What Moment Begins an Official Genocide?

Aryeh Neier was born a Jew in Nazi Germany and escaped with his parents. He co-founded Human Rights Watch and was at the forefront of establishing international tribunals. He was interviewed on CNN, but I can only find the full interview on Twitter. 

Neier says he was concerned with the size of bombs used in Gaza, but he didn't call what Israel is doing a genocide until they obstructed aid coming in, destroyed the farms, killed aid workers, challenged aid agencies, and turned a blind eye to defence forces and settlers attacking trucks. Those most victimized aren't Hamas, but children of citizens who will starve to death or at least be diminished by severe malnutrition. 

"The use of the term anti-semitism to attack those who criticize Israeli policies degrades the concept of Anti-semitism. Anti-semitism has been a great scourge but it doesn't insulate the Israeli government from being held to the same standards as other government have to be held to around the world. . . . Jews are only going be safe if everyone's rights are respected."

Neier also wrote about this in the New York Review. 

Recently Christa Peterson felt it appropriate to remind us how the Nazi genocide began with images from Robert Gellately's Backing Hitler. Notice how normalized each step was as reported in the media. 

What is University For - Part 1

In case you've missed it, many students on university campuses have been protesting the ongoing genocide in Gaza. 

The police have been heavy-handed -- or outright violent -- with some of the students. Yet one prof wrote about his primary concerns in the NY Times: that the constant noise disrupts his class and the protests are upsetting for Jewish students.

You Can't Care about Refugees and Not Care about Covid

 Disability activist Imani Barbarin made an important connection between Covid precautions and genocide. 

In this Tiktok video she explains why "It's wild that people think they can support Palestinians as they're being disabled without disability justice":

@crutches_and_spice De@th does not follow disabled people, nondisabled people carry it with them to us. #greenscreenvideo @mawd ✯ ♬ original sound - Crutches&Spice ♿️ :

Here's the first half if you don't want to click on the 3 minute video. She starts with another vid admonishing people who support Palestine but don't mask indoors:

The System of Ableism Can Be Weaponized Against Anyone

Imani Barbarin is a wealth of information and so funny! If you're new new to TikTok, and you think it's all just dumb trends like eating Tide pods, Crutches & Spice is a great starting place to remove that bias against the younger forms of social media. Like any social media, it's only as good as the people you choose to follow!

Recently she tweeted this t-shirt worthy quote:

"Remember kids: It's not an inspirational story; it's a systemic failure that's being talked about through the lens of an individual good."

This could be about so many things, but she's been talking about the "adoption" (conservatorship) of Michael Oher as featured in the film The Blind Side. He's currently suing this family.

First, listen here about why she centers ableism first among prejudice against any other group (2SLGBTQLIA+, women, racism...):

"If you are a marginalized person in any other way, you're the most likely to get a disability. You're the most likely to feel the impacts of systemic and structural ableism. . . . That is the entire point of ableism in this country because ableism is the greatest weapon in their arsenal. Not only is the system designed for this, but even people within these groups will agree that disabled people deserve to be discarded. That's the point of ableism."

And this bit of history:

"We can't ignore that the Great Depression in the 1930s happened because of the 1918 flu pandemic, and the economic pressures of the Great Depression LED to the rise of fascism and eugenics whose greatest indicators initially was obsession with fitness and the perfect body, which gave way to phrenology and race science. You know that canthal tilt filter? Mmm. All that culminates in genocide. We are on a fast track towards genocide because of what is currently going on with the pandemic, and disabled and immunocompromised people are the people who are going to be impacted the most, particularly those who are Black and Brown as well. But then it'll get into the people what were disabled from Covid. You know that 20% of people who are permanently disabled from Covid, whether they were symptomatic or asymptomatic? Lots of bad things are gonna happen to them very very quickly. Happening right now. But I need y'all to start asking yourselves, What happens next?"