Should we care?

"because it makes us look better.... next to them"

That is the excuse i usualy encounter
 whenever I try to reason with myself how I

, as an Israeli  looking up human right campaigns and 

 information about anti-occupation/ opression movements around the world.

Quite often, Hasbara ( Pro- Zionist propoganda )  

uses examples from different countries trying to prove  that others are "worse than us"

 and that at some places cracking down on opposition movements is more "brutal" and violent.

3 main arguements can be easily  used against that approach:

first:
Cruelty doesn't   set up milestones to follow.

 The fact that other places are "worse"

 is not something that should aspire us "to be like them".

Being listed at the bad company of North Korea, Syria, Kurdistan,
  Balochistan,
West Papua, Sri Lanka

 is not something to be proud of by any way.

second : 
Pain is not not mesured by numbers, statistcs.

Pain isn't relative. Every man is a planet of its own, 

and the pain of a refugee that exiled from his land, 

the pain of a family who had  their home demolished or

a villager that his land expropriated,

the pain of a child who was  accidently shot by our

 so-moral army,

of the student who can't leave Gaza for studies, 

the manufacturer who can't export his good,

Child crying at Gaza

 the men humilated at checkpoints, the detained minor,the torture prisoners- their suffering is infinite, it is endless,  as the sffering of abducted Baloch people, as raped Iranian jailed protesters, as starving north koreans, as slaughtered syrians.

No place  for relativity of thing that do not stack,

  quantitites become irrelevant and immoral.

Third:   Unless we watch out and be on guard we might soon become more and like
 "those horrible places" I've mentioned before. To be shocked by "what's happening here and there" might drive us to be more active and do more in attempt to prevent those atrocities.

It is sadly true that occupation is not "unique" phenomenon to Israel.
Iran and Pakistan are occupying the Kurdish people ,
Indonesia is occupying west Papua but unless we take action against domestic apartheid and occupation at home we lose our right to say anything about whatever happens "there".
If we speak out against others without deeply looking at ourselves and acting  for change,
than we are  guilty of being double standards.
But to care, to feel solidarity is only human and sometimes inevitable.
With recognition that my stand & ability to influence is decreased by me being part of colonialist, oppressive apartheid regime I can't do much  for "those horrible places" but listen, share, and hope that one day Palestine will be free, so we can have room to do more "for those other places".

you know you are not a zionist when...

You know you are not a Zionist once you endorse #BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions against Israel)
You know you are not a Zionist once you do not vote for a Zionist political party (there are Arab-Jewish political parties like Hadash Al Jabha/ Da'am)
You know you are not a Zionist once you don't hang Israeli flag on your window on independence day and detach from other national symbols (The Anthem, the Menorah etc)
You know you are not a zioinst once you are refusing to occupy (as @Gnoam  did)
You know you are not a Zionist once you stop referring to Jewish immigration to Israel as "Aliyah".
You know you are not a Zionist once you accept the right of Palestinian refugees to return, including their children.
You know you are a not a Zionist once you refer both to Israel within boarders of 48 & 67 as "occupied territories"
You know you are not a Zionist when you commemorate the Nakba instead of celebrating independence day.
You know you are not a Zionist once you travel to the west Bank & fear the settlers/ Army & not the Palestinians.
You know you are not a Zionist when you no longer believe Israel is the best place in the world to live in, & that all Jews should immigrate to Israel.

You might not be a Zionist now, but you are still Israeli (:

The listening Quality

First the tone of your voice,
I think.
Fresh as due - watered cedars
sweet as due itself.
I would listen to your eyes
before I kiss your eyelids
but you just listen,
meaning no harm.

The listening quality
will not be measured
by available bandwidth
by speed of information sockets
that race between as
by the limited connectivity
by hardware failures
how many  windows
we
keep opened
to allow more data in
to absorb more more more
of that version of outside world we choose or wish to see.
The listening quality is how you hear me
and how you do is who you are
It is clear.

Clear enough to put the
shards of self I kept broken
and put them together into meaning
and that meaning is nothing
It just means you were listening
and the sound quality was you
it was clear.
 Thank you.

I am glad Hader Adnan is freed from jail, but...

To be held in prison without a trial is criminal injustice.
To  be subjected to  torture due to political activity,
 controversial as it is,
 is something no one deserves to go through.
I am glad Khader Adnan was released,
I wish him good health, freedom &
 the joy of being around his family.
However, Khader Adnan is not my hero.
 I don't even consider him as a good person,
a character to follow or admire.
 Khader Adnan is allegedly spokesman of the Islamic Jihad,
an extremely radical faction in the Palestinian resistance.
 Khader Adnan encouraged Palestinian youth to
arm themselves with bombs & commit suicide attacks in occupied Palestine,
 attacks that targeted non-combatant civilians.
“Who among you will carry the next explosive belt?”
 Adnan demanded at a 2007 rally. 
“Who among you will fire the next bullets?
 Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?”

I can understand that he is being a significant character to many
Palestinian people who see him as a symbol of resistance .
 I can see how his hunger strike helped raised awareness to illegal administrative detention.
I do not mean to diminish the impact of his non-violent hunger strike on public opinion,
or disrespect the suffering he has  been through both from the Israeli occupation forces &
his effort to preserve own dignity & honor in impossible situation.
I know militant rhetoric can shock & horrify people that have never carried guns
 and never saw their beloved ones brutally attacked by the army.
I find it sad that similar if not equivalent incitement is spread by the occupation forces,
 carried by "our best men"  (RIP PM Yitzhak Rabin once wished Gaza to be drowned under the sea).
The Palestinian struggle as its name suggests-
 is for & by the Palestinian people.
We, international &  Israeli activists maybe allowed to support ,
 but not to meddle.
However, I reserve the right not to endorse Khader Adnan
as my personal idol.
I can think of many many other Palestinian leaders,
 activists
who I shall not name right now,
who are not affiliated with the Islamic Jihad faction,
but have served times in illegal detention for their part of the Palestinian struggle for freedom &
 Justice & have been brutally assaulted by the forces of occupation despite
 their non-violent methods of protest
and despite the fact that they did not  endorse violence against civil population,
although facing such violence towards their own people.
I am not seeking for condemnation of whatever Khader Adnan
did or said in past-
he already bared enough suffering for that, and as in Israeli- I
rather spend my share of condemnation to what the Israeli forces do & continue to do.
 All I wish is that justice will be served to
 Khader Adnan &
other political prisoners in illegal administrative detention & torture,
 &
admiration  , idolizing , hero labels, love
from the Israeli-international Pro-Palestinian community
will be reserved the  those who do not wish to get more
 civil population involved in the circle of violence
 that surrounds us all anyway,
the bloody ring of  strangling occupation.