In Solidarity with Palestine

Commemorating International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,
commenced by the United Nations in 1977.

By Orionist, previous versions by Makaristos, Mysid, etc. – Own work using: Law No. 5 for the year 2006 amending some provisions of Law No. 22 for the year 2005 on the Sanctity of the Palestinian Flag, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=433206

“We are witnessing a genocide in real time”
Spokesperson for the Defense for Children International – Palestine

I’m sorry Ahmed, Ibrahim, Sarah and Jana, Mohamad and Jusuf, and all the other 17,400 children killed by Israel in Gaza since 7 October 2023, along with possibly 20,000 of your mothers, fathers, and other family members.

On behalf of the civilised world, I am sorry for the deaths and genocide across Palestine, I apologise that many international leaders are ignoring the catastrophe (or looking the other way for political reasons), or providing military equipment to the aggressor nation in order to empower this genocide.

I am sorry that a national political and military machinery that purports to represent the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, is itself enacting a new Holocaust. This does NOT reflect the wishes nor morality of many Jewish people in Israel and around the world.

Anti-Semitism

Please understand, kids, that some adults state that your murder is part of a response to a terrible attack on 7 October 2023, during which 38 Jewish children and 1101 other people were also killed. The 7 October atrocity deserved a firm response (one example being the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for the Hamas leadership responsible), but the Israeli response has killed over 40,000 Palestinian civilians and elicited a similar ICC arrest warrant.

We must be careful to avoid inflaming passions on either side of this catastrophe. The hate speech and negative behaviours connected to antisemitism have traditionally focussed upon Jewish people, but Arab people (including Palestinians) should also be protected from antisemitic words and behaviours. Within both Israel and within the diaspora communities of all the world, including Australia, there are strong voices speaking against the war crimes committed against tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians. “Antisemitism” is criminal because it tars all Jews with the brush of genocide, without differentiating. For the same reason, Islamophobia is a crime, because it tars all Muslims as terrorists.

We must be careful that accusations of antisemitism are not trivialised, nor distorted to shut down valid criticism; nor can we ignore the reality of antisemitism and thereby allow hatreds to manifest during this time of division. It must be emphasised that we are all humans with dignity and nobility, and if we want to see humane and just behaviour by those on all sides, then we must set the example.

People in both Israel and Palestine have an equal and inalienable right to live peacefully, freely, autonomously and safely.

Solutions

The genocide against children (and their parents) must stop.

How?

In Humanism and Democratic Criticism, Palestinian-born Edward Said argues:

“Humanism is the only and the final resistance we have against the inhuman practices and injustices that disfigure human history…

“The essence of humanism is to understand human history as a continuous process of self-understanding and self-realization, not just for us, as white, male, European, and American, but for everyone…

“A fair degree of my own political and social activism has assured me that people all over the world can be and are moved by ideals of justice and equality.”(cited in Zakarriya, 2015, 198 – 199).

Israelis and Palestinians must be assisted to sit down together at the negotiation table. It must be made clear that hostilities cannot continue. The ghosts of the Holocaust, and of the genocide in Gaza, demand it.

Palestinian-born poet Mahmoud Darwish has written of Palestine and Israel as a place of both terrible tragedy and incurable optimism:

“This land absorbs the skins of martyrs.
This land promises wheat and stars.”
(Diary of a Palestinian wound)

US President Jimmy Carter has previously called for peace:

“Down through the years, I have seen despair and frustration evolve into optimism and progress and, even now, we need not give up hope for permanent peace for Israelis and freedom and justice for Palestinians if three basic premises are honoured: Israel’s right to exist – and to live in peace – must be recognised and accepted by Palestinians and all other neighbours; the killing of innocent people by bombs or other acts of violence cannot be condoned; and Palestinians must live in peace and dignity, and permanent Israeli settlements on their land are a major obstacle to this goal.”

