It's Time to Start Using the Term 'Palestinian Civilian' Correctly
As long as the press and world leaders fail to ask these questions, continuing to push unsubstantiated casualty figures, they are empowering Hamas.
Sure, let's do start using it correctly. I'll go first:
Israel is engaged in mass murder of Palestinian Civilians.
Let me go second.
Hamas uses child soldiers to attack Israel.
Starving children, bombed hospitals and schools, whole neighborhoods reduced to rubble... Yeah let's worry about properly defining "civilian".
The casualty count is likely way fucking higher than the official numbers. They can't count the people under the rubble.
Wouldn't be surprised if it was already past 100,000
Mehh that is like 5% per 6 months... IDF: these are rookie numbers, got to get 'em up.
This is pure genocide apology. Even if it were true that the hostages were held by civilians, the 200+ Palestinians killed were not all holding the hostages. The 600+ injured were not holding the hostages. What a disgusting article. So because a few people "deserved it" we can massacre civilians. Fuck off
Ah yes, newsweek. Truly a paragon of human rights advocacy.
(Edit: There used to be a comment here where I was trying to say the blaming the Palestinians for fighting back, on any level, is unreasonable.)
(What I actually wound up saying was victim blaming in a grossly unfair fashion. I'm taking it down. The reply down further below where I try to explain it a little bit better, I'm leaving up, although that one also may still be unfair.)
Then you are a coward and a piece of shit of the absolute highest order
I think that’s pretty easy for you to say from the outside looking in.
I'm not saying anything against someone who for one reason or another (like that they are 2 years old or something) isn't taking part in fighting, or just wants to live and not to be a part of the killing on either side.
I'm saying that if you don't "align" yourself mentally against the invaders while they're killing your family and blowing up your country, then yes, I think you're a piece of shit. Meaning, it makes no sense to punish ordinary Palestinians or treat it as anything wrong with them if they are "aligned" against the Israelis or willing to take part in anti Israeli activities, no matter who they are. That may make them "not civilians" legally, but to remain a fully unaligned-with-the-conflict civilian, all the way up until your house is the one getting blown up and you and your family are the dead ones, is unequivocally wrong. In my opinion, and maybe I have no right to say that. You're right that I'm just saying it from the outside without the slightest idea of the reality of what I'm talking about.
The solution is to stop the Israelis from brutalizing Palestine in a way that anyone with a shred of human spirit would try to resist against. The solution is not to decide that now that they've done that, any Palestinian who doesn't like it isn't a civilian anymore, so it's okay to kill them too.
(And if someone in Palestine doesn't care and just wants to get away and be safe, then that is fine. Not saying anything against that. And if they want to work for peace, and that's their resistance, then great. That is much better. But I'm saying you can't blame someone for fighting back in a situation this desperate and unfair.)
So babies and children and the parents caring for them are cowards? That was the dumbest thing I've read this month. Congratulations.
There is no metal gymnastics western media won't do to provide Israel blank check for their ethnic cleansing campaign.
The goal is that Israel's guilt is socialized among all of us...