[This post is a series of images from an infographic by the Slow Factory Foundation originally posted May 2021. The first image is a photo with text over it. The photo shows a massive fireball in the middle of a group of buildings, with a massive black cloud rising from the flames that is bigger than the buildings themselves. The building just behind the fireball is low, rectangular, and lit up bright orange. Behind that building, there is a city lit up at night. Hundreds of buildings stretching into the distance, a thousand glimmering lights.]
What is happening in Palestine is not complicated; it's settler colonialism & ethnic cleansing.
Debunking Misinformation around Palestine.
Myth ❌
Palestine and Israel are in "conflict."
Fact ✅
What is happening in Palestine is settler colonialism, military occupation, land theft and ethnic cleansing. A conflict means there is equal footing, which is not the case. There is an active oppressor (Israel) and an oppressed (Palestine). A colonizer (Israel) and a colonized (Palestine). This is not a conflict.
[Three images of headlines with the word 'conflict' crossed out in red ink.]
Note: According to the Congressional Research Service,
Israeli military occupation has been supported by US aid with $3.8bn a year paid for by U.S. tax dollars since 2016 for the next 10 years.
It's also supported by other colonial countries including Canada, Australia, France and Belgium.
Myth ❌
Before Israel came to Palestine, it was "just a desert" and Israel made the desert green.
Fact ✅
Before the occupation of Israel, Palestine had green, rich and lush land. In fact, Palestine respected the biodiversity of their Indigenous land: Palestinians were producing 92% of Palestine's grain, 99% of its olives and 95% of its melons to name a few.
Since Israel's occupation, biodiversity has decreased. Israel removed Indigenous plants from the land to plant European Invasive species. This phenomenon is called green colonialism, which has been discussed in depth by many, including Naomi Klein in "Let Them Drown."
Myth ❌
Sheikh Jarrah is the only neighborhood in Palestine that is in danger.
Fact ✅
Israel has been gradually stealing Palestinian land, destroying and ethnically cleansing entire Palestinian villages, violently displacing families and building illegal settlements on top them since the first Nakba ('catastrophe' in Arabic) in 1948, where almost 600 Palestinian villages were destroyed, Palestinian history erased and half the Palestinian population were expelled from their homes.
Myth (cont'd.) ❌
Sheikh Jarrah is the only neighborhood in Palestine that is in danger.
Fact ✅
Over the past few decades, the state of Israel has continued the settler colonial project, and Sheikh Jarrah is the latest and not the last neighborhood being violently threatened with dispossession, which Israel has no legal right to do.
[Images of a map showing the drastic decrease in Palestinian landmass from 1946 to 2019. In 1946, Palestine was 99% Palestinian land. In 1947, it decreased to 40%. In 1967, to 30%. And in 2019, less than 20% of Palestine is Palestinian land. The remaining areas are being encroached on by occupied Palestinian land, meaning occupied by Israelis. The rest is Israeli land.]
The mainstream media has been supporting these myths by spreading misinformation that conceal Israel's ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine by saying it's a two-sided conflict, framing Palestinian resistance as terrorism and normalizing the state of Israel.
To learn more about Palestine and the ongoing fight for liberation, follow Palestinian-led organizations, media and frontline activists. [@Instagram / Facebook]
@theimeu / Institute for Middle East Understanding ( IMEU )
@eye.on.palestine
@palestinianyouthmovement / Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)- حركة الشباب الفلسطيني
@jewishvoiceforpeace / Jewish Voice for Peace
@visualizing_palestine / Visualizing Palestine
@wolpalestine [Censored by Meta]
@mohammedelkurd / Mohammed El-Kurd
@muna.elkurd15 / Muna Nabeel Elkurd
@nouraerakat / Noura Erakat
Sources & Suggested Reading
Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
Let Them Drown by Naomi Klein
Black Power and Palestine by Michael Fischbach
Orientalism by Edward Said
The Question of Palestine by Edward Said
Palestine by Joe Sacco
"Zionist Logic — Malcolm X on Zionism" in The Egyptian Gazette, Sept. 17, 1964
On Palestine by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé
[End of images]
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This is not a perfect analogy but I am making it anyway to try to convey what being online has been like for me lately.
Seeing people say "Oh, Jews are fine, I just hate zionists!" is like seeing "Oh, women are fine, I just hate feminists!"
Zionism and feminism are both very broad socio-political movements that have changed focus over time, that ostensibly have some very basic core tenets but you really need to ask the specific person you're talking to how they personally define it to be sure.
Both have been subject to legitimate criticism, and hostile reactionary bullshit. Had waves, sub-movements, splinters, people with damn near opposite views sharing the term and people with seemingly identical views rejecting it.
You can give working, broad definitions like these:
Feminism is the belief that all people should be treated equally regardless of gender, with a focus on women's rights due to systemic oppression.
Zionism is the belief that all peoples have the right to self determination and safety, with a focus on Jewish people finding it in Israel.
You can also give different definitions! Many people give different definitions! Many people also hold these beliefs but use different names for them for various reasons.
There are self-described zionists who are jingoistic, racist, etc, and who attribute those attitudes to their zionism. Just as there are feminists who are misandrist, bio-essentialist, transphobic, homophobic, and so on, who attribute those attitudes to their feminism.
There are also incredibly selfless, compassionate activists working for positive change in the world who consider themselves zionists and feminists.
It has been very jarring to see people, who I respect, uncritically reblogging posts or headlines that use "zionists" as a stand in for "bad people", just as jarring as it would be to see them sharing things that use "feminists" that way. Especially when those posts contain easily debunked conspiracy theories that I know you'd have seen right through if the OP said "Jews" but because they said "zionists" you swallowed it whole.
I am not asking anyone to stop sharing important information, petitions, news articles, resources, and so on. I am asking you to slow down and stop spreading inflammatory language that paints a broad socio-political movement for Jewish self-determination as inherently bad. The same way I would ask you not to spread inflammatory language that paints gender equality & women's liberation as inherently bad.
If the information is important, please look for other, more neutrally worded posts. Or verify the links yourself and make a fresh post! There is no situation online in which the only way to share information must be to spread such language.
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