#am israel chai

[fromgoy2joy]

I sat next to the protest today.

I wrote fan-fiction about two gay jewish dads raising children to the play list of the chant- "No peace on stolen land!" on an American college campus. It isn't a name brand one either, nor does it have any legitimate ties to Israel. The anger is just there- it has rotten these future doctors, nurses, teachers, and members of society.

I don't even know what to call their demonstration- it was a tizzy of a Jew hatred affair. At points, there were empathetic statements about Gazans and their suffering. Then outright support of Hamas and violent resistance against all colonizers. Then this bizarre fixation on antisemitism while explaining the globalists are behind everything.

"Antisemitism doesn't exist. Not in the modern day," A professor gloated over a microphone in front of the library. "It's a weaponized concept, that's prevents us from getting actual places- ignore anyone who tells you otherwise."

"How can we be antisemitic?" A pasty white girl wearing a red Jordanian keffiyeh gloats five minutes later. "Palestinians are the actual semites."

"there is only one solution!" The crowd of over 50 students and faculty cried, over and over.

"Been there, done that," I thought, then added a reference to a mezuza in the fourth paragraph.

Two other Jewish students passed where I was parked out, hunching and trying to be as innocuous as possible. We laughed together at my predicament, where I am willingly hearing this bullshit and feeling so amused by this.

"Am I crazy? For sitting here?" I asked them. My friends shook their heads.

"We did the same last week- it's an amazing experience, isn't it?”

We all cackled hysterically again. They left to study for finals. Two minutes later, I learned from the current speaker that “Zionism” is behind everything bad in this world.

Forty-five minutes in, a boy I recognized joined me on my lonely bench. He came from a very secular Jewish family and had joined Hillel recently to learn more about his culture. His first Seder was two nights ago.

He sat next to me, heavy like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. There was just this despondent look on his face. I couldn’t describe it anyone else, but just sheer hopelessness personified.

“They hate us. I can’t believe how much they hate us.” He said in greeting.

And for the first time all day, I had no snarky response or glib. All I could do was stare out into the crowd, and sigh.

[anti-zionist-jew]

How would you even do an “anti-Zionist Seder” though. Like instead of the enslaved Israelites fleeing Egypt to settle Israel, are we supposed to say that there were white rich media moguls in Ancient Egypt going to buy apartments in New Jersey? Do we finish it off by saying Next Year in Hoboken? I’m really looking forward to how they spin this one

You just send this to everyone without reading anything they have already said on the subject don’t you?

That’s okay! I got you covered buddy. The idea of a NATION STATE did not exist back then. They did not flee to the nation state known today as Israel, because they didn’t exist at all. None of the history or text indicates that supporting the land means supporting what the modern state of Israel is. Zionism had not even been considered yet. So quite frankly it is you who has no idea what they are talking about.

Liberators/Freedom Seders have been being practiced for decades at this point. The anti Zionist Jewish community is only growing bigger every day.

[socialist-microwave-laser]

i feel torn. people are telling me i cannot support indigenous people, because i don't agree with accounts like blm chicago over on instagram lying, saying the only israeli hostages are soldiers. because i don't feel okay right now marching alongside people chanting 'gas the jews' and holding up swastikas. i feel gaslit as a jew.

is it true that i can't support indigenous folks while being terrified and mourning for the jewish lives lost? how can we share the powerful art of indigenous americans attacking their colonizers and still hold fear for israeli civilians in our hearts? can both be true at once or am i a hypocrite?

i can't pretend to have all the answers for you nonny, i wish i could. i'll walk you through my thought process from a jewish anarchist standpoint, and hopefully that may help you as well. i definitely got a bit rambly and my response is really long, but i think it's all important so i'm just putting it below a cut!

important note about the ashkenazic slant of my response! [link]

