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Yair Wallach

@yairwallach.bsky.social

14K followers 880 following 6.1K posts

Associate Professor (Reader), soas @soasuni.bsky.social, researching Palestine/Israel history. Race, migration, material culture, Antisemitism. "City in Fragments" (Stanford 2020) Currently working on Ashkenazi integration in the Arab Levant

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · Dec 29

Dr Husam Abu Safya, head of Kamal Adwan hospital, surrendering himself to a Israeli tank, December 2024

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 11h

יום קשה

Reposted by Yair Wallach

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 17h

This was twenty-three months ago. Israeli forces have killed more than 16,365 kids since.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · Jul 7

November 7, 2023 — Kids in Gaza host a press conference, in English, to beg the world for life.

“We come now to shout and invite you to protect us; we want to live, we want peace…we want to live as the other children live.”

At the time, Israel forces had killed over 4,200 kids like these.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 19h

theoretically - but there's no information on what it would involved, beyond a small ceremony in the Har Herzl cemetery

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 20h

As Israeli society is marking two years to the 7th of October attack, with public events and rallies and media coverage - the Israeli government is ignoring the anniversary.
No official statements
No personal statements from Netanyahu or ministers
No memorial services, no ceremony

Extraordinary

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 23h

Only when the state of emergency comes to an end, will the Israeli public be able to come to terms with its own loss and trauma, and to begin to see the devastation it has wrought in Gaza.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 23h

The Israeli government's strategy of prolonging this genocidal war for two years has aimed, among other things, to keep Israelis in deep state of of trauma of the 7th of October. That state of trauma allowed a genocidal mindset to take hold and seriously harmed mobilisations against the government.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 1d

Sharon Lifschitz, whose parents were kidnapped on Oct 7 and only her mother returned alive, writes on the two year anniversary to the massacres.
"We know that hate and revenge cannot bring even a momentary relief from the pain."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Two years after 7 October and the kidnap of my parents, hate is in fashion. For all our sakes, we need compassion | Sharone Lifschitz

So many were killed – yet on her release, my mother said ‘shalom’ to her captors. Let’s learn from that moment of grace, says Sharone Lifschitz, London-based film-maker and academic

www.theguardian.com

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 1d

I have an aversion to preachers who pretend to be journalists or academics

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 1d

Some 15 years ago, a friend was jailed in a dictatorship. It took personal intervention from Blair and Putin to secure his release. I always wondered how does it feel, to have your freedom secured thanks to the world's biggest villains.

Well if Trump actually ends the war, I guess we'll all know.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 1d

בגדול נכון, אבל בכל זאת בטאור המלטס (שזה רובע שבו יש נוכחות בנגלית מסיבית) כן יש יותר דגלים מבכל מקום אחר. או לפחות היו. בהתחלה היו דגלים על כל פנס רחוב שם, נראה לי מאז הורידו את רובם.

(לי אישית אין שום בעיה עם דגלי פלסטין)

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Reposted by Yair Wallach

Taqwa khaled @taqwasuh.bsky.social · 2d

Update:
I’m Taqwa

the mother who survived under the rubble,who lost all six of her kids and her entire family💔

I lost everything in one moment

me and my baby Suhaib
We have recently been displaced with nothing at all

Please,we beg you help us get medicine,water,milk,and food🙏🏻
gofund.me/b4901a75

Donate to Please help me and my unborn child to survive this genocide, organized by Taqwa Alqoqa

Hello, I am Taqwa Khaled Al-Qouqa (Abu Said), the pregnant an… Taqwa Alqoqa needs your support for Please help me and my unborn child to survive this genocide

gofund.me

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 1d

It's not surprising the protests have focussed on the hostages.
What would happen now is anyone's guess. I don't expect the indifference to change (to Palestinian lives), but resuming war would demand mobilising more troops and taking casualties, and there is already little appetite for that.

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Reposted by Yair Wallach

Its ruaa @itsmeio.bsky.social · 3d

We already achieved 38k of 40k needed

Help us cross the finish line, i’am so close🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

Its ruaa @itsmeio.bsky.social · 7d

If you recognize our right to survive as victims, please spend 50 for my family so we can evacuate.

Project Bring Ruaa and Her Family to Safety

I'm helping my friend, Ruaa Naji, raise funds to help her family survive.

chuffed.org

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

It's reported that Qatar came to this conclusion - that the hostages were a liability, not an asset.

Could Israel simply carry on after the hostages exchange? Yes, it could.

But again, Israel is already doing this, and after the exchange it won't be in a stronger position (quite likely weaker).

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Hamas believed that taking a large number of hostages would protect them from disproportionate Israeli response, and would help to bring the Israeli onslaught to an end.

This proved horribly wrong.

In fact, releasing the hostages takes away one of Israel's key reasons to continue the onslaught.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Like many scholars, Trump (2025) argues that the dynamics in Palestine are one of a violent settler-colonial project, and rejects the idea of a symmetrical "conflict"

Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Damn it looks Iike I'll be out of a job soon

Trump on Truth Social

There have been very positive discussions with Hamas, and Countries from all over the World (Arab, Muslim, and everyone else) this weekend, to release the Hostages, end the War in Gaza but, more importantly, finally have long sought PEACE in the Middle East. These talks have been very successful, and proceeding rapidly. The technical teams will again meet Monday, in Egypt, to work through and clarify the final details. I am told that the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST. I will continue to monitor this Centuries old “conflict.” TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE OR, MASSIVE BLOODSHED WILL FOLLOW — SOMETHING THAT NOBODY WANTS TO SEE!

(TS: 05 Oct 17:56 ET)‍‌‍

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Like many scholars, Trump (2025) argues that the dynamics in Palestine are one of a violent settler-colonial project, and rejects the idea of a symmetrical "conflict"

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

she's saying Israelis won't be so dumb to abuse Greta in prison and I can confirm that Ben Gvir goons are, in fact, dumb enough to do this and more. Not even dumb: they want to burn down relations with Europe

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Damn it looks Iike I'll be out of a job soon

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Every day is a good day to protest the ongoing Gaza genocide, and I don't think every protest needs to mention Hamas's massacre.

However, holding a special mass protest on the 7th Oct anniversary without acknowledgment of Hamas's massacres on that day, is a very different thing.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, exactly

Reposted by Yair Wallach

פינחס יוסף מונד @pymundgenealogy.com · 2d

This quote is very obviously fake, has been going around for months, and now is being touted as real with MEMO's approval.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

This fabrication may have originated from a mistranslation of this 2019 quote:

בראיון אמר סמוטריץ' כי "עם ישראל הוא עם מיוחד, עם שקיבל תורה ושצריך לחיות על פי חיי תורה. שום דבר לא קורה ברגע או בכפייה".

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

According to an article in Haaretz, while he was in Israeli prison, Yihya Sinwar studied carefully the Vietnam war and specifically the Tet Offensive, and made sure other Hamas prisoners read about it.

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Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 2d

Perhaps rhetorically, but almost no-one ever meant this seriously.

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