Post #3569037

📗 “Geweten: Over Israël en Palestina” by Maurits de Bruijn I have more free time to read books right now because of all the soccer matches I’m not watching. I’m boycotting the FIFA World Cup 2026. I see no meaning in supporting an event that is being hosted by a country that is terrorizing its own citizens, facilitating genocide in Gaza, bombing schoolchildren in Iran, kidnapping the president of Venezuela, starving people in Cuba, bullying dozens of countries into austerity, sorry, I’ll stop here for now with this 100+ item list. I also see nothing good coming from supporting an organization that gave the leader of said country, a known rapist who is financially profiting from all of this caused suffering, a Peace Prize for those actions. Nor do I wish to watch a propaganda event that’s filled with exploitation, AI use and ICE activity, all while the attending rich get richer. Bread and circuses, sure, except most can barely afford bread and the circus is just a livestream of corruption. No thanks. With that said, onto the main topic of this post: reading, this book in particular. It’s a Dutch memoir, not translated (so far), written by a Dutch-Jewish queer man about Israel and Palestine. The title, ‘geweten’, can be translated as ‘conscience’ (as in having a clear conscience or not) or as ‘known’ (as in knowing and acknowledging as opposed to wir haben es nicht gewusst). The first half of the book is more about the author himself, about how he moved away from zionist ideas and learned about Palestine. He talks about his pro-Palestinian activism since 7 October, but more about how much negative feedback speaking up has caused. There’s a lot of outrage about how much disinformation there is and how many people desperately cling to it. But it’s also interesting to see how the author came to change, while some of his family members and former friends are still Israel-apologetic. The second half is about the author’s trip to Israel/Palestine with an unnamed organization. They visit East Jerusalem, Hebron and attempt to get into Gaza. They visit occupied territory, stolen homes, destroyed towns. I think the author succeeded in expressing how hard it was for him, without taking away the focus from Palestinian stories. I feel despair on the pages, also from other activists he encountered. So many atrocities have been documented and shown to the outside world. How has it not been enough yet to change the situation? Although there’s a focus on Palestinian lives and the damage done to them, the parts about the author’s stay in Tel Aviv and some other areas mostly inhabited by Jewish Israelis shocked me too. The author has no friends left in the region because they’ve all radicalized. Support for Netanyahu and Trump is common to see. Everywhere are posters with pictures of the hostages with dramatic slogans. Whole spectacles and events have been built for citizens to ‘experience’ or ‘re-enact’ hostage suffering and Israeli tragedy. Their own circus comes across as cheap, gross propaganda rather than a respectful memorial. Combined with the reported attitude that the genocidal violence against Palestinians is justified, it’s impossible not to get angry. Because the author’s mother survived the Holocaust (and other family members of his were killed), he can deploy (for lack of a better word) his Jewish identity to criticize Israel without automatically being labelled as an antisemite (although it doesn’t spare him countless other derogatory remarks). It’s an awkward and upsetting requirement and it shouldn’t be that way, but sadly it’s often like this right now. This can’t have been a pleasant book to write, but it’s one that passes on his words, words of proof of what he has seen and experienced, words that can hopefully be used in actions for Palestinians’ rights. PS: part of proceeds of this book go to PRCS. Nice. #FreePalestine