#it's really hard to watch so many 'activists' talk over Palestinians and speak for them without representing them #this is what elevating voices looks like

It's agonizing!!

The screenshots above are his pinned tweet. Here's the link for anyone who needs alt text or wants to read more of what he has to say:

He left Gaza when he was 10, and has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade iirc. So his politics tend to be a little more conservative, in a way, than activists who have lived under Hamas's rule. Like Hamza Howidy, who just left Gaza last August and is an amazing superstar.

I'm so proud of him and his fellow activists for posting these pictures.

He's published essays about his experiences, but it's seemed like he was avoiding giving any names of other people involved - except for the one Hamas killed. And he's talked about still getting anonymous threats for speaking out against Hamas online, even months after he'd left the country.

(Before he left, it would only take 3-4 hours after a post for Hamas members to show up at his door.)

"That’s me in the green striped top, with the naughty smile, sitting next to my father and all my brothers. Those were happier, simpler times – both for me, a sweet, mischievous five-year-old without a care in the world, but also for Gaza.

"Though Israel was occupying the territory, with all the hardship and restrictions that entailed, Hamas had not yet come to power, which is when the real misery started – all the grief and agony and destruction they brought with them.

"Today, I’m 27. It’s my second birthday as an asylum seeker in Germany, my second birthday without my family and the friends I grew up with. I’m grateful for my new home and for all the new people I’ve met, but I long for my old home and my loved ones – especially on days like today.

"I recognize though that I’m one of the lucky ones. I have childhood friends who didn’t live to see their 27th birthday, whose lives were tragically cut short by this horrific war.

"I was never one of those kids who made a wish on their birthday. But today I’m going to change that. I wish that this war ends soon. That the hostages are freed. That Hamas’s brutal rule is ended. That the blockade is lifted. That Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank get their freedom; our own democratic state in which to determine the path of our lives.

"It’s a wish, but I don’t believe it’s wishful. It’s definitely not too much to ask."

Well, my birthday was the week before that, and I wish that people actually supported Palestinians enough to center and platform them.

For the Western "pro-Palestinian" movement to shape itself around boosting the work of peace and human rights activists in and from Palestine.

I wish that people cared as much about Palestinians killed by Hamas, and those who have risked their lives to fight Hamas, as about Palestinians killed by Israel.

Look, if you're having a bad day, here's a 6,000 year old pig-shaped pottery pot.

My day's been fine can I still have the pig pot?

Have a row of them

Samantha: do the people know about Ampersand Island?

me: ... no.....

this is Ampersand Island. every time I come across a beautiful, interesting, or unusual ampersand in my archival travels I take a screenshot and place it neatly in this little pile on my desktop

who was the guy who said every indie game is named either "empoisoned" or "swumbles big jumble" . i swear this is a real thing someone said

gonna start sorting my steam library like this

my dad thinks the concept of shipping is hilarious. my parents are cool, they know about my online presence, it's fine. dad doesn't scroll my blog or anything, though--he's usually too busy watching dubiously homoerotic pro wrestling clips or playing valheim--so his idea of shipping culture is bizarre

damn near every time I mention im working on a fic or piece of fanart, he gasps in hopeful anticipation and asks "tamatoa and heihei?!" and he always acts bitterly disappointed

no, dad. i'm not writing or drawing anything where a 50 foot crab and a literal chicken have any kind of relationship at all. you've been asking me to make this ship happen for almost nine years now and the answer has always been no. it's a running gag, of course, but--why would you even think of that?! what kind of shit do you think happens on ao3?!

I have decided to make my dad's vision a reality

behold

happy holidays. My dad is threatening to print this on a shirt

Op did he like it or did he love it

he says he's gonna wear it to work

Naomi Salfati (Israeli, 1984), Short prayers in blue, 2023. Oil and Acrylic on canvas, 2 x 4 in.

i get so angry over the fact that if jews even want to talk about the colonization and destruction of our native land and the historical revisionism and racist propaganda around it we still have to be as kind and egalitarian as possible. we have to sit by while people universalize every terrible thing that’s happened to us. we have to watch them steal our culture, our names, our stories, our mythology. we get tone policed for even caring that several of us got killed. we’re not even allowed to feel the slightest bit of anger or grief over what we’ve been through. over and over again. we have to be kind and watch our tone and make sure people know we’re the Good Ones. and even then. even fucking then they fucking hate us. we can never have the chance to focus on our grief and our grief alone. they make us so lonely and then punish us for being alone. it’s so brutal and then they wonder why we don’t want to assimilate into a society that is actively hostile towards us. the truth is i DO feel anger and resentment towards every government, every empire, every mob, every person who decides that we are undeserving of humanity. every person who tries to take our voice. i get so angry. and then at the end of the day. i still feel sad. i still feel sad for every human in the world. but i have to focus on my people because nobody else focuses on us. i choose to carry the memories of every jew before me in my body as a part of me. they will never destroy us because we keep our ancestors alive through memory. and we will continue to do so. our revenge will be continuing to live, love, sing, dance, learn, create. just as our ancestors did before us. עם ישראל חי

repatriating the artifacts in the british museum except i give them to whichever country has historically been the greatest enemy of the country of origin. there's not enough hate in the world

Robbing the British Museum and then just giving everything back to the British is crazy

Hate that I have to keep saying this but "spiritually Israeli" is in fact antisemitic and is in fact right wing antisemitism rewrapped by leftists.

Israeli culture is made up of jewish culture, which includes the history of diaspora jews living in other countries before moving back to israel.

The idea that Israeli culture is devoid of any roots or substance calls jewish culture and Judaism rootless and lacking any real substance and denies the fact that when you live in one country and then move to another country, you bring the culture you grew up with you to the other country and moving doesn't suddenly erase what you or your family grew up with.

This is literally rootless cosmopolitan rewrapped with a leftist bow. In the USSR, jews were labeled as rootless cosmopolitans. That we had no real ties to anywhere. That we were forever wandering jews who were more loyal to jewish interest than the countries we lived in so we never were part of our host country's culture.

Hmmm going with the hamas metaphor so at which point are white tankies justified in raping random men and women as revenge for what happened to unrelated brown people? Cause that’s the amount of priveledge hamas members hold over the rest if the gazan populace

CEO of Epic Games casually says that every AI has instances of creating CSAM and deepfake revenge porn content as if that somehow excuses anything.

Tim Sweeney has never been a good person, but this is an impressive low, even for him.

If you're still playing Fortnite, might be a good time to rethink that...

Can’t believe the guy who heads the company who makes Fortnite, the predatory game for children, would be in support of AI that creates predatory images of children.

I wasn't ever under the impression that leftists can't be antisemitic or whatever. But it wasn't always so acceptable the way it is now. It was expected that people would correct misinformation and call out nazi conspiracy shit.

And I'm not a jew but the culture change has been a mind fuck.

Since when was it ever okay to compare Jews to the people that literally did a genocide against them?? Or to act like all Israelis unilaterally support the government they live under? Or to laugh about Jews in America who are worried about antisemitism?

You can say "antizionism isn't antisemitism" all you want. But it really doesn't mean shit when you spend more energy condemning random Jews on social media as "zionists" than you do republican senators.

I've seen people who claim to be left wing sharing stone toss comics, for fucks sake.

I’m not Jewish either. But I am 49. The window of what’s acceptable in leftist spaces to say about Jewish people has shifted noticeably over the past few decades. And not in a good way.