#not once did i say “all palestinian blogs”

[cowplant-pizza]

you're not thinking all palestinian blogs asking for help are bots, right?

no anon, i think every single person with randomised usernames, no posts or followers and the same copy and pasted messages that all arrive at the exact same time after i answer an ask, asking for a conveniently smallish amount of money (but would become a large amount of money if loads of people donated, $45 for example) to go towards their "cause", which coincidentally isn't explained or mentioned in the asks, are 100% real people

[fairuzfan]

This post is for the anon who sent me that video asking me to debunk it's claims so they can be better equipped against accusations of antisemitism.

Sorry, I won't post the video since I refuse to have that man on my blog but I can give you common Zionist talking points and the illogicality behind it.

To preface: most of the questions Zionists will ask you are a trap, and will make you fall into a "rabbit hole" (as I was once told when I was younger), as we try to apply their reasoning. My advice is to ALWAYS center the humanity of Palestinians. For example, when a Zionist says:

"Don't Jews deserve a homeland to be safe?"

It fundamentally ignores the core issue: Palestinians are being raped, murdered, and expelled from their homes so that the establishment of this so called "homeland" may exist. When people ask this to you, I personally advise saying something like:

Why must Palestinians suffer for the establishment of this homeland?

Always recenter to the issue at hand—the inhumane removal and treatment of Palestinians.

"Palestine belongs to the Jews and Not Muslims"

The whole premise of this claim is flawed—there is a weird tendency to equate Arab/Palestinian=Muslim when it just is like. Completely untrue. There are Palestinian Christians, Bethlehem is famously a Christian city, who have been there for centuries. There are Palestinian Jews, who have been there for centuries. There are Palestinian Muslims, who have been there for centuries. My grandpa told me stories of how he would turn on lamps for his Jewish neighbors in Al-Khalil (or Hebron) during Shabbat.

To claim that Palestine is EITHER Islamic or Jewish doesn't make any sense and completely neglects the fact that dissemination of culture has occurred for centuries, as well as the intermingling of people throughout generations. To somehow assert that for some reason, Jews and Muslims did not have ANYTHING to do with each other—did not create together, did not build families together, did not build culture together, all while being PALESTINIAN—is incredibly racist and nonsensical. "Palestinian" is not a religious identity—it's a cultural and ethnic one.

Also, it does not negate the core issue—Palestinians are being killed, removed, and tortured so that others can live on that land.

"Well what about [something about partitioning land]?"

Honestly like, who cares about the partitioning throughout the 1900 and early 2000s. Sorry, I'm not going to list the whole "partitioning" history nonsense. The whole reason "Israel" exists is because of a Mass Exodus, murder, and rape of Palestinians. Everything after that is rendered obsolete.

"Well, I heard Palestinians allied with Hitler"

I don't know how to tell you this but Palestine was under British Control. No they didn't.

"Israel withdrew from the Gaza and left them to themselves and they put Hammas in charge"

Oh yeah, Israel totally left Gaza, that's why Gazans' water, electricity, internet, and food is completely controlled by Israel (this is sarcasm, Israel still controls basic life in Gaza).

Go back to centering the idea that no human deserves to be shoved into an open-air prison, starved, and controlled. Did you know that the Zionist Entity controls the amount of water Gazans receive, as well as counting their calories to ensure they don't have enough energy on a day to day basis?

"I heard Israel asked Arabs to stay"

Show them these papers and videos when they say this:

If you can't show them these videos, check in the next point what to say.

"Well the Palestinians left of their own will in 1948"

Palestinians in 1948 didn't "leave." They had heard of how the Zionist Entity was slaughtering Palestinians en masse. Women especially heard stories of rape and sexual violence. They fled from *violence*. Again, from an earlier post, that this was a calculated effort on the Zionist Entity's part to try and get them to "leave" on their own and "abandon" their houses so that they can come in and say "hey, they left on their own so, we can come in and take their houses now."

Anyways, the idea that once you leave your house you can't ever come back to it is incredibly odd to me as an argument on Zionists' part. Like if you leave your house right now to go to the grocery store and you come back and see someone in your house and they're like "sorry dude, this is my house now, you left so that means you can't come back," you'd be like, "what the hell!" It would be even weirder if everyone agreed with the guy who took your house, which is what happened to Palestinians.

In Al-Khalil, or Hebron, Palestinians always have to have someone stay in their house or else a Settler will come in and take it from them. So it still goes on today as well.

This is not a point, but when that one person in the video said "Arabs lived under Israeli rule" and showed a clip of a bustling city with mountains, I'm pretty sure that was Amman, Jordan, not Palestine lol. Those buildings in the mountains look like how downtown Amman builds the residential areas. Could be wrong tho.

"There are no Jews living under Palestinian rule in Palestine"

What is this, some sort of gotcha argument? What are they trying to prove, the racist (obviously false) notion that Palestinians hate Jews as a whole? How do they know no Palestinian Jew lives in Gaza? Also, Settlers in Palestinian Territory exist??? I had never heard this claim before, its incredibly stupid lol. You're automatically a citizen of "Israel" if you're Jewish, whether or not you live in or outside of Palestinian Territories. So of course technically they don't live under Palestinian rule, they're granted full rights as an "Israeli" citizen automatically!

Go back to talking about the inhumane treatment of Palestinians, I wouldn't bring up the above counterpoint unless they really won't let it go since the main point is mistreatment.

"Why are Christians supporting Israel then, if it's a secular issue rather than a religious one?"

Well actually for a couple reasons:

Oil interests and regional control of goods (White People Supporting White People).

Weird fundamentalist ideology where they want to enact the second coming of Christ.

And finally because they are racist and don't think Arab Christians deserve to live. They literally bombed a 1500+ year church the other day. Why would (White) Christians cosign that.

Anyways, its a stupid argument again, because it forgets the core issue of Palestinians dying and being displaced.

