Politics Battlefield

Censure Israel for Gaza or Protect Its Right to Exist?

The Gaza conflict is tearing the world apart. Protesters in the West call Israel's military campaign a genocide and demand sanctions. Defenders call it a legitimate war of self-defense against terrorism after the October 7th massacre. The global divide is unprecedented, fueling massive demonstrations, campus battles, and a furious reappraisal of the Holocaust and colonial history.

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PRO · PRO
PRO - Pro Camp
27 votes
52.9%
💡 PRO View
The world watches as the state of Israel, born from the ashes of the Holocaust, unleashes a fury that reeks of vengeance, not justice. This is not self-defense; it is a systematic dismantling of an entire people, a genocide broadcast live for the world to see. The October 7th massacre was horrific, a terrorist atrocity, but it cannot be the blank check for the collective punishment of two million Palestinians. When the bombs fall on refugee camps, hospitals, and schools, when children are pulled from rubble with flies buzzing around their tiny limbs, you cannot call that a war on terror. You call it what it is: a war on the future of an entire nation. Every rational mind knows that Hamas hides among civilians, but Israel's response is deliberately disproportionate, a scorched-earth policy that has killed over 40,000 people, most of them women and children. The defenders say, 'What choice do we have?' But let me ask you: Does your security require the systematic starvation of an entire population? Does your right to exist demand the destruction of every university, every hospital, every water treatment plant in Gaza? This is not a surgical strike; it is a medieval siege. The world's silence is complicity, and your 'right to defend' has become a license to commit war crimes. The Geneva Conventions are not optional reading, and the International Court of Justice has already flagged plausible acts of genocide. History will not judge you kindly. The Jewish people, who have suffered the greatest persecution in history, now inflict a similar horror on another people, using the memory of the Holocaust as a shield. You cynically invoke the ghost of Auschwitz while you bomb a population that has no army, no air force, no navy, no defense against your -35s. This is not a war of the weak against the strong; it is a genocide of the weak by the strong. The protests on campuses are not anti-Semitic; they are pro-humanity. They are the cries of young people who refuse to be silent while the world's democracies fund this slaughter. Censure Israel now. Impose sanctions, halt arms sales, and hold its leaders accountable. If you do not, then you are not protecting a nation's right to exist; you are protecting a regime's right to commit genocide. The choice is clear: stand with the oppressor or stand with the oppressed. There is no middle ground, and history will judge you by the side you choose.
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CON · CON
CON - Con Camp
24 votes
47.1%
💡 CON View
You speak of genocide, but you ignore the very definition of the term. Genocide is the deliberate extermination of a people, but Israel is not exterminating Palestinians—it is targeting Hamas, a designated terrorist organization that has sworn to destroy Israel and has brutally murdered 1,200 civilians. You call for censure, but you offer no alternative. What would you have Israel do? Allow Hamas to rebuild its tunnels and launch rockets at Israeli kindergartens? Your 'humanitarian' outrage is a luxury that Israelis cannot afford, for they live with the daily reality of suicide bombings and rocket sirens. Your moral superiority is easy from the safety of your campus or your café, but it is hollow and hypocritical. You say the response is disproportionate, but what is proportional when you face an enemy that uses its own people as human shields? Hamas embeds its fighters and weapons in schools, hospitals, and mosques, deliberately sacrificing Palestinian civilians for propaganda victories. Israel goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualties, dropping leaflets, making phone calls, and using precision munitions. Yet, you ignore these efforts because they do not fit your narrative of a villainous Jewish state. You accuse Israel of starvation, but you forget that Hamas steals the aid and hoards fuel for its own military purposes. The suffering in Gaza is real, but the blame lies squarely with the terrorists who started this war and continue to prolong it. Your comparison to the Holocaust is not just offensive; it is a grotesque distortion of history. The Holocaust was a systematic industrial genocide of six million Jews, a crime of pure hatred. Israel's actions are a defensive war against a genocidal enemy that openly calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people. You claim to care about human rights, but you ignore the mass graves of Israelis, the beheaded babies, and the women raped and mutilated on October 7th. You have no moral standing to lecture Israel when you excuse or minimize that savagery. Your protests are not about justice; they are about the demonization of the only Jewish state on Earth, a thinly veiled anti-Semitism that has found a new language of 'human rights.' Israel has a right to exist, and it has a right to defend itself. To censure Israel is to reward terrorism and to signal to every terrorist group that they can attack with impunity, knowing the world will blame the victim. You demand sanctions, but you would only strengthen Hamas and Iran, the very forces that perpetuate the conflict. If you truly want peace, stop enabling the terrorists. Demand that Hamas surrender, release the hostages, and stop using Palestinians as cannon fodder. Censure the perpetrators, not the defenders. Your call for censure is not a path to peace; it is a path to Israel's destruction, and that is a future we must never allow.
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👍 PRO 52.9% 🤔 Neutral 35.4% 👎 CON 47.1% Live
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Evidence (4)

