this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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askchapo

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A question about Gaza (hexbear.net)
submitted 7 months ago by InevitableSwing@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
4 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

What do you think of the following terms?

  1. People of Gaza

  2. Gazans

I've been using "Gazans". It feels natural for me to use demonym even though "people of Gaza" has its supporters. For example - I assume Norman Finkelstein always uses "people of Gaza" and never "Gazans" in writing. And when he speaks it's probably the same.

A couple times in the bulletin stickies I used the non-term "West Bankers" because for me "Palestinians in the West Bank" is such an unnaturalistic mouthful.

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I wish there was a second form of double quotation marks just for text so it's clear the words in quotes aren't being used as "scare quotes" or in an "ironic" way.

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About the photo. It's from a 6 year-old article titled...

Gaza City in the spotlight: hesitant hope in a city where everyone still wants out

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[–] Dirt_Owl@hexbear.net 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I just say "Palestinians" because for some reason the western narrative refuses call them that in their headlines.

It's always "The Israel-Hamas war" or the "Israel-Gaza war"

Like nah, they're trying to exterminate the entire Palestinian people, no need to whitewash that.

[–] SteamedHamberder@hexbear.net 4 points 7 months ago

"Palestinians in Gaza" I think is most accurate and descriptive. I don't have an exact figure, but I think more than half are refugees from elsewhere in Palestine, displaced by ethnic cleansing during the Nakba. Even under the British mandate, the cities in the Gaza district were densely populated, with a little under 10% of the population of Palestine in the 1931 census

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Purely personally, i think either works. I like "people of" or "x people" because i think it removes a level of abstraction to actually say "people". Like i usually say " Jewish People" instead of Jews, or "Hadza People" instead of Hadza as I think it pre-empts dehumanization of the other.

Re: west bank, i'm trying to learn and remember which towns actually comprise the west bank but i'm not doing a very good job.

[–] tocopherol@hexbear.net 6 points 7 months ago

I think both are good, I generally say Palestinian people wherever they are, when referring to Gaza I'll say people in Gaza or Palestinians in Gaza. I know Gazans is fine to use but it feels weird to me to say, maybe because I don't hear it much.