#racial and ethnic discrimination

[misespinas]

"I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream. And I, to whom so great a vision was given in my youth, — you see me now a pitiful old man who has done nothing, for the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead."

 -Black Elk (Heȟáka Sápa) on the Wounded Knee Massacre.

[train-of-thoughttt]

Don’t Worry Darling focuses on the lived experiences of a very specific kind of woman: namely, a rich white one. Margaret one of the women in the community has an outburst at one of the parties that are commonly held within Victory. She is the first person who questions the motives of the Victory Project, which the men and Frank enforce regularities specifically and only the women not to do so. Margaret actually tries to escape into the desert and ends up captured by men in jumpsuits and returned back to her home inside the borders of Victory. After her escape, all of the wives, even Alice ostracize Margaret and talk amongst one another about how she lost her way. When Alice wanders off after she sees the plane crash and has the same experience of ending up back home inside the borders of Victory, Margaret reaches out to her in hopes of uniting now that she isn’t the only one who’s experienced going beyond the restricted areas. Alice lies to her, pushing Margaret to her breaking point where she gets on top of her roof, slits her throat, and falls to her death. Alice starts to have hallucinations about Margaret and her death being she was dragged away by men in red after seeing this tragedy. It was from that moment on that Alice finally questions the authorities and the reality of her life and realizes what Margaret wanted everyone else to realize: Victory isn’t what it seems to be, it’s dangerous. Margaret was not only the first person to recognize the strangeness of Victory but she was the ONLY Black woman within community. Rendy Jones who wrote an article called Don’t Worry Darling has a Black Martyr trope problem, White Feminism at it again says, “The screenplay fails to mention Margaret's race nor questions the lack of diversity within Victory. Margaret is an enticing figure who never gets to be fleshed out as a character given her role: the harbinger for Alice of the truth about Victory. Don't Worry Darling's white creative perspective is laser-focused on delivering a blanket statement on [white] women living in a patriarchal society, but is completely undermined by its poor optics of martyrdom.” I definitely couldn’t agree more, especially on the fact they used Margaret is used to progress Alice’s journey. This coincided with our week three reading by Daelena Tinnin, Can You See Her Get Out Black Women. Tinnin says, “I contend that black women are the absent presence in the film and a dissection of their (in) visibilities is necessary to reveal race’s unresolved relationship to race and deepen the film’s mediation of the connection between race, gender, and representation.” Margaret could’ve and should’ve been more to the movie than just a stepping-stone for the white woman to expose and unravel the truth about the manipulated community.

[in-omnia-paratusss]

i hate the defence i always hear for fucked up shit that’s happened in the past.

“it was the ___ people wouldn’t have blinked twice at it”

maybe you wouldn’t have. obviously somebody did. if people hadn’t had something to say we wouldn’t have  any of the progress that came from their voices. our activism wouldn’t look the same. where do you think we got the idea to protest?

[kadkadduwa]

white people can't help but turn a racial problem into a LGBT+ discourse problem

[zvaigzdelasas]

New York University led by troubling example when the school shared an updated code of student conduct last week. Ostensibly aimed at curtailing bigotry, the new language instead shuts down dissent by threatening to silence criticism of Zionism on campus. Students who speak out against Zionism — an ethno-nationalist political ideology founded in the late 19th century — will now risk violating the school’s nondiscrimination policies.[...]

Tucked into a document purportedly offering clarification on school policy, the new NYU guidelines introduce an unprecedented expansion of protected classes to include “Zionists” and “Zionism.” Referring to the university’s nondiscrimination and anti-harassment policy, known as NDAH, the updated conduct guide says, “Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists.”[...]

“Using code words, like ‘Zionist,’” the guide says, “does not eliminate the possibility that your speech violates the NDAH policy.”[...]

The entire premise of the guidance — that “Zionist” must be functioning as a “code word — is a flaw egregious enough to reject the entire document outright.

The language here is of utmost importance. The text does not say that “Zionist” can and has been used by antisemites as a code word, which is no doubt true. Instead, it takes it as a given that, when used critically, “Zionist” simply is a code word.[...]

