Israel is committing genocide.
Israel is a settler colonial state.
Obviously not all Israelis are committing genocide – there are examples of people protesting the state’s actions everyday. The fact that people disagree with the government does not make the statement “Israel is committing genocide” untrue. The State and it’s people are two entangled entities. Not separate. While you can argue that ultimately, the power to commit genocide lies with the State; the state is defined by institutions, elected, and un-elected officials who make and implement policy, and all the people within institutions who comply. Those of you cheering Israel on, defending the state, are also complicit. You are allowing genocide to happen.
The same complexity lives within the statement, “Israel is a settler colonial state.” Of course, some people within its borders are refugees, some are indigenous, and many are settlers. The founders of Zionism defined it as a colonial project. In order for Israelis to settle after WWII, certain kinds of humans were forcibly removed from their homes – a project has continued through the present and continues to happen on the daily. So. While we can argue about the nuance, the statement remains true. The state of Israel is a settle colonial project. Israeli officials are discussing the settlement of Gaza in the open – today, yesterday, and likely tomorrow. This is displacement, erasure, and death in order to settle unceded land – all things that define settler colonialism. The state of Israel continues the process of settler colonialism.
This does not negate the fact that there are refugees of Jewish faith within the state of Israel. That said, if a refugee is complicit in the actions of the State against Gazans and people living in the West Bank … they become complicit, they become settlers.
Israel is a settler colonial state, enacting occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. This is not a statement about Jewish people or the Jewish religion. This is a statement about the nation state of Israel. Period. If you choose to define it as antisemitic, it says more about you and your ability to morph the idea of faith into something sinister than it does about truth or my beliefs.
The United States is aiding and abetting genocide in the Middle East, in Africa, and around the world. The United States committed genocide in the past, and continues that process today.
The United States is a settler colonial, imperialist state.
Within the United States there is a powerful force who want to make it a White Christian Nationalist state – in part, to further commit genocide and atrocities here and around the world.
Nuance applies.
Opposing White Christian Nationalism is not anti-Christian. Opposing genocide is neither anti-Christian nor antisemitic. Opposing the regimes of nations is not a religious statement, though it may be informed by one’s faith. A person is not anti-Muslim when in opposition to the Islamic Republic. I am not antisemitic when I oppose the atrocities of Israel. I would argue that anyone protecting Zionism in Israel or White Christian Nationalism in the US, supports a specifically anti-religious ideal. These political ideologies are not religious, rather they are practices that twist and usurp faith into the the project of hoarding power (be it holding office, land, or money). To use the words of the faithful, the Zionist and Christian Nationalist movements are similar political ideologies which dupe the faithful into “sin.”
I will never believe that a truly faithful follower of Judaism, Christianity, or Islam would condone the murder of civilians in the way that the state of Israel (aided by the US) is today. Nor do I believe that any truly spiritual person of any faith would support the US blind support of such atrocities.
The actions of Hamas are distinct from, yet informed by, the policies of the Israeli government. I am able to condemn both Hamas (as representing a political ideology that is distinctly ethnonational) and Israel. That said, I can also understand the politics and conditions on the ground that were and remain complicit in creating this sort of opposition within occupied territories.
I am also able to understand scale. October 7th (and the mis-and-disinformation surrounding that day) is not justification for genocide. Yesterday, Israeli forces killed over 70 and injured more than 250 starving people who were looking to get food – just yesterday. This intention and act is something that leaders of nations of differing faiths and political ideologies agreed is a war crime.
The murder of civilians must never be justified – either politically or through some warped faith-based ideology. The intentional starvation of civilians, the targeting of relief trucks, the targeting of hospitals, schools, refugee camps … must not be justified. Quite frankly, I see very few instances where killing should be justified. War is hell. The creation of “Hell” on Earth does and should have political and religious ramifications.
One of the first lessons we teach our kids … is that two wrongs don’t make a right.
Wrong is wrong. Genocide in Israel, the Congo, or here on US soil is wrong. May religious and political ramifications be felt by all those complicit – including you, if you fit that bill.