To people who today are either staying silent or arguing that they - as Jewish Israelis or Jewish Americans - just want peace:
Too many “we-support-peace people have for years kept their heads in the sand about the clear intentions behind Israeli policies... 1/
... & about the constant and ever-escalating violations of their basic rights and dignities these policies that inflict on Palestinians. 2/
Good intentions, loving peace, holding on to “hope” - it has long been clear that without turning these into actions, they are just stories people who are privileged by the status quo tell themselves... 3/
...so they can feel virtuous as they continue leading lives that uphold, or at least utterly fail to challenge in a meaningful way, a status quo that is *structurally designed* to dehumanize Palestinians... 4/
....to dispossess them of their land/homes, and to delegitimize and erase their political and national identities - all with breathtaking efficiency. 5/
You cannot seriously say you are committed to “peace” or democracy or human rights while upholding & benefiting from a status quo that - whether we are taking about Jewish Israelis or Jewish Americans - privileges you, by design and by default, at the expense of Palestinians. 6/
And of course, lots of people are happy to talk about solidarity & concern for others, but few people, anywhere, are ready to volunteer to challenge a system that privileges them over others, or to fight to end what they themselves have come to see as sacred entitlements. 7/
So no more empty words about “wanting peace” or “sustaining hope.” Either you are taking a stand to end the systematic abuse of Palestinians, or you are keeping your head in the sand, still telling yourself stories that let you see yourself as virtuous. /end
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@elgindy_ :“They aren’t hands-off in underwriting the occupation; they’re hands-off in terms of things that could help Palestinians or mitigate conflict…"
@elgindy_@elgindy_ : "It’s selectively hands-off; it’s hands-on when it comes to aid to Israel and all the mantras of 'unbreakable and unshakable” U.S.-Israeli ties"
New thread ft. Members of Congress who've been silent re Israeli actions related to Sheikh Jarrah & Haram a-Sharif/Temple Mt, but who are now moved to speak on missiles being fired into Israel (which, to be clear, is a war crime - but the selective empathy/outrage is striking):
"Hundreds of Israeli soldiers age 19 to 21 are deployed every night on missions of state terror when they break into Palestinian homes in the West Bank, without a judge’s warrant or oversight of a body that is not an interested party (there is no such body)…”
2/
"The authority is a military order from 54 years ago, when we thought the occupation was temporary…”
3/
The groups "endorse the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance "Working Definition of Antisemitism" (IHRA) as a tool for monitoring and raising awareness.”
3/
ICYMI, Janet Yellen’s response to Senate Finance Committee for the record re: BDS (page 40) does not sound like support for First Amendment rights of Americans or of free speech as a value around the world
"President Biden has led efforts to oppose the delegitimization of Israel, whether in international organizations or by the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States…"
“...I support President Biden’s approach of opposing such efforts and ifconfirmed, ***will work as Treasury Secretary to oppose BDS activities directed at Israel.***"
Israelis have long had no issue ignoring terrorist past of fellow Israelis, while they impose 6-degrees-of-terrorist-contamination standard on Palestinians. Shurat HaDin exemplifies this, but Exhibit A has to be political commentator/journo Haggai Segal
“In 1980, while part of the group Jewish Underground, Segal planted and planted a bomb that blew off the leg of a Palestinian mayor. He served a prison sentence and later wrote about his experiences in the book Dear Brothers: The West Bank Jewish Underground.”