Has anyone ever been to Palestine?

[OunceOfFlounce]

I went to high school with a girl from Palestine. She lived in 1 room with her mum and (I think) sister and went on to Cambridge, which no one from our school did.

I never asked about her experiences. I wonder if anyone here has any experience of Palestine?

They mean the Palestinian territory’s I guess

There is such a place as Palestine, there might not be a country with that name officially ( although there is recognised by the majority of UN countries) but there is a Palestine.

@OlderGlaswegianLivingInDevon nothing you wrote makes you a war crime apologist.

You're absolutely right to ask when the hostages are coming home.

What happend last October was an atrocity but it's hardly mentioned anymore.

Sure, there’s problematic people on both sides

"On both sides"

When one side is killing and enforcing suffering on the other on a massively disproportionate scale, and has been for decades, we don't talk about "both sides".

Have you forgotten about the first and second intifadas, and October 7th? And the constant terrorist arracks against Israeli civilians by terrorists from the West Bank? Your ignorance is showing.

Nothing anti-semitic.

No bans either.

Can we just agree that the intentional killing of civilians is always wrong, regardless of which side does it? If you can’t then that’s deeply worrying.

And hopefully some day the Israelis will stop illegally stealing land that doesn't belong to them, respect works both ways

Agreed, as well as the lumping in of Palestinians with Hamas as in the post you quoted.
The terrorism comes from Hamas and the IDF and the Israeli government, not Israelis and Palestinians.

Of course we talk about both sides to not do is utterly idiotic. Hamas are utter scum who are making a hell of a lot of money off this.

Calling some people war crimes apologists whilst supporting terrorist, well that says all I need to know.

You're confusing Gaza with the West Bank ;-)

Thanks for your kind reply :-) Yes, I brought this up here to see if anybody else had ever been - I don't have children or close family, so I feel relatively free to go - I know about Tom Hurndall and Rachel Corrie; they both died in Gaza though:
(sorry about the atrocious grammer - my keyboard won't let me type full stops : )

I last went 10 years ago, it was horrendous then, it can only be worse now. Before entry I nearly had my phone ceased, as they couldn't understand why I filmed. I used my phone to record my son and his cousin playing, literally the video was of them didn't even show the background, so you wouldn't even know where this took place. They told me no filming was allowed despite no signage. The security guy was absolutely horrible towards me, they treated me like I committed a crime. I even played the video so he can see it was nothing suspicious just two babies playing. He called another security guy to come over and tell him what I did, I had to also show him, they were speaking in their language so no idea what's being said. I wasn't allowed to have my husband or anyone else beside me whilst all this was happening. I was terrified. They eventually let me go and said I must delete the video!

When we were in Jerusalem, it was far worse. They would come threaten worshippers with guns, fire into the air to scare everyone off. They were in complete control of the area, they were rude to us every opportunity. The settler ppl there that we came across were not pleasant. I could go on about the experiences, it's too long.
It's sad, Palestinians have had their land stolen, whilst the world watched on. How is that possible. Can you imagine any other country having a group of ppl taking over and changing the name? It will always be Palestine. Are we happy to give up parts of the UK and re-name it for a group of ppl? If not why not? The USA is big enough to give away spare land. They should be allowed to make their home from the land they were persecuted from.

Can you imagine any other country having a group of ppl taking over and changing the name?

Gosh no, that’s never happened anywhere else in the entirety of human history.

You were filming whilst being in very close proximity to a soldier. That would be seen as highly suspicious anywhere in the world, never mind in Israel where soldiers are attacked by terrorists almost daily.

Which ‘settlers’ are you referring to in Jerusalem? Do you just mean Jews? All bar East Jerusalem is undisputed Israeli territory.

The USA is big enough to give away spare land. They should be allowed to make their home from the land they were persecuted from.

@skyandocean Who’s the “they” in this scenario? Do you think the indigenous population and original custodians of the land apparently going spare in the USA might have any objections to this plan?