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shut up i’m busy having a fake relationship with a fictional character right now

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Reblog if you love AO3 and appreciate their volunteers who are working harder than God, fighting battle after battle, making sure the place that is a safe space for every fandom is staying up and running for all of us

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i really wish…i can share the warmth i feel when i’m at synagogue with other people at the least i want non-jews to hear our worship and how beautiful it is i think it would change a lot

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jvp what the fuck is this

Like, I am not commenting on the anti-zionist seder in principle, it's just that

not a single one of those words are written correctly. They're written down in the hagadah. They just had to open a single hagadah to see that all of those are written wrong. These are all written backwards, which is what often happens when you put right-to-left text in a program that can't handle it and flips it over, like photoshop.

Most programs can handle right-to-left text nowadays, so I have no clue how they got this wrong.

was there a single actual jew involved in the writing of this? JVP is notoriously mostly made up of non-jews but like, seriously? Propping open a hagadah to double check? No?

also why does that one circle just say "spoon". do I eat the spoon

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I think the most ridiculously stupid thing about the current western anti-Zionist movement is how much they hate my actual stance on the I/P region. Not the war, necessarily—but the longterm solution.

Because, like, my only criteria for a “good” longterm solution to I/P is one which honors both peoples’ (Jews and Palestinians) cultural ties and rights to the land; one that takes both their concerns—especially that of safety—seriously and accounts for it. The details? That’s something people better and smarter and more powerful than I can debate and hammer out—but anything less than the unwavering commitment to respecting the rights and humanity of all affected parties is an unacceptable outcome, and I cannot for the life of me understand how that could be offensive to anyone.

And YET.

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It’s maddening to find out that the scholar who first developed the idea that “Zionism is Settler Colonialism”, Fayez Sayegh, was a member of the Syrian Nazi Party during and immediately after the Holocaust, was an active participant in the Red Scare, using it to demonize Israel as a manifestation of a Global Communist Threat™️ through the height of the Cold War (true to his Nazi roots, accusing Israel of Judeo-Bolshevism) before switching to a Colonialism narrative when Post-Colonialism came in vogue in the 60s. And yet, the people I hear parroting the talking points of this anti-Communist, Ultranationalist Fascist-turned-scholar are the people who are constantly talking about how Liberal Progressives aren’t Communist enough and actually enemies because “Liberals will always side with Fascists”. Maddening.

If you’ve ever noticed how the “Zionism = Settler Colonialism” narrative eerily shares the core components of the far right’s Replacement Theory (that there are 1. Jews 2. conspiring to invade a given place and 3. replace the population with Jews), this is why; it’s because the idea that Zionism is Settler Colonialism came from a literal Nazi.

It is very literally Nazi propaganda.

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AJ on set of Criminal Minds: Evolution with Paget, Joe, and Aisha in Aisha’s story.

(Credit to Aisha on instagram)

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We’ve been hearing report after report of antisemitism at encampment protests, video after video, photo after photo, documenting people being physically assaulted, threatened, having antisemitic vitriol yelled at them.

And then people have the audacity to say that we’re accusing people of antisemitism for “criticizing israel.” What an absolute barrel of horse shit

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The Jewish definition of Zionism is very different than the popular definition of Zionism. For Jews, Zionism has its roots in a 3,000 year old tradition of wishing to return to our homeland. I would argue that while the political Zionist movement is not integral to Judaism, Zionism, by its Jewish definition is. You do not have Judaism without Israel. Jews traditionally call themselves and the land they come from Israel.

To be a Jew and call yourself antizionist, you must necessarily isolate yourself from your community. You believe that your community has been brainwashed en masse by “Zionism.” You stop going to community events because they’re too “Zionist.” You try to create your own way to mark Judaism without Israel but it falls flat and meaningless, breaking from the tradition of thousands of years of ancestors who yearned for Zion and who each slowly helped create Judaism as we know it today. You either have to be in denial about harm to your community or you have to accept it on some level. You have to be okay with throwing the majority of your own people under the bus, and definitely at least all Israelis. You have to deal with people who tell you your own history with half truths, who know nothing about your culture and have no respect for it.

I called myself antizionist for several years as a teenager, and this coincided with a complete removal from my community and a stark stop to my education about Jewish history and peoplehood. When I re-engaged, the more I learned about Judaism and Jewish history the more “Zionist” (in the Jewish sense not the popular political sense) I became. Within a few months of actually dealing with antizionist activists, I stopped calling myself an antizionist, because I realized very quickly that I was being tokenized and that for all the people around me claimed to know, they were deeply ignorant about anything to do with my culture and people. When I left my on campus group they replaced me with another token Jew almost immediately. When he fucked off they found another one, whom they weaponized against my campus Jewish community to try and evict our Jewish student centre.

