Frequently Asked Questions
Ignorance cannot live where there is light.
The events of 7th October have re-positioned the visibility of the Palestinian cause globally, underscoring the decades-long human rights injustices perpetuated by Israel’s illegal occupation forces. Essentially, the situation in Israel/Palestine is not a religious conflict, nor should it be understood as two competing national struggles. Instead, it has consistently been a case of anti-colonial resistance against violence, displacement, and racism.
Below are some of the most frequently asked questions about the Palestinian movement and its history. We hope to clarify and correct information and lies commonly used by racists to intentionally mischaracterize and mislead people about Palestinians, the history of Palestine and Israel, and the movement and its advocates.
It is essential to centralize Palestinian voices when discussing Palestine and the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians. However, we have also included the voices of our Jewish allies, including Israeli, on issues specific to Zionism and antisemitism.
We always welcome good-faith questions. You can reach out to us via the Contact Us page. Additional resources, information, and tools can be found on our Tools & Resources page.
How did we get here?
Before you can understand current events, you need to understand how we got here.
Myth: This is a “conflict” or a “war”
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The dominant narrative in the West and in the media addressing Israel’s military occupation of Palestine has been to treat both sides equally and fail to address the reality of occupation and disproportionate forces at play. The choice of the word ‘’conflict’’ suggests a balance of power in a dispute between two or more parties, underlying the idea that as in any conflict, both sides have the means to be equally as violent towards the other. But the fact of the matter is that there is an active oppressor and an oppressed, a colonizer and a colonized.
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Israel and Palestine are not in the midst of “conflict” or “war“; rather, it is the implementation of its Zionist project via settler colonialism. Settler colonialism is a distinct form of colonialism where the indigenous peoples are dispossessed of their properties and culture, and are systematically replaced by an invasive settler colonizer. Features of settler colonialism include prolonged and permanent occupation and assertion of sovereignty over indigenous lands, elimination and eviction of indigenous peoples, demolition of their homes and social infrastructure repression of their cultures and exploitation of their land and resources.
Israel is one of the most militarized occupying nations in the world, backed with billions of dollars and weapons from the USA through its powerful Zionist lobby. The Palestinians are an occupied people lacking all the fundamentals of a functioning state with no formal military, freedom of movement for goods and people alike, and no control over water, electricity and fuel, all the while existing in an apartheid state. Israel repeatedly exploits its huge power advantage to inflict disproportionate death and destruction on Palestinians and their resources. Like all peoples faced with settler colonialism, Palestinians have resisted their displacement by all the means at their disposal.
Key components of this system of oppression and domination:
- Territorial fragmentation
- Segregation and control through the denial of equal nationality and status
- Restrictions on movement
- Discriminatory family reunification laws
- The use of military rule and restrictions on the right to political participation and popular resistance
- Dispossession of land and property
- Suppression of Palestinians’ human development and denial of their economic and social rights
- The use of taxation and restriction on imports/exports to halt economic progress
- Limiting access to education and healthcare
Source: Amnesty International “Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of domination and crime against humanity”, February 2022
DID YOU KNOW: Israelis are prosecuted under a civilian law, but Palestinians are tried under Israeli military law with a 99% “conviction” rate? Palestinian children as young as eight (8) are tried as adults and sentenced to 20 years in prison for throwing stones.
Myth: This is a religious conflict between two people who have been fighting for centuries.
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The narrative that it is a ‘’complicated religious conflict that’s been going on forever’’ is a misconception surrounding the Israel-Palestine issue, from which various other misconceptions stem, including the belief that it is an exceedingly intricate situation, beyond human comprehension or resolution, therefore discouraging efforts to understand it. While Judaism is an Abrahamic faith spanning thousands of years, the political movement of Zionism began approximately 125 years ago, indicating that the occupation has more modern origins and dynamics than some may believe. This distinction is crucial for a nuanced understanding of the situation.
