The most common reason for every day people supporting Palestinians by far, is the misconception that Palestinians are the Indigenous inhabitants of Israel and Palestine, and that Israelis are “Western Colonisers”. Because of this, it makes it so easy for Pro Palestine content to immediately spread like wildfire, as it resonates with moderate people who would otherwise stay neutral on the conflict. The fact is; the majority of people who support the Palestinian movement do so because they have no understanding of the historical context underpinning today’s conflicts. Which is why it infuriates me that so many Israelis are throwing their hands in the air giving up because “there’s no point the world will always hate us” - this is just doomerism I.e. the belief that individuals have 0 autonomous control or meaningful impact over their lives and or the broader world.

I can also speak from my own experience, as I used to support the Pro Palestine movement. I only ever supported their movement, because I was convinced without even doing any research, that Palestinians must’ve been the native inhabitants, since Israel was founded in the 20th century.

Stop wasting your time bickering with people over genetic relatedness and the legal processes underpinning land acquisition; it’s time consuming, pointless, exhausting, and in many cases makes 0 impact on peoples stance on the topic. All you need to say is plain and simple: “Jews are the Indigenous peoples of Israel. There is over 3000 years of well documented history of continuous Jewish inhabitance”. (The Merneptah, William Dever, Moabite stone are some good examples).

The argument that “Palestinians share the same DNA” is pointless since you can point to the fact that the Palestinian national identity didn’t even exist prior to the 1960s, so how is it even relevant. So what if they’re related to the Canaanites? Did the current Modern day Palestinians live in the same lands 3000 years ago bound by the same identity? Because the Jewish identity that ties every Jew to Israel today absolutely did, and any rational person you’d care about the opinion of will be immediately shocked by this, and may even change their stance immediately. This is also the reason why so many people support Hamas. ** People are willing to rationalise the most extreme levels of violence and oppression if they believe it is justified ** . Since Palestinians are widely assumed to be native to the lands of Israel, people automatically jump to criticising Israel’s actions.

Lastly I want to leave you all with this: There is no room for defeat. Israel does not have this privilege. Defeat means total annihilation and ethnic cleansing. So enough with this self defeating talk of “we don’t need the world” and “they’ll never listen”. Every time someone says we can’t do this, is just another reason for any Jews curious about living in Israel, to abandon the idea of Aliyah. Enough is enough.