#embargo reinforced but if you have good-faith questions i’ll try to answer to the best of my knowledge

[strangesmallbard]

breaking my personal embargo on i/p posting again but i’m sincerely urging every non-jewish, non-palestinian who supports palestine—especially usamericans—to learn about antisemitism and zionism. you fundamentally cannot understand the i/p conflict without understanding how antisemitism works or its history across the world. you cannot be an antizionist without first understanding what zionism is and why it exists. this involves learning about antisemitism alongside the many types of zionism. you cannot be an effective pro-palestinian activist without critically examining these histories and developing your own perspective.

this is by no means an easy research journey. bias exists in most academic sources from every possible perspective. but it’s still necessary if you mean to 1) engage in online or offline activism, 2) share new information about the ongoing war, and 3) educate others about netanyahu’s war crimes. it’s dreadfully easy to spread misinformation about a developing situation, especially one this politically fraught on all levels.

it’s also dreadfully easy to spread antisemitic rhetoric in your antizionism efforts. antisemitism is a pernicious form of bigotry by design. it’s possible to be an antizionist without reinforcing antisemitism, but the crossover in leftist circles is unfortunately very real. lotta folks assuming jew = zionist = Evil Suspect Person, even without realizing that’s the assumption.

and hey, if you’re staring suspiciously at this post going “wait is tumblr user strangesmallbard a secret zionist who supports the war in gaza?” because i’m asking you to care about antisemitism, i’d really encourage you to reflect on that knee-jerk response. i’m not even asking you to care about antisemitism outside of i/p—i’m inviting you to learn important information about a human rights crisis you care about. and i’m asking you to avoid spreading rhetoric that gets us killed around the world, no matter our political stances or relationships to israel. i’m asking you to care about that.