An open letter to Palestinians by Ryan Bellerose:
Dear Palestinians,
Lets get a few things straight. You do not get to claim a genocide when your population has exploded. As someone whose family has gone through one, I am telling you to cut that s*** out, it’s offensive and it’s annoying.
You did not “go through what Native Americans went through.” Nobody forced you to speak an alien language, worship God in an alien manner and steal your sacred places. As a matter of fact THAT’S WHAT YOU DID. You stole sacred places, forced indigenous people to speak Arabic and worship god as Muslims. So seriously cut that out too.
You did not in fact have a civil rights struggle like black people in America. Black people in America didn’t blow up school buses or pizzerias filled with school kids in order to achieve equal rights, and they damn sure didn’t talk endlessly about pushing white people into the sea.
You are not persecuted like gay people, for something that is beyond your control. Nobody throws you off buildings because you love someone you shouldn’t. So again, cut that out, it’s getting old, especially when some of us are well aware that your society not only hates gay people but actively persecutes them. You are the guys throwing them from buildings.
You do not get to keep stealing stories. You stole the identity of what was known as ‘Palestinian’. Before World War II the term meant Jews. But that’s OK, it’s a colonialist term, and I am sure that my Jewish friends don’t want it. They prefer to be called Jews, Hebrews, Israelites or Israelis, so you can take your colonialist garbage and get lost.
You think that yours is the only struggle in the world that has relevance. When anyone else has the nerve to have a tragedy, you make damn sure to jump in immediately to prevent him/her from ever having five minutes in the media without you trying to co-opt their struggle.
Ferguson? Screw Ferguson, it’s Ferguson to Palestine! Black lives matter? Hell no, you gotta hashtag Blacklives matter, but then you hashtag “palestianianlivesmatter” right after, because god forbid anything not be about you.
Ethnic cleansing? So why is it there is 0% Jews in the Arab controlled area of the Palestinian Authority and almost 2 million Arabs in the Jewish controlled areas? I think it’s clear who is ethnic cleanser here.
Idle No More? Native rights? Nope, it needs to be Palestine stands in solidarity with idle no more or Palestine supports Native peoples rights, even though you clearly don’t. Nobody offered to give us a state, and we actually are on our ancestral lands.
Bring back our girls? People were upset about Muslims kidnapping Christian girls in Nigeria and you managed to hook your wagon to that? Seriously? Come on, seriously you had to at least chuckle on that one. You can admit it.
The native American struggle against settler colonialism? Nope it’s always “from turtle island to Palestine”, even though anyone with a 3rd grade education knows that the Arabs are in fact the colonists who colonised the entire damn region in the 7th century killing and force converting indigenous people all over the entire region. YOU ARE NOT INDIGENOUS TO THE LANDS YOU ARE TRYING TO CLAIM. Say it with me: “Jews are from Judea, Arabs are from Arabia.” You can live there, you just don’t get to oppress people anymore.
When 3 Jewish kids were kidnapped (murdered actually) you celebrated, you handed out candy, and you smiled and took pictures holding up fingers celebrating an evil act, but then you had the absolute unmitigated gall to start hashtagging “bringbackourboys”? Really?
Now a little boy’s body washes up on shore in Turkey, a victim of an uncaring world that has allowed the conflict in Syria and the proliferation of ISIS to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands, all while fixating on the “plight of the Palestinians” and you jerks can’t even let the world see that without trying to jump on the back of that child’s death? Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you. If you had a conscience you would be ashamed.
I could go on, because let’s be honest, every single tragedy I have seen in the world during the past few decades has immediately been followed by “but have you seen what the Jews are doing to the Palestinians?” You have become tragedy tourists. You have no legit tragedy of your own, so you are forced to exaggerate and co-opt, and you have no shame.
Yes, I have seen what’s happening in Gaza and the PA, and it’s not even remotely the same goddamn thing as the things you claim. It’s time for you people to grow the hell up, not everything is about you, not every refugee gets to be a whiny entitled refugee for 67 goddamn years. Some of us move forward, some of us don’t steal from our own people and perpetuate the conflict to keep skimming money.
You want to know the truth? This is why the Palestinians cannot have nice things.
Absolutely no regards,
Ryan Bellerose,
P.S. Feel free to be butthurt, oddly enough I remain unconcerned.
