#Apartheid Legacy

[manoasha]

Nelson Mandela: A Hero of Hope and Unity 🌍

Early Days and Family: Nelson Mandela was born in South Africa on July 18, 1918. He came from a small village and grew up in a royal family, where he first learned about fairness and equality. Big Achievements: Mandela became a leader fighting against a system called apartheid, which kept people apart based on their skin color. Even when he was sent to prison for 27 years, he never gave up on…

View On WordPress

#NelsonMandela Hero Hope Unity Apartheid Inspiration Equality Leadership Legacy SouthAfrica Forgiveness HumanRights Peace Recon

[thunkdeep]

The Revolutionary Spirit of Mbongeni Ngema: A Tribute to His Life and Legacy

Join us in honoring the revolutionary spirit of Mbongeni Ngema, a beacon of hope and resistance. Dive into the captivating journey of this iconic South African playwright, composer, and director whose art transformed the world. Discover his enduring le...

the lion king Mbongeni Ngema, a South African playwright, composer, and director, was a towering figure whose creative genius and unwavering spirit deeply impacted the world. This blog pays homage to his life, celebrating the legacy of a man who used his art as a weapon against oppression and a beacon for hope. Early Life and Inspirations Mbongeni Ngema was born in 1955 in Verulam, South…

View On WordPress

#African Culture #Anti-Apartheid Art #Legacy of Ngema #Mbongeni Ngema #Revolutionary Playwright #Sarafina #South African Theatre #ThinkTank Theorium #ThunkDeep #ThunkSpiracy

[factcheckandchill]

Historical thread: from Manifest Destiny to today's global strife.

James Monroe gave a State of the Union address on December 2nd, 1823. Buried within it, was a warning to the powers of Europe; that any further expansion in the Americas might be perceived as an act of hostility.

By the late 19th century, the Monroe Doctrine combined with the rise of the concept of Manifest Destiny, gave the perfect combination for American expansion westward towards, and into the Pacific.

Monroe was the last "founding father" to serve as president. He attended the College of William and Mary, fought in the Continental Army, and practiced law in Virginia. He was an anti-federalist - a group involved in ratifying the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, he served as minister to France from 1794 to 1796. He was also, partly responsible for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

America started as groups of various European settlements whose affluent organized to create an independent, monarch-free empire. A monarchy of the rich with an illusion of public equality.

This was at a time when Europe was grappling with what powers their monarchs should have.

They originated as feudal systems in medieval times in Europe that developed from the mass enslavement of the poor in proto-capitalist societies.

The economic systems we live under today, if you live in the Western world, or a place under Western spheres of influence, derive from those systems.

In the 19th century, the Europeans and Americans could not allow for systems that existed outside capitalist control. The idea that people did not serve a state power, a monarch, or the various forms of landlords/capital owners, was unsettling and a threat to their legitimacy.

During colonial times, Guatemala was an administrative center in the Central American region. Today, it remains a religious center. Monroe-ism had a hand in eradicating most European control in that region. And instead imposing U.S. influence.

The influence is most pronounced in the Panama region, where the dollar is the current currency.

While the impact of Spanish, Portuguese, and other European conquest in Central and South America is still felt today, the current hand of the local conquistador, the U.S.A., is most today.

For the past 200 years, U.S. intervention in Latin America has become second nature. If a government in that region does something that the U.S. does not like, then that is grounds for a U.S.-backed coup, destabilization of government and society, and re-appointment of more U.S. corporate interest-friendly persons in the place of anyone the U.S. does not like. This started to translate elsewhere after Wilson took power. Like in the Koreas, Iraq (where the U.S. supported Saddam until they didn't) Israel, the GCC, Iran, heck even the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states - namely Yugoslavia.

Moral consistency be damned, you have to protect your foreign interests and ensure access to other people's natural resources! Right?

Nowadays, the times of Monroe and other early presidents are incredibly romanticized by U.S. Americans. Forgetting his actions towards Native Americans, and his presiding over the trail of tears.

This is not unlike the modern-day treatment of occupied indigenous populations elsewhere. But hey, white culture is better than any other, right? (Wrong, it isn't, it never was, it never will be.)

Looking at Palestine today, you can see where this amalgamation of Monroe-ism, Wilsonianism, post-modern imperialism and colonialism collide. And it all goes down to this white supremacist belief that their culture and way of life is best, which is infantilistic at best and narcissistic at worst.

