“The silencing of pro-Palestinian or anti-genocide voices is the reason why this genocide is still going on after 10 months.”
Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Rector of the University of Glasgow, 1 August 2024
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https://www.securityincontext.org/posts/hegemony-factories-or-independent-thinkers (source: [1])
It contains a HUGE misunderstanding:
"pro-Palestinian" and "anti-genocide" voices are two *VERY* different things.
Perhaps NOT from the PoV of Palestinians, but DEFINITELY from the viewpoint of most west-EU citizens, their media and their governments.
Sunday I joined a protest in Rotterdam that was announced as an emergy protest "do not let Gaza starve" (in Dutch: [2]).
However, *AGAIN* it was a *PRO-PALESTINE* protest (see the video I made in https://infosec.exchange/@ErikvanStraten/114291502939774579).
West-EU people, and possibly "their" think tanks, are made to believe that they have to choose between *either* Palestine *or* Israel to exist "from the river to the sea".
Enormously affecting western thinking, the Israeli propaganda machine does their utter best to continuously remind us of the Holocaust, and to make us believe that anyone who denies Israel from "defending themselves against terrorism" is a Holocaust-denier and/or an antisemite. Unfortunately, this *just works*.
On Dutch TV viewers are reminded of WWII *every day*. It simply is #Hasbara without viewers noticing it, and even the media fail to see their bias.
[Note: my grandfather, born in 1900, was a Jew. He was sent to nazi labour camps (instead of Auschwitz) because he was maried to a Dutch woman. His familiy was murdered by the nazi's. I do not hate non-Zionist Jews.]
Pro-Palestine demonstrations have been counter-productive from the start. If the most extremist arguments are not removed, like shouting "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", I will remain one of the very few Dutch people who is willing to join such protests. And I'm getting tired, because it feels pointless.
IMO #FrancescaAlbaneseIsRight - but her PoV is considered to be too extremistic, in particular when taking into account the immense failure of EU-countries to protect Jews during WWII. It is why hasbara works so well (in Germany in particular).
The cold blooded execution of the rescue workers made it to the news on Dutch TV, but the murder of approx. 17,000 Gazan children and the starvation of 2 million hardly gets any attention.
If polarization is not reduced RIGHT NOW, the media will turn away again. In particular because this year it's 80 years ago WWII ended in NL (victim remembrance day is on May 4), the tone of the debate needs to change. NOW.
If not, 2 million Gazans will die.
[1] Bilal Barakat (@bifouba) in https://kolektiva.social/@bifouba/114302380048285492
[2] https://acties.todon.nl/event/noodprotest-laat-gaza-niet-uithongeren
@joenepraat : do you know how to get my message to the protest organizers?
@palestine
