Viva Viva Palestina!
Why I stand with Palestine
Native Americans watched as the divide and conquer tactic was used to eradicate us. It is well documented that Nazi legal experts poured over the American legislation concerning Native Americans to find ways to legally genocide the Jews and other undesirables of the population. A common tactic used by Americans was putting traditional enemies together on the same reservation with the hopes that tensions created through forced starvations would create violence between the populations and let them kill each other.
When Great Britain 'gave' the land of Israel to Jewish people, it was more of the same, putting two owners in the same home and telling Jewish people to take what is theirs, in spite of the generations a Palestinian family had lived in the home. I believe this took a vulnerable people who had just experienced genocide, gave them weapons of war, and an enemy to fight. I don't blame Jewish people for this situation, but Zionism cannot be allowed to exterminate the Palestinian people simply because they experienced genocide.
To be crystal clear, I don't believe the political bodies of the west hold any genuine love for Israel, most of the world has expressed extreme antisemitism and only flipped when it was fashionable to do so after the holocaust. I think this is a 'get out of jail free' card for white Americans to avoid concepts of racism without offering real support to a hurting community.
I don't believe this action was motivated by genuine compassion, and I think they use Jewish bodies as cannon fodder to push their presence in the Middle East.
2 Spirit and Genocide
I'm not only Native American, I'm also German, and a reality of German life is reeducation, the concept of learning how not to be a fascist. How to prevent what happened in Nazi Germany from happening again. While I didn't attend school in Germany, this is a concept that I have been familiar with most of my life. The importance of learning what caused these problems, and how to stop them from repeating.
I have been afraid of speaking up about Palestine. I hesitated for as long as I did because I felt like it wasn't right for me to speak up, since my people created the problem in the first place. But people like me, people who have to walk in these spaces have a responsibility to speak up. If the person that comes from both genocidal aggressors and genocide survivors can't speak up,
Who can?
I don't want to be seen as antisemitic, but the freedom and liberation of Palestine is more important than angry, hurt people photoshopping swastikas onto my forehead. I hold just as much space for Jewish folk as Palestinians, but I cannot center white American or Zionist colonizer feelings over the lived reality of genocide in Palestine. if all houses matter, let's put out the one on fire first.
The people who are descendants of genocide need to stand up right now, and speak out. Tell the stories that helped to heal you. Tell the stories of agony if it helps to heal you, there are those of us who will feel seen for the first time through your words.
Do not remain silent Germany. This is where the world sees if you actually learned your lesson, or if you still make excuses for genocide.
We have to sit down and TALK
I don't pretend to have all of the answers, but I do know that the way to find them isn't through war and bombing children.
I am not the keeper of this story, but the Iroquois confederacy may offer some insights.
The story as I was told it, was that there was a terrible civil war that went on for generations, While California life is filled with abundant resources, Iroquois life was not, so the war was over very limited resources.
Everyone in these five tribes were horrifically impacted by these wars, what we would refer to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in modern times. We see this same reality in Israel and Palestine.
Realizing that something had to be done, the leaders of the five tribes came together to talk. by the end of the talks, they had come to an agreement. the weakest, smallest tribe would be in the center, given the smallest land, but absolutely protected on all sides. the tribes each circled around the smaller one, taking the space needed for their own people, while also being responsible for the protection of those inside the boundaries. Any member of the confederacy could move freely between these boundaries, they were not locked into their space. All were free and equal and protected each other.
Israel, if you want to steal power from Hamas and other terrorist organizations, you must give Palestinians full and equal rights. you must rebuild what was destroyed, and give them the help they need to reestablish schools, hospitals, cultural centers. If you want to win, you have to do it holding their hands as family.