What We Ignore in Israel-Palestine Discourse
How one of the most controversial topics in modern politics removes our ability to empathise.
An old adage says there are three things you shouldn’t talk about with friends: religion, politics, and money. This applies doubly so with the Israel-Palestine issue. Throughout my activism and education in politics, no issue has been more polarised than this. Everyone seems to find it necessary to pick a side and stand unwavering alongside those who picked the same, but in this pursuit of perceived victory for one side or the other, we’ve lost sight of the experiences of everyday civilians caught up by the ins and outs of regional tension, security, and suspicion.
One of the fundamental factors that contributes to such a tribal opposition in opinions stemming from the small Middle Eastern states, is just how complicated it all is. To truly come to terms with it all, you have to delve into 70 years of history, none of which was dull and monotonous. Years which we can consider past now but encompass the childhood of those who sit in Israel’s legislative body, the Knesset.
To get around this complication, we seek condensed forms of explanation, forming an opinion without having to read countless tomes on the topic or engage with both sides of the debate.
This gives a monopoly on information to those organisations who can get clicks. It’s no surprise then that Vox has one of the most popular videos on YouTube covering the Israel-Palestine conflict. With almost 6 million views, the video has drawn criticism primarily from pro-Israel personalities for giving a very one-sided view of the conflict. Similarly PragerU, a right-wing education YouTube channel, has drawn criticism for their video on the topic being very one-sided in the other direction.
It’s hardly something you can blame people for. Not everyone has the time or interest to delve into decades of Middle Eastern history, and arguably centuries of religious scholarship. However, the pertinence of the Israel-Palestine question in modern politics has led to countless activists expressing strong opinions solely sourced from videos like that of Vox or PragerU — a troubling trend that has led to an inability to debate on the merits of each argument amongst those who’s knowledge is too shallow to engage in such conversations.
It’s much simpler then, to try and avoid the idea of this argument having “sides”, distance ourselves from the various interest groups that plague the support or opposition of different resolutions, and focus on the lives of the people involved.
To comprehend the Israeli attitude towards security and suspicion, you have to read back into the history of the 1960’s, a time in which Israel’s very existence was threatened by constant blockades of their primary shipping lanes as well as escalating anti-Israel rhetoric from their regional neighbours. It’s not that the average citizen is malicious in their points of view, they’ve just learned that when the time for action comes, the Israeli government has to act fast to keep its citizens safe, as contradictory to common belief, the international community has turned it’s back on Israel far too many times.
We often think of the United States as a particularly pro-Israel country in general, while this is certainly true, the relationship between the two states has not always been this way. The US has a history of failing to live up to promises with Israel, especially around keeping them protected and intervening if they are acted upon by foreign powers. So even the United States, one of the worlds most pro-Israel powers, is not completely trusted by the upper echelons of Israeli power who have seen with their own eyes how fractious America’s support can be when it comes down to the real deal.
This has led to Israeli citizens giving their government a lot of leniency. The political separation of left vs right is very different in Israel, while often framed in the same way, Israel has no real active left-wing political powers. Even those who Israeli media will label as left-wing often support Israeli settlement building in contested land, as well as the superior citizenship status for Jewish inhabitants over a second-class citizenship status for Arabs.
It’s all well and good to stand back from another country and make observations, but it’s a privilege the average Israeli civilian doesn’t have. With such recent history of attacks against their land and their people, there are whole generations of Israelis who have lived in fear of invasion by their Arab neighbours, instilling in them a sense of suspicion that undoubtedly lies in ethnicity, something we do not find whatsoever acceptable in much of the world. Nor should it be acceptable in Israel, but it must be understood that these opinions have been built through often misplaced fear and decades of government propaganda, as well as mandatory service in a military who’s primary role is maintaining security against the perceived threat of Palestinian terrorism.
It can be hard to take a measured view of the scenario when you spend two years of your life being taught how the Palestinians are your enemy.
So there are huge issues with Israel making Arabs second-class citizens, and there are very serious human rights issues to be addressed, but that’s not something that makes Israel on the whole a perpetrator and Palestine on the whole a victim. It’s precisely that there have been Palestinian perpetrators and Israeli victims that makes the anti-Palestine rhetoric so mainstream in Israel.
Picture the life of an Israeli teenager in Tel Aviv who’s phone blares in the dead of night to alert them of an incoming missile strike from neighbouring Gaza, territory which Israel ceded to Palestine, now mostly administered by Hamas, a Sunni-Islamist fundamentalist group who’s criticism of Israel goes beyond territory and into religion.
Internationally, Israel has greater pressure to stand down because of it’s undoubted superiority over Palestine both economically and militarily, but with a generation who are now only in their 60’s and 70’s remembering how the international community abandoned them in a time of need, they fear that by ceding superiority they will no longer be able to defend their citizens from interest groups which would seek to make Palestine their ally, and have long sought the destruction of Israel.
This touches on the complication that regionally, the Israel-Palestine conflict has become a proxy for states like Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and many more, to inflict pressure on Israel. Some because they see them as a colonial outreach of the western powers into the Middle East, others because they see them as ethnically and religiously unwelcome.
Ultimately, what needs to change in conversations about Israel-Palestine is the concept that either are homogeneous. They are not. Both Israel and Palestine are diverse states full of both victims, perpetrators, and bystanders, all of which have valid claims to seek reparations and real fear driving their opinions. What needs to stop is our desire to demonise the other. To be pro-Israel, you need not be anti-Palestine, and to be pro-Palestine, you need not be anti-Israel. Those that pursue ardent support for one and fervent hatred for the other only widen the gap and make it more difficult to find a resolution.
