Hi! I am writing my Master's thesis on Israeli-public facing civil society organisations (CSOs) with a focus on how CSOs with different theories of change understand their role in conflict transformation. Inspired by Bar-Tal's theory of socio-psychological barriers to peace, I'm doing a two-step analysis with first analysing the way selected CSOs present their goals, limitations etc online, and then interviewing a select few from the list.

I was wondering whether there was an Israeli person here (living there or having moved abroad doesn't matter!) that could verify my interpretations, given my outsider position to the research topic (I'm Polish!)? :)

Now you have the support of Jewish Americans on a steep decline for the party that is supposed to protect vulnerable minorities in a climate that is so hostile to them because they're unfamiliar with the nuance of the conflict 🫠

Let me make this very clear. This is not a thread for you to be racist, islamophobic, nationalist or isolationist.

This is purely for SELF HEALING.

Context:

I'm a self-identified liberal, zionist and a queer person, who has always supported liberal issues- women's rights, gay rights, trans-rights, bi-poc rights, until Oct 8th, when all of those people that I've supported bought so EASILY to the anti-israeli smear campaign.

Ever since then, I saw my online social circles shrinking, had many unpleasant arguments with people I looked up to, and had many more instances where I was either silenced by people abusing their administrative privileges, or chose to censor myself to 'keep the peace'. As an autistic person, I find my mind often going back to those moments, as I play those situations over and over again in my head, which fills me with frustration and a sense of helplessness.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, so let's get to it:

• "Anyone can be lied to, look at North Korea"
  • A friend of mine, when trying to persuade me that I don't know the history of my own country.
• "You need to stop acting like you know more of an issue, just because of geographic proximity."
  • Told to me, a 39 yo Israeli that has lived and experienced 2 intifadas, by a canadian youth.
• "If you ask me if Israel has the right to exist, my answer is that no nation has the right to exist. I believe that people have the right to live in safety..."
  • Another community admin, around 2 months after Oct 7th, when people were chanting 'Globalize the intifada' and 'From the river to the sea' in the streets. While it sounds wholesome and globally-sensitive, that gave me serious 'All Lives Matter' vibes at the time.
• "You describe it as if the jewish populace just struck out to find some wilderness -" [I did not] "-The british decided that there should be a Jewish homeland in 1917, and then the Mandate carved up territory where people were living to create Israel."
  • Yes, the entire formation of Israel was just a British initiative to seize control of the area.

The last one is a sentiment I've heard parroted in various other places, by seemingly unrelated individuals, and it really irked me.

It was as if they were trying to claim that 2000 years of persecution, diaspora, genocidal assaults and legislation, pogroms, forced conversions, inquisitions and vilifying campaigns whenever a resident tyrant wanted to seize control and needed a scapegoat had NOTHING to do with Zionism and the reason the Jewish people needed (and currently still needs) a homeland.

And that's the question that's been bugging me for three years now:

Why do liberals and progressives find it so socially acceptable to be so blatantly insensitive, silencing, steam-rolling and reckless with the safety of a vulnerable minority, when it comes to the jewish people?

Hi, before you read it, know that english isn't my first language, i'm french. Also know that i'm not sure if those publications can be posted here but i'm still gonna share it here since there is no rules that forbide to do that kind of publications

So.. you probably heard about highschools being blocked in France, and in my opinion, it's OKAY ! There is no chairs, tables, teachers and ceillings are fallings (TW: violence) cops are gassing teenagers, beating them up, arresting thousands of them in less than 6 months, a 14 years old got strangled, a 16 years old loosed a hand cause they threw a grenade at him, another 16 years old loosed an eye after Having been shot at with a LBD (less-lethal defense weapon), another teenager got gassed in the stairs and had a seizure and then got arrested just after So i mostly agree with those teenagers, but there is something i don't agree with, many of those blockage end up being extremely antisemitic ! (TW: antisemitism) I saw videos of those teenagers saying they want death of the jews Which have NOTHING to do with how bad education system is here ! I want to know how to show support when it comes to the education system here without having to be associated with antisemitism neither having to put myself in danger (i'm jewish so if i help them with blockages and they end up learning i'm jewish they can become very violent)

I grew up hearing stories of Palestinian militias ransacking and destroying Maronite Christian villages in Lebanon, including the ancestral villages of my own family and many of my relatives directly blame Palestinian armed groups for triggering the Lebanese Civil War.

To be clear, I am sharply critical of the current Israeli government, the actions of many in the IDF, and the devastation happening in Gaza. I also condemn Israeli military operations and destruction in Southern Lebanon. At the same time, I acknowledge how Hezbollah's dominance, Iranian influence, and military actions have destabilized Lebanon and dragged the south into repeated, devastating conflicts with Israel.

When I consider the historical role of the PLO in the Lebanese Civil War (alongside events like Black September in Jordan) together with Hezbollah's ongoing actions and Israel's strikes, I find it very difficult to align myself with any side.

