Whatâs your take on the Palestine situation as a political science grad and middle eastern woman
there is a significant imbalance and abuse of power â international human rights law and UN agreements have been repeatedly violated. news outlets have made it out to be this stressful, complicated, complex issue, but i'll break it down for you like this: this is modern day colonization and genocide. there is no âconflictâ because there is no âboth sidesâ to the issue. plain and simple, there is one side with an incredible amount of weapons, power, and global influence which is never held accountable for its actions, and then there's palestine. this represents a humanitarian crisis. isr*el is the oppressor, palestine is the oppressed. these human rights violations are outlined by the human rights watch organization as âThe Crimes Against Humanity of Apartheid and Persecution", âIntent to Maintain Dominationâ, âSystematic Oppression and Institutional Discriminationâ, and âInhumane Acts and Other Abuses of Fundamental Rightsâ. source in the link above with detailed info.
PLEASE READ before i get into specifics: there are good people and bad people in every country. there are good arabs and bad arabs, there are good israelis and bad israelis. any mention of isr*el is referring to the âstateâ, not the general population. i condemn those who group all jewish people and all israelis together and refer to them as bad people or derogatory terms, this is simply untrue. there are many groups of israeli and jewish people who are organizing against what their government is doing, and who disagree with the settlements, human rights violations, and violence. i am not defending the âstateâ, only the innocent, good people because as an arab, iâve seen these blanket statements thrown around. iâve rejected them irl and i feel itâs my responsibility to say something about it here, too. if you have this view, please, i encourage you to take a look at the sources linked above and to reach out and have productive conversations with members of your community. there are better ways to express your anger and disdain, this is unproductive.Â
one could argue: but palestine is sending rockets! yes, this is a fact, but considering the iron domeâs effectiveness (isr*elâs rocket/missile defense systemâyou can read up on it), the few attacks palestine resistance manages to carry out are either shot down or do very little damage in comparison to the massive firepower of isr*elâs to a state with no defense. think of it like tiny little pebbles compared to isr*elâs massive boulders. palestine does not have the budget of $20.46 billion dollars in military defense and spending that isr*el does. but itâs still wrong! absolutely, the taking of any innocent lives is not right. civilians are just going about their lives and donât have a hand in major political moves, they don't deserve to pay the price. however, this is brought to your attention to further illustrate the point that the two parties are not on equal footing by any means. the data speaks for itself: 251 vs. 5,590.  Â
completely innocent adults and children are being murdered, tortured, and imprisoned, electricity is shut off for most of the day, any aid or humanitarian help is blocked from entering, medical supplies and medical help is extremely limited (due to the blockades and also due to the fact that palestinians are barred from accessing certain [isr*eli only] roads), they are dealing with a water crisis, access to food is limited, and regardless of how many generations a family has lived there, isr*el will still force them out of their home. they are known to bulldoze familiesâ houses, torch crops, shoot parents in front of children and children in front of their parents, and intimidate and bully palestinians as if the mental anguish of being colonized and living in fear isnât enough. statistics & sources can be found here.
the idf is happily livetweeting and admitting to their crimes, and this is all backed and cosigned by most of the developed world due to influence and and lobbying. its biggest backer ($146 billion to date) is the united states and this connection goes all the way back to the cold war, you can read up on that as well to understand the history and why their crimes have been and continue to be covered up by the international community.Â
anyway, iâm tired. i could go on about this for much longer but iâve seen too many horrifying videos and read too many articles and iâm all cried out. my heart hurts the same way it did when i saw that video of a father protecting his son from isr*eli soldiers back in the early 2000s. if youâre feeling helpless like me, please read this article on how you can help and check out these links. i also encourage you to write your local representative/MP and encourage/pressure them to speak out and publicly condemn isr*elâs actions. attend your local peaceful protest and do so while taking precautions and with a mask on. i encourage you to think critically and consider the facts and statistics, not only in this situation, but whenever you're consuming media.
thank you for asking. free palestine. đľđ¸đľđ¸đľđ¸
