It's so incredibly frustrating dealing with a specific chronically online brand of "anti-zionism". Because as a Zionist and a Jew I fundamentally agree with with most of the sentiments expressed. I just tangibly feel threatened by an irresponsible generalisation and simplification of the issue, the warping and weaponisation of terminology so to be unrecognisable from how they are actually used by people and the way these threaten my safety and the safety of my community here in the Diaspora.
I am a Zionist in that I believe that if there are nation states one should have as it's foundational principal the safety of Jews (I kind of have to be, there is a good chance I wouldn't be here without Israel) and I believe in a subsidised right of return for all Palestinians. I agree successive conservative governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu have lent tacit support to the settler movement for over 15 years. I think Israel sorely needs to enact a bill enforcing prime ministerial term limits. I desperately want a good faith negotiation on a two state solution, but with the figures in play rn I just don't see that happening... Netanyahu is an arse(imo) who sold what little conscience he had left to the fringe right to hang on to power, Israel will never negotiate with Hamas as a governing entity, and I can only go by what I'm told by IRL Palestinian friends in Australia but they don't have much confidence in Abbas as a leader (big heaping pinch of salt because none of us have first hand experience of the current PNA government).
I also recognise the complicated history of the establishment of Israel. To oversimplify, the Zionist project for a long time was a (often flawed) process of buying land and negotiating with ottoman aristocracy.
I recognise that many promises were made to many people, particularly by the British who promised a compromise resolution for a Jewish and Palestinian state, but then handed figuring out how to do that to the fledgling UN as it's first project. The UN decided "jigsaw puzzle" was a good theme to go with for state borders for two states, which nobody was happy with and inevitably was going to lead to conflict... But instead of border friction, the entire geographic region preemptively attacked to prevent Israel from ever being established. Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Transjordan... All attacked and somehow, Israel succeeded.
I would like to focus on this for a little moment from the view of "surviving Jewish history", because by the time the dust settled it was almost exactly 3 years and 11 months to the day since the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp. We survived, we slew Goliath, Blessed are you G-d who would not make me a slave, again... we would not be returned to the ghetto.
In that desperate struggle for survival homes were occupied by machine gun crews and RPG teams, communities emptied as armoured vehicles and aircraft of the Arab League were left as smoking shells... And people came home to find that after fleeing a conflict zone for safety their homes were occupied by unfamiliar families who would not leave... For them this was naqba, a catastrophe, their homes and farms were in all meaningful senses gone. One of those families was mine, my Jad (great grandfather) and Savta (great grandmother) who briefly emigrated to Israel from Tripoli. They had just survived one of the worst North African pogroms in 1945 when my Jad had spent years fighting for the allies in North Africa/Mediterranean and were frightened that after the humiliation of the Arab league there would be more pogroms soon. (they came to Australia shortly after)
History is complicated, the decisions people made have been desperate, the trauma on all sides is real, we cannot navigate this without trying to understand each other.... Let's look at some modern issues.
It's ok to criticise a country, but remember that your understanding of events in Israel as an outsider is necessarily superficial, and if you live in the "West" all of the groups you are discussing are vulnerable minorities in your country, and it is very easy for the unaware to imbibe and regurgitate Antisemitic, anti-Arab, Islamophobic tropes and dog whistles without knowing.
Remember criticisms need to be specific. What happened, where did it occur, who specifically was responsible, how did it happen (explain the function of lack of legal oversight or intervention to prevent it, or how an authority figure or governing entity sanctioned a particular action), why was this event significant, is the source credible. If you're reading an informational post, did it meet these criteria? This is a standard I try to hold Palestinian, Arab, Israeli and World informational sources to, everyone has a bias and it's my job as a reader to be both aware and compassionate... It's your job too
Failure to do the above leads to radicalisation, and that makes everybody less safe, everywhere. To speak for myself I have never before in my life considered moving to Israel, not in all my years... But this year my synagogue has been physically vandalised, and it has been graffitied with "free Palestine" and on a separate incident last year "work makes you free", our holocaust museum has suffered multiple attacks from a self styled Nazi party (NSN, the same ones who got themselves on TV at the TERF rally in Melbourne), as far as I'm aware no arrests actually led to charges, despite knowing so many people in my area (mostly low income, migrants, 1st gen citizens and Indigenous) with extremely petty convictions, literally cops so drive slowly down my back street because they have nothing better to do. As a disabled mix race Jew it feels less safe every day. We used to have open doors, now our gates are closed and we get threats in the mail.
Be careful with your words, they are powerful; once spoken or written, you cannot ever take them back.
(If there are any weird sentences, I'm dyslexic with a tremor.... Autocorrect likes to fuck me up)
Don't be a clown. Disagreement is ok, but rabid uninformed takes will get you blocked.
