Settlers obviously aren't the victims in this, media framing being infantile bullshit is definitely worth dunking on.
There may exist some nuance though. Israel needs these people for names and numbers in sham court eviction proceedings, for demographics, and of course for martyrs. We can all hope for individuals to do better in the face of propaganda and incentives pushing them a certain way, but I think we know how that goes. Even the US' officials acknowledge that these are illegal settlements: That settler orgs can recruit inside the US, and even operate as tax shelters for billionaires while recruiting, is insane and really what has to change. This woman moving, particularly at this late date, is disappointing and not blameless... But they still moved, and there's enough that have to where deeper investigation of their condition seems warranted to me.
I've frequented random video chat websites for a while, and a few weeks into the latest destruction of Gaza I met an Israeli settler on the now-defunct Omegle. In days prior I'd met several Gazans and gotten just a taste and some of the sounds of the devastation happening around them. Looking at the WebRTC traffic, it was mostly those with SIM cards from Egypt. I didn't reveal I knew this guy was connecting from an Israeli ISP, but after a couple of minutes talking it became relevant. They were mid-late 20s, a divorced parent with custody rights had relocated to Israel with them several years prior. When we got down to it they were a bit belligerent, "Hamas are terrorists" etc, but I was asked for my honest assessment of the situation and I offered it - with those Gazans I'd recently spoken to in my mind. I expected the guy would quit or skip me, but we ended up talking for 20 minutes. It seemed like they just hadn't really interrogated the things they'd been hearing for years from probably everybody in their life.
This woman moving, particularly at this late date, is disappointing and not blameless... But they still moved, and there's enough that have to where deeper investigation of their condition seems warranted to me.
The fundamental contradiction between how much personal responsibility one has for their actions vs. how much of their hand is influenced by their material conditions.
Settlers obviously aren't the victims in this, media framing being infantile bullshit is definitely worth dunking on.
There may exist some nuance though. Israel needs these people for names and numbers in sham court eviction proceedings, for demographics, and of course for martyrs. We can all hope for individuals to do better in the face of propaganda and incentives pushing them a certain way, but I think we know how that goes. Even the US' officials acknowledge that these are illegal settlements: That settler orgs can recruit inside the US, and even operate as tax shelters for billionaires while recruiting, is insane and really what has to change. This woman moving, particularly at this late date, is disappointing and not blameless... But they still moved, and there's enough that have to where deeper investigation of their condition seems warranted to me.
I've frequented random video chat websites for a while, and a few weeks into the latest destruction of Gaza I met an Israeli settler on the now-defunct Omegle. In days prior I'd met several Gazans and gotten just a taste and some of the sounds of the devastation happening around them. Looking at the WebRTC traffic, it was mostly those with SIM cards from Egypt. I didn't reveal I knew this guy was connecting from an Israeli ISP, but after a couple of minutes talking it became relevant. They were mid-late 20s, a divorced parent with custody rights had relocated to Israel with them several years prior. When we got down to it they were a bit belligerent, "Hamas are terrorists" etc, but I was asked for my honest assessment of the situation and I offered it - with those Gazans I'd recently spoken to in my mind. I expected the guy would quit or skip me, but we ended up talking for 20 minutes. It seemed like they just hadn't really interrogated the things they'd been hearing for years from probably everybody in their life.
The fundamental contradiction between how much personal responsibility one has for their actions vs. how much of their hand is influenced by their material conditions.