Continued again…
( Novemberinthechair )
And a lot of them are saying, it's illegal to fake woman in Algeria! Oh wow, did you bring this shit up when the Gays for Palestine people were shouting their heads off? It's just pure hypocrisy.
That would be ‘Queers for Palestine’, and I’m pretty sure many of them know that Palestine is far from a champion of LGBTQ rights. Sure, there are always some who don’t, but not everyone is completely uninformed.
However… that doesn’t mean they’re hypocrites. It just means they see beyond their own nose, and are willing to do activism even on behalf of people who might despise them. Why? Because they think it’s the morally right thing to do.
After all, if you consider somebody to be victims of an ongoing genocide and apartheid, do you look at them under a microscope, find a few too many of their general views ugly and bigoted, then conclude “Eh, fuck them, they can all rot and die as far as I’m concerned”?
You think the Rwandans in 1994 were very queer-friendly? Or that the Rohingyas and the people of Darfur are now?
Does that mean we should ignore them and let them face brutality and death? Even if they might do that to us if we lived in their homeland, just because we’re LGBTQ?
And that has nothing to do with transness being illegal in Algeria. When it comes to that issue, the point is simple: Imane Khelif couldn’t medically transition or publicly exist as a trans woman there, neither legally nor socially. If she had been assigned male at birth, then, as far as the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is concerned, she would forever remain male. Hence, she had to have been assigned female at birth… which is what most people consider to mean “she’s a woman.”
Anyway… back to the earlier point.
Oftentimes, a people who are suffering grievous harm are far from perfect (in fact, I’d go so far as to say that it’s basically always been the case in some way!). They have their backward cultural views (from our perspective), and their bigotries. Many of them can support brutality to those different from them.
But that doesn’t mean that they deserve to die or suffer extreme hardship, just for that.
Besides, in any population and demographic, you’ll also find decent people and innocents.
And I say all this as someone who’s not a fan of the Palestinian cause, and as someone who isn’t on the (far-)left bandwagon of “Israel and Zionism are monstrous”.
Yes, I still think that Israeli Jews should be listened to, and aren’t (always) the bad guys, even in the current war. And I think that Palestinian claims as to what is happening in Gaza, including the casualty numbers and breakdown that they provide, should be viewed with a dose of skeptical scrutiny.
In addition to wanting to end this war and giving the people of Gaza relief and safety, I also feel for the Israeli hostages in Gaza, and wish more was done to bring them home. And I actually agree with the Ovarite consensus in that what happened on October 7th and after to those people shouldn’t be ignored or forgotten. Including the sexual violence done to them.
I’m sure that, in some people’s eyes, my views would make me an apologist for the “Zionist carceral settler-colonial apartheid enterprise and genocide of the indigenous Palestinian people”, but… whatever. They can shout at me if they want. Meanwhile, I’ll check the siren alert account on Twitter to see if my Israeli friend had to run to the shelter today.
But that doesn’t mean that I despise the “Queers for Palestine” types, or think them to be idiots.
I recognize that even when they’re wrong or misguided, their actions are typically motivated by their moral compass. And that does make me more inclined to… perhaps not quite give them a pass when they do something wrong, but it does at least limit the frustration I’d feel towards them somewhat.
After all, there’s a difference between “perhaps misguided, but fundamentally well-intentioned” and “deliberately covertly or overtly malicious”.
I won’t immediately see a queer student yelling “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” as a bad person (despite the slogan’s… history).
But any protester who praises Hamas and wishes for a repeat of operation Al-Aqsa Flood (the Oct. 7th attack)? Fuck them all the way.
So, in summary… I think intent matters a lot. Sometimes, you have to stop even a well-intentioned person if they’re doing harm… but generally speaking, intentions do merit consideration.
