Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Jul 20, 2022 7 tweets 7 min read Read on X
1/. My friend, #EricLevy - an true activist & tireless campaigner for human rights - died today aged 93

I met Eric 19yrs ago when he signed up to be a human shield to try & stop the illegal invasion of Iraq

One of the most courageous people I know, I asked him about courage👇
2/. “I hate to see the evening sun go down”

While talking about courage, #EricLevy - who was active in the US Civil Rights movement told me how activists had surrounded activist & singer, Paul Robeson, to shield him from possible white supremacist snipers
3/. "We may have failed to stop the invasion, but by putting ourselves in harm’s way, we sent a clear message to the world"

#EricLevy was one of only about 80 human shields who stayed in Baghdad throughout the #IraqWar

10 years later, I interviewed him
vice.com/en/article/kw5…
4/. Over the decades, I’d often bump into #EricLevy in Camden where he lived or at demonstrations for social justice

After #JulianAssange was jailed, Eric was always at protests outside Belmarsh or the Old Bailey or the High Court, demanding his release
5/. “Sooner or later truth will prevail”

Last year, Eric was arrested outside an extradition hearing for #JulianAssange, but #Assange was just one of many injustices he fought against in his long life

I once asked him how it was that he remained so positive

This👇was his reply
6/. “I’ll say it again & keep saying it ‘til I’m dead”

Tarkovsky says: “Hardness & strength are death's companions. Pliancy & weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win”

Eric never hardened

He never became despondent or cynical
7/. “You call us courageous, but we are only doing what we have to do. We have no more choice in doing what we do than the sun has choice to rise each day...Perhaps that’s what courage is” (Emerson Warner)

I’d like to write an obituary for #EricLevy

If you knew him please DM me

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Jun 25
Wow!

Incredible news to wake up to

Julian Assange is free after a plea deal

He was released on bail from Belmarsh prison & boarded a plane which is currently heading to Australia

His release is a testament to those fought for his freedom #JulianAssange

Julian Assange is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Saipan, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, where he’s expected to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act & be sentenced to 5yrs

Given he’s already served this time, he should walk free
The public have a right to know what their govts do in their name

Julian #Assange’s prosecution represented a grave threat to press freedom, undermining the key role of journalists & publishers in scrutinizing govts misdeeds & creating a chilling effect

Read 6 tweets
May 15
1/. Four years, ago this tweet👇broke the #CareHomeScandal

The govt had INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

They KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan 2020

Many thousands died

This revelation led to other questions…
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2/. From the start of the pandemic the govt had given #Palantir, a US spyware company with reported links to #CambridgeAnalytica, access to NHS health data

The NHS = the most trusted brand in the UK

Cambridge Analytica = the least trusted

Disturbing…

3/. Palantir worked on the NHS data store with #FacultyAI - a company with ties to Cummings

In 2020, @amnesty warned that Big Tech firms might use the COVID crisis to hoover up genomic data, obliterating the last frontier of privacy: our biological selves

Read 5 tweets
Mar 9
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”

Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today
wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza Image
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts” Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 23
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)

Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss

“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob



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Read 4 tweets
Jan 4
1/. In 2020 I started a thread warning that Trump might launch an attack on Iran before the end of his term

It wasn’t the first time there had been a real danger of a US-led, Israeli backed attack (records show Bush had come close in 2007/8)

The risk appears now to be very high
Image
2/. It’s clear that the bomb blasts in Kerman on the 4th anniversary of #Soleimani's assassination by the US, could lead to a quick ratcheting up of dangerous tensions

After Oct 7, the US sent two aircraft carrier groups to the region

Iran just deployed a warship to the Red Sea
Image
3/. Three US soldiers were killed & two dozen injured in an unmanned aerial drone attack on US forces stationed in northeastern #Jordan near the Syrian border, President @JoeBiden said

This could mark a dangerous escalation
arab.news/y8h8h
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Read 18 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Despite previous denials, Michelle Mone finally admits her involvement in failed PPE supplier Medpro

There should be a criminal investigation into possible intentional breach of beneficial ownership disclosure rules

The govt VIP Lane needs investigating

Something about the #MichelleMone interview doesn’t pass the smell test

Why are Mone & her husband - currently under criminal investigation in UK & Spain - being given a prime time slot to tell ‘their side of the story’?

5 questions @bbclaurak should ask

@bbclaurak “I don’t honestly think there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong” @MichelleMone

Wow! #MichelleMone & #DougBarrowman on @bbclaurak’s programme, this morning

Read 13 tweets

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