As everyone knows, Israel/Palestine threads are some of the most contentious and difficult to moderate. Early in our history we tried being as hands off as possible to let people express themselves, and the result was that the discussions escalated out of control and permanent bans had to be issued.
Since then we've been enforcing three primary rules to keep these threads relatively civil and prevent escalation. These have been articulated already in various ban or warning banners, but for the sake of clarity we're collecting and explaining them here:
1. Do not conflate civilians with their leadership: This means you should not conflate all Palestinians with Hamas or attempt to paint all Palestinians as terrorists. You should also not hold all Israelis responsible for the actions of their government.
2. Do not condone violence or killing: This goes for both Hamas and the IDF, especially with regard to civilians.
3. Do not invoke Nazi comparisons in this context: There are historical reasons for why this type of analogy is highly charged, and it tends to derail these discussions. There are many other analogies available to you, but not this one.
If we're going to keep having these discussions then these are the boundaries that must be observed.
