This is the reality of what Israel is doing (part 6)

[Eyesopenwideawake]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/08/idf-has-long-history-of-denying-involvement-in-civilian-killings

The utterly heartbreaking thing about starting these threads is how simple it is to find the opening link.

When will they stop?

That exaggerated their already illegal presence.

Yes and unfortunately the current war will only make the extremists bolder.

There have been a lot of unintended consequences of the Hamas attack on Israel.

That is true, this war has led to many more settlements.

It also true though that there had been a great expansion of settlements in the two years just before the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

And the extremist Smotrich was put in charge of expanding settlements in the West Bank before Oct 7.

The Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel reported that, as of 31 December 2022, there were 468,300 Jewish Israelis in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem,[18]compared with 455,700 as of 31 December 2021.[19] On 18 May 2023, Additional Minister Smotrich, doubling as the Minister of Finance, reportedly presented a two-year plan to induce 500,000 more settlers to move to the West Bank.[20]

https://www.un.org/unispal/document/israeli-settlements-in-the-occupied-palestinian-territory-including-east-jerusalem-and-in-the-occupied-syrian-golan/

Looks like October 7th massacre made an already bad situation even worse, in lots of ways.

Worse for Palestinians (and of course those murdered or captured and held hostage by Hamas) but really better for Smotrich and other extremist in power, the settlers including those now hoping for Gaza too, and for Netanyahu.

Very true.

I’ve been keeping tabs on the ICJ proceedings but part of me is thinking so what..Israel will just ignore any ICJ ruling like they have ignored all the past ICJ rulings. It is really disheartening to see the post WWII international consensus and political structures built to ensure never again are just being wilfully ignored and torn down with impunity.

That one scene in settlers where the settler father takes his child to watch the bombardment of Gaza as a cause to celebrate was particularly disturbing. I can see the documentary is trending on alot of social media platforms and has been very eye opening.

Yes, it's concerning. Israel will ignore it and their supporters will tell themselves that the ICJ are antisemetic so it's OK to ignore any rulings. Israel seem set on destroying the framework created to ensure compliance with international law in a way that will have consequences that reach much further than Palestine. Blinne Ní Ghrádaigh was right in her warning where she said that International order is crumbling and we are all just sitting by and watching that happen. Any country that feels they are above International law is a concern for us all but when that country is being supported by other powerful countries that concern becomes overwhelming. I don't know, the future is bleak.

Anyone that would do that is sick.

I was shocked by the settlers who stated there is not really such a thing as “Palestinians”, as though Palestinians have nothing to do with the land even though they have lived there hundreds or thousands of years.
One man who said that was American.

Apparently there are 60,000 illegal American settlers in the West Bank.

I wasn't. People say the same thing here and on other forums, or they say 'Palestinian'. Denying Palestinians existence is quite an embedded ideology unfortunately that isn't just restricted to settlers. I think maybe it makes them feel better about committing or defending awful crimes towards Palestinians.

Honestly what the Palestinians have had to endure over the last 100 years is unprecedented and they are owed a debt that will never be repaid by all the powers that enabled and continue to enable this.

Louis Theroux was really sophisticated and subtle in the way he allowed the Settlers to damn themselves with their own words and actions. I've seen do many posts from people who weren't paying attention to who are shocked and appalled and whose eyes have been opened by the documentary.

P.s. Shakespeare wrote Othello around 1603, it mentions Palestine, I guess the people who were there and never left are ghosts. Remember if no Palestinians exist, then it's not really stealing......

It's ridiculous isn't it. If every country went by those extreme Nationalist Israeli rules of 'who was here first needs to kick everyone else out', then for a start there's a good 300 million white Americans who have stolen half a continent from the American Indians.
Australia is buggered too.
A lot of the extremist Israeli's don't seem to have understood the concepts of 'democracy', 'love thy neighbour' or 'multiculturalism' at all.

I know there are many others that are intolerant too - but the Israeli government has taken it to war crime levels, without challenge, in front of the world media and the UN.

It's a fucking disgrace to humanity.

