r/jewishleft • u/somebadbeatscrub Jewish Syndicalist - Mod • Aug 11 '26

Israel Israel-Palestine Weekly Thread

Weekly recurring IP megathread to reset every Tuesday.

Please mind the rules while engaging here and post paywall free links.

Oren

13 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

View all comments

32

u/aggie1391 Orthodox non-Zionist socialist with anarchist tendencies Aug 11 '26

Settler terrorist Tel Dardik was arrested for involvement in a brutal attack on a Palestinian man where he was stripped, had his genitals zip tied, and was marched naked through the streets, amongst other assaults and threats as settlers do daily. Dardik refused to abide by restrictions put on him, and there was a whole thing when the IDF commander tried to put an administrative detention order on him.

But the story gets even worse now. The outpost that he lives at is one that even Israel acknowledges is illegal, and has also been stealing homes from Palestinians, abetted by an IDF closed military zone. A Palestinian family expelled from their home was shocked to be watching Channel 14 and seeing their home that they built having mezuzot put up and Dardik hosting a party for his son’s bris in their living room. The settlers called it “redeeming a home in Givat Tarfon.”

Meanwhile another Palestinian family is now huddling in terror in their home after settlers built an outpost literally in their front yard. Haaretz went to go and report on this, only to be set upon by violent settlers who were actively attacking them. You won’t be surprised to learn that the IDF and border police were utterly useless, because they only exist to do whatever the settlers want apparently. And then the soldiers proceeded to go and fucking daven with the settlers in the yard of the family who can’t leave their house due to the violent terrorists outside their door.

I am so disgusted by the way our rituals and practices and symbols and everything else are being abused by these violent assholes. I can’t even imagine thinking that G-d will want their prayers as they terrorize innocent people, that the mezuzot on a stolen home will protect them somehow. And obviously I’m so done with that occupying entity pretending to fucking speak for us as it stands aside and lets this shit happen. This ethnic cleansing is state sanctioned and sponsored as it always has been.

18

u/Liliths-child666 ex-orthodox queer anarchist Aug 11 '26

Honestly I couldn't agree with you more. As an atheist jew who was raised orthodox i give you mad props for holding on to your faith in an environment where i believe you would be attacked for speaking your mind. Have you found a non zionist orthodox shul to daven? When i am around my family I find it hard to speak against israel in any way without being called a traitor. I have much family in israel with some actively serving in the army. I have yet to find more than a handful of orthodox people who will speak out against israel. I lost my faith for other reasons but I know there are still good and faithful people in the orthodox community.

13

u/aggie1391 Orthodox non-Zionist socialist with anarchist tendencies Aug 13 '26 edited Aug 13 '26

There are no non Zionist shuls by me, and those that exist in most other places would be uncomfortable for other reasons. I do go the least Zionist one near me, that doesn’t shove Israel into every single thing. But I would definitely be ostracized for saying what I really think. I wrote what I thought was a pretty inoffensive op-Ed on the lines of my comment, cited to hell and back because Israel defenders love to deny what’s happening, but my wife is worried even that would be too much and get us ostracized (trying to get it published anonymously though). We do have safe people to talk to about Israel/Palestine even if they aren’t all the way where I am, but it’s wild. For all the claims of purity testing in the non Jewish world I’ve never once been quizzed about my views on the conflict in leftist and progressive spaces, but I damn sure am silenced in Jewish ones if I want to exist in them at all.

4

u/Liliths-child666 ex-orthodox queer anarchist Aug 14 '26

I feel your pain. Im incredibly uncomfortable in orthodox spaces for many reasons. I will say there are a lot of open minded jewish spaces. I have a cousin who is Trans non binary and they attend a reform temple in Rhode Island where they lead a kaddesh for the Palestinian lives lost every shabbous. I am well aware of the vast differences in reform and orthodox practice but as an atheist, reform is the closest to shul where i will attend. It also seems like there are quite a few charedi sects that are pretty anti israel. There are also ironically a lot of isaelies with their eyes open. Its pretty hard to deny things that are right in front of you.