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#i/p conflict
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Many things can be true at once.
Israel is an apartheid state that unjustly occupies Palestinian land.
Israel is a Jewish state.
Jews worldwide do not bear the responsibility of the Israeli army or government.
The American government backs Israel, largely because of the efforts of evangelical Christian lobbyists. Wether or not Jewish Americans want this is irrelevant to the USA military.
The American government is rooted in white supremacy and antisemitism, and is constantly verging on Christian theocracy.
Criticism of Israel, while necessary, can very easily be co-opted into antisemitism. It needs to be handled carefully.
We can expect both antisemitic and Islamophobic hate crimes to spike in the coming weeks.
Jews and Muslims are not enemies. We have to remember that and stand up for each other.
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gingerswagfreckles · 7 months
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I think people need to understand that when someone says the situation in Israel/Palestine is complicated they are not necessarily saying that the discussion of who the oppressor vs oppressed is complicated. The Israeli government has been oppressing the Palestinians for a very long time, that is clear, and it is not complicated to understand that at least since the 80s they have had dramatically more financial and military power to keep control of the territory in the way they like.
However, it is reductive and dismissive to insist that there is no complexity in the potential ways to move forward to bring peace to the region. Despite what people on tumblr.edu like to believe, "Israel should never have been created" is not a practical solution to an incredibly heated geopolitical situation in the present day. Israel was created and it does exist. 10 million people live there. 74% of the population is native born and the country has existed for 75 years. Hand waving these fact away with the opinion that "they should move back to where they came from" may make you feel good about being a Radical Leftist, but it does not give anyone a road map for how exactly millions of people without dual citizenship are supposed to just up and evaporate. Nor does it acknowledge the reality that 21% of Israelis are Arabs, the very people you are claiming to want to give the land back to.
Insisting that there's nothing complicated about expecting an entire country's population to willingly dissappear with no consequences is not a productive way to think about this conflict. It ignores the many massive superpowers that have an interest in proping up different states in the region, the power dynamics involved in any land back movements, and the inevitably negative consequences of totally dissolving an established state without a plan. It is also completely and almost comically unrealistic, so much so that it makes it hard to believe that anyone who's opinion starts and ends with this idea really gives a shit about anyone who lives in the area as much as they care about their online leftist clout.
There's nothing complicated in understanding that the Israeli government is and has been maintaining an oppressive apartheid state for decades. It is, however, very complicated to come up with a realistic way to resolve some of the most intricately entangled land disputes on the planet without plunging the region into total chaos. Not everyone has to be deeply educated on every geopolitical situation, but it is very hard to take people seriously when they know nothing about the politics or history of a region and yet insist that there is nothing complicated about it at all.
There's a lot of people on this website who are getting dangerously smug about their own ignorance, and are starting to go down Qanon type anti-intellectual paths in the name of being sufficiently radical. Not knowing the details of a very convoluted land dispute isn't something to brag about online as you call for intentionally reductive solutions. You can support the Palestinian cause and be aware of the oppression they have faced while also holding off on calling people trying to do real analysis and de-escalation work bootlickers. We need to get control of the urge to fit every global issue into a simplistic YA novel narrative structure that appeals to Western revolutionary fantasies.
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hazel2468 · 7 months
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Seems like a good time to remind people that the phrase "from the river to the sea" - while apparently popular on this hellsite, is basically a call for the total eradication of not just the Israeli state (and by that I don't mean the government, I mean EVERYTHING) but of every Jew in that area.
SO. If I see it on your blog? Bye. I do not trust you to have anything even remotely approaching a nuanced take to this fucking tragedy.
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stephobrien · 2 months
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Is your pro-Palestine activism hurting innocent people? Here's how to avoid that.
Note: If you prefer plain text, you can read the plain text version here.
Over the last few days, I’ve had conversations with several Jewish people who told me how hurt and scared they are right now.