1. indigeneity is much less cut and dry when it comes to eretz israel than it does for, say, america, and it's already complicated enough in america

some people say jews are indigenous to eretz israel, some people say most jews are now colonizers in that land. i think this speaks both to the complicatedness of indigeneity and also the struggle of being a jew. determining who is and isn't indigenous in usamerican territories generally boils down to blood quantum under the eye of the state government ("nation on no map" by wc anderson goes into the issues with this approach very well), when it may be better described as a cultural inheritance. in terms of the history of jews. the european colonizations of basically the entire world is very, very recent. (the second temple fell in 70CE, whereas colón only made first contact with the taíno in october of 1492, coincidentally the year spain began its expulsion of jews from the iberian peninsula. this is especially relevant bc many jews began to flee to "The New World™️" trying to escape constant persecution in europe. there are some writings out of jerusalem from this year describing the diversity of people living there, as well as the oppression of jews by muslims at this time.) if you asked me, i think it's too simplistic to call jews either indigenous to eretz israel or colonizers. jews have been on the move and in diaspora since 70CE, a date that is before even the construction of la pirámide de la luna in teotihuacán (more accurately it'd be at least since the fall of the first temple in 500BCE but w/e). the long and the short of it is that jews left jerusalem before the height of teotihuacán, one of the first states in all of mesoamerica. how far back does this definition of indigeneity go? that's not for any one of us to really ask

(i think there's also an issue of white-presenting/-identifying/-whatever jews and specifically ashkenazim claiming this indigenous label that feels very. idk. it's iffy at best to me)

i think the main takeaway i have for this point is that the binary of colonizer/colonized is a lot more difficult than we'd like to think (for an example that hits closer to home, we can talk about african americans' presence in colonized lands, or natives' ownership of slaves in turn. this isn't "whataboutism," it's me illustrating that binaries hinder in-depth understanding of these categories. this discussion could take up books and is not the focus of this post, but please know this is a topic that is very serious and very very nuanced)

2. anarchism and decolonialism is a process, not a destination, and if anybody tells you they know the perfect say to do either of these processes, run the other way

i've see a lot of people in the past few days gesture to the actions of hamas and say "this is what decolonization looks like," and "nobody ever said decolonization will be pretty." this intersects with my fourth point, so i'll leave it at this: decolonizing eretz israel does not necessitate denying the holocaust, calling for the slaughter of every jew "from the river to the sea" (i recommend y'all look into the history of this term), or threatening to spread videos of the torture and murder of jewish civilian hostages throughout social media. this is when i point to the fact that the area that was attacked a few days ago was actually where a lot of leftists lived. also, that the jewish and/or israeli people have been very outspoken about the many atrocities both domestic and foreign by the israeli government for decades. i would say an alternative to what is happening now may have been to work with those protestors (many of whom have been very vocal about the mistreatment of palestinians bc obviously) or like anything that doesn't include holocaust denialism and the rape, torture, murder, defilement, whatever of civilians and children

3. judaism and anarchism teach us to make our homes in the uncomfortable

i'm comforted by knowing that not knowing the correct solution to things means we're on the right track. it encourages us to collaborate, debate, listen, do research, keep our minds open, learn, whatever. i mean when has a jew ever been like "i have the one answer to this complicated problem" and everybody else was like "yeah sweet okay that's solved?" at least in my studies, i've noted that the jewish tradition includes embracing the discomfort of two things being true at once, or nothing quite feeling like the one right answer. this is also an anarchist tradition (at least in the circles i run in). generally, anarchists have the policy of "if someone says they have the one correct solution, run the opposite direction."

basically what i'm saying is, asking these questions doesn't mean you're a bad jew or a bad activist. we all know why pesach is different than all other nights, yet we ask that question every year, and every year we have a discussion that bears new fruit. (the book that really opened my eyes to the homeyness of the uncomfortable is "brilliant imperfection: grappling with cure" by eli clare)

4. our political motivation must be out of love for each other, not hatred of Them™️

this is the most important takeaway from everything, in my opinion, and also my biggest gripe with the loudest leftists online. this is also something i've written many papers about, but i'll try to keep it brief.

if your idea of revolution is based on simply rooting out those you hate, not only will it be horribly unsustainable but your success will hinge on destroying your own motivating force. if you succeed, the people you hate will no longer be present, and you'll have to either pick a new motivating force or pick a new group of people to hate. to use the ussr as an example (bc the notes on this post are already gonna be nuclear-toxic, so what the hell), the ussr spent a LOT of energy after The Revolution™️ policing, surveilling, terrorizing, jailing, and killing its own people. entire generations were never able to trust others because of the constant fear of stepping out of line and being labeled as a threat. in order to keep the momentum of the state afloat, the ussr had to find new people to hate, and that new people had to come out of their own citizenry. it's a common critique of fascism—that their circle of acceptable people will get smaller and smaller until one day it's only one person, and even that one person won't live up to their own ideals.

