A Pro-Palestine Jew On Tiktok Asked Those Of Us Who Were Raised Pro-Israel, What Got Us To Change Our
A pro-Palestine Jew on tiktok asked those of us who were raised pro-Israel, what got us to change our minds on Palestine. I made a video to answer (with my voice, not my face), and a few people watched it and found some value in it. I'm putting this here too. I communicate through text better than voice.
So I feel repetitive for saying this at this point, but I grew up in the West Bank settlements. I wrote this post to give an example of the extent to which Palestinians are dehumanized there.
Where I live now, I meet Palestinians in day to day life. Israeli Arab citizens living their lives. In the West Bank, it was nothing like that. Over there, I only saw them through the electric fence, and the hostility between us and Palestinians was tangible.
When you're a child being brought into the situation, you don't experience the context, you don't experience the history, you don't know why they're hostile to you. You just feel "these people hate me, they don't want me to exist." And that bubble was my reality. So when I was taught in school that everything we did was in self defense, that our military is special and uniquely ethical because it's the only defensive military in the world - that made sense to me. It slotted neatly into the reality I knew.
One of the first things to burst the bubble for me was when I spoke to an old Israeli man and he was talking about his trauma from battle. I don't remember what he said, but it hit me wrong. It conflicted with the history as I understood it. So I was a bit desperate to make it make sense again, and I said, "But everything we did was in self defense, right?"
He kinda looked at me, couldn't understand at all why I was upset, and he went, "We destroyed whole villages. Of course we did. It was war, that's what you do."
And that casual "of course" stuck with me. I had to look into it more.
I couldn't look at more accurate history, and not at accounts by Palestinians, I was too primed against these sources to trust them. The community I grew up in had an anti-intellectual element to it where scholars weren't trusted about things like this.
So what really solidified this for me, was seeing Palestinian culture.
Because part of the story that Israel tells us to justify everything, is that Palestinians are not a distinct group of people, they're just Arabs. They belong to the nations around us. They insist on being here because they want to deny us a homeland. The Palestinian identity exists to hurt us. This, because the idea of displacing them and taking over their lands doesn't sound like stealing, if this was never theirs and they're only pretending because they want to deprive us.
But then foods, dances, clothing, embroidery, the Palestinian dialect. These things are history. They don't pop into existence just because you hate Jews and they're trying to move here. How gorgeous is the Palestinian thobe? How stunning is tatreez in general? And when I saw specific patterns belonging to different regions of Palestine?
All of these painted for me a rich shared life of a group of people, and countered the narrative that the Palestininian identity was fabricated to hurt us. It taught me that, whatever we call them, whatever they call themselves, they have a history in this land, they have a right to it, they have a connection to it that we can't override with our own.
I started having conversations with leftist friends. Confronting the fact that the borders of the occupied territories are arbitrary and every Israeli city was taken from them. In one of those conversations, I was encouraged to rethink how I imagine peace.
This also goes back to schooling. Because they drilled into us, we're the ones who want peace, they're the ones who keep fighting, they're just so dedicated to death and killing and they won't leave us alone.
In high school, we had a stadium event with a speaker who was telling us about a person who defected from Hamas, converted to Christianity and became a Shin Bet agent. Pretty sure you can read this in the book "Son of Hamas." A lot of my friends read the book, I didn't read it, I only know what I was told in that lecture. I guess they couldn't risk us missing out on the indoctrination if we chose not to read it.
One of the things they told us was how he thought, we've been fighting with them for so long, Israelis must have a culture around the glorification of violence. And he looked for that in music. He looked for songs about war. And for a while he just couldn't find any, but when he did, he translated it more fully, and he found out the song was about an end to wars. And this, according to the story as I was told it, was one of the things that convinced him. If you know know the current trending Israeli "war anthem," you know this flimsy reasoning doesn't work.
Back then, my friend encouraged me to think more critically about how we as Israelis envision peace, as the absence of resistance. And how self-centered it is. They can be suffering under our occupation, but as long as it doesn't reach us, that's called peace. So of course we want it and they don't.
