A Reminder To Everyone Posting About The Violence In Jerusalem And Across Israel And Palestine...

A reminder to everyone posting about the violence in Jerusalem and across Israel and Palestine...

It is not helpful to post one-sided, nuance-free content.  You are no less or no more woke when you include Islamophobic, antisemitic, racist, or downright horrific tropes in your posts that will not end the Occupation, will not end this brutal civil war, you will make no one feel any more or less safe, and will not make our world a better place.  Nuanced compassion will help you, and help us.

If you want to begin to understand the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as a non-Palestinian, as a non-Jew, as an non-Israeli, take a step back.  Take a deep breath, and…

…imagine you are a Palestinian father living in an occupied refugee camp outside of Bethlehem who cannot get to his work without going through a security barrier..Imagine the humiliating feeling.  Imagine you are an Israeli child living in Sderot, having to rush inside frequently due to frequent barrages of rockets aimed at your home.  Imagine that you are a young Palestinian teen living in the United States, unable to return to your grandparent’s birthplace of Lydda due to their forced evacuation in 1948.  Imagine you are an ultra orthodox Jewish woman living in a settlement in Gush Etzion, told that if you moved there you would live a more fruitful life - and constantly scared of her Palestinian neighbors.  Imagine you are a little boy living in the Gaza Strip or in Ramalah, taught to be scared of Jews and Israelis, due to frequent visits from the IDF.  Imagine that you are a young Yeshiva boy living in a settlement, scared to be kidnapped by Palestinians - a fear justified by the recent kidnapping and murder of three Jewish residents of the West Bank.  Imagine that you are a Palestinian olive tree farmer, and discovering that your trees have been cut down by settlers.  Imagine that you are a Jewish settler living in the West Bank who actively makes deep connections with her Palestinian neighbors, forging peace-building initiatives between Jews and Palestinian that you can only do as a resident of the West Bank.  Imagine that you are her partner, a Christian Palestinian man who works hard with her to combat hatred and bigotry.

Imagine you’re a queer Arab Israeli living outside of Tel Aviv… an Israeli teen activist against the occupation… an American Jew who cries when their family in Israel is bombarded by rockets… a young Palestinian man in Greece who has made a life outside of Palestine … a young Christian child living in Jerusalem under a barrage of rockets… a Palestinian teen who is so fed up by years of Occupation that tries to stab an IDF solider at a gate outside of the Old City of Jerusalem…. a young Bedouin child heartbroken to grow up around violence and fear… a Palestinian educator with Israeli friends trying to teach their class tolerance… a rabbi living in Tel Aviv trying to teach their congregation tolerance… 

The biggest problem with non-Palestinian (both in Palestine, and in the diaspora), non-Israeli, and non-Jewish discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is that those not directly involved, fail to see this conflict from the perspective of those directly involved.

Do the work.  And don’t hurt us along the way.