Gaza update for Rulin & Amjad

In case anybody's able to help –

The refunds for Amjad's previous Gofundme campaign have finally started to be issued (I got 2 of maybe 5 so far), so if you see that refund hitting your bank account, kindly send it to his new Chuffed fundraiser – he's still working to pay off the account-holder from Gofundme, and Israel has now started refusing to allow shipments of generator fuel into the camps, because they want to stop Gazans from charging electronic devices, because they want to cut everyone off from everyone else and make it impossible to document war crimes. That means irregular access to things like donation money, so this is a case wherein a given 24-hour period can make a very big difference.

And, I'm sorry to report, Rulin's family (and here's their Gofundme) was one of several who got defrauded by a woman promising to get them their donation money for a 4% cut, rather than the 35% commonly charged by reliable go-betweens; this woman has been arrested, but god knows when or if the money will ever be returned. (The legal system, such that it still exists, is probably not gonna be too prompt about this, and the Israelis always might just steal it anyway.) I know Rulin & family still have some donations and didn't lose everything, and they're working to set up a parallel campaign in case Gofundme starts persecuting them like I've now seen it persecute a half-dozen other Palestinians; she's hoping to have a chunk of $5k to get across the Egyptian border whenever it reopens, then help the rest of her family emigrate too, so anything you can spare which will leave her that earmarked $5k, apart from the immediate needs of her family, is a big deal.

No definite news on the border reopening yet, just that Hamas, Fatah, and Egypt are still "negotiating," and nothing concrete either about the possibility of a ceasefire, though I would say there's more optimism than I've seen in a long time. From what I hear, Israel seems to have acquired a more pressing set of interests (helloooooo, Mr. Jolani), and there's more talk about ending the Occupation than at any other time when I've known people in Palestine.

Just what that ceasefire would look like, nobody knows, and with relentless IDF wet work around the "Netzarim Corridor" (they always have to give everything their own stupid fuckin' names), from Be'eri, everybody's favorite kibbutz, west to the Mediterranean, I fear that they intend to lop off the North completely and turn all of Gaza City and its outlying towns into more "Israel."

I mention this not to depress or frighten anyone, but because I want you to know that when you hear Responsible, Moderate Statecraft sons of bitches talking about the "Netzarim Corridor" – and you will – what they're talking about is a bullshit euphemism for Israel using a 7-mile chain of military installations to unilaterally and illegally annex the part of Gaza where most Gazans lived, by far the most developed in terms of economy, infrastructure, and housing, the place that most of the dis-placed Palestinians were dis-placed from. What the (as Liz would say) Fatpig Lazyasses of the world will soon be trumpeting as a "reasonable solution" is, in flat indisputable terms, a free-fire zone of more concentrated genocide combined with mass ethnic cleansing. You see those words, you let them know.

And, always, Amjad, Rulin, and their families thank all of you, for everything, and so do I –

MSJ