what's keeping out practically every disease, infection, and contamination? skin

what's responsible for 90% of cooling you down when it's hot outside? skin

what can absorb radiation from the goddamn sun and somehow you only get hotter for it? skin

what organ can you decorate with paint, cosmetics, tattoos, and also use as a to-do list when you've got your wrist and a sharpie? SKIN BABEYYYY

practically every organ is annoying in some way. the human body is cursed. every bone and muscle is built spitefully and your immune system is halfway trying to kill you. but skin? skin is trying its very best and it's doing a great job of it. skin is healing up after the most fucked up stuff imaginable and growing back twice as strong because it loves you and wants to protect you. this is not a shitpost i just genuinely want more people to take a second to appreciate something about themselves they've always taken for granted

To donate to the Beat Breast Cancer campaign, text the word BEAT to the number 70007 or 70099

Sources:

http://www.breakthrough.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/styles/adaptive/public/About%20Breast%20Cancer/Touch%20Look%20Check/About-Breast-Cancer-Touch-Look-Check-Signs-To-Look-For.jpg

http://media.summitmedicalgroup.com/media/db/relayhealth-images/selfexam_2.jpg

http://www.worldwidebreastcancer.com/wp-content/uploads/what_breast_cancer_looks_like.png

lmao I’m sorry I have no idea if this is even true but the fact their takeaway is “THIS IS AN EVIL ZIONIST PLOT TO CONFUSE ADVOCATES” is fucking hilarious

like I’m sorry, if you think supporting Hamas, the totalitarian regime that suspended elections & killed any palestinians in the opposition the moment it came to power & has actively put palestinians in harms way to the point that an increasing number of palestinians have been protesting and openly cursing Hamas despite knowing it could easily mean Hamas kills them, is advocacy… you don’t need help being confused

Way to show your entire ass and PUBLICLY ADMIT that you are trying to send money to Hamas!

Not to the Palestinian people.

YOU'RE TRYING TO SEND MONEY DIRECTLY TO HAMAS. The terrorist group that has ravaged Gaza and the Palestinian people.

GREAT JOB TELLING ON YOURSELF, YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!!

We've known for MONTHS that the Hamasniks were sending money to Hamas by donating to UNRWA, which funnels money to Hamas, but NOW THEY ARE ADMITTING THAT SENDING MONEY TO HAMAS IS THEIR INTENT!!

Also. I used to do website forensics for a living. The only reason people are claiming that Hamas.com is a site "made in Israel" is that it is built on the Wix web building platform, which is a website building company that began as a tech start up in Tel Aviv, and it is headquartered there. It also has offices in New York and San Francisco.

But people who make this claim are FUCKING MORONS who don't understand how the internet works. They definitely don't understand how website building platforms work.

Wix is a MASSIVE website building platform with over 250 MILLION users around the world. (Other examples of website building platforms in the same league as Wix are Weebly, headquartered in San Francisco, and SquareSpace, headquartered in New York.)

Claiming that Hamas.com is "made in Israel" because it's built on Wix is like claiming that ONLY people in San Francisco use Weebly or ONLY people in New York use Square Space.

If you claim this, YOU ARE STUPID.

Wix is an international company with users around the world. And based on the fact that the Hamas.com name servers are with Cloudflare.com, a company headquartered in San Francisco, it is just as likely that it is owned by someone in the United States.

But whoever owns Hamas.com has identity protection on the WhoIs lookup, so unless you work at a company that can subpoena that information, you're not going to be able to see who owns the URL.

So anyone who claims that they know that it is a "site made in Israel to steal your information" is LYING OUT THEIR ASS.

I recently had a conversation with a friend and colleague about stuff they shared regarding the rescue operation of the four hostages. They had posted the tweet from the Deeja account that said in all capital letters that Israel used an aid truck. I reached out because 1) I know this person to be reasonable and evidence based, and 2) I knew they were coming from a place of genuine concern that was being manipulated. For context, this friend is a brilliant geneticist that I have know for nearly 2 decades as we did our undergrad together and have stayed in touch ever since. They're a kindhearted person and their work has led to some breakthroughs that highlight this trait as they've worked on certain types of genes that can have detrimental mutations when expressed. As I've said before, a lot of people are empathetic and sympathetic individuals to the plight of others, and those behaviors are being manipulated for nefarious reasons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Me: Hey G, that thing you shared about the aid truck? Yeah, that's not the complete story or accurate.

