Israel is committing war crimes. I've had a difficult time admitting it
I've been hearing lies about Jews and Israel all my life. Land purchased by Zionists from Arabs who were happy to sell it is today called "stolen land". In 2000, an image of a Jewish student beaten by Palestinian rioters was featured in the New York Times mislabeled as a Palestinian beaten by Israeli police. I've seen pictures of Syrian victims and Iraqi victims labeled as Palestinian victims of Israel. The fact that Hamas and other Palestinian militants have used hospitals and schools as staging grounds for attacks on Israel has been given limited coverage compared to that of Israel's responses.
So I've had plenty of reason to doubt reports of war crimes. And another reason: I still don't think Israel was committing war crimes in late 2023 or early 2024. The IDF employed several measures to mitigate civilian harm at the start of the war: Warnings and time to evacuate; Precision weaponry; Daily pauses. But it's difficult to avoid civilian casualties in a densely populated region where militants are hiding underground and among civilians. And when Al Shifa Hospital was hit by Palestinian rockets, the world condemned Israel.
Today's violence between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East traces back to riots in the early 1900's, committed by Arabs. This is not a condemnation of Arab people or Palestinians. Many Arabs sheltered their Jewish neighbors from the rioters.
The Arabs who lived on land that would become Israel and the occupied territories had legitimate grievances against the Zionist movement. While Zionism was good for many Palestinians, Europeans where buying up land with the goal of taking political control of the region, and were displacing tenants and eliminating jobs. Zionists discounted and in many cases deliberately caused economic hardships which forced many Arabs out of their homes.
But no amount of legitimate grievance justified the kind of brutality that occurred during the riots. The rioters raped, committed genital mutilation, and murdered children. And the greatest amount of suffering caused by the rioters fell on non-Zionist Jews, suggesting that the violence wasn't just a reaction against a political movement, but a series of sadistic rampages fueled, at least in part, by bigotry.
Since then terrorist attacks have repeatedly scuttled peace efforts. Terrorists bombed civilian airlines, attacked busses and bus stations, including a school bus, restaurants, and other civilian targets.
I fear the strain of hatred and sadism that runs through the anti-Zionist movement no matter how just the original cause may have been. I also fear the violent religious fundamentalism which has taken root within the Palestinian movement. Not all of the terrorists are interested in freedom for Palestinians.
Despite chants about the river and the sea, the idea that Palestine would be free under Hamas is ludicrous. We only have to look at Hamas's primary backer, Iran, to see what Palestinian life would be like under Hamas. -
Enforced disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment ... Arbitrary detention and unfair trials ...
women and girls ... harassment and violence in public spaces. ... forced “morality” classes; imprisonment and flogging ...
Consensual same-sex sexual relations ... criminalized with punishments ranging from flogging to the death penalty.
All this and more kept me quiet about Israel's war crimes. I doubted the stories and thought they were being told by religious fanatics and terrorist sympathizers who revel in the deaths of Jews. And I thought the stories were being bolstered by ignoramuses who don't know or care about history, and who blindly empathize with the poorer or less European side of any conflict. I still think that's true to a great extent.
But despite my mistrust and fears, I don't want to ignore Israel's crimes. The evidence is overwhelming.
I can't help thinking of the cliché, "The call is coming from inside the house" when I read of Israeli generals, Mossad agents, political leaders, and human rights organizations all saying that Israel is committing war crimes. They're even saying "genocide".
And even in the beginning, I thought, is this necessary? Certainly a harsh response to the October 7th massacre was justified but such destruction? Death to so many children? And how can I discount the fact that Israelis were mortified by the attack, and Netanyahu is a war-mongering nationalist who was in political turmoil from his own corruption before October 2023. It's unrealistic not to consider that a corrupt hard-right leader in trouble wouldn't call for excessive brutality to appease an electorate thirsting for revenge after a horrifying attack that happened under his watch.
I can't support a Palestinian state without supporting terrorists, but I can't oppose a Palestinian state with supporting warmongers. Whatever I decide to support, I'll be siding with murderers. I support two states.
I've have a recurring, small, donation to Standing Together, and occasionally give to other organizations which work towards a peace that doesn't require one side eliminating the other.
As a U.S. Citizen, I support Democrats because Republicans fully support the oppression of Palestine. But Democrats are tearing their party apart over the Israel/Palestine conflict. It was painful to watch pro-Palestinian "Genocide Joe" protest voters (or non-voters) join forces with Zionist Democrats who broke party ranks to help Donald Trump destroy America because they thought he'd be better for Israel. We're being torn apart by ignorance but the truth might bring some of us together.
The truth is: Israel is committing war crimes. These war crimes are part of a century-long cycle of terrorism and collective punishment starting with sadistic riots, but they're still war crimes.
There is still a part of me that hopes that I'm wrong. I would love for someone to prove to me that Israel is doing the minimum necessary to stop terrorism, and that the terrorism Israel is stopping is even worse than the carnage being created to stop it.
I've updating this post a few times in the days since first posting it, mostly to improve my phrasing. I added the paragraph about hoping to be wrong, and this paragraph. I might update this post with comments I get on social media. You can find me on Bluesky or Mastodon (AssortedFlotsam.com) by looking for "bnmng"