No, All Palestinians Don't Back Hamas' Depravity. And All Israelis Don't Back Ben-Gvir's Bloodthirsty Vengeance

[Israeli]

When Hamas releasing the bodies of four Israeli hostages – a grandfather, a mother and her two young children – is greeted with calls by Israeli far-right politicians to 'wipe out, punish and destroy', it is necessary to remember that neither Palestinians nor Israelis have a monopoly over depravity, or decency.
"The Nazis brought their children to watch the 'show.' They brought their children to watch the coffins of babies they had murdered," wrote an incognito member of an Israeli WhatsApp group on Thursday. "There are no innocents in Gaza! Not even a one-day-old baby," the person concluded.
As Israelis waited miserably for the bodies of the four hostages – Shiri Bibas and her young children Kfir and Ariel, and the elderly Oded Lifschitz – it was hard to find any words. So I listened to those around me.

The ultranationalist former minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would like to bring back into his government, entreated his X followers to "remember these moments. … The joy of these animals of prey. The bloodthirstiness. The clear knowledge that these Nazis cannot be allowed to live. … Nazis don't deserve humanitarian [aid]," Ben-Gvir continued. "Not fuel. Not electricity. Not caravans. … No cease-fire, no withdrawal. Only the gates of hell!"
The previous evening, he had offered more ideas: "Destroy, topple, amputate, wipe out, crush, explode, burn, brutalize, punish, ruin, flatten. Destroy!"

Israelis who insist that all Palestinians are guilty for October 7 even have a response ready when told of Palestinians who have written private messages to Israelis condemning Hamas violence toward civilians in general and October 7 in particular. They won't write publicly, Israelis insist, because they fear what they characterize as the overriding Palestinian social norm in favor of massacres.
But on Wednesday ahead of the hostage release, my feed was full of Palestinians saying so publicly. A Palestinian writer from Israel posted: "Nothing justifies the kidnapping of babies. NOTHING!" She was reposting Ihab Hassan, a Palestinian who uses terms like "depraved" or "cowardice and vile depravity" for Hamas, "war crime" regarding the Bibas family, and states that "Hamas is a stain on our cause."

A Palestinian UN diplomat, Ambassador Majed Bamya, posted a condemnation of violence against both Israeli and Palestinian children. Aziz Abu Sarah, a longtime Palestinian friend, has made a lifetime of publicly condemning violence against civilians of all sides, calling for peace and working in partnership with Israelis. These commitments were Aziz's response to his brother's death after being beaten in Israeli prisons decades earlier.

Further, one could easily accuse all Israelis of being bloodthirsty and vengeful, given Thursday's coverage in both the right-wing and mainstream media of Hamas' sick ceremony transferring the bodies.
But Hostage Square in Tel Aviv didn't quite match that impression. Clusters of people wandered around under intermittent rain, looking mostly dazed with sadness. A cameraman fiddled with his frame, tears staining his cheeks. A group of premilitary academy students affiliated with the Reform movement sang along to a leader playing mournful songs on the guitar.

Tal Arnon, a 46-year-old language editor, was weeping softly before we spoke. She described herself as rather left-wing. Does she still feel left-wing on a day like this? "More than ever," Tal said, without hesitation. She couldn't help thinking of the "pain of the mothers in Gaza, which we don't see," and spoke of people destroyed and buried under the rubble.
She flatly rejected the notion that "they're all responsible," as many Israelis believe. And "if anything good can come out of this Shoah," she said, using the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, perhaps there will be an agreement with the Palestinians – "like after the war with Egypt."

Source : Haaretz

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