After October 7^th 2023, as soon as it became clear that neither our government nor the mainstream media were capable of giving due respect to Arab lives when Israel was in the equation, some of us changed our social media profiles to black, and declared that they would stay that way until our government ceased to be such a dangerous apologist (or as we now know, participant) in Israel’s attempt to wipe out a whole people.

I hadn’t expected to be stuck with a black profile for so long – over a year and a half now – but it doesn’t bother me much because it’s so insignificant next to the constant ache of sorrow and shame – sorrow for the peoples of the countries around Israel – not just Palestine, but Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Iraq – all the countries that have suffered bomb deaths in civilian areas courtesy of Israel and its allies – primarily the US and the UK – as a result of Israel’s determination to terrorize all its neighbours; and shame, shame for how the political party I used to be an officer for is running our country and shame for the justified things the international media is now saying about UK feminism.

It would be ironic, wouldn’t it, to run about wailing “not all feminists!”

Nevertheless, I’ve noticed signs lately – as have we all, I think, that this terrible, horrible time brings one good thing in its wake. That is, even the US/UK dominated ‘white western’ world is beginning to see Zionism – and therefore the lingering evil of European colonialist thinking – for what it is. This Double Down News report about the ‘Labour antisemitism’ trick is getting on for 100k views in a couple of days. That, and the determination of so many UK activists to defy the government’s bullying, shows that the light is beginning to dawn…

It will be really helpful for the nascent new left movement in the UK if the real reasons we didn’t get a Corbyn government become more widely known and, it will be really helpful for those trying to clear out the racism still embedded in this country if the connections between racism and colonial attitudes are better understood.

I saw a conversation about the genocide in Palestine between women I know from various feminist groups yesterday. I saw one woman trying to be reasonable, to do the BBC thing described in the DDN video. Rape is a weapon of war, she said (a fact well documented and well understood by feminist groups). Therefore, she went on, both sides are guilty of rape.

Both sides. Israel and Palestine. That’s BBC ‘impartiality’ that is. There was one day – one day – two-and-a-half years ago, when the brutal rage created by decades of illegal military occupation of Palestine made itself felt in Israel. There probably wasn’t extensive, certainly not ‘systematic’ quantities of rape going on that day, but we can never be sure because the IDF incinerated everything and everyone in the area, so there’s precious little evidence to go on; but what we do know, those of us who dare look, is that the Hamas fighters are mostly orphans – people whose entire families were destroyed by the IDF, until there was no-one left to try to bring  them up to a normal, civilian life, even if that were possible (which it wasn’t) under Israel’s military occupation.

What’s more, the Palestinians have suffered decades of illegal imprisonment, torture and murder. They have more amputees per capita than any other nation, whilst Israel has been the number one cause of child-death in the world in the last two years. But hey, ‘both sides’. That is the result of ‘BBC impartiality’.

But greater numbers of people are beginning to understand now. The government is fighting a losing battle trying to bully the anti-genocide movement into silence. They could easily bully 10% but the number who know something’s badly wrong passed 50% of us some time ago, and is still rising. They can’t bully everyone.

What do you think? Will I be able to return to a colourful social media pic soon? Maybe – but for now, please join in with the black. It does make people ask questions, and we do need to keep having those conversations – this is a battle we need to win, not just for Palestine, but for civilization, and for our own civil liberty. Did you see Husam Zomlot at the Durham Miners’ Gala?

For those who haven’t been following all the way, he’s the Head of the Palestine Mission to the United Kingdom. He is their voice speaking to us so – if he’s not giving up, we have no business to be thinking of such a thing.

Please consider turning your social media profile pics to black, at least for a while, and work on the conversations they produce. If you come across people who can’t see what’s wrong with the way we’re taught to think about Palestinians, try discussing the difference in the way the establishment talks about October 7th 2023 with the way it talks about the Ghetto Uprising, or ask them why Yvette Cooper honours the suffragettes, who committed a wide range of crimes, including in Hastings, setting fire to an MP’s house, but slanders and reviles those who commit similar acts to try to stop a government-sponsored genocide.

The clip below comes from Turbulent Spinsters – Ann Kramer’s book about the dramatic activity of Suffragettes in Hastings. Click here for more about the book.

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Kay

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