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The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

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Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#61
post #43
post #20

As an American Jew who grew up with a distorted and racist world view in regard to Palestine this just feels like history repeating itself. The troubles that face Israelis have always been amplified over those of Palestinians in my experience. That control of the narrative led me to be actively racist for most of my life while thinking I was not and also morally superior. This kind of censorship has a body count, and…

As an American who moved here from a Muslim country let me assure you Muslims are socialized to feel the same way about Jews. Took me a long time to see it. In high school I obviously supported Palestine and thought Israel was a settler colony (all of it, not just Gaza). Then I realized: wait why do I even care? I’m from 3,000 miles away in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, people don’t even care about Bangladeshis being he…

So you stop caring about something as soon as a specific number of other people don't care?

"Yeah I used to care about homeless people, but then one day I was like 'wait why do I even care', `nobody` in LA seems to care"

If you truly care about something, you care because of your values and you care regardless of what others say or do.

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are more prone to this kind of thing because they're already used to overriding settler-colonial propaganda influencing their mindset; Zionist propaganda is just another flavor.

Lots of countries have similar sorts of histories I think; while I'm sure what you say is part of the equation, I think it doesn't fully explain why Americans are much more likely to support Israel than people in other countries (for instance, Australia.) I think another piece of this puzzle is the popularity of Evangelical Christianity in America, particularly Christian Zionism and the belief that the state of Israe…

It's rooted in British Israelism [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Israelism

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#63
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are more prone to this kind of thing because they're already used to overriding settler-colonial propaganda influencing their mindset; Zionist propaganda is just another flavor.

It is hard to say Israel has less right to the land it took over than say New Zealand. The main difference is how long ago the settling happened.

Except Pakeha aren't carpet-bombing Maori in droves.

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#64
post #24
post #14

Not sure why HN moderation changed the original title, which was "I am Palestinian. Here’s how Israel silences us on social media." to its current form.

I changed it the same way we change every such title which relies on linkbait tropes (which is what "I am $X. Here's how $Y" is). Linkbait tropes make HN threads worse. Editing them is standard moderation practice ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ), and is also in the site guidelines (" Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. " - https:/…

After taking a few minutes to think about it I agree with you and I can see your point.

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#65
post #20

As an American Jew who grew up with a distorted and racist world view in regard to Palestine this just feels like history repeating itself. The troubles that face Israelis have always been amplified over those of Palestinians in my experience. That control of the narrative led me to be actively racist for most of my life while thinking I was not and also morally superior. This kind of censorship has a body count, and…

Americans are more prone to this kind of thing because they're already used to overriding settler-colonial propaganda influencing their mindset; Zionist propaganda is just another flavor.

That’s a hilarious assertion. One of the things we found puzzling when we moved here was why Americans spent so much time in school studying all the bad things the country did. Totally bizarre to us, coming from Asia.

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#66
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who moved here from a Muslim country let me assure you Muslims are socialized to feel the same way about Jews. Took me a long time to see it. In high school I obviously supported Palestine and thought Israel was a settler colony (all of it, not just Gaza). Then I realized: wait why do I even care? I’m from 3,000 miles away in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, people don’t even care about Bangladeshis being he…

So you stop caring about something as soon as a specific number of other people don't care? "Yeah I used to care about homeless people, but then one day I was like 'wait why do I even care', `nobody` in LA seems to care" If you truly care about something, you care because of your values and you care regardless of what others say or do.

Please don't cross into name-calling or personal attack.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#67
post #15
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that the social media platforms specifically target silencing Palestinian content. Both Twitter and Facebook attributed it to technical bugs [1] [2] while they kept hiding the content. [1] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/palestinian-facebook-... [2] https://soyacincau.com/2021/05/17/instagram-twitter-palestin...

Well they say automated systems did it, could be. Especially if the social media teams or other supports from Israel are constantly reporting (violent) content, then that content would be flagged/deleted etc.

Strangely, only Palestinian voices get silenced...

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#68
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jews are not white so by definition they can't be racist. Racism has to do with systemic power structures. Most of the problems in the middle east have been caused by white colonialism. What's going on between Jews and Palestinians is warfare that sometimes gets out of hand. That's distinct from racism.

We've banned this account for repeatedly breaking the site guidelines. Please don't create accounts to troll HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[deleted]

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#69
post #43
post #20

As an American Jew who grew up with a distorted and racist world view in regard to Palestine this just feels like history repeating itself. The troubles that face Israelis have always been amplified over those of Palestinians in my experience. That control of the narrative led me to be actively racist for most of my life while thinking I was not and also morally superior. This kind of censorship has a body count, and…

As an American who moved here from a Muslim country let me assure you Muslims are socialized to feel the same way about Jews. Took me a long time to see it. In high school I obviously supported Palestine and thought Israel was a settler colony (all of it, not just Gaza). Then I realized: wait why do I even care? I’m from 3,000 miles away in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, people don’t even care about Bangladeshis being he…

It's almost like maybe you should care and speak out about Palestine and Bengladeshis in Qatar and Rohingya and Yemenis and Uighurs.

Re: The blackout Palestinians are facing on social media

#70
post #57
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who moved here from a Muslim country let me assure you Muslims are socialized to feel the same way about Jews. Took me a long time to see it. In high school I obviously supported Palestine and thought Israel was a settler colony (all of it, not just Gaza). Then I realized: wait why do I even care? I’m from 3,000 miles away in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, people don’t even care about Bangladeshis being he…

I’d urge people not to give up caring. There’s a lot of crappy things happening in the world and it can be a lot to deal with, but just tossing your hands up isn’t the answer. I’d also argue that tax paying Americans are obligated to care. Our money is funding Israel’s crimes and we are morally culpable if we don’t resist or try to change policy.

Yes, I am aware of that and do care for justice but am afraid to talk abour it IRL to be honest. To be publically acused of antisemitism for being critical to Israel could be a real nightmare Im not ready to go through. I am no antisemitist, on the contrary, some of my favorite people are jewish. Am I a coward? I think so but I have a family and want to hold onto my job. Here on HN I am not afraid to comment because this account is not tied to my real identity.

Ps There is one think I do which I know is directly connected to this. I boycot Israeli food products, mostly grown on occupied lands. The inpact is close to nil but it’s the most I can do at the moment.

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