36 Comments
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Jemby's avatar

Amazing stuff Kathy.

Kathy's avatar

❤️🫶🏻

Dede Bell's avatar

Really powerful, Kathy. 🫂

Kathy's avatar

Thank you Dede ❤️

Malcolm MacPhail's avatar

Very heartfelt and eloquent. I’m sure the hard work that you are doing will remembered by Palestinians. I keep my spirit up with this quote from the Palestinian/American writer Susan Abulhawa from her speech last year at the Oxford Union where at the closing she addressed Israelis directly:

“You have crossed all lines and nurtured the most vile of human impulses, but the world is finally glimpsing the terror we have endured at your hands for so long, and they are seeing the reality of who you are, who you’ve always been. They watch in utter astonishment the sadism, the glee, the joy, and pleasure with which you conduct, watch, and cheer the daily details of breaking our bodies, our minds, our future, our past.

But no matter what happens from here, no matter what fairytales you tell yourself and tell the world, you will never truly belong to that land. You will never understand the sacredness of the olives trees, which you’ve been cutting down and burning for decades just to spite us and to break our hearts a little more. No one native to that land would dare do such a thing to the olives. No one who belongs to that region would ever bomb or destroy such ancient heritage as Baalbak or Bittir, or destroy ancient cemeteries as you destroy ours, like the Anglican cemetery in Jerusalem or the resting place of ancient Muslim scholars and warriors in Maamanillah. Those who come from that land do not desecrate the dead; that’s why my family for centuries were the caretakers of the Jewish cemetery in the Mount of Olives, as labors of faith and care, for what we know is part of our ancestry and story.

Your ancestors will always be buried in your actual homelands of Poland, Ukraine, and elsewhere around the world from whence you came. The mythos and folklore of the land will always be alien to you.

You will never be literate in the sartorial language of the thobes we wear, that sprang from the land through our foremothers over centuries — every motif, design, and pattern speaking to the secrets of local lore, flora, birds, rivers, and wildlife.

What your real estate agents call in their high-priced listings “old Arab home” will always hold in their stones the stories and memories of our ancestors who built them. The ancient photos and paintings of the land will never contain you.

Someday, your impunity and arrogance will end. Palestine will be free; she will be restored to her multi-religious, multi-ethnic pluralistic glory.

You will never know how it feels to be loved and supported by those who have nothing to gain from you, and in fact, everything to lose. You will never know the feeling of masses all over the world pouring into the streets and stadiums to chant and sing for your freedom; and it is not because you are Jewish, as you try to make the world believe, but because you are depraved violent colonizers who think your Jewishness entitles you to the home my grandfather and his brothers built with their own hands on lands that had been in our family for centuries. It is because Zionism is a blight onto Judaism and indeed onto humanity.

You can change your names to sound more relevant to the region and you can pretend falafel and hummus and zaatar are your ancient cuisines, but in the recesses of your being, you will always feel the sting of this epic forgery and theft. That’s why even the drawings of our children, hung on walls at the UN or in a hospital ward, send your leaders and lawyers into hysteric meltdowns.

You will not erase us, no matter how many of us you kill and kill and kill, all day every day. We are not the rocks Chaim Weizmann thought you could clear from the land. We are its very soil. We are her rivers and her trees and her stories, because all of that was nurtured by our bodies and our lives over millennia of continuous, uninterrupted habitation of that patch of earth between the Jordan and Mediterranean waters. From our Canaanite, our Hebrew, our Philistine, and our Phoenician ancestors, to every conqueror or pilgrim who came and went, who married or raped, loved, enslaved, converted between religions, settled or prayed in our land, leaving pieces of themselves in our bodies and our heritage, the fabled, tumultuous stories of that land are quite literally in our DNA. You cannot kill or propagandize that away, no matter what death technology you use or what Hollywood and corporate media arsenals you deploy.

Someday, your impunity and arrogance will end. Palestine will be free; she will be restored to her multi-religious, multi-ethnic pluralistic glory; we will restore and expand the trains that run from Cairo to Gaza to Jerusalem, Haifa, Tripoli, Beirut, Damascus, Amman, Kuwait, Sanaa, and so on; we will put an end to the zionist American war machine of domination, expansion, extraction, pollution, and looting.

. . .and you will either leave, or you will finally learn to live with others as equals.”

Kathy's avatar

Thank you for reposting this Malcolm. I love Susan. These words will be in the history books.

mothman777's avatar

Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi has quoted the full version of the Torah that ALL jews in ALL jewish sects in the entire world use (so it is not 'just the Talmudists', or 'just the zionists', or 'just the khazarians, but ALL JEWS whether they admit that or not) as stating that of all the goyim (Gentiles) in the whole world, there are to be "NO SURVIVORS", so in realistic terms, you can forget all the bullshit about it just being 'the zionists' and 'not all the jews'.

To get a passport as a citizen of Israel, nowhere is any applicant asked to prove they are a 'zionist', rather, ALL applicants are asked if they are JEWISH.

