On the situation in Gaza, and MeFi discussions May 17, 2021 1:27 PM Subscribe
The situation in Gaza is awful, and as a moderation team collectively we are horrified by the violence and destruction and loss of life the Israeli government has been causing in Palestine. As a Jew, personally, I am too; for the mod team and for many people in the MetaFilter community this isn't just a terrible situation but one with very direct and personal resonances. Jewish identity and history is complex; overt and oppressive violence isn't, and what the state of Israel is doing right now to the people in Palestine is wrong.
The desire to talk about and react to the situation on MeFi is completely understandable. But it's also a topic that has, in particular during times of open conflict, been incredibly difficult to manage as an open discussion without it escalating to a point of being more harmful than helpful, and that's something we can't knowingly support playing out in the community here.
It's hard to say when and how a broad discussion of this can go well; we are going to have to exercise a lot of care in assessing whether the framing of a post and available moderator resources will make for a workable thread. In the mean time it feels necessary to me to make this MetaTalk post acknowledging both that site dilemma and the actual situation at large since MeFi, as a place built around posts, can end up feeling conspicuously silent when there's not a thread happening organically.
I'd like to try and fill the gap left by the lack of an open thread by using the space inside this post to round up informational resources; the mod team will aim to add to this post periodically if folks will forward good links to us via the contact form.
Some resources for information, organizing, and aid:
- recent summary of the situation in the Washington Post [archive.org link]
- Palestinian Youth Movement
- Jewish Voice for Peace
- Institute for Middle East Understanding
Some of the links members have shared:
- Visualizing Palestine 101, "a data-led visual resource and educational hub for people learning and teaching about Palestine"
- What Sparked the Latest Israeli-Palestinian Confrontations? via the United States Institute of Peace
- Middle East Eye live blog
- B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
- Palestinian Journeys, a joint project of the Palestinian Museum and the Institute for Palestine Studies
- Al Jazeera, Israel-Palestine conflict
- +972 Magazine, an "independent, online, non-profit magazine owned and run by a group of Israeli and Palestinian journalists"
The desire to talk about and react to the situation on MeFi is completely understandable. But it's also a topic that has, in particular during times of open conflict, been incredibly difficult to manage as an open discussion without it escalating to a point of being more harmful than helpful, and that's something we can't knowingly support playing out in the community here.
It's hard to say when and how a broad discussion of this can go well; we are going to have to exercise a lot of care in assessing whether the framing of a post and available moderator resources will make for a workable thread. In the mean time it feels necessary to me to make this MetaTalk post acknowledging both that site dilemma and the actual situation at large since MeFi, as a place built around posts, can end up feeling conspicuously silent when there's not a thread happening organically.
I'd like to try and fill the gap left by the lack of an open thread by using the space inside this post to round up informational resources; the mod team will aim to add to this post periodically if folks will forward good links to us via the contact form.
Some resources for information, organizing, and aid:
- recent summary of the situation in the Washington Post [archive.org link]
- Palestinian Youth Movement
- Jewish Voice for Peace
- Institute for Middle East Understanding
Some of the links members have shared:
- Visualizing Palestine 101, "a data-led visual resource and educational hub for people learning and teaching about Palestine"
- What Sparked the Latest Israeli-Palestinian Confrontations? via the United States Institute of Peace
- Middle East Eye live blog
- B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
- Palestinian Journeys, a joint project of the Palestinian Museum and the Institute for Palestine Studies
- Al Jazeera, Israel-Palestine conflict
- +972 Magazine, an "independent, online, non-profit magazine owned and run by a group of Israeli and Palestinian journalists"
« Older Metatalktail Hour: All those moments lost in time... | Metatalktail Hour: What would your Midas Touch? ✨ Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.