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First, although religion does play a role in shaping the identities of both parties and serves as a justification for some Jews regarding their claims to the land, the struggle is not essentially a religious one. Jews have coexisted with Christians and Muslims for centuries across the Arab World as Arab Jews, and in Palestine as Palestinian Jews. According to Muslim doctrine, Muslims, Christians and Jews are regarded as monotheistic faiths, who ultimately worship the same deity, God. Throughout history the Islamic caliphates did not subject Jews and Christians to the Muslim legal code; they were left to freely regulate their own communal and personal life in accordance with their own religious laws. Although they preserved much of their exclusiveness, they became Arabized in their language and culture. In the history of Jewish culture, the Arabic period is among the most prosperous era both socially and economically.
Second, this is not a longstanding conflict rooted in centuries past but rather a relatively recent development that intensified with European support for Jewish settlement in Palestine during the late 19th century and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
Essentially, the situation in Israel/Palestine is not a religious conflict, nor should it be understood as two competing national struggles. Instead, it has consistently been a case of anti-colonial resistance against violence, displacement, and racism.
Myth: There has been a lot of suffering on “both sides”
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It is a fallacy that there are two equal sides in this story. This biased coverage and the use of this rhetoric have influenced public perception, shaping a narrative that justifies Israeli actions and marginalizes Palestinian suffering. Repeated calls for “de-escalation” reinforce the lie that there are two equal sides in this conflict.
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There is a false equivalence that dominates in the Western media’s narrative: a two-sided story that hides the massive asymmetry of power between the state of Israel and the ethnically cleansed indigenous population that make up the Palestinian people. They’re not equal. One dominates while the other is dominated. One colonizes, while the other is colonized
Palestine and Palestinians
Myth: Palestine was an empty land/ "A land without a people"
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‘’A land without a people’’ was a widely cited phrase associated with the movement to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The narrative that Palestine was an empty land before the arrival of Zionism has been propagated through the Israeli educational curriculum, as well as in the media and continues to be an important aspect of Israeli propaganda. It is a dangerous claim as it is an attempt by Zionists to deny the existence of a Palestinian nation, and therefore a denial of the Zionists’ ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian Arab population.
The term “terra nullius”, which means ‘nobody’s land’ or ‘land belonging to nobody’, was used during the colonial era, providing Europeans with a legal umbrella to colonize lands and peoples for hundreds of years. In legal jargon, “terra nullius” means ‘land over which no previous sovereignty has been exercised.’
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Scholars generally agree that it was the Romans who gave the land the name “Palestina’’. It served as an imperial province during both Roman and subsequent Byzantine rule. Given its importance as the second holiest site in Islam, along with its fertility and strategic location, various Muslim empires aspired to control it. The Ottoman period commenced in 1517 and extended for 400 years. Upon their arrival, the Ottomans found a predominantly Sunni Muslim and rural society, with small urban elites who spoke Arabic. The Jewish population constituted less than 5 percent, while Christians made up approximately 10 to 15 percent of the population.
Contrary to being isolated, Palestinians were actively engaged with various cultures within the expansive Ottoman empire. Additionally, Palestine, open to modernization, underwent significant development before the Zionist movement, led by local rulers like Daher al-Umar (1690–1775). Haifa, Shefamr, Tiberias, and Acre experienced revitalization, fostering a flourishing coastal network connecting with Europe, while inland trade thrived. Far from barren, Palestine, part of Bilad alSham, was a prosperous region with a rich agricultural industry and historic cities, supporting a population of half a million before the Zionist arrival.
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There is no Palestinian history. There is no Palestinian language. There is no such thing as a Palestinian people.”
- Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Minister of Finance, Israeli Minister in the Defence Ministry, March 19, 2023
Myth: Palestinians are terrorists, hate jews, “human animals”, etc.
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Over the years, Palestinians have not only been subjected to physical aggression but also endured the gradual and pervasive erosion of their identity and humanity in popular discourse and media. Palestinian casualties and suffering have been downplayed compared to Israeli casualties, with a narrative suggesting Palestinian lives are less worthy. Dehumanization has historically been associated with reduced empathy for the pain of dehumanized individuals and groups and the denial of their human rights. In genocide studies, dehumanization is commonly understood as a preparatory step on the path to mass killing.
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On the 9th October 2023, Israel's Defense Minister’s declaration: “We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly” is a clear example of the dehumanization strategy adopted by Israel. Drawing parallels between perceived enemies and pests or insects is a recurring historical trope.
