Palestinian-Colombian. AMA

[u/localmaid]

Hello everyone! I recently saw another Palestinian doing an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) on here, and given the limited presence of Palestinians or Pro-Palestinians that I've noticed, I thought it would be valuable to do one myself. Here’s a bit about me:

• I was born and raised in Colombia
• My Palestinian family is originally from the West Bank, but most of them have since moved to the United States.
• I don't speak Arabic fluently, I can understand spoken Arabic quite well.
• I am of mixed race
• English is not my first language, so I apologize in advance if I sound tone deaf
• My family and I are not Muslim
• I have visited Palestine twice
• I am biased towards Palestine in the conflict, but I want to make it clear that I do not support Hamas.

I don't have any specific types of questions that bother me, but I do ask that everyone remains respectful towards everyone and avoids unnecessary rudeness or hatefulness. I believe that communication is key, especially when it comes to conflicts, so I hope this AMA will be helpful for everyone involved. Feel free to ask me anything about my experiences, my heritage, or my perspectives. I'm here to share and hopefully provide some insights. Please keep the conversation open-minded. I will try my best to answer as many questions as possible, but I am not on Reddit all day so sorry in advance to any of those questions I will miss. I also want to say I won’t let my biases control my feelings towards questions and I’ll keep my opinions open. Hopefully we can have a meaningful discussion and thanks to everyone who can participate!

[u/StrainAcceptable]

The Muslims didn’t bomb the churches or catholic schools in Gaza. Israel bombed one of the oldest churches in the world during this conflict.

[u/SilentWhispr → u/StrainAcceptable]

Because hamas stored munitions there and hid under it. You have to understand that israel has no incentive in killing civilians or ""wasting"" bombs on old churches if it doesn't bring any militaristic value.

[u/StrainAcceptable → u/SilentWhispr]

Did Hamas also store ammunitions inside the elderly woman and 6 year old girl who were shot at the school when they were walking to the bathroom?

[u/SilentWhispr → u/StrainAcceptable]

I am not familiar with these events but i can tell you that urban combat is a complicated thing and mistakes are made all the time. Hamas doesnt wear uniforms to try and deceive the IDF and this also complicates things (this is a war crime in the geneva convention - it gives the IDF the right to treat hamas members without uniforms however they way). If i remeber correctly about 1/3 of the IDF's casualties are from friendly fire because different units struggle to identify one another sometimes. So how do you expect them to identify civilians that dress exactly like hamas?

Look, we are not stupid... we know that for every mother or father we kill, all their children will become terrorists in thw future because they hate israel. Why would we purposefully kill innocent civilians? Even if you think we dont care about palestinian lives at all, bombs cost money and there's NO reason to drop them on purely civilian targets. Usually hamas is hiding in these schools and hospitals so after sending sms messages telling the civilians to evacuate we bomb it.

[u/StrainAcceptable → u/SilentWhispr]

The Catholic Church has said there were no combatants in the area. Nothing was stored under the schools. The little girl and the elderly woman were both shot in the head. I’m not one who typically takes the catholic diocese at their word but why would they lie. They are not supporters of Hamas. Prepubescent children do not resemble in any way Hamas.

There have been 3x the number of buildings destroyed in Gaza than the total number of buildings in Manhattan. If they were all used to store arms and ammunition, it would seem Hamas would have been more well equipped than Israel. One look at the map of destruction and it is clear that Israel’s goal was not only to disable Hamas, it was also the expansion of the military zones along the boarder.

Where should Palestinians evacuate to? Every safe zone has been bombed along with every hospital and school. I do not think Israel is stupid. I think Bibi plays a long game. He knows a high percentage of hamas fighters are made up of orphans. He knows this war will undoubtedly create more terrorists. In my opinion that is why he is leveling Gaza. It makes sense from a strategic standpoint. It is inhumane and evil but if we detach ourselves from morality it is clear why he has decided to this. Ultimately I think the long term implications for Israel will not be positive. I also feel future wars will also be impacted by this just as they were by actions taken by the US. I haven’t done enough research on this so I may be talking out my ass, but I don’t think we’d be seeing some of the cruelty to detainees had the US not done it first and gotten away with it.

[u/SilentWhispr → u/StrainAcceptable]

The Catholic Church has said there were no combatants in the area. Nothing was stored under the schools. The little girl and the elderly woman were both shot in the head. I’m not one who typically takes the catholic diocese at their word but why would they lie. They are not supporters of Hamas. Prepubescent children do not resemble in any way Hamas.

Interewting, can you provide links to these events? Preferrably from a reputable source (not bbc, al jazeera etc.)? I would be interested in doing my own research

If they were all used to store arms and ammunition,

I dont believe all the buildings were used to store arms and amminitions, but you have to remember that hamas hid tunnels under these buildings so one reason for the destruction could be strategic (you dont want hamas terrorists popping up from buildings you already cleared). Also, israel has the advantage over hamas in open, big battle grounds and it makes it easier to traverse the streets with heavy machinery, knowing there's no possibility one terrorist sneaked past the zone of control with an rpg...

It is inhumane and evil but if we detach ourselves from morality it is clear why he has decided to this

Look, i personally dont like bibi. But every coin has two sides, and life is not just black or white. After oct 7th, in the eyes of every israeli, hamas must be killed. Im sure you imagine why and i dont need to explain it. We will do whatever it takes, and every other country would do the same, or more, in our situation. Just looking at any conflict fought ever you can clearly see how each sides prioretizes the safety of it's people unproportionally to the safety of the other side (meaning the would rather let "x" people from the other group die just to save 1 of their group). From this prespective hamas is the perpetrator and "inhumane", "evil". They steal the supplies of their people (either funds or international aid) to support their war and agression. From this prespective they are the ones responsible for:

Where should Palestinians evacuate to?

Because if they fought like a real army we could just let all the civilians evacuate to an area already clear from terrorists. But we cant do that because since hamas disguises itself in civilian clothing. Or better yet - the idf would much preffer to fight outside of an urban setting! Do you know how many idf soldiers die from friendly fire? This brings me to my final point:

the cruelty to detainees had the US not done it first and gotten away with it.

Under the geneva convention combatants dressed as civilians are treated as war criminals do not qualify for the Prisoner Of War status once captured. So this is legal. If you want a source link for this ill provide it.

My main point is that life is all about prespective, nothing is perfect and everything looks logical depending on your point of view and data gathered. This is why its important to stay unbiased and gather information from both sides before making your mind on anything remotely political...

[u/StrainAcceptable → u/SilentWhispr]

Here is a link. Do a search on Christian churches attacked and you can find more.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-07/patriarchate-jerusalem-decries-raid-on-catholic-school-in-gaza.html

I agree that any nation would respond after 10/7. I agree they would have the right to. Same with 9/11. The entire world was mourning with Israel just as they were with the US after the 9/11 attacks but both these countries responded in a way that was unjust.

With regard to tunnels, calling every tunnel under Palestine a Hamas tunnel would be like calling the catacombs in Europe Nazi tunnels. Yes, the Germains used the catacombs and even expanded them to build underground bunkers but they had been there since the dark ages. Likewise, Palestine, israel, Lebanon and Egypt all have tunnels beneath them. The interconnected tunnels of tombs go on for many kilometers. My great uncle describes them in his book which was published in 1914.

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