Palestine
A community for everything related to Palestine and the occupation currently underway by the occupying force known as Israel.
Anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Existence is resistance for Palestinians.
Please refer to Israel as Occupied Palestine, or occupied territories. The IDF is a fascist and ethnonationalist occupying force. Israelis are settlers. We understand however that the imperial narrative (which tries to legitimise Israel) is internalised in the imperial core and slip-ups are naturally expected.
We always take the sides of Palestine and Palestinians and are unapologetic about it. Israel is an occupying power whose "defence force"'s (note the contradiction) sole purpose for existing is to push Palestinians out so they can resettle their rightful land. If you have anything positive to say about Israel we do not care.
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It's weird to go so hard on criticizing the Iranian government when it is the one government that has done more than any other to help the Palestinian struggle. Do you think the defenders of Gaza would have even a fraction of the weapons that they do to repel the Zionist invaders if it wasn't for the Iran-led axis of resistance? Do you think Hezbollah or the Yemenis would be as well armed as they are?
By comparison the governments of most Arab countries (with Syria being a notable exception and for its refusal to capitulate like the others having suffered a dirty hybrid war launched against it by the Anglo-Zionists) are outright traitors to the Palestinian cause and to their own people who are overwhelmingly opposed to the shameful collaborationist policies of their governments.
You don't need to like the domestic policies of Iran but to not recognize the profound and central role that they play in resisting and reversing the cancerous spread of US imperialism in their region is disingenuous.
You are right: I might be totally wrong.
For what I understood some decades ago Arabic countries were motivating Gazans go against Israel, and when Israel reacted Arabic countries just said "oops, now it's your problem".
I don't believe that Iran, who kills it's own people and is on the brink of collapse, really care about Palestinians. They don't care about their own people.
Soon Iran will make Palestinians do some suicidal action against israel and when Israel bites back Iran will let them be eaten by the lion.
I might be wrong and change my opinion after reading for monthes, but for now I have a really bad feeling.
I feel sad that Palestinians cannot count on anyone, even in those countries who claim to help.
I would be really curious to know what kind of media you get your view on Iran from.
Iran can't make Palestinians do anything they don't want to do. Iran doesn't control the resistance.
Iran has changed a lot since the 1979 Revolution but one thing that hasn't changed is its policy toward Palestine. There is a lot i could say about Iran but one thing i can't accuse them of is not sticking to their principles on this issue. It is a fundamental ideological pillar of the Islamic Revolution.
About where I get my sources:
Where I live there are many Iranians and I always ask them about it. All of them I can remember are dead sure that in 5 or 10 years the Iranian population will kick the government out. They are as sure about this as the sky is blue. Very impressive to hear.
They say also that since 2022 Iran killed much more people than what the press shows.
Inside a Country there's all types of people. Just arm the ones aligned with what you want and that's what's I mean by "Iran will make them do something stupid".
About Iran since 1979: what I know is that ok 1953 US made a coup in Iran and put s dictator there to kill people and take their oil out, but let them dress as they want, and in 1979 Iran got out of the coup. Some people are still killed internally but I don't know if it's more or less than what US did there.
It can be that I'm biased against Iran and would take me years to research enough and change my opinion, but the core is: If they kill their own people, why should they care about people of other countries?
The only answer is if it's not the people they are protecting, but the sovereignty, then maybe I'd agree with you.
Do you have more sources on their history of actions for Palestine?
Thank you
A lot of Chinese liberals in the diaspora used to say the same about China. Heck, some particularly brainwashed ones still do (Falun Gong ring a bell?), but in the case of China it has become increasingly difficult to deny the reality that the CPC isn't going away any time soon and that the country and its economy isn't going to collapse, contrary to what certain clowns in the media have been predicting for decades now.
And the same goes for Iran, it just isn't as obvious yet. The CIA tried their best not too long ago to kick off a color revolution in Iran, they tried fake news, they tried NGOs brainwashing impressionable young people, they tried astroturfed social media campaigns, they tried arming terrorist and separatist groups. They tried "maximum pressure sanctions", i.e. attempting to starve the entire country. The Islamic Republic is still standing and arguably its position has become stronger for having overcome these challenges.
I would advise you to form a more realistic picture of what Iran is actually like and how most people in Iran itself, not in the westernized diaspora, feel about it. Of course we as communists don't have to like Iran's government, but we should be realistic about it. We should have an analysis that is based in material reality and not in the crude caricature constructed by western propaganda.
As for the argument "country X kills its own people" that can be said about pretty much every country. It certainly can be said about the US. And especially for those that still have capital punishment (of which Iran is by no means the only one) but not exclusively limited to them. After all, when police kill someone that is also "a country killing its own people". When a country that has the resources to take care of its people but instead leaves them homeless, hungry or without medical care, is that not "a country killing its own people"?
This is not an argument this is a meaningless, thought-terminating cliche. And i have personally never understood why people think it's such an indictment, as if killing "your own" people is somehow worse than killing other countries' people. Are the lives of people in your own country worth more than the lives of people elsewhere? Why is it phrased with such an emphasis on the "own people"? Why is "country X kills people?" not enough to evoke the same kind of emotional response? Would it be better if they just bombed people in other countries?
If they don't say the "own" part this argument quickly gets used against the west, so as a means to dissociate their murderous regimes that mostly kill people in other countries from other countries they probably began using this argument like this as it wasn't shot down as much and it stuck. Perhaps.
I think it's as simple as implicitly assuming that everyone values the lives of people of other countries (particularly those where people don't look, sound or act like them) less than the lives of people of their own country. They can't help but projecting their own chauvinism/racism onto everyone else. They really believe that this is the default "natural" state of humanity. Yet another instance where the line between liberalism and fascism is incredibly blurred.