2mo ago

"I live here now"

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/31699290

Original: https://x.com/tinysnekcomics/status/1392518674322448386

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2mo ago

"I live here now"

2 comments

I think one problem this gets into rhetorically is that people think about "I live here" in terms of demographics in the area of Palestine - American Christians who might be uncritically sympathetic or loyal to Israel might think in terms of Biblical history or when Jews lived there a long time ago, and then they can throw their hands in the air and say it's a complicated history, blah blah blah
Like, OK - that might have a kernel of truth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine_(region)
Studies of Palestine's demographic changes over the millennia have shown that a Jewish majority in the first century AD had changed to a Christian majority by the 3rd century AD,[4] and later to a Muslim majority, which is thought to have existed in Mandatory Palestine (1920-1948) since at least the 12th century AD, during which the total shift to Arabic language was completed.[5]
But this misses the point entirely - we aren't saying that somehow only Jews or only Muslims have the original and exclusive right to the land we call Palestine - instead what is important is that Israel is a de facto and de jure recent and illegal invasion and occupation of that land:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_the_Israeli_occupation_of_Palestine
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, which has continued since 1967 and is the longest military occupation in modern history,[1] has become illegal under international law. This illegality encompasses the West Bank, including Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, as well as the blockaded Gaza Strip, which remains to be considered occupied under international law despite the 2005 Israeli disengagement. Israel's policies and practices in the occupied West Bank, including the construction and expansion of Israeli settlements, have amounted to de facto annexation that is illegal under international law.
Framing this as about Jews and Muslims loses the relevant point which is that this is about the illegal and immoral actions of a nation-state.
- Is that why Zionist settlers are more likely to develop melanoma?
  What could be more indigenous to Palestine than a melanoma-face from Russia or Poland who came with the intention to shoot?
  [It is the] iron law of every colonizing movement, a law which knows of no exceptions, a law which existed in all times and under all circumstances. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else – or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempts to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not “difficult”, not “dangerous” but IMPOSSIBLE! … Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important to build, it is important to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot – or else I am through with playing at colonialization.
  As quoted by Lenni Brenner, in The Iron Wall: Zionist Revisionism from Jabotinsky to Shamir (1984), where the quotation is cited as being from "The Iron Law"