🧵Palestinians do not view their plight for freedom as a Muslim vs. Jewish war. 1) If Israel defined itself as a Muslim state, Palestinians would still oppose its occupation & oppression. 2) The Israeli establishment, especially the right insists on fomenting religious fervor...
by advancing a Messianic agenda that is openly hostile to the 'other' in a zero-sum approach. You will hear some 🇵🇸s refer to Israelis as Jews - that's where that comes from. 3) Hamas has a religious ideology. To them, liberating Palestine is a religious duty for Muslims...
This does not mean that they call for killing all Jews. Muslims view Jews as people of the book. To paint Muslims as annihilistic & anti-Semitic is a gross and hateful anti-Muslim trope. Do not engage in it. Criticizing Hamas ideology is fair. kindly base it on actual info...
I say this as a secular progressive feminist. Objective facts matter Discuss ideas, do not spread tropes. One can strongly disagree with mixing religion with politics, as I do, but demonizing the religious is wrong - painting people with a broad false brush is irresponsible.
4) What is happening in Gaza & the West Bank is MUCH bigger than Hamas or any other group. This is an assault on Palestinians as people, regardless of their politics, as UN experts warn. ohchr.org
5) Palestinians are majority Muslim (yes) but our culture is a celebration of our rich history & heritage. 🇵🇸s are Muslims, Christians, Samaritans, Druze & much more. There are 🇵🇸s of Armenian, Circassian & Kurdish descent among others. Our holidays are celebrated jointly.
Our cuisine has "fasting food" in reference to food prepared during Lent. The examples are endless. 6) Majority of Christians were dispossessed by Israel in '48 during Nakba. To understand the Palestinian collective, you have to keep in mind that Palestinians in exile...
...are just as part of the society as those remaining in historic Palestine. It's about identity, not language, or religion. Ex: In Chile, 3rd & 4th generation Chilean-Palestinians still celebrate their 🇵🇸 roots and identify as part of the Palestinian collective.
Of course that does not mean that Palestinians don’t have their share of crazies & fanatics. They are there but they are NOT representative nor do they represent a significant bloc.
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