The 12 year old Palestinian child shot dead on the West Bank

I was being sarcastic

You see I might also be willing to give the benefit of the doubt
If this was an isolated incident, it's not.
If the IDF came out and apologised to the family and offered their condolences, they didn't. Instead they have refused to release the body and criticised family for having too many mourners at their home.
If the IDF questioned and investigated the actions by the soldier, they haven't he's been applauded.
If the IDF called for a full investigation into the incident and agreed to co-operate with that and honour any recommendations made, they won't
If the IDF offered assurances to all parents of children that they won't kill any more children lessons will be learnt, they won't and it will happen again.

Let's talk about leadership and policy and even bigger issues like
All of the above demonstrate the leadership we are dealing with the clear lack of any policy on how to safeguard and protect children.
The US senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has called Netanyahu an obstacle to peace and for elections to be held in Israel so they are also pretty fed up with their leadership
how to settle the Israeli/Palestinian land disputes.
Stopping the illegal settlements would be a start and leaving the people of the west bank to go about their lives without soldiers shooting them.

The IDF have an issue with their organisational culture. Unfortunately it is a culture which seems to be endorsed by extreme right wing Israeli politicians.

It is not a stretch to say they have an organisational culture in which racism and the dehumanisation of Palestinian civilians is a feature.

The main victims of this culture are Palestinian civilians, and while I wouldn’t want to demonise any individual based on them belonging to a group, my main sympathies at this moment in time are with the people of Gaza, with people like this 12 year old boy and his family and friends.

I think that there will be a time when sympathies can be extended to those within the IDF who did not consciously intend to cause such harm, which is not the same as excusing their behaviour.

@FoodObsessedToo

*Absolutely not. I've seen a still from the video and he is clearly holding up one of the roman candle type fireworks.

If a sniper can see where a child's heart is through a scope they can see damn well enough that he's just holding a firework.*

According to the BBC, they knew it was fireworks.

According to video of the incident, before even the firework could go off Rami was hit by a bullet fired by a border police officer positioned some distance away. In a statement, the police said a single shot was fired at a suspect who had "endangered the forces while firing aerial fireworks in their direction".

Uk is a multicultural country. Spain is a multicultural country (im Spanish living in the uk). In both you can find loads of racism and in many scenarios it’s young people

Well of course you can, but what you cannot do is assume that any and every soldier is acting from racism when they're involved in an incident with a civilian.

Let's talk about leadership and policy and even bigger issues like how to settle the Israeli/Palestinian land disputes.

Absolutely not. I've seen a still from the video and he is clearly holding up one of the roman candle type fireworks.

If a sniper can see where a child's heart is through a scope they can see damn well enough that he's just holding a firework.

And even if it was a grenade, which it absolutely fucking was not, the kid would be blowing himself up, no members of the IDF or Israeli public were near, so why the fuck would he need to shoot him anyways?

And even if the soldier mistook the firework for a weapon (not possible, look at the photo, a toddler can see it's a firework) why wouldn't you shoot to disarm seeing it's a child??

Why shoot through the heart?

Uk is a multicultural country. Spain is a multicultural country (im Spanish living in the uk). In both you can find loads of racism and in many scenarios it’s young people

Wrong guess. It was fireworks and it can be seen on the video

Remember IDF soldiers are on average very young
Youth is no excuse. They are adults, they've been trained they shouldn't be there if they are not able to cope and make the right decisions. What about their commanders, the politicians that applauded the killing? They're not young what's their excuse?

and raised in a multicultural environment. They're unlikely to be looking at Palestinian children as "other"
If you are not aware of the "othering" by the IDf and Israeli government of Palestinians you have not been paying attention because there thousands of examples

... and also obtusely unable to recognise the racism inherent in the actions of an IDF soldier shooting a young Palestinian boy celebrating Ramadan.

You're doing real mental gymnastics if you honestly believe I meant just you and not her.

