r/JewsOfConscience • u/NCPianoStudent • Nov 16 '24
Discussion I’m a Palestinian American and I want to thank all of you
I'm probably breaking a lot of posting rules and I apologize, but I discovered this sub not even an hour ago and reading through all these posts brought me to tears. Thank you all so much for speaking truth to power in what I know is a very hostile enviornment. I fight with friends and family members back home constantly trying to break the lumping in of all Jews into the same group as militant Zionists and it's an uphill battle. This sub is such a great resource to help me with that. Thank you all again.
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u/accidentalrorschach Jewish Anti-Zionist Nov 16 '24
Hello, welcome! Thank you so much for being here and sharing your heartfelt words! It is indeed an incredibly (and increasingly?) hostile and fracturing time and I am deeply moved by the people who make effort to transcend the divisive, dehumanizing rhetoric to find commonality, compassion, humanity, and love across different identities.
There are indeed many Jews, and even Israeli Jews who dissent and are vehemently against the genocide and apartheid in Palestine. Unfortunately, we often left out of things like public polling, left out of the public discourse in media, and even sometimes blatantly punished-especially within in Israel. Of course that is intentional so that dissent is squashed/silenced/discouraged and autocrats remain in power.
I also think this "Muslims vs Jews" narrative is partly manufactured by colonialists and Evangelicals to get us to tear one another apart so that they can divide and conquer-though perhaps that is far-fetched thinking on my part.
Anyhow, my point is there are more us out there than people realize; though the media and polling will not show it.
Thank you for being here, and being for humanity. We love you! 💖🙏💖
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u/NCPianoStudent Nov 17 '24
I do agree that the Muslims vs Jew narrative is being pushed by many in power and in the media. I’m actually Christian from the West Bank and we are sometimes forgotten in the conflict, but even though we are a minority we are no less affected than our Muslim brothers and sisters in the West Bank. A branch of mother’s family was mostly ousted in the 70s and they had to live as a refugees in Jordan until they emigrated to the US and it’s slightly frustrating to see people conflate Palestinian with only Muslims (while admitting that they are the majority)
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u/norapalooza Nov 17 '24
I am Palestinian (and Iraqi) Muslim and I always remind people that I am not and refuse to let people forget that that is the only cookie cuter identity - Palestinians, Iraqis and West Asians (“Arabs”) can be and are Jewish, Christian, Druze, Muslim and even agnostic and atheist. My mom (Iraqi) has books upon books of the contributions and importance of Iraqi Jews. We must speak for others and continue to fight the narrative.
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u/mxpapaya Ashkenazi Nov 16 '24
Thank you! I will say after visiting the West Bank this summer doing protective presence stuff it has become very clear to me how Palestinians living under those conditions might make generalizations about Jews as evil oppressors. Seeing symbols like the Star of David being drawn on Palestinian houses made me sick. Everyone I interacted with was very understanding of the distinction between Jews and Zionists but some said they’ve struggled to educate their peers on the distinction.
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u/Lamese096 Palestinian Lebanese Muslim Nov 17 '24
If it makes you feel any better, I am Palestinian myself and have never had generalizations about Jews. I have had Jewish friends, and many were against all of this, just as there are extremists in every religion, your going to have good and bad people everywhere, who will use religion as a front to justify any wrong doings.
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u/aniftyquote Jewish Communist Nov 18 '24
I can't speak for OP, but my operative view has been that if individual Palestinians do have prejudice against Jews, that is squarely the fault of the state of Israel. I don't know how any Jew can watch the state of Israel say that this genocide is in the name of the Jewish people, and hold it against someone's conscience in the worst circumstance imaginable if some Palestinians take their oppressors at their word.
I don't want anyone to hate me for things outside my control, but when I was just going hungry, still with a roof over my head, I was a far more wary and defensive person than I ever have been before or since. More than I want every individual Palestinian to trust us, I want Palestinians to be free and safe and well-cared for in a decolonized Palestine. And it brings me to tears to know that despite most Palestinians - both in my experience and the majority of experiences I see online, being overtly kind to antizionist Jews - that y'all still advocate for us.
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u/NCPianoStudent Nov 17 '24
Yes even though it’s frustrating I also understand how someone constantly seeing the Star of David as a harbinger of imminent disaster will make it easy to make the jump.
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u/_II_I_I__I__I_I_II_ Jewish Anti-Zionist Nov 17 '24
I know you're not personally doing this but, I wanted to make a separate point: IMO, we shouldn't be put on a pedestal.
That feeds into the narrative that is pushed by pro-Israel extremists of 'mystifying' this issue. Making it seem complicated when it isn't.
