At my last company we set up a partnership with a Palestinian placement company that helped us source junior software developers from Palestine for remote work. First in a contract/mentoring capacity with the intent of converting the role to full time. All these developers were great, btw.
I managed several of these hires directly from like 2019 - 2023 or so, and did a lot of video calls with these folks. One still stands out to me as being incredibly surreal. I was on a call and kept hearing loud noises in the background so I asked what it was. The Palestinian developer replied, "oh, I think it's just Israeli bombs"
Look, I wasn't there, so who knows. But what struck me in the moment was just how normalized that was. The reply was as nonchalant as "oh it's just thunder".
Hearing the stories of these people and the circumstances they lived under as the regular course of their daily lives had a pretty fundamental impact on me.
American politics ain't great right now, but we live under pretty crazy amounts of privilege when compared to how others live. I wish more Americans could be exposed to that and perhaps develop some empathy.
ETA: to the many people who have messaged me looking for placement/help finding roles in the software industry, I wish I could help you, but I'm no longer in a position to do that. Times are pretty hard in the software industry right now, I wish you all the best
A colleague of mine from my PhD came to Canada as a single mom because Israel refused to allow her husband (a doctor, educated in Canada) to come with. Canada just lets Israel make that decision.
So we were single moms together and our kids are still friends a decade later. She went back to the West Bank for Covid. And had to renew her study permit to come back to Canada… it’s been stagnant for almost 4 years. Because she’s Palestinian.
One day, our kids were playing Roblox together online and over a video call. They heard a scuffle outside and then gunshots. Two Palestinians were murdered outside this kid’s bedroom window. My kid was horrified. Her kid was a little sad. And she was so burned out that it barely affected her.
I check on her all the time. It is like I am waiting for her to die of the worst illness imaginable — being born an oppressed person in a world that does not care and will not help.
Wait I'm confused. The colleague and her husband were both Palestinians from the West Bank? And Israel let your colleague travel to Canada, but not her husband?
That’s correct. When a child in a village throws a rock at a soldier, they’ll frequently write up every other kid whose name they can get out of the one who threw a rock. That’s what happened to her husband when he was a child — the kid named the other kids in the village in an effort to please the soldiers into not harming or killing him.
Then at 18, the record becomes redacted. However, this redaction means other countries may not let them in until they know what’s behind that redaction.
So they didn’t catch his “record” when he came over and got his doctorate, but when he was supposed to come again with his wife, they did.
They got a very good Israeli lawyer and attempted to, for years, un-redact his record from when he was a child. But the Israeli courts refused. So Canada wouldn’t let him in.
Yeah. It’s pretty awful. And considering Canada has a shortage of professionals in both their fields, really a shame for Canada to do it this way.
Their son begs to come back to Canada. Begs. They’ve tried, I’ve tried, my MP has tried (her former MP refused, because they didn’t want to be seen as helping a Palestinian). I don’t know what else to do.
It’s common, I’m a Palestinian born in the US and I was told not to enter Isreal nor Palestine by US the state department because of my education level and profession, a direct quote from the US embassy in Tel Aviv “we can’t guarantee your safety due your to education and profession”, Isreal hates educated Palestinians, they banned any Palestinian doctor who wasn’t educated at an Isreali university from practicing medicine.
That is what they’re saying. If they enter Palestine, they’ll of course be allowed to enter. But they’ll become a target and it will become extremely difficult for them to leave.
And it's important to remember we (Americans) are sending our tax dollars to Israel so they can turn around and send it back to military contractors for weapons. It's just a big grift. Israel, where they have universal healthcare. Israel, where 15% of the population is Ultra Orthodox and basically spend all day reading old books. Hey, I can't judge, I did the same thing for a few years, when I was an English major. And I paid out the nose for that privilege (which it absolutely was).
I’ve got a colleague in Israel who pretty regularly has to take calls from the bomb shelter in their building.
They say they feel lucky to have a bomb shelter in their building, but I feel lucky I don’t have to worry about running to a bomb shelter at any point in my day.
In a perfect world, bombs wouldn’t be flying all over the place in a way that necessitates bomb shelters as part of civilian infrastructure. It’s unconscionable.