G: What?! What do you mean?

Me: It wasn't an aid truck that they used. In fact, only that tweet and Al Jazeera were reporting that initially. All the other sites, including pro-Israel and anti-Israel, were reporting a civilian truck of some sort. Most said a moving/furniture truck.

G: Wait. Hold on. So it was a moving truck then?

Me: Well...we now know it was a soap truck.

G: Why the fuck are people saying it was an aid truck then?

Me: You know the reason.

G: Yeah...okay, admittedly I am not well informed on all this. Thank you for reaching out and correcting me. Do you have any suggestions on how to stay informed? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Now this is where it gets interesting because at this point they say something that I knew was a thing on some level, but hadn't really put the pieces together.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Me: Well, I wouldn't share anything from Al Jazeera. All they do is spout Hamas propaganda. I'd also avoid accounts that share from them as well, unless you're really interested in what the propaganda is itself. I'd avoid JVP since they're the Autism Speaks of Jewish groups. And also avoid SJP groups, many of them openly support terrorist groups and have been recently endorsing domestic terrorism. G: Wait, wait, wait. AJ is bad? I've been following them since we were in undergrad.

Me: Since undergrad?

G: Yeah, they were the only ones covering news in a Lefty manner. Like, remember when Occupy Wallstreet broke out during grad school? They were the one of the few news sites that covered it in a left leaning manner.

Me: Ah fuck...that makes sense. Okay. So. AJ is the state media of Qatar, think of it like RT or Sputnik. Qatar has literally hosted the leaders of Hamas for years and they live there in multi-million dollar homes. AJ pretty much acts as the propaganda mouthpiece for Hamas through Qatar.

G: But what does that have to do with how they covered stuff when we were younger?

Me: Well, there was a meeting in 1993 in Philly of Hamas members that was wiretapped. Those wiretaps were submitted as evidence during some trials in the 00s and they revealed that Hamas had planned at that meeting to use the language of progressive Westerners to garner support for their cause and manipulate them.

G: oh

G: Oh, fuck!

G: So you're saying they purposefully set themselves up to be more sympathetic to Leftists and manipulate them through using their jargon and it's on tape?!

Me: Yep. Here's the link (https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2023-10/the-hamas-network-in-america.pdf)

Me: Now there's a lot more to that doc. It goes over how they planned to set up research groups to influence academia, political groups for politics, and charity groups to raise money. The latter of which is what the 00s trials were about.

G: Fuck...that's well planned out. I can't believe it's on tape.

Me: Mhm, it's right there. I'm surprised it's been allowed to go on this long though. I think after all the dust settles we might see some Bush Era Patriot Act shenanigans go on.

G: I wouldn't be surprised.

G: Thank you for reaching out and letting me know. I can't believe I fell for that.

Me: It's totally okay, and understandable. If you have questions about anything please feel free to reach out.

G: Again, thank you so much. I will.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What G said about Al Jazeera though and how they'd been following it for years stood out to me. I remember when Occupy Wallstreet happened and AJ was reporting on it. I remember so many American news sites denigrating the movement and AJ was one of the few that was actually covering those protests in an objective manner. We didn't have a lot of the Left news sites that currently exist today. It was a wasteland of center and right wing sources as far as the eye could see. But that makes sense for the time period and why AJ is still so prevalent in Left spaces.

As I told G, the 93 meeting documents Hamas members talking about using the language of Westerners against them and infiltrating their spaces to garner support. With AJ being the mouth piece of Hamas and having been one of the few "Left" leaning news source since Occupy...well, they've been grandfathered in to Leftist spaces as "trusted". That's why so many of these Western activists will accept an AJ article with no question or critical analysis, it's one of the go to sources and has been for a long time.

