291–300 of 1001 posts
Israel does not allow international journalists in and it's fairly obvious why.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
An interesting thing in this case then is to see how these mind-changers are treating the people who called it correctly from the beginning. Is there any mea culpa, any contrition for the lives they could have saved by acting earlier? apologies for the protestors they attacked, the movements they painted as antisemitic? Anything learned for the future. We all had the same information after all.
What do you imagine that mea culpa to look like? Personally I don’t see it being a case of one side of protesters being “right” and “wrong”. I just think Israel should have pulled out an awfully long time ago. They went too far, have done too much damage and the calculus doesn’t make sense any more. I have no problem with the initial invasion of Gaza to stop Hamas and get their people back. I’m not sorry for saying s…
The point is that you were told this was the inevitable consequences of such actions and yet chose to ignore it. That's probably the kind of mea culpa they're looking for.
Predicting the future is notoriously tricky, but pretending like this outcome was in any way unlikely is extremely disengenuous.
The UN definition is quoted here: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: - Killing members of the group; - Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; - Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction…
[flagged]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, never again is right now and I am afraid to even say that under my real name because it would put my job at risk. Watching a redux of the Warsaw Ghetto being livestreamed, watching children starving to death because of state military decisions, watching 500 pounder bombs being dropped on seaside cafes and ambulance medics being murdered. Never again is right now and I'm doing this, bitching pseudonymously. It is…
And there's some reason to believe there isn't a state influence campaign in favor of Hamas?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I would imagine some might find to conflation to be highly offensive. Yes, with the huge caveat that the leading architects of the conflation are pro-Israeli activists. Using Judaism as a human-shield.
The person I was responding to was unlikely a pro-Israeli activist, so I am not certain why you felt compelled to mention your caveat. Are you implying that because pro-Israeli activist allegedly created the conflation that others are justified in perpetuating it? I literally wrote that Israel does not represent all Jewish people. Yet, you beeline straight to mentioning pro-Israeli activist. It doesn't matter who cre…
Does anyone still need testimonies like these to be convinced that Israel is systematically exterminating the Palestinians using kinetic force and starvation? We're past that point now. Making Gaza unlivable by carpet-bombing the strip, telegraphing mass murder in unambiguous statements at the highest levels of government, dehumanizing the Palestinians and silencing anyone who dares to speak up? I, for one, am thankf…
I think the thing that should have been a clear unambiguous sign (if nothing up to then were convincing enough) that Israel's intentions weren't just to defeat Hamas but cause severe harm to the civilian population of Gaza was when they blocked all food and aid into Gaza for months. I mean, why would you do that unless you want people to die? Even the stated explanation that they wanted to deprive Hamas of the abilit…
[flagged]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hasbara means explaining in Hebrew. So guilty as charged of trying to explain what's going on. I'm not echoing any sort of official message. What people here don't understand is that there is a war going on. In wars people get killed. The war and the condition of the Palestinian population is 100% the responsibility of their government, Hamas, that continues fighting and holding Israeli hostages. Israel can not and w…
> "The war and the condition of the Palestinian population is 100% the responsibility of their government, Hamas, that continues fighting and holding Israeli hostages." No. Israel is an occupying power, and they're heavily restricting food and aid to civilians. Collective punishment is prohibited by article 33 of the 4th Geneva convention. Starvation as a method of war is prohibited by article 54 of the additional pr…
Israel is considered an "occupying power" in Gaza by some from a legal perspective simply because the status of Gaza was not fully resolved following Israel's withdrawal in 2005. I.e. because Israel withdrew unilaterally, not as part of an agreement, some consider it to still be the "occupying power" since 2005. However Israel is not present in Gaza, does not run Gaza, does not physically control Gaza, since 2005.
The current military situation is that Israel controls 65% of the ground, where there are no civilians, and the rest is controlled by Hamas.
Starvation of civilians is indeed prohibited. However siege is permitted as long as civilians can leave. So a siege of Gaza city or the northern Gaza strip would be permitted as long as civilians are allowed to leave that area. A similar example would be Mosul that was under siege while being controlled by ISIS.
Killing civilians in the course of attacking military objectives is not prohibited. Intentional killing of civilians for no military purpose would be a war crime. Israeli soldiers who intentionally kill Palestinian civilians for no military reason should be put on trial. Either way, the context is the armed conflict/war which is what Hamas started and is still pursuing. IDF soldiers are killed and injured in Gaza every day, this just doesn't make the news or Hacker News.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hasbara means explaining in Hebrew. So guilty as charged of trying to explain what's going on. I'm not echoing any sort of official message. What people here don't understand is that there is a war going on. In wars people get killed. The war and the condition of the Palestinian population is 100% the responsibility of their government, Hamas, that continues fighting and holding Israeli hostages. Israel can not and w…
[flagged]
Since you're saying "70 years" that's sort of a sign you're approaching this from some sort of ideological perspective. The West Bank and Gaza were under Jordanian and Egyptian rule respectively until 1967, so about 48 years ago. I.e. your problem is with the existence of Israel in the 1967 lines and Jewish presence and rights in the region and you, like Palestinians, do not support a two state solution. I'll take your 70 years and raise 3000 years in this case. The Jewish people are the indigenous people of the region, not the Palestinians, and they have the historical rights.
EDIT: It's worth noting that Israeli governments have done a lot. They agreed to give the Palestinians autonomy as part of the peace agreement with Egypt. They were engaged in good faith efforts to resolve the conflict during the Oslo Accords. They allowed Palestinians to return to the west bank and Gaza from other countries as part of those accords, they allowed the establishment of the PA and gave it control of all the major cities, they allowed the Palestinians to establish a police force and armed and trained that police force (weapons that ended up being turned on Israelis). They withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and returned it to Palestinians.
What have the Palestinians done other than use more violence is the question.