6 Comments
Jan 4Liked by Karim Zidan

Thank you for continuing to write about Palestine.

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Jan 4Liked by Karim Zidan

Truly unforgivable.

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I used to read about how Pinochet and Franco used stadiums as internment camps for dissidents. Never thought I would live to see it happen again...

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Jan 4Liked by Karim Zidan

The smile on El Masry's face as he describes the importance of Yarmouk stadium to Palestinians...I can't imagine the pain he is feeling now (if he is even still alive)

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Great read but I don’t understand why Israel would do this. Strategically it’s unsound because you’re just creating more resentment and future enemies. Neither side’s hands are clean in this conflict but there should be at least more compassion for all of the poor people caught in the middle of this from the Israelis.

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Thank you, Declan—I think it is important to note that Israel is currently being run by the most far-right government in its history and many of Netanyahu's cabinet members have been quoted using disturbing rhetoric that dehumanizes Palestinians and incites violence.

Israel's defence minister Yoav Gallant said at the start of the war that "we are fighting human animals and will act accordingly." Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said in a radio interview that dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza was a possible tactic Israel could employ. Far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich said this week that Israel should “encourage emigration" (read: forced displacement), which is actually a call for ethnic cleansing (even the U.S. State Department had to release a statement pushing back against this).

Given the sentiments within Netanyahu's government, which is in charge of the war effort, it honestly does not surprise me that Israel's has taken this approach. When you're leading politicians dehumanize and vilify innocent civilians and correlate them with Hamas, that rhetoric seeps into the actions of the military.

We've seen this before with US wars....

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