#landtheft — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #landtheft, aggregated by home.social.
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Pure evil! #Genocide, #landTheft, #dehumanization, #humanRightsViolations, #settlerviolence #colonialViolence - words that @cbcnews stumbles over in its reporting to normalize #Israeli's murderous regime.
#Palestine #Palestinians #FreePalestine
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/defence-minister-israel-katz-palestinians-gaza-9.7330886
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#ApartheidIsrael's Savage Defence Minister Seeks #IlSulceOfOrange's Support for Plans to Expel #Palestinians From
#Gaza -
The #NetanyahuAdministration continues with policies of #LandTheft and #EthnicCleansing.
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Zionism is all bad!
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Israeli forces block activists from reaching besieged Qusra families
"About 15 Palestinians, including two children, have been trapped in three homes in Qusra for nearly a week as settlers block access to the area.
Israeli forces have prevented Israeli and foreign activists from reaching Palestinian families whose homes have been surrounded by settlers for nearly a week in the occupied West Bank town of Qusra, south of Nablus.
The activists were trying to deliver food and water to three homes in the Ras al-Ain area on Friday, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa."
#BoycottIsrael #CrimesAgainstHumanity #LandTheft #Genocide #News #Gaza #Palestine #HumanRights #Activism
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The Israeli military is carting away millions of tonnes of rubble – including from cemeteries and known locations of human remains – in what rights groups say is an effort to erase war crimes evidence.
"Israel is carrying out a massive, organised operation to crush, mix and transport millions of tonnes of rubble out of the Gaza Strip, according to human rights groups and monitors.
The Israeli military’s systematic reshaping of the urban landscape comes against a backdrop of a staggering human toll, with at least 73,387 Palestinians – mostly children and women – killed since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.
This removal of rubble could be an attempt at demographic engineering and erasing evidence of the genocide, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said, in a report entitled Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment."
#BoycottIsrael #CrimesAgainstHumanity #LandTheft #HumanRights #News #Gaza #Palestine #Activism
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Israeli militants besiege two Palestinian families in their West Bank homes
"Settlers and soldiers cut off water and electricity to homes, and block medical care in campaign of terror.
Israeli militants have besieged two Palestinian families in their homes since the weekend, aiming to take over their properties in the West Bank village of Qusra through a campaign of terror.
A group of settlers and soldiers set up a tent outside the home of Yousef Hassan on Sunday afternoon, trapping him inside with his wife and two young daughters.
The Israeli men gathered just metres away from the spot where 28-year-old Amir Moatasem Odeh was killed by a settler in March. Another attacker stabbed his father. No one has been arrested over the murder and assault."
#BoycottIsrael #CrimesAgainstHumanity #LandTheft #HumanRights #News #Gaza #Palestine #Activism
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Israeli government accused of complicity as illegal settlers demolish Jericho homes
"Jericho, occupied West Bank – Where Palestinian homes once stood among orchards and swimming pools on the southwestern edge of Jericho, there is now only flattened earth.
Somewhere beneath the packed dirt lie entire houses, dumped into pits and smoothed over. Only a few severed water pipes hint that anyone ever lived here – that, and the piles of rubble yet to be buried by an Israeli settler’s excavator.
“Why do you hide the crime you’re committing?” asked Khalil al-Razim, 60, a Jerusalemite who has spent his summers on a plot of land here in the area of Ein al-Duyuk for more than a decade.
Beside al-Razim’s house, a pile of rubble more than two metres high blocks the entrance to the home of his neighbour, Mohammad Salah. Next to the pile, Salah stood with one of his four children. He now climbs his own fence to reach his house.
Six months earlier in February, during the first settler attack to tear through the area – with homes demolished and damaged, and residents attacked and robbed – a settler arrived with a bulldozer and began demolishing fences and houses in the neighbourhood, including parts of Salah’s home. This summer, the same work resumed under the guise of “clearing” the ruins those earlier attacks had left behind – and in the process, the Israeli excavator dumped piles of rubble in front of Salah’s home"
The israelis wont be happy until they've slaughtered everyone and destroyed everything on Earth's holiest sites #IsraelIsATerroristState #PureEvil
#BoycottIsrael #Desecration #LandTheft #News #Gaza #Palestine #HumanRights #Activism #CrimesAgainstHumanity
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US Congressman Ro Khanna recently said: "Young people under 50... they have turned on Israel."
Just want to let the Congressman know that a lot of young people over 50 have also turned on Israel, and we're never turning back!
Pew Research: Across 36 countries, a median of 67% of adults have an unfavorable view of Israel.
In the U.S., 83% of liberals and 37% of conservatives have an unfavorable view of the country.#Israel #Genocide #WarCrimes #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Apartheid #LandTheft
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Israel announces tender for 627 illegal settler units in occupied West Bank
"New illegal settlement tender in West Bank deepens Israeli efforts to sever Palestinian ties to Jerusalem, officials warn.
Israeli authorities have issued a tender for 627 new housing units in the Kochav Yaakov settlement in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC).
The Israel Land Authority on Thursday published the tender for the project, which will be built on land in the Ramallah and al-Bireh governorate, the commission said on Saturday."
#BoycottIsrael #CrimesAgainstHumanity #LandTheft #HumanRights #News #Gaza #Palestine #Activism
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Is there any reason I should not assume that candidates taking #AIPAC money are people who either directly or indirectly support #EthnicCleansing and #LandTheft as long as it's by an "ally"?
Does AIPAC oppose any of the abuses by the Netanyahu Adminsitration? Do they require anything but silence on IDF and West Bank Settler abuses from the candiates they support?
