Zionism, Antisemitism & The Left
Added 2024-07-22 13:00:17 +0000 UTCSo this is obviously a big, sensitive one - but one I felt I needed to do given everything going on. Its a video about Palestine and Zionism, as well as the history of self-determination of both the Palestinian and Jewish people. How Zionism is a colonial project that at its core requires the oppression of the Palestinian people that needs to be fought, but also that to do so needs to come with the understanding that Zionism is a deeply emotional part of Jewish life for many who consider it solely as meaning Jewish self-determination without the colonial aspects - and how Israel the state itself uses that conflation to its benefit. How the state of Isreal, in how it is set up today, was not inevitable. It's also a video about how leftists if we truly aim to establish a human society free from nationalistic, colonial, and imperial mindsets - need to be clear and concise in our critiques of power lest we fall into antisemitism or continue/recreate other oppressive structures. So... a very light video.
This video was made with the help of Jewish and Palestinian writers to hope. Also; I welcome any criticism and critique in good faith of this video - knowing that my intent here is to stand in solidarity with Palestinian people facing genocide by the Israeli state, as well as show solidarity to Jewish people across the world - and how fighting oppressive state regimes is a foremost fight that requires us to stand together and think about each other.
Also, a small note: This video talks a lot about President Biden. With him stepping out of the Presidential race, a few specific lines are outdated. I'm going to do a quick update for the video that will be released on YouTube, just adjusting those lines, but overall, if you apply my critique of Biden to the Democratic party more broadly, all the points still stand, and it is the point I'm making anyway, just with Biden being the specific example. But I wanted to get this all out to you ASAP, so just be aware of that small change.
Comments
Hey Jessie, Been a supporter on here for a while, greatly respect the work you do and the empathy and earnestness with which you do it. However this video and the way you have handled what appears to be persistent feedback has been very troubling. I see several comments here and under the video expressing concern over misrepresentations, inaccuracies. These messages include my own. I really think the fact you said that 3000 people died at a music festival as a synopsis of the October 7 attack deserves at the bare minimum a pinned comment correction, not to mention your uncritical use of the Israeli spy that dubs himself "Son of Hamas" among many other things that did not come off well that I will skip for brevity in what is already a really long message. It really comes off as this video being a massive coming together of the minds to try to do something good. I do think a lot of the video is solid, informative in places, rudimentary in most others and does do a great job at communicating existing complexities in the conflict. Despite my frustrations I will definitely give the video that. Regardless, these problems need addressed and it concerns me that that I have not seen them meaningfully engaged with to this point. It is clear know what exaggerating October 7 has been used for, not to mention the Israeli spy "Son of Hamas". Your past work gives the impression that you should very much know and respect how incredibly serious this stuff is. That you are staying silent is beyond concerning and had me very much reconsider the money I put your way every month. You should know better. I know I am not able to contribute much and that I alone will not be that big a deal, but this is chipping away at the respect that you have very much earned over the years. It makes me sad but silence in the face of what is unconscionable is loudly saying very uncomfortable things. I have not said anything beyond my initial comment on YouTube for what is several weeks now because I have seen you handle criticism before and have seen it handled well and had no desire to prematurely judge. You have definitely earned the goodwill on that end. Every minute of your silence has spent it, however. I have no doubt that you put every ounce of that empathy and earnestness that I respect of your work into this video but you missed the mark in a few places. My apologies if I missed you saying something somewhere else, I am not terribly active on much social media. This was something I thought I should just address. Not trying to cause drama or be obnoxious. If I end up doing that, I will own it and deeply apologize. At the least I hope my message was clear and my criticisms reasonable. More than happy to discuss them in a more extensive manner should that be helpful. I will however, be pulling my subscription here. I cannot in good conscious maintain it at this point. Easy fix though, more than happy to resume should this be addressed appropriately. As I said, I have deep respect for the work you do otherwise and have always enjoyed chipping in what I can to support it. Thank you for your time.