According to NYU’s guidance, then, Zionist and Zionism are either antisemitic dog whistles when invoked critically or a protected category akin to a race, ethnicity, or religious identity. Ethically committed and politically informed anti-Zionism — including the beliefs of many anti-Zionist Jews like myself who reject the conflation of our identity and heritage with an ethnostate project — is foreclosed, and the long history of Jewish anti-Zionism, which has existed as long as Zionism itself, is all but erased.[...]

“For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity,” the NYU guidance says. And this is of course true. That does not, however, make Zionism an essential part of Jewish identity.

There are conservative Christians for whom the damnation of homosexuality is a key part of their Christian faith too, but Republican lawfare to see homophobic positions enshrined as protected religious expression have been rightly and consistently condemned by the liberal mainstream.

“The new guidance sets a dangerous precedent by extending Title VI protections to anyone who adheres to Zionism, a nationalist political ideology, and troublingly equates criticism of Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people,” NYU’s Faculty for Justice in Palestine said in a statement in response to the updated conduct guide.[...]

“Furthermore, the new guidance implies that any nationalist political ideology (Hindu nationalism, Christian nationalism, etc.) that is integrated into some members of that group’s understanding of their own racial or ethnic identity should be entitled to civil rights protections.”

27 Aug 24

[berenicehernandez15]

Blog 3

Berenice Hernandez UNST- 242A

Who has a stake or interest in this problem? 

People who want to make a change. People who accept everyone in this world no matter the color of their skin. Treating them like their own even though they don’t all come from the same places, growing up differently than them. 

What are their positions or views of the problem? 

They’re views on this, they believe that it interrupts the advancement of race because people can’t seem to work together. It’s a problem for both the harasser and the victim. The hate aspect problem should in a way be treated as a mental issue. 

How are different stakeholders impacted differently by this problem?

People look for opportunities, and because of racial discrimination they tend to feel discouraged and not even bother to make an attempt. People of color are pushed away and in a way thrown towards the back because their capacities and education are not as high as a white individual. Their self- esteem is crushed causing them to lose hope and not feel mentally prepared for the world and opportunities.  

Interview Questions

To Interviewee:

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. This interview consists of a number of questions in relation to your ethnicity/ race. I understand that this may be a sensitive topic for some, but would be greatly appreciated if you could answer the questions to the best of your ability. 

How do you think racism has affected your life? 

What are some names or ways people have harassed you verbally because of your skin color? 

Do you think that if you were “white” people would treat you differently? 

How does it make you feel when you see other’s getting better treatment than you because of the color of your skin?

Has anyone/ anyplace refused to give you service? 

Have you been accused wrongly for something you didn’t do due to your skin complexion? 

Do you have a job? 

Have you had a hard time keeping a job because you’re “non-white”? 

Has work ever treated you differently? 

Do you think people’s salaries are based more so on skin color and class than capacities? 

Do you and another co-worker have the same time and capacity/ skills at your job? 

Are you both the same ethnicity/ race? 

Do you know if they have a higher salary than you?

If yes:

How does this make you feel?

 Do you think that if you were “white” you’d be at the same pay?

If no: 

Would you be upset if they do? 

Do you think your job would do something like this? 

What are some ways you think we can better society so that racial discrimination in all aspects is minimized? 

