The prison industrial complex (PIC) is not about punishment, rehabilitation, or public safety. It's about maintaining a permanent racialized underclass.
If the same crime committed by a poor Black person and a wealthy white person are punished differently, with the former receiving harsher sentences, worse treatment, and lesser consideration for parole, the purpose of the PIC cannot be the punishment itself; its role is in maintaining the disparity in punishment.
If opportunities for living a decent life after incarceration are systematically foreclosed across various sectors of society, the purpose of the PIC cannot be rehabilitation; its purpose is in marking a class of people as worthy of exploitation and death.
If the only classes of people who become safer through policing and mass incarceration are wealthy and white (or who inhabit social positions in proximity to wealth and whiteness), then the purpose of the PIC cannot be public safety; its purpose is in maintaining a boundary between those deserving of public safety and everyone else.
Truthout / Maria Montanez:
'Formerly Incarcerated People Face “Forever Punishment” in Collateral Sanctions'
Joe Biden could still turn this around and not lose to Trump by defunding Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. If he doesn’t, there will be only person to blame for Joe Biden losing to Trump in six months and that’s Joe “I am a Zionist” Biden.
#Spain / Rallies in Madrid on 18 and 19 May amid political summit by Spain’s Vox party, including Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs (Amichai Chikli)
[...] The summit will reportedly be attended by representatives of various right-wing parties across Europe, leading several Spanish left-wing organisations to lead protests condemning the summit. Several thousand people are likely to attend.
Chikli not mentioned, but was reported to be attending.
Oh my dear @h4890
how did you achieve this level of indoctrination and ignorance? To support #genocide today isn't much different than to support #holocaust back in 1938. Are your parents proud that you became a #ZioNazi?
Since it wasn't me who financed #Hamas, but the #apartheid#regime of @israel (that you support) ... you might guess who does the dirty work as useful idiot.
:linus:
While I'm prepared with historical facts for an intellectual duell with #genocideDenier's, it's you who is unarmed, obviously.
#Israel / On the Jewish State’s absurd policy of the right of “return”, if you’re not a Palestinian that is
[from a column in which the reporter talks to people passing through TLV's airport]
Q: … And we thought we were the “after the wars” generation
A: […] And now we're here, and I feel a strange sense of obligation. In the most basic human sense, I came here from somewhere, the government gave me money, gave my brother a school, essentially funded an entire year of really good living for my family, just because we're Jewish. I always knew I was Jewish, my mother worked in the Jewish education system in Russia and I went to a Jewish kindergarten and school. But it was something on the periphery of my thinking, and now it's more central.
Q: What surprised you the most when you moved here?
A: All the people I ever knew in Russia, everyone I ever met, is here now. I don't think I have a single acquaintance left in St. Petersburg.
#Israel / Zionism cannot produce a just peace. Only external pressure can end the Israeli apartheid. @raph), May 2021]
#Zionism has created a dominant narrative in Israel that justifies the occupation and human rights violations against Palestinians. This narrative portrays Israel as acting in self-defense, Palestinians as unwilling to compromise for peace, and justifies the occupation, discrimination, and human rights violations against Palestinians.
Only external pressure can meaningfully push Israel to end the occupation and achieve a just peace.
"Such beauty! This is what happens to whoever brings food to Hamas" Judeonazi settlers in West Bank blocked two Palestinian trucks, claiming they carry Gaza aid, threw rocks at the drivers, wounding one of them, and destroyed goods. No arrests were made. State-backed terrorists. https://x.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1790807200933318876
🔻'Trump would be worse' is a bad argument & misses several key points.
🔻Biden is pitting vulnerable groups here against genocide victims in Palestine.
🔻If Biden loses, it will be HIS fault.
🔻Protest the DNC in August
Settlers mobs south of #AlKhalil in the #WestBank set fire to the aid trucks that they stopped and damaged this afternoon, which were loaded with aid and headed to the #Gaza Strip.
