Hamas didn’t attack Israelis because they are Jewish
JVL Introduction
This article was published a month after October 7 but remains as pertinent as when it first appeared.
In it Anna Baltzer, author of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories, demolishes the presumption that Hamas is motivated by antisemitic hate.
Of course, Jews were killed on October 7. Those attacked on that day were overwhelmingly Jewish. But they were not attacked because they were Jewish, but because they were perceived as representatives of an oppressive occupying force.
“We need a basic analysis of power and history to understand that Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians, while egregious, had nothing to do with those Israelis’ religion and everything to do with occupation and settler colonialism.”
Of course October 7 triggered Jewish memories and traumas especially in a world where antisemitism still very much exists, particularly in the context of white nationalism.
Jews can both grieve for Israeli lives lost, says Balzer, and refuse the weaponization of that grief to commit genocide against Palestinians.
RK
This article was originally published by Common Dreams on Sun 12 Nov 2023. Read the original here.
Hamas didn’t attack Israelis because they are Jewish
We need a basic analysis of power and history to understand that Hamas’ attacks on Israeli civilians, while egregious, had nothing to do with those Israelis’ religion and everything to do with occupation and settler colonialism.
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Thankyou for your comments & feelings. Your own observations are aware & so valid yet ignored. I will reread your words & share them because they are so wise so valid in this horrendous onslaught! Sadly America, Britain & Europe are supplying the weapons, the Pat on Netanyahus back that is so wrong so immoral & anti Palestinians!
It is Netanyahu who has escalated the antisemitism in the world.
He is not a Jew but a Zionist, an opportunist who is desperately hanging onto his leadership! He is a corrupt, inhuman individual a criminal who should have been imprisoned years ago! He has caused this escalation & death of thousands of innocent people, babies & children!
Where is humanity where are the real politicians who actually care???
It seems to me that Zionists want to have it both ways. They claim that to be a “real Jew” you have to be a Zionist and if anyone objects that makes them an anti Semite.
I find the idea that all Jews support ethnic cleansing deeply offensive and as a non Jewish member of JVL, I know this suggestion is totally false.
An excellent, eloquent article. It would be nice to see anything similar appearing in the mainstream press.