The Larger Genocide

Palestine is not the only genocide that is being ignored by the world. Other children named Celine, Farah, Ibrahim, Khalid, Sarah and Tala are also dying in Sudan and Yemen and Syria; meanwhile Daniel, Joseph, Marie and Sarah are dying in the Democratic Republic of Congo. One predominant feature of these nations is that the main religion is often Islam (with Christianity as a runner-up); another common feature is the racial/cultural demographics of these children. Either way, our world leaders need to consider why these children (like the children in Gaza) apparently do not currently matter. When seeking to focus on the killings in Gaza, we must not ignore these other deaths. Genocide everywhere must end; the killings must stop.

The world (and the judgement of world history) are watching and judging us all. As Mahmoud Darwish writes about Israelis and Palestinians alike:

“Then what? A woman soldier shouted:
Is that you again? Didn’t I kill you?
I said: You killed me … and I forgot, like you, to die.”
– from In Jerusalem, Mahmoud Darwish, 2007.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Jimmy Carter, 2006. “Jimmy Carter Op-Ed: Colonization of Palestine Precludes Peace, 12 March, Carter Center.

Mahmoud Darwish, 1969. Yawmiyyat jurh filastini (Diary of a Palestinian wound). (Poetry Foundation)
– – – – – – – – -, 2007. In Jerusalem, from The Butterfly’s Burden, (Copper Canyon Press). (Poetry Foundation)

Jihan Zakarriya, 2015. “Humanism in the autobiographies of Edward Said and Nelson Mandela: memory as action”, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 1 (2015), pp. 198-204.

©2024 Geoff Allshorn

Edited 30 November 2014 to expand and clarify some points, particularly about antisemitism.

Voices of the Silenced

Voices of the Silenced: A Call for Justice

Commemorating 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence.

STAND WITH LGBTIQ PEOPLE
END GBV, STOP THE HATE

In shadows they hide, in fear they stand,
LGBTIQ hearts, crushed by hate’s hand.
Fleeing the violence, they seek refuge and light,
Yet still, they endure the darkest of nights.

On this journey of 16 Days we rise,
To see through their pain, to hear their cries.
For love is not a crime, and neither is their truth,
Their fight for equality begins with their youth.

We stand with the brave, those torn apart,
Who suffer in silence, yet speak from the heart.
The scars they bear, the tears they’ve shed,
Are the stories of warriors who’ve fought and bled.

In every corner, on every shore,
Their struggle for freedom is worth fighting for.
They, too, fall under this banner of change,
As we call for an end to the violence and rage.

The world must listen, it’s time to act,
For love is love, and it’s a simple fact.
During these 16 Days, let our voices be clear,
That no more shall LGBTIQ lives live in fear.

Together, we rise, together we fight,
For a world where all hearts shine bright.
#16DaysOfActivism #LGBTIQRights #EndGBV #StopTheHate

Composed by Joseph K (Him/They)

I am proud to publish this poem by Joseph today, in honour of recognising queer violence and in solidarity with recognising and challenging other forms of GBV.

This blog ©2024 Geoff Allshorn. All rights hereby returned to the poet.

Fanlore

Over the last two years, I have become quite involved in writing material for a fan wiki called fanlore. Wikis are collaborative efforts to produce web pages on a particular project, the most famous example being Wikipedia. Fanlore is a website dedicated to fandoms: communities of fans, their people, clubs and activities. Although there are a number of fan wikis on science fiction or related fandoms on the Internet, Fanlore appears to be very inclusive of fans and fanac across a wide range of fandoms, from Sherlock Holmes to Star Trek, from literary SF to media SF, from clubs and fanzines to conventions, and more.

Why spend time on fandoms? Because human societies have always been associated with communities coming together to network, share common interests, offer mutual assistance, discuss and debate ideas of collective interest, and reinterpret those philosophies in order to maximise their relevance and continuation in changing times. In the past, religions and mythologies offered forms of fandom and opportunities to adopt and adapt those ideas to suit the individual or collective need. Cultural templates involved heroes from Odysseus to Romulus and Remus, from King Arthur or Robin Hood to Ned Kelly. We have seen the evolution of heroic templates and the ideals that fans have seen as laudable: from Jason and his Argonauts to Captain Kirk and his astronauts, our heroes explore strange new scenarios,and thereby allow fans to explore themselves and the ideas that they deem important.

