Very good text. Thank you. Maria Ines Azambuja Em qua., 18 de out. de 2023 11:13, Rahim Thawer <[log in to unmask]> escreveu: > > https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/israel-gaza-war-manufactured-consent.html > > > ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR <https://nymag.com/intelligencer/tags/israel-hamas-war/> OCT. > 16, 2023 > Explanations Are Not Excuses > By Sarah Schulman <https://nymag.com/author/sarah-schulman/> > > I was born in 1958, and like many of my generation, my parents had > experienced a world in which Jews were murdered, brutalized, and abandoned. > My father knew his mother and father to have been helpless peasants living > under pogroms and without rights in the Russian Pale of Settlement. On my > mother’s side, my laundry-worker grandmother was financially unable to save > her two brothers and two sisters in Poland from extermination. My parents > raised me with the idea that Jews were people who sided with the oppressed > and worked their way into helping professions. > > They could not adjust the worldview born of this experience to a new > reality: that in Israel, we Jews had acquired state power and built a > highly funded militarized society, and were now subordinating others. No > one wants to think about themselves that way. As a Jew and an American who > has gone through the complex, painful, and transforming process of facing > the injustice against Palestinians committed in my name and with my tax > dollars, I have had to change my self-concept. I have had to deprogram > myself from the idea that Jews continued to be victims when, in some cases, > we had become perpetrators. > > This shift in perception would have been unbearable for my parents. The > idea that Jewish soldiers could march into villages and commit atrocities > was incomprehensible. Yet, for 75 years, Palestinians have been murdered, > incarcerated, and displaced with escalating violence by Israeli soldiers, > and more recently by settlers. On October 7, these unending, untenable > conditions exploded when Hamas broke through Israel’s imposed barriers. > They reentered the land they consider home. They attacked formerly > Palestinian villages and cities, now under the control of Israel. After > decades of being on the receiving end of highly organized violence, they > switched roles and became the murderers and kidnappers of more than 1,300 > Israeli children and adults. > > Among political and institutional leaders, there has been a collective > refusal to see this horrible violence as the consequence of consistent, > unending brutality — paid for by the United States in billions of dollars > in aid to Israel per year. Instead, a familiar fog has overtaken so many. > They pretend these decades of injustice never took place. That Gazans were > not forced against their will to live under siege. That instead, a group of > them suddenly — out of nowhere and with no history or experience — > emerged as monsters and murdered people who had never hurt them in the past > and held no threat over their future. > > Selective recognition is the way we maintain our own sense of goodness. Today, > we see this process of denial in every aspect of our lives. In this moment, > it has become a tool to justify the sustained murder of thousands in Gaza, > where the current death toll > <https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-news-hamas-war-10-15-23/h_5ffdc1e34bd73b76bcf13bed20d3a5c8#:~:text=More%20than%202%2C600%20people%20have,humanitarian%20aid%20to%20get%20in.> sits > at over 2,600 people. As Israel began its relentless retaliation last week, > an accompanying image of Israeli and American moral cleanliness was put > swiftly into action. This is called “manufactured consent” — Noam Chomsky’s > term for a system-supported propaganda by which authorities and media agree > on a simplified reality, and it becomes the assumptive truth. We’ve seen > this erasure of history in the uniform responses by western world leaders, > university administrations, heads of foundations, and even book fairs over > the past week. President Biden called > <https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel-2/> Hamas’s > attack “an act of sheer evil” without acknowledging the decades of colonial > repression that make this violence legible. Instead he summoned another > history, saying, “This attack has brought to the surface painful memories > and the scars left by a millennia of antisemitism and genocide of the > Jewish people.” He then assured Israel it could count on the United States’ > military support, as though having been through genocide entitled them to > commit it. > > Nikki Haley, a former United Nations ambassador under Trump, might be > Biden’s political opponent for the presidency, but she reinforced his claim > of American-Israeli righteousness when she announced > <https://twitter.com/NikkiHaley/status/1711443043998466376> that “Israel > needs our help in this battle of good vs. evil.” This is the binary that > has set the tone: *We* are pure, that is to say that *we* have done > everything exactly right and do not have to question ourselves. Last > Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took a question > from journalist Phil Wegmann. He asked her about the president’s attitude > toward members of Congress who connect Palestinian violence to the Israeli > violence that preceded it and have called for a cease-fire. Jean-Pierre > replied > <https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/omar-and-tlaib-israel-gaza-statements/>, > “We believe they are wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe > they’re disgraceful.” Here we have a new equation: To ask for the ceasing > of bombing and killing thousands of people is not a reasonable thought to > consider. Instead, to stop killing is repulsive. To stop killing is a > national disgrace. > > Within this framework, any public outcry by Palestinians or allegiance > with them becomes criminal. France > <https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/europe/france-ban-pro-palestinian-intl/index.html> > and Germany > <https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-authorities-ban-pro-palestinian-protest/video-67085200> banned > people from showing compassion, solidarity, or pain for Palestinians in > public marches. United Kingdom Home Secretary Suella Braverman called for > monitoring displays of Palestinian flags. “At a time when Hamas terrorists > are massacring civilians and taking the most