Aipac-linked Super Pacs spend millions in California to thwart progressive candidate
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/06/aipac-super-pacs-spend-millions-california?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other -
According to Haaretz, the ground barrier being constructed by the IOF inside the Gaza Strip is advancing beyond the officially designated Yellow Line, which was established under the ceasefire as the separation line between areas controlled by the IOF and Hamas. Recent satellite imagery reportedly shows that what was previously a deviation of around 180 meters has expanded to approximately 400 meters near Salah al-Din Road in Khan Yunis and up to 1,300 meters at one point in Rafah. The barrier, consisting mainly of earthen berms and trenches, reportedly extends in some areas to the so-called Orange Line, entering territory that was officially designated as remaining under Hamas control. Haaretz reports that this expansion is part of a broader effort to strengthen IOF control over the Strip. While the Yellow Line announced in October 2025 placed roughly 53% of Gaza under IOF control, subsequent westward shifts of the boundary, the establishment of the Orange Line, and movement restrictions imposed on humanitarian organizations have reportedly expanded IOF influence to approximately 65% of the Gaza Strip.
#Israel #Gaza #Occupation #EthnicCleansing #LandTheft #Palestine #CeasefireScam #Genocide
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‘Sip your coffee while watching the sunrise’: How Israel is colonizing the West Bank by selling Palestinian land to Jewish Americans.
In mid-May, protesters gathered outside a synagogue in Brooklyn to demonstrate against a real estate expo being held inside. The properties advertised for sale were not located in New York City, but in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the target clientele was members of the Jewish American community.
#Palestine #WestBank #Occupation #LandTheft #Israel #US #USpol #WestAsia #Apartheid
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"If I don't steal it, then somebody else is gonna steal it"
- Zionists proverb
Israeli journalist Yossi Reiner announced that he had moved with his wife and two children from the city of Beit Shemesh to an isolated settlement outpost in the Jordan Valley, revealing that he had obtained guns in preparation for living near a Palestinian village.
He confirmed that he was living in buildings abandoned by their Palestinian owners, presenting the seizure of land and living under armed protection as an “ideological sacrifice” that he seeks to instill in his children.
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The #landtheft continues - but then, the silence from governments is tacit endorsement as far as the #NetanyahuAdministration is concerned.
(Maybe speaking out would imperil some other country's goals of seizing territory they want?)
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Nanny State: Joshua Rosenberg on the UK Palestine Action ban and the politics of criminalising dissent!
Joshua Rosenberg’s attack on Palestine Action, published yesterday in the Law Society Gazette, gets one thing badly wrong from the start: it treats the state’s label as if it were the law itself. If the UK government calls disruptive protest “terrorism,” that does not make it so. The real legal question is whether the conduct fits the statute, whether the response is proportionate, and whether terrorism law is being stretched to protect political power rather than the public.¹
The label is not the law
Rosenberg’s article relies on a simple but powerful move: call the group dangerous, then present the ban as self-justifying. That is not legal analysis. It is a conclusion dressed up as common sense.
The state already has ordinary criminal offences for damage, trespass, obstruction, and conspiracy. What needs justification is the leap from protest-related wrongdoing to terrorism law.²
Gaza is the moral centre
The Gaza context is not background noise. It is the reason many people feel so strongly about these protests.
The International Court of Justice has indicated provisional measures in the genocide case and later reaffirmed them. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant on allegations including starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity.³ UN experts have also warned that arms transfers to Israel that may be used in Gaza are likely to violate international humanitarian law and should stop immediately.⁴
That does not mean UK law currently permits criminal damage as a defence. It does not. But, it does mean the law should be honest about the moral urgency behind the protest instead of flattening it into vandalism.⁵
Rosenberg’s claimTRUTHAHOLICS rebuttalThe ban makes us all safer.That is a policy conclusion, not a legal proof. The state must still justify why terrorism law, rather than ordinary criminal offences, is necessary and proportionate.²Palestine Action’s conduct is basically terroristic.The law distinguishes criminal damage, obstruction, protest, and terrorism. Labels do not substitute for proof.³Their rhetoric shows dangerous intent.Political rhetoric is not the same as legal intent. Protest language can be radical without meeting the statutory threshold for terrorism or proscription.⁴The courts are being too lenient on protestors.The opposite concern is stronger: anti-war and climate protest is increasingly met with severe framing, heavy sentencing, and narrowed lawful-excuse arguments.⁵Protecting the public requires banning them.Public protection is legitimate, but it does not follow that every disruptive protest must be met with terror law. Ordinary criminal law already exists for damage and obstruction.⁶Their tactics make democracy stronger only for extremists.Disruptive direct action has a long democratic pedigree, including abolition, the suffragettes, and anti-apartheid boycott campaigns.⁷Direct action has a democratic pedigree
Rosenberg’s article also misses a basic historical truth: direct action has always played a major role in democratic reform. The abolition of slavery did not happen because people politely waited. The suffragettes did not win votes by being “reasonable” in the narrow, state-approved sense. Trade union and civil-rights movements, too, relied on pressure, disruption, and refusal.⁶
The same is true of the campaign to isolate apartheid South Africa, where boycotts, divestment, and sanctions helped force a political reckoning. That history matters because it shows that disruptive action is not automatically anti-democratic. Sometimes it is the route by which democracy forces power to listen.⁷ The idea that protest is only acceptable when it does not disrupt anything is not a principle of freedom; it is a principle of managed dissent.⁸
The double standard
The argument, developed in earlier Truthaholics posts, is that the UK state increasingly punishes anti-war dissent while shielding power-aligned interests.⁹ That concern becomes sharper when compared with the way climate protest and Just Stop Oil are usually charged under ordinary offences like criminal damage or obstruction, while anti-war direct action is pushed toward the language of extremism and terror.¹⁰
That is not consistency. It is selective severity.
