#Judaism yes Zionism no

[chanaleah]

it’s pretty ironic how much anti-zionists quote Emma Lazarus

“None of us are free until all of us are free!” Like yes girl that quote is generally accredited to Emma Lazarus, who was a Zionist and ALSO was speaking about Jewish refugees fleeing antisemitic violence in Russia

Anyways Emma Lazarus is my favorite poet so here’s some facts about her while I wait in an airport for my flight to take off

She was descended from Sephardic Jews who fled the inquisition and settled in the Americas in the 1600s

Most of her poems revolved around Jewish themes

She wrote the famous poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “The New Colossus”

She volunteered with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society helping Jewish refugees from Russia get settled in the US

She was a Zionist over a decade before the modern Zionist movement was founded, and advocated for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael and wrote essays against antisemitism

And here is a passage from my favorite Emma Lazarus poem, “In Exile”

Strange faces theirs, wherethrough the Orient sun / Gleams from the eyes and glows athwart the skin. / Grave lines of studious thought and purpose run / From curl-crowned forehead to dark-bearded chin. / And over all the seal is stamped thereon/ Of anguish branded by a world of sin, / In fire and blood through ages on their name, / Their seal of glory and the Gentiles' shame.

Freedom to love the law that Moses brought,/ To sing the songs of David, and to think / The thoughts Gabirol to Spinoza taught, / Freedom to dig the common earth, to drink / The universal air—for this they sought / Refuge o'er wave and continent, to link / Egypt with Texas in their mystic chain, / And truth's perpetual lamp forbid to wane.

If you want to read more here is an article I can recommend you: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/emma-lazarus

[thehumanbeans]

goyim look up what zionism means challenge level: impossible

[ducksoup17]

please stop confusing antizionism with antisemitism. please I beg of you

[whiskeysorrows]

I think something a lot of the internet is not processing about Israel-Palestine is that this is not a religious conflict. This is not a Jewish-Muslim war. This is an issue of Palestinians being ethnic cleansed and colonised for the past 70 years by the Israeli government.

I usually leave the political posts for other people but dear god show some critical thinking and an understanding of the history before you speak.

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

So they don’t like it when people label them something they don’t identify with??? Hmmm 🤔

Funny that 🤔.

[bandofchimeras]

I hope that Zionists and complacent US Americans are AT LEAST deeply uncomfortable following me, and normalizers of genocide go to fucking hell. :)

while also recognizing the deep complicity of genocide and mass violence in Sudan and the Congo, and across the world, that regrettably until recently had remained out of line of sight and care due to anti-Blacknes...US Americans have very little real international awareness but it is our duty to develop it and form true soldiarity and commit to reparations, actual decolonization and land-back/sovereignty, relational and ecological restoration. Point blank, end of story, no argument, no exceptions.

[p0ison-moon]

(this is petty and unreasonable of me but also it’s real feelings so whatever) gosh I just love the cycle of antisemitic thing happens ➡️ all my goy friends put one (1) thing on their Instagram story about and don’t mention it ever again or ask me if I’m okay ➡️ the post they shared is from some Zionist org that thinks Palestinians don’t have the right to organize and advocate for themselves and call out Israel etc etc or whatever ➡️ I get angry but don’t say anything because I’m always the angry anti-Zionist and also the angry Jew and I don’t want them to feel like they’re never going to be good enough for me ➡️ repeat

[rodeodeparis]

sorry if this isn't that deep but could you clarify what you meant on your last post? i'm just not sure if you're saying these people would've fallen for zionism or if i'm misunderstanding you really badly

that is exactly what i'm saying

[makingqueerhistory]

I have a somewhat odd question. In June, I was part of creating an online Pride Shabbat for queer Jews unable or unwilling to go to Pride in their home area due to the rise in antisemitism, and as part of it, I wrote a memorial/Kaddish meditation about queer people across time and space. It’s fair to say I couldn’t have done it without MQH, which featured heavily in my research of historical queer figures.

I want to share the piece on Tumblr because I think some folks with progressive synagogues might like it, or may simply find it personally meaningful. Here comes the question: in any other time, I’d find it absolutely abhorrent to share it without crediting you for the time, love, effort, and care you’ve put into MQH that made my job so much simpler. But times being what they are, I don’t feel it’s right to do so indiscriminately, because I’m all too aware you may face splash damage for being associated with a filthy Bad Jew who doesn’t disavow all of Judaism etc. etc.

As a result, I feel obligated to ask if you’d prefer I omit your name from the post, especially since you’re trying to make MQH financially solvent. Please let me know, so I can decide how to structure my post.

Okay this is a complicated question. I will admit I was initially quite confused by the second paragraph of this, until I checked your blog. I realized quickly that you are refering to the fact that you're a Zionist.

