Comment by lazyasciiart
2 years ago
Apparently I should explain my opinion more clearly.
You are all through this thread. You have detailed opinions of the history of the area, and you are clearly aware that the ground reality is that Israel makes and enforces the laws in the West Bank, and that the Israeli military has supported Israeli people in driving the existing Palestinian residents off their land, and either destroying existing Palestinian homes and infrastructure then building their own homes, or simply moving into the forcibly confiscated homes. It is extraordinarily misleading to pretend a) that you believe that the actual law in the West Bank is that of the Ottoman Empire that no longer exists or b) that you believe Israeli settlers being friendly locals who are simply following Ottoman law and developing empty land.
You also, with your demonstrated familiarity with the history of the area, must be aware of the military-enforced eviction from and demolition of Palestinian homes and farms, and the restrictions on Palestinian people preventing them from moving out of the occupied West Bank. There is no person on earth who knows this history, is capable of arguing on Hacker News, and also needs an explanation of why forcibly driving people from their homes under military occupation in order to replace them with people of a different religion/ethnicity/nation is bad. There are, unfortunately, a number of people who simply disagree with this moral position - and it appears you are one of them, and that you are attempting to convince other less informed people that this is not what is happening by lying about it.
I understand that there is a very prominent lobby to present property disputes as Jews stealing Palestinian homes. I'm willing to discuss this. Present to me each case of "Jews stealing Palestinian homes" and I will do my best to research the circumstances of each one individually. I'll invest the time in that, and maybe I'll learn something. But from what I've seen, each property dispute as an individual dispute could be debated either way. I will admit that there does exist inconsistencies in rulings regarding property disputes between Jews and Arabs. But I do not think that those inconsistencies are any more prominent than judicial inconsistencies in other areas without regard to the nationality of the parties.
Actually, yes, I do believe that the basis of the laws in the West Bank are Ottoman. That was even explained to me by an anti-settler movement whose tours to the West Bank I took a few times to learn about the West Bank. The organization is called Breaking the Silence, I encourage you to take their tour and learn about the area.
No, I do not think that Israeli settlers are just friendly locals. They are, for the most part, following Ottoman law where applicable and developing by and large mostly empty land. But yes, without a doubt some settlers do encroach on Arab villages. I won't deny that, I won't lie. But the media attempts to portray that as being the 99% case when it's far closer to the 1% case if that. For what it's worth, the Breaking the Silence group made me aware of some areas, such as near Hebron, where Arabs are encroaching on Jewish settlements. And the Arabs are far, far more violent than the Jews - even the Arabs will tell you this. Settler violence exists, but Arab violence against the settlers is far far more common. Don't take my word for it, ask any Arab that lives in the West Bank. I have asked, and I continue to talk with them despite the events of the past two months.
No, Breaking the Silence is arguing what law should be enforced - not pretending that the Israeli military law doesn’t actually exist.