A RACE, NOT A RELIGION:

When I spent my gap year in Israel, a common occurrence for Jewish teenagers, we weren't allowed to go over the Green Line. Our programme 'didn't have the right insurance.'

Looking back, I've often thought this was deliberate. In a place so deeply segregated as Palestine-Israel (both inside and outside the Green Line), young diaspora Jews being barred en masse from visiting majority Palestinian areas means that you will never have to meet Palestinians; never hear their stories, never build those friendships.

Our only understanding of Israel's history and its present came from fellow Jews or Israelis. The bureaucracy and infrastructure that underpins diaspora Jews' relationship with Israel is constructed in such a way that we never need to confront the violence and displacement done so often in the name of Jewishness.

The culture of dehumanisation in which Palestinians live has been clear over the last two weeks. I watched in horror, but not surprise, as mobs of Jewish fascists patrolled the streets of Jaffa, Lod, and Bat Yam, attacking Palestinians. These kinds of attacks are already routine in the Occupied Territories.

Settlers act with impunity, stealing Palestinian land while receiving the utmost protection of the state; even the illegal 'hilltop outposts' are all linked to Israel's electricity and phone grids. If anything, the racist violence taking place within 1948 borders over the last week proves what those on the ground here in Palestine-Israel have known for years: there is almost no difference between what happens in the occupied territories and what happens inside the Green Line.

In response to this escalation of violence, as well as the assault on Gaza--which resulted in over 200 deaths, including 61 children, caused by Israeli airstrikes--the hasbara (Israel advocacy) machine kicked into gear: 'no partner for peace' klaxon; 'Hamas uses human shields' klaxon. And most gallingly, as Palestinians shared videos and words online of their fear of death, Israel advocates claimed they were victims of a 'social media siege'. You know, as opposed to the literal military siege happening right now in Gaza.

The message underlying these talking points is simple: Israeli lives matter more than Palestinian lives. The lack of basic compassion speaks to the effect Israel advocacy has had on Jewish diaspora relationship to this land. Lobby groups like Stand With Us and the Zionist Federation obfuscate the reality of Israeli occupation in order to generate public support for Israel's actions, while masquerading as 'education organisations'. One of the most effective tools is framing Palestinian freedom as an antisemitic endeavour. 

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