Today I realized an Apple News link I had linked to had expired. I have to find a better way to do these news posts from my phone and pad. But using the title of the article I was quickly able to find a bunch of links to the story. I added them to the post and I am reposting it so anyone landing on it will be able to see the story. Hugs. Scottie
Again Ten Bears has done it. He posts a longish list of links many of which interest me, and I wander down them. All are interesting to different people, to me only some. But sadly today before I realized I also wanted to share some of them, I closed the tabs. But I did mange to reopen a few. I really recommend everyone check out his blog, you might not like everything he posts but so many have so much information that you can get lost in them. For me who always feel rushed for time … Bad Ten Bears, but thank you. You do give me a lot of information to consider. Below I will put the few links I read / clicked on a felt were really worth reading but remember they were not the only ones I read, they were only the ones I could quickly recall. Hugs. Scottie
This is government by gang thuggery, or to call it what it is, terrorism. And driven by religion. This was again pushed as evil and child abuse by Libs of TikTok who as I recently have posted she is very proud of the violence she promotes. She also is a rather stupid person who is overjoyed at the all the notoriety and attention she receives for stirring up hate and fear. This is the attempt by the religious minority to take over the country, force the majority to live by their biblical doctrines / views, and rolling back all the civil rights gained by women, black people, and the LGBTQ+. The US has never been and shouldn’t ever be a theocracy. This country must not let bigotry and hate causing fear and targeting people for harm become a legitimate way to govern. But again the haters win because the show was canceled denying the kids and parents who wanted it to lose out. The haters are denying the freedom of others to enjoy themselves freely to enforce a religious view of morality on everyone. We have to stop letting these events be canceled and the haters win. If there was a bomb let the haters get blamed then found, charged, go to court, and … Hugs. Scottie
A scheduled “Drag Queen Story Hour” at a Pennsylvania library that had drawn opposition was canceled Saturday after a suspicious package was found in the building and two blocks were evacuated after threats were reported, authorities said.
Police evacuated the Lancaster Public Library after the package was found. A state police bomb squad later cleared the library, but police said “additional reported threats” were still being investigated. Residents of the block and another block nearby were told to evacuate, an order lifted several hours later.
A city spokesperson later said that a dog had alerted on the package and that the contents were later found to be “benign” but “subsequently, we received additional written threats via email.”
Lissa Holland, the library’s executive director, said she felt “really sad, very disappointed and angry, that leaders of this county turned this into saving the children from the library and we are having to cancel this event because of safety threats.”
Though the library did not make the decision to cancel Saturday’s event, Holland said it was the right call during a brief interview under the overhang outside the Starbucks at 101 N. Queen St..
“Absolutely. It’s safety first, for everybody involved, For our storyteller, for the staff — and most important for the children that were going to be here and the families. I am saddened to the core” that the event had to be canceled, Holland said.
Police just pushed media an additional block pack after clearing the apparent suspicious package at the library. They say there are “additional reported threats” to the already cancelled drag story event. https://t.co/SNeLejHKdPpic.twitter.com/wKJJbwF323
In addition to the protests that received permits locally, this particular drag queen story event received considerable attention on Twitter in the leadup to today’s incidents. https://t.co/enBb9S10Fl
Right now: Protesters opposed to the drag event cancelled over an apparent series of incidents including a “suspicious package” and multiple “threats” according to Lancaster Police continue to demonstrate outside the police perimeter. pic.twitter.com/owRnPUbvtT
Earlier: A street preacher calling the drag story hour reader a "drag whore" was confronted.
"You are hateful," an individual said after tossing their mango dragonfruit lemonade on him. "This is not a Christian nation!" pic.twitter.com/lqdSEdP9mP
"I'm not saying anything about the bombs, but I'm saying praise God it was cancelled," the street preacher remarked when asked about the event being cancelled.
"I didn't even know it was cancelled, so hallelujah, it was canceled!"
This is what those terrorists are demonizing. I don’t why we didn’t start protesting at churches every time a pedo was found, lost opportunity to show where the real threat to children was coming from.
I figure it’s a play on “People of Walmart” and other similar things – the pictures and profiles being posted are of the people the profile is against, not something they identify with.
Makato is right. Her account started as something else and her career basically shifted because of the attention that was focused on her. There are several of these accounts on Twitter and what they do is collect other peoples posts from any social media–Reddit, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, et cetera–and post it in their timeline. They have names like Whatever Posting Ls or something similar. LisbonTikTok (I like that typo and I’m keeping it) started posting stuff from TikTok.
