Anonymous asked:
hello! one thing i have seen is the neutrality stance is that innocent civilians have been getting killed on both sides and that being pro-palestine means that you are “okay” with innocent civilians in isra*l dying as well. i was having a convo with a friend and they basically said i am disgusting for not acknowledging that however i do but how does one discuss that without appearing to be a zionist ? like i know that innocent civilians dying is terrible but when people bring that up as a way to support isr*el i am left confused on what to say as i don’t believe innocent people should die but ik it’s “different”? do u have any resources or response to help with this dilemma?
determinate-negation answered:
i think it is totally possible to acknowledge israeli civilians who died and recognize on an interpersonal level peoples grief, and say that the situation israel has created in gaza since the blockade, and in general since 1948 is the driver of violence. if there was no israel there would be no hamas, and they purposefully supported them to detract from support secular communist palestinian movements. you cant talk about this without discussing the larger historic context and if you do then youre not addressing the full picture. on one level this is an argument between ideologies, liberalism and radicalism, and idk how much you can actually convince someone lol. you cant condemn violence on two sides without looking at whos been instigating the violence, and also historically preventing and punishing peaceful protest and literally everything else they could do. a colonial situation is generally marked by violence. its upheld by the presence of the army and their ability to kill indigenous people with impunity, and regardless of how sad it might be to civilian victims families, frequently marked by clashes between settlers and indigenous people. idk if this can directly help you lol but the book black skin white masks by frantz fanon really influenced how i think about this. and how is supporting palestine equivalent to being ok with civilian deaths when a lot of the relatives of people killed in the attack and held hostage have said they dont want the israeli government using this to kill palestinians and justify war. but the israeli government has ignored them and gone ahead with their explicit desire to destroy gaza and complete the nakba, as many of them have said word for word. this article Meet the Hamas Massacre Survivors Opposing Israeli Brutality in Gaza has a bunch of their testimonies. israel is also indiscriminately bombing gaza, where the hostages are, and already have killed a few of them
