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Hey Pandas, Do You Have Something To Say About The Palestine-Israel Situation? (Closed)
Please respect everyone's perspectives. That being said, hate comments and endorsement of civilian deaths will not be tolerated. You will be reported by your fellow Pandas.
I don't think anyone is interested in hearing media propaganda or common talking points. Let us know your personal thoughts on how it's affected you and the people around you, and something you think others need to hear or be aware of.
We're here to try and understand each other and better society, not to start wars in the comment section. Feel free to debate so long as it's calm and respectful - we have people from all backgrounds, religions, and nationalities on Bored Panda.
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Hum, let me see
Barbaric terror attacks on civilians
Mass bombings of civilians
Depressing surge of antisemitism in my country
In my area, random western youth full of anger or hatred over a conflict they have limited knowledge on (witnessed and tested)
Not much else to say
I feel that not enough people understand all of the different layers and nuances in the political history of the land. Palestine just happens to be a land of great religious significance, and too many people think that it's a religious war over which religion gets to control the land. That is completely not the case, and the whole crisis all boils down to politics. A bunch of old white men sat down in a room about 100 years ago and made decisions over this distant piece of land without really doing all of their research.
On one hand, in support of expelling the Jews from Europe, it was appealing to many antisemitic political figures to support the creation of a Jewish homeland. Many Jewish people in Europe, prior to World War II, did not feel that they should be required to leave their homes in Europe in order to feel safe. Some Jewish people did agree though, and felt they should return to the Jewish homeland. Britain allowed it.
But when Britain allowed the Jewish immigrants in Palestine to buy up land owned by Palestinian Arab farmers and evict those Arab families, the Palestinian Arabs felt that the land they had taken care of for centuries was just being given over to another people without their consent. So, violence broke out as both sides saw their own merits to the land but were unwilling to see the other side's rights.
Britain saw the violence and saw it was a threat, so they limited Jewish immigration to Palestine hoping it would stop the conflict. But then Nazi Germany rose to power and Britain looked like jerks for denying the oppressed Jewish people asylum in Palestine, and so more and more Jews immigrated to Palestine to flee the horrific persecution and murder in Europe.
By the end of the Holocaust, it was clear to most Jewish people that having their own country and their own government was the only way to secure their safety. Again, Britain would have looked like jerks for denying the Jewish people a chance to self-determination, especially in the context of the Holocaust. The only problem was there were still a lot of Palestinian Arabs living in the land.
In the years leading to the close of Mandatory Palestine, the Palestinian Arabs already had a strong sense of nationalism. They felt that they, as Palestinians, had their own culture, accent and dialect of Arabic, clothing, and a host of other defining characteristics of a people. Palestinian political figures were pushing for the creation of a Palestinian state at the time. However, Britain's priority was on helping the Jewish people.
Eventually, Britain decided to leave and give the Palestine Question to the UN. The UN drew up the 1947 partition plan, which gave more than half of the land of Palestine to the Jewish state, including the dense population centers of Yaffa and Haifa, while Jewish people made up less than a third of the population of the entire land. While the upcoming Jewish government accepted the plan, the Arabs rejected it for the reasons of the population distribution.
The surrounding Arab nations declared war on Israel, though they were highly incapable. Israel took the opportunity to take more land than it was granted by the Partition Plan, wiped out entire Palestinian villages, and denied thousands of Palestinians who had fled the violence from returning, handing their old homes to Jewish families. Palestinian refugees, until today, hold onto the keys to their homes in Palestine, hoping to return one day. The fact that they had brought their keys with them signifies that even with all of the chaos and violence, they planned to return.
From that time Israel has only taken more land than it was supposed to have, through wars and through illegal settlements as well. For many Zionists, Israel represents the determination of the Jewish people and their will to become the custodians of their homeland. For many Palestinians though, Israel represents a denial to their own self-determination and to return to their homes.
No one is 100% the victim except the civilians (on both sides) who have had their families taken or killed by the fighting. I do think people advocating for both sides need to think about the humanitarian angle, and actually listen to the other side's arguement, rather than spewing hateful c**p in city council meetings (happened in my city last night, some staff had to get a police escort out)
I say we should pay more attention to the geno—cide, I also do not like that we are paying so much attention to Ukraine
I didn’t think we were allowed to say geno —cide
I've had to issue a complete ban on the subject.
I work in a very multicultural area, so I expect a lot of differing opinions on many things. 99% of the time, disagreements end with a 'well I don't agree, but you do you' attitude.
But the recent activity in the Palestine/Israel ongoing dispute seems to have polarised people into illogical, misinformed, spiteful, hateful, outspoken people.
I've literally had to put up a sign saying that says:
'Anyone found to be discussing, mentioning, or commenting in any way, the events occurring in Israel, Palestine, or other places within that region, will be immediately banned from the clinic for life. If you refuse to leave, you will be removed from the property using 'reasonable and necessary force' and the police shall be contacted.'
But I genuinely do not understand how anyone can be so one-sided about the situation out there. It is a complex series of events that have occurred over thousands of years with all parties being both innocent and guilty of terrible things. Sure, you could assess the history and argue a case for either side, but you can't base it on "who was there first" either, because if that was the case, almost all of the Americas would need to be abandoned and Europe would need splitting up into a thousand different countries.
Quite honestly, at this stage I don't think the situation will ever be truly resolved until one side wipes out the others. And sometimes, to be quite frank, I think that could be the answer; Evacuate anyone that just wants to live their lives in peace and let those that want to argue about it or feels that strongly about it, meet on the battlefield to fight until they've killed each other, and I mean last man standing. Then start a new nation from the evacuated civilians. An ancient solution to an ancient problem?
I know it's not really a solution, but sometimes I just reach that point, y'know?
Any conflict that is still ongoing after everyone that was there when it started is long dead, is not a conflict anymore, it's a tradition. You bring up your kids to hate "the enemy", because that's what your parents did and you never thought to question if you still needed to...
Ooo, new plan! Force all adults to leave. Let the kids decide how they want their future to be.
I find your last paragraph interesting. I wouldn't say I agree, because it's definitely an ongoing conflict rather than tradition. There is a need to rebel against a state took one's land and keeps them in an open-air prison, because that's still ongoing. That's just my train of thought though
