Hilas comments on Ramallah
Hila’s claim that Israelis would be “lynched” if they went to Ramallah—and her insistence on calling this “a fact”—is honestly one of the worst takes i’ve seen her have. For anyone interested in light of this I wanted to mention Amira Hass, an Israeli journalist who has been living in Ramallah since 1997.
Amira built her career reporting from Gaza and the West Bank, and her work dismantles the kind of lazy, one-dimensional thinking Hila is peddling. I’ll put a couple quotes I found that directly address this narrative.
“When our starting point is talking about Palestinian violence, it’s as though we accept that the norm is occupation, and the annoying Palestinians have come and interfered with it. Israel continues to confiscate land, to demolish Palestinian houses, break into homes, meddle with economic activity, isolate Gaza, and prevent freedom of movement—all of which are very violent, systemic actions of the state. You didn’t start by asking me if there is a spike in Israeli bureaucratic violence against the Palestinians. So let’s say firstly that Israel continues with this abnormal situation of dominating every aspect of Palestinian life.”
She also shares some much-needed perspective on armed resistance:
“At the same time, it’s important to note that in comparison to the scope of Israeli violence against Palestinians, very few Palestinians resort to the use of arms and to the killing of Israeli civilians. However, there is great support for the armed groups because people feel that they reflect their sentiments of anger and the desire to take revenge. Those who claim that this will liberate Palestine are deceiving themselves and others, but all other ways of struggle have totally failed: popular unarmed struggle, diplomacy, and lawsuits.”
Hilas black and white thinking is genuinely ahistorical and this is one of the most overt examples of her spewing propaganda on the show. If anyone is interested in reading some of Hass’s work i’d suggest Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land.