Saturday Update (2023-12-16)
Saturday Update (2023-12-16)
Free Palestine
ACTION ITEMS OF THE DAY
Choose one or more. Comment here or on Facebook if you did at least one item!
Find a protest to go to in the next week. The lists below don’t seem to be completely synced, so if you can’t find a protest near you in one list, try looking on the other.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (International)
USPCR (USA only)
Donate eSIMs to Gazans - eSIMs are the only reason that we have been able to stay in contact with folks on the ground in Gaza.
More information is available on Mirna Elhelbawi’s IG. Specific instructions are available on Google Drive in English, Spanish, Italian, and French, courtesty of Tav @tiptoptav on IG.
Post on social media about Samer Abu Daqqa, a journalist that was killed this week by the IOF. Make sure to add a call to action in your post. (I’d suggest including information about a protest near your city, or donating eSIMs.)
Shareable posts:
Twitter via Gaza Notifications
Instagram via Bisan Motaz
Facebook via AJ+
Do some self-care to prepare yourself for action in the coming week. If you need some ideas, then try this somatic tool by Micheline Maalouf.
Contents
Click on the link to jump directly to each story. Don’t forget to complete the action item of the day.
More humanitarian aid coming to Gaza thanks to your calls and emails
IOF shoots Israeli hostages being held by Hamas after mistaking them for Palestinians
Biden Administration increases pressure on Netanyahu to end the “large-scale” ground “war” in Gaza
Israel says it will open new aid crossing into Gaza Strip
Israel will be allowing aid to cross through the Kerem Shalom crossing in addition to the Rafa crossing.
Why you should care
Al Jazeera had previously reported that Israel had recently opened the Kerem Shalom crossing for screening trucks containing humanitarian aid, but the trucks were then required to return to Rafa to actually cross into Gaza. This meant that the Rafa crossing was still the bottleneck for humanitarian trucks to enter Gaza.
This only occurred because the Biden Administration has been putting pressure on Netanyahu to allow trucks to enter through Kerem Shalom—and the only reason his administration cared is because of calls and letters from people like you.
I it’s highly unlikely that this will increase the aid going into Gaza enough that it will fix the supply issues facing Palestinians in Gaza, but it’s movement in the right direction, and it will help.
How you can use this information
In the last week we’ve faced some disappointing setbacks in our fight to free Palestine. It’s also been more than two months since Israel launched this particular aggression against Palestinians. People are discouraged and starting to get burnt out. It’s important we recognize our progress towards Palestinian freedom, no matter how small. Take this as encouragement that we are making a difference, and let this encouragement give you fuel to keep fighting.
Further reading
Read: Israel says it will open new aid crossing into Gaza Strip, The Guardian, 2023-12-15
Pull quote:
The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, previously used for goods and aid deliveries, would reopen to process humanitarian supplies, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday.
Israel’s cabinet had “approved a temporary measure of unloading the trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing” to increase the amount of aid getting into the territory, the statement said. “The cabinet’s decision determines that only humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt will be transferred into the Gaza Strip this way,” it added.
IOF kills 3 Israeli hostages in Gaza after “mistakenly identifying them as a threat”
IOF mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages in eastern Gaza City on Friday. According to Haaretz, an Israeli news outlet, the hostages were “mistakenly identified as enemy.” The three were holding a white flag when a soldier open fired on two of the hostages, killing them. The third hostage escaped. As the IOF approached the building in which the survivor was hiding, they heard shouts in Hebrew asking for help. The soldiers entered and killed the hostage. (Source: Haaretz)
Why you should care
Netanyahu’s administration is already under a huge amount of pressure by Jewish Israelis who feel that his strategy in Gaza is endangering the Israeli hostages that are still being held in Gaza. This is going to intensify Jewish Israelis’ protests and anger at Netanyahu’s administration, and weaken their support for Israel’s aggression in Gaza. Indeed, there have already been protests in Israel in response to these killings, and more protests are planned for Saturday.
