This week marks the 33 yrs since the First Intifada began. First Intifada was a sustained series of Palestinian protests, and in some cases violent riots, against the Israeli occupation. 3 decades later, the struggle for Palestinian freedom continues!
#FreePalestine

A THREAD!👇

The intifada began on 9 Dec 1987 in the Jabalia refugee camp after an Israeli Defense Forces(IDF) truck collided with a civilian car, killing four Palestinian workers, three of whom were from the Jabalia refugee camp...1/n

The Palestinian response was characterized by protests, civil disobedience, and violence. There was graffiti, barricading and widespread throwing of stones and Molotov cocktails (petrol bomb) at the IDF and its infrastructure within the West Bank and Gaza Strip...2/n

These contrasted with civil efforts including general strikes, boycotts of Israeli Civil Administration institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, an economic boycott consisting of refusal to work in Israeli settlements on Israeli products, and refusal to pay taxes...3/n

Israel deployed some 80,000 soldiers in response. Israeli countermeasures, which initially included the use of live rounds frequently in riots, were criticized as disproportionate. The IDF's rules of engagement were also criticized as too liberally employing lethal force...4/n

Last night I got talking to my aunt. A staunch Republican, ex prisoner of conscience, ex dirty protester in armagh jail. We've not seen eye on eye on trans issues and fall out on a regular basis.
Last week I sent her #TheLetter and asked her to read it and to call of and she 1

Was ready to discuss it. She called me last night. An amnesty supporter and donor (she had amnesty put in her will years ago). And she was in tears. She'd read up, she'd read all of #Cxlms tweets on the matter and read feminist accounts here on Twitter and on other forums. 2

She couldn't believe that the people who say they are supporters of all freedoms and human rights where demanding the disenfranchisement of women all over Ireland. She couldn't believe limerick women's jail houses 2 fully intact male sex offenders. She couldn't believe what had 3

Been done to #KieraBell and 1000s like her. She couldn't believe the rampant misogny in 2020s Ireland. She likened it to the grasp the church had on Ireland until recently. She recalled the time male prison guards were called in from the maze to brutalise and intimidate the 4

Women in Armagh. She recalled her injuries which still plague her to this day. The PTSD she has from those men being present in an all female space. She cried for the women in limerick prison as she knows what they are going through. She cried for the children mutilated in the 5