 “Be proud of your roots, always remember the blood that runs in your veins”. My grand-mother always reminded me of this when she was with me. Racism has always been a tough topic, due to the fact that I am half black, half hispanic. It’s taught me all the bad aspects of being a person of color, not being easy to get opportunities I wish I had. People have called me “Ni**er”, “cotton picker”, “slave worker” and many more names. If I were white feel like I would have more leeway for doing certain things because I feel like a lot of the time I get seen as a threat or delinquent.  Seeing others get better treatment because I am non-white is a bit frustrating and upsetting because I am just like them, I am not different. Does the color of my skin really have that much of an impact? As of right now no, I have not had an experience where someone has refused service to me. I am hoping that I don’t have to go through anything like it. Once, I went into a little market near my house… the store clerk kept looking at me weirdly. As I was leaving his store he accused me of stealing. He was on the verge of searching me, as he said “ I have a suspicion you stole a candy bar.” I looked at him and in anger and shock said “suspicion? Really? Call the police, have them come and I’ll press charges for harassment.” Fortunately he let me go and apologized because he was in the wrong. I do have a job, I am a cashier for Express in Clackamas Town Center. All of my jobs have been great with me, I have never had a hard time keeping a job. I feel like my job does give more of a privilege to white people, I won’t lie, I do see it often. Some of the other girls ask for a day off whilst the girls of color tend to have a harder time getting them. Well I mean, yeah. I feel like all the time an individual's salaries are more so based on race and skin color than skills. Yes, actually there is one of them who became a good friend of mine. She came in about 2 weeks after I did, and both have been working there since. We have discussed our salaries before, it may not be the smartest thing to do but it so happened to come up. She did mention her pay rate and is $0.50 higher than me. It’s upsetting, but now that I am here answering these questions I understand why. She’s white… meaning she had more leverage on a higher pay. I feel like if I were white I would also have a higher pay and even more advantage at my job, much more opportunities. Racism is never going to end, there will always be individuals who won't accept people of color. But we can in a way learn to work together to become a better world. We can show people that we aren’t “bad” like they think we are, that in reality we are great individuals who live in fear of getting harassed, oppressed, or even killed. Racism isn’t stopping me, I’m proud of who I am, proud of my roots. I will work for what I want, even if the color of my skin is a barrier.

[wondernwriter]

🙌🏾

[stripe-conlon]

I don’t know if anyone’s answered you, but in this case it’s because you could have the exact resume they’d bring in for an interview and be discarded based on appearance (usually skin tone and apparent gender, possibly also other disabilities of you’re visually disabled, could be excluded based on piercings/tattoos/haircut/hair color), basically judging a book by its front cover. Getting to the interview stage is a bit like watching a book/movie trailer. Yeah, you can think a certain appearance isn’t going to “fit in”, but because you have to sit down and talk to them; you’re basically forced to gather the information necessary to judge the person’s fit from a work ethic standpoint.

Also, unless the company is only a handful of people, the person selecting the resumes to pass on and the person doing the interviews usually aren’t the same person. So Barbra of HR might look at a resume for Kate with a picture attached of a black woman with multiple piercings and think “unprofessional” and toss it. Where as if the picture wasn’t attached, she may have passed that same resume onto Ken, manager of the department that the position is in, who knows his people tend to have multiple piercings/show up in T-shirts and jeans, and he would have interviewed Kate and been like “yeah, she knows her stuff and she’d fit right in with my team. I think I’ll put her in the desk next to Sam, they seem like their personalities will mesh well.”

Do you still see discrimination based on appearance at the interview stage? Yes; but it’s a lot harder to prove in discrimination cases which is why the line is drawn where it is.

I've been finding a lot of job postings that ask me for a photo lately, which is uncool of them.

So I made an image which lets me bypass their demand. I don't care if I get that particular job, I just want to shame the HR goons who thought the photo requirement was a good idea.

Note: this only applies in the USA.

[racialdiscriminationday]

2982nd Meeting, 110th Session, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Opening of session.

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its States parties.

Racial discrimination remains a barrier to the full realization of human rights. Despite progress in some areas, exclusions and restrictions based on race, colour, descent, national or ethnic origin continue to cause conflict, suffering and loss of life. CERD works to take action against the injustice of racial discrimination, and the dangers it represents.

CERD 110th Session (07 Aug 2023 - 31 Aug 2023)

[boreal-sea]

Trying to understand here... how is someone calling whats going on in palestine right now "genocide" antisemitic? The "fuck zionism" part is, I'm not denying that, but is it not true to call what's happening genocide? Thousands of Palestinians have been and are being killed without discrimination of if they are members of Hamas or Hezbollah. Innocent citizens of the Gaza strip, regardless of nation, have been and are being killed. The sheer amounts of Palestinian deaths are heartbreaking and I don't understand how people calling something out for being literal genocide can be something that makes you label someone antisemitic. I'm not being facetious, genuinely trying to understand and learn here. I've followed your account for a couple years probably at this point, since you were hadean-taiga, and I'm spelling stuff out so clearly so that I can attempt to avoid an automatic block.

No, what's happening right now is not genocide. It's war. And yeah, war really sucks.

Genocide is not just "a lot of civilians dying". I'm sorry, but it's not.

Genocide has an extremely specific definition. It requires both of two parts: a mental part, and a physical part.

The mental part of genocide is the intent to destroy, in part or whole, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.

The physical part of genocide includes the following acts that must be done in conjunction with the above mental part, aka with the intent to destroy a group of people:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Genocide requires both the mental and the physical aspects.

Are Palestinians being killed and experiencing physical harm? Yes. But not because Israel is trying to wipe all Palestinians off the face of the Earth. They are dying as casualties of a horrible, awful war. Israel is at war with Hamas. Two armies fighting is not genocide, even if civilians die in the crossfire.

The intent of Israel is to defeat Hamas, so that Hamas can no longer harm Israelis, which Hamas has been doing since the 1980's.

Yes, thousands of Palestinians are dying. That's because the war, that Hamas intentionally caused, is happening in Gaza, a dense urban zone where a lot of Palestinians live. If you have a war in a dense urban area, a lot of civilians are going to die.

There are multiple proofs of evidence that Israel is in fact trying to reduce civilian deaths as much as they possibly can, which contradicts any claim they are "intentionally trying to destroy" as many Palestinians as possible. The IDF has been actively warning before its raids and strikes, it has been maintaining open pathways for aid to enter Gaza, and it literally just cooperated with Hamas for a massive polio vaccine campaign in Gaza.

Vaccinating thousands of children against polio is an act intended to protect and save lives. It is the literal opposite of an act of genocide.

War fucking sucks all on its own without being a genocide. This is why we are calling for a ceasefire! War is bad enough on its own!

[spacelazarwolf]

Hey there! I’ve really appreciated your posts and perspective over this past month, I’m having a hard time (as so many Jews are) and your voice helps.

I’m hoping you can help me with reliable resources. A friend of mine condemned the Hamas attacks etc (as they should, to my relief) but is under the impression that Israeli govt is doing genocide to the Palestinians. I’ve no idea how to approach that to verify (or not), I don’t even know where to start looking. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank you.

thanks! this is a really tough question, but i'm going to do my best to break it down. also if anyone's thinking of clowning on this post without reading it, inb4 "omg ur denying genocide!!!!!!" bc this post is literally outlining, in detail, all the ways the israeli government is, by definition, committing genocide.

this is really long, just a heads up.

a big frustration i have with a lot of progressive or leftist spaces is the tendency to throw around words like genocide without being able to define the term or properly apply it to the situation in question. this isn't just a semantics issue. if all you're doing is repeating the buzzwords you've heard on social media, your "activism" is going to be less than useless. it is crucial that if you are going to talk about the current genocide in gaza, you must be able to define exactly what a genocide is and how it applies to what's happening in gaza.

i'm paraphrasing from this article by the united nations. the word "genocide" was coined in 1944 by raphael lemkin in his book "axis rule in occupied europe." it was developed partly in response to the shoah, but also to previous instances of what we would now define as genocide. it was recognized as a crime under international law in 1946, and codified as an independent crime in the 1948 convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.

the definition of genocide

(from article II of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide):

in the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

a. killing members of the group; b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

the 10 stages of genocide

a model created by gregory stanton, the founding president of genocide watch

classification - people are divided into "them and us"

symbolization - when combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups.

discrimination - law or cultural power excludes groups from full civil rights: segregation or apartheid laws, denial of voting rights.

dehumanization - one group denies the humanity of the other group. memmbers of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects, or diseases.

organization - genocide is always organized... special army units or militias are often trained and armed...

polarization - extremists drive the groups apart... leaders are arrested and murdered... laws erode fundamental civil rights and liberties.

preparation - mass killing is planned. victims are identified and sepaarated because of their ethnic or religious identity.

persecution - expropriation, forced displacement, ghettos.

extermination - it is 'extermination' to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human.

denial - the perpatrators... deny that they committed any crimes.

application to the crisis in gaza

to start with the first definition from the united nations:

a. killing members of the group - YES

the death toll in gaza has risen above 8,000 according to the associated press. as far as i know, as of writing this post, there has been no ceasefire so the death toll will continue to rise.

b. causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group - YES

over 20,000 people in gaza have been injured, and gazans - particularly children - suffer incredibly high rates of ptsd.

c. deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part - YES

the israeli blockade of gaza has had devastating consequences for gazans. they are running out of food, water, fuel, and medicine, and this is costing additional lives.

d. imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group - unclear but leaning toward YES

whether or not it is the explicit goal, the current bombardment of gaza has put the lives of 50,000+ pregnant women in gaza at risk, along with their babies. babies who need incubators are also in danger as generators begin to run out of fuel.

e. forcibly transferring children of the group to another group - as far as i am aware, NO

according to the us embassy in israel, the palestinian authority ministry of social development is the only authorized entity regarding adoption of palestinian children. this doesn't mean it isn't happening, it just means i was not able to find any credible sources.

the 10 stages of genocide

classification - YES there is a long history in israel of othering palestinians, both socially/culturally and legally. former israeli minister of interior and minister of justice ayelet shaked shared a racist quote from netanyahu's former chief of staff explicitly framing palestinians as "the enemy."

symbolization - not yet there are no overt symbols palestinians, even within israel, are required to wear to outwardly identify themselves, but there are identifying features on their ids. in fact, the opposite has been happening, with far right members of the israeli government attempting to pass legislation making it illegal to publicly display palestinian flags.

discrimination - YES there is, again, a long history of discrimination against palestinians within and by the state of israel. it is difficult for palestinians from the west bank or gaza to gain status in israel, israeli work permits are used as a form of control, and often forcibly separate palestinian families.

dehumanization - YES former israeli deputy minister of defense eli ben dahan said of palestinians, "to me they are like animals, they aren't human."

organization - YES israel is currently carrying out an organized and brutal attack on gaza.

polarization - YES from extremist groups like hamas, to the corruption in the likud party in israel, there are very clear signs of extreme polarization. israel's siege against gaza has caused polarization across the entire globe.

preparation - YES gazans in particular are unable to leave gaza without a permit, and now with the blockade from both israel and egypt they are essentially trapped.

persecution - YES gaza in particular could absolutely be likened to a ghetto. as stated above, (in "usual" circumstances) they are unable to leave without a permit, and since hamas took control it is nearly impossible to get an israeli work permit.

extermination - GETTING THERE if the siege continues and gazans are unable to get out of gaza, there will be catastrophic casualties.

denial - YES i often hear that "israel has a right to defend itself" but i cannot possibly find a way to frame the current siege as "self defense."

so in conclusion, israel is - by multiple definitions - committing genocide against gazans. and it's very important to be able to identify specifics, especially if you are planning on having discussions about it. and i've said it in the past, but if you are not directly affected by what's happening - palestinians in particular, but israeli citizens and jews and muslims in the diaspora are also getting hit hard - it is IMPERATIVE that you are able to talk about this with a level head. escalating tensions and pushing away potential allies is only going to make things worse. find common ground, form connections, and then have a productive discussion.

[stil-lindigo]

link

I can't properly put into words the amount of disgust that I feel seeing someone who looks like she could be my cousin fight for a genocidal occupational force like Israel but I will say this.

If you are Chinese, Korean, Japanese or any one of these Asian ethnicities that the West deem "acceptable" and you align yourselves with western-backed racial supremacy, you are making fools of yourselves. You have fallen prey to the myth of the "model minority" and you are suckers for it.

The premise of racial supremacy is based on exclusivity. And here's a dose of reality - the myth of the "model minority" is nothing but a tactic to placate you. To sow divide in the ranks of people of colour. To artificially manufacture another realm of racial supremacy in minorities so that you're distracted from how we all suffer under colonialism.

Did we all forget about the skyrocketing of sinophobia in the wake of the first COVID outbreak? The transformation of Chinese people into fiends with barbaric eating customs, poor hygiene, and mass conspiracy to infect the world with biological weapons?

link

What about the hate-crimes? The attacks in the street against anyone visibly asian? The rampant discrimination and ostracisation from society?

In 2020, Donald Trump referred to COVID-19 as "The Chinese Virus", "Kung-flu" at a campaign rally to raucous applause, a chilling echo of the times where fears of the "Yellow Peril" had the western world in a stranglehold.

For all that Chinese people have been lauded as "prodigies" and "well-mannered workers", the moment our existence was incovenient, were were nothing more than another target. And although Chinese suffering then wasn't close to the scale of suffering that Palestinians now endure, we all received a reminder on what it was like to be in the world's crosshairs.