Winston Churchill himself said of the colonization of Palestine;

"I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, though he may have lain there for a very long time I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race or at any rate a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, 'American continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here'. They had not the right, nor had they the power."

Decades after the Monroe Doctrine State of the Union, Theodore Roosevelt used the Monroe Doctrine as a way to legitimize America's "international police power" around the world. And if we ask KRS-One about the police, they are an extension of the upkeep of white supremacy in the United States. According to Roosevelt, the Monroe Doctrine was a way for the U.S. to expand their overseer officers across the globe.

Roosevelt's antics in Venezuela, reflect the ideals of today's American government. Telling Henry Cabot Lodge, "I rather hope the fight will come soon. The clamor of the peace faction has convinced me that this country needs a war."

Today, Joe Biden, like most all presidents before, is keeping up this power. Protecting their interests everywhere at the expense of everyone else. As we see in the carte blanche given to Israel by its imperial benefactors to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants, to whomever it wants. Including committing genocide, enacting apartheid, controlling the world's largest concentration camp, and arresting 100s of children annually - without charge or judicial oversight - in military prisons, in a country that has become a safe haven for pedophiles according to its own media, amongst incalculable and unimaginable atrocities occurring daily against Palestinians across the territories.

This brings us to China and the Soviet Union, both of these nations are/were economic rivals of the U.S. The former two gaining power on the global stage is not good news for U.S. global control, as they provide alternatives to anything the U.S. can do, and it would be a great danger to U.S. and European satellite stateless, like Israel.

Cuba, being the antithesis of an American satellite state, remains a thorn in the side of U.S. foreign policy. A state, in its own 'sphere of influence', that isn't attached to the U.S. economically and socially? Worse, economically tied to the Soviets? What?!?!

Hell, the Monroe Doctrine was at the root of J.F. Kennedy's response during the 'Cuban Missile Crisis'.

And before you start to list the 'atrocities' of the Cuban state, I wish to redirect you to the concept of moral consistency! Look it up.

This is a catch-22 for both the U.S. and Israel. They both have internal issues that are bringing their power down on the global stage, and American support of Israel brings its power and influence down even further. Its power going down brings Israeli support down.

The final goal of anti-Monroe-vian visionaries should be to take away the veto powers of all who hold them on the UNSC, taking away any carte blanche powers that any state can hold, and the demand of moral consistency from all.

The Monroe Doctrine started out as a way to prevent European involvement in the Americas to ensure U.S. American economic influence in the Western Hemisphere. Later on, expanding that hemisphere to wherever natural resources and economic pathways may lay.

This motivated Europe to expedite the process of expanding east and south. A process that has been in the works, but it definitely allowed for more capability, time, and focus to be applied there than in the potential of expanding into the western hemisphere.

In today's world, Europe's colonial modus operandi is to settle its people elsewhere. While the U.S. modus is imposing a military and cultural presence that sought to command people's loyalties to what it saw as the moral high ground. Manifesting what once was titled the "white man's burden" - or in today's social power structure the "western-capitalist man's burden."

#palestine #manifest destiny #U.S. dimplomacy #israel #joe biden #genocide #united nations #gaza #politics #apartheid #israel palestine conflict #Monroe Doctrine #American Expansion #Manifest Destiny #Imperialism #US Foreign Policy #Global Politics #Colonial Legacy #Monroeism #Latin America #US Intervention #Western Capitalism #Modern Imperialism #Global Power Dynamics #American Empire #Global Influence

[metavariation]

Life of Nelson Mandela in Brief

Nelson Mandela succeeded in abolishing apartheid in South Africa through a combination of non-violent protest and negotiations with the government. He campaigned tirelessly for the rights of black South Africans, and his activism led to the dismantling of the system of racial segregation and discrimination. He also spent decades in prison for his anti-apartheid activities, which further raised awareness of the issue and increased pressure on the South African government to end the system. Mandela eventually negotiated a peaceful transition to a multiracial democracy in South Africa, resulting in the end of apartheid and the adoption of a new constitution that protects the rights of all people.

Nelson Mandela succeeded in abolishing apartheid in South Africa by leading a successful nonviolent resistance movement against the South African government, negotiating a peaceful end to the system of racial segregation, and advocating for the adoption of a new democratic constitution that provided equal rights and opportunities for all people in South Africa. He also fought for economic policies that would improve the lives of people in the country and worked to build bridges between the different racial and cultural groups. His legacy continues to inspire people around the world to this day.

Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, political leader, and philanthropist who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a fully representative democratic election. Mandela was born into the Thembu royal family on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, South Africa. He was given the name Rolihlahla, which means "troublemaker," by his teacher. Read More...

#NelsonMandela #Mandela #Madiba #SouthAfrica #Apartheid #Freedom #Inspiration #HumanRights #Legacy #Rolihlahla #Leader #Revolutionary #NobelPeacePrize #AntiApartheid #Activist #President #Philanthropist #PeacefulResistance #SocialJustice #Icon #ActivistForChange #metavariation

[tamamita]

why do people hate the dutch so badly lol its so weird

Why do you people have this weird obsession of defending the Dutch? Do you guys just stop at the English and the French in your Leftism and just forget about every other shitty European country? They were major players in the colonial game and committed atrocities wherever they went, and they still retain much of their racist and imperialist legacy. Did you forget about the South African apartheid? Who were those white people in power exactly? If a South Asian man of Muslim background is complaining about the state of minorities in Europe as Islamophobia, antisemitism, anti-romani sentiments, racism and hostility towards refugees are normalized, especially with right-wing figures becoming increasingly powerful and prominent in EU politics, then don't question them, and read a book instead. But yeah defend the country that has a holiday dedicated to being racist.

[makingqueerhistory]

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

Angela Y Davis

In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today's struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine. Facing a world of outrageous injustice, Davis challenges us to imagine and build the movement for human liberation. And in doing so, she reminds us that "Freedom is a constant struggle."

(Affiliate link above)

#queer #queer books #queer history

[workingclasshistory]

On this day, 8 April 2013, former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher died. Street parties broke out across the UK, particularly in working class areas and in former mining communities which were ravaged by her policies. Her legacy is best remembered for her destruction of the British workers' movement, after the defeat of the miners' strike of 1984-85. This enabled the drastic increase of economic inequality and unemployment in the 1980s. Her government also slashed social housing, helping to create the situation today where it is unavailable for most people, and private property prices are mostly unaffordable for the young. Thatcher also complained that children were "being cheated of a sound start in life" by being taught that "they have an inalienable right to be gay", so she introduced the vicious section 28 law prohibiting teaching of homosexuality as acceptable. Abroad, Thatcher was a powerful advocate for racism, advising the Australian foreign minister to beware of Asians, else his country would "end up like Fiji, where the Indian migrants have taken over". She hosted apartheid South Africa's head of state, while denouncing the African National Congress as a "typical terrorist organisation". Chilean dictator general Augusto Pinochet, responsible for the rape, murder and torture of tens of thousands of people, was a close personal friend. Back in Britain, she protected numerous politicians accused of paedophilia including Sir Peter Hayman, and MPs Peter Morrison and Cyril Smith. She also lobbied for her friend, serial child abuser Jimmy Savile, to be knighted despite being warned about his behaviour. Margaret Thatcher was eventually forced to step down after the defeat of her hated poll tax by a mass non-payment campaign. Pictured: Jimmy Savile welcoming Thatcher to hell, reportedly. Learn more about the great miners' strike of 1984-5 in our podcast series: https://workingclasshistory.com/tag/1984-5-miners-strike/ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=605239344982618&set=a.602588028581083&type=3

[probablyasocialecologist]

Zionism is not some ‘2,000-year-old yearning’ of the Jewish people. Israel isn’t the product of a national liberation movement. Israel is the product of European society in the age of imperialism at the end of the nineteenth century. Israel is a colonial-settler state that is unapologetically racist in its legal system and denies basic human rights to its Arab population. And, of course, Israel is openly engaged in acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing. That begs the question: What state has the ‘right’ to genocide and ethnic cleansing? What state has the right to racial apartheid and dispossession? None.

[...]

Zionists speak of the sanctity and inviolability of Israel, of its supposedly ancient Biblical roots. But the planning for the modern State of Israel was declared in New York City at the corner of 43rd and Madison in the old Biltmore Hotel at a Zionist conference of 600 people in 1942. Israel isn’t the legacy of an ancient yearning. It’s the concoction of a layer of Jewish separatists who received the backing of the world’s most powerful empires because there was a convergence of needs. Britain and later the US needed an outpost in the Middle East, where the oil was, and Zionists sought a separate homeland and were fully prepared to become an aircraft carrier for empire, populated by loyal white European Jews who would act as a bulwark against the region’s Arab and Muslim populations.

