The last few weeks have been an intensive crash course for Palestine activists in how the U.S. empire advances its narrative. The double standards displayed with regards to the Ukraine crisis versus Palestine have been a topic of hot debate; steps that were deemed impossible to implement against Israel have been enacted with lightning speed against Russia.
FIFA and its “sports and politics don’t mix” policy – no longer a problem; “consumer choice” that forbids the de-shelving of Israeli wines, not a relevant argument for Russian vodka these days. As the propaganda morphed into hysteria, even long-dead Russian writers and poutine, a food from Quebec, were targeted.
Activists are already examining the reasons behind this sweeping campaign, and how best to react to it. Does the Zionist lobby think that they can carry on with their anti-BDS bashing as usual, once the Ukraine crisis is no longer in the news? Or are we witnessing a qualitative shift in the making, that will pre-empt that?
The hypocrisy that so many have documented is driven by U.S. imperial interests that determine the legitimacy of a struggle based on whether (or not) you are a U.S. ally. This is not new, of course, but rarely has it been so openly on display. Resistance tactics that literally would have you murdered by Israeli forces are hailed as heroic and courageous in Ukraine. The number of social media posts talking about the bravery of Ukrainian women, usually in fatigues and holding a gun, are too numerous to count. Yet a year and a half ago, a webinar with Leila Khaled was censored by multiple social media and streaming services. Just last week, Within Our Lifetime had their Instagram account temporarily suspended for featuring revolutionary Palestinian women. They noted:
“On Tuesday March 8th Instagram took down our main account @wolpalestine after we put up a post highlighting revolutionary Palestinian women on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Our account was kept offline for four days, but we were never really gone because we are not an Instagram page, we are a grassroots Palestinian-led community organization.”
The racist adage of the “civilized” West versus the “uncivilized barbarian” others has also found new life. Western governments and media institutions that have spent years convincing us how tolerant and open they are, quickly degenerated into outright racism when comparing European refugees to those from the global south. The latest instance was from Prince William of the British royal family who made the same crude comments, which were especially galling coming from a representative of one of the most ruthless colonialist enterprises in modern history.
Palestinians remember the words of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, who claimed that the state of Israel would “form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism.” And lest one think these settler-colonial notions are a thing of the past, just ten years ago historian Niall Ferguson called Israel “the little country that is the most easterly outpost of western civilization.”
The era of social media as an opportunity to promote alternative viewpoints would also seem to be over. The speed with which the major platforms have fallen into place in either outright censoring, or filtering out, anything critical of the U.S.-led foreign policy dictates has been revealing. Palestinians and other oppressed minorities used to feel that social media could at least help amplify their voices as a counterbalance to mainstream reporting, but that may no longer be true.
What will all of this mean going forward for the Palestine solidarity movement? Will it be business as usual, as U.S. politicians clearly hope is the case, by re-introducing an anti-BDS bill and passing the “Israel Normalization Act” in the last 2 weeks? Or has the U.S. propaganda and censorship been so blatant and so jarring that more people will now speak up? Just this weekend, the world’s leading squash player, Egyptian Ali Farag, took the opportunity of a victory to openly challenge the hypocrisy and say:
“We’ve never been allowed to speak about politics in sports, but all of a sudden now it’s allowed… if we can talk about Ukraine, we can talk about Palestine.”
One thing, though, has been made abundantly clear. The tactics of appealing to Western politicians, and catering to their sensibilities, are over. As the old proverb says: “The snow melts and the shit is revealed.” The snow has melted – the veneer of the “international rules-based order” has been exposed as a fraud and just another tactic to pursue U.S. hegemony. And the Palestinians, like other oppressed peoples, are reminded once again that their best strategy is to count on themselves to determine their priorities and means of resistance.
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“In mainstream American discourse, Ukrainians, a mostly white and Christian people battling an American foe, are viewed as fully human, and thus entitled to fight for their freedom. Palestinians, a mostly nonwhite and non-Christian people battling an American ally, are not. The irony is that the arguments Russia’s government deploys to dehumanize Ukrainians are strikingly similar to the ones Israel’s government uses to dehumanize Palestinians. For Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian peoplehood is invented, weaponized, and genocidal, which is how Israeli leaders have long described Palestinian peoplehood. In both cases, this three-part claim—that a neighboring people is not really a people, that it is controlled by foreign foes, and that it seeks your extermination—justifies aggression and the brutal denial of human rights.”
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Justifications for Destroying a People (jewishcurrents.org)
“Justifications for Destroying a People” Jewish Currents, March 8/22 by Peter Beinart.”The arguments Russia’s government deploys to dehumanize Ukrainians are strikingly similar to the ones Israel’s government uses to dehumanize Palestinians.
“EXCERPT:
“IN THE DAYS since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukrainians & their supporters have been lionized for the same forms of resistance to oppression for which Palestinians are routinely condemned. Western television networks have approvingly broadcast video of Ukrainians assembling Molotov cocktails. Governors who signed legislation penalizing boycotts of Israel have promoted boycotts of Russia. When Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced last month that he would join a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council because ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underscores the Council’s mission to promote human rights & respond when they are violated or abused,’ the Palestinian American writer Yousef Munayyer noted that the US had left the Council because it ‘didn’t want to see accountability for human rights abuses & violations of law committed by Israel.’
“Late last month, a tweet circulated that purported to show a Ukrainian girl confronting a Russian soldier. It called the girl’s behavior ‘courageous’ & included the words ‘Pray for Ukraine.’ The Palestinian American journalist Mariam Barghouti noticed the error. ‘This is Ahed Tamimi,’ she wrote, ‘a Palestinian standing up to an Israeli settler soldier trying to steal the lands of her family in Nabi Saleh . . . She is indeed brave. Just not Ukrainian.’ (cont’d)
It’s quite clear that those who are pro Palestinian are utterly convinced by the hypocrisy argument vis a vis Ukraine, whereas those who are pro Israel are utterly unconvinced. Is there any way to gauge the reaction of people on the fence?
Well. Ukrainian women are planning on killing Russian soldiers Leila Khaled hijacked two civilian planes. If you guys can’t tell the difference between these two scenarios then you really shouldn’t be surprised that you aren’t getting much traction.
The main problem for you guys is that if you proclaim that you want to destroy/eliminate Israel because it shouldn’t exist and insist that there is no Jewish nation, then you sound more like Putin than like the Ukrainians.
There is a difference of course between the Palestinians and the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians are being attacked without provocation and murdered indiscriminately. The Palestinians on the other hand have made it their national mission to destroy their neighbor state Israel violently. The Palestinians reject the right of Israel to exist and thus their goal is to murder or displace all the Jews that live there. They use suicide bombers, they shoot missiles, they hijack airplanes, boats, and Olympic athletes, All aimed at murdering jewish civilians. Palestinians shoot missiles from their own civilian areas endangering their own children. They also elect genocidal Islamic terrorist groups to lead them. Palestinians also rejected multiple peace offers that would have given them state because they refuse to recognize the right of Israel to exist. Palestinians are only victims in their heads they are victims of their own narratives. If they stop trying to destroy other people they might have a future. No the Palestinians are not Ukrainians and the world knows the difference. Hopefully one day they will choose peace and accept their neighbors right to exist.