Regular reminder that Jewish people, as a whole, cannot be blamed for what the #Netanyahu regime is doing in #Gaza / #Palestine.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

Regular reminder that Jewish people, as a whole, cannot be blamed for what the #Netanyahu regime is doing in #Gaza / #Palestine. Most Jewish people cannot vote in #Israeli elections, do not have influence over that government, and overwhelmingly dislike Netanyahu himself. Even in israel, we see a chunk of the population openly protesting what is happening: support is not unanimous there. Even then, the majority of support is coming from anger and fear, not some innate desire to carry out #genocide.

Blaming Jewish people, as a whole, for what a group of extremists are doing in #Palestine is not only as absurd as people blaming #Palestinians, as a whole, for what Hamas did, it is counterproductive to the greater movement, where Jewish voices are the most effective ones.

Antisemitism is no more a winning argument than #islamophobia, and neither are really appropriate or civil discourse.

Stop blaming entire groups for the actions of a few members.

- TechHub Moderation

spinbackwards

@Raccoon Plenty of polls show that Israel citizens overwhelmingly support their governments actions. In fact some polling shows they want their government to do more.

So I would say it’s fair to openly criticize Israeli citizens.

Third spruce tree on the left

@spinbackwards @Raccoon I wonder though what portion of those Isrealis whose support is compelled. It seems like they're at the point of "Be patriotic, support your government or Shin Bet dissappears you or you lose your job".
Several of my Jewish Canadian friends who DO condemn the Isreali government have to be extremely careful who they say what to, even in their own families.

Orlaya

@spinbackwards @Raccoon

I think one should always show respect to those who do not support and oppose the violence of their own people.

By putting everybody into one box, you undermine their effords.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@spinbackwards
But it's not all of them, and the reasoning behind it, along with what those polls are actually showing is far more complicated than "Israelis are all genocidal for no reason."

40% support Relief efforts. That 40% is likely not in favor of giving aid to people they want dead.

In general though, my point here is that the antisemitism is inappropriate and ineffective.

https://religiondispatches.org/how-95-of-jewish-israelis-support-a-plausible-genocide/

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@tezoatlipoca @spinbackwards
It's also more complicated than just supporting genocide: these people had a terrorist attack, similar to 9/11, and have been in a state of panic from it. This is on top of being subjected to a thoroughly controlled media which tells them repeatedly that Palestinians are terrorists who want to kill them, and the people supporting them are more antisemites...

...which is part of why, as to my original point, antisemitism is neither appropriate nor effective in the discourse.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@Orlaya @spinbackwards
This is part of what I was saying: yes a majority of them seem to support it, with a lot of nuance to that statistic, but some of the most prominent voices in the peace movement are israelis. People blaming the entire population of israel, or Jewish people in general, are lumping them all together.

Third spruce tree on the left

@Raccoon @spinbackwards "similar to 9/11" - that's a good analogy I hadn't quite made that assocation... but its apt.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@tezoatlipoca @spinbackwards
A lot of Jewish people were (very rightfully) scared and angry after what we all need to acknowledge was a horrific attack on civilians. That doesn't make it ok for any of them to say some of the things I'm seeing, and I call them out for it when I see it, but that's not what I saw that prompted this. What I saw that prompted this was people blaming the Jews, again, for the latest chapter of an 80 year old mess.

Sir Ryan Bemrose

@Raccoon Careful, this kind of rational extremism will get your instance blocked by the so-called free-speech instances.

Raccoon at TechHub :mastodon:

@ryan
I'm not seeing that at all. What I'm seeing is a small group of people pushing bigotry and broad-stroke hatred into a conversation that needs to be about the needs of people, and stopping the individuals who are actively threatening them.

As a moderator, it's not my place to enforce any specific view on political policies, but if someone is saying that any group "deserves" to be targeted for violence simply because of where they were born or who their ancestors were, be they Jewish OR Palestinian, that IS Hate Speech, and I encourage any moderator who sees it to treat it as such.