We, the admin team, decry all forms of settler-colonialism, and we recognize that Zionism is a pro-settler-colonialist position.
Therefore we propose that should no longer be accepting of any Zionist accounts on our instances.
Please upvote for agree, downvote for disagree.
Note: we only count votes by instance members of dbzer0 and anarchist.nexus, plus a few vouched-for external users.
Hi mateys, I’ve kept things simple in the above text, for brevity, but in fact it took the admin team quite a while to get to this stage. We have discussed the policy change extensively, and a variety of different perspectives emerged. I will attempt to sum them up below as best I can:
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The “this isn’t that complicated” school of thought goes something like this: If someone is consistently posting comments that mirror Hasbara talking points (e.g. justifying the genocide in Gaza, consistently painting Palestinians as terrorists and Israel as the victim), then they should be instance banned. It’s just not acceptable for Zionists to be allowed on our instances.
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The “slippery slope” / “purity test” school of thought is that banning people for having an “unpopular” political opinion would potentially mean banning half the fediverse, if more and more of these policies were enacted over time. To attempt to mitigate this we are keeping the scope of this rule as narrow as possible, and I also don’t think many of our users will be affected. Also, we typically don’t have frequent policy changes, and I have no reason to expect that to change moving forward.
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Another important discussion point was “how do we decide whether someone is pro-Zionist or not?” We can’t always be 100% sure of someone’s true intentions, we can only go on what they have posted and that is subject to interpretation. I don’t feel there is an easy answer to this one, except to say that we would have to be pretty certain before issuing a perma-ban.
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The “geopolitics don’t matter” school of thought is that trying to be on the “correct” side of every issue is kind of pointless because nothing that happens in lemmy chat forums will ever make an ounce of difference in the real world. Don’t bother moderating users over political/ideological differences, just let people argue if they want. While I can totally empathize with this sentiment, I can also see the case for taking a clear stance on this topic in accordance with our values and the overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause among our users. Personally, I am advocating in favor of the resolution.
Please add your comments below if you want to provide your own thoughts on the topic, or have any questions.
expiry: 7
zionism and anarchism are mutually exclusive idealogies. you cannot believe in solidarity for all mankind and also support an ethnocutural supremacist movement.
I support banning zionists from dbzer0 to match them being banned on Anarchist Nexus.
Would you also oppose a Palestinian state on the same grounds? If you’re calling for Israel to be dismantled, what about other countries like China, Russia, and the US that have a far greater effect?
I think all states should be dismantled. but I think the settler colonial ones should be dismantled first, and the people whose land was stolen should be lifted up so they can live free from the racist and religious oppression they’ve faced at the hands of genocidal European colonizers for the last 80 years.
Cool, let’s start with the ones in North and South America, Australia, and New Zealand. Since Jews are indigenous to Israel, that counts as a decolonization project.
Israel is a decolonization project? The Israel that was a colonial project of Europe? That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve seen in this thread, and there’s a lot of zionists in here complaining so that’s a pretty high bar. You know you’ve said something stupid when even the other genocidal Nazis won’t go there.
How about letting the Palestinians decide themselves if they want a state or not? It’s their country after all…
They’ve made it clear that they don’t want their own state, they just don’t want there to be a Jewish state. And yes, it’s their country, but it’s also the Israelis country, and since they can’t live together peacefully, that means two countries next to each other, like India and Pakistan.
But it’s not their country. Israel was founded by decree of the British. The land was never theirs, they took it. Israel has no right to exist. No colonial state does.
Actually not correct. Israel was established by a UN resolution in 1947. The original British plan would have given Jordan to the Arabs and everything to the west of the Jordan river to the Jews. Also, saying “the land was never theirs” ignores the fact that there was a continuous Jewish presence there since antiquity. It was also never a “colony;” the British Mandate took over from the Ottoman Empire and was occupied militarily by them, never “colonized.”
By your standard, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon were “colonial” and also have no right to exist. Neither do any countries in North and South America.
Israelis and Palestinians both have a right to the same land because of residency. Since they can’t live together peacefully, two separate states is the only sustainable long-term solution. However, if neither side wants that, it can’t be imposed by do-gooders from outside.
So it was stolen, thanks for agreeing with me. You thought that was a good argument? What are you, a fucking idiot? That’s the dumbest shit I’ve heard this week.
It was stolen from the Jews. Israel is the most successful decolonization project in history.
It’s funny that you’re so fucking scared to say dumb shit like that on your main, that you made a new account just for this thread.
Zionist bullshit, get a job
The above comment funded by a generous grant from the Iranian Ministry of Propaganda
Projection, Israeli troll farms are far more active on western platforms than anything Iran has going
I’m sure you believe that.