“It’s all Hamas. Israel has never done anything wrong. It’s only self-defense.”
So let’s be clear: this didn’t start on October 7. It didn’t start with Hamas. It didn’t start in 1967. It didn’t start with Gaza.
A lot of Western audiences confuse biblical/ancient Israel with the modern State of Israel. Modern Israel did not exist before 1948 — it was proclaimed on May 14, 1948. Zionism was a political movement to build a Jewish homeland, and early planners discussed multiple locations including British East Africa (“Uganda” plan) and proposals involving Argentina — before the project centered on Palestine. So Palestine didn’t “become” Israel: Israel was established in the land of Palestine (then under the British Mandate), and the conflict escalated through the 1947 partition plan and the 1948 war/Nakba.
Start at the foundation: the Nakba (1947–49) — the mass displacement of Palestinians from their homes, the making of a permanent refugee people, the birth of a trauma that never ended. If you “support Israel,” start there — because that is the origin point of the system that followed.
Then came the long machinery: occupation, slaughter of innocents (remember the “Amalek” language used to sanctify violence), settlements, checkpoints, raids, home demolitions, mass detention, and the siege of Gaza. And now: mass civilian killing, hospitals hit, aid blocked, hunger used as leverage, entire neighborhoods erased, and families displaced again and again.
If you support equal rights and peace — good. That’s the only moral position.
But if you defend what Israel has done — from the Nakba to siege to mass destruction — you are not defending “self-defense.” You are defending a system of domination and brutality.
The Nakba (1947–49): the foundation
The Nakba is the foundational event of the conflict: the mass expulsion and flight of Palestinians during the 1947–49 war. Large numbers of Palestinians were killed, hundreds of villages were depopulated or destroyed, and people were driven from their homes and land, which were then taken over by Israel. This created a permanent refugee population, which is why millions of Palestinians remain refugees today and why the right of return remains central to the conflict.
Nothing that follows can be understood without starting here.
A documented record of major Israeli crimes since inception
0) Pre-state Zionist militancy (before 1948)
The creation of the Israeli state was preceded by insurgent violence that later folded into political and military power.
- King David Hotel bombing (1946) – carried out by the Irgun (Etzel), a Zionist paramilitary group.
This matters because it shows Zionist political violence did not begin in 1948, 1967, or with Palestinians.
- It demonstrates that organized political violence predates 1948 and was integral to the process that led to state power.
- The victims were multi-ethnic civilians and officials, not a single group.
- Many Irgun members later entered mainstream Israeli politics, underscoring how militancy was absorbed into state formation, not rejected.
1) 1947–49: Mass displacement and foundational violence (Nakba period)
Deir Yassin (April 1948) — a widely documented massacre carried out by Irgun and Lehi forces, with Haganah (became IDF later)–linked involvement. The attack became a powerful terror signal that helped accelerate mass flight. In the broader Nakba period (1947–49), an estimated 13,000–15,000 Palestinians were killed, and roughly 700,000–750,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled — creating the core refugee population later served by UNRWA. These victims and refugees included both Muslims and Christians.
2) 1950s–60s: massacres and military rule over Palestinian citizens
- Kafr Qasim massacre (1956) – Israeli Border Police killed 49 Palestinian civilians, including children, for violating a curfew they were not informed about.
This became a landmark legal case inside Israel regarding “manifestly unlawful orders.”
This directly undermines claims of democracy while a minority population lived under military rule and curfew regimes.
3) 1967 onward: Occupation, settlements, annexation-by-fact
This period forms the backbone of the apartheid-state argument.
- ICJ Wall Advisory Opinion (2004) – established the occupied-territory legal framework and found the separation barrier illegal where built inside occupied territory.
- UN Security Council Resolution 2334 (2016) – settlements have “no legal validity” and constitute a “flagrant violation” of international law. Israel must cease settlement activity.
- ICJ Advisory Opinion (July 2024) – found Israel’s occupation and settlement enterprise illegal under international law, calling for withdrawal, reparations, and obligations on other states not to aid the illegal situation.
This is where the two-state solution collapses in practice: settlements and legal fragmentation make a viable Palestinian state impossible unless reversed.
4) 1982 Lebanon: Sabra & Shatila
- Sabra and Shatila massacre (1982) – Phalangist Christian militia entered Palestinian refugee camps and killed over 3,000 people. This was clearly an act of evil; victims were poor civilians living in extreme distress.
- Entry of the Phalangists into the camps was coordinated with Israeli leadership, including Israel’s defense minister and chief of staff.
- The Kahan Commission (Israel’s own inquiry, like an internal review) found Israel not directly responsible for carrying out the killings, but indirectly responsible for facilitating conditions and failing to prevent the massacre.
