r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • Oct 23 '24

AAJ "Ask A Jew" Wednesday

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday! Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

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u/RowenMhmd Non-Jewish Ally (Sikh) Oct 24 '24 edited Oct 24 '24

Have you ever been able to convince a relative to oppose what Israel's doing? How did you manage to do it?

I want to ask this because my grandmother is an ardently pro-Israel person, mostly because she has friends from there, has been there and liked it, and has mild bad blood w/Muslims over the Partition. I find it sad and a bit odd given her general humanitarian concern and even she was disgusted seeing the videos out of Gaza but still remains pro-Israel and stuff, I want to know how I can convince her that what she thinks is the 'good side' isn't right.

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u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

I have successfully convinced some of my relatives and friends thru a blunt, honest, and loving attitude. Tell her these words with nothing but love in your heart-

Is your grandmother aware that being “Palestinian” does not inherently mean being Muslim?….
Palestinians are Christian, and secular, and atheist, and before Zionism there used to be Palestinian Jews like my own family…. So you should begin by presenting these facts. This is not about religion! it is about colonial occupation, and the resistance to that colonial occupation. Has your Grandmother forgotten the British Raj?? Does she think the evils that the British empire created in India somehow didn’t happen in British occupied Palestine?? Does she think that white western colonialists treated brown Indian Hindus any different than brown Palestinian Muslims/Christians/Jews?? Tell her to look in the eyes of a family in Gaza, and then ask if she sees anything else but her own family…

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u/RowenMhmd Non-Jewish Ally (Sikh) Oct 27 '24

Thanks, I'll discuss with her this.

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u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24 edited Oct 27 '24

Just remember to be kind and understanding as you do so. Making enemies of our own family doesn’t serve us. But also remember that complete honesty and sticking to morals can be a form of love.

Best of luck to you brother

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u/RowenMhmd Non-Jewish Ally (Sikh) Oct 28 '24

I will try my best.

Just to be clear, I am not a Hindu, I am a Sikh. We are survivors of oppression and we know how ethnic polarisation has impacted our people. We have survived countless genocides across history from Mughal and Afghan repression to British violence to the 1947 partition to the 1984 genocide. That empathy will hopefully go somewhere.

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u/[deleted] Oct 29 '24

My apologies, I did notice that from your flair. Writing Hindu* was a typo 😅

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u/RowenMhmd Non-Jewish Ally (Sikh) Oct 30 '24

No worries, I have nothing against Hindus but it's just that our people tend to be erased. Especially by right wing Hindu nationalists who treat us the same way that Christian nationalists treat Jews