Do people fully support Palestine?

[Dawk]

I read this article and the scales fell from my eyes a bit: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/amid-the-ceasefire-wrangling-how-popular-is-hamas-in-gaza-now

I hadn’t realised that a majority of Gazans want a conservative Islamist state and the complete destruction of Israel to create an Islamic state covering the whole country (from the river to the sea I guess). They also support violence and even the sacrifice of their own lives.

I am appalled by the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, but having read this article I can’t understand why support for Palestine isn’t more caveated. Why are people waving flags and supporting Gaza so unconditionally? When you look at the polling described in the article it seems fairly clear that many/most don’t actually want peace unless it follows the complete destruction of Israel.

For me it’s a bit like supporting Iran. I would never wave the Iranian flag around because of what the country stands for. In this case I am horrified by the scale of destruction wrought by the IDF so support Palestine completely in that respect but I’d never wave the flag or chant the slogans.

If you consider yourself ‘pro-Palestine’, what do you think of the ideology described in the article?

Prior to the collapse of the USSR Jews were not allowed to leave of their own free will. After the Soviet collapse they were able to move to any other country they wished, including Israel.

@LetThereBeLove Sorry if I missed it, what are you trying to say exactly?

Most redrawing of country boundaries happen after wars. The Austro Hungarian and Ottoman Empires were split up after WW1, Yugoslavia, founded in 1943 was split up in 1992, even Nice in southern France was once part of Italy and Alsace now in France was once in Germany.

Many Israeli Jews are Mizrahi, and their descent is from the middle east and north Africa. There is absolutely no way that 90% of Israeli Jews come from Eastern Europe as Questions101 stated.

@LetThereBeLove That’s an interesting point. So what has that got to do with Israel? If you look at the UN plan in 1947 and then the 1967 borders and then compare to it now, you can see that there have been illegal territorial expansions. How can that lead to peaceful coexistence?

@ExitPursuedByAPolarBear
Not who you asked this from originally, but to whether the IDF actions are wrong, yes, of course they are.
Firstly, the massive security breach of their border, for an extended period of time, which needs duly attention, so it never happens again.
Then, they could have military occupied Gaza, take control of the bordes, particularly with Egypt, concentrating on a radius from the point the hostages were taken. Occupy, impose a curfew, take everyone's name, address, job, school, timetables. Only allow them out with permissions, controlling movement. Hearing of all communications- I believe Hamas even used some of the phones of the hostages, so that could have helped to locate them. Search those tunnels, they can use drones, scanners. There is so much technology out there! And search home by home, room by room.
I think they would have been more successful in finding and rescuing hostages, plus finding Hamas. Without all the deaths and destruction. Full back up internationally.
I really do not get what the cutting of vital supplies and extensive bombing has achieved for them. Well, bar advancing Netanyahu's ambition for a Greater Israel.
There is a chance of peace right now. I think both Israel and Palestine should take it. Realistically, both Hamas and Netanyahu's party cannot be part of the final peace talks, because they do not want peace.

I'm not giving you a history lesson here. Read up about how Arab armies descended on the fledgling Jewish State in May 1948 if you are at all interested in the facts.
And what do you mean about my statement that many Israeli Jews are Mizrahi (i.e. not of European heritage, who are known as Ashkenazis) having anything to do with Israel? Any Jewish person, no matter where they come from in the diaspora, has a right to live freely as a Jew in Israel.
Enough already.

@LetThereBeLove I can see that. But does that mean living in Israel is a birthright? Does that mean all of a sudden there should be border plans which keep on shifting will be taken lightly by the people who lived in former Palestine? So what is their recourse? If someone keeps on barging into your house because they believe they have some claim to your land decades/centuries ago, will you then not have a right to defend yourself and your home? What course of action can you feasibly take when your house is bulldozed?

Hold on a second. @LetThereBeLove So does this mean you believe all Jews have a birthright to Israel? Is this what you meant when you wrote: Any Jewish person, no matter where they come from in the diaspora, has a right to live freely as a Jew in Israel.
Enough already.

I thought you were referring to Mizrahi Jews earlier?

All Jews are able to immigrate to Israel whether they are descended from European Jewry (Ashkenazi) or from the middle east/north Africa (Mizrahi). It is called the Law of Return.
The mention I made about Mizrahi Jews was in response to another poster who stated that 90% of Israeli Jews are from Europe. That poster obviously has no knowledge about Jews who have a middle eastern heritage.

Israel is extremely diverse. It is not, and never has been an ethno state. Even among Jews there is great diversity. Judaism is not the official religion and freedom of worship is protected for its many religious minorities. Compare other states in the region who would be more diverse if they hadnt chucked out their Jewsish communities

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Israel

Well quite. @SharonEllis I don’t think there is a need for an ethnostate either which was why puzzled when you had asked something along the the lines of “where do you think the Jewish state should be if not Israel?” This meant to me that you believed that Israel was indeed a Jewish state.

Honestly I’ve read some shocking statements on here over the last year but this has got to be one of the worse.

Are you referring to the Mandate of Palestine under the British or Syria Palestina under the Ottomans?

When was there ever a SOVEREIGN country called Palestine? Please do tell.

Who was the ruler of this sovereign country?

Are you saying that the country of Israel never existed before 1948 in that area and the name was just picked out of thin air despite being mentioned in religious texts going back centuries?

Netanyahu does have something to say about it:

I was referring to Israel as a sovereign state @SleekBlackCat.

And yet Muslims, Christians, Druze can all practice their religions peacefully in the Jewish state. You don't have to be Jewish to be Israeli. 18% of the Israeli population is Muslim, less than 2% are Christian.

I'm no longer surprised at any of the derogatory comments people on here make about Israel or Jewish people. Many don't get deleted.

I also find it absolutely laughable that people like that poster will come on here making statements that there is no ‘need for an ethnostate’, meaning Jewish state in the area, but not mentioning that Israel is completely surrounded by 21(?) Muslim states. Why the need for all of them by that logic?

FFS. Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. It is not confined to the Jewish people. I can only assume you are deliberately misunderstanding.

No you weren’t.

I believe that there was a country called Palestine which was renamed to Israel so I can understand why the original inhabitants will feel dismayed in losing their sovereignty. Now that there is such a country called Israel since 1940 something,

I know. This person is deliberately goading now.

A country can have a name. What was the country of Israel called before that? Countries don’t change names? I asked if Israel is a sovereign state then it should be held accountable for war crimes. How is that goading?

@SharonEllis This person? If you mean me. Please explain how I was goading? If I’ve suggested for Hamas, the IDF and the Israeli government to be held account for any war crimes. Is that goading? If you mean when I referred to Palestine before 1947, just as other posters have referred to historical actions, is that goading? What am I supposed to call it, Historical Palestine?

Countries DO change names. Yugoslavia, as one example, is now Serbia and Montenegro; Czechoslovakia is now two separate states Czechia and Slovakia; Ceylon is Sri Lanka etc etc.

Exit in answer to your question the title of the land after the Ottoman Empire was disbanded was the British Mandate of Palestine. During the Ottoman Empire it was known as the Holy Land. The Arab term for the area was Fillistin.