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53746


Date: April 11, 2024 at 17:02:02
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Palestinian Feminist Collective condemns sophicide & scholasticide...

URL: https://mondoweiss.net/2024/04/a-feminist-praxis-for-academic-freedom-in-the-context-of-genocide-in-gaza/?utm_content=buffere6b1a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer


ACTIVISM
A feminist praxis for academic freedom in the context of genocide in Gaza
The Palestinian Feminist Collective condemns sophicide and scholasticide in
Gaza - the deliberate annihilation of Indigenous knowledge traditions and the
physical destruction of centers of knowledge.

BY PALESTINIAN FEMINIST COLLECTIVE APRIL 11, 2024

image: The Israeli army carries out the demolition of the Al-Israa University
south of Gaza city on January 17, 2024. (Screenshot/twitter.com/BirzeitU)

As members of the Palestinian Feminist Collective and scholars at North
American universities, we are steadfast in our commitment to the intellectual
pursuit of knowledge, truth, and justice in environments free from systemic
oppression. The Zionist regime’s escalated genocide in Gaza has meant the
annihilation of intellectual and cultural sources of wisdom, or sophicide.

Sophicide refers to the Zionist regime’s deliberate annihilation of Indigenous
knowledge traditions inspired by the land itself, as well as the carriers of that
knowledge, including elders and women. It involves the crushing of
Palestinian life and learning through the systematic murder of Palestinian
students, mentors, teachers, researchers, scholars, academics, writers,
librarians, archivists, spiritual leaders, historiographers, creatives, poets,
interns, lecturers, professors, staff, and lab technicians. Such attacks on
these Indigenous knowledge carriers impacts entire generations of learners,
crushing their aspirations and dreams.

Sophicide also includes scholasticide, a Palestinian concept that refers to the
physical destruction of centers of knowledge, educational resources,
infrastructures, and archives as well as the silencing, censorship, and
repression of Palestinian history, epistemology, scholarship, and subjectivity.
The Zionist regime’s academic repression has extended beyond Palestine
and into U.S. and Canadian education centers across Turtle Island, reflecting
a systemic failure by university administrators and other authorities to
protect students, educators, and staff in their communities and the pursuit of
knowledge free from harm.

As feminists, learners, teachers, scholars, Palestinians, and those who love
and are committed to Palestine, we bear witness to the many forms of
sophicide that are unfolding at alarming rates in Gaza, and we refuse to be
silent about it. Honoring our commitment to freedom and liberation for all
oppressed peoples, including the freedom to access and pursue knowledge,
requires a praxis that centers our kin in Gaza and all of Palestine. It requires a
praxis capable of addressing the unprecedented levels of institutional
violence against Palestinians, including our own universities’ investments in
the Zionist settler-colonial regime and their tactics of repression and
censorship.

Existing frameworks for “academic freedom” on our campuses have actually
enabled violence against Palestinians and our allies to occur with impunity.
Our feminist praxis for true academic freedom begins with the premise that
all forms of genocide, including sophicide and scholasticide, are antithetical
to learning, teaching, well-being, and safety; that university administrators
and authorities should be held accountable for their role in genocide and
systemic oppression; and that feminism must center the ability to live and
learn freely, from our campuses to Palestine.

Sophicide in Gaza

Zionist genocide aims to eradicate Palestinians’ lives and, with them,
Palestinian ways of life. Since October 2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces
(IOF) have killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and
children, and displaced over two million people from their homes. Almost all
residential units in Gaza have been either entirely “destroyed or damaged” by
Israeli soldiers, who share celebratory videos on their social media accounts
as they torture Palestinian hostages and detonate buildings. This
domesticide extends to other spaces of life and vital infrastructures,
including hospitals, mosques and churches, public libraries, water wells, and
electricity networks throughout Gaza.