I'm a little mad at myself that I didn't remember the coverage of Occupy and other events in the USA by AJ and how they were framed until G brought it up. I'm second guessing all the times I read articles back then and my reactions. G admitted they're now doing the same. To think that many of us older Lefties have been manipulated for years because we had some friendly coverage of our opinions is disheartening. But then again, how many of us actually knew what AJ was, who was running it, and what the agenda is/was? I mean, hell, I'm a forensic consultant and consider myself well versed on big cases, but I didn't know about the HLF stuff until Vidino's report came out (the doc mentioned and linked above).

what I am trying to say with poll is that Allosexual (a term for non asexual people) if you meet someone who is asexual don't just atomatically assume they are sex repulsed instead ask if you are shy here is a prompt

“This is a war crime!!!”

“They massacred 200+ people!”

It’s actually a war crime to take hostages babe. It’s also a war crime to kill people you take and/or attack civilians. All of October 7th was a war crime. You cannot enter another country and slaughter random civilians dancing at a rave. You cannot go door-to-door in a village and burn people alive. That’s a war crime.

On the other hand, it is not a war crime to attack an entity involved in war, even if it would normally be a crime to do so. For example: attacking a refugee camp is not a war crime when the “refugees” are hiding hostages. If a hospital is being used as a base for terrorists, the hospital is now legally fair game for war. When we have satellite videos of Hamas members driving UN vehicles and operating out of an UNRWA building, those vehicles and that building are up for grabs.

They will literally video themselves wearing press vests while firing rockets into Israel. But if they die, they won’t be reported as a combatant death. The headlines will read “Israel Kills Member of Gazan Press”. And people eat it up.

At this point people have two options:

1. You’re a sheep. You do no real research. You follow blindly.

2. You’re a Jew hater. You are antisemitic.

@hotchlover replied:

@naycay why don’t you ask hamas? It’s hamas who uses its own people as human shields. It’s hamas who puts hostages in civilian homes in the middle of highly populated camps. It’s hamas who fires rockets and rpgs from UNRWA facilities, schools and hospitals. It’s hamas who did not accept the ceasefire agreement not even a week ago. It’s absolutely mind boggling how easily yall been blinded by jihadists’ lies. Israel doesn’t owe shit to the terrorists that murdered, raped and kidnapped her people.

and @naycay, or as my phone wants to spell it, naysayers, said something like, "got proof of all that"

And the thing is? I don't even have to roll up my sleeves.

1. Hamas using Palestinian civilians as human shields:

People in Gaza will tell you about this all day long. You don't know about it because nobody is fucking listening to them. Palestinian human rights activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gazan ex-pat, has written about it repeatedly.

And how do supposedly pro-Palestinian people react? By yelling at him for talking about how Hamas harms Palestinians as well as how Israel does. By blocking him and speaking over him instead of boosting his voice and supporting his work.

2. Hamas putting hostages in civilian homes in the middle of highly populated camps:

It's... literally in the fucking news coverage?

The freed hostages, three men and one woman, were freed from two separate houses in the residential neighborhood of al-Nuseirat, in central Gaza.

3. Hamas fires rockets and RPGs from UNRWA facilities, schools, and hospitals:

Gosh it sure sounds like it would be really hard to find evidence of that.

Oh wait. I just googled "Hamas fires rockets from UNRWA" and the first result, a CBS News report from November 8th, includes:

a photo of a Hamas rocket launching site positioned in an UNRWA warehouse facility in southern Gaza

reports of the IDF having found "Boy Scout camps that have rocket launchers in them, rocket launchers next to children's playgrounds, rocket launchers and ammunition and military facilities within school compounds, and the false systematic abuse of hospitals and ambulances by Hamas," meaning that Hamas abuses hospitals and ambulances by using them to hide its operations;

and another Hamas rocket launching site INSIDE A DIPLOMATIC BUILDING? right next door to an UNRWA-run school:

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told CBS News that Israel's forces have seen "a systemic abuse by Hamas of sites and locations that are supposed to enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention and humanitarian law," including not only U.N. facilities, but other schools, clinics, mosques, churches and hospitals. U.N. facilities are "supposed to be out of bounds, according to the law of armed conflict, and specially protected," Conricus said, calling Hamas' use of U.N. locations "a double war crime."

