Salaam To All

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I have decided to start writing this blog after much deliberation on my behalf and, frankly, a lot of prodding from those around me. There are many blogs out there discussing conflicts in the Middle East from various perspectives, but hopefully this won’t be ‘just another one’. What I will really be discussing here are issues of human rights, plain and simple. My personal involvement steers me towards the issue of Israel/Palestine, but I also recognise that it is not possible to look at one area in the Middle East as if it were in a vacuum. Given that this is a particularly geopolitically sensitive region, it would be doing a great disservice not to look at what is taking place around this conflict as well.

As the title of this blog would suggest, I am a, somewhat, angry Jew. I am angered by the shameless violations of Palestinian rights (essentially, the lackthereof at this point) by the Israeli state; I am angered by the constant conflation of ‘anti-Semitism’ with anti-Zionism and anti-occupationism (that’s not really a word, but you know what I mean); and I am angered by the Israeli (and diasporic) propaganda machine that would seek to brand us all as devotees of their rogue state and its racist policies. I find it thoroughly offensive that the banner of ‘remembering the Holocaust’ is used to perpetrate crimes against other people. I mean, seriously, that’s some messed up shit. Why does it seem like there are so few of ‘us’ who recognise that? Those who do speak out are met with a barrage of verbal abuse from members of their/our so called ‘community’. On a personal level, I (as well as I’m sure many of you out there) am constantly on the ropes with my family, and often the target of slurs of anti-Semite, traitor, and self-hater. For the record, I do not hate myself; I actually quite fancy myself ☺. What I hate is the excusing and legitimising of racist and inhumane policies with arguments of ‘our own’ victimisation. This, to me, makes no sense.

I am hoping that this blog will help me to take things a step further. At some point, protesting, signing petitions, and personal argumentation (including via facebook of course ☺) just isn’t enough. Not saying at all that starting a blog is any kind of earth shattering, or peace precipitating, move; but getting the word out on a grander scale can’t hurt can it?

I will get into detailed discussion in further posts. Until then…

Salaam to all…