Comments on: Atwood and Ghosh respond

By: safanator

safanator — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 01:20:48 +0000

I appreciate this post, Sarah. As a Palestinian myself I certainly feel marginalized in every way possible and feel like there is a lack of questioning and a lack of trying to understand the conflict in the West. My mother is a refugee who was forced out of her home when she was a very young child. My grandparents, mother and aunts and uncles had no choice but to leave all of their belongings and history- my history- behind. So in my opinion, killing anyone is wrong, but so is taking their homes. My mothers home was taken by Zionists and because of this I will never know the country where my ancestors were born and buried, which we all know means that I will never truly know my self.

Regardless of my heritage, I am friends with many Jews because what we (our two histories) mutually understand is how it feels to be ignored and ridiculed. Pro-Palestine is not bigotry, in fact it is far from. Pro-Palestine does not mean anti-Jew nor anti-Israel. It means anti-illegal settlements, anti-ignorance, and no tolerance towards such excessive self interest at the cost of others.

Unfortunately I have lost hope that conditions will ever improve for Palestinians. As long as there are people who believe that we have made up our recent history of suffering, we are doomed to become a people without a homeland forever.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:10:35 +0000

Dear Reader, I approved this one comment because everybody’s got a right to their opinion. Yes, it’s true: my mind is blank as a babe’s (but not as a disciple’s), and I know absolutely nothing about the Middle East.

And I strive to know even less, because in my very limited experience, the “knowledge” we take for granted sometimes hides the grossest prejudice.

Also, thank you for the good typographical catch. It’s another example of how easy it is to lose the forest for the trees.

By: Dear Reader

Dear Reader — Sun, 23 May 2010 05:09:13 +0000

Your politics stink and will cost you readers — and referalls. What do you know of this conflict? Why do you support people who declare war on their neighbors? Deny their right to exist? Strap bombs to their children? Claim their holy land as their own (in fact claim their prophets as their own). Sadly you’re another disciple of Chomsky and the rabid European left that never saw a Jew they didn’t like to slight. The specious claim to be anti-Israel and not anti-Jew is about the same as “separate but equal” — I like black people just not in my neighborhood. You ought to read some history on the conflict not produced by propogandists and ask yourself where your judgement comes from. The treatment if Jews in literature has been bad enough. The soft bigotry of “pro Palestine” folks like yourself legitimizes much worse.