During Nazi Germany, a dehumanization campaign targeted Jews, employing animal comparisons and derogatory language, such as rats, cockroaches, and parasites. Propaganda played a significant role, as illustrated in a linguistic analysis of Nazi speeches, articles, pamphlets, and posters. This dehumanization
process, initiated before the Nazis seized power, served to justify atrocities during the Holocaust, resulting in the genocide of 6 million Jews
Israel and the
Right to Exist
Myth: Israel was created as a result of the holocaust
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The State of Israel is, and was always explicitly intended to be, a white settler colonial ethnostate for Jewish people. The framing of the creation of Israel solely as a refuge for Jewish people following the Holocaust is not only untrue and revisionist history; it is fundamentally racist and antisemitic.
However, the “Colonial Project,” as coined by award-winning Israeli historian and professor, Ilan Pappe, in Palestine has been successful due, in part, to Western antisemitism and Christian Zionists.
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Theodor Herzl, considered the father of Zionism, wrote of how state sponsored antisemetism in eastern and western Europe and in North America was essential for the success of a Jewish colony. "The Governments of all countries scourged by Anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to obtain [the] sovereignty we want”; and indeed that not “only poor Jews” would contribute to an immigration fund for European Jews, “but also Christians who wanted to get rid of them”. Herzl would conclude in his Diaries that “the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies”. These were not slips or errors but indeed a long-term strategy that Zionism and Israel continue to deploy to this very day.
As Joseph Massad, Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, notes, "Arthur Balfour was a well-known Protestant anti-Semite who in 1905 sponsored a bill (The Aliens Act) to prevent East European Jews fleeing pogroms from immigrating to England was not incidental to the fact that the Zionists rushed to court him, let alone to his own support of the Zionist project through the “Balfour Declaration”, which would reroute Jews away from England." -
In his pamphlet, The Jewish State, Hertzl describes the Jewish homeland as ‘a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism’. Early Zionist ideologues often refer to the need to ‘conquer’ the land and establish an exclusively Jewish economy in Palestine.
This meant purchasing territory from Arab landlords and replacing Arab labourers with Jewish workers. It also meant encouraging Jewish employers to employ Jews only. This may have had limited success as a policy, but the message to Palestinians was clear: the Zionist movement wanted the maximum amount of land and the minimum number of Arabs.
The British Empire’s support for Zionism was a boost for Jewish nationalism and a blow for Palestine’s Arabs. By 1920, the population of Palestine was 650,000, with Muslim and Christian Arabs making up 90 per cent of the population and the Jewish community (Yishuv) the remaining ten per cent.
Myth: Israel isn’t a settler colony
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The State of Israel is, and was always explicitly intended to be, a white settler colonial ethnostate for Jewish people. The framing of the creation of Israel solely as a refuge for Jewish people following the Holocaust is not only untrue and revisionist history; it is fundamentally racist and antisemitic.
However, the “Colonial Project,” as coined by award-winning Israeli historian and professor, Ilan Pappe, in Palestine has been successful due, in part, to Western antisemitism and Christian Zionists.
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Theodor Herzl, considered the father of Zionism, wrote of how state sponsored antisemetism in eastern and western Europe and in North America was essential for the success of a Jewish colony. "The Governments of all countries scourged by Anti-Semitism will be keenly interested in assisting us to obtain [the] sovereignty we want”; and indeed that not “only poor Jews” would contribute to an immigration fund for European Jews, “but also Christians who wanted to get rid of them”. Herzl would conclude in his Diaries that “the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies”. These were not slips or errors but indeed a long-term strategy that Zionism and Israel continue to deploy to this very day.
As Joseph Massad, Associate Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, notes, "Arthur Balfour was a well-known Protestant anti-Semite who in 1905 sponsored a bill (The Aliens Act) to prevent East European Jews fleeing pogroms from immigrating to England was not incidental to the fact that the Zionists rushed to court him, let alone to his own support of the Zionist project through the “Balfour Declaration”, which would reroute Jews away from England." -
In his pamphlet, The Jewish State, Hertzl describes the Jewish homeland as ‘a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism’. Early Zionist ideologues often refer to the need to ‘conquer’ the land and establish an exclusively Jewish economy in Palestine.