Unless we're willing to work to change the situation entirely, our calls for peace are just "please stop fighting back against the harm we cause you."
In this video, Shlomo Yitzchak shares how he changed his mind. His story is much more interesting than mine, and he's much more eloquent telling it. He mentions how he was taught to fear Palestinians. An automatic thought, "If I go with you, you'll kill me." I was taught this too. I was taught that, if I'm in a taxi, I should be looking at the driver's name. And if that name is Arab, I should watch the road and the route he's taking, to be prepared in case he wants to take me somewhere to kill me. Just a random person trying to work. For years it stayed a habit, I'd automatically look at the driver's name. Even after knowing that I want to align myself with liberation, justice, and equality. It was a process of unlearning.
On October, not long after the current escalation of violence, I had to take a taxi again. A Jewish driver stopped and told me he'll take me, "so an Arab doesn't get you." Israeli Jews are so comfortable saying things like this to each other. My neighbors discussed a Palestinian employee, with one saying "We should tell him not to come anymore, that we want to hire a Jew." The second answered, "No, he'll say it's discrimination," like it would be so ridiculous of him. And the first just shrugged, "So we don't have to tell him why." They didn't go through with it, but they were so casual about this conversation.
In the Torah, we're told to treat those who are foreign to us well, because we know what it's like to be the foreigner. Fighting back against oppression is the natural human thing to do. We know it because we lived it. And as soon as I looked at things from this angle, it wasn't really a choice of what to support.
More Posts from Theinformalsomnol and Others
MORE PALESTINIAN ESCAPE FUNDS CLOSE TO THEIR GOAL
1.Urgent Relief : Help Shadi's Family Evacuate Gaza - $10,044 / 15,000
(vouched for and vetted on twitter)
2. Help Moayed Escape the War in Gaza to Safety - €2,014 / 10,000
(vouched for and vetted on twitter)
3. Trapped Family in Gaza Appeals for Help to Survive - €25,285 / 38,000
(verified by @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein)
4. Help Anas family in Gaza - $$11,400 / 20,000
(verified and vetted by @/nabulsi)
5. Help two sisters from Gaza to achieve their dreams - €21,473 / 30,000
Verified Palestinian gofundme’s Masterlist
Rightfully so, I have gotten messages worrying if everything I post is legit (I try my best to make sure the answer is yes), but here’s a masterlist of ones that one or more people have confirmed are legit Palestinians. Most are from the blogs @el-shab-hussein, @ibtisams, @palestinecharitycommissionsassoc ,@90-ghost, @nabulsi and @palipunk
I will also be making individual posts for most of these
Help Khaled and his family escape Gaza
Help lara and abdalla Family to be safe in Gaza
Emergency: Help Ibrahim's Family Find Safety - $50 is 500kr
HELP Ezzideen & his Family to EVACUATE Gaza
Your help is the only hope to save us from war.
Hope : Help Little Elen Fetch a brighter Future
Help Aseel’s family evacuate from Gaza.
EMERGENCY: HELP evacuate Bashar from Gaza
Help Mohammad Hammad evacuate his family from Gaza
Help Madleen's Family From Gaza
Help Jehad Evacute From Gaza
Help a med student & his family evacuate to safety
Help Fadi's Family Rebuild Their Life Amidst Crisis
Help Us Safely Evacuate a family from Gaza
Help child with Cerebral Palsy evacuate
Protect an open source engineer and his family
Help Bring Ayah’s Family in Gaza to Safety
Call to Action: Keep Gazas Talent Alive
Help Belal and His Family Escape the War in Gaza
Urgent Rescue Mission for the Mortaja Family
Save my family from the war in Gaza
Urgent: Help Evacuate My Family From Gaza War
Urgent help to evacuate my family out of Gaza
Help evacuate Safi’s family from Gaza in warfare
emergency : Help Support the Khalaf Family in Gaza
Help AbdulAziz and his family
Help Yousef escape Gaza and treat his cancer
Help my family rebuild home und evacuate Gaza
Please Help Me Evacuate My Children To Safety
Escape From War Nightmare: Support Gazan Family
Help my family in Gaza
Salaam Animal Care, find a safe home for animals
URGENT HELP help my family to evacuate Gaza
Help me & my Family Evacuate from Gaza
Urgent Appeal for Support: Help a Photographer
Help Jana's Family Find Refuge and Peace
Help me to save my family from the war in Gaza
Help evacuate my brother and his family from Gaza
Urgent apeal to help Elzomar family leave Gaza immediately
Help my mum to travel to a safe place
Help Afnan to find safety and to complete her education
Support getting Linda and her family out of Gaza
Support Mohammed and His Family Affected by the Gaza War
Help Ala's Family Overcome Crisis in Gaza
Freedom and home repair for Aesha an family
Help us evacuate and rebuild what's left of our lives
Help Tamer and his Family in Gaza!
