Words of The Lamb magazine

Conflict Close to Home

by Mira Awad

Artist: Carolyn V. Watson

A repost of Mira’s account of the discourse surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict.

It is one thing to discredit Hamas propaganda, but entirely a different thing to discredit Palestinian history or every report coming out of Palestine, including reports by official international organizations.

The first is recommended, the second, is plain racism. Hamas have learned long ago that information is a huge part of warfare, and they use misinformation just as brutally as they use physical force. However, misinformation is also a weapon that Israeli authorities and media have been ruthlessly utilizing for ages.

You know, despite being a Palestinian, I found myself many times explaining Jewish history and Jewish trauma, not in order to advocate for Israeli governments or to justify their actions, but in order to make that same distinction as above.

Once, many years ago at a dinner table in Tunis, some would say against my own personal safety, I insisted on explaining this very distinction. The table was surrounded by Semites, therefore the debate was not of an antisemitic nature (another important distinction to be made by the way), but of anti-Israeli sentiment. Eventually, I left that table with not as many friends as I’d hoped, but after managing to alter the debate a bit and hopefully broaden the terminology.

Hamas and Israel are at war, the arsenal of modern war includes ugly and misleading propaganda. Dismissing and discrediting propaganda is a sign of an alert mind, but dismissing or discrediting the history of an entire nation is something else altogether.

Words Of The Lamb

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