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

  • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]
    hexbear
    8
    27 days ago

    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 [he/him]
      hexbear
      4
      26 days 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