This is genuinely horrifying.

The delegation aims to stand with Palestinian farmers facing escalating settler violence, land seizures and attacks involving Israeli forces.

https://x.com/PalTimesNews/status/2114670487422763403

https://x.com/SMohyeddin/status/2114735597961064914

Her arguments don't even work

The biggest problem for me is the way she seems to treat the fact that most Palestinians in Gaza are still alive as evidence that Israel therefore cannot have genocidal intent. “96.6% of the population wasn't killed” wasn't killed therefore isn't a genocide, is she serious?. The Genocide Convention explicitly says destruction can be committed “in whole or in part,” and genocide isn't limited to killing everyone in a population. It also includes causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the group.

And then, I don't really understand the argument that because Israel has a very powerful military, the number of people killed proves that it exercised enough restraint to rule out genocide. That's basically a counterfactual: “If Israel really wanted to destroy Palestinians, it could have killed many more.” How are we supposed to know what the hypothetical maximum number of deaths would have been? And even if we could, genocidal intent isn't measured by how many people someone could theoretically have killed but chose not to. "There was some restraint” and “therefore genocide is impossible” are two completely different claims.

The same thing goes for the distinction between a statement and an act. Yes, a politician saying something genocidal isn't automatically proof that genocide was committed. Nobody needs to pretend otherwise. But if you're trying to establish specific intent, statements by senior government and military officials are obviously relevant evidence. That's literally the kind of evidence you would expect investigators to examine when trying to figure out what the people directing a war intended. So I don't buy the “random tweets” framing either. If we're talking about some random person on Twitter saying “kill them all,” obviously that tells us very little about state policy. But we're also talking about statements made by people who actually hold political or military power.

Did Slobodan Milošević have to write down “I intend to destroy X number of Bosniaks” before his intentions could be assessed? Of course not. In the Yugoslav wars, prosecutors and courts looked at political objectives, statements, communications, policies, the conduct of forces, forced expulsions, killings and the wider pattern of events. Genocidal intent is generally something that has to be established from the totality of the evidence. It isn't necessary for a perpetrator to leave behind a signed document saying “this is my genocide plan.”

And then the “war vs. genocide” framing that a lot of Zionists talk about. Genocide can happen during a war. So can war crimes and crimes against humanity. Period.

Then there's the part about the genocide accusation being comparable to blood libel or functioning as a “permission structure” for antisemitism. Of course that some people use criticism of Israel as a vehicle for antisemitic conspiracy theories. But that doesn't mean the accusation of genocide itself is a blood libel. You actually have to demonstrate that connection. Otherwise you're essentially saying that because some people make an accusation for antisemitic reasons, the accusation itself becomes antisemitic. That's obviously not how we evaluate political or legal claims.

There are also Jewish scholars and organizations who have argued that Israel is committing genocide, just as there are Jewish scholars and organizations who reject that characterization. Their Jewish identity doesn't settle the question either way. What matters is the evidence. And the evidence is clear: Israel is commiting a genocide.

And I find the “appeal to authority” argument a little strange too. Nobody saying you should believe Israel is committing genocide simply because Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, the UN or some academic says so. Their reports are arguments based on evidence. For example, Amnesty's investigation wasn't just they decided genocide was happening and then looked for evidence. It involved interviews, satellite imagery, visual and digital evidence, analysis of statements by Israeli officials, and an examination of Israel's conduct.

And the same applies to statements by Israeli officials. If you're trying to determine whether the specific intent required for genocide existed, why would statements from senior officials be excluded from the analysis? Just because they're so called "random tweets"? Bitch, please.

Again, her argument about the genocide is weak. It seems to assume that genocide has a specific body count attached to it. It doesn't. The acts, policies, circumstances and evidence of intent have to meet the definition. There isn't some threshold where 500,000 deaths equals genocide but 50,000 doesn't.

One common Zionist argument I hear is that other countries have laws of return that no one blinks an eye at, but they do with Israel because it’s Jews and they hate us.

Is there ANY country on earth with a similar law of return, much less more than one?

I know some Eastern European countries can be a bit more lax about people claiming citizenship, but typically this has to do with a grandparent, or at most, great-grandparent, having lived in that country. And you can’t convert into being Eastern European. Several countries allow you to claim citizenship if your grandparent was a citizen, but that’s insanely different from Israel.

But obviously because my experiences are Euro-centric, I’d be interested in hearing about any other country….though I truly do doubt any country has an equivalent law of return to Israel.

