It’s a half-pun about actual piracy. Not sure if illegal fishing is actually considered piracy, but that’s the idea.

Why did they even do that?

Apparently it’s the former. Their prosecution rate is 8% apparently according to Wikipedia, because they’re too understaffed to deal with cases that can go either way. They also have a false confession problem, but that’s not what’s getting them to that rate.

So of course in the end it should come down to what you want to do and where you see yourself living a happier life, and not what people on the internet think you should do. However, purely from a “making the world a better place” perspective, I’d recommend not returning. I get the idea of trying to change society from within, but frankly I think Israel in its current state is beyond saving. The sense of invincibility, among other issues, is too much for simple activism to fix; the country as a whole needs the Nazi Germay treatment (the de-Nazification part, not the war part). At least by not being in Israel you make sure your tax money and children aren’t used in genocide.

I repeat, do what you feel is best for you, but to directly answer your question your absence does more to weaken the Israeli Apartheid apparatus than your presence. Do vote though; definitely vote.

Will Hamas stop if Isreal does?

If Israel stops its apartheid and ethnic cleansing? Certainly.

Holy fuck that link. I guess Israel learned that Europeans (generally) won’t bend over backwards for their Apartheid (stares at USS Liberty).

Pretty sure nobody cares, but man as a third world country guy it feels weird as fuck to see these reasonable-looking numbers only to multiply by 50 and get a heart attack.

I mean yes but it’s diminishing returns. The rule kind of falls apart at these numbers.

I’ve never used a Mac but my experience with iPhones and iPads (not mine) has convinced me to never touch anything Apple makes. The requirement of iTunes to send files between an iPhone and a PC is, for example, just ridiculous.

car makers just jack up their prices so they make more off the subsidy

Exactly.

Really we should be subsidizing EVs from our own manufacturers.

You are. Still not doing much to corporate greed.

Yeah. The protests aren’t because Bibi’s actions are too right-wing; they’re because even as a far-right leader he’s doing a shit job. Him being a genocidal far right leader isn’t, as a rule, an issue with the general Israeli public. You can look at this if you wanna lose some faith in humanity.

There are protests against Bibi because of his disregard for the hostages’ lives and attempt to destroy Israeli democracy. His party isn’t losing support AFAIK, and the right wing is actually growing.

This would be slightly more believable if Rabin wasn’t assassinated and Netanyahu didn’t basically tear up the Oslo accords.

Yeah fair enough.

Do I really need to explain the similarity between Hamas and the IRA?

Let me just tell you, you’d have been on the wrong side of history during the Troubles.

Now that aside, if you think there’s only one terrorist organization involved in the current war you need to rethink, well, everything about the conflict, because everything Hamas does Israel does times 10 to 100.

I don’t agree with “while isolated rapes may have taken place, there was insufficient evidence to support allegations that rape had been ‘widespread and systematic’.”

I mean it turned that that there was no widespread and systematic rape no?

Uh… That’s not how bias works.

They are the remnants of BBC Middle East,

Remnants? What happened to them?