I feel like I have been very public about the fact that I oppose Zionism, but in case I haven't been obvious enough, I want to say it clearly:

I learned about anti-Zionism and the movement to free Palestine from almost exclusively Jewish voices. People who have been referred to as "self-hating" when I post about them. They are voices I didn't seek out for their opinions on Palestine, but who shared their opinions with a level of love and passion that I admire deeply. They have gifted me with time and education, and they are the only reason I believe what I do today. Without these Jewish voices, I do believe I could have lost myself in the deliberate obfuscation that happens around this issue.

All of this being said, yes, please do share that I was able to help share queer stories that informed what you have created. But know, that everything I have made comes from a deep love and passion for justice that includes the Palestinian people.

[applesauce42069]

israel is an integral part of my culture, religion and ethnicity.

"but no its not because these antizionist Jews have judaism without israel"

yes because they have removed it from their identity in order to make themselves acceptable to you. ask them how thats working out for them in terms of their connection to the wider jewish community and ability to participate in judaism.

in traditional, intracommunal discussions about zionism, it wasn't about whether or not jews came from or were connected to israel. that has always been a given. it was about whether jews should or could return. and they did. and that is the world we are living in today.

meanwhile, antizionist jews have just taken in the IRI propaganda they've been fed, and its so that they can feel accepted by you. don't expect us to do the same.

[zonatcannibalism]

yes. people online DO NOT know what zionism is. and calling myself a zionist has caused people to be gross to me. but it dosent matter beacuse i refuse to let them take that away from me. zionism is what my ancestors called missing their indigenous homeland. zionism is what my grandparents called fleeing urope when antisemitism was on the rise. zionism is what my parents called having a home where we are safe and free to be jewish. zionism is what i call my belief in everybodies rigth to live in their homes peacfully. zionism is what i call my belief in my rigth to exist. zionism is a term made by jews for jews based on values that are woven into the oldest parts of judaism, and i refuse to change the terminology i describe my jewish idology with beacuse the goyim didnt like it. i am a zionist from a zionist family and i belive in peace and coexistance and a free palestine. i wont let a couple of online tankies take that away from me beacuse they decided it made me a bad jew.

[pencopanko]

Antisemitism and Islamophobia are very similar (if not the same), actually

So I was scrolling down the #palestine tag for any updates and important information, and I came across this:

And I think we need to sit down and talk about this.

I am a Muslim. I live in Indonesia, a country that is predominantly Muslim and a lot of Muslims here also support the Palestinian cause. Hell, even our government supports it by not only allowing Palestinian goods enter the country without fee, but also by taking in Palestinian refugees and even acknowledging the status of Palestine as a state while not having any political ties with Israel. The topic of the Palestinian tragedy has been spoon-fed to us at schools, sermons, media, etc., so your average Indonesian Muslim would at the very least be aware of the conflict while non-Muslims would hear about it from their Muslim friends or through media.

However, there is a glaring problem. One that I keep seeing way too often for my liking.

A lot of them are antisemitic as hell. The sermons I would hear sometimes demonize Jewish people. Antisemitic statements are openly said out loud on social media. Some are even Nazi supporters who would literally go to anime cons and COSPLAY as members of the Nazi party. This is not just an Indonesian Muslim problem, no, but this is a glaring issue within the global Islamic community as a whole. Today, this sense of antisemitism is usually rooted in general hatred towards the Israeli government and its actions against the people of Palestine, but antisemitism amongst Muslims are also rooted in certain interpretations of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith mentioning Jewish people and Judaism (particularly the Bani Israil), but in a way that is more ridiculing instead of life-threatening when compared to how antisemitism looks like in the Western world.

As someone who prefers to become a "bridge" between two sides in most cases, I find this situation to be concerning, to say the least. While, yes, it is important for us Muslims to support Palestine and fight against injustice, we must not forget that not every Jewish people support the Israeli government. A lot of them are even anti-Zionists who actively condemn Israel and even disagree with the existence of Israel as a state as it goes against their teachings. A lot of them are also Holocaust survivors or their descendants, so it is harmful to think for one second that Hitler's actions and policies were justified. It's just like saying that Netanyahu is right for his decision to destroy Palestine and commit war crime after war crime towards the Palestinians.

As Muslims, we also need to remember that Jewish people (the Yahudi) are considered ahli kitab, i.e. People Of The Book along with Christians (the Nasrani). The Islam I have come to know and love has no mentions of Allah allowing us to persecute them or anyone collectively for the actions of a few. While, yes, there are disagreements with our respective teachings I do not see that as an excuse to even use antisemitic slurs against Jewish people during a pro-Palestine rally, let alone support a man who was known for his acts of cruelty toward the Jewish community in WW2. They are still our siblings/cousins in faith, after all. Unless they have done active harm like stealing homes from civilians or celebrating the destruction of Palestine or supporting the Israeli government and the IOF or are members of the IOF, no Jewish people (and Christians, for that matter) must be harmed in our fight against Zionism.

