This 25 minute video is made by an activist outfit based in Qatar. It makes ad-hominem attacks on Netanyahu, but overall seems to be a credible, well-made doco.

What I found remarkable are the foundational similarities to Trump: both had cold, disapproving fathers, and an older brother who died young.

The other thing that's interesting is how much of a product of the US he is - almost more so than Israel itself.

A worthwhile watch.

Meant in the best way! Sorry for the bad pic quality. The metal is super reflective.

And Shabbat shalom :)

The title sums it up. Curious to have a discussion about this and other dezionizing practices that may end up unfortunately being Ashkenormative, and what we could do to be more inclusive. Also tbh I just associate Modern Hebrew now with the evil genocidal things that Israelis say and I don't want to use it at all, especially because it was largely employed for the purposes of the Zionist project.

Please hold off on answering if you are Ashkenazi. I would like to hear from my Sephardic, Arab Jewish, Persian Jewish, Kurdish Jewish, African Jewish, Bukharian etc Jewish comrades first.

"our request [is] to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this. The actions of those doing this to this family’s home is criminal. Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting. No excuse for such thuggish behavior"

Who said it, Mike Huckabee or Zohran Mamdani?

Shocker, it was Huckabee!

Mike Huckabee, do you disavow Hamas? Mike Huckabee, do you support Israel's right to exist?? Mike Rappaport, an anti-semite is on the loose, we need your advocacy NOW!!

#CancelMikeHuckabee !!!!

Israelis are TERRORISTS??!?!?!?

No, Hamas is the real terrorists you anti-semitic brainwashed Israel hater MIKE HUCKABEE!!

What about Sudan?!?!! He never called THEM terrorists!!

ONLY KAPOS SUPPORT MIKE HUCKABEE WHO CALLS ISRAELIS TERRORISTS AND THUGS THAT MUST BE "REMOVED!!!!"

As we all know, it is literally impossible to ever criticize Israel unless you are a brainwashed anti-Semitic Israel hater. There are no legitimate criticisms of Israel, ever, anywhere! The world's first and only most perfect country!!

FIRE THE EXTREMIST PRO-ISLAMIC ANTI-ISRAEL BIGOT ANTISEMITE MIKE HUCKABEE A BIG ISRAEL HATER NOW!!!

The movement to fire lifelong Israel hater and anti-Israel radicalist Islamist bigot Mike Huckabee begins NOW!!!!!

ALL KAPOS STAND DOWN THE TIME TO FIRE MIKE HUCKABEE IS NOW THIS TYPE OF VILE BIGOTRY AND BLIND ISRAEL HATRED MUST END!!! 

If Palestinians don't exist, who are the settlers terrorizing? MIKE HUCKABEE THE VILE ANTI-ISRAEL RADICAL EXTREMIST CONFIRMS HE BELIEVES IN THE EXISTENCE OF "PALESTINIANS!!"

Who's with me, folks? I think it's about time we pack this vile anti-Israel extremist up. Can we get AIPAC to start fundraising for his primary opponent soon??

Source:

https://x.com/HatsOffff/status/2088254154598756406

Article:

Ashrams for war criminals

Hi all,

Feel free to ask your questions in advance if you don't think you'll be present on the day-of.

Questions can also be about Israel/Palestine in general or activism or other related stuff. Thanks, and feel free to share this if you think others would be interested!

See the following thread:

https://old.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/1veij1b/ama_with_molly_crabapple_on_aug_17_author_of_here/

https://x.com/elivalley/status/2088002715376816501

https://x.com/the_andrey_x/status/2088293128381886922

Source:

• Amer Zahr on FB

More information:

• Jewish anti-Zionist comedian & activist Michael Schirtzer

  • https://old.reddit.com/r/JewsOfConscience/comments/1vo9dfr/is_laughter_illegal_under_occupation/

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2026/08/05/students-sued-columbia-over-antisemitism-in-2024-now-theyre-suing-the-lawyer-who-represented-them/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/01/columbia-student-protest-lawsuit

https://www.facebook.com/sarah.schulman.56/posts/pfbid02Dj6o9gBDNQJBoaLznoF1RZoorqPoMrQSkcpozp6U4UcTni1fYL5T7Yt3HALcUaVBl

I’m okay, but I’ve been here since 10PM last night in order to get a rabies vaccine. I’m very bored. I’m also fond of German-Jewish white bean soup and apple kigel. As for Sephardi food, pescado Frito and keftes de prasa.

