Call to Action
I will get right to the point: the Palestinian mass killing has to stop. The American government has the power to stop it almost immediately. To that end, I want to propose a collaboration on a project.
The goal of this project is to make it easier for people, mainly those in the West, to relate to the Palestinian plight and to mobilize them with a concrete set of actions that will pressure their governments and the Israeli government to end this. A relatable message and a call to action if you will.
The Message:
In order to frame the Palestinian plight in terms that are more familiar to the West, the idea is to portray the Americans as the Palestinians and the Israelis as the Native Americans in an alternative timeline, played out by countryballs on a 2D map of the world.
In this timeline, the British conquer North America, where some Native Americans remain but most leave for Asia. After a few hundred years, the Europeans who settle in North America and live together with the remaining Native Americans become Americans, with roots in that land stretching back generations.
By 1880, the Native Americans begin migrating back to North America because they are being persecuted in Asia. From here on out, the story plays out exactly like the real life events, with the Americans confined to the states of California (Gaza) and Montana (West Bank), or to other states if different proportions are desired.
As the countryballs enact the conflict between the Americans (Palestinians) and Native Americans (Israelis) from 1880 to 2025, a sidebar infographic on the right is updated as events unfold. This infographic shows the outcomes of the conflict in terms of military and civilian casualties, as well as numbers related to administrative detention and kidnappings over the decades.
As the animation ends with recent events, the viewers can be confronted with three to five questions framed from the Palestinian side, unlike the mainstream media, which almost always presents the Israeli perspective:
1. Is it fair what the Native Americans did to the Americans, even if they had a historical claim to the land?
2. Do the Americans have a right to defend themselves?
3. How should the Americans have responded to decades of occupation and abuse?
4. If you were born as an American in those circumstances, what would you do to free yourself, your family, and your fellow countrymen from that state?
5. Do you condemn the Native Americans for their overall actions and treatment of the Americans over the decades?
In my opinion, the animations should be around four to five minutes long if possible. By using this approach, it becomes possible to convey, in a simple, short, and clear manner, the actions of each party and the results of those actions. Perhaps when confronted with this information in that context, people will begin to realize how wrong, unfair, and disproportionate the actions of Israel have been over the decades.
I also have some additional ideas for increasing the impact and weight of this project. One of them is to reach out to credible experts on this subject and show them the countryball reenactments of the events since 1880. If they agree that the reenactment accurately represents history, we could then ask them to allow their names to appear on the project’s page, stating that they vouch for the information being conveyed in the animation.
Call to action:
This part is more complicated, and I have not yet come up with a concrete plan. One possibility is to ask the viewer: if they agree that what is happening is wrong and they want to help stop it, they can look at resources provided by the project. These resources would show them how they can contribute to putting pressure on the Israeli government by denying any items or services that are used in Gaza until the mass killing comes to a complete stop. This would send a clear and tangible message to the government of Israel that the people of the world will not stand by as war crimes are committed.
The best practical example that comes to mind is organizing dock workers and instructing them not to handle any cargo going in or out of Israel that could be used in Gaza to continue the atrocities. People in other sectors could also refuse to provide services or produce goods for Israel related to the Gaza problem.
It ultimately comes down to identifying which jobs can apply pressure in these ways, connecting and organizing the people in those jobs, and giving them a clear set of actions. We cannot just wait for the compromised governments of the world to act, we must act ourselves. Perhaps if enough people participate and the impact of these actions grows significant, politicians will feel forced to respond accordingly.
Contact info:
If you think this project has potential, agree with its goal, and have the skills or resources required to make it happen, please contact me at the following email address: DemosKratosMundi@proton.me