Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Calling an Anti-Zionist Jewish Person a 'Self-hating Jew'...a Form of Ableism?

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.)

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.