palestinian rights are absolute

nothing justifies the denial of human rights to palestinians

there is much that bothers me in the discourse about palestine: the worst of it coldly justifies the dehumanized position in which the zionist project keeps the palestinians. but nothing can justify the denial of basic human rights which palestinians face. nothing. there is no number of heads that hamas could chop off, and there is no number of votes that could be cast for hamas, and there is no number of bombs that could go off in tel aviv which could possibly justify the mass deprivation of human rights which palestinians have now faced for many many decades. 

central america: the countries we have fucked and forgotten about

“palestinian rights” are human rights: and for human rights to mean anything real they must hold an absolute existence for… humans… all humans, no? otherwise what are they really? american rights? jewish rights? something, but not human rights.

what’s with some of these “civil libertarians” these days when it comes to the palestinians? what’s become of those champions of “civil liberties”? they laugh at queer people who support palestinians having full human rights: they chuckle incoherently at signs that read “queers for palestine”: they claim that no democratically elected government of palestine would ever willingly tolerate the lgbTq+ community.

but regardless of whether true, what does the average palestinian’s opinion about queerness have to do with their access to basic human rights? and is that not simply an issue to be worked out in any democracy? the tension between securing the rights of the minority in the face of an otherwise oppressive majority? has america not struggled too with that challenge and do palestinians not have the same right to pursue self-governance and develop mechanisms for dealing with those same challenges? are palestinians somehow uniquely terrible because there are many palestinians with certain bigoted views? does that not simply describe every human society? are not all human beings full of flaws and issues?? are we really so racist as to believe palestinians so uniquely flawed and so accordingly unworthy of basic human rights that we can tolerate their stateless and desperate situation in the name of… what? democracy? preserving civil liberties?? for who? unhoused queer people in gaza who have lost their families??? it’s too easy to lose the plot here.

the fact that certain palestinians have committed grotesque crimes or that other palestinians hold bigoted views of queer people is a product of the fact that palestinians are, like us, complicated human beings: additionally, this fact is entirely irrelevant to the key truth for which we must uncompromisingly stand: palestinian rights are human rights, and these rights are absolute for palestinians because palestinians are humans. and in response to the argument that the application of full human rights to palestinians would certainly jeopardize the project of an exclusively jewish state we must also say: palestinian rights are human rights, and these rights are absolute for palestinians because palestinians are humans. 

but what about zionism? what about the jewish state, the creation of which forced palestinians from their homes and deprived them of their property, and the preservation of which denies them a right to return? to that we must say: if the price of a guaranteed majority- jewish state is the elimination of palestinians’ rights, which is what it always has been and by definition must be, then that is not a price worth paying. that is a price to be ashamed of: it’s a price being paid in blood for the construction of a ethno-religious supremacist entity, and this entity does not have a “right to exist,” because like all “nation-states” that entity is a fabrication.

ultimately there are no “nations,” there are no “nation states,” there are no “peoples,” there are no “countries,” and there are no “religions.” these are products of our imagination: we invented these concepts and we choose to uphold these things at certain costs: by clinging so fervently to these made up concepts we forget what there really are: beings who are suffering, and what we must do is alleviate the suffering of those other beings, not create logical justifications for their continued misery in the name of upholding the existence of a deliberately racist political entity on the basis of the idea that “not a jew in the world” is safe without the safeguarding of a state that demands the suppression of palestinians. to fall back on ultimately shallow concepts about securing the purity of a certain group’s “nation-state-hood” (as the supposedly only means of securing that group’s survival) in order to justify the suffering of our fellow beings is… well: it’s probably extremely bad karma and those who do this should maybe fear the results of a coming reincarnation 💓

a quote from the Buddha seems relevant when thinking about the raw necessity of standing up for the human rights of palestinians. i love this quote because of how directly it challenges thinking that is rooted in logic and abstract principles rather than stemming from a focus on the suffering of our fellow beings.

“you should not go along with something because of what you have been told, because of authority, because of tradition, because of accordance with transmitted text, on the grounds of reason, on the grounds of logic, because of analytical thought, because of abstract theoretic pondering, because of the appearance of the speaker, or because some ascetic is your teacher. when you know for yourselves that particular qualities are unwholesome, blameworthy, censured by the wise, and lead to harm and suffering when taken on and pursued, you should give them up."

(an introduction to buddhism: teaching, history, and practices by peter harvey)

(protestors in lisbon)

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