Pauline von HellermannJan 5, 2024
I know Mastodon is designed to keep everything nice and to shield us from the horrors of the world, and that it is good for us to only look at cat pictures all day and cheer each other up, but honestly: sometimes i also think that that is just a lot of crap and everyone who turns away and continues with their nice privileged life as if all is ok is complicit #Gaza
Show threadJack of all tradesJan 5, 2024

@pvonhellermannn

Not just Gaza. Ukraine, South Sudan, Myanmar, Mexico etc. Not just war either. Modern slavery, conflict minerals, sex trafficking, poverty, famines, etc...

Humanity was able to build this complex world of global supply chains, but showing compehension or empathy of such a big system is too big of a task for our small brains, I fear.

How can we? We weren't build for this.

Show threadPauline von HellermannJan 5, 2024
@jackofalltrades yes, i know. Of course not just Gaza. It’s just that in this csse our governments are so obviously complicit as they are funding and endorsing it all. And it is pretty bad all round. But yes, so much more, of course. I think about all this a lot. Like, how much should you care for the suffering of strangers? How much should you talk about it?
Show threadEstelle PlatiniJan 5, 2024

@pvonhellermannn
Forgive me for taking your two questions:

• How much should you talk about it [the horrors of the world]?
We don't have to. I would preserve #mentalHealth first.

• How much should you care for the suffering of strangers?
We should care. Avoid "being sad and angry" but do something about it. Some #doing feels good (be it conversations, demonstrations or acts).

You Pauline and others already make good in the world.
(Personnaly i watch subduers.)

What do you think?

Show threadEstelle Platini

@pvonhellermannn
The article pointed below may help.

Vashti published: "Sarah Aziza, through a stirring mix of personal reflection and philosophical reckoning, disabuses the Western witness of its self-gratifying power, instead – amid Israel’s openly broadcast yet unimpeded march towards genocide in Gaza – unmasking the impotence, deceit and hollowness that witnessing currently entails. More than a collective indictment or last-gasp scream of defiance into the void, Aziza’s own testimony guides the reader towards a form of witness no longer elevated in angelic, uncompromised distance, but instead manifest in the embodied, intimate, ego-displacing position of “sacrifice, mourning and resisting.”"

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-work-of-the-witness

#Aziza #JewishCurrents #socialMedia #shaheed #impotence #legibility #witness #witnessing #PalestiniansLivesMatter #mourning #grievability #news #israelGaza #GazaWar #warOnGaza #bias #information #coverage #violence #stateViolence #war #Gaza #israelPalestine #IDF

The Work of the Witness

Three months into a livestreamed genocide, we must ask—what does all this looking do?

Jewish Currents
Feb 23, 2024 at 9:31pmWeb
Show threadPauline von HellermannFeb 23, 2024
@estelle thank you so much for sharing this. I have learned a lot from reading it - especially about the word shaheed really meaning witnesser.
Show threadEstelle PlatiniFeb 24, 2024

The word #شهيد, #shaheed, "carries connotations not only of seeing, but of presence and proximity. To be a #witness is to make contact, to be touched, and to bear the marks of this touch.

"Shaheed is the word Palestinians use to describe those lost to Israeli violence, a word which has drawn condemnation from American universities and press, who once again presume to know the meaning of Arabic-rooted terms, without bothering to investigate. They allege the word #martyr glorifies death for death’s sake. But in this context, it should be read as honoring the truth these brutalized bodies speak. Their flesh, marked by colonial violence, makes visible the wild injustice they endured. Which is to say, their martyrdom tells us the truth about our world."

https://respondcrisistranslation.org/en/newsb/20231102-mistranslating-the-movement @palestine

#resistance #solidarity #uprising #intifada #jihad #struggle #conflation #manipulation #mourning #israelism #occupation #PalestinianRights #PalestinianLivesMatter #ongoingNakba #genocide #StandWithIsrael

Mistranslating the movement: Language is being weaponized to malign the Palestinian liberation movement and justify an ongoing genocide. — Respond Crisis Translation

Arabic words are regularly mistranslated or misconstrued in English-language media to stereotype and demonize Palestinians, painting them as terrorists and contributing to racist narratives that pro-Palestinian activism is inherently violent or antisemitic.

Respond Crisis Translation
Show threadEstelle PlatiniFeb 26, 2024

@pvonhellermannn
Sorry for avoiding indicating that it was a citation from Matt at Vashti. I just corrected my error above.

Vashti "aims to pursue an ongoing inquiry into what it means to be a Jewish leftist".

Here is a piece by Jacob Engelberg: "Can film unteach Hasbara?" https://vashtimedia.com/2020/11/19/issues/review/can-film-unteach-hasbara/

"Alexandrowicz’s perhaps quixotic hope that images of the occupation might force ardent supporters of the Israeli state to question their ideological positions is dashed by Maia."

#images #video #liberals #progressists #progress #liberal #documentary #imagePower #propaganda #reputation #ethics #supremacy #fragility #unjustWars #war #ethnicCleansing #SocDems #grievability #watching #israelPalestine #Zionism #genocide #enlightment #PalestinianLivesMatter #Vashti

Vashti - Can film unteach Hasbara?

A new documentary, screened at the UK Jewish Film Festival this week, considers whether exposure to video footage of the plight of Palestinians can change the hearts and minds of Israel’s fiercest advocates.

Vashti
Show threadPauline von HellermannFeb 26, 2024

@estelle i should be the one apologising; I missed your reply yesterday! Thank you for adding that. Since reading the first article, I have been thinking again about learning Arabic. I started on Duolingo in November but didn’t get far; i have decided to get a proper book and start learning in earnest. Language so key to all this. And yes, Vashti is great; I thought this was very good, too
#Gaza #Rafah #Arabic

https://vashtimedia.com/2024/02/23/formats/editorial/rafah-reader-gaza-israel/

Rafah: A reader

Nearly 30,000 Gazans have been killed in Israel’s genocidal assault, and now we hear the worst may be yet to come. Vashti editors share the materials helping us understand the situation on the ground and the world letting it happen.

Vashti
Show threadProfessor Kerstin SailerFeb 26, 2024
@pvonhellermannn
Just chipping in on Duolingo - it's great to learn vocabulary (or refresh a language you've learnt in the past) but really poor on enabling an understanding of concepts and the logic of a language.
I have switched to LingoDeer (paid app) to learn Chinese and haven't regretted it. Less gamified but more background
Show threadPauline von HellermannFeb 26, 2024
@kerstinsailer thank you! That’s really useful, will check it out. I think also that there is variation between languages - I did 4 weeks of Arabic in November and never got beyond sounds and syllables. Good start perhaps on writing (though habe forgotten all now) but only learned one actual word the entire time (wa = and).
Show threadMeerderWörterFeb 27, 2024
@kerstinsailer That's also my criticism of it - it's not really going deep enough to actually teach a language.
Show threadEstelle PlatiniFeb 26, 2024

@pvonhellermannn
You did not miss my message: i did not tag you 😄

Thank you for the pointer 🙏🏾

I am perplexed that we delight in beautiful conversations about horrors and manipulation 🤔

Show threadPauline von HellermannFeb 26, 2024
@estelle true! 😊😢