[Air-L] The difficult conversation we don't seem to be having

[Carmel Vaisman]

>
> I would actually appreciate it if every organization/association would
> deal with the issues it was founded for, instead of issuing statements on
> every other thing going on in the world as virtue signaling. Oh sorry, it's
> not like statements are issued on ANY thing going on in the world, it's
> only when it involves Israel, right? Do you even know of the dire
> humanitarian crisis in Yemen that western media barely covers for some
> reason? I'd say this awards a much more urgent statement, and it might
> actually draw some media outlets to bother covering it.



>

Everyone loves these academic concepts, "context", decolonialization",
"apartheid" "genocide". Few, though, care to educate themselves about the
history of the BDS campaign to connect these trendy concepts with the
Palestinian narrative and bind it to unrelated struggles in a way that no
progressive person can even consider supporting anything else.

As an Israeli, I am obviously biased, you shouldn't listen to me and I
would not attempt to defend anything, certainly not the actions of a
corrupt government everyone here wants to be rid of. I am just sick and
tired of the lack of critical thinking in critical theory, so I will
put up two provocations just to saw a bit of doubt in the use of the above
categories in this context:

1. Are you sure colonialism is the framework you want to use for people who
are native to the middle east according to all monotheist bibles? The Jew
who used to be the "other" in Europe is now the archetype of the colonial
European? It would have been funny/ironic, if it weren't a new dangerous
form of anti-Semitism.

2. Gaza population has grown from a few hundred thousands to over 2 million
people since the state of Israel was founded, and is one of the fastest
growing populations in the world, despite growing rates of immigration.
Israel seems to be doing a very bad job on the genocide front.

In short, there is a good reason this list was not having this conversation
until now, and I think it should stay that way.