I keep coming back to a post on Bluesky made on October 8 of last year, which reads “The occupation is an intolerable crime and resistance to it is a fundamental right and murdering civilians is wrong and collective punishment of an entrapped population is immoral. We live in a world of ands, not ors.”
It’s possible, because we have seen many many people over the last 7 months now in particular but going back years just on this conflict make this argument, that Hamas and the Palestinians living in Gaza are not one and the same, just as the Israeli government and Israelis and more importantly, Jews are not one and the same. And yet a whole lot of people, many who should know better, insist on conflating those populations usually because they support the other side and need to feel righteous about their support.
This is not a case of both-sides-ism. Hamas is a terrorist organization that is responsible for the deaths of a whole lot of innocent people, no matter the rhetoric they use to justify it. The Netanyahu government is also responsible for the deaths of a whole lot of innocent people, no matter the rhetoric they use to justify it.
But there are a lot of people in that area who want this violence to stop, whether because they just want to live or because they want their government to stop murdering people in their name. And that alone is reason enough to differentiate between the groups who want to kill each other and the rest who are caught between them.
Well said, Amy!
Brilliant Amy.
I keep coming back to a post on Bluesky made on October 8 of last year, which reads “The occupation is an intolerable crime and resistance to it is a fundamental right and murdering civilians is wrong and collective punishment of an entrapped population is immoral. We live in a world of ands, not ors.”
It’s possible, because we have seen many many people over the last 7 months now in particular but going back years just on this conflict make this argument, that Hamas and the Palestinians living in Gaza are not one and the same, just as the Israeli government and Israelis and more importantly, Jews are not one and the same. And yet a whole lot of people, many who should know better, insist on conflating those populations usually because they support the other side and need to feel righteous about their support.
This is not a case of both-sides-ism. Hamas is a terrorist organization that is responsible for the deaths of a whole lot of innocent people, no matter the rhetoric they use to justify it. The Netanyahu government is also responsible for the deaths of a whole lot of innocent people, no matter the rhetoric they use to justify it.
But there are a lot of people in that area who want this violence to stop, whether because they just want to live or because they want their government to stop murdering people in their name. And that alone is reason enough to differentiate between the groups who want to kill each other and the rest who are caught between them.
“We live in a world of ands, not ors.”