Sanders calls Israel's siege on Gaza 'a serious violation of international law'

return2ozma@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 1247 points –
Sanders calls Israel's siege on Gaza 'a serious violation of international law'
politico.com
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Even when international powers would force the place into two countries the fighting will never stop. Because both don't have a country and want one and both ground their claim on religion. The religions are incompatible. Hamas consider Jews as the enemy of Allah quite literally.

Jews were pushed out of countries and killed and therefore promised land. So land was simply taken from a torn place that couldn't protect itself. Palestinians are also pushed out of countries and killed and want their land back. The Brits just left them with this conflict because they couldn't handle it. And now probably no one will be able to stop Israel anymore because they were given the better hand in terms of weapons.

Asking either side to stop won't work. Ban religion instead. They could both live there.

Before 1943, both Muslims and Jews lived in Palestine in peace, but as immigration increased, so did tension. It wasn't about religion, it was about land.

https://www.cjpme.org/fs_007

There were plenty of Jewish leagues, sports, ect, called the Palestinian Jewish (league name).

"In peace"

Not really. There has been conflict between the two groups since pretty much the day the first Jewish immigrants/settlers arrived in the 1800's. The first recorded violent action was in 1882 when an Arab was shot at a wedding by a Jew so a bunch of Arabs started a small riot vandalising Jewish property. And since there has been so many riots and shooting and checks notes mule thefts, done as retaliation to retaliation to retaliations.

That's actually not true. There's a book called Ten Myths About Israel by Ilan Pappe. Look it up, there's a chapter precisely about that. He brought the receipts.

Which part?

In peace part. There's a lot of documents showing that the first wave of Jews coming to Palestine lived in peace with Palestinians, also a lot of them working together and forming trade unions together which was a problem for Jewish elite. It's presented in the book.

One incident on a certain date doesn't mean there's conflict between groups. There were plenty of jewish and muslim neighbours helping/hiding eachother when extremists started trying to bully/kill the other group from villages. Living together in peace requires both groups to defeat their extremists

True. The three western religions have been at war with each other since they were created.

I guess the thing we can all agree on here was the arrogant stupidity of Great Britain.

The Brits just left when they saw they couldn't handle the conflict. I wonder why humans again and again try this concept of "let's just devide the place and protect the borders!". I don't think it ever worked, instead we have multiple examples of how it makes people suffer and has long lasting negative consequences.

To be fair, most divisions took place around WW2, so perhaps it was just a beloved but dumb idea at that time...

“In peace”

Not really.

You know Palestinian Jews exist, right? Like, not Jews who immigrated from America or Europe, like... Arab Jews.

Didn't immigration to Israel increase due to persecution of Jewish people? So if there was no Christ / bible leading to Judaism separating from Christianity, we wouldn't have the resulting anti-semitism that caused Jewish people to return to their biblical homeland and displace the indigenous Palestinians. Honest inquiry.

I think so, too. With no religion, anti-Semitism could probably not exist. Although, it isn't purely a religious group but also an ethnicity.

Jewish people are native to the place Palestine/Israel as well, btw. Even when you leave out the religious claim going back to Abraham, there are multiple archeological and genetic findings that confirm Jewish people have lived there already thousands of years ago.

The only reason being jewish has an ethnic component is, of course, religious. Who else cares which parti-fucking-ticular tribe their ancestors belonged to 2.500 years ago

Jews lived in Arab and Muslim countries as second-class citizens at best. There are also many Palestines in Israel living there, doing sports, allowed to vote, etc. But somehow in that case it's not okay.

Almost as if it's okay to treat Jewish people as lesser, but not Muslims.

The whole fights and anger about the city Jerusalem is driven by religion, as well.

Even when Palestinians could live in Israel as first class citizens they reject it because they are anti-zionist. Which is a religious standpoint, even when Zionism itself is of course also a religious standpoint.

Please read this for example, which I think makes a very good point on how religion drives the conflicts:

https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/religion-and-israel-palestinian-conflict-cause-consequence-and-cure

So land was simply taken from a torn place that couldn’t protect itself.

I mostly agree, but 'taken' is somewhat reductive, it was more like a forced partition. Jews already lived there and were already emigrating there en masse long before the end of WWII, Zionism ramped up in the late 1800's, 60 years before the Jewish state. There was already violence in that area through a lot of early Zionism and a civil war in the few years leading up to partition.

It would be like if the UK decided tomorrow to give 35% of the US to Hispanic Americans despite them only being ~20% of the population, it just a weird way to split up a country that is bound to cause conflict. (Jews were 30% of the population of Israel/Palestine when it was split in half) No one actually expected Israel to survive the wars at the start, as you said they just wanted to push the 'problem' onto someone else. If you're a displaced population what do you do if no one wants to take you and your under threat of death most places you go? It's important to remember that Jews were pretty much universally hated everywhere in the world prior to WWII, they didn't have many prospects for peace.