In summary, always go back to the point of centering the Palestinians being displaced, tortured, and murdered, no matter the argument a Zionist gives you.

[omgthatdress]

special thanks to all my followers who have stuck with me through the "fundraiser asks are bots & scammers" mess. My post did indeed piss quite a few people off but the response has been 90% positive, with a lot of people being relieved of the massive anxiety those asks were causing them (another huge thing that I hate about them is how they feed on people's mental health issues, esp. those with hyperfixations/anxiety on doing good and morality)

For the people who are getting really big mad at me it's like "tell me you got scammed without telling me you got scammed," which is a lot harder for some people to accept than you would think.

Also for those who still insist the asks aren't bots, I made my post with a big opening statement that I readily delete and report any fundraiser ask in my ask box, tagged it "Palestine" and "Palestinian," and the number of asks I got in my box literally quadrupled the next day. They are targeting people who are blogging on the issue because that's what bots do. Classic bot behavior.

If you have fallen for a fundraiser ask bot, don't hate yourself too much. Everyone on Tumblr has fallen for a charity scam at least once, including me. Those things are fucking heart-wrenching and convincing and hard to ignore. The important thing is that once you have the scam explained to you, you accept that you've been scammed and don't double down and insist what's obviously a bot is a real suffering Palestinian without any real proof. That's when you turn into an asshole.

Some people are like "I'd rather give to a thousand scammers than put a Palestinian family at risk!" and...... yeah you realize that's bad, right? The money that could actually be out there saving people's lives is instead going to an unknown criminal of unknown origins. For all we know, these bots could be funding Zionist settlers driving people in the West Bank out of their homes. (I AM NOT claiming this as a fact, merely illustrating that we don't fucking know. pissing on the poor, etc.)

And.... well some people really are a special kind of dumb and when you're really fucking stubborn about how dumb and naive you are I'd say fuck it, you deserve to lose your money, but no. People's lives are actually at stake and that money needs to go to the people who actually depend on it, and that makes me angry.

YES these bots are harmful and YES they need to be removed from Tumblr. Delete and report any that you get.

[cantotallyeven]

Ya'll wanna know how I know all you "I'm not antisemitic I'm just antizionist" people are full of shit?

There are currently 3 countries (counting Gaza) sitting on the land that was once Palestine, but you're only talking about Israel. Can you name the other one?

There are currently 2 countries blockading Gaza, preventing refugees from getting out and supplies from getting in, but you're only talking about Israel. Can you name the other one?

Multiple empires have controlled the region in the past two thousand years. You're not talking about the most recent one or it's role in the current situation. Can you even name it?

Do you know what percentage of Israel is Muslim?

During the initial formation of Israel, approximately 700k Palestinians were expelled from their homes. How many Jews were expelled from their homes in the neighboring MENA countries during that same time period?

Since you don't like to count Jews as a race (a topic for another post) what racial group makes up the majority of Israel's population?

To be clear, I'm not saying Israel is blameless in all of this, especially the current government. But if you are really here to support the Palestinian people and not just hate on Jews? You should know the other parties involved and pass at least some of the blame on them. Oh and then there's the current and ongoing genocide of Muslims in China. I've seen some posts in support of them, but I haven't seen any liberals chanting "gas the Chinese".

Did I get anything wrong in my post? Quite possibly. it's 5am and I can't sleep and this region has been in conflict since before Jews or Muslims existed. It's got a long complicated history and it's why prior to the most recent attacks you'll barely find any posts on my blog about it. But people are pretending like the Jews should just pack up and go home as if there aren't Jews currently living there who were literally forced out of their homes and told to "go home to Israel" 75 years ago or Jews who have always lived there and like those same people aren't also very clearly showing that Jews don't have a safe home in any other country we may have ties to.

[doberbutts]

Also just because I've been getting some harassing anons and replies on my post ever since that one self-identified Zionist blog got BIG MAD at me for posting the Palestinian flag (ironic considering like 3 days later when I reblogged something Jewish I had people then BIG MAD at me for that too.......)

Skoll, I took on knowing I would probably have to euthanize him for his aggression. From the very beginning the deal was that I was his last stop since he was a known abuse court case dog who was taken from his most recent owners and languishing in a kennel environment but deemed otherwise unadoptable due to severe aggression. The agreement was that I would have him for however long it would take to determine if he was fixable and then either I'd fix it and keep him or I'd euthanize. He bit me three separate times when we were still learning each other, and then attacked me randomly for the crime of petting his head, an act of affection he normally would approach me to request. I euthanized him at the advice of literally everyone involved with his case, and a few days after I euthanized him I got a letter from the state telling me either I put him down or animal control would take him and do it themselves. Pennsylvania is very strict on what they consider a mauling or a maiming and the resulting bite from his attack was very severe. I have had multiple people, including vets, neurologists, and behaviorists, tell me that they think he had rage, a seizure disorder which causes uncontrollable aggression, when I describe what his random bouts of attempting to attack literally the first thing he locked eyes on looked like.

Tiki, I rescued because I wanted a tiny dog and a dog that would live longer than a doberman, because dobe lifespans are hideously short due to their health problems. Within about 5 minutes of driving away with her, I realized she was very, very sick. We stopped at the vet before we even got her home. Over the next several months and constant ER visits we discovered she had hydrocephalus and also an immune condition that was slowly eating her lungs. She crashed during a procedure that was supposed to be our last attempt at fixing the lung problem as by then we knew the hydrocephalus would kill her anyway and we were trying to extend her life as long as possible. I dropped her off for the procedure, they called me on my way home, and I turned around so I could be there to say goodbye.

