Palestinians in the West Bank say they are being driven from their homes by a campaign of terror waged by armed civilians determined to take their land

The girls, aged 14 to 16, have come for settler training to learn how to occupy Palestinian land — breaking international law. “God promised us this land and told us if you don’t take it, bad people will try and take it and you will have a war,” says Emuna Billa, 19, one of the camp supervisors. “Why do we have a war in Gaza? Because we don’t take Gaza.”

Their guru is Daniella Weiss, a 79-year-old grandmother in a long skirt and patterned headscarf. Founder of the Nachala or Homeland movement, she has been setting up illegal settlements for 49 years and was recently put under international sanctions. “You will be the new emissaries,” she tells the 50 or so girls at the camp. “I call it redeeming, not settling and this is our duty.”

She unfurls a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories dotted with vivid pink house symbols to represent existing and proposed Jewish settlements. Not only are these all across the West Bank, but also in Gaza. Already 674 people have signed up for beachside plots there, she tells me, and “many more want to join”. When someone asks her about settling Lebanon she smiles and says, “Yes, there too”.

  • winterayars@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    271·
    3 months ago

    Basically everyone is sticking their head in the sand re: Israel being an Ethnostate. Basically “sure, but they deserve it”. That had some credibility behind it 70 years ago. Today? Not so much.

    • Narauko@lemmy.worldEnglish
      33·
      3 months ago

      If there was credibility for a Jewish ethnostate 70 years ago due to the Holocaust and global antisemitism, how do we get to say things are better now and take the country back. Especially with all the other ethnostates in the world.

      Obviously there is a problem because the region had changed hands over the past 1-2000 years and had other ethnic groups when the country was established by the Allies. The idea of having taken the land from Germany instead of the area around l Jerusalem sounds like poetic justice, but ignores that they have a historic homeland. Anyone would want their historic homeland with their historic religious sites back over somewhere else.

      It seems like Jews are treated as second class when it comes to that. Talk of giving Mt Rushmore back is because it was that tribes sacred religious site, and no one would be happy giving them another mountain in another state.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.worldEnglish
      231·
      3 months ago

      I’ve come to find out that in-spite of having many Israeli friends and some family members, I had no idea about what Israeli culture and society were really like. It is mind-boggling to me that the only Jewish people I see speaking against genocide seem to be a part of the diaspora. Every time I hear or see a Jewish person from/ in Israel speaking on this issue, its like “Well its necessary” is basically the argument. Like, I’m sure there must be voices in Israel to the contrary, but I can’t seem to find them.

      Its as if Zionism has supplanted Judaism in Israel entirely and there is no distinction in current Israeli culture or media.

      • winterayars@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        5·
        3 months ago

        There are voices inside Israel opposing this, but it sounds like (i don’t have personal knowledge) all the moderates got co-opted. The opposition voices don’t get any media play, not in the US at least. Some Israeli press covers them, or used to at least.

        • Silverseren@fedia.ioOP
          2·
          3 months ago

          Haaretz is the only real source of coverage of such opposing voices. And the Israeli government has already been trying to make moves to have them be shut down for daring to not support the will of the government.

      • Silverseren@fedia.ioOP
        13·
        3 months ago

        There’s definitely people protesting in Israel and have been since the start. But it is indeed unclear on whether they’re protesting regarding their government’s actions in Gaza or just protesting against Netanyahu more generally (which they had also been doing prior to all this anyways).

    • Silverseren@fedia.ioOP
      13·
      3 months ago

      I honestly feel like if the national powers at the time had been actually serious about the Jewish people deserving a homeland after the horrors of the Holocaust, then Israel should have been created out of a portion of western Germany.