I’ve been having a discussion with Elizabeth about the Isreali/Palestinian history of conflict. I’ve always been told and read that Israel has policies against attacking civilians. Elizabeth tells me that isn’t the case and backs up her point of view with the following article.
On the macro level, Israel has behaved with similar callousness as their soldiers do at clashes. One of the clearest examples from the current Intifada took place on 23 July 2002. Fourteen Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed when an Israeli F-16 dropped a 1,000-kilogram bomb on an apartment building in the al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, to assassinate Salah Shehadeh, then leader of Hamas’ military wing.
The author of the article referenced in the above quote is Nigel Parry, who says that Israel is practicing apartheid against Palestinians.
Is he correct?
I am far removed from the conflict. While I’m physically closer at this time in my life than I have been previously to the lands of Israel and Palestine, I haven’t been to either place. My sympathies have always been with Israel. The tiny nation is surrounded by hostile neighbors who often speak rhetorically and not so rhetorically about pushing Jews into the sea.
In my mind, every human being has basic rights to be treated decently by fellow humans beings. They only lose those rights when they practice policies of aggression against other human beings. Who started what often gets lost and muddled when the numbers of human beings acting less than civilized mount into the millions.
We’ve been disrespecting and killing one another since we arrived on Planet Earth. I don’t think we’re going to figure it out anytime soon, but I would like to see Israelis and Palestinians teaching their children hope instead of hate. Where does that start? We all have a right to defend our lives from those who would take them. What’s tough is not to lose our humanity in doing so.