Chastity White Rose

Tag: israel

  • How come Israel killing millions of Palestinians is not considered genocide?

    I sometimes answer questions on a website called Quora. Most of the time, I answer questions about Linux and computer programming. However, when I received this question in my email, I read the other answers and found them lacking in substance. Some people are picking on the use of the word “genocide,” and others are saying it was not “millions” but hundreds of thousands.

    My hope in sharing this is that other people will learn a little bit more about what this conflict between Israel and Palestine is about. I have included some links to books and videos to learn more, from people who know far more than I do.

    But I have a responsibility to say something because to be silent on this topic could be misinterpreted as approval of what is happening in the Middle East. I do not stand with Israel nor Hamas. I stand only with innocent people who have not wanted to fight but have been killed by the actions of violent groups.

    https://www.quora.com/How-come-Israel-killing-millions-of-Palestinians-is-not-considered-genocide/answer/Chastity-Rose-4

    Depending on who you ask, it is sometimes considered genocide, and other times, it is considered self-defense. I am no expert, but for what it is worth, here is my take based on what I was taught growing up and the books and documentaries I have read and watched in the past few years.

    1. Israel thinks the land of Palestine is the promised land, which was promised to them in the Old Testament by God. The Old Testament is also full of violent, bloody wars, sometimes assisted by miracles from God. The validity of these claims is entirely dependent on religious belief and belief in these texts. Also, some of the jews were killed and taken captive by Babylon in the Old Testament, while a few have remained in other parts of the land outside of Judah.

    2. The people who have lived in Palestine for thousands of years, including Christians, Jews, and Muslims, were pushed out when the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948. Palestinians and Jews have both killed each other in conflicts ever since. Palestinians see the Jews as invaders, much like the Native Americans saw the British settlers who came and founded the United States of America. The Palestinians want to remain on the land they have been on for generations. The Jews who came to Israel after World War 2 want to come back to what they think is their homeland, given to them by God in the Old Testament.

    3. There are many good Jews and Palestinians who would like to live in peace and not fight wars. However, the powers that be in the Israeli government and Palestinian groups like Hamas prefer to fight. Meanwhile, innocent civilians suffer. Innocent men, women, and children who have their homes, schools, churches, and hospitals blown up by bombs constantly.

    My opinion is this: I do not care about who is “right” in this never-ending war. I do not care who the land belongs to based on holy books or whatever other arguments are made. I would like the fighting to stop. I don’t want the innocent people to suffer and die slow, painful deaths by starvation or have their limbs blown off when bombs are dropped on them.

    And as an American, you might think my opinion doesn’t matter. However, when I discovered that the USA government is funding the Israeli military and has been sending billions of dollars to Israel, most of which was before October 7. According to a government document I found, they have received 174 billion dollars from the US.

    “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II. Successive Administrations, working with Congress, have provided Israel with assistance reflective of robust domestic US support for Israel and its security; shared strategic goals in the Middle East, and historical ties dating from US support for the creation of Israel in 1948. To date, the United States has provided Israel $174 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.”

    https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/RL/PDF/RL33222/RL33222.51.pdf https://www.notmytaxdollars.org/

    Do I want the Palestinians killed? No!

    Do I want the Jews killed? No!

    But more importantly, do I want my tax dollars supporting wars and the military of a foreign country? HELL NO!

    I think maybe we should handle things the Old Testament way. If the God of the Old Testament really were on the side of Israel, we would see miracles on their behalf, just like in the book of Exodus. These divine acts, like plagues, parting the Red Sea, pillar of fire, food like manna, and water from rocks, all happened without modern technology or military weapons that we see in modern times. Our tax dollars should not be required and should instead be used to help Americans who have been paying them.

    The following are some resources that I recommend for more information on this conflict.

    Resources on Israel and Palestine

    Movies

    1948: Creation & Catastrophe (Full documentary)

    https://youtu.be/Bwy-Rf15UIs?si=nw3BSr1HDUEKH3rs

    Israelism: The awakening of young American Jews | Featured Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq6J7Q6L0yw

    Books

    Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation by Sim Kern https://www.amazon.com/Genocide-Bad-Palestine-Collective-Liberation/dp/1623716365

    Palestine Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Peace-Apartheid-Jimmy-Carter-ebook/dp/B000MGAU4S/

    The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HLYPNJN

    The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KT5W342

  • Chapter 14: The Problem With Nationalism

    I understand that Chapter 13 of Walking the Rainbow Bridge has the potential to be greatly misunderstood. It is obvious that I dislike the idea of countries, borders, governments, and citizenship in general.