basically, a revolution built on the hatred of the other rather than the love of the world is a revolution that, in my mind, is not worth having. that doesn't mean revolution must be 100% violence free, lord knows i don't mean that. but having love for humanity allows us to avoid dehumanizing the other (who oftentimes aren't as Other as we think). a lot of landlords are just everyday people who own one property and do genuinely care about their tenants. a lot of cops did genuinely think they were going to make a positive difference. a lot of israelis are just normal, everyday people like you and me (WITHOUT the luxury of being able to just up and move countries). it's worryingly easy to say someone isn't a real activist because they don't vehemently hate Them™️ but honestly to me that's a sign you're on the right track. i am a proud, usamerica-hating anarchist who already has one arrest under their belt, yet here i am still living in the us. and this isn't a contradiction bc dammit i have to live somewhere, and there's nowhere else for me to go even if i did have the money and means to move.

israelis are human beings, just like you and me, and being torn to bits by the atrocities. these people aren't soldiers, they aren't far right politicians, they aren't anything like that. they're human beings, and we can never forget that

[onthecouchguy-blog]

When you point out that Bethlehem is not in Gaza.... Why are these people so angry all the time. Cannot be good for their health. Jokes on them, Israel has existed for thousands of years and will exist for another thousand.

[legit9thlunaticwarrior]

calling yourself an mjf fan but ignoring that he is jewish and jews are indigenous to israel and have been since BC times is actually crazy and you are antisemitic

[shape]

Solidarity campaign #bringthemhomenow displayed on Billboard in Halle (Saale), Germany during Christmas 2023 and beyond +++

#bringthemhomenow

Solidarity campaign to free the 240 hostages kidnapped by Hamas & Islamic Jihad in Gaza (>130 still in captivity) and in memory of the victims of the jihadist massacres of October 7th in Israel, in which more than 1.300 people were murdered, hundreds were abused, raped and their homes were destroyed (5,431 injured in the terrorist attack). Since then, over 250,000 Israelis have been internally displaced. Israel is fighting for its existence, for the liberation of the hostages and for the security of the nation against terrorist organizations since 10/7.

We stand with Israel!

#bringthemhomenow

+++++

Campaign: https://stories.bringthemhomenow.net

fb: Bring Them Home Now insta: https://www.instagram.com/bringhomenow/

Mapping The October 7th Massacres: https://oct7map.com

[mihrsuri]

On the one hand yes absolutely not learning but really understanding the depth of how much so so many people hate Jews is awful but also - I have amazing friends and amazing Jewish friends/tumblr mutuals who are Jewish especially. And that matters too, you know.

(I haven’t been reblogging content or making content or have deleted reblogs I made because it was actively making me suicidal and I did promise i would do my best to live so I am not).

[tempogrotto]

[emiliejolie]

What has the watermelon done to be a symbol for such a hateful movement, poor bby.

[thomasew7]

whar does israel chai in your bio mean

It translates from Hebrew to "Israeli people lives" its a common saying for motivation and usually celebration of something in the Israeli history

[septembergold]

"Thinking of our brother today"

Shabbat Shalom

[ameliathefatcat]

High lights of my summer in Israel

Meeting Melinda Strauss

Going by my Hebrew name

Making new friends

Being asked if I was circumcised

Getting a kippah with my Hebrew name

Starting to wear tzitzit

Making a lot of furry friends

Having McDonald’s for the first time

Sunrise hike

Having a trip of a life time and getting closer to Hashem

[girlactionfigure]

Last year, to commemorate the anniversary of #Kristallnacht, the night of the broken glass, and in memory of the Holocaust, one of the biggest soccer teams in Brazil SC Corinthians Paulista sent a powerful message in solidarity with the Jewish community and Israel.

All the seats in the stadium and the team's jerseys were adorned with the yellow star. The back of the jerseys read: "AM ISRAEL CHAI" the people of Israel live.

We remember.

via: StandWithUs Brasil

StandWithUs 

[naipan]