While I recognize the immense harm caused by Israeli military actions, I remain deeply conflicted because of the historical trauma passed down by my family, whose villages were ruined by Palestinian militias, and the reality of how non-state armed groups continue to jeopardize Lebanon's future. Is it normal to feel this level of detachment and conflict based on family history?

To be absolutely clear, I don’t consider myself Zionist because I don’t believe Israel and Torah line up very well, but I have Mizrahi Israeli heritage and am Jewish, I’ve been a few times and I’ve loved each time too. I’m literally the picture perfect anti Zionist, but I don’t identity explicitly as one and will only say I am if I’m around the absolute crazy people I’m about to talk about.

So I love this game called Overwatch, it’s an FPS and it prides itself on diversity in cast of heroes, the playable characters. I have an OC for the game named Delilah, whose an Israeli, and I went on the OW subreddit to post her because I wanted to share her. I also explicitly said I wanted to leave politics out of her design and even made a fictitious version of Israel to make sure they wouldn’t go feral.

For some context, the character is a villain, she’s bratty, and she’s an infiltrated saboteur to the protagonists of the game’s story. She’s not Ms. Zion, and she doesn’t paint Israel in any kind of light outside of what I established outside of her. The comments of the subreddit went absolutely maniacal and viciously started saying “nobody wants Israelis in the game”, “Zionist slop”, they even accused me of writing with AI because I used very precise language without any prose or anything.

I genuinely felt so bad for the past two days because nobody wanted to see my cool OC in the game I love, but just wanted to rip into her because of where she’s from. As a non Zionist, I feel like I’m finally understanding where Zionists are coming from. I literally only wanted to celebrate where my family is from and where my heritage is with a character whose Jewish and Israeli, and I was bullied to hell and back for it. Ever since that post I’ve felt like nobody even remotely understood how bad it felt outside of the Israelis I know, who cite their Zionism around that feeling of being unsafe even online in supposedly accepting communities.

I still don’t consider myself Zionist, and I hope this doesn’t get taken down or downvoted for it, but I sympathize with all of you guys a lot more now than I ever have.

This is in the punk subreddit. I'm a punk and I always have been. Note that nobody else is commenting, but I'm, as we speak, getting downvoted for calling this guy out on insinuating it's problematic to be Jewish. Note that I said absolutely nothing about Israel. That has not even come into the conversation. This commenter is blatantly hating on people because they are Jewish. I suspect that's why nobody else is actually commenting, but passive aggressively downvoting. This is fucking terrifying.

Dear Community,

We write to inform you about an event that occurred this week that directly impacted our professional development program and our faculty. We do not have all details as of yet, but we wanted you to hear about the occurrence directly from us.

One of our Kindergarten teachers was scheduled to travel as part of a delegation organized by the Paradigm Project, a national organization dedicated to building excellence in Jewish early childhood education. The delegation was set to participate in a professional learning program about the Reggio approach, hosted by Reggio Children in Reggio Emilia, Italy. (Our School) has enjoyed a long standing partnership with Reggio Children and has sent many teachers to the training in the past.

Over the past week, the trip became the focus of a growing public campaign in Reggio Emilia. Local community activists applied pressure on Reggio Children, including calls to cancel the visit, a public protest outside the Loris Malaguzzi Centre, and media coverage naming the Paradigm Project and members of their team. The opposition was aimed at Israeli educators and American Jewish day schools that they understood to have connections with Israel. Due to security concerns on the ground, and a requirement to sign a charter declaring a political stance, the Paradigm Project made the decision to cancel the delegation’s trip to Italy. 

Again, we do not have all the details and respect the fact that dialogue is ongoing between the Paradigm Project and Reggio Children. The leadership of our cohort of schools participating in this program has been invited to a meeting on Monday to hear an update.

As we head into Shabbat, after a very difficult week for Jewish communities around the world, we at (school) proudly reaffirm our educational philosophy and Jewish and Zionist missions. Building meaningful experiences that develop a lasting connection to Jewish Peoplehood/Am Yisrael and the State of Israel, and an understanding of its central role in Jewish life and peoplehood, remains fundamental to the learning at (school).

We look forward to learning more in our meeting on Monday and will update you with pertinent information.

Shabbat Shalom

I've seen many Left-wing Jews online lamenting about losing friends over the current conflict in Gaza, are there any exceptions to that unfortunate trend?

So there was an organized protest against Israel on the University of Illinois campus this evening. I'm not sure if anyone checked the date today.

There are those who would tell you that there have been many protests throughout the year, and that today is just another day.

Except that the last organized Palestinian protest on that campus was, wait for it, October 7th 2025.

I was just on the University of Illinois subreddit, and there are actually horrendously anti-Semitic remarks, saying literally that almost all Jews are zionists and therefore fascists. And lots and lots of sympathy for Hamas.

Why do I torture myself?

Jesus fucking Christ. (unironically)