So for the last week or so Ive been getting into these ridiculous internet debates about Israel and Palestine in, what mostly, is a pointless endeavor--and this is why it is mostly pointless: for people who are unaware of the process, history or legacy of the capitalist system of colonization of indigenous people that has been going on for hundreds of years and that continues at this very active moment in time are the type of people who mostly support Israel. See, these people you can say hey, you know your shirt is made in Bangladesh and last year about 2000 people died in a factory with unsafe conditions in order to make that shirt affordable for you and they shrug their shoulders and say well, those people wouldnt have jobs if we didnt get this shirt made there. And see, if youre the type of person who doesnt get how nonsensical that is youre probably going to be the person that doesnt understand why many in the middle east hates Israel so much (and to dispell some rumours--Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Arab kingdoms DO NOT hate Israel and actively cooperate for their mutual benefits). Another example is this one--if I say isnt it weird that a company goes up to a mountain in Northern Canada and buys the rights from the government of Canada to mine it of all its minerals until the mountain is no more and that doesnt immediately strike you as somewhat weird or odd its because there is a colonizing ideology that is so far off in the background that has molded the way we think where we dont see that as out of place. And it is very difficult in an internet debate to get at that delicate point... that an ownership or governing class (yes politicians are a governing class) lays an artificial claim to a land people already live on and sell it or give it away to another group of people to use up and destroy totally excluding the original people from that land is a messed up. And furthermore, to imprison and murder those ppl when they oppose that plan is even MORE messed up. But these exact situations happen every day, every where in the world and THAT is why these people are so angry and want to drop bombs or shoot missiles on Western folks. The system of capitalism and colonization our government and corporations legitimize through laws and then use to destroy the lands and groups of people whose opinions were never asked about the matter in the first place is violent...they are inherently violent and destructive acts. And while the colonizer says what these indigenous people do is against the law it is the colonizer who made the law in the first place and imposed it through an undemocractic process on a group of ppl who never wanted to have anything to do with the colonizing country/entity in the first place. What the indigenous group does is terrorism or militancy from the colonizers perspective BUT it is really a legalized act of terrorism on behalf of the colonizer that established the situation in the first place. And if its difficult for someone to see that in these above examples its most likely that they have, unwittingly, been educated from birth to think like a colonizer. its not their fault. it just sort of happened that way and is mostly invisible to them. Now, you see, if I cant explain that delicate idea to a person (which is difficult in real life and which the internet makes almost impossible because the colonizer thought framework always sees these things as unrelated) it is very difficult to convince them that Israels very existence is a violent, antagonist act. The very creation of the state and its system was a violent, exclusionary, racist act against an indigenous group of people by a colonizing group of people--that the indigenous people would have been just as happy to have never had to interact with. it was imposed on them by force. and there was and is nothing democratic about the creation and maintenance of Israel as an entity (although they like to say Israel is democracy). It is ONLY legitimate to the colonizer but that legitimacy comes from the colonizer himself. You see, if I walk into your home and sit on your couch and you walk in and I say, Ive declared this house now the house of Musa, and you say to me but I already live here, and I say but this international agency said its my house now and you can live here, but you get the basement and I want to be able to do with the basement whatever I want whenever I want and if you oppose me that international agency will give me all manner of instruments to torture and impose my will on you and tell you your the criminal if you fight back you can see how all of my actions are aggressive and all your actions would simply be a retaliation to my aggression. So you see, any act of that group of colonizing ppl to enforce or maintain the invented law/declaraction that causes that group to exist against the indigenous ppl who were already on the land is always an act of aggression--and the act of the indigenous people to regain what was once theirs is NEVER an act of aggression. Its been a defense of what was theirs from the beginning. And the type of people who cant see that or believe there is some loop hole in that argument are the type of people who see the colonizer as having some sort of preordained special power to impose their ideas and will on other ppl who are considered less civilized. And it is very very difficult to explain how pervasive colonization is because it is a long delicate argument to explain how it is a way of thinking that people who have it are mostly unaware of having it--I know this because I use to have it and was totally unaware of having it. This is why a lot of ppl can still say Christopher Columbus DISCOVERED America with a straight face. And can talk about him with a sense of glory and pride. Nevermind that people had already discovered that land a long time ago and they didnt call it America. However, ppl and countries who are well aware of the system of colonization and have been on the colonized end of it are highly aware of this thinking and see it from miles and miles away in whatever form it comes in. These type of ppl see Palestine for what they are... freedom fighters responding to the aggression of a colonizer. And this is why these ppl recognize the Israeli attacks as what it is... a genocide and its system of control for what it is...an ethnocide AND also recognize flying an Israeli flag for what it is--which is to say as an image that may be understood, flying an Israeli an American flag and preaching that both sides make concessions and saying you are promoting peace is like flying a Confederate flag in the United States during segregation and telling both sides need to make concessions. As Malcolm X so gloriously put it...“You dont stick a knife in a mans back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say youre making progress... Now some ppl might feel the need to argue with this but dont bother... because Im not trying to convince you of anything. As I said, if you have the way of thinking and its invisible to you there is nothing I can say or do that will bring about any sort of transformation of your thought. And this post has no intention of doing that. It is something that can only come about through experiencing the effects of colonization for yourself--not as the colonizer but as the colonized. My suggestion for anyone who thinks Israels actions are legitimate is to go to Palestine and live in Gaza or West Bank (not Israel itself) for 3 months. Go behind the wall and really immerse yourself in their daily routines...stay with a family, travel where they travel, life how they are forced to live by their military occupier and come back and try to convince me that Israel is legitimate and what they are doing there is appropriate and in the realm of self defense. #FreePalestine
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 07:14:45 +0000
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