"Fuelling hatred"

On 25 October I shared a Guardian article on Facebook.  The article must have been very uncomfortable reading for Netanyahu supporters not least because it refers to horrific statements by Israeli government and military leaders implying the impending extermination of the people of Gaza or dehumanising them. These are statements that are not unlikely to be implicating them in genocide and then they carrying out actions to make these statements a reality   Raz Segal, an Israeli assistant professor of genocide studies, who wrote it quoted more examples in a more recent piece in the LA Times.  A piece by the Andalou Agency lists more. There are many examples of Israeli political leaders and the military suggesting Gaza and Gazans be wiped out: such as when Prime Minister Netanyahu referenced the Amalek.  The reference is to the Old Testament Book of Samuel which says “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” Netanyahu made the Amalek reference on the opening of the ground offensive in Gaza.

There has been a call for a second Nakba and for an emphasis on damage, not accuracy. The heritage minister suggested using a nuclear bomb in Gaza, while the defence minister simply said that everything in Gaza will be "eliminated". The list goes on and on.

The text below is mine in the Facebook post.

Accusation of fuelling [inciting] hatred

I was immediately accused of inciting hatred of Israel.  It was by someone I knew and for whom I had done nothing but help and welcome into dance earlier this year and last.  She came to my free practica, was welcomed, was introduced to people, was given a seat, was helped, silently, to learn to dance, by me.  She received nothing but good treatment and kind words. I had and still have no idea of her background, only of the European country she had come from before Scotland.  My interest in these things, as far as it goes, is generally a long-standing interest in language and accent and in her case I don’t think we even discussed that.

Previously, I had quoted on Facebook, doctors like paediatrician Dr Haj Hassan or Mads Nielson a doctor internationally recognised for his human rights work, both with years of experience in Gaza, on the situation in Gaza. 

The accusation was: "Fuelling hatred against Israel with undifferentiated posts is certainly not going to help here..."

Probably a majority of my posts are actually by Jews or Israelis, many published in Israeli media, that are against Israel’s illegal occupation, the illegal bombing of civilians and civilian infrastructure, illegal settlements, settler violence against Palestinians, IDF violence and discrimination towards and dehumanisation of Palestinians, Netanyahu’s plans to annex the  West Bank and the silencing of criticism of these actions; things of that ilk. 

My first post on this conflict was in fact an article by Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, well known for his work with Palestinians.

My reply: Undifferentiated posts. Hmmm. Except for the British Jews against the occupation I've just posted....This isn't about fuelling hatred. Protest is increasingly difficult in Britain under the conservatives. And under the SNP free speech is not even allowed around your own dinner table. Your family can denounce you. So we live in an increasingly repressive state, one where the now sacked home secretary wanted to ban a peace march on Armistice day because it wasn't her kind of peace,

So no. This is rather about speaking up and spreading the truth, hidden to most of us for decades, about what Israel has done and is still doing to Palestinians. Because among the many massacres and genocides across the world in my lifetime this is somehow one of the most horrific. Probably because a civilian population has been corralled in a small space and is not only being directly displaced and exterminated. All of the infrastructure the remainder depend on is being blitzed too. And no one is doing anything to stop it. It is greatest political moral failure of my lifetime.

Their reply: Calling Israel’s action a genocide in this context sounds not quite fair to me, and yes I think it is fuelling hatred on Israel and hatred is what is fuelling the spiral of violence.

Is what is happening in Gaza genocide?

There is huge and growing debate on whether Israel is committing genocide.  At the recent vigil for Palestine in my city there were banners about genocide in Gaza, the organisers were shouting about it loudly. No police attended.  No one was arrested.  No crime was apparently committed. The fact that it is being discussed so widely across the world is in itself cause for huge concern over Israel’s acts. There are legal proceedings against President Biden for complicity in genocide. So the fact that people have been discussing it, it is not “fuelling hatred”, it’s raising very legitimate concerns.   