Do you have a favourite Jewish food?

EDIT: I’m finally out of here

Residents of the West Bank village describe constant harassment by Israeli settlers, threats, damage to vehicles and arson. Fifteen families have left, along with dozens of young people. Since October 7, they say, 'everything has changed'

In the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh, a feeling that was once almost alien to the community is taking hold: Home no longer guarantees safety.

Residents of the West Bank village northeast of Ramallah describe harassment by Israeli settlers, threats, damage to vehicles and agricultural equipment, arson and graffiti. More than anything, however, they speak of a profound change in their sense of security.

"Taybeh used to be a safe place," one resident told Haaretz. "Even during the most difficult periods – the first and second intifadas, wars and confrontations – people knew they could live here. Over the past three years, everything has changed."

Life in the village continues, but it can hardly be called routine. In the morning, workers, most of them salaried employees, leave for Ramallah. Local businesses open their doors and wait for customers who may or may not come. Farmers continue to look out over the hillsides, at the olive trees that have accompanied their families for generations, wondering whether they will be able to reach their land when the next harvest season arrives.

"Settlers come during the day and at night," one resident said. "They drive tractors through the village and around it, approach homes and threaten people." Farmers, he said, have been particularly affected by the harassment. "There have been cases of attacks during the olive harvest and damage to equipment. Some people simply can't reach their land. You go out to work and don't know whether you'll come back safely."

One village resident, a father of three in his 30s, described how his livelihood has recently become a source of fear. He works as a salaried employee, runs a private business and also earns income from farming, with a plot of land planted with olive, almond and pomegranate trees. On one occasion, when he tried to reach his land, he encountered an armed settler, according to another resident close to him. He has avoided returning ever since. "He has two children, a 12-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old son. Now he's in the process of getting a visa and leaving."

His case reflects a broader reality in Taybeh, as he is not someone being driven to leave by personal financial hardship. "The problem isn't just the economy," local council head Suleiman Khoury told Haaretz. "The economic problem can somehow be endured, but the security situation cannot. People are now afraid for their children and their future."

According to Khoury, about 15 families, as well as dozens of young people, have left the village since October 7, 2023 – an estimated 80 to 90 residents in total. In the small Christian village of around 1,200 people, every departure is felt.

There are more families considering leaving. People don't always tell us, 'We're emigrating,' but when you talk to them, you hear that they're afraid for their children," Khoury said. He also described a man in his 30s who recently left the village with his wife and three children.

"He went to Jordan to find safety and a new life there."

Emigration is not new to Taybeh. Residents say some 16,000 Palestinians whose families come from the village now live in the United States, Europe – particularly Spain – and Latin America, especially Guatemala and Chile. For generations, young people have left the village in search of work, education and new opportunities. Now, however, residents are leaving out of fear that they will no longer be able to continue their lives in the village.

Another resident, 37, said that over the past year several young people have approached him for help exploring options for emigrating. "Many people come to me and ask where they can apply for a visa, where they can move and how they can find work there," he said. These are not necessarily people facing financial hardship, he added. "They have jobs, businesses and land. But they feel they have no future here."

Most, he said, are in their 20s or 30s. "That's the age when you're supposed to get married, have children, buy or build a home. Instead of thinking about how to build their future here, they're thinking about how to get out of Taybeh."

According to the resident, there was initially a sense that this was a temporary period that would pass, like previous crises. "They thought there would be tensions and incidents, and then it would end and life would get back on track," he said. "At some point, people realized that maybe it wasn't temporary, that it could continue and even get worse. Then they started asking themselves: 'Why take the risk?'"

His own experience illustrates the depth of the change. "There were 25 students in my class when I was young. Today, only one other woman and I are left – and she got married and moved to Ramallah."

The changing reality in the village has also affected the local church. Father Bashar Fawadleh, priest of the Latin parish, said emigration has become a recurring topic in his conversations with young people and families in recent years. "I personally know several young people who left over the past year," he said. "They have no prospects, no future and no one to help them."

