in general there is much “what will israelis do?” and “where will israelis go?” “how can you expect israelis to accept palestinians?” and not
“where will palestinians go after being ethnically cleansed from gaza and the west bank?” “how can palestinians be asked to coexist with the people who stole their land, massacred them and made them refugees for 75 years?” “how can palestinians coexist with people who approve a genocide?” “how can palestinians coexist with people who imprisoned and murdered their children?” “how can palestinians coexist with the people who denied their existence?” “how can palestinians coexist with people who violate every international agreement?” “how can palestinians coexist with an entity that sees their very existence as a threat?”
the demand of palestinians to accept israel after the nakba was a demand for palestinians to show superhuman ability to compromise and they did it. in 1988!!!! and in return they received more violence, more dispossession, more diplomatic and political betrayal, more death. the greatest hasbara trick israelis ever pulled off was convincing the world and their own population that “they offered peace and a two-state solution but palestinians didn’t take it.”
the question has never been “why aren’t palestinians peaceful?” the question has been “why does israel punish palestinians for compromising?”
the answer is that israel does not care for palestinian compromise when it seeks total palestinian domination and dispossession. this is what palestinians are being “asked to make peace with” as though palestinians have any say in peace. it’s also why asking about israel is a distraction and a cruel exercise in false liberal values. israel and the vast majority of the israeli electorate is not a partner capable of making peace or coexisting with. therefore palestinian human rights cannot be contingent on israeli consent. it’s their legal right to return, to live on their own land, to have a state, to be free of occupation. any and all arguments should begin from this basis. it doesnt matter one iota if israelis feel existentially threatened by it and engaging in arguments on this basis is legitimizing their narrative and fear over their tanks and bombs.
existential fear is not a political reality—it is a justification of a political reality. the reality is the genocide of palestinians which is not only an equally legitimate existential fear but a concrete truth. the international community can and should use every single tool at its disposal to force israelis to adhere to international humanitarian law.
instead, the international community enables them. so don’t ask anything of palestinians, least of all about what will happen to israelis, who fear only what they are actively doing to palestinians as we speak.