To my great regret, some of that pain came from a poorly-thought-out post of mine, which – while not ill-intentioned – WAS hurtful.
And a lot of it came from cruelty they’d experienced at the hands of people who claim to be advocating for Palestine, but are using the very real plight of innocent Palestinians to harm equally innocent Jewish people.
Y’all, we need to do better. (Yes, “we” definitely includes me; this is in no small part a “learn from my fail” post, and also a “making amends” post. Some of these are mistakes I’ve made in the past.)
So if you’re an advocate for Palestine who wants to make sure that your defense of one group of vulnerable people doesn’t harm another, here are some important things to do or keep in mind:
Ask yourself if you’re applying a standard to one group that you aren’t applying to another.
Would you want all white Americans or Canadians to be expelled from America or Canada?
Do you want all Jewish people to be expelled from Israel, as opposed to finding a way to live alongside Palestinian Arabs in peace?
If the answer to those two questions is different, ask yourself WHY.
Do you want to be held responsible for the actions of your nation’s army or government? No? Then don’t hold innocent Jewish people, or Israelis in general (whether Jewish or otherwise), responsible for the actions of the Israeli army and government.
On that subject, be wary of condemning all Israeli people for the actions of the IDF. Large-scale tactical decisions are made by the top brass. Service is compulsory, and very few can reasonably get out of service.
Blaming all Israelis for the military’s actions is like blaming all Vietnam vets for the horrors in Vietnam. They’re not calling the shots. They aren’t Nazis running concentration camps. They are carrying out military operations that SHOULD be criticized.
And do not compare them or ANY JEWISH PERSON to Nazis in general. It is Jewish cultural trauma and not outsiders’ to use against them.
Don’t infuse legitimate criticism with antisemitism.
By all means, spread the word about the crimes committed by the Israeli army and government, and the complicity of their allies. Criticize the people responsible for committing and enabling atrocities.
But if you imply that they’re committing those crimes because they’re Jewish, or because Jewish people have special privileges, then you’re straying into antisemitic territory.
Criticize the crime, not the group. If you believe that collective punishment is wrong, don’t do it yourself.
And do your best to use words that apply directly to the situation, rather than the historical terms for situations with similar features. For example, use “segregation,” “oppression,” or “subjugation,” not “Holocaust” or “Jim Crow.” These other historical events are not the cultural property of Jews OR Palestinians, but also have their own nuances and struggles and historical contexts.
Also, blaming other world events on Jewish people or making Jewish people associated with them (for instance, some people falsely blame Jewish people for the African slave trade) is a key feature of how antisemitism functions.
Please, by all means, be specific and detailed in your critiques. But keep them focused on the current political actors – not other peoples’ or nations’ political or cultural histories and traumas.
Be prepared to accept criticism.
You probably already know that society is infused with a wide array of bigotries, and that people growing up in that environment tend to absorb those beliefs without even realizing it. Antisemitism is no exception.
What that means is, there’s a very real chance that you will screw up, and get called out on it, as I so recently did.
If that happens, please be willing to learn and adapt. If you can educate yourself about the suffering and needs of Palestinians, you can do the same for Jewish people.
Understand that the people you hurt aren’t obligated to baby you. Give them room to be angry.
After I made a post that inadvertently hurt people, some were nice about it, and others weren’t. Some outright insulted my morals and intelligence.
And I had to accept that I’d earned that from them.
I’d hurt them, and they weren’t obligated to be more careful with my feelings than I had been with theirs.
They weren’t obligated to forgive me, trust me, or stop being mad at me right away.
I’ll admit, there were moments when I got defensive. I shouldn’t have. And I encourage you to try not to, if you screw up and hurt people.
I know that’s hard, but it’s important. Getting defensive only tells people you care more about doubling down on your mistake than you do about healing the hurt it caused.
Instead, acknowledge that they have a right to be angry, apologize for the way you hurt them, and try to make amends, while understanding that they don’t owe you trust or forgiveness.
