We don't want genocide to be the new normal

Collective action for the despaired

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The seat of power in the imperial core — Biden, Scholz, Macron, Starmer, etc. — who have the power to end this genocide with just a phone call instead decide to brazenly defy the people, who have been protesting for Palestine nonstop for over a year.

When Reagan was President, he stopped the ‘Israeli’ invasion of Lebanon in 20 minutes with just a phone call, by threatening to cut funding and weapons shipments. Remember that the US sends 3 billion dollars in ‘aid’ to ‘Israel’ every year, 97% of which is earmarked to go back into purchasing military equipment from US companies. Since 2024, this amount has been completed with another 23 billion dollars free of charge so they can keep killing Palestinian children.

In such a context, it’s easy to feel dismayed. It’s easy to feel like nothing we do matters, like we have no power to change it.

But this is exactly what our imperial masters want us to think. They want us to stop supporting Palestine, to stop calling for the end of their foreign meddling. The less they are challenged, the more they can continue the genocide on unimpeded.

They want us to be complacent and quiet! But doing the opposite of what our enemy wants is revolutionary. To say “no!” to the siren call is the most revolutionary act one on the ship can do!

Be careful of actors who urge us to stay quiet and still, who try to redirect the riled up masses towards ineffective means of protest — or even stop them in their tracks.

Hillary Clinton being a scab, immortalized in a children’s book as a good thing.

What would have happened if Vietnam had said “we can’t take on the might of the US army, let’s surrender”? Or if Cuba had said “The Batista regime is propped up by US money, we’ll never win”?

What if Palestine had said “This is hopeless, let’s accept our death”?

We can take inspiration from popular movements that succeeded, and study their tactics to apply them. But we have to do so on our terms, not on the terms our enemies decide are best for us.

In the West, we have long abandoned violence as a systematic mean of political protest. It wasn’t so long ago that it used to be commonplace: just look at worker strikes in the late 19th century to see how they used to protest for things we now take for granted, such as universal health insurance or the eight hour workday. Over time, the bourgeoisie gave us token concessions to protect their power, and this had the (perhaps unintended) effect of calming workers down. It’s harder to die for a cause when you have something to lose.

People like Gandhi are lionized over contemporaries like Bhagat Singh. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela are heralded as champions of non-violence, despite both using violence [in different ways]. And the John Browns and James Connollys of progress are made out to be monsters.

The message is clear: to be a “good” citizen is to be peaceful. To not make waves, or upset the social order in any way. Non-violence has become a synonym for peace. Thus we have become accustomed to extending the olive branch to our political enemies in the name of peace, i.e. maintaining the status quo. Though as Kwame Ture said: “There’s a difference between peace and liberation, is there not? You can have injustice and have peace. So peace isn’t the answer, liberation is the answer. [To the question ‘you seem free at the moment’] I seem peaceful at the moment.”

Violence still exists around us — institutional violence, that is. Palestinian children are being bombed with our weapons. They’re being starved with our policies. Our governments demand peacefulness and compliance while they happily ignore popular demands and enact immense violence both abroad and at home. This is hypocrisy, and it’s built into the system.

The Palestinian Resistance has repeatedly expressed support for the massive movements of solidarity across the world, from marches to boycotts to student encampments. They want us to do more of this. We must listen to them, because they know best what will help Palestine. Not “Israelis”, not Biden — the resistance knows best because they’re fighting and dying right now for a free Palestine, whereas zionists want to keep killing all Palestinians and would rather you not make a fuss or call attention to their genocide.

The International Court of Justice, a UN organ, agrees that “Israel” is committing a genocide and has ordered it to stop, to no avail. Now, their peacekeeping forces are being shot at — something which UNIFIL reports on the daily. In essence, the UN is providing us with justification to keep the pressure on, and do each what we can to intensify that pressure.

I don’t know what the prognosis on Gaza looks like. I don’t think “Israel” knows either. This is reason enough to fight; nothing is settled until it’s over. We can only be sure about what’s happening right now, and the situation at this moment is this: there is no way “Israel” comes out of Gaza as anything other than a pariah state.

With every day that passes, zionists expose themselves just a little bit more as the deranged killers that they are. And through supporting them, our governments show themselves to be on the wrong side of the issue — and that this isn’t solely a problem with one or two individuals in government, or a problem of ignorance (that they don’t know what they’re supporting), but that this is calculated, institutional, and that it has gone on for decades even as different parties and individuals succeeded each other in office.