Creed died from cancer 🤷‍♂️ mast cell cancer is THE most common cancer in dogs as a species and it's a genuine coin toss if removing the initial tumor fixes it or if it's too late by the time you notice, because it forms on scar tissue so it hides by looking like a regular scar. Creed had a bunch of nicks and scrapes from running around in the woods on our hikes. One of the earliest scars he ever got is what killed him in the end. Losing him is what turned my blog from what it used to be, all dogs all the time, to what it is now. Ironically, he lived roughly the average lifespan for a doberman at 7.5 years old.

Phoebe, I was not involved in the decision to euthanize her. She came to me once again very sick, and I did my best to fix the problem, but it seemed to be a lot bigger than me or her other owner had expected. Her other owner took her to multiple specialists more local to her, and finally we came to a tentative diagnosis of a liver shunt. Her condition degraded rapidly and she went blind and began having seizures, and her other owner made the choice to say goodbye. Surgery was not an option due to her already bad condition not being certain she would actually survive anesthesia. I knew that she was not doing well, but I was not informed that she had died until several months later, despite my asking for updates because I suspected she'd passed. I don't disagree with the choice, I just wish I'd known when it happened. What we thought was just a chronic hookworm infestation and possible pancreatitus from the long-term damage from the hookworms turned out to be much more serious, and deadly, when it stopped responding to treatment.

If you have any questions on my capability as a dog owner to actually keep dogs alive, I'd like to direct you to the fact that Creed and my other actually-purchased-from-a-breeder dogs have lived good long lives. I keep getting sick dogs in rescue despite being told they are healthy, and that is exactly why I refuse to rescue dogs anymore. I'm tired of breaking my heart while cleaning up a problem someone else created. This is the part of rescue that doesn't get shared- what happens when someone loses the rescue lottery again and again and again with sick and mentally unwell dogs that are doomed to die before they've had a chance to truly live? I'm tired of being that someone. I'm tired of loving dogs and hemorrhaging money in a desperate attempt to fix them and feeling the weight of their bodies in my arms when that wasn't enough and they die anyway.

At least I can say Creed had a good fulfilled life as my constant companion, even if he didn't live nearly long enough compared to what I wanted.

[jewelleria]

What are you always on about? The whole hamas rape thing has been debunked by AP and other sources. And as far as dead Zionists go? They deserve it. Every single Zionist occupying Palestinian land deserves to die. Simple. You won't get sympathy from anyone in the world for a dead Zionists. And you can continue to hide behind "everyone hates Jews" but no one is buying that either. Also you need to check YOUR bias lol. Also your tags are Harry Potter related so either you used to be a HP ship blog and deleted that (what's with you people and terrible fandoms btw) or its still a ship blog for some other shitty fandom. Step back and take a look around you. Look at the world. Does it look like ANYONE is buying this shit lol??? Anyway please have a shitty day and may everyone you love die :)

AP? the associated press? you mean these guys? the ones who awarded first place picture of the year to a photo of terrorists taking the body of a naked woman that they murdered into gaza?

listen, i’m not saying AP isn’t accurate or reliable. i’m just saying they employ unethical journalists.

nevertheless, i have a challenge for you, dear anon. watch this, and make sure to watch all the way through, without skipping anything. once you have done that, you are welcome to use any sources of your own—because i can tell you’ve done your research, so i trust you—to disprove me. maybe it really is AI, maybe it really is fake. but i want to see you use real, primary, accurate, and unbiased sources. i’ll use a bias calculator to determine that. you get one chance to prove to me that hamas did not use sexual violence or rape on october 7th. if you really do prove it, i’ll admit publicly on my blog that it was wrong. those are my conditions.

also, huh? i read harry potter in hebrew like once when i was younger. it was meh. i’m more of a star wars gal myself.

[nerdypagan1]

oh this is just fucking brilliant honestly.

okay so here I am on someone's blog, they have this link to "decolonizepalestine.com", to which I think "oh my, what WILL they cover?"

I go on it. it has the sections "palestine 101" and "myths database". okay, this could be fine, I say to myself. I check out "palestine 101". it starts with "introduction to palestine 1: palestine throughout history" and the date range 9000 BC to 1918 AD. that's a lot of history, I think; that covers thousands of years into prehistory until the British Mandate. but I guess they'll be skimming over a lot of it?

I click through. they mention an egyptian stele that says "peleset"- this does exist and it seemingly refers to a people group, so it's likely the same tablet (or a similar one) that bears our first mention of israel in writing. they bring up the Persians, the Romans, the Assyrians, and the Nabataeans. I'd never heard of the last ones so I looked them up- they're an ancient arab people. okay then. hellenic invaders would have made sense to bring up, given you did before (peleset may or may not refer to the philestines, given it has the same p-l-s-t root as pilishtim (hope I'm remembering that word right)). but sure, those people were all in charge once.

at the end of the section, before getting into whatever they'll say next, it says this: "This article does not aim to delve into the minutiae of this Palestinian history, indeed entire books could be -and have been- written on the subject. Rather the goal of this introduction is to describe the political context that lead up to the modern Palestinian question." okay then, reasonable. that's a LOT of history. I scroll down again, expecting to find maybe Israel and Judah, maybe the roman province of Syria Palestina and how the name came about. nope. it says "Palestine Under the Ottoman Empire".

WHAT. THE HELL.

you can't mention egyptian fucking stele and then jump right to the fucking OTTOMANS.

WHAT ABOUT THE JEWS?! never even fucking mind the romans and the assyrians and all. the jews? who had a couple kingdoms there for a while? the temple and everything? ugh.

I keep reading anyway. they mention Jerusalem (making no mention of its founders), they mention the ottomans dividing the land into three bits, and they mention the Millet system (the ottomans apparently dividing religious communities to govern themselves). they say this: "The Ottoman Millet system and its various manifestations provided a certain degree of autonomy to minority religious and ethnic communities. While this system suffered from serious flaws, and its breadth and tolerance waxed and waned with different governors and social and economic circumstances, it was still superior to the outright persecution and pogroms which various religious groups on the European continent had to endure." okay, sure- hey what was that word? pogrom? hang on, didn't the jews make that word to mean "riots against specifically us"?

