I saw this on a comment in Step Back’s YouTube video on the Israel Palestine conflict and this instance seems knowledgeable on colonial history and this conflict in particular, so I thought I’d start by asking here before finding another instance or community who knows history.
Someone asked something along the lines of: "Suppose you were an Arab Muslim Palestinian living in the territory that would become Israel in the 1940’s. You weren’t particularly political, you just kept your head down and lived your life. What would happen around you as history unfolds? At what point does something bad happen to you? And what would it likely be? A bombing, an eviction, a business being attacked? "
Personally, I’m curious about that, too. Does nothing happen until you do something antisemitic to one of the Jews moving in?
Someone replied: “You and your children would be among the 20% of Israeli citizens with full and equal rights. The Arabs who fled did so because their hope was to return once the Arab armies finished off the Jews for good. The ones who stayed were the ones who were willing to coexist with Jews.”
My next question is, is that true?
Quick note: I know ya’ll get super sarcastic here, so just know I’m asking in good faith 😭. You can check my history if you want to double-check.
Haha ya, that raised my eyebrows, too. But I don’t know a lot about the specifics of the apartheid in Israel except that they use some different roads in the West Bank and use different religious courts for things like marriage.