It’s being reported that Israelis cheered ‘burn them, shoot them, kill them’ as Palestinians were slaughtered in Gaza today. Lest that information fuel hatred, we should remember that before the US civil rights movement of the 1960s, such racist hatred & violence was common. It only changed when confronted with the power of a massive social movement. When the OJ Simpson verdict was read in 1995, racists were emboldened where previously they had been cowed by Black power. Just days later, the Million Man March of Blacks was held in Washington, DC & that racism was silenced on a dime. The reversal in civil rights & the war on Black youth is entirely due to the quiescence of political protest against racism.
Palestinians cannot be expected to think about all this at a moment when their slaughter is being cheered. But in the long run a solution to this conflict was that proposed by Palestinians a long time ago: a democratic, secular state where Palestinians & Jews can live as brothers & sisters. What decides the outcome of that struggle is confronting Israel & all the regimes which sponsor & bankroll it with the countervailing & massive power of Palestinians backed by a steadfast international solidarity movement using not just protests but every political weapon we can think of to bring apartheid, genocide, colonialism to its knees. Indignation & outrage at injustice toward Palestinians yes. But hatred toward Israelis has no part in building that movement. Except for Netanyahu. Go to town on him.