Israel slams UN chief for saying Hamas attack ‘did not happen in a vacuum,’ calls for his resignation
Israel slams UN chief for saying Hamas attack ‘did not happen in a vacuum,’ calls for his resignation
Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the UN secretary-general addressed the 15-member UN Security Council Tuesday.
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you keep falling into this Pro Israeli or Pro Hamas dichotomy, those arnt the only options. We can be anti-apartheid and anti-hamas at the same time, but recognize the systemic nature of the violence that arises because of the oppression.
But see, you're falling into the exact dichotomy you said you wanted to avoid. It's far too simplistic to just frame it as "oppressor" and "oppressed." By labeling one group as the oppressed and another group as the oppressor, you're taking a side.
It's easy to fall into that narrative, because Israel has most of the power. Life in Israel is far better than life in Gaza. In response to 10/7, Israel pushed Gaza into a humanitarian crisis by cutting off power, medicine, food, and even drinking water into Gaza (though Biden managed to get them to turn the water back on).
So it's easy to look at them and say, "oh, one group is oppressed and the other is an oppressor." But it's also naive. Hamas's stated goal is genocide. It's not really an "oppressor and oppressed" situation when the allegedly oppressed are explicitly genocidal.
The Israeli Arabs are a good example of what a integrated Palestine Israel might look like to start with, just expand that to the entire population. Of course there are some outstanding issues to hammer out even with our model Israeli Arab integration wikipedia which ultimately means the government needs to change from being a ethnostate government to a national citizenship based government secular of religion. But I’m not going to let perfection get in the way of good enough, if we could integrate everyone today even with the racism issues, thats a huge win.
But then you're essentially playing the role of a colonial power, telling the locals how it's going to be. That's what George W. Bush tried to do in Iraq and Afghanistan. It didn't work.
If you did a poll people of any ethnic and religious group between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and you asked them, "would you like to live in a secular state with both Israelis and Palestinian Arabs sharing the same land," do you think you'd get a majority? I bet you'd get fewer than 20%.
Probably more Israelis would be open and willing to agree to that than Palestinian Arabs, but I doubt you'd see a majority from either camp. And a "one secular state" solution isn't something any world leader is really talking about. It wasn't part of the Oslo or Camp David accords, isn't what anyone is proposing, etc.
You keep bringing up Hamas, I'm not defending Hamas.
Israel is engaged in systemic Apartheid against ethnic arabs in their territory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_apartheid https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/07/19/israeli-apartheid-threshold-crossed https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/03/1114702
The Apartheid is the root cause of the violence, which doesn't excuse the violence, but its clearly the main catalyst.
Israel is acting as the Colonial power in this scenario.
Two State solutions are off the table given the Israel settlements integrated all throughout the westbank as of today. That only leaves one state solutions. Either Israel kills every single Arab in the country, or they have to learn to live with them in peace which means ending Apartheid.
I'm bringing up Hamas because they're the belligerent. The same reason I'm bringing up Israel. Who should we be talking about? Fatah? The PLO? They aren't in power.
The apartheid narrative is also a false one. Apartheid was under a racial test. It was a system of South Africa's white minority's choosing. That isn't the case in Palestine. There are millions of Arab Israelis. There were no "Black Whites" in South Africa's apartheid.
From 1948 to 1967, Palestine existed for 19 years as a presumed state. To get UN membership, all they had to do was form a government. Not a single Israeli soldier stepped foot into Palestine during those years. Then, the Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Republic (which included the Gaza Strip), Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait all attacked Israel unprovoked. Since then, Israel is at various levels occupied territories used to launch that war.
At various times, it's eased its occupation, most notably after Oslo and the 2000 Camp David conference. Palestine has held, at various points, elections with Israeli help. Ehud Barak worked earnestly on a Palestinian State. So did the international community.
Then in 2006, Gazans elected Hamas in a relatively democratic election. No election has been held since. Israel has not occupied Gaza since either, though it has controlled its radio waves, airspace, and ports with good reason.
Life in Gaza is intolerable and inhumane. The West Bank is also bad, though obviously not as dire (Israel does directly occupy the West Bank). It's a complex and sad story, with plenty of Palestinian suffering, but apartheid it is not.
I'm not defending Hamas, so bringing them up again and again when talking to me is a not relevant.
