An open letter to the social justice warriors who unapologetically support terrorism
TRIGGER WARNING: If you are NOT a social justice warrior who unapologetically supports terrorism, but rather, you are a person who either lives in Israel, has loved ones in Israel, or is following so much news about the brutality in Israel that you are ready getting sick with intergenerational PTSD, please feel free not to read this. You may still be interested in sharing it, because you probably have some assholes in your social networks who are the target audience, and you may want to fight the misinformation campaign. But please, please, do not read this if it it will upset you. It is graphic. It is upsetting.
Dear Social Justice Warrior,
I think you misunderstood your antiracism training.
You throw around fancy words like decolonization, and systemic oppression, and resistance, and somehow think that they mean “It’s okay to brutally murder Jews.”
Social Justice Warrior, if this is “what decolonization looks like,” does that mean you would be okay if Native Americans stormed your town in the early hours of the morning and slaughtered you in your bed? If this is what resisting systemic oppression looks like, do you condone Black people lighting inhabited houses on fire so that when white folks inside run out to avoid being burned alive, they can shoot them? If you believed this, that would mean QAnon and the far right have been correct all along. That would be insane, wouldn’t it?
But what I described is what happened on Saturday morning in Israel. Which, for what it’s worth, wasn’t just any old Saturday morning. Your DEI calendars probably didn’t list this, because Jews aren’t “diverse” enough, or you know, with only about 16 million of us worldwide, we’re not a “minority” or an “underrepresented group,” but Saturday was a Jewish holiday called Shemini Atzeret, the culmination of our fall holiday season that begins with Rosh Hashana. Hamas knew that, of course. They chose it for a reason. Imagine specifically setting out to murder Catholics on Good Friday. It would be bad enough on any Friday, to be sure. But if you’re having trouble seeing the connection between “Israel” and “Jews,” you might being by looking at a calendar, and imagining the Jewish people worldwide who, instead of celebrating our holiday, held vigils. Imagine the Jewish people worldwide, who, instead of celebrating our holiday, desperately tried to find out if the people we love are alive. This is called psychological warfare, and it’s part of a larger terrorism strategy.
Speaking of terrorism, Social Justice Warrior, writing “Terrorism doesn’t develop in a vacuum,”1 is a form victim blaming. It’s like saying that the kids who die in a school shooting deserved it, because the shooter was bullied and had no other choice. It’s like saying the woman in the short skirt was asking for it when she gets raped. Or, wait, maybe only Jews deserve to get raped before they’re slaughtered, because we were asking for it by…hmm…living in a land to which — let me use some language you might understand here — we have indigenous ties?
Omg, you’re probably so mad right now, Social Justice Warrior. How DARE I say that Jews, who you perceive as white oppressors, are, gasp, indigenous? Well, don’t take my word for it, take Amnesty International’s (my notes in Italics, your welcome for the free lesson, even though by your own creed, you should “educate yourself” and “do the work.”
Indigenous Peoples can be identified according to certain characteristics:
Most importantly, they self-identify as Indigenous peoples Sure, but anyone can do this, so let’s skip ahead because I’m not dumb enough to think this is convincing you.
There is a historical link with those who inhabited a country or region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived Jews have been in the land now called Israel for thousands of years. We were first expelled by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, but we returned in around 458 BCE, and were expelled again by the Romans in 70 CE. You can see evidence of this “Roman victory” etched into the arch of Titus if you don’t believe me because I’m a sneaky Jew. Despite that exile, Jews always remained in the land, no matter who took it over. The rest of the Jews became diaspora Jews. Diaspora is a word that refers to the spreading of people away from their ancestral homeland. It implies, wait for it, an ancestral homeland.
They have a strong link to territories and surrounding natural resources You probably don’t know this, but Jews are an agricultural people. Many of the commandments in our Torah have to do with caring for the land. For example, in Israel, the laws of “shmitah,” a 7-year cycle in which land ownership becomes null and the land and its produce are returned to God, are in effect to this day. And you thought we were just bankers!
They have distinct social, economic or political systems Jewish people have our own set of these systems. A Jewish court is called a Beit Din, and it enforces (even in America!) social, legal, and economic contracts between Jews. To explain the intricacies of Jewish society would take far too long, but hey, you can read, and you’re already online, so it’s easy enough for you to learn more.
They have a distinct language, culture and beliefs Jews have a mother tongue: Hebrew. We pray in Hebrew, greet one another in Hebrew, and even those of us who aren’t fluent, can likely read it, or know some words. Those of us from Eastern Europe may also speak Yiddish. We have a distinct culture and beliefs — Jews are a religious group, but many Jews are not religious, and instead “culturally Jewish.” Think: Ross as the Holiday Armadillo.
They are marginalized and discriminated against by the state Jews are now governing Israel, but your own desire to see us dead for doing so is sort of enough proof here. If you don’t feel like believing that, see also: statistics for hate crimes against Jews in the diaspora.
They maintain and develop their ancestral environments and systems as distinct peoples See: all of the above.
