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Samhain💛🤍💜🖤
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it/they, DemSoc 🌹, autistic 🦋, poly/pan 🧡, MDNI🔞, reskeets nsfw sometimes
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Reposted by Samhain💛🤍💜🖤
propublica.org
9/ ProPublica got records from an internal State Department panel showing how much deference the U.S. gives Israel, from the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to kids who said they were abused in Israeli detention.
Screenshot of excerpt from article: In another case considered by the forum, a 15-year-old boy from the West Bank said he was tortured and raped in the Israeli detention facility Al-Mascobiyya, or Russian Compound. For years, the State Department had been told about widespread abuses in that facility and others like it. Military Court Watch, a local nonprofit organization of attorneys, collected testimony from more than 1,100 minors who had been detained between 2013 and 2023. Most said they were strip searched and many said they were beaten. Some teens tried to kill themselves in solitary confinement. IDF soldiers recalled children so scared that they peed themselves during arrests. (continued from last screenshot of article) At the Russian Compound, a 14-year-old said his interrogator shocked and beat him in the legs with sticks to elicit information about a car fire. A 15-year-old said he was handcuffed with another boy. "An Israeli policeman then walked into the room and beat the hell out of me and the other boy," he said. A 12-year-old girl said she was put into a small cell with cockroaches. (continued from last screenshot of article) Military Court Watch routinely shared its information with the State Department, according to Gerard Horton, one of the group's co-founders. But nothing ever came of it. "They receive all our reports and we name the facilities," he told me. "It goes up the food chain and it gets political. Everyone knows what's going on and obviously no action is taken."
January 16, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Samhain💛🤍💜🖤
propublica.org
7/ Some of the agency’s top Middle East diplomats complained in private that they were sidelined by Biden’s National Security Council.

Here's a top Palestinian affairs official at the State Department on why he’s been largely absent from the public eye ⤵️
Screenshot of excerpt from article: During another internal State Department meeting in March, top regional diplomats voiced their frustrations about messaging and appearances. Hady Amr, one of the government's highest-ranking authorities on Palestinian affairs, said he was reluctant to address large groups about the administration's Israel policy and he took issue with much of it, according to notes of the conversation. He warned colleagues that the sentiment in Muslim communities was turning. From a public diplomacy perspective, Amr told them, the war has been "catastrophically bad for the U.S." (Amr did not respond to requests for comment.) Another attendee at the meeting said they had been effectively sidelined by the NSC. A third said it was a huge amount of effort to even get permission to use the word "condemn" when talking about Israeli settlers demolishing Palestinians' homes in the West Bank.
January 16, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Samhain💛🤍💜🖤
propublica.org
5/ In November, State Department human rights leaders met with one of Blinken’s top lieutenants and begged the administration to follow through on a threat to cut off arms to Israel for blocking humanitarian assistance.

Here’s what happened 👇
Screenshot of excerpt from ProPublica article: Several attendees at the November meeting — officials who help lead the State Department's efforts to promote racial equity, religious freedom and other high-minded principles of democracy — said the United States' international credibility had been severely damaged by Biden's unstinting support of Israel. If there was ever a time to hold Israel accountable, one ambassador at the meeting told Tom Sullivan, the State Department's counselor and a senior policy adviser to Blinken, it was now. But the decision had already been made. Sullivan said the deadline would likely pass without action and Biden would continue sending shipments of bombs uninterrupted, according to two people who were in the meeting. (Continued screenshot of article): Those in the room deflated. "Don't our law, policy and morals demand it?" an attendee told me later, reflecting on the decision to once again capitulate. "What is the rationale of this approach? There is no explanation they can articulate." Soon after, when the 30-day deadline was up, Blinken made it official and said that Israelis had begun implementing most of the steps he had laid out in his letter — all thanks to the pressure the U.S. had applied. That choice was immediately called into question. On Nov. 14, a U.N. committee said that Israel's methods in Gaza, including its use of starvation as a weapon, was "consistent with genocide." Amnesty International went further and concluded a genocide was underway. The International Criminal Court also issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister for the war crime of deliberately starving civilians, among other allegations. (The U.S. and Israeli governments have rejected the genocide determination as well as the warrants.)
January 16, 2025 at 12:06 AM
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FUCK THEM, GO OUTSIDE BE FREE QUEEN
January 15, 2025 at 11:53 PM
samhainabyss.bsky.social
only to have the cars slow down during the sharp turns
December 25, 2024 at 5:40 AM
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advertising a “thrilling attraction” replacing the people mover
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