Clive Gabay
@clivesg.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.4K following 280 posts
Writes stuff: Jewishness, Zionism, Race, Pol/Soc Theory, SWANA Jews. Teach at QMUL: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/politics/staff/profiles/gabayclive.html Drum. Sometimes some bass too. Is this the chill-out room?
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clivesg.bsky.social
Probably making the full-time move over here, so hi everyone! Currently trying to get my book published, which is about Jewish grammars of anti-colonial world making. More details soon!
Reposted by Clive Gabay
kendrawrites.com
Al Jazeera is doing videos of the Palestinian releases and they're heart wrenching. One man was detained for over a year and was released to find out that Israel had killed his two kids. The youngest was three. Her birthday would've been on Saturday. He'd made a small bracelet for her in prison.
Reposted by Clive Gabay
clivesg.bsky.social
This is why the "Jews aren't white" discourse is so batshit. Whiteness is possibly the most socially constructed of the racial categories, given how many groups move in and out of it over time. It doesn't matter what Jews look like, if Jews are group-racialised based on their ascribed Jewishness.🧵
diplomatofnight.com
And in fact all racialized structures are arbitrary, they're just not necessarily on the axis of skin color. In the case of Israel it is on the axis of Jewishness vs non-Jewishness. This is why the Mizrahi, or "Arab Jew" and the Ethiopian or "Black Jew" both are advantaged over all non-Jews.
clivesg.bsky.social
So, Israel is a racial state, no group, Jews included, are a race, and so when Zionists claim (and it's almost *always* Zionists) that Jews aren't white, they're right, but for the wrong reasons. End.
clivesg.bsky.social
At the same time, Israel does also operate according to more familiar racial binaries. It is true that white Israeli Jews have better life outcomes on average than black or brown Jews and that the latter experience discrimination. But *all* of these Jews have better life outcomes than Palestinians.
clivesg.bsky.social
Israel defends itself from accusations of racism by pointing to its 'multi-racial' character. But Israel is a fully racial state, it just draws its racial categories differently. This can happen because as Cedric Robinson explained, racism is "deadly and slick".
clivesg.bsky.social
Similarly, Zionist figures such as Arthur Ruppin and Raphael Patai went to great lengths to try and discern a Jewish racial type in the 1930s and 1940s. Despite their efforts, both men resorted to extreme racial slurs and/or stereotypes to describe black and brown Jews - brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com
clivesg.bsky.social
One fact that unites Nazis and pre-state Zionists? Both were confounded by the existence of black & brown Jews. Persian Jews living in France during WW2 were exempted from the death camps based on appeals to their racial difference from 'real' Jews - encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/a...
Abdol Hossein Sardari (1895–1981) | Holocaust Encyclopedia
Iranian diplomat Abdol Hossein Sardari gave critical assistance to Iranian Jews in occupied France (1940-1944) to protect them from Nazi persecution.
encyclopedia.ushmm.org
clivesg.bsky.social
Of course, by the standards of European and US race discourse Jews would be one of the most obvious examples of a racialised group to demonstrate the social construction of race. This is because people who identify as Jews look like people in almost every single part of the world.
clivesg.bsky.social
This is why the "Jews aren't white" discourse is so batshit. Whiteness is possibly the most socially constructed of the racial categories, given how many groups move in and out of it over time. It doesn't matter what Jews look like, if Jews are group-racialised based on their ascribed Jewishness.🧵
diplomatofnight.com
And in fact all racialized structures are arbitrary, they're just not necessarily on the axis of skin color. In the case of Israel it is on the axis of Jewishness vs non-Jewishness. This is why the Mizrahi, or "Arab Jew" and the Ethiopian or "Black Jew" both are advantaged over all non-Jews.
clivesg.bsky.social
"Siege starvation is a military tactic that selectively targets civilians, beginning with the frail, sick, and poor...scholars of mass starvation have long found that wherever famine unfolds, it threatens not just individual lives but also a society’s way of life" jewishcurrents.org/famines-long...
Famine's Long Shadow
Even if food is surged into Gaza today, the history of weaponized mass starvation shows that the social aftershocks will reverberate for generations.
jewishcurrents.org
clivesg.bsky.social
This selective outrage is conditioned by racism. Jewish life is held to be more valuable than other racialised forms of life. This isn't the fault of the Jewish victims of racist violence, but the broader structures of euro-Christian white supremacy that has rendered Jewish life as less expendable.
clivesg.bsky.social
No, these events aren't the same, but a woman was raped 2 weeks ago in a racist attack and there were no newspaper columns or flags at half mast. This isn't to suggest that there shouldn't be national outrage at racist violence, but to point to the highly selective nature of the outrage expressed.
Reposted by Clive Gabay
netpol.org
A force once infamous for collaborating with loyalist terrorists in the north of Ireland, today out on the streets of London arresting sign holders for "terrorism"
defendourjuries.bsky.social
BREAKING: Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) arrest protestors in Trafalgar Square, London, for holding signs which say they oppose genocide and support Palestine Action.
Reposted by Clive Gabay
diplomatofnight.com
It'll never be lost on me that a particular subset of the liberal commentariat in both North America and Western Europe were deeply infatuated with this woman up until the very moment she decided to talk about that one issue you're still basically not allowed to talk about lol.
paultlevin.bsky.social
““They dragged little Greta [Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others,” the Turkish activist ErsinÇelik, a participant in the Sumud flotilla, told Anadolu news agency.”+
Israel accused of detaining Greta Thunberg in infested cell and making her hold flags
Activist tells Swedish officials she has been subjected to harsh treatment, including insufficient food and water
www.theguardian.com
clivesg.bsky.social
Read the interview in this piece with Hamas’s head of international and legal relations Mousa Abu Marzouq, and tell me again that Hamas is an irrational, nihilistic terror organisation with which no negotiation is possible.
clivesg.bsky.social
The people heckling David Lammy in Manchester today to "go back to Palestine" are not some kind of 'gotcha'. Lammy wouldn't have been able to speak without the community's consent. It's also highly likely that the event was crashed by EDL-adjacent Zionists.
Reposted by Clive Gabay
bengidley.bsky.social
Statement from Syrian NGOs on yesterday’s attack, including Manchester-based Rethink Rebuild Society.

