Posted by Subhi on June 3, 2019, 4:04 pm, in reply to "Re: So poitnless"
"I would guess that if you asked the victims of Israeli atrocities "
no 'analogy' but
speaking for Palestinians, as you are here, is inherently malicious and deeply disrespectful and you should desist, speaking of which Rima Najjar relates
"RN: I write on Quora because I have a strong desire to integrate Palestinian rights into the Quora universe, based on universal rights and the need for justice, equality and freedom for all people.
In wanting to erase me as someone with a Palestinian nationality from its platform, Quora exhibits the same attitude of Western society at large, which has long taken its cue from Zionist propaganda as formulated, not only by Israel, but also by academia, namely that the Jewish nationality (alternatively called “ethnicity”) is a given as a construct and as a reality in the form of Israel, and that the Palestinian nationality does not exists and never has. It must be stamped out, both as a construct and as a reality in the form of an independent Palestinian state, because it threatens the very foundation of the Jewish state, which, in order to exist as a Jewish state with a Jewish majority had first to ethnic cleanse and displace Palestinians – “transfer” them to other Arab states as “Arab nationals”.
NE: Can you cite some specific examples of the censorship and hostility you experienced, before being permanently banned from Quora?
RN: In my anti-Zionist writing, Quora’s demand goes beyond an insistence that I use the language of symmetry to describe the tragedy that has befallen me and millions of Palestinians, which is inherently asymmetrical, as any situation between the oppressed and their oppressor is. In fact, it appears to direct me to use only “neutral” language. And what’s “neutral” language? It’s “accepted usage” – i.e. the accepted dominant Zionist “narrative”. Veer away from that, and I am not being neutral.
This came out in a discussion I had on Collapse Detectives with Jennifer Edeburn, a Quora Top Writer. She was guessing that my use of the terms diaspora/exile in a question is what caused a moderator to flag the question as “possibly insincere, using language that was not neutral”. To “fix” the question, she suggested that I “replace the words diaspora/exile with ‘other countries’ or some such, [and then] the marking [flag on the question] will be removed. The idea that all Palestinians who do not live in Palestine are in exile is the ‘non-neutral’ perspective that supported the flagging of this question. … you should change it to be less easily misunderstood by those who do not share your knowledge and background. After all, I am not suggesting that you use an incorrect term, only a different one.”
I responded with, “All Palestinians who do not live in Palestine are ‘in exile’, a term accepted in Palestinian discourse the same way Jewish discourse accepts the term ‘diaspora’ (to Palestinians, that’s far from neutral). It refers to the fact that Palestinians living in other countries are denied return to Palestine, whether they wish to return or not. See Edward Said’s book Reflections on Exile and Other essays.”