On April 15th, people from over 30 cities around the world will launch a global economic blockade answering the call from Gaza to fight for a liberated Palestine. 75 years and 182 days into this U...
From the former perspective, this already is a antisemitic argument because it delegitimizes the existence of a safe space for Jews.
I thought more about this idea, and I agree that Jewish people are historically extremely persecuted such that they probably should have an independent nation as a safe space. But why does it have to be at the cost of so many lives and peoples homes? Massacre and displacement of Arab people is not a good way to create a safe haven for Jewish people, and having it continue for decades certainly increases antisemitism, in turn making Jewish people less safe.
I 100% agree and isn’t this the underlying struggle really? The British decided to put the Jewish state there and then left everyone kill each other. Now there are millions of people living in a small place all with their own reasons to live there. I can see why a Jewish state has its legitimacy, but not how this would legitimize Palestinian from being displaced. On the other hand, Palestinians have the same right to live there, but that doesn’t legitimize them from displacing Jews. Now everyone has their reasons to stay on the same land and fights over it without recognising the other side. This whole conflict is build on a really bad decision and history. But we are where we are right now and while it’s a fucked up situation, we cannot really do much but try to find a reasonable compromise for everyone.
And regarding what you said in your other comment: yes, this is a very asymmetric conflict and Israel obviously has much more military power, which it abuses all the time. And meanwhile the settlers continue violently displacing Palestinians all the time as well. This needs to be stopped! My point is just that, while we try to stop these atrocities from happening, we should never forget that in its core the Israeli state does have legitimacy and that there are Jews that do have a right to live there (obviously not the settlers where they settle).
And maybe a small anecdote: a really close friend to me was Palestinian, born in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus. He told me how he has lived his whole live there and how much at home he felt in this refugee camp. Just imagine, a refugee camp that went on existing over 60 years with its inhabitants not having a chance to be proper Syrians and being discriminated against constantly. Over a 100K people lived there. But then came the war in Syria and what the Syrian government instantly did was to destroy this camp. My point being, even other Arab countries (except Jordan really) around Israel give a shit about Palestinians. They treat them like outsiders to this day, don’t give them a chance of having basic rights and let them rot in camps just as well. Just look at Lebanon, same story there! And Egypt doesn’t care about them either. If we want to tell the whole story about Palestinians, we shouldn’t concentrate on Israel as the one evil. Again, this does not excuse anything the Israeli state is doing right now. But it stops us from demonizing Israel in the first place.
I thought more about this idea, and I agree that Jewish people are historically extremely persecuted such that they probably should have an independent nation as a safe space. But why does it have to be at the cost of so many lives and peoples homes? Massacre and displacement of Arab people is not a good way to create a safe haven for Jewish people, and having it continue for decades certainly increases antisemitism, in turn making Jewish people less safe.
I 100% agree and isn’t this the underlying struggle really? The British decided to put the Jewish state there and then left everyone kill each other. Now there are millions of people living in a small place all with their own reasons to live there. I can see why a Jewish state has its legitimacy, but not how this would legitimize Palestinian from being displaced. On the other hand, Palestinians have the same right to live there, but that doesn’t legitimize them from displacing Jews. Now everyone has their reasons to stay on the same land and fights over it without recognising the other side. This whole conflict is build on a really bad decision and history. But we are where we are right now and while it’s a fucked up situation, we cannot really do much but try to find a reasonable compromise for everyone.
And regarding what you said in your other comment: yes, this is a very asymmetric conflict and Israel obviously has much more military power, which it abuses all the time. And meanwhile the settlers continue violently displacing Palestinians all the time as well. This needs to be stopped! My point is just that, while we try to stop these atrocities from happening, we should never forget that in its core the Israeli state does have legitimacy and that there are Jews that do have a right to live there (obviously not the settlers where they settle).
And maybe a small anecdote: a really close friend to me was Palestinian, born in Yarmouk Camp in Damascus. He told me how he has lived his whole live there and how much at home he felt in this refugee camp. Just imagine, a refugee camp that went on existing over 60 years with its inhabitants not having a chance to be proper Syrians and being discriminated against constantly. Over a 100K people lived there. But then came the war in Syria and what the Syrian government instantly did was to destroy this camp. My point being, even other Arab countries (except Jordan really) around Israel give a shit about Palestinians. They treat them like outsiders to this day, don’t give them a chance of having basic rights and let them rot in camps just as well. Just look at Lebanon, same story there! And Egypt doesn’t care about them either. If we want to tell the whole story about Palestinians, we shouldn’t concentrate on Israel as the one evil. Again, this does not excuse anything the Israeli state is doing right now. But it stops us from demonizing Israel in the first place.