vulnerable (including the > elderly, women, and children) hostage, we can all recognize the harrowing > effect that displays of their logos and flags can have on communities,” she > said > <https://hyperallergic.com/850134/british-politician-wants-to-criminalize-waving-the-palestinian-flag/>. > Aside from the freedom-of-expression issues, there was a symbolic politics > being deployed here. A flag that unites millions of Palestinians who live, > not only in Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan, in refugee camps and in Israel, > but in a global diaspora from Brooklyn and Detroit to London to the UAE — > all of these people become unrepresentable. > > This continues in the realm of education and ideas, where there have been > visible examples of individual writers and anti-occupation groups arguing > for context. On Friday, Semafor reported that MSNBC quietly removed > <https://www.semafor.com/article/10/13/2023/inside-msnbcs-middle-east-conflict> three > Muslim anchors from hosting duties, despite some at the network believing > they had the most expertise on the conflict. *Harper’s Bazaar* editor > Samira Nasr was forced to apologize > <https://nypost.com/2023/10/12/harpers-bazaar-editor-samira-nasr-apologizes-for-insensitive-instagram-post-on-hamas-attack/> for > calling Israel’s move to cut power to Gaza “the most inhuman thing” she’s > ever seen. The Frankfurt Book Fair rescinded > <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/15/palestinian-voices-shut-down-at-frankfurt-book-fair-say-authors> an > award it had chosen to give to Palestinian writer Adania Shibli. Donors > have threatened > <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/us/university-of-pennsylvania-israel-palestine.html> the > job of the president of the University of Pennsylvania because a literary > festival called Palestine Writes took place there in September. Books, > literature, ideas, discussion are all considered appropriate fodder to the > manufacture of consent. > > Humans want to be innocent. Better than innocent is the innocent > victim. The innocent victim is eligible for compassion and does not have to > carry the burden of self-criticism. Almost every person with authority or > at the helm of an institution has declared that Israelis are innocent > victims and that Palestinians are not. On *60 Minutes *Sunday night > <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/15/biden-israel-occupy-gaza-big-mistake/>, > Biden reaffirmed his support for Israel while appearing to paint > Palestinians as worthy of our compassion, too. He assured the American > people that he was confident Israel would follow the “rules of war” and > that “innocents in Gaza” would have “access to medicine and food and > water.” But in the real world, Israel has cut off the flow of medicine, > food, and water > <https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-civilians-humanitarian-crisis-shortages-fuel-water-937b474fa16970f36ac44615e9797fbc> in > Gaza. Water has already run out at U.N. shelters in the territory. Biden’s > comments only reinforce that as far as the war is concerned, there are no > innocents in Gaza. > > At the root of this erasure is the increasing insistence that > understanding history, looking at the order of events and the consequences > of previous actions to understand why the contemporary moment exists as it > does, somehow endorses the present. Explanations are not excuses — they are > the illumination that builds the future. But the problem with understanding > how we got to where we are is that we could then be implicated. And > innocent victims cannot have any responsibility for creating the moment. > > What is so ironic is that since 2005, Palestinians have been offering a > nonviolent solution: the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Just > as many of us grew up not buying grapes so that farmworkers could have a > union or refusing to purchase South African products to help end apartheid, > Palestinians have been asking the rest of us to put economic and cultural > pressure on Israel through nonviolent boycott, to encourage them to move > away from violent separation and toward negotiation and coexistence. The > message here, too, was strategically twisted. The Israeli government and > its supporters have led global campaigns to make supporting this boycott > illegal. They have developed confusing worldwide messaging claiming that > criticizing Israeli apartheid is the same thing as antisemitism. Every > aspect of nonviolent organizing for a more equitable solution has been met > with distortion as a tool of repression. > > There is always, of course, the choice to end the siege of Gaza and the > occupation of the West Bank and end the second-class reality of > Palestinians living in Israel. Make everyone equal citizens with the same > rights to vote, passports, roads, universities. The reason this solution of > just reconciliation, known as “One State,” is not yet on the table is > because of this selective reality: this panic that equalizing Palestinians > in Israel would be allowing an enemy in, one that is fundamentally opposed > to Israeli existence. But what this fear overlooks is that Palestine, like > every society in the world, is a multidimensional society. Like Jews and > Americans and Israelis, Palestinians contain multiple factions and > religious perspectives — Muslim, Christian, Druse — and they hold a wide > variety of political visions. The only thing they share is the desire to be > free. They would never be able to act like a united block and all vote in > the same way, for example, in the same way that we cannot. Because they are > human, as we know ourselves to be. To fear unanimity is to imagine they are > different from everyone else on earth. > > The most difficult challenge in our lives is to face our contributions to > the systems that reproduce inequality and consequential cycles of violence. > Every person has to face their own complicities, and we start this by > listening to whoever is suffering. Even if it is by our own hand. It is > this transcendence that can lead us all to a better place. > > --------- > > > warmly, > > Rahim Thawer MSW RSW > > Affective Consulting & Psychotherapy Services > > affectiveconsult.ca > To leave, manage or join list: > https://listserv.yorku.ca/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=sdoh&A=1 > > To leave, manage or join list: https://listserv.yorku.ca/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=sdoh&A=1