I did not read any more and I don't want to. I just. how do you make a site that purports to tell the history of this stretch of land, then DON'T COVER MULTIPLE THOUSAND YEARS OF IT? don't even mention how the name became applied to the region? don't mention how every time it was conquered, there were more and more killings of jews?

I know how they do it. I just don't understand why. I am not even jewish, and I'm tired of this.

[queerprayers]

Officially, in the western church, today isn't the Annunciation. This is Holy Monday, and the Annunciation is moved to avoid coinciding with Holy Week. I think if it were during the Triduum I would appreciate this, making space to hold both days separately. But it's Monday, and they can't stop me from thinking about Mary during Holy Week. March 25 is a traditional date of both Jesus's death and conception, as well as the Creation—a spring equinox of redemption. Holding space for all these things has always been appropriate. Birth and death coexist; Jesus's beginnings were the beginnings of his mortality. The angel announces the future, and whoever listens must live through all of it.

What did it mean for Mary to say yes to this? We laugh at the "Mary did you know?" lyrics, because we know she knew. But she also didn't have to know the details of God's plan to say yes to what every parent says yes to—witnessing. Acknowledging the bringing into the world of a frail being, perhaps giving your body to make this happen, praying that you will die before they do but knowing that is not promised. And every parent living under a violent state knows what it is to hope it's not your kid that's next (whether you're a Black parent teaching your child how to talk to cops, or a Palestinian parent hiding in rubble, or a Jewish parent under Roman occupation who's seen the crosses outside the city walls).

Do you think, at the foot of the cross, Mary thought of her response, "Let it be unto me according to your word"? After bearing that Word inside her, teaching him how to walk, waiting for God to change his mind, to reveal a ram caught in a thicket so her son wouldn't have to die after all, do you think she remembered her teenage self, magnifying the Lord? "The Almighty has done great things for me"—and to me. Great as in too big to look at all at once, bloodstained things. The power of the Most High is overshadowing her—the shadow of the cross—his flesh broken, and someone (including her perhaps) will take him down and wash him for burial.

What does it mean to hold space for that day when an angel tore into her life, breaking it open for God—during Holy Week? If we desire a feast, we should wait until Easter, I agree. But today I honor a lady of sorrows—I desire an acknowledgement of the violence of agreeing to live and love and create when it will be torn away. The story never ends there, but we must live through this week (and whatever weeks of our lives hold these things) saying yes, witnessing. Judas quit before the miracle happened—he couldn't witness death so he didn't witness the life (on this earth). Mary kept saying yes, even at the end.

We can never know everything we are saying yes to when we surrender to God. She knew in one sense, yes, but no one knows what it's like to lose a son until it happens. And no one but her knows what it's like to be the Mother of God. We already know what God wants us to do, but we don't know until it happens how much it hurts—and what the dawn will bring. What swords will pierce us, what promises will be kept.

When we say the Magnificat, we usually add a Gloria at the end—Mary did not have those words (the Trinity would not be formulated for another couple hundred years), but we have them. When we sing her song, we hold space for the ways we see God exist, and she saw those ways intimately. She held the Son and was surrounded by the Spirit, and now the Father holds her. As we live through Holy Week every year, every year she says yes. God's love continues unfolding. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Your assigned reading for today (should you choose to accept it) is @tomatobird-blog 's comic "Thirty Years." A blessed Holy Monday (and Annunciation) to you all.

[the-scarlet-witch-22]

I've thought about posting this more publicly, but I'm hesitant to do that because this isn't a topic I discuss very often. My blog has always been kind of a public diary in a way, so I'm going to leave this up for now.

I am terrified of another Trump presidency for so many reasons. I'm a gay woman who is in a relationship and would like to be able to not only get married, but have my marriage be recognized in every state in this country. I'm the older sister and future sole guardian of a sibling who has developmental disabilities. It pains me more than I can express how awful it is living in a country that does the bare minimum to support its citizens, especially its disabled ones.

I've been very vocal on my disdain and disgust for how the Biden administration and our government as a whole is handling the Palestinian genocide. Anyone who knows me knows this. I've gotten involved and plan on continuing to protest and do what I'm able to.

With that being said I did vote for Kamala Harris, and I've gotten into debates with people I considered to be friends over my decision to vote. The number one argument that being highlighted was "it doesn't matter who wins because both Harris and Trump are Zionists who don't care about Palestine."

I agree that our government is deeply rooted in Zionism, and it genuinely pains me to know that human rights of people who are not white do not matter to our government.

However, as someone who has been a very vocal advocate for human rights the majority of my life, saying "it doesn't matter who wins because the outcome will be the same" is not only incredibly ignorant, it's just plain stupid.

Donald Trump has made a name for himself as a racist. Someone who has been blatantly and openly homophobic. He has made disgustingly ableist comments on disabled Americans time and time again. He's a rapist, he has sexually assaulted multiple women. He started an insurrection that resulted in violence I have never seen taking place on the Capitol.

And now he's going to be sworn back in this January.

I'm angry, and I'm sad. Not only as a member of the LGBTQ community and a supporter of our disabled community, but also as someone who was sexually assaulted. This isn't something that I talk about very often, publicly or privately, but it is so fucking painful knowing that our country does not view SA survivors as real people who deserve to live knowing their abusers will be held accountable for their actions.

Because why the fuck would anyone want to come forward, knowing their abuser can become President not once, but twice and win the popular vote the second time.

I hate this country, and I mean this when I say if you voted for Trump or voted third party, or didn't vote at all, you are part of the problem and the next four years are going to undo the most basic of human rights this country has barely started to grant its citizens.

Fuck each and every one of you.

