(stylised as Florence + the Machine) is a Grammy-nominated English indie rock band, consisting of lead singer Florence Welch, Isabella "Machine" Summers, and a collaboration of other artists who provide backing music. The band's music received praise across the music media, especially from the BBC, before they gained mainstream success. Specifically, the BBC played a large part in their rise to prominence by promoting Florence and the Machine as part of BBC Introducing.
I didn't just start supporting Palestine. The Pro-Palestine crowd has been well aware of what Israel does for a long time. The characterization that all these protestors just woke up one day and started being pro-Palestine because it was trendy is nothing more than demeaning propaganda. You could've asked me ten years ago and I would've told you how revolting Israels treatment of Palestinians was and the insane blind eye the world gives to their illegal settlements. The vast majority of people supporting Palestinians have been aware of what's going on for a long time. My cousins are half-Armenian and their family was from Jerusalem. They were living there in 1948 when Israel was created. They, like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, lost their homes when the land was ethnically cleansed to create the Jewish state. Because they refused to have Israeli citizenship forced on them. Do you think when the British "gave away" Palestine that the land was empty?
I'm also gay and I am so sick and tired of the pro-Israel crowd manipulating and weaponizing LGBT rights in their effort to guilt people into siding with Israel. It's revolting and offensive. Is that seriously how you justify all this? Your soul is rotten through and through
I literally do not care that Israel is a better to society to live in for gay people. I do not care if the vast majority of Muslim countries are not very tolerant of gay people. That will NEVER justify what Israel does to Palestinians at large. That will never justify taking people's homes and bulldozing them, that will never justify forcing people to go through all sorts of checkpoints, that will never justify jailing children for throwing rocks. That will never justify the killing of thousands of Palestinians over the years. There are literally streets in the West Bank that Palestinians aren't even allowed to walk on. It's an apartheid state. The language used by the average Israeli to talk about Palestinians is absolutely sickening.
The fact that you think Israel being more tolerant of gay people compared to a Palestinian state somehow justifies all this is absolutely deplorable and twisted. I'm sure all the gay Palestinians are just sitting around thinking, well it's too bad my grandmother's house was stolen and torn down to make room for more Israeli houses, and my little sister is in jail, and my father was shot and killed by the IDF on his way to work five years ago because he was mistaken as someone else, and all my cousins in Gaza have had their houses blown to smithereens and half of them are dead... but hey!!! Israel is LGBT friendly!! Go Israel!!
(Maybe this thread can be hot for better reasons)
I just donated to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund!
Here are some other reputable donation links and resources:
Palestine Red Crescent Society
Women's Peace and Humanitarian Fund
Women for Women International
Medical Aid for Palestinians