Aaron Bushnell said something to the effect that, if you want to know what you would have done in the face of the Holocaust, it's the same as what you are doing right now in the face of Gaza.
That’s exactly right. I always wondered if I would have the courage to speak out if I was faced with injustice. I knew I would never be a perpetrator, but wanted to make sure I would not grow up to be a bystander.
We are all bystanders today because we have been deprived of any possibility to act. Those who have money to travel, are too busy or too old. Those who are able, have no money. Israel and Zionism can only be addressed with direct blows, physically, not with demonstrations, petitions, talks, discussions. The only way I see to fight against Zionism in the West is journalism. Writing. But it requires full time. Not many people are willing to do that. Today it has become much harder to struggle because of separation, isolation, digital slavery, economic collapse, breakdown of communication, focus on Self.
I personally do not know how I can struggle effectively and only continue to write and speak, not to affect change, but to follow my own conscience, because standing for what is right is the only way to uphold personal integrity.
Absolutely!! The powers that control the world would like us to be collaborators, or at least bystanders. Those of us who use our voices and do what we can, matter. If anything, we are putting a mirror in front of the world. All it takes is a few courageous souls who are prepared to lead the way, and others will follow. We don’t need a majority to make a real difference, just a sizeable loud minority who won’t go away. I can see people using the very tools given to us by the neoliberalist system to exploit us as ‘consumers’, against it. Like I said in another reply to someone’s comment, even if we do not save one soul on the ground, we can go to our own graves knowing we did not stay silent. This matters too.
We can email our MPs and demand a complete arms embargo. We can sign and share online petitions. We can use social media to educate others. We can join and financially support Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, and other groups that are providing an organised response. There are things that we can do, to the extent that we want to and are able to. It might not materially change the situation, but it allows us to act in accordance with our conscience.
And also ensure the topic does not just ‘disappear’, victims are not forgotten and let politicians know that at least some of us are paying attention and do not approve.
Please do not contact any ruling class members. They are predators and psychopaths by the nature of the system. Understand that the States today are being ruled by unelected elites who don't give a damn about what the citizens think or do. They only see a threat and suppress. "Demand" does not even phase them. NEVER talk to any State or government or authorities. It is like talking to a Nazi leadership.
they don't give a damn if you boycott. The more you boycott, the more support they get by crying that they are victims of antisemitism. Here is a good article, how ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu skyrocketed his popularity in Israel. They LOVE it. They LOVE boycotts and BDS, because it makes them victims. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/netanyahu-is-back-and-leading-the-polls-all-thanks-to-the-icc/
Scott, who told you that boycotts have any effect on Israel? And Zionism is not South Africa. South Africa did not have full control over the States in the West and did not have an AIPAC, World Jewry, World Zionist Organization equivalent, did not possess all media, all finances, education and culture. Zionism today is a colossal extremely powerful machine, it is unprecedented. And it is not even in Israel, Israel is just its military tool of colonization.
I have a loud mouth and am not afraid to use it. I express myself well in writing and make a point of doing so. I could not live with myself if I connived at oppression.
Maybe noöne is listening. Maybe mine is the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. I don't care. Until I draw my last breath, I shall do what is right.
Alone we can do nothing but by joining others we can move mountains. I understand that the regime wants us to feel hopeless and isolated for that very reason.
Where to draw the line between what constitutes bystanding or not? I am surrounded by Zionists and I advertise my solidarity with Palestinians very prominently but I am not doing anything much more than what you might call a guerrilla PR thing. Sometimes a yahood yells at me. Sometimes a decent person smiles. In the face of the horrors I am witnessing, it seems that doing nothing at all isn't much different. Either way I'm not in a position to interdict the murderers thousands of miles away even if I was a warrior of some sort which I'm not.
You are not a bystander. A bystander is someone who remains silent. As I said, there are many ways to be an activist but only one way to be a bystander. You are an activist.
You and I have limited potential for action, but we do what we can. Standing against Zionism as you (and I) do may not achieve much immediately, but it helps in a small way to undermine the criminal Zionist project.
Every act of defiance can be a political act. My daughter in England makes sure to wear a keffiyeh. I always displayed a Palestinian flag on the shelf at the rear of my car. I placed Boycott Isreali Apartheid on the front of zionist supporting newspapers in the UK. Here in South Africa, it is anti Isreal Apartheid Week and the signs are everywhere. Flags on taxis, painted on the sides of buildings. I saw a camper van covered with Free Palestine regalia. Keep the marches going in the imperialist heartlands. People say they have no effect but if so, why to zionist sycophant politicians label them h"hate marches" and instruct the police to obstruct them? Support the brave Palestine Actionists languishing in filthy British jails for 7 months without bail, visitors or trial, some arrested at gunpoint for destroying arms factories that fuel the genocide. Write articles, letters to the scum politicians facilitating these crimes against humanity. Crimes without parallel in our lifetime.. Do whatever it takes but dont give up. Dont be a bystander!
