I think that while that may be true, the Palestinians are a people who lived on the land for thousands of years and have undergone a number of military occupations: Ancient Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Philistines, Tjekker, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Muslims, Crusaders, Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans, British, Jordanians. The people there today are probably a hodgepodge of descendants from these various occupations. Israel, whatever its history may be is as of right now an oppressive military occupation. I agree that forgiveness will need to be heavy if there is to a peaceful situation, but it is not one sided. The Palestinians are not the ones who have targeted Jews for millennia, and since many are Muslim, part of their history is shared with Jews. Islam is a descendent of Judaism, so part of the history, I'm talking ancient history, is not exclusive to modern Jews. Also the entire world has not targeted them, it was mostly a Europe thing. There are plenty who think had these populations lived under the Ottoman Empire rather in Europe they would not have been persecuted and many of them would not have had to die. There are a number of populations who only know persecution, and are still being violently persecuted to this day, it does not give any of them the right to dominate others. And that is what is happening right now, right now it is Israel who is oppressing and persecuting a people that has no military, no economy, no real government and who have been on the land for an extremely long time. These are not the same displaced people who have experienced persecution, they are powerful state with a strong economy and military and backing by the U.S.

Always the victim... disgusting comment, read back what you wrote then try to deny you are a troll. Free Gaza.

That was the most ignorant comment I have ever read. Apologize for what? For the innocent lives of children that they have taken or for the lives of the women? Also, Israel only uses the Star of David as well as the claim of wanting a "Jewish state" to legitimize the "state if Israel".... This is not an issue of religion. In fact, majority of zionists don't even believe in god but believe he promised them the land of Palestine. How does that make any sense? Once again, they use Judaism only as a clutch to get away with their inhuman actions. They don't want forgiveness. They want to continue with their bombings & killings and wipe out the entire Palestinian population.

Your New Age psycho-babble is offensive. Palestinians should "forgive" and accept Israel's ongoing extermination of their children? Would you have advised Jews to forgive and accept the pogroms and gas chambers? Israeli society is poisoned by its own narcissistic narrative of victimhood and exceptionalism; it has become a relentless war machine. Europe created this monster and Europe must intervene to dismantle it.

Incidentally, Israeli Jews do not own the patent on human suffering. Most of my family was executed or driven into exile during the Spanish Civil War, yet I do not feel entitled to murder someone else's children in recompense -- nor would I permit someone else to murder in my name.

oh yes I do forgive them

https://www.facebook.com/photo...

Its hard to believe a global apology to a state the chooses to murder civilians and children is in order. Also i find it a bit presumptous that reading one book has lead you to this opinion. The situation in palestine started before world war 2 but the state of israel was created in the aftermath as an expression of "your apology".
Personally i recommend reading Witness in Palestine, Anna Baltzer, Palestine Peace not Apartheid, Jimmy Carter, Gaza in crisis, Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappe. In addition the apology owed should be to all the victims of the genocide that continues in front of your eyes and also the victims of the holocaust who are largely ignored and often live in poverty in israel. It seems that these victims are more valuable dead than alive to israel. First they survive their own genocide only to have their story of survival perverted in order to sustain more bloodshed.

I'm sorry but reading your comment makes no sense. Why should Palestinians apologize? So Jews being mistreated gives them free reign over another group? Granting Palestinian land for a Jewish state is an injustice done unto Palestinians. Genocide has gone on in every corner of the earth and to this day it continues. So Jews aren't alone in their suffering. Still no excuse for what's happening in Gaza and in all of Palestine. Forgiveness is needed all around.

As a humanist, my perception is that this conflict is fuelled by religion.
From my perspective, there is no god - Jehovan or otherwise - and nothing "divine" or supernatural will intervene in the current mass slaughter of innocent Gazans by a lunatic regime in Tel Aviv which is intent on mass murder and total ethnic cleansing of all non-Jews (including Christians) from Palestine.
Forget religion - it is part of the problem, not part of the solution. It doesn't help at all.

First, there was the Nakba and millions of Palestinians were 'moved' or fled as refugees as zionists spread their propaganda of fear and hatred. The irony here is that zionists were being 'gifted' Palestine, or a portion, because of what 'Jews' had suffered in the European war, making innocent Palestinians pay for European crimes. Then we had 1967 and MORE innocent Palestinians were 'moved', encircled, colonized behind walls and fortifications as illegal settlers moved into Palestine. Curious, Israelis never refer to Palestine, always the 'occupied territories'. Question: occupied by whom? Gradually, Palestine proper has been occupied over the years by nearly 500,000 Jews, claiming that Geneva conventions do not apply as they are reclaiming 'their' land. Then we had the 'unilateral' withdrawal from Gaza of the Israeli army and 'settlers'. Motive? To imprison 1.5 million Palestinians and eventually, through the blockade destroy them. Another added bonus was the Israelis had a place to deport troublesome Palestinians from Palestine Proper! ( this fact documented) Ever wonder where 1.5 million Gazan Palestinians came from? Guess what? One place is Sderot! Innocent?? I don't think so. Oh, by the way, the Israeli army destroyed the beautiful settler colony--buildings and infrastructure when they left. Meanwhile, the world governments either did nothing or supported Israel. Also, a conquered people has the right under international law to resist their occupier by whatever means. According to the latest scoring, the number of Israeli lives lost is still zip. And the world's governments? "Israel has the right to defend itself"--what????!!!!!!! As for the poster who wants Palestinians to ask for forgiveness, I say forgiveness for what? For being driven from my home? For resisting the takeover of my home? For objecting to the stealing of my land, my water and the burning of my olive trees?

Because you can't pressure anyone to stop doing something they're not doing

I am being frank, not rude: your naivete is showing. Hamas is being demonized at this moment on the statements of Netanyahu as to their alleged responsibility for the deaths of 3 teenage Israelis in Area C (Hamas has denied this, incidentally; & Hamas operates out of Gaza, not the West Bank.) But the Palestinian people have little reason to complain about Hamas. First, the Palestinians elected Hamas to head their government and defeated Abbas and his US-Israeli collaborators in the West Bank in the middle of the last decade. Israel and the Americans, who encouraged this particular election went apoplectic when Hamas won; the genocide of Gaza's population began then in earnest. All Israel needed in June and July was a small, sad incident-- which its propaganda apparatus exploited to the hilt--to use as a precept for destroying Hamas and more Palestinians this week.
In case you were not aware, this current attack on Gaza was begun by Israel. Hamas responded ( defended Gaza????????) by firing its own limited defenses at Israel. Do you think that Israel only has the right to defend itself?? As far as I know, no Israelis, children or otherwise, have been killed this past week in Israel's "Operation Protective Edge". Can you tell me how many civilians have been killed in Gaza during the same period?