I've seen a lot of posts on this site that are leaning into anti semetic tropes while criticizing Israel. I want to point it out so that folks can recognize it.
First, because I have to say it:
Israel is a colonial outpost of the United States. It was created by Britain and inherited by the US. The US gives Israel ~3,000,000,000 USD in aid every year. As a colony, it should be the goal of every socialist to destroy it, just as we seek the destruction of the US, Northern Ireland, South Korea, Canada, the Phillipine state, etc.
But! Israel is also a safe haven for Jews. This is seperable from the colonial nature of the state. Israel could have been created in Germany or Siberia or frankly Florida for that matter (in fact, annexing Florida to create a new state of Israel is what I mean when i refer to "the one state solution"). In many ways, the US with its civil rights act serves the same purpose, and in fact, most Jews live in the US.
Many of us had ancestors in Germany or Poland during the holocaust who did not stick around after the war. They saw Israel as their best shot at safety in the wake of the holocaust. Many Israelis are liberals, hoping to vote out Likud, stop supporting settlements, and negotiate palestinian statehood. These people are advocating half measures, sure, but they are not our enemies.
So I wanted to point out some anti-semetic tropes I've seen on this website and call them out so you can recognize them.
Conflating Jews in Israel with Zionists.
This can be done through omission. If you aren't clear whether you're talking about jews or a specific institution (for example, the I"D"F or the settlements or Likud), many people will read your statement as being about Jews. Be careful with the word "they"
erasing the ambivalent position of jews within colonialism / conflating jewishness with whiteness
The zionist entity is not a Jewish colonial project, but an Anglo colonial project. It was created by the British and now is funded by the US Americans. Jews are an oppressed minority whose oppression is leveraged against other oppressed peoples. Similarly to how the US uses Kurds to Balkanize Iraq or The Hmong to wage counterinsurgency in Laos, it's uses Jews to destabilize the Levant.
Outside of the US, jews are largely understood as a racial group and oppressed on that basis. Especially in the Arab world where the Islamic hyper nationalism has gained ground in response to colonialism and been funded further by colonialists to their own ends (google "the safari club" or "Israel funds Hamas")
Blood Libel
This one is the assertion that Jews are uniquely bloodthirsty / murder non Jewish children. The classic example of this myth that people are familiar with is Runplestiltskin.
It is true that the IDF under the direction of Likud and the US state is murdering many Gazans, the majority of whom are children. but! be careful to specify. When people talk about "jews" or "israelis" generally as perpetuating the murder of children, they are engaging in the blood libel trope. Again, be careful with the word "they" and specify which entities you're talking about.
calling for ethnic cleansing
Okay, wtf ya'll. It's not jews as an ethnicity that are oppressing Palestinians, it is US imperial power. Jews have always lived in Palestine and the occupation only began in the 40s as part of a British initiative.
Jews will always be part of a palestinian state, and frankly need protections as ethnic and religious minorities. We do not seek the expulsion of Jews from Palestine, but their integration into it as citizens.
Jews are safe in the US not because its a colonial state but because of civil rights protections and generational wealth. If we can create civil rights protections in Palestine and a social safety net (ideally communism but I'll settle for social democracy), then jews will be safe in Palestine.
Jewish control of America / protocols of the elders of zion
America controls Israel and not vice versa. APEC is not a cabal brainwashing otherwise Nobel Christian politicians. US politicians support Israel because they're colonial politicians and Israel is our colony. APEC exists because lobbying is how power is exercised in the US, but if we had patronage instead, APEC' functions would be carried our by a governor or an ambassador or whatever.
conclusion
Recognize the role of the US empire in Palestinian oppression. Recognize that jews are in an ambivalent racial category and are an oppressed people. Be specific when criticizing Israeli colonialism. Name who you're criticizing, is it the settlements? The IDF? Likud? The US military Industrial Complex? Stop calling for ethnic cleansing of jews if you've been doing that. Don't equate jewishness with whiteness / the Nazis. White people are white people, the US is the Nazis.