The significance here is that this conclusion comes from an Israeli state commission, not an external body. An independent international investigation may have reached harsher conclusions.
5) Gaza blockade era (2007–present): collective punishment framework
Since 2007, Israel’s policies have confined more than two million people in Gaza under sweeping movement restrictions.
- Israel restricts exit via Erez, blocks ordinary travel for work, education, medical care, and family reunification.
- Gaza has no functioning airport or seaport; Israel prevents the Palestinian authorities in Gaza from operating an airport or seaport; entry and exit of goods are tightly controlled.
- These restrictions have devastated Gaza’s economy, fragmented society, and stripped residents of basic freedoms such as movement and life development.
- The closure has not only limited travel but has also undermined the ability of people in Gaza to pursue education, careers, cultural exchange, and economic participation. The human toll is illustrated through interviews with Gaza residents who recount repeatedly denied travel permits, restricted access to the outside world, and bleak prospects for the future because of these long-standing and sweeping restrictions.
Human Rights Watch describes Gaza as an “open-air prison” and frames these policies as part of broader violations of international human rights law, including crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution. Interviews with Gaza residents document denied permits, isolation, and long-term despair.
6) Gaza wars: patterns of unlawful violence
There is substantial, recurring evidence that Israeli forces have carried out unlawful attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, with patterns that suggest policy-level intent, not isolated mistakes.
Key evidence categories include:
- Documented unlawful strikes on civilians and civilian objects, including homes and infrastructure, assessed as violations of distinction and proportionality.
- “Conditions of life” – Human Rights Watch and Amnesty state Israeli policy extends beyond airstrikes and shootings conduct to deliberate deprivation of water, aid, and displacement, amounting to grave international crimes.
- International findings elevating the intent question:
- ICJ (South Africa v. Israel) – found a plausible risk of genocide and ordered provisional measures, including preventing incitement and enabling humanitarian aid.
- UN Commission of Inquiry reports point to leadership statements as relevant to assessing intent.
The United States and some Western states have repeatedly shielded Israel from accountability and provided military, political, and financial support, enabling continued impunity.
7) 2023–2025 Gaza war: genocide allegations
- UN Commission of Inquiry (Sept 16, 2025) – press release stating it found Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, citing acts fitting Genocide Convention categories.
- UN experts (Reuters, March 2025) – accused Israel of genocidal acts and other grave abuses; Israel denied the findings.
- ICJ South Africa v. Israel – provisional measures remain in force; the case continues.
8) International criminal accountability (ICC)
- ICC arrest warrants issued 21 Nov 2024 for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant in the Palestine situation.
This marks a turning point: international criminal law has reached the executive level of the Israeli state.
In a nutshell, this is what Israel has carried out — again and again — against a people who were supposed to be protected by basic human law:
It began with the Nakba (1947–49): killings, mass displacement, villages emptied and erased, families driven from homes they had lived in for generations — turned into refugees with a key in their pocket and nowhere to return.
Then came military rule over Palestinian citizens (1948–1966): restrictions that strangled daily life, land seizures that hollowed out communities, and a brutal message delivered through force — women and children paying the price as if their lives were disposable.
Since 1967, the occupation hardened into a permanent cage: military rule in the West Bank and Gaza, denial of sovereignty, and a reality where freedom is treated like a privilege that can be revoked at any moment.
On top of that came settlements and annexation-by-fact: land taken piece by piece, illegal settlements planted like nails into the map, and Palestinian territory fractured into disconnected islands — what little was left carved into fragments.
And then the routine cruelty dressed up as policy: collective punishment — closures, checkpoints, raids, house demolitions — whole families punished for what they did not do, while women and children are killed so often it starts to look like a habit, not an accident.
The Gaza siege since 2007 turned that cruelty into a permanent condition: an “open-air prison” where a population is sealed in, controlled at the borders, and told their suffering is their own fault.
Then came the repeated wars on Gaza: mass civilian killing, neighborhoods pulverized, infrastructure shattered — homes, water systems, power, schools — everything a society needs to breathe.
Even what should be untouchable has been made vulnerable: hospitals, medics, journalists, aid workers — protected persons under international law — killed, targeted, or recklessly endangered, until the world can’t tell what is “collateral” and what is the point.
And when bombs aren’t enough, the pressure shifts to the basics of life: aid blocked, food and water obstructed, essentials withheld, humanitarian access treated like leverage instead of a duty.
Add to that mass displacement, especially in 2023–25: families forced to move again and again, fleeing from one “safe zone” to the next — only to watch those places become targets too.
