(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . This Week in the War on Women: SAY HER NAME- Shani Louk [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-14 What makes this “This Week in the War on Women” diary, different from all other “This Week in the War on Women” diaries? All the other “This Week in the War on Women” diaries (and there have now been hundreds of them, as this series has been running steadily for about 10 years), have painstakingly catalogued all manner of horrific abuse inflicted upon women. But what makes this week’s diary different, is the reaction that certain atrocities have received. x Say her name. Shani Louk, German tattoo artist, in Israel to attend a music festival. pic.twitter.com/s0YA9GGzzP — @Terresa (@TerresaHobbs) October 8, 2023 Shani, a 22 year old German-Israeli tattoo artist, was just one of the thousands of recent victims of Hamas savagery, but we say her name because we happen to know it. Unlike the anonymous hundreds gunned down while fleeing the festival killing field, Shani was selected for the special fate of (at the very least- as this is JUST what’s visible in that video), having her arms and legs broken, stripped to her underwear, knocked unconscious, and paraded around the streets of Gaza, while the heroic Hamas “FREeDoM fIgHtERs” spit on her. She really should be the one writing this diary. I wish she had the ability to sear into our collective consciousness, every goddamn thing she had to endure at their hands. But she can’t, because she’s (supposedly) stuck in captivity now (if not already dead). So now, imagine reacting to this- not with outrage over the fact that they (at least!!) BROKE HER ARMS AND LEGS, STRIPPED HER, KNOCKED HER UNCONSCIOUS, etc.- but with outrage over the fact that she was initially reported dead, when it turns out she might not actually be dead (yet). Yup- here’s the statement from the “Good Shepherd Collective”: State-manufactured propaganda is a real thing. And right now, we are witnessing a relatively unsophisticated campaign unfold online with individuals proliferating this false information. Frankly, it’s bewildering and frightening that prominent organizations and well-known online personalities have been sharing Israeli state-manufactured propaganda. It’s critical that folks not only work to stop the spread of this misinformation but also hold folks accountable for sharing and taking part in the propaganda campaign. Here are just a few of the lies that have been being spread online related to the recent events by the larger Zionist movement and ill-informed individuals. German girl who was allegedly killed is, in fact, alive. The Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the whole circus of Zionist outlets falsely reported that Hamas had killed Shani Louk. But in reality, she is alive in a hospital, according to her parents. The Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the whole circus of Zionist outlets falsely reported that Hamas had killed Shani Louk. But in reality, she is alive in a hospital, according to her parents. Babies beheaded!? Even the Israeli military has been quoted on public record, stating to Anadolu News that they have no information that can confirm that anybody has beheaded babies. However, what is logged and reported in detail are the 260 children and 230 women the Israeli military has killed during the bombings of residential neighborhoods so far. Even the Israeli military has been quoted on public record, stating to Anadolu News that they have no information that can confirm that anybody has beheaded babies. However, what is logged and reported in detail are the 260 children and 230 women the Israeli military has killed during the bombings of residential neighborhoods so far. Several women were raped. No mainstream Israeli media has confirmed this. The only source of evidence supporting this claim was an obscure article with an unnamed source. News outlets are now retracting those statements or adding disclaimers, like the Los Angles Times. I’m going to go ahead and make the bold prediction that Good Shepherd Collective’s statement here is not going to age very well… For one thing- the Anadolu News article they linked to (to refute that babies were beheaded), is dated October 10th, but this more recent CBS News article (from October 11th) says… Israeli emergency responders with years of experience doing the grim work of recovering bodies broke down in tears Wednesday as they told CBS News what they'd witnessed in the aftermath of Hamas' brutal terror attack on Israel. The depth of the horror unleashed by Hamas Saturday on Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip was still emerging five days later. … "We see blood spread out in homes. We've found bodies of people who have been butchered," said Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Maj. Libby Weiss. "The depravity of it is haunting." Weiss told CBS News that more than