Do you hate some group but don’t want to be bothered searching the Internet for things to hate and laugh at? Do you want reinforcement of your own biases? They’ve got you covered.
That, then. How is this not a domestic terror threat? She got our leading childrens’ hospital shut down with her terrorism. Kids missed pedi chemo treatments.
She would claim this is a free speech thing and point out that she never actually tells people to do the terrible things they do. It’s a cop out of course because she gets her viewers enraged over BS. It would be like me saying, “Mr X is a terrible danger to society and someone should do something about him” and then when said person gets attacked and blames me I can say “I didn’t tell anyone to attack you!”
Enough, enough, enough! This is no way to maintain a society, permitting the sickest among us to call the shots by threats of violence. There must be stronger penalties for those bullies, those who terrify others with their threats, those who shut down the normal activities of society, those who cost thousands-to-millions of dollars for law enforcement and lost business. We must not allow them to make us all live in fear.
By my dogs that love gravy they are talking concentration / prison type encampments surrounded by guards with prison like rules. Basically no freedoms that all adults enjoy. Plus the Republican Party is seriously going all in that homelessness harms home values and harms tourism / the attractiveness of the state for businesses / people moving to the state. Those conditions, funded by the counties, include clean restrooms, running water, security on premises and bans on drugs and alcohol. They must also be located in places that don’t impact the value of nearby properties. The legislation accords with a stated desire of the Governor to have camps with restrictions on what occupants can do and “help” available, in efforts to include what he has called “judicial scrutiny.” DeathSantis has long wanted to institutionalize that he terms undesirables. Right now it starts with the homeless, but soon who else is going to be put in camps or other style forced confinement? The poor? Trans people? The entire LGBTQIA? What about those who don’t follow the correct and proper god? Like all these culture war type laws it is deliberately written very vaguely so that it can be interpreted as strongly as the most extreme person would want to take it. The same vagueness held true for how a homeless person would get a permit for outdoor camping. Basically the law gives permission / compelling these localities to round up the homeless and put them somewhere. Detain them, jail them, just hide them from the good more well off people of society. One last thing. This was written by a right wing think tank, it is legislation they want to use in every red state. Just like the anti-trans laws / don’t say gay laws Florida will be the test place to see if it will pass, because Florida is run by a crazy maga governor. If it passes here, they will try pushing it everywhere. Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo, who contended Tuesday that a “think tank” wrote the legislation. Hugs. Scottie
The Senate has passed a House bill creating a new financial obligation on localities by banning homeless people from sleeping in public, setting the stage for a Gov. Ron DeSantis priority becoming law.
The measure from Rep. Sam Garrison (HB 1365), passed by a 27-12 vote after being substituted for the Senate version, would ban counties and municipalities from permitting public sleeping or public camping on public property without explicit permission, compelling these localities to round up the homeless and put them somewhere.
The Governor, who has suggested institutionalization should be brought back, said mental health help for the unhoused is “important,” but that he didn’t want “Sodom and Gomorrah” style homeless camps.
Democrats: People are living on the street. We need to build affordable housing.
Republicans: People are living on the street. My wealthy donors don’t like seeing poor people in public. Homeless people need a permit to be homeless. If they can’t pay the fine, toss them into one of the many for-profit prisons owned by my wealthy donors.
Caitlyn Jenner’s suggestion was to bus them out to the desert and have them camp there, instead of near the beaches. No food, no water, no sanitation, but hey, they’re homeless. I guess they’ll adapt somehow?
I fully understand that sodomy comes from Sodom, and I understand what sodomy is. But what do we get from Gomorrah? Gomorrahmy? And what the hell is that.
So, living on the street becomes a crime that will lead to one losing their freedom. They will be shocked when the read the headlines about a mass casualty shooting incident when law enforcement went to enforce this law.
Of course not. However, the number of highway patrol officers assigned to the Spring Break week is increased, in order to keep the- ahem – darker elements away.
It should also be a crime for assholes pretending to be taller by wearing 5 inch lifts. I can hardly wait for the day when Bootsy and his never ending cruelty comes to a very painful end.
Eagle Pass, Texas has become the epicenter of the national immigration debate, but who are the real “invaders” of this community? Michael Kosta talks to residents of Eagle Pass who have had it with the right-wing media, politicians, and fearmongering Trump supporters taking over their town and jacking up their hotel prices.
The housing crisis in the United States has reached a tipping point. And instead of helping unhoused people and fixing a broken system, cities and governments are turning to draconian measures to criminalize homelessness and make the lived environment more hostile to homeless people through hostile architecture. This isn’t the solution.
Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. This is what the entire Israeli genocide has been about. The removing of any Palestinian people so they can have the land. If you read the article notice how the Jewish assholes say that Palestinians can come back and live there also, as complete subjective servants with no rights to do as the settlers order them to do. This has always been what this entire thing has been about. Hugs. Scottie
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an ‘outpost’ inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv
Over 100 Israelis stormed Erez Crossing at the northern tip of Gaza yesterday afternoon in the most significant attempt to re-establish Jewish settlements in the Strip since the war began. A small number managed to cross several hundred meters into Gaza before being intercepted by Israeli soldiers, while around 20 others entered the area between the two walls comprising the barrier that encages the Strip. There, they established an “outpost” in the style seen commonly in the West Bank, building for several hours without the army or police interfering.
From the first moments of the war, it was clear that right-wing Israeli politicians and settler leaders sensed an opportunity to radically shift the status quo in Israel-Palestine. For months, calls to resettle Gaza — often in the same breath as calling to expel the Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents — have been getting louder, not least at a major conference in Jerusalem in January at which senior officials laid out their plans. In parallel, right-wing activists — mostly youth — have been coming regularly to the Gaza fence to demonstrate against the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Yesterday’s action, however, marked a new peak in their activities.
At around 2 p.m., activists began gathering at a train station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, close to Gaza. At that initial meeting point — for what was ostensibly a “protest” honoring Harel Sharvit, a settler who was killed while serving in Gaza — the mood was calm, even sleepy. A police car drove past, unmoved by the scene. From there, the activists drove in private cars toward the Erez Checkpoint, the only civilian crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has been defined by the Israeli army as a “closed military zone” since it was briefly taken over by Palestinians amid the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
As they approached the checkpoint, the activists got out of their cars and began marching. At this point, they were met by another convoy of vehicles full of “hilltop youth” — young, violent settlers who regularly establish new outposts across the West Bank and attack Palestinians to force them off their land. At least two of them were armed with rifles of the kind used by the military, and they brought construction materials to build an outpost.
At a certain point, some of them started running toward the checkpoint and managed to cross it unhindered, with the few soldiers present unable to stop them. In the space between the two walls enclosing the Strip about 20 of them began erecting two structures using the materials they had brought: wooden planks and poles, and iron sheets for the roofs. Meanwhile, a handful of settler youth ran further inside Gaza, again unhindered by soldiers.
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
On the soldiers’ radios, the message came through that a number of people had crossed into Gaza, and military jeeps and even two tanks were sent to look for them. About half an hour later, a military jeep brought the youth back to the Israeli side of the crossing, without arresting them. They exited the jeep to applause from the other activists, joining the bigger group as they chanted, “It’s ours.”
For several hours, those who had crossed into the space between the two walls continued building the outpost — which they named New Nisanit, after one of the settlements in Gaza that was evacuated as part of the 2005 “disengagement” — without interference. As in the West Bank, the soldiers stood nearby and provided protection, rather than trying to stop them.
‘This is our country’
Amiel Pozen and David Remer, both 18, were two of the settlers who managed to cross around 500 meters into Gaza. After being picked up and dropped back at the checkpoint by the Israeli army, the pair spoke to +972.
“There was no fear of being inside [Gaza], the Holy One is with us and the IDF is here helping us,” Remer said. “We came here [because] we wanted to go home. I live in a community of deportees from Gush Katif [the Jewish settlement bloc inside Gaza that was evacuated in 2005], and we wanted to go back. After everything that happened, there’s no doubt that we have to go back.
“The feeling is very good, like coming home,” Remer continued. “It is ours. The Holy One, blessed be He, said it is ours. If we will not be there, we know what will be there.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Pozen added: “We have come to represent the entire public, the Jewish people. We want to return to the whole Land of Israel, to all parts of our Holy Land. There are no ‘two states for two peoples’ — that’s not right. The people of Israel belong to the Land of Israel.”
Regarding the possibility of persuading the government to support resettling Gaza, Pozen said: “I would like the government to understand [what] the majority of the people already understood: We are here. It is ours. There is no political or international obstacle. We don’t need to consider anyone else. It is an internal matter. We need to go to Gaza, destroy all the terror there, and build there ourselves.”
Another of the settlers intercepted by the army after crossing further into Gaza showed his friends a photo he took on his phone of a strawberry plant in a Palestinian field, saying: “Look how beautiful the country is.”
