#i'm not yelling at quin or anyone individually who reblogged this post

[shaanks]

Okay. Apologies in advance because this is going to be long and I'm not willing to cut anything out or put it under a readmore. So. Here we go.

The reason you can't be both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel is because those things are not equivalent in terms (there are many many other reasons but we'll focus on that one for now). To be pro-Palestine is to be in favor of the liberation of the state of Palestine, and the Palestinian people.

There is no state of Israel to be in favor of. Israel is a violent, long-standing occupation force, which has been recognized to be in violation of international law for the entirety of its existence. There are no Israeli people, because every single family in Israel is a transplant from somewhere else, incentivized to move there (either out of falsely purported religious devotion or with actual moving grants) by an occupying force desperate to legitimize their claim on the region. They are living in housing stolen from displaced and murdered Palestinians. They have no right to be there.

This is a very well-documented move on the part of militaristic invading forces, for example Germany pulled that one with what they called "lebensraum" where they decided that parts of Africa needed to belong to Germany, so they went and killed or displaced all the people actually living there and then moved civilian German families in so they could go "But look :(((( we need to be there :(((( it would make these normal families so sad to leave their new homes!!! :(((("

You will notice that the suggestion of a two-state solution didn't fly there, either.

Additionally, while it is understandable to have the reaction of "both the Israeli government and Hamas are bad, they are both terrorists and all terrorists are bad" this demands looking at the events of October 7th in a vacuum as an isolated incident, which is both dangerously reductive and really unhelpful, especially in light of literally all the events leading up to that day, and everything that has happened since.

In an ideal world, where Palestine is free and there is no longer a violent aggression going on, should Hamas continue to exist? No. And likely they would not, at least not in the way they exist now. They are a response to 75+ years of sustained violence, displacement, and genocide by the Israeli military and governing apparatus.

Imagine you spent your whole life hearing stories about what your neighborhood used to be like, before this group of people started showing up. The other group of people wanted to live in that neighborhood too, but all the houses already had people living in them. So, rather than finding a neighborhood with houses for sale, they organized, got backing from the neighboring state's police force, and started dragging people out of their homes at gunpoint.

The ones who complied were displaced, the ones who weren't were imprisoned or killed, children were kidnapped, women were assaulted. Nobody who was thrown out of their homes ever got to go back. And you grew up not only hearing those stories, but watching it happen, hearing from news organizations about what important good guys the people who were stealing houses in your neighborhood were, about their rights as new homeowners. and nothing about yours. Imagine growing up in that atmosphere and praying every day that it wasn't going to be your dad shot, your mom assaulted, you kidnapped or killed.

Until one day, it was your family that they came after. And you, in rage and terror, picked up a rock and beat a couple of them to death with it...only for the news on every outlet you can access to go INSANE.

"He's a TERRORIST. HOW AWFUL. HE AND EVERYONE LIKE HIM SHOULD BE DESTROYED. TERRORISM SHOULD BE ROOTED OUT AT ITS SOURCE, STOP AT NOTHING." About you. For not wanting someone with a gun to come in and drag you and your family out into the street, because they want your house.

Now, make that on the scale of an entire people displaced. an entire people having to raise children with stories of homes they can't go back to. an entire people listening to the world philosophize about whether or not the people violently displacing them have a right to what they stole, too.

Has Hamas committed acts of violence? Yeah man, sure. But trying to paint what Hamas has done--and what they're capable of--as in any way equivalent to what the settler colony of Israel has done to Palestine (with the backing of the world's most dangerous military, who has a vested economic and strategic interest in Israel's continued occupation of the area), is just. Crazy. And wrong.

The insistence that no violence is ever justified is oppressor talk. You look anywhere in the world where one group has their boot on the other one's throat, and you'll hear that moralizing pearl-clutching talk. but if the international community is only capable of wringing their hands while the Palestinians are pushed further and further out of existence, tell me why they shouldn't be allowed to defend themselves.

Also, and not for nothing, but last I checked Hamas hasn't fired any hellfire missiles into any children's hospitals. or dropped white phosphorus on any apartment buildings. If you're reading this and you're still on the fence about this, go look up what a hellfire missile is. That on its own ought to be enough to put this whole debate to bed, but who knows anymore.

There should be a tag for where you’re both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel. Like, I hate Hamas and I want them to be dismantled and replaced with a non-terrorist organization. I hate the Israel government and it needs some SERIOUS fixing. I want the 2 state solution. I want the return of the hostages immediately. I want those who participated in October 7th to be punished. I want children in Gaza and Palestine to not be taught in preschool to want to kill Jews.

There should be a tag that encompasses all of that. That both deserve to exist.