Now, in 2023, Biden dismisses death tolls as unreliable and remains proudly Zionist even after Netanyahu described the genocide Israel is inflicting upon Palestine as the "struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness, between humanity and the law of the jungle." At the same time, Palestinians are being compared to fleeing rats in a gesture of dehumanisation that mirrors how the Nazis portrayed Jews during the Holocaust.

link

And let's not think Abigail's Jewishness will save her, not when it's been proven that Israel has administered contraceptives to Ethiopian Jewish immigrants without their consent. Racial supremacy is an exclusive club that never stops getting smaller, and there is nothing that you, as a minority, will ever be able to do to fit in. One day, you too will be a target and there'll be nothing you can do but blame yourself. After all - it's already happened.

So shame on Abigail. Truly. With the memory of knowing what it's like to be targeted for factors out of your control fresh in her mind, she happily fights to do the same to others. And that says more about her than I ever will be able to.

[jewishvitya]

[This post was originally written in response to someone tagging me and claiming that a free Palestine would mean all Israeli Jews will be kicked out and where will I go, and how they can't understand why I'm so against Israel being our ethnostate. OP blocked me, so I'm reposting with a few edits, because I already wrote this and I might as well.]

Look. I understand your mentality. We're traumatized by a history of violence against us. We were shown that so many in the world want us dead, and so many others won't stop them. I get it. But I refuse to let myself silently become the face of similar oppression for other people.

Israel benefits from antisemitism and maintains myths that got Jewish people killed in the past, like double loyalty. It weaponizes it for propaganda reasons. It's supported by antisemitic Christian zionist organizations with terrifying motivations. It started out with violence not only against Palestinians but against Jews too. Israel isn't motivated by our safety, it abuses that idea. It manipulates and weaponizes our trauma to make us feel justified in causing so much suffering to innocent people.

You're right that I'll have nowhere to go if I'm kicked out of here. This is where I was born. My parents come from other countries that I won't feel safe in. But all of this is hypothetical. The ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians is not hypothetical, it's REALITY. It's happening RIGHT NOW. And I don't understand how, as a Jewish person who knows what this kind of suffering and loss of life means, you seem unable to prioritize that. I tell you I'm witnessing a genocide happening right next to me and you keep telling me "but what if they hurt you instead."

The assumption that Palestinians will pull some sort of reverse ethnic cleansing against us is racist. This assumption is the reason Israel feels comfortable calling the carpet bombing of a civilian population "self defense." Killing them based on a this is not self defense, it's a racially motivated crime against humanity.

And I'm calling it an assumption because I'm not willing to pull from the Hamas charter that they've since replaced. Hamas isn't Palestinians. The only reason they became this powerful is Israeli funding, and Israeli violence giving Hamas free PR as the only ones who will stand up to the state that will keep them trapped and dying.

We control every aspect of their lives. Israel created a place that breeds radicalization. No group of people, living under the conditions forced on Palestinians, would be peaceful. They would fight back. Because peaceful attempts to have the human rights that Israel denies them got nothing. We stomped on every single one. We blocked all other routes and left them with only violence, which Israeli politicians have been using as an excuse for over 15 years to make a show of force with military campaigns whenever they wanted a boost in popularity. We created living conditions with such low life expectancy that half of the population is children because so few adults survive. They don't deserve this. No one deserves this.

Palestine was a land with people living in it. One plot of land can create multiple groups of people, especially when we've been separated for 2000 years. Our connection to this land does not cancel out theirs. Removing them to create our own country could never be right. It's not an argument saying that our connection to Israel gives us the right to move here to live ALONGSIDE Palestinians. That's not what we wanted. We wanted a country that enforces Jewish majority and legally prioritizes Jews. You're justifying this when I repeatedly state that the only way for it to exist is through ethnic cleansing and genocide. There's no way to make this concept into a reality without killing, displacing, and oppressing whoever's left in various different ways, from apartheid to other kinds of discrimination.

I'm not against safety for us. I want to be safe. I want my children to grow in a safe world where we can be openly and joyfully Jewish. I'm not willing to pay for that with the lives and freedoms of other people.

So I will be loud about this: Palestinians deserve to be free in every part of their homeland, even if it's our ancestral homeland too.

If safety for us means we're the ones committing the genocide, maybe we should rethink what safety looks like.

