<story><title>&apos;Like we were lesser humans&apos;: Gaza boys, men recall Israeli arrest, torture</title><url>https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/12/like-we-were-lesser-humans-gaza-boys-men-recall-israeli-arrests-torture</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stoorafa</author><text>You’ve been in touch with Palestinians use HN? Not to seem one-sided, I didn’t realize Gazans had sufficient internet access, let alone food or water, to browse HN.</text></item><item><author>dang</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been in touch with several Israeli HNers who are in much the same position as you describe, and I admire their, and your, capacity to stay open despite being under orders of magnitude more pressure than most of us here. This is the spirit I&amp;#x27;m asking for commenters to find in themselves before posting.&lt;p&gt;(Edit: Lest this seem like an expression of bias: I&amp;#x27;ve been in touch with HNers on the other side of the conflict as well and can say similar things about them.)</text></item><item><author>ido</author><text>Thank you, Dang.&lt;p&gt;As someone on the Israeli left I feel like I&amp;#x27;m between a rock and a hard place- I do not condone Netanyahu and his government and am indeed very critical of Israeli governments of the past decades. But on the other side, my 78 year old mother is fleeing to shelter every couple hours as my hometown (not anywhere near the west bank or the Gaza strip) gets hit by rockets, as do my young nieces and nephews, some of which developed psychological issues from the stress. And the stories from what people experienced on the October 7th attacks wrench my gut.&lt;p&gt;At the same time I&amp;#x27;m also sorry for the Palestinians suffering during this war, the vast majority of them civilians. I wish instead of people treating it like a football match where you to support &amp;quot;your side&amp;quot;, they could process the nuance of opposing any violence towards civilians and support peace (with the goal of a two state solution with Israel and Palestine co-existing according to the 1967 borders and UN resolution 242).&lt;p&gt;IMO this would require that both Netanyahu and Hamas do not stay in power.</text></item><item><author>dang</author><text>All: if you&amp;#x27;re going to comment in this thread, please do not do so in the spirit of battle. The latter is off topic here, and the last thread HN had about this did not do well enough at keeping to the site guidelines: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Instead, ask first whether you can find a place of compassion in yourself before commenting. If you can&amp;#x27;t, that&amp;#x27;s understandable, but then please don&amp;#x27;t post. By compassion I mean something more spacious than angry identification.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying that this is the purpose of HN (we&amp;#x27;re not aiming quite that high) but I do think it&amp;#x27;s the only way to touch a topic like this without destroying that purpose, which is thoughtful, curious conversation. It may be nearly impossible to relate to such a topic from such a place, but nearly != entirely, and it&amp;#x27;s part of HN&amp;#x27;s mandate to try. Consider this an experiment, or perhaps an advanced exercise, in community.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dang</author><text>When I said &amp;quot;HNers on the other side of the conflict&amp;quot; I had in mind users who aren&amp;#x27;t necessarily Palestinians but have strong identification with their plight. However, it&amp;#x27;s worth saying that HN has some valued members in Gaza (as well as in the West Bank, of course, and Palestinians in other places). Here&amp;#x27;s one memorable example:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;posts?id=daliaawad&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;posts?id=daliaawad&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;i&gt;My experience as a Gazan girl getting into Silicon Valley companies&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=26251143&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=26251143&lt;/a&gt; - Feb 2021 (460 comments).&lt;p&gt;Someone who knows Dalia has been in touch with us, but at least at that time, they unfortunately had lost contact with her and don&amp;#x27;t know if she&amp;#x27;s still alive.&lt;p&gt;Also this YC startup:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=25849054&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=25849054&lt;/a&gt; - Jan 2021 (104 comments)&lt;p&gt;---&lt;p&gt;Some other threads over the years (I just looked up Gaza, of course there are also many Palestinians on HN from the West Bank and other places):&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Lifehacker: Tarek Loubani on 3D-Printing in Gaza&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=20623545&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=20623545&lt;/a&gt; - Aug 2019 (68 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Gaza: Coding in a conflict zone&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=18128432&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=18128432&lt;/a&gt; - Oct 2018 (88 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Marc