It's hard to express how bad things are in Gaza right now. I have an internet friend who lives there and it is heart-wrenching to hear him fear death, and recently, mourn the death of a close childhood friend. I know that lots of sex-positive folks (and other leftists) are thinking "People on both sides are suffering. We shouldn't focus on Palestinians above Israelis. What about anti-semitism?" I hear you. The oppression and mass murder that we've seen societies carry out against Jewish folks is too horrifying for words to express. And anti-semitism is still a real problem today.
But Israel has so much more power than Palestine. They control the supply of clean water, electricity, and other necessary resources to Gaza. This is not a normal war. This is the mass murder of a nearly defenseless group of people by the U.S.-backed Israeli government. And the Israeli government has blatantly stated their intent to wipe out the Palestinian people. Israel has killed tens of thousands more innocent Palestinians than the number of number of innocent Israelis that Hamas killed in their horrible attacks on October 7. To be clear, Hamas is atrocious, and I am not saying that their violence against innocent Israelis was okay—it was horrendous. But I am saying that it was on a much smaller scale, and that it was not backed by the U.S. government. As U.S. residents, it's on us to push our government to stop funding this mass violence. We have power here. Please, contact your local representatives and ask them to do everything in their power to push for a permanent ceasefire. Further reading to help make sense of what's going on:
Edited to add: We are now raising funds for a sex educator and his family to flee the violence in Gaza. Please consider supporting the GoFundMe if you can: Gazan Family Rescue Fund. This article was written by Nicole Mazzeo. Nicole is a sex and consent educator who uses zines as a way to get ideas and information to the world. She is the founder of Pleasure Pie. Comments are closed.
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