HRA 1998 and ECHR rights
The Human Rights Act 1998 brings Convention rights into domestic law, especially Articles 10 and 11 on expression and peaceful assembly.¹¹ Those rights are qualified, so proportionality matters. In protest cases, courts have sometimes had to ask whether conviction is a justified interference with those rights.¹²
But this is where the current doctrine is uneven. After DPP v Ziegler, Article 10 and 11 analysis matters in some protest settings, especially where the offence itself turns on obstruction and the interference is non-violent.¹³ By contrast, the Court of Appeal’s 2024 criminal-damage ruling sharply narrows the room for using beliefs, urgency, or moral importance as a lawful excuse.¹⁴
That creates a real tension. The law recognises that disruptive protest can still fall within Convention protection, but it often refuses to let that protection do any serious work where criminal damage is concerned. A serious legal system should at least admit that this is a narrowing choice, not a neutral inevitability.¹⁵
What should change
A better legal approach would not create a blanket excuse for criminal damage. It would simply stop the state from using terrorism law where ordinary criminal law is enough. It would also force the system to distinguish properly between vandalism, civil disobedience, and genuine terrorism.¹⁶
That is the real issue Rosenberg’s article avoids. It assumes the conclusion it wants to prove: that state suppression equals public safety. But the legal and moral picture is more complicated than that.
Bottom line
If the law is to remain credible, it must be able to distinguish between protest, criminal damage, and terror. Rosenberg’s article blurs those lines. The law should not.
If the law is to retain any credibility, it must stop confusing protest with terror and inconvenience with danger. Palestine Action may be controversial and unlawful, but that is not the same as terrorism. The real scandal is not that people are protesting Gaza too loudly; it is that the state is reaching for the most draconian label available to protect itself from accountability. That is not the rule of law. It is the rule of power.
When a state calls dissent “terrorism” to protect its own complicity, the problem is no longer the protest movement — it is the political system itself.
Footnotes
- Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law No 1 of 2023; Terrorism Act 2000, s 1.
- Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law No 1 of 2023; Criminal Damage Act 1971, ss 1 and 5.
- ICJ, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v Israel), Provisional Measures Order (26 January 2024); ICC, Situation in the State of Palestine (21 November 2024).
- OHCHR, ‘Arms exports to Israel must stop immediately: UN experts’ (23 February 2024).
- Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law No 1 of 2023; Criminal Damage Act 1971, s 5(2)(a).
- Truthaholics, ‘An Exploration of Arguable Routes of Appeal against the Outrageous Filton Trial Sentences & Criminalisation of Direct Action as Terrorism!’ (13 June 2026).
- Truthaholics, ‘Drawing the Line: Why the Palestine Action Case Matters for the Future of British Dissent & Direct Action!’ (15 June 2026).
- Truthaholics, ‘Asymmetry of UK State Impunity: Great Israeli Real Estate Event & the Constitutional Case Against Palestine Action Proscription!’ (16 June 2026).
- Truthaholics, ‘Asymmetry of UK State Impunity …’; Truthaholics, ‘Criminalising Direct Action? Why the UK Supreme Court Should Reverse the Court of Appeal!’ (15 June 2026).
- The Guardian, ‘Climate protesters in England and Wales lose criminal damage defence’ (18 March 2024).
- Human Rights Act 1998, ss 2–3, 6; European Convention on Human Rights, arts 10, 11.
- DPP v Ziegler UKSC 23.
- ibid.
- Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law No 1 of 2023.
- Human Rights Act 1998, s 3; DPP v Ziegler; Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law No 1 of 2023.
- Attorney General’s Reference on a Point of Law No 1 of 2023; Terrorism Act 2000, s 1.
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Your tax dollars at work here.
We know that not only does the UK government directly send money and support the Colonialism - they also support via GitAid to illegal settlements and IDF activity.
Here we have the IDF stealing land, Land that does not belong to them. Land that belongs to other people. People they have conveniently pushed out elswhere. They have now set up a base - after deficating and graffiting and soiling the residents homes they now need a base. Perhaps they've soiled up all the homes and knocked down others - just for the hell of it.
All supported with your tax dollars. and now by the UK justice system which now attributes the smashing of a toilet with "terrorism"! So much Israeli control!!
#israel #apartheid #landtheft #oslo #westbank #genocide #ethnicCleasing #palestine
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Saddened that we are apparently not allowed to criticize DOUCMENTED #StateSponsored #violence and #landtheft in the case of Israel, but #Islamophobic commentary is just fine.
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"Tellingly, the Davos slideshow just briefly mentioned basic services like water, electricity, and sewage for Palestinians in war-decimated Gaza. Kushner’s presentation mentions Palestinians in the context of “demilitarization principles,” claiming this process will be “led by Palestinians, internationally verified.” The Palestinian public were not involved, not even consulted, in the drafting of these visions. Almost every decision about where they will live, how they will move, and what kind of life they may rebuild was made without them. “From the private sector,” Kushner added, “there will be amazing investment opportunities.”
The reality on the ground in Gaza could not be further removed from these fantasies. The Master Plan does not address how to remove the estimated thousands of tons of unexploded ordnance embedded across the territory or the 61 million metric tons of debris that the U.N. estimates must be cleared before Gaza can begin rebuilding for the long term. Some 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings are destroyed or damaged, forcing much of the population to live in makeshift tents. The territory’s drinkable water is polluted, its agricultural sector all but wiped out. There are thousands of amputees in need of prosthetics and rehabilitation, thousands with permanent hearing damage, thousands of burn cases, and thousands requiring specialist treatment outside Gaza who are unable to leave.
(...)
