this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2023
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[–] rdri@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Settler colonialism is bad because it is slow ethnic cleansing, and ethnic cleansing is bad.

It is bad but you have to include context. The context may show that it may be not a cleansing at all.

This alone justifies armed resistance, but the settler colonialism is enforced by an apartheid system that treats Palestinians as less than Jewish settlers and restricts their access to their own land with checkpoints, walls, and armed guards. This justifies armed resistance even more.

Sigh. I want to support logic. I want to support countries who define such logic. But sometimes it's badly defined. When you say "apartheid justifies armed resistance" I want to agree, but why would anyone use it in real life when in real life it can interpreted as "if someone makes you homeless and surrounds you by fire in a 10x10 meters area, it is okay to take a knife and ask them to stop" AND "if someone builds something on an empty land that you thought was yours, it's okay to take rifles and kill anyone on a land they believe is theirs, to take hostages, break their limbs, spit on their bodies and sing songs about how glorious your god is while you fire missiles at an angle that roughly should land them on their cities"? This is why I asked for details.

That's bullshit lmao. Israel kills -> people die -> Israel must be stopped. The north during the civil war kills -> people die -> the union must be stopped. Americans kill germans and japanese people in ww2 -> people die -> the US must be stopped. See how I can also massively oversimplify the situation.

I needed to describe what I mean in more detail, sorry. Like I said, this is why I asked for details. My assumption in such logic chains is that the first object has no substance or meaningful reasons. Terrorism rarely has them, and this case is, in my opinion, is not much better. Unless Gaza has been bombed heavily first (unprovoked, which seems was never a case with Israel), it should not have reacted by planning that October 7 attack for months and possibly years.

There is data that show:

  • how it was not only military trained people who invaded Israel, it was quite ordinary Palestinians too, in good quantities.
  • how they shot anyone indiscriminately, including on a festival event, shooting even in every toilet stand, to not leave anyone alive.
  • how they called their parents and said something like "hey dad check WhatsApp, I sent you videos of how I killed jews, I'm calling you from the phone I took from them, I'm a hero" and getting a reply like "Allahu Akbar, kill them more".
  • how they faked a lot of videos with "victims" of Israel attacks.
  • etc.

And what do we have on Israel? The long territory dispute is not of my interest. I know it's very complex, and both parties have enough to support their claims on that land (Gaza refusing to do stuff properly, Israel paying for land etc.).

Apartheid? Gaza is quite tight, yes, but it's not exactly Kowloon. How exactly could they show the world that they badly need more land? Israel didn't destroy anything on a land before occupying/populating it, did they? Or do we have records of it doing basically the same terrorist stuff in order to capture a land that was never theirs?

Ethnic cleansing? You go and tell Israeli about that. Israel is populated by arabs who are welcomed to use arabic. At some point there were big populations of jews in arab countries, and now there is no such thing. Isn't that what would we call cleansing? I'm not seeing any record that would show Jews/Israeli are somehow driven by a desire to destroy a certain nation. There would be at least some emotion to it or something, but instead Israel's attacks seem instrumental and logical. It's the opposite with Gaza.

the hate is the horrific conditions they live in. Nothing else can come close to that.

I think I saw a Palestinian with dental crowns. I can imagine one or two countries live in much more horrific conditions.

How so. Shouldn't an oppresive state actor with backing from the US be held to a higher standard than a resistance movement consisting of a bunch of angry zoomers led by some rich guys in qatar? Yet if you look at the actual actions that they take, Israel tends to be worse in a lot of ways.

Not sure what you're talking about. Not seeing signs of Israeli army being overall incompetent.

You do however have to show me evidence that every single one of the hospitals and schools that Israel has bombed is a valid military target (spoiler alert: there is none in most cases), and explain why when Russia does it, its bad, but when Israel targets civilians, its fine actually and it isn't terrorism.

I'm not here to show such evidence, but my understanding and expectation is that Israel will proceed to be transparent about its actions, and will respond to war crime allegations properly, if not now then eventually. Because Israel is quite involved with other countries, is a part of the community that tries to be adequate and show this to everyone. This is where it's different from Russia. It's not Israel you should compare Russia to, it's Hamas. You wouldn't expect Palestinian terrorists to be judged properly because Gaza has neither institutions nor the will for that, and it's the same with Russian murderers.

Straight from the wikipedia page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_Charter#cite_ref-hoffman_18-6

doesn't mean Israel shouldn't at least try to negotiate for peace. If hamas keeps attacking, Israel has the military power to make things go right back to the way it was before. The reason Israel doesn't negotiate is because it isn't interested in peace, it is interested in cleansing all palestinians from the west bank and gaza and taking their land.

I don't think it's okay to put the burden on Israel while it should be Hamas who could show everyone they are not mindless monsters first. And again, I don't see any evidence that would show Israel has such intentions. If it did, it would be much more effective to spend all those resources on absolute destruction of Gaza years ago, instead of that expensive iron dome stuff. If it did, we'd see many more signs of intolerance. Perhaps most importantly, we'd see some kind of logic behind those intentions. And it doesn't seem at all that Israel needs that little extra land for any reason.

