“I wasn’t there to say I supported Hamas. I wasn’t there to say I hated Israel. I was there to say what’s happening in Palestine is wrong.”
It’s sad that this is a controversial position to some.
ThAt’S sUpPoRtInG tErRoRiStS
I hate how much zionists try to control the narrative like this.
They don’t try, but succeed.
Just ask proud Zionist Gal Gadot what she thinks
There are very few things in my life that I would ask Gal Gadot’s thoughts on.
Then she chanted, “When people are occupied, resistance is justified” which in context is clearly in defense of October 7th, despite her denial.
Let’s remember that the purpose of this protest was to stop Israel from defending themselves against their explicitly genocidal attackers via political pressure. Stopping Israel before they depose Hamas keeps Hamas in power.
Although she absolutely has the right to take controversial positions and peacefully protest, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. There is no right to anonymity when publicly protesting.
When people are occupied, resistance is justified
Resistance take a lot more forms than what happened Oct. 7th which almost nobody is trying to justify.
the purpose of this protest was to stop Israel from defending themselves against their explicitly genocidal attackers via political pressure
Israel has murdered at least 33,000 Palestinians, over 2/3 being civilians by their own count.
Israel has passed ‘defending themselves’ a long time ago.
This protest is to stop killing innocent civilians.
I really hate how many people on this site really push to equate what amounts to ethnic cleansing as dEFeNdIng ThEmSeLvEs. Like the thousands upon thousands of women and children they murdered were all fucking Hamas.
But racists always support racists…
No, don’t you get it? The genocide is proportional. /s
over 2/3 being civilians by their own count
People often bring this up without noting that such a ratio would not be unusual in urban warfare against a well-prepared enemy even when the attacking army is doing what it reasonably can to reduce civilian casualties. Compare it to Mariupol, an example of what happens of the attacking army is unconcerned about civilian casualties: 25/26 of Ukrainians killed were civilians according to Ukrainian estimates. (8/9 were civilians if we use the Ukrainian numbers for how many of their soldiers were killed but the more conservative Human Rights Watch numbers for civilian deaths.)
Even if that is true, which is certainly isn’t when it comes to children, why does that make it justified?
If you trust the casualty numbers that the UN Is using, then they imply approximately 3.7 civilians killed for every combatant (with the assumptions that children make up half the population and that children are never combatants). I don’t trust those numbers but I admit that if I did, I would think they didn’t look good for Israel. I suppose we’ll have a better idea of what the truth is years from now when historians reach a consensus, but until then I’m going to reluctantly trust Biden’s judgement because the US government probably has secret information unavailable to the public. (Biden is biased by his need to be re-elected, but I don’t get reports from the CIA so that’s the best I can do.)
As for justification: Israel should make reasonable efforts to minimize civilian casualties while accomplishing its legitimate military objectives, but Israel should not sacrifice its ability to accomplish those objectives in order to protect civilians. In other words, Hamas doesn’t get to hold Palestinian civilians as hostages against Israel. If they try, then they are to blame for the resulting civilian casualties. The alternative is simply unworkable in practice, because the ability of Hamas to put Palestinian civilians at risk is almost total.
What is the maximum number of children that it acceptable for Israel to kill in order to accomplish its objectives? Is there no ceiling? Any number of children is acceptable as long as Hamas is wiped out?
If you present me with a trolley problem in which the only way to destroy Hamas also kills a million children, I won’t know what the right answer is. I suppose it would depend on what would happen to Israel if Hamas wasn’t destroyed.
However, the moral calculus for nations is not the same as it is for individuals. The standard established the last time the Western world fought a war it took seriously does seem to be “as many as it takes” and I suspect that this would still be the standard if such a war happened again. (All those nuclear missiles we have ready aren’t precise weapons…) In that context, demanding that Israel should show restraint that other countries haven’t and wouldn’t seems like hypocrisy.
Israel has murdered at least 33,000 Palestinians, over 2/3 being civilians by their own count.
- Collateral damage is not murder, nor are successful attacks against Hamas militants.
- It’s interesting you cite that figure as evidence of Israel’s recklessness when it’s actually an astonishing accomplishment that they got the civilian casualty ratio so low, especially considering Hamas hides among civilians in densely populated areas. The commonly cited average in modern war is ~90% civilian casualties. This seems to be evidence that the great lengths they go to to reduce civilian casualties are paying off, not evidence they are being reckless when it comes to civilians. You’d never know it from the protesters, or comments like yours though.
- Hamas has not surrendered nor have they been deposed. That’s when attacks would stop being self-defense.
Are you honestly defending the murder of over 22,000 Palestinian civilians since Oct 7, 2023 as being an Israeli achievement?
They just justified bombing schools full of children above as necessary for Israel’s self-defense, so I think that’s your answer.
I read through that and was surprised they didn’t call you an antisemite.
I would have pointed out that I’m a mod in c/Jewish, so that would have been fun.
Are you honestly ignoring the statistical evidence I provided that clearly shows it is? Were this war being waged by any other nation in the world you could expect the civilian casualties to be much higher.
If the murder of over 100 innocent civilians a day makes you cheer then I am done with this conversation.
You seem to have confused understanding with enthusiasm.
Please do explain how murdering thousands of children is self-defense against Hamas. Were they strapping suicide vests to the babies and letting them crawl over to IDF troops?
Collateral damage still isn’t murder no matter how many times you repeat it, nor does hiding among children make Hamas immune from reprisal. Regarding women and children, their casualty figures were faked by Hamas and recently quietly revised by the UN.
Your outrage over child casualties is being manufactured and manipulated by Hamas.
Your “evidence” is a Reddit post.
Be better.
Citations and sources in the comments.
Genocide apologist
Question: Is it appropriate for those civilians to get weapons and fight back against the IDF that is killing them?
That’s a matter of opinion. I can understand why many Palestinians do find it appropriate, especially given the intense indoctrination that Palestinian children experience, and the lack of available unbiased credible information there.
Given my own experience and information, I find it a lot more appropriate to fight back against Hamas, the oppressive regime that instigated this war, hides among civilians to maximize casualties, and has refused to surrender to end the war, which they could do at any time. I believe they are the primary cause of all of this death and destruction and suffering, not Israel defending itself.
Would I feel the same way were I in their shoes? Hard to say.
You dodged the question. When the IDF is attacking and murdering Palestinians, do those Palestinians have a right to take up arms and fight back? It’s a simple yes or no question.
Some questions cannot be fairly answered with a simple yes or no, like, “Have you stopped beating your wife?”
There’s a lot of bias packed into your question. If the IDF is in fact MURDERING, as in, illegally killing people, yes they do. However, if the IDF is acting within the law they absolutely do not. Either way, I’d say it’s probably a bad move to do so and likely to get one shot.
Collateral damage is not murder
This is exactly how Hamas justifies October 7th…
Then they are lying. I encourage you to watch the Oct 7 attack footage, (Content warning: violence, cruelty, death,) if you have the stomach for it, which clearly disproves any such claims. This is not collateral damage. They target civilians. Full stop.
They’re the same concept to Hamas, and it seems that they’re the same concept to the IDF as well.
Can only be described as psychopathic response disguised as intellectual arguments. There aren’t enough dead babies, women and children that will move this person so long as they’re Palestinian.
stop Israel from defending themselves against their explicitly genocidal attackers
Yeah, all those babies and toddlers they killed were genocidal maniacs.
Sadly, there are no magical munitions that don’t cause collateral damage, nor is Israel infallible. They still have a right to self-defense and to eliminate the threat against them.
Do Palestinians have a right to self defense or just Israelis? Because there’s a whole lot of settler attacks in the West Bank and mass graves full of kids in Gaza.
I’m not defending Hamas, who are just as shitty as the settler parties but you might logically expect violent resistance if you put a people under your boot for decades.
Removed by mod
How exactly are they defending themselves by bombing areas full of children?
If your answer is “Hamas is there,” well they were somehow able to raid a hospital without killing everyone inside it and still get a whole bunch of Hamas people, so maybe they should do that instead of dropping bombs on children.
You are justifying child murder.
If your answer is “Hamas is there,” well they were somehow able to raid a hospital without killing everyone inside it and still get a whole bunch of Hamas people, so maybe they should do that instead of dropping bombs on children.