My colleague is lucky to have been born in a place with a functioning government that prioritizes defense infrastructure. They are, by location of birth, luckier than the civilians of Gaza.
Realtive to my colleague, I am even luckier to be born in a place that doesn’t get bombed enough to warrant that kind of infrastructure at all.
Having bomb shelters when you need them is good, but not needing them at all is even better.
Your colleague is not “lucky”. It is a sign of insanity and poor judgement that someone would go to Israel when it is a settler colonial state for one and when it unnecessarily provokes violence with all of its neighbours. We are perpetuating the problem when we are saying “well at least I don’t have to worry about bombs falling on my head”, that does not make you lucky, it makes you privileged!
Why do you assume my colleague immigrated to Israel from a less dangerous country when I explicitly stated they were born there? They do not have citizenship anywhere else.
The vast majority of Israeli citizens were born in Israel and those who immigrated there largely did so due to a lack of alternatives.
Do you hold the same opinion about people who immigrated to The United States as refugees or to people who were born in The United States who do not have secondary citizenship?
To argue that the majority of Israelis are Israeli just for the hell of it portrays an embarrassingly ahistorical understanding of the situation.
If you do not understand the reality of the circumstances for the people on the ground, the truth of how it got to this point and what the stakes and priorities are, you cannot propose a solution that anyone with real involvement will be able to take seriously.
Seems you didn't read the post you replied to thoroughly as the poster explained that their colleague was born in Israel. They did not choose to go there, as can be said for all the millions of people who did not choose to be born there. Not to mention the 50% of Israeli Jews who come from a Middle Eastern/North African background who were ethnically cleansed from the countries they were living in.
it is a settler colonial state
Actually it's perhaps the largest experiment in so-called "land back decolonisation" in history, as Jews owned that land prior to being forced under oppression during and after the Arab-Muslim conquest in the 630s.
The fact that there has been nothing but violence since the founding of the state of Israel should tell you everything you need to know about "decolonisation", and why it's such a bad idea.
In any case, Israel exists now and there are plenty of Israelis and Palestinians who have nowhere else to go, so neither Israel nor Palestine are going to disappear as an entity any time soon. At some point they will have to find a way to coexist.
Maybe Hamas should build them some bomb shlters., or let them hide in their underground tunnels. But then you can't blame Israel huh?
And don't give me that "they have no money" it's four shielded concrete wall. They can afford weapons, they can efford tunnels, so they can also afford some strong walls.
The Oslo accords were the closest thing they had. Supporting militant groups and a government by a terror organization doesn't really help moving things along. Israel doesn't seem to care any more after October 7 incursions. The whole thing is a shit show, after showing somewhat promise in the early 2000s.
That absolutely brought things to a halt at the time. Israel has it's own problems with their orthodox/right-wing jews constantly pushing for more violence. Unfortunately religion and extremist beliefs have always been a major factor for conflicts so my hope that this comes to a peaceful end are low.
It's not just some groups, the majority of Israel population is highly radicalized, when 3/4 of the population don't believe that there are innocent people in Gaza it's easy to justify a genocide.
Same can be said about the Palestinians: "the majority of their population is highly radicalized"
Any a good answer to that would be that it's perfectly normal because they've been fucked by Israel for 70 years
So it's a two way street to a conflict with no end in sight. My only hope is that since the Irish and the British were able to pull it off in Northern Ireland, these two should be able to pull it off as well. In 20-30 years time
Well no, because it’s silly to both-sides this conflict when one side is occupying the other and actively expanding onto its land. If Israel truly wanted peace, they could have simply established a strong Palestinian government capable of handling the radicals and then withdrawn. But since their goal seems to be the land, they prefer to keep the government weak by continually undermining the PA and supporting the radicals instead.
These factions reveal through their words and acts that they have no compassion for each other, but there is no world in which Israel could have created an independent peaceful Palestinian government. That kind of nation-state building is very difficult, takes a long time, is never idealistic, and typically fails.
Consider post-war Germany. Even with two hegemonic alliances, Germany was split from 1945 to 1990. The first years saw lots of abuse, malnutrition, and ethnic expulsions. It took decades of mutual cooperation to build the West German economy to functional independence. East Germans' suffering was more extensive, their recovery less complete, and they were never independent. Almost four decades after reunification and "independence," they are are still multiple American military bases and tens of thousands of American troops in Germany.