How to use this information
This is further proof that the IOF is shooting civilians who are not posing threats. An IOF spokesman said that Hamas has used fake hostages to lure their soldiers into traps—that may or may not be true. What we do know is that the IOF shot three people that were not posing any threat to their soldiers—they were unarmed, they were waving a white flag, and they were even calling for help in a language that all the soldiers could understand—and the IOF still murdered them. This evidence can and should be used to demonstrate that the IOF is intentionally killing civilians that pose no threat to their forces.
You and I both know that we have mountains of evidence that show the IOF is killing civilians, but many privileged people struggle with empathizing with Black, indigenous, and brown folk. If you have any people that are close to you that are starting to be sympathetic to Palestine, but haven’t quite moved over into advocacy yet, this might put them over the edge. This information can also be used to advocate for a ceasefire with your elected representatives. We must continue our fight to humanize Palestinians (and other BI&POC folk) but because of the urgency of the situation, we also need to use all the resources that are at our disposal.
Further reading
Read: Israeli soldiers mistakenly killed 3 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Israel says, NPR, 2023-12-15
Pull quotes:
"During the fighting in Shijaiyah, the IDF inadvertently identified three kidnapped Israelis as a threat. As a result, the IDF fired at them and they were killed," said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, also known as the Israel Defense Forces.
An initial assessment suggested the hostages either "fled or were abandoned" by their captors during a skirmish, Hagari said. Asked whether the abductees had their hands up or spoke in Hebrew, Hagari responded only that the military's investigation was still underway.
Read: Preliminary IDF Report: Hostages Killed by Soldiers Waved White Flag, One Yelled for Help in Hebrew, Haaretz, 2023-12-06 (May be paywalled)
Pull quotes:
According to the report, soldiers in the area spotted a building two days prior that had the inscription SOS and "Help! Three hostages" written on one of its walls. An Israeli army force that operated in the region has marked the building as a possible trap.
Following the news of their killing, hundreds took to the streets in Tel Aviv on Friday calling on the government to reach an immediate deal with Hamas for the release of the 128 hostages still held by the group in the Gaza Strip.
Uri, whose cousin Itay Svirsky is held hostage in Gaza, said that the protesters' demand is to bring about a deal to stop the fighting. "The State of Israel and its leadership behave as if they have given up on the captives. We get [them] back as bodies. They're killed by the bombings and from failed rescue operations, and from our own forces' fire when they do manage to escape," he said.
Biden Administration increases pressure on Netanyahu to end the “large-scale” ground “war” in Gaza
Many sources are reporting that the Biden administration is increasing pressure on Netanyahu’s administration to end the aggression in Gaza. According to the Jerusalem Post, “The United States told Israel it must wrap up its operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip by the end of 2023, the New York Times reported on Thursday evening.” (Source, Note: I was unable to find the NYT article that was referenced. I saw several references to ending the aggression in Gaza, but none that had a specific timeline. If any of my readers can find the article, please let me know.)
Why you should care and how to use this information
The Biden administration is terrible, but make no mistake: they would be far more terrible if they weren’t under intense pressure to end aid to Israel and support a ceasefire. This is a sign that Biden is worried about his reelection prospects; he knows that his support for Israel is hurting his chances at a second term. There are two points that I want to make relating to this:
Your letters, calls, and emails are working, but we need to keep up the pressure until Biden feels its necessary to publicly call for a ceasefire. I’m not taking a public stance on whether you should actually withhold your vote from Biden for his support for Israel’s genocide, but you should definitely threaten to do so.
I suspect that the Biden administration is only privately putting pressure on Israel to end the genocide because they are hoping that the holiday season will kill the resistance. IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE KEEP UP PRESSURE THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS. I can’t stress this enough. If we keep up the pressure during the holidays, I think we will see Biden starting to make more public statements in against Israel’s actions in the new year. If we don’t keep up the pressure, we will have to spend months building the movement back up.
Further reading
Read: Washington Urges Israel to Scale Down Its War in Gaza, New York Times, 2023-12-14
Read/watch: U.S. urges Israel to end large-scale ground war, NBC News, 2023-12-14