Zionists still expect to go about their lives unimpeded, when we’ve all watched babies being mangled beyond recognition by missiles. After all they’ve done, they still expect to be able to fly their “Israeli” flags without consequences or promote zionism unchallenged in good company.

I don’t think they grasp just how bad the situation will get for them yet. They must have no more friends. Much like “Israel” is ostracized from the world, so must we ostracize zionists from all circles. This means going against our instilled sense of peacefulness, which we have been brought up on to respect authority and politeness in all situations.

When you cheer for the killing of babies and families so you can own a beachfront property, you clearly position yourself as an enemy of all people, everywhere.

Pro-Palestine protest in London, 2023.

Let’s be clear that zonism is not popular. It’s not the will of the people.

Zionism is so unpopular that our politicians have to pretend their constituents are zionist, the media has to run sob stories about the poor IOF bulldozer drivers who ran over hundreds of Palestinians to get us to sympathize with them, social media has to ban us for posting anything against “Israel”, authorities have to crack down on protestors, and “private” interest groups have to spend millions doxxing students and buying out politicians to speak in favor of “Israel”.

If protests were not effective, then they would have fizzled out already and they would not have required the repressive baton of the police to stop them. All of these acts of repression are meant to beat us into submission, to teach us learned helplessness. The major problem collective acts pose to the ruler is that they let us see we are far from alone, that there are millions of people on our side, and comparatively very few on theirs.

If zionism was so right, then the state of “Israel” wouldn’t need to be pouring millions into hasbara, making entire books filled with talking points that other zionists should use to defend their stolen homes and the massacres they cheer for.

They have the power of bombs on their side, but they don’t have the power of the masses. Those who have institutional power use different tactics than those who don’t. There’s already an imbalance of power, and so the balance of tactics must be equalized by other means than their bombs and their money.

We are expected to still carry polite conversation with zionists because our upbringing demands that we “respect our differences”, while they would never extend this politeness to us were we Palestinians — or even in the way of something they desire. They are polite with us because they think they can convert us to their death cult; the moment they realize we’re not buying, they will wish for our death all the same. Anyone who prevents settlers from stealing land might as well die, for they will not be useful to the grand plan.

All of this must change, and it will change. There is no world in which we can watch a 19-year-old burn alive in his hospital bed and still call to respect “both sides”. Anyone who does so has an agenda and is being duplicitous, and the first step for change is realizing when they’re doing this.

People on the fence must be corrected about their misconceptions and taught. Nobody is born with instilled science, we live and we learn. Many have spoken about how they “only” became firmly anti-zionist after October 7, when they saw the response from “Israel”. We must accept them — better late than never. But, we must see that they are genuine; again, don’t let the enemy tell you what to think. Many zionists like to pretend to be “concerned about civilians on both sides”, a position from which they will try to get you to abandon the fight and render you ineffectual. Anything short of the complete dismantlement of “Israel” is a concession to the enemy that they will use to drop more bombs and missiles and commit more open grave massacres.

To do this, we must ourselves be exhaustively educated about zionism. Theory and practice go together, there can not be one without the other. Read and learn, and then apply that knowledge in the material world to effect material change: protest, strike, unionize, boycott! Refuse to order or ship items to “Israel” at your place of work, if you’re able. Take longer to deal with clients there. Misplace their orders, accidentally bump their items against a corner if you work in logistics. Get involved with local organizations that are doing direct action for Palestine!

Only you can decide how far you are able to get involved, but the first step is to recognize that together, we are stronger than they are. Start talking about Palestine around you, and find people in your proximity that feel the same way we all do after one year of genocide. Talk to them, listen to each other: you’re not alone.

If we don’t want this genocide in Palestine to succeed, if we don’t want to send a message that genocide is tolerated and will happen with our silence from now on, if we don’t want genocide to the be new normal — then we must act!

The world is upside down. It is entering the height of its contradictions. They are culminating and soon a leap will happen: everything will change all at once in ways we cannot fully predict yet. But things are in motion already.

This is the law of dialectics, and it’s always faithfully happened.

I don’t want genocide to be the new normal, and if you don’t want that either, then ask yourself: what can I do right now to play my part?

Normally, this is the part where I ask you to subscribe or consider donating to help me write more essays. Instead, I want to ask you to please donate to Palestinians in Gaza, or Palestinian organizations that are present in Gaza.