I can tell you’re one of those people that claims there is a “cycle of violence”, but there is no cycle. There is no circular causality. Israel’s genocide is not caused by violence from Palestinians. It is caused by an ethno-nationalist ideology and the colonist invasion used to implement it. Every bit of violence that you will associate with a Palestinian is a justified response to being trapped, starved, beaten, deprived, and killed.
Palestinians do not do anything to cause the continued violence of Israel. If Hamas completely dissolved and no Palestinian child ever threw a rock at an Israeli tank again, they would still be getting genocided, having their homes and land continually taken from them. Because Israel and most of its citizens want this to happen. No, “we” don’t need thousands of people to die. Israel needs it.
Every bit of violence that you will associate with a Palestinian is a justified response to being trapped, starved, beaten, deprived, and killed.
I’ll push back very slightly here. Before I say it, I’ll clarify - my understanding comes from my experience and someone who’s Palestinian has a much better understanding than me. So their words should matter more. What I’m saying might not even apply to this situation as a whole - I’m just responding to this statement I’ve quoted.
I’m from a colonized country where we are taught about the heroic efforts of our freedom fighters from a very young age - not just in school (which is liberalised tbf), but in movies and TV (dramatized) and via anecdotes from our grandparents who lived in colonial times (personal efforts by individuals and the impact of revolutionary figures on the ground).
Not every individual bit of violence by every individual oppressed person is justified. Individuals are fallible and many immoral people commit violence in ways that do not forward the cause of independence, but for personal gain.
What is justified is organised struggles that various independence groups undertake to attain their freedom. The level and type of struggle that is deemed necessary is up to the group fighting for independence. Some of them will be called terrorists by the colonisers, others will be co-opted by them and become oppressors themselves, or seek to gain a dominant position within the independent struggle. Thats a normal part of the struggle. And even within these groups there will be people who will put their personal gain above the efforts of the group - at that point the group has to have a system in place to deal with these individuals.
This doesn’t mean individuals cannot be a part of the independence struggle without being in a group. They absolutely can. Most civilians are. But there is a difference between every anarchic bit of individual violence done with no overall goal but for personal gain, and organised struggle. The two are not always the same. That’s all.
I don’t mean “justified” as in “morally correct”, I mean it as in there is an understandable justification for it. Not specifically from the individual involved. When an invading group makes ethnic divisions in a society, there will be ethnic violence, and the only justified reaction is to end those ethnic divisions (in this case, “Israel” getting the hell out). I don’t mean that a random Palestinian being violent towards a random “Israeli” is good, I mean that it’s not some moral calculation that should be weighed against Israel’s crimes. They aren’t the same and don’t contribute to a cycle.
I agree with everything you wrote, but I don’t really think it means much to be pointed out here, because it’s not really what I was responding to. (Also, unrelated, but don’t use “anarchic” like that. It’s very lib.)
I can tell you’re one of those people that claims there is a “cycle of violence”, but there is no cycle. There is no circular causality. Israel’s genocide is not caused by violence from Palestinians. It is caused by an ethno-nationalist ideology and the colonist invasion used to implement it. Every bit of violence that you will associate with a Palestinian is a justified response to being trapped, starved, beaten, deprived, and killed.
Palestinians do not do anything to cause the continued violence of Israel. If Hamas completely dissolved and no Palestinian child ever threw a rock at an Israeli tank again, they would still be getting genocided, having their homes and land continually taken from them. Because Israel and most of its citizens want this to happen. No, “we” don’t need thousands of people to die. Israel needs it.
I’ll push back very slightly here. Before I say it, I’ll clarify - my understanding comes from my experience and someone who’s Palestinian has a much better understanding than me. So their words should matter more. What I’m saying might not even apply to this situation as a whole - I’m just responding to this statement I’ve quoted.
I’m from a colonized country where we are taught about the heroic efforts of our freedom fighters from a very young age - not just in school (which is liberalised tbf), but in movies and TV (dramatized) and via anecdotes from our grandparents who lived in colonial times (personal efforts by individuals and the impact of revolutionary figures on the ground).
Not every individual bit of violence by every individual oppressed person is justified. Individuals are fallible and many immoral people commit violence in ways that do not forward the cause of independence, but for personal gain.
What is justified is organised struggles that various independence groups undertake to attain their freedom. The level and type of struggle that is deemed necessary is up to the group fighting for independence. Some of them will be called terrorists by the colonisers, others will be co-opted by them and become oppressors themselves, or seek to gain a dominant position within the independent struggle. Thats a normal part of the struggle. And even within these groups there will be people who will put their personal gain above the efforts of the group - at that point the group has to have a system in place to deal with these individuals.
This doesn’t mean individuals cannot be a part of the independence struggle without being in a group. They absolutely can. Most civilians are. But there is a difference between every anarchic bit of individual violence done with no overall goal but for personal gain, and organised struggle. The two are not always the same. That’s all.
I don’t mean “justified” as in “morally correct”, I mean it as in there is an understandable justification for it. Not specifically from the individual involved. When an invading group makes ethnic divisions in a society, there will be ethnic violence, and the only justified reaction is to end those ethnic divisions (in this case, “Israel” getting the hell out). I don’t mean that a random Palestinian being violent towards a random “Israeli” is good, I mean that it’s not some moral calculation that should be weighed against Israel’s crimes. They aren’t the same and don’t contribute to a cycle.
I agree with everything you wrote, but I don’t really think it means much to be pointed out here, because it’s not really what I was responding to. (Also, unrelated, but don’t use “anarchic” like that. It’s very lib.)