I'm terrified for the lives of millions of people in Gaza. Right now, all I can think about is this, and it baffles me to see people so willing to transfer the horrors of our history to other people.

I had a lovely conversation in DMs in response to the first post, about how zionism encourages us to isolate rather than build bridges in the places where we live all over the world. We can't ignore the way antisemitism saturates culture, but we should also remember the places where Jewish communities thrived for centuries, the places where our neighbors protected us. We're hated, and we're loved. Each form of oppression is unique, so no other group experiences what Jewish people do exactly, but we're not alone. We have a long and rich history of solidarity with other marginalized communities and involvement in liberation movements. We're actively working to make the world safer, and we have people fighting with us. I'm just participating in this fight where I am. The struggle for liberation is a human struggle. You can't use the trauma of antisemitism to silence me about other kinds of bigotry.

Never again. To ANYONE.

[fuck-hamas-go-israel]

Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Apartheid?

Throwing around these buzzwords to describe the Israel-Hamas war because you’ve seen them on social media doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you an activist.

It makes you ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and lazy for parroting biased talking points with no concept about what these terms actually mean.

What is apartheid?

Well, it was first used to describe the political system in South Africa and today’s Namibia whereby racism was institutionalised. This manner of governance meant that clear racial segregation would occur, in a manner that benefited the white race and would actively oppress those who had darker skin.

This meant that there were white-only spaces, white people would get prioritised when it came to education and jobs, and relationships/marriages between white peoples and coloured people were illegal.

Is Israel objectively an apartheid state? There are no laws that actively favour one group over the other. There is a sizeable population of Israeli Arabs that can thrive in the same way as the Israeli Jews can. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to work in Israel through a work permit system. There are about 150,000 Palestinians working in Israel, most of which live in Israel and some come from Gaza/the West Bank. They aren’t denied rights institutionally.

Is it harder to get a job or education in Israel if you’re a Palestinian from Gaza? Sure, because of different governments. It’s like how it’s a lot easier for you to find a job in your own country (in terms of paperwork and bureaucracy) than overseas. But you’re not denied the right to apply.

Of course, if you have a history of violence, a criminal record, or your family has ties to terrorists, then it’ll be a lot harder to get an approved work permit. But that’s not apartheid. That’s common sense, and a regulation practiced by all countries that minimally desire to protect their own population from danger.

Ethnic cleansing and genocide

These two concepts can go hand-in-hand. Ethnic cleansing refers to the mass expulsion or killing of a group of people based on their ethnicity. Similarly, genocide is the purposeful killing of a group of people solely with the intention of annihilating them.

Famous examples? The Holocaust, of course, where the Nazi regime believed in the superiority of the Aryan race and decided to declare genocide on the Jews, Romanis, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, people with “Asian features”, and many many other groups. Anyone who they didn’t think was “pure”.

Their aim was to ensure that the Aryan race propagated without having “impure” blood affecting the bloodlines. They even started a eugenics programme called Lebensborn to ensure that more pure Aryan babies were born.

More recent examples? The Rwandan genocide where the Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis on the basis of ethnicity. They mandated that Tutsis mention their ethnicity on state-issued ID cards in order for the Hutus in power to be able to identify them and then kill them.

Or the Yazidi genocide which happened so recently, in which ISIL killed, raped, and sent thousands of Yazidis into conversion camps on the basis of their ethnicity. They also took Yazidi women as sex slaves and raped and tortured them.

Or the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State in Myanmar, and how there was a mass killing and expulsion of them from the country, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh to take refuge, crating the world’s largest refugee camp.

Or how ISIS killed thousands of people from Christian groups in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya because of their faith, leading the US, EU, and UK to label this as religious genocide and condemned their actions.

Has Israel been practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on Palestinians all these years?

Well, the birth rate of the Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel has been steadily increasing all these years.

So, no. No ethnic cleansing, no genocide. They are free to have as many children as they desire.

The UN Genocide Convention

The United Nations has 5 actions that constitute genocide.

1. Killing members of a target group

Israel is targeting Hamas officials with the aim of wiping out the terrorist group and ensuring that such a deadly attack on Israeli soil doesn’t happen again. I suppose you could call it genocide against Hamas, but they’re killing Hamas because they’re terrorists, not because they’re Palestinian. Shouldn’t everyone believe in genocide against terrorists?