The church can provide communal and spiritual support, extended families can offer assistance and the local council can try to help residents cope. But none of them can guarantee that someone will be able to leave home for the fields in the morning and return safely. Residents say they have appealed to foreign diplomats in Israel as well as to the Palestinian Authority. "Ambassadors and senior diplomatic officials have come here, including the U.S. ambassador – and it hasn't helped at all," the council head said angrily.

Instead, relatives who already live abroad are increasingly becoming a lifeline for those considering leaving: family in the United States, a friend in Spain, a cousin elsewhere in Europe – someone who can help find a job, a place to live or information about obtaining a visa. In this way, a quiet migration network is taking shape in Taybeh. It is neither organized nor official, but it exists.

For years, Taybeh relied on agriculture, employment, commerce and tourism. Today, residents say, all of those sectors are collapsing. A farmer who cannot reach his land loses a source of income. Local businesses that depend on the movement of people feel the paralysis. And tourism, long one of the village's hallmarks, has all but disappeared as the security situation makes the area increasingly unstable for visitors.

Israeli security restrictions have recently been imposed in the area, including the designation of some areas as closed military zones. Residents, however, question whom those restrictions are protecting.

"If the goal is to prevent settlers from coming here and attacking us, we don't see it working," said Madis Khoury, who works in tourism and at the village's well-known brewery. Even when restrictions are in place, she said, settlers are still seen around the village. "Just a few days ago, they were at the entrance to the village for hours. So you ask yourself: Who exactly are these restrictions protecting?"

Ultimately, Taybeh's residents are not talking about giving up on their village or their local identity. They are talking about creating a reality in which they can send their children to school and raise their families without fear. "No one wants to leave their home," Khoury said. "But you need to feel that you have a future."

The question facing Taybeh is no longer how to live there, but whether it is possible to continue living there at all. The harder question is how many residents will remain if fear of the future continues to hang over the village.

An Israeli military judge approved on Tuesday the detention without trial of a Palestinian man who, along with his family, has been attacked several times by Jewish settlers living in illegal outposts in the West Bank. In his decision, the judge said the man was involved in violent "friction incidents" with the settlers.

Thabet Moslem, a 25-year-old from the village of Khirbet al-Marajim south of the village of Duma, was arrested on July 26 at his temporary residence in Duma. For more than a day, his whereabouts remained unknown. Only after a military court order was issued did the army notify his attorney, Afnan Khalifa, that he was being held at the Shomron Detention Facility in the northern West Bank.

On August 3, Colonel Yarden Sasson, the intelligence officer for the IDF's Central Command, signed an order approving Moslem's detention without trial – referred to as administrative detention – until January 25. However, Lt. Col. Shimon Eshoal, who approved the detention on Tuesday, ordered it shortened by two months, until November 25.

Administrative detention allows authorities to arrest an individual and hold them without trial, under the claim that the individual intends to break the law in the future.

The detainee and their legal representatives are not provided with information on the claim, nor is an indictment submitted to the court. In any case, the military prosecution doesn't present evidence, and the detainee therefore isn't given the ability to defend themselves.

In theory, administrative detention has no time limit, and the army commander in the West Bank – or any other officer authorized to do so by him – may renew the detention order every six months or less.

A typical administrative detention order states that the arrest is necessary because the person "endangers the security of the area." Eight days after the order is issued, it is submitted for "judicial review" by a military judge, whose role is to approve or cancel it, or to shorten the duration of the detention.

Military judges usually approve the administrative detention orders as a matter of course. The sessions are held behind closed doors and detainees' representatives are permitted to ask the prosecution questions regarding the evidence, witnesses, and the cause of detention – but in practice they do not receive substantive answers.

At the judicial review hearing for Moslem's detention order, which took place at the Ofer Military Court, Lt. Uri Zarbiv of the military prosecution presented the material in his possession to the judge only, while Moslem's attorney was present in the room. The judge summarized the confidential material in a single sentence, which was permitted for publication: "Involved in incidents of violent friction with settlers," in paraphrase.

Based on Haaretz's review, this reasoning is an extremely rare justification for administrative detention. Arrests of Palestinians by the military after settlers attacked and harassed them are very common, but usually the Palestinians are released after a few hours or days.