Nathaniel Monroe
2024-08-17 17:27:05 +0000 UTCI usually try to keep my social engagement in public spaces to a minimum, as it seems lately that everything I say or share tends to turn into a debate or make some people mad. As an Israeli living abroad who agrees that the whole Zionist thing was a sham, I am being treated by other Israelis including family members as a traitor to my own people, and in international leftist circles I feel scared to express my authentic self and to be potentially blamed for the atrocities done by "my people", I'm also scared to be misunderstood when I have all these complicated feelings towards what is, de facto my homeland (as I was born in Israel and have no other native home). I wanted to sincerely thank you for this video as it put into words a lot of my thoughts and feelings, and the inner conflicts that I have towards my own homeland. I was raised into Zionism, and seeing it for what it is is really hard from the inside, especially with so much fear mongering and propaganda, so many phantasms to break through. Also seeing many online spaces full of non starters and not solutions (things like, go back to Europe, or things like "this is not your homeland, find another home" but what can I do? Cease to exist? Arrange myself into being a different person with a different birthplace/ language/ history/ songs/ family/ art/ literature? Or things like "it's really super simple! This is all the British/ American/ Jew's fault") is also not helpful. It was really so good to see something so thoughtful, compassionate and comprehensive. Thank you!
Morrigan
2024-08-12 18:00:17 +0000 UTCJust fyi, i dearly appreciate the nuance and care you brought to this topic
enter_krzysz
2024-08-09 20:25:27 +0000 UTCI really enjoyed and learned a lot from this. I wasnt aware of the völkisch foundation of zionistischen ideology. I really appreciate the mention of the Bundist from Eastern Europe, who were antizionist and the largest Jewish party in Poland prior to WW2. however please take accountability for some mistakes or misjudgements: you say a wrong number of victims at the Nova festival on Oct 7; you qoute Mosab Hassan Yousef uncritically, who compared islam to nazism; and you mispronounce intifada badly :/ it really would've been insightful to also look some more into the discrimination by zionists against yiddish-speaking holocaust survivors; you just very briefly touched on it :) anyway, thanks for this detailled, nuanced view. difficult video, but I think your logic is mostly soun
enter_krzysz
2024-08-09 20:24:44 +0000 UTCThis is a brave and brilliant video. I learned a lot. Thank you. I profoundly agree with your point that we need to accept nuance and learn to work together across differences. Our current age feels anti-pluralist to me. Instead of leading with "How can I make common cause/find common ground with this person?" we lead with "What can I condemn about this person?" At least in the US, I think that thinking is deeply influenced by our Calvinist roots; it's a sort of secular belief that everyone deserves to be damned. It is exhausting, and I appreciate your call to focus on what we can build together. To paraphrase Le Guin, we don't have to be kemmerings to pull a sledge together.
Arwen Spicer
2024-08-05 04:21:15 +0000 UTCBy the way, a French content producer published a video called "The racist strategy" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReQzu4NHS4Q) about how racism has been deeply entwined with European (and particularly French) imperialism. There is a part on antisemtism and racism in the 20th century. Unfortunately, the whole thing is in French only and I'm not sure an automatic translation could work, as the video has a lot of sounds constructions. I realize that there are content producers on both sides of the Atlantic doing some really great video on these issues, but from different perspective and I wish there was a way to have them regularly translated in other languages.
Swiss_Woke
2024-07-24 11:33:09 +0000 UTCThis is not just a good video, it's an excellent visdeo! It is long too, but honestly, I don't see how you can cover such a large and super-loaded topic in just an hour. I'm watching it in several parts and I'm thinking I'll rewatch it with the document containing the references, so as to take notes and keep some hints for future reading. But I really admire your capacity to produce so much high-quality content in such limited amount of time! Thank you for all your efforts!
Swiss_Woke
2024-07-24 11:26:49 +0000 UTC