Be aware that some antisemites are using legitimate complaints to “Trojan horse” antisemitism into leftist spaces.
This is a really easy stumbling block to trip over, because most people probably don’t look at every post a creator makes before sharing the one they’re looking at right now.
I recently shared a video that called out some of the Likud and IDF’s atrocities and hypocrisy, and that also noted that many Jewish people are wonderful members of their communities.
I was later informed that, while that video in particular seemed reasonable, the creator behind it is frequently antisemitic.
I deleted the post, and blocked the creator. I encourage you to do the same if it’s brought to your attention that you’ve been ‘Trojan horse’d.
EDIT: Important note about antisemitism in leftist spaces:
While it's true that some blatant antisemites are using seemingly reasonable posts to get their foot in the door of leftist spaces, it's also true that a lot of antisemitism already exists inside those spaces.
This antisemitism is often dressed up in progressive-sounding language, but nonetheless singles Jewish people and places out in ways that aren't applied equally to other groups, or that label Jewish people in ways that portray them as acceptable targets.
If you want to see some specific examples, so you can have a better idea of what to keep an eye out for, I suggest reading this excellent reblog of this post.
Fact-check your doubts about antisemitism.
Depending on which parts of the internet you look at, you’ve probably seen people accused of antisemitism because they complained about the Likud and/or IDF’s actions. So you might be primed to be wary, or feel unsure of how to tell what counts as real antisemitism.
But that doesn’t mean antisemitism isn’t a very real, widespread, and harmful problem. And it doesn’t mean many or even most Jewish people are lying to you or being overly sensitive.
So if someone says something is antisemitic, and you aren’t sure, I encourage you to:
A. Look up the action or thing in question, including its history. Is there an antisemitic history or connotation you aren’t aware of? For best results, include “antisemitic” in your search query, in quotes.
B. Understand that some things, while not inherently antisemitic, have been used by antisemites often enough that Jewish people are understandably wary of them. Schrodinger’s antisemitism, if you will.
C. Ask Jewish people WHO HAVE OFFERED TO HELP EDUCATE YOU. Emphasis on WHO HAVE OFFERED. Random Jewish people aren’t obligated to give you their time and emotional energy, or to educate you – especially on subjects that are scary or painful for them.
@edenfenixblogs has kindly offered her inbox to those who are genuinely trying to learn and do better, and I’ve found her to be very kind, patient, reasonable, and fair-minded.
Understand that this is URGENTLY NEEDED.
In one of my conversations with a Jewish person who’d called me out, they said this was the most productive conversation they’d had with a person with a Palestinian flag in their profile.
THIS IS NOT OKAY.
I didn’t do anything special. All I did was listen, apologize for my mistakes, and learn.
Yes, it feels good to be acknowledged. But I feel like I’ve been praised for peeing IN the toilet, instead of beside it.
Apologizing, learning, and making amends after you hurt people shouldn’t be “the most reasonable thing I’ve heard from a person with a Palestinian flag pfp.”
It should be BASIC DECENCY.
And the fact that it’s apparently so uncommon should tell you how much unnecessary stress and fear Jewish people have been living with because of people who consider themselves defenders of human rights.
By all means, be angry at the Likud, the IDF, and the politicians, reporters, and specific media outlets who choose to enable and cover up for them.
But direct that anger toward the people who deserve it and are in a position to do something about it, not random people who simply happen to be Jewish, or who don’t want millions of people to be turned into refugees when less violent methods of achieving freedom and rights for Palestinians are available.
Stop peeing beside the toilet, people.
