To have no illusions...

...To have no illusions.

To finally address, in some depth, what the real events have been like within Second Life during the course of demonstrations and vigils held in certain sims over the slaughter of Gazans over the period of Israeli bombing and occupation.

We have heard from many parties that we have done well, that vigils in sims such as SL Israel have been quite productive. Negative feedback has been fed toward those militant protestors (I’m not talking about the griefers) who found themselves in rather heated clashes with right wing Israel supporters. But very little has been said on the depth of the opposing side, that of the political right, or the apolitical bigots who frequent SL Israel.

As we all have heard from Ernest’s blog articles, there have been a substantial amount of people using derogatory slurs to verbally bash the protestors. These slurs have included sexist slurs, racist slurs, threats of violence toward protestors and Arabs to name a few. By far the worst of my experiences in SL Israel have happened very recently.

At first it was a standard unfounded attack which labelled all Arabs as terrorists. That is nothing new, the majority of people who go to SL Israel share this belief. However, as things went on, things got uglier. “Hagai Aeon: where r u from abel?” – “Abel Koskinen: And where I am from, why do you ask?” – “Hagai Aeon: i wonder what kind of shit hole you come from?” This in itself does not concern me, I’m no patriot, or a nationalist, I recognise my nation state to be a shit hole. However, we can see where this was going, luckily, it did not persist down this line.

“Bruce365 Helendale: abel - Bruce365 Helendale: ya sharmuta” For those who do not speak Hebrew, he just called me a whore. Completely unprovoked. “Abel Koskinen: So I'm a whore? - Abel Koskinen: For having a political opinion about a massacre performed by your nation's military...” – “Bruce365 Helendale: no, u take money for sex” So already, my worth to these people is nothing more than a prostitute, and they have no qualm with making sure I know it. We now move on to the objectional stance on the massacre of Gazans, “Sir Delicioso: Well you elect a terrorist organization, you reap what they sow.” In other words, Sir, along with these other persons there that night, believe that getting to Hamas justified 1300 dead civllians, 6000+ injured civilians, 44,000 destroyed homes, no infrastructure, starvation and imminent epidemics.

“Abel Koskinen: In my time coming here, I have been insulted more than I ever have at a muslim/arab sim.” Said to point out that much of the anti-muslim/arab propaganda is that they are oppressive and vile. And yet, I have only come across that when speaking to ‘Israelis’ at the SL Israel sim.

“Abel Koskinen: The hypocrit isn't the one defending the unarmed. The hypocrit is the one holding the smoking gun claiming, "It was defense!" – “Bruce365 Helendale: abel is a hypicrite, she's a bitch too, and yes we israelis give such whore like her names, cuz we dont like ppl like her :) make sence” – “Bruce365 Helendale: just pissed off on whores like abel” ... “babybabe Zsigmond: abel are you bored ?” – “Abel Koskinen: Why do you ask?” – “babybabe Zsigmond: go coock some lunch for your family” – “babybabe Zsigmond: abel do you want lm for orgy room ?” – “Abel Koskinen: No thanks, I don't fuck Nazis.” – “babybabe Zsigmond: oh no abel there are some hamass left there” – “babybabe Zsigmond: you can fuck hamass” – “babybabe Zsigmond: abel do you know what shakshuka is ?” – “Abel Koskinen: No, and frankly, I don't really care either.” – “babybabe Zsigmond: i will tell you how to coock shakshuka”

As you can see, the sexism just spews and spews and spews. The racism runs fairly rampant as well. But these people had far too much fun belittling me to what I said was “some pigs house-bitch.”

“babybabe Zsigmond: are you arab abel ?” – “Abel Koskinen: Is that any of your business?” – “babybabe Zsigmond: not my business but its your problem” – “Abel Koskinen: Being arab is a problem?” – “babybabe Zsigmond: sure it is” and now for the threats of violence. “benjo33 Alter: u just keep your dor locked” – “benjo33 Alter: fuck all the arabs supporters of shit” – “benjo33 Alter: in Israel - benjo33 Alter: we fuck your black uss and then u can say it” – “Hagai Aeon: come to israel abla we a part hide your skinny ass” – “benjo33 Alter: thay fuck me up my arabic shity uss” – “benjo33 Alter: dirty ling chity arabs” – “benjo33 Alter: to fuck tham up the palestinian dirty litel uss” – “benjo33 Alter: we will send our dogs to fuck the palestinians girl in they dirty uss”

Now, you might be wondering why I just plastered this in a blog post. Simply put: This is what the majority pro-israel support is like in Second Life. I have not had a single conversation with a Zionist that has not resorted to their use of such vile language and threats. This is the reason why when trying to reach out to people in Second Life, that you cannot do so in a hot bed of Right Wing bigotry. Nothing is achieved by it, and all you do is waste your time.

The other reason is to finally oust one, who has been praised by certain other members of the left through their dealings with her for being just and fair. Beth Odets. The person in charge of the SL Israel sim. She is without any illusions, just as right wing as the people who come to her sim, she however, is much less vocal. I do not believe this is a choice for her either. I believe that she avoids letting herself voice her opinions on the basis of the media spot light that will be thrown on her if she does.
So how can I possibly make this claim? Well it is not as if I have never spoken to her. She is someone who believes that indigenous people across the world, and Arab/Palestinians, have no right to have their land returned to them because – “I didn’t do anything, its my land, I don’t have to give it up.” – As I’ve said before, there is no giving up of anything really, but whatever, this is sort of beside the point. Beth Odets shows a complete complacency to the issue, and merely humours our protests there on the basis of the media attacks she may receive if she does not.

Today, I returned to SL Israel to participate in a vigil, one of the people from the previous night were there, and Beth Odets was also. There was a man beside me waving an old German flag apparently joking as he said “Put the wall back up! East Germany out of West Germany!” etc. I requested Beth eject this person as per the obviously disgusting statements. I was then informed it was a joke, nothing was done. I showed Beth my notecard logging the previous night’s conversation, asked her to hold those parties responsible and briefed what happened in the notecard.

The joking person began to call my sign Racist, it read: Israel, U.S.A, how many kids have you killed today? He claimed it was racist toward the Jews and Americans. I at first began to rebut, stating that Israel does not represent nor equate to Jews as a whole. However, I changed my tune and merely said I could not be stuffed having another fruitless conversation, and ended it with “You are a fucking idiot.”

It was at that point Beth Odets ejected me and banned me from the sim. Did I forget to mention she dragged her heels on the subject that I’d approached her with? About the racism, sexism and threats? She claimed they were silly on SL, and it went no further than that. I call a person a “fucking idiot.” And that warrants immediate banning.

It just goes to show that Beth Odets is no better than the counterparts who vomit their ridiculous bigotry across the SL Israel sim.

In closing: Consider this a demand to Beth to hold those parties accountable. Such favour toward those backwards elements is utterly disgusting, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Especially when you act on a single, off hand comment, that was perfectly justified, before acting on the utterly grotesque actions of people who frequent your sim.

Beth Odets is no friend of the left. Nor is she someone worth any praise.

Following persons should be remembered:
Beth Odets, Hagai Aeon, babybabe Zsigmond, Bruce365 Helendale, benjo33 Alter. Do not tolerate their disgusting positions.

Abel Koskinen, SL Internationalist Socialists writing for the SLLU.

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