Tag: Palestine
‘Letter from Gaza’ – Ghassan Kanafani
“Letter from Gaza”
“Letter from Gaza”, a work of short fiction, was written by Ghassan Kanafani in 1956.
Dear Mustafa,
I have now received your letter, in which you tell me that you’ve done everything necessary to enable me to stay with you in Sacramento. I’ve also received news that I have been accepted in the department of Civil Engineering in the University of California. I must thank you for everything, my friend. But it’ll strike you as rather odd when I proclaim this news to you — and make no doubt about it, I feel no hesitation at all, in fact I am pretty well positive that I have never seen things so clearly as I do now. No, my friend, I have changed my mind. I won’t follow you to “the land where there is greenery, water and lovely faces” as you wrote. No, I’ll stay here, and I won’t ever leave.
I am really upset that our lives won’t continue to follow the same course, Mustafa. For I can almost hear you reminding me of our vow to go on together, and of the way we used to shout: “We’ll get rich!” But there’s nothing I can do, my friend. Yes, I still remember the day when I stood in the hall of Cairo airport, pressing your hand and staring at the frenzied motor. At that moment everything was rotating in time with the ear-splitting motor, and you stood in front of me, your round face silent.
Your face hadn’t changed from the way it used to be when you were growing up in the Shajiya quarter of Gaza, apart from those slight wrinkles. We grew up together, understanding each other completely and we promised to go on together till the end. But…
“There’s a quarter of an hour left before the plane takes off. Don’t look into space like that. Listen! You’ll go to Kuwait next year, and you’ll save enough from your salary to uproot you from Gaza and transplant you to California. We started off together and we must carry on. . .”
At that moment I was watching your rapidly moving lips. That was always your manner of speaking, without commas or full stops. But in an obscure way I felt that you were not completely happy with your flight. You couldn’t give three good reasons for it. I too suffered from this wrench, but the clearest thought was: why don’t we abandon this Gaza and flee? Why don’t we? Your situation had begun to improve, however. The ministry of Education in Kuwait had given you a contract though it hadn’t given me one. In the trough of misery where I existed you sent me small sums of money. You wanted me to consider them as loans. because you feared that I would feel slighted. You knew my family circumstances in and out; you knew that my meagre salary in the UNRWA schools was inadequate to support my mother, my brother’s widow and her four children.
“Listen carefully. Write to me every day… every hour… every minute! The plane’s just leaving. Farewell! Or rather, till we meet again!”
Your cold lips brushed my cheek, you turned your face away from me towards the plane, and when you looked at me again I could see your tears. Continue reading “‘Letter from Gaza’ – Ghassan Kanafani”
Portland, U$A: Claim of responsibility for arson at Mercedes-Benz dealership
After weeks of indiscriminate bombing and a ground military invasion of Gaza, leveling homes, hospitals, and schools, the cost to human life has been over 18,800 deaths — 8000 of which are children — and over 51,000 injured. The bombings along with the ongoing Israeli blockage has created a humanitarian catastrophe leaving hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced with little to no access to food, clean water or medical care. This genocidal assault has also taken the form of intensified repression against Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank — mass arrests, targeted military raids, and an escalation of settler violence. We are all too aware that this war waged by Israel is made possible in large part by weapons and equipment supplied by the United States and their allies. As anarchists living behind enemy lines, we refuse to sit by and watch yet another genocide unfold before our eyes.
So, in the early morning hours of 12/11, a fire was started at the Mercedes-Benz dealership in downtown Portland. The blaze destroyed a delivery van and burned out the exterior of their ‘wholesale parts’ garage on SW Market St. This was done as an act of economic sabotage against a corporation that develops military vehicles for the Israel Defense Forces and profits from the dispossession and occupation of Palestinians.
Apart from selling luxury cars Mercedes-Benz also produces weapons of war—in the form of light infantry vehicles — for militaries across the world. In regards to Israeli, Mercedes-Benz has partnered with Israeli based military contractor Plasan to produce a light-infantry vehicle. The Plasan Hyrax — which utilizes the Mercedes-Benz G-wagon chassis — was developed to replace the IDF’s aging fleet of ‘David’ patrol vehicles. As of 2019 the Hyrax has been certified for use with the IDF
Mercedes-Benz’ sister company Daimler Trucks, and their subsidiaries — in which Mercedes-Benz owns a 30% share — has supplied transport vehicles to the IDF in the past. As recently as 2020 Daimler Trucks was awarded a contract to supply busses to Israeli based company Egged for inter-city bus transport. Egged provides transportation between Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. Egged busses use roads off limits to Palestinians and operates segregated busses. This racist apartheid system is a defining aspect of the Israeli settler colonial project, built on the displacement and denigration of Palestinians.