That's ridiculous. It's not a double war crime.

It's a TRIPLE war crime.

Because Hamas, Palestinian Islamic jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and their various other associated groups, know goddamn well that their rockets often misfire and hit Gaza.

NBC News on October 19th: "Military and munitions experts told NBC News that available evidence indicates a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad — a militant group in Gaza — most likely caused yesterday's deadly explosion at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.... [Israel's military also said it didn't do it, and] that a rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad failed and fell short."

CNN, same day, paraphrased: "We asked PIJ if they did it, and they said nuh-uh."

Palestinian Islamic Jihad, on April 8: "No, yeah, that was us. Gaza terror groups use all of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip."

That's apparently in addition to recordings the IDF provided at the time, "in which Hamas members can be heard saying to each other that PIJ was responsible for the explosion."

And in addition to the fact that "the PIJ spokesman was arrested... during the second takeover of Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, along with 500 other Hamas and PIJ terrorists, plus another 200 whom the IDF killed when they refused to surrender.

"The terror spokesman said his role was to fool the global media and foreign countries to turn them against Israel."

Oh hey! That CBS News article also says, "Hamas' use of civilians as human shields in Gaza was confirmed during the last major conflict in 2014." Well, that's fun.

4. Hamas did not accept the ceasefire agreement not even a week ago:

I mean, even that USA Today article above links to a Jun 5 piece confirming:

The White House has said it has "every expectation" that Israel will, if Hamas does, accept the U.S.-backed cease-fire plan that Biden unveiled in a surprise speech last week.

Hamas has yet to sign on to the deal.

Yesterday (Tuesday June 11), senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Hamas accepted the ceasefire resolution and was ready to negotiate over the specifics.

Buuuut... those playing along at home will know that that's what Hamas FREQUENTLY says.

What it always turns out to MEAN is, "Sure, we accept the basic general concept of HAVING a ceasefire! In fact, whatever you suggested is fine! We just need to negotiate a few tiny little details first! Like Israel not trying to wipe out Hamas and associated groups anymore, even though we publicly said we would attack again and again and again until Israel is violently destroyed. Also, it can never fight us in Gaza ever again."

That's not accepting a ceasefire.

That's Hamas using its best skill: creating plausible deniability.

Like calling itself "the Palestinian resistance."

They know those two words are like catnip to progressives. So many people heard that and extrapolated wildly: Hamas IS the Palestinian people! It's their resistance movement! Therefore, it's Good! Therefore, it had to have a morally Good reason for invading on Oct 7! The violence of its attack tells us that Israel must be doing even worse things to Palestinians!

Ironically, the actual Palestinian resistance has had to focus largely on fighting Hamas.

(Israel, frankly, is also fucking excellent at accidentally saying and doing things in ways people can misread... as TERRIBLE. Zero fucking skill at spin, whatsoever. None. It's absolutely stunning how bad it is at this. The Israeli government should see if any of those arrested Hamas members need PR jobs. I am barely kidding.)

Hamas also always demands that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Even though Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the Oct 7 invasion and a founding member of Hamas, was able to plan and carry out the invasion because he was released in a 2011 prisoner exchange.

This isn't an "even though" to Hamas, of course. This is a way to get a massive boost in their forces. Which they need, because as of March, Israel had taken 26,000 of their fighters out of action.

"we lived in peace" "they treated the Jews well---" I know most everyone I'm talking to here is aware of reality and this history, and the people denying it are not listening and refuse to learn, but this is very well explained in a quick format, so if you ever need it - disprove the "happy Dhimmi" myth.

source

"I can't believe there's a legal way to kill children!" these people cry.

Yeah, there is. You know why? Because if it was blanket illegal, then you'd have someone like Putin order every kidnapped Ukrainian child strapped to the outside of his tanks for a second run at Kyiv. And if these people had their way, then the Ukrainian defenders would be unable to stop the legally indestructible tanks without being guilty of warcrimes, because there's nothing capable of stopping a tank that wouldn't reduce those kids to paste. But then the people shooting at the invading tanks would be guilty in the eyes of the law if it was legally impossible to ever shoot a child in war. Which is absurd--Putin, in that scenario, would be the one responsible for putting them there.

