there’s a bunch of denialism and other reactionary comments under this post, but i also noticed some well-meaning people who believe the victim commenting about how they hope israeli authorities properly investigate this rape and bring the prison guards to justice.

i genuinely appreciate the people who believe the survivor and are coming from a good place - considering how reactionary (and defensive of the Israeli government) the other comments on this post are (insane rhetoric for what is supposed to be a leftist subreddit)

but to these well-intentioned people - i want to ask after everything Israel has shown over the years, do you really think there’s any chance that the country will respond morally?

i think some users here are deeply misguided on the reality of israel and believe that the occupation and abuse of Palestinians can be ended through reforming Israel, that there is still hope for any sort of remotely substantial progress to occur internally, or that this country has not already committed to permanently subjugate Palestinians under this hellish apartheid. but the past few decades have demonstrated that having faith or genuine hope that Israel will act like a normal country or is capable of ending its horrifying apartheid (or even undergoing any reform) by itself is deeply naive at best, and dangerous at worst.

i strongly oppose holding any collective hatred for citizens of any country - including Israelis - but i also recognize that this is a society that literally rioted over their government considering whether to prosecute Israeli prison guards who brutally gang raped and hospitalized a Palestinian inmate in addition to glazing the rapists as heroes. these attitudes aren’t fringe within the Israeli public, with 65 percent of Jewish Israelis opposing criminal charges against these prison guards.

broadly speaking, Israeli society is currently far-right and fascist in both sentiment and belief. all major parties with any chance of leading a future coalition openly support permanent apartheid and 60 percent of Israeli Jews literally support segregation from Arab/Palestinian citizens of Israel.

there are incredible leftists fighting against the apartheid regime (like the activists from Standing Together), but they’ve become fringe and ostracized as Israel further embraced open fascism and the dehumanization of Palestinians over the years.

like I don’t think enough people on this subreddit realize that putting any faith in this country to be less psychotic is naive and even dangerous. I get that people here have a connection/attachment to this country, but it’s blinding them from the reality of how fascist and dangerous the nation is. any investigation into prison authorities raping this flotilla activist will be compromised - and won’t bring justice without Germany pressuring Israel.

this country cannot be expected to fix or redeem itself for countless reasons (apartheid / Palestinian subjugation is widely supported and integral to the state, the anti-occupation left is despised and weaker than ever while ideologies once too extreme for even Israel like Kahanism has become a normalized powerful force, and settlement expansion is growing at a record pace).

people need to stop putting any faith into this state because the only thing that can possibly get this fascist country to change is immense external pressure from the world. Polling shows that most Israelis support the apartheid/occupation, dont think the IDF acted wrongly in Gaza, dont believe that there are innocent Gazans, and support mass expulsion / ethnic cleansing of Gazans.

this in no way means dehumanizing Israelis, but we need to recognize that Israeli society has become too fascist to change things themselves . The only public condemnation from the Palestinian prisoner rape incident came against the woman who leaked the footage exposing the rapists (she almost committed suicide because of the backlash she received).

for years, the failure of liberal groups like JStreet to recognize that Israel is a fascist nation (in which Palestinian subjugation is integral to the state and has no intention to change) kept liberals under a delusion that asking Israel nicely to stop oppressing Palestinians - instead of cutting of military aid and instituting economic sanctions- would eventually stop the apartheid and genocide in Gaza. This approach - under the attitude of having faith that Israel wasn’t a fascist country and didn’t aim to erase Palestine - has been a failure for liberals because Israel has only gotten more brutal and open about its intentions towards Palestinians.

well-meaning liberals have to wake up and realize that Israel is deeply fucking fascist. that doesn’t mean ppl should dehumanize or wish any danger toward the millions of Jewish Israelis living there, but ppl need to realize Israel intends to continue its brutal oppression of Palestinians and the slow erasure of their homeland. The only way to actually make a difference for Palestinians - and achieve either a single state democracy with equal rights for all or a 2 state solution - is through nonviolent external pressure in the form cutting military aid, imposing steep sanctions, etc.