Image by InspiredImages from Pixabay

In modern times, copyright and intellectual property rights trump fannish cultural appropriation of fictional heroes, but without cultural and consumer demand, even the best of fictional or heroic franchises will wither and die.

Readers and authors interact in a shared space of fandom and influence one another’s creative and interpretive work” – Nicolle Lamerichs, 2018 (p. 142)

It seems obvious to me that authors/creators and their fans have a symbiotic relationship that ultimately helps both to survive and succeed. Our folklore may define who we are and what we hold to be important, but our fanlore is the real-life experience of that folklore in action: a living, breathing expression of our culture and our personal/collective identity. Fans and fandoms drive our culture – from football to fan fiction, from sport to Spock, from music to the MCU, and from anime to activism. Documenting our fanlore is a contribution to recording and analysing our cultural life and its interactive nature.

I became involved in the Fanlore wiki because I felt that this was a good opportunity to publish tributes and memorials for deceased fan friends or to document past fan activities. I have subsequently come to see it also as a way of paying tribute for others who are still alive and significant in fandom. In my fifty years of being an SF fan, I have known people who have told me how fandom (including the local Star Trek club) literally saved their lives by giving them extended families, or who introduced them to fellow fen who became spouses or significant others in their own lives. Whole families and fresh generations of fans literally owe their existence to fandom because their parents met in the local Star Trek club or MSFC or wherever. Others have moved from writing fan fiction to becoming professional authors. Still others have explored career options because SF sparked an interest in science, technology, or working with people

In the two years (so far) that I have been involved with fanlore, I have created over fifty pages of material dedicated to individuals or clubs or fanzines, and I have contributed to over 120 other pages that already existed. It is fun and satisfying work. For one example, my page for the Melbourne Science Fiction Club has been selected to run as the “featured article’ on fanlore’s home page for the week from 2 to 8 December 2024, effectively advertising the club to fans around the world. In another example, a young fan told me:

“Hey Geoff, I’m also an Australian fan and recently stumbled across some of the pages you’ve created on here! I wanted to say thank you for your work documenting the history of SF fandom and its people in Melbourne. I really can’t express in words how I feel as a younger fan reading about people and communities I would have otherwise not even known existed, and it makes me so happy to see the care you’ve put into documenting them. Looking through the photos you’ve added in particular has given me a lot of joy, and has felt like I’m getting a bit of a glimpse into fandom back then even if I wasn’t there to experience it. I’ve just started watching Star Trek for the first time, and your contributions have inspired me to learn more about the fandom’s history in Australia — I might try and make it to an Austrek meeting sometime!”

Here is a list of the pages I have created or assisted so far:

Pages Created

2022

MSCF co-founders, including Merv Binns (back row, left). Photo supplied by Dick Jenssen (back row, right).

Spaced Out (club)
Solar Spectrum

2023

MASC Science Club
User: GeoffA (internal Fanlore admin page for myself)
Adrienne Losin
Helena Binns
Darren Maxwell
Betsi Ashton
Portals of Time
The Other Side of the Galaxy
Paul Murphy
Kate Doolan
Mervyn Binns
The Spiral Staircase (Australian Beauty and the Beast zine)
Greg Franklin
Out A Space

2024

Merv and Helena at Continuum 2009 (photo by Cat Sparks).

Theresa de Gabriele
John Edwards Davies
Dennis W Nicholson
Male Pair-Bonds and Female Desire in Fan Slash Writing
Wynne Whiteford
Dick Jenssen
Ian Gunn
David McDonnell (AUS)
KRin Pender-Gunn
Space Association of Australia
From Queer to Eternity
Kinkon
Melbourne Science Fiction Club
Gaybase Alpha
Melanie Nemer
Bofcon
The Science Fiction and Fantasy and Horror Fan Resource Book
AURORA (Robert O’Reilly fan club)
Marc D Lewis
U. F. P. Australia (Star Trek RPG Group)
Lee Harding
Ellen Hamlyn-Harris
Concinnity 95
Perdition’s Flames
Julie Townsend
Race Mathews
Leigh Edmonds
Amateur Fantasy Publications of Australia
ANZAPA
Norma Hemming
SF Commentary
Marjorie Miller
Cienan Muir
Afrofuturism
Africanfuturism
Bruce Gillespie
Hope Eyrie
The Space Age
Club News
Melbourne LEGO User Group (MUGs)
Brickvention