Over the course of the evening, settler youth continued to bypass the army and run to the outpost. Many of them did so by crawling through a hole in the fence that was likely created during the events of October 7, until soldiers brought a bulldozer to close it with dirt.
Many of the youth were from the same organizations that have spent the past several weeks attempting — often successfully — to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In their eyes, there is a connection between withholding aid to Palestinians and re-establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza: both are seen as a means toward achieving a decisive “victory.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Mechi Fendel, a right-wing activist from Sderot, told 972: “We came here to declare that the day after this war is over, we must settle, we must spread Jewish towns all over the Gaza Strip. Because without that, it’s going to become a hornet’s nest. You can’t leave a vacuum. There’s no reason why we want that to happen again. I live one kilometer away from the Gaza Strip. I can’t have terrorists as neighbors — and they showed their true colors on October 7.”
Regarding the construction of the outpost near the fence, she explained: ”It’s a symbolic act, showing that we built two houses. They came in with these big pieces of wood and they actually built two structures here in the Gaza Strip. Of course it’s symbolic because they’re not going to stay here tonight. But the point is this is where we have to be. This is our country. We cannot let a full strip of land be unsettled.”
And what would happen to the Palestinians in Gaza if Jewish settlements were to be established? “If they’re willing to take Israeli jurisdiction, if they’re willing to have us come in and control their education system and help them financially, then let them stay if they’re peaceful,” Fendel said. “I so far haven’t found a Palestinian that’s peaceful. As I described, Palestinian workers [who worked inside Israel] for tens of years became terrorists in a second.
“I think that the government, when it sees that we are behind them, that the people want this, the government will be for it,” she continued. “Because the government also doesn’t want a hornet’s nest of terrorists cropping up. I think that if we have the people and the willingness and we show that we’re there, we’re brave, and we want to do it, the government will help us.”
‘First the soldiers stormed in, now the settlers’
The dynamics were reminiscent of typical scenes in the West Bank, with settlers being given freedom of action while the soldiers stood idly by — despite being inside a closed military zone and some of them even entering a combat zone. Some of the soldiers could be seen hugging the activists. One soldier told +972 that the soldiers support the activists and that the problem is “the media that wants action, to film soldiers beating Jews.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Even though soldiers have the authority to detain Israeli citizens — and have detained journalists and other civilians who approached the fence in recent months — they invariably avoid detaining settlers who break the law in the West Bank, and this was the case yesterday too. One of the activists, who told +972 that he was an off-duty soldier and wore his military weapon over civilian clothes, said he left the area early because soldiers warned him they would “kick [him] out of the army.”
The soldiers spoke calmly with the activists, including the well-known Kahanist Baruch Marzel who arrived at a later stage. “It’s like the soldiers who stormed [into Gaza] — now they [the settler youth] are storming,” Marzel said to one of the soldiers.
Later on, when they were leaving, Marzel told +972 that the action reminded him of the “first settlement in Sebastia” — a village near Nablus in the West Bank where, some 50 years ago, a group of settlers from the Gush Emunim movement attempted to establish a Jewish settlement and defied the government’s attempts to evict them until it relented. He added that the main issue for him is not settling Gaza but deporting the Palestinians to “all the countries that support them.”
A security official present at the scene expressed to +972 his displeasure that the activists had been able to cross the checkpoint with such ease. “If they managed to enter Gaza, that means [Palestinians] can also enter in the opposite direction,” he said.
Police officers who arrived at the scene acted with the same indifference as the soldiers. They seemed to be in no hurry to intervene, and initially arrested only one protester. After sunset, around 7 p.m., some of the activists began to leave, and the rest were subsequently dispersed by police. A total of nine people were arrested and taken to a police station last night.
In response to an inquiry from +972 last night, a police spokesperson stated: “Israel Police forces were called in the afternoon to near the Erez Crossing, after protesters arrived and a handful of them crossed the fence into the Gaza Strip in violation of a general’s order. In light of the real danger to the protesters’ lives, the police forces were forced to operate within the territory of the Gaza Strip, where some of the protesters confronted them and refused to leave, which left the police no choice but to arrest nine of them for the offenses of violating a general’s order and failing [to obey] a police officer.
“The protesters were brought to the police station for questioning, at the end of which it will be decided which of them will be brought before the Court of Appeal tomorrow for a discussion of his case.” Police did not respond to another request for information today about whether those arrested were charged, but it seems they were released last night.
Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the Activestills photography collective.
About 972 Magazine: Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support ? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an ‘outpost’ inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv
