#Israel is a decolonial state

[straynoahide]

why is the main road in Gaza named after Saladin, a crusader-era conqueror/mass murderer who professed a religion from the hejaz in arabia and himself not born in the levant but in mesopotamia?

is colonial imperialism, theocracy and slavery good when arabs do it? are jews best left to ottoman dhimmitude forever, perhaps?

the current iteration of the palestinian national aspiration in gaza -as all of them since the british mandate- is a genocidal, holocaust continuist arab nationalist and islamist project. and fatah is little better, the society is nazified and children are groomed into armed death cults, instigated by people who sit outside of palestine.

hamas is a terrorist organization that explicitly states it wants a jewish-free society, which also happens to treat women as domestic slaves, lynch queers, and suppress free-thought when it comes to freedom of religion. they get the means to do so from western progressives and international institutions, like UNRWA.

israel is the sole decolonial state of the jewish people, who are indigenous to eretz yisrael, no matter what part of the diaspora their ancestors lived in, and no matter how long ago, although the yishuv was continuous.

antizionism is antisemitism, and has always been. political antizionism is an anti-western force. fuck the Islamic Republic of Iran and its "bin laden uwu" brainwash. fuck fifthcolumnists. there is no future with genocidal antisemitic ideology in the middle east.

“elon musk did the nazi salute, remember to check on your jewish friends uwu” you all celebrated when jihadi terrorists live-streamed the torture, kidnapping and murdering of israelis on 10/7/2023 but ok

[ind1g3n0us-lev1t3]

Israel is the most successful de-colonisation project in human history.

[straynoahide]

affirm jewish indigeneity

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

[straynoahide]

"jesus of nazareth was a palestinian who 'practiced' judaism" vibes

People who say Palestine existed before Israel and Israel is a ‘new country that’s colonizing’ sound like flat earthers. Every piece of logic and evidence proves that is wrong, yet they deny, deny, deny and say that the government is lying. 

[palestinegenocide]

Music and resistance after October 7

The Palestinian people practice resistance through "sumud" and steadfastness in every aspect of their lives, including in music. After October 7, Palestinian music can serve as the moral compass pointing toward decolonization.

[Link]

[anxietyfrappuccino]

i hate having social anxiety. i want to scream free palestine/fuck colonialism everywhere i go. i want to TALK about it everywhere i go, in every way that i can, but no, human interaction makes my throat close up, and that is not a metaphor. i literally can't fucking speak, and it's painful in every way.

this is the way it's always been for me. all this heart of burning sun and no fucking outlet for the fire. i want to bathe the world in warmth and light, but i'm a lonely star raging in a soundless void.

i am of mexican american descent. my culture and ethnicity are half indigenous, half colonial settlers. how fucking dare anyone allow the continuous rape and genocide of palestinians and their land. the western world and its ideals has been nothing but a false glory. colonialism is the bane of existence. humans deserve better than this self-injected plague. the palestinians deserve freedom and the respect of life, the natural born right to live and thrive.

i can't say this out loud in the ways i would like to, so i'll say it here:

FREE PALESTINE!!!

[fairuzfan]

AMAZING article about what it means to participate in anti-Zionism work both online and in person.

If your anti-zionism does not in any way acknowledge that it is a way of thought and practice led by and for Palestinians, then you need to reevaluate your "anti-zionism" label.

Some passages that felt especially relevant to tumblr:

If we accept, as those with even the most rudimentary understanding of history do, that zionism is an ongoing process of settler-colonialism, then the undoing of zionism requires anti-zionism, which should be understood as a process of decolonisation. Anti-zionism as a decolonial ideology then becomes rightly situated as an indigenous liberation movement. The resulting implication is two-fold. First, decolonial organising requires that we extract ourselves from the limitations of existing structures of power and knowledge and imagine a new, just world. Second, this understanding clarifies that the caretakers of anti-zionist thought are indigenous communities resisting colonial erasure, and it is from this analysis that the strategies, modes, and goals of decolonial praxis should flow. In simpler terms: Palestinians committed to decolonisation, not Western-based NGOs, are the primary authors of anti-zionist thought. We write this as a Palestinian and a Palestinian-American who live and work in Palestine, and have seen the impact of so-called ‘Western values’ and how the centring of the ‘human rights’ paradigm disrupts real decolonial efforts in Palestine and abroad. This is carried out in favour of maintaining the status quo and gaining proximity to power, using our slogans emptied of Palestinian historical analysis.

Anti-zionist organising is not a new notion, but until now the use of the term in organising circles has been mired with misunderstandings, vague definitions, or minimised outright. Some have incorrectly described anti-zionism as amounting to activities or thought limited to critiques of the present Israeli government – this is a dangerous misrepresentation. Understanding anti-zionism as decolonisation requires the articulation of a political movement with material, articulated goals: the restitution of ancestral territories and upholding the inviolable principle of indigenous repatriation and through the right of return, coupled with the deconstruction of zionist structures and the reconstitution of governing frameworks that are conceived, directed, and implemented by Palestinians.  Anti-zionism illuminates the necessity to return power to the indigenous community and the need for frameworks of justice and accountability for the settler communities that have waged a bloody, unrelenting hundred-year war on the people of Palestine. It means that anti-zionism is much more than a slogan. 

[...]

While our collective imaginations have not fully articulated what a liberated and decolonised Palestine looks like, the rough contours have been laid out repeatedly. Ask any Palestinian refugee displaced from Haifa, the lands of Sheikh Muwannis, or Deir Yassin – they will tell that a decolonised Palestine is, at a minimum, the right of Palestinians’ return to an autonomous political unit from the river to the sea. When self-proclaimed ‘anti-zionists’ use rhetoric like ‘Israel-Palestine’ – or worse, ‘Palestine-Israel’ – we wonder: where do you think ‘Israel’ exists? On which land does it lay, if not Palestine? This is nothing more than an attempt to legitimise a colonial state; the name you are looking for is Palestine – no hyphen required. At a minimum, anti-zionist formations should cut out language that forces upon Palestinians and non-Palestinian allies the violence of colonial theft. 

[...]

The common choice to centre the Oslo Accords, international humanitarian law, and the human rights paradigm over socio-historical Palestinian realities not only limits our analysis and political interventions; it restricts our imagination of what kind of future Palestinians deserve, sidelining questions of decolonization to convince us that it is the new, bad settlers in the West Bank who are the source of violence. Legitimate settlers, who reside within the bounds of Palestinian geographies stolen in 1948 like Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem, are different within this narrative. Like Breaking the Silence, they can be enlightened by learning the error of colonial violence carried out in service of the bad settlers. They can supposedly even be our solidarity partners – all without having to sacrifice a crumb of colonial privilege or denounce pre-1967 zionist violence in any of its cruel manifestations. As a result of this course of thought, solidarity organisations often showcase particular Israelis – those who renounce state violence in service of the bad settlers and their ongoing colonisation of the West Bank – in roles as professionals and peacemakers, positioning them on an equal intellectual, moral, or class footing with Palestinians. There is no recognition of the inherent imbalance of power between these Israelis and the Palestinians they purport to be in solidarity with – stripping away their settler status. The settler is taken out of the historical-political context which afforded them privileged status on stolen land, and is given the power to delineate the Palestinian experience. This is part of the historical occlusion of the zionist narrative, overlooking the context of settler-colonialism to read the settler as an individual, and omitting their class status as a settler. 

It is essential to note that Palestinians have never rejected Jewish indigeneity in Palestine. However, the liberation movement has differentiated between zionist settlers and Jewish natives. Palestinians have established a clear and rational framework for this distinction, like in the Thawabet, the National Charter of Palestine from 1968. Article 6 states, ‘The Jews who had normally resided in Palestine until the beginning of the Zionist invasion will be considered Palestinians.’ When individuals misread ‘decolonisation’ as ‘the mass killing or expulsion of Jews,’ it is often a reflection of their own entanglement in colonialism or a result of zionist propaganda. Perpetuating this rhetoric is a deliberate misinterpretation of Palestinian thought, which has maintained this position over a century of indigenous organising.  Even after 100 years of enduring ethnic cleansing, whole communities bombed and entire family lines erased, Palestinians have never, as a collective, called for the mass killing of Jews or Israelis. Anti-zionism cannot shy away from employing the historical-political definitions of ‘settler’ and ‘indigenous’ in their discourse to confront ahistorical readings of Palestinian decolonial thought and zionist propaganda. 

[...]

In the context of the United States, the most threatening zionist institutions are the entrenched political parties which function to maintain the status quo of the American empire, not Hillel groups on university campuses or even Christian zionist churches. While the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) engage in forms of violence that suppress Palestinian liberation and must not be minimised, it is crucial to recognise that the most consequential institutions in the context of settler-colonialism are not exclusively Jewish in their orientation or representation: the Republican and Democratic Party in the United States do arguably more to manufacture public consent for the slaughtering of Palestinians than the ADL and AIPAC combined. Even the Progressive Caucus and the majority of ‘The Squad’ are guilty of this.

Leila Shomali and Lara Kilani

[straynoahide]

one of the most egregious things is that the international antisemitic lawfare is being spear-headed by former british colonies, like the mandate was. the fucking irony.

[ladychlo]

Since it is Pride Month, keep an eye on Gaza and Palestine, and keep educating yourselves on the intersectional struggle. Queer liberation is a decolonial process. Queer liberation is an essential part of Palestine's liberation!

[noneedforbloodpressure]

I don’t know how people don’t get, at this point, that there is nothing anyone can do, ever to deserve genocide. Nothing.

If you think Palestinians - or even just everyone in Gaza - from the eldest senior down to the youngest child, deserves to die or otherwise be collectively punished for the acts of Hamas on Oct. 7th, you are part of the problem.

If you think Israelis - or more widely all Jewish people - from the eldest senior down to the youngest child, deserves to die or otherwise be collectively punished for what the modern state Israel has done to Palestinians, you are part of the problem.

Palestinians and Jewish people alike are indigenous to the Levant. So are the Samaritans and the Druze and the Bedouins and more. All of them deserves dignity, respect, and self determination in their homeland. If you (especially if you do not belong to one of the aforementioned groups) cannot do your best to work towards a decolonial future where this can be true, you are part of the problem.

[junglejim4322]

Do understand this too, it’s notable in Palestinian decolonial writing that Israeli settlers would not be expunged (although many would have to relinquish land and resources taken) but the reason for this is not the thought of a biological connection to the land or area but the circumstances in which they exist there which is 1. Often multiple generations down now 2. Many Jewish people were exiled from their countries when the state of Israel was declared, which is to say many people don’t have a country to return to past being part of a stateless ethno religious group, they also cannot return to their country of origin. It’s not about a birth right to land lol

[yasyassie]

According to the dictionary I hold in my hand "Terror is violent or destructive acts, such as bombing Committed by groups in order to intimidate a population Or government into granting their demands" So what's a terrorist? They're calling me a terrorist Like they don't know who the terror is When they put it on me, I tell them this I'm all about peace and love (peace and love) It seems nuts, how could there be such agony? When more Israeli's die from peanut allergies It's like the definition didn't ever exist I guess it's all just depending who your nemesis is Irrelevant how eloquent the rhetoric peddler is They're telling fibs, now tell us who the terrorist is Lumumba was democracy Mossadegh was democracy Allende was democracy Hypocrisy, it bothers me Call you terrorists if you don't wanna be a colony Refuse to bow down to a policy of robberies Is terrorism my lyrics? (Is it?) When more Vietnam vets kill themselves after the war than die in it This is very basic One nation in the world has over a thousand military bases They say it's religion, when clearly it isn't It's not just Muslims that oppose your imperialism Is Hugo Chavez a Muslim? Nah, I didn't think so Is Castro a Muslim? Nah, I didn't think so It's like the definition didn't ever exist I guess it's all just depending who your nemesis is Irrelevant how eloquent the rhetoric peddler is They're telling fibs, now tell us who the terrorist is Was building 7 terrorism? Was nano thermite terrorism? Diego Garcia was terrorism I am conscious the Contras were terrorism Phosphorus that burns hands, that is terrorism Irgun and Stern Gang that was terrorism What they did in Hiroshima was terrorism What they did in Fallujaha was terrorism Mandela ANC, they called terrorism Gerry Adams I.R.A, they called terrorism Erik Prince Blackwater was terrorism Oklahoma McVeigh, that was terrorism Every day U.S.A, that is terrorism Every day U.K, that is terrorism

Terrorist

i'm now a terrorist because i don't condone genocide, SA, starving people, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, racism, torture and killing of innocent men, women, children and babies... what a world

if you think so highly of yourself and your uneducated, twisted opinion, send me an ask that's not anonymous. otherwise go and educate yourself to avoid embarrassing yourself in the future. stop taking in the garbage and filth the media is feeding you.

[gaelic-symphony]

Even if every country in the diaspora were safe for Jews, the land of Israel would still be our people's homeland. It would still be the site of our ethnogenesis as a nation. It would still be the land where our ancestors lived and died and prayed and worked and built a thriving Jewish civilization, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It would still be the land where both of our people's temples once stood, and the land where the remains of the Second Temple still exist today. Our laws, holidays, traditions, and liturgy would all still revolve heavily around that particular piece of land. We would still say our prayers in Hebrew, a language which is indigenous to that land.

Even if every country in the diaspora were safe for Jews, the modern-day state of Israel would still be the only country in the world that is specifically structured around our people, our culture, our traditions, our way of life. It would still be the only country that is specifically our country, a Jewish country in the same way that France is a French country and Finland is a Finnish country and Thailand is a Thai country and South Korea is a Korean country. It would still be the only country where official business is conducted in the Hebrew language, where our holidays are national holidays, where the work week and the weekend are structured around our day of rest and holiness instead of the Christian or Muslim days of rest and holiness. It would still be the only country where our Jewishness doesn't make us somehow other, somehow different from the dominant culture of the place where we live, forever straddling two worlds with our hyphenate identities, unsure whether we're Jewish-American (or Canadian, British, French, Russian, Argentinian, etc.) or American Jews, or Just American (or Canadian, British, French, Russian, Argentinian, etc.), or Just Jews.

Antizionists (with the exception of antizionist Orthodox Jews), even at their best and least antisemitic, seem to think that they can eliminate the need for Israel if they simply fight hard enough to eliminate antisemitism in the diaspora and strengthen diaspora Jewish communities. And as a diaspora Jew, I am all in favor of fighting antisemitism in the diaspora and strengthening our communities wherever we choose to live. But you can never eliminate the Jewish longing for our homeland, the deeply Jewish history of the land of Israel, or the right of the Jewish people to be recognized as a nation deserving of the same rights, dignity, and respect as all the other nations of the world. You can feel however you want to feel about the modern-day state of Israel, the way it came into existence, and the actions the government has taken over the years for the ostensible purpose of protecting the country's borders and people and national security interests, but you cannot change the fact that Zionism is, at its core, a decolonial Land Back movement for indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, or that while the political ideology and terminology of modern Zionism may have been developed by Jews living in 19th century Europe, the ideals that Zionism is built upon have been a core part of the Jewish practice and Jewish identity of all Jews, regardless of where we live, for thousands of years.

[bonyassfish]

The inability to see the connection between jews being deliberately excluded from projects of nationalism or self-determination and the current violence of Zionist regime is something holding back most people here methinks

Like I literally saw a post referring to Mizrahi Jews as “race traitors”, as if they weren’t excluded from earlier Arab nationalism/pan-arab identities/decolonial movements. In Morocco, the colonial French govt used divide and conquer and made the Moroccan Jewish community separate from other Moroccans. Now the majority of Moroccan Jews live in Israel.

It’s interesting, one of the few places that Jews can live with a modicum of safety in the Middle East nowadays is actually Iran, where despite obvious discrimination and oppression, there is a concerted effort to differentiate between Jews and Zionists, and to view Iranian Jews as inherent members of Iranian society (in theory at least, if not in practice)

It’s the eternal question which plagues Jews everywhere: where do we belong? Pretty much every Jew on earth has a family history of expulsion and escape. My ancestors came from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Romania. But none of them ever felt an affinity to these nations, only a sense of exclusion and discrimination.

This is of course not to defend the Israeli state in any way, but to explain it. The hostility and the violence comes from both a dehumanization of the Palestinians to further the Zionist project, as well as a perceived existential need. If Jews aren’t welcome anywhere else, where do we go?

That’s why I always say the fight for Palestinian liberation and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand. One of the most effective tools to use against Zionism and hasbara bullshit is to show you love and care for the Jewish people and our safety. Otherwise, don’t fucking bother.

[tamamita]

its kinda crazy how youre among the few active + openly muslim bloggers i follow and youre getting dispropotionately more pro israel bs from people in your inbox than other bloggers covering on the same topic 🤔 whats all that about

It's because these people were all liberals diguised as Leftists. They know that decolonialization involves the violent dismantling of an oppressive system, as was the case with Algeria and South Africa. But a whole new kind of low is hit when it is about the illegal settler state of Israel where the oppressed have to be silent and give in to the power of their oppressors.