DAWN has urged the ICC prosecutor to investigate and prosecute former President Biden, State Secretary Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin for their personal roles in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza as part of his ongoing investigation into the situations in Palestine since 2014.
Let’s give them our support. Maybe they will expand their complaint to include this latest US administration, and include all the leaders of the western nations supporting this genocide.
True, and it does have a broader meaning referring to knowingly remaining silent in the face of a crime or injustice even if one is not a direct witness to it.
Superb words from Avigail Arbanel splendidly illustrated by the sublime poem of T.S. Eliot. A very sad time that we live in! where cowardice and hypocrisy compete with hatred and the rejection of otherness….Everything is empty and inconsistent, the “hollow men” and the bystanders dominate, multiply and the Evil One triumphs…
Avigail. Thank you for creating a space where these difficult truths can be explored. I hope more people find the courage not just to speak, but to connect and, through that, act. It’s clear that people are grappling with the weight of what’s happening and the crushing sense of distance and futility, and maybe a quiet surrender wrapped in eloquent justifications. The truth is, there is always something one can do, but silence and passivity are choices too.
Thank you. We must support one another. We try to cooperate, and cooperation is already resistance, because we exist in a world that is desperate to make us feel powerless and separated from one another. Resistance requires cooperation and numbers matter. Those who succumb to the message that resistance is futile and ‘looking after number one’ is all there is, are actively enabling the evils of this world.
Your actions are not futile. They add to the ripple that is already there. But it is equally true that even if we don’t save one soul directly, we will go to our own graves as people who did not stand silent but spoke up. This means something too.
A man who has direct experience of 'administrative detention' made this point at our weekend protest: we may not have saved any Palestinian children through our actions but we need to protest for the sake of our own souls. A pretty tough lesson to hear and learn...
I don't think the word "bystander" is the most appropriate word. A bystander is literally at the actual location of a conflict and can potentially literally physically intervene, or shout at the attackers.
The word ‘bystander’ can mean what you say but it also has a much wider meaning, referring to just staying silent in the face of injustice or abuse. We use it in my profession in the context of abuse, but its broader use is far from new or recent.
We cannot allow Israel to escape the legal consequences of their war crimes. The Hind Rajab Foundation has, among other things, filed a case with the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes in Gaza.
They have taken further steps in recent days, and vacations are becoming a lot more difficult for IDF soldiers, worldwide. The Hind Rajab Foundation can use our help. Please join me in making a contribution.
You might find meaningful to watch the recent interviews that Glenn Greenwald did on his Rumble platform, and Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, did with the head of this organisation, Dyad Abou Jahjah. It was very informative.
Here's a petition calling for accountability for the arrest of Ali Abunimah in Switzerland:
Thanks Avigail 👍💚. I reserve all my fury for the ‘bystanders’. I remember watching an extraordinary documentary by Claude Lanzmann called Shoa in 1985 which focussed upon the ‘ordinary people’ who delivered bread and drove the trains to and from the extermination camps in Poland. It’s not the Trumps of this world you need to watch, it’s your friends and neighbours 😶
The fact remains that the people of Germany never rose against their government—not even as the Red Army entered Berlin. Who in the US nowadays would stand up for what is right?
I fully agree that the entire population (minus a few who have proven themselves) must be condemned. See below for a leaflet by the White Rose that I have translated.
Aaron Bushnell said something to the effect that, if you want to know what you would have done in the face of the Holocaust, it's the same as what you are doing right now in the face of Gaza.
That’s exactly right. I always wondered if I would have the courage to speak out if I was faced with injustice. I knew I would never be a perpetrator, but wanted to make sure I would not grow up to be a bystander.
I am but a cat, but I have weighed myself and found myself to be wanting.
☺️
We are all bystanders today because we have been deprived of any possibility to act. Those who have money to travel, are too busy or too old. Those who are able, have no money. Israel and Zionism can only be addressed with direct blows, physically, not with demonstrations, petitions, talks, discussions. The only way I see to fight against Zionism in the West is journalism. Writing. But it requires full time. Not many people are willing to do that. Today it has become much harder to struggle because of separation, isolation, digital slavery, economic collapse, breakdown of communication, focus on Self.