Yes, there is history and culture and 2 peoples wanting the same land - but fundamentally, you cannot claim to have a basic sense of fairness if you support the mass expulsion of the Palestinian people to make way for an apartheid, ethnostate.
The issue of Palestine does not belong to the Left or the Right - but I do think it's a litmus test for the Left.
Palestine is a moral issue, not a political one.
So every person of conscience should care about Palestine.
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u/reenaltransplant Mizrahi Nov 17 '24
"Political" is the word people use for moral issues when they don't want to stand on the right side of them.
Most hot button political issues are ultimately moral issues.
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u/TendieRetard Non-Jewish Ally Nov 18 '24
I think having Jews speak for Palestine shortcuts the preconceptions many normies have on the issue. We've been told to some degree that opposing Israel is antisemitic so many will see it as "radical Muslim" sympathizing if it comes from a non-Jew.
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u/Altaltshift Jewish Anti-Zionist Nov 17 '24
I am glad that there are still Jewish people who care about humanity. My sense of morality started from Judaism, even if I don't actively practice, and those morals tell me that what's happening in Gaza and the West Bank is horrible and wrong.
My comments in a Jewish subreddit are being removed (well now I'm banned) because I'm anti-Zionist, but I won't let them make Judaism and Zionism into the same thing. It makes me want to go back to synagogue more often, so I can be the voice at the table that stands up for what's right, because that's how I was raised. The ongoing genocide is the opposite of tolerance and coexistence.
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u/Lamese096 Palestinian Lebanese Muslim Nov 17 '24
I was banned after I replied to a comment that literally said that they should finish off Gaza and exterminate all the Palestinian people ( it randomly showed up on my feed though I am not Jewish, i was curious about the sub. I read some vile comments on that sub and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut ). 🤐
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u/NCPianoStudent Nov 17 '24
Ive never seen such vile rhetoric spewed uncensored as I have since October 7th on popular subs like World News.
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u/TendieRetard Non-Jewish Ally Nov 18 '24
worldnews is astroturfed (being the largest news aggregator on reddit). Internationalnews, newsandpolitics, global_news_hub, anime_titties (I know), and others were created as a response.
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u/bit_banger_ Nov 17 '24
Love this post! Sending love to you my friend. And love the jews here, you keep my faith in humanity.
(I’m not a Jewish, Arab , muslim or even an American. I just like to follow people of good conscience and fight against oppression of any kind! )
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u/Valuable_Elk_5663 Nov 17 '24
❤️ I can't even imagine how hard it must be to fight the idea that Israel and zionists are spreading, that the genocide in Gaza is committed in the name of all jews.
Israel and all pro-genocide people are using the terms "Israel" and "jew" all the time randomly interchangeable on purpose, because they want to provoke anti-genocide people to use the word "jew" wrong only once, so the pro-genocide people can scream and yell that someone did say something anti-semitic. All this to disqualify groups of anti-genocide people and to play apart groups of anti-genocide people.
As collateral damage of that randomly interchangeable use of those terms by the pro-genocide people, other people might make the mistake to think that all jews are supporting the genocide.
Luckily most anti-genocide people can see the difference between the state of Israel and people who are jewish. If someone makes a mistake in those terms, please, let us all ignore the screaming and yelling pro-genocide people, who will shout to the world that it's anti-semitic. The anti-genocide people don't need the pro-genocide people to tell them what's right and what's wrong. I mean: the judgment of the pro-genocide people led to, well, basically a genocide. The anti-genocide movement can be very well self-correcting.
Let's correct each other respectfully and march on together against this genocide. Shoulder to shoulder. With everyone who is against this genocide.
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u/aniftyquote Jewish Communist Nov 18 '24
I'm at a loss for words for the amount of emotion that reading this has evoked in me. Your compassion and encouragement is a gift on its own, at a time in my personal life where your words could hardly be more appreciated. Reading that you speak of anti-zionist Jews to your family brought me to tears. I wish you all and only good things - solidarity is the least any Palestinian is owed, and to take time to write this out is such a kindness.
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u/TendieRetard Non-Jewish Ally Nov 18 '24
check out badhasbara sub and podcast. I think their sub maybe somewhat quarantined though.
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u/conscience_journey Jewish Anti-Zionist Nov 16 '24
Sending love back at you.
I hear you about the lumping and conflation. My personal experience in the West Bank was everyone was very friendly although some were definitely surprised when they learned that I was a Jew and volunteering for solidarity groups. To paraphrase Mohammed El-Kurd, it’s not their fault they were occupied by Jews.