Sherry Wolf, Palestine 101: Asking questions of Zionism

#israel #zionism #settler colonialism

[sayruq]

But South Africa’s lawsuit seeking a halt to the Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the Hamas cross-border attack in October comes after years of deteriorating relations rooted in the ANC’s decades-long support for the Palestinian cause and the legacy of Israel’s close military alliance with the apartheid regime during some of the most oppressive years of white rule.

#yemen #jerusalem #tel aviv #current events #palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #news on gaza #palestine news #news update #war news #war on gaza #south africa #apartheid #icj #international court of justice #israeli war crimes

[radiofreederry]

Happy birthday, Nelson Mandela! (July 18, 1918)

One of the most famous freedom fighters in the history of Africa, Nelson Mandela was born into a prominent Xhosa family in Mvezo, South Africa. He studied law and worked as a lawyer in Johannesburg before involving himself in the struggle against apartheid, the system of racial segregation imposed by South Africa's ruling white minority. He joined the African National Congress, which he would later go on to lead, as well as the South African Communist Party, having come to embrace socialism and Pan-Africanism. He was originally committed to nonviolent protest, but ultimately founded the uMkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation" in Xhosa), the ANC's paramilitary wing, and led them in violent resistance to the apartheid government. Mandela was captured and imprisoned for 27 years, becoming an internationally-recognized political prisoner and representative of the anti-apartheid struggle before his release in 1990. Mandela was instrumental in negotiating the end of apartheid, and in South Africa's first multiracial elections, was elected President. He served from 1994 to 1999, overseeing a reckoning with apartheid's legacy, as well as introducing moderate social reforms, though never pursuing particularly radical policies. After leaving office, Mandela remained an elder statesman and an international figure until his death in 2013.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for. But, my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

#birthdays #nelson mandela

[traincoded]

Sports and Politics reading list

(all can be found for free/libgen links)

The ‘Ungrateful Athlete’: Anti-Black, Anti-Labor Currents in Sports Media: Podcast episode from Citations Needed about the coverage of sportspersons in the United States. Interviews professor Amira Rose Davis.

Revolt of the Black Athlete, by Harry Edwards. Remember that fist raised in protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics? Sociologist and activist Harry Edwards was the architect of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, which led to the Black Power Salute and called for an Olympics boycott.

Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: Dilemmas of the Modern Fan by Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson is a set of essays about what complicates sports fandom in modern sports by two journalists.

Beyond a Boundary by CLR James is a history and memoir of cricket in the West Indies and colonial legacies. James is a Trinidadian Marxist best known for writing The Black Jacobins.

Soccer in the Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeanos is a rebellious history of football through an anti imperialist lens. Galeanos is better known for his book Open Veins of Latin American.

Anyone but England: Cricket, Race and Class by Mike Marquesse: A Jewish American takes a look at cricket’s storied history when it comes to race and class, with particular focus on apartheid South Africa.

Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sports is a collection of essays in the Routledge Critical Studies in Sports series. Of interest is Chapter 7 on black Marxism and the politics of sport. Chapter 8 overviews theories of sporting celebrity, class and black feminism in context of the Williams sisters.

A Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Football by Suzy Wrack is a history of english women's football. If you've heard that women's football was banned by the FA in reaction to its encroaching on the popularity of the men's game, this is a good place to start abt that history to the present day.

#recs #reading lists #sports

[visenyaism]

so….the robert e lee statue, thoughts ?

i ask because i recall you mentioning being both southern and a historian — so if anyone is qualified to give a nuanced analysis on the matter i figured you’d be the best candidate. i am broadly against iconoclasm of all kinds but i (a European) am not well versed in the particular history of this period or the statue itself.

mayhaps you can help.

many thanks

sure. so for people who don’t know, today, the Robert E. Lee statue formerly installed in Charlottesville, Virginia, was melted down so that a local Black public history organization can use the material to create new community art.

Luckily for you, Confederate statue removal isn’t actually a nuanced issue at all. This is unequivocally a good thing!!! it’s what the community, a substantial portion of which is Black, wanted! This was the same Robert E Lee statue whose potential removal sparked the unite the right rally in 2017, where white nationalists and nazis holding tiki torches attempted to intimidate the community into keeping the statue up. Eventually, we finally got it removed in 2021, and there was like live music and extremely loud cheering as they took that thing down.

