We’re a group of activists in a Western country where most have been brought up with either “Israel = good, Hamas = bad” or “It’s a sad, but unsolvable conflict between two equal sides”. The media heavily skewed to the Israeli perspective, and our politicians want to condemn protests in support of Palestinians. Therefore, unless you purposefully seek out information on what’s going on in Palestine, you won’t really encounter information about the occupation, the apartheid or the human rights violations. There are a lot of gaps in people’s information and understanding of the situation.
Atm there’s a lot of dehumanization, a lot of “Well, what can you do? Hamas keeps attacking Israel, what are they supposed to do?”. I think the Israel=Good is deep-rooted in a lot of westerners. I know it was in me.
We’ve asked ourselves and each other what finally broke through our previous perception, so we could see the inequality and realize that what’s happening is not right
One mentioned seeing a journalist in the back of an ambulance being handed a one-year-old that had passed
One mentioned seeing a video of a caring father saying goodbye to his little girl, kissing her eyes before she was wrapped in the materiale they wrap their dead. The father clearly in denial, smiling and wishing for her to wake up.
A big one for me was being told that it’s not an equal fight. It’s not two equally strong countries. It’s one country with a huge military, and another with barely any. Another was hearing about the human rights violations that’s been going on for decades - the fabricated water shortage, the children in Israeli jails.
I believe these are the moments we need to collect and present to those who are still wary on where they stand.
What broke through to you?
20+ years ago, when I was a freshman in high school, a Palestinian refugee joined our class. He mentioned off-handedly how quiet it was where we lived at night - he was used to hearing rockets/bombs all night while trying to sleep.
Then I started reading.
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The one caveat is that the sides are not equal. The Israelis have the resources to set up a 2-state solution unilaterally if they wanted, while the Palestinians are in an active famine right now. They’re just not willing to bear the economic and security costs of that, so the cycle continues.
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I mean, democracy is an ideology too. If you want to see a place with no ideology, think of somewhere with openly corrupt mafia-like rule. I’d point the finger more at tribalism.
No I meant believes in particular ideologies. I should have been more specific that I mean the fervor-type belief that is also exemplary with religion usually, but of course also shows up with Trumpsters a lot. I used both right to one another but didn’t specify, sorry.
Two things:
- two different Israeli tourists told me that Palestinians were animals during the course of different conversations at different times
2).I saw Five Broken Cameras
Those both happened at least a decade ago, and I’ve been pretty vocal about my condemnation of IDF violence since that point, and it’s been insane to have gotten s*** about supporting Palestine for so many years and then in the last few months see a complete reversal of the American perspective.
I’ve actually had someone reach out to me to ask some clarifying questions now that the hospital bombings and IDF invasions happening for decades are actually being reported on and there’s no way to ignore the overwhelming military and cultural advantage israel has in this conflict.
two different Israeli tourists told me that Palestinians were animals
One of the local businesses I frequent is owned by an Israeli man and he was telling me they all deserve to die, all of them, men, women, and children. He believes the world needs to be rid of all Palestinians.
I had been hanging out all night with a few israelis who were really nice and cool, and they were kind of hippies and were telling me how it was so cool how traveling made them feel so open with other people, and how the world was one, so I was like well but it’s kind of difficult with Palestine right?
And immediately one of them said “well not Palestine, Palestinians are animals.”
Another one you could tell by her face knew he shouldn’t have said that, and explained to me that nothing would ever work out Palestine because they were completely unreasonable and she paraphrased what he said but in less explicit language.
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I’ve always stood with Palestine.
I’m genX, so South African apartheid was constantly on the news through my childhood. It doesn’t take much to see that Israel is just as shitty.
I’ve never really understood people wanting to travel there or even move there as the danger of terrorist attacks seemed to high to risk it (and I travelled quite a bit in the world).
But when I looked into it to resolve my ignorance the apartheid nature seemed very clear to me (I had family in SA) so I was aware of the issue. So since a couple of years ago, maybe even a decade, the politics of Israel were very much against what I deem right and productive… or ethical.
So superficially I was for Israel (history class in school, Western news reporting, etc.) before I started inform myself.
I knew about the Free Palestine movement before the war but never knew much about the details. I didn’t know what Palestine was, exactly. I knew Hamas was a terrorist organization but couldn’t tell you what country they were in.
Then the attacks happened, and I saw a huge disparity among my friends. About half supported Palestine and half supported Israel, so I decided to spend a night researching the history of the conflict. That was an eye opener.
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Dude literally said that everyone he knows was siding with the genocided people side so he choose to side with one doing the genocide ,bruh…
So many Palestinians support Hamas that it’s hard to have sympathy.
That’s like saying Vietnamese deserves what US troops dis to them because they supported their freedom fighters.
My people too sided with their freedom fighters and were massacred for it. It was the same with every colonized country. You’re literally saying they don’t have the right to fight for their freedom.
The fight is more evenly matched than you suggest
So Isreal which is funded with billions and billions from USA who also literally bully anyone from trying to stop the genocide being committed by ‘Israel’, an apartheid state whose crimes are so horrible that despite the immense amount of propaganda they pour everywhere, peoples around the world still sided with palestinians, the fight as you call it or more precisely the one sided genocide is even. Okey.
but Hamas has the better media presence
They’re officially declared a terrorist organisation in many places, and nobody argues with it (not unreasonably, but nobody’s going after the settlers for the same). They might be pulling forward a bit right now, but historically the Israeli lobby has been no joke in the West.
Plenty of people argue that Hamas is not a terrorist organization.
Israel is relatively popular in the US, but younger Americans and many circles within academia are rabid antizionists, as I think you’ve seen. Many are calling to “globalize the intifada.”