We clearly disagree on the system of Apartheid. The UN, Wikipedia, and HRW agree its Apartheid.
You have two ethnicities living in the same places, with vastly different rules, laws, rights, and freedoms. Whatever label you want to give that, its not a recipe for peace.
Quite frankly, the past doesn't matter, it can inform our decision for the future, but we are here today with the situation today. All that matters is what we do now to make a better tomorrow. Blaming people for decisions of their parents and grandparents is not going to bring peace.
but apartheid it is not.
The UN, Wikipedia, and HRW agree its Apartheid.
Could you respond to this point, specifically, in a non-verbose way?
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/apartheid
Any similar policy of racial separation/segregation and discrimination, particularly when in favor of a minority rule.
That's as non verbose as I can be.
Appreciate you sharing the definition, but I was actually asking about the difference of opinion on the matter between you and the person you're conversing with.
Ah. Just do a text search on this thread for "false".
5 messages above this one they outline the Apartheid is false position. I think it hinges on Israeli Arabs are not as poorly treated as Palestinians therefore it's not apartheid. That's not my position though, but I'm trying to do justice to their position.
You have two ethnicities living in the same places, with vastly different rules, laws, rights, and freedoms. Whatever label you want to give that, its not a recipe for peace.
Well, that's only half true. You have plenty of Arab Israelis who are living life exactly like Jewish Israelis.
Anyway: I agree that the situation for Palestinian Arabs is completely intolerable and needs to change. But the word just doesn't fit, mostly because the situation in Israel is not of Israel's choosing. The situation in South Africa was very much of the white minority's choosing.
Besides, if you're going to make that comparison, you should probably apply it all around. Consider Lebanon:
Most Palestinians in Lebanon do not have Lebanese citizenship and therefore do not have Lebanese identity cards, which would entitle them to government services, such as health and education. They are also legally barred from owning property or entering a list of desirable occupations. Employment requires a government-issued work permit, and, according to the New York Times in 2011, although "Lebanon hands out and renews hundreds of thousands of work permits every year to people from Africa, Asia and other Arab countries... until now, only a handful have been given" to Palestinians.
I believe Human Rights Watch has also condemned Lebanon's treatment of Palestinians a number of times, FWIW.
EDIT: BTW, you could probably say that mentioning Lebanon is whataboutism. You'd be right. I'm narrowly seeking to observe that the term "apartheid" seems unevenly applied.
Lebanon is also a bad situation, there are many non-equitable situations around the world right now.
We don't have to agree on Apartheid as a term, as long as we agree on the effects.
I'm happy the Arab Israelis have a reasonable life, I see that as the only path forward for the rest of the Palestinians living in Israel territory.
Israel did create the situation, Once it conquered the territories of Gaza and the West bank it now occupied a population of people. It could have integrated them into Israel as they have with the Israeli Arabs, or given the territory back to Egypt / Jordan after the war. But regardless, they now were the colonizers of a client population.
However, I stick with my earlier stance, it doesn't matter how we got here today, we are here now, and the only thing we can control is how we move forward. Blaming people for the sins, or omissions, of their ancestors isn't going to bring peace.
Israel did create the situation, Once it conquered the territories of Gaza and the West bank it now occupied a population of people. It could have integrated them into Israel as they have with the Israeli Arabs, or given the territory back to Egypt / Jordan after the war. But regardless, they now were the colonizers of a client population.
Palestinians are generally not interested in being annexed into Israel. In fact, that's probably what they oppose the most. Being consumed and assimilated is what the more religious and more conservative Muslims don't want. That would also be intolerable to Israelis. The very people who voted for Hamas, who carried out 10/7, who suicide-bomb cafes, should be granted citizenship? That's unrealistic. It would be like if the United States responded to 9/11 by making Afghanistan a state.
And giving back the land conquered during the Six Day War? That was more or less proposed in 2000, though most of it was actually going to a new Palestinian state. In Clinton's summit, Barak offered demolition of settlements, a right of return for Palestinians, half of Jerusalem and shared custody of the Temple Mount, and a return to the 1967 borders. Yasser Arafat, in my estimation fearing for his life if he made peace with Israel, rejected that.
