When you use an I Stand with Israel flag on social media, what are you really standing for?

When Hamas attacked Israel earlier this month, US President Joe Biden stated that he stands with Israel. Soon after that, I started seeing several people using an I Stand with Israel flag that was part of their Facebook identity. 

I get it, the attack by Hamas took innocent Israeli lives, so we often want to respond to acts of violence by standing with, supporting or being in solidarity with those who have been victimized. I get it.

However, what those who now have I Stand with Israel flags or symbols on their social media sites are actually doing is omitting 75 years of history, where the Palestinians have been victimized by the Israelis, beginning with the Nakba, where thousands of Palestinian families were displaced from their land. See Ilan Pappe’s book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you endorse and support the internationally recognized illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, an occupation that has lasted 55 years.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, which meets the definition of the crime of Apartheid that is set out by the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. For more on the Israeli system of Apartheid, go to this link.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support the decades-long detention, torture and killing of Palestinians by the Israeli government. See the numerous reports and publications on these issues that has been methodically documented by B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support the Blockade imposed by Israel on those living in the Gaza. The Blockade limits the movement of people and goods to and from Gaza. There have been numerous Israeli initiated blockades of Gaza, but the most recent one began in 2008.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support the expansion of Israeli settlements, which happens in part because the Israeli government promotes settlement expansion that happens on Palestinian lands and often means the destruction of Palestinian homes. For more information see the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD).

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support the ethnic cleaning of Palestinians by the Israeli government. The most recent mandate that all Palestinians living in Gaza must leave is a clear form of ethnic cleansing and a War Crime.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support the Israeli murder of Palestinian children. Since Israel began bombing Gaza after the attacks against Israel by Hamas, there have been at least 1,000 Palestinian children that have been killed.

Having an I Stand with Israel flag or symbol on your social media means that you support the US decision to provide $3.8 Billion in military aid to Israel on an annual basis. 

There is certainly more that I could add to this list, but I think you probably get the point. I also understand that some of this information might be new to you, considering that the US commercial news media has never really questioned US policy when it comes to Israel and Palestine, as the group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting has documented since the 1980s.

Most people have been led to believe that the US has always tried to be a peace negotiator between Israel and Palestine or even a broker of peace. This is complete non-sense, as is well documented in Nassar Aruri’s book, Dishonest Broker: The Role of the United States in Palestine and Israel. 

Therefore, if you don’t want to be a supporter of war crimes, ethnic cleansing, the murder of Palestinian children, Apartheid or the illegal Israeli occupation, you might want to remove the I Stand With Israel flag or sign on your social media page(s) and start investigating for yourself why the US government has unconditionally supported the Israeli government.