daniel maté

co- author.. with his father gabor maté.. of myth of normal

so following (ish) him for some time .. adding page this day/tweet [https://twitter.com/DanielBMate/status/1713721159999525296?s=20]:

linking to this tweet [https://twitter.com/OmarKamel/status/1713378370304561274]:

lVery thoughtful commentary from @DanielBMate. I edited it to make it somewhat shorter, and added captions. Well worth watching. He’s a Jew, but more importantly a thoughtful human being who’s willing to ask the questions many are avoiding, and face the facts many are ignoring.

which links to 35 min video of daniel

notes/quotes:

1 min – (on cnn official starting interview of palestinian official): first.. do you condemn these acts by hamas.. will you condemn the killing of civilians the taking of hostages.. and this framing of .. will you condemn.. as a precondition for being able to speak about the situation.. t that someone should have to.. and it’s been particularly.. a palestinian should have to express condemnation of this or that.. was very striking to me.. and it made me think

so i’m jewish.. not religioulsy but culturally.. israel calls itself the jewish state.. some jews feel diff ways about that.. i went to a summer camp where the entire ed purpose was to inculcate us with a deep love/appreciation for israeli culture/history.. and more/less the israeli pov on things.. in retrospect i’m against it.. but whether you’re for/against it.. it’s a fact that in order to have a jewish demographic majority in that land at that time .. you had to commit ethnic cleansing against what’s technically an indigenous population.. call them anything you want .. but they call themselves the palestinians

3 min – the core of our sympathies was with the israeli’s humanity and not palestinians humanity .. which meant we were much more aware of the realities of life in israel than in palestinian occupied territories.. and the palestinian territories have been occupied by israel for my entire lifetime.. and i’m almost 50 yrs old.. and of course there’s the historical debate.. when did occupation start.. do you want to call all of israel an occupied territory.. blah blah blah..

4 min – israel has occupied/ruled it militarily.. and the citizens.. well there you go.. they’re not citizens.. they’re civilians.. they’re not citizens of any country.. they don’t have any rights.. they can’t vote.. and in case of gaza strip last 20 yrs.. they don’t have freedom of movement.. they can’t fish in their own waters.. all imports/exports tightly controlled.. people can’t visit families only miles away in the west bank.. 70% of the people living there are refugees or the descendants of refugees.. which according to international law qualifies them as refugees.. 50% of population are children

the gaza strip is like 25 miles long and 7.5 miles at its widest.. tiny tiny strip of land w 2/5 million people.. 1/2 children 70% refugees.. and it’s (or one of) the most concentrated strips of land on earth..

5 min – and it’s been called.. by baruch kimberling: ‘the largest concentration camp ever built”.. and by david cameron: ‘largest open air prison’.. and by any standards that’s what it is when people can’t move.. they can’t control the flow of their own resources.. they’re put on a starvation diet.. just kept alive and israeli govts have explicitly advocated/stated this policy.. and that’s even w/o counting the fact that every so often.. and increasingly often israel will conduct a bombing campaign to supposedly punish the palestinians for their leadership’s ‘crimes’.. bombing hospitals/apt-buildings..

6 min – so all of this is the context to all of this.. and it’s just a fact .. even if israeli attempts at peace are true.. facts still pretty uncontroversial that the palestinians in gaza esp .. west bank palestinians dealing w own set of circumstances/problems.. so you have basically.. a concentration camp.. and i know that term is triggering potentially.. because we all know what someone mentioning.. (95% of water in gaza not fit to drink et al.. and israel shuts off electricity whenever it wants).. all powers farm out dirty work to those living there

7 min – as was saying about concentration camp.. it’s the concentration camps that my great grandparents died in .. that my father, grandfather/mother.. were fortunate enough not to be sent to.. so t here me describe gaza as concentration camp.. might be shocking.. i think it’s an appropriate term.. people can’t leave and it’s concentrated..

8 min – if you don’t like that.. just call it an open air prison.. it’s not better.. so have this situation where there’s this permanent state of play.. 2.5 million caged.. and their only crime is the crime of being palestinan and being born in gaza.. that’s it.. punishing people for crimes of leaders.. ie: hamas.. then on him being elected fairly.. and what hamas has done.. et al.. collective punishment illegal anyway..

11 min – so .. what about this business of demanding that a palestinian condemn these actions.. what about any of us condemning them.. i think we have to think about what it means to condemn something .. the obvious.. these are horrible things.. i’m against it.. i don’t like it.. if there was a vote tomorrow.. i would be the first in line to vote against it.. in my world.. that shouldn’t happen..