In the broader context of resistance throughout world against war and militarism — from the anti-war partisans in Belarus and Russia derailing trains of military cargo, to the Palestinian youth in the West Bank standing down tanks with a slingshot and stones — this action was our modest contribution to that struggle.
For a more dangerous solidarity
some anarchists
Submitted Anonymously Over Email
Source: Scenes from the Atlanta Forest
Israel’s Automated Apartheid
North London, UK: Anarchists and Antifascists covered a Barclays bank with red paint and slogan in North London in solidarity with the people of Palestine
Source: Act for freedom now!
Anarchists covered a Barclays with red paint and slogan in North London in solidarity with the people of Palestine. Barclays Bank holds over £1 billion in shares, and provides over £3 billion in loans and to companies whose military technology…
This is a small action, but as anarchists and Anti-fascists we believe that everyone should take whatever action they can, small or big to fight Israeli fascism and the genocide of the Palestinian people.
$hile: “Words from the confinement, necessary letters” by Marcelo Villarroel
On December 16, 2009 I was expelled from Argentina after 21 months of confinement in different units of the province of Neuquén to be at the disposal of the Chilean state and it has been 14 years since then.
In 2014 I was sentenced to 14 years for two bank robberies. Strictly speaking, I am serving this sentence in its entirety, from beginning to end, without any benefit and it ends today December 16, 2023 and still the state keeps me behind bars.
According to the gendarmes, I must serve 12 more years of imprisonment to be able to apply for some intrapenitentiary benefit only in 2036. According to their retroactive modifications of the illegal Chilean law, in 2056 I will definitively expire my sentences, all of them from events that occurred more than 30 years ago.
A madness of numbers and years typical of Pinochet’s military justice shamefully in force and still today endorsed by recent rulings of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, of Santiago, of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of this amnesiac country governed today by the Communist Party, the Broad Front and all the progressive and social-democratic scum always at the service of the interests of the great god of capital.
In this context, a few days ago, Mónica and Francisco, anarchist comrades of action who received the full revenge of the state, were condemned by the capital’s democratic inquisition, particularly Francisco to whom the domination imposed 86 years, becoming today the revolutionary prisoner in the Chilean prisons with the highest sentence and whom we must know how to accompany from the daily practice without pauses since the road will evidently be longer. Always from the complicit affinity and never from the victimization!
On the other hand, in the occupied wallmapu, in the same week, the racist Chilean justice declares Peñi Luis Tranamil Nahuel, who these days is about to receive a hefty sentence, as well as Peñi Nelson Queupil, who faces an imminent sentence, both walking the path of the weichan, are in Chilean prisons, fists raised, living the onslaught of the state offensive of occupation. Continue reading “$hile: “Words from the confinement, necessary letters” by Marcelo Villarroel”
Berlin, Germany: Against environmental destruction, oppression and war – fire for CEMEX concrete plant
Inspired by a series of actions and sabotages against “the world of concrete” in France (2), Belgium and Switzerland, we visited the CEMEX concrete plant on Schleusenufer in Berlin-Kreuzberg in the early hours of December 27 and used fire to stop several concrete mixer trucks and bring the conveyor belt and a technical building to a standstill.
A master among the climate killers
The wasteland of concrete and asphalt continues to spread. In Germany alone, up to 30 hectares of living soil are buried under the most sought-after building material every day. Roads, squares, commercial areas, industrial plants and houses; huge parts of the earth’s surface are already sealed and infrastructure projects such as dams, freeways, bridges, airports etc. consume several billion tons of concrete every year.
All this is not without consequences. Concrete is considered the climate killer par excellence. Almost 10 percent of the carbon dioxide that this system currently blows into the air comes from the cement industry. That is almost three times as much as air traffic. At the same time, concrete production consumes enormous amounts of resources. Sand in particular, which is essential for production, is already in short supply, which is why coastal areas and sometimes entire islands are being dredged worldwide. With devastating effects on the surrounding ecosystems. The increasing sealing of soils also has catastrophic consequences. Urban areas are heating up more and more, while rainwater can no longer seep into the ground. Groundwater reservoirs are not filling up as before, which will lead to water shortages in many places in the long term or has already done so. Drought and aridity are the result of this on the one hand, while flooding and erosion are occurring elsewhere due to increasingly frequent heavy rainfall. More than that, every additional meter of concrete destroys habitats and food sources. The loss of natural ground areas and the lack of vegetation lead to a decline in biodiversity, which has an impact on many animal and plant populations and will result in the extinction of individual species. Continue reading “Berlin, Germany: Against environmental destruction, oppression and war – fire for CEMEX concrete plant”
Narrm/Melbourne, Austarlia: Attack on US Consulate in Solidarity with Palestine
NARRM.
From the river to the sea.
Always was always will be.
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. blood money since WWII, shamelessly funding genocide, occupation and ethnic cleansing in Palestine for 75+ years.