To describe confederate memorials in the south as just iconoclasm is to me a little reductive. They are unambiguously racist. Putting up a statue of someone who fought and sometimes died to continue the mass enslavement of african-americans is racist. The history of these statues is clear: they weren’t installed during or shortly after the Civil War, when the Confederacy was still in living memory. Most of them were put up in the 1890s, during the origin of the jim crow apartheid governments, the 1920s, which saw a huge national revival of white supremacy and KKK racist terrorism, and the 1960s, with the racist backlash to the civil rights movement.

Most statues, including the Charlottesville Lee statue, were put up specifically in front of courthouses and in town squares: the goal was not to celebrate any kind of southern history, but to intimidate Black defendants going to Jim Crow court or Black residents trying to live their lives in white spaces. The message that Confederate statues were intended to send is that the community is not for African-Americans, and to remind them of the legacy of white supremacist violence inflicted against them. They are hateful and all of them need to be taken down.

Today is a great day for Charlottesville and the realization of 7 years of community activism. There are thousands of statues still left across the country to work on next.

#anyways i’m done! this is personal obvi. the years i lived in beautiful cville were a gift and i miss that place so much. #the people working on swords into plowshares are amazing

[bitegore]

This is the specific stance I have on whatever atrocities by Hamas you want me to consider.

You cannot expect me to believe that any fighting force is going to do any warfare without atrocities. You particularly will never, ever be able to convince me that fighting in civilian-populated areas will ever be free from sexual violence, from coercion, from civilian casualties. This is kind of just the nature of war - there is no such thing as a "good, clean war" and there never will be. Israel has committed plenty of human rights violations against Palestinians and whatever human rights violation you want me to worry about on October 7 has been done to Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. And it's also been done on every other population under military threat by every other military on the planet. Don't kid yourself.

What concerns me is not which side has "fought the cleanest" and what concerns me is also not which side is nicest. What specifically concerns me is the amount of control civilian populations are under and the way those civilian populations are being discussed. Each side has committed war crimes. I'm not going to bat for Hamas. But just like I expect you to stand in support of Israeli civilians who have done no wrong, I think there is something deeply wrong with you if you won't stand in support of Palestinian civilians who have done nothing wrong. And if you want to point to specific atrocities and war crimes that have been widespread on both sides as reason that Palestinian civilians should not be afforded the care Israeli citizens automatically are, then I think something is rotten in your heart.

I am also concerned by apartheid in general. Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to military law whereas Israelis in the West Bank are subject to civilian law. Reputable Israeli human rights organizations like B'tselem themselves have described Israeli laws pertaining to Palestinians (and other non-Jews in Israel, like the Druze people) as apartheid.

First and foremost in my heart I am a Jew. I was raised hoping one day to make my own home in Israel or Palestine, whatever you want to name it: the region itself is a place I see as the land of my forefathers. The part of my family I am closest to, care most about, and want to be connected to came to America from the Middle East in my grandparents' lifetimes. And I myself was raised in America, in a fundamentally flawed system with a long, bloody legacy of racism and violent settler-colonialism. For me, patriotism includes wanting the countries I care about to do better.

And at the moment Israel in its current incarnation has killed one in every 200 individuals in Gaza. Hamas's attack on October 7 was a tragedy - but they did not kill one in every 200 civilians in Israel. And they have not continued to kill tens or hundreds of civilians per day, and they have not committed to a siege of starvation on a mostly-civilian population. Israel's attacks on Gaza have targeted hospitals, schools, UN sites, and refugee camps. Israel will be able to recover from the October 7 attack. Most of Gaza's infrastructure lies in ruins.

History has taught us also that oppression will not last forever. One day the government in Israel will be overturned, and if it isn't, Palestinians will still be treated better and given a place in society. One way or another, the people of Palestine will be free. The mistreatment only promises that this freedom must be bought in Israeli blood- if there is no path forward but through Israel, then that will be the path that must be taken. And at the moment there is no path forward for the people of Gaza but through Israel. So I cannot find myself surprised that the people of Gaza are lashing out with violence, when history teaches us that this is always the case. And history also teaches us that in the years after, modern Israel will be spoken about wrapped in disclaimers of racism and Islamophobia and settler-colonialism the way America is now, or in tones of abject horror the way that Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa is now, depending on which way the tables turn for the current regime. Nelson Mandela, to the Western majority, was a terrorist involved in bombings before he was a hero.

