What’s Brewing?

Watching these harrowing scenes of men being separated from women and children and taken to some unknown place in preparation of execution is bone chilling but not unfamiliar. It reminds us of Abu Ghraib where men were stripped and stacked on top of each other on pyramids. Moreover, these are the images we saw in museums and schools, Jews being stripped down and driven into gas chambers. But why is it happening again? Could we really be living in 2023 and seeing such uncanny parallels to our collective tragic past? Have we learnt nothing? 

And as the dominant focus remains on the innocence of women and children, a brother of a seizure-prone victim kidnapped by Israeli forces reminds us that men are innocent civilians too. And they are repeatedly being dehumanized and called “subhuman species and ants,” as they commit these mass murders. Reports state that among them is a 12 year old boy too. This is not to say that the Resistance is not the people, but we can clearly see through the evidence that while Resistance fighters engage in guerilla warfare, the IDF rarely are fighting evenly with the Resistance fighters and instead enact revenge on the civilian population. Not only is this war uneven-handed from the Occupier's standpoint, it is targeting the wrong group which reveals something greater: the Occupier is unable to reach the Resistance fighters and does not know their whereabouts. As the war gets drawn out, the people of Gaza go hungry and thirsty, and the IDF is busy raising up large hannukahs to confuse the Jewry and western masses, pressure mounts in the US American front within local communities. 

At the grassroots, people continue to fight for Ceasefire resolutions and an end to the Occupation. And while we only hear of success stories, there are communities such as in Ann Arbor, Michigan where diverse Americans are coming out again and again to force their deaf-tone elected officials into embracing their own humanity.

World

Denmark Finally Bans Quran Burnings 

Denmark’s parliament passed a law on Thursday prohibiting the desecration of holy scriptures, such as the Quran, Bible, and Torah following contentious debates on the limits of free speech. Violators will face up to two years in prison or heavy fines. The criminalization of holy text desecrations in Denmark comes after a wave of Quran burning incidents across Europe, namely in Sweden and Denmark. Muslims in these nations have long demanded that their governments take action against such overt instances of hate and Islamophobia. For Denmark, it was about time.

Economy

Starbucks Loses $12 Billion Amid Boycotts

That’s more than 10 percent of its market value, and it’s the company’s largest loss since its public debut in 1992. After Starbucks filed a lawsuit against its employee union on October 19 for promoting Palestine advocacy, online boycott campaigns flooded social media platforms as employee strikes made global headlines. As the viral #boycottstarbucks hashtag continues to grow on social media, coffee lovers are taking pride in the power of united boycott efforts — and the fact that they don’t need to pay for overpriced coffee. 

Tech

Google Unveils Gemini, a Rival to ChatGPT

Google’s shares jumped on Thursday, just a day after it announced its latest AI model: Gemini. The company’s executives are already saying Gemini is superior to OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and 4, emphasizing that it can “understand the world around us in the way that we do.” Gemini is also said to be the first model to outperform human experts on Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU). Google, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI are in an intense competition over AI technology, and clearly there’s no telling where it will stop. 

What You Need to Know

US Public Schools are Speaking Up for Palestine

While it is assumed that all public institutions in the US share the same stance on Palestine as their government does, public schools are proving to be quite…difficult. Teacher unions across the US have been publically issuing statements condemning the violence against Palestinians and demanding humanitarian aid for Gaza. Dozens of California teachers even held teach-ins featuring Palestinian narratives with guest speakers. A Minnesota teacher’s union blamed Israel’s apartheid government for the unfolding events, and called on the US to end its support of the Israeli occupation. And while these efforts have been met with intense backlash, they are signaling a much larger reality within American society: the public is waking up.

News

What Else is Brewing?

• While the cause of Palestine is getting more attention than ever before as large accounts are sharing content, the danger lies in the long-term goal for the liberation of Palestine. Are these accounts clout chasing and will abandon ship as soon as the tough conversations start taking place? 

• Gulf Arab monarchs and some Muslim leaders are rather quiet about what’s going on in Palestine. But they’re not only abstaining from support, they’re actually complicit in Israel’s aggression.

• Sarah Ibrahim explains that young Americans have been questioning mainstream media narratives for a while now, and this reality is being reflected with the ongoing events unfolding in Palestine

• In what could be described as (tragically) hilarious, a caller on LBC radio drives an Israeli spokesman insane as she questions his narrative.

• Yemen attacking two more Israeli ships and a US warship in the Red Sea pose the question of the year. How did those who were oppressed for over 8 years not only win and drive out the most advanced militaries of this time, but are now in a position to attack them? And imagine the millions of people who have donated to the World Food Programme, only to find out they punish poor people in Yemen and leave them hungry for their support of Palestine. 

• Amazon may be giant, but there’s inner turmoil on supplying Israel with surveillance intelligence and it’s just not sitting right with many employees.

What to Look Out For

Things to look out for are:

1. Analysis piece on why prisoners are an important bargaining chip in the War on Gaza

2. Original story reporting on the Ann Arbor, MI crisis where the mayor refuses to put a ceasefire resolution on the table despite his constituents asking him to do so. Articles and development coming this weekend. 

3. The 52 page monster report is finally here and it just took 1 year and 2 months to create! This report will highlight everything you need to know about Palestine from A, to Z and back to A. It will be released in 10 parts, so don’t worry about reading all 52 pages at once. 

4. As journalists, we are always chasing stories. And while the year is almost at the end, we feel as though our work is only beginning. No Breaks! We have a resident of Gaza in our midst who got stuck here in America, as well as a former city hall councilwoman who wants to spill the tea. 

5. Our work is endless, and we need fuel to keep going. Consider supporting our fundraiser; every bit goes a long way!

Can you solve this?

“What English word has three consecutive double letters?”Reply with your guess.

Jummah Inspo

“We have created everything in due measure; We command but once: Our will is done in the twinkling of an eye”

Holy Quran 54: 49-50

Written by Zainabrights, Sara Salimi

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