The West Bank: Israel and Palestine
There are two things polite people “shouldn’t talk about”: religion and politics. I’m sorry but I have to.
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My question is, why cannot the media and governments of the world admit that this is a medieval style feud that does not belong in modern society.
Most of the casualties are innocent civilians.
There is no way that this ends without both sides giving up the idea of this being “sacred land” and “a religious right” but instead thinking of it as a human rights violation, an illegal war and a blood feud that will not end without compromise.
The leadership of both groups are getting more and more extreme. Supporting either side’s “right” to do what they are doing is flat out unethical.
Worse than just emphasising their “religious rights”, is people using “facts” to support their actions or positions and those “facts” turn out to have no data whatsoever to support them. Whether it be cherry-picking of data or wholesale fiction.
Seeing the deaths as numbers and not people is flat out wrong. People are dying and those people have names, families, personalities, hopes and dreams.
I’m astounded that secular governments such as the US can so vocally support one side and that Australia can sit idly by.
We are in the 21st century and the only way to move forward (and yes, I mean that as a direction that is worth moving for the benefit of all mankind) is not just to forgive (which is essential) but to give up on the idea of physical things such as land being sacred. If anything on earth is to be sacred it should be the lives of the children in the school that was blown to pieces, and certainly not land.
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One Reply to “The West Bank: Israel and Palestine”
This sparked a conversation on Facebook (click to read). So I thought I would clarify a few things:
I have no ties to Palestine, I have Jewish blood on both sides of the family (as do a lot of people in Australia and USA etc) and I am disgusted at the treatment of Jews over history. But that doesn’t mean that there is any good reason for me to support the actions Israeli government or military (nor Hamas!).
I support both Israel and Palestine in sorting their problems out, but not in any of the actions they are currently taking, especially in choosing more militant leaders and continuing to injure innocent civilians with an illegal war.
It’s almost like two men fighting at a bar, will often stop if they are pulled away by a bystander but will keep fighting. There needs to be a way out without everyone losing face.
Unfortunately both sides are getting more extreme and that is concerning. There are only two ways I can see this ending and the fact that one of them is genocide scares me.
That is where the international community needs to step up.
Imagine if the international community publicly condemned both sides, put a trade embargo (ESPECIALLY ARMS) on them and offered to take every single person that wanted out as a refugee.