#it's insane. it's literally insane y'all are seeing posts like this and immediately unfollowing us because you assume we're supporting geno

[deadtower]

#it's easy to say that it shouldn't have been established in the first place#but the thing is that it exists#and the fallout of it suddenly dissolving would be catastrophic#as would the expulsion of current residents#it's easy to say that there should be a ceasefire (and that is in fact the popular opinion amongst israelis)#but the people in power are rich fascists who only see profit from continued apartheid and genocide#the thing is that jews have lived there for thousands of years even after all of the forced expulsions#we never left. many were forced to under threat of death.#however palestinians have ALSO lived there for thousands of years and are currently being forced to leave or die.#contrary to popular belief most israelis don't have dual citizenship. that myth is a rehashing of dual loyalty.#many moved to israel due to antisemitic violence.#their homes have been taken by goyim. they have nowhere to return.#some groups (like yemeni jews) cannot return because they will literally be murdered.#does this excuse the actions of the israeli govt? fuck no!#but saying that all israelis can just go back is wildly ignorant.#also acting like saying 'it's a complicated situation' is fucking genocide apologism is such a shit take lmao#it IS complicated. just not the part you think we're talking about.#the anti-intellectualism on this site is wild#the people who live in israel and palestine are not toys you can move around without consequence#they are PEOPLE.#people with lives and families.#edit: if you can't give the question 'where should israelis go?' a firm and reasonable answer#then i think you should not be acting like the solution is ~simple~ (via @intern-seraph)

I think people need to understand that when someone says the situation in Israel/Palestine is complicated they are not necessarily saying that the discussion of who the oppressor vs oppressed is complicated. The Israeli government has been oppressing the Palestinians for a very long time, that is clear, and it is not complicated to understand that at least since the 80s they have had dramatically more financial and military power to keep control of the territory in the way they like.

However, it is reductive and dismissive to insist that there is no complexity in the potential ways to move forward to bring peace to the region. Despite what people on tumblr.edu like to believe, "Israel should never have been created" is not a practical solution to an incredibly heated geopolitical situation in the present day. Israel was created and it does exist. 10 million people live there. 74% of the population is native born and the country has existed for 75 years. Hand waving these fact away with the opinion that "they should move back to where they came from" may make you feel good about being a Radical Leftist, but it does not give anyone a road map for how exactly millions of people without dual citizenship are supposed to just up and evaporate. Nor does it acknowledge the reality that 21% of Israelis are Arabs, the very people you are claiming to want to give the land back to.

Insisting that there's nothing complicated about expecting an entire country's population to willingly dissappear with no consequences is not a productive way to think about this conflict. It ignores the many massive superpowers that have an interest in proping up different states in the region, the power dynamics involved in any land back movements, and the inevitably negative consequences of totally dissolving an established state without a plan. It is also completely and almost comically unrealistic, so much so that it makes it hard to believe that anyone who's opinion starts and ends with this idea really gives a shit about anyone who lives in the area as much as they care about their online leftist clout.

There's nothing complicated in understanding that the Israeli government is and has been maintaining an oppressive apartheid state for decades. It is, however, very complicated to come up with a realistic way to resolve some of the most intricately entangled land disputes on the planet without plunging the region into total chaos. Not everyone has to be deeply educated on every geopolitical situation, but it is very hard to take people seriously when they know nothing about the politics or history of a region and yet insist that there is nothing complicated about it at all.

There's a lot of people on this website who are getting dangerously smug about their own ignorance, and are starting to go down Qanon type anti-intellectual paths in the name of being sufficiently radical. Not knowing the details of a very convoluted land dispute isn't something to brag about online as you call for intentionally reductive solutions. You can support the Palestinian cause and be aware of the oppression they have faced while also holding off on calling people trying to do real analysis and de-escalation work bootlickers. We need to get control of the urge to fit every global issue into a simplistic YA novel narrative structure that appeals to Western revolutionary fantasies.