"Our film “No Other Land” on occupied Masafer Yatta’s brutal expulsion won best documentary in Berlinale. Israel’s channel 11 aired this 30 second segment from my speech, insanely called it “anti semitic” - and I’ve been receiving death threats since. I stand behind every word." pic.twitter.com/2burPfZeKO

• Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם (@yuval_abraham) February 25, 2024

#politics #art #film #festival #berlinale #antisemitism #censorship #mccarthyism #strikegermany

Mc Carthyism - Made in Germany:

Berlinale: Filmmakers say what the rest of the world is saying

At the Berlinale film festival, Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers called for equality and peace. German politicians want to ban such hateful talk (Nathaniel Flakin)

The Berlinale film festival ended on Saturday evening with a gala, but if you read the German press, it was actually a »scandal«. The speeches were »alarming«, »shameful«, and »frightening«, full of »Israel hatred« and »antisemitism«. What had happened?

Yuval Abraham and Basel Adra, an Israeli and a Palestinian, won an award for their documentary film »No Other Land«. Abraham spoke for just 36 seconds:
»In two days, we will go back to a land where we are not equal. I am living under a civilian law, and Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another, but I have voting rights, and Basel is not having voting rights. I am free to move where I want in this land. Basel is, like millions of Palestinians, locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, it has to end.«

His co-producer Adra took just 21 seconds: »I'm here celebrating the award, but also very hard for me to celebrate when there are tens of thousands of my people being slaughtered and massacred by Israel in Gaza. Masafer Yatta, my community, is being also razed by Israeli bulldozers. I ask one thing from Germany, as I am in Berlin here, to respect the UN calls and stop sending weapons to Israel.«

These are sober statements of liberal democratic principles. Who would dare to contradict? Should systematic inequality based on ethnicity (known in international law as »apartheid«) continue? Should Germany keep ignoring UN resolutions?

"Clear message at @berlinale ceremony by Basel Adra, co-producer of "No Other Land": "There are 10s of 1000s of my people being slaughtered...by #Israel in #Gaza. I ask 1 thing from #Germany...to respect the #UN calls and stop sending weapons to Israel" pic.twitter.com/7QUzMKujEh

• Prof. Hanna Kienzler 🧡 🇵🇸 (@HannaKienzler) February 25, 2024

An Israeli and a Palestinian stood together against the militaristic logic of both Likud and Hamas. It's an inspiring message – yet I have not found a single German publication that has quoted them in full.

Rather than engaging in debate, German politicians are demanding censorship. Olaf Scholz and his top cultural bureaucrat Claudia Roth each called the speeches »shockingly one-sided«. Justice minister Marco Buschmann called for »criminal consequences«. Even Anne Helm of the Left Party declared that »a line has been crossed«.

Berlin's mayor Kai Wegner called this an »unacceptable relativization« and declared that »there is no space for antisemitism in Berlin, and that also applies to the art scene.« This is the same Wegner who just two weeks ago said the AfD will be included in future editions of the Berlinale. The politicians of the in some federal states officially far right party had been disinvited following protests, but the mayor is demanding »equal treatment« for them. In other words, for Wegner, literal far right politicians are OK, but critical Israelis are not welcome.

Over the years, Berlinale has hosted some spectacular Israeli documentaries. Good films need to be critical of the reality they are trying to portray. If all criticism of Israel is rejected as antisemitic, then no one will dare to invite Israeli directors for fear they might say something negative about their government. What will be left at Berlinale? Just Tatort episodes and Netanyahu campaign ads?

German politicians are claiming this will cause »damage to the Berlinale«. The opposite is the case: their demands for extreme censorship are a mortal threat to Berlin's art scene. Do they even realize how far outside the global mainstream they are? In calling for a ceasefire, Saturday's prizewinners were saying what the whole world except for Germany is saying – even Joe Biden has been mumbling about it.

Once again, we see how this virulent solidarity with Israel comes at the expense of Jewish life in Germany. What do we call this ferocious desire to silence Jews who don't comply with the German Staatsräson? Last week, the Israeli director Udi Aloni said: »It seems like there is a new form of antisemitism in Germany, that no one calls antisemitism: the censorship of progressive intellectual Jewish voices.« He admitted that he was afraid to quote Walter Benjamin or Franz Rosenzweig in this country »because I might get canceled«.

