The war between Palestine and Israel that started on October 7th of 2023 after what is labeled as a terror attack still rages on.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu promised to the people to have attained the release of all of the hostages taken since the terror attack but he has yet to do that. The people have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in protest of this. What do the people of Great Bend have to say about the war?

Ellie Damm, a sophomore at Great Bend High School stated, “My standpoint is that Israel is currently committing a large act of genocide and most of our world is looking the other way on it…My concern with this war is, how far is it going to go? Because Israel has made it very clear this is no longer about the hostages.” They continued, “-this war is no longer about them (the hostages) at all, I do not believe they truly care about getting them home safely. “

Another student, Lea Nokes, stated, “I try to encourage boycotting while also avoiding places that invest or support Israel. It may be hard but it shows our stance with Palestine. While some may miss their morning Starbucks drink or McNuggets. The children of Palestine miss peace and their parents.” Nokes continued by stating, “I side with Palestine for the fact that Israel is no longer following any sign of any morals and blatantly lying and misconstruing their words to make it seem they are destroying Hamas when in reality they are destroying the entirety of the Palestinian people for a strip of land.” 

Recently videos have surfaced of Israeli soldiers torturing palestinian women, young girls, and men. These young girls looked to be no older than some of us, 14-16. These men, women, and girls were tied up, blindfolded, and stripped of their clothing. The men turned around with their hands behind their backs. Israeli soldiers can be seen in these videos kicking them in the stomach, spitting on them, stomping on a mans head as he lies on his back with his hands bound covering his face. The man screaming and crying out for his mother in Arabic. This man was then dragged away by the soldiers still calling out for his mother. 

So is Hamas a terrorist group or are they freedom fighters made to look worse by the media? Well one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, terrorism is a subjective topic and cannot be properly defined one way or the other. The actual definition of a terrorist according to the Oxford dictionary is “a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims,” so are they freedom fighters or are they terrorists? 

Damm stated, “Hamas was supposed to be their freedom fighters. They have been oppressed for decades now and it’s only come to the media now that they stood up for themselves. Everyone needs help fighting these battles. It took them watching their families getting bulldozed and brutally murdered for them to fight back and people didn’t like it.”

Nokes stated, “Hamas may be very brutal when it comes to the question of religion and other freedoms but to completely label them as a terrorist group would be seeing things black and white and not giving hamas the same history, the same complexity, we give everything else.”

Both Damm and Nokes are very opinionated on this particular subject and have no issue with explaining their standpoint with anyone willing to try and listen and understand. 

The war between Israel and Palestine is very complex and there are a lot of details that go into why they are fighting. Some say Israel is in the right but some disagree and side with Palestine. When it all boils down to it, who is in the right and who’s side, as a nation, should we be supporting? Both Nokes and Damm have made it known that they believe we should be on the side of Palestine in this war, who do you think we should be supporting?