this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
540 points (92.1% liked)

World News

39045 readers
3180 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In early December, images circulated worldwide showing dozens of Palestinian men in the city of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, who were stripped to their underwear, kneeling or sitting hunched over, then blindfolded and put into the back of Israeli military trucks like cattle. The vast majority of these detainees were civilians with no affiliation to Hamas, Israeli security officials later confirmed, and the men were taken away by the army without notifying their families of the detainees’ whereabouts. Some of them never returned.

+972 Magazine and Local Call spoke with four Palestinian civilians who appeared in these photos, or were arrested near the scene and taken to Israeli military detention centers, where they were held for several days or even weeks before being released back to Gaza. Their testimonies — along with 49 video testimonies published by various Arabic media outlets of Palestinians arrested in similar circumstances in recent weeks in the northern districts of Zeitoun, Jabalia, and Shuja’iya — indicate systematic abuse and torture by Israeli soldiers against all of the detainees, civilians and combatants alike.

According to these testimonies, Israeli soldiers subjected Palestinian detainees to electric shocks, burned their skin with lighters, spat in their mouths, and deprived them of sleep, food, and access to bathrooms until they defecated on themselves. Many were tied to a fence for hours, handcuffed, and blindfolded for most of the day. Some testified to having been beaten all over their bodies and having cigarettes extinguished on their necks or backs. Several people are known to have died as a result of being held in these conditions.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TheUncannyObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I’m gonna say it. Israel is no better than the Nazis, and I wholeheartedly believe the nation should be dissolved and the people moved off of the land they stole from the Palestinians. These people do not act with humanity, and I don’t have any sympathy for whatever happens to them in the future.

[–] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think the only way this can end is similar to South Africa. International pressure needs to end the current governance of Israel as an apartheid state and a new state with equal rights for all Palestinians, including all the refugees, and Israeli citizens needs to be created in its place.

[–] stmcld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

True. But i would add the extra detail that all the land stolen from Palestinians by Israel should be returned.

In South Africa that wasn't done. We had land and a house that my grandfather built up by himself in what is now one the most expensive suburbs in Cape Town. That land was stolen from us and never returned.

And it hurts so much everytime we have to go past there because there are rich white folks living there now. And we know we'll never be able to afford that land now no matter how hard we work. Now we struggle to even leave a home for our children to inherit.

I don't want that happening to the Palestinians again.

[–] Keeponstalin@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I completely agree. Palestinians need reparations for their land and valuables stolen in the ethnic cleansing campaign and the generations of trauma they have been subjected to since. If they can't or don't want their old land/home, they need additional reparations for their new one (for example if they want to live in a different area)

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's... Not what happened. Both Israel and Palestine have long historical precedence, and tumultuous ownership claims. They were ultimately created by Britain post-WW2, who then bowed out after a year with very little planning. Don't add your country's baggage to an already complex reality. It's not true, and it's not going to help you understand what's going on over there.

[–] stmcld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The settlers (aka colonolialist thieves and murderers) are literally killing, maiming, torturing Palestinians on their own land in the West Bank. Driving them out of their own houses, lands and farms. The Israeli army stands by and watches this. If any Palestinian tries to fight back against the settlers in the process of stealing their land they are maimed and/or murdered. And this is only in the West Bank where land theft and murder by the Israelis is still happening to this day. It doesn't include any of the other clear land theft that had taken place in historic Palestine by the Israelis.

Now tell me that is not similar to the Apartheid police force breaking into houses in your area and telling you to move or be murdered, because your property now belongs the Apartheid state that is going to parcel it out to the white Apartheid supporting citizens.

Finding similarities between the atrocities commited by the Apartheid South African government and the Apartheid Israeli government is not adding my country's baggage to a complex reality. A lot can be learnt by looking back at similar atrocities commited in the past and the repercussions of that, whay was learnt, etc.

Also an important point is that because of experiencing a similar repression of my people, parents, grandparents, and living through the tail end of that repression, i have empathy and some understanding of what the Palestinians are going through. I can't claim to know exactly how they're feeling but i do have some idea.

I have been campaigning in South Africa for Palestinian rights and self determination since i was a young teenager with my peers and my parents. I have been aware of the history, geopolitics and reality of the situation of the Palestinians since then. I have a pretty decent understanding of what is going on over there.

[–] tamal3@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I misinterpreted your original post, but re-reading it now I agree. I was reacting to the common idea in this thread that Israel doesn't have any right to exist -- which is complicated, as all post-colonial history is. That wasn't what you were commenting on, though. Israel is definitely encroaching on Palestinian land and rights in Gaza and the West Bank, and are at least half of the force against real peaceful solutions. I fully agree that what's going on now should be classified a genocide, and as far as I know South Africa is the only country that has stated it.

It's amazing the damage wrought in the wake of colonialism. Both Palestine/Israel and South Africa have suffered tremendously from colonizers deciding they knew what (and who) was best.

[–] stmcld@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

It's no problem. Maybe i can also be more clear too in the future when replying.

It's true that the Israeli citizens and the Palestinian citizens will have to be involved in a common solution. It will be very bitter, especially for the Palestinians, but one has to move forward

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm Israeli. I was born and raised here, in a city that never existed before pre-Israel pioneers established it. I also voted against the current shitshow of a government.

Where do you expect me to go exactly?

[–] TheUncannyObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It didn’t exist before the Israelis showed up? Then what you’re saying is that your people established an illegal settlement on stolen lands. In that case, I would say that you should be forced to leave that land so that it can be used by the people it belongs to. You’re illegal squatters, you don’t have any right to that land.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 10 months ago

Nope. The land was purchased from previous land owners. You can read about the city here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%27anana

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com -2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Forcing the people of Israel to relocate would be a war crime in itself.

[–] TheUncannyObserver@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Forcing them off the land they’ve stolen is not a war crime any more than forcing Russia out of Crimea would be. The warcrime has already been committed, undoing that warcrime is justice.

[–] kaffiene@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I understand disliking the establishment of Israel at the expense of Palestinians and Palestinian land. As a state, they revolt me. But forced removal of Israelis would be Genocide by definition. War crimes by Israel don't justify commiting crimes against the Israeli populace.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com -3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If we were only talking about the people who originally colonized the area you'd have a point. But we're not, so you're just talking about ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of a civilian population. If you think crimes against humanity are the way to resolve conflicts, you'd fit right in with the leadership of Hamas or Likud.

[–] Skates@feddit.nl 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

How about we offer them the option, and if they refuse - bury them under the 70 years of Palestinian graves that they created.

Fuck off outta here with your "war crime to relocate them" shit. Israel is a made-up country that relies on money greasing the right pockets to exist. It's time to dissolve it.

[–] lolcatnip@reddthat.com -2 points 10 months ago

You're just as bad as they are.