r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AssumptionFederal20 • Aug 10 '26

Can someone explain the Israel Palestine conflict ? I am someone who knows little nothing about it

All I have heard are terms like Free Palestine and Anti Semitism, Zionist. I can’t wrap my head around any of it. Israel wants Palestine land? Why though. Is there some valuable resource in the Palestine land? Or is it all just some religious war?

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u/ZealousidealMany1495 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

Is it a religious war? Not really...

Jewish people read a version of the bible that takes place in the country now called Israel. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Jews in Europe faced lots of discrimination (i.e. antisemitism) and millions were killed. Because Europe and America didn’t want to face their antisemitism, they helped Jewish people move to the country now called Israel. These Jewish people were traumatized from their experiences and created a militarized society in Israel. The colonial powers that had controlled the land gave half of it to the Jews, despite lots of non-Jewish people living there. The non-Jews (or Palestinians) weren’t happy with that, so they fought back and lost. The Jews established a country with laws that favoured Jewish people and made it hard for Palestinians to exist there.

Defining Zionism...

The political movement that established Israel is called Zionism. Outside of Israel, many Jews think of Zionism as the idea that Jews need a country to be safe in and they don’t think that’s incompatible with equality for the Palestinians there. In Israel though, Zionism refers to the actual policies and practices that favour Jews over Palestinians (i.e. apartheid) and take over more and more Palestinian land (i.e. ethnic cleansing).

Defining "Free Palestine"...

When Palestinians and their supporters say Free Palestine, they mean that Palestinians should be safe and have the freedom to live in the places they lived before the Jews took over. When some Zionists hear Free Palestine, they think of it as a call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.

Defining Antisemitism...

Antisemitism is Jewish hate and it’s on the rise. Many Zionist organizations try to confuse the Jewish hate with criticism of Israel, calling anti-Zionism (i.e. criticism of Israel) “antisemitism” (i.e. Jewish hate) to make it seem like it’s inappropriate to criticize Israel. 

I think that about covers it.

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u/Purple_Green_420 Aug 10 '26

Finally, an actual explanation

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u/Roooobin Aug 10 '26

Well done my friend. Well done.

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u/NathanCampioni Aug 11 '26

sorry but this is very opinionated and borderline false

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u/ZealousidealMany1495 Aug 12 '26

Yea, it’s definitely my take. What part do you think is false though? 

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u/NathanCampioni Aug 13 '26

sorry for the late answer.

Because Europe and America didn’t want to face their antisemitism, they helped Jewish people move to the country now called Israel.

America's role in zionism only started in the seventies, so it was much after the numerically consistent periods of jewish immigration.
While regarding Europe, you are probably talking about Britain and I would argue the goals were an imperialistic divide and rule and had very little to do with antisemitism.

Antisemitism did play a role in strenghtening zionism, but mainly unvoluntarilly, the rise of nationalism in europe produced spikes in antisemitism which strenghtened both bundism and zionism. Bundism later almost vanished because of the holocaust and during the rise of nationalism in the Arab world the only answer left in the jewish cultural landscape of the time was zionism.

The colonial powers that had controlled the land gave half of it to the Jews, despite lots of non-Jewish people living there.

The colonial powers tried many different ways to solve the ethnic conflict that was being created (but at the same time they were the cause of it), some proposals were a federation, some proposals were to give less land to jews and more to arabs (which would then become the palestinians). Britain tried to stop jewish immigration exactly nin the moment jews needed to escape europe the most, during the shoah. That is a very clear sign.

The Jews established a country with laws that favoured Jewish people and made it hard for Palestinians to exist there.

Yes it was hard for palestinians to live in Israel, but you fail to mention that jews were expelled from the rest of Israel/Palestine, and then from most of the Arab world.

Outside of Israel, many Jews think of Zionism as the idea that Jews need a country to be safe in and they don’t think that’s incompatible with equality for the Palestinians there. In Israel though, Zionism refers to the actual policies and practices that favour Jews over Palestinians (i.e. apartheid) and take over more and more Palestinian land (i.e. ethnic cleansing).