www.rrsoc.org/node/1746

syrianbritish.org/statement-fr...

Cc @sundersays.bsky.social @syrianotes.bsky.social
Statement from the Syrian Community in the UK on the Tragic Attack in Crumpsall
3rd October 2025

The Syrian community in the United Kingdom extends its deepest condolences to the Jewish community in Manchester and across the UK following today's tragic stabbing at a synagogue in Crumpsall. We are horrified by this attack, and we stand in full solidarity with our Jewish neighbours as they grieve. That such violence was carried out in a sacred place of worship, and on Yom Kippur-the holiest day of the Jewish year—makes this tragedy all the more painful.
We stress unequivocally that houses of worship must remain places of peace, safety, and sanctity, never targets of hate or violence. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families, and the Jewish community during this most difficult time.
As Syrians, we know this pain all too well. For over 15 years, Syrians of all faiths have endured devastating attacks on mosques, churches, and sacred spaces. We have buried loved ones, mourned in silence, and lived with the scars. Violence against innocent people especially in places of worship—is something we stand firmly against, wherever it happens.
At this stage, no one within our Syrian community networks—neither within nor beyond Manchester-has been able to identify the individual involved in this attack or confirm knowing him personally.
We appeal to our wider society not to allow this tragedy to give rise to racist incidents directed at Syrians, Muslims, or migrants. Violence must not be met with further division or hatred. At the same time, we hope this incident will not be misused to impose restrictions on freedom of expression—particularly the right to peacefully protest and speak out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The Syrian community stands alongside the Jewish community in rejecting violence, and we recommit ourselves to building a society where every community can live in dignity, security, and mutual trust.
clivesg.bsky.social
We've been watching the live-streamed destruction of whole families for 2 years. Palestinians have all lost people/know people who have lost people. Disgraceful but predictable of the British State to use one outrage to suppress dissent against another. The hierarchy of human life on full show.
kevinschofied.bsky.social
NEW: Home secretary Shabana Mahmood urges pro-Palestine protesters to consider not taking part in marches this weekend.

"Imagine if you lost a loved one to a terror attack in this country ... sometimes a little unity, a little solidarity, some love to other people is required"
Reposted by Clive Gabay
declassifieduk.org
The UK has trained 28 Israeli military personnel at the Royal College of Defence Studies since 2000, the government admits.

#DCUKparliament
clivesg.bsky.social
As Yom Kippur ends, two Jews in Manchester join 12 Palestinians murdered at a food distribution centre in Gaza as victims of this genocide. May all their memories be a blessing.
clivesg.bsky.social
It's incredible how far gone these loons are. No appreciation for the antisemitic traditions they are reproducing.
benlorber8.bsky.social
Last year Rabbi Ammi Hirsch, pro-Israel mouthpiece & head of a storied Reform shul in Manhattan, called anti-Zionist Jews like myself 'emotionally damaged' in his Yom Kippur sermon. This Rosh Hashanah he railed against the mouthy, weak-kneed morally depraved “diaspora Jew”. Goebbels would be proud
clivesg.bsky.social
Zohran Mamdani showing again that it is possible to be ahead in the polls and talk like a human being at the same time.
zohrankmamdani.bsky.social
As Netanyahu addresses the United Nations in New York City this morning, the world recoils in horror at the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
This morning, Benjamin Netanyahu will address the United Nations — an institution which has concluded his government is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. He arrived in New York after a flight that added hours to its path to circumvent the airspace of countries which might enforce the International Criminal Court's warrant for his arrest. During the course of his speech, another Palestinian child will undoubtedly be killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, as they have been every single hour for nearly two years. 

Eric Adams will greet Netanyahu as a friend. Andrew Cuomo proudly served on his legal defense team. Both have jockeyed for the approval of Donald Trump, who has sent billions of our taxpayer dollars to support these war crimes.

A Mayor cannot end these atrocities. But they can speak for the values of this city: a commitment to human rights for all people, including Palestinians, and a yearning for peace and justice. Even if those values are anathema to those in power now, they will endure.