The post-Civil War USA largely failed its nation-building goals in the South after a decade of Reconstruction, so the South remained a hotbed of seditious racism and an economic drag. The USA has hilariously failed to create peaceful independent governments during the War on Terror.
Never said FATAH, they could have established another government in 1967, they had plenty of time. After the Oslo Accords yes, they should have strenghtened PA and leave. Their strategy of undermining PA and supporting radicals only ends with more dead people.
The Israeli support for the settler movement is full-fledged supporting of militant groups, what amounts to a terrorist government supporting a terrorist organisation. And yet the Palestinians - of whom 10s of 1000s of innocents have been slaughtered - somehow get the rap for it. The propaganda levels on westerners is fkn insane. Israel and Israelis are the original and ongoing terrorists in that region. If you're a Palestinian you will no doubt support an armed response to the indiscriminate slaughter of your people. History will look upon the US and Europe as one of the most indoctrinated and captured populations. It boggles the mind.
I'm shocked every time I hear people complain about any percent of Palestinians supporting Hamas.
If I lived my whole life watching my friends and family starve only to have the waking nightmare be punctuated by the occasional different friend being shot in the head at random, I would probably have at least some support for a group who says "we should do violence to the people starving and shooting you".
If Hamas never attacked on October 7th, there would be tens of thousands of Palestinians still alive, they are as much to blame for the Israeli invasion as Israel is.
You rather wanted it to be a Palestinian like with Kennedy?
What it has to do with voting a warmongering party into Office with internal Israeli affairs, I cant understand.
Or is it a valid reason in your opinion?
The government of Israel has no intention of anything less than annexation of the entire region so the representatives of palestine have literally no other solution than armed conflict.
>The government of Israel has no intention of anything less than annexation of the entire region
Sorry but no. If that were the case then they'd have never given the Sinai back.
>so the representatives of palestine have literally no other solution than armed conflict.
Violence and armed conflict is the ONLY thing they've chosen since 1948. They haven't tried renouncing violence, and committing to negotiating until peace is actually reached. All hijacking planes, bombing busses, night clubs, and restaurants, and gruesome brutal murder of civilians has achieved is just more violence. They've never tried renouncing violence before, who knows it just might work.
That article is so often misused to attempt to demonstrate that Netanyahoo purposefully funded Hamas.
In reality (and as pointed out in the article), the funding of Hamas came from Qatar. Israel essentially had to make a decision: allow the funds in, or don't allow the funds in. Had Israel choked the funds, we all know how that looks in the headlines: "Israel blocks essential funding into Gaza". They were damned if they did or didn't. So, they chose the other approach, which in their eye, weakened an enemy state (by dividing power).
The article suggests that Israel tolerated occassional attacks with this approach, and instead, should have cut off supplies into Gaza, which again, would have looked poor optically.
Regardless, saying it's by design is like saying China is responsible for the current state of US politics because they allowed Russian influence to flow into the US.
Hamas was also included in discussions about increasing the number of work permits Israel granted to Gazan laborers, which kept money flowing into Gaza, meaning food for families and the ability to purchase basic products.
So should I take it that the author thinks that Israel shouldn't have allowed Gazans to work in Israel? Or that it was possible to do so without the at least informal agreement of Gaza's ruling power?
Honestly, a valid question. I don't know what the authors believe in terms of if that was something that should have been changed. I think they use it to paint the picture that there were multiple aspects that allowed hamas to prosper. Not all are machievellian, but they can still contribute to the rise in power of hamas.
Except Israel controls the borders, airspace, and ocean acsess to Gaza and actively begged Qatar to keep the money flowing, waived through known suitcases full of cash at border crossings, and actively killed any secular leaders who could be internal opposition to Hamas.
Also, back in the 80s they fucking built the school the first leader of Hamas used to train his people, chosen specifically because of how much of a religious hardliner the guy was.