U.S. terrorists have provided unwavering support for the IOF and show no remorse for the 30,000 martyred as a result of their murderous actions.
The people of Narrm condemn the U.S. for its crimes against humanity and refuse the existence of the U.S. consulate on Stolen First Nations Land.
LONG LIVE PALESTINE.
LONG LIVE GAZA.
LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA.
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Source: Radical Graffiti
Via: Abolition Media
Berlin, Germany: Free Sonnenallee from SPD & Greens – smash!
On the night of Monday, November 20, we simultaneously attacked the SPD office in Hermannstraße in Berlin Neukölln and a Green Party office in Wrangelstraße in Kreuzberg as an action against the genocidal war in Gaza. With our small group action, we are participating in the weeks of resistance on the streets, a resistance that has fought for its rights through riots. You gave us “rights” because we gave you riots!
The resistance in Germany against the war is far from being symbolic. The German state and German capital have staked a lot on the outcome of the war. And not because of their alleged task of combating anti-Semitism. The two governing parties, the SPD and the Greens, have played a prominent role in this. They have also played a role in creating the racist narrative that has meant massive repression against the residents of Neukölln for many years and has led to a general de-“legalization” in recent weeks. Demonstrations were violently broken up, migrant political organizing was confronted with bans, skin color and certain clothing and colors became even more reason for brutal attacks in schools and on the streets.
On a global level, the SPD and the Greens stand for Western imperialism and despite their repeated attempts to interpret it otherwise, a capitalist offensive by Israel and its Western allies is taking place. German involvement, interests and investment in this war and in Israel’s occupation is obvious. The US Rammstein Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, is essential for the deployment of US drones in the Middle East and in August of this year, Israel sealed the largest ever arms deal (3.5 billion US dollars) with Germany with the approval of the US. There is much more than guilt behind the German state’s “special responsibility” for Israel.
Against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the police occupation of Neukoelln.
Free Sonnenallee from SPD and Greens.
PS: We were pleased to find our two targets already damaged. That didn’t stop us from adding even more visible damage with hammers, spray paint and paint bottles.
A few anarchists
Source: Kontrapolis
Firminy (Loire) and Les Ancizes-Comps (Puy-de-Dôme), France: Double attack on Aubert et Duval steelworks, supplier to war industries
During the night of November 19th to 20th, we attacked the power supply to two production sites of the Aubert et Duval group:
– At Firminy, we sawed through a pylon on the 220kV line supplying the site. It only partially fell.
– In Ancizes-Comps, we also set fire to a 220kV line, at the point where the high-voltage cables went underground. We were able to get close and place our devices at the foot of the sheaths, without danger.
Aubert et Duval is a key player in the French military industry. It supplies parts for Naval Group submarines, Dassault Rafales and Framatom nuclear power plants.
Our action resonates with the international call for a week of action against all wars, from November 17 to 25, 2023, published in early November (careful, it’s a bit late…) on Iaata.info. We welcome this kind of initiative, and in turn call for an attack on the military industry everywhere and at all times.
What’s certain is that we’ve achieved our goal of hitting the military industry. While we don’t have the means to know exactly how much damage we’ve caused, we do know that these industries know they’re being targeted, and that their weak points are highlighted by our actions.
“Behind the war, ordinary factories”.
As the tag left on the site of an aeronautics factory burnt down in March 2023 in Beauchastel so aptly put it, the war we’re told all day long must end and is unjust, starts here; and is made possible by seemingly innocuous businesses too.
It’s no secret that global conflicts are escalating in intensity. For almost two months, bombs have been falling on the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, at an unprecedented rate, and with broad political, military and financial support from the United States and most Western countries. The same people who call for a truce, respect for civilians and international law, are producing the bombs that massacre in a way they claim to condemn, there or elsewhere, since several billion people live in war zones; with the horror that this engenders and that we all know about: rape, torture, forced displacement, etc. This hypocrisy would be laughable if it weren’t so macabre.
These wars are the very concrete result of a military-industrial complex, with its factories, laboratories and technicians. In France, the eight major military industry groups – Airbus, Arquus, Dassault, MBDA, Naval group, Nextor, Safran and Thales – are celebrating record sales. Some 4,000 companies work for the defense industry, with the active, ongoing support of the state, which has earmarked a budget of 417 billion euros to increase its killing power and export its arsenal worldwide. Machines of death that are used directly for massacres, as in the case of Dassault fighter jets or Nexter tanks and guns used by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen.
We don’t want to remain indifferent to this. We also want to send a message to the workers in these industries. That our actions will deprive them of their work for a while, and make them face up to their responsibilities. We also hope that these acts, and the words we put on them, will help to raise the profile of these most discreet factories of death.
Our thoughts go out to those who fight for their freedom, to those who face repression.
Let’s attack everywhere!
Source: lille.indymedia
Via: Attaque