It seems German politicians don't want us to hear these speeches. They cannot defend the reality – so they try to avoid discussions about it. We must hear Israelis and Palestinians when they stand together to call for equality and peace.
- https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1180340.antisemitism-berlinale-filmmakers-say-what-the-rest-of-the-world-is-saying.html

"Are They 'Hamas'?" 12,300 Children Killed by Israeli Forces in Gaza

Gruesome new data shows that kids make up around 43% of the death toll from Israel's assault on the #Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces have killed more than 12,300 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip in just over four months, a staggering toll that’s likely to grow as the Netanyahu government ramps up its assault on and prepares to invade the overcrowded city of Rafah.

New figures that Gaza health authorities provided to The Associated Press show that children make up roughly 43% of the total death toll in the Palestinian enclave since October 7. Women and children combined account for three-quarters of the death toll, according to the new data.

“Are they ‘Hamas’?” Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, asked in response to the numbers, referring to Israel’s claim that it is targeting militants despite the massive and growing body of evidence to the contrary.

An Amnesty International report released Monday examining four recent Israeli airstrikes on Rafah. Amnesty said that “in all four attacks,” it did not find “any indication that the residential buildings hit could be considered legitimate military objectives or that people in the buildings were military targets.”

https://alaska-native-news.com/are-they-hamas-12300-children-killed-by-israeli-forces-in-gaza/72504/
#gaza #palestine #children #hamas #Genocide #WarCrime #Politics #StopTheWar #SaveGaza #StopIsrael #SaveRafah #PeaceNow #CeaseFireNow

Here's Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic) on the *permanence* of wealth disparity in the USA...
_________________

The factual: America is not a bootstrap-friendly land. If you have money in America, chances very good are you inherited it.

American wealth is now dynastic, perpetuating itself and growing thanks to a whole Versailles' worth of courtiers: money managers, lawyers, and overpaid babysitters who can keep even the most Habsburg-jawed nepobaby in turnip-sized million-dollar watches and performance automobiles and organ replacements for their whole, interminable lives.

But it's not just that the American rich stay rich – it's that the American poor stay poor. America is a world-trailing loser in the international social mobility league-table. If you change classes in America, chances are you're a middle class person becoming poor, thanks to medical costs or another of the American debt-traps; or you're a poor person who is becoming a homeless person thanks to America's world-beating eviction mills.

As a factual matter, America just isn't the land of bootstraps; it's a land of hereditary aristocrats. Sustaining the American narrative of meritocracy requires a whole culture industry, novels and later movies that constitute a kind of state religion for Americans – and like all religious tales, the American faith tradition is riddled with gaps and contradictions.
_________________

FULL ESSAY -- https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/10/declaration-of-interdependence/

#Politics #USA #Capitalism #Inequality

IDF is literally destroying all buildings in Gaza.

The video shared by IDF showing the destruction of a mosque in Gaza by the engineering team of Israeli armed forces.

This wasn't a military target, nor was it a Hamas owed mosque, it was just the symbol of something israel wants to erase.

Every house, every university, every government building and every apartment complex is going to be destroyed, flattened and turned into robble to make Gaza uninhabitable.

This is not a war against Hamas, it's not even about just Palestinians, it is a war of dominance, war of eradication of all signs of what it was there before and the war of cleansing everything, people, buildings, culture, farms and even graves.

And in the mean time, the "world" is standing idle watching it happen again and again and if you dare questioning it, or god forbid if you dare to criticize it, you end up losing your job, your reputation, your rewards and in some cases even your freedom.

This, my friends, is the new, new, new world order.

Video of the whole "demolition" shared on telegram

#SaveGaza #StopIsrael #EthnicCleansing
#palestine #Israel #Occupation #Apartheid #Politics #PeaceNow #StopTheWar #CeasefireNow
@palestine group

So longtime friend of the Topless Topics community mrich (as we all know him by) and I have been tossing around a #podcast idea for a while (I know, I know...this one will be good though, I promise ;p) and I could use y'alls help in solidifying the concept before we jump in to making it.