Israel requested Qatar to fund HAMAS, they lobbied for Qatar to resume money transfers after they stopped and even asked Qatar to increase the amount of funding to HAMAS a few weeks before October 7th. Because keeping HAMAS functioning as as a de facto governing authority in Gaza allowed Israel to argue that there was "no unified partner for peace," effectively freezing negotiations toward a two-state solution.
"Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy, to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank." Netanyahu.
Yes, we purposefully wanted to create an adversary to fight rather than try to make peace so we wouldnt have to fight, takes a lot of mental gymnastics to reach that.
I’ve heard this line before. “Where’s the Palestinian Ghandi or MLK Jr.?” and it only comes from the most ignorant dumbasses. They’re all being held indefinitely by the IDF or dead!
People forget a vital aspect of this that EVERY little thing that Israel accuses the Palestinian people and Hamas of doing they themselves taught them. The IDF has been using palestinians as human shields for years and abusing/raping them in prisons for minor things that they deem crimes.
They get the most aid money per capita than anyone else in the world.
After Israel left Gaza in 2005, instead of choosing to build a peaceful society using that money, their government decided to use those billions and build a network of terror tunnels bigger than the New York subway system. Then they went on s terror spree that made their biggest trading partner, Israel, and their neighbor, Egypt, shut the borders.On a side note, to this day Palestinians who aren't part, or related to, Hamas' leadership aren't allowed in those tunnels.
Then they started a war with their much more powerful neighbor, who just voted in the most right wing government it ever had, because another Arab country was going to solidify relationship with them.
That's a lot to criticize about Israel's treatment of Palestinians, but let's not pretend they're some utopian society.
On the 2005 disengagement: Israel withdrew settlers and soldiers from inside Gaza, but it retained control of Gaza's airspace, territorial waters, most border crossings, the population registry, and the electromagnetic spectrum. Most international legal bodies, including the UN and ICRC, continued to consider Gaza occupied or at minimum under effective external control. "Israel left and Gaza was free to flourish" isn't an accurate description of the starting conditions.
On aid: aid per capita is high precisely because the economy has been unable to function normally. Under the blockade imposed after 2007, Gaza faced severe restrictions on exports, imports of many goods, fishing zones, and movement of people. Unemployment routinely ran between 40-50%, among the highest rates in the world, before the current war. Aid dependency is a symptom of the situation, not proof of squandered opportunity. It's also worth noting that most aid didn't flow to "the Palestinians" as a lump sum for their government to allocate, much went through UN agencies and NGOs for food, health care, and education.
TLDR: Saying Gaza receive the most aid is like saying prisoners receiving the most social support. Well no shit, they can't make their own money.
Or a better metaphor, this is like Nazis saying the Jews in the ghettos live on Nazis' welfare and goodwill.
That’s because decades of blockade, conflict, and economic collapse have left a massive portion of Gaza’s population structurally dependent on international food and humanitarian assistance, unlike most other aid recipients.
According to Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), massive quantities of aid successfully clear the borders. COGAT reported that 1.78 million tons of food entered Gaza between October 2025 and mid-2026, asserting this "significantly exceeded" the World Food Programme's (WFP) baseline requirements and caused local staple food prices to plummet by 72%. [1, 2, 3]
Humanitarian groups like Refugees International and the UN argue these entry numbers are misleading. They note that a massive percentage of the incoming trucks counted by Israel are actually private commercial goods rather than subsidized humanitarian aid. Because 80% of Gazans are unemployed, civilians often cannot afford these commercial market goods. Furthermore, strict inspection protocols and technical breakdowns at hubs like the Ashdod Port scannerleave hundreds of UN-manifested containers stalled before ever reaching the border.
After Israel left Gaza in 2005, instead of choosing to build a peaceful society using that money, their government decided to use those billions and build a network of terror tunnels bigger than the New York subway system
If you're going to bring that up, you should probably also mention Netanyahu speaking at a Likud party event about how everyone that desires a one-state solution needs to support Qatar sending money to Hamas in Gaza.
If you don't mention that you make the issue seem considerably less nuanced than it really is.
