This Or Lesbian Rhaenyra.

Extract from Refaat Alareer's course on English poetry in 2019:

"Of course we always fall into this trap of saying, 'she [Fadwa Tuqan] was arrested for just writing poetry!' We do this a lot, even us believers in literature. [We say] 'Why would Israel arrest somebody or put someone under house arrest, she only wrote a poem?' So we contradict ourselves sometimes; we believe in the power of literature changing lives, as a means of resistance, as a means of fighting back, and then at the end of the day, we say 'She just wrote a poem!' We shouldn't be saying that. Moshe Dayan, an Israeli general, said that 'The poems of Fadwa Tuqan are like facing 20 enemy fighters.' Wow. She didn't throw stones, she didn't shoot at the invading Israeli jeeps, she just wrote poetry. And I'm falling for that again—I said she just wrote poetry.

And the same thing happened to Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour. She wrote poetry, celebrating Palestinians' struggle, encouraging Palestinians to resist, not to give up, to fight back— She was put under house arrest, she was put into prison for years. And therefore, I end here, with a very significant point: Don't forget that Palestine was first and foremost occupied in Zionist literature and Zionist poetry.

When the Zionists thought of going back to Palestine, it wasn't like 'Oh, let's go to Palestine.' It took them years, over 50 years of thinking, of planning, politics, money and everything else. But literature played one of the most crucial roles here.

Palestine in Zionist Jewish literature was presented to Jewish people around the world... [as] Palestine is a land without a people for a people without a land. Palestine flows with milk and honey. There is no one there—so let's go. [but] there were people—there have always been people in Palestine. But this is an example of how poetry can be a very significant part of life." [13:05-14:40]

credits to @/protosemite on X for the transcription.

Prof Refaat Alareer was killed by an israeli airstrike that targeted his house 2 days ago.

death comes to me again, a girl by Dorianne Laux

it took the ocean, the greater opponent, to just hold me under and say, it’s really horrible. and sons have been losing their mothers for thousands and thousands of years, and they will continue to, and you’ve just been initiated into that awareness and into that reality. some illusion has been lifted. you’re in a realer version of the world now, and it’s painful. (—andrew garfield)

thinking about this poem by noor hindi today.

(donate to palestine here)

i do not pity israel. never have, and never will.

each night that gaza experiences is deadlier than the last, as idf soldiers record propaganda tiktoks, make rave parties and grwms and fit checks, gloat over having food and water, and film themselves deriving sadistic pleasure from torturing their hostages and victims and desecrating the dead.

Palestinians have to display their martyred before the camera for you to believe the atrocities that the zionist entity has subjected them to. they cannot even mourn in private. the apartheid entity murders them in cold blood, and you deliver the killing blow by doubting them.

babies whose families have been killed will never get to know their own name.

i can't reshare a tenth of the videos and photos that cross my timeline. i have seen more dead children in the past month than i have known death my entire life.

israeli settlers burn olive trees, bomb bakeries and fishing boats, shower white phosphorus and earthquake bombs on the captive civilians of gaza. you already know about the disastrous effects of white phosphorus, but earthquake bombs were last used during ww2 to wipe out entire cities.

how holy is the land that seeks to be built over the mass graves of thousands of children? is it holier than the miracle of a child being born in this hypocritical world?

all 11 universities in gaza have been bombed. academics should be agitating right now, especially those who call themselves "decolonial thinkers." destruction of universities is a sinisterly deliberate act to sabotage the Palestinians who will survive this great catastrophe.

the act of cleansing your hands before prayer is extremely important to muslims. no part of us can remotely comprehend the grief of the mother who refused to wash her hands from the blood of her children after losing them in a zionist airstrike over gaza. "I swear I won't wash them, I won't wash my hands, how else am I supposed to sleep near my kids."

it is only both moral and right when one side defends itself. the other side are the price of war, no better than insects and cattle and sheep left to die within the four walls of the slaughterhouse.

this situation should not be up for debate, but let me finish with one final thing : do your research about Palestine. HOWEVER. you do not need a degree in middle east studies to object to an ongoing genocide. if someone outwits you in a debate about historical details and every nuance of a subject, you were and will remain entirely correct in objecting to a genocide.

may those martyred rest in peace and be reunited again with their loved ones in heaven's eternal vastness.

DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT PALESTINE.

glory to Palestinian resistance. from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

Reposting from BreakThroughNews, 12/3/23:

“BREAKING: The Yemeni Armed Forces say that they struck two Israeli ships in the Red Sea, using missiles and drones. The US says one of its warships returned fire.

Yemen has pledged to block any Israeli ships from passing through the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea until the siege of Gaza ends.”