[Trigger Warnings: Zionism, violence, genocide, religious persecution]
The on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine is nothing if not complicated. It stretches back more than half a century (or two full ones if you want to be thorough), and connects to a whole litany of horrible incidents (the Holocaust, British colonialism, the Nakba). Keeping the conflict so utterly intractable is an evolving web of alliances and arcane UN voting rules. It’s long and confusing, but if we were to try and summarize it at all, it’s one that’s been increasingly defined by contrasting Israeli military power and the Arab/Palestinians narrow but growing demographic edge.
That’s pretty much what Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, explained in his opinion piece in the Washington Post this week. He admitted that a standard military victory for Israel contrasts a loss for non-Israeli neighbors and occupied populations, when in order to “win” in 2006 and 2009 they “merely had to survive”. He concludes with a frankly Orwellian appeal for war in the name of an allegedly more lasting subsequent peace. Another Washington Post piece struck a similar tone, focusing on the power imbalances inherent in the current conflict.
That’s the messy background to the current war. With the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers by people who were members of Hamas (evidently acting outside of that organization’s command structure) in late June, the stage was set for first mass arrests, and then a subsequent airstrikes against and ground invasion of Gaza (in addition to rocket fire from Gaza into Israel). A member of the Israeli Knesset called for civilian Palestinian women to be killed, otherwise “more little snakes will be raised” by them. The death toll is threatening to pass 1,000 Palestinians (and actually has, according to some sources), while the Israeli one has climbed to two civilians and fifty-two soldiers.
In light of that commentary by high ranking Israeli politicians and the hundreds of deaths in a few days, there’s been a fair amount of public mourning, not only among Palestinians but the broader Arab and Muslim international communities, and even the world as a whole. That’s the context in which people in Lebanon unfurled a series of banners, with the names of the casualties up to that time, over a cliff into the sea. It’s also the context in which a variety of people have used the hashtag #freepalestine, to wish for a better future or simply show regret over the lives lost. One of those people in the past few days has been One Direction’s Zayn Malik, who simply tweeted:
— zaynmalik1D (@zaynmalik) July 28, 2014
Reaction was largely positive, but several Israeli or Israeli-affiliated Twitter users rang in with responses that made it clear that they found this sort of public display of support for Palestinians in and of itself harmful if not unacceptable.
#IStandWithIsrael @zaynmalik you broke mine and so many others hearts. — Anna (@tgiharry) July 28, 2014
I LOVE YOU PLS DON HATE ME @zaynmalik
— Just Me. (@shahar2501) July 28, 2014
@zaynmalik You Made So Many Directioners From Israel To Cry And Me Too I Hope You Are Happy Now Zayn.. #PrayForIsrael
— #PrayForIsrael (@GraceStylinson_) July 28, 2014
Disappointed — maria is 1d af (@polkaliamdot) July 28, 2014
#IStandWithIsrael @zaynmalik you broke me and millions of others — But you aren’t Luke (@inbal0905) July 28, 2014
@zaynmalik we are getting hurt too you know people die here too do you think its okay?
— maayan gean (@MaayanGean) July 28, 2014
In short, any sort of support for any Palestinians is a being treated as personal attack on all Israelis. Some Israeli Twitter users spelled out their perspective a bit more explicitly
@zaynmalik I’m from Israel and it just broke my heart to see my idol supports people who want me dead, Thanks a lot
— CRAZY BITCHES (@lianroden) July 28, 2014
A tweet reading only, “#FreePalestine” is apparently the same as uncritical support for Hamas, to some people. It didn’t take long for some Israeli Twitter users to graduate from focusing the discussion on how emotionally impacted they were to casually suggesting this could destroy Zayn Malik’s career – because shutting down mild distaste for war in the Middle East by singers has gone so well in the past.
Guys please keep in mind that there are many people in this fandom that live in israel. — maria is 1d af (@polkaliamdot) July 28, 2014
@banana_hxrry @zaynmalik i am a fan zayn did a wrong move in his Career — Gal Levy♥ (@gal_levy) July 28, 2014
At first glance this might seem like the kind of reaction a young person would have to their country being criticized by distant implication for the first time, and to a certain extent it is. But it’s the same sort of emotionally demanding attitude on display in yet another Washington Post opinion piece by David Bernstein, which surprisingly undersold the peppering of Israel with Gazan rockets as “disruptive”, but to the total disavowal of how the Israeli airstrikes and invasion were “disruptive” as well (and measuring by deaths, by several orders of magnitude). It seems important to ask if that’s the emotional timbre that Israelis (and their affiliates) really want to strike right now – one that is fairly hostile towards any public regret for loss of Palestinian life and otherwise petty about the conflict as a whole.
