Michel Kichka is a cartoonist borne in Belgium with Jewish roots, who became intrigued with Israel, and decided to do a permanent move, marrying and raising a family there with his French wife.
* "Aliyah" is a somewhat complicated word as I grasp it, but from what I understand at the basic level, refers to going back to one's roots / homeland.
-----> https://imgur.com/a/kjMohrs <-----
The way the sequence above concluded really shocked me, and even brought a tear to my eye, honestly. Me, I'm not remotely used to dealing with people like that, and yet I guess that's how it works in certain parts of the world? (gadzooks, mistress goose)
In terms of the comic itself, I found this sequence rather current & relevant to the USA, and a pretty excellent, interesting survey of the artist's life and Israeli culture. At the same time, it established little to no emotional connection with the characters, which is usually how we do these things, but... oh well?
https://www.bedetheque.com/auteur-23699-BD-Kichka-Michel.html
EDIT: As we've clarified multiple times here, this story snippet has to do with neighborhood relations in an Israeli city. It is by no means addressing anything on a national basis, including Israeli relations with other peoples or nations. Attempts to highjack the thread in that direction directly breaks our #1 rule here (practice netiquette) and will be dealt with accordingly. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sensitive topic for sure
Blaze, you know I love you, but if everything that has to do with Israel is automatically controversial, then what is the point of snipping little aspects of our lives?
This is the point where I say: "go fluff yourselves, right?"
I just realized now that the whole topic is available in the imgur link. Having the full story completely changes the message (and it is indeed quite positive)
My comment was about the 3 drawings you see from the main picture in the post, which just seem to indicate an escalation of tension between the two characters, which is why I made this comment.
Let's see how other people react
Good point....
Yet, in case it matters, I tortured myself over a couple days, wondering if I should make a post like this. And yet it's just what I'm reading. At the end of the day, I don't feel like I should be ashamed for what I'm reading. People who don't like that can just move along...
I saw that image and was a little confused about the message that was being conveyed. This little conversation between you two helped clarify things and was enough impetus to follow the imgur link. Thank you both!
Glad that it helped!
Israel is built on genocide, it's perpretaing genocide, it's only propped up by the US because it's profitable for it to do so. Yeah everything about it is controversial, not least of all it's appropiation of judaism.
A modern Israel never would have been necessary if Jewish people hadn't been unfairly persecuted for centuries and then genocided in WWII, a good bit of that due to bullshit literature like "PEZ," that sought to find external scapegoats for internal, national difficulties.
Regardless of all these comments, there's simply no good reason to start slinging shit in a post examining interpersonal conflicts within Israel. You are breaking the simple rules of this sublemmy (follow "netiquette"), and I don't appreciate it.
Modern israel was built on the idea of colonialism, not giving jewish people a homeland. That's why Herzl wrote Rhodes and visited some of the most horrendous antisemites of his time like the russian czar. To him the jewish people were nothing more than bodies to settle the colony he wished to build (similar to rhodesia). Why else would the y have contemplated argentina at some point for instance? Why the lost generation of the mizrahi jews? The forced sterilization of ethiopian jews?
Zionism is racist and at it's core anti-semitic since it wields the suffering of the jewish people as a shield to legitimize it's settler colonialism.
Even if all of what you're saying is true (it's not), the clock of time is not going back. The founding of the United States is built on the spilled blood of native Americans. What are kids born in the US today supposed to do? This type of clinging to the past to justify any contemporary analysis is the reason things aren't moving forward.
Which parts do you think are untrue?
And the kids born to settler priviledge are supposed to give the land back. Then either integrate or fuck off. Like imagine you inherit a plantation and the wealth it was built on was built by slaves, you should not have a right to that wealth. Same with german companies that got expropriated by the nazis. Give them back or nationalise them, there shouldn't be private gain from genocidal actions.
Also do you not realise that the genocide of native americans is ongoing? The landgrabbing and keeping them in mass poverty and poor access to education, healthcare etc is still very much a reality today.
readsettlers.org
Nothing you said necessarily contradicts what I wrote. These are lofty ideas. We should all be striving for ultimate justice. Native Americans should have their lands returned; descendants of slaves should have economic reparations; and so forth.
But how far do we turn back the clock and what is the net benefit? At some point you have to pick a time stamp and freeze history. Otherwise we could sit here endlessly picking arbitrary points to restore the time machine.
But maybe instead of focusing so much on the what we should be focusing on the how. Ultimately everyone wants some measure of justice. Talk to Palestinians or Jews: each will have a different interpretation or vision of justice means to them. But how do we get there?
Ok. How are you going to accomplish that exactly? What does this sentiment or statement accomplish in terms of ending the current suffering that is happening? I'm not sure I understand what these declarations are intended to convey or who the audience is?
You make some nice points to me. Not unlike what happened in the USA, altho I'm not perfectly from the States.
BUT you just skipped over the enormous points I brought up at the start. Now why is that...?
The point about how israel wouldn't be necessary if jews weren't persecuted? I think I made it clear that the persecution was used as a cudgel to move bodies to the colony, not that the colony was established as a safe haven for jews.
Because if it truly was about helping jews the racism against non-white jews wouldn't exist.
You see, when in retrospect, that stuff doesn't matter when a peoples are pushed over and across their breaking point.
Take a little mouse, for example. Let's say you smack it around for a long while, then finally push it in to a corner. Then you lean in for a kiss.
OF COURSE YOU'RE GOING TO GET BITTEN?
Don't you get it? (even at just a... theoretical level)
who's leaning in for a kiss in this analogy?
Indeed, could not be more sensitive. I hope people will stay on topic and be cool.