A comment I made on a friends wall in response to the following comment: One major error- the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict is very much based on religion. And if the Palestinians stop murdering, kidnapping, and blowing people up, then the majority of these issues will be solved. My Response: The conflict is not religious. Your perspective is religious, as you believe you have a God given right to the land as a Jew. As a Palestinian, I believe in my right to freedom, justice and equality as a human being. While not everyone believes in your biblical claim, the principles my people struggle for are universally understood and agreed upon in this day and age. It is intellectually lazy of you to reduce the Israeli-Palestinian impasse to a religious conflict. While this is a wide spread misunderstanding, this notion assumes that there are two equal and opposite parties that have differing theology and clash based on those religious disputes. Whereas, in reality, Israel is occupying the Palestinian people and has been oppressing them for 67 years now. It is convenient for you to claim a religious basis for this conflict because it serves as a distraction from the real cause of the conflict, which is the occupation. I challenge you to find a Palestinian who has a problem with Jews living in Palestine. Even the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, who was interviewed by Charlie Rose the other day said “We can live and coexist with Jews, but not with occupiers.” You believe that God gave you the right to the land of historic Palestine and in your mind that may be justification for the ongoing massacre and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. That is very much religious. But I ask you not to speak on behalf of Palestinians. We do not resist Israel because we hate Jews. We resist Israel because we hate oppression. Moreover, as a Palestinian I would go as far as to say that if ever under threat, I would defend your right to believe in whatever religious claims you may believe in. While I find them absurd, I recognize that freedom of religion and expression are universal rights that must be protected. Much like the freedom and justice my people are struggling for, I would defend your right to believe in whatever you want to believe in until my last breath. As a member of a marginalized and oppressed group who knows what it means to have my rights denied, it would be hypocritical of me not to stick up for the rights of others. But as soon as you use those beliefs to oppress me, I will resist your oppression vehemently. It is flat out absurd that you accuse Palestinians of murdering, kidnapping and blowing people up when that is exactly what Israel is doing in Gaza right now. Over 1400 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the past 3 weeks. The UN estimates that 80% of those murdered by Israel are innocent civilians. Even Israeli organizations like BTselem and The Israeli Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories also state that 1,432 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel and that 85% of them are civilians. For you to ignore this reality and claim that Palestinians need to stop killing civilians is ridiculous. Compare the 1400 Palestinians killed by Israel (80% of whom are civilians) to the 59 Israeli soldiers killed by Hamas and 1 Israeli civilian killed. The mode of thinking highlighted by your comments is symptomatic of the same type of thinking by people who blame rape victims for the actions of their attacker. Sure, a case of rape might be less violent if the victim didnt resist their abuser, but who in their right mind would ever blame the victim for resisting their abuse? Then you have the people who claim that the way the victim dresses is responsible for the rape. Much like you claiming this conflict is religious and blaming Palestinians for their suffering, these copouts only serve to detach the oppressor from their responsibility for their actions. Oppression is oppression is oppression whether it is rape or occupation. Yesterday Israel bombed a UN shelter housing 3000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children. The UN notified Israel of the GPS location of the shelter over 17 different times. The last time was 8 hours before Israel bombed it. Surely you do not condone this? Over 50 entire Palestinian families have been wiped off the face of the earth by Israel. There is no justification for any of this. As of May 1, 2014, there were 5,271 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 192 administrative detainees, 17 women, and 196 children. Yes, Israel kidnapped and imprisons 196 Palestinian children. Palestinians currently imprison 0 Israelis, children or otherwise. I cannot overstate how ludicrous your comments are. A few weeks ago, Israeli settlers kidnapped a 16-year-old Palestinian kid named Mohammed AbuKhdeir. He was brutally beaten, forced to drink gasoline and was burned to death. An autopsy revealed that Mohammed had smoke in his lungs, suggesting that the settlers set him on fire while he was still alive and breathing. You can take this incident and say it boils down to a religious conflict, but that wouldnt explain the busloads of Jewish mourners who came to give their condolences to the AbuKhdeir family who welcomed them into their home. This suggests that the AbuKhdeir family didn’t blame Jews or Judaism for the murder of their son. Not to mention the large portions of the Orthodox Jewish community who are strict anti Zionists. This is not a conflict between Muslim and Jew. This is a conflict between the oppressor and oppressed, the occupier and the occupied. It is irresponsible of you to frame it otherwise. You may hate Muslims and want to eradicate Palestinians. That is your prerogative. But we Palestinians hate our oppression, not you or any group of people. We strive to end the occupation and siege of our lands and demand full recognition of our rights. A final thought, last time we interacted, you announced your intentions to break international law and live in an illegal settlement in the West Bank; the West Bank being the territory of the future Palestinian state supposedly. Seeing as you strive to literally impede Palestinian statehood by colonizing Palestinian territory, I ask you what do you mean in your above comment when you say these ‘issues will be solved?” Are you saying that to you a final solution is Palestinians accepting and submitting to their oppression? Is the issue in your mind the oppressed resisting their oppressor and not the oppression itself? Should a rape victim not resist their attacker?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 22:42:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015