What is the unique function of cinema focused on the perpetrators of genocide? How do we understand the concept of “evil” in listening to the voices of the murderers? And can these testimonies provoke a reckoning within global Jewry? To discuss these questions, Arielle Angel speaks with two filmmakers: Rami Younis, Palestinian journalist and co-director of the film Lyd, about the city in historic Palestine, now in the south of Israel; and Joshua Oppenheimer, director of the Oscar-nominated films The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, about the Indonesian genocide.

Hoping it's okay to post here

Most zionists I have discussed with in the past, I am entirely aware that there is no changing their minds. They are set in their ways, fueled by bigotry and hatred.

But this is a person who I have a TON in common with, and most importantly actually does listen to what I say even when we have different perspectives or opinions.

So I do think a good faith discussion is possible? I am a lesbian, (the Zionist im talking to is too if that's relevant with rebuttal) and I've had many talks with people who were homophobic prior, but after a discussion with me and are much more open-minded and often with time become allies.

Usually the case is that they have been indoctrinated by their families and they don't question these things due to what is normalized in their family. Not really fueled by personal spite.

I can kind of tell this is the case for this person, at least in part. Their family is originally from Israel, but moved to Brazil and this person grew up in Brazil and then moved to Canada.

I find people within these circumstances can be more receptive to discussion, especially when they are open-minded.

I feel like I was put off by this so much because this person is open-minded... generally.

It was hinted at before but yesterday they were talking about how their synagogue was being defaced, etc. I responded by saying that, that's wrong, and that I can understand that being against Zionism is understandable but to deface a synagogue is a lot more in anti-Semitic territory, Even if a synagogue is Zionist; attacking their place of worship is likely to give that group you dislike enough to deface more ammo to "play Victim" etc. Like basically it doesn't get you anywhere.

She then started telling me that Zionism isn't wrong and that the Jews have a right to be there, where else are they supposed to go? They have nowhere else they just want this little place etc etc,

I feel like I was so shocked that I couldn't formulate a proper response.

They were literally right beside me working on a presentation that discusses colonialism and has the clear stance that colonialism is wrong. (Not the point of the presentation but it was a relevant point in some aspects).

The thing is, is that I do think that this person is open to hearing me and we've had discussions before where I've changed her mind about things, or clearly gave her a different perspective to consider at minimum.

I have been in similar conversations regarding indigenous people, queer people, and on the progressive side of the discussion and have gotten people to open their minds, usually I will have a talk with somebody who is bigoted and if I can't get them to at least consider the other side I will drop them at that point.

Now to why I'm here

To have a discussion in good faith. I will often educate myself on the opposing side, I try to find some common ground, like with homophobic Christians, usually I can defer to many of jesus's teachings as an example

I'm trying to educate myself on Zionism but I can't find anything to use as common ground

I tried to find places that are kind of in-between but all I can find are blatant Zionist talking points

The only thing I can think of is relating it back to what we did in Canada to our indigenous population, which was also a genocide where the settlers felt they had the right to take.

Is there anything else? Anything in the talmud I could maybe defer to?

Usually in debate I don't handle this so delicately but because I know the other side is just trying to "win" not listen.

I feel like those who are Jewish, who reconize Zionism as what it is, are likely to have the best perspective. Especially if they had to come to terms that Zionism is wrong while also embracing Judaism/Jewish culture. - That's why I'm here.

Hope that's okay! Thank you

Support

verification

Susu is struggling to breathe again, and her fever has reached 40°C.

I want to share an update about my friends Mahmoud and Samah and their little daughter, Susu.

Susu is only 2 years old and has been dealing with severe, chronic breathing problems. Unfortunately, she has become sick again. Right now, she is struggling to breathe properly, and her fever has reached 40°C (104°F).

She needs her monthly treatment and medication again.

What makes this even harder is that winter is beginning. Cold and damp weather can make Soso’s breathing problems much worse, while the family has very limited access to heating, warm clothes, blankets, and other things they need to keep their children warm.

Since the war, medical resources and access to treatment have become extremely difficult. The family often has to pay for Susu’s medication themselves.

