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Is it "Complicated"?

 Israel versus Palestine — is it “complicated”?
There is so much misinformation out there surrounding this conflict. Propaganda, too. I think many people have a warped view of the dynamic. And it’s understandable as to how this happened. 
People imagine Israel to be an underdog, the sole democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by countries that want to destroy it. They believe that Israel is a homeland for Jewish people— a refuge, where they gained independence after the Holocaust, and that neighboring countries are full of terrorists who constantly attack it.
But we need to look at all of the historical context here.

Yes, Israel was formed after the Holocaust. Many displaced Jewish people did relocate. But Israel wasn’t large swaths of unoccupied desert, it was full of people.

After so much violence and ethnic cleansing in the Holocaust, a new campaign was enacted, this time towards Palestinians. Over 500 Palestinian villages were cleared of residents, with hundreds of these villages being massacred and destroyed. 700k+ Palestinians were kicked from their houses and left as refugees. Children were taken hostage and pelted with stones. Women were raped. Babies were killed. Modern Israel was built on the blood of indigenous people.

It’s true that Jewish people have strong ancestral ties to that land, having lived in Biblical Israel thousands of years ago. But having ancestral ties to a place does not justify expelling families from their houses, burning villages, and committing ethnic cleansing.

Israeli forces began to oppress and control the remaining Palestinians. They began occupying more and more land, confining the growing Palestinian population into an ever-smaller area— the borders of which were entirely out of Palestinian control. Israel also began enforcing apartheid against Palestinians.

In the decades since Israel’s formation, Palestinian militant groups have committed terrorist attacks on Israel, including on Israeli civilians. But these groups are doing these things as an attempt at resistance against occupation. The instigator of unfathomable violence was Israel, with its formation in 1947-1948. 

If you look at the history of Israel and Palestine, it’s clear to see that it isn’t two countries engaged in a complicated conflict. There is an oppressor and an oppressed. 

The oppressor is the one with total control over the other... The one with a strong defense system and a military funded by governments all over the world… The one with the highest civilian kill count. 

So once you examine the actual history, and look past the misinformation, you can see it isn’t complicated at all. Israel is no underdog, but instead a driving force of instability and terrorism. 


And remember, peace doesn’t mean “kicking all Jewish people and Israelis out.” When we call for peace, we mean returning homes/land to the Palestinian families they were stolen from. We mean rebuilding Gaza and dismantling apartheid and occupation. Coexistence is possible!


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