I think it's rare that there's a situation this clear-cut in this day and age, where despite the tactics used by either side even a modicum of historical literacy tells you what must be done and what side needs more support. The people of Gaza are without food, without water, without safe shelter, under a four-day ceasefire that will pick back up after it's left off unless something changes and under a military blockade even if the ceasefire is permanent holding them in a cramped, besieged location. Travel for Palestinians is difficult and requires approval from both local Palestinian authorities and Israeli administrative groups; travel for Israeli citizens is significantly easier. And in the West Bank, Palestinians are under threat.

This doesn't even touch on the horrendous, genocidal remarks from Israeli government leaders. I'm not repeating the remarks verbatim, because there are too many: read them for yourself here. It's kind of really obvious that Hamas itself is not ever going to take over Israel if you're paying attention. But Israel exerts a lot of control over Gaza. Calling civilians cockroaches, subhumans, and human animals and then shelling them for more than a month straight is pretty fucking bad.

Free Palestine. Justice for the Palestinians.

#red rambles #i also have strong objections to zionism and its fundamental precepts #but that's not really relevant #gaza

[fiercynn]

Like persons of the Palestinian diaspora, and some in the Jewish community, I am a descendant of a displaced people (namely West Africans forcibly removed, brutalized, and enslaved). I understand desires to correct or minimize historical wrongs and return to a homeland.  The founding and colonization of Liberia by African Americans in the 1820s was one attempt to correct the tragedy of American slavery. Viewing Africa as the “Promised Land,” African Americans, sponsored by the American Colonization Society, repatriated in West Africa. African Americans did this despite the fact that the region was already inhabited and settled by ethnic groups that had been there for centuries. Though empathizing with African Americans fleeing American racism, I must not forget that these settlers (now called Americo-Liberians) colonized and seized the lands of pre-existing West African populations. I admit this while recognizing that my beloved hometown of Petersburg, Virginia, and its historically large free Black population sent many Black settlers to Liberia (including Joseph Jenkins Roberts, the first president!). While ensuring that the histories of Blacks from my hometown are not forgotten, I must also remember that Indigenous Liberians were forced to suffer for the sins of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. I sympathize with the need of Jewish people (particularly Holocaust survivors) to have a sanctuary from the inhumanity of Nazi Germany, the horrifying legacy of European pogroms and massacres, and other forms of antisemitic racism. As I recall the horrors of the Holocaust, I will not forget how Palestinians are continually forced to suffer for the sins of the Nazi Holocaust against European Jews. [x]

personal essay on solidarity with palestine by lory j. dance, published in mondoweiss on october 25, 2023

#free palestine #black and palestinian solidarity

[tamamita]

(apologies ahead of time if this is something you already talked about) you're very invested in this conflict and I am genuinely confused by some things, you seem to support hamas but from my pov they're a fascist organization that took power with military might, and oppress their own people. according to people I know living in israel they've been kidnapping, r@#!ing, and killing civilians. and I've been told any palestinians who speak against it or try to escape are labeled as traitors and executed. basically what I want to know is if you support hamas despite all that, why? what am I missing here? is everything people are saying despite being documented or even personal expereince from people I know is a lie? I understand not supporting israel and I understand supporting palestinians but I don't understand supporting hamas

I'm disappointed, because you say that you've been in touch with a bunch of Israelis, yet you've made no efforts to consult with a Palestinan. The Israelis aren't suffering; the Palestinians are and have been ever since the Nakba of 1948 (which I hope your Israeli friends mentioned), 105 years if we count the Belfour declaration. So next time, please consult with a Palestinian if you want to understand the occupation better than to consult with a bunch of privileged people living in an illegal settler colonial state. It's even more evident that you'll hastly accept any information from Western and Israeli-sponsored media, e.g Hamas mass r*pe, beheaded children, etc, despite the fact that they've been debunked to death now.

