They sent me links to these two English Wikipedia articles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khirbet_el-%27Ormeh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiryat_Arbaya
And the Hebrew Wikipedia article
https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/הרס_אתרי_מורשת_ישראלית
My gut tells me that since the only sources that any of these Wikipedia articles use regarding the sites' supposed destruction by "Palestinians", come from Zionist publications, over-representing specifically religious right-wing publications — that this is in all likelihood propaganda which is used to promote Zionist settlement of the West Bank under the pretext that these ancient sites need to be "protected" from the "barbarous" Palestinians that are apparently going around bulldozing them for no reason, because they're apparently Just That Evil™ or something... Despite one of these sites also being designated as a Palestinian Heritage Site. Uh-huh. OK.
The Zionist even acknowledged that talk about Palestinians destroying archaeological sites "is commonly used in right-wing rhetoric", but claims from interactions with supposedly liberal Zionist archaeologists on social media to have "confirmed that it's Actually that bad, it's Not Just Propaganda".
The context of this is that I had pointed out that the Barzilai Medical Center was built on top of the former Shrine of Husayn's Head, which was built in the 10th century and was blown up by the IOF in 1950 on the order of old Moshe in a deliberate attempt to erase Palestinian history and further the displacement of the Palestinian people. This Zionist was, prior to my pointing this out, apparently completely unaware of this having ever happened, despite being Very Concerned about how Hamas had launched rockets at the medical center as a very pathetic sort of "gotcha" to the people pointing out how the Zionist Entity has very thoroughly destroyed the medical infrastructure of Ghazza.
So I think this Zionist wants me to acknowledge this supposed "too" because they want me to say "both sides bad", distracting from the acts of the Zionist Entity — or in other words that Zionists make sense of their own horrific acts by saying "well, They do it Too, in fact They're Worse Actually™" — and this Zionist simply cannot stand the thought that their government is deliberately trying to erase their country's actual history in order to trick them, and so they end up using Palestinians as a scapegoat.
But Hey, whoop-whoopity-whoop, what if there is some tiny corn-piece of truth in this giant pile of horseshit? I can't find a page on decolonizepalestine.com about archaeological sites, but this is clearly a talking point that a lot of Zionist settlers are exposed to, even though it's clearly not often discussed outside of the Zionist Entity itself.
Never believe that Zionists are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The Zionists have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.
You've been successfully derailed. You're arguing about something that doesn't matter because the Zionist scum you're talking to wants to avoid the fact that Israel's committing a genocide.
How many dead children is each "desecrated archeological site" worth? How many tortured doctors and children are adequate compensation for a "desecrated archaeological site"?
Is one "desecrated archaeological site" enough to justify the collective punishment of 2 million people, the deliberate starvation of hundreds of thousands of children? Or are Israel's actions justified because they "desecrated" multiple "archaeological sites"?
Do not let Zionist scum set the conditions for a debate.
This.
Had some crypto Zionist come to a meeting once where we were discussing Palestine (some years ago). They kept trying to bring up irrelevant talking points (how many states should there be? Do we want Islamists to win elections? What about Jewish persecution in x? Lebanon is persecuting christians! Jews aren't allowed in Palestine! Etc.)
The simple fact was and is that the US, our government, supports an ongoing settler colonial project including genocide.
This is typical wrecker behavior: get people arguing about shit that's irrelevant to the goal you're organizing around. Fortunately, we didn't fall for it much, wasted maybe half an hour on them. But we shouldn't have waste any time.
Ask the zionist if they take Gaza's Ministry of Health at its word (it is regarded by the UN, Israel itself, the US, etc, as the most accurate source on deaths in Gaza). They will almost certainly say they do not. You can point out that they have no history of fabrication whatsoever and then ask them why in the world they think you should take the word of Zionist publications with no third party confirmation at face value when Zionist publications (and Israel itself) have demonstrably lied constantly about everything.
It won't convince them but you can't argue a fascist out of fascism.
Zionists are almost universally full of shit, so you probably shouldn't expect a breakthrough but...
Gaza was home to some of oldest churches and gravesites in the world - many from all religions, not just Muslim ones. Israel has destroyed them all in their bombing.
When IDF troops discovered a perfectly taken care of cemetery, with many graves of WW1 deceased including many Jewish graves featuring stars of David and other religious iconography they were shocked. Shocked enough it spawned dozens of articles in Israel and the West which are easily searchable.
Meanwhile, Israel has been systematically desecrating dozens of cemeteries in Gaza, including bulldozing them, removing bodies so their relatives can't visit them, and allegations of desecrating bodies. Again, all of this has been reported in the Western press uncluding the likes of CNN.
So if you're really so inclined, ask him who in this conflict seems to be respecting culture, history, and the dead.
Palestinians can do whatever they want with Palestinian land. Colonizers can fuck off back to their home countries and cry about it.
This is a red herring. The Zionists don't give a shit about cultural heritage, if anything they dislike it as it proves their ideology is built ob a foubfation of pseudohistorical bullshit. What they care about is not talking about the genocide they are committing so they try to derail the conversation.
But if you want to pursue the conversation for one reason or another you could ask the zionist scum what effect their indiscriminate carpet bombing and deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure and culture in Gaza is on the historic sites there.
Do not argue with a Zionist, this is a waste of your time
I have no idea if it's true, though Zionists lie endlessly, but I also don't particularly care either way, given the circumstances, and I don't think you or this moron you're talking to should care either. I think the correct answer is genuinely "This is a red herring. People are being bombed by the thousands and you are trying to relitigate about some individuals among the bombed defacing ancient rocks. End the genocide and then plainly lesser matters can be handled properly."
This Zionist was, prior to my pointing this out, apparently completely unaware of this having ever happened, despite being Very Concerned about how Hamas had launched rockets at the medical center as a very pathetic sort of "gotcha" to the people pointing out how the Zionist Entity has very thoroughly destroyed the medical infrastructure of Ghazza.
If this is the really famous instance from several months ago, that one was proven to be the IDF.