Pages Assisted

2022

Diane Marchant with her mother Jessie at Trekcon 1 (Australia’s first Star Trek convention) on 15 July 1978. (Photo by Helena Binns)

Geoff Tilley
Geoff Allshorn
Diane Marchant
Trekcon
Spock (zine)
These Are The Voyages (zine)
Trekkie Talk
Captain’s Log Supplamental
Spaced Out (zine)
Austrek
Starrag
The Star Gazer
MASC Newsletter
Interceptor
The Captain’s Log (Australian newsletter}

2023

Photo courtesy of Paul Murphy

Shayne McCormack
Fragments (Star Trek: TOS story)
Bob Johnson’s Star Trek Marathons
Life, But Not As We Know It: Star Trek, fan culture, slash fiction and the queering of Starfleet Command
Robert Jan
Gail Adams
Ish
Tuckerized
User:MeeDee
Doctor Who Club of Victoria
Beyond Antares (Australian Star Trek: TOS zine)
Supervoc
The Victorian Time Machine
Currents (UFO zine)
Time-Warped
Gene Roddenberry
Uhura/Chapel
The City on the Edge of the Yarra
Susan Sackett
AIDS and Fandom
Ditmar Award/Fan Winners
Mike McGann
Religion
Karen Lewis
Mary Sue
Worldcon
Ditmar Award
AussieTrek (Australian Star Trek con)
Film Clip Fandom
Galactic Tours Convention
The History of Austrek: How it all began…
Janice Rand
Zine
Star Walking Inc.
The Communicator (Star Trek Australian newsletter)
Diverse Universe
Auzwars Chronicles
Alliance (Star Wars zine published in Australia)
Sue Bursztynski
Multiverse Science Fiction Group
Spunk
The McCoy Tapes
K/S and Other Risque Stuff
Continuum (Australian convention)
Metaluna
H.A.M.I.L.L.S.
Strange Justice
Trek Hillbillies
Multiverse (multifandom zine)
Enterprise: The Star Trek Appreciation Society of Victoria
Susan Smith-Clarke
Betty Franklin
Aliens Made Them Do It
Sex Pollen
Gallifrey (Doctor Who fan club)

2024

Space: 1999
Hatstand
Medtrek (con)
The Garden Spot of Ceti Alpha V
Sarah J. Groenewegen
Star Trek Welcommittee
Slash vs. Gay
Genderswap
SinpOzium
Bjo Trimble
Kirk/Uhura (TOS)
Australian Science Fiction Convention
Katharine Shade
George Ivanoff
Shane Morrissey
Zencon
Star Walking Inc.
Force 2 (convention)
Multiverse (convention)
Ian Crozier
St. Elsewhere
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Edith Keeler
Harlan Ellison
Jeremy Sadler
Blake’s 7
Gilligan’s Island
I Dream of Jeannie
Grace Lee Whitney
Grace Lee Whitney Fan Club
The Invaders (TV)
Sherlock Holmes
Queer Fandom
Bewitched (TV series)
The Persuaders
The Time Tunnel
Land of the Giants
Filk
Space-Time Continuum (Star Trek newsletter)
Aurora
Mark Lenard
Alien (film series)
Margaret
Jan MacNally
Stingray (Supermarionation series)
Trans Characters in Fandom
Star Trek Fotonovels
Fandom Nickname
The Fantastic Journey
Off Centaur Publications
Minus Ten and Counting: Songs of the Space Age (filk songbook)
Star Trek Association of Fans and Friends
Autism and Fandom
Race and Fandom
You Are Receiving this Zine Because
Agatha Christie
T’Pau
Minus Ten and Counting: Songs of the Space Age (filk album)
Probe
Teen Wolf
Talk:Fragments (Star Trek: TOS story)
A Fragment Out of Time

Why do I mention this activity?

I invite others to get involved in contributing to this archive, recording the history of modern 21st centrury culture – and interacting with it, contributing to change. Documenting the people, events, and fan terminology reminds me of anthropologists recording Polari from past LGBT communities, or any of the thousands of endangered other languages and cultures. It’s a big job, but fun.