Seven months into the cease-fire that went into effect in October, violence is still a daily reality. “We’ve gone from a hundred people killed a day to a few killed a day,” she said, “which is considered okay.” Drones menace the remaining buildings. Warships advance suddenly toward the shore without warning."https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/the-board-of-peaces-plot-to-eliminate-gaza.html
#Palestine #Israel #Genocide #StateTerrorism #SettlerColonialism #LandTheft #LandGrabbing #Trump #BoardOfPeace #Imperialism
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Wouldn't "Israel’s defence minister says large-scale Palestinian #EVICTION from Gaza will go ahead" be more accurate?
Israel’s defence minister says large-scale Palestinian migration from Gaza will go ahead
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/28/israels-defence-minister-says-large-scale-palestinian-migration-from-gaza-will-go-ahead?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other#NetanyahuAdministration #EthnicCleansing #CrimesAgainstHumanity #Palestine #LandTheft
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Here we go again: Western mass media justifying state terrorism and genocide, not to mention the erasure of a past grounded on land theft and settler colonialism...
"For my new book “How to Sell a Genocide: The Media’s Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza,” I attempt to demonstrate, beyond a reasonable doubt, that U.S. media coverage of the war on Gaza was one-sided, racist, dehumanizing, and often veered into outright incitement.
I examined over 12,000 articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, Politico, Axios, USA Today, and The Associated Press, along with 5,000 TV segments that aired on CNN and MSNBC. The focus is on center-left media outlets influential with the Biden administration during the first year of the conflict — with an emphasis on the first few months, when Israel firmly established its narrative justifying the genocide, rendering mass death inevitable.
Here are seven statistical findings that prove the U.S. media’s bias against Palestinians.
Israel’s “Right to Defend Itself”
The media’s penchant for invoking a nation’s “right to defend itself,” typically followed by the rationalization of mass civilian killing, was reserved almost exclusively for Israel. On CNN and MSNBC, guests, anchors, and reporters mentioned the right to self-defense for Israel 94 times more than they did for Palestinians. In print media, Israel was afforded this right over 100 times more frequently than Palestinians in Gaza."
https://theintercept.com/2026/05/12/gaza-media-coverage-israel-bias/
#Palestine #Gaza #Israel #StateTerrorism #Propaganda #Ideology #News #Media #USA #Journalism #Genocide #LandTheft
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Somehow I don't think a singing competition is going to swing the World back into supporting Israel...
#FreePalestine #WestBank #Genocide #LandTheft #Colonialism #Zionism #Israel #Eurovision
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Good news - The sanctions against Albanese for highlighting the #NetanyahuAdministration #EthnicCleansing and #LandTheft in #Gaza and the #WestBank were an appalling abuse of power by #MarcoRubio and the #47Adminstration.
Federal judge blocks US sanctions against UN expert on occupied Palestinian territories
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/13/un-francesca-albanese-sanctions?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other -
Arbitrage for deals that favour Hydra’s Evil Corps. and its finance of fascist cults to expropriate other’s resources, at the threat of annihilation, has no future! Why would the #UK and #Europe be safe from Nationalist RICO and International racketeering? The war on indigenous people has been raging for over 2000 years. The limits of it might have finally been reached given too few think they can continue to turn Nations into economic black holes and toxic blood and bone soaked rubble. Deregulation favours the corruption of a criminal mob that profit from a programme of mass destruction just to accumulate obscene amounts of wealth and power. #lakotalaw #blackhillsmining #landtheft #ecocide #resourcetheft #climatechaos #crimeisanouroboros https://action.lakotalaw.org/action/black-hills-mining?ms=ea&utm_source=ea&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syda&utm_content=piclink&sourceid=1042767&contactdata=8mqnvYiJgItMipz2Ha4FVbbJSq+7n632n%2flZ17TliQ1IhAV9W0qULhh9EmJw0qK3YDcNqcNJ071FImS4G9%2fkiDSEuBjBOZqsTPcGm9MR33Q0DYKqTyHfEfhj2Jb3Ll9fyaVc2dhud6nMoYldqrhhW3zjSq6YR+Tei1M9mumW9Wo%3d&emci=02d8e80a-4747-f111-8ef2-000d3a14b640&emdi=7f71e6c9-4b47-f111-8ef2-000d3a14b640&ceid=2927377
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"Two and a half years after 7 October 2023, most of the Gaza Strip – cities, refugee camps, schools, universities, mosques, the health infrastructure, agriculture, wells and the soil itself – has been destroyed and made toxic by bombs, artillery, tank shells and sappers. The most systematic destruction was caused by D9 bulldozers made by the US company Caterpillar. These giant armoured machines stabbed their blades into the ground, churning up fields, felling orchards, flattening homes, tearing through roads and ploughing through cemeteries. The tide of destruction flowed inwards from Gaza’s perimeter fences, pushing Palestinians into enclaves referred to by the Israeli army as ‘safe areas’ and ‘humanitarian zones’, though they were never safe or humane. These overcrowded coastal sites, such as al-Mawasi, with its barren sand dunes, were without housing, healthcare or other services, and were continuously bombed from the air and attacked on the ground. The bulldozers turned the agriculturally rich land of eastern Gaza into a monochrome desert of crushed grey cement mixed with the area’s yellowish soil. Entire cities such as Rafah, towns such as Beit Hanoun and refugee camps such as Jabalia were erased."
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n07/eyal-weizman/all-they-will-find-is-sand
#Palestine #Gaza #Israel #Genocide #SettlerColonialism #LANDTHEFT #Zionism
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#Palestine conference canceled by #USM over speaker’s sanctions has new location
The academic discussion called the ‘#ConsequenceOfPalestine’ will take place at #FirstParishCongregationalChurch in #GorhamME
by Riley Board, February 26, 2026
"A conference on Palestine scheduled for Saturday has found a new venue after the University of Southern Maine said it would no longer sponsor the event because one of the planned speakers is subject to sanctions by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
"The 'Consequence of Palestine' event will now be hosted at the First Parish Congregational Church in Gorham, and is scheduled to proceed on the same date, organizers with the #MaineCoalitionForPalestine and #MaineVoicesForPalestinianRights announced Thursday.
