reading time ~9 mins

#stopgazagenocide #freepalestine

1. Summary
2. Understanding Personal Impact
3. Clarifying some Myths
4. Resources on Palestine
   1. Books
   2. Videos
      1. Short (up to ~5 mins)
      2. Medium (up to ~20 mins)
      3. Long (~20 mins+)
   3. Humanitarian Organization Views on Israel Palestine
5. Voices for Palestine 
   1. Authors 
   2. Journalists
   3. Human rights organisations & NGOS
   4. Political / Govt Figures

In the current geopolitical environment in the middle east, the oppressive Israeli government is yet again committing war crimes and killing innocent men, women and children in Gaza (Palestine) in the aftermath of the violent escalation on 7th October 2023 by Hamas. In ~2 weeks, the civilian deaths in Gaza have crossed 5,000 (62% women and children) on 23.Oct 2023 according to UN due to the airstrikes from Israel (and there is still no ceasefire)

The alleged actions of some amongst Hamas against innocent civilians have still not been proven beyond doubt. However, these stories are being used by Israel to disproportionately punish the entire population of Gaza and openly commit genocide against the local Palestinian people

If you are unaware of the situation in the middle east, I urge you to gain knowledge on this. I will share some video & academic links below

Several western humanitarian organizations such as United Nations, WHO, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have categorically concluded the actions of Israel as war crimes against humanity (some not just today)

How long will we look away from this and remain silent about this atrocity? History remembers three groups.. Those who commit oppression, those who stand up against it and those who are mere spectators

Summary

If you have no time and can only watch one thing, look at this video History of Israel Palestine by Jewish Holocaust Survivor Gabor Maté (~12 mins)

Understanding Personal Impact

Even if you are unwilling to take a moral position on the matter, remember that your silence is against your own self-interest

1. Your taxes are being funnelled to fuel the war (especially if you live in the western nations allying and supporting Israel)
2. War is not good for anyone. It increases cost of energy and living for you as well
3. Displacement of refugees and destruction of infrastructure will eventually affect you personally via social, environmental or economic changes

Clarifying some Myths

1. This is NOT a religious issue – rather a colonialist occupation
   1. This a textbook example of settler colonialism which started in ~1917 when Europeans started to represses Palestinian indigenous people’s rights and cultures by erasing it and replacing it by their own
   2. The local Arab population in ~1917 comprised of Arab Jews and Arab Muslims among others who had been living together in Palestinian lands (e.g. since ~637 AD when Caliph Umar took over Jerusalem and allowed some Jewish families to return who were expelled by Romans in 70 AD in the second exile) if not from earlier
2. Judaism is NOT equal to Zionism
   1. Judaism is a religious belief based on the Torah
   2. Zionism is a nationalist movement to establish the basis for a Jewish homeland in Palestine (imagined by Activists such as Theodor Herzl)
   3. Zion is the name of the hill upon which Jerusalem was built
   4. We recognize the freedom of religion and coexistence with Jewish people. What we do not recognize is an ideology which implements itself using injustice, dispossession, massacre and oppression 
3. This did NOT start last week because of the current situation
   1. It has been ongoing at least since the beginning of the 20th century with European colonization of Palestine. You can go further back in history for context
   2. The root cause of the problem is illegal occupation
4. This is NOT a conflict between two equally powerful nations
   1. There is strong occupying force (Israel) and there is a weak oppressed nation (Palestine)
   2. We oppose any ideology where people in the same land have different rights based on their ethnicity or religion. These oppressive actions have been confirmed by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other humanitarian organisations
5. A country is NOT above or immune to international Law
   1. The usage of chemical weapons, or blocking of water and electricity to entire populations (2.3 million in Gaza) is against international law
   2. It is also against international law to displace civilians (e.g. from north to south gaza) from their homes 
6. Self defense does NOT equal non-accountable, disproportionate retaliation
   1. Israel is currently (and has been in past decades) killing civilians (incl. elders, women and children) sometimes by using chemical weapons in the name of self defense
   2. If a murder takes place, the reaction is not to go and start bombing and killing the entire neighborhood or city of the alleged culprits
7. There is NO claim on land based on scripture (e.g. Biblical right)
   1. No one in the world is able to make the claim that this land belongs to us from 2,000 or 4,000 years ago because God promised it to us in our book 
   2. Imagine someone walking to Europe with the Quran and claiming that Europe is our God promised land from our book. Is this really a legitimate claim?
   3. There is almost no way to provide conclusive evidence for this especially since biblical scripture has not been preserved
8. European settlers are NOT necessarily natives of Palestinian lands
   1. One cannot claim that we are natives because our ancestors are the indigenous people from 2,000 years ago who were expelled from this land
   2. The people who lived in that land were Canaanites. Many Arabs living in Palestine today would have DNA from the Canaanites as well. If one examines the DNA of the settlers, there is a high chance that European settler Israeli people most likely have ancestors from the caucuses
   3. Even if the settlers can prove that their ancestors were natives, the locals today are still their cousins. There is still no right to expel or displace them
   4. Scientists believe that all humans originated from Africa anthropologically, does that mean we can all go to Africa now & claim to be natives there?
9. Zionism is Anti-semitic at its core – understand christian zionism
   1. Theodor Herzl did not believe in God. He was not following the Torah (old Testament). He was piggybacking on the idea of settler colonialism of Europeans 
   2. Evangelical Christians believe that end of times and return of Messiah cannot happen until jews are gathered in the land of palestine
   3. It’s called a double bill for anti-semites
   4. Arthur Balfour was a Christian Zionist. He did not want Jews in Europe, this is why he supported the zionist project. The british saw a double advantage first to stop russian jewish refugees from coming to europe by legislating aliens act in 1905 in british parliament. Second, to remove jews in europe and send them to Palestine with Balfour Declaration in 1917
   5. Harry Truman was a christian zionist who approved the creation of Israel in 1948. He was a devout christian who did not want jews in the west either

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Voices for Palestine 

Authors 

• Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Gideon Levy, Miko Peled, Avi Shlaim, Rashid Khalidi, Ghassan Kanafani, Mohammed el-Kurd

Journalists

• Chris Hedges, Max Blumenthal, Dan Cohen, Aaron Mate, Matt Kennard, Patrick Henningsen, Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, Abby Martin

Human rights organisations & NGOS

• United Nations, UNRWA, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Red Cross, Oxfam, Jewish Voice for Peace, NA’AMOD, IfNotNow, B’Tselem

Political / Govt Figures

• Mick Wallace (IE), Richard Boytt Barrett (IE), Clare Daly (IE), Holly Cairns (IE), Daniel Levy (diplomat IL), Josh Paul (USA),  Rashida Tlaib (USA), Jill Stein (USA),  Ione Belarra (ES), Jürgen Tödenhöfer (DE), Lucas Febraro (DE), Berber von der Voude (NL), Yanis Varoufakis (GR)

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