But look at Black Saturday. Look at Hamas’ rhetoric. They repeatedly call for the annihilation of Israel and genocide of Jews. When will the media start believing what they say, word for word, instead of trying to spin it into “hmm maybe they want to kill all the Jews because they’re freedom fighters!”

War has collateral damage. Of course the innocent civilians don’t deserve to suffer just because of the actions of their government, but there have been warnings given to the Palestinian civilians prior to Israel striking the areas. There are consequences of attacking a country first, and then having that country attack you back.

2. Causing people of the group serious bodily or mental harm

The UN refers to sexual violence as the prime example of non-fatal harm.

Sexual violence has occurred. Hamas have kidnapped and raped women and even paraded the bodies of half-naked women around. But I f Israel had done the same, it’ll be the first thing appearing on everyone’s BBC push notifications (without even being confirmed as true).

3. Imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group

Many people refer to the blockade that Israel imposed around the Gaza Strip as an example of this.

This blockade was imposed by both Israel and Egypt in 2005. Its aim was to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and isolate the reign of Hamas to the region. This was to ensure the safety of Israel and Egypt.

Did this blockade pose serious challenges to the Gazan civilians? Of course. But that’s a consequence of having a terrorist government. If you have a terrorist group running your country, don’t be surprised if neighbouring countries are extra careful about who or what they allow in or out of the borders.

Many authorities from other Arab nations have also expressed approval of Egypt’s border restrictions, and even encouraged Egypt to flood the terror tunnels that Hamas has dug under the city. As a side note, other Arab nations have not historically been very kind or welcoming to Palestinians. Syria has killed over 4000 Palestinians, and many Arab countries are now refusing any refuge for Palestinians. But no one cares about that because it doesn’t make Israel look bad. All they do now is use the images of dead Palestinians under the hands of Syria and reuse them to propagate fake news.

The blockade has been labelled as a human rights violation because of collective punishment. Many humanitarian organisations believe that the blockade has caused the Palestinian civilians disproportionate harm.

Contrary to popular belief, Israel isn’t disallowing humanitarian aid from coming through the borders. Fuel, food, hygiene products, clothes, and shoes have been coming through the borders regularly for years. The Gaza Strip also has electricity and internet access and water.

Do all these items reach the Palestinian civilians? Well, there has been evidence that Hamas has been intercepting a lot of the supplies sent by humanitarian groups. This is not surprising since the UNRWA tweeted that Hamas has stole fuel from hospitals in Gaza in order to launch more rockets at Israel (but quickly deleted it after realising that it goes against their agenda to paint Hamas in a bad light.) In addition, the returned hostages have mentioned that there are many aid supplies hidden in the terror tunnels by Hamas. Instead of giving them to the civilians, they are hoarding it for themselves.

There has also been video evidence that some people are reselling these aid items in stores at exorbitant prices in order to turn profits. This has been well-documented for the last 10 years.

Is blockading the region to mitigate terrorism a disproportionate response? Well, it’s like asking if heightened security and stricter border control at airports is a disproportionate response after 9/11. Is being cautious and worrying about the security of your country an irrational reaction to the constant threat of terrorism?

4. Preventing births

Gaza’s population growth rate per annum is about 1.99%, which is the 39th highest in the world! Their population is allowed to propagate freely.

Israel isn’t preventing births of Palestinian babies.

5. Forcibly transferring children out of the group

No, Israel hasn’t been taking Palestinian children and forcing them to convert/keeping young Palestinian girls as sex slaves. Like I said, if this was truly happening, all the news outlets would be so quick to publish the story before verifying it.

Can we trust the UN Genocide standards?

The UN is known for corruption and have been exploiting the Palestinian people by selling them the humanitarian supplies instead of distributing them for free, which they should because these supplies literally are donations.

The UN also has differing standards of what they would label as genocide. For example, they refuse to call what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, even though the situation does fit many of their own criteria.

Hence, to all of you out there overusing these terms without knowing what they mean, make up your own mind about things. No one can force you to believe anything and no one can force you to change your mind.

But at the very least, do your due diligence and educate yourself before spouting tired buzzwords. Repeating misinformation doesn’t help anyone and can be very harmful.