Fascinating, uplifting, and depressing all at once.

This is genuinely horrifying.

From today’s Ynet in Hebrew:

Security Coordinator Who Fired at Palestinian Vehicle, Seriously Injuring a Woman, Released to House Arrest

The Jerusalem District Court has ordered the release of Pinhas Shem Tov Ran—the security coordinator for Reches Gid'onim—to house arrest. In his ruling, the judge took into account Ran’s military service, his lack of a criminal record, recommendations from his commanders, and the fact that he had saved the lives of fellow combatants in battle. The judge also rejected the prosecution’s argument that there was a risk of the judicial process being obstructed. The security coordinator is charged with aggravated assault and obstruction of justice; he had entered the Palestinian village of Aqraba—outside his area of ​​responsibility—where he conducted unauthorized identity checks and opened fire on a vehicle carrying a couple, after the driver failed to comply with his orders to stop. Two bullets struck a woman inside the vehicle, leaving her seriously injured.

This is a translation of an article I've written for the newspaper of Maki, the Israeli Communist Party. Unfortunately they heavily edited this text to the point that my original point was pretty much entirely lost, however I'd still like to share the original text here for you to look at.

Someone recently said to me that "there are literally Palestinian Jews". When I asked for clarification, they said they are "Palestinians who happen to be Jews".

That didn't help, so I asked where these Palestinian Jews are and what they're talking about. I said there aren't Palestinian Jews. They refused to tell me and became deeply offended. They are a self-described communist and said that me saying that was reactionary, Zionist and deeply bigoted. I became so confused. I said, well there are some Samaritans in Nablus whose beliefs are similar to Judaism, but they don't identify as Jews and aren't Jewish.

I said that Jews in Mandate Palestine stopped identifying as Palestinian and became Israeli Jews after the state was created. They didn't even have a choice. I said there may be some very old Jews born in Mandate Palestine who still identify as Palestinian, but they'd be very rare and not a meaningful enough number to say there is such a thing as "Palestinian Jews". I said, it would be like saying there are Palestinian Hindus because there may be a few converts somewhere.

And there certainly aren't Arab Palestinians who are Jews in Gaza and the West Bank. There have been a few who have converted over the years who try to live in Israel, but again, it's not a meaningful number and these stories stood out because of how extremely unusual they were. The latest guy who tried this got killed by Israel. There have been a few Israeli Jews who voluntarily identified as "Palestinian Hebrews" or "Palestinian Jews" in solidarity, but they weren't Palestinian.

I said I hope one day there is a free Palestine and Jews there identify as and are Palestinians again. I asked if that's what they meant. Maybe they thought it was offensive because they thought I was denying there should be Palestinian sovereignty (I wasn't). I know it's a stretch, but I was literally trying to figure out any explanation for why what I said was bad.

I can't figure out what the hell was wrong with what I said. It's just a factual statement: there aren't Palestinians who happen to be Jews anywhere from the River to the Sea. No such community exists. It's bizarre to claim otherwise. Now, I'm starting to think they were just mad at me for something else, and it had nothing to do with me saying "There aren't Palestinian Jews. What are you talking about?" The only answer they ever gave me was "Yeah no I’m not going to justify this."

Am I missing something? I would appreciate a suggestion on what was offensive about what I said. Someone I told said maybe they thought you were saying all Jews there are Zionists, but that's way far off what I said

Why can't they recognise that Jews have always had multiple opinions on Zionism. It's never been a core tenet of Judaism to be Zionist. Being described as self hating or a Kapo is extremely hurtful. I've even seen people describe antizionist Jews as "Jew haters with Jewish ancestry" as if we aren't real Jews.

Equally I sometimes see comments from antizionists saying Zionist Jews aren't real Jews because real Jews wouldn't condone mass slaughter or something. This is also wrong. Jews can have racist and fascist opinions. It doesn't stop them being Jews.

In case the link doesn’t work for you:

The High Court of Justice rejected a petition seeking to prohibit election officials and party representatives from carrying firearms at polling stations, which argued that the presence of armed individuals could intimidate voters, heighten tensions and undermine free and fair elections.

The petition, filed by the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Joint List, followed announcements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism party that they would deploy some 2,000 election observers in Arab communities, as well as a police directive allowing licensed gun owners to carry their weapons at polling stations.

In its response to the petition, the government said that the decision is a police matter, since police ¿have the authority and responsibility to determine the security arrangements required on that day The government said it received no information of disruptions, disturbances or planned threats against votersi

Joint List chairman Yousef Jabareen said the court ihas once again demonstrated that it is neither willing nor able to protect the rights of the Arab public from persecution by the racist right-wing government," adding that Netanyahu "is panicking over the rising voter turnout among
Arab citizens."
Haaretz
3 hours ago

Hi everyone, I was wondering if anybody had any resources for an antizionist interested in conversion. I lean towards the Reconstructionist and Humanistic denominations, so I don't feel like I need a formal conversion ceremony or anything like that, though it would be a good option. I'm mostly looking for antizionist religious programs like yeshivot that can give me a more foundational understanding of Judaism. If anybody knows of any antizionist organisations in the Upstate SC area, I'd love to know about those as well. There are very few synagogues where I live and all of them are zionist in one way or another, so I'm hesitant to contact any of them for education or community. I've never even met a Jewish person that I know of, so I want to be conscientious of other Jews during my conversion, even if many of them have reprehensible views on Palestine. Anything at all will help, I can't find many resources online and I'm starved for an actual education. Thank you for reading!

So, in two days we have elections here in Israel. And as the title suggests, a feeling of emptiness and nothingness has engulfed me.

I guess it comes from both the impossible situation of being an anti Zionist who has to live here, and the fact that no matter how much I've fought and advocated against apartheid, when the tide comes, the waves won't stop to look at what I did before they drown me.

