Current Events > My grandfather was a holocaust survivor, but I am ashamed of Israel

(+) Yeah! (+)

When I was a teenager, my dream was to live on a kibbutz as part of a gap year between school and university. I was a staunch Zionist. My hero as a teenager was Yitzhak Rabin.

Now I am more aware of the atrocities inflicted by the Israeli government and military on the Palestinian people, migrant workers and Ethiopian Jewish refugees.

I can no longer in good conscience consider myself a Zionist. I am ashamed of what Israel has become.

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Kind of the same for me (except the being Jewish part). I used to cut Israel a lot of slack since all their neighbours wanted to annihilate them.

But the Israeli gov's actions in the recent years really make it hard for me to support them any longer.
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Only in recent years?

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@bsballa

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Foppe posted...

Only in recent years?

Relatively speaking. For the last 20 years, really, since I became old enough to realise what Israel were doing. Since then it has been a process of becoming steadily more disgusted.

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How does your opinion on Israel affect you being Jewish? Do you butt heads with friends or family on the issue?

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my family's from Rwanda, and I have: aunts, uncles, cousins, and acquaintances who are survivors, and due to the genocide, we've been a part of anti-genocide/genocide awareness groups for more than 20 years.

and because of that, we've had a close alliance with Jewish advocacy groups, and it's interesting, because there are people who are anti-zionist and there are people who are zionists, and it's an issue that sometimes causes some arguments.

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St0rmFury posted...

Kind of the same for me (except the being Jewish part). I used to cut Israel a lot of slack since all their neighbours wanted to annihilate them.

But the Israeli gov's actions in the recent years really make it hard for me to support them any longer.

As a young lad I could tell you how many Egyptian tanks Israel destroyed in the first hours of the Yom Kippur war. I idolised Moshe Dayan. I believed the cause of Israel to be righteous. I was also, I am ashamed to admit, reasonably racist towards Arabic people.

Not anymore.


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Wii_Shaker posted...

How does your opinion on Israel affect you being Jewish? Do you butt heads with friends or family on the issue?

These days, my family by blood consists of my mother (my fathers family we have nothing to do with).

My mother feels the same way about Israel. She is similarly disgusted.

boxington posted...

my family's from Rwanda, and I have: aunts, uncles, cousins, and acquaintances who are survivors, and due to the genocide, we've been a part of anti-genocide/genocide awareness groups for more than 20 years.

and because of that, we've had a close alliance with Jewish advocacy groups, and it's interesting, because there are people who are anti-zionist and there are people who are zionists, and it's an issue that sometimes causes some arguments.

That is an understandable alliance. I am very glad your family survived.

It is the historical experience of the Jewish people that makes it so hard for me to understand *why* Israel behaves the way it does. You would have thought that after centuries of discrimination, pogroms and then outright genocide, we would be less inclined to treat other peoples in the same way.

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don't forget if you criticize anything about israel at all you are automatically antisemitic or a self-hating jew.

Lanzol posted...

don't forget if you criticize anything about israel at all you are automatically antisemitic or a self-hating jew.

Bugger that for a lark!

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thanks i couldn't tell if you were the same dude from mad stalker but that confirms it

Lanzol posted...

thanks i couldn't tell if you were the same dude from mad stalker but that confirms it

This takes me back lol
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Many apologies, I do not recall you.

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