… where at least a dozen West Bank villages were depopulated in the first nine months of this year.

@theothersimo Based on my experience, yes, it is typical. As for the stupid laws the Right in Israel has created, they don’t even count Reform Jews as Jews, so they have fewer rights than the Orthodox. The Orthodox, who don’t even have to serve in the military!

@AlliFlowers can you try for a second to imagine what it’s like to be a Bedouin forced from the village your family built decades ago in the one corner of the Negev the IDF had previously allowed them to live in? What it’s like to be a farmer watching olive trees hundreds of years old bulldozed just because a settlement nearby wants evidence of your existence erased?

@theothersimo Do you hear how one-sided your comment is? As though there’s no reason for Israel to have the Iron Dome or bomb shelters in every home.

Nothing I mentioned had even a remote connection to Hamas rocket attacks. I don’t know why affirming Palestinian humanity obligates me to disavow Hamas, that seems like deflection.

@theothersimo Because it’s one sided. Nobody is happy to see people dying in Gaza, with the possible exception of Hamas. But you can’t ignore the fact that Israel has always been under threat of violence by looking at a one-time incident.