The obliteration of Palestine’s schools, universities, and libraries furthers the
settler-colonial project of erasure because these are spaces that nurtured
the creation and transmission of knowledge. Since October 2023, the IOF
have destroyed over 378 schools, public libraries, laboratories, classrooms,
and research facilities, depriving Palestinians of the histories and knowledges
housed in these institutions. Understanding this form of genocide as
sophicide elucidates how schools, universities, and learning spaces are not
just physical structures; they are “the fabric of life.” These were places of
realizing the aspirations of Palestinian youth who had been under siege in
Gaza their entire lives. Zionist sophicide has advanced the evisceration of
Palestinian institutions of learning and memory that have served as archives
for Gaza’s long tradition of knowledge seeking and appreciation.

Since October 2020, the IOF have killed at least 5,881 Palestinian students
and injured an additional 9,899. Their incessant aerial bombardment has
forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, to the extent that
the United Nations has declared Gaza “the world’s most dangerous place for
children” and Phillippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General for UNRWA, has
warned, “We’re running the risk here of losing a generation of children.”

The staggering theft of life and injuries among Palestinian children highlight a
broader, devastating impact on the educational system in Gaza. The ongoing
Israeli assault has robbed more than 625,000 primary and secondary school
students and over 100,000 college and university students in Gaza of their
access to education. In addition, the relentless attacks on Gaza have
prevented at least 555 Palestinian students from enrolling in their
scholarships abroad.

Sophicide extends to Palestinian educators and administrators who are also
targets of Zionist settler-colonial violence and genocide. Since October
2023, the IOF have injured over 891 teachers and administrators and
murdered at least 255, including 94 beloved university professors whose
contributions to world-renowned research exemplified the intellectual
resilience of Palestinians subjected to the brutal Israeli blockade of Gaza
since 2007.

Between October and December 2023 alone, the Zionist regime, armed and
backed by the U.S. empire, killed at least three Palestinian university
presidents. Among these professors was Dr. Mohammad Eid Shubair, an
eminent scholar and former President of the Islamic University in Gaza, who
was killed by Zionist airstrikes on al-Shifa hospital and surrounding areas
where he lived with his family. Dr. Shubair and his family had survived the
initial bombing and were attempting to walk the short distance to the hospital
to take shelter when they were shot by IOF soldiers besieging the hospital on
November 12, 2023. His martyrdom was followed by that of Dr. Sofyan Taya,
Dr. Shubair’s successor and the President of the Islamic University of Gaza. A
globally celebrated physicist and applied mathematician, Professor Taya was
in the top 2% among the highest skilled researchers in the world in
electromagnetics and optics. The IOF killed him and his family in an airstrike
on December 2, 2023. The Zionist regime also murdered Dr. Said Alzebda,
President of the University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS) on
December 31, 2023.

The IOF’s calculated killings of knowledge producers and destruction of
spaces of teaching and learning deprives Palestinians in Gaza, one million of
whom are children under 18, of their “past, present, and future,” by attacking
their education and their dreams, hopes, and ambitions. One clear example is
the martyrdom of Dr. Refaat Alareer, a prominent Palestinian writer and
teacher of medieval literature, whose lyrical genius was expressed through
his poetry as well as his non-profit “We Are Not Numbers,” which aimed to
bring dignity to the people of Gaza and Palestine. Alareer was killed by an
Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza on December 7, 2023, alongside his brother,
sister, nephew, and three nieces. We mourn the profound loss and honor the
martyrdom of Dr. Alareer as a valuable mentor and knowledge producer
whose final poem “If I Should Die” has come to mark the precarity of Gazan
life.