Have there been any actual calls for ethnic cleansing or assertions of blood libel by Hexbears????? I want to say the most egregious thing I've seen posted by Hexbears is 'Isreal' instead of 'Israel'. Not saying it couldn't or didn't happen - just curious because I'd expect better from the average poster on here.
Yeah, there have. I saw one person get up voted for saying that decolonizing Palestine required ethnic cleansing. I saw another say that Jews need to "pack up and leave" Israel. Both upvoted. It's not the mainstream but it's out there.
More common though is vague language that probably applies to settlers / likud or whoever but could reasonably be interpreted to mean "jews" by someone not on the same page as the hexbear mainstream.
settlers gotta be kicked out of the last 40 years of settlements probably, like the french were expelled from viet nam.
i dunno if that's "ethnic cleansing" but i'm sure reactionaries would try to call it such regardless
Compare how the pied noirs (french settlers) left during the decolonization and independence of Algeria
Which makes me so infuriated at the state of bourgeois media in France rn (which shouldn't move me at this point, but I still get pissed off everytime I have to hear a take from one of the resident Greg Gutfeld), we have a clear example in our history where stopping the occupation and removing the settlers (mostly by having them flee the country btw) worked and stopped the war and violence and today the media are cranking up the propaganda machine for another settler state
And if people ask where should 2nd gen and up israeli return to, their colonial sponsor, the US, should take responsability and take them in, just like France took the pied noirs back when a lot of them where 2nd gen settlers originally from Spain, Portugal and other European countries
Also funny thing is most pied noirs were pretty reactionary and racist (shocking I know) but never forgot the reactionary right wing De Gaulle for 'stabbing them in the back', they even did a little trolling and tried to gun him down, I love fascist infighting![emoji fash-infighting fash-infighting](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/fa47d8ea-02ac-4fef-b15b-604420a1f2e0.png)
The last 75 years of settlements.
You're right, and the fact that you felt the need to assert that shows how blurry the line can get and the importance of being specific with your language.
i might not have clarified in a comment under a different topic
Saying they should pack up and leave isn't anti Semitic it's saying that genocidal ethnostates shouldn't commit genocide against their neighbors.
I would report those posts in that case because if someone is calling for the ethnic cleansing of Jews as part of the liberation of Palestinians they are not an ally and an antisemite. I think the vast majority of the posters here know that isn't a solution either.
Same with the more subtle stuff. Call it out. I admittedly can't always pick up on it, but if you feel like there's an ulterior motive in a post then we'd certainly be open to calling that person out on it as well.
I have been, but I know I won't catch it all and hoped to help catch it at the root with this post.
Also![emoji meow-hug meow-hug](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/28d86083-caf1-46d9-b565-569425bb5451.png)
Did you report these things? People have a serious habit of complaining about comments without reporting them
I think it’s for good reason. Banning someone does significantly less to change a site’s culture than complaining about it.
It is possible to do both![emoji very-smart very-smart](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/4814baba-8d02-4bda-80a1-6f01c4fbadcb.png)
Then support people doing both instead of just telling them to report comments they already have.
??? the only linked comment in this thread was not reported. i was the first to report it, and it got removed instantly.
i have personally gone on my own crusades throughout this site's history, your account is 10 days old. ive been doing shit here for 3 years, trying to etch out a safe space for women and trans people. and we have been successful! but you must keep reporting suspicious activity to keep it that way.
An admin/moderator said that 9 out of 9 comments they reported were deleted. Implying they reported 9 comments.
I have also been around a while, this is just my latest account. I don’t understand why we have to argue about seniority, though.
yeah, and what im saying is that its important to do both and its good that nagarjuna has been doing both! but what i want people to understand is that everyone needs to be doing this.
Yes, I agree, I’m sorry for being combative. Now I’m assuming bad faith![emoji sicko-no sicko-no](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/69e86a9e-1664-49e4-9970-2844b5d80905.png)
Damn. Hopefully you reported them & they were removed by a mod.
Good post comrade![emoji fidel-salute fidel-salute](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/9a5763af-1614-43e4-ac08-6099f40c0c55.png)
This needs to be said again. I wish we had a way of onboarding new users about what hexbearism means as a political ideology.
Participating in a study group as prerequisit to joining this forum, just like PSL