Breaking with fascist rhetorics
While Israel continues its genocide in Gaza and the Dutch media continues to treat Israeli and non-Israeli suffering unequally, protests are gradually growing. Protests give hope, while at the same time there are also calls for violence against Israelis, reflecting a rhetoric similar to the one used by Israel to justify its genocide. It seems that aggression is our only answer to Israel’s aggression. As aggression is the foundation of fascism, we remain within its paradigm, creating a vicious cycle. Can’t we change that?
Dehumanisation of Palestinians
Even though the media’s focus has shifted to the back-and-forth of missiles between Israel and Iran, the horrors in Gaza continue without a break. The killings and apocalyptic scenes around the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation have shown a new low in Israel’s disregard for humanity when it comes to Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Dutch media continues to give entirely different accounts of the suffering of Israelis when compared to Palestinians or Iranians. While they cover Israelis who were in panic on their way to shelters from the Iranian bombing, they talk about Palestinians and Iranians solely in numbers. There is a difference in human recognition of the suffering of both groups. This difference is built on the foundation that makes this genocide possible: the dehumanisation of a people.
There is a difference in human recognition of the suffering of both groups
In a democracy, the main path to change is protest. The huge number of participants in the recent Red Line protests gives hope and shows a united stance against the ongoing inaction of Dutch politicians.
Although the protest should be celebrated, there are also dehumanisation of and calls for aggression against Israelis. It seems as if we search for answers against the horrors of Israel within the same paradigm it uses to justify its genocide.
Fascism’s vicious cycle
The root and fuel of fascism is the belief that some people are superior, which also then creates an “us” and an “other”. It’s this “othering” and dehumanisation that allows for the hatred that eventually leads to aggression, furthering colonial and imperialist politics. Faced with othering, our first reaction is to reject and distance ourselves from those perpetuating it. However, this rejection often leads to a similar kind of othering.
When Nazi Germany was defeated, the “free world” made a universal agreement that Nazism was bad, and the Germans were taught guilt. This guilt was meant to give solace to their genocidal past, but it didn’t address the root causes of the Holocaust: hundreds of years of White supremacist cultures in Europe. The guilt came with rejecting and hating the past, without recognising that the genocidal past is still within us. Anything even slightly resembling antisemitism is rejected, including anti-zionism, following Israel’s global campaign to ensure their equivalence. This rejection has now made Germany the staunchest ally of Israel, pushing it once again to the genocidal side of history.
Breaking the cycle
How can we do this differently? As dehumanisation is the foundation of fascism, then leaving the fascist paradigm requires a radical end to dehumanisation, including the dehumanisation of fascists. As long as we continue to dehumanise fascists, we remain within their paradigm.
People are the product of brainwashing and local politics — and you would be, too.
It might be easy to believe that if we were born in Gaza, chances are we would be proud to be part of Hamas, especially if we support the Palestinian cause. However, it’s harder to acknowledge that if we were born in Israel, we would likely be proud to be part of the IOF. Thinking otherwise is extremely arrogant, as only a negligible part of Israelis reject zionism. Believing you would be one of them is essentially assuming you have superior ethics. People are the product of brainwashing and local politics — and you would be, too. And the Israeli government is extremely good at propaganda.
This might feel unsatisfactory, as we have learned to believe that domination brings ideas into being, and it’s nice to have someone to point fingers at. But the truth is, Israelis don’t support the genocide because of some inherent deficit, but because of brainwashing and censorship. The people are not the problem; the ideology is.
The continuing colonisation of the Palestinian people does not make Israelis less human, and our legitimate anger should not lead us to dehumanise them. Breaking this cycle begins with recognising their similarity to us; their humanness. Acknowledging they are human comes with the recognition that we, too, could go down the same road, but also that they can change and move away from fascism.
To be anti-fascist is to move away from the fascist thought and rhetoric
Being radically anti-fascist is breaking with the fascist rhetoric of othering, dehumanisation, hatred and domination. This world is cruel, and it’s normal to think the only way out is to respond with more cruelty, but in the opposite direction. Yes, we must fight colonialism, zionism and imperialism, and anger is valid, but dehumanising the individuals perpetuating these ideologies keeps us trapped within the boundaries of fascism. To be anti-fascist is to move away from the fascist thought and rhetoric; it means attacking the system and ideologies, while recognising humanity within people, always. There is no breaking with fascism without this.