To date, the IOF has damaged or destroyed nine in every ten schools in Gaza.
At least sixty-five of these schools were UNRWA-run facilities, sheltering
thousands of displaced Palestinians. On February 7, 2024, the IOF used
tanks to fire directly at a UNRWA school in Khan Younis sheltering over 1,800
displaced Palestinians; they subsequently ordered everybody out of the
school, where they beat Palestinians, stripped over 800 men, and abducted
15 people whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Between October 2023 and January 2024, the IOF bombed all twelve
universities in Gaza. Consequently, Gaza’s treasured intellectual landmarks,
including the Islamic University of Gaza, the North Gaza and Tubas branches
of Al-Quds Open University, and Palestine Technical University, have all been
destroyed. On January 18, 2024, the IOF used over 300 landmines to
detonate the main buildings of Al-Isra University, which is located in an area
they had labeled a ‘safe zone’ in southern Gaza City. Before destroying Al-
Isra, they occupied the university for seventy days, converting the campus
into a military base and detention center to conduct torture, interrogations,
and sniper operations on abducted Palestinians. Among the cherished
academic buildings decimated was the first and only university hospital in
Gaza as well as buildings housing medical and engineering laboratories,
nursing labs, media training studios, the law college’s court hall, and
graduation halls. They also looted more than 3,000 rare artifacts from the
National Museum on campus before completely detonating it. These spaces
housed the dreams of Palestinian children, and students, and educators all of
whom are currently 100% food insecure and at risk of death by Zionists’
aerial bombardments, deprivation of water, forced starvation, cold, and
disease. Today, most Gazans have been displaced to Rafah, which has
become the newest target for genocide, and where over 1.2 million displaced
Palestinians are taking shelter.

Scholasticide in the occupied West Bank

Similarly, in the West Bank, the IOF are systematically attacking Palestinian
universities and other educational spaces. On November 8th, 2023, they
stormed Birzeit University in Ramallah with six military vehicles, raiding the
Student Council and shooting a young Palestinian. Also in November, Zionist
settlers set fire to two classrooms in Khirbet Zanuta, depriving dozens of
Palestinian children of their schooling. These assaults on academic
infrastructure extends beyond physical buildings affecting the foundations
that support learning and intellectual growth throughout Palestine.

Since October 2023, the IOF and armed settlers have killed at least 438
Palestinians, including 106 children, across the occupied West Bank and
Jerusalem. Among those murdered are 56 Palestinian students, and the IOF
have injured a further 329 and forcibly detained at least 105. The IOF have
also invaded Palestinian teachers’ homes, ransacking their contents,
assaulting families, and enforcing arbitrary arrests. In one such raid on Jenin
refugee camp on January 19th, 2024, they murdered Jawad Fareed
Bawaqneh, a beloved physical education teacher at a local secondary school
and parent to six children.

In the occupied West Bank, the systematic murder of teachers, mentors, and
students, as well as the deliberate destruction of learning infrastructure is
also upheld by the silencing, censorship, harassment, desecrating,
devaluing, intimidation, sabotage, and repression of educators and learners.
In these ways, sophicide functions to destroy and erase Palestinian histories,
intellectual memory, and wisdom.

The Palestine Exception to Academic Freedom

Zionist attacks on Palestinian knowledge involved repression campaigns
worldwide, including within the settler-colony itself. Over 74 Palestinian
students at 25 Israeli institutions have been targeted and punished merely
for liking tweets and authoring posts expressing sympathy for their family
members in Gaza. Most recently, renowned Palestinian feminist scholar
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was suspended from the Hebrew University for
her outspoken stance against genocide. While she was reinstated, the
Zionist state has made it a crime to express any empathy and support for
Palestinians, thereby making genocide the only acceptable public opinion. In
fact, settlers who stray from genocidal language and activity are met with
state violence. On October 28, 2023, thirty Palestinian students were locked
in their rooms at Netanya College while their dormitories were stormed by
Israeli settlers chanting “Death to Arabs.”

Sophicide against Palestinian learners and educators has become a global
phenomenon such that institutional repression of Palestinians has emerged
as a rule of thumb. Furthering the settler-colonial technologies of erasure,
Zionist sophicide converges with the U.S. and Canadian settler-states’
repression of scholars and learners based on Turtle Island.