"University officials told organizers late last week they could no longer use Hannaford Hall on the USM’s Portland campus for the event after learning that speaker #FrancescaAlbanese is on the Office of Foreign Assets Controls’ #SanctionsLlist.
"#Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on #HumanRights in the #OccupiedPalestinianTerritories, was slapped with sanctions in July after she wrote letters to several major American businesses, telling them she planned to name them in a U.N. report for contributing to human rights violations by #Israel; the #StateDepartment called the letters campaigns of political and #EconomicWarfare. U.S. businesses and entities are prohibited from doing business with Albanese.
"Albanese was scheduled to speak at the conference remotely, and organizers said they received guidance that her participation was permitted so long as they did not engage in any financial transaction with her or offer an honorarium for her participation.
"Organizers also say they offered to remove Albanese from the schedule, but the university said it still could not host the event because it needed, 'time to assess the risk and put in place measures to ensure compliance with all federal and state laws and university policies.'
"More than 300 people had registered for the event as of Tuesday.
"Albanese is still slated to speak at the conference, an organizer confirmed. The USM Department of Criminology and Sociology, previously a co-sponsor of the event, is no longer involved."
Archived version:
https://archive.md/8VwxN#MainePol #Capitulation #USPol #Fascism #Authoritarianism #IsraeliWarCrimes #USWarCrimes #FreeGaza #Gaza #GazaGenocide #LandTheft #Colonialism #FreePalestine #BibiIsAWarCriminal #MaineVoicesForPeace
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Make no mistake, #Zionism is #political #conquest, not a #religious #crusade.
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A wake-up call for #WhiteAmericans
The deaths of #ReneeGood and #AlexPretti are forcing white people to face hard truths about power and violence
By Chauncey DeVega, Senior Writer, February 1, 2026
"None of what we have seen over the past few weeks — not the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis at the hands of federal officers, the seizure of children by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, the callous disregard of civil rights and liberties from an increasingly authoritarian administration — is supposed to be happening in America. But it is.
"American citizens are being arrested and brutalized for exercising their constitutional rights — recording ICE, standing nearby or simply being the 'wrong' color in the wrong place. The Trump administration has labeled these Americans 'domestic terrorists,' claiming they posed existential threats to heavily armed federal agents, despite clear video evidence to the contrary. Immigrants are hiding, afraid to go outside. Entire neighborhoods and communities are under siege. Even though it’s only January, at least eight people have died from their encounters with ICE.
"The #CognitiveDissonance is dizzying. #Disorientation is one of the #authoritarian leader’s most powerful weapons.
"Hours after Pretti was killed on Jan. 24, hundreds of people protested near the site in Minneapolis where he died. There, an older white woman told a reporter that 'the government is not supposed to be doing these horrible things to the American people. It is unbelievable. This is something like Nazi Germany or Russia.'
"I yelled at the television. 'What d**n country do you live in?'
"But her sentiments are common among people who are gathering at protests, community meetings and town halls all across the country.
"Like many other white Americans, and too many Black and brown Americans, she seemed willfully ignorant of her own country’s history, which includes #genocide and #LandTheft against #FirstNations; white-on-Black chattel #slavery; #JimCrow and #JaneCrow; the #BlackCodes; the #RedScare; violent social and political repression of #LGBTQ Americans; the #PalmerRaids; mass #incarceration and the #WarOnDrugs, to name just a few examples."
Read more:
https://www.salon.com/2026/02/01/a-wake-up-call-for-white-americans/#AmericanHistory #Racism #SystemicRacism #USPol #Authoritarianism
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When it comes to standing up to #Trump, I laud #Maine Governor #JanetMills. But when it comes to #Wabanaki #Sovereignty, building wind terminals on undeveloped islands (#SearsIsland / #Wahsumkik ), destroying untouched forests to supply #WesternMass with electricity, or building highways through farmland (#MDOT), we definitely DO NOT always see eye-to-eye!
Governor opposed to latest change to #SettlementAct backed by #WabanakiNations
by Emma Davis
Wed, April 9, 2025"Discussion of legislation to afford the Wabanaki Nations more authority over their land revealed that Gov. Janet Mills does not support the change, presenting a steep path for a plan that otherwise has bipartisan support.
"After not testifying during the public hearing last week, the governor’s counsel, Jerry Reid, told the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Mills’ concerns stem from the inability to predict the future needs of state government, an issue also raised in written testimony from the #MaineDepartmentOfTransportation, which was made available after the hearing.
"When pressed by committee members, Reid said he doesn’t have a specific example of an infrastructure project that would warrant seizing tribal land but that, 'We need to write the law mindful of the potential for problems.'
"While Reid and Wabanaki leaders noted that progress has and continues to be made to improve the relationship between the state and Wabanaki Nations, Reid added, 'the fact that we have such a good relationship right now might not always be true.'
"The U.S. government can seize private property for public use, a principle known as eminent domain, however that authority is restricted by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which requires just compensation for land taken, as well as some federal laws.
"The 1834 federal Indian Nonintercourse Act prohibited land transactions with tribes unless authorized by Congress. However, the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act specified that that federal law was not applicable to the #HoultonBand of #Maliseet Indians, the #PassamaquoddyTribe and the #PenobscotNation.
"This is the act that has overall resulted in the Tribes being treated more akin to #municipalities than #SovereignNations. So far, sweeping changes to the act have failed due to opposition from Mills, but the governor, lawmakers and Wabanaki leaders have successfully made some targeted adjustments, including expanding tribal authority to prosecute crimes last year.