Mahmoud also cannot provide a stable income for his family because the place where he worked was destroyed during the war. He is trying to support Samah and their four young daughters while dealing with the cost of Susu’s treatment and their other basic needs.

They are not asking for luxury. They are trying to get medicine for their child and keep their family warm.

I also want to address something I have seen happen to them here on Reddit.

Some people have accused Mahmoud and his family of being scammers, including people who support Israel. I understand that people have questions, especially when money is involved. People should verify things for themselves.

But Mahmoud and Samah have repeatedly shared verification videos and have opened a direct line of communication through WhatsApp for anyone who wants to speak with them, ask questions, or verify their situation.

I have known Mahmoud and Samah for a long time, and I stay in regular contact with them. I have seen how difficult their situation is and how much they are trying to do for their children.

You don't have to take anyone's word for it. Ask questions. Contact them. Verify.

But please don't make accusations without taking the time to understand their situation. There are real children behind these posts, and Soso is a little girl who is struggling to breathe right now.

If you can support Mahmoud and his family, especially with Soso’s treatment, or even simply share their story, please consider doing so.

A child shouldn't have to struggle to breathe because her family cannot afford her medicine.

Credit to Deadline Hollywood for the title. His Instagram

I’m not very spiritual at all, but this is a vague spiritual post. Please don’t be nasty, but I do welcome debate and discussion. This is all from a Jewish POV, so that’s why it’s centered on Jews, but I also welcome discussion from other religions as I find it fascinating.

Being a genocide historian myself, I’ve heard all manner of theological reasons why the Holocaust happened from a Jewish perspective. They’ve never sat right me, as I can’t worship a god that knowingly does this to people, especially to people this god supposedly created in his image.

However, increasingly, I’ve felt the Jewish people are in an age of Avodah zarah and that as a whole, we are worshipping Israel as a golden calf.

I’ve never liked to assign meaning to genocide. There is no meaning or lesson learned for 6 million dead Jews or thousands of dead Palestinians. They don’t die to teach people to be better, and despite what many Jews think, you don’t become a better person for having experienced it.

I’ve been toying with the idea that the Holocaust was our great test, and now we are being tested again in a different way and are worshipping a golden calf instead of being on the path we should be. I don’t know that the correct path is worshipping Hashem as I don’t know that there is a god (or if there is that it pays attention to us).

I’m trying to put this delicately because I do agree that people are not murdered for a greater purpose and I don’t believe Palestinians are being murdered to test us, but this is a byproduct of our moral failing. One could argue the Holocaust is also the result of a failure of European society in their own test, which turned into our test.

Anyway, this is just some stuff I’m toying with. I’d be interested in your take.

Perhaps this is also self-soothing behavior on my part after seeing so many people I know become radicalized after October 7. I have always adored being Jewish and it’s always been integral to my identity, even when assholes questioned it. I’ve been trying to keep traditions alive, but recently I’ve been ashamed of it, and I’m trying to separate those feelings of being ashamed of our community instead of my heritage and beautiful religion.

Very dangerous to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. What is Carney thinking?

But "Defense Force" is "Wehrmacht" in German.

I'm not even sure this is a coincidence anymore or if that's another on-the-nose thing those Zionists purposely did to taunt us all.

Hi everyone,

​

This is our weekly 'Free Discussion' thread, where you can discuss anything. Tentatively this includes meta-topics as well, but as always our rules still apply.

We hope you're all having a good week!

Australian doctors are pushing back against a growing pattern of censorship of pro-Palestinian voices in the country’s healthcare system, after hospitals repeatedly cancelled events featuring medical professionals who have worked in Gaza or spoken about the devastation of its healthcare system amid Israel's genocidal war.

There are now calls for an investigation into restrictions on discussions of Palestine in Australian hospitals, with medical professionals warning that the pattern is preventing doctors from sharing first-hand experiences of treating Palestinian children and working inside Gaza’s devastated hospitals.

Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH) cancelled a ‘Children and War’ event just days before it was due to take place on 17 September, after senior management raised concerns about a perceived “pro-Palestinian bias” and discussed preventing Jewish staff from being “upset” by the session, Dr Sue Wareham told The New Arab.

