You've been quiet lately
An open letter to my social justice friends on your silence around the violence in Israel
This isn’t what I wanted to talk about this week. In the wake of my first long-distance race since the Toronto Marathon in 2019, I wanted to explore why we do deliberately painful things. In light of criticism over Will Smith receiving an Oscar for Best Actor shortly after slapping Chris Rock, I wanted to talk about the proportionality of response. But I’m not. I don’t see how I can talk about anything that I want to talk about when no one is talking about something that needs to be discussed.
An open letter to my social justice friends:
You’ve been quiet lately, but I’m not surprised.
When rockets rained down on Israel in May 2021, you had a never-ending stream of comments, tweets, and infographics condemning Israel for defending herself. But at the time I am writing this (Tuesday), 11 innocent civilians have been killed in Israel by Palestinian terrorists, and you have had nothing to say.
Since Sunday, Western media - traditional and social - has been awash with commentary, jokes, and analysis about Will Smith’s behaviour at the Oscars. There is no onus on the media or anyone to pay particular attention to an uptick in violence in a foreign country. However, the simple reality is that when violence in Israel results in the loss of Palestinian life, there is no end to coverage or discussion among those who purport to value human rights above all else. This makes the silence now challenging to overlook.
I have no intention to discredit or disregard the genuine suffering or hardship experienced by Palestinians living in territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas or how failure on both sides to negotiate peace successfully has resulted in unnecessary suffering. But this does not excuse the newest wave of violence, nor does it transform it into the noble actions of individuals fighting for their rights, an explanation so often employed to justify the murder of Israelis at the hands of Palestinian terrorists.
The fact is that Israel is experiencing the deadliest wave of terrorism since the end of the Second Intifada. Since Human Rights Watch and the rest of the social justice community have been unable to muster one word of sympathy for families victimized by this latest spate of terrorism, I ask why you’ve been so quiet.
Since May 2021, Hamas has called for a Third Intifada and “globalize the Intifada”. These calls have been echoed at pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel rallies worldwide over the past ten months. The first two Intifadas can be characterized as periods of Palestinian unrest that involved frequent terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, such as the 2002 Park Hotel bombing in Netanya. While authorities in Israel are hesitant to call the past week’s events the beginning of a Third Intifada, they have referred to them as being part of the “violence begets violence” phenomenon. This is a cycle of terrorism that grows increasingly difficult for the police and military to control, such as the events of the Stabbing Intifada in 2015. The purpose of the Intifada is to kill Jews and to extinguish the only Jewish nation-state’s existence. But the practical implication of both Intifadas, and other terrorist actions in Israel, is that it is not only Jews but also Israeli-Arab Muslims and Christians who are killed and injured.
11 Israelis were killed in three separate attacks in Beersheba, Hadera, and Bnei Brak in the last week. Two of the attacks were carried out by individuals with ties to ISIS, while the third was an alleged member of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Though the three attacks are not connected, they can be tied to the growing support of a globalized Intifada and the increasing popularity of denying Israel’s right to exist in other parts of the world. The twisting of the narrative around control and responsibility and the imposition of a victim-oppressor dynamic on a far from black and white situation has cheapened Israeli blood. And those wishing to enact violence on innocent people in Israel can see this. And your silence is only proving them right.
So I am asking you, my social justice friends, how can you be silent right now?
If silence is violence, as we have so often been reminded by you, then I am asking you to explain your silence after a Palestinian terrorist executed a man in his car. I ask you to explain your silence after a father was murdered shielding his toddler from gunfire.
Social justice is the idea that all individuals deserve to live in a society where they have access to their full spectrum of political, economic, and social rights and opportunities, free from oppression and discrimination. It is an ideology centred on fairness. Where is the fairness in gunning down civilians?
This week, what has taken place in Israel is not a conflict involving armies or military strategies. It has engaged civilians, targeted while going about their daily lives simply for living and existing in Israel.
If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that throughout this piece, I have consistently said: “Israelis” and not “Jews” when referring to the victims of the most recent attacks. That’s very simply because not all Israelis are Jews. Israel is an ethnically and religiously diverse country. The individuals murdered in these terrorist attacks were not exclusively Jewish, but they were all Israeli.
You called out an imbalance of power when Israel protected herself and her citizens with the Iron Dome from rockets launched from Gaza and the West Bank in May 2021. You took the streets to protest Israel’s existence. This week, 11 Israelis were brutally murdered, and you’ve been silent. And if social justice is all about achieving fairness, I’m asking you to consider whether you’ve been fair in your position on Israel.
Human rights lawyer, Brooke Goldstein, put it well when she said of the shooting Bnei Brak that if a white supremacist shot and killed five people in North America, there would be a mass outcry. When a terrorist shot and killed five people in Israel, all those people who would be calling out the white supremacist are silent.
You’ve been quiet lately, my social justice friends, and your silence seems to conflict with the values of social justice.
You’ve been quiet lately, but I’m not surprised.
You've been quiet lately
Powerful words Sadie. Thank you for speaking up for so many whose voices have been silenced by the hypocrisy of 'the woke' - and let's hope that others start to speak up as well.
You go, girl! Your honesty, transparence and commitment to truth is sadly lacking. in the 'woke' who behave like lemmings... You are an empowered clear voice in a sea of bullshit!