Dear Joyce,
I enjoyed talking to you after the town hall. I hope we continue talking. I like your perspective on listening to people with whom you disagree. I'm curious to hear more about your gun control advocacy, your daughter's work, and how her experiences influenced you. I hope my daughter broadens my outlook!
I did not have time to write an article for you about the Palestinian situation as I'd hoped. I can't recommend one thing to read. So, here are several. --Anna
Background
I recommended Joe Sacco's 2010 Footnotes in Gaza. It's extraordinary. Sacco has such an eye for people, humanity, folly. He's telling the story of two atrocities that happened in 1956, but his sources want to talk about everything else: 1948 Arab-Israeli war and nakba, the feyadee campaign, 1967, the stone intifada, the Oslo accords, their house being demolished as he interviews them in 2003. He also did excellent journalism in Bosnia in the 1990s. You can download a copy from Anna's Archive to see what you think. I think it's better to check it out from the library.
My friend Alice was in Rafah while Joe Sacco was interviewing people for his book. She was featured in the BBC channel 4's Dispatches - Killing Zone program.
I can't think of anything off the top of my head that addresses three events I see as crucial:
The ICJ case
If you have the time and stomach, and only want to read one thing, read the 29-page International Court of Justice order for provisional measures in South Africa v Israel. Former diplomat Craig Murray's commentary is illuminating (he was in the gallery during South Africa's and Israel's oral arguments, transcripts available here). If you prefer to watch the chief justice (an American) deliver the order orally, a video is embedded at the end of financial analyst Yves Smith's commentary.
The ICJ arguments and order are important because they're held to a higher standard of evidence than journalistic accounts. The genocide convention is the bedrock of post-WWII international law, and the court (1) Accepted the case, (2) ordered Israel to stop killing and grievously wounding Palestinians nearly three weeks ago, and ordered Israel to allow food, water, sewage, shelter, medical care, as needed to make life liveable, and (3) according to the convention, countries like ours and Germany are criminally in defiance of the order if we provide weapons, block aid, etc (the charge is "complicity with genocide").
Israel continued bombing and blocking aid. The US, UK, and Germany maintained complicity (our country flies two C-17s full of bombs and artillery every day, and made our biggest single military aircraft sale to Israel since the provisional measures order was issued). Israel responded directly to the order by calling on its friends to defund UNRWA, in direct defiance of international law, which may not survive this war. We defunded it, which moves beyond complicity to perpetration of genocide.
Journalism
October 7
I include this only because we discussed it. I'm sure there are better, or more recent sources, but it is fairly well-known among Israeli survivors of Oct 7 and the families of hostages that the IDF killed many of the Israelis killed on Oct 7. The best reporting is in Hebrew. Most English-language papers won't touch the story, but there are English-language writeups in Electronic Intifada, The Cradle, and Grayzone. Mondoweiss provides a good summary of the trouble with claims of mass rape. My extensive experience in conflict zones informs my conviction the most lurid tales emerging from anywhere are rarely true.
I hope you don't mind the link dump and my laziness at not synthesizing, digesting, and presenting a terse writeup.