We have spoken softly, respectfully, even pleadingly. We have used the language our oppressors demanded. We have appealed to law, to reason, to shared humanity. We have condemned antisemitism, affirmed Jewish dignity, and insisted that our struggle is against Zionism, not Jews. And still, they call us haters. Still, they smear us as antisemites and accuse us of calling for the destruction of a so-called Jewish state.
Let us then speak without euphemism.
There is no “Jewish state” called Israel — only a Zionist settler-colonial entity that has occupied the whole of Palestine. The so-called “West Bank,” “Gaza Strip,” “East” Jerusalem, and “Israel” are not separate places. They are all Palestine. And beyond Palestine, Israel has stolen land from Syria and Lebanon. It is a project of expansion, not survival.
We must now abandon the language of the oppressor. Israel is not a democracy. It is not a beacon of civilisation. It is not a normal state. It is a racist, supremacist, militarised regime built on ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and erasure. It must be dismantled. Palestine must be restored. This is not hatred; it is justice.
Jews who wish to live in a free, democratic Palestine as equals are welcome. Those who demand supremacy at the expense of others must relinquish it, or leave. The future cannot be built on stolen land and bloodshed.
Say it plainly:
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.
And when we say it, let them arrest us. Let them fire us, blacklist us, smear us. We will not stop. Their power lies in our fear — but fear has its limits. They cannot imprison a nation. They cannot sack an entire generation. They cannot silence a movement whose numbers exceed their capacity to suppress it.
So now is the time to act — not just online, but in the streets, in our workplaces, in every institution that still pretends Israel is legitimate.
Wear the keffiyeh.
Fly the Palestinian flag.
Speak the truth, even when it costs you.
March. Occupy. Resist.
Let solidarity mean something real.
If they jail one of us, a hundred must take their place. If they fire one of us, we must support them financially, publicly, and personally. That is how movements endure. That is how justice advances — not through polite petitions, but through unbreakable collective courage.
To free Palestine, we must be willing to suffer. Not for martyrdom, but for meaning. Not because we desire pain, but because we will not tolerate complicity. There is no other path. Donations and hashtags help, but they cannot dismantle apartheid. That will take bodies, voices, risks.
This is not a moment for safe conscience. It is a moment for moral defiance.
The alternative is to live with ourselves should the Zionists be able to carry out the unthinkable, yet which they have felt free to voice out loud over and over.