Terms #

• BDS - boycott, divest and sanction movement
• ISM - international solidarity movement

Notes #

• israel’s actions are widely criticized but it is unacceptable to criticize the existence of israel itself. israel’s use of idpol in this regard is genius.
• the vocabulary used to describe the israeli zionist project must be changed to not frame the situation in the words of zionist and zionist-friendly academia
  collapsed:: true
  • current vocab includes “a land for two people,” “the peace process,” “the Israel-Palestine conflict,” “the need to stop violence on both sides,” “the two-state solution”
  • these terms suggest that israel’s actions are not a crime, or apartheid, and that there are a two sides which are both equally legitimate
  • these terms seek to frame israel’s war on palestinians as a complex issue, when in fact is it a simple case of colonialism and the ethnic cleansing that often accompanies it
• Palestine is the only place in the world where the right of refugees to return is even remotely questioned by the dominant discourse
  • the EU and US dept of state hold that all refuges have a right to return to their homes after conflict. the un holds this position as well, specifically reiterating it in regard to palestinians [[resolution 194]] december 1948
  • the ask is not for the eu and us to adopt a new stance, but instead to simply extend their principles to apply to palestine in addition to the rest of the world
• to date all attempts at a [[peace process]] (incl geneva 1977, madrid 1991, oslo 1993, camp david 2000) have not been taken on in good faith, and instead have been participated in by israel and the west as intentionally ineffective processes, meant only to perpetuate a state of no solution
  • me: cynically, these processes have allowed israel to paint itself as cooperative, only escalating again in the face of returned palestinian resistance to (unchanged) on the ground conditions. in this way this process is a profoundly genius attempt by israel to manufacture consent for continued occupation, colonization and ethnic cleansing, all under the auspices of self defense.
• defining palestine as a country in which israel, an occupying foreign force exists. a one state solution becomes the obvious path forward.
  • zionists suggests this vision aims to eliminate the state of israel, when in fact israel is the only entity with the power to eliminate states, which it is attempting to do with palestine
  • a partition or two state plan is a destructive and violent plan. to take one state and turn it into two is not peaceful
  • to paint partition as a peace plan paints zionism in a positive light and as an ideology wishing for “israelis to coexist as equals with the palestinian native majority” (36), which allows liberal zionists to paint opponents of partition as enemies of peace when in fact they are opposing a massive concession of the rights of native peoples to exist in their own land. it frames any resistance to the colonists not as defense of the victims but as violent
• democracy made by violent expulsion and repression of all but one ethnic group of course leads to a brutal and genocidal state, but is still treated as a democracy by the west
• the peace process exists not in the interest of peace but in the interest of warding off real solutions. its existence is its point.
• many friends of palestine still consider the peace process and a binational state only because it is seen as a possible solution that does not disturb israel too much.
• a rise of an israeli left is not possible in the current climate, israel will only move further right as the propaganda machine goes unchecked
  • counter-education is too long a process to be solely relied upon to bring peace for palestine
• the palestinian resistance is fragmented, and unification is equally difficult and time-taking
• palestine as the country and israel as the state
• palestine is a country of 14 million, with 7 million jewish israelis and 7 million occupied palestinians. it is democracy only for 50% percent

Quotes #

• The third paradox is that while specific Israeli policies are severely criticized and condemned, the very nature of the Israeli regime and ideology that produces these policies are not targeted by the solidarity movement. Activists and supporters demonstrated against the massacre in Gaza in 2009 and the assault on the flotilla in 2010, yet in this arena of open and public protest nobody, it seems, dares to attack the ideology that is behind these aggressions. There is no demonstration against Zionism, because even the European Parliament regards such a demonstration as anti-Semitic. Imagine, in the days of supremacist South Africa, if you were not allowed to demonstrate against the apartheid regime itself, but only against the Soweto massacre or any other particular atrocity committed by the South African government. (13) [emphasis mine]

• Partition signifies international complicity in the crime of destruction, not a peace offer. (36)