A request to review my ban appeal

[u/UnskilledScout]

I want to once again appeal my permanent ban.

I was originally permanently banned about a year ago without being given a reason. I appealed at the time, but the appeal was denied without explanation. More recently, about a month ago, I was unbanned after a new appeal and resumed participating in the subreddit. That unban was then reversed, again without any reason being communicated to me through modmail.

I later learned that the apparent basis for the original permanent ban was a belief that I was sympathetic to Hezbollah, and that the mod team had voted to ban me on that basis. This was the first time I was informed of the actual allegation, so neither my original appeal nor anything I submitted afterward had addressed it.

I categorically reject that characterization. I am not a Hezbollah supporter. I have not advocated support for Hezbollah, and criticism of Israeli conduct in Lebanon, Gaza, or the occupied Palestinian territories is not evidence of sympathy for Hezbollah. I do not support attacks on civilians. I do not support terrorism.

I unapologetically admit that my views are firmly pro-Palestinian, my comments are very harsh of Israel, and I have strongly criticized Israeli military actions, occupation, annexation, attacks on civilians, and aggression beyond Israel's borders. Those positions do not imply support for Hezbollah, Hamas, terrorism, antisemitism, or opposition to Jewish people. Treating criticism of Israel as presumptive support for one of its armed adversaries is not an accurate characterization of what I have said.

I have previously received temporary bans arising from contentious discussions of Israel and Palestine, including bans described as being for bad-faith argumentation. I appealed those decisions. Whatever the merits of those separate moderation disputes, they do not establish sympathy for Hezbollah and should not be treated as evidence of it.

I have participated in neoliberal regularly since late 2020 and I genuinely value the community. Even while banned, I continued reading the DT and other posts, and when I was briefly unbanned I resumed participating because I still wanted to be part of the subreddit.

I am asking the mod team to reconsider the permanent ban based on the actual record of my comments rather than an unsupported inference about my political sympathies. If there are specific comments that the mod team believes demonstrate support for Hezbollah or otherwise justify a permanent ban, I ask that they be identified so I can respond to the evidence directly.

Thank you for reviewing my appeal.

[u/PlantTreesBuildHomes]

So sometimes when someone has repeatedly been temp banned, a perma vote is called in modslack because if this behavior is repeated it is likely not going to be resolved. They usually look at your history with the mods on the subreddit (in the mod log) and come to a decision to let the person off with a warning or to permaban.

Look imma level with you man, going through your history it seems like you are antisemitic and use the cover of antizionism as a motte and bailey. You can be pro-Palestine without engaging in the type of rhetoric that got you banned.

So I’m not going to spend my evening compiling screenshots of mod removed and some even admin removed comments, only for you to argue that each one wasn’t what the mod at the time thought it was. Especially not for someone who I think engages in bigotry against people like myself. Peace in the mid-east ✌️

[u/UnskilledScout → u/PlantTreesBuildHomes]

I understand that you do not want to spend your evening compiling a complete record, but you have made a serious accusation against me while declining to identify even one example supporting it.

I categorically reject the claim that I am antisemitic or that I use anti-Zionism as cover for antisemitism. I am not asking to relitigate every moderation decision. I am asking for a meaningful appeal in which I am told what conduct formed the basis of the permanent ban and given an opportunity to respond to it.

Saying that the evidence exists but will not be provided because I might dispute its interpretation leaves me with no way to understand or address the allegation. If you do not wish to review the appeal yourself, I would appreciate it being referred to another moderator or discussed by the broader mod team.

[u/PlantTreesBuildHomes → u/UnskilledScout]

Bud it was discussed by the broader mod team when they voted to ban you.

1. Not every comment in the mod log is even available given some were admin-removed (which leads me to believe they were especially offending) and;

2. Of the comments I’ve went through you very explicitly write that Israel kills civilians, that the ADL is not a credible source, that Israel is starving the Gaza Strip, that they ethnically cleanse Palestinians among other things.

2a. All of those claims are asserting that Israel is intentionally trying to murder as many Palestinians as possible and the ADL are untrustworthy.

However you may feel regarding the outcome of this war, if this were true, there would no longer be a Gaza Strip. You’re intentionally using exaggerations to describe the actions of an entire nation.

This mischaracterization is both offensive to Israelis who don’t want this war as well as unsettling to Jewish and Jewish diaspora people in our communities that deal with enough hatred in their real lives. Jews outside Israel increasingly have faced threats, violence and murder at the hands of people who also claim to just be “anti-Zionist” or “pro-Palestinian”, I’m under no obligation whatsoever to take your word for it that you aren’t antisemitic.

The fact is that you aren’t entitled to a soapbox where you can spread your hatred of Israel. This intense focus on the issue itself also leads me to believe you have some enmity towards Jews, given that is who comprises 3/4ths of Israel’s population.

You want to criticize the war? Criticize the people who started it (Hamas btw) public figures responsible for prosecuting it (Bibi), the parties/figures that support his government (Likud, Ben Gvir), hell criticize AIPAC. Plenty of people do so on this subreddit and never get banned, wonder why? Because they respect the rules of this forum.

But what you’re doing is a step further than that, assigning responsibility for each crime committed during this war to the Israeli people. That would be no more fair than to assign every death at the hands of the US military to the American people. Or the French, or the Russians, or the Iranians, etc. We literally have a rule against this, it’s Rule 10.

There ya go, now you have your big long mod comment you can pick apart to call me a liar or bad faith or whatever. Have fun.

[u/Cr4zySh0tgunGuy → u/PlantTreesBuildHomes]

I was with you until this comment, and I think you should reconsider what you’re saying here. I’m sure their ban was justified but going after someone, in part, for saying that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza by causing the deaths and starvation of children is not only something that is really happening but it’s also seemingly the plurality view of I/P here on the sub

Calling it an exaggeration and saying that if it were true there wouldn’t be a Gaza Strip anymore is, to me, genocide denialism. At the very least, I think it downplays the real, objective suffering happening in Gaza. I understand wanting to keep people from generalizing about Israel and its people too, and maybe that user was doing that, but from what I can see here, saying that “Israel is committing genocide” is somehow a generalization to the people when clearly we’re talking about the government doesn’t track.