This meant purchasing territory from Arab landlords and replacing Arab labourers with Jewish workers. It also meant encouraging Jewish employers to employ Jews only. This may have had limited success as a policy, but the message to Palestinians was clear: the Zionist movement wanted the maximum amount of land and the minimum number of Arabs.
The British Empire’s support for Zionism was a boost for Jewish nationalism and a blow for Palestine’s Arabs. By 1920, the population of Palestine was 650,000, with Muslim and Christian Arabs making up 90 per cent of the population and the Jewish community (Yishuv) the remaining ten per cent.
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Myth: Palestinians want to kill all Jews/ Israel’s “right to exist”
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Discussions about a ‘’state's right to exist’’ are mainly about Israel and rarely mentioned in other contexts. This is because the concept of a 'right to exist' is essentially non-existent. While peoples have the right to self-determination, it does not automatically confer an inherent right for a state to exist. Considering the multitude of ethnic groups in the world, with less than 200 countries, this distinction becomes particularly understandable
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Doesn't this rationale also extend to acknowledging the right of Palestine to exist? It raises the question of why discussions about the right of Palestinians to exist are notably absent, especially considering that a significant majority of them were subjected to ethnic cleansing, forcibly displaced from their homes, and dispersed across the world. The ethnic cleansing, massacres and brutal colonialism needed to establish Israel can never be justified.
Myth: “Israel has a right to defend itself”
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Israel uses the "self-defence" narrative to legitimize actions that are internationally recognized as war crimes under the law. These include practices such as collective punishment against Palestinians, including starvation and siege, the use of weapons like white phosphorus bombs, and the deliberate targeting of civilians.
What is the right to self defence?
According to Article 51 of the UN Charter, until the UN Security Council takes measures to maintain international peace and security, “nothing in the charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations.”Does it apply to Israel against Gaza?
The right to self-defence can be invoked when a state is threatened by another state. Israel cannot invoke the right to self-defence under the UN charter since the threat comes not from a state, but a military group, in a territory that Israel occupies militarily. There is jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice that says that self-defence cannot apply in a context of military occupation when, in this case, Israel is occupying another state and another people. -
What does it even mean for a settler colony to defend itself against the natives it is colonizing? What does it mean for an entity that can only exist through the negation of Palestinians to defend itself from the oppressed Palestinians?
Is self-defence the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity at scale?
Is self-defence killing thousands of children, killing UN staff, targeting hospitals and refugee camps?
Is self-defence imposing a complete siege of Gaza’s power, water and food
supplies and starving civilians?It is not self-defence, it is genocide. Under international law, an occupying power does not have the right to self-defence against the territory it occupies.
Source: Paragraph 139 of Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
Myth: “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East”
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Israel has been trying to portray itself as the only democracy in the Middle East to conceal its status as an occupying force, and an apartheid state.
Excerpt from The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary (Hasbara Manual): ‘’The language of Israel is the language of America: “democracy,” “freedom,” “security,” and “peace.” These four words are at the core of the American political, economic, social, and cultural systems, and they should be repeated as often as possible because they resonate with virtually every American.’
This statement aims at conferring a moral superiority to Israel, the lone country which respects human rights and the rule of law and distinguishing it from its regressive and ‘’backwards’’ neighbours, therefore legitimizing its actions. More recently, Israel has been using the ‘’pink-washing’’ stratagem, by exploiting LGBTQ2S+ rights to amplify a progressive and liberal veneer and conceal Israeli crimes.
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“Israel is not a state of all its citizens… [but rather] the nation-state of the Jewish people and only them”, is a message posted online in March 2019 by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
One of the core aspects of democracy is equality. We cannot speak of a democratic system unless all of those participating in it are on equal legal and moral footing.
In a report published in February 2022, Amnesty International demonstrates that Israel has established and maintained an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis – a system of apartheid – wherever it has exercised control over Palestinians’ lives since 1948. Amnesty International concludes that the State of Israel considers and treats Palestinians, both Christians and Muslims, as an inferior non-Jewish racial group.