Help my family escape death and reunite with me.
Help me and my family escape the Genocide in Gaza
Help rebuild Ahmed's family life in Gaza .
Emergency : Saving My Mother and only brother From War Zone
Rescue Mahmoud's Family: A Call to Escape Gaza's Devastation
Help Mohammed & His Family To Safety
Help Almoghrabi family to evacuate Gaza strip
Urgent Appeal: Help Save Ruba & Muhammad in Gaza!
Urgent help to evacuate my family from Gaza
Help Alia's family and their children get out of Gaza
Urgent Appeal: Save Little Yusuf and His Family Amidst Gaza
Support My Family Escape War in Gaza
Help me get my family out to safety
Help my family out of Gaza
Help me get my family out to safety
Help my children and family from the Gaza war !!
Please Help Evacuate Fadi's Family from Gaza
URGENT: Help Hayam and her Family Escape the Genocide
For what remained in us من أجل ما تبقى فينا
Please Help Restore The Sharifs home & Help Leave A War Zone
Help Shymaa's Family Reunite in Egypt
Help Mahmoud’s family evacuate from Gaza
Donate to help Deyaa and his family escape Gaza
Fatima’s Journey to Restore Artistry in Gaza
My family under fire, help them evacuate Gaza.
Help me to evacuate from the genocide
Help Mahmoud to evacuate from Gaza to continue education
Help my family evacuate from Gaza
Help Sana’a and her family evacuate from Gaza
Haytham needs your help to support his family
Help my family survive and evacuate from Gaza
Help me rebuild a shelter for my family in Rafah
HelpYoussef and his family get out of Gaza for a better life
Let my family be safe and live in peace!
Relief Appeal: Secure Evacuation from Gaza War
Please Help Tahani save her children and husband
Urgent Help Appeal: exit the war of Gaza"
Help My Family Get Out Of Gaza
Vegetables, food, and water for Palestinian families
HELP Muhammad evacuate his family out of GAZA
Secure a Safe Future for Youssef’s Family - Act now
Support My Journey to a New Start
Help Shymaa's Family Reunite in Egypt
Help Me and my Family to evacuate from Gaza ASAP
Saving My Family from the Horrors of War in Gaza
Help the Allahawani family escape genocide
URGENT - Help Azzam evacuate his family from Gaza
help my children get out of gaza safely
Emergency: Help Evacuate My Family from Gaza
Help Safaa secure her children‘s lives after war
Help Kareem get his family from Gaza to safety
Help Karim and his family get to a safe place
‼️‼️
If you're having trouble keeping up with what's going on in Palestine because of US news coverage of university protests, here are some articles you can read and a video you can watch:
While CNN & all the other mainstream media try to paint the university protests as "pro terrorism" (which they're not, they're literally anti-war protests.) Palestinians are being slaughtered by the minute.
Please don't stop speaking about Palestine.
I hope you guys enjoy all this high quality yep
Open fandom week!!
This week we’re opening up commissions to other fandoms!! Request a piece of writing or art & one of our team of artists will create it for you in exchange for proof of donation.
Guidelines:
We will not draw anything gore, nsfw, or romantic ships.
We will not write anything gore, nsfw, or proship.
Fandoms we will NOT accept requests for are The Last of Us, Stranger Things, Our Flag Means Death, Harry Potter, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss.