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rrcenic · 4 months
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please read this if you don’t support the fucking genocide
there are palestinian kids who should be in school, getting ready for a new semester. they should be procrastinating their homework, texting their friends. they should get to go home when they feel unsafe or upset.
instead, the school year was suspended on november 6th. over 200 schools have been bombed. more than 7,870 children have been killed. kids do not have a safe place. anywhere. their homes are being destroyed and their schools are being destroyed and the places they used to hang out at and eat at and shop at and pray at and mourn at and live at are actively being destroyed
people of palestine, of all ages, should be living their lives. they should be having normal experiences. they should be going to the movies or redecorating their rooms or celebrating birthdays or scrolling their phones for no reason. but they’re not. they’re not allowed to have the comfort of mindless human joy without constant threat and fear and bloodshed, and it is the fault of israel, the united states, and other fucked corrupt governments.
there have been close to 20,000 palestinian deaths, almost 2.2 million people displaced, and an estimated half of those people face starvation.
we need to fucking do something. the fact that the US still refuses to support a ceasefire is disgusting and evil. the claim that all anti-israeli statements are based in antisemitism is hurting both the people of palestine and jewish people worldwide.
here’s some things you can do:
-donate if you can or ask someone you know to donate
-sign a petition to demand a ceasefire
-fill out a form to email your representative. then do it again. then do it again. then do it again.
-boycott and avoid all companies on this list that you can (especially now that the holidays are rolling around: buy from independent stores, non-big name brands)
-spam text your friends and family with this post and these links
-reblog to spread awareness, interact with other posts that give instructions for direct action, follow palestinian voices
-instead of feeling guilt or denying yourself personal happiness, do all you can to make a difference. it doesn’t matter if you don’t have money to donate or if you’re a minor. you can always contact representatives or sign petitions
DO NOT LET THE GENOCIDE CONTINUE.
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nappingpaperclip · 4 months
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PLEASE REPOST
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MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR GAZA
1:00PM Saturday January 13th, 2024 @ The National Mall 1600 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington DC
Please wear a KN-95 mask, and wear layered nondescript clothing and COVER YOUR FACE, HAIR, AND ANY IDENTIFYING FEATURES. I have seen many people use keffiyehs for this. Dress for cold weather but know marching warms you up quickly, so dress in layers you can remove and carry without uncovering your face and hair. Ideally you should bring a backpack to carry food, water, first aid, ID, etc. It may be good to bring multiple or removable parts of your outfit if you plan on walking from your residence or car.
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If you bring a phone, turn off your Face/Touch ID, location services, and data.
Have your emergency contacts written on your body. Don’t record peoples faces. Stick with a group.
Bigotry & hatred will not be tolerated.
Even if you are unable to attend or are not USAmerican, please reblog and repost this to other social medias. You may have a follower or friend who can attend.
If you live within a couple of hours of DC, or even if you live further: talk to your local organizations! It is possible they may be able to organize transportation to this event. Most likely you will have to pay a fee, but it is likely going to be cheaper and safer than driving to DC and parking in their $40-$50/hour parking garages. Also look into Amtrak, Greyhound buses, or other means of transportation.
EDIT: fixed some info, also here is the HD graphic that includes the website
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xyriath · 5 months
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but seriously if you are at all blogging about the i/p conflict you NEED to read that standing together article from that post i just reblogged. please. please please please please please. these are the people who are actually doing something about freeing palestine and have been for years. And here's the thing:
IF YOU WANT PEACE IN ISRAEL, IN PALESTINE, THESE ARE THE PEOPLE IT'S GOING TO COME FROM.
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Because yeah. The way this site is spreading around uncritical posts is a huge issue (and a reason I haven't been around since October). Standing Together is doing a hell of a lot more than blogging about it. They're on the ground putting in the work. Nine days before the October 7 attack, they were in Tel Aviv publicly protesting about the systematic oppression of Arabs (not just Palestinians) in Israel.
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"The global left has to be synced with what we need." Trust me, the right is. Boy HOWDY is the right synced. I have gotten more support about my Judaism from the far right than the left and it's??? kinda fucked up??? Someone who worked for Pat Robertson should not feel safer than someone dedicated to activism, but here we are. I can feel how easy it would be to be radicalized towards the right, and I'm actively fighting against it. Now imagine that multiplied by millions of people, plenty of whom don't have the same desire to do so, or feel like they don't have the luxury of safety to do so.