Contemporary antisemitism is similar to (if not straight up being the exact same thing as) contemporary Islamophobia, if you think about it; due to the actions of a select few that has caused severe harm towards innocent people, an entire community has been a target of hate. Even when you have tried to call out the ones supporting such cruelties, you are still getting bombarded by hate speech. It's doubly worse if you're also simultaneously part of a marginalized group like BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc. as you also get attacked on multiple sides. This is where we all need to self-reflect, practice empathy, and unlearn all of the antisemitism and unjustified hatred that we were exposed to.

So, do call out Zionism and Nazism when you see it. Call out the US government for funding this atrocity and others before it that had ALSO triggered the rise of Islamophobia. Call your reps. Go to the streets. Punch a fascist if you feel so inclined. Support your local businesses instead of pro-Israel companies.

But not at the cost of our Jewish siblings. Not at the cost of innocent Jewish people who may also be your allies. If you do that, you are no different from a MAGA cap-wearing, gun-tooting, slur-yelling Islamophobe.

That is all for now, may your watermelons taste fresh and sweet.

🍉

Salam Semangka, Penco

[stil-lindigo]

Hello, very confused and overwhelmed outsider here. Looking at posts here and on news sites I see such pradoxical views, one saying to not support Palestine is to support genocide and the other saying to not support Israel is to be antisemitic. I wonder, and I am going around asking people on different sides of the war, do you believe it is possible to support both the lives of Palestinian people and the lives of Jewish people?

Feel free to ignore this ask or to point out any ignorance on my part. I hope you have some peace in your day/night, I can only imagine how stressful it is to have so many people asking so many serious questions.

hi anon. I’m gonna try to make this is as concise as possible, since I’m technically writing this on my lunch break. Yes, it is possible and in fact very easy to support the lives of Palestinian and Jewish people because - and this is the important part - Israel and Zionism is not Judaism. Depending on who you may ask, Zionism began as a pure-hearted desire for Jewish people post-WW2 to create a place that would always unequivocally be safe for Jews, but as I am not Jewish myself I feel like any description I might give comes off as insincere and not fully grasping the scope of that mission. But no matter what Zionism once was, it is now the belief that Jewish people have the right to commit genocide against indigenous population so that they can establish their ethno-state. And you can split hairs all you like, but after the past four months, my belief in that has only solidified.

Perhaps the strongest opposition to Israel comes from Jewish people themselves, who’ve popularized “not in my name” as a protest chant. Holocaust survivors have come out in droves to protest the actions of Israel, and they’re often the strongest front of any protest action since - yes, you’re right - mainstream news is very committed to selling the idea that this “war” is Jews vs Muslims which is just inflammatory racist garbage. There’s more to it than I can easily get into right now, but just for a start, it completely erases the existence of Palestinian Jews or Palestinian Christians, and also ignores Israel’s historically abusive and degrading treatment of their own Holocaust survivors in their population.

This “war” is not a war. It’s a genocide, where the total amount of bombs dropped on Gaza is officially over twice the impact of a nuclear bomb. One side is asking for a stop the fighting, for aid to be allowed through, they are asking for clean water and food as their women have been forced to rip off scraps off tents to use as menstrual products. One side has had all 35 their hospitals bombed (a war-crime the first time, and it continues to be a war crime every time it still happens), over 100 of their journalists have been targeted and murdered (more journalists than were killed in all of WW2, and btw this is also a war crime). And the other side films TikTok’s levelling apartment buildings, looting houses, kicking Palestinian hostages, stripping them naked and urinating on them. Israel has rained white phosphorus down on Palestine, they have bombed Palestine indiscriminately, they have destroyed archives, historical locations, they have done their best to rob Palestinians of their dignity and empathy and still, they’re not done.

Oh and the excuse that they’re just doing all of this to save the hostages? Hamas offered them all back in exchange for a ceasefire. And the Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu, said no.

In the future, try to get your news from trusted news sources like Al Jazeera, and following journalists on the ground like Bisan and Motaz.

[baroque-hashem]

Many American Jews are starting to realize what the early Zionists realized over a hundred years ago: that to be a people without a nation is to be constantly aliens, seen as eternally homeless, viewed as parasites rather than people. Many Jews came to America to escape the antisemitism of countries they came from, like Germany, Russia, and others. But many Jews also realized that if antisemitism had thoroughly infected places like Europe, surely it would infect America eventually as well. Well, antisemitism is thoroughly infecting America. How much longer will Jews be safe here? Are we all to make aliyah? Are we all to leave? Are we safe only among our own people, within the boundaries of our own nation? I don't have an answer but the answer of "yes" seems to be more likely with every passing day.