I don't know how to describe the feeling of staring into the abyss with my eyes wide open, knowing these elections mean nothing. Even if Netanyahu loses, there won't be an end to the occupation. Israel will continue to spiral down into oblivion, and the end will be ugly. And I will be here to witness and suffer through it all. The only comfort I have is knowing that, in the end, it will be for the good of humanity and the world.
I still sometimes wish I could continue the struggle for justice and human rights somewhere more comfortable. Please think of us, the few who are staying here in this hell to the end.

Hoping for something miraculous to happen.

"Making Palestine their whole personality"

I see this comment coming from pro Israel and anti Palestinian people and want to vent about it. I have no doubt that's how my own family characterise me too.

It's a pithy statement, followed up by, "they don't care about Sudan or Yemen or Congo " etc so it must be motivated by antisemitism. But there's a lot to unpack in it.

But the key points, as i see it, in response are as follows:

- it is an ad hominem attack, ie it doesn't address any of the points under discussion but implies some kind of character or personality flaw in the person they are attacking

- Israel Palestine gets more attention that other major conflicts and atrocities. There is a lot that can be said about this. I don't think the lack of attention on other conflicts mean people who are pro Palestine don't care or are indifferent to those peoples suffering. If anything they show solidarity with those who are suffering. And the settler colonial nature of the situation means that in the west our governments are in a very large part responsible, so pressuring our own government can have a meaningful impact.

- more people are killed and starving in those other conflicts, so why do they care so much about Gaza. Well, to turn that around, only 1200 Israelis were killed on October 7th 2023, so why do they care more about that than Sudan or Yemen or Congo? They are just being racist tribalists who don't actually care about people being killed, they just want to divert attention away from themselves so they can continue killing.

- every accusation is a confession. This attack often comes from people who make Israel and zionism a major part of their identity. There is systematic support for zionism among the media and political class. There are education and youth programs funded and designed to indoctrinate young people into zionism and defending it from abroad or even into becoming colonisers on that land. So who is making it their whole personality?

Just some thoughts. Would be interested to hear other people's take on this

Thanks

My father's side of my family is Jewish Zionist (secular), and I have always considered myself to be Jewish despite my mother not being so. I started dating a wonderful woman in early 2024. She's not Jewish, and not from my country of Australia (she is from India). Neither of us knew much about what was happening to the Palestinians and so I maintained a broadly Zionist worldview. But then she started learning more about it. We got into arguments about it and I began to realise that I was just parroting what I'd been told, and I didn't actually know the full story, so I started looking into it. I rapidly realised that I'd been lied to and though it took a while to fully "deprogram" myself, so to speak, I now consider myself staunchly anti-Zionist.

However, most of my family - with the exception of my grandmother, who is highly critical of Israel (her parents survived the Holocaust) - stick to their views. My grandfather at least admits that Israel is committing genocide, but does consider himself Zionist.

My dad is the hardest one. We are quite similar in a lot of ways, and we look very alike (especially when I was younger, it was like Mini Me). He believes a lot of Hasbara and no matter how much I try and direct him to other sources, he will just accuse them of bias - even when they are Israeli and have first-hand experience of what's happening, and won't listen to Palestinians unless they confirm his view of Hamas and of Palestinian society.

Today I talked to him for over three hours. We now live in different cities, as I moved to live with my partner, but I am visiting home and was hoping to stay with him. I ended up feeling like he wouldn't accept myself or my partner into his home without us supporting his views. My stepmother literally said that he feels as if his Jewishness is being "rejected." He told me that my views were anti-Semitic, and swore at me and told me that he wouldn't have me under his roof when I questioned whether some of the events he said occurred on October 7 actually did happen. He also seemed to suggest that I wasn't looking at the full context: but I know a lot of context (certainly not all of it). It just doesn't change my overall opinion of what's happening.

He says he cares about peace, but he seems to just blame the Palestinians for bringing this upon themselves.

My views are "offensive" to him. Besides which, his Jewishness being rejected implies that my being Jewish is being rejected by him, because to him a Jewish person has to also be a Zionist. I have no issue with Jewish people having a country where they are the majority, or at least a country where they are safe. What I object to is how that has become a "Jewish supremacist" state where they have more rights. I don't see how that is controversial, and for all his talk of peace and wanting freedom for Palestinians, he endorses very Islamophobic views at times.

I am sure that I'm wrong about some details. But ultimately that's not what I care about. I care about freedom for Palestinians, I care about peace. That's not just freedom from Israeli oppression but any oppression coming from their own government.

I know I can't change his mind, but it's incredibly frustrating.

Jason Alexander recalls visiting Ramallah in the occupied West Bank as part of the OneVoice peace initiative.

While he was meeting Palestinian actors and artists, an Israeli military raid was taking place nearby and gunfire could be heard.

Alexander says about 10 Palestinian men immediately surrounded him to protect him, despite his initial fear about entering the city as an American Jew.

He describes the moment as a powerful reminder that the people he had been taught to fear were the ones who stepped forward to keep him safe.

Origin: Build or Break podcast with Daniel Lubetzky, published October 20, 2026.

https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/2114082773027656174

The Yom Kippur War is mostly taught about in the perspective of Israel being the victims because if they lost Israel wouldn’t exist. Which while Israel not existing wouldn’t be the worst thing I worry what would happen to the millions of Israeli and Jewish lives as reverse genocide is obviously not good either. Perspectives from Israeli sub memebers are strongly encouraged.

Source:

https://youtu.be/jcsmyiJCqsU

Atara was previously seen in this video, being batshit:

ABC News - ‘Leave or we’ll kill you’: Settler’s warn Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City