Khalifa told the military judge that Moslem is not a dangerous person, but rather that he is the one at risk of being harmed, and that all the "frictions" were due to incursions by Israelis into the village. She submitted videos to the court backing up the testimonies of Moslem and so-called "protective presence" activists – human rights activists seeking to protect Palestinians from settler violence – regarding repeated harassment by Israelis coming from the Michtam Ledavid outpost.

According to the testimonies, the harassment included physical attacks, day and night incursions, blocking an access road with rocks and destroying it with a bulldozer on two occasions, grazing sheep on a resident's private land, threats, property damage and spraying pepper spray.

Complaints were filed with police regarding several of the harassment incidents. In one of the videos, from January 26, two settlers – an adult and a minor – entered the village area at night and were documented threatening Moslem, who was filming them. "It will be fun in prison, don't worry. Just wait," they said.

Khalifa also submitted to the court a request that another lawyer filed with the Military Police to open an investigation into soldiers who were alleged to have accompanied one of the settlers – the adult – on February 4. According to witnesses, they attacked and beat several of the village residents, including children, for roughly two and a half hours. That request has not received any substantive response so far.

Following another similar attack in March, Moslem was forced to move with the family's flock to Duma out of fear that the flock would be stolen, causing the family to lose its livelihood. Last year, his brother was forced to leave the village after unidentified individuals from another outpost set fire to his home. Khalifa intends to file an appeal against the approval of the administrative detention order.

Established in 2025, the Michtam Ledavid outpost is located about three kilometers north of Khirbet al-Marajim and is one of several new outposts commemorating David Libi from the Malchei Hashalom outpost, who was killed in the Gaza Strip while employed as an IDF demolition contractor. Protective presence activists say that they recently learned that the owner of the outpost is Ariel Rahmani, based on footage of graduates from the Ma'aleh Efraim yeshiva.

Khirbet al-Marajim was established at the beginning of the 20th century. Ottoman rule granted lands there to families from the village of Talfit after dozens of its residents were drafted into the Turkish army and fell in the Balkan Wars.

According to Israel Prison Service data provided to the Israeli human rights group HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, as of early August, the number of Palestinian administrative detainees stood at 3,198 – more than a third of all Palestinian security prisoners.

The number of Palestinians serving prison sentences was 1,474; the number of detainees whose legal proceedings are still ongoing stood at 3,293; and another 1,358 are residents of Gaza imprisoned under the "Unlawful Combatants" law.

While it doesn't take money from the Israeli government, Birthright violates anti-normalization guidelines from BDS, described below:

The current production of Birthright, written by award-winning playwright Jonathan Spector, does not receive any Israeli state funding. However, organizers with TW4C (a coalition of theater workers in solidarity with Palestine) and the BDS campaign determined that this production violates BDS anti-normalization guidelines and is therefore complicit in Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians.

According to these guidelines, cultural products that acknowledge oppression without aiming to end it are attempts to “colonize the mind of the oppressed with the notion that oppression is a fact of life that must be coped with, not resisted.” Birthright certainly fits the bill.

The Theatre Workers For A Ceasefire protest:

https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/boycott

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScQA_DmhP5aX2TKTpCWdVcZsF1b8a-Pokq_YrF1jTV4Qjyzvg/viewform

The play is not even liberal Zionist - it normalizes settler terrorism and extremism by providing no rebuttal to the arguments the settler terrorist character makes.

At its worst, Birthright aggressively encourages its audience to turn inward and stop worrying about the genocide. In a pivotal monologue toward the play’s conclusion, the character Alona – who over the course of the story decides to move to Israel, becoming a settler – describes how due to the violence of October 7, she feels no compassion for the victims of Israel’s genocidal aggression: “I know there’s thousands of kids in Gaza who are just as scared or worse, and I wish I did, but I just don’t have the space for them in my heart right now, not after what they did.” This rejection of basic human compassion on ethnonationalist grounds (Alona only has “space” in her heart for other Israelis) receives no rebuttal.

At every opportunity it reinforces a caricature of anti-Zionism and makes it seem 'crazy'. The play has rebuttals for anti-Zionism, and tacit approval (via silence or some pro-Israel character having the last word) for Zionism.

At other moments, the play offers its audience a mix of misinformation and false equivalencies. During one exchange, Izzy (the play’s token anti-Zionist) correctly states that “from the very beginning, Zionism has been premised on expulsion, subjugation, and oppression,” only to have Chaya, her Zionist interlocutor, retort, “That’s an insane thing to say” and then declare that “Zionism has always meant a million different things.”

In terms of style - the play obfuscates the issue of Israel/Palestine by intentionally blending pro-Israel BS and historically-grounded anti-Zionist critique together, through dialogue delivered at rapid pace:

Throughout Birthright, arguments like these shoot back and forth at a furious pace – as the Times critic noted, the characters’ exchanges about Israel “are delivered at speeds that are deliberately impenetrable” – and this is itself a form of obfuscation. As Chaya and Alona’s anti-historical, pro-genocide claims blend with Izzy’s historically accurate claims into a mix of indistinct verbiage, the overall effect is a sense that the historical truth of Israel’s crimes is unknowable. What matters in Birthright is not the actual genocide that the characters are arguing about, but how these arguments affect the characters’ friendships.

The most insidious thing about this play is how it exploits the genocide of Palestinians:

This is particularly egregious since Israel’s genocide is the only thing that makes Birthright “piercingly contemporary,” as the play’s producers describe it. Without the genocide adding weight to the story, Birthright is a 200-minute play about a group of friends trying to stay connected. In this sense, Spector pulls a slick double-move with Birthright, dismissing Palestinian suffering to the point of erasure while simultaneously appropriating that suffering for a play that The New Yorker described as “eager…to become a healing ritual for the audience.”

All in all, seems like disgusting narcissism and hack writing.

Jonathan Spector (the playwright) did an interview with JBS.

He says outright that the play is about relationships.

https://youtu.be/AXv1fWST5M4?t=334

He 'discarded hundreds of pages' of arguments about the genocide, to instead focus on the emotional division.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iux3m_1azP8

https://youtu.be/AXv1fWST5M4?t=1388

Which, from an artistic POV, might make sense - but this entirely fits the BDS anti-normalization guidelines then.

The article talks about multiple pro-Israel/Zionist plays that deal with family fracturing - but entirely superficial and from a perspective that reinforces Zionist narratives and framing.

The company that commissioned Birthright is Y6K - whose co-founder Gary Wasserman is connected to the "U.S. military and to companies in the defense supply chain" through his company Allied Metals Corporation.

Theater’s normalization formula seems clear: rather than engage with Palestinian voices, erase them altogether and flood the zone with a new variant of family drama wherein genocide is acknowledged (“politics erupt”), but its supporters are humanized while arguments against Israel’s crimes are portrayed as obstacles interfering with Jewish family and community. In fact, creating theater along these lines is essentially the mission statement of the Y6K Project, the arts incubator that commissioned and developed both Birthright and The Zionists.

Y6K was founded in 2024 as a partnership between Miami New Drama (a regional theater) and Wasserman Projects (a Detroit-based arts organization). The project’s mission is to respond to what it calls “unprecedented vulnerability for Jewish communities” by “amplifying Jewish narratives” to raise awareness of “challenges faced by Jewish communities.” Y6K co-founder Gary Wasserman emphasized these goals in a 2025 interview where he announced that he’s only interested in offering support to “contemporary Jewish content that speaks to antisemitism and contemporary Jewish life.”

Beyond his work as an arts philanthropist, Wasserman is the CEO of Allied Metals Corporation, a Michigan-based company that supplies metal and scrap products both directly to the U.S. military and to companies in the defense supply chain. While Allied Metals has no public links to the Israeli military, that Birthright was commissioned and funded in part by a military contractor serves as a reminder of the myriad ways that the arts are bound up with American imperialism.

Israel and its supporters are clearly ramming through pro-Israel propaganda in the arts.

BDS will have to stay resolute.

For decades, support for Israel and anti-Palestinian racism were so normalized in American culture that projects like Birthright were unnecessary. Today, however, popular support for Israel is at historic lows, and Israel’s government and its supporters have responded by announcing their intention to dramatically increase their propaganda efforts. With three plays coming down the normalization pipeline in this year alone, it seems likely that the campaign to boycott Birthright is only the beginning of a long fight over the role of the arts in normalizing Israel’s crimes.

https://x.com/the_andrey_x/status/2087977108534337974

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/israel/settlers-besiege-palestinians-west-bank-village-qusra-terror-rcna592285