I personally do not know how I can struggle effectively and only continue to write and speak, not to affect change, but to follow my own conscience, because standing for what is right is the only way to uphold personal integrity.
Absolutely!! The powers that control the world would like us to be collaborators, or at least bystanders. Those of us who use our voices and do what we can, matter. If anything, we are putting a mirror in front of the world. All it takes is a few courageous souls who are prepared to lead the way, and others will follow. We don’t need a majority to make a real difference, just a sizeable loud minority who won’t go away. I can see people using the very tools given to us by the neoliberalist system to exploit us as ‘consumers’, against it. Like I said in another reply to someone’s comment, even if we do not save one soul on the ground, we can go to our own graves knowing we did not stay silent. This matters too.
We can email our MPs and demand a complete arms embargo. We can sign and share online petitions. We can use social media to educate others. We can join and financially support Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War, and other groups that are providing an organised response. There are things that we can do, to the extent that we want to and are able to. It might not materially change the situation, but it allows us to act in accordance with our conscience.
And also ensure the topic does not just ‘disappear’, victims are not forgotten and let politicians know that at least some of us are paying attention and do not approve.
Please do not contact any ruling class members. They are predators and psychopaths by the nature of the system. Understand that the States today are being ruled by unelected elites who don't give a damn about what the citizens think or do. They only see a threat and suppress. "Demand" does not even phase them. NEVER talk to any State or government or authorities. It is like talking to a Nazi leadership.
We can and should boycott the criminal Zionist entity.
they don't give a damn if you boycott. The more you boycott, the more support they get by crying that they are victims of antisemitism. Here is a good article, how ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu skyrocketed his popularity in Israel. They LOVE it. They LOVE boycotts and BDS, because it makes them victims. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/06/netanyahu-is-back-and-leading-the-polls-all-thanks-to-the-icc/
Boycotts have already hit the Zionist entity hard. They helped to bring down the régime of apartheid in Azania («South Africa»).
Let them scream «anti-Semitism» until they're blue in the face. They have overplayed that tacky card.
No, decisions about spending my little bit of money won't make a great difference. I make those decisions all the same.
Scott, who told you that boycotts have any effect on Israel? And Zionism is not South Africa. South Africa did not have full control over the States in the West and did not have an AIPAC, World Jewry, World Zionist Organization equivalent, did not possess all media, all finances, education and culture. Zionism today is a colossal extremely powerful machine, it is unprecedented. And it is not even in Israel, Israel is just its military tool of colonization.
Well, Lena, you seem to have decided that all is hopeless. In that case, nothing that I say is likely to sway you.
I have a loud mouth and am not afraid to use it. I express myself well in writing and make a point of doing so. I could not live with myself if I connived at oppression.
Maybe noöne is listening. Maybe mine is the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness. I don't care. Until I draw my last breath, I shall do what is right.
Alone we can do nothing but by joining others we can move mountains. I understand that the regime wants us to feel hopeless and isolated for that very reason.
Exactly!! That’s why we need to continue to write, to speak and to connect with others.
Where to draw the line between what constitutes bystanding or not? I am surrounded by Zionists and I advertise my solidarity with Palestinians very prominently but I am not doing anything much more than what you might call a guerrilla PR thing. Sometimes a yahood yells at me. Sometimes a decent person smiles. In the face of the horrors I am witnessing, it seems that doing nothing at all isn't much different. Either way I'm not in a position to interdict the murderers thousands of miles away even if I was a warrior of some sort which I'm not.
You are not a bystander. A bystander is someone who remains silent. As I said, there are many ways to be an activist but only one way to be a bystander. You are an activist.
You and I have limited potential for action, but we do what we can. Standing against Zionism as you (and I) do may not achieve much immediately, but it helps in a small way to undermine the criminal Zionist project.
Every act of defiance can be a political act. My daughter in England makes sure to wear a keffiyeh. I always displayed a Palestinian flag on the shelf at the rear of my car. I placed Boycott Isreali Apartheid on the front of zionist supporting newspapers in the UK. Here in South Africa, it is anti Isreal Apartheid Week and the signs are everywhere. Flags on taxis, painted on the sides of buildings. I saw a camper van covered with Free Palestine regalia. Keep the marches going in the imperialist heartlands. People say they have no effect but if so, why to zionist sycophant politicians label them h"hate marches" and instruct the police to obstruct them? Support the brave Palestine Actionists languishing in filthy British jails for 7 months without bail, visitors or trial, some arrested at gunpoint for destroying arms factories that fuel the genocide. Write articles, letters to the scum politicians facilitating these crimes against humanity. Crimes without parallel in our lifetime.. Do whatever it takes but dont give up. Dont be a bystander!