[edenfenixblogs]

I would appreciate if you deleted my reblog post from your website. I am not familiar with the part of tumblr where people think it is okay to screenshot your statements and reblog them on the internet. I do not consider that normal discourse. I never once said the things you accused me of in your post. I did not call Jews white. I said that Jews can be both white and non-white plainly because whiteness is emphatically not real.

If I misinterpreted your words in my post, please reblog this post with your feelings and opinions about Jewish people. Or you can reply to this post. If I have misinterpreted your words, I will happily delete the post.

Unfortunately, I have had far too many people do antisemitic things in the comments of my posts — as small as using microaggressions to suggest that I am somehow selfish for experiencing antisemitism to outright telling me to kill myself for saying that I support Palestinians and hope for a future where Israelis and Palestinians can live peacefully (because I do believe Israelis should continue to live) and when I go to respond to those posts, the person has blocked me to prevent me from responding or deleted the comment so that I am left feeling gaslit as if I’m upset about something that never happened. This is a common form of antisemitic psychological warfare in the internet age.

For that reason, I will not be deleting my post with your comments while I remain unsure about how you feel about Jewish people.

We are experiencing a terrifying uptick in antisemitism to the point where I am unable to go a single day without experiencing it. Right now, my blog exists in part to document how the world feels about Jews during this time.

HOWEVER, I am more than willing to admit that I may be oversensitive and hypervigilant about your specific comments. I do have PTSD and after months of nonstop isolation, death threats, and other antisemitic rhetoric flooding my life, I absolutely believe that my symptoms may be making me see and feel hostility that you did not intend. If that’s the case, then I apologize.

But this blog seeks to validate Jewish pain and trauma during this time as well as to document my own personal experience of antisemitism so that I don’t convince myself “it’s not that bad,” which I am very prone to do in the face of trauma. And this leads to horrendous problems for me personally.

I will also say that I do consider screenshotting to be a normal part of discourse, but not the end of discourse. I welcome you to elaborate your thoughts or engage in more discussion on the topic.

But you wrote words on a public post on the internet. And I wished to highlight that response. Because it felt extremely invalidating and dismissive of a very real, lived, and ongoing trauma experienced by me and most other members of the diasporic Jewish community. That trauma is known as conditional whiteness—wherein we are treated as “white” until we are too visibly Jewish or Israel becomes unpopular or any number of other reasons—at which point we are forcibly ejected from our social circles. This has led to generations of Jews never feeling truly welcome in any peer group. And the ongoing wave of extreme antisemitism has made our culturally traumatic worst fears into an ongoingly traumatic reality for the past 8 months. And whether or not you meant to ignite those fears and traumas, you did so. For me and for all the other Jews responding to you with frustration and anger right now.

Everything you say on the public internet is public speech. And if you wouldn’t post it on your own blog or say it to a human being’s face, you shouldn’t post it anywhere.

That said, I do not believe that one bad screenshot or communication defines you as a person. I am capable of being wrong and am happy to admit when I am. We all make mistakes and shouldn’t be defined by them. People grow and evolve. What happens next is up to you.

You are correct that whiteness is a social construct. And that construct is wielded in a shifting way against Jews and has been for generations. I will not delete my post, but I welcome further discussion. I don’t hate you. But I am scared of you. I am scared that you hate me and my people, because so many people do and have shown that they do.

I extend this invitation to you with an open heart and in good faith. Please attempt to respond in kind.

[ingravinoveritas]

Have you seen his latest tweet? He’s having one of his moments and is blocking people left and right. I got myself blocked for commenting on a comment… TF is this poop? 😒

@phantomstars24 Okay, so...I have seen what's been going on on Twitter with Michael and there is...obviously a lot going on. Let me first put up the screenshots of his other tweets, which followed the initial one in @ourtubahero-blog's screenshot (the first one is most recent):

I think there are a few things (well, a lot of things) that are getting missed in all this, specifically the context for why Michael wrote the original tweet in the first place. It appears that it was meant to be a reaction to this incident, which just occurred today in the UK:

The wording of Michael's tweet was not clear, and I also don't think anyone outside of the UK would readily know what he was reacting to, so straightaway this seemed to lead to a lot of misunderstanding. A large portion of the criticism of that tweet stemmed from people thinking Michael was taking a neutral stance on the situation in Gaza/Israel, which is what then led to him making a clarifying tweet in that regard. For my part, I did not interpret Michael's original tweet as neutral, but rather that he is and does stand with innocent people of every stripe, and wishes for there to be no more bloodshed or further loss of life.

Michael's subsequent tweets only seem to have compounded the problem, as they appear to have been made out of an emotional response on his part, which is not a good thing when it comes across as defensive. Emotions are running incredibly high right now, and sadly that is the time when misunderstandings are most likely to occur. In the interest of clarity, in his second tweet, Michael did not say that he had no time to do research, but rather that he "has no time for people telling him to do research." What I took this to mean is that he already has done research and thought very carefully about this entire situation, and therefore felt slighted at people implying that he had not.

The problem inherent in all of this, however, is that this is an extremely difficult subject to have nuanced conversation about, particularly on social media and especially on Twitter. This then leads us to the issue of blocking. I think what Michael was attempting to say (again, badly worded) in his tweet about blocking people was that he was blocking people due to what he perceived as personal attacks. This would explain people being blocked for saying apparently innocuous things, as Michael was on the defensive and does not really have that button in his brain telling him to stop or back off once he gets going.

It goes without saying that Michael seemingly blocking people indiscriminately is definitely not a good look (though it is not without precedent, as I remember well him doing the exact same thing four years ago, albeit under different circumstances). But what is also not acceptable is people sending him death threats, or tweets such as this falsely accusing him of horrific things. In this instance, it is more than understandable that he would have a strong reaction to being dogpiled and block someone, because no one should have to accept threats to their person on their own social media page.