The suppression of academic freedom and free speech related to Palestine
on U.S. and Canadian campuses extends back decades. Since at least 1973,
Zionist lobby groups have subjected student, staff, and faculty advocates for
Palestine to state-sponsored surveillance and defamation campaigns that
falsely accused them of antisemitism. The weaponization of antisemitism to
censor all forms of anti-Zionist speech has long been a fulcrum of attacks on
academic freedom, operating through what is known as the Palestine
exception to free speech. Using this formula, the ADL created and circulated
what is likely the first blacklist of scholars in 1983. With the advent of the
internet and social media, these blacklists were digitized and more easily
circulated, and Zionist groups organizing such attacks, including the David
Project, CAMERA, Stand With Us, AMCHA Initiative, and Canary Mission,
proliferated and grew more organized. These organizations have facilitated
an Israeli government-led campaign to target anti-Zionist students and
faculty by surveilling, blacklisting, and levying false charges of antisemitism
against those critical of the Zionist regime, the supremacist ideology of
Zionism, and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.

Universities and colleges have failed to protect their students, faculty, and
staff from harassment and attacks by these external organizations, and
worse, have even participated in suppressing academic freedom. Repressive
measures have been taken by many university administrators, academic
associations, local law enforcement, alumni, social media platforms,
senators, and the federal government to silence student activism and free
speech on Palestine. They have repressed, doxxed, and harassed students,
staff, and faculty; threatened graduates with unemployment; terminated and
suspended faculty positions; retaliated against student organizers; silenced
Palestinian speakers and our co-strugglers; arrested, imprisoned and
physically assaulted protestors; and made campuses unsafe, hostile and
threatening for Palestinians and anyone speaking in solidarity with Palestinian
liberation.

Indeed, Western institutions are not neutral, not least because they invest
millions of dollars in Israeli banks and companies upholding the settler-
colonial occupation as well as the arms dealers profiting from the ongoing
genocide of Palestinians. Claims of “neutrality” and “balance” add to our
immeasurable grief as we witness the genocide of Palestinian loved ones in
besieged Gaza and a surge in racist attacks, harassment, and repression
against our communities in the diaspora. As the Zionist onslaught in Gaza
has escalated, Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities across Turtle
Island have faced unprecedented levels of violence.

The catastrophic and even deadly impacts of such repression continues to
manifest in terrifying examples of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and
Islamophobic violence, including, but not limited to: the murder of 6-year-old
Palestinian American Wadea Al Fayoume, who was stabbed along with his
mother by their landlord; the racist shooting of Palestinian university
students Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid, and Tahseen Ahmed; and the
attack on an Arab Muslim student at Stanford, who was hospitalized after
being targeted and struck by a car. These disturbing examples of violence
reflect a much larger and alarming sharp increase in hate incidents,
repression of Palestinian content on social media platforms, and increased
government surveillance and domestic policing of Palestinians and FBI visits
to and surveillance of mosques.

The academic repression carried out on our university campuses actively
contributes to the silencing of Palestinian narratives, truth, and free speech
while inflaming a widespread culture of racist demonization. This epistemic
violence is particularly insidious because it denigrates and suppresses forms
of knowledge that are already disempowered, further enabling the Israeli
genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as well as targeted assaults on our
communities across Turtle Island.

Toward a Feminist Praxis for Academic Freedom

Our feminist praxis for academic freedom foregrounds the idea that
education is the practice of liberation and is anchored in rebellion as a
communal process. Holding the experiential truth of the multiple ways that
women of color have been, and continue to be, silenced and devalued in the
academy, we foreground radical care as an antidote to repressive, racist,
discriminatory, and anti-intellectual measures.

Our feminist praxis for academic freedom works against the weaponization of
“safety” and other feminist and liberatory ideals on university campuses and
beyond. We call out the Zionist, racist, and white supremacist weaponization
of “safety” and “fear” as a guise for silencing, repressing, and erasing us. We
know that “when colonizers talk about ‘security,’ they are in fact talking about
‘violence.’” Coupled with the weaponization of antisemitism, this colonial,
Eurocentric concept of “safety” has been used to silence pro-Palestinian
speech in the service of the “comfort” of Zionist students. This repression
will not keep any of us safe; as a collective of anti-Zionist Jewish
organizations has asserted, “investment in state violence is not indicative of
‘care’ for Jewish lives.”

As feminists rooted in anti-colonial work, we know that “we keep us safe”
against state violence, including policing and administrative tactics of
repression. We affirm community accountability models of responding to
state and intimate violences rooted in abolitionist movements led by Black,
Indigenous, racialized, and oppressed peoples.

The idea of “safe spaces” on university campuses and beyond emerged out
of feminist and queer organizing, which agitated for centers and resources
that would enable people to come together to strategize ways to survive the
material impacts of institutional violence collectively. Born out of political
activism, LGBTQ movements focused on taking back the streets in the 1960s
and consciousness-raising sessions characteristic of the women’s
movement in the 1970s, the idea of a “safe space” has always been about
actively forming collective resistance against structural oppression.

Yet in the multicultural neoliberal university, the concept of “safe space” has
been both diluted and co-opted. It has become a method of containment – a
place to keep us silent and confine our organizing. Mangled in the watered-
down concepts of “diversity” and “inclusion,” university-created “safe
spaces” operate as underfunded centers designed to feed the university’s
PR machine. We reject this neoliberal multicultural version of “safety,”
through which the university proposes to prove its concern for students by
offering anesthetized, enclosed, and underfunded “space” for each
“included” group. Such “safe spaces” dilute the term from its original intent
to bring a collective together to transform violent, oppressive structures
actively and instead contain it by focusing on individual rights and a state
security agenda.

Universities in North America have responded to the genocide of Palestinians
in Gaza with presidential statements that are tacitly and explicitly complicit
with genocide. Through deflection tactics, both covert and overt – from
bureaucratic measures meant to stall and shut down discussion of Palestine
to overt punishment of student organizations – our universities engage in
technologies of erasure. Our university administrations have refused to name
Palestine, Palestinians, or anti-Palestinian racism much less the genocide in
Gaza or the ongoing settler colonial violence and military occupation
happening there. Instead, using the colonialist term “Middle East,” they
perpetuate disinformation and diminish the violence that Palestinians are
experiencing in Palestine and on Turtle Island.

From the genocidal removal of Indigenous Peoples to enable “land grant”
universities and historic investments in the institution of racial chattel slavery
to the gentrifying land grabs of contemporary universities, our universities
have systematically perpetuated settler-colonial technologies. As purveyors
of debt through the mechanism of student loans, universities operate
through the capitalist logic of accumulation. Through their corporate
investors and investments – both in terms of the power of donors to
influence university policies and decisions and as literal real-estate investors
– universities propagate militarization and violence, which are antithetical to
the movements for true liberation that inaugurated the call to actively create
“safe spaces.”

Against this anesthetized and denuded version of “safe space” on campus,
we uphold a feminist praxis of academic liberation rooted in the collective
commitment to building “practical resistance to political and social
repression.”

Calls to Action

The Palestinian Feminist Collective urges fellow academics and educational
institutions to engage in proactive measures to support Palestinian rights and
academic freedom. We propose the following actions:

Advocate for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
Pressure academic institutions and organizations to adopt policies that
eliminate involvement with the settler state’s military, academic, and legal
institutions.
Pressure academic institutions to divest their endowments and investments
from corporations that support Israeli settler-colonialism, militarism, and
apartheid.
Heed the call of PACBI and end all study abroad programs as well as demand
the closure of satellite campuses operating on occupied and stolen
Palestinian land.
Urge institutions to sever ties with study abroad programs in occupied
Palestine.
Urge institutions to sever ties with Zionist lobby groups operating on
university campuses.
Urge institutions to contract divestment-friendly vendors, preferably local
and community-oriented.
Protect and Uphold Academic Freedom and Autonomy
Denounce any form of campus censorship and organize initiatives against it.
Resist external interference and pressure from donors, alumni, corporations,
lobby groups, and government bodies that seek punitive actions for
supporting Palestine and Palestinian liberation.
Protect against wrongful suspension, terminations, or denial of tenure for
advocates of Palestinian liberation.
Refuse the weaponization of safety to repress academic freedom.
Support Palestinian Scholars and Students
Establish dedicated fellowships, scholarships, and funding opportunities
focused on Palestinian scholars, especially those from Gaza.
Promote employment and speaking opportunities for Palestinian scholars
(including virtual engagements).
Facilitate access to global academic resources for Palestinian scholars.
Recognize and Celebrate Palestinian Knowledge and History
Dedicate campus facilities or buildings in honor of Palestinian history and
achievements.
Actively incorporate and highlight Palestinian contributions in academic
citations and research.
Contribute to the rebuilding and development of universities in Gaza through
donations and partnerships.
Resource and initiate Palestinian and Arab Studies departments, centers, and
institutes at your universities
These actions are critical for fostering academic environments of equity,
justice, and freedom while also standing in solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle for liberation and self-determination. By implementing them, we
scholars commit ourselves and our places of learning to meaningfully
nurturing feminist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial models of education.

Resources:

“Scholasticide” – the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of
education
Scholasticide in Gaza – The McGill Daily
Academics have a duty to help stop the ‘educide’ in Gaza
We Can’t Watch Genocide and Do Nothing. Now Is the Time for Renewed
BDS. | Truthout
California Scholars for Academic Freedom
Palestine Legal
Palestinian Feminist Collective
Palestinian Youth Movement
National Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israeli
Institutions
“How to Divest,” American Friends Service Committee tool
Lila Sharif, Amira Jarmakani, Amanda Najib, and Shereen Hindawi-Wyatt on
behalf of the Palestinian Feminist Collective.



Responses:
[53760] [53756] [53762] [53763] [53761] [53749]


53760


Date: April 12, 2024 at 16:23:56
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Palestinian Collective website - Who We are

URL: https://palestinianfeministcollective.org







"Who We are
The Palestinian Feminist Collective (PFC) is a body of Palestinian/Arab
feminists primarily located on Turtle Island (the unceded lands known as
North America).

We are an intergenerational collective of activists, organizers, practitioners,
creators, thinkers, artists, scholars, healers, water and land protectors, life-
givers, and life-sustainers. We are committed to achieving Palestinian social
and political liberation by confronting systemic gendered, sexual, and
colonial violence, oppression, and dispossession.

Through an anti-colonial approach, we center the political urgency of the
Palestinian struggle. We resist the normalization of Zionist violence,
oppression, and hegemony in all aspects of public and private life, including
within feminist spaces. Our decolonial work centers a set of life-affirming
principles and practices to redefine movement cultures that are rooted in
transformative justice, healing, and creation. We are inspired by and borrow
from past and present Palestinian, Arab, Black, Indigenous, and Third World
feminist movements, thought and practice. We advance Palestinian feminism
as a liberatory philosophy and practice necessary to create the world we
want to live in."


Responses:
None


53756


Date: April 12, 2024 at 10:16:35
From: Redhart, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Mondoweiss: questionable/propaganda/poor sourcing/misinfo

URL: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/mondoweiss/


Overall, we rate Mondoweiss as Left Biased and
Questionable due to the blending of opinion with news,
the promotion of pro-Palestinian and anti-zionist
propaganda, occasional reliance on poor sources, and
hate group designation by third-party pro-Israel
advocates.
Detailed Report
Reasoning: Propaganda, Hate Group, Misinformation
Bias Rating: LEFT
Factual Reporting: MIXED
Country: USA
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rating: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Website
Traffic/Popularity: Medium Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: LOW CREDIBILITY

History
Mondoweiss, established in 2006 by journalist Philip
Weiss and later co-edited with Adam Horowitz, operates
under the Center for Economic Research and Social
Change. Initially part of The New York Observer’s
website, it became independent in 2007. Mondoweiss
identifies itself as a news website covering American
foreign policy in the Middle East, mainly from a
progressive Jewish perspective. The founder, Weiss, is
a self-described progressive and anti-Zionist.

Read our profile on the United States government and
media.

Funded by / Ownership
The website is a part of The Center for Economic
Research and Social Change, a 501(c)(3) organization.
It has been described as a socialist advocacy
organization by Influence Watch, a right-leaning group.
Mondoweiss has also received funding from sources such
as Ron Unz, who has been labeled antisemitic by the ADL
and frequently publishes misinformation. Revenue
streams include advertising, donations, and merchandise
sales through an online store.

Analysis / Bias
Mondoweiss exhibits a strong pro-Palestinian bias and
is extremely critical of the Israeli government. It
frequently publishes content that is negative toward
Israeli policies and actions, often portraying them in
a highly critical light. For example, the article
“Genocide in service of Nakba 2023” is emotionally
loaded and one-sided against the Israeli government due
to its use of highly charged language and its singular
focus on alleged atrocities committed by Israel without
providing context or perspectives from the Israeli
side. The piece characterizes the situation as a
“genocidal war on Gaza” aimed at “depopulation and
ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” in “brutal
but deliberate stages.” It accuses the Israeli
government of engaging in “widespread destruction and
industrial-scale slaughter,” cutting off essential
supplies like water and food and targeting civilian
areas for destruction. The article alleges that these
actions are part of a strategy by Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu to achieve “complete forced
displacement” of Palestinians, describing this as
“ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” used as a means to an
end​. This piece is a one-sided opinion by the author.

In another article Massacre: Israel kills over 500
Palestinians in Gaza hospital attack, they promote the
unproven claim that Israel bombed the hospital. While
it is not conclusive as of this date who bombed the
hospital, evidence suggests it was an errant rocket. In
the article, they state: “Israel denied responsibility
and claimed that the explosion was the result of an
errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) missile without
offering evidence. However, this is exactly what
Mondoweiss did with this statement: “The Israeli
military bombed the Anglican-run al-Ahli Baptist
Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday massacring hundreds of
people.” Again, there was no evidence at the time of
report and today it is still inconclusive.

Further, the site’s founder’s anti-Zionist stance is
reflected in the content, with articles often
presenting a one-sided view of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. The ADL has categorized Mondoweiss as a hate
group promoting antisemitism. The site has been accused
of presenting misleading information and promoting a
narrative of “holocaust inversion,” suggesting that
Israelis are committing atrocities akin to the
Holocaust against Palestinians. This view is nearly
universally considered antisemitic as it minimizes the
atrocities committed by the Nazis.

Editorially, most articles favor a progressive left
perspective such as this The socialist path forward and
BDS vs. the lie of ‘woke Zionism’. While most stories
are rooted in fact, the stories often omit important
context that can paint a misleading picture
(propaganda) of the situation. Finally, while
Mondoweiss typically sources its news stories, it
sometimes relies on the low factual Quds News, such as
in this story. Israel praises ‘exceptionally
restrained’ protests in Gaza after killing 4
Palestinians, three of them teenagers.


Responses:
[53762] [53763] [53761]


53762


Date: April 12, 2024 at 17:04:32
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: been described as socialist by Influence Watch, a right-leaning group

URL: https://mondoweiss.net/about-mondoweiss/


"It has been described as a socialist advocacy
organization by Influence Watch, a right-leaning group. "


wow, redhart. Feeling a little desperate today?

"Mondoweiss has also received funding from sources such
as Ron Unz, who has been labeled antisemitic by the ADL
and frequently publishes misinformation."


Exactly what 'misinformation'?

"Revenue streams include advertising, donations, and merchandise
sales through an online store."


