A commercial flight was flying from Athens to Lithuania, a flight path that has it fly over Belarus. While in Belarus's airspace, it was intercepted by military jets and forced to land, because there was a journalist from Belarus on board who is wanted in the country
This is an extremely dangerous precedent for all journalists, activists, and journalists in the entire world. If this is allowed to pass without serious - and I mean *serious* - consequence, then it's no less dangerous than the precedent set by the 2018 Khashoggi murder
There are two immediate concerns. The first is the safety of freedom of the journalist, Roman Protasevich. The second is ensuring a package of consequences so painful that they serve as a deterrent to every tinpot dictator out there who thinks of doing anything like this
The response shouldn't just rely upon the usual strongly worded statements and diplomatic/economic sanctions packages. Bring in a team of Belarus experts and ask them, from what they know about Lukashenko, what would be the single most painful response? Then listen to them
Some people are taking this lightly, making jokes, or making this about point-scoring and double standards (?). Maybe to you this is abstract and theoretical, but it's not for dissidents. Imagine if MBS, MBZ, or Sisi figure that this is an option (reminder, they work together)
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So I have a question about genocide *runs and hides*
But seriously, with regards to say Xinjiang. The CCP is trying to extinguish the Uighur *as a people* but not necessarily by killing them all. This is "cultural genocide". But is it also *literal* genocide, in that the aim is to erase an identity off the planet?
I ask this question with my eye on Palestine, and I hope to broach this topic respectfully. Many Israeli politicians have clearly said Palestinians don't exist as a people and that they'd rather if they are expelled. They refer to us as "Arabs" as a way to to deny our peoplehood
So I'd like to quickly offer my perspective (as someone who studies radicalization) on Marjorie Taylor Greene's recent antisemitic comments in which she likened mask mandates to the literal Holocaust, not sure how long this thread will be:
Many people have (correctly) noted the antisemitic nature of her comments. What people missed, though, is that the comments aren't only about minimizing the Holocaust - they're also about inflating the persecution narrative of her white base. Radicalization thrives on persecution
Reminder of my (much) earlier tweet about the "radicalization roadmap" which I developed partly by reverse engineering my own radicalization (20 years ago) + by watching another generation get radicalized in 2014/2015:
Take six seconds to google me before trolling. I'm literally living under police protection because I have a crosshair on my back and dictators want me dead. Also, what is it that triggers these people about a Palestinian voice living as a refugee in the West?
I mean it seems that random white Americans are a million times more offended and aghast about a prominent stateless Palestinian refugee in Norway than are Norwegians themselves (most of whom are incredibly gracious and welcoming)
Also, do I have to literally live under bombs or in a dungeon or in a refugee camp for my voice as a Palestinian to be valid enough for you? Must we as Palestinians always play the role that satisfies your prejudices - as the eternal global underclass?
Several people in my mentions (and messages) have been asking why so many Palestinians have considered the recent ceasefire as a victory. To explain, here's a short thread (or at least I intend it to be short)
Reason #1: Reclaiming the narrative about our peoplehood. Our people have been fragmented and forced to live multiple parallel realities. The fact that every Palestinian across the board was rising up and raising one flag was a huge victory against an oppressive reality
Reason #2: Dignity. To be humiliated is part of the Palestinian experience, this is true across the board but some are more deeply oppressed than others. The cease fire was a return to the status quo strategically, but for many people was more proof that we cannot be defeated
I'm a strategist. My job is to gather intel, connect dots, read trends, and plot them into the future, all in service of my cause and my people. We're not okay. There are huge opportunities and openings, but we're not okay.
Meanwhile let me just say that the search for simple, categorical narratives should not come at the expense of increasing our own self-knowledge. There is no path to decolonization that does not involve a radically increased level of self-knowledge.
Someone really needs to write something about how precolonial MENA identities were rich, complex, and multilayered and how all this "you can be only one thing" was in part a (wrong) native answer to Western ideologies of nation states + legal monism
I mean stark example is the idea now that to be a "Jew" now means not being "Arab" and being "Arab" means not being "Jew", this is a sign of our collective epistemic colonization. Also maybe have a conversation with @mhayoun or read his book. thenewpress.com/books/when-we-…