Anyway, I’m not naive enough to think you buy this argument, because we all know, Social Justice Warrior, that hypocrisy runs deep within you, especially when it comes to Jewish people. I mean, the beheading of BABIES wasn’t enough to get you to condemn terrorism.
shared a perfect example of this sickness from this Twitter/X thread in her must-read Substack - read the bottom Tweet first.
Take that in, Social Justice Warrior. Do the things you post sound like Trudy’s comment here? I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize that killing 40 babies wasn’t actually bad without the beheading involved. I’ll be sure to pass the message along to Hamas: if you want to be taken seriously in your cause to destroy Jews, behead more babies!
Social Justice Warrior, I’m sure you’re desperately wanting to chime in, “Anti-zionism isn’t antisemitism! I’m not an antisemite! I would punch a Nazi!”
Oh, if I had a dollar for every antisemitic Social Justice Warrior who wants to punch a Nazi, I might be rich enough to fit the Jewish stereotype.
Sure, Social Justice Warrior, you may have been absolutely appalled by the Charlottesville rally where white supremacists chanted “Jews will not replace us.” But what do you think “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free means?” Does that just fool you because it rhymes? I can rhyme. Maybe this poem will help you understand.
Beheading babies is really bad
It should make you really sad
Thousands dead should make you mad
But if, instead, it makes you glad
You’re either evil, or you’ve been had.
Maybe it’s not the rhyme, though. Maybe it’s that word “free.” We like freedom! And when you see Gaza described as an “open air prison” you’d be right to say, hey, these people deserve to be free. Guess what, Social Justice Warrior? Most Jews and Israelis AGREE with you! If you felt like learning about the history of the region authentically, you would maybe learn that in 2005, Israelis who had previously been living in Gaza dismantled their settlements in the region, and the Israeli military withdrew completely, giving the area over to Palestinian rule. This was supposed to bring about “freedom.” But, as it happens sometimes, the terrorists of Hamas gained power, and their goal is to eradicate Jews.
Free, in this context, means “free of Jews.” When the chant changes at rallies worldwide to “From the river to the sea, the whole world will be free,” that means “free of Jews.” It doesn’t mean “free from oppression” except inasmuch as the “oppressors” are Jews. Jews worldwide become targets whenever and wherever there are rallies with that chant. At least “Jews will not replace us” is staightforward and honest.
Social Justice Warrior, I’m sorry to say that you’ve become a victim to a propaganda campaign designed to torment and annihilate Jews worldwide. It’s an easy mistake to make — there have been conspiracy theories about Jews for as long as there have been Jews. These ideas are so deeply embedded into global culture that you probably are resisting every word I say (thanks for not murdering me yet! Because resistance looks like murder, right?).
So maybe, Social Justice Warrior, I can speak to the people you actually care about, the people whose lives you see as human lives.
If you really want to champion the Palestinian people, have more faith in them and their humanity. Most Palestinians are not bloodthirsty terrorists. Most Palestinians don’t want to slaughter anyone, they don’t want to make parents watch as their children are murdered only to be murdered themselves. They don’t want to rip infants away from their parents and take them hostage. They don’t want to burn human bodies. They don’t want to torture elderly, defenseless Holocaust survivors. How DARE you fight for their just cause of self-determination by insinuating they are monsters? How DARE you perpetuate the untrue stereotype that Muslims are terrorists? Islam is a religion that promotes peace, not murder. Hamas represents the Palestinian people the way ISIS represented the Syrian people: not at all. If you want to support the Palestinian cause, you’d do well to think more highly of their morality, and offer them the respect that they can achieve justice through just means.
Social Justice Warrior, I’ll leave you with this: anything other than an outright condemnation of Hamas is a way of legitimizing their cause. In Hamas’s eyes, you are nothing more than a human rocket, a weapon in their misinformation campaign, aimed squarely at the Jewish people worldwide. They are relying on you to buy into their false equivalency narratives. They are hoping you will parrot the claim that people in Gaza don’t have access to bomb shelters the way people in Israel do without using your critical thinking to wonder why Hamas has the money for thousands of rockets, for advanced military training, and for digging underground tunnels to infiltrate Israeli society but they don’t have the money to build reinforced buildings, or you know, provide resources to their people. They are hoping you will paint Israel and the Jewish people as deserving of murder. In the wake of conflicts in Israel/Palestine, Jews worldwide are targeted with violence because it becomes socially acceptable to see us as less than human.
You may not be actively beheading our babies, but our blood is on your hands.
Very truly yours,
Cindy
There’s very little those of us outside of Israel can do, but one thing we can do is fight in the information war. Please share this, far and wide. Most of the assholes in our feeds are too far gone, but maybe some are not. And especially if you are NOT Jewish, one way you can stand up for us is by making sure the people in your networks see information like this BEFORE they see the propaganda spread by Hamas. You have the power to be an ally, not a bystander. You have the power to do the modern-day version of hiding us in your attics.
This is an actual quote, from a left-wing, feminist Substack culture writer I used to follow and recommend (I’m sorry). I’d bother with attributing it to her, but I think the common decency of attribution is not necessary when someone is publicly very much okay with you and your people dying.