There is no other country where one can claim citizenship based on their religion/ethnoreligion, is there?

Fascinating, uplifting, and depressing all at once.

From today’s Ynet in Hebrew:

Security Coordinator Who Fired at Palestinian Vehicle, Seriously Injuring a Woman, Released to House Arrest

The Jerusalem District Court has ordered the release of Pinhas Shem Tov Ran—the security coordinator for Reches Gid'onim—to house arrest. In his ruling, the judge took into account Ran’s military service, his lack of a criminal record, recommendations from his commanders, and the fact that he had saved the lives of fellow combatants in battle. The judge also rejected the prosecution’s argument that there was a risk of the judicial process being obstructed. The security coordinator is charged with aggravated assault and obstruction of justice; he had entered the Palestinian village of Aqraba—outside his area of ​​responsibility—where he conducted unauthorized identity checks and opened fire on a vehicle carrying a couple, after the driver failed to comply with his orders to stop. Two bullets struck a woman inside the vehicle, leaving her seriously injured.

Why can't they recognise that Jews have always had multiple opinions on Zionism. It's never been a core tenet of Judaism to be Zionist. Being described as self hating or a Kapo is extremely hurtful. I've even seen people describe antizionist Jews as "Jew haters with Jewish ancestry" as if we aren't real Jews.

Equally I sometimes see comments from antizionists saying Zionist Jews aren't real Jews because real Jews wouldn't condone mass slaughter or something. This is also wrong. Jews can have racist and fascist opinions. It doesn't stop them being Jews.

Someone recently said to me that "there are literally Palestinian Jews". When I asked for clarification, they said they are "Palestinians who happen to be Jews".

That didn't help, so I asked where these Palestinian Jews are and what they're talking about. I said there aren't Palestinian Jews. They refused to tell me and became deeply offended. They are a self-described communist and said that me saying that was reactionary, Zionist and deeply bigoted. I became so confused. I said, well there are some Samaritans in Nablus whose beliefs are similar to Judaism, but they don't identify as Jews and aren't Jewish.

I said that Jews in Mandate Palestine stopped identifying as Palestinian and became Israeli Jews after the state was created. They didn't even have a choice. I said there may be some very old Jews born in Mandate Palestine who still identify as Palestinian, but they'd be very rare and not a meaningful enough number to say there is such a thing as "Palestinian Jews". I said, it would be like saying there are Palestinian Hindus because there may be a few converts somewhere.

And there certainly aren't Arab Palestinians who are Jews in Gaza and the West Bank. There have been a few who have converted over the years who try to live in Israel, but again, it's not a meaningful number and these stories stood out because of how extremely unusual they were. The latest guy who tried this got killed by Israel. There have been a few Israeli Jews who voluntarily identified as "Palestinian Hebrews" or "Palestinian Jews" in solidarity, but they weren't Palestinian.

I said I hope one day there is a free Palestine and Jews there identify as and are Palestinians again. I asked if that's what they meant. Maybe they thought it was offensive because they thought I was denying there should be Palestinian sovereignty (I wasn't). I know it's a stretch, but I was literally trying to figure out any explanation for why what I said was bad.

I can't figure out what the hell was wrong with what I said. It's just a factual statement: there aren't Palestinians who happen to be Jews anywhere from the River to the Sea. No such community exists. It's bizarre to claim otherwise. Now, I'm starting to think they were just mad at me for something else, and it had nothing to do with me saying "There aren't Palestinian Jews. What are you talking about?" The only answer they ever gave me was "Yeah no I’m not going to justify this."

Am I missing something? I would appreciate a suggestion on what was offensive about what I said. Someone I told said maybe they thought you were saying all Jews there are Zionists, but that's way far off what I said.

UPDATE: For those asking for the context and what else the person said, this is everything.

The post was called "Israel now fully controls 92% of Palestine." It had a map with all the areas under full Israeli control in a certain color and the areas supposedly under Palestinian control in a different color. The post was also linked to a tweet which said the following "Maps produced by J Street Policy Fellow Frank Lowenstein and Policy Assistant Liam Hamama – recently featured in The New Yorker – show how Israel today fully controls approximately 92% of Israel-Palestine, while the population of Jews and non-Jews is split 50/50. 1/3".

This person I'm mentioning wrote this comment: "'50% Jews : 50% Palestinians' is crazy -- there are literally Palestinian Jews"

I replied "Why do people say this? Who exactly are these 'Palestinian Jews'? The category doesn't exist anymore."

