Foreign Minister Penny Wong says Israel has a right to defend itself, and judging its security decisions from a distance is “very difficult”, as Israel’s government vows to cut off food and water to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

  • LineNoise@kbin.socialOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    84
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    1 year ago

    I would argue that it’s quite easy to judge, at any distance, the collective punishment of civilians through the withholding of the essentials of life.

    We’ve a referendum this weekend largely on whether we’re ready to confront uncomfortable and complex consequences of a history of colonial violence. What’s more difficult is reconciling these sorts of statements from a government that says it is.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      29
      ·
      1 year ago

      The Aboriginal tribes didn’t slaughter civilians, or rape and murder aid workers, to be fair.

      • Gibsonisafluffybutt@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        And the Palestinian population at large has done that have they? Maybe we should judge the so called “settlers” for stealing peoples homes and having picnics while watching Palestinian protestors shot by IDF snipers? Or shall we just pretend that Israel has been the perfect “neigbour”?

          • Gamoc@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            23
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            They didn’t, maybe you’d be able to read better if you took your head out of your arse?

            • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              16
              ·
              1 year ago

              They’re whatabouting the fact that Hamas do, in fact, represent the views of most Palestinians. Comparing them to the Aboriginal tribes is a grave insult to the latter.

              • spiderplant@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                12
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                oh I’m sorry I can’t support Palestine because they won’t lie down and die

                Imagine only supporting oppressed peoples when they don’t fight their oppressors.

                If your support is conditional you are not supporting.

                  • spiderplant@lemm.ee
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    8
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    There were two ‘Reigns of Terror,’ if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the ‘horrors’ of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break?

                    What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror–that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.

                    Mark Twain

                  • 0ddysseus@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    8
                    arrow-down
                    3
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    A bunch of rich kids partying on land pissing distance from the walls erected to lock in 2 million Palestinians, which was stolen from those Palestinians grandparents, are most definitely the fucken oppressors here mate.

                    Especially when you throw in compulsory military service

      • LineNoise@kbin.socialOP
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        We had a period of frontier wars that lasted 150 years. It was grossly asymmetric but the estimates for colonial casualties run into the thousands.

        • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          15
          ·
          1 year ago

          Were those casualties civilians though, or were they mostly soldiers? That’s the key difference.

          • Kayel@aussie.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Good thing war is so blank and white, makes it easier to affirm my side is the good side

            • Ilovethebomb@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              1 year ago

              There’s one side that have done some very questionable things over the years, and there’s another that went out of their way to massacre civilians. I’m by no means a fan of Israel, but Hamas are outright evil.