Protestations of innocence, practiced naïveté, pronounced dedication to amnesia do not stop, from WMD, shock and awe, Russiagate, through to Gaza and no doubt tomorrow’s crimes and lies.

Guardian:

Prominent US figures face backlash and firings for pro-Palestinian statements

A rising number of prominent US figures have faced discipline over controversial public comments they have made about the Palestinian cause,

…

On 19 October, the top art magazine posted a letter entitled: “An open letter from the art community to cultural organizations”. The letter, signed by thousands of artists and cultural workers including Goldin, called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid into Gaza and broader Palestinian liberation.

“We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes,” the letter read, in part.

Velasco was fired shortly after the letter’s publication. He had served as Artforum’s editor-in-chief for six years.

“I have no regrets,” Velasco said in an email to the New York Times. “I’m disappointed that a magazine that has always stood for freedom of speech and the voices of artists has bent to outside pressure.”

In addition to Velasco, another prominent editor was fired after making a Twitter post about Gaza.

Michael Eisen was removed as editor-in-chief of eLife, an academic science journal, Eisen confirmed in a post to X.

“I have been informed that I am being replaced as the Editor in Chief of [eLife] for retweeting a piece [from satirical US website the Onion] that calls out indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians,” Eisen wrote.

Eisen’s dismissal was confirmed in a 24 October statement from eLife and its board.

Eisen was fired after retweeting an article from the Onion entitled: “Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas”.

Roberto zeigte ihm seine Lieblingsbücher, bei jedem fragte er, ob Lenz es kenne. Kannte er es nicht, so drängte er Lenz, es mitzunehmen, er müsse es unbedingt lesen. Lenz gestand, daß er längere Zeit kaum gelesen habe, jedenfalls keine Romane. Ob Lenz nicht genug Zeit dafür habe. Lenz erwiderte, er habe früher zuviel gelesen. Wie man denn zuviel lesen könne, fragte Roberto, das verstünde er nicht.

—Peter Schneider, »Lenz«, (Berlin: Rotbuch Verlag, 1973), 87.

I found this headline interesting, and, eager to read the article, clicked.

No doubt this is coincidental, however I still found it very funny.

:

Polizei und Staatsanwaltschaft sind am Donnerstag bundesweit gegen eine Gruppierung vorgegangen, die volksverhetzende und rechtsextreme Musik verbreiten soll. Die Beamten hätten mehrere Gebäude vor allem in Niedersachsen, aber auch in Hamburg, Berlin, Thüringen, Rheinland-Pfalz und Baden-Württemberg und eines auf Mallorca durchsucht, teilte die General­staatsanwaltschaft Celle mit. Die Zentrale Kriminalinspektion Oldenburg ermittle seit Monaten wegen des Verdachts der Bildung einer kriminellen Vereinigung. Die Verdächtigen seien größtenteils der rechtsextremen Szene zuzuordnen. Sie sollen die Musik produziert und vertrieben haben.

That’s the original headline and the entire article, word for word.

This reminds me of 2003. It’s a vote many people around the world won’t forget.

Grayzone:

According to Haaretz, the army was only able to restore control over Be’eri after admittedly “shelling” the homes of Israelis who had been taken captive. “The price was terrible: at least 112 Be’eri residents were killed,” the paper chronicled. “Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.”

Much of the shelling in Be’eri was carried out by Israeli tank crews. As a reporter for the Israeli Foreign Ministry-sponsored outlet i24 noted during a visit to Be’eri, “small and quaint homes [were] bombarded or destroyed,” and “well-maintained lawns [were] ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank.”

…

While hundreds of wounded children in Gaza have been treated for what a surgeon described as “fourth degree burns” caused by novel weapons, the Western media’s focus remains trained on Israeli citizens supposedly “burned alive” on October 7.

Yet the mounting evidence of friendly fire orders handed down by Israeli army commanders strongly suggests that at least some of the most jarring images of charred Israeli corpses, Israeli homes reduced to rubble and burned out hulks of vehicles presented to Western media were, in fact, the handiwork of tank crews and helicopter pilots blanketing Israeli territory with shells, cannon fire and Hellfire missiles.

Indeed, it appears that on October 7, Israel’s military resorted to the same tactics it has employed against civilians in Gaza, driving up the death toll of its own citizens with the indiscriminate use of heavy weapons.

…

The Apache helicopters appear to have focused on vehicles streaming back into Gaza from the Nova electronic music festival and nearby kibbutzes, attacked cars  with apparent knowledge that Israeli captives could be inside. They also fired on unarmed people exiting cars or walking on foot through the fields on the periphery of Gaza.

…

Photos of the aftermath of the fighting inside kibbutzes like Be’eri – and of the Israeli bombardment of these communities – show rubble and charred homes that resemble the aftermath of Israeli tank and artillery attacks inside Gaza. As Tuval Escapa, the security coordinator at Kibbutz Be’eri, told Haaretz, Israeli army commanders had ordered the “shelling [of] houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”

Yasmin Porat, an attendee of the Nova music festival who fled into Kibbutz Be’eri, told Israeli Radio that when Israeli special forces arrived during a hostage standoff, “They eliminated everyone, including the hostages because there was very, very heavy crossfire.”

“After insane crossfire,” Porat continued, “two tank shells were shot into the house. It’s a small kibbutz house, nothing big.”

…

The phenomenon of charred corpses whose hands and ankles had been tied, and who were found in groups beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, also raises questions about “friendly” tank fire.

Yasmin Porat, the hostage who survived a standoff at Be’eri, described how Hamas militants tied her partner’s hands behind his back. After one militant commander surrendered, using her as a human shield to ensure his safety, she saw her partner lying on the ground, still alive. She stated that Israeli security forces “undoubtedly” killed him and the other hostages as they opened fire on the remaining militants inside, including with tank shells.