OMG

The rest of redhart's post only gives adds credibility to Philip Weiss' work...

from Mondoweiss.net:

About Mondoweiss

Mondoweiss is an independent website that informs readers about
developments in Israel/Palestine and related U.S. foreign policy. We provide
news and analysis that is unavailable through mainstream media regarding
the struggle for Palestinian human rights.

Founded in 2006 as a personal blog of journalist Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss
grew inside the progressive Jewish community and has become a critical
resource for the movement for justice for Palestinians. We continue to follow
debates over the role of Israel and nationalism in Jewish American life while
seeking to reflect a diverse community of views on issues of international
importance. We recognize that Jewish voices are often prioritized in
discussions of Israel and seek to challenge that dynamic by bringing a
universalist focus to an issue that is commonly dominated by narrow points
of view.

We publish original on-the-ground reporting, analysis by scholars, and
personal stories. As the site has grown, we have developed a large group of
regular contributors who are committed to high journalistic standards of
documentable evidence and reliable sourcing.

Mondoweiss editors select content for the site based on our shared
commitment to news professionalism and justice for Palestinians. We do not
have a single editorial position on specific issues but aim to build a diverse
online community, with a special focus on viewpoints generally ignored by
large media outlets. Writing published on Mondoweiss represents the views
of its authors and does not necessarily represent the site’s or its editors’
opinions.

Mondoweiss maintains complete editorial independence from donors and
financial supporters, who have no influence on the direction or content of our
reporting."








Responses:
[53763]


53763


Date: April 12, 2024 at 17:23:16
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: more on 'Influence Watch' ... what a reliable source!

URL: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/influence-watch/


according to redhart's beloved mediabiasfactcheck.com:

"Capital Research Center owns Influence Watch, which in turn is funded
through donations. Some of their top donors are Exxon-Mobil, Koch
Industries, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. “CRC’s president is
Scott Walter, who took office in 2016. A philanthropic consultant and former
editor of publications released by the Philanthropy Roundtable and American
Enterprise Institute.”

Influence Watch has also been directly funded by the Bradley Foundation
and the John William Pope Foundation. The common theme among all
donors is conservative political affiliation and ties to the fossil fuel industry."

wow, Bullseye, redhart!


Responses:
None


53761


Date: April 12, 2024 at 16:53:27
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: WARNING, mediabiastfactcheck: Amateur, prone to bias, inconsistencies

URL: Columbia Journalism Review


The armchair academics
Amateur attempts at such tools already exist, and have found plenty of fans.
Google “media bias,” and you’ll find Media Bias/Fact Check, run by armchair
media analyst Dave Van Zandt. The site’s methodology is simple: Van Zandt
and his team rate each outlet from 0 to 10 on the categories of biased
wording and headlines, factuality and sourcing, story choices (“does the
source report news from both sides”), and political affiliation.
A similar effort is “The Media Bias Chart,” or simply, “The Chart.” Created by
Colorado patent attorney Vanessa Otero, the chart has gone through several
methodological iterations, but currently is based on her evaluation of outlets’
stories on dimensions of veracity, fairness, and expression.

Both efforts suffer from the very problem they’re trying to address: Their
subjective assessments leave room for human biases, or even simple
inconsistencies, to creep in. Compared to Gentzkow and Shapiro, the five to
20 stories typically judged on these sites represent but a drop of mainstream
news outlets’ production.


Responses:
None


53749


Date: April 11, 2024 at 19:49:53
From: mitra, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: Palestinian Feminist Collective condemns sophicide &...



As awful as this story and the intent of destruction, I
could not but think what the attitude of Hamas would be
had they, when they had the upper hand.

Would Hamas be kinder to hospitals than the people they
put in them?

Would Hamas allow Hebrew Universities free from bombing
when they've murdered student age young?

And an article on this war is inadequate without
mentioning that Hamas language toward Israelis suggests
they would, if possible, be even worse towards them as
has been done, and Hamas have promoted this hate for
almost 40 years.

This is a miserable situation and I hope Chas is right,
that in another 30 years they may all work together for
common goals.


Responses:
None


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