As you acknowledge, they are targeting Hamas, who often attacks them while hiding in areas full of children. Going in without air support into a well prepared guerilla fighter’s den is likely to cause a lot of casualties. Even though that is acceptable every now and then like in the hospital that does not imply that’s a viable strategy for all of Gaza.
Hamas counts on this “think of the children!” and the bad PR it causes, that’s why they do this. They also want Israel’s hands to be bound so they can do Oct 7 over and over again.
The right move is to minimize civilian casualties but not stop until the job is done, and that’s exactly what I believe Israel is doing.
who often attacks them while hiding in areas full of children.
Please present evidence of this. Or is this just a guess on your part?
Going in without air support into a well prepared guerilla fighter’s den is likely to cause a lot of casualties.
They don’t go in, they just bombs.
that’s why they do this.
They are not killing the children.
And you would have us believe that Israel’s hands are free of their blood.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_human_shields_by_Hamas
According to a New York Times report, “Hamas has long been accused of using civilians as human shields and positioning underground bunkers, weapon depots and rocket launchers under or near schools, mosques and hospitals.”[63]
DW military analyst Frank Ledwidge has said that “it’s been described… as ‘common knowledge’ that many of the headquarters [of Hamas] are located under hospitals… [with] entries and exits in places like mosques or schools… [or even] UN facilities… that’s why we’ve seen… so many non-combatant casualties so far”.[64]
John Spencer has said that "[Hamas has] built many of their tunnel entrances and exits and passageway underneath protected sites like hospitals, schools, mosques, because it restricts the use of force that the IDF can take without going through the… laws of war calculation.[65]
According to Daphne Richemond-Barak, associate professor of counter-terrorism at Reichman University and author of the 2017 book Underground Warfare, Hamas militants operate under Al-Shifa Hospital gain “the highest level of protection available under the laws of war”, as well as a “unique opportunity to operate far from surveillance drones, GPS, and other intelligence-gathering technology”. She added that “in Gaza, tunnels are dug in civilian homes, pass under entire neighbourhoods, and lead into populated areas inside Israel… [which] enables Hamas to conceal entry and exit points, and facilitates undetected movement and activity.”[66]
Avi Issacharoff has said that Hamas militants are “under the houses and neighborhoods of Gaza City, hoping that Israel won’t attack them because they’re hiding underneath human shields, and that if Israel will attack those neighborhoods, it’ll kill many civilians, and the whole world is going to accuse Israel for war crimes”. “The sad thing about all this”, Issacharoff said, “is [that] Hamas doesn’t care about their own people” and aims “not only to kill Israelis but for as many Palestinian civilians [casualties as well]”.[67]
It’s almost like starting a war when most of your population is children, then hiding among civilians and under schools endangers them. But I guess that’s Israel’s fault. Why can’t they just send in soldiers without air support? They make easier targets that way.
“In international law, the right to resist is closely related to the principle of self-determination. It is widely recognized that a right to self-determination arises in situations of colonial domination, foreign occupation, and racist regimes that deny a segment of the population political participation.”
Let’s remember that the purpose of this protest was to stop Israel from defending themselves against their explicitly genocidal attackers via political pressure.
Israel is well past the stage where it defends itself against the attack. They could very well stop their operations right this moment and no further harm would come to them for the foreseeable future. What they are doing now is a deliberate attack to cleanse Gaza of everything and everyone they consider anti-Israeli.
Stopping Israel before they depose Hamas keeps Hamas in power.
How long ago has the West pulled out of Afghanistan? Apparently it’s long enough that people have forgotten what an utter failure the whole thing was and why. One doesn’t create a lasting peace by steamrolling a place and shoot a bunch of people. Instead Israel is breeding the next generation of Hamas terrorist right now.
Israel is well past the stage where it defends itself against the attack. They could very well stop their operations right this moment and no further harm would come to them for the foreseeable future. What they are doing now is a deliberate attack to cleanse Gaza of everything and everyone they consider anti-Israeli.
On what basis do you make this claim? I read credible citations.
