Our Wednesday News Analysis | What 2022 taught Palestinians

Palestinians hold a vigil in memory of Shireen Abu Akleh in Gaza City, May 11, 2022. (Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills)

Source: +972 Magazine
https://www.972mag.com/what-2022-taught-palestinians/

By George Zeidan
Published January 1, 2023

The past year proved that Israel's impunity on the international stage knows no bounds. But looking ahead to 2023, there are still reasons to be hopeful.

2022 has been a year of many monumental international events. This is the year we managed to reach 8 billion people living on earth, despite bidding farewell to Queen Elizabeth II and while surviving Elon Musk as CEO of Twitter. We’ve witnessed environmental travesties like floods and hurricanes, political turmoil including invasions and war, social protests against human rights injustices, and even a controversial yet landmark World Cup in Qatar.

For us in Palestine, much of 2022 kept us busy mourning the loss of land and of dear friends under the “benevolent” rule of the Israeli occupation. And with the new far-right Israeli government being sworn in last week, there will be no shortage of ugly bigotry, racism, and violence to keep us busy next year, too.

But looking back, as we brace ourselves for 2023, there have been plenty of lessons for Palestinians to take from this past year about how the world works — and in particular, how it works against us. And while we had known many of these lessons long before, 2022 provided further evidence of these realities. Here are just some of our biggest takeaways:

1. Last year, Palestinians (along with Syrians, Rohingya, and others) learned that some refugees are clearly more important than others, and some acts of resistance are more acceptable — if they have the right skin color and ethnic background. It turns out that boycotts and sanctions against military occupations are totally legitimate and effective — that is, except when it comes to Israel, then they are “counterproductive” at best and “racist” at worst. We learned this after watching the unprecedented international reaction, mainly by the Western world, to Russia’s war on Ukraine. We get that Europe felt a frantic sense of urgency given that Ukraine is right at its doorstep. But come on, Palestinians have only been asking for some action for the past 74 years, yet all we received were words of condemnation and concern...

Read more: What 2022 taught Palestinians

THINKING LESS ABOUT MYSELF AND MORE ABOUT PALESTINE: A NEW YEAR’S EVE REFLECTION

The Palestinian Sailing and Rowing Federation organized an event in Gaza to celebrate the New Year. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)

Source: Palestine Chronicle
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/thinking-less-about-myself-and-more-about-palestine-a-new-years-eve-reflection/

By Paul Salvatori
Published January 1, 2022

I’m a simple man.

I don’t know all there is to know about history, activism, and international law. I stand on the shoulders of giants present and before me—the likes of Noam Chomsky, Leila Khaled, Ilan Pappe, Ghassan Kanafani.

There are too many to mention here. But they are much greater persons than I can ever be; they’ve done and endured so much for the cause I care for deeply: Palestinian justice.

This is what I’ve been thinking of as we near the end of 2022. And the more I do, the smaller I feel. That is not a complaint. It is a confession. And I think recognizing my smallness will make me a better writer and activist—for Palestinian justice.

I told my friend on a couple of occasions this year – after she, a Palestinian, thanked me for my activism – that I’m but a grain of sand. Nothing. I’m only doing my part, playing my role as a human being, to raise awareness of the injustices endured by Palestine and mobilizing with others, Palestinians and non-Palestinians alike, to ensure that Palestine is finally free.

I believe that capacity is in us all. In that regard, I’m not doing anything remarkable. To fight for Palestine can be done in many ways, whether we are with our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Palestine or abroad, such as myself here in Canada. There’s always something, however large or small, we can do in this effort and always in solidarity with the Palestinian people themselves...

Read more: Thinking Less about Myself and More about Palestine: A New Year’s Eve Reflection

HOW NOT TO FIGHT ANTISEMITISM

MARCHERS HOLD AN ISRAELI FLAG AS THEY WALK ACROSS THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE TO SUPPORT THE NO HATE NO FEAR SOLIDARITY MARCH ON JANUARY 01, 2020. (PHOTO: IRA L. BLACK / GETTY IMAGES)

Source: Mondoweiss
https://mondoweiss.net/2022/12/how-not-to-fight-antisemitism/

By JONATHAN KUTTAB
Published December 28, 2022

The proper response to antisemitism is to increase solidarity with other oppressed groups, not demand support for Zionism.

Antisemitism is an evil form of racism, bigotry, and discrimination. It has had a long and vicious history of hostility and enmity toward Jewish people in many countries and for many centuries. Some have traced much of this to false theologies and Christian hostility to Jews, who have been accused of responsibility for killing Jesus, and who have been reviled for failing to recognize him as their Messiah. That hostility has led the Christian West to pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe, to the ravages of the Inquisition in Spain, and ultimately to the Holocaust in Germany. It was easy to scapegoat Jews for all the problems of society and to spin out nefarious conspiracy theories about their responsibility for having power and money to control and manipulate societies on a grand scale. It has also paradoxically led to the acceptance of Zionism as a response to provide safe refuge to Jews from persecution at the hands of an unrepentant West which refused to recognize the humanity of Jews and to grant them genuine equality and acceptance as citizens within the different countries where they have lived.

I, like many other Christians, have always held that antisemitism is a sin that should be forthrightly condemned and resisted. The recent wave of antisemitism, emboldened by Trumpism, Christian Nationalism, and the loosening of standards by Twitter and other social media outlets, is a serious cause of concern. It has led to violence and loss of life ( as we saw in the vicious attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue). Sadly, despite public repudiation, antisemitism is alive and well and hiding just under the surface in this country, and it needs to be forthrightly denounced and resisted.

Two ways how not to fight this anti-Jewish antisemitism come to mind, however.

The first is to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Those that do so do a disservice to the task of fighting antisemitism. Palestinians have a genuine gripe against Zionism and the massive violations of human rights and international law committed by an increasingly openly fascist and intolerant Israeli state...

Read more: How not to fight antisemitism