Every year has been catastrophic for Palestinians around the world, but the past 12 months have been unimaginable, writes Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi
History did not start on 7 October. But as the world stops to mourn it will for ever be a reminder of whose lives matter.
On October 7th ~1,200 Israeli civilians were killed,
No. 1139 people were killed, 373 of which were military or security personnel. Nobody really talks about what exactly happened on October 7th anymore, but the idea that Hamas and other groups entered, killed a bunch of civilians and left does nothing but help Israel.
But the majority of people they killed were civilians. There is no good guy in this war, any attempt to simplify it to such terms is disingenuous at best.
But the majority of people they killed were civilians.
That gets us into the whole crossfire and Israeli friendly fire thing, but that’s not really what I’m trying to say. I’m just trying to say that it’s not as simple as “Hamas did a very bad thing to Israel”; a good part of October the 7th was resistance against Israeli occupation (and a good part wasn’t, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve noticed that this fact gets forgotten because Israeli actions deserve condemnation either way).
I’m confused what we’re arguing about here, I simultaneously believe that Hamas did a bad thing to Israel and that Israel is doing a very very very bad thing (and has for a long time) to Palestine. I don’t however, believe that Israel’s response has been proportional, nor do I believe Israel are making any earnest attempts at a diplomatic solution. I also find it hard to see that genocide isn’t their goal when they keep blowing up schools, hospitals, aid workers and journalists.
Referring to my original comment the acts on October 7 make perfect sense in the context the history of Israel and the attack on military targets can easily be justified as an act of war. I suppose what really irks me is that neither side is above targeting civilians
the attack on military targets can easily be justified as an act of war.
Yeah that’s exactly what I was getting at. Not trying to defend the atrocities they committed (which are many), but at the start when they weren’t as obviously committing genocide Israel was trying to paint itself as an unambiguous victim and one of their strategies was to claim all the dead as civilians and deny that the attack had any military goals, so I wanted to correct the 1200 civilians figure.
No. 1139 people were killed, 373 of which were military or security personnel. Nobody really talks about what exactly happened on October 7th anymore, but the idea that Hamas and other groups entered, killed a bunch of civilians and left does nothing but help Israel.
But the majority of people they killed were civilians. There is no good guy in this war, any attempt to simplify it to such terms is disingenuous at best.
That gets us into the whole crossfire and Israeli friendly fire thing, but that’s not really what I’m trying to say. I’m just trying to say that it’s not as simple as “Hamas did a very bad thing to Israel”; a good part of October the 7th was resistance against Israeli occupation (and a good part wasn’t, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve noticed that this fact gets forgotten because Israeli actions deserve condemnation either way).
I’m confused what we’re arguing about here, I simultaneously believe that Hamas did a bad thing to Israel and that Israel is doing a very very very bad thing (and has for a long time) to Palestine. I don’t however, believe that Israel’s response has been proportional, nor do I believe Israel are making any earnest attempts at a diplomatic solution. I also find it hard to see that genocide isn’t their goal when they keep blowing up schools, hospitals, aid workers and journalists.
Referring to my original comment the acts on October 7 make perfect sense in the context the history of Israel and the attack on military targets can easily be justified as an act of war. I suppose what really irks me is that neither side is above targeting civilians
Yeah that’s exactly what I was getting at. Not trying to defend the atrocities they committed (which are many), but at the start when they weren’t as obviously committing genocide Israel was trying to paint itself as an unambiguous victim and one of their strategies was to claim all the dead as civilians and deny that the attack had any military goals, so I wanted to correct the 1200 civilians figure.