I think what is also happening is that a lot of fans (not either of you who sent in these asks, for the record) are correlating online activism to activism in real life. Michael has always been about walking the walk and not just talking the talk, to where we know he donated almost all of his money to the Homeless World Cup in 2019. He is also a UNICEF UK ambassador and has visited Lebanon, Chad, and Guatemala to meet and help refugee children. All this to say that we have no idea what he has done outside of social media to assist refugees and victims, or if/how much he has donated to Palestinian charities or other relief funds for victims and their families. And for my part, I would rather Michael be clumsy with his wording on social media (again, not defending the indiscriminate blocking) and taking tangible action in real life than engaging in performative Internet activism that ultimately goes nowhere.

(Also, I cannot help but facepalm at people asking Anna to weigh in, under the assumption that a) She would even care about this; and b) She has any influence whatsoever on Michael's behavior, which it is abundantly clear she does not or else he would have stopped flirting with David years ago. I just really hope people do not tag her or expect her to have the ability to somehow "rein him in," because they will be very disappointed...)

So yes, I think what made Michael make a statement tonight after all this time was the above-mentioned MP. I think his intentions were likely good and that his heart was in the right place--as are all of ours, in wanting to protect innocent civilians and stop the horrific violence that is happening. But I also think that if Michael wasn't prepared to handle certain types of criticism, then it probably would have been better for him to say nothing at all, or at least certainly to not escalate things by continuously tweeting. I am also sorry for the fans who were hurt by his actions, because I know fans who have been there before, and it really sucks.

I am hopeful, however, that we can all step back and breathe once emotions are no longer so heightened and try to find a way to listen to each other and engage meaningfully. Because it is truly disheartening to see how things escalated so quickly tonight, and I want to believe that we as a fandom and as human beings can do so much better. I suppose only time will tell...

[fordtato]

Gffan has done the following:

-Letting people comment transphobic stuff on his Server

-associating with a reddit mod whos known to be transphobic

-openly showing weird distaste for the Dipper being Trans headcanon (didn't he also say: "I hate the Dipper Trans Theory" to us once?)

He also believes there’s only 2 genders

Hello. So. I do not normally respond to anonymous discourse like this in my inbox as a rule (especially given this site's proclivity for seeing anon callouts weaponized against trans people and women and people of color), but I felt it was important to do this in this case, since I am publicly working on a project with ThatGFFan.

I have known GFFan for over a year now now (in an exclusively online capacity), and in that time, he has not only never misgendered me (a nonbinary trans person, someone outside the "2 genders" framework) but has also actively corrected people who have misgendered me. I have witnessed him speak against transphobia in the fandom and against transphobic content creators. The idea that he "believes there are only 2 genders" is inaccurate by every account I have of him.

As for other accusations in this ask, such as him "associating with a reddit mod who is known to be transphobic" I don't have any evidence for this presented to me, and even if I did, association in a public online space is not the same thing as sharing transphobic sentiment. There is room in any online space for a conversation about the optics of this kind of engagement, but if I had to apologize for every person I've ever engaged with civilly who I later learned was problematic in some way, I'd be here all day, and that would be an unproductive use of my time, and would not undo any harm done by that person.

Lastly, I hope ThatGFFan will not mind me saying this, but he is a young person (younger than you think, I assure you). If he has engaged with unsavory people in the past, or has indicated any kind of transphobic sentiment (neither of which I have any evidence of) it is my belief that we need to allow people to grow, especially when I have actively witnessed that growth firsthand. And in that case, I do think (and maybe I'm putting my faith in the wrong person here, so I hope this doesn't bite me one day), that he has made an active effort to learn how to do better, even if he makes mistakes in that process.

What you have done, anon, is entered my inbox with accusations against a person of color, half of which have no evidence behind them, and the other half that I personally know to be demonstrably false. Nobody who is a victim of this transphobia has come forward, at least that I saw, and if they did, that would be up to ThatGFFan to respond to - not me, a trans person unrelated and far-removed from whatever incident you are talking about (an incident that likely occurred when ThatGFFan was a minor, in any case).

I don't have a big platform. I am a small creator (much smaller than ThatGFFan), and a trans Palestinian person. Why am I being called upon to answer for a cis person's (alleged) missteps as they grow into an adult? Why am I being called upon to publicly shame and renounce a person who has shown me kindness and allyship? Is it so I can prove my dedication to the fight against transphobia? My entire blog, my entire body of work, my entire existence, has been an active fight against transphobia.

I mean, by God, all I can do is hope I'm doing the right thing here, but I vouch for him. Or I at least vouch that he is trying.

(p.s. I hope this goes without saying, but someone disliking a specific queer headcannon does not indicate one's political beliefs, and this is not going to be an accusation that I really engage with, because it sets a bad precedent. This is not a moral wrongdoing. This is an opinion you are suspicious of.)

[annymation]

Hello Hello! I know it's been a while but I was wondering if you could have the lyrics and maybe the instrumental of the song that Asha sings in the square to help her people (if you don't want that's fine... I'm studying and I started listening to some songs to inspire me and I remembered about this scene in your rewrite and I started to imagine your rewrite as a 2D animation of the classic Disney and I wondered what this scene would be like heheh) if you don't mind too... I also wanted to know what your favorite foods are of your characters in the rewrite (asha, magnificent, amaya, and the 7 teenagers), you could also say what the 7 teenagers like to do alone/ their hobbies. Well, that's what I wanted to ask about your rewrite, sorry if it was a lot of questions, I'm LOVING everything about your rewrite♡ ten thousand times better than Disney's wish😤 anyway, thanks for the rewrite and stay well and drink water hahaha😁😋

Unfortunately I don't have lyrics for that song yet, it would take me a lot of time that I don't have yet to work on creating it, maybe once I'm done with the whole rewrite I can try coming up with something since that song IS very important to the narrative, and currently all we have is "It's an inspiring song about fighting to achieve what you wish for no matter if all the odds are against you" that so happens to have a few references to past Disney I want songs.

