I Want For You What You Want For The Palestinians

Caitlin Johnstone
3 min readJan 7, 2024

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Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

I want for you whatever you want for the Palestinians.

When I say I want for you what you want for the Palestinians, I mean what it is that you really, truly want for them. Not what you pretend to want for the Palestinians. Not what you say you want for the Palestinians when you’re in polite company, or when the cameras are on you, or when you’re posting online under your real name, or when you’re speaking publicly in a language other than Hebrew.

I mean I want for you what you actually, truthfully want for the Palestinians, in your own private personal inner world. I hope you receive whatever that is.

May you receive for yourself whatever it is you want the Palestinians to receive. If you are a good person with good intentions, what I just said is a blessing of the highest order. I am wishing you life and liberty and health and happiness. I am wishing you peace and harmony and human rights. I am wishing you self-sovereignty. I am wishing you the ability to live a long life in whatever way you choose to live it.

If you are a sick person, a depraved person, a sociopathic person who has other intentions toward the Palestinians, then I have just cursed you in the worst way imaginable. I have willed that the universe give you the very last things you could possibly want for yourself. And I mean it sincerely, from the bottom of my heart.

I think that’s fair. I think it is entirely appropriate that people should receive for themselves what they want for others. I think the extent of your good will toward your fellow man should come round to you in full, and I think the extent of your ill will should as well.

If what I am saying makes you feel uncomfortable, then perhaps this would be a good time for you to re-evaluate what you want for the Palestinians. Perhaps this would be a good time to assess whether your attitude toward Palestinian people is one of integrity, one which offers others the same regard with which you yourself would want to be regarded. One which truly treats others as you want to be treated. And perhaps it would be a good time to make some changes in yourself accordingly.

If you do not wish to make those changes, then perhaps this would be a good time to sincerely examine why that is. If you do not believe Palestinians ought to receive the same treatment that you yourself believe you should receive, perhaps you should elucidate for yourself exactly why that is. Perhaps you should elucidate it out loud, out in the open, under your own name, like an authentic human being.

In any case I again repeat: I want for you what you want for the Palestinians. May you receive in this life exactly what it is that you want for the Palestinians, deep down in your heart of hearts, whatever that might be. May you receive it in full, and may you receive it soon.

I offer this to you in all sincerity, whatever that might mean for you.

Amen.

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Featured image via Ahmed Abu Hameeda ahmed96 (CC0 1.0 Universal), formatted for size.

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