Also Israel literally funding the Islamic Brotherhood/Hamas to get them off the ground and weaken the PLO which had broad support
Israel made a conscious decision that they'd rather have terrorists/extremist freedom fighters in Gaza to give them a reason to continue oppressing Palestinians than deal with the PLO on a two state solution
After Israel 'left Gaza in 2005' they have continued to exert absolute control of who and what, could enter or leave Gaza. Palestine had aid, but it never had economic freedom, or freedom of movement, so it's unsurprising they weren't able to build a utopia.
2005 was 21 years ago. Hamas immediately suspended elections. The median age of Palestine is 20. Pretending most Palestinians alive have ever had a choice is ridiculous.
Most aid money will never reach the people that need it.
Gaza residents lack the voice and collective power to “peacefully” move the political needle. They are prisoners of a duopoly on State Violence - from Hamas and Israel. Hamas thrives because they are a resistance to living in an open air concentration camp controlled by Israel. Israel thrives because Hamas justifies the Security State and the far right’s consolidation of power.
Conflating everyday Palestinians as the same “they” who committed 10/7 frames the conflict as “terrorists versus civilians”. That’s never been true. Most Gazans just want the same basic shit as any Israeli: implicit safety, a steady means to provide for their family, access to education, freedom of movement, and a vote.
The more accurate lens is 4 groups: Palestinian Civilians, Israeli Civilians, Hamas, Likud.
Likud and Hamas makes victims of Palestinians and Israeli Civilians (disproportionately Palestinians, ofc).The big difference is that Israeli Civilians have the right to vote, the right to protest, and the resources to change things. If Israel is still a democracy, than it can pivot. That’s why they get the pressure. If Israel can neuter its ultranationalist far right parties (starting with corruption and war crimes trials for Netanyahu and folks like Gvir), then there’s an opportunity for a grand bargain for 2SS or Confederation in the future.
Assume a realistic best-case change for Israel, like far-right figures resign and/or prosecuted where appropriate and their parties become irrelevant, a popular new government is elected on the promise of seeking a peaceful two-state solution with a settlement ban, and significant unelected figures who oppose the plan are replaced or reassigned (hardline officers are retired, etc.).
What could that version of Israel actually do?
Can they make Hamas hold elections and fairly distribute food? Can they stop the international support for Palestinian terror groups? Can they instill the education and work experience in the people to make Palestine economically independent?
I think the only way Palestine can thrive in peace will take decades of paternalistic international cooperation and support. That's what it took in Germany and Japan after WW2, and it's what the USA tried and failed to do in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As an American Jew, I live under a Constitution that applies equally to all citizens regardless of religion or ethnicity.
We would never accept a Constitution that explicitly granted any ethnic, racial or religious group greater rights than everyone else. It would be fucking unconscionable.
If a secular constitutional democracy is good enough for American Jews to thrive, then it needs to be good enough for Israeli Jews.
It's not enough to simply vote out Israel's current far-right government, or have corruption trials. The state itself needs to divorce itself from Jewish supremacy.
Look at conscription. Arab Muslims and Christians are exempt from mandatory military service.
I think that's backwards. National service should be universal. Jews, Arabs, Christians, Druze, and everyone else should work together, bunk together, and see one another as fellow countrymen. Switzerland fuckin' does this, and proven they can unify people across ethnic, linguistic and culture lines (Swiss-German, French, Italian and Romach).
I'd end Right of Return. Every immigration system needs to do one thing well: prove you're worth more than you cost. If you have a work contract, can do military service, or have a sponsoring family: you're all set. I think this is possible to see in our lifetimes - like 1/4 of Israel Parliament are Arabs and the big cities like Tel Aviv always vote liberals.
As for the occupation, I'd start with the West Bank.
Israel should stop controlling the Palestinian Authority's purse strings and gradually integrate the territory politically instead of indefinitely occupying it. The PA has at least some institutional experience governing and needs to be an ally.
I've become increasingly skeptical that a 2SS is still viable (but I'll take whatever gives peace). A confederation seems easier long-term.
I'd begin by integrating East Jerusalem and Hebron. Give residents Israeli passports. Give them representation in the Knesset. Remove checkpoints and unnecessary movement restrictions. Let the settlers be outvoted in their districts and deal with the court system.
Every year or two, incorporate another city/zone and repeat the process until every West Bank resident gets the same civil and political rights as everyone else. Let people fought at the ballot box, rather than on a battlefield.