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Seeing Hamas being portrayed as sympathetic and talked about like they had a right to commit all of the atrocities that they have is making me lose my MIND. They're a group run by corrupt billionaires who actively started this conflict with the intent of silencing the Palestinian people who have been protesting their tyranny. They have been siphoning money from Palestinians for years and this entire attack is them deliberately throwing Palestinians into the path of slaughter to distract from that fact, the same way that Netanyahu absolutely took advantage of the threat and tragedy to try and get himself off the hook for his own corruption.
Also check out the google doc linked in the article. It's not just a good way to learn how to communicate, but a very good resource for finding out if something you're sharing is worthwhile. In fact, it does a really god job of breaking down why I've felt so uncomfortable about a bunch of the posts on my dash. Some excerpts:
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This got way longer than I had intended, but hopefully does its job. Go read the article and, yes, if you need to, reevaluate your activism. Because if it's not what people involved actually want or need, then it's just for you. And that's kinda fucked up.
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charliecharlston · 19 days
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my biggest gripe with the pro palestinian movement is the lying. you can have empathy and feel remorse for gazans without lying and peddling every antisemetic trope in the book
you can realise that palestinian arabs did not kindly welcome jews who made aliyah before and after the shoah, they are not indigenous or the canaanites, they have been violent against israelis and jews, a lot of them do support hamas, the nakba was a war started by palestinians that they lost to israel, the palestinian national identity is reactionary to the israeli national identity, palestinians are not genetically distinct grom other arabs in the middle east, palestine is literally a colonial name given to the land by the romans to mock the jews living there to sever our connection to the land and STILL have empathy for palestinians. you can realise that they arent a perfect innocent victim and still have empathy for them. the source of their suffering isnt israel or jews, its the antisemitic and imperialistic goals of islamist leaders AND STILL. FEEL. REMORSE
if you need to distort the history of this land and its people and use antisemitic tropes in order to support palestine, you are the fucking problem!!!!! arabs are to the middle east what white people are to the west, and they are not victims just be they face oppression if they live in the west. go speak to any person from the indigenous populations of the middle east and levant and they can tell u all abt what islamism and arabs have done to them snd their families if u refuse to believe us sneaky lying je- i mean zionists. oh wait, its gonna be so hard to do that bc the arab world is doing everything in its power to kill them all
tl dr, you dont need to lie to have empathy for palestinians. you can accept the dirty past of palestinians (just as many israelis still love this country despite it flaws, less then pretty history and incompetent, corrupt government) and still empathise and believe in their self determination alongside jewish and israeli self determination. the need to lie, distort and discredit the jewish and israeli story shows your true (antisemetic) colors
(this is a rant from feb that u put on my insta story, thought it should be seen here)
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jewish-mccoy · 1 month
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What seems to continuously get lost in the news stories about Israel and Palestine is the innocent civilians who were murdered, raped, tortured, and captured — all for the mortal “sin” of existing.
It’s not resistance to parade the bodies of civilians who were at a fucking FESTIVAL FOR PEACE. To rape and murder the Israeli leftists who were advocating for a peaceful solution to the war. Who were *allies* to Palestine. There’s no nuance in the current discourse about Israel and Palestine. There’s no reasoning with people who scream “GENOCIDE” and argue that Israel is to blame for the actions of a group that regularly puts their own civilians up as human shields.
It’s all antisemitism. It’s virtue signaling, because collectively, white leftists have decided Palestinians are The Most Oppressed and that they are never wrong. Which is infantilizing and insulting, and one might even say… racist… but that doesn’t matter to these leftists, because it makes them feel better about hating Jews. Because they’re hating *zionists*, not Jews. The Good Jews that agree with the destruction of the last safe place for Jews definitely won’t be immediately thrown to the wolves after they outlive their usefulness.
