Free Palestine
I have held off longer than I should have to make this post. I initially had decided it wasn’t my place to say anything and that I should just repost and lift up the voices of those who know more than me and who are closer to this issue. Because what if I get it wrong? Or say it wrong? Or make it seem like it’s a simple issue? Or offend someone? Or, or, or……
I am by no means an expert on this issue, and I am very privileged in the way I have been able to approach this conflict, but it is time to make it abundantly clear that I stand with Palestine. I had spoken with a friend of mine who had said that they are personally against any human life lost, which is why they are not with Palestine alone and it clicked for me that so many people have this thought and don’t have a true understanding of this situation. And usually saying you are against loss of life is a good thing, but when it comes to this conflict, one side has lost so much more.
I have been doing a lot of research to do my best to understand this issue better and be able to argue with those who want to claim antisemitism every time someone says to stop the genocide, and I feel I have the ability to break this all down into laymen’s terms so we can all be on the same page. Again, I am no expert, but if you are like me and thought it better to let others speak out and you just repost, this is for you.
Terms to know: Hamas- Terrorist group out of Gaza that has essentially been running the territory for several years now. Closest thing to a military Palestinians have. Antisemitism- Hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. Zionism- a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.
How did we get here? Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? This is a very complex issue that goes back for centuries and I am not going to go back that far. But the basics here are that Israel colonized Palestine, and Palestine is just a very small portion of land that is Gaza (about twice the size of Washington DC) and the West Bank (about the size of Delaware) and the Palestinian people do not have control over either of these places. They are told where they can go within these spaces, they are allowed very limited and very strict movement between the two, and they have an incredibly hard time being allowed out of these spaces. It is nearly impossible for them to leave the country and if they manage to the odds of them getting back in are very slim. Israel has the power to turn off their power, their internet, their water supplies, and so much more, which they have done already during this current conflict. The main point is that Israel has all of the power here when it comes to Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinian people. Israel mainly conquered Palestine because they felt that it was their religious right and that God had left that land for them based on the Bible. Again this is a complex issue, but this was the main reason for colonization and then as time went on, the Israeli government had other reasons for keeping this land and keeping the people of Palestine in glorified ghettos.
Circumstances that lead to the current conflict: We have all heard the name Hamas at this point, as they are being used as the reason to bomb and obliterate an entire people. In early October, Hamas (a Palestinian militant group, many would call them terrorists) launched an attack on Israel from Gaza. During this attack, a lot of Israeli civilians were killed, but what led to the total destruction we see now, was that Hamas took around 240 hostages from Israel back to the Gaza Strip. There were soldiers, civilians, and children among the 240 people taken. Now, this is where it gets a little dicey because obviously, a people is not their government. Many of us in this country under this leadership and the previous can attest to that, but it is important to understand the death, carnage and destruction that has been wrought on the Palestinian people for decades to foster a situation in which Hamas would form. Palestine was not allowed to have leadership or say in their own country and territory and were relegated to the two pieces of land I talked about previously, and have had their movements very carefully controlled since at least 1967 when Israel first reneged on the treaty they had come up with. When Hamas rose to power in 2007, things became much worse for the people of Gaza as Israel began to crack down on the already tight leash they had on Palestine. In 2008, we had the first of many conflicts between Israel and Hamas, with Israel coming out on top as usual. They would conduct airstrikes, and sonic strikes, cutting off water, making it hard to get food, and also soldiers occupying the strip. They would use these tactics for years to come whenever there was a conflict, with civilian casualties being the highest number and only Palestinian civilians. Now none of this is said to excuse Hamas's actions, but if you were watching your land and your people slowly dwindle, if you had lost friends and family members, if you yourself were starving and sick, would you not look to extreme measures to try and gain independence and help for you people? Once again I want to be clear that I am not siding with the terrorists, but it would be incorrect to not look at the whole picture and chart the whole process that got us to this point.