"The legislation being considered this session, #LD958, would amend the Settlement Act to prohibit the state from exercising eminent domain on trust and reservation land, which is protected under federal law, though fee land — or private property for which the owner owns the title — would still be subject to the state taking.
"The bill would also amend the 2023 #MikmaqNationRestorationAct to make this change for the Mi’kmaq Nation, which wasn’t included in the Settlement Act.
"On Tuesday, the Taxation Committee unanimously voted in favor of a bill to ensure equal tax treatment among all of the Wabanaki Nations, which Mills supports. #LD982 would provide the #MikmaqNation the same rights to sales tax revenue on its land that the other three tribes of the Wabanaki Nations were granted in 2022 through an amendment to the Settlement Act.
State hasn’t exercised this authority in decades, but argues it’s necessary"The state hasn’t exercised eminent domain over #TribalLands since the #SettlementAct. However, testimony from Wabanaki leaders and state government officials underscore that it is a possibility."
Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/governor-opposed-latest-change-settlement-185134791.html#MaineSettlementAct #EminentDomain #LandTheft #FirstNations #WabanakiConfederancy
#MaineFirstNations #Maine #MainePol
#NativeAmericanNews #TribalSovereignty #SaveSmilingHillFarm #SaveTheForests #MainePol #IndigenousPeoplesDay -
Bipartisan lawmakers, Wabanaki leaders propose next change to Settlement Act
by Emma Davis
Fri, April 4, 2025"A bipartisan group of lawmakers presented legislation on Friday to prevent the state from being able to seize #Wabanaki land for public use without consultation.
"For the past several Legislative sessions, leaders of the Wabanaki Nations have worked with lawmakers to try to overhaul the 1980 #MaineIndianClaimsSettlementAct that has resulted in the tribes being treated more akin to municipalities than #SovereignNations.
"So far, sweeping change has failed due to opposition from Gov. #JanetMills, but the executive, lawmakers and Wabanaki leaders have successfully made some targeted adjustments, including expanding tribal authority to prosecute crimes last year.
"#LD958 represents the next area of focus, although an omnibus bill is still expected to be considered during the second regular session of the Legislature next year.
"Sponsored by House Minority leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) and bipartisan co-sponsors, LD 958 would amend the #SettlementAct and the 2023 #MikmaqNationRestorationAct — as the Mi’kmaq Nation hadn’t been included in the earlier act — to prohibit eminent domain, a protection already afforded to almost all other federally recognized tribes.
" 'Much of our land contains irreplaceable cultural, spiritual and ecological resources,' said #Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Aaron Dana, a co-sponsor of the bill who sits on the Judiciary Committee. 'This bill ensures those places are safeguarded and are not subject to #destruction or #appropriation. Too often in our history, our #TribalLands have been taken, divided and exploited under the guise of progress.'
"The U.S. government can seize private property for public use, known as eminent domain, however that authority is restricted by the #FifthAmendment U.S. Constitution, which requires just compensation for land taken, as well as some federal laws.
"Rep. Rachel Henderson (R-Rumford), a co-sponsor who sits on the Judiciary Committee, questioned whether the bill is in conflict with the Constitution. It is not, Faulkingham, tribal leaders and attorneys explained, because the Constitution outlines when eminent domain can be exercised but not that it can’t be further restricted.
" 'There’s nothing in the Fifth Amendment that prohibits a state from enacting laws that says we won’t do that,' Faulkingham said.
"LD 958 applies to land protected under federal law — trust and reservation land — but fee lands — private property for which the owner owns the title — would still be subject to state power of eminent domain. A constitutional amendment allows states to condemn individually owned plots within tribal reservations.
"Maine has seized Wabanaki land from the start of their intertwined histories, as the state territory today had first been inhabited by the Wabanaki people."
Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/bipartisan-lawmakers-wabanaki-leaders-propose-204713964.html#MaineSettlementAct #FirstNations #WabanakiConfederancy
#MaineFirstNations #Maine #MainePol #NativeAmericanNews #LandTheft
#PenobscotNation #PassamaquoddyTribe #HoultonBand of #Maliseets #MikmaqNation #Dawnland #TribalSovereignty -
Canada's first 'prisoner of conscience' is an Indigenous land defender
https://grist.org/indigenous/canadas-first-prisoner-of-conscience-is-an-indigenous-land-defender/
The distinction is given to people who are incarcerated for their politics, religion, or ethnicity as well as other personal and protected statuses.
#Canada #LandDefender #PoliticalPrisoner #Indigenous #Wetsuweten #CoastalGaslink #CorruptGovernment #nonviolent #AmnestyInternational #Chief #Resistance #Ecocide #LandTheft
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Here’s what’s at stake for #Indigenous peoples at #COP28
Negotiations happen behind closed doors, but for Indigenous peoples, “a lot of work happens in the hallways.”
by Anita Hofschneider, Nov 29, 2023
“Ozawa Bineshi Albert wants the world to stop relying on #FossilFuels. So last year, the co-executive director of #ClimateJusticeAlliance flew from the U.S. to Egypt to make her voice heard at COP27, the international conference on climate change where world leaders gather to negotiate new commitments to battle the #ClimateCrisis.
”But at COP27, Albert, who is Anishinaabe and Yuchi, noticed that Indigenous peoples like herself were outnumbered by fossil fuel #lobbyists. She was also struck by how many people touted #nuclear energy as an alternative to burning #oil and #gas.
'#Nuclear is one of the most dirty, damaging energy sources, particularly for #IndigenousPeople,' she thought. 'It touches Indigenous communities all along its lifecycle from where it gets #mined, to where it gets #processed, to where #NuclearPower plants are placed, to where #NuclearWaste gets stored.'
