COLONIALISM

MATT HOH—The absurdity and the obscenity of being able to be this close to 20,000 murdered children, their bodies “prophetic voices from under the rubble” as a colleague called them, is difficult to accept.

The grotesque horror of a school field trip arriving at this location from two hours away to watch the mass slaughter from an observation deck was a shock I am overwhelmed by. The first wave of boys pumped celebratory firsts and thrust middle fingers upon their sight of Gaza.

There were no warplanes or drones visible. The school kids and other audience members of a genocide who gawked and put money into a telescope left disappointed as they saw no bombs or missiles, no artillery or tank fire. There were no blast waves from controlled demolitions to wash over them, and the numbers of smoke pillars from smoldering and cratered homes and schools were in the single digits, their fires not vigorous enough to be smelled. It must have been underwhelming and a let down; not much to boast about or revel in on the school bus ride home.

HALA AHMED—The third massacre relates to my cousin Mishaal Hamdouna, which took place in March 2024, the sixth month of the war, specifically on March 1, 2024. At this time, my family and I were displaced in the middle area of Gaza Strip, Deir Al-Balah, when we received a phone call informing us of a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip. The victims included my cousin, his wife, their five sons, their wives, and children, as well as his three daughters and their children, totaling 22 martyrs. The massacres continued one after another, with close family members lost, and we couldn’t bury them or bid them farewell. The bombing was severe at that time in the north, particularly in the Beit Lahia area. The family had gathered together to hold a mourning ceremony after the martyrdom of their son Nasim two days earlier in the Flour Massacre, also known as the Nabulsi Massacre, which claimed 150 lives and left 800 wounded on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

DEMOCRACY NOW!—We are joined by U.N. special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, who says Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Facing accusations of antisemitism from Israeli and U.S. officials, Albanese is in New York to present her report, titled “Genocide as colonial erasure,” which finds that Israel’s genocide is founded on “ideological hatred” and “dehumanization” and “enabled through the various organs of the state,” and recommends that Israel be unseated from the United Nations over its conduct. She argues that Israel’s attacks on U.N. employees, including the killings of at least 230 U.N. staff in Gaza, its flagrant violations of U.N. resolutions and international law and the unique status of “the first settler-colonial genocide to be ever litigated before [an international] court” justify this measure. Israel’s continued impunity, Albanese warns, “is the nail in the coffin of the U.N. Charter.”

EDITOR—While the establishment media downplays the “collective Biden”s horrific decision to escalate even further in the West’s war against Russia, millions of people around the globe are well aware that this may indeed be the start of WW3, and that the population of the United States better communicate their concern to Trump in unrqivocal ways if the world is to avoid a nuclear cataclysm.

EDITOR—Various correspondents debunk the “Amsterdam pogrom” story pushed by major Western media, including the BBC, the New York Times, SkyNews, CNN, and others.