12 min – but to condemn something.. i don’t really even know what that means actually.. to condemn something.. beyond saying i don’t like it.. because if going to go farther and say.. it’s wrong.. it shouldn’t have happened.. then you better take the entire context into account and that’s what i’m not seeing.. t ie: a lot of politicians .. including most progressive.. bernie, aoc, et al.. coming out w full scale condemnation of hamas’s actions.. so what that actually means is given the entire context.. i think they should have done something esle.. and i’m going to put myself in a position where i condemn it.. i have the moral standing to say.. you all shouldn’t have done that..

13 min – that’s fine if you want to say that.. but none of these people.. and very few of us seemingly.. have any idea or any interest in having any idea in the context.. because when you put it in the context.. i’m not saying it makes it right.. like i said.. nothing could convince me that it’s a good thing that young people die at music festivals.. but let’s look at that music festival.. just put it in some context.. not to justify it.. who cares if we justify it or not.. nevermind who cares.. it makes not diff to condemn or justify it really.. and it’s wrong/bad/horrible.. and my heart goes out to the families.. no one deserves that..

14 min – but think about his.. there is a music festival.. a rave going on on the very outskirts of a cage.. these young people who are free.. most jewish.. certainly aren’t born w crime of being a palestinian.. they have the freedom to go to a festival and take ecstasy and do whatever they’re doing and dance to edm.. and they’re exercising that freedom and they’re partying.. they don’t deserve to be punished for partying.. not a crime to party.. none of them did anything that day to deserve what happened.. but they were knowingly partying.. right next to a concentration camp..

15 min – now just put that into any other context.. if you take everything i’ve said so far to be factual.. and i believe it is.. take that scenario and put it in any other context.. and i don’t have to tell you which context comes to mind for me when i think about the idea of a party being held by the occupying powers young people.. having fun.. partying.. even praying for peace and feeling good.. on the outskirts of a concentration camp.. just imagine that for a moment.. well there is something obscene about that isn’t there.. that doesn’t make the individuals who attended morally culpable.. but either they’re knowingly or unknowingly doing it.. and i’m not sure which is worse.. but the fact is a lot of israelis are able to go thru their lives not knowing about what the palestinians are living thru.. and frankly.. it’s easier not to care.. and that’s true for all of us in our own ways..

i know you ness.. and thurman interconnectedness law et al

16 min – so.. you have this party on the outskirts of this concentration camp.. what does that communicate to people in the concentration camp.. how valuable are their lives.. so.. like i said.. it doesn’t make it justified.. what i think it makes it is inevitable.. and there’s a big diff between inevitability and justification.. inevitability is just about reality and the rules of reality.. justification is about right/wrong.. you could even say hamas’s methods were way to brutal.. that’ it’s gonna backfire.. that the people who carried out that particular crime should be tried/punished.. i still don’t think that addresses the question .. what did you expect would happen if you caged people like this for so long..

hari present in society law.. jihad (doc) et al.. hari rat park law.. et al

17 min – what do you expect.. which really comes down to the question.. as one of my fav thinkers puts it.. norman finkelstein.. fellow jew.. fellow son of holocaust victims/survivors.. do the palestians have the moral obligation to just lay down and die.. is that there lot in life.. is that what the moral thing to do is form them..

norman finkelstein

18 min – you might say.. how about nonviolent protests.. where’s the palestinian ghandi/mlk.. problem is they’ve tried that.. ie: 2018.. et al..

19 min – so today we see civilians being brutalized.. i’m not exactly clear on what’s true and what’s doctored in terms of the footage.. but clearly israeli civilians are suffering and it’s horrible.. but if we put it in a larger context.. the israeli civilian pop has at least been a party/accomplice to .. some major acts against humanity for a long time.. that does not mean these people deserve to die.. i’m not talking about justification.. i’m talking about what’s predictable.. what’s inevitable.. unless you think that the palestinians have the obligation to lie down and die peacefully.. because clearly when they try to be nonviolent.. a\ israelis shoot them down and b\ the world ignores it.. and often our countries.. west, canada, us.. will still come down on israel’s side.. they may say.. israel went too far.. but you’ll never see them strongly do anything to support or insist on an end to the occupation.. and we could tomorrow.. because we’re the ones who fund it.. billions of dollars a year.. to support this administration of this cruel prison system that’s enslaving an entire people

20 min – and as someone else pointed out.. nonviolence only works if there’s someone’s watching.. selma only viable because world was watching.. that’s what they were counting on.. in a lot of way sit work.. problem is p’s have been doing that for a long time and nothing has changed.. so again.. what is predictable/inevitable..