DAWN has urged the ICC prosecutor to investigate and prosecute former President Biden, State Secretary Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin for their personal roles in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza as part of his ongoing investigation into the situations in Palestine since 2014.
https://dawnmena.org/latest/
Let’s give them our support. Maybe they will expand their complaint to include this latest US administration, and include all the leaders of the western nations supporting this genocide.
Thank you! I didn’t know about DAWN.
As a poet, myself, I thank you for putting Elliot's poem here. His description is as pertinent as ever.
"bystander" is appropriate in the story of the Good Samaritan, for a great example...
True, and it does have a broader meaning referring to knowingly remaining silent in the face of a crime or injustice even if one is not a direct witness to it.
Superb words from Avigail Arbanel splendidly illustrated by the sublime poem of T.S. Eliot. A very sad time that we live in! where cowardice and hypocrisy compete with hatred and the rejection of otherness….Everything is empty and inconsistent, the “hollow men” and the bystanders dominate, multiply and the Evil One triumphs…
Thank you and sadly so. 🙏
Avigail. Thank you for creating a space where these difficult truths can be explored. I hope more people find the courage not just to speak, but to connect and, through that, act. It’s clear that people are grappling with the weight of what’s happening and the crushing sense of distance and futility, and maybe a quiet surrender wrapped in eloquent justifications. The truth is, there is always something one can do, but silence and passivity are choices too.
Thank you. We must support one another. We try to cooperate, and cooperation is already resistance, because we exist in a world that is desperate to make us feel powerless and separated from one another. Resistance requires cooperation and numbers matter. Those who succumb to the message that resistance is futile and ‘looking after number one’ is all there is, are actively enabling the evils of this world.
Although I know my actions are futile, I do them to save my soul.
Your actions are not futile. They add to the ripple that is already there. But it is equally true that even if we don’t save one soul directly, we will go to our own graves as people who did not stand silent but spoke up. This means something too.
A man who has direct experience of 'administrative detention' made this point at our weekend protest: we may not have saved any Palestinian children through our actions but we need to protest for the sake of our own souls. A pretty tough lesson to hear and learn...
Yes, I agree.
I don't think the word "bystander" is the most appropriate word. A bystander is literally at the actual location of a conflict and can potentially literally physically intervene, or shout at the attackers.
The word ‘bystander’ can mean what you say but it also has a much wider meaning, referring to just staying silent in the face of injustice or abuse. We use it in my profession in the context of abuse, but its broader use is far from new or recent.
“silent witness” or “turning a blind eye” or “complicit by silence” are better
the word stand in bystander is about being next to or near the crime. it is not the right word for it
We cannot allow Israel to escape the legal consequences of their war crimes. The Hind Rajab Foundation has, among other things, filed a case with the ICC against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes in Gaza.
https://www.hindrajabfoundation.org/perpetrators/hind-rajab-foundation-files-historic-icc-complaint-against-1000-israeli-soldiers-for-war-crimes-in-gaza
They have taken further steps in recent days, and vacations are becoming a lot more difficult for IDF soldiers, worldwide. The Hind Rajab Foundation can use our help. Please join me in making a contribution.
https://buy.stripe.com/cN228hbY5g7jaM84gg
You might find meaningful to watch the recent interviews that Glenn Greenwald did on his Rumble platform, and Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada, did with the head of this organisation, Dyad Abou Jahjah. It was very informative.
Here's a petition calling for accountability for the arrest of Ali Abunimah in Switzerland:
https://chng.it/8D4pkxPhWS
Please sign the petition and share widely.
Thanks Avigail 👍💚. I reserve all my fury for the ‘bystanders’. I remember watching an extraordinary documentary by Claude Lanzmann called Shoa in 1985 which focussed upon the ‘ordinary people’ who delivered bread and drove the trains to and from the extermination camps in Poland. It’s not the Trumps of this world you need to watch, it’s your friends and neighbours 😶
Maybe it is both.
Of course we need to watch both!
Thanks Brendan. You know I agree. 💚☮️
The fact remains that the people of Germany never rose against their government—not even as the Red Army entered Berlin. Who in the US nowadays would stand up for what is right?
I fully agree that the entire population (minus a few who have proven themselves) must be condemned. See below for a leaflet by the White Rose that I have translated.
Images from Gaza look black and white like the 40,s Jewish Holocaust despite being filmed in colour
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
——James Russell Lowell