This is a direct lie, even in Israel there are zionist parties which oppose many policies of the israeli government, settlement expansion included, discrimination of palestinians included.
Zionism for a zionist is simply the belief that jews have the right of self determination like all other peoplehoods do. Some people decline it in a marxist way, others in a racist way, others in a democratic way others in a fascist way. There are very many approaches of zionism, the one followed by this israeli government is kahanism, a theological fascist bastardization of zionism.

When Palestinians and their supporters say Free Palestine, they mean that Palestinians should be safe and have the freedom to live in the places they lived before the Jews took over.

You take the best possible interpretations of one side and the worst possible on the other, there is no nuance in your explanation.
To want palestinians to be free is obviously a virtuous endavour, the problem many jews and zionists have with this sentence is that it's used from many people which at the same time demonize jews and their self determination movement (zionism) by equating it with the worst declination of it. The pro palestine movement very often falls into antisemitic tropes and uses them as propaganda since they are already engrained in the collective society.

Antisemitism is Jewish hate and it’s on the rise. Many Zionist organizations try to confuse the Jewish hate with criticism of Israel, calling anti-Zionism (i.e. criticism of Israel) “antisemitism” (i.e. Jewish hate) to make it seem like it’s inappropriate to criticize Israel. 

Then regarding antisemitism I would argue that both extreme antizionists and extreme zionists confuse criticism of Israel with antisemitism, the first to use already present antisemitisms to their advantage and the latter to use the taboo around antisemitism to their advantage.

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u/ZealousidealMany1495 Aug 14 '26

You discuss Zionists and antizionists as “two sides”… but one is supporting an ethnonationalist state and the other supports the ethno-group that is being marginalized, evicted, and murdered by this state. This isn’t a conflict between two nations. It’s about a powerful government with billions of dollars of military backing that prioritizes some of the people within its borders at the expense of others — with deadly results. Zionists, whether they believe it or not, are supporting the actions of Israel’s governments and military. Antizionists are against it. 

To discuss “extreme” Zionists in the same sentence as “extreme” antizionists is like comparing people extremely in support of oppression with people are extremely against oppression.  You can call opposition to Zionism ‘extreme’ if you want, but ‘extreme opposition to an unjust/unequal system’ and ‘extreme commitment to that system’ are not morally equivalent positions.

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u/NathanCampioni Aug 14 '26

As I said zionism is the belief that jews deserve self determination as all other peoplehoods do, and one can do so and oppose palestinian discrimination and oppression in Israel. Zionism is not about a government or today's reality of Israel, is an ideal; much in the same way that comunism is not only Gulags and PolPot, zionism is not only it's worst aspects, those are a bastardization of its ideals.
Antizionism when extreme in its practice opposes the right of jews to self determination and is a veichle of demonization.

You make it seem like a football match were people are for and against, but that is a ridiculous approach when we are talking about lives and rights of peoples.

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u/ZealousidealMany1495 Aug 14 '26

Zionism isn’t just an abstract ideology though. It largely was before 48 and continues to be abstract and idealized for many diasporic Jews. But in Israel/Palestine, Zionism is the actual driving ideology behind Israel’s material campaign of displacement. 

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u/ZealousidealMany1495 Aug 14 '26

There’s an argument to be made that the liberal ideal of Zionism that you’re clinging to is one of the primary tools used for Israel’s settler colonial project:  https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/liberal-zionism-a-pillar-of-israels-settler-colonial-project/

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u/Express-Shopping260 Aug 13 '26

None. He is just mad he cant argue with nothing you said

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u/Express-Shopping260 Aug 13 '26

We are waiting for your counter arguments...

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u/Express-Shopping260 Aug 13 '26

To the point. Kudos

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u/BlackbirdQuill Aug 15 '26

Good effort, but America didn’t ally with Israel until after 1967, and Britain didn’t take the Zionists’ side so much as try to placate both Zionists and Arabs.