Is it just me, or is calling someone who is Jewish and anti-Zionist a 'self-hating Jew' actually a subtle form of ableism? Essentially what that person is saying is that any Jewish person who is not a Zionist has mental health problems and experiences low self-esteem issues for not wanting to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and steal their land, and that the only way to be psychologically sound is to be a Zionist. That is the very height of gaslighting, and I'd even go so far as to say it's ableist, as well. (Not that I'd ever want to be 'able' to be a Zionist, natch.)
Drop Bullshit, Not Bombs!
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Why 'Stay in Your Lane' Rhetoric Doesn't Apply to Goyim Speaking Out on the Israel/Palestine Issue.
Dear Jewish people (of both the religious and non-religious
ethnic varieties)-
Like many of you, I too am concerned about the infiltration of
white supremacist anti-Semites into the Free Palestine movement. Like you, I am
constantly on the alert for any signs of coded anti-Semitism attempting to
dress itself up in respectable-looking anti-Zionism. This is a very real worry
these days, and we are right to call it out when we see it.
But that being said--for the love of HaShem, please stop telling
non-Jews that they have no right to speak out against Israel/Zionism. I am
seeing so much of this 'stay in your lane' rhetoric now every time a non-Jew
tries to speak out on this issue. This is complete and utter B.S., for a number
of reasons:
First of all, every USAmerican has every right to speak out on
this issue because their tax dollars are going to pay for Israel. We pay $11.5
MILLION PER DAY to fund Israel's continuing occupation of Palestine. What could
that money be used for back home, if it wasn't being used for the Zionist
state? How much housing could be provided, how much healthcare, how many green
jobs and schools could be funded with that kind of money? Here we have children
being told to sweep the floors for lunch money because they can't afford to buy
a school lunch, and you can't understand why USAmericans might be a little peeved
that their tax dollars are going to fund a brutal military occupation of
somebody else's land halfway around the world?
Secondly, let's not forget that the Israeli occupation of
Palestine doesn't just affect Israelis and Palestinians; it affects many other
people around the world as well. From the Israeli military and police training
US cops in suppression techniques that are then unleashed primarily upon low
income communities of color, to the Zionist state's role in instigating the
civil war in Syria and its long-term occupation of Syrian land (the Golan
Heights), to the US installing and propping up puppet dictator regimes in the
Middle East in order to control those countries' policies re: Israel, to the
countries that Israel has directly bombed (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan,
Iran, Libya, Yemen, the list goes on and on), to the South Africans who
suffered under Israel's support of the apartheid regime, to the African
refugees of today whom Israel has imprisoned in a concentration camp-style detention
center in the middle of the desert, to all the countries who have been the
victims of Israel's weapons sales. there are many, many people all over the
world who have direct grievances with that state, and who can speak directly
from that perspective.
But also, and this is perhaps the most important reason of
all--THIS IS NOT AN INTERNAL JEWISH ISSUE. This is an issue of Jewish Zionists
victimizing ANOTHER people, taking ANOTHER people's land. Palestinians are not
Jewish property, to be treated at Jewish Zionists' discretion as they see fit.
This is NOT an intra-cultural issue that should be dealt with only within the
Jewish community. This is an issue of one culture dominating and oppressing
another, and that's *everybody's* business.
So please, cut the 'stay in your lane' crap. If Zionists wanted
people to stay in their lane, they should have stayed in theirs. Because there
is no greater case of jumping out of your lane then stealing and colonizing
somebody else's land.
Love,
A fellow Yid.
A fellow Yid.
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