In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza anyway, leaving a vacuum of power. In that vacuum, Hamas won an election a year later. This month, more or less as a direct result of giving Gazans more self-rule, a pogrom erupted from Gaza and killed over a thousand civilians. Surely you wouldn't say that's of Israel's design. And what would you have their response be? I can't imagine any country in the world that wouldn't respond militarily.
The living conditions of Palestinians are awful, terrible, inhumane. Especially in Gaza. But I don't see how or when Israel sat down and said "yes, let's create this." It's a consequence of a long series of events, and Israel is involved, but they didn't just sit down one day and design a two-tier society.
The continued violence is a consequence of the systematic oppression of ethnic Arabs in the Israeli territories. I know we don't agree on the word apartheid.
The Israeli government is in the position where they have to remove Hamas from the Gaza strip, it's going to be a bloody effort, but they have no choice.
The question becomes after they've removed Hamas, how do they work with the remaining Palestinians? The two-tiered system oppressing ethnic Arabs has to end, or they'll just be a different group that emerges.
Relitigating the past isn't going to bring peace, people might not be happy about a single state solution, but a two-state solution is not feasible. But hell, if a two-state solution works great I welcome it.
It is pretty clearly apartheid, the sterile streets in the West Bank that only one race can use, that is segregation of a population by an ethnicity, for the benefit of a minority. So continuing the previous business of oppressing an ethnicity is going to just continue the cycle of violence
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/apartheid Any similar policy of racial separation/segregation and discrimination, particularly when in favor of a minority rule.
The continued violence is a consequence of the systematic oppression of ethnic Arabs in the Israeli territories.
I don't buy that theory. Hamas says their grievance is that a Jew somewhere has a pulse. I take them at their word.
The question becomes after they’ve removed Hamas, how do they work with the remaining Palestinians? The two-tiered system oppressing ethnic Arabs has to end, or they’ll just be a different group that emerges.
There isn't a two-tiered system. Israeli Arabs enjoy all the same privileges as Israeli Jews.
Now, the conditions in Palestine are inhumane and awful, but I don't see that changing with a full Israeli withdrawal. Keep in mind, Israel did mostly withdrawal from Gaza almost 20 years ago.
It is pretty clearly apartheid, the sterile streets in the West Bank that only one race can use, that is segregation of a population by an ethnicity, for the benefit of a minority.
That's just factually completely incorrect. There are several million ethnic Arabs living in Israel. And benefit? What benefit, exactly, does Israel realize here? Would you think the average Israeli wants to live next to Palestine? Surely you see the difference: White South Africans wanted apartheid. Most Israelis probably want to live as far away from anything having to do with Palestine as possible.
There's no benefit to Israel. There's no exploitation of labor or natural resources or anything like that aside from a few thousand settlers living as unlawful squatters in the West Bank.
It would be like saying that the United States' invasion of Afghanistan, which saw thousands of Americans die and billions of dollars lost, was akin to the British invasion of India, which was a very profitable enterprise.
Just because it's a first world country with a modern military doesn't mean that it's the same thing.
Again you bring up Hamas, I am not talking about Hamas.
After Hamas is destroyed completely apartheid and oppression will cause more systemic violence. The sterile road system in the west bank is a clear demonstration of apartheid.
A full Israel withdrawal would include no embargo with external trade. Fully isolating some land in your territory and not allowing anyone in or out is not a independent country, at best it's a prison at worst is a grave yard.
The resource Israel enjoys from Palestine is the land as demonstrated by the west bank.
After Hamas is destroyed completely apartheid and oppression will cause more systemic violence. The sterile road system in the west bank is a clear demonstration of apartheid.
Repeat after. Hamas. Is. Not. The. Result. Of. Oppression.
You believe that terrorism emerged because of the terrible conditions of Palestine. What you don't seem to realize is that the conditions in Palestine are terrible because of terrorism.
Hamas is not the effect. It is the cause.
A full Israel withdrawal would include no embargo with external trade. Fully isolating some land in your territory and not allowing anyone in or out is not a independent country, at best it’s a prison at worst is a grave yard.
Correct. Like existed for the 19 years leading up to Gaza and the West Bank being used as a platform of aggression against Israel-proper.
But have you thought of the wisdom of that for Israel? Every time they loosen their control of either territory, it results in more Israelis dead in the streets. As was the case in the months leading up to this one -- more permits for Gazas, fewer trade restrictions, more shipments. It seems those were mostly used to smuggle in weapons.