#guess what. Your views on Israel and Palestine ARE in fact going to be influenced by the fact that one of those nations is Jewish.

[gynecologistmsfrizzle]

Hmm I believe I remember learning a few years ago that when one is asked to acknowledge that they’re impacted subconsciously by systemic racism/sexism/homophobia etc, or is told that they’re behaving in a way that’s bigoted/harmful, “no I’m not” is the wrong answer. So I think some of you should get less excited about saying that when Jewish people tell you you’re being antisemitic.

#guess what. Your views on Israel and Palestine ARE in fact going to be influenced by the fact that one of those nations is Jewish. #Just as it’ll be influenced by the fact that one of those nations is majority Muslim. #Just as your feelings about police shootings will be influenced by the majority of victims being Black or Indigenous. #Just as your feelings about EVERYTHING will be impacted by the social forces that have shaped you and colour your perception. #Antisemitism actually DOES colour the words of people insisting that targeting Israeli civilians was a legitimate act of resistance. #Just as racism and Islamophobia colour the words of Israeli politicians and soldiers who insist that wiping out Gaza is a fair price to pay #for wiping out Hamas. #it has been absolutely staggering to see person after person on this site #casually assert that rules of war do not apply when the civilians they protect are Israeli #and refuse to consider even the SLIGHTEST possibility that the ease with which that assertion came to them #might have SOMETHING to do with an internalized belief that — say — #there is no such thing as a Jewish civilian? that all Jews are inherently loyal to other Jews above any loyalty to justice? #that all Jewish people wield a sort of inherent power that makes them less vulnerable and therefore acceptable targets? #Of course you’re antisemitic. Yes. You. I am too. We all are. We live in an antisemitic society. #And if you‘ll acknowledge that societal racism and sexism and homophobia inform your subconscious beliefs #and you’ll critically reflect on THOSE #but you won’t afford antisemitism the same dignity #I think that probably says something about something. #Just to be clear this actually isn’t a post that says anything about my stance on Israel and Palestine #because my stance on that is actually extremely simple— FTR it’s ’apartheid and war crimes and forced displacement are bad things’ #but this is about the internet’s RESPONSE #and the downright celebratory glee that I saw people have on oct 7th #and the fucking twisted excitement they’ve shown treating further Israeli war crimes like ammunition to justify it #and the simple truth that — while I’ll believe you MIGHT still have condoned it — #I do not believe any of you would have CELEBRATED the massacre of thousands of civilians in a period of minutes #if. those. civilians. had. not. been. Jews. #Rhi talks #palestine #antisemitism #Yeah and I’ll post this one too. Anon is still on. String me up.

[determinate-negation]

leftists in my town (a big city in germany) literally refuse to go to lectures/talks by jewish scholars who report on the current situation, for no good reason. any expertise is written off, they don't even look into the content. a friend literally said 'it souded pro isreal' - I read the description and it just didn't. It sounded like an expert trying to show a critical view of Isreali politics in fact. my jewish friends are afraid to come out to pro palestinian protests, because militant leftists burn isreali flags (mind you, these are white, german people. i wouldn't blame palestinians). all nuance is gone. people start romanticising hamas. like what the fuck happened do people no longer manage to keep two thoughts at once? nethanjahu is a fucking monster, imperialism is bad, but guess what, so is hamas? why is that controversial? also in 2014 when lots of syrians came, all arabic courses were booked out because people wanted to help and show solidarity and get to know these new people coming. thousands at airports to pick them up. i was among them. but then when ukrainians arrived, when we had protests against russia, i didn't see A SINGLE FUCKING PERSON showing up. why? is imperialism not bad when it comes to Russia because you think 'communism' there was great? eastern european voices are drowned completely. why can't we support palestinians AND jewish people in germany? attacks on jewish people have skyrocketed. we have a far right party gaining the most votes and people pretend like you're a monster if you call out antisemitism. jewish people in germany are not bombing palestine. jewish people in germany are a minority that is under constant attack. why can't be support syrians AND ukrainians? we must join together against imperialism but literally people are too stupid to see that they are being instrumentalised to influence the elections in the U.S. in particular. same happened 2016 and no one learned. it's frustrating. you don't have to sacrifice one fight for another. i support palestine. i support syrians. and then i check to see who shows up for Jewish people in germany and ukrainians who are also under genocide like conditions in Russia. and it's fucking no one. 80% of people during these ukraine protests are ukrainians. anyway. The israeli government is fucked, as is the U.S. government, as is Russia and as is Germany's and it will be a lot more fucked in the near future if everyone doesn't get their shit together.

ok this is going in my cringe compilation

1. theres nothing wrong with burning israeli flags. israeli flags dont represent jewish people in general. id be happy to see an israeli or american flag burning

2. if you expect me to condemn hamas or equate the israeli government and military with anti colonial palestinian resistance youre in the wrong place

3. your government is funding this genocide including the far right party (to my knowledge) which fully supports israel and wants to deport all non white people including (or maybe especially) palestinians and arabs- why are you conflating this with people protesting against the genocide??

4. do you not think germans are also super racist to syrians and refugees in general despite whatever it may seem about accepting them at first? people were really casually racist to me about refugees in germany when i was there

literally the only relevant thing here is that your friends didnt wanna go to an event and that attacks have increased, idk check your fucking friends and countrymen, because that predates israel, stop conflating actual antisemitism with people rightfully opposing a war their government is funding and colonized people for rightfully resisting extermination

[qqueenofhades]

Hello, I'm a second-year undergraduate student! My bachelor's is in International Studies, so I have various classes that span different disciplines but often touch on contemporary events. My first year was exciting, I was receiving a fairly nuanced array of perspectives and opinions on world conflicts, say, the war in Ukraine.