All of it sits beneath a roof of dehumanizing rhetoric — language that makes cruelty easier: “human animals,” “wipe out,” “destroy” — words that don’t just describe violence, but prepare people to accept it.
And above it all is the engine that keeps it running: impunity — denial instead of accountability, blocked investigations, and the same outcome every time: no consequences, so it happens again.
That’s the pattern. Not a single tragic event. A system — repeated, defended, normalized — built on the idea that one people’s safety requires another people’s suffering.
The Humanitarian Toll and Accountability
In the current conflict (2023–2025), the world has witnessed the systematic destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure: hospitals have been hit, humanitarian aid has been blocked or restricted, and starvation has been treated as leverage—a weapon of war rather than a preventable catastrophe.
The documented allegations fall into a clear pattern: protected persons harmed or killed (medics, journalists, and UN aid workers); collective punishment through the cutting off of water, electricity, and essential food supplies; dehumanization through rhetoric from senior officials referring to Palestinians as “human animals”; and impunity, reinforced by a long history of internal investigations that lack transparency or credible independent scrutiny.
The Question of Credibility
Israel’s official statements are often contradicted by independent journalism, UN reporting, and medical records. Credibility is not claimed; it is earned through transparency, independent investigations, and cooperation with international bodies. If a state treats “denial” as an “investigation,” it loses its standing in the international community.
Israel also carries a long shadow of controversial and alleged covert operations, episodes that surface whenever international sympathy wanes or strategic backing is needed. These incidents remain disputed, but they persist because questions were never fully or credibly resolved.
The USS Liberty attack (1967) is one such case. An American naval intelligence ship was attacked by Israeli forces; Israel called it a tragic mistake. Yet many survivors, along with U.S. officials and investigators at the time, maintained the assault was deliberate. The absence of full accountability ensured the doubts never went away.
Another unresolved chapter is the Baghdad bombings of 1950–51. Later historical research has added weight to claims that Zionist underground elements may have been involved in attacks on Jewish targets, allegedly to accelerate the emigration of Iraqi Jews to Israel. These claims remain contested, but they underscore a pattern of secrecy and manipulation tied to state formation.
Speculation has also followed Israel into larger global traumas. In the case of John F. Kennedy, there is no solid legal evidence linking Israel to his assassination. What is documented, however, is that Kennedy was pressuring Israel over its undeclared nuclear program shortly before his death, and that investigations into both the assassination and Israel’s nuclear arsenal were later closed or sidelined — fuel for enduring suspicion rather than proof.
The same dynamic applies to 9/11. There is no legal evidence tying Israel to the attacks, but skepticism persists because of broader contradictions: al-Qaeda’s operational sophistication, the later emergence of ISIS, and the fact that such groups have never meaningfully targeted Israel. These organizations have repeatedly operated in ways that align with U.S. and Israeli strategic outcomes, not against them. Doubt grows when official narratives ask the public to suspend logic while demanding unquestioned trust.
The legal reality: international findings
Denial does not outweigh evidence. International bodies have moved beyond observation to legal determination:
- International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion (July 2024): declared Israel’s occupation and settlement enterprise illegal under international law, requiring withdrawal and reparations.
- International Criminal Court Warrants (Nov 21, 2024): arrest warrants issued for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- UN Commission of Inquiry (2025): found reasonable grounds that Israel’s conduct in Gaza meets the legal elements of genocide under the Genocide Convention.
This is no longer about opinion, ideology, or “both sides.”
It is about documented patterns, legal conclusions, and accountability that has finally reached the top.
The world is pushing toward a future where everyone between the river and the sea lives with equal rights and dignity. The real obstacle to peace isn’t ordinary people — it’s the political machinery in the U.S. and parts of Europe, including the U.K. and Germany, where too many politicians are captured: bought outright, pressured through kompromat, or conditioned by decades of ideological programming.
For a long time, Palestinians were isolated not just by walls and weapons, but by information. News traveled slowly. People trusted mainstream media narratives. And it was easy for power to manufacture “truth” on demand.
That era is ending.
Now the footage travels in real time. Witnesses speak directly. Independent reporting circulates globally. Even if Zionist networks have influence across major platforms, people can see which outlets and institutions are aligned, which ones are compromised, and which ones are doing propaganda work. The narrative game is no longer effortless — because the public isn’t blind anymore.
Palestinians have resisted through decades designed to break them. But the next phase won’t be carried by Palestinians alone. The majority of the world — people who are tired of impunity, tired of propaganda, tired of watching civilians die while leaders call it “security” — is beginning to move.
This is Israel’s last real chance to change course: to end the project of domination and choose law, equality, and accountability. And it is America’s last chance to stop being the shield for crimes that are destroying its credibility in front of the world.
