cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39480764
David Hearst
25 Nov 2025 19:56 GMTVery much in the mode of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Phillips declared that there was no such thing as Palestine or Palestinians. In fact, the only indigenous people around were the Jews, who were the only people with any historic, legal or moral entitlement to this land.
To say this while activists in Britain are being arrested for shouting “from the river to the sea” as an allegedly pro-Hamas chant, hands their defence lawyers a get-out-of-jail card.
Because what Phillips is claiming is that all the land from the river to the sea is Jewish. And as she knows, but the Crown Prosecution Service appears not to, “from the river to the sea” has been Likud policy since 1977.
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
Literally one lesson on Israelite history will tell you they’re more bloodthirsty than the US. Hell, so many of our anecdotes about conflict stem from their war against the Canaanites, now Palestinians. They’re the OG evil
one lesson on Israelite history
If you regard the Old Testament as history, the violence is probably exaggerated because of it being written by nationalistic zealots. It almost certainly also exaggerates the scale of Israel’s conquests. They were never more than a minor force in the region, not much more than a city-state. Other ancient national epics are just as bloodthirsty and just as unreliable.
Canaanites, now Palestinians
I’m pretty sure the Palestinians got their name from the Philistines. In Arabic, it’s still called Falasteen.
That doesn’t say anything about descent, though. The genetic evidence is that the people in Palestine now are genetically quite similar to people in Palestine in ancient times. The population has been pretty stable, despite wars, conquests and language changes. Modern Palestinian people are also closely related to Jewish people-- probably the closest of any non-Jewish group.
They’re the OG evil
Far from uniquely so. The whole region was prone to genocidal wars, enslavement of whole nations, and general chaos and brutality. Most other “advanced” societies 2500 years ago weren’t much better, at least not for long.
I think the bigger question is why those primitive tribal values should be considered a guide to how we live now.
