It’s an extreme perspective and an oversimplification. So necessarily wrong if you state it this way… Neither do all people in Israel seem to support this, nor is “innocent” any attribute that fits the purpose. Technically like a newborn baby should be pretty much innocent. An adult may not, even if it’s just an act of omission. But it’s not really a philosophical question in this case, is it? And it’s not even what this is about. So I’d say that sentence is immediately wrong on technicalities.

no, because you cannot hold one person accountable for the actions of a different person unless they directly enabled it.

The idea of free will is unfalsifiable. So far, there is no evidence that there is anything causing conscious beyond, physical, chemical interactions. This means, that most likely, humans do not have free will. Every action, every thought, is caused by some chemical, or physical thing, and is ultimately predetermined.

The idea of “guilt” is born out of the idea that humans have free will, and are therefore culpable for “bad” or “immoral” actions. But humans do not have free will. Punishing a “guilty” person, is actually just inflicting suffering on the qualia, or the conscious experience of someone, for circumstances completely out of anyone’s control, including themselves.

I believe that all people are innocent. Every act of violence should be evaluated as if it was being done against an innocent person. The only difference between a killer and a saint is that of brain chemistry.

As for Israel specifically, since that is a different question than the nature of innocent, here is my reply:

• Israel funded and supported Hamas to undermine Palestinian authority
• Israel had extensive knowledge on Hamas’ capabilities beforehand, but “accidentally” ignored warning signs

I see a few people blaming Hamas for Oct 7th. I disagree. When a dog bites someone, do you blame the dog or the owner?

This one is just projection. To believe this statement denies there are plenty of people who are innocent on both sides. We are not talking about those people.

We are talking about the people who hate the other side on both sides, but once again we aren’t talking about both sides here. One side has made the statement popular to dehumanize the other side.

This is what we are talking about. You can’t agree with this statement because it is used as an excuse to kill people. Regardless if the statement has truth to it it is in essence propaganda used to manipulate people.

Obviously they will be hateful. This should not be enough to consider them guilty however.

No, if you believe that you’re a genocidal maniac.

That’s what you say to justify genocide. There are children there.

That is usually how a genocide is justified to the public. Every member of the ‘undesireabe’ group is guilty of being an undesirable, and can thus be justifyably murdered.

Examples:

All Jewish people are guilty of some conspiracy and/or killing Jesus

All Muslim people are guilty of replacing white christians and/or terrorism

All LGBTQ people are guilty of grooming kids

All Palestinians are guilty of ‘occupying’ Israeli land.

etc.

Every example of this is a tool of propaganda to get the public to go along with unfair treatment up to and including genocide. The fact that they’re all easily refuted doesn’t matter. It goes hand in hand with the view that the group aren’t fully people.

This reasoning is never ok, no matter what group of people it’s used against this time. When you recognize it, call it out for the sham it is.

To me it seems those Israelis are projecting… in other words: They’re claiming there are no innocent Israelis. An accusation is usually a confession in this time and age I’ve noticed.

Insofar that you add “innocent of absolutely anything and everything that anyone could ever morally doubt, on a philosophical lebel”, definitely no.

Innocent as in not responsible for the crimes of others? Yeah, obviously. Depends though but vastly yes.

The way I see it, the only truly innocent people are those who sincerely do not know right from wrong, and they’re mostly children. The rest of us are each and all responsible for our choices and actions.

Children are not born with hatred in their heart.

And as others have pointed out, hatred =/= not innocent. Nobody deserves to die just for hating someone. Even if you could justify killing someone just cause they allegedly hate you, I have a very very difficult time believing that all Palestinians hate Israelis and vice versa. Again, people are not born with hatred in their heart and the actions of a government don’t always reflect the feelings of their citizens.

Also just being pedantic about your disclaimer: opinions are biased. You can’t ask for an unbiased opinion. You can make an unbiased (to an extent) statement, but not an opinion.

It is a pointless view that solves nothing. Flip it around, say “all (on both sides) are not guilty” and you might have a starting point.

it is a valid view.

but i do not support it.

imo, anything that uses absolutes tends to get out of reasonable bounds. no innocents in Gaza is really hard to prove.

Those who say there are innocent seem to lack empathy.

What is a child guilty of in the conflict? There are always non combatants who are stuck in this wanting no part on either side.