To have reservations about a friendship with a woman who refers to Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide?

[Oodiks]

I like this woman a lot, but we have very differing world views, specifically her belief that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

We work at a university and were coming back from lunch together when she commented that she was pleased the protestors hadn't come back. I agreed, noting how nerve wracking it must have been for Jewish students on campus to run the gauntlet of pro-Palestinian / anti-Zionist posters in the encampment.

We'd been talking about the American election over lunch, and I thought we'd agreed that Kamala Harris was the better candidate for her views on climate change, if nothing else, but then my 'friend' commented on Biden/Harris sending arms "to support the genocide" and I was left kind of speechless.

Am I being unreasonable to feel unsure about continuing this friendship?

The thing is though neither China nor Pakistan claim to be western liberal democracies.
They don’t try to make us complicit in their genocides,
and they don’t insist on being the victim.

If the tables were turned and Israel got a dose of what it’s dishing out then that would be genocide.

I recommend that OP reads the judgements in the FYR trials- agreed to be genocide / war crimes and ask herself where does the Israeli actions stand in comparison.

The fact that they’re supposedly a western democratic ally?

The reason people don’t speak up about these is because our government is doing its job and siding with the victims in these cases. We don’t need to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as our government is supporting the Ukrainian army. We also don’t need to protest North Korea’s crazy leader as our government has issued sanctions against them.

in Israel’s case however our government is actively providing the bombs that are killing innocent people in their thousands. THAT’s what we’re protesting about. Our government’s blatant racist, Islamophobic, colonial policies. I’m white, British, (non-practising) Christian by the way, with absolutely no link to either side. Just a functioning moral compass!

OP

You need to separate Jewish people from the criticism of Israel.

DH family are Jewish and horrified by what's happening, they don't condone the actions of Israel at all. They have been joining protest marches along with people of all faiths & none, in support of Palestine.

Israel is a state. There are more Jewish people living outside it than it in & many of those people don't want to be tarred with the brush of the disproportionate response Israel has taken. Most of my Jewish friends in London disapproved of the continuining Israeli tolerance of settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights etc

Israel never stopped settling the Palestinian. They withdrew SOME settlements, not all & that is a big part of the bubbling hatred that kicked this off. They need to accept that they can't recreate a biblical map on a modern land, too long has passed, you cannot simply displace those people/deny them existence.

The West let everyone down for too long, by tolerating continued settlement by Israelis in Palestinian territory.

It’s interesting how often an OP starts off as all wide-eyed and reasonable, wanting to have a nice discussion, and as they continue to post, their bigotry comes out. In this case, anti-Muslim prejudice.

Your fear of Islam? This has to be a wind up!

Indeed, Islamaphobia has raised its ugly head

Women are not under arrest or forbidden from speaking/laughing in public. BiL is Iranian and takes his family to Iran a couple of times a year. My sister covered her hair in public and wore pants or long skirts out of respect but says many women she saw there didn’t. I believe there’s since been a crackdown on wearing the hijab (scarf) in public. Women in Iran can drive and work although they face institutionalised discrimination and there are some jobs they are not allowed to do - a husband can also object to his wife doing work they disapprove of. But they’re not prisoners. You said your fear of Islam isn’t irrational………………….

Nope. Wrong again. It was part of the settlement of WW1. Nothing to do with country grabbing. And yes, while we’re hating ourselves let’s drag slavery into the mix even though it’s not relevant to the discussion.

Let's be real
My Jewish friends grandfather moved from Europe to Israel in the 60s
He was excited to go to a Jewish state
Excited to be getting immediate citizenship and a home
He moved
And about a month later a lady with three children came knocking on the door
The women was distraught and injured
She told him that this was her house and had been her husband's house for over 500 years
The man quickly realised that he was in fact in a stolen home
There was still cutlery and furniture in the home
She told him she was a Christian and all the Christians had been driven out the village and told to leave for two weeks. Her husband was killed.
This was a Christian village.
My friends grandfather quickly realised what had happened. Her village was now Israel. She had no citizenship whereas he and any Jew coming from across the world immediately were recognised. My friends grandfather said " if peace means stealing someone else peace then I don't want it" and he moved back to Europe.
In the 1948 nakba over a million Palestinians died. These Palestinians had lived there for over a thousand years.

And yes .
You are right ..
Israel does send leaflets sending warningS
Like in 2009 when it sent leaflets telling people to flee and then dropped white phosphorus on civilians. Btw white phosphorus ignites whatever it lands on. Even setting cars on fire. An American Dr said peoples bones were charred from white phosphorus.
The leaflets that tell them to flee to one are then they attack the area where they are told to flee to.
Let's be clear
It is not just the Palestine that they torture. they torture the isralis that refuse to join the army to.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/anti-zionist-jew-seeks-uk-asylum-after-refusing-military-service-in-israel/2369803

You are right
They do destroy aid trucks to prevent them from reaching Gaza

How low can you actually get? I mean really?

And something isn't true here
Just because I say you are correct
Or 1000 people say you are correct
Doesn't make it correct. You have to actually be correct to be correct.

It's a genocide.

But you should really watch the following link ...because you actually have a point

https://youtube.com/shorts/LLb7U74GwRI?si=dQEmtBArhCgPB5y-

Who here is comparing Israel to Nazi Germany ?

Maybe I misunderstood?
Yes, maybe.

Why were Egypt and Jordan occupying the West Bank and Gaza for nearly 20 years if the land was allocated as a Palestinian State?
Probably to stop it being claimed by Israel.

That poster wrote that she couldn’t see a shred of empathy from you for the people of Gaza, to which you respond this?
You clearly are flagrantly islamaphobic, and not even ashamed of saying so.
Nobody on this thread has written anything in support of Hamas. Hamas are an evil and terrifying organisation.

But the people of Gaza, including children , babies, being indiscriminately slaughtered and starved by the Israeli regime- they are just people- like you and me. Regardless of their race, where they happened to be born- they are not deamons , they are just people. And what is being done to them is barbaric.

They have also kidnapped Palestinians and used them as human shields in their operations, in contravention of international law which Israel clearly doesn’t think applies to them.

They weren’t/aren’t objecting to the creation of the Jewish homeland (created 76 years ago actually). They were/are objecting to the continued illegal occupation of Palestinian land not allocated to them in the settlement. And more recently to the continued blockade of Gaza which has brought much hardship to its people.

No just the continued occupation and stealing of homes that don’t belong to them.

@Oodiks what sort of Islam do they practise in Palestine and Lebanon? Have you been there? Have you lived among the people? Where are you getting your facts from? Don't answer it's a rhetorical question. So you are allowed to say that, but if I were to say I live in fear of Judaism especially the Judaism that is practised in israel ( with all the undoubted footage shown of the atrocities done in the name of God by the chosen people) I would be called anti semitic.

@Oodiks You're banging on about everyone hating Jews when no one has said anything of the sort on here but your hate for Islam is shining through for all to see.

@Rosscameasdoody don't forget the continued illegal building of settlements.

They won, but your assertion that they didn’t want it is questionable. They launched a pre-emptive strike they’d planned for, for ten years.

Absolutely, speaking as someone who has been on the pro-palestinian/pro-peace demonstrations.
A just war has to meet the test of proportionality. I care about other conflicts and injustices too but the scale and wider implications of this conflict are horrific.
This is not black and white - both sides have committed war crimes.
There is no way Israel can bomb themselves to peace and harmony with their neighbours. Violence begets violence, and an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

This.

I fear not.

This