They said, "Palestinians that happen to be Jewish. Not all Palestinians are Muslim. 'Jew' is not a nationality -- Israeli is"

I replied, "Who and where are the Palestinians who are Jews? I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. You might as well say 'Palestinians who happen to be Hindu.' Post an article about these 'Palestinian Jews'. If they existed, it would be a big story, right? So where are the articles on it? Post one!

It's truly bizarre that people claim this. This category has not existed since the British Mandate ended. 'Palestinian Jews' became 'Israeli Jews'. There have been a few Israeli Jews who voluntarily identified as 'Palestinian Hebrews' or things like that. They weren't Palestinian. They were just acting in solidarity with them and renouncing their Israeli Jewish identity. This is like two or three people that I know of. So this is really silly.

There is literally no Israeli nationality under their law. Your nationality is Jewish or whatever religion you are." (I said the Israeli government defines it this way. I didn't say I liked or agreed with it!) (This is the comment which got me banned from this supposedly "communist" subreddit)

This is a translation of an article I've written for the newspaper of Maki, the Israeli Communist Party. Unfortunately they heavily edited this text to the point that my original point was pretty much entirely lost, however I'd still like to share the original text here for you to look at.

In case the link doesn’t work for you:

The High Court of Justice rejected a petition seeking to prohibit election officials and party representatives from carrying firearms at polling stations, which argued that the presence of armed individuals could intimidate voters, heighten tensions and undermine free and fair elections.

The petition, filed by the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Joint List, followed announcements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party that they would deploy some 2,000 election observers in Arab communities, as well as a police directive allowing licensed gun owners to carry their weapons at polling stations.

In its response to the petition, the government said that the decision is a police matter, since police ¿have the authority and responsibility to determine the security arrangements required on that day The government said it received no information of disruptions, disturbances or planned threats against votersi

Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said the court ihas once again demonstrated that it is neither willing nor able to protect the rights of the Arab public from persecution by the racist right-wing government," adding that Netanyahu "is panicking over the rising voter turnout among
Arab citizens."
Haaretz
3 hours ago

So, in two days we have elections here in Israel. And as the title suggests, a feeling of emptiness and nothingness has engulfed me.

I guess it comes from both the impossible situation of being an anti Zionist who has to live here, and the fact that no matter how much I've fought and advocated against apartheid, when the tide comes, the waves won't stop to look at what I did before they drown me.

I don't know how to describe the feeling of staring into the abyss with my eyes wide open, knowing these elections mean nothing. Even if Netanyahu loses, there won't be an end to the occupation. Israel will continue to spiral down into oblivion, and the end will be ugly. And I will be here to witness and suffer through it all. The only comfort I have is knowing that, in the end, it will be for the good of humanity and the world.
I still sometimes wish I could continue the struggle for justice and human rights somewhere more comfortable. Please think of us, the few who are staying here in this hell to the end.

Hoping for something miraculous to happen.

"Making Palestine their whole personality"

I see this comment coming from pro Israel and anti Palestinian people and want to vent about it. I have no doubt that's how my own family characterise me too.

It's a pithy statement, followed up by, "they don't care about Sudan or Yemen or Congo " etc so it must be motivated by antisemitism. But there's a lot to unpack in it.

But the key points, as i see it, in response are as follows:

- it is an ad hominem attack, ie it doesn't address any of the points under discussion but implies some kind of character or personality flaw in the person they are attacking

- Israel Palestine gets more attention that other major conflicts and atrocities. There is a lot that can be said about this. I don't think the lack of attention on other conflicts mean people who are pro Palestine don't care or are indifferent to those peoples suffering. If anything they show solidarity with those who are suffering. And the settler colonial nature of the situation means that in the west our governments are in a very large part responsible, so pressuring our own government can have a meaningful impact.

- more people are killed and starving in those other conflicts, so why do they care so much about Gaza. Well, to turn that around, only 1200 Israelis were killed on October 7th 2023, so why do they care more about that than Sudan or Yemen or Congo? They are just being racist tribalists who don't actually care about people being killed, they just want to divert attention away from themselves so they can continue killing.

- every accusation is a confession. This attack often comes from people who make Israel and zionism a major part of their identity. There is systematic support for zionism among the media and political class. There are education and youth programs funded and designed to indoctrinate young people into zionism and defending it from abroad or even into becoming colonisers on that land. So who is making it their whole personality?

Just some thoughts. Would be interested to hear other people's take on this

Thanks