[–] neeshie@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It is bad but you have to include context. The context may show that it may be not a cleansing at all.

Gotcha yea. The context here is that Israel has explicitly stated that it wants to make jews an ethnic majority in certain areas of the West Bank, and in order to do this it has kicked Palestinians out so in this case it is ethnic cleansing.

I get what ur saying about wanting details, but the second case wouldn't be apartheid or ethnic cleansing if there weren't people there before. But yeah, I should have just elaborated first. Is the "armed guards, enforced separation, treated as less than settlers on their own land, regularly killed" enough?

Apartheid? Gaza is quite tight, yes, but it’s not exactly Kowloon. How exactly could they show the world that they badly need more land?

Apartheid more accurately describes the West Bank imo, Gaza is more like one long ongoing war crime. The blockade is collective punishment. It prevents Palestinians from receiving certain medical care, and there's shortages of a ton of things. I know of people who have been banned from lifesaving cancer treatment due to the blockade and have died.

Israel didn’t destroy anything on a land before occupying/populating it, did they?

Are we talking when they first started occupying, or are we talking closer to now? Because yes in both cases they do destroy stuff. They have always burned down villages if they didn't want them to be there. At first they planted trees on top of them to completely erase any traces of it, I don't know if they still do that. I don't think they burned down as much stuff in Gaza, but settlers destroyed some of the stuff in Gaza as they were being pulled out, and Israel bulldozed their airport before that. You have to keep in mind that this was a populated area, Israel forced Palestinians out and build their own stuff on top of it.

And in the west bank, they literally just went in and destroyed roads, monuments, and water infrastructure for the fun of it.

At some point there were big populations of jews in arab countries, and now there is no such thing. Isn’t that what would we call cleansing?

Yes, it was horrific. However the correct response to that is not to ethnically cleanse different people, it's a military intervention to stop the ethnic cleansing.

I’m not seeing any record that would show Jews/Israeli are somehow driven by a desire to destroy a certain nation.

Jews definitely aren't. If anyone says that, they're antisemitic and the proper response is to punch them in the face. Israeli politicians on the other hand, have made it very clear that they intend to have 1 Israeli state with a Jewish majority encompassing all of Palestine. Some Israelis have gone as far as to say they want Lebanon too, which is completely ridiculous because Hezbollah would kick their asses.

I think I saw a Palestinian with dental crowns. I can imagine one or two countries live in much more horrific conditions.

I'm sure if there was a clear cause for their suffering, they would hate that cause much more than the Palestinians have been taught to hate Israel.

Not sure what you’re talking about. Not seeing signs of Israeli army being overall incompetent.

Are we talking about incompetence or the moral standard we hold armies to, I'm confused. If you're worried about incompetence, I'd say October 7th was a sign that it's incompetent, as well as its loss against Hezbollah in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war (Battle of Bint Jbeil, 5,000 IDF soldiers lost to 150 Hezbollah fighters).

but my understanding and expectation is that Israel will proceed to be transparent about its actions, and will respond to war crime allegations properly, if not now then eventually.

Your understanding is wrong unfortunately. Israel commits war crimes all the time and gets away with it. It admitted to killing journalists (with a sniper, not an airstrike). I'm gonna point to the great march of return again. They killed marked medics and children as young as 2 with sniper fire. This is a war crime. In fact they tend to not provide any evidence that their bombing targets are valid military targets.

In fact, because Hamas rockets usually kill so few, and countries have a responsibility during war to not harm civilians and civilian infrastructure in excess of the military advantage expected, I would argue that almost every single Israeli airstrike before October 7th, and most of them afterwards, is also a war crime, even if there were rockets there. And Amnesty International agrees.

I don’t think it’s okay to put the burden on Israel while it should be Hamas who could show everyone they are not mindless monsters first.

Gotcha, and I saw the part about Hamas wanting to destroy Israel. I think back in 1948 Israel showed the Palestinians how horrific they were, but Palestinians were still willing to come to the table since then, so I don't think Israel can use the october 7th excuse.

If Israel genuinely wants to seek a 2 state solution, and negotiating with Hamas is off the table (I still think its worth a try, but regardless), then they should start by improving conditions in the west bank, getting rid of checkpoints, withdrawing all of the settlers, etc. That would show Palestinians that actually peaceful negotiation can work, and Hamas's support would collapse and Israel could negotiate with someone else from Gaza.

Or alternatively, they could turn themselves into a secular state instead of an ethnostate. This would also improve conditions in the west bank, it would satisfy the PLO (which includes the PFLP and Fatah), and ultimately it would also result in Hamas's support collapsing.

They've done neither of these, instead building more and more settlements in the west bank, showing that they aren't interested in peace, and leaving Palestinians with only Hamas/PIJ/PFLP/DFLP/Fatah(militant wing) as options for their liberation.

Edit: holy crap these comments are getting long af lol