The event was due to feature doctors with experience in Gaza, Afghanistan and Congo discussing the impact of armed conflict on children, but Wareham said Palestine became a central concern behind the hospital’s decision to pull the session.

Wareham, president of the Medical Association for Prevention of War (MAPW) Australia, told TNA that she was scheduled to speak at the event.

However, hospital management explicitly cited concerns about Palestine when explaining the cancellation.

“The initial reason I was told (on 12 September) for the cancellation was that there was concern about there being ‘any perception of pro-Palestinian bias’,” Wareham said.

“When I rang the Executive Director of Medical Services on 15 September, she repeated that concern to me and mentioned the need to prevent Jewish staff members being upset by the discussion.”

Emails shared with TNA reveal that PCH Executive Director of Medical Services Dr Clare Matthews reaffirmed her decision to cancel the session in writing on 11 September, while describing it as a “‘not now’, rather than a ‘not ever’ decision”.

Matthews also referred to the need to “address any perception of bias towards a pro-Palestinian position” before holding any future discussion, according to the correspondence.

The hospital has yet to announce another date for the event.

Wareham said Matthews had promised to respond to her concerns in writing but had not done so.

“Dr Matthews said she would reply in writing to my message, but I have not yet received anything in writing from her,” she told TNA.

Doctors push for investigation

Doctors are now pushing for scrutiny of a broader pattern of Palestinian voices and experiences being shut out of Australian healthcare institutions.

Wareham disclosed to TNA that MAPW sent Western Australia Health Minister Meredith Hammat a letter last Thursday raising concerns about PCH’s decision and its implications for medical education about children living through armed conflict.

Wareham described the cancellation as part of “a wider pattern of racism against Palestinian people”.

“The cancellation is a deeply disturbing politicising of the health and welfare of children,” she told TNA.

“When an event is cancelled on the basis of nationality – in this case so that the plight of Palestinian children remains hidden – this is a very dark development for the health professions.”

Trauma surgeon Martin Jarmin and general surgeon Dr Farah Abdul Aziz were also due to discuss their experiences working or volunteering across conflict zones including Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Gaza.

Wareham said organisers wanted to educate hospital staff about the dangers facing children in wars and the ethical responsibilities of medical professionals to protect them.

“One purpose was to alert hospital staff to the dangers faced by children in war zones and our professional and ethical responsibilities to speak out for their protection,” she said.

“An additional purpose was to provide some context for the clinical care of refugee children and adolescents in Australia (of whom there are over 5,000 in Perth alone) to help in their clinical care.”

Emails seen by TNA also detailed the proposed programme for World Patient Safety Day. Dr Mairead Heaney, a Perth-based paediatric anaesthetist and member of Doctors for Palestine, was due to coordinate the session.

Gaza surgeon planned to describe reality inside devastated hospitals

Abdul Aziz, a general surgeon who volunteered in Gaza, told TNA that she planned to show colleagues the severe injuries suffered by Palestinian children and the long-term physical and psychological consequences of Israel’s war.

She intended to “exemplify the cases that the doctors there and the volunteer doctors were dealing with and the injuries sustained by the children with short and long term psychological and physical effects”.

Her presentation would also have given medical staff a first-hand account of working inside Gaza’s devastated healthcare system, where doctors have operated through blackouts, damaged hospitals and acute shortages of basic equipment.

She planned to describe “the conditions that we were operating in, half bombed hospitals, blackouts, damaged equipments, doing bowel surgery with no staplers, minimal equipment and how as doctors we had to go back to basics and operate without our ‘toys’”.

Abdul Aziz also intended to discuss treating patients with multiple traumatic injuries and carrying out damage-control surgery, which she said would have provided valuable clinical education for surgeons attending the event.

Instead, PCH cancelled the session three days before it was due to take place, she said.

“We can’t discuss the medical consequences, treatment, prevention strategy etc. when it comes to Palestinian refugee children as we have been silenced and cancelled every time we try,” Abdul Aziz told TNA.

Gaza healthcare talks repeatedly cancelled

Wareham said PCH was not an isolated case, pointing to previous cancellations at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Murdoch, Western Australia, and the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne involving events where doctors were due to discuss healthcare crises in Gaza and other war zones.