We are open to most other fandoms but will not be able to complete certain requests as the team may not be familiar enough with the media to do it justice.
If you have questions about whether or not your request will be accepted feel free to send an ask first!
How to donate & request:
Be sure to take a screenshot of the receipt & block out any sensitive information (your address, phone number etc.). If you’re purchasing an e-sim send it to gazaesims@gmail.com & only send us the receipt. Please do not send us the QR code.
To send in a request fill out this form. (Star Wars requests still go here.)
Purchase an e-sim here.
Donate to a Palestinian family’s gfm here.
Hello dear .. My name is Abdul Rahman Halas, married to the martyred journalist Alaa Al-Dahdouh. My journalist wife works for the Watan News Agency and we had a beautiful child named Karam. The real disaster began on Wednesday, May 31, 2024, when my wife, my child and I were surprised by a huge missile that fell on us and exploded in the place where we were, targeting the house we fled to and other neighboring houses
. At that moment, my journalist wife Alaa hugged our child Karam to protect him from the hell of the missile, but she turned into pieces and died immediately. My child Karam and I miraculously escaped certain death when the pressure of the missile threw me a long distance, which resulted in me being injured by numerous shrapnel and multiple injuries that led to severe fractures in my leg and damage to the nerves in my hand and foot and various shrapnel in different parts of my body
. My wife is a journalist covering the crimes of genocide against defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip. With the intensification of the bombing and the scarcity of food and water, my wife and I struggled daily to secure food for our only child Karam, who was also suffering from severe fear because of The brutal bombing of the Gaza Strip.
Now after the disaster that befell my family, I need your generous support to overcome my ordeal and pay for my treatment and surgeries. I need several surgeries outside the Gaza Strip that cost a lot of money, and I am in dire need of your tears and support.
I am confident that after reading my sad story, you will sympathize with me and share with me and will not leave me and my child Karam alone.
Donate to me or share my campaign with your friends to donate to me
No matter how small your donation is, it means to me a chance for me and my child to be treated and to stay safe.
hello! we are CREATIVES FOR PALESTINE, a collection of artists raising money for palestine relief in exchange for art!
MORE INFO • REQUEST FORM • TWITTER
rbs appreciated!
‼️Please Read. After a discussion with my Cousin we decided to start up a pilot Soup kitchen in Al Hitana Omdurman serving lentil stew fortified with peanut butter to double the available calories in the stew as well as bread.
The kitchen has been running for 3 days now and has served on average 80 people a day, representing 80 households so potentially we’ve been helping 400 people a day.
Over 90% of those who have shown up to the kitchen over the past 3 days have been women and Children and for some it will be the only meal they get that day.
From tomorrow we’d like to scale up to making two 65 litre pots of stew a day which is 160 servings (households).
Currently we’ve purchased enough supplies to run the kitchen at full capacity for two weeks but we’d like to make this a permanent thing and that needs external support.
If you would like to support this project and help this kitchen to continue working, then please donate to this gofundme which will be providing the funding support
looks at you like this
bonus grub
I want to bring another fundraiser to your attention. In the link above, Fadi Ayyad has told the story of his family, who lost their home in Northern Gaza and have been forced to evacuate to the south.
Fadi is a high school student who wishes to graduate and further his studies. And his father, Ayman is a well-respected and known Gazan educator, who has lost his source of livelihood during this war.
Their lives have become a constant struggle for survival, from trying to secure what food and water they can to the constant bombardment and raids by the Israeli military which threaten to take their lives at any time.
Their situation is dire. They require $35,000 to evacuate their 8 family members and after 1 month they have not even gone over $1000 yet.
Help this family reach their goal and evacuate to Egypt, where they can get back a semblance of stability and safety. Donate if you can, and please share!
You can also reach Ayman on tumblr @aymanayyad81
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Tired Guy draws the Funny Robot(s) (and more now!) (pretty sure this is a multifandom page now, sorry people here for exclusively one thing) | he/they I think idk I'm too busy to find out | no reposting | not a minor
127 posts