“That observation was just one indication of how the perspectives, and experiences, of Indigenous peoples aren’t always reflected in the broader #EnvironmentalMovement. As COP28 kicks off in the United Arab Emirates this week, hundreds of Indigenous advocates are making their way to Dubai with the hope of ensuring that their communities aren’t overlooked by global leaders.
“Though the conference doesn’t officially begin until Thursday, the work has already started. Jennifer Tauli Corpuz is Kankanaey-Igorot from the Philippines and is managing director of policy at Nia Tero. She spent eight hours Tuesday in an auditorium with about 350 fellow members of the #IndigenousPeoplesCaucus, a delegation representing Native peoples, working on the details of a two-minute opening statement that the Caucus will be allowed to give during COP28’s opening ceremony. Corpuz says it’s not easy to distill everyone’s perspectives and issues into such a short statement and the work required interpreters in five languages.
“Apart from ending fossil fuel reliance, Indigenous advocates at COP28 want to ensure that funding to offset the impacts of #ClimateChange reaches their communities; ensure Indigenous knowledge is seen as a solution to climate change; and prevent governments and private actors from violating their rights, especially as those actors pursue #GreenEnergy projects.
“Corpuz said the caucus plans to approve advocacy papers outlining their positions Wednesday. Then comes the work of convincing negotiators to listen. But it’s not easy.
“The estimated 350 Indigenous peoples at COP28 is an attendance record for Native advocates, but it’s still far fewer than the 600 fossil fuel lobbyists who attended COP27 last year. As well, the most important work at the conference, negotiating the exact language of international climate change treaties, gets done behind closed doors among designated representatives from United Nations member countries.
“Corpuz estimates that perhaps 20 of the 350 #IndigenousPeople at COP28 this week have government badges that allow them access to negotiations. But even then, because they aren’t credentialed delegates representing a negotiating party, they are only able to watch and listen, not speak, she said.
“Still, it’s an improvement over past years when Indigenous peoples’ representatives were locked out from even more rooms, said Corpuz. At least now Indigenous representatives will be able to hear the details of the negotiations, the perspectives of international representatives, and carry the information back for advocates to lobby government delegates. 'A lot of the work of the Indigenous Caucus happens in the hallways,' Corpuz said.
“A key question that’s expected to be decided this year is how much money wealthy nations like the U.S. should pay in order to cover the costs of climate disasters in the Global South, an initiative known as the loss and damage fund. One study estimates that nations in the Global North are responsible for 92% of excess carbon emissions each year, compared with 8% in the Global South.
“‘What’s at stake is how these finance mechanisms are going to impact and be accessible to Indigenous communities and other impacted communities, how they will be funded, and to what levels will they be funded,' Albert said. 'And will those resources actually get to communities and not be taken up by agencies that will administer them?'
“Eriel Deranger of the #Athabasca #Chipewyan #FirstNation in #Canada and executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, thinks that it makes sense that wealthy countries would be paying for climate impacts, but Deranger also wants the money to be available to Indigenous people no matter what country they live in due to already extreme climate impacts, many of which are exacerbated by #colonization and #LandTheft .
“‘If Canada, for example, or the U.S. is contributing to the loss and damage fund and we don’t have access to it as Indigenous people in North America or in the Global North, where are we going to see those kind of climate reparations and restitution for the damages that we are facing from the climate crisis?' Deranger asked.
“But money is only part of the equation, said Kandi White, a citizen of the #Mandan, #Hidatsa, and #Arikara Nations in the U.S. and program director at the Indigenous Environmental Network, which sent a 25-member delegation to Dubai. 'For Indigenous peoples, it’s not just about the money, but it’s also about the return of our #sovereignty over our lands,' said White.
“That sovereignty has been threatened by #landgrabs, including recent #landdeals between a #UnitedArabEmirates company and five #African nations for the #CarbonCredit trade, White said. The land deals were touted as a way to help conserve land and offset #pollution, but White is concerned about whether the Indigenous people living there truly #consented to the plan as well as how they’ll be affected. It’s part of a broader pattern of conservation deals that are creating conflict in Indigenous territories around the world.
“Both Deranger and White, who are in Dubai this week, also hope to establish a grievance procedure through which Indigenous peoples whose rights are infringed upon could hold governments accountable. 'We need there to not just be lip service of, ‘We recognize Indigenous rights,’ but we need to see language that has teeth,' Deranger said.
“But securing that level of accountability may be an uphill battle. Even when world leaders make promises, they don’t always fulfill them: wealthy countries blew a 2020 deadline to spend $100 billion a year to help poorer nations cope with climate impacts and make progress toward #decarbonization. One study suggested that goal may have been met last year, two years late, even as the world hurtles toward 3 degrees of warming.
“The combined challenges—a lack of access to negotiating tables and tepid commitments by global leaders—have fueled disillusionment. Moñeka De Oro, who is Chamorro from the Mariana Islands and co-executive director of the #Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, says that last year at COP some Indigenous Caucus members discussed boycotting the convention, 'no longer being a part of these processes that continuously degrade our input,' she said.
“De Oro recently helped draft a declaration for peace, unity and climate justice in the Pacific to be read at COP that called for a future free of #colonialism and #militarization. But as much as she believes in that message, she joined a boycott of this year’s convention with Grassroots Global Justice Alliance protesting the Israeli government’s war on Gaza, and questions whether to attend future meetings.
"'If you’re going to continue to continuously be ignored and continuously be just erased from the entire process, I don’t know how much longer we want to be complicit in attending these sorts of things,' she said.
“The power imbalances can be discouraging but Ozawa Bineshi Albert still feels determined.
“‘#COP is not a place that we go to thinking we’re going to get everything we want,' she said. To her, the overarching question is: 'How can we make sure that we at least hold the line and make sure the least amount of damage and the least amount of harm is caused to frontline and Indigenous communities?’”