The mass killing of civilians regardless of intent is itself a “crime against humanity”.

Many experts have already raised genocide concerns , including many UN experts, while three Palestinian rights groups have filed a case with the ICC relating to genocide in Gaza and 800 law practitioners and academics.  I said it a month ago but people were already asking that question because Gazans were being wiped out day after day for two and half weeks while settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank saw a sharp uptick.  This has been going on for 7 weeks, 50 days so no wonder people are discussing more whether this is genocide, desperate for world leaders to act, to stop the killing. Thank goodness professionals, academics, lawyers have taken the lead or how much longer would Gaza have been waiting? 

 Inciting violence: who is actually doing the violence?

So this statement about fuelling, i.e. “inciting” violence (a crime) is not accurate, because it turns out many experts believe Israel is  or may be committing genocide or be about to.  This statement then is rather an assault on freedom of speech, an attempt to silence dissent, a tactic of the conservative right in Israel. The kind of people trying to silence criticism of Israel’s actions are by extension actually supporting those conducting the violence. Who is actually doing the killing right now and has been for the last seven weeks?  Israel.  Millions of people around the world are protesting. Through those protests, thousands are waking up to the history of this conflict, to the statistics, to facts like Israel won’t allow DNA testing without a court order or a doctor’s prescription, probably because it could start a debate along the lines of “Oh you’re not actually from these lands you claim are yours…”  

The attempt to discredit, even to criminalise dissent is what people without arguments do when they want to not just monopolise the discourse, but to silence the opposition.  If you wanted a good example of someone who tried to discredit a group and failed, it’s Suella Braverman, recently British Home Secretary.  She called the pro-Palestinian marches “hate marches” (cartoon), criticised the police for it  (caricatured in a fantastic Christian Adams cartoon) and ended up sacked. Dubbed Cruella, for her anti-immigration policies, the woman was routinely caricatured as being eaten up with hate.  Ben Jennings with Suella shark was memorable or abusing homeless people for sleeping in tents as a lifestyle choice.

Israel silences dissent by killing journalists.

What is engagement?

Overall, the silence on this issue has been deafening.  Most people, mindful of work, don’t want to commit themselves “on paper” probably because of the backlash against pro–Palestinian support.  And, simply going by how little Gaza features on the BBC “most read” list of articles, a lot of people just don’t care.  My critics were just this person who wants to silence dissent about Israel and a Milei supporter (Argentina’s new extreme right wing leader).  

People “liked” my post on facebook about the recent candlelit vigil for Palestine in our town.  But what does a vigil do? It’s pretty but does it educate or cause people to think, to consider, to weigh up? Not really.  Did like-minded strangers meet each other?  I don’t think so.  Is it even seen by the town? No. It’s a nice idea I suppose.  A march on the other hand, a protest, a call for a ceasefire is at least visible, takes a stand, is political engagement, physically, visibly, on the street.   For me, the articles that have been written, read and shared are the key driver of change, particularly the ones by experts, grouping together in protest. For all that social media is condemned, it is also spreading awareness of what Israel has done, about history, about what experts are saying, about how ordinary people are changing their minds. If nothing else, people are educating themselves and naturally, wanting to share that, to connect with others interested in or doing the same. The violence that is happening needs to be spoken about, not silenced, not swept under the carpet, not “reframed”. 

“Anti-Semitism” and “the McCarthyite backlash”

Meanwhile, there is a tide of people facing this McCarthyite backlash including in the US. There has been a regrettable rise in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic “incidents” in Britain.  A ten-fold rise, according to the Community Security Trust. Whether that means perception or reality is unclear.  Meanwhile, hundreds of people around the world have found themselves sacked, cancelled and criticised or had funding withdrawn for allegedly inciting violence or being anti-Semitic. Or sometimes just for holding a peace vigil.