It's horrible, and immoral, but the laws are structured that way so that there is no advantage in using human shields, and puts the guilt purely on the person trying to use them.

The problem is, in this scenario, the people who accuse Israelis of relishing in child murder are all too happy to blame the IDF, and not Hamas, for the deaths of the children that Hamas puts in harm's way.

There are Jews who have European backgrounds and *some* of them have benefited from eurocentrism or being white passing, but in moments of crisis or need the social tides that create white privilege have never seen Jewish people as part of that group. Whiteness is a social category which has changed with time and attitudes and, at least for now, it has never and still doesn't include Jewish people.

Continuing to use the term "white Jews" is ignorant at best and harmful at worst. Even converts once converted are othered and can no longer rely on any previous white background to save them if they are identified as Jewish.

Hi Nonnie!

Sorry it took me a moment to reply, but I hope my answer can still help you!

As an idea, Standing Together is a movement that I should have been all for. They are pro-coexistence, and so am I. There's no doubt in my mind that Jews aren't going anywhere, and neither are Arabs, and we are all better off working together for a good future for all. Supposedly, that's ST's message, so they absolutely should be an organization that I would be all for.

BUT from everything I've experienced, the narrative that they adopted is way more one-sided than their official stance, they're closer to being anti-Israel than balanced, which makes them problematic for me. Especially when you look at the individual actions and statements of many of this movement's leaders, it's evident that coexistence to them comes at the expense of historical facts, as well as certain Jewish rights. Obviously, the leaders' personal positions influence the movement's stance and actions.

For example, in this interview from Nov 2023, a Jewish leader of the movement falsely calls Israel's 2014 operation in Gaza against Hamas, "a war against Gaza and its people" (brief summary: Hamas kidnapped and murdered three Jewish teenagers in Judea and Samaria, Israel launched Operation Brother's Keeper during which it arrested some of Hamas' terrorists in that area looking for intel on where those 3 kids were and what happened to them, Hamas fired rockets from Gaza at Israel to get its terrorists released and used terror tunnels, including ones that crossed the border from Gaza into Israel, to kill and kidnap our people. That's what Israel ended up fighting against in Operation Protective Edge), while an Arab leader of ST defines their way as one which rejects "maintaining violent military control over millions of people," but says nothing against the terrorism that's used against millions of Israelis and Jews.

In terms of the recent war, since Oct 7 they have come out calling for a ceasefire now very early on in the war (I can't remember when they started it, but I know by Dec 7, 2023 they'd already put out a vid calling to stop the war, when really the ground operation only started about a month earlier, before it could possibly achieve anything), meaning this call was undermining Israel's right (and duty!) to defend its citizens, and asking us to surrender our goals of returning all the hostages and destroying Hamas' rule (only the latter can prevent Hamas from fulfilling its promise to carry out more massacres of the type that started this war, and has claimed so many lives on both sides). Another thing you can see in that vid is ST participating in spreading the false narrative that Israel is intentionally starving the Gazans (you can see the same thing in this poster, which says in Hebrew, "Thou shalt not starve." It's a poster for humanitarian aid they were supposedly bringing into Gaza, as if the IDF would ever let anyone bring anything they want unchecked into a war zone, or as if the amount of aid a few Israeli cars could bring is more than the hundreds of trucks Israel has been allowing in, checked. ST's just posturing and spreading an anti-Israel libel). Helping to spread a libel against one side is NOT being pro-coexistence. Imagine if they were spreading a libel that all Gazans are Hamas terrorists, and took part in the massacre! I think it's clear that, even if it's not simple to tell them apart, there are people in Gaza who are complicit, and people who are uninvolved and innocent. So if ST were spreading such a libel against Gazans, I'd oppose them. I am not going to do less when ST is spreading a libel against my own people.