    When I criticize the United States of America, many people will say: “If you hate America so much, why don’t you move to another country and see how much worse it is!”

    When people say this, what I really hear is: “Yeah, we are not great, but at least we are not as bad as those people over there!”

    And yes, I agree. The USA is not as bad as many places in the world. That misses the point entirely. However, I have my specific problems with the USA government. My issue really is with the concepts of countries and states existing.

    As should be known by anyone who knows something about American history. The USA, as we know it, started as a bunch of white British settlers who came to this land and started their system. However, there were already native Americans here, and these white settlers from Europe killed and/or moved them continually west until the current day, when only a few descendants remain and some live on small reservations.

    As if that was not bad enough, these founders also brought dark skinned enslaved people that they had obtained in Africa. Our history is one of immigrants bringing other immigrants against their will to kill the natives of this land and build an empire that eventually fought to become separate from England.

    The Declaration of Independence, written July 4, 1976, specifies in detail the problems the states had under the rule of the King of Britain and why they wanted the states to be an independent nation.

    https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

    You see, the start of what we know as the United States of America began by criticizing and breaking free from the previous government that the founding fathers had suffered from. The most American thing that can be done is to criticize the government.

    Unfortunately, the Native Americans and the enslaved Black people were not so lucky. They did not have the freedom as citizens of this new land. They were enslaved, beaten, whipped, killed, and chased off the land they had been on for generations.

    This act of destroying the people of the land and taking over is called colonialism.

    https://www.thoughtco.com/colonialism-definition-and-examples-5112779

    The reason I am not a fan of countries is that they almost always involve colonialism and violence at some point. The European settlers were not born in America, yet they all became citizens. The Native Americans were born here, yet they were not treated as citizens and were forced to give up their land, languages, and way of life.

    How then can we say that someone coming from another country to the USA has any more right as a citizen to live and work here? Declaring someone like me a citizen because I am born here, and yet not someone who came from somewhere else, makes no sense.

    That is why I believe in open borders and equal citizenship for all people regardless of country of origin, race, language, or religion. I am against nationalism. I just don’t believe that I am better or worse than anyone because of my birth here.

    But perhaps because American history is what I was required to learn, and because the current USA government is taking away the rights of the LGBTQIA+ people right now, I am quite resentful of the powers that be at the moment, as well as the atrocities done to innocent people in the past. It is therefore why all of my books and blog posts have a tone of anarchism and idealism.

    I want everyone to get along. I know this will not happen and that wars will continually be fought over land, resources, and religions. I hope that we can bridge the gap between people of different places and cultures in the same way that I want to bridge the gap between people who are straight or gay, cisgender or transgender, and sexual or asexual.

    But let me be clear about one thing that must be understood. A state or country is not the same as the people who live there.

    • Americans are NOT the American Government.
    • Chinese people are NOT the Chinese Communist Party.
    • Jews are not the state of Israel.
    • Arabs are not a terrorist group.

    The people are not the land, government, religion, or anything else. Each geographical location contains many different kinds of people, and they should not be lumped together as if they are all the same.

    Just as I don’t want the actions of Rose Montoya to be associated with me just because she and I are both transgender, I don’t want to falsely assume that anyone of a particular identity is evil.

    And in the past, I have made that mistake. I have been hurt by many people who call themselves Christians, and therefore, I do have a prejudice that I use to protect myself. The link between the interpretation of specific bible verses has been used to discriminate and commit violence against gay and transgender people.

    A prejudice is not the same as hatred or anger. However, when you see a snake, your chances of survival are better if you assume it is venomous and get away from it. Sometimes we have to protect ourselves from those we see as a danger. Having a gut reaction of prejudice is not being hateful, but it is being careful.

    What I am saying is that it is important to get to know people rather than letting those prejudices, which protect us in the short term, become something worse that causes us to be the very monsters we assume others to be.