I suspect however that if partition never happened, there would still be ethnic conflict in that area and it would have just shifted who was the oppressed group. Which really highlights the real problem as you implied, the inability for many religious communities to live side by side. Look at India, Nigeria, Ireland, etc. Whenever you have 2 prominent religions in large enough numbers living closely together their fanaticism often doesn't allow a shared sense of national unity. Banning religion is a great way to make religion popular again though, not the best way to get rid of it. A secular education is the best way to get rid of religion.

Thank you, I looked into it and found a lot of interesting research about the people who lived in that area in the past. I agree that both groups of people are native to the place.

It's interesting how the narrative of Jews being invaders or even colonizers of the place is prevalent in social media, on biased websites and sometimes even the news.

I guess people really like that idea because it makes the whole issue more easy black-and-white.

Oh yes of course banning religion is the obvious answer that will lead to harmony. Even in your magical world where religion doesn't exist this conflict would then be on racial lines.

Exactly, people use religion to justify acts that would otherwise be seen as irrational and inhumane. But with religion out of the picture, people will still commit the same atrocities and just try to find other ideologies as justification, such as racism.

To be fair, extremism flourishes when conditions are bad. Hamas is potentially a product of these conditions, or at least partially. If both peoples would be afforded better conditions, they might seem less incompatible than the two groups seem at the moment.

About time the Palestian issue is put back on the agenda. Strangely enough, Israel is doing everything they can it seems to make that happen.

There's a Chris Hedges - Sam Harris debate on YouTube you can watch in which Hedges brilliantly argues that desperate economic conditions actually lead people to turn to religious fanaticism as opposed to Sam Harris who argued that religion is fanaticism in itself.

Then people should extend the same excuse to the Jewish people as well, who ended up in and with Israel because they faced genocide and exile multiple times in their history around the globe. From Arabs and Muslims as well, btw.

That would make sense if Israelis today lived in economic desperation which they don't. Go watch the debate, it's very interesting.

Almost like you got this out of Chris Hitchens mouth.

I don't like religion either. But, I don't agree with banning religion. Banning something only give reason for martyrdom. It is too naive, to say that the Israel-Palestina conflict would be gone if both of them turned atheists. Too much bad blood between them. Instead it would need a long process to fight for peace. Short term cease fire, making them to have a long one. Stop giving Israel too much privilege and upperhand by giving them more advanced weapons. Reeducate the people! Honest education is one of the best solution against religion. And we might have a chance to have a peace there in the long future. The conflict wouldn't be resolved in the next couple of years, I believe it would take decades.

The western block has to stop giving weapons to Israel and stop supporting Israel blindly. What they did there, has to be condemned also.

When Israel wouldn't have weapons, Hamas would kill them an probably other Palestine groups as well because they see Jewish people as the enemy of Allah and do not want to share the land with them, they want to kill or exile all Jews in the area.

I think if you were able to pull the religious component out the conflict would be solved very quickly. Control over religious hotspots? Gone. Scripture telling everyone they are god's chosen and need to oppose the non-believers? Gone. Outside influence and money supporting 'their' extremists? Gone. Israeli settlers thinking it's their religious job to retake their holy land? Gone.

This conflict is entirely rooted in religion

and both ground their claim on religion.

No. Sorry, but this is bullshit.

Palestinians lived in Palestine before any Zionists came, and they lived with Palestinian Jews and Christians. They don't demand the land because of "religion"... they demand their land, country, identity, and dignity back.

Big fucking difference. And honestly, it reflects poor knowledge about Palestinians and Palestinian history on your part.

The reason why Palestinian groups like Hamas want the land completely for themselves is religious. They claim that Palestine is only really theirs when it's "pure Muslim". You can read this in the charta of the Hamas and also in the quotes of their leaders.

How is that not based on religion? Jews were living there before as well and many Palestines want them completely gone because they are Jews.

I am talking about Palestinians not Hamas. My words were clear up there.

This equating of Hamas and Palestinians is pretty lame imo.

But equating Israelis with the Israelian military is fine?

Could you point to where I did that?

This is a quote from you:

Israel has killed full Palestinian families in Gaza. This isn’t people “caught in the crossfire”. This is Israel bringing the crossfire to their beds and homes. This is Israel’s continuing ethnic cleansing.

I am still waiting for the part where I equated Israelis with the Israeli govt and forces.... How much longer do I need to wait until you read that paragraph again and realize you were wrong?

I will ask you again which part in this is the one where I equate the Israeli government with Israeli civilians.

Thanks.

Israel is a country and the state has killed full families. Reading comprehension is a good skill to have, maybe brush up.