Some Israeli scholars define Israel as an ethnocracy rather than a democracy. According to Oren Yiftachel, an Israeli professor, ethnocratic regimes ‘’promote
the expansion of the dominant group in contested territory and its domination of power structures while maintaining a democratic facade.” -
The segregation is conducted in a systematic and highly institutionalized manner through laws, policies and practices, all of which are intended to prevent Palestinians from claiming and enjoying equal rights to Jewish Israelis within the territory of Israel and within the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories), and thus are intended to oppress and dominate the Palestinian people.
Israel built a system around the institutionalized and prolonged racist oppression of millions of people, by enforcing discriminatory laws in Israel that disfavour non-Jewish Israelis.
The 7 most racist Israeli laws:
The Jewish Nation-State law
The law of ‘’Return’’
The Admissions Committee Law
Absentee Property Law and Land Acquisition Law
Israel Lands Law
The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law
The Nakba Law
Myth: “Israel’s Army is the most moral army in the world”
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The Israeli army was founded from a collection of Zionist terrorist organizations (as designated by the British). It is responsible for the bombing of the King David Hotel, attacking British peacekeeping troops, and attacked the USS Liberty during the "Six Day War."
For more details on the founding of Israel's military, its role in the Nakba, and its decades of human rights abuses and war crimes, please refer to our "Palestine" page.
Israeli political and military leaders
in their own words
Antisemitism and Zionism
Myth: Criticism of Israel and Zionism is anti-Semitic
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Conflating Judaism and Israel is a rhetorical tactic that is used to shield Israel from accountability and obscure the reality of occupation. The stratagem which equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism aims at muzzling all criticisms of Israel.
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Antisemitism is discrimination, targeting, violence, and dehumanizing stereotypes directed at Jews because they are Jewish. It is a grave and serious hate crime that must be condemned.
However, criticism of the Israeli government isn’t antisemitic. Israel is a state, not a religious or ethnic group. The State of Israel must be distinguished from the Jewish people, and Israel must be held to the same standards as any other state.
Antisemitism must be condemned and must be addressed. As antisemitism and Islamophobia rise around the world in response to Israel’s military occupation of
Palestinians, branding fair criticism of Israel’s human rights record as antisemitic undermines the fight against genuine antisemitism. -
Lets look beyond the Simplistic Narrative of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
The concept of being Jewish and Arab is not mutually exclusive; these identities have coexisted in the Middle East for thousands of years. The colonial settler project of Israel has complicated this historical intersectionality. A “Semite” is defined as a member of any people who speak a Semitic language, including the Jews and Arab Christians and Muslims. Meaning the conflation of antisemitism with anti-Zionism is counterproductive as it creates a false dichotomy between Arabs and Jews, ignoring the reality of their shared, intersecting identities.
By equating criticism of Israel or anti-Zionist views with antisemitism, it not only misrepresents the diverse perspectives within the Jewish community but also perpetuates a narrative of 'Jews vs Arabs'. This overlooks the fact that many Jews
have historically been part of Arab societies. -
Myth: The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic hate speech and a veiled call for the destruction of Israel
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For most people, it simply calls for equal rights and freedom from apartheid for the Palestinian people, who have been oppressed and fragmented for 75 years. The assumption that calling for freedom for Palestinians necessitates the destruction of Israel is a manipulation of this phrase. Interpretations might vary, but there’s nothing in the words themselves that suggests antisemitism or calls for racial or political dominance over Jews.
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This slogan has been used by many different groups. The earliest records of its use are found in the writings of pre-1948 Zionists.
Since then, it has been used in Israeli speeches and state documents, including a slightly altered version used by the Lukiod party— one of Israel’s alt-right parties and the party of Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu — in their 1977 party charter and platform which stated, "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty." One of the party’s primary ideologies is a “Greater Land of Israel” and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The slogan was again used by Netanyahu during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2023, as he held a map depicting Israel with total annexation of the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Unlike Palestinians and pro-Palestine supporter, Israelis and Israeli officials do use it the phrase with genocidal intent— towards Palestinians.
To frame an oppressed people's desire for an end to their oppression as genocidal to the oppressor is like saying chants used by American civil rights activists and anti-apartheid supporters in South Africa called for the massacre of all white people. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God, Almighty, free at last," do you think he means the genocide of all white people?