Some are celebrities like Melissa Barrera, Susan Sarandon, and Maha Dakhil (backed by Tom Cruise), to Greta Thunbert and Extinction Rebellion.  Steve Bell, cartoonist for 40 years at the Guardian was sacked because someone decided to interpret his cartoon as a reference to Shylock and the pound of flesh, rather than the tribute to David Levine that it was.  

Meanwhile, The Bureau for Investigative Journalism published a piece about a multi-million dollar campaign attacking the pro-Palestinian movement. If so many of us feel our freedom of speech is curtailed through fear of being incorrectly denounced to the police then we cannot support those under oppression or those resisting oppression because now we are being repressed.

Being limited to quoting Jews and Israelis                

There is an important and still very relevant 2019 piece by Raz Segal and Amos Goldberg on the attempts to silence criticism of Israel by calling such criticism anti semitic.  Time and again I find myself referring to articles by Jews or Israelis who oppose the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian territory or the proportionality of Israeli response in Gaza because they say what many feel and are usually closer to the events and the situation. If you quote anti-occupation Jews or Israelis, it is much harder to be called anti-Semitic.  But you shouldn’t have to be limited in that way. Some are, partly through fear.

Hate crime

But take anti-Semitism out of it.  Supporters of Netanyahu and the mass violence against Palestinians in Gaza or just someone who doesn't like you, are able to accuse anyone - Jew, Israeli, anyone at all - of “stirring up” or inciting hatred.  This is a crime in Scotland and, is too under the separate legal system in England and Wales.  In Scotland it is punishable by seven years in prison.  As John McLellan, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society said: “Social media is awash with people bearing extreme grudges against those with whom they disagree and this legislation has the potential to give them a legal means to silence their opponents.” This is exactly the danger. 

Silence through fear, silence through bureaucracy

People become so tied up with having to research whether they can legitimately oppose political parties and state violence, worse, with having to prove that they are not inciting hatred, that their engagement is sidelined or they are silenced through fear - precisely the aim of the accusers. Who, then, is really the hater, the oppressor?

Not all Israelis support Netanyahu

The last election results show that given the current parties for which Israelis voted Israel is, in essence, a country of conservatives, some of whom are religious - 30% of the Jewish population (73%) are observant.  A much higher proportion of Israeli muslims are observant.. Likud, Netanyahu’s right wing coalition won 48.5% of the popular vote and the proportional representation system meant they obtained 63 out of 120 seats in the Knesset.  So yes, to an extent Israelis are culpable for the government’s action, especially when they back those actions.  But of those who voted for Netanyahu, not all necessarily support his actions nor the kind of language Israeli political and military leaders have been using to describe what they want to do to Palestinians and to Gaza.  Support at the end of October for a ground offensive was around 50%. Polls show support for Netanyahu and Likud has crashed.

Hate wastes time and energy

Even if most Israelis did elect Netanyahu, and if they did still back him, the killing and the dehumanising language towards and treatment of Palestinians, hate would have no place in our view.  We can say Israel and those Israelis supporting the current action are misguided, dangerous but we don’t hate them. At best, hate is a waste of time and energy.  Hate damages the hater and their reputation.  I heard it said once that anger - and I suppose by extension hate - is the punishment we give ourselves for someone else’s bad behaviour.  Hate detracts from the right course of action.  If the action is not governed by laws, the best policy is to remove ourselves. If it is governed by laws it is also to document, speak up and report that action. 

Are you really unable to criticise political entities and foreign states in Scotland?

There is very little information about this key question. Interestingly, what there is relates, perhaps not unsurprisingly, to Palestine. The short answer is you can.  More on this another time.

But it is a bizarre and terrible state of affairs that political and military leaders are saying horrifying things, while ordinary people around the world are losing their jobs and their peace of mind simply for condemning these words and the subsequent actions, for drawing attention to Israel’s history, for discovering and sharing things that great and famous minds from all sections of society have been saying for decades, just for wanting to support a long oppressed people.