@Magenta
I feel like much of what I've shared in this thread answers this question already, so I'll attempt to be as succinct as possible (for me...).
Parable:
Let's say you witnessed out your window a gang bullying me and my family and to save me you let us run into your house. We thank you and eventually, the police come and jail the gang. To make sure we're completely safe you say we're free to hang out for as long as we need and help ourselves to whatever's in the fridge. We thank you. Hours pass and as it is now dark we ask to stay there the night. You agree, providing linen for us to bed in the living room and on the floor.
The next day, you awaken to a commotion in your master bathroom as you hear me singing badly in the shower. You head to your kitchen and see my other family cooking food for each other. The doorbell rings and a couple of my cousins are let in. You look and see a few more people than I came in with, wondering what's going on!
You look closer and you see my family rifling through your stuff as if it's ours. You protest! But instead of listening, my family ignores you. You return to me as I'm making my way down complaining about my family but instead of addressing your grievance, I say, "My great great great grandfather used to own this house. It was in my family for generations before we lost it in the foreclosure. It's ours by right! You're actually our guest! And we have just gone through such a traumatic ordeal with that gang that we need to recover and start over."
You answer, "But that's not my problem! I wasn't that gang! This is my house."
Then I say, "Well you sure are sounding like a gang trying to hurt me...I think I'll call the police."
Historic Quotes:
Here are quotes from the first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion expressing their intentions when they entered into the land.
https://christianchat.com/threads/the-hatred-of-jews.214439/post-5275353
“After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine “ — Ben Gurion, p.22 “The Birth of Israel, 1987” Simha Flapan.
“Every school child knows that there is no such thing in history as a final arrangement — not with regard to the regime, not with regard to borders, and not with regard to international agreements.” — Ben Gurion, War Diaries, 12/03/1947 following Israel’s “acceptance” of the U.N. Partition of 11/29/1947 (Simha Flapan, “Birth of Israel,” p.13)
Israeli leadership always intended to ethnically cleanse the land and expand into all territory.
Recent Proof:
It was never Israel's intention to allow two states. There's what Israel tells the international community and then what the state of Israel actually says and does when no one is looking.
The following is a video of a young girl posting a video snippet from a Jewish woman speaking with someone whom she feels free to share details with of their long-standing plan for Gaza.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRTgfXhx/
(Just confirm you're a human and then click view as "guest" and the video will play.)
If you can't play the video, she says, "
we have 500 families ready to move in at a drop of a hat to just move into North, Central, and South Gaza and people who will start building. We have names of towns, we have where we're building them. It's already been planned and we have people signed up. You can't leave it without Jews in the Gaza Strip. It's too big of a piece of land, it's too important to let it become HAMAS town."
...so it's not about defending themselves.
By the way, this is why the app is such a problem now because they can't control the narrative anymore when video proof like this can be spread so quickly.
Why do Palestinians reject peace?
While Israel offers peace agreements and ceasefires, like with Oslo, Israeli bulldozers continue to demolish the homes of current residents and then build new settlements that move Israelis into their territory. How can you have peace if during negotiations the other side of the conflict never stops expanding through demolition even for a moment? So oftentimes "peace" is just a smokescreen.
For example, the West Bank was meant to be Palestinian-owned territory but if you look at the map Israel has paved roads and built houses dissecting every neighborhood where occupied Palestinian houses once stood. And then the IDF outlaws any Palestinians from traveling on any Israeli-owned roads, including ones that are created right through Palestinian neighborhoods.
"More than 173,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished in Israel and the Occupied Palestine Territory (OPT) since 1947." -
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
Israel has also built 12ft partitioning walls between Palestinian neighborhoods cutting off the people from each other.
So if you can't use any main roads or bypass roads that lead to your home, and you can't walk through walls to meet your neighbors, how can they live?
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....I failed to keep this short.
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