How the situation quickly devolved: The conflict quickly became a full-on war (if we can even call it that since one side has all the power) when Israel fired back in several very targeted attacks that they claimed were to get back their hostages, but were all in places that had already been cleared as potential hostage holding sites. One of them was a hospital in which Israeli forces claimed that the hostages were in the basement of said hospital, but they bombed the whole hospital and then never went to the basement. Israel has been performing air strikes that look remarkably similar to the first wave of aid workers trying to get food out to the people of Gaza. Most recently aid workers who came by boat with World Central Kitchen were killed in a very targeted attack as well, even though the Israeli government is claiming that was not the case. But how could that be when it was the aid workers who were killed, their food and other aid items destroyed, and more Palestinian lives lost while trying to get help? On top of all of the atrocities being committed by the Israeli government, the leading world powers are continuing to supply weapons and fund that side of the war, including the US. President Biden has made one small attempt to help Palestine by calling for a very short cease-fire that has since ended. The UN has declared the situation a human rights crisis but has not attempted anything further like attempting to get a cease-fire going again, aid in peace talks, help with aid, or even call it what it has become which is a mass genocide of the Palestinian people. The US even declared that this was in fact not a genocide, when more than 33,000 people in Gaza have been killed, most of them women and children according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 75,000 people in Gaza have been injured. This comes out to about 1 in 20 Palestinians are dead or wounded. But somehow this is not a genocide? Throughout the course of this six-month battle, there have been multiple attempts to create treaties and cease fires and peace talks to attempt to get things under control here, but the main issue with all of this is Israel would still maintain power over Palestine and continue to control the way they live their lives. Which if you recall is what caused this problem in the first place. (Also please use this particular article if you want a timeline with exact time stamps and just facts, not opinions.) So it’s not really a surprise that when it comes to peace talks and treaties, Hamas and other people of power in Palestine are not quick to agree. Why agree when this could happen again once they are being forced back to their previous way of life? All of this is to say that there has been so much done to the civilians of Gaza at the hands of their colonizers, with more power and money than they can ever hope to get back at this point, that it is devastating to see anyone still defend what the Israeli government is doing to these people. Whole family bloodlines have been wiped out. Over 33,000 people have died but world powers are still doing nothing to attempt to help.
What this conflict is not: Antisemitic. I do not want to claim that everyone making points on this issue or commenting on it is fully in the right and not being hateful. Humankind is unfortunately not always the kindest (case and point this conflict) and there have been people and politicians making points that are antisemitic. But I have seen one too many influencers and celebrities claim that if you stand with Palestine and want to have them free and the genocide stop, you are being antisemitic and that is simply not true. Standing up for an entire group of people who are being brutally murdered is not antisemitic. Saying that there needs to be a cease-fire and the Israeli government needs to quit attacking Palestine and the aid workers there to help them is not antisemitic. However, in that same vein, we need to not be blaming Israeli civilians as a whole for this conflict. This is their government’s doing, not theirs, and it’s unfair to assume that every person in Israel is for this war. I think those of us in the US can relate to that pretty well with how poorly our leadership has done the last several years. Including how the current administration is handling this conflict. Condemn hate when you see it, but don’t cry persecution when that is not what’s happening. Since we shouldn’t be hating the Israeli citizens, we also need to make sure the discourse on this does not call every Palestinian “Hamas”. Hamas is the group that overall keeps the people of Gaza safe, while also being a terrorist organization that did capture and is now holding hostages. Even if this can be looked at objectively and one can see how this all came to be, we need to not lump in civilians with these kinds of groups. Just like with Israeli citizens, Palestinians have their own opinion and own view of Hamas and just because they are Palestinian does not mean they are Hamas. That is a very xenophobic view to take and they need to be seen as the two separate entities that they are. Especially since the death toll is mostly women and children, who are not the demographic that is part of Hamas. It’s the same idea of not lumping all Christians here in the US with the KKK or other extremist groups. And finally: this is a genocide. This is an attack of a powerful government on territory and people who do not have the same power or means of fighting back, have had their country and territory taken from them, and have been so restricted as a people that they were already losing their heritage and culture. Now they are in the worst state they have been in a while, and so many of us who have the privilege of not being there get to sit back and say “Well any loss of life is terrible” without having to look this crisis in the face. And sure, any loss of life is terrible. But when one side has only lost 256 people, and the other has lost more than 33,000, it’s time to take a side and stand up for those who are being mercilessly slaughtered.
Madey
Sources:
The Washington Post (a great source to stay updated as things change)
Action Steps:
Boycott Starbucks and McDonald's. Both companies send and spend massive amounts of money in Israel.
Great list of ways to help.
List of places to donate as well as ways to spot fake charities.
If you have other resources for aid or education for the conflict in Gaza, please leave them in the comments below.