That’s the thing about extremists - they do tend to lack appreciation of such values as “democracy”, “love thy neighbour” and “multiculturalism”.

Were Hamas demonstrating those values when they decided to massacre Israeli citizens? No, absolutely not & neither are the Hamas supporters in Gaza or elsewhere.

Not saying all Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas (though a lot seem to, based on the cheering at the hostage releases). Just like not all Israeli people support the Settlers in the West Bank.

The Israeli government support and protect the settlers though, and that's the problem. They were voted in 'democratically' were they not?

Democracy has it's flaws, do you have an alternative preference?
Governments like Netanyahu's seem to do better when a population feels threatened. Rather a lot of those killed by terrorists on 7/10 were peaceniks, though of course the 'other side' also needs to want peace for it to happen and there was some hard to forgive betrayal from Gazans who the kibbutzniks had hoped wanted reconciliation.
Trust is a delicate thing on both sides and it suits Iran and it's puppets to destroy it.
west bank history is interesting, it was 'occupied' by Jordan who then gave it up ( was being used as a base to attack Israel and became a threat to Jordan). The whole region is volatile with a few islands of peace. It is difficult to understand strapping suicide vests to pre-pubescent teenagers but that happens.

Netanyahu has been in power for a very long time and is doing his best to weaken the democratic system in Israel.

He also as good as wanted this war.

Yes, Israel has been moving further and further right for a long time. Especially their youth in 2023 prior to Oct 7 73 percent of Jewish Israelis between ages 18 and 24 identified as right-wing. In Jan 2023 68% of Jewish Israeli youth were opposed to a 2 state solution, preferring illegal occupation and settling.

Did he? I must have missed the part where Israel started the war by massacring nearly 2,000 civilians just going about their business during a supposed time of peace.

Hamas though, apart from on the day of Oct 7 which should normally have been stopped, can’t give a gun to each of its people and send them, together with further armed state militia, into Israeli territory to kill, harass and imprison the people and build settlements there. It is not like for like in terms of power. As for the bombing of Gaza, that is enabled by the greatest power in the world.

As it is, the settlers are the ones effectively actually doing to Palestinians what they, the settlers, say the Palestinians want to do to them.

There do seem to be Palestinians who don’t want Hamas tactics judging by their recent protests including by many young men who many would presume to be terrorists.. And as you say, there are Israelis who want peace and integration, or a two state solution - such as those Israelis we saw bravely helping the Palestinians in the Louis Theroux programme. (I saw a criticism of the programme saying it would have been good to have shown a bit more about them and I agree. ) We also saw Israelis from similar groups in Gaza trying to stop extremists from blocking aid trucks.
These voices on either side need help.

Not all Israeli people are interested in becoming Settlers, some even protest against it. And not everyone agrees with what their government does. It seems unlikely that Netanyahu will be re- elected, though yes his government was voted in democratically. As will the next government.

What I would like for the Palestinian people is an opportunity for them to vote democratically too. And much else, including not being ruled by terrorists who start wars they can’t win and then blame the other side for retaliating.

I don't think anyone has disputed that a small minority of Israelis protest against them. Some Israelis do great work being present at checkpoints to try and stop women and girls being sexually assaulted by the IDF, they try and act as protection for Palestinians during olive picking season so that they can keep their livelihoods despite being threatened with guns by Israeli settlers and the IDF, some walk with Palestinian children to school so they can get there safely in the face of daily harassment from settlers and the IDF etc. It's awful that these chaperones need to be there for the safety of Palestinians as they try to live their lives and go to school and work but great that there are a few good eggs out there that try and prevent Israeli settler and government sanctioned violence and abuse where they can.

I’m sure there are more than “a few good eggs”.

I don’t think you would like it if I implied that amongst the Palestinian people there are only “a few good eggs” and everyone else wanting to attack Israeli people if they could.

I mean how many is a few? In relation to the Israeli population or even the Israeli settler population the Israelis who act as chaperones are few. I didn't say that everyone else was wanting to attack, I was talking about the people who actually physically put themselves out there and help. The only alternative to that isn't gnashing your teeth wanting to kill everyone That's extreme black and white thinking.