My university is generally understood to be a reputable and respected institution. Before last semester, I would have agreed.

However, their "nuanced approach" to teaching contemporary conflicts conveniently disappeared once Israel began its genocidal operations in Gaza. I've come to realise it has very close ties to Israel, and there is an obvious silencing of pro-Palestine voices. Faculty members feel surveilled (recorded lectures), and I've seen fellow students being harassed by others because they support a ceasefire.

I've talked to friends and acquaintances who support Palestine; we are all at a loss. We cannot voice our stance because of fear of being harassed, we are constantly fed Israeli propaganda, and our professors have begun to avoid touching on the topic. We learn international law, have a module on the Genocide Convention, yet we are told to ignore how Israel's actions are described in every article! Our degrees are supposed to be in International Relations! It's ridiculous.

We're trying to stay as informed as possible, doing what we can to subtly change other student's opinions by presenting them with information. But I've lost so much respect for the institution I pay to educate me and emit my degree, it's just enraging that they claim to form "critical thinkers" and "well-rounded" professionals when books written by pro-Palestinian authors aren't even available in our libraries.

I have no idea who else to ask for advice because professors have turned me down. Currently, my main concern is how to best stay immune to incessant propaganda in academic environments.

In advance, thank you for your time and response.

I'm sorry to hear it, that is a tough situation. You have a few choices as to how to respond. I can't tell you what to do because they will all require different actions, decisions, and consequences from you, and I can't predict or guess which course of action you will feel to be best. So yes, this is offered as advice only and you can choose what comes next.

First, if your university is in fact directly doing this, there is probably an element of fear. High-profile universities such as Harvard and UPenn have been attacked particularly by bad-faith right-wing actors due to alleged antisemitism, even though the Republicans don't care about antisemitism either and just want an excuse to bash left-wing liberal higher education. It's true that some universities have handled this incredibly complex issue very badly, have allowed fairly open antisemitic hate speech on their campuses, and aren't sure how to course correct back to "neutral," because "neutral" doesn't really exist here. Either side you take, you will piss someone off, and very few people have the tools or competencies to teach a well-rounded view, even if they should if they're literally in International Relations. So your university may have decided it's not worth being attacked by the bad-faith camps on either side, particularly the Republicans. There may be grubby internal politics at play (i.e. a major donor threatening to withhold funds or a high-ranking official threatening to cause problems if they allow open criticism of Israel on campus). This is not admirable, and it clashes with the idea of universities as blissfully nonpartisan idealistic environments of pure learning, but American universities are now very much beholden to the corporate shareholder model, and if the shareholders want to influence what is being taught or talked about, they can.

Therefore: you can do one of a few things. One, you can just stick it out, finish your degree, get the diploma with the university's name on it, then go somewhere else for your career or grad study that will allow you to operate outside this restricted environment. Two, you can stay at the school and continue to address this conflict in a responsible and accurate way in your assignments, bearing in mind that it might lead you into conflict or lower your grades. (If you do this, it will help to have a group of people doing it with you, and keep track of paperwork, communications, and other materials in case you end up in academic or legal arbitration and need to argue that you have been unfairly penalized). This will obviously require a little more sacrifice on your part and it is difficult to say how it will play out. But if you feel strongly about standing up for yourself and arguing that this is integral to your degree and program of study, you can do it.

Last, as you're only a sophomore and thus still have time to transfer, you can think about doing that. It is difficult to uproot your life, plans, college setting, friends, etc, but it is still a choice. If you feel that it is not worth your time to continue to pursue an education in this environment, and/or that the effort it would take from you outweighs the benefit that it would confer, you can leave, and search for an international relations program that is more willing to take a nuanced perspective in this issue. As I said, only you can decide where the line is, and what qualifies as a total deal breaker. If you're still getting a good education in other classes/areas, and still feel like it's good value for your tuition money, then it might be worth it to just quietly disagree with what you're hearing in this realm and do your best to maintain perspective outside of class.

I know that many young people (and people overall, but especially those under 25) have strong opinions on Israel/Hamas, and I would lastly caution you to avoid getting swept too far in the other direction; i.e. ONLY surround yourself with people who call themselves pro-Palestine but are usually just only anti-Israel and more specifically, just antisemitic. It should also not be the case, or at least I hope it's not, that you are being peer pressured by your friends to leave your degree and university altogether just because their position on this one issue leaves a lot to be desired. As I have said before, life is complex. You will have to make choices about what you want out of a situation and weigh up what is best for you to do. You should certainly understand, as I noted above, that if this in fact an actual university policy and not just a few professors and classes who have decided to avoid it, it probably comes from fear of financial, political, or public consequences and is not because those involved are simply "bad people" and just love genocide. So yeah.

As I said, only you can decide what you want to do here. It may be that by this time next year, this issue (which has been dominating headlines/discussion since October) will have died down or at least moved into another phase, and the pressure for people to discuss and/or not discuss it in a certain way will have also died down. Be aware that you will always have to make choices about what you do and don't want to do, and there will never be a perfect environment that just supports everything with no complications. And be sure that whatever you do decide to do is what is best for you, and not pushed one way or the other by either professors or by peers. I know this can be difficult, but by asking for advice, I hope you're willing to put in the time to think and do what's right.

Good luck!

#anonymous #ask #school stuff #israel hamas war