo w/ Kareem Rabie on everything from the combined and uneven spaces of colonisation and violence linking Gaza to Ramallah, to the function of genocide in SC, to how the present may be fracturing the status quo and to concur w/ Kareem, T. Friedman is indeed ‘a very stupid man’

Some critical reads rn: Darryl Li on the Sinai solution in the early occupation period and its continued relevance t.ly/Ke0F_ Esmat Elhalaby on Gaza & historical through lines t.ly/ckLYX Neve Gordon on foreboding developments in the West Bank t.ly/HwjAW