I support violent resistence against colonialism and imperialism. Israel has been occupying Palestine for 75 years, so the Palestinians have actively been resisting the ever expanding settler colonial regime. Once again, Hamas at its conception was initially funded by Israel as an attempt to undermine the secular and socialist resistance groups in Palestine. Indeed, the former IOF Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev confessed to Mehdi Hassan that Israel funded Hamas (thus being complicit in the creation of its outdated 1988 charter). The Israelis did not expect the blowback when Hamas grew to power after they secured power in Gaza. Hamas, for me, is just a resistance group that continuous to uphold its legacy of decolonization by actively fighting against the apartheid regime. Now you may ask, why not peaceful resistance? Habibi, the last time a peaceful protest was held, 200+ Palestinians were shot to death during the Great March of Return. Israel seeks to undermine any attempts for Palestinian self-determination.

As for the death and kidnapping of those Israelis. This was inevitable. Israel is NOT a safe & peaceful country, it is keeping an entire population of people inside a cage, while blocking them from food, water, electricity and humanitarian aid. Even UN secretary general António Guterres said, what happened on October the 7th, did not happen out of a vacuum, that was the culimination of 75 years of oppression against the Palestinians. It was obvious that the resistance movement would fight back, it is the government's damn fault for putting its citizens and settler villages close to world's largest open-air prison, while expecting everything to run smoothly. Indeed, surveys show that Israelis are blaming the IOF and the government for the lack of security which resulted in the death of the Israelis.

Now, even if Hamas was removed from the equation, did you forget about the Palestinians in the West Bank who are constantly being targeted by violent settlers? Do you think Palestinians have no right to self-defense when they are being subjected to harassment, torment and systematic oppression? Palestinian children and women are constantly kidnapped, r*ped, tortured to death, blackmailed, jailed for life under a conviction rate of 99% under Israeli courts. You tell me how Palestinians feel first before you consult with a bunch of Israelis who will never suffer a fraction of what the oppressed are going through.

[hummussexual]

Excerpt:

Pinkwashing’s relationship with homonationalism and Orientalism

The pinkwashing carried out by Israeli authorities is based on an Orientalist view that Palestinians remain “backwards” in their stance on homosexuality because apparently, we refuse to emulate the progressiveness of the west. 

To be “gay friendly,” as gender studies academic Jasbir Puar explains, is to be modern, cosmopolitan, developed, first-world, Global North, and, most significantly, democratic – something that Palestinians supposedly do not have the capability of ever achieving.

This erases the agency of Palestinians, especially the progressive forces inside Palestine – including the achievements of queer Palestinian movements. The Orientalist tropes found in pinkwashing also completely disregards the history and legacies of colonialism and modern-day imperialism in the region. It is an example of euro-centric, western exceptionalism – and a pillar of anti-Arab racism.

Pinkwashing and homonationalism also go hand in hand. First coined by Puar in 2007, the concept of homonationalism argues that western LGBTQI+ movements are often bound up with upholding the racist sovereignty of the nation state. Puar argued that neoliberal and capitalist power structures line up with the queer liberation movement by using sexual diversity and LGBTQI+ rights to peddle or maintain nationalist stances – such as anti-immigration policies which are based on prejudices that the “other” are homophobic and that western society is egalitarian.

For Israel, homonationalism is deployed to justify its own exceptionalism and violent oppression of the “other” – in this case, Palestinians. 

Israel flaunts its liberal openness to homosexuality while contrasting it to the sexual oppression among Palestinian society and neighbouring Arab countries. It therefore serves as an excuse for Israel to rationalise its occupation of Palestinians, and to “liberate” oppressed Palestinian queers. The latter is seen through Israel’s myths about “saving” Palestinian queers by “regularly” approving their asylum seeker applications to escape their homophobic and oppressive families or communities in the West Bank or Gaza.

While it’s hard to verify how often these asylum seeker approvals occur, waxing lyrical about their supposed humanitarian work plays into the homonationalist narrative. Since when are immigration authorities – not just in Israel, but any immigration (or border) authority globally – benevolent, progressive entities full of empathy and care? Let alone towards Arabs?

As Queers Against Israeli Apartheid once pointed out, “there is no pink door in the apartheid wall.” This means that like every other Palestinian, LGBTQI+ Palestinians are also at the mercy of Israel’s violent, racist settler-colonial project. This is because queer Palestinians simply do not fit into Israel’s homonationalist quest to uphold the racist sovereignty of its nation state – one where a legally-enforced apartheid system puts only Jewish people at the top of the pyramid.

#pinkwashing #israel #zionism #zionist entity #zionism is racism #lgbt #queer #politics #settler colonialism #palestine #elias jahshan #Hayfaa Chalabi #jasbir puar