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gender-fluid-weirdo · 1 month
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Just once I would like to see how these leftist Hamas apologists would react to someone saying "the potato famine was SO long ago!"
Or "the Irish failed to learn the lessons of the potato famine!"
"the trans Atlantic slave trade is OVER, it doesn't matter anymore!"
"the trail of tears was more than 200 years ago"
But if we're talking about the Holocaust and other attacks on Jews, is it suddenly ok to minimize our history of suffering and persecution?
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Raising awareness about the atrocities Israel is committing against the Palestinian people is important. But some of y’all need to learn how to differentiate between that and harassing random Jews on the internet. I am a 22 year old Jewish man from the Midwest. I have never set foot in Israel. What do you guys even want me to do.
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gingerswagfreckles · 6 months
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"Criticizing Israel isn't antisemitism" yeah but accusing Jews of making up hate crimes to derail the conversation around Gaza is. Claiming that the media is controlled by a secret group of all powerful Zionists is. Acting like the Holocaust is something Jews use to get out of trouble instead of an actual genocide that happened within living memory is. Telling us to go back to where we came from is.
"Criticizing Israel isn't antisemitism" yeah well a lot of you aren't being accused of antisemitism because you are criticizing Israel. You're being accused of antisemitism because you are being antisemitic and do nothing but evade and double down when it gets called out.
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anchorsnreignbows · 3 months
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floralcavern · 4 months
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Fun little game for people who are tired of antizionists
What false information about Israel-Palestine is your favorite? (By favorite, I mean favorite to stomp all over and makes you want to flip a table through the fucking wall). This can include historical takes, common sense takes, etc, etc.
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heywhatsupfolks · 3 months
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to be clear: what is your stance on i/p conflict
my stance is this:
Both ethnic palestinians and jews have the right to live in the land of Israel as its native people. Jews have lived in Israel for over 3,000 years, and Palestinians have roughly 1,000 years of history there as well.
Hamas' war is a holy war, and their "win" would be the eradication of Jews from our holy land
Israel is not being careful enough in their assault of Hamas: yes, Hamas launches missiles from refugee camps and hospitals and schools, and yes, even by Hamas' numbers Israel only kills 0.8 people per missile, but there is wayyyyyy to much collateral damage.
A ceasefire only means Israel stops defending itself in any capacity, and Hamas continues attacking Israel. It's happened almost 20 times this decade. Hamas doesn't want a ceasefire, they want a concession and then a genocide.
Benjamin Netanyahu should be removed from office, as most of Israel has been asking him to do since summer and earlier.
These are all facts that have been well documented over the past few months and the past few decades.
And that's my "stance"
An end to the conflict needs to happen, but it needs to include the dissolution of Hamas.
sorry for the word salad, but too many Jews are being deemed "zionists" (that word has been distorted on social media these past few months too) simply being anti-hamas.
In the broader world, you see organizations like BDS which maps Jewish communities which has led to schools and temples receiving bomb threats, JVP which has condoned calls for genocide against Jews, and University of Toronto which banned kosher foods. And this is widely accepted, and opponents of these are also called "zionists."
I know that's a lot, but I've been following the I/P conflict and antisemitism for a long time now, and that's the Jewish experience.
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kanelia · 29 days
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It is really telling that how many 'free Palestine' pseudo lefties refuse to show any empathy towards Israeli hostages and civilians murdered by Hamas.
It would not even undermine their acknowledgement of Palestinian suffering, but still, anytime I ask if they think what Hamas did was resistance or if they think it was wrong, they just write a half a foot long comment raving about Israel, white people, occupation and genocide.
Sure, you can derail all you want, but your reluctance to say that any people just living their lives and sleeping in their beds do not deserve to be murdered just because of their nationality or ethnicity, has been noted.
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