CNN reporting on some interesting survey results from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah. Seven hundred and fifty adults were interviewed face to face in the West Bank, and 481 were interviewed in Gaza, also in person. The Gaza data collection was done during the recent truce, when it was safer for researchers to move about.
I find it hard to read comment sections surrounding this topic these days.
First of all: Israel has the right to exist and fight back against terrorism.
Second of all: Hamas is a terror organization. There is no legitimation for this movement and no one should sympathize with a terror movement. You don’t do it with ISIS or the Taliban. You have no reason to do the same with Hamas.
What we all can agree on is that Israel’s current (and for the past 20 years) government is a radical right-wing one creating an apartheid regime for Palestinians, supporting radical settlers and thus violence against Palestinians.
You can hate the Israel right-wing government as they are at fault for the situation of Palestinians in Gaza and Westbank, and also strengthen Hamas politically and thus also at fault for the terror attacks. Does that make Israel’s existence be questioned? In no way.
Be angry about how Palestinians are being treated, feel angry about right-wing politics in Israel, but don’t be angry with the existence of Israel and Jews in general.
But why does Israel have a right to exist? It’s not even 80 years old. That land was taken from the Palestinians, so it seems to me that the Palestinians have more right to the land than Israel does.
The answer to the conflict is definitely not genocide of either set of people and Hamas is certainly not going to stop their genocidal goals.
But no state has a “right” to exist, certainly not one that’s less than 80 years old and which stole and is still stealing land from another group of people.
The origin goes back to, no surprise, the British. Some politicians thought it would be good to grow their influence in the region, where they currently had none. Zionists wanted their own state there, and these politicians thought a growing Israeli population would give Britain more influence like they wanted.
The Zionist desire for a Jewish state is rather interesting, because there’s arguably some similarities to Palestinians. There was a pogrom against Jews during the years of the Russian revolution, and it led a prominent Jewish thinker to opine that Jews would never see peace nor be respected unless they had their own state. The original desire was born from wanting to be free from discrimination and violence.
Unfortunately, there was a cultural “enlightenment” at the time as well, and this gave rise to an extremist Zionist way of thinking. They warped the original intent of wanting a Jewish state, and here we are today. Zionist groups would go on to commit terror attacks in Mandated Palestine.
Circling back, does Israel have a right to exist? I would say no – but the Jewish people (completely separate from Israel) deserve to live in peace and with dignity. Just as the Palestinians deserve to live in peace and with dignity. And much like Zionist terrorists taking that pure desire and using it for their own ends, you have Hamas taking advantage of Palestinians and their anger.
It feels very hopeless at this point for the Israelis to recognize that Palestinians are like them, violently discriminated against in the past; and for Palestinians to recognize that Hamas is no better than the Zionist terrorists of the past.
Did they have a right to exist when they stole land and only got control over it after multiple wars?
Feels like zionists are working overtime to craft any argument that diverts attention away from their colonization.
Zionism is religious nationalism. It is the belief that Jews are entitled to the land of Israel.