I'd like to respond to this not because I think this is a good point, but in case anyone reading this response above might want me to address the points mentioned.
Firstly, this response is completely irrelevant to the central idea of my post—which points out that Israel had a strategic mission of allowing its civilians near what they considered a security threat, and that Israeli civilians willingly chose to live across the street from one of the most vile human rights abuses of our time—and is a common zionist talking point I've heard literally my entire life.
What's especially odd about this is that this poster admits that there is no excuse for Palestinians to be expelled from their homes and ancestral lands (which I'd like to define a little bit what "ancestral" and "indigenous" means when Palestinians use it vs how other people use it to refer to Israel's claim to the land) but goes on to say that Israelis need to be there because of genocide and hatred elsewhere (note my use of "Israelis" and not "Jews"—there is a fundamental distinction when talking about Israel as a political concept which it inevitably is).
Israel's goal is the complete extermination of Palestinians. If they JUST wanted the land, then they would allow Palestinian Civilians to leave the Gaza Strip when they're carpet bombing them, but they do not. Jews across history have faced genocide and terror, but does that give the Israelis a free pass to do it to the Palestinians? The same Palestinians who have buried thousands of years of ancestors under their olive trees, who have a spiritual tie with the very ground of Palestine itself?
Not only that, but the above poster equates "Israelis" with "Jews," saying that they are one and the same. As I've said earlier, Israel is a political concept at this day and age, not an inevitable truth of the world. There might be an "Israel" mentioned in Jewish tradition, but it is not the same as the political definition as it is today. Israel is a part of a complex political system that relies on colonialism, and all the pre-planned violence that's associated with that, as it's founding principal for establishment.
Truth of the matter is, as a Palestinian, I really don't care about the assertion that "it needs to be recognized that Israeli have lived there since the dawn of history," whether it is true or not. I don't. Because at the end of the day, Palestinians are being raped, murdered, exiled, and tortured physically and mentally because of this claim. And why is that necessary?
I mean, why was it absolutely necessary for Palestinians to suffer for the establishment of a United States affiliated government to lay claim to a land that they have only just settled in? Why is it "antisemetic" to claim that Israel is part of that complex interwoven contemporary history of colonialism when it plays a part in the world's government systems?
My family still has the deeds to their lands from over 75 years ago. They still have the key to their house. I have centuries worth of ancestors buried there. Right now, that little village near Jerusalem is occupied by settlers who have only just settled there within the past 75 years. Not even a full century.
I highly encourage everyone to read up on the socio-political relationship of Palestinians within the world's government, and how they view the world that wishes for their complete extermination.
Warning: some of these links contain severely graphic mentions of rape, murder, and ethnic cleansing. But I think it necessary for non-Palestinians to recognize what the visual actuality of ethnic cleansing is.
An Indicative Archive: Salvaging Nakba Documents by Ilan Pappe: https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1650358
Mapping Israeli Occupation (2021): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/18/mapping-israeli-occupation-gaza-palestine
A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution: https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
The Institute of Palestine Studies (contains extensive list of scholarly papers and archival resources that are accessible digitally): https://www.palestine-studies.org/
The Middle East Eye (contains news about what is happening to Palestinians from on the ground reporters): https://www.middleeasteye.net/
Rediscovering Palestine: merchants and peasants in Jabal Nablus, 1700–1900 by Beshara Doumani (purchase necessary): https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1648033
The Political Economy of Homonationalism by Sara R. Farris: https://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article/the-political-economy-of-homonationalism/
Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel by Andrew Ross (purchase necessary): https://www.amazon.com/Stone-Men-Palestinians-Built-Israel/dp/1788730267
.... This video of Israeli soldiers recounting the first instance of the Nakba in '48: https://x.com/itranslate123/status/1710918048775823833?s=20
AJ+ Video with a modern day ex-soldier talking about the daily control of Palestinians' lives: https://x.com/ajplus/status/1710934641119539449?s=20
AJ+'s news (a pretty good resource of palestinians' perspectives as well as supplementary information): https://twitter.com/ajplus
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