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An edited transcript (accounting for the absence of audiovisial material) is below.
I’ve supported the Palestinian struggle in the face of Israeli aggression for a very long time. I don’t say that to suggest that I have some sort of moral superiority over anybody else. I just say it so you understand this is a topic I’ve thought about for a very long time.
There’s a question I keep seeing online that I think is worth exploring: "How can you support Palestine when so much of the ideology coming out of Palestine—or Muslim-majority countries more broadly—isn’t exactly welcoming to someone like you?"
I mean, I’m not just an atheist. I’m an anti-theist. I think religion isn’t just wrong—I think it’s harmful. And yeah, I wouldn’t exactly be welcome in a place like Gaza. Not that there’s much left of Gaza now, because Israel has turned it into rubble. But even before that, when Hamas was still governing what was left of the civilian population, I wouldn’t have been exactly warmly received: I’ve republished the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo (not that they'd know, but you get the point) so they probably wouldn’t be thrilled to see me there.
So how can I support the struggle of these people?
Especially when you consider that, for someone like me, living in Israel—a supposedly secular state—might be more comfortable than living in Gaza before its destruction. There's no doubt that if you’re a secular, Western-minded person with liberal values, you’d probably be more at ease in Tel Aviv than in Gaza.
But that’s irrelevant. Or at least, it should be.
The fact that we relate more to a society, or think their values align more with ours, doesn’t mean they get a free pass to do whatever they want. And yet, with Israel, that’s often the assumption: that their “Western-ness” grants them moral carte blanche.
We don’t generally think the decency of a genocidal society is enough to justify what they do. So the fact that Palestinian society is Muslim doesn’t justify the atrocities committed against them. We don’t condition the right to live on whether we like the people being victimized.
So it’s been really frustrating to watch these "gotcha" questions pop up—mocking the very idea that anyone would care about the atrocities being committed against the Palestinians.
The best response to this kind of trolling came, weirdly enough, from an Italian drag queen. He gave an incredible explanation of why someone like him—who would absolutely not be celebrated in most Muslim-majority countries—still supports the Palestinian people. He embodied the commitment to civil liberties and human rights that we all claim to care about.
What Israel is doing is a genocide, and one day it will be remembered in the same way we remember the Rwandan genocide or the holocaust.
[Holocaust Survivors clip]
Earlier this year I went to the Czech Republic, to Lidice—or what used to be Lidice. The Nazis wiped it off the map as punishment for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the highest-ranking Nazis and one of the architects of the Final Solution.
The people of Lidice had nothing to do with Heydrich’s assassination, and the Nazis knew that. But that didn’t matter. Lidice was razed as a message. A terror tactic designed to reassert control.
[Lidice clip]
When we think of Lidice, it’s impossible not to think of Gaza: its destruction, its martyrdom, the mass killing of its children. All in the name of punishing October 7th.
[Clip of genocidal rhetoric in Israel]
Whenever the Israel-Palestine conflict comes up, it’s framed as too complex and ancient to be solved.
That’s a lie.
Every human rights organization working in the region agrees: Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Genocide. Use of hunger as a weapon. Torture. Human shields. All being inflicted on the mostly civilian population of Gaza.
Since the October 7th attacks, over half a million Palestinians have been killed—most of them women, children, and the elderly. Children are starving—literally starving—while aid trucks are being blocked by Israel.
Omar Al Akkad, a Palestinian writer, recently published a book called "One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This". People look back at atrocities and say, “Of course I was against that.” Even though they did nothing at the time. They imagine themselves as having been part of the "resistance", despite their passivity.
The good news? There are things you can do.
You can help organizations like UN Crisis Relief, or Doctors Without Borders. Please donate generously.
If you live in one of the many countries supporting or enabling this live-streamed genocide, write to your MP, your congressman, your president, or shout it from your fucking window.
Tell them to stop supporting this genocide. Tell them to stop enabling the liquidation of this people.
Free Palestine.
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