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.
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“Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe; it primarily seeks to establish and support a Jewish homeland through the colonization of Palestine”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism
That’s you? And you’re proudly and publicly admitting that?
I support Israel’s right to exist. I also support the ICC, I support Palestinians having a homeland, a state, and support the international community’s characterizations of various acts as war crimes.
Apparently, this makes me a “horrible” person and “proud.”
You know, I deal with enough depression as it is, enough people have been mean to me during my lifetime for being gay, if supporting Palestinian people in any way (ie, being on the side of ICC prosecutions, among other things, which, in my area is a somewhat controversial position) requires some staunch anti-Israel-existence position, that it should not even exist as a state, then count me out. I think I’m probably going to delete my account. I have enough misery in my life and I’d rather be apolitical, despite the genocide really bothering me, if having multifaceted views is going to have people insulting me like this.
I really question whether alienating moderate liberals will help you get what you want. I am much more likely to be more apoltiical regarding liberal issues after being treated this way for not being liberal enough.
evergreen mlk quote
I don’t think the position “We need to greatly increase ICC funding and take their members off international blacklists” is actually a moderate position, sadly and shockingly, at least not in the country where I am.
Yes, yes it does. You are the same as a fucking Nazi arguing for the German homeland.
You support a literal ethnostate. Don’t play the gay card with me, I go through the same discrimination and I’m not a piece of shit who supports hateful movements like Zionism.
Waahhh wahhh people were mean so I’m going to stop caring about literal genocide. Typical centrist shit.
Please do delete your account, I would love to bully a racist Zionist off of the Internet.
Death to Israel.
You think you’re helping Palestinians? I previously donated to Palestinian causes. But why?
You know what? Forget it. You’re right, I’m a racist bully. You can fight this shit on your own. No more donating anything, no more advocating for ICC prosecutions. You have convinced me not to be a part of any advocacy.
You win.
Seriously, if this is the ethos of the movement, I want no part of it, no donating anything to help Palestinians, no supporting ICC prosecutions and a Palestinian state. If this is the hate that this position gets me, if you people all hate me so much, I’m going back to indifference… and my views were far more liberal on this topic than those of the average person. But you’ve convinced me, I should not support Palestinians in any way, I am bad and evil and not wanted.
Peace the fuck out asshole.
If all it took was a mean comment on the Internet for you to throw your mask off, it was never a real value of yours.
It’s not one mean comment. I’ve had a hard life, I’ve had about 4 people say mean shit on here today to me, including one person calling me a horrible person. I am depressed enough, I am suicidal enough, yes I haven’t lost my whole family in a genocide, but my life is awful enough. If this is the movement and my views exclude me and make me “horrible” then fuck all of you. I am also poor, I am housing insecure… I don’t need this. Really, fuck all of you. I mean it.
Okay Zionist.
Never again will I donate to Palestinian causes, post any articles supporting the movement, support a 2 state solution.
You’re right. I’ll be a horrible Zionist who simply doesn’t give a fuck. Keeping kicking all the impure people out of your movement who don’t pass your tests. I’m sure it will help.
Yes.
I hope you can reflect on yourself and why you think it’s okay to be complacent in the genocide of an entire peoples who have nothing to do with me, simply because I said mean words to you?
You clearly hold no strong moral views on the issue and are willing to throw it away in an instant.
Be a better person.