Zionism is not a quirk of Judaism. It is as essential to Judaism as the Talmud or the Torah. It is the modern terminology for the ancient realization that the Jews are a people, and any people must have a nation, lest they disintegrate into the dust from which they came.

[menlove]

like yes "from the river to the sea" is not antisemitic and neither is protesting "jewish businesses" if that business happens to be a weapons manufacturer

but yall seem to think that those two things are the only things people are talking about when we say leftists are being antisemitic rn

like sure fine that's great! but are you

spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories (ie "israelis are stealing unborn babies out of palestinian women and burning them/eating them/using them in xyz ways" w 0 backup yes I've seen that)? connecting absolutely everything to zionists and saying they run the world/media/banks? making random connections to this situation w no proof? (just saw someone say puerto rico getting rid of its stray cat population "has ties to 🍉" like yall need to get serious)

are you saying "idk I just can't trust anyone wearing a star of david now like at this point the star of david is basically a swastika :/ you shouldn't use it"?

are you responding to the list of celebrities who support israel with "well this isn't surprising, hollywood is jewish"?

are you saying israel and every israeli should be destroyed? not "from the river to the sea" or that israel shouldn't exist as a state but I've seen multiple popular leftists saying "idc if the entire place gets bombed and everyone dies" like you realize that includes innocent civilians and people protesting their government and non-jews as well right? like you are advocating for genocide in response to genocide and at this point yall just want more violence, not justice.

are you saying antisemitism isn't a real problem anymore? or like everyone's favorite celebrity rn susan sarandan said "now jews know what muslims feel like" as if antisemitism and islamphobia don't go hand in hand? are you saying antisemitism is a "sad interpersonal problem but not systemic"? are you saying that during the holocaust the jews should have found an alternative to israel (true) by "civil resistance" implying that no jews resisted during the holocaust and that the holocaust was somehow the fault of the jews for not doing enough for themselves? are you saying that anyone bringing up your antisemitism rn needs to shut up bc "it's not about you" because you can't comprehend that people can care about multiple things at once?

are you asking every jew you meet where they stand on palestine and accusing every single jew you disagree with about literally anything of being a zionist? are you calling jews zionists who are just scared of rising antisemitism rn? are you using "zionist" as a placeholder for "jew" bc you can immediately say you're talking about zionists and not jews even if the post has nothing to do w zionism and only judaism?

are you agreeing with and marching with nazis and white supremacists and not realizing?

are you making jews afraid to attend pro-palestine protests because they're getting harassed? and yes this happens at pro-israel protests too but this is a post aimed at pro-palestine leftists bc I am one and that is my audience

are you acting, in general, like the actions of a shitty government and shitty people equate to the beliefs of every single jew on earth? are you making posts comparing judaism to christianity bc of this? saying jews have a history of violence and conquest on par w christianity when it's quite literally just israel and in the rest of history for the last SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS jews have been anything BUT a world power? do you not hear the parallels to antisemitic conspiracy when you insist on this? outside of israel, what instances can you think of where judaism has been a historically violent and oppressive religion? spoiler: it's not, israel is the baby of colonial interests and thus follows their pattern. it's not because of judaism

are you tolerating and okay with people shouting blatantly antisemitic things at jewish people bc they're shitty people? like think of it this way would you be fine w a bunch of straight people shouting "faggot" at a white gay republican? or a racial slur at a republican of color? would either of those things be fine? no? then aiming actual blatant antisemitism at a zionist is not okay either. you can shout all manner of things at them that don't involve antisemitic phrases, remarks, and threats.

[decolonize-the-everything]

Misinformation?

On my internet?

Take this and come with me.

Now gather 'round the Preamble

Alright some critical thinking questions:

By saying Arab Palestinians belong in Palestine, does that mean they are suggesting only Arab Palestinians belong there? If yes why did they still choose to recognize others as Palestinian? Who would that include? How do these questions apply to the next point made about Islam in Palestine?

When the charter says "Palestine is the cause of a people who have been let down by a world that fails to secure them their rights [...]." Does this exclude Jewish experiences?

Did any drafts of the The Balfour Declaration, which declared a land for Jewish ppl, include Palestinian voices?

Is Zionism representative of all Jewish people?

Since Zionism and Judaism are not the same; How is the state of Israel silencing Orthodox Jewish ppl by enforcing a state which opposes their beliefs? Is this antisemitic?

What does "Palestinians of all affiliations" mean within the context of "fully sovereign"? How does liberation apply to all of the above?

By saying "Palestine is the spirit of the Ummah" are they suggesting it is relevant only to Muslim people? Why or why not?

Did anywhere in this Preamble state the express desire to remove, punish, or kill Jewish people?

The charter is only 11 pages btw.

Im gonna go over all of them on my blog to debunk Zionists spreading misinformation.

The next section is simply titled 'The Movement' btw. I'll make a post about it later or tomorrow maybe depending on the feedback I get after this post lol

I did it