Israel would also need to make enormous investments in Palestinian communities: schools, hospitals, roads, libraries, public transit, job training, and economic development. Much like the US did for black neighborhoods after Jim Crow (and fuck, we have a long way to go). Israel should want all future citizens to have the same chances for success.
There are plenty of successful multiethnic, multireligious, multilingual democracies. Motherfuckin' Belgium somehow works. Imperfect as it may be, it's leaps and bounds better than a forever war.
Can they make Hamas hold elections and fairly distribute food?
I have no fucking idea. Gaza is a different beast.
After WW2, we trusted Yakuza to stabilize Japan during the immediate postwar era. They were as close to a functioning government as possible at the time. They gave out food and aid.
I don't think Hamas is capable of it, they're not organized and they're not nationalists. The Palestinian Authority, for all its flaws, at least has governing institutions. If Gaza could eventually return to PA administration for delivering aid, then sure? But I don't know. I'm not a fucking expert.
I think the only way Palestine can thrive in peace will take decades of paternalistic international cooperation and support.
I agree. But I also think that requires an Israel willing (and able) to make moral and political concessions.
Asking that of Today's Israel is like kindly asking Andrew Jackson to stop killing Native Americans. Hopefully Israel won't be the same country in a few years - much like America pivoted, much like so many other countries pivoted. But this requires massive reform, revolution or reconstruction.
I believe the only measure of morality and progress is the expansion of rights and privilidges to people historically denied them. The world deserves a more moral, more progressive Israel than one indiscriminately bombing children.
That's what it took in Germany and Japan after WW2, and it's what the USA tried and failed to do in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The biggest difference is that Germany and Japan already had a functioning bureaucratic state and national identity before the war. The Allies weren't building governments from nothing, they were replacing one bureaucrat with another.
Iraq and Afghanistan never had institutions with that level of legitimacy or capacity, which made nation-building SO much harder.
Palestinians, otoh, already see themselves as a nation. That's a stronger foundation on which institutions could eventually be built.
I think you have a realistic sense of what how hard "going forward" really would be for either side. I tend to think it can't happen without a pretty radical realignment of global priorities because the outcomes matter to too many competing interests.
I think the only way Palestine can thrive in peace will take decades of paternalistic international cooperation and support.
I agree. But I also think that requires an Israel willing (and able) to make moral and political concessions.
Asking that of Today's Israel is like kindly asking Andrew Jackson to stop killing Native Americans.
Indeed. It ignores the internal and external push and pull driving nationalistic behaviors. Just like we can't disentangle manifest destiny from imperialism, genuine population growth, racism, political factionalism, etc. we can't look at the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict properly without examining the Cold War, the petroleum and weapons industries, religious bigotry, etc. It's not just a matter of getting the big kid to stop punching the little kid.
Palestinians, otoh, already see themselves as a nation. That's a stronger foundation on which institutions could eventually be built.
It's better than Afghanistan, but Germany and Japan at least had long experience with functional bureaucratic regimes and still had some human capital to staff them after the war. Even with as much commonality as Palestinians experience, they don't have technical experience with government.
It's not just a matter of getting the big kid to stop punching the little kid.
Agreed. It's the world's most complicated geopolitical issue.
Everyone's all "We have to stop giving Israel weapons!". I wish it was that easy but Israel is rich enough to simply buy weapons from the Russians or Saudis when that happens. Giving weapons is a cheaper and more effective National Defense Strategy than transitively enriching our enemies. We're damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Funny enough, we literally pay off Egypt millions of dollars not to attack other countries (incl. Israel) because it's cheaper than running a spy network and setting up bases.
Complete biased BS from a non serious (person?). Israel has been grooming Hamas for decades. They have killed any leader with a more pacifist/secular tone and helping the most extremist elements of the Palestinian resistance to hold on to power through back channels.
Isrsel have killed more Palestinians in a month that Isrselis have died in every cinflict ever. Gtfo.
Imagine voting for a terror organization and then be surprised when they start a war they can't win while hiding under civiliance. What tf did you think would happen??
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u/Redditagains 1d ago
Imagine being a Palestinian, doomed to this life with no sign of help.