Just call them jews, don't bother with the currently fashionable and entirely useless approach of just condemning zionism. 'Good' jews are all fakes. Keep thinking about that Torah.

None of THEM are innocent, and their occult path involves all jewish souls reincarnating constantly again and again on this planet ONLY as jews over and over again for scores of lifetimes over thousands of years as they constantly build up and reinforce their networks of power, so every single one of them is REALLY entirely conversant with what their collective megalomaniac world domination cult is all about, WHICH INVOLVES ULTIMATELY TOTALLY EXTERMINATING ALL GENTILES ON THE ENTIRE PLANET SO THAT JEWS CAN SEIZE THE ENTIRE PLANET FOR THEMSELVES ALONE TO LIVE ON because after each life, before reincarnating, every single jewish soul has to consciously agree to continue to become incarnated as a jew or crypto-jew on this planet again.

And of course, it is simply not plausible that none of these jews has any idea what is in their own Torah, as that is the foundational scripture of all jews on the entire planet without a single exception. All jews are really part of that, and of course most will just lie if asked about any of this and will simply deny it all, but any jew who denies that is a liar and a deceiver.

Many manipulative and dishonest jews will calculatingly play the part of sympathizer with the Palestinians and just criticize 'zionists' just so as to keep the foot of the jews in the political door in Western government establishments supplying Israel with weapons and political support.

The jews believe that every single jewish soul is eternally a member of 'the elohim', the gods' who created this entire universe and this entire planet. The jews are not exactly going to open up to everyone about what all of this really means, as infiltration by stealth to hijack and seize this planet is part of the military process of conquest to seize this entire planet.

Julie B 🇨🇦's avatar

Kathy, I think you’re very human. You’re feeling the pain and suffering that’s a result of what you’re forced to see. But humans are emotional beings and we’re only able to absorb so much of this nightmare and then our brain recognizes when we’re saturated with it all and says okay that’s enough. I need to insulate myself a bit or I’ll break. I think we learn how to protect ourselves from absorbing so much that we can’t handle anything any longer. But we know we have to continue, things aren’t going to change any time soon. We have to continue surviving, so we learn, subconsciously to shut tiny bits of it off so it doesn’t hurt as much. That’s where the numbness comes from. It’s our built in survival mechanism protecting us from overload. It doesn’t mean that we’re taking things for granted or becoming blasé about everything. We’re just making sure we survive until it’s over.

I feel this way, every time I hear or see a bomb site or people crying, especially with children, I fall apart. But I want to be able to continue supporting those who are actually experiencing it personally, so I have to shut down a tiny bit or take a time out. So I can keep coming back again for the next time. If I don’t do this, I’ll end up in a black hole that I can’t get out of. And then what good am I?

Please know you’re one of the strongest people I’ve met on Substack, Kathy. You’re always there for everyone, with so much compassion. You work so incredibly hard. Just allow yourself to be human, to take care of yourself. We all need you, need you to be okay. ❤️🙏🏻🥰

Kathy's avatar

I agree with you Julie. Everyone has their own limitations and we should all take a break for self-preservation, for our own mental health. Because you are absolutely correct…what good are we if we completely break.

Thank you for your kind words Julie. ❤️

Julie B 🇨🇦's avatar

In order to survive all this, we need to look after each other.

Kathy's avatar

💯❤️

LaTanya's avatar

“The shock is worn down with repetition “. Numbness, still pain but now a sense of helplessness and numbness has taken the place of the initial punch in the gut! We need accountability, justice.

Kathleen Munson's avatar

The only way to stop it is to destroy what's behind it. Destroy all of it.

Edward's avatar

“Genocide is the next stage in what the anthropologist, Arjun Appadurai, calls “a vast worldwide Malthusian correction” that is “geared to preparing the world for the winners of globalization, minus the inconvenient noise of its losers.”

The funding and arming of Israel by the United States and European nations, as it carries out genocide, has effectively imploded the post-World War II international legal order. It no longer has credibility. The West can no longer lecture anyone about democracy, human rights or the supposed virtues of Western civilization. The ruse, that somehow we as a nation promote democracy, equality and human rights, is finished.

“At the same time that Gaza induces vertigo, a feeling of chaos and emptiness, it becomes for countless powerless people the essential condition of political and ethical consciousness in the twenty-first century — just as the First World War was for a generation in the West,” Pankaj Mishra writes.”

Chris Hedges in https://substack.com/home/post/p-192366597

Lora's avatar

Brilliantly said. I am here because I literally was telling another substack member in a private message how I am at a place where I am even crying in the shower. I am crying now writing this. She sent me this link. Thanks Julie.

Kathy's avatar

Take care of yourself Loras 🫂

Julie B 🇨🇦's avatar

It seems we’re all having trouble figuring out what this insanity means. Maybe I’m trying to rationalize something that isn’t rational and never could be.

Kathy's avatar

This is probably it Julie. Nothing about all this can be rationalized. This isn't normal.

