A new cultural hegemony is being formed where Israel is seen, especially by young Americans, as the dystopian "Big Brother" who is always watching and who you're not allowed to criticize. This is going to trigger a reckoning when it comes to the US-Israel relationship 🧵

https://twitter.com/JPHilllllll/status/1923021342552522792

But it should also come as no surprise that punishing young Americans for simply criticizing Israel, making Israel appear untouchable, will inevitably fuel antisemitism- tropes about "Jewish control" that emanate from the right. And that might be exactly what Israel is hoping for

For the past 18 months, Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza. The only ones allowed in agree to embed with Israeli forces, meaning they can only see & report what Israel permits them to. This has been a key component of Israel's wider narrative manipulation.🧵 Israel has effectively placed Gaza under an international media blackout, not because foreign journalists are the only ones capable of reporting on Israeli atrocities in Gaza, but because Palestinian journalists are the only ones shouldering that immense burden.

Actually, we shouldn’t describe @Columbia’s actions as “capitulating” to Trump. Columbia has been looking for ways to stifle criticism of Israel for years. The Trump Admin/pro-Israel lobby’s demands just gives them convenient pretext to curb academic freedom and open debate.🧵

https://twitter.com/nsdoud/status/1903203323576193158

Whether it’s the receivership for MESAAS/CPS, which will lead to fewer classes/profs that include Palestinian perspectives/genuinely critique Israel or advancing their Tel Aviv global center, these are all moves Columbia has been eyeing for years, especially with funding pressure

This isn’t just about First Amendment rights & citizenship. By smearing anyone who advocates for Palestinian rights as a “Hamas operative,” the Trump Admin is teaming up with pro-Israel groups like the ADL & AIPAC to make the entire pro-Palestine movement toxic & untouchable.🧵

https://twitter.com/judiciarydems/status/1899148780114735377

The Trump Admin is of course aiming to set a new precedent in which people can be jailed/deported for political expression. And it knows that targeting Palestinian activists first is an effective stepping stone, considering the bipartisan history of crushing Palestine solidarity

We need to keep in mind Trump’s negotiating style. He’s starting by demanding Jordan/Egypt take millions of Palestinians from Gaza - “clean it out.” The wholesale ethnic cleansing of 2 million Gazans is unlikely for many reasons, but that’s just Trump’s starting ask. 🧵

https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1885072749879844939

Netanyahu’s goal is to “thin out” Gaza’s population. Israel has purposefully rendered much of Gaza uninhabitable so that many people will leave if given an opportunity to live their lives elsewhere. That way they can call it “voluntary migration.” Of course, it’s ethnic cleaning.

To a certain extent, Israel is fighting a losing battle to rehabilitate its image because it’s difficult to reverse the visceral reaction to the crimes they’re committing. However, by manufacturing “fog of war,” Israel can dissuade people from wanting to learn more/intervene. 1/5

https://twitter.com/dropsitenews/status/1873829727871345133

That’s the most concerning development. It’s that people are seeing images out of Gaza (despite efforts to suppress it all in news/social media) but Israel has successfully muddied the waters to the point where people just feel it’s “too complicated” to do anything about.

Israel annexed the West Bank in practice long ago. Israel is the sovereign power. The official annexation of the West Bank in name will entail a formalization of facts on the ground that Israel has already been expanding and entrenching with US support for decades. 🧵

https://twitter.com/tparsi/status/1856426026517311920

Of course, as we saw during his first term, Trump will accelerate the formalization of this process. For example, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem & recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan exposed reality for what it is, but it changed little on the ground.

Seeing Zionists react to the NYT story about Palestinian children being shot in the head by Israeli forces has been both fascinating & maddening.

They have 3 general responses: jubilant celebration, outright denial, or “it’s just a couple bad apples.”

🧵 Firstly, the only reason they’re even reacting at all is because the doctors interviewed are American. Palestinians have showed the world the bodies of their children, shot in the head & torn apart by Israeli bombs, for months. But because they’re Palestinian, they’re never taken seriously.

So I usually don’t engage with Zionist trolls for obvious reasons and ignore comment sections altogether because Twitter is all bots now, but I wanted to share the latest strand of hilariously desperate, vapid Israeli atrocity denial: 🧵

https://twitter.com/tksshawa/status/1784773442308370433

No one should have to explain this, but Muhammad is a very popular Arabic name. In fact, it’s famously the most popular name on earth!

Also, like in the west and other cultures across the globe, Palestinians often name children after their parents or grandparents!

Media continues to describe protests on college campuses across the country as just the latest “protests over the Israel-Hamas war.” But this obscures what these students are actually demanding.

Students are explicitly demanding their universities divest from Israel. 🧵 Obviously, US universities can’t intervene in Gaza or stop Israel from committing war crimes. But media coverage of the student protests make it seem like that’s what students are demanding. This framing misses the entire point & makes the protests appear aimless/unrealistic.

Citing conversations with Israeli military officials, @BarakRavid says, “The orders from the commanders on the ground [in Gaza] are 'shoot every man of fighting age.'"

This is a serious allegation to make. So let’s take a look at some of the evidence that backs it up:🧵

https://twitter.com/AC360/status/1775348260246360198

Yesterday, Al Jazeera shared footage of Israeli forces shooting Palestinian civilians as they tried to reach air dropped aid. The video shows one man being shot & injured only to be shot again & again as he desperately tried to crawl away. They left his body to be eaten by dogs.

Reports that private military contractors (PMCs) will participate in Gaza aid distribution are troubling. Not only are PMCs notoriously shady, but their deployment, bought & paid for by the US, would further reduce the costs of the war on Gaza for Israel.🧵bbc.com/news/world-us-… First, the incentive/accountability structures of PMCs are even murkier than that of the military - remember Blackwater in Iraq (PMC that massacred civilians in Baghdad)? While PMCs in Gaza probably wouldn’t be in combat roles, their presence opens up a whole new can of worms.

After Israeli forces killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, her family, & the EMTs sent to help, the Israeli military announced it would investigate itself. To the surprise of absolutely no one, they are now denying responsibility. Because why would Israel admit to committing a war crime? Doesn't matter that satellite imagery clearly shows Israeli tanks just meters from where they found the car Hind & her family were in, riddled with bullets/crushed. Nor does it matter that independent investigations further confirm Israeli culpability.

https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/1760630745679442189?s=20

There’s no doubt Israel has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, which is unsurprising given they’ve dropped 65,000+ tons of explosives on one of the most densely populated places on the planet. But despite the unprecedented destruction, Israel’s objectives are doomed to fail. 🧵 First off, their claim of killing ~9,000 combatants is likely inflated because Israel regularly counts civilian men of “fighting age” as militants by default. During their 2014 assault on Gaza, Israel categorized 20% of the casualties as “uncategorized males aged 16-50.”