tikkun olam 🌱

Rightwing media: A writer was declined entry to a writer's festival because she openly celebrated the October 7 massacre, and is campaigning for people to "make Jews afriad again."

The second is an example of black and white thinking, which is actually less developed. It feels better though, to divide actions into "good" and "bad". It feels better to pretend the world is simple and uncomplicated and that people who are in charge never have to make hard decisions.

“Israel is illegitimate because it committed genocide.”

When confronted with the fact that Arab populations have grown, they pivot:

“Well, even if it’s not genocide, it’s apartheid.” Point out that Arab citizens have full voting rights and representation, and they switch again:

“Well, even if it’s not apartheid, Zionism is still colonialism.” Yet this is the opposite of colonialism. Colonialism is when a foreign empire rules from afar, while Zionism is a people returning to their ancestral homeland. At that point, the fallback becomes:

“Well, even if not, the very idea of a Jewish state is racist.” But that collapses too, since dozens of nations define themselves by ethnicity, culture, or religion, and no one denies them legitimacy.

Rom Braslavski watches the sunset.

Elkana Bohbot reunites with his child.

My coven is Claudia.

Referencing Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss

hamas have attempted to fatten the hostages over the last few days, despite israel's request not to do so as to prevent refeeding syndrome (which can be deadly)

none of the hostages require emergency care, but physical recovery might be very long for some of them

avinatan or was held completely alone (without any other hostages) the whole 2 years in captivity. due to his isolation, he knows very little of what happened since 7/10. he was kept in terrible conditions and was starved by his captors. he's very weak and thin, and lost 30-40% of his body weight.

elkana bohbot saw his family fight for him in protests and on the media when he was allowed to watch tv. he was held exclusively in tunnels for the whole two years, and lost his sense of time. most of the time he was in chains. one time, when he realized it's his wedding day, he begged his captors to let him wash himself as celebration, which they eventually relented to. he's suffering from stomach pains due to recent overfeeding, as well as pains in his arms, legs, and lower back

matan angrest underwent horrible torture in the first months of captivity, and was kept alone for a long time, and wasn't allowed to even relieve himself for days on end. he made up his mind to never surrender to his captors and the thought of his family kept him going. he's suffering from damaged sight, partial memory loss, flashbacks, and sometimes consciousness loss. his hand and fingers were injured and severely burnt, and were treated without anesthetics, which only worsened his situation.

evyatar david is very thin and weak. he was starved even after his famous "grave digging" video and underwent physical and psychological abuse, which was harder for him than the lack of food and water. he was overfed near his release, but realized what was happening and tried to ration his portions.

alon ohel suffers from shrapnel wounds in his torso, and headaches. his wounded eye is undergoing tests to see if his sight can be saved. there's a piano in his hospital room, and he's already played it. when it was announced that idf intended to recapture gaza city, hamas deliberately transferred alon into the city.

gali and ziv berman were disconnected from the outer world for long stretches of time. they were held separately, but in the same general area. they were often starved, but there were times when more food was given to them. some of their captors spoke hebrew with them (unlike the other hostages, who learned arabic in captivity).

ariel cunio was kept alone for two years, which resulted in much uncertainty for his wellbeing. david cunio was kept with eitan horn and nimrod cohen, in several tunnels (except for the short time he was allowed to stay with yarden bibas, per yarden's request, after the murders of his wife and kids). for a long time, david didn't know if his twin brother, eitan, survived 7/10 - the last text he got from eitan was "i'm burning" (his house was set aflame).

omri miran counted the days in captivity and the number of places he was held in (23), so he always knew what date it was. he was held both in tunnels and above ground. he would play cards with his captors and cooked for them - they loved his cooking. once when a deal fell through, his captors were pissed at hamas for not taking israel's offer.

maxim herkin lost 30kg off his weight and suffers from injuries and issues with his jaw.

Never in human history has a genocide ever ended with the aggressing party negotiating a peace deal and exchanging mass swathes of terrorists and criminals for civilian hostages, lol. EVER.

The whole thing is fucking obscene. And the longer this goes on, the quieter the pro-Palestinians are in the wake of this ceasefire, the more and more apparent it becomes. Go ahead and forget all about your vitriolic Judenhass over the last 2 years. We will never forget it.

Chag Sameach! Happy Simchat Torah!

What a joyous day to celebrate the endless cycle of the Torah. As we dance with the scrolls, we celebrate a story that never ends, a constant source of life and light.

Today especially, we are reminded of the incredible power of hope and the joy of a circle being made complete.

May our celebration be full of happiness and gratitude 🩵

This is an example of antisemitism. If I had been praising Israel this would still be antisemitic because it says Jews, all Jews. If you remove the free Palestine part of the comment it just says Jews love killing children. Not the Israeli government, not the IDF, all Jews.

You can and should criticize the Israeli government, they are committing atrocities. But this is not criticism towards the government, this is not even a post that has anything to do with Israel. Someone commented this on a post about Sukkot and Star Trek.

People are able to separate Russians from their government, Americans from theirs, they can separate Afghanistan from the Taliban. Why can’t people separate Israelis, and to an even larger extent, diaspora Jews from the Israeli government.

Had I been praising the actions of the IDF calling me out would be completely justified. Had I been calling for the end of Palestine it would be justified. I wasn’t and never would, but because I am Jewish I am seen as evil. That is antisemitism.

The thing is... we don't live in that world. In fact, we live in a world largely comprised of ethnostates. We live in a world where more than 80 countries, including Mr. Wilde's home country of the United Kingdom, have an official state religion. And yes, Mr. Wilde, we live in a world where Jews have spent 2,000 years having to live in countries built for other people, and the only reason more Jews aren't living in other peoples' countries today is that those other people decided kill or expel their Jewish populations.