Basically, the thought is to provide two different but respectful opinions on a variety of subjects--I'm a cis white woman "coastal elite" from California, he's a cis black man from the South, and we're both #progressive #leftists and huge nerds (especially #gaming !) We're also both #normalizeNudity (and of course #freeTheNipple / #topless #equality ) supporters, raised #nudist / #naturist though I reject the specific label these days (I got a whole video about it at toplesstopics.org/nomorenudism if you're curious), and #sexPositive - I'm #bisexual and #polyamorous , he's straight and monogamous, but totally cool with other models, as long as it's all #consensual . We also (so many commonalities!) are both quite #artistic - he's mainly into #portrait #photography while I'm into #illustration both #digitalIllustration and #traditionalIllustration .

While we're still figuring out the structure of the podcast, the idea is to have a few somewhat disparate sections to it - gaming/ #comics / #cosplay /etc, then brief reaction to current #politics / #news (like #feminism , #LGBTQ , #racialJustice , anti- #capitalism , and so much more), and (hopefully) an interview with someone interesting ( #sexWorker , #activist , #artist , etc...whoever we can find that seems like they'd be a good fit for the pod! Then finally, maybe an "ask us anything" advice/reaction section to round out the episode.

I'm thinking we aim for <= 2 hours, one episode per month, but if we really get into it, maybe an episode every other week. I'm still gonna have to edit it and I have a lot else on my plate so I don't want to overextend myself too much. If we happen to stumble into wild success maybe I could hire someone else to do that part in the future, then we could record more often 😛

On some subjects, of course I will defer to his expanded first-hand experience, like #racialInequality . And on other subjects, it'll be mostly my turn to step onto the soapbox, namely about what it's like to be a woman in this #misogynist #sexist world. We've chatted for many hours over the years and always gotten along swimmingly, so I don't anticipate undue friction in the longterm (a benefit of having so many like-minded opinions already). But I still think we have enough difference in life experiences to provide an interesting perspective on a variety of topics.

What do you think? Does any of that seem interesting to you? What kinds of things / people to interview would you like to see on a podcast created by a pair of different similar leftist nerds? Would you listen to such a podcast? Please, lay your feedback on me! All replies welcome, as long as you're not being a total jerk ❤️

I don't have any problem with a market economy, per se, but I do have a BIG problem with capitalism.

In my preferred version of state socialism, there is no accumulation of capital, and thus no capitalism. All large industries and large-scale services are socialized, owned by the people and managed by the state (or by worker cooperatives, where practical).

In my version of a market economy, people can own and run small companies, hire employees, set prices, make a profit... that's all fine. But they can't buy their competitors and either take them over or put them out of business. They can't open franchises, where they sell (or rent) the right to operate a different company with the same name. They're not allowed to buy their suppliers and create a conglomerate. They aren't permitted to grow so large that the market no longer operates fairly. And every business owner's wealth will be capped with a highly progressive tax structure (which is the price of using the commons to turn a profit).

So, the marketplace as such is not the problem. The problem is capitalism.

#Capitalism #Socialism #Economics #Politics

• usas GNU/Linux e outro software Open Source and Free;
  
• pensas com a tua cabeça;
  
• te preocupas com o teu bem-estar e o dos outros;
  
• te preocupas com o bem-estar da tua comunidade e te dedicas a ela;
  
• és contra a violência venha ela donde vier: pessoas, governos, instituições;
  
• és a favor da auto-determinação e liberdade de decisão dos outros;
  
• és a favor da cooperação para a construção dum mundo melhor para todos;
  
• só aceitas a violência para resistir à violência dos outros;
  
• te sentes livre e queres que os outros também se sintam assim;
  
• és a favor duma vida mais humana e sustentável;
  
• defendes que todos os seres humanos têm o direito a serem felizes e a ter as suas necessidades básicas garantidas;
  
• acreditas que todos os seres humanos têm o direito a terem as suas possessões, desde que elas não sejam adquiridas através da exploração de outros;
  
• acreditas que a comunidade tem de garantir o bem-estar individual de cada um dos seus membros;
  
• acreditas que todos temos a obrigação de melhorar, enquanto seres humanos, e de contribuir para que todos na comunidade melhorem também;
  
• as decisões pessoais e da comunidade sejam tomadas com base em árduo estudo, investigação e análise dos resultados e não em simples emoções ou "achismo"...