Troubling Glorification Of Violence At Pro-Palestinian Event At San Francisco State University

[shira]

Stu­dents attend­ing a pro-Palestinian event orga­nized by the Gen­eral Union of Pales­tin­ian Stu­dents (GUPS) at San Fran­cisco State Uni­ver­sity two weeks ago were invited to cre­ate plac­ards using a sten­cil that read “My heroes have always killed colonizers.”my-heroes-have-always-killed-colonizers

The mes­sage, which seems to glo­rify vio­lence gen­er­ally and against Israel in par­tic­u­lar, likely orig­i­nated at an event that had been orga­nized by the Cen­ter for Polit­i­cal Edu­ca­tion in San Fran­cisco (a pro­gram “ded­i­cated to build­ing strong move­ments and the left through edu­ca­tion, analy­sis, the­ory, dia­logue, and activism) a month earlier.

That event, called “My HEROES Have Always Killed Col­o­niz­ers: Sto­ries of Global Indige­nous REZis­tance,” was orga­nized to com­mem­o­rate “Indige­nous Peo­ples Day” and fea­tured musi­cal and spo­ken word per­for­mances to cel­e­brate “every global indige­nous war­rior who’s been labeled a ter­ror­ist, unpa­tri­otic, and/or sav­age.” In addi­tion to African, His­panic and Native Amer­i­can per­form­ers, at least one of the sched­uled per­form­ers was to recite Pales­tin­ian polit­i­cal poetry at the event.

It seems clear that the two events’ use of the phrase is not coin­ci­den­tal. A Face­book page for the Octo­ber event adver­tised that it will have on-site silk screen print­ing with the phrase “My Heroes Have Always Killed Col­o­niz­ers” for peo­ple who bring t-shirts or other cloth­ing items to imprint.

more @ http://blog.adl.org/international/glorification-of-violence-at-pro-palestinian-event-at-san-francisco-state-university?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=glorification-of-violence-at-pro-palestinian-event-at-san-francisco-state-university

[Scootaloo]

1. The colonized should always allow themselves to be pillaged, I suppose?

After all, the colonizer is rarely so polite as to say "oh, this was yours? I'm terribly sorry, here, you can have it back, plus recompense for the trouble I put you through!"

[shira]

2. So who is a colonizer....every Jew in Israel? All are targets? n/t

[Scootaloo]

7. A small history lesson.

It's a situation not too dissimilar from the "opening of the frontier" after 1812. The British withdrew their support of the Indians west of the Appalachians after the war, and the US encouraged colonists - "settlers" - to move out into the 'free' territory. No treaties or dealing with the inhabitants, they were basically assumed to be fauna rather than people. Naturally when hordes of Americans are sweeping into someone else's land, there's going to be conflict - the Indians target the obvious problem, the white colonists taking their territory and killing their game. In response to these "massacres," the United States throws its military out there to brutalize the Indians, and the increased "safety" from the military presence encourages more colonists to make the move west, furthering the problem.

One imagines that few of the colonists had any real ill intent towards the Indians out there. Several did, no doubt, and it's easy to guess most of them would have seen the Indian as an enemy, a monster in the woods, owing to the conflict between the people. They're the ones getting shot and axed, after all. And with some fairness, they ARE the ones doing exactly what the Indians accused them of. However, the colonists themselves were not the ultimate problem.

The problem was the colonizer - the United States. As Arcane1 points out below, there's a difference between colonizer and colonist. It's perhaps a wavering line, but it is a line. Without the policy and power of the colonizer, there is no colonist (we would call such people "immigrants" instead.)

The United States was, intentionally or not, utilizing its own people as human shields, a buffer zone between fairly powerful Indian groups to the west, and US power centers on the eastern seaboard. And after encouraging its people to go into harms way, the US would then exploit their deaths and privations as an excuse to wage war against the Indians - still with that buffer in place, preventing the Indians from responding where and against whom it matters.

[shira]

8. These people's "heroes have always killed colonizers"....

You don't seem to have a problem with the colonizers who were killed or who are yet to be killed.

So how does one know who is or who is not a colonizer within Israel or the W.Bank? Remember, even in the W.Bank there are Israeli Arabs living within settlements.

Do they have signs on their backs saying "colonizer"?

[Scootaloo]

9. Nope, I've got no problem with Custer getting chopped to bits

Do you?

Just to check in, you do realize that, with the exception of Lubnah Morrar's poetry, and a Haitian dance troupe, this event is directed at the experience of historically and currently oppressed American ethnicities, primarily hispanic and Native American, right? it's... not actually an I/P issue at all. It's also an annual event, and it's a little telling to me that the ADL didn't care until a Palestinian-American poet was offered stage time this year...

[shira]

10. This was at a Pro-Palestinian event, sponsored by a pro-Palestinian group

Last edited Wed Nov 27, 2013, 05:16 PM - Edit history (1)

And wasn't it maybe a year ago you were arguing against Israel's killing of civilians during combat? Now here you are saying it's open season on the Jewish colonizers.

So wtf?

[Scootaloo]

11. If you had paid attention to my prior post, you'd know better, Shira.

[shira]

13. It was a pro-Palestinian event. Not against colonization in general....

You're contradicting yourself all over the place.

Here you appear to be cheerleading the killing of Israeli or Zionist/Jewish "colonizers". In a different thread, you agree that attacking these "colonizers" (with rocks, for example) is wrong.

How about some consistency, Ace?

[Scootaloo]

14. The history lesson post, Shira

I'm certain you're bright enough to understand an analogy when presented. Which is probably why you chose to ignore the entire post in your reply to it.

You still haven't answered my initial question, either.

[arcane1]

3. How does it glo­rify vio­lence "gen­er­ally" when it's directed at a specific behavior: colonizing?

[shira]

4. Who are the colonizers? Does every Jew get asked first? n/t

[shenmue]

5. Because of the word 'kill'

They glorify killing as a solution. Why doesn't that bother you?

Oh yeah, they're talking about Israelis, it's okay to kill them.

[arcane1]

6. I didn't say it didn't bother me.

I guess I read "colonizer" as different from "colonist", though I admit I could be mistaken. I'm against killing in any situation that doesn't involve self-defense.

[azurnoir]

12. so the Native Americans, Africans, and Hispanic peoples that this rally was held for

are out to kill Israelis ? Well I guess ya learns sumpin new every day :