Issue 10 - Ten Issues In, One Cause, Always.
Good morning and welcome to the tenth EPYU issue.
This newsletter exists to amplify truth, challenge erasure, and center Palestinian voices. Here's what they don’t want you to see this week:
Quick News Roundup
On July 9, the US Sanctioned UN Human Rights Expert Francesca Albanese Over Gaza Reporting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio linked the move to her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) and her “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel.”
Israel’s top military official says the army’s operations have severely “weakened Hamas”, creating the conditions for a possible ceasefire that includes the return of 10 captives and the bodies of nine others. This statement comes after Al Qassam Brigades’ great ambush in Beit Hanoun on the 641st day of Israel’s war on Gaza, where the Israeli army admitted that five Netzah Yehuda Battalion members were killed and 14 were wounded, and two critically wounded.
Defense Minister Israel Katz has reportedly ordered the military to advance a plan that would forcefully displace, under the guise of relocation, all Palestinians in Gaza into a tightly controlled zone in the south.
Both al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis issued urgent appeals on Wednesday, saying that without immediate fuel deliveries, their facilities could become “silent graveyards.” Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continued across the enclave, killing at least 74 people.
The campaign, A Thousand Madleens to Gaza, launched just two and a half weeks ago. With no official backing, the group is mobilizing volunteers from around the world, including France, Brazil, and Tunisia, to sail directly to Gaza and challenge Israel’s naval blockade, grounding their mission in humanitarian and legal principles.
Morning Read
Censorship in Sweden: Protecting Order or Silencing Protest?
It’s strange watching Sweden edge toward a mindset where censorship no longer feels alarming to most people. A recent FOI study showed that 83% of respondents now think it’s acceptable for the state to step in and correct media it deems harmful or false. Nearly 60% are okay with censoring individuals online. The researcher behind the study links this shift to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. And maybe that makes sense. Crisis breeds fear, and fear demands control. But we should be honest about what we’re normalizing.
Because here we are, in 2025, and censorship is no longer some abstract threat. It’s unfolding, live and loud. A few days ago, Sweden’s Jewish Central Council called on the Way Out West festival to cancel the Irish rap group Kneecap. They claimed the group’s political expressions, particularly pro-Palestinian ones, create a hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli attendees.
But not everyone agrees. Judisk Upprop, a network of Swedish Jews protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza, made their position clear:
“Judisk Upprop distances itself from the use of accusations of antisemitism as a tool for censorship. Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been ongoing for almost two years. Like many other Jews around the world, we share the Irish band Kneecap’s solidarity with Palestine and urge Way Out West to stand up for artistic freedom, freedom of speech, and the rights of the Palestinian people.” (Translation).
That kind of clarity feels rare now. In a time when everything gets flattened into slogans and statements, where protests are painted as threats and political art is treated like a virus, it takes courage to make room for discomfort. Especially when that discomfort is pointing toward real atrocities.
A Letter from EPYU
After ten issues of urgency, witnessing, and relentless clarity, EPYU’s Substack is taking a breath.
Not to pause the fight, but to shift how we carry it.
In this next chapter, the newsletter will return slower, deeper, and more intentional. We'll explore stories, language, and memory that mainstream media won’t touch because resistance isn’t just protest. It’s culture. It’s care. It’s continuity.
So please, enjoy the rest of this issue: a more niche deep dive, and a curated section of recommendations.
Thank you for walking with me this far. The next step is coming.
Education Corner
This week, EPYU’s Instagram covered: the UK’s criminalization of the protest group Palestine Action founded in 2020 to disrupt arms companies linked to Israel’s attacks on Gaza. How OnlyFans’s owner Leonid Radvinsky donates to AIPAC and a dive into Johan Forssell, Sweden’s immigration minister, and his deeply misguided policies and statements on asylum and resistance
Today’s Deep Dive
Durkheim in Palestine: Exploring the deep social fractures behind suicide and martyrdom
Today’s deep dive uses Émile Durkheim’s theories to examine two tragic outcomes of conflict:
The suicide of Israeli reservist Daniel Edri after witnessing war’s horrors
Palestinian suicide bombings during the Second Intifada
Despite vastly different contexts, both reflect how prolonged violence erodes social cohesion and drives individuals toward acts of despair.
The piece invites you to look beyond headlines and consider the psychological and social costs of occupation and militarization.
Read today’s deep dive on our Substack blog here.
Recommendations
Think: What does resistance look like when you can’t leave your house?
Join: One or all, local or international BDS movement campaigns.
Explore: The poster collections from the Palestine Poster Project Archive.
Browse: Jewish Voice for Peace’s reader on Approach to Zionism
Attend: Every week, Palestinagrupperna update demonstration locations in different Swedish cities that can be found here.
This project has been built with the support of readers, comrades, and tireless truth-tellers. Thank you.
Until Liberation,
Nightlock, EPYU.