I hope one day they correct course, but I can't currently support them. Give me REAL solidarity between Jews and Arabs, which sees and recognizes the humanity of both, not a repeat of the de-humanization of Jews, and a surrender of Jewish rights to an anti-Jewish narrative. That's not real peace, it's not real coexistence, it's a return to the way that we Jews have had to live for centuries in exile: always dependent on the good will (or lack of it) of the majority under whose will we lived, forced to bend ourselves, our rights, our dignity, too often even our very lives, to our subjugators, in the hope (and without any guarantees) that they will show us some kindness.

Many of the movement's leaders have not only expressed themselves in a way that reflects an acceptance of the anti-Israeli narrative, and took one-sided positions I can't agree with, they also acted in ways that have left me feeling quite unsafe.

For example, one of ST's founders, Yeela Raanan, joined and supported the violent Palestinian riots on Israel's border with Gaza, organized by Hamas, meant to breach the border fence, which started in 2018. Today we know these riots were a part of Hamas' preparations for the Oct 7, 2023 massacre, as they were getting the IDF used to them coming closer and closer to the fence. TBH, those of us listening to the statements of Hamas' leaders, we didn't need to wait for the border to be breached in order to know that it would be a bloodbath if they succeed. Sinwar's promise that they will reap out the hearts of Israelis with spoons from our chests was enough. Also, the repeated use during these riots of flags and kites with swastikas was pretty telling. So yeah, I can't trust anyone who supported that.

The movement is also financially supported in part by funds, such as the New Israel Fund, which finances a lot of good causes, but also many anti-Israel ones, and the German fund Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, which supports the antisemitic BDS movement (it's antisemitic first of all because one of its stated goals is to put an end to Israel as a Jewish state, another reason is their use of antisemitic tropes in characterizing the Jewish state).

The ironic thing is that, despite how imbalanced against Israel ST is, it was still the so-called pro-Palestinians who actually started a campaign to boycott the organization. Not because of anything specific ST said or did. It was simply for being an Israeli organization, showing the diversity of Israeli society, which is apparently bad 'coz it "normalizes" Israel's existence. That shows you the anti-Israel nature of this opposition, that no amount of willingness to cooperate with the de-humanization of Jews and erasure of our rights will ever be enough for people whose real motivation is antisemitism, that wishes to see an end to the Jewish state.

I hope this helps, Nonnie! Once more, my apologies for how long it's taken me to reply. Be well!

--Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism, page 57

But please, anti-Zionist antisemites, tell me about your theory that Ashkenazim had the good life, about how you think they were just a pampered little group of privileged folks who had never known hardship. Jews didn't found Israel as a colonizing mission for white supremacy. Jews founded Israel so our culture would not be completely destroyed by the force of our oppressors.

“May I be permitted to say a few words? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic & Islamic History under William Montgomery Watt & Laurence Elwell Sutton, 2 of Britain ‘s great Middle East experts. I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge & to teach Arabic & Islamic Studies at Newcastle University . Naturally, I am the author of several books & 100s of articles in this field.

I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs & that, for that reason, I am shocked & disheartened for a simple reason: there is not & has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality should anyone choose to visit Israel.

Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that many students are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, & that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby.

Hating Israel

Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I’m not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel . I’m speaking of a hatred that permits itself no boundaries in the lies & myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a “Nazi” state. In what sense is this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg Laws?

None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for. It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When?

No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is a way to subvert historical fact. Likewise apartheid.

No Apartheid

For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a day in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous this is.

The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country’s 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha’is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan & elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; or anyone else; the holy places of all religions are protected by Israeli law.

Free Arab Israelis

Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population). In Iran , the Bahai’s (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren’t your members boycotting Iran ?

Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa. They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews — something no blacks were able to do in South Africa.

Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews & Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.

Women’s Rights

In Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men & women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays oftn escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.

It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel & say nothing about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief.

Intelligent students thinking it’s better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

(…)

I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations.

(…)

Israeli citizens, Jews & Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations & call for no boycotts against Libya , Bahrain , Saudi Arabia , Yemen , & Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world’s freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the ME that gives refuge to gay men & women, the only country in the ME that protects the Bahai’s…. Need I go on?

(…)