We, the admin team, decry all forms of settler-colonialism, and we recognize that Zionism is a pro-settler-colonialist position.

Therefore we propose that should no longer be accepting of any Zionist accounts on our instances.

Please upvote for agree, downvote for disagree.

Note: we only count votes by instance members of dbzer0 and anarchist.nexus, plus a few vouched-for external users.

Hi mateys, I’ve kept things simple in the above text, for brevity, but in fact it took the admin team quite a while to get to this stage. We have discussed the policy change extensively, and a variety of different perspectives emerged. I will attempt to sum them up below as best I can:

  • The “this isn’t that complicated” school of thought goes something like this: If someone is consistently posting comments that mirror Hasbara talking points (e.g. justifying the genocide in Gaza, consistently painting Palestinians as terrorists and Israel as the victim), then they should be instance banned. It’s just not acceptable for Zionists to be allowed on our instances.

  • The “slippery slope” / “purity test” school of thought is that banning people for having an “unpopular” political opinion would potentially mean banning half the fediverse, if more and more of these policies were enacted over time. To attempt to mitigate this we are keeping the scope of this rule as narrow as possible, and I also don’t think many of our users will be affected. Also, we typically don’t have frequent policy changes, and I have no reason to expect that to change moving forward.

  • Another important discussion point was “how do we decide whether someone is pro-Zionist or not?” We can’t always be 100% sure of someone’s true intentions, we can only go on what they have posted and that is subject to interpretation. I don’t feel there is an easy answer to this one, except to say that we would have to be pretty certain before issuing a perma-ban.

  • The “geopolitics don’t matter” school of thought is that trying to be on the “correct” side of every issue is kind of pointless because nothing that happens in lemmy chat forums will ever make an ounce of difference in the real world. Don’t bother moderating users over political/ideological differences, just let people argue if they want. While I can totally empathize with this sentiment, I can also see the case for taking a clear stance on this topic in accordance with our values and the overwhelming support for the Palestinian cause among our users. Personally, I am advocating in favor of the resolution.

Please add your comments below if you want to provide your own thoughts on the topic, or have any questions.

expiry: 7

  • /0 Bot@lemmy.dbzer0.comMB
    668·
    3 days ago

    Acknowledged governance topic opened by https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/u/flatworm7591 Early Bird: a parrot, orangered colors Jolly Roger: an icon of pirate jolly roger skull wearing a hat, in orange-red, black and white colors A book with a loaf of bread in the cover in orange-red, black and white colors Deck Hand: An icon of anchor crossed with two staves in orange-red, black and white colors First Mate: a pirate ship's steering wheel, orangered color

    This is a simple majority vote. The final tally is as follows:

    • For: First Mate: a pirate ship's steering wheel, orangered color (5), Vouched: a minimalist compass icon. Orangered color (4), MVP: a star icon, in orange-red, black and white colors (1), Threadiverse Enjoyer: An icon of a doubloon with a black hole in the center in orange-red, black and white colors (1), Deck Hand: An icon of anchor crossed with two staves in orange-red, black and white colors (2), Powder Monkey: An icon of powder barrel in orange-red, black and white colors (2)
    • Against: Threadiverse Enjoyer: An icon of a doubloon with a black hole in the center in orange-red, black and white colors First Mate: a pirate ship's steering wheel, orangered color Deck Hand: An icon of anchor crossed with two staves in orange-red, black and white colors
    • Local Community: +2.6
    • Outsider sentiment: Supportive
    • Total: +14.6
    • Percentage: 85.00%

    This vote has concluded on 2026-01-02 00:56:51 UTC

    Reminder that this is a pilot process and results of voting are not set in stone.

  • Puddinghelmet@lemmy.world
    102·
    5 days ago

    Maybe with a warning before banning them because you can’t decide what someone’s intentions are, but things like dehumanization, justifying genocide, hate speech, intimidation, and actively spreading misinformation, those are areas where you can create relatively clear and objective moderation rules. I’m deffo for that, let’s keep this platform smart and fair

  • lemonmelon@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    1512·
    5 days ago

    Dead set against.