Benioff joins Valley notables backing Gaza’s first coding academy&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13374027&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13374027&lt;/a&gt; - Jan 2017 (137 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;How to Get More Women in Tech: Lessons from a Hackathon in Gaza&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13240777&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=13240777&lt;/a&gt; - Dec 2016 (12 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Mentoring in Gaza&amp;#x27;s first hackathon&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=11858963&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=11858963&lt;/a&gt; - June 2016 (152 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Mentor startups in Gaza&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=9267716&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=9267716&lt;/a&gt; - March 2015 (63 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8715085&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8715085&lt;/a&gt; - Dec 2014 (54 comments)&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;What It&amp;#x27;s Like to Build a Startup in Gaza&lt;/i&gt; - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8404414&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=8404414&lt;/a&gt; - Oct 2014 (80 comments)</text></comment>
<story><title>&apos;Like we were lesser humans&apos;: Gaza boys, men recall Israeli arrest, torture</title><url>https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/12/like-we-were-lesser-humans-gaza-boys-men-recall-israeli-arrests-torture</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>stoorafa</author><text>You’ve been in touch with Palestinians use HN? Not to seem one-sided, I didn’t realize Gazans had sufficient internet access, let alone food or water, to browse HN.</text></item><item><author>dang</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been in touch with several Israeli HNers who are in much the same position as you describe, and I admire their, and your, capacity to stay open despite being under orders of magnitude more pressure than most of us here. This is the spirit I&amp;#x27;m asking for commenters to find in themselves before posting.&lt;p&gt;(Edit: Lest this seem like an expression of bias: I&amp;#x27;ve been in touch with HNers on the other side of the conflict as well and can say similar things about them.)</text></item><item><author>ido</author><text>Thank you, Dang.&lt;p&gt;As someone on the Israeli left I feel like I&amp;#x27;m between a rock and a hard place- I do not condone Netanyahu and his government and am indeed very critical of Israeli governments of the past decades. But on the other side, my 78 year old mother is fleeing to shelter every couple hours as my hometown (not anywhere near the west bank or the Gaza strip) gets hit by rockets, as do my young nieces and nephews, some of which developed psychological issues from the stress. And the stories from what people experienced on the October 7th attacks wrench my gut.&lt;p&gt;At the same time I&amp;#x27;m also sorry for the Palestinians suffering during this war, the vast majority of them civilians. I wish instead of people treating it like a football match where you to support &amp;quot;your side&amp;quot;, they could process the nuance of opposing any violence towards civilians and support peace (with the goal of a two state solution with Israel and Palestine co-existing according to the 1967 borders and UN resolution 242).&lt;p&gt;IMO this would require that both Netanyahu and Hamas do not stay in power.</text></item><item><author>dang</author><text>All: if you&amp;#x27;re going to comment in this thread, please do not do so in the spirit of battle. The latter is off topic here, and the last thread HN had about this did not do well enough at keeping to the site guidelines: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;newsguidelines.html&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Instead, ask first whether you can find a place of compassion in yourself before commenting. If you can&amp;#x27;t, that&amp;#x27;s understandable, but then please don&amp;#x27;t post. By compassion I mean something more spacious than angry identification.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not saying that this is the purpose of HN (we&amp;#x27;re not aiming quite that high) but I do think it&amp;#x27;s the only way to touch a topic like this without destroying that purpose, which is thoughtful, curious conversation. It may be nearly impossible to relate to such a topic from such a place, but nearly != entirely, and it&amp;#x27;s part of HN&amp;#x27;s mandate to try. Consider this an experiment, or perhaps an advanced exercise, in community.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ido</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been in contact with Palestinians, you may be aware of millions of them living abroad (same as Israelis, like myself) and millions more living in the west bank (the total Palestinian population world-wide numbers 14.3 million, Gaza only houses 2.3M). You don&amp;#x27;t have to be on ground zero in Gaza to be a Palestinian.</text></comment>