@LiterallyOnFire did you miss the part where I explained why I used the term "pure racism"? Good grief.

I think you may be hard of hearing, unable to read or appreciate sarcasm, or maybe just desperate to attack someone pointing out the idiocy and hateful rhetoric towards Palestinians of the earlier poster?

and racism

Good grief you're desperate. So we've climbed down from "pure racism" now?

Remember IDF soldiers are on average very young and raised in a multicultural environment. They're unlikely to be looking at Palestinian children as "other" and if they are it won't be just because they're Arab. They live with Israeli Arabs.

It's the batshit political situation that is self-perpetuating. And the WB is a far more bonkers political situation than even the Gaza Strip. The soldiers aren't the puppet masters in all of this. There have been some very hawkish Israeli governments over the past two decades. The illegal settlements have obviously been disastrous. That doesn't mean all IDF soldiers are racist or whatever the blanket assumption is.

The hope is in the young median age of so many involved. Demonising individuals caught up in this at the ground level doesn't help.

We need solutions, not insults
We need the IDF to stop killing children. You can analyse it and look for causes and try and explore solutions and meanwhile more children die. I commend your ability to remain calm because I am furious.

Who was I insulting?

racism
/ˈreɪsɪz(ə)m/

noun

1. prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
2. "a programme to combat racism"

Definition from Oxford Languages

"Well I think we can quite easily say it's a whole felted matter of standing orders, siege mentality, young soldiers, some hawkishness, the lack of an international settlement that held, a violent youth culture, corrosive effects of more than a generation of laissez faire since then...."

... and racism

Let me guess. The boy was actually chucking hand grenades….

Well I think we can quite easily say it's a whole felted matter of standing orders, siege mentality, young soldiers, some hawkishness, the lack of an international settlement that held, a violent youth culture, corrosive effects of more than a generation of laissez faire since then....

We need solutions, not insults.

No. The point, I think is this - A pp stated that condemning the actions of the IDF is ‘pure anti-Semitism’ because they are no different to any other army, apart from being Jewish. Therefore, by the same token, condemning kids (to death, no less) for playing in the street is pure anti-Palestinian racism, because they are no different to any other children playing, apart from being Palestinian.

Well if "by the same token" is the way to deescalate this shit show, I'm a dutch woman. (I'm not.)

So you saw the offensive post but you've chosen to take issue with poster who was highlighting the absurdity of sweeping statements about racism.
It's an interesting decision.

No I was taking issue with both of them. I couldn't reply to the other one because it disappeared while k was still reading the thread, but you can tell I was taking issue with anyone on either side calling any of the motivation "pure <anything>" because I said so.

Good grief, if I was his mother I would not be responsible for my actions 😞

From Al Jazeera.

Israeli military withholding 13-year-old Palestinian’s body to pressure family

Reporting from Ramallah, occupied West Bank

Withholding a body is a fairly common tactic that Israel uses to pressure the families of Palestinians they have killed.
The Israeli military are telling Rami’s family that they’re not happy that a large number of people are mourning at their home since his killing. They want to suppress these incidents. They don’t want to draw attention to it. They don’t want these to be moments where the death is marked in any large fashion.

I'm not, and it came from the exact posters I thought it would

So you saw the offensive post but you've chosen to take issue with poster who was highlighting the absurdity of sweeping statements about racism.
It's an interesting decision.

I think you missed the point altogether. For months now anyone who criticises the Israeli government or IDF has been accused of antisemitism, the poster you are policing was making the point that we can play that game too but it's ridiculous.

I have no interest in understanding the position of people who defend the murder of children, they are beneath my contempt, and I couldn't care less about being the bigger person.

@LiterallyOnFire if it is not pure racism what is the reason for an IDF soldier to stand in a watch tower and decide to shoot dead a 12 year old boy playing with fireworks on the street below? Is he a psychotic killer? Is he filled with hate does he see Palestinians as sub human? It is not the actions of a rational adult in my view