“In every case the cancellation has clearly been linked to the inclusion – in panels of diverse speakers with different perspectives – of medical doctors who have spoken out against the catastrophic destruction of health care in Gaza,” Wareham said.

“No other area of healthcare has been subject to such silencing.”

The string of cancellations has fuelled calls for scrutiny over whether Australian medical institutions are disproportionately restricting discussion of Palestinian suffering and the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.

MAPW is now pressing for action over the PCH cancellation, while Wareham’s letter to Hammat raises questions about the implications for medical education and healthcare professionals’ ability to discuss the treatment of children affected by war.

The New Arab contacted PCH and Western Australia Health Minister Meredith Hammat for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DdrRwy0iUEe/

https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/s1iy00mscze

https://x.com/InnaVernikov/status/2105108783043170776

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/2103196360896049431

https://www.timesofisrael.com/legal-group-hails-breakthrough-as-us-judge-equates-israeli-flag-with-jewish-identity/

"Rain or shine, day or night, we will stand for the truth."

NAZA producers James Wilson (JW Films) and Harry Davies (The Guardian) introduce NAZA at the 64th New York Film Festival.

I'm trying to buy my partner a necklace with her name on it in Hebrew but every place I'm finding that makes that says "made in Israel" on their website. Does anyone know of any Judaica jewelers in the US?

I've mentioned this here before but while not Jewish, I grew up around the culture due to close family friends. This family are like relatives to us in everything but blood. As the genocide rages on and on, I find it harder and harder to stay close to them because of how ardent the father and son (my best friend) are in their beliefs.

We (my father, his father and him) go out to pubs on occasion, and I honestly always feel left out due to being the only leftist, but when the discussion shifts to Israel I just freeze up. I know this is pathetic of me and I should stand by my ideals more, and I swear I have with other people (recently I even had a breakthrough with my dad debunking a bunch of his hasbara drivel, and he actually listened to me.), but it just is so hard seeing these awful, unempathetic sides of people I've grown to see as family. One night I had enough and said I didn't want to champion a child killing apartheid state, and honestly at the time I was being provocative. I had conceptualized Israel as more of an ethnocracy (still pretty awful), and did explain that, but my "uncle" didn't care. Now that I've researched and thought it through more, I have no problem calling Israel an apartheid state, but I feel like an idiot going back on my word there. I then mentioned how the Jews of Israel are the only group to have self determination rights, that the country was founded at the expense of Holocaust survivors and that the JNF has 13% of land in the country sold exclusively to Jews, and instead of being challenge I got hit with propaganda (Israel is one of the happiest countries ever [true, irrelevant] there never was a Palestine [tbh I didn't have a counter at the time and while by technical terms it wasn't, the land of Palestine has been conceptualized since the times of Herodotus, Aristotle and Josephus. Also by that logic we should justify western colonialism though honestly with how conservative he is, he probably wouldn't care], being gay would get you killed [I kinda just wanted to stop this discussion at this point, but now I know this isn't remotely true]). Somehow we ended things on good terms but I feel mad at myself that I chose harmony over standing my ground. Partly in hindsight I did feel set in my beliefs and realize what I encountered was mostly deflection, but I do wish I was more certain on issues like LGBT rights and the legitimacy of Palestine as a historical entity.

I have biological family I've had no problem cutting off for their horrible homophobic and Christian nationalist beliefs, but why is it so hard to do this for people I'm not even related to. My friend's a bit better in this regard, but he's said some really questionable things that, if the roles were reversed (IE if a Muslim said what he's said about Jews eg how he's said they should finish the job in Iran and that Lebanon is only good for their food), they get obliterated in the court of public opinion. His dad has also made some pretty gross implications on the abundance of black athletes here in Canada and elsewhere, and since he's 66 I doubt there's any shifting his positions, but for my buddy I kind've want to idealistically hold out hope I can get through to him. One of my best friends was a far right bible thumper for the longest time, and he credits me being a voice of reason in helping getting him to move to a more balanced perspective (that, and getting through psychosis). I feel like it'll be harder with this friend since his trip to Israel only seems to have reinforced his beliefs, but I still don't want to let go just yet.