Though... After listening to this deleted scene

I'm considering making "A Wish Worth Making" THE song, or at least a place holder for now. It's surprisingly fitting. However, my idea was for the song to be like a story that Sabino told her, since ya know, he couldn't sing nor play the mandolin because that was his wish that Magnifico kept from him... So I'm undecided.

Anyway, now for the favorite meals part, that sounds fun, and helps me explore the national heritages of each one of the characters, so let's do this:

Asha

Her favorite food is Mhalbi with pistachios, a milk pudding from Algeria. Her mother was Amazigh, and she taught this traditional recipe to her husband and Sabino. After she passed Sabino would still make it for Asha, it's a little piece of her culture that is very sweet and easy to make, she has a bit of a sweet tooth.

Dahlia

Dahlia is a special case since her family has been robbed of their passion for their traditional cuisine, if originally her mother and father wished for things along the lines of "We want to share our culture through our food" the king changed that to them just cooking what he liked. Sooo she has no connection to Japanese food. But, hypothetically, if she did grow up with her parents acting normally, her favorite meal would be Takoyaki, a savory dish of grilled balls of batter made with flour and eggs filled with octopus chunks and other ingredients.

Gabo

The name "Gabo" has German origins, so I decided Gabo's family comes from Germany. His favorite dessert is a bienenstich kuchen, also known as "bee sting cake", I think it's fitting because Gabo is always acting like he just got stung by a bee. But besides his rough exterior he has a soft spot for sweets.

Simon

Simon's last name is O'Donohue, which is a name of Irish and Gaelic origins, also the name means Dark Fighter... Interesting. Anyway, so his family is descended from Irish people, thus I choose that his favorite food is a traditional Irish Colcannon, a flavorful dish of mashed potatoes and greens like sauteed kale, and green onions. Quite easy too make and eat for a sleepy head like him.

Bazeema

I've mentioned in my blog about the 7 teens that Bazeema is muslim and wears a hijab (As she did in some concept arts... But Disney changed that, cause they're stupid) so her favorite food is a Palestinian lady cheeks... heheh get it? Because Bazeema blushes a lot?... Anyway this is a traditional dessert are like made with orange blossom water, cinnamon quill, caster sugar and other sweet ingredients, sweet just like her.

Hal

I saw on twitter that Hal's earrings resemble "Jaaro dibbei" earrings from the Fulani people, a West African tribe. So I picked a traditional meal from west Africa. Kedjenou, this dish consists of a spicy stew that is slow-cooked in a terracotta pot over fire or coals. Hal is more into spicy food, matches her fiery passion.

Safi

Safi is a name of Arabic origins. His favorite dessert is Mamoul, a traditional arabic cookie, made with yeasted semolina, these vanilla and rose-infused cookies are sweet and floral with a decadent and robust centre, and although they look like they'd make Safi sneeze like crazy, they're one of the only meals that don't make him sneeze at all.

Dario

Dario is an Italian name. So I picked gnocchi because SAME! Gnocchi is my comfort food too and I'm not even Italian, Dario is just like me for real.

... *siiiiiigh* I was dreading getting to them... Here we go:

Magnifico and Amable

The blood of their enemies Just kidding, I'm giving them both the same favorite food because honestly these two have so much in common they might as well be the same character (Also it's currently 1 am as I'm writing this, I must go to bed.) so let's wrap this up. Their favorite dessert is Spanish Baked Apples, get it? Like the poisoned apple from Snow White? HAHAHAHA- Actually come to think of it their favorite meal might be children's tears, idk.

WOOOOO okay this was a wild ride, researching and learning about all these meals was really fun! Thank you for the ask!

(Also I just now realized you also asked for their hobbies... I'll try answering that another time, cause' like I said, I gotta go to sleep lol)

Aster has no favorite food yet by the way, because he can't even taste food, but comment what meal you think would be his favorite if they were human.

[ducklooney]

WARNING!

Let me say right away that in the future I don't have any donations, unfortunately I donate for Palestine and the civilians who are suffering and I stand in solidarity with them, so don't ask me anything in the future because I don't have any money, I don't!

Please don't ask me about those things in the future.

I ask that in the future no one asks me for donations and helping civilians, not because I don’t want to, but unfortunately I am not able to help others or send donations. I really get spammed on this blog, and this blog is for art, not donations. Let’s face it, I’m on the side of Palestinian children and civilians who are not terrorists and are experiencing an accident and are experiencing genocide and it’s really horrible what’s happening right now in Gaza or in Palestine. But really don’t ask me about such things in the future, and don’t spam me with these messages. I’m in solidarity with you, but don’t be pushy and boring.

And I will leave them here without deleting them, so whoever wants to send a message to others and share further, so whoever can send donations. The only thing I can do is to pray to God to stop such atrocities. Nothing more unfortunately. And I know how it is, but I also know that when I was a little boy, I also lived through the horrors of war and bombings, but unfortunately we did not receive any foreign donations nor did we disturb others about it.

Please don’t send me those messages in the future, I’ll just delete it. By the way, if you’re interested, here’s my drawing in support of the Palestinians: https://ducktoonsfanart.tumblr.com/post/753481172031586304/donald-duck-daisy-duck-and-drake-mallard-with

I ask for your understanding and that you understand me. Because I just don’t like my blog to be flooded with donation messages all the time. ONCE AGAIN I HAVE NO MONEY FOR DONATIONS. BUT I WILL SUPPORT YOU! JUST DON’T BE BORING PLEASE! LET THE WAR STOP ASAP! SORRY! FREE PALESTINE!

