You get to choose whether to remotely see and hear a small glimpse of what people in Gaza are suffering from. They do not get to choose whether or not to experience it firsthand.
Violence Blur
Shelling Volume
It may seem to you that the genocide is so obvious and that the Israeli people themselves should be expected to say something about it or at least it may appear shocking to you that recent polls (as of January 2024) show that a 72% majority support stopping aid to Gaza until hostages are returned and that the majority would oppose a deal involving a 45 days pause for 35 hostages. Likewise, you or any rational person should find it surprising that the IDFrecords itself while playing offensive ‘dress-up’ and singing a song to make fun of how Gazans (muslims in general) dress and that Gaza lacks electricity. It’s even more shocking that there is a large number of instances of this act among Israeli teens.
Although this definitely has to do with morality of anyone participating in such act, which we could regard as extreme, a major contributing factor is that they have been brainwashed through a large amount of misinformation which starts from their education system.
To start with, Israeli text books depict Palestinians as primitive farmers, refugees, or terrorists. There is no instance where one is depicted as a normal human being. Parallel to dehumanization is ethnic supremacy, as the Israeli journalist Gideon Levy puts it, “Most of the Israelis, if not all of them, deeply believe that we are the chosen people, and if we are the chosen people, we have the right to do whatever we want.” This follows from biblical reference(s) in the Hebrew bible that suggest the fact that jews are the chosen people by God and how jews interpret that.
This is further aggravated by the fact that Israel consistently portrays itself as the victim and it works really well. Many in the west are convinced that Hamas attacks had no antecedent when the reality is that over a million of Palestinians were detained over time and since 2000 and prior to the conflict, over 9000 have been killed not to mention the ongoing blockade and strict control of water, food, gas, borders and electricity. This portrayal applies to both the western world and Israelis themselves. The holocaust also adds up to this, Gideon Levy adds "Golda Meir (Fourth Israeli PM) said that after the Holocaust, Jews have the right to do anything they want”.
The dehumanization of Palestinians is also obvious through many quotes from Israeli officials. For instance, the Israeli defense minister mentioned “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly”
Israeli people truly believe that due to various biblical references that mention the fact or similar, the land of Palestine is exclusively their’s. Many instances of this are shown here and the most vivid one is Genesis 28:13. Note that prophet Jacob’s grandson is considered to prophet Moses’s father (considered to be the prophet of Judaism). This is reflected in school books, where students initially encounter maps depicting the entirety of Palestine as part of Israel. They get to know about Palestinian land only later in their education where it “drives the idea that borders are temporal. They might be different today, from tomorrow.”
The Israeli PM even had the audacity to show the map of the entire region as Israel at the United Nations
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister went an extra mile by standing in front of a podium showing a map of what’s known as “Greater Israel” which includes parts of Jordan, Egypt and all of Palestine. There are biblical references in Hebrew bible that when interpreted in a specific way lead to this concept of "Greater Israel".
The belief that the land is truly theirs combined with the fact that Arab countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Syria engaged in wars with Israel in the past in response to Israel's occupation of Palestine, among other things, is also a recipe for eminent hatred towards Arabs. They completely overlook the occupation part because for them, this is the land given by god and what Arabs are doing must imply that they are enemies to Israel for no rational reason.
In school books, a parallel is drawn between the first of such wars and how, according to their bible, king David was able to kill the giant Goliath while being much weaker in comparison by the help of God. In the analogy, Israel is represented by king David and the Arab countries as Goliath (the evil side). It doesn’t stop here as many Israelis firmly believe of divine intervention (e.g., that the angels fought with Israel) in the 1967 war. The logic is that god promised them this land and will aid them in keeping from enemies. Palestinians then have no rights in it and deserve to be expelled, detained or killed as they are a considered enemies to jews and also because to maintain control, Israelis must be the majority in this land.
