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#baghdad

1 post1 participant0 posts today

"Whenever the #author and #playwright Samantha Ellis tries to define her heritage to people, she often finds them correcting her. “So many times I’ve said I’m an #Iraqi #Jew and been… told ‘you mean you’re mixed’ or ‘which parent is which?’ or just ‘how weird’,” she writes in her richly detailed #memoir, in which she explores the complex, centuries-old history of the Iraqi-#Jewish community and its vanishing language, #Judeo-Iraqi #Arabic.

The daughter of Iraqi-Jewish #refugees who came separately to #London with their families during periods of persecution for the community in #Baghdad, Ellis is moved to seek out #stories, expressions and objects that will fill some of the gaps in that #history when she realises that she lacks the vocabulary to pass on the language of her childhood to her own young son."

theguardian.com/books/2025/apr

The Guardian · Chopping Onions on my Heart by Samantha Ellis review – an Iraqi Jew’s celebration of an endangered cultureBy Stephanie Merritt

Outgoing Japanese Ambassador to Iraq, Futoshi Matsumoto, signs off his diplomatic duty in #Baghdad by singing the Iraqi national anthem 'My Homeland' while donning a #keffiyeh.

'My Homeland' was written by Palestinian poet Ibrahim Tuqan and turned into a song by Lebanese musician Mohammed Flayfel in 1934, quickly becoming a popular tune across the Arab world.

Today is the luckiest 🍀 day in the life of #GeorgeWBush. In 2008, during a press conference in #Baghdad , journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi took off his shoes and threw them at the clueless #POTUS yelling "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq!" en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George

Bush was lucky to not be assassinated. He was responsible for the deaths of over a million innocent Iraqis and thousands of young #American soldiers during the #WarOverOil started after ‘faked yellow cake’.

en.m.wikipedia.orgGeorge W. Bush shoe-throwing incident - Wikipedia

US military contractor CACI to face retrial over allegations of torture at #Iraq prison

Tyler Li | U. Ottawa Faculty of Law, CA
June 15, 2024

"The case against #CACI is one of many legal actions against private military contractors accused of detainee abuse, including those against #TitanCorporation (later known as L-3 Services) and CACI for their roles in alleged abuse at #AbuGhraib, as well as against #Blackwater for incidents like the #NisourSquare massacre in #Baghdad. Many of these cases faced similar legal challenges, specifically dismissals based on national security concerns and the complexities of applying US law to actions taken in war zones."

jurist.org/news/2024/06/us-mil

The Mongol conqueror #Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu captured #Baghdad and ended the Abbasid #caliphate in the city in 1258.

I just read a text that asserts that around 25 years later, the Muslim vizier Shams al-Din Juvayni was involved in a plot to restore the caliphate, but he was put to death when Hulegu's grandson Arghun overthrew his uncle Teguder Ahmad. This is probably just slander, but it is surprising slander in a #Syriac text written in the late 1310s!

I'm (re)reading the History of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sawma.

"Rereading the sources surveyed by Green and Fancy, we have found no evidence in the various texts that would tie the various epidemics/pandemics in Iraq, Syria, and Egypt to plague, supposedly brought unintentionally by the advancing Mongol army that besieged Baghdad in early 1258."

Brack, J., Biran, M. and Amitai, R. (2024) ‘Plague and the Mongol conquest of Baghdad (1258)? A reevaluation of the sources’, Medical History, pp. 1–19. doi: doi.org/10.1017/mdh.2023.38. #OpenAccess #OA #Article #DOI #History #Histodon #Histodons #Medicine #BlackDeath #Plague #Epidemic #Pandemic #Mongols #Ilkhanate #Baghdad #MiddleEast #Historiography #Academia #Academic #Academics @histodon @histodons

Cambridge CorePlague and the Mongol conquest of Baghdad (1258)? A reevaluation of the sources | Medical History | Cambridge CorePlague and the Mongol conquest of Baghdad (1258)? A reevaluation of the sources

#Gaza / Israel weighing the use of private security contractors to protect aid shipments to Gaza, officials say

Israel is exploring the use of international private security contractors to protect humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, according to U.S. officials. The idea has been broached with senior #Biden administration officials in recent weeks, as the U.S. plans to ship a floating dock to Gaza for delivering aid by sea.

However, some U.S. officials are reluctant to have American troops or private contractors operating on the ground in Gaza, especially in an armed security role, citing past controversies. The use of private security contractors by the U.S. government has repeatedly sparked controversy, with accusations of excessive force and civilian casualties in #Iraq and #Afghanistan.

The notorious 2007 #NisourSquare incident in #Baghdad, where police Blackwater contractors protecting a U.S. convoy killed 17 civilians, is highlighted as a disastrous precedent. Four Blackwater contractors were initially convicted but later pardoned by #Trump

nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-

See also: Refugees International Report: Siege and Starvation - How Israel Obstructs Aid to Gaza kolektiva.social/@oatmeal/1120

@israel
@palestine
#Israel #WarCrimes #Gaza
#Blackwater

NBC News · Israel weighing the use of private security contractors to protect aid shipments to Gaza, officials sayBy Courtney Kube