#IndigenousRights #ClimateJustice #IndigenousConsent #EnvironmentalRacism #BigOilAndGas
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How to #decolonize your #Thanksgiving dinner in observance of #NationalDayofMourning
Meredith Clark
Wed, November 22, 2023"Thanksgiving is almost upon us, a time when many #Americans gather together to eat turkey and talk about what they’re most thankful for. Growing up in the #UnitedStates, almost everyone can recall the 'First Thanksgiving' story they were told in elementary school: how the local #Wampanoag #NativeAmericans sat down with the #pilgrims of #Plymouth Colony in 1621, in what is now present-day #Massachusetts, for a celebratory feast.
"However, this story is far from the truth - which is why many people opt out of celebrating the controversial holiday.
"For many #Indigenous communities throughout the US, Thanksgiving remains a National Day of Mourning - a reminder of the devastating #genocide and #displacement that occurred at the hands of European #colonisers following their arrival in the Americas.
"Every year since 1970, #IndigenousPeople and their allies have even gathered near #PlymouthRock to commemorate a National #DayOfMourning on the day of Thanksgiving. 'Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of Native people, the theft of Native lands, and the erasure of Native cultures,' states the official website for the United American Indians of New England. 'Participants in National Day of Mourning honour Indigenous #ancestors and Native resilience. It is a day of #remembrance and #spiritual connection, as well as a #protest against the #racism and #oppression that Indigenous people continue to experience #worldwide.'
"This year, the 54th annual National Day of Mourning takes place on 23 November - the same day as Thanksgiving. While not everyone can support the event in person, there are still many ways people can raise awareness toward issues affecting Indigenous communities from wherever they are - by '#decolonising' their Thanksgiving dinner.
"#Decolonisation can be defined as the active resistance against #settlerColonialism and a shifting of power towards Indigenous sovereignty. Of course, it’s difficult to define decolonisation without putting it into practice, writes Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang in their essay, #Decolonization Is Not a Metaphor. Rather, one of the most radical and necessary moves toward decolonisation requires imagining and enacting a future for Indigenous peoples - a future based on terms of their own making.
"Matt Hooley is an assistant professor in the department of Native American and Indigenous Studies at Dartmouth College, where he teaches about US colonial powers and Indigenous cultural production. 'Decolonisation is a beautiful and difficult political horizon that should guide our actions everyday, including during holidays like Thanksgiving,' he tells The Independent. 'Of course, Thanksgiving is a particularly relevant holiday to think about decolonisation because the way many people celebrate it involves connecting ‘the family’ to a colonial myth in which colonialism is inaccurately imagined as a peaceful event in the past.'
"By decolonising our Thanksgiving, we can celebrate the holiday with new traditions that honour a future in which Indigenous people are celebrated. This year, we can start by understanding the real history behind Thanksgiving as told by actual Indigenous communities.
"While Americans mainly dedicate one day a year to give thanks, Indigenous communities express gratitude every day with the #Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address - often called: 'The words that come before all else.' The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address is the central prayer and invocation for the #HaudenosauneeConfederacy, which comprises the #SixNations - #Mohawk, #Oneida, #Onondaga, #Cayuga, #Seneca, and #Tuscarora. When one recites the Thanksgiving Address, they’re giving thanks for all life and the natural world around them.
"According to Hooley, one of the most straightforward actions people can take to decolonise their Thanksgiving includes supporting Indigenous land acknowledgments and land back movements. #LandBack is an ongoing Indigenous-led movement which seeks to return ancestral lands to Indigenous people and the recognition of Indigenous #sovereignty. While the movement is nowhere near new, it received international attention in 2016 during protests against the #DakotaAccesSPipeline - which continues to disrupt land and #water sources belonging to the #StandingRockSioux Tribe.
"This year, sit down with family and friends to discuss an action plan and highlight the concrete steps you plan on taking to support Indigenous communities. 'Another, even simpler way would be to begin participating in what’s called a ‘Voluntary Land Tax,’ whereby non-Indigenous people contribute a recurring tax to the tribal communities whose land you occupy,' said Hooley.
"Food is perhaps the most important part of the Thanksgiving holiday, with turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes taking center stage. However, there are many ways we can make sure our dinner tables honour Indigenous futurisms too. Donald A Grinde, Jr is a professor emeritus in the department of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo. Grinde - who is a member of the #YamasseeNation - tells The Independent that crops such as #corn, #beans, #squash, #tomatoes, and #potatoes are central to #IndigenousHistory and future.
"'A good thing is to be thankful for the abundance in the fall and note that Native people created over 60 percent of modern #agricultural #crops,' he said. 'People can be thankful for the crops that Native people created, #medicines created, and traditions about #democracy, #WomensRights and #environmental rights.'
"Rather than buying food from major corporations this year, Hooly also recommended people consciously source their Thanksgiving dinner from Indigenous producers. 'Industrial agriculture is one of the most devastating contributors to the destruction of land and water everywhere, including on Indigenous land,' he said. 'Instead of buying food grown or made by colonial corporations, people could buy their food from Indigenous producers, or even simply make a greater effort to buy locally grown food or not to buy meat harvested from industrial farms.'
"Thanksgiving is just a day away. While it’s important that we’re actively working toward highlighting Indigenous communities on this special holiday, decolonisation efforts are something that should be done year-round.
"'People can also learn about political priorities of the Indigenous communities near them and support those priorities by speaking to their representatives, participating in a protest, or by making sure that their local school and library boards are including Indigenous texts in local community education,' Hooley said."
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/decolonize-thanksgiving-dinner-observance-national-213225020.html
#Decolonization #CorporateColonialism #LandTheft #CulturalGenocide #CulturalPreservation