Open your Eyes to Palestine
The Palestinian Struggle Should not be an awkward conversation.
Today's movements advocate that all lives matter, but why is it that all lives matter until it comes to the reoccurring conflicts that are happening every day. You can't advocate for racial equality, LGBTQ, women's rights and chose to ignore the Palestinian oppression. You don't get to pick and choose whose human rights matter more- they all matter.
We as individuals need to learn and educate ourselves on daily issues and keep having these uncomfortable conversations. Of course, we all have the right to our own thoughts and opinions, but let's open our eyes and take a deeper look into what's going on in the Middle East.
So let's talk about it.
This situation is NOT about religion. It's political. It always has been. It's a political issue that deserves a resolution for both Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes in the 1948 war. Ethnically cleansing is the mass expulsion or killing of members of one ethnic or religious group in an era by those of another. This was just the beginning of the battles Palestinians would face. "Israel'' is responsible for over 7.2 million Palestinians being refugees and have destroyed over 540 Palestinian tows. Israel minimizes what is happening by covering it as a "religious" issue to distract people because they are a settler colony brutally colonizing Palestine. Settler colonialism is a colonist that wants to replace the original population of the territory with new settler society. Palestinians are not fighting. They are being oppressed. What is happening in Israel colonization, ethnically cleansing, and military occupation.
Now, let's rewind a little so you have a better understanding of how this began. Arab Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived in peace for years, in Jerusalem especially. After the Holocaust, many Jews became refugees, and Palestinians took them in. During this time, Anti-Semitism was growing in Europe, and the Zionist movement was beginning. This movement was the idea of a Jewish-only state. To eliminate all Jewish people from Europe, Britain gave Palestinian land to European Jews without consulting with the United Nations or Palestine. In the beginning, the land was divided, but the Palestinians were left with close to nothing. They eventually were denied recourses and movement. At the same time, their homes were being illegally occupied. Finally, in 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the World movement, announced the founding of the state of Israel in Palestine.
To explain this in an easier way to understand, let's say you let someone crash at your apartment for a few days. Then their whole family stays at your apartment. Then they ask you to keep in your room and lock the door because they want to invite more people and only come out if they permit you. Then you have to ask for permission to do the bare minimum, like using the bathroom or eating. Most of the time, they'll say no. Then when YOU and for YOUR home back, they result in violence and making you out to be the victim.
This is not about religion. This is about Palestine losing their freedom, losing their land, losing loved ones due to violence, losing historical landmarks, losing their home. This is a human rights issue.
It is so easy to be blind to this issue when the media fails to portray everything in the Middle East, but that is why you HAVE to educate yourself. People are hurting, and just because it makes you uncomfortable does not mean it isn't happening. It's been happening every day for decades. Speak Up. Educate Yourself. You can not say all lives matter when this is still happening in the Middle East. A human trader is unfolding right in front of your eyes. Speak up about it.