This Might Be My Favorite Tiktok I Have Ever Seen. Absolute Gold Through And Through

Algae from the herbarium of Daniel Cady Eaton

You’d think this would be a bigger story, tbh.

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Bisan's recent post. I think it's important for you to read it. Tonight 03.12.23, journalists in gaza share their last messages. There are no words to describe the horrors unfolding in gaza right now.

I no longer have any hope of survival like I had at the beginning of this genocide, and I am certain that I will die in the next few weeks or maybe days. I have been sick with severe viral infection for days and cannot move from the mattress!

I suffer from nightmares that are so closely resemble reality that I no longer differentiate between reality and dream.

I live in a world other than the one I claimed to be building! I am a community activist who lived on the fantasy that the world was free and just, and I sought to bring rights not only to my people, but to many men and women in third world countries!

I was shocked that I was not from the third world! Indeed, we are the most humane and moral! Yes, because the world approves, supports, and finances the genocide we are being subjected to, legislates it, and gives reasons for for 58 days! While we are a people who have been living on occupied land for 75 years and are still searching for our rights and communicating our voice to the world!

My message to the world: You are not innocent of what is happening to us, you as governments or peoples that support Israel’s annihilation of my people. We will not forgive you, we will not forgive you, humanity will not forgive you, we will not forget, even if we die, the history will never forget .

A Message to friends: Thank you and the supporters around the world. You have been compassionate and very strong. We ask you not to lose hope, even if the world seems completely unfair and your efforts have not yet resulted in a ceasefire.

After getting over the initial shock and heartbreak of this tweet and this reply, it hit me that (and I don't know if this is a cultural thing here in the middle east or an Islamic one)

A child has to be named even if they're stillborn.

For a child to not be named, that means there's no one left to name them. They were killed along with their entire family.

I hoped I was wrong, but I checked the list of victims of Israeli attacks and found this:

Israel has ended 47 Palestinian bloodlines over the course of this genocide (or perhaps more), so you might think that this little detail isn't that important, but I don't think we should get used to cruelty of this proportion, no matter how consistently Israel commits it.

The number of victims isn't just a number. These are people with full lives and hopes and dreams.

It's enough of a disaster that these families were wiped out, but in murdering them, Israel didn't just deprive them of their lives, hopes, and dreams. It deprived them of even the dignity to name their children.

It continues to deprive the remaining Palestinians of their most basic human rights.

What did the Palestinians do to not deserve food or water or electricity?

What did their *newborns* do to not deserve lives or at the very least names?!

This is the most harrowing form of terrorism I can think of. The genocidal Israeli occupation is the most despicable terrorist organization the world has had the displeasure of knowing.

The whole world should be deeply ashamed that it's not only allowing such heinous war crimes to be committed, but in a lot of ways, it's enabling them.

I don't know how anyone can be neutral about this.

Stand with Palestine, stand against the occupation. Against genocide.

ربنا يتقبل الأطفال دول و أمهاتهم و عائلاتهم اللي الاحتلال قتلهم معاهم شهداء، و ينتقم من إسرائيل و أي حد بيمكّنهم أشد انتقام في الدنيا قبل الآخرة.

cursed with "want to watch a show and listen to music at the same time from the same device but my laptop is broken" disease

genuine actual question for you, my intention isn't to start drama with this ask.

what do you propose we as Americans do?

not voting for Biden will basically ensure Trump and the conservatives win the election, which will be MUCH MUCH worse for the global south, as well as America, as you said in your last post answering an ask.

what do we do to stop this from happening, because as Americans, our only options are Biden or whatever Republican runs this year, probably Trump.

i don't think trump will be "much worse" for the global south, and frankly anyone who says that conservatives will be worse for the global south hasn't been paying attention. maybe in 2020 i would've agreed, but this is what i've been telling you about the past three months. the world has changed. joe biden will never recover his standing in the middle east. no president has been worse for us than joe biden. so don't pretend you are concerned about the global south in general.

its okay to admit trump will be worse for local politics but let's be clear: if trump had overseen this genocide you would have been frothing at the mouth for him to go to the hague. and now you want to deny us the right to say biden is a war criminal who should be at the hague because you're scared of trump. that's okay! its okay to be scared of a worse option. but you can't ask us to lie to you about it, because that option is worse for you, not us.

you as americans should make sure biden knows his chances of re-election are getting worse the longer this genocide goes on and israel escapes justice. you should make sure he knows it's in his own best interest that israel faces the ICJ and that netanyahu, his government, and the leaders of the IDF face the ICC.

i don't know the best way to do that out of the dozens of things people are already doing in america every day—i know if everyone was polling like 18-29 voters, democrats would not be so quick to approve aid to israel and call a genocide trial at the hague 'meritless.' if more americans were openly saying they draw the line at voting for a war criminal regardless of trump (as most arab american and muslim american voters are), i think biden would call for a ceasefire pretty quick.

but what i do know is that stating 'vote blue no matter who' won't stop the genocide. it might not even save the election. there's quite a few key demographics who will be voting 3rd party now because they cannot stomach voting for biden or democrats anymore. these are not people who will be won over by 'trump is worse.' trump is worse for them before he's worse for you, so what does it mean about biden that people still won't vote for him despite it? again—it's your own bad luck he's the one who oversaw a genocide.

democrats believe by november people will have forgotten the genocide so they're letting it go on. they have openly stated this; that's how little they think of their constituents and of palestinians. when you say "as americans our only options are between trump and biden" you're letting me know you're not seeing the present but are fixated on the future. a genocide and an election are two separate events. you have plenty of options to stop the genocide right now, hundreds of thousands of people across america have been taking them daily, and none of them involve trump.

it's january. you are asking me how biden can win an election when you haven't stopped the genocide. there is a hospital being attacked in khan younes right now as we speak. as an american, your concern should not be the election. your concern should be the genocide.

many people think the election is a detriment for israel's plans and will eventually force biden to de-escalate. three months in, i have to disagree. biden is using his election as a bludgeon to continue the genocide. every "vote blue no matter who" post is a "genocide is fine!! keep going!" post. every campaign for joe biden right now is simply approval of genocide. it is impossible to avoid that. liberals who try to convince people to vote for a war criminal in an on-going genocide are complicit. its not our fault biden's campaign is synonymous with genocide, its his own.

it's in your own best interest not to make genocide a forgivable crime for a president. how he can possibly make up for it in time for the november, this i don't know. there are already some voters he's lost forever. but in order to campaign for biden, he should have at least stopped fucking killing kids. you can argue about the merits of trump vs biden when the election is here, but you can't make that argument until you actually stop the genocide.

"ohh what if my kid starts identifying as a CAT because of the trans agenda we have to prote—" well they've always done that. do you remember the psychological effects of h2o on young girls. of warrior cats on autistic children. i believed i was a demigod because of percy jackson. twilight came out and kids were telling their friends they were secretly vampires. this is just a thing kids do. worry less