Decades of conflict and struggle in the Middle East are being downplayed by the media's eagerness to seek condemnation of Hamas by political leaders.
  • newtraditionalists@beehaw.org
    23·
    1 year ago

    Read the article before posting please. This is a serious and complex issue.

    I have struggled this time to engage with some of my friends. I have learned that many of them are not as supportive of oppressed people as they claimed to be. Tribalism is a deep current in the human psyche. I think the author does a good job of laying out some of my thoughts. Particularly, about the pressure that social media engaged people feel to declare things as if they were tiny heads of state.

    I love my friends, but the fact is, they are incredibly underqualified and undereducated on these issues, as am I, and most people. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have opinions on these things, but making these opinions in such absolutist “I’m going to end this friendship if we don’t agree” way doesn’t help. I have never once heard them speak about Israel and Palestine, and all of the sudden they can’t stop pontificating. Social media makes some people so self obsessed they can’t help themselves from seeking the validation they get from seeing their words on a screen.

    In more aggressive terms, I don’t need to know your opinions on geopolitics Becky. The last time I saw you, you were doing lines of what you hoped was coke that you got from a stranger dressed as a unicorn. I don’t trust you to watch my houseplants.

    At any rate, saying Palestine should be free is not antisemitism. Free Palestine!

  • Kajo [he/him] 🌈@beehaw.org
    12·
    1 year ago

    In a recent interview, Yara El-Ghadban (Palestinian-Canadian novelist, with a PhD in anthropology) made an interesting answer to this recurring question: by asking her “do you condemn Hamas?”, the interviewer was questioning her humanity, and she didn’t have to prove or justify her humanity.

    I find this point of view interesting, because it turns the question on its head. Since the answer is obvious, what does it mean to ask this question, and why is it only asked of certain people?

    • rgb3x3@beehaw.org
      14·
      1 year ago

      It’s likely asked as a “gotcha” sort of question; a question that the asker is using to prove the answerer is on the side of the terrorists. There’s no nuance in that question.

      It’s meant as a leading question to derail legitimate discussion.

    • liv@beehaw.orgEnglish
      16·
      1 year ago

      I’m not OP but the author’s starting point is about the expression of solidarity with a group of ordinary people, and how this is being undermined by media. Pretty sure this kind of solidarity is part of socialist praxis?

  • gu3miles@beehaw.org
    6·
    1 year ago

    It’s a super complex issue. I honestly think the article makes it one step more complicated since it asks to not condemn Hamas. “Free Palistine” is one thing, “I stand with Hamas”… That’s a totally different animal.

    • Devi@beehaw.orgEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Nobody is saying you can’t. Read the article.

      It’s somewhat misleading to call one side of a war a ‘terrorist organisation’ though. That’s not really how war works.

      • dumdum666@kbin.social
        1·
        1 year ago

        one side of a war a ‘terrorist organisation’

        Are you shitting me? The group that has the destruction of Israel in their founding charter and that massacred more than 1000 civilians is just a regular war party? They are fucking war criminals according to International Humanitarian Law.

        • Devi@beehaw.orgEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          You understand how many civilians Israel has massacred this week?

          Both sides have committed war crimes but Israels are more numerous even if we talk about the current conflict and ignore the past decades of torture, cruelty and invasions.

          Having said that, there’s been an acceptance of war crimes recently since America committed a lot.