In the world of the progressive and the politically accurate, one tends to wonder how progressive can turn to too progressive?
Although this claim may seem oxymoronic in nature, rest assured that it is not.
As Palestinian, I had my fair share of “it’s complicated,” “but why doesn’t Hamas hand its weapons” and “why can’t you guys just co-exist?” as a response to images of gore, the distraction of homes, missiles, and hundreds of Palestinian victims either killed or severely maimed by the apartheid colonial Israel.
A pro-Palestinian athlete simply withdrawing from a fight against an Israeli opponent, in order to show solidarity with the Palestinian cause, was seen as an uncalled-for extreme measure.
The claim that sports and politics should not be entangled within each other while only days after the Russion-Ukraine war, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) calls for stripping Russia of host status for sports urging International Federations to relocate or cancel their sports events currently planned in Russia or Belarus.
The FEFA also partook in the ban as it banned Russia from hosting international football matches. From formula 1 to judo to skiing and the little league severed connections with Russia. Apparently, sports can get political after all.
Facebook posts and Twitter accounts continuously either deleted or censored the content Palestinians posted, as their last cries for help, under the pretext of it being too graphic– even when it was just a skitch of an old lady sitting in sheik jarrah.
Our posts were systematically stopped by the algorithm from being seen or heard. While all the pages changed their profile pictures to add the flag of Ukraine or a frame of solidarity. Twitter went as far as offering an in time covering Ukraine’s ongoing war. It also allowed graphic content in relation to Ukraine as it was important in the news process.
The mere fight back Hamas did with its homemade, primitive rockets was seen not as an act of despriate resistance against the gruesome injustices of the Israeli offense forces, but it was rather an unjustifiable assault, and while Israel and Ukraine had the right to defend themselves, Gaza wasn’t extended the same favor.
This leads to a number of questions: is it the blue eyes and blond hair that Palestinians lack to gain a more-serious international support? Or is having Russia, being the US’s proverbial archnemesis. On the other side of the equation? Is it the fearmongering of seeming antisemitic whenever you disagree with a person that happens to be a jew or claim so?
But one thing for sure is that the clear dichotomy and obvious double standard and the hasty response to the assault on Ukraine has truly led the Palestinians to an internal and external monologue of why this much support wasn’t extended to the Palestinian cause?
Why does activism always end on Palestine’s doorsteps? There are money questions with no possible satisfying answer that makes it okay for principles to be fragmented and tossed and turned whenever one sees fit no matter what rationalization on might pass as a response
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=16843