So don’t you dare talk to me about the Jews in the encampment protests. Just don’t.

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You know how I know that the anti-Israel hate is deeply rooted in antisemitism, and not just "social justice" or whatever people are calling it right now?

Let me tell you a common situation I encounter:

So, being a college student away from home, I don't have a car here. This means that if I ever need to go anywhere, I need to get an Uber or Lyft or something along those lines.

I always tuck in my Bring Them Home tag, magen david, turn my "am Yisrael chai" pin to the inside of my clothes, etc. I hate doing it, but I have heard of violently antisemitic drivers, and I'd rather not risk it, considering I'm alone in the car with them.

Every time, I call my mom. It makes me safer to have someone on call. And every time, she makes the same two recommendations.

The first is to put in an address of a neighboring house for pickup, because the house I live in has my landlord's car out front, and his car has stickers in Hebrew on it.

The second is, if asked where I'm from, to say Russia. I don't get asked where I'm "really from" unless I'm with my parents usually (they both have strong accents). But it's a warning my mom repeats every time anyway. The choice of Russia isn't random, I was raised fluent and can back up the claim if need be with random knowledge. But I have never been to Russia, except for the airport once to catch a connecting flight to Israel. I was, however, born in Israel, and I've been there multiple times (unfortunately not since 2014 though). So to say I'm from Russia is a lie, and to say I'm from Israel is the truth.

Both are countries at war. Russia, unlike Israel, actually started the war. Unlike Israel, Russia actually does have a history of colonialism, genocide, imperialism, and worse.

So why is it safer for me to lie about being from an aggressor country than to tell the truth about being from a country caught in a war it didn't want?

Antisemitism. Anti-Russian hate crimes globally didn't spike, Russian women haven't been raped as "justice" for Ukraine. Russian businesses weren't commonly vandalized simply for being from Russia. Meanwhile, all of these things were done to Jews as a result of a war Israel did not start.

If this global response to the war wasn't antisemitism it would be equally safe or unsafe for me to give either answer.

But in reality, it's safer for me to lie about being from Russia than to tell the truth about being from Israel.

That's how I know it's antisemitism.

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hello?? um?? universe?? u hearin me?? just letting you know i’m ready for good things to happen in my life!!!!!! i’m prepared for amazing things!!!! i think its time!!!! just lettin you know. 

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Every Jew I know, and a lot of Jews I don't know, have repeatedly said that JVP represents Jews about as much as Autism Speaks represents autistic people, so you'd think there wouldn't be as many gentiles saying "look, this demonstration where people chanted explicitly Jew-hating slogans can't possibly be antisemitic! JVP was there!" and yet

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a lot of yall seem to be falling for the “critiquing israel = antisemitism” rhetoric. the protests at columbia univ. were not antisemitic. calling for an end to palestinian genocide and displacement is not antisemitic. beyond that, universities have a long and crucial history as being the home of protesting & organizing social critique. violence & silencing of human rights protestors should scare everyone. if these wealthy ass, historical institutions aren’t protected when fighting for justice, none of us will be

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It cannot be stressed enough that Israel is the ONLY country "Leftists" feel comfortable talking about this way.

No support for anti-war and anti-government protests on the ground (you know, the protests that might actually make a difference)

No empathy for or solidarity with civilian victims (only when it comes to Israeli civilians are you going to hear self-described Feminists and Leftists explain why rape is fine, actually)

No understanding of the difference between the state and its' citizens (or even the Jewish people, generally)

No desire to actually learn about the history of the region and conflict comprehensively (the expulsion of over 700,000 Palestinians during the Nakba was horrific, and a crime that needs to be addressed. Out of curiosity, what was happening to the 800,000-1,000,000 Jews living in the surrounding Arab nations around then?)

All understanding of complexity and nuance? Of the concerns of minority, queer, disabled, and other vulnerable populations with the country? It's all out the window. It's all just one big Evil Zionist Entity.

This is how even accurate criticisms and condemnations of Israel can end up being antisemitic. You are viewing the Israeli state through a lens that you hold to no other nation-state on Earth. (and then holding random Jews to account for that).

You can do better and still advocate for Palestinian liberation and autonomy. It's actually not that hard.

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Horniness is not intrinsically less pure than any other human motivation

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The female body is art and nothing less

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GUYS. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN WRITE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE FICS ON AO3