    To expand on that statement, I wholly agree that certain points of view have no place here or anywhere else for that matter. What I am opposed to is codifying what seems to me to be a weak definition of a term. That is a recipe for creating an oppressive tool that can be used to crush discourse.

    Do we not already have ample policy in place to deal with the offensive parties without the need for further rules that are primed for misuse?

    Additionally, your opening sentences read as very hierarchical and your initial decision to set a short expiry comes across as an attempt to sneak in a change under the radar.

    I personally feel that you should take at least a short break as an admin of the instance.

  • Mattes@piefed.worldEnglish
    71·
    6 days ago

    Hello! I have a question regarding Zionism.

    I’ve successfully avoided the topic so far, and my opinion is, very boiled down, that both Israel and Palestine have a right to exist, as their own distinct people and states.

    Does that make me a Zionist? Would I be banned under this new policy? I’m genuinely not sure, as I’ve not researched into this topic at all.

    • Clot@lemmy.zipEnglish
      62·
      6 days ago

      No, israel shouldnt exist at all. It should all be palestine and palestinians must be allowed to return from where they were expelled by zionists. It all should be one state with equal rights for all (ofcourse that includes jews).

    • YTG123@sopuli.xyz
      121·
      6 days ago

      Not from this instance as well, but I think the distinction would be as to whether you think that Israel should exist at the expense of the Palestinians (not just Gaza and the West Bank, but the refugee crisis dating back to 1948 and possibly before).

      If you recognize that both Israel and Palestine are already here, and that both represent national identities (not necessarily countries) that are, at present, as legitimate as any other one (regardless of their history), I think that’s just pragmatic and wouldn’t make you a Zionist.

      Feel free to correct me!

    • mathemachristian [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      115·
      6 days ago

      “Israel” is an apartheid state that has been genociding palestinians for almost a century now. Putting them both on equal footing is zionist, but I don’t know if the db0 moderation sees it this way as well obviously. The land “Israel” occupies is palestinian land. It was stolen from them, it needs to be returned.

      • cassandrafatigue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        83·
        6 days ago

        More than land, you have to ask what “Israeli” is, and there’s no substance there but atrocities. They don’t have their own cuisine, not even a conquisine like Thailand, they don’t have a real language, they don’t have a big sports culture, their music is all about exterminating the brutes, their art is all about atrocities² and how they’re cool to do/justified, and all their unique cultural practices are around atrocities. More than giving the land back, even if everyone it could plausibly be given to was dead, the very concept of an “Israeli” would need to go-like their forebears in the confederate States of America and Germany’s third Reich, or their brothers in Rhodesia before them³.

        ³the Confederates and Nazis at least emerged from and were attached to actual cultures, had associated cuisine at the very least. Fried chicken and sweet tea, sausages and beer. Rhodesians and Zionists lack even that.

        ²seriously I’ve looked at a lot of art by seriously fucked up monsters, and none of it was as fucked or unable to stay off themes of murder as literally every Zionist artist I’ve ever seen the work of

        ¹bullshit conlang bastardizations do not count

        • bungalowtill@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          12·
          5 days ago

          Yeah, at least the Nazis had a national cuisine… This is exactly why this suggestion should never had happened.

          wtf dbzer0 what kind of bigots do you want to attract?

            • bungalowtill@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              1·
              5 days ago

              yeah? that‘s weird, cause it‘s not apparent to me, maybe you wanna go there and explain how this crazy hate against a whole populace (even steeping as low as accusing them of not having a proper language or fucking cuisine!) is cool and questioning it makes me the Nazi.

              Bring it on

  • Venia Silente@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    193·
    6 days ago

    Zionists. Nazis. Corporationists. Accelerationists.

    All are the same shit, and for them, you have my axe, and my willingness to practice axe combat at their necks.

