Comment on "Gaza Divides Students"

BU's Daily Free Press ran this article today: "Gaza Divides Students"

I posted this as a comment on the article, but with the assumption that the moderator won't allow it, I am also posting it here:

A quote I very much disagree with: “[Israel is] fighting a war with people who don’t play by the rules of the game,” she said. “It’s very scary knowing that they’re fighting in a war right now with people who do not respect life.”

First, there is no such thing as proper "rules of war." The style of warfare is constantly changing, as we've seen in the last decade alone.

Second, this is a completely hypocritical statement. Clearly Israelis, as the colonial force in the region, have no respect for the 1000 Palestinians, the near majority of whom are civilians, they've killed amongst the other 1.5 million they have trapped in Gaza. They control their borders, their access to water, their electricity, their roads, the goods that can come in and out of their territory, the flow of people in and out of their territory - and the PALESTINIANS are the problem? God-given land or not, Israelis need to acknowledge what they are: white colonialists.

Does Hama's 800+ rocket attacks, which have caused minimal civilian deaths in comparison, warrant this savage attack on innocent Palestinian civilians? And I've heard countless Israelis claim that what the Palestinians are doing to them is "genocide." When one looks at the 13 Israelis killed in this current situation vs. the 1000 Palestinians killed, it's clear who is committing the genocide.

Hamas does not fire rockets indiscriminately. They fire rockets because they have been so marginalized, so suppressed, that they've had no other choice but to radicalize and fight back. The Israelis have written the script of this ordeal with their politics in the region, their blatant disregard for attempts at peace treaties, and their illegal settlements on designated Palestinian lands. The Palestinians are just acting out their part.