21 min – and this is context.. everything arises in a context.. and you can condemn the content as much as you want.. but to me there’s actually something obscene about insisting that a p.. that before a p gets to speak about why this is happening and what the meaning of it is.. is.. that they must say.. well first of all.. do you think it’s wrong.. they would never ask an israeli before they can comment on the situation.. do you condemn the jailing of 2.5 m people in a concentration camp.. they’ve never asked that.. they just ask.. how are you doing

22 min – ie of headline.. 75 killed in israel.. 148 dead in gaza.. do you hear the diff.. in same headline.. made very clear when israeli’s die they have been killed.. when p’s die.. at least be honest.. antisemitism is a whole diff issue than an entire people who did nothing to harm us to begin with.. p not responsible for my g grandparents detha..

23 min – them doing everything they think is necessary based on their experience to try to get some modicum of freedom or even attention.. even if it’s brutal/criminal.. comparing that to an irrational hatred of jews.. that goes back centuries.. is.. i think that’s a desecration of th ememory of my ancestors.. at least i take it to be very offensive..

to sum up.. ok.. so someone says (reading his live feed) saying hamas is a group that hates jews.. well .. let’s say that they do hate jews.. and by the way i have jewish friends who have traveled there and treated well by hamas.. and certainly by the people.. because the people are not hamas

24 min – but let’s say some p’s are anti semites now.. they hate jews.. i still insist on a major diff between that ‘antisemitism’ and say.. if i go to louisiana and walk into cafe and a guy says get out of here jew.. all of his hatred of me is based on his ideas about me.. yet i’m not a threat to his fam/life.. he’s swallowed a poisonous hateful.. completely irrational hatred.. i’m betting that a lot of my ancestors.. i don’t even have to bet.. my grandparents hated germans until the day they died.. doesn’t mean they couldn’t’ have a convo w a german.. but deep down.. german was not something they felt very friendly towards.. language sounded evil/dangerous/threatening..

25 min – when people had a certain experience.. when every jew you’d ever met was a soldier banging on your door to take your son/daughter away to be incarcerated/tortured.. and yes this happens folks.. a lot.. when the association you have w jews is a jewish flag flying a top a wall that borders your cage.. and the country that has a leader that goes on tv everyday and in the name of jewish people justifies the killing of your mother/son.. leveling your apt.. if you don’t know what the people are going thru.. i don’t think you have the moral right to pronounce judgment on p’s dislike of jews..

26 min – i think most p’s are sophisticated enough to understand that it’s not all jews.. not even all israeilis.. but i wouldn’t blame them if they didn’t.. i wouldn’t agree w them but i wouldn’t think it would be appropriate or my job to like say.. actually it’s not all jews.. in their position i might think the same thing..

i might think the same thing.. and that to me is the basis of real morality.. say medhi hassan today talking about .. this conflict is about morality.. well.. if it’s about morality.. we have to ask ourselves.. what would i do in their position.. because the fundamental moral principle is we all know.. the golden rule.. do unto others as you’ve have them do unto you

eisenstein i know you law.. cast first stone et al..

27 min – but that also means.. think of how you would do under their circumstances.. and most people don’t want to deal w that thought experiment.. that’s really uncomfortable.. there’s no real compassion w/o understanding where someone’s coming from.. and what they’ve been thru.. and i think the same is true of political moralizing.. and resistances can be brutal.. and the more brutal oppression is .. the more out of control and chaotic and horrible and dangerous to innocent people it will be when it explodes.. i think history teaches that.. and that doesn’t make it right.. i was a palestinian.. maybe i would think i have the right to say i think hamas made a mistake..

28 min – but of course i don’t like the situation .. and my heart does go out for the genuine fears/grief of israeli’s who have lost own live.. but i also think.. if we really condemn it.. we have to ask why did it happen and what needs to happen so it never happens again..t and the truth is that any answer to that question other than.. the occupation has to end.. and the siege of gaza has to end and the people of gaza and the west bank have to be free in one form or another .. whether it’s a two state or one state solution or whatever you want to call it.. but that prison camp needs to be closed forever.. and the people let out to live as a people among the peoples of the world.. any solution short of that .. you’re actually not serious about this never happening again.. you just want the palestinians to go away.. or to sublimate their humanity .. and be nice and polite and not bother anyone

missing pieces.. khan filling the gaps law.. et al

29 min – well like i refuse to accept the idea that they have the obligation to do that for us.. to make our lives or israeli’s lives easier frankly.. because there are consequences to oppression and occupation.. which are also international crimes

30 min – either wanted death by cop.. of figured they had nothing else to lose.. many say we need a second cleansing.. (1948)..

34 min – i don’t know what the right solution is.. i don’t know what’s realistic..