Interpretations might vary, but there’s nothing in the words themselves that suggests antisemitism or calls for racial or political dominance over Jews. -
We believe it is essential to listen to Jewish voices regarding topics such as antisemitism, Judaism, and Zionism.
Below are just a few sources by Jewish scholars and activists to get you started. More can be found on our Take Action page.
Watch
Read
"It is not for Israel or its imperialist backers to tell the people of Gaza who should govern them. If the events of the last few weeks have demonstrated anything, it is that the old narrative of Israel having a right and a duty to defend itself against a terrorist organization, no matter the human or civilian cost, can no longer be sustained. What is happening in Gaza today is the cruel manifestation of Israeli state terrorism. Terrorism is the use of force against civilians for political ends. The cap fits and Israel must wear it. The Israeli politicians and generals who orchestrate the criminal assaults on the people of Gaza are no better than riffraff."
- Avi Shlaim, Israeli-British historian and Fellow at University of Oxford
Hamas and Resistance
Do you condom Hamas?
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The perpetual question about the condemnation of Hamas is a smear tactic used by Israelis and their allies, designed to deflect criticism of Israel and shift the conversation. Not condemning Hamas results in being labeled as 'pro-Hamas' and is often equated with supporting terrorism. This association is employed as a means to discredit any criticism of Israel’s military aggression on Gaza. Furthermore, conflating Palestinians with Hamas perpetuates the narrative adopted by Israel that considers all civilians in Gaza as legitimate targets.
The Palestine Solidarity Committee of Saint John is not a monolith; members have their own opinions and feelings regarding Hamas and their actions. However, the PSCSJ cannot condem Hamas as we believe all oppressed groups have the right to resist their oppressors and resist a genocide. We do not have to like or agree with how oppressed people protest or resist, but we do respect their autonomy.
Myth: This all Started on October 7
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If you have made it this far, then you already know this did not start on October 7; it didn't even start with the formation of Hamas. Hamas and October 7 are not the cause, they are the symptom of, and reaction to, over 75 years of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism and oppression.
Myth: Hamas is a terrorist organization
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If you have made it this far, then you already know this did not start on October 7; it didn't even start with the formation of Hamas. Hamas and October 7 are not the cause, they are the symptom of, and reaction to, over 75 years of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism and oppression.
Myth: Hamas (Palestinians) don’t want peace/ hamas is calling for the destruction of all jews
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If you have made it this far, then you already know this did not start on October 7; it didn't even start with the formation of Hamas. Hamas and October 7 are not the cause, they are the symptom of, and reaction to, over 75 years of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism and oppression.
Myth: This Would all end if Hamas would release the hostages
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If you have made it this far, then you already know this did not start on October 7; it didn't even start with the formation of Hamas. Hamas and October 7 are not the cause, they are the symptom of, and reaction to, over 75 years of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism and oppression.
Myth: The slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic hate speech and a veiled call for the destruction of Israel
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For most people, it simply calls for equal rights and freedom from apartheid for the Palestinian people, who have been oppressed and fragmented for 75 years. The assumption that calling for freedom for Palestinians necessitates the destruction of Israel is a manipulation of this phrase. Interpretations might vary, but there’s nothing in the words themselves that suggests antisemitism or calls for racial or political dominance over Jews.
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This slogan has been used by many different groups. The earliest records of its use are found in the writings of pre-1948 Zionists.
Since then, it has been used in Israeli speeches and state documents, including a slightly altered version used by the Lukiod party— one of Israel’s alt-right parties and the party of Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu — in their 1977 party charter and platform which stated, "between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty." One of the party’s primary ideologies is a “Greater Land of Israel” and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
The slogan was again used by Netanyahu during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2023, as he held a map depicting Israel with total annexation of the illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Unlike Palestinians and pro-Palestine supporter, Israelis and Israeli officials do use it the phrase with genocidal intent— towards Palestinians.
To frame an oppressed people's desire for an end to their oppression as genocidal to the oppressor is like saying chants used by American civil rights activists and anti-apartheid supporters in South Africa called for the massacre of all white people. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God, Almighty, free at last," do you think he means the genocide of all white people?
Interpretations might vary, but there’s nothing in the words themselves that suggests antisemitism or calls for racial or political dominance over Jews. -