Hamas has not succeeded in making the average westerner think terrorism is good, but they have succeeded in normalizing terrorism, making more people think that “terrorism” is an Islamophobic term, making more people think that Israel does not have the right to exist, and emboldening antisemites on the right and left. Younger generations are more and more aggressively antizionist as time goes on.
Settler expansion is a problem that’s more complicated and less exciting to people than the war. It makes sense that antizionists want us to focus on the war and just use settler expansion for color.
Yeah, I can cherry-pick morons off the internet too. That was an approximate “nobody”, there are of course some voices at the fringe. I mostly agree with OP, I just thought that one bit was an odd take.
As for the rest, terrorist is a meaningless word for non-state actors we don’t like. Hamas is not bad because they’re terrorists, but because they’re theocrats that want to eliminate the neighboring ethnic group. They are not alone.
Don’t try to make sense. They wanna hear “choose-your-side” opinions
Hamas is a direct result of Israel’s actions. If Israel hadn’t carried out an apartheid for the last 70 years Hamas wouldn’t even exist. It doesn’t help that Israel directly funded Hamas in favor of secular liberation groups.
Hamas has the better media presence? While Israel is doing a bad job I don’t think that’s the case at all. Hamas isn’t winning heats, but Palestinians are.
Hamas’s goal is not to make you think they’re the good guys, their goal is to eradicate Israel and the Jewish people, and/or to die trying. They’ve been turning sentiment in their favor.
Talking with a LGBTQ muslim lady on Facebook 9 years ago. I was an islamophobe/Israel praising person and I had the lucky to find this chill and lovely woman who spent her time talking with me about islamophobia in general and the Palestinian situation as well, despite not being her obligation to do so. Thank you, Maryam for being a teacher for me!
Westerner and was never brought up that one side was good or bad but that there was a failure of separation of church and state and this has led to a horrific unsolvable mess. Modern westerners are pretty sensitive to terrorism though and if you are a small religious sect attacking an established nation-state that has been an ally to western nations, yeah you become the greater evil in the eyes of most with a western upbringing. Other than the children, there aren’t a whole lot of innocents involved here. It’s many shades of grey. For those that have a voice in choosing leaders, I advise to lean against choosing any with strong religious convictions - even if they align with your own. Keep government secular.
Used to think Israel action is fair because Hamas been firing rocket in those building, but i’m not sure what and why this one particular incident that somehow started disillusion me. It’s the bombing of a high-rise housing Associated Press and Al Jazeera, Israel claimed it’s used by Hamas, but never provided any proof afterward.
Then a year later, the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Israel blame Palestine but later investigation found out that it’s the Israel force that did it.
Then i dig deeper and found out they kill children without reason, and it’s a well documented fact.
the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh
This was fucked up, worst part is they didn’t punish or release the name of the soldier responsible.
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The sheer number of people, organizations, and national institutions that fell over each other in scrambling to support Israel/condemn Hammas set off my bullshit detector.
I’m still not taking sides, but the pro-Israel blitzkrieg is so over the top that I don’t accept it at face value. Someone’s trying to sell me something.
When it was explained to me 25+ years ago how Israel was invented, and so I did further reading. Religious divides are wrong in every way, and they are prevent neighbourly integration, so I decided I disagree with Israel as a concept, just as I disagree with all apartheid systems. This invasion just solidified my opinion.
And bias in the media? The news here in Oz yesterday covered an orphaned four-year-old being returned to her family just because she was American/Israeli. It left out the many other orphaned four-year-olds dead or dying or lying in pain and fear, without medical attention, because of Israels “action”. The ones killed and injured with weapons Israel is lying about using, such as phosphorus. The media are biased as all get out. Poor little kids didn’t have a chance.
I’ve learned a lot more over time, especially recently. I never had a eureka moment though. Everyone deserves to live in peace and with basic human rights. I’ll always advocate for that. Specifically this conflict though is between a Democratic state who has done fucked up shit and a genocidal fundmentalist terrorist group. There is still a clearly much less bad side here.
If you can’t do anything to actually help what good will do getting anxious and dread about it? If you can, donate to orgs, volunteer…
There are so many conflicts in the world and humanitarian crises that nobody cares about. Idk why people that are not from Palestine nor Israel get so worked out over this particular conflict. Don’t you people have injustices you need to fix in your own general area?
If you really want to do some good in society, invest your time and energy where you can make a difference instead of what’s currently popular in the media. No matter where you live, I’m sure there are many causes that demand your attention that you can help with.
People care because we’re people and don’t like to see unnecessary suffering, especially if we’re able to change it. In western countries, our governments (and taxes) are supporting this, we have significant power to influence the outcome.
We also understand that our struggles are connected. The problems in my community are tied to the US support of Israel and their ongoing violent oppression of Palestinians. They cannot be separated, and to create any lasting change we must address the issues in whole, which requires examining how they relate and working to break those connections. The “popularity” in the media is a moment to facilitate doing the good you’re talking about, that’s why so many long time organizers in social just areas are doing exactly what needs doing, seizing the moment.
I would argue that when it comes to social media, people not only are not bothered by unnecessary suffering, but they actively seek it out. If social media algorithms have shown us anything is that people actively want to be outraged. And isn’t it comfortable for them? How many people that are justice warriors online actively do something productive over the matter and how many just use the conflict to seek attention and gloat over their exemplary moral compass?
Remember the Ukrainian conflict? How rightfully outraged everyone was? But now that’s old news. People are fatigued by it and their statements online about it don’t get traction anymore. So most justice online warriors have moved one to the latest popular topic. So easy, so comfy.
Don’t get me wrong, all these events are disastrously tragic. Both leaderships in Palestine and Israel are murderous monsters. But the fact that it’s a popularity contest just points out how vain most people’s motivation is.
As an American, considering how much my government supports Israel, I feel like my country is a party to the conflict.