Lora's avatar

Hey Julie! I am not religious but I consider myself to be a very spiritual human being. I am trying very hard to find things I can do, big and small, to feed compassion and empathy.

I also try to punch evil in the effing throat when it crosses my path. Lol 😂

My mindset right now with to this absolute existential horror show …. what keeps me going and not giving up ….. is my hope that as individuals… everyone simply does what they can each waking minute …. to speak up and practice ….. being A GOOD HUMAN BEING.

That does not equal being weak or passive.

Every hero story … has a battle scene. 😉😉😉

Motaz Ibrahim's avatar

You captured what we all are feeling and what the aim of the perpetrators is. Once they familiarize the world with a children genocide they can do whatever they will to the rest of us. Gaza is our Alamo if we allow it to fall our collective humanity falls. They won't win not after they got exposed for the vile creatures they are and not after the price still being paid. I agree with Julie though, you need to shield yourself and take a breather, most people can't force themselves to witness what you are forcing yourself to witness. I know I can't. You won't be abandoning them, just a warrior's rest every now and then so you can continue the fight.

Kathy's avatar

Yes. Gaza really is the world’s Alamo, and I wish more people understood that Motaz. But they don’t — because if they did, Gaza wouldn’t be in ruins like this.

I just hope the ones drifting toward that cliff wake up before they go over.

I’m alright, Motaz. Thank you for checking in. Whatever I’m feeling isn’t even a fraction of what Gaza is living through. ❤️

grakciel's avatar

That is exactly what the zio-epstein genocidal want: to zombiefied Humans. We must unite and organize better, and Protect our leaders at all cost (a zio strategy is to unalive them as few are made of steal to be leaders). And, whether we like it or not, the only way to FREE ourselves globally from such monsters is by Force. Our Freedom, if we want it, won't fall from the sky; it's a fact.

jef's avatar

internal discord, cognitive dissonance is my ongoing state of being - an unrelenting undercurrent of wtf-ness

jef's avatar

thanks for the kindness, hug back

Berger's avatar

“Human beings are members of a whole

In creation of one essence and soul

If one member is afflicted with pain

Other members uneasy will remain

If you have no sympathy for human pain

The name of human you cannot retain”

Saadi, a persian poet of 13 th century

Each of your words Kathy I feel them from the bottom of my heart. I force myself to look at every video of the dead and suffering child in Gaza and I weep as if it was my child or grand child . I don’t believe in god but now I pray for this suffering to stop.😭

Kathy's avatar

I hear you, Berger. Bearing witness is the least we can do to make sure Palestinians aren’t pushed into silence again like they were for almost 78 years.

If the world had really seen them — really paid attention — maybe this suffering wouldn’t still be happening today.

Berger's avatar

78 years ago humanity was just realizing the holocaust and extermination of 6 million Jews. the feeling of global guilt it generated in western countries still endures in countries like Germany which is an ally of Israel today. At the same time US was considered as the power that put an end to the war (even though they used the Hiroshima Nagasaki bombs killing 200 000 without hesitating). They were celebrated as liberators. If the creation of Israel was so quickly greeted it was also because the antisemitic Europe was happy to get rid of the Jews. All the imperialistic countries to begin with the UK were racist, colonizers and they had exactly the same view of the Arabs the Zionist have today. 78 years ago US was a segregated country. All of the colonialist countries committed genocidal behavior toward the indigenous populations they ruled over. We didn’t know, we didn’t see and we didn’t have the awareness and the political conscious we have today. We were totally alienated until the 60’s (for me it was the French revolution of 1968, far left Marxism, Feminism, the Frankfort School). Internet has united those who composed the best part of humanity (the majority). The other part is still operating behind the close curtains of sects, secret societies ( Epstein, CIA, billionaire’s clubs etc…) intoxicating us with religious ideologies and other methods of alienation (Hollywood) generating the hatred of Indians, Arabs, Islam, “oriental” asians etc … The genocide in Gaza is the first historical massacre that is given us to see and to feel. It will destroy us individually as you said rightly by normalizing the crimes of Israel or it will unit us helping each other to over throw all the corrupted false democracies we have so we can build a better world.

Aamir Razak's avatar

Profoundly written thank you Kathy. Now, more than ever, it is important to continue to empathize and not become numbed to the constant atrocities, because moving towards apathy and indifference is harmful in the end, to our own selves and to our roles as part of the larger human community

Manuela Stocco's avatar

Thanks to share these condiderations and deep emotions. Me too from the bottom of my heart are daily thoughts in this world where the light seems quite difficult to find

Boris Petrov's avatar

US bipartisan Gaza genocide changed US

Joseph Gilbert's avatar

Moral awareness must reside in the mind not only in the gut. The mind can remedy it: the gut is fragile. Do not destroy yourself so you can be aware of this mass murder in Gaza and wherever. Be motivated to act by your gracious mind and have reverence for your body. We need a new culture, a culture of love. Listen to Tracy Chapman’s song, “New Beginning” on her album by the same name.