See also:

Nicolle Lamerichs, 2018. Productive Fandom: Intermediality and Affective Reception in Fan Cultures, Amsterdam University Press

©2024 Geoff Allshorn

A Line in the Sand

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” – Abraham Lincoln.

The Decline and Fall…

In 1988, I stood in southern England, at the site of a reclaimed ancient Roman building. Amidst the mosaics, there was a sign indicating that – if I recall correctly – the building was believed to have belonged to a wealthy English man who claimed Roman citizenship and culture, and who had been alive to witness the withdrawal of Roman soldiers from Britain at the end of the Roman occupation.

I stood there, wondering how he must have felt watching the decline and fall of an empire from his distant vantage point, knowing that the empire was collapsing due to internal rot.

That is how I felt at the time as an Australian citizen, watching from a distance the decline and fall of another great empire due to internal rot encouraged by a mediocre President whose claim to fame was a mediocre Hollywood acting history. It’s also how I feel now, watching the election last week of another US President who is clearly unfit to lead.

My human empathy for this unknown Roman citizen in circa 400 CE now compels me (and all of us) to empathise with the coming suffering of millions of people as they face the consequences of possible white supremacist fascism and theocratic Project 2025 in the USA.

The Coming Storm?

Historians of the future will debate why so many US voters chose the lesser alternative of the candidates – or chose to not vote at all – and discuss whether it is a reflection of mediocre mass media monopolies who feed distortions and lies (or withhold truth) from their audiences; a wider culture of ignorant, narcissistic individualism based upon narrow self-interests or (worse) an entitled racist and misogynist hatred of “the other”; or simply that the privileged grandchildren of those who fought a World War against fascism and the Holocaust have forgotten its legacies of human rights and equality.

As Sarah Connor said in the “Terminator” movie, a storm is coming. We need to build and resource storm shelters now.

But we also need to recognise that the storm is already here. We see that in the fact that millions of otherwise good people are prepared to vote for bad outcomes; and in the realities of climate change that the incoming Administration is about to deny and exacerbate.

Anyone who empathises with others, who cares about the welfare of fellow human beings, or who opposes injustice and inequality, should be worried and compelled to action.

The Line in the Sand

How to respond without hatred and anger? We must surely do our best to respond with the better angels of our nature in mind.

This is not just an election where the populist vote won, like a sports game where one team simply beat another. This is an outcome where harm and cruelty and injustice were selected.

This is not an “us versus them” situation. We are all in this together. We must act individually but for the common good.

This includes being willing to take a stand against the excesses and injustices that will start in the USA and spread around the world. For example, our extended LGBT+ family must be prepared to do what they can to oppose the cultural or physical extermination of trans people or others who are targeted.

But we must also remember an important lesson that Trump voters have forgotten: that human connection and intersectionality are important.

I encourage people to join local, national or international activist or support groups as they feel led. LGBT+ support groups. Women’s rights groups. Abortion advocacy groups. Refugee and immigrant support groups. Public education advocacy groups. Civil rights and human rights groups. Groups opposing the death penalty or unrestricted gun ownership. Community groups or other local volunteer organisations that help homeless people, women, school students, elderly citizens, public health or welfare advocacy. Whatever groups you feel led to support due to your passion for human decency and natural justice. Because we are all in this together.

This is not just a call for people in the USA. Deporting immigrants and refugees based upon their skin colour will kill people around the world, just like it did during Trump’s first Presidency. Encouraging antigay death laws in Uganda or other nations dependent upon US economic support will spread death and hate. Allowing genocide in Ukraine or Palestine or Yemen or Sudan or Congo will diminish us all. Withdrawing humanitarian aid or spreading lies about black people as criminals or rapists will affect the world. Locking children in cages will not build a better world for our children. The rise of Trump populism will encourage a similar rise in other nations.

We can look with horror or disapproval or disgust and abhorrence at those who voted for the diminution of human rights – but what are we going to do about it?

Our collective morality must not equate with those who refused to vote. Inaction is a form of collaboration and complicity for us all.

©2024 Geoff Allshorn.