    Hopefully congratulations on taking a clear stance and on willing to at least acknowledge that in case of deep questioning one can safely fall back to Rule #0 of the internet (“we’ll know it when we see it”).

    • mrdown@lemmy.world
      3·
      5 days ago

      Palestinians need a place to go. Israel is currently trying to wipe up palestinian from the land

    • mathemachristian [he/him]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      41·
      5 days ago

      Pissrael isn’t safe for jews as the lost generation of mizrahi jews and the forcibly sterilized ethiopian jewish women can attest.

      Creating a safe place for jews does not necessitate, and in fact is contradicted by, the creation of a settler-colonialist apartheid ethnostate.

      Zionists have actually stoked antisemitism in europe in the hopes of forcing them to commit aaliyah. Please read some historical documents like Herzl’s “mauscheljuden” article. Please look into why holocaust survivors in Pissrael have died in abject poverty.

      Zionism is to judaism, what conquistadors are to christianity. It’s “manifest destiny”, it’s “lebensraum”, it’s “rhodesia”, it’s the same settler colonialist type project that the banks of the 17-19th century kept starting all over the globe.

    • Clot@lemmy.zipEnglish
      81·
      6 days ago

      why jewish people need to go somewhere? they should just stay wherever they are?

        • Clot@lemmy.zipEnglish
          111·
          6 days ago

          Nothing like that happens. Jews arent some exception to how other minorities are treated in different countries. This jewish exceptionalism is dangerous. If they are being mistreated maybe they along with other progressive forces of the said nation demand safety and rights instead of going on someone else’s land doing bloodshed there.

            • Clot@lemmy.zipEnglish
              9·
              6 days ago

              Well the place I live at also has different kind of minorities who are mistreated horribly. I dont think they should go somewhere else. That just means you didnt fought the hate, you just fled away. This notion that israel is safe place for jews is dangerous as actions of israel can be directly linked to the rise of anti jewish sentiment.

    • stray@pawb.social
      52·
      6 days ago

      Maybe if the Jewish people need a safe place to go we could voluntarily give them some of our own land instead of stealing it from other people?

  • 野麦さん@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    155·
    5 days ago

    Ban the motherfuckers, I’m tired of seeing Zios post their apologia and propaganda all over the internet anyways. People hand wringing about it in the comments need to shut the fuck up and read the god damn code of conduct.

    One thing I’ll say is that this’ll probably put more load on the admins, so I hope y’all have factored that in. It’ll be well worth the effort in my opinion, both to protect our m@teys (did that ever take off?) at large as well as our Muslim, Arab, and Levantine friends.

  • vomitaur@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    161·
    6 days ago

    i tell openly zionist people (in the meat space) to shut the fuck up. people posting zionist crap online like to think they are wearing some kind of mask or shield of anonymity, but that just means to me they need to be told to shut the fuck up HARDER.

    ban em, boil em.

  • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
    37·
    4 days ago

    There’s a difference between neozionism, those that want to continue carrying out colonialist activities, and postzionism, those that don’t. If you don’t want to establish a difference between the two, you might as well ban the entirety of American users as well as many other countries. From the sounds of it, you want to focus on neozionist mirroring Hasbara talking points, so you should make the distinction. Otherwise I’m just going to assume you are picking the flip side of the same coin and are really trying to sneak an Israel shouldn’t exist stance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evIyrrjTTY

    Frankly, I don’t care whether it is Israel or Palestine, I just don’t think savagery is solved by savagery from the other guy, and there are plenty of Muslims that march along with plenty of Jews for peace in the region and for Palestinian rights without calling for the toppling the existing state and the bloodshed that would inevitably ensue from it.

  • curbstickle@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    8·
    6 days ago

    Crap, I voted twice. Didn’t realize nexus counted (because I apparently skipped that part the first time I read it) and switched to my db0 to vote.

    Which is how I got the reminder, again, that I forgot about the afaq read (damnit self).

    Brb fixing stupid/bad reading comprehension.