Hamas has stated that they intend to do Oct 7 attacks over and over again. Stopping now while they are still in power and still have significant military assets just gives them a chance to rebuild, regroup, and carry out their stated genocidal intentions. Perhaps not tomorrow, but eventually.
Israel has cleared most of the surface of Gaza, once they clear Rafah, the last place that has not been purged of Hamas, I suspect that will be the end of this campaign. Stopping them before they completely excise this tumor ensures metastasis.
How long ago has the West pulled out of Afghanistan? Apparently it’s long enough that people have forgotten what an utter failure the whole thing was and why. One doesn’t create a lasting peace by steamrolling a place and shoot a bunch of people. Instead Israel is breeding the next generation of Hamas terrorist right now.
Afghanistan isn’t really comparable nor are other western military adventurism defeats. Israel can’t leave and go somewhere else, this is a battle for safety in their home country. It is existential. As such, I highly doubt Israel will completely withdraw like they did in 2005, which arguably directly led to Oct 7. Gaza will probably be occupied until it stops choosing violence.
I’m sure animosity will remain, but letting Hamas take over again and indoctrinate children to make another generation of intifada supporters will breed the next generation of Hamas fighters far more surely than Israel successfully defending itself will. For them, this is about safety, and safety is non-negotiable.
Huh, how about that? The pro-genocide side using terroristic tactics. Weird. /s
Naturally.
There are two main ways in which people can try to further a political position they’ve taken - they can either argue for the position or they can attempt to discredit those who argue against it.
If the position they’re trying to further is so illogical or immoral that they can’t frame any arguments in its favor, then attempting to discredit its opponents is the only thing they have left.
They could… abandon their position
Who am I kidding, though.
Stopping shipments of weapons clearly isn’t going to be enough. We need to start destroying their military posts
That is not a reasonable first step.
Biden has paused and threatened to stop weapons shipments, but those only ever included offensive weapons.
They have a defensive anti-rocket system that requires regular shipments from the US. Biden never threatened to cut those supplies off, nor has he threatened to cut off any of the other aid they receive.
Stopping all weapons shipments would change their behavior. Better thing to try instead.
He only blocked 500 and 2000 pound bombs specifically, too. They can buy all the planes, guns or smaller bombs they want for now.
I’m not so sure. The purpose of the defensive weaponry is, well, defensive. Stopping civilian deaths.
With how things are now, I think it would only make things worse. Netanyahu isn’t going to pull back if the US stops giving defensive aid. And when civilians inevitably die, he’ll either shrug, or use it as further justification to continue.
In essence, it won’t have any effect. I think the best thing to do would be supporting Netanyahu’s opposition to launch a coup, with our support conditional on them withdrawing completely from Gaza and letting Palestinians form their own state.
Either way, there won’t be any progress until Netanyahu is out.
The country exists because of us support. All of their neighbors hate them. Cutting off all military aid would be crippling, not something that could be ignored.
The us has a ton of leverage without a coup or invasion. Better to start with that.
Netanyahu would not care. And a lot of their neighbors are on much friendlier terms with them than before even. Jordan helped with stopping the Iranian counterattack, and I believe a few other nearby countries opened their airspaces to the US and company as well.
In terms of actual hate, it’s really just Iran and Iranian linked militias. If the Iranian people successfully overthrew their theocracy, most of the threats would end to Israel. There’s been considerable unrest and protest in Iran lately.
The way I see it, it’s a win win opportunity. Help the Iranians retake control of their country, help Netanyahu’s opposition take control and make it conditional on them behaving. It should make the region significantly calmer and allow us to stop sending defense to Israel and instead rebuild Gaza.
I drove past some asshole flying an Israeli flag outside their house. I’m in Indiana and I’m one of the only Jews in this town, so I doubt whoever did it was Jewish and I’m sorry they didn’t see me giving them the finger when I drove by.
Israel is a Nazi state that needs to be disbanded.
The flood gates are open. People are not afraid anymore. Doxxing a few people was possible. Doxxing half America is not.
Pretty disgusting. More people should be made aware of these tactics because it will leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth in an age of privacy concerns and surveillance.
This is authoritarian regime dystopian stuff.
Can we fucking not?