one of the Israeli soldiers who first reached Kfar Aza reported finding "beheaded children of varying ages, ranging from babies to slightly older children," along with adults who had also been dismembered. Yossi Landau, the head of operations for the southern region of Zaka, Israel's volunteer civilian emergency response organization, told CBS News he saw with his own eyes children and babies who had been beheaded. "I saw a lot more that cannot be described for now, because it's very hard to describe," he said, speaking of parents and children found with their hands bound and clear signs of torture. And now, as to the rapes… Well, the information is sketchy, due to the nature of the situation. According to one survivor, "They came to slaughter, to destroy. I know they kidnapped girls. They raped women even after killing them." Another survivor tells of returning to the site later to look for his friends, and seeing mostly bodies "of young women, lying cold and mutilated." … Then there's the video of a teenage Israeli woman being pulled by terrorists from the back of a vehicle in Gaza. In the video, she is barefoot, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt, and as she turns, you can see the back of her sweatpants covered in blood that came from between her legs. x Footage released from an interrogation of capture Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel. He admits that the Hamas terrorists fully intended to rape Israeli women who were captured. To anyone denying or minimizing the barbarity of Hamas? Stop gaslighting the Jewish people. pic.twitter.com/0TdXOAZfgX — Emily Schrader - אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) October 11, 2023 From other reports: On Tuesday night, PBS News Hour published an account from Raz Cohen, who survived the festival massacre: “The terrorists, people from Gaza, raped girls. And after they raped them, they killed them, murdered them with knives, or the opposite, killed — and after they raped, they — they did that.” The Hindustan Times, an Indian newspaper, quoted an Israeli woman Wednesday who only provided her first name, Moran, identified as a 40-year-old mother from Ramat Gan, a city in central Israel. “A girl, a friend of my friend, was raped in the streets of Gaza as everyone cheered,” Moran said. “Using her personal phone, the men sent a video of the crime to her family.” On Wednesday afternoon, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published the account of a festival survivor named Gad Liebersohn who said he heard women being assaulted from his hiding place near the concert grounds. And what is the “Good Shepherd Collective”, anyway? We are a collective of individuals and organizations seeking to change the structures that perpetuate violence in Palestine. We understand violence to be rooted in the structures and laws that guide civil formation and order. As such, we reject the binary discourse of “Israelis vs. Palestinians” and focus our energy on addressing settler-colonialism and other forms of violence by targeting the structures that facilitate these regimes. This is how we work toward justice. (Ah, see? Their whitewashing of crimes against humanity, is all about justice !!) And what other reactions were there to this modern, massive pogrom? Well, there’s the video of that rally, embedded in the first tweet of this diary. Have a listen to the crowd cheer their demented heads off, after the speaker says… And as you might have seen, there was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters. Oh- and here’s another good one (with a little emphasis added by me) from the “United National Antiwar Coalition” (“Our goal is to bring together organizations and movements representing people in struggle today and unify in collective action against the major perpetrator of war and injustice in the world”): The Palestinian people demand and deserve freedom from Israeli apartheid, settler colonialism, and genocidal tactics. How they go about achieving victory in their struggle for liberation is for them to determine. Um, no, it isn’t “up them to determine”- because there’s a little something known as “The Geneva Convention”, that established rules of warfare, ASSHOLE. x I applaud your moral clarity, at this profoundly tragic time. — Sandra Goldstein (@SandraLLAP) October 9, 2023 See? Again (because this literally deserves repeating): “Attacks on civilians and kidnapping are crimes that fundamentally erode the concept that every human deserves dignity and has no place in any conflict.” And did someone mention “genocidal”?? Well- here’s a lovely little article from The Atlantic- “Understanding Hamas’s Genocidal Ideology” (so, you know- “Pot, Kettle… Kettle, Pot…”) And what have we here, right on this site? A diary which asks- What Does Israel Expect? Followed by a litany of Israel’s wrongs- as if "They burned the apartments, then they shoot the babies, they cut their heads" because they were driven to the brink of desperation, by big, bad Israel!!! And not (as is being said by most people who actually have a clue- like this WaPo writer), a WAR OF CHOICE , to derail the prospects of an Israeli-Saudi peace deal… We are seeing a global contest between the forces of order and disorder. Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are trying to erode the international system. If Hamas succeeds, it will encourage others — Hezbollah, the Houthis — to flex their muscles as well. Defeating Hamas is a daunting challenge. That terrorist group is hoping for a massive Israeli overreaction that produces thousands of civilian casualties and bogs down Israeli troops. Hamas is also hoping for the collapse of any possible deal with Saudi Arabia. I didn’t flag the diary, but I did add a tag to it (which I took a screenshot of, in case he notices it & removes it): And lastly, what are some Daily Kos commenters saying about this event? Whoa- did you catch that, everyone? This isn’t just your ordinary yellow, or even red passion we’re talking about here. No- this is PURPLE PASSION!! Now, what do you suppose one might do, with purple passion: with purple passion, you could righteously slaughter a party of hippies!! And LEGITIMATELY butcher and burn entire families in their homes!!! And maybe, just maybe… purple passion could rationalize drive you to gratify yourself with a beautiful young festivalgoer…? Oh, no- WAIT- none of that has been absolutely, positively, 100% confirmed yet, so, we must be mindful not to say anything that could possibly be construed as “inciteful”. I mean, who knows what sorts of murderous mob violence- (like say, oh, gunning down a party of innocent young hippies, or, butchering and burning innocent families in their homes, etc. etc.,) could be unleashed by the persistent use of hyperbolic rhetoric , RIGHT???? (Seriously- my original title for this diary was going to be “This Week in the War on Women: Hamas- raping their way to Palestinian statehood”, but then I thought “No no, we mustn’t be ‘inflammatory’…”) And now, we come to the question: Why, is this “This Week in the War on Women” diary, different from all other “This Week in the War on Women” diaries? Well, here’s a thought: x The endless justifications of atrocity on here would elsewhere be called: victim-blaming. But Jews, because of the deeply embedded association of this one minority with power, cannot be victims. They must always be held in some way responsible for their own misfortune. — David Baddiel (@Baddiel) October 9, 2023 I think she also nailed it: What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does is thrown back at all Jews. And, from a Newsweek opinion piece: These videos, broadcast on social media and Telegram for the world to see, were filmed and shared by Hamas with pride. There is no effort to hide or minimize what they are doing to women. In fact, the rape and brutalization of women has been the crucial hallmark of this brutal attack. It's chilling and sickening. But nearly as disturbing is the complete silence of the largest and most visible international women's organizations supposedly dedicated to protecting women all over the world from rape and violence. They have all suddenly gone silent. Not one has spoken out against what appear to be the mass rapes committed by Hamas fighters. Their silence sends a loud and clear message: We don't care about the rape of Israeli and Jewish women. We don't care if their broken bodies are paraded through streets by terrorists. The silence of feminist and women's organizations authorizes rape as a weapon of war. It sanctions the beheading of babies when it is called "resistance." Well, we’ve reached the end of the diary, where we often put “action items”… So, what can be done at this point (now that we’ve reached the end stage of a negative feedback loop, run amok)? The best petition I could find, was this Avaaz one- To US President Biden, Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad, Turkey’s President Erdogan, German Chancellor Scholz and all world leaders: This war on children is a stain on the conscience of the world. We demand that you use your influence to reach an agreement that halts Israel's bombing of areas with children, ensures Hamas returns Israeli children and families they’ve taken hostage, and secures the release of Palestinian children held in Israeli military prisons. You have the power to protect these children and to end this war, act now before it’s too late. Oh Good Goddess, I just can’t leave it at this… So, a heroine: x Israeli woman Inbar Lieberman hailed a hero for saving kibbutz Nir Am from invading Hamas https://t.co/GaRNBjghv3 pic.twitter.com/a9mGWN4Hp4 — Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) October 10, 2023 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/14/2199089/-This-Week-in-the-War-on-Women-SAY-HER-NAME-Shani-Louk?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/