No sign of Israeli police of IDF to protect the convoy or stop the terrorists settlers from destroying aid packages, mostly baby formula, diapers and medical equipment.
#Palestine / Impunity persists two years after the Israeli army’s murder of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
[...] Two years after the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh in the West Bank, and a year after Israel's official apology acknowledging its responsibility, justice has yet to be delivered for the emblematic Al Jazeera journalist. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this impunity and calls on the international community, especially the United States, to exert pressure on the Israeli army to answer for Abu Akleh’s killing.
Today marks two years since #AJArabic Palestinian-American veteran journalist #ShireenAbuAkleh was shot and killed by Israeli Forces.
The Al Jazeera family & the world have not stopped seeking #justiceforshireen and will continue to honour her bravery, courage and loyalty to journalism.
On the morning of May 8, Israeli forces razed the entire Bedouin village of Wadi al-Khalil in the Naqab/Negev desert. The demolitions, which were carried out in order to expand the Route 6 highway, left more than 300 residents homeless.
Wadi al-Khalil is one of 35 Bedouin villages in the Naqab whose existence the Israeli authorities do not officially recognize; as a result, the villages, which are home to around 150,000 Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel, face the constant threat of demolition. Many of the villages are decades old — some even pre-date Israel’s establishment — but they are prevented from connecting to state infrastructure including water and electricity, and their residents are denied municipal services.
According to the Regional Council for the Unrecognized Bedouin Villages, Wednesday’s demolition was the largest in the Naqab for 14 years. It comes as Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir vows to crack down on what he calls “lawbreakers” and restore meshilut — literally “governance,” a euphemism for Jewish-Israeli control — to the area. Eight other unrecognized villages are currently under threat of forced eviction under the guise of urban development.
“You work eight or nine years, saving money to build a house, and then they destroy it,” Yousef Abu Issa, a 35-year-old resident, told +972. “They don’t give you another place to live, they don’t help you.”
by Oren Ziv שיחה מקומית 972mag.com/israel-razes-bedoui…
"On the morning of May 8, Israeli forces razed the entire Bedouin village of Wadi al-Khalil in the Naqab/Negev desert...to expand the Route 6 highway, left more than 300 residents homeless. Many of the villages are decades old — some even pre-date Israel’s establishment — but they are prevented from connecting to state infrastructure including water and electricity, and their residents are denied municipal services."
Documentation shows the extent of #torture perpetrated by Israeli prison guards on the released #prisoner Adeeb Mustafa Samoudi while in the occupation’s “Gilboa” prison.
Samoudi, who is from #Jenin, spent a total of two years in Israeli prisons with no charges and was released yesterday.
The violence we’re seeing police use on college campuses is nothing new but did you know that US and Canadian police departments use taxpayer dollars to pay Israel's military to show them how to better brutalize us based on their treatment of Palestinians?
Earlier today, Israeli settlers launched an attack on the #UNRWA headquarters in occupied #Jerusalem, setting fire to its surroundings. Israeli authorities have not intervened or made any arrests among the Israeli attackers.
Today, on 9 May, we celebrate our unity and solidarity.
A month ahead of the #EUelections2024 (6-9 June), it is the perfect day to share your wishes for Europe and reflect on which EU you want in the future.
I wish that Ursula V.d.L will be prosecuted for usurping power which did not belong to her, standing next to butcher Netanyahu, and supporting his #WarCrimes in our name.
I wish for #BDS action by #EU against the only #apartheid state in existence.
I wish for the 95.5 billion euro of Project Horizon to not fund Israeli Universities while #Educide is done in #Palestine.
This podcast is good at making #history easier to digest, if you're interested--
Up this week is Zionism, Zionist #propaganda, Balfour, the guy chosen to mess up Palestine, who had previously wreaked havoc in Ireland and denied entry to Jews fleeing the holocaust who were hoping to find refuge in the UK. And Herzl &more stuff.