this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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[–] alvvayson@lemmy.world 70 points 2 years ago (4 children)

This is true. But it is also because there isn't a much better alternative.

The Palestinians don't have a Nelson Mandela, MLK or Mahatma Gandhi kind of person that the western world can rally around and support.

Like, I'm sitting here at home in Europe, thoroughly disapproving of Israel, while being also fully disgusted by what Hamas did.

And I understand why Palestinians fight. I can understand that they can't be fully pacifist and that they don't have the capability to wage a normal war, so they result to asymmetric warfare.

But if they had just cleanly killed or kidnapped the adults and spared the children, that would have been the minimum to not fully alienate a lot of people who are sympathetic to their cause.

I guess Yasser Arafat was the best they had and it only went downhill after that.

[–] Cerbero@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Thing also is that those people were also hated during thier time and also called terrorists. There’s no good options for a leader sadly.

[–] alvvayson@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I was alive when Nelson Mandela was active, and he wasn't called a terrorist in the west.

He was revered as a hero by many in the West, just like Navalny is revered today.

He literally WAS a terrorist. He ran the ANC’s terrorist wing. People called him a terrorist and it was accurate.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 points 2 years ago

A lot of people seem the think he was only regarded well once released from prison. I certainly didn't know much about him until then.

Yet Only Fools and Horses was made in 1981, and they lived in Nelson Mandela House. So even in the UK we knew South Africa was on the wrong side of history. And we should know, we wrote most of it...

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

But Hamas does very textbook terrorist things, seems to me like they are actually terrorists.

[–] Palerider@feddit.uk 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

So were the IRA...

And yet now here we are with Sinn Fein holding elected positions.

At some point there has to be dialogue otherwise you just keep killing one another.

As opposed to the ANC? Who literally had a terrorist wing run by Mandela?

[–] BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 years ago

As opposed to the IDF that’s been terrorizing Palestinians constantly?

It’s terrorists in both sides. Unfortunately civilians are the ones caught in the crossfire.

[–] Eikichi@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

As opposed to the resistants (including many Jews) during WW2 who were literally called terrorists by Nazis ?

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

The West called Mandela a terrorist until he won and they killed MLK

So

[–] nonailsleft@lemm.ee 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The West being one single hive mind like the bugs in Starship Troopers

[–] tegs_terry@feddit.uk 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

And Gandhi was a black-hating Mussolini sympathiser.

[–] Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 years ago

This is the sort of thing that reminds me never to trust the accepted wisdom of internet groups.

Gandhi after being educated in England was only a little less racist then everyone else when he first went to South Africa and made the famous comment you're referring to... He then had his awakening against oppression and began to fight for an end to racism, one of the main popular scandals against Gandhi in South Africa was that the medical corp he set up would give aid to whoever needed it first regardless of rank, colour or ethnicity. The rest of his life he wrote and fought for the rights of all.

But of course 'popular person was actually bad' is a fun hot take so of course it's going to be banded around without any nuance.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de -1 points 2 years ago

They dont need a Palestinian Mandela to stop military and civil aid and cooperation when Israel commits war crimes.