..but would someone mind explaining what is happening in Palestine

Are you ready to hand back England to the Italians? The Romans were here, or how about Norway?

They are terrorists, the started a war and outright murdered 1400 innocent people, raping women, beheading children and taking hostages. How can anyone defend this? They are evil. Israel have sent in millions of pounds worth of aid, built hospitals in Palestine over the years. Please look this up - no one wants to acknowledge this.

palestine were firing over 809 scud missiles per day into Israel. It is pure and simply a hatred of jews.

All war is horrible and the people of Palestine are being lied to and used by Islamic terrorists

When loved ones' remains are being handed to you in carrier bags having been blown apart by Israeli bombs, when IDF soldiers who gangraped Palestinian prisoners are going on tv to defend themselves and the population is rioting- not against the raping but against the questioning of the right to rape, when people are literally starving to death and a man went to register the birth of his babies and by the time he got back they had bene obliterated by the Israelis then
I don't know how anyone can defend Israel at this point. The cruelty is on another level but yes it's all anti- semetism.

Did Hamas start a war? Or did Hamas commit an atrocity after 70+ years of suffering at the hands of the Israeli government and zionists?

They kind of did. Israel accepted it and all the surrounding arab states declared war on the newly established Israel and invaded it. The Palestinians spent the next 70 years playing the victim because they lost a war them and their mates started.

older it's not covered in secondary school in the UK as far as I know. I didn't do it and neither of my kids have

The bible isn’t a history book, hope this helps

Israel is not committing genocide. It is protecting their citizens from multiple rocket attacks aimed at civilians.

Thats the thing its not another genocide committed by Israel. Hamas started a war, they knew what they were doing. Theyve been given ample opportunities for a cease fire (including most of the west bank) and they rejected it. The government of Palestine alone are effectively killing their own people. They receive hundreds of tonnes of aid which they allow in and never distribute to their own people. They receive funding from hostile states that carry out horrific atrocities

One side believes they have a right to live in a certain area of land and also have the right to decide who else can live there. They believe they are victims of oppression and any violence they use is justified self-defence, even if that's pro-active violence rather than passively waiting for an attack.

The other side basically believe the same thing.

The area to the immediate east of the Mediterranean sea, is one of the very few bits of fertile land in the region. It has been contested between larger power blocks for about the last 3500 years.
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About 1500BCE it was mainly under the control of the Egyptian empire, with a brief burst of independence as a nation state before being taken over by the Assyrian empire and then by the Babylonians and then the Persians. When Alexander the Great conquered the Persians around 300ish BC it became part of the Macedonian empire which fragmented somewhat after Alexander's death but the Egyptian and Syrian segments were both basically still Macedonian and squabbled over it a bit. The Syrian (Seleucid) regime allowed the region to become semi-autonomous from about 140BC - but still part of their empire - then the Romans came and took over around 50BC with a token nod to retaining the semi-autonomous status until unrest and rebellion made them change to being less lenient. When the Roman empire started breaking up a few hundred years later it became part of the Eastern Roman empire which morphed into what we know as the Byzantine Empire. By this point the inhabitants were a mix of muslims and Christians, with some jews althoigh many had been scattered to other countries. The Persians managed to take over briefly before the Rashidun Caliphate took over around 600AD with various other broadly Islamic power centres in the region ruling it over the subsequent few hundred years. The Europeans managed to capture some of it in the crusades around 1100AD. The territory held by Europeans was drastically reduced by 1200ish AD and completely absorbed into the surrounding Sultanate by 1300AD before being absorbed into the Ottoman Empire around 1500AD which remained in control until the chaos of the First World War.

At that point it became part of the British Empire. After the 2nd World War the British decided it could be Israel again, although most of the land was owned by Muslims who had been there for generations. That Israel was somewhat still a client-state of British and American interests. Tensions over control in the region escalated to the Suez Crisis, after which Egypt, Jordan and Syria decided enough was enough and announced their intention to take back control which turned out to be a massive failure- Israel expanded its borders to more than twice its previous size - though they gave the Sinai region back to Egypt in 1982, with what's known as "The occupied territories" and "The Gaza Strip" referrring to the lands that were conquered during the late 1960s remaining under the control of Israel.

Israel can only survive as a separate entity when it is under the patronage and cliency of a larger world power. At the moment that power is the USA. It will never stop being contested.

Both.

OP didn't ask today, OP asked on 24th April, presumably in response to something at the time. Thread was reactivated today at 11.36 by @Fastfad , who knows why? Algorithmic fluke bringing it to attention probably.

Hating Jews? Or are Palestinians fighting back after 70 years of violence and oppression?

Hamas terroists starred this current war. Plenty of Palestinian citizens went along with it in that they held Israeli hostages in their houses.

this currebt war also is deeply entrenched with hating Jews. Just pop over to the conflict in the ME board to see that. People are even taking the word antisemitism and using it agains the Jews. Also people are now changing the word Zionist (which means you believe in a Jewish state and many Jews also believe in a Palestinian state) to now mean Jew. So when they say anti Zionist they are just meaning anti Jew.

history, going back further… you’ll need a lot of time to read up on it. But before it was called Israel there were Jews living there who were expelled from everywhere else and when Israel was officially created in 1948 many people couldn’t stand it simply because it was a place for Jewish people.

Totally totally a wind up thread.

' I really do not follow current affairs. I don't watch television or read newspapers etc. I know there is conflict and a lot of people have sadly lost their lives, but I don't understand why?'

so why decide to ask on Mumsnet ?

and why today ?

why the sudden interest ?

and I guess you didn't go to school in the UK ?

It's a discussion forum, where you know, people discuss things .....

www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict

Israel didn’t exist until 1948.

The irony of you post is that the interpretation of what is happening and used to happen is exactly the reason for the conflict in the first place!

So far Israel hasn’t found the people who committed the terrorist attack in Israel but they have managed to kill over 40,000 civilians, displaced countless others, destroyed water treatment plants, destroyed all healthcare facilities, created a blockade preventing food and other items (think things you need in your life) going into Gaza, created a man made famine, left countless children with life changing injuries, countless people displaced, protested for the right to sexually abuse and rape prisoners and more.

And now the world stands by and watches another genocide - being committed by Israel. You’re right it was never supposed to happen again, the world said “never again”, yet here we are….. utterly depressing.

Basically Palestinian terrorists, with the backing of their Government (supported by their allies) Entered Israel and attacked and massacred 1400 innocent people at a concert, including babies.

They took hundreds of people hostages, including children. Many of the hostages are still being held in horrific conditions. Some have been found slaughtered.

Israel have always warned Palestine and any other hostile country that they will defend their land and people unconditionally.

The world stood by while 6 million were murdered in an industrial scale genocide. Most survivors couldn’t go home to their own country/homes as they had been stolen from them and they also risked being killed.

originally Israel under a british mandate turned back survivors in boats.

Eventually they were restored to the homeland of the Jewish people. A safe place, where they will always have a home and roots. NEVER AGAIN