mercy is but kindness through hatred

It's no wonder so many people are profoundly lonely and disconnected from their communities when maintaining a social life in what little free time we have is incredibly difficult. If you have kids, a second job, a very long commute, or other responsibilities, it's nearly impossible.

TL;DR - Deciding to treat an entire group of people as social pariahs is what got us into this mess in the first place - the actions of one doesn't speak for the group

you can dodge a draft, muhammad ali did it and went to jail. Tal in israel did it and he went to prison for 30 days. i dont really have any sympathy for idf soldiers. i dont super care that theyre conscripted, if they actually really did disagree enough they would leave the army. Here's a testimony from a former IDF soldier who left the IDF after they realized that they were participating in the murder of children and families. To emphasize, I think IDF soldiers who participated in the IDF and are taking active steps to counter their past should not be treated like social pariahs.

joining the army is not treated with the scorn it should be. like at all. so if we show people that you cant live in peace if you participated in the harassment and murder of palestinians, then less people will be willing to put themselves in "danger" and not join the army. because even if they weren't committing the most obvious form of genocide now, they still harrass and accost palestinians as their least lethal form of intimidation that they regularly participate in, even outside of gaza.

the video on its own was already enough to turn me to dust, but looking at the comments.. ENOUGHHHHHH

My father’s family is from a village in Jaffa (the district), which is now part of what most people define as “mainland Israel” or an “undisputed” part of Israel - like that land was acquired legally or ethically and an unequivocal part of what is Israel vs what is considered (at least to some) Palestine (the West Bank & Gaza). 

My father’s family had the choice to flee or die and to this day cannot return home to Jaffa. It leaves me with a strange feeling when people discuss a hypothetical “two state solution” as if that land is inarguably Israel and the West Bank and Gaza is inarguably Palestine - my family is not from the West Bank or Gaza, they’re from Jaffa. Proudly Palestinians from Jaffa - they’re not Israeli and never be Israeli, they predate the modern colonial state of Israel.

When people talk about occupied Palestine, they’re usually referring to the 1967 borders and the increasing settlements in the West Bank, when Palestinians talk about occupied Palestine, we’re talking about all of it - every corner of what people define as “mainland Israel” there is a story of Palestinian dispossession - It includes my family and thousands of others. 

Leaving this map here for people to get an idea of how much destruction of Palestinian life and communities happened in what people see as an “undisputed part of Israel” - there is a reason the Palestinian population here plummeted in 1948. 

In short: