Palestine has the right to free itself from occupation and apartheid. I don't think any leftist, and even most of the progressive liberals, are opposed to this.

But for decades these words have rung hollow. Outsiders like us, especially in the West, send our thoughts and prayers, go for protests and donate to affiliated orgs, but the situation keeps getting worse. Our governments finds the occupier with billions of dollars in weapons. In face of that, our "solidarity" means very little.

Now, this situation. If this is a war, then from what I've heard, some of the actions are warcrimes - murdering (and worse) to civilians etc. No side should commit such acts, of course. But why the expectation that Palestine's fight for freedom will somehow be more moral than Israel's crimes against them?

Why didn't the first ever report of the IDF killing Palestinian civilians, including children (2023 was the deadliest year for this) result in the West collectively denouncing Israel, with both words and actions? If for decades those are the rules of the war and occupation, why the sudden anger when the other side follows the same rules and not the higher, moral, code that no one granted them?