curated video essays

Vietnam has fought and defeated countless Goliaths to achieve its liberation.

While our people in Palestine are still fighting their own Goliath, we wanted to learn, how did the Vietnamese do it? And what happens once this Goliath is taken down? What does a national identity built on liberation and resistance look like when the country’s at peace? And is Vietnam really at peace?

We traveled to Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh City Saigon in the South to explore Vietnam’s story of liberation, and the story it's writing now.

Jessie Gender (4:17:13) Despite understanding some of the hydra heads that form from it - the apparatus, functions, and nature of antisemitism are often less understood on a deeper level because despite its long history and that it frequently intersects with other bigotries, it is not based directly on poverty, skin color or colonized status. It’s also historically quite flexible, constantly evolving to fit the numerous contexts it crops up within. As a result, leftist groups can often miss it when it appears. There is also a question that often goes unaddressed in the binary framework of a propagandizing neo-colonial power that works to perpetuate its power versus those who fight it endlessly. Can antisemitism exist within leftist movements fighting for Palestinian autonomy and self-determination?

0:00 - Introduction 28:23 - Part 1: How Antisemitism Functions 47:25 - Part 2: The History of Zionism 1:45:56 - Part 3: Zionism as a Political Ideology 2:32:18 - Part 4: Zionism as an Emotion 3:07:35 - Part 5: Antisemitism on The Left 3:39:29 - Part 6: Anti-Zionism 4:05:06 - Conclusion 4:13:40 - Outro

Dean Spade directed this (liy: yes, author of Mutual Aid!) (56:06) "Pinkwashing" is a term activists have coined for when countries engaged in terrible human rights violations promote themselves as "gay friendly" to improve their public image. Israel is the country most famous for this strategy, having initiated it as part of a rebranding campaign has been engaged in for the last decade.

Synopsis: In 2012, activists in the Pacific Northwestern region of the US responded to an Israeli Consulate-funded pinkwashing tour featuring Israeli gay and lesbian activists that was coming to the region. Local queer Palestine solidarity activists exposed the "Rainbow Generations" tour as pro-Israel propaganda and got some of the events, including the tour's centerpiece event hosted by the City of Seattle's LGBT Commission, cancelled. A significant backlash ensued involving the Seattle City Council and Seattle's leading LGBT and HIV organizations. Through the inspiring story of these activists' victory, "Pinkwashing Exposed" explores how pinkwashing works and what local activists are doing to fight back.

This film was edited by Amy Mahardy, directed by Dean Spade.

"Pinkwashing Exposed" was made in Seattle, on Duwamish Land. The Duwamish are in a long fight for recognition by the US government. Right now they are trying to raise $100,000 to hire an expert witness to review 31,000 pages of documents provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as part of their fight for recognition. We can help by donating. duwamishtribe.org/give.html

This film is closed captioned in English.

For more on this film, visit: https://pinkwashingexposed.net/

liy: Feels like calling a friend over for an hour to break it down for you, who pulls up links and watches them with you, yells at bad takes so you don't have to... all without the possibility of losing that friendship. not really an essay so the time flies by (1:03:47)

• He breaks it down like he's running media literacy 101 daycare for a generation younger than him (because he is),
• he answers questions in chat along the way,
• his examples are clear but not gory,
• and his editors are very good at cutting together a tight explainer video out of a much longer livestream.

Dr. Fatima's desperate plea for scientists to give a shit about imperialism (2:51:56)

00:00:00 - Cold Open 00:02:31 - Introduction 00:05:34 - Act 1: A Telescope Controversy 00:36:37 - An Aside on Palestinian Liberation 01:32:17 - Act 2: The Colonial Premise 02:05:48 - An Emotional Coda 02:28:09 - Praxis Postscript 02:43:32 - Conclusion 02:49:50 - Credits

Ornament and Crime: What does Jewish mythology have to teach us - or rather, what warnings does it have - about Israel's oppression of Palestinians? (1:34:34)

"when we forget ourselves, we become the monster"

Liy: A Jewish anti-fascist art historian wears the kuffiyeh and chats like a friend with receipts. I thought I didn't need this video but I was wrong actually! This is exactly how I want to learn abt Jewish solidarity with Palestine. You've probably been scrolling through a lot of rapid short-form education... Focusing for 90min seems wild but it's a great antidote for my broken brain. At one point she takes a break, pause and do the same! I love long videos because there's more room to feel human when sharing info instead of in polished 5min rapid summaries. She weaves together what u learned from social media but with art, architecture, history. Her cat Pikachu is VERY CUTE