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What Role Does Religion Play in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?

Spectrum Street Epistemology at Stratford Centre, London

Oct 27, 2023

In London, two men discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Peter Boghossian presented various claims, including who has ownership of disputed territory, the necessity of violence, and the importance of peace. The men disagree about every claim Peter presents, except one: they agree that removing Islam and Judaism would not help. Both men invoke evidence from the Bible or the Quran throughout the conversation and provide their perceived solution to the conflict.

At one point in the discussion, Peter asks the participants to switch sides and present the reasoning of the opposing perspective. This is where things become particularly interesting.

28 Comments

nosey parker

Oct 30

I was going to quit on this thread. I've said plenty. But since you brought it up, Elle, here's a terrific video EVERYONE should watch. This guy is telling the truth like no one else I've seen online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9SHD2Dt2gc

And while you're at it, watch Vanessa Beeley's substack.

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1 reply by Peter Boghossian

I don't do social media because it's a great way to be surveilled and manipulated by the government or other dishonest actors and you can't really trust anything on it anyway. I especially do not trust Telegram which sounds to me like an echo chamber in which to generate hatred and paranoia. I have not heard of Hamas "gleefully" broadcasting rape and murder. I have heard of a young illegal Jewish settler (on Palestinian land, FYI) stating that Hamas decapitated babies' and raped Jewish women which has been very completely discounted as bullshit by man, including the White House. Not only are many unaware of things that happened before they were born (though they know well enough about things that happened before they were born in other countries, interestingly enough so where's the excuse for their current ignorance) and there are many that don't know what is happening right now thanks to a mainstream media that has been completely captured by the pro-Israeli lobby for longer than I have been alive, which is almost 7 decades. I am assuming the people who follow Telegram can read. But maybe they are not so good at thinking logically and independently? Clearly there are many Westerners who have no idea how to identify propaganda or that it even exists. Ignorance is no excuse, Elle. If you support genocide, you support genocide. Stop talking about "bad Germans". They are you if you support this genocidal attack on Palestinians. That's the hard fact that everyone in the West must deal with right now. There have been many statements from Israelis, especially Israeli elected and appointed leaders, who show decided lack of empathy for innocent civilians caught up in this on the Palestinian side. In fact, they very proudly state they are "animals" and they want to wipe them off the map. That doesn't sound like "feeling" for innocent civilians--unless you don't mean feeling empathy but just having emotions towards them--in this case, irrational and ignorant hatred. Probably from guilt. They want to kill ALL of them. They want the off-shore oil fields that belong to Palestinians and they are concerned about the difference in the two groups' birth rates. Israelis need immigrants badly just to keep their numbers where they are today. They're at 1.8% birthrate which is not sustainable and Gazans are 4.4%. The number I've seen for Palestinians in general is 2.2%. Every day the disparity between the groups gets larger, to Israel's detriment. They know what to do about it but there's something sick in that society. Rather than have children themselves, they'd rather kill Palestinian kids. They have known this (and been talking about it) for more than 20 years.

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