[manicpixiedreamjew]

hi. i don't want to trouble u so if u don't want to answer this feel free to ignore it. it has been my dream for years to convert to judaism and i've been in contact for a while with a synagogue in a town near mine, participated in shabbat services and some high holidays even (rosh hashanah was my favorite), started reading the recommended books etc. i loved it all but once i mentioned the unjust treatment of palestinians by the israeli government and my politics which are generally very left-leaning i was told that the palestinians aren't oppressed, that no jew thinks like me and that with my views it would be more than difficult to get close to the jewish religion and i was basically told to distance myself from the community. this was a progressive synagogue btw. i live in germany and in one of its smallest states population-wise as well, so now due to this rejection i'm kind of losing hope to be ever able to realize my dream. i assume you'refrom the us and i know the us has a big jewish minority while germany has a very small one for obvious reasons. i have a lot of understanding for why zionism exists but i simply can't agree with it bc it goes against my morals. i can't feel patriotic for any country. and personally i do not agree that being a leftist and a jew is mutually exclusive. i get the impression from your blog that you are a leftist as well. did you have any such problems when first getting in contact with a jewish community? i don't want judaism to be a space where i need to leave my morals at the doorstep (that would be ironic and nonsensical to me) and hide things abt myself (like that i'm a leftist, lgbt, mentally ill) but i'm scared now that this won't be possible. anyways. hope you're having a nice day/night. here's a monke for u. 🦧

ty for monke!!

im so sorry youve had this experience, as far as my own experiences go, this sort of treatment is extremely unusual for any liberal or leftist jewish circles in the us. i myself am not versed in the israel/palestine conflict but my rabbis are, and they CONSTANTLY speak out against the injustice happening over there, and they offer unbiased tours of israel where you go talk to palestinians and israelis both

i dont consider myself zionist or antizionist and i really have no energy to go into the whole shebang debate, so i will publish this and see what my followers have to say :) pls no vitriol or meaningless political fighting on this post this person is genuinely confused and hurt

anon if you want to private message me i can get you in contact with my rabbis who could explain this better than any of us could i bet!

[mariamagdalenagf]

want to preface that this is more of a journaling situation that me making a statement about anything at all so please don't take it that way if you read it

religious ocd & questioning rambling below the cut. Also, please donate to the Palestinian gofundmes I've reblogged, or reblog them yourself if you can't.

so like i have no idea how many of you know me from my last blog, quite a few of you i'm sure, but for those of you who don't, the Lore is that I had a very very traumatising bout of religious ocd when I was like 16/17 that got me diagnosed and made me Sort Of Want to Kill Myself because I forced myself to be a Perfect Catholic for like a year. Including the not being gay bit. anyway to get myself out of it I just did a DIY religious studies degree, learning about every religion I could think of to find a way out-- I was never totally happy being catholic tbc. the first time I can remember feeling awe for a religion was when my school taught us about Islam when I was 12, spent years wishing I'd been born Muslim. Anyhow I went through a long while considering paganism-- Norse and Hellenic-- and then Islam again, and then decided to try to learn about Judaism since I had never learned anything much about it, and I fell so deeply in love with it that I genuinely think it both saved my life and my religiosity. I wouldn't be religious now or healthy now if it weren't for Judaism. I've talked to rabbis briefly and gone back and forth and chosen Hebrew names and gone through cycles and cycles of deciding to convert and backing out etc etc. I'm still Catholic now, five years on, and I do think my personal religion, my personal worldview, whatever, is informed by my being Latine, and by paganism, and in some ways by Islam, but the framework, bedrock, etc-- it *is* Judaism. I've been, lately, growing far more attached to my Catholicism, but it will never be a perfect or full Catholicism. The Church has done unspeakable harm; to me, personally, to my ancestors, is doing harm now-- I am beyond glad that the Church has taken a staunch stance against genocide, but it is impossible to forget that they once committed many, some against my own people. It's hard to forget how easily my love for myself and my faith splinters under the pressure of the company of those I am meant to share this faith with. I have found beautiful community with other religious people of colour and religious lgbt people, but that is never what I have experienced in church irl. Irl, church almost ruined me. It doesn't even matter to me anymore, really. G-d is bigger than that; I don't need anything other than Them and the people I love, and a quiet church to go to when I can. I'd like to get to a place where I can go to Mass without wanting to dissociate but that isn't what is missing. Something will always be missing, because the truth of the matter is that I was born to be no singular thing. Various polytheistic deities have visited my dreams, I read tarot, my mother saw ghosts, I am gay, I would have preferred to have been born a man. I'd like to go to Mass, but I'm never going to fully belong there, or even fully want it as much as I've wanted to be Jewish, which itself feels impossible, but I'm glad to want it-- or have wanted it-- if that makes sense. Wanting that has made me better. Made the rest of it worth it, even if I'm not sure I want it anymore.

It's winter now and G-d feels very close and the only name I have for what I am is Catholic because what else is there. That would be a lot to walk away from, I'm not sure there's anyone who would want to receive me were I to walk toward something else, so that's where I am now. All of this-- it kind of got away from me-- was really to say that the nativity is beautiful, but it feels empty, somehow. I'm glad it's happening, but something essential is rotting in the world, maybe? I don't know. I spent years and years and years refusing to do anything other than love the world, stubbornly, spitefully, and i do love the world but I do think I lost something somewhere over the last two years. Something splintered. The rot's always been there, I guess. I knew that; I'm a result of it. It stains me and my family and my homeland. I once saw someone say that we have always lived in the post-apocalypse which I think is what I have been feeling lately. All is aftermath. It could have been beautiful here, and sometimes it still is. Sometimes I could cry when the air is cold and I'm clean and everything is so quiet, I could cry or sing or just be so still and at peace with just how much I love life, and everyone, and everything. So like, I know it's worth it. I know the beauty will continue. I do think it's important, though, as the year comes to a close, to reckon with everything that's been lost, everything we've never had, everything that hurts.

Anyway, I don't know. None of this is about me. I'm listening to Visions of Gideon, it's December, G-d is rattling in the air with the wind. What else is there to do but think