Comment by FailMore
2 years ago
I have not read this article. I am sad to see it here. I am Jewish and Hacker News has been my one sanctuary from all that has been going on. I feel a dreadful sadness about this whole situation, and unfortunately I have found that any issue I have looked into in any detail descends into a battle of claim and counterclaim. I have had to just give up and let it play out, not only what has happened and what will happen in Israel and Gaza, but also the battle of words on social media and newspapers. It is too painful for me to interact with.
I used to feel like you until I befriended a Palestinian in college. He had to take a year off because Israel denied him a permit to leave Gaza to attend college in the US. He had every document and paid tuition, but the Israeli government did not let him leave.
Since then I realized I cannot just let what's happening over there stay over there. I would want him to have cared and known and tried to help if I were in his place.
Egypt, not Israel, is where most Gazans travel through. Sounds like Hamas wouldn’t let him leave and he pinned this on Israel.
There are multiple documented instances of this happening where Israel is the one who denies the visa or fails to provide it.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2007/11/19/gaza-israel-blocks-670-s...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/palesti...
From a cursory reading[1], it seems Israel had for a long time the ability to veto any human's exit from Gaza through the Rafah crossing in Egypt. Seems to only be the last 5 years where they were not able to do this and that border crossing was open. I graduated from University in 2017.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafah_Border_Crossing
I know a lot of Palestinians and they don't have the luxury of avoiding the news because they still have family in Gaza.
A couple of my colleagues are VCs who are in active combat in Gaza as we speak. Another VC I knew lost his daughter in the Nova massacre (or is a hostage - they don't know yet). This VC was very active in the peace process and lobbied a very large tech company we all know to open a large development office in West Bank and Gaza and pay pretty high salaries. I also know a lot of line level engineers and PMs from my previous jobs who are drafted, knew people drafted, or knew people at Nova. You can and should oppose war crimes, but at the end of the day, Hamas, PIJ, and other Gazan jihadi groups did unspeakable actions on 10/7. And honestly, I've seen and heard of Afghans fighting back against the Taliban, but I haven't seen Gazans fighting back against Hamas.
What happened on 10/7 was very tragic and I'm sorry to hear about your friends suffering.
Right now 2 million Palestinians are displaced and, so far, 1% of Gaza's population has been killed by the Israeli army offensive. With many more injured, crippled, psychologically scared.
The saddest part? It doesn't look like this horror will end. Many more will die
No suffering is justified No killing is justified