Half of Jews live in Israel. 80% of Jews worldwide are Zionists, if not more.
Among the anti-Zionists the words settlers, occupation, Zionist have different definitions. The most extreme use these words to appeal to moderates, who then think they are in agreement.
When Hamas speaks about settlers and occupation they mean all of Israel and all Jews living there. The naive western activist doesn’t understand that though and erroneously thinks it’s about the West Bank only. The idea of killing or pushing out the Jews/settlers/Zionists, which are used interchangeably in Arabic, and taking back their ancestors houses they still have the key to, is mainstream among Palestinians.
A similar thing happens when Jew is replaced with Zionist by extremists. Suddenly it become far more palatable even though most Jews are Zionists, as in believe Israel should exist. Antisemites love this little trick. The use of the word Zionist has moved the meaning a lot. It’s now closer to just mean evil Jew. Which is exactly how far right antisemites have used this word for decades in terms like ZOG.
Hamas also routinely uses the following argument: there are no Israeli civilians because they all serve in the IDF.
I agree that soldiers who have committed war crimes and politicians who ordered crimes against humanity should be brought to justice.
Half of Jews live in Israel. 80% of Jews worldwide are Zionists, if not more.
Among the anti-Zionists the words settlers, occupation, Zionist have different definitions. The most extreme use these words to appeal to moderates, who then think they are in agreement.
When Hamas speaks about settlers and occupation they mean all of Israel and all Jews living there. The naive western activist doesn’t understand that though and erroneously thinks it’s about the West Bank only. The idea of killing or pushing out the Jews/settlers/Zionists, which are used interchangeably in Arabic, and taking back their ancestors houses they still have the key to, is mainstream among Palestinians.
A similar thing happens when Jew is replaced with Zionist by extremists. Suddenly it become far more palatable even though most Jews are Zionists, as in believe Israel should exist. Antisemites love this little trick. The use of the word Zionist has moved the meaning a lot. It’s now closer to just mean evil Jew. Which is exactly how far right antisemites have used this word for decades in terms like ZOG.
Hamas also routinely uses the following argument: there are no Israeli civilians because they all serve in the IDF.
I agree that soldiers who have committed war crimes and politicians who ordered crimes against humanity should be brought to justice.
I’m pretty sure Hamas uses “settler” to refer to the Europeans and their descendents, because Israel is an active settler-colonial project.
Not because they’re Jewish, but because they’re white.