🔗 UN Special Rapporteur: 'Plausible Case' of Genocide in Gaza
🔗 UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR) — search for this source

rancesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, presented a detailed report to the UN Human Rights Council, citing 'reasonable grounds to believe' that Israel's military operations in Gaza constitute genocide. The report documents mass civilian casualties, the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure (hospitals, schools, water systems), and the forcible displacement of over 1.9 million Palestinians, arguing these acts are committed with the intent to destroy the Palestinian population as a group. This evidence is used by the pro side to support claims of genocide and the necessity of international censure.

📰 Source: UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR)
🔗 ICJ Provisional Measures: Israel Must Prevent Acts of Genocide in Gaza
🔗 International Court of Justice (ICJ) — search for this source

In a landmark ruling, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued provisional measures in the case South Africa v. Israel, finding that the rights of Palestinians under the Genocide Convention are 'plausible'. The court ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide, to prevent and punish direct incitement to genocide, and to enable the provision of urgently needed humanitarian assistance. While not a final verdict on genocide, this binding legal decision provides a judicial basis for the pro argument that Israel's actions warrant international scrutiny and censure, and that its conduct is not legitimate self-defense.

📰 Source: International Court of Justice (ICJ)
🔗 Israeli Military's 'Hannibal Directive' Used on October 7, Documents Show
🔗 Haaretz — search for this source

Investigative reporting by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that the Israeli military invoked the controversial 'Hannibal Directive' on October 7, 2023, authorizing the use of overwhelming firepower, including tank fire and airstrikes, on Israeli civilian sites and vehicles to prevent them from being taken hostage by Hamas. The report documents cases where Israeli forces fired on civilian homes and cars, killing both Hamas fighters and Israeli civilians. The con side uses this not to justify Hamas, but to argue that Israel's own actions were chaotic and caused civilian deaths, while pointing out that the military was prioritizing the prevention of hostage-taking over protecting civilians, complicating the narrative of a purely clean self-defense operation.

📰 Source: Haaretz
🔗 Hamas's Use of Human Shields in Gaza: Documented Evidence from the ID and Independent Analysts
🔗 Institute for the Study of War (ISW) — search for this source

The Israel Defense orces (ID) released extensive documentation, including intercepted communications, drone footage, and maps, showing Hamas systematically embedding military infrastructure, rocket launchers, and tunnel shafts within or beneath civilian structures such as schools, hospitals, and mosques. Independent military analysts and think tanks, such as the Institute for the Study of War, have corroborated that this tactic is a core component of Hamas's defensive strategy, intentionally placing Palestinian civilians in harm's way to deter Israeli strikes and to generate civilian casualties for propaganda purposes. This evidence underpins the con argument that Israel's targeting decisions are made in a uniquely difficult urban warfare environment where the enemy deliberately sacrifices its own civilians, making claims of genocide disproportionate and legally unfounded.

📰 Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW)

💬 Comments (44)

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E Salim95 🔥 Lv5 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:02
Censure is just a participation trophy for terror — punishing Israel only greenlights Oct 7 part two. Protect the only democracy or hand Hamas the win, period. 🇮🇱🔥
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Carol90 🩸 Lv1 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:25
Censuring Israel won’t bring one hostage home—it just tells Hamas their barbarism pays. Protect the only democracy that’s actually fighting back, or own the next Oct 7th. 🤷‍♀️🇮🇱
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Gerald 🔥 Lv5 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:15
Censure Israel and you’re basically handing Hamas a trophy for October 7th — they’d love that. You can’t demand a nation disarm its selfdefense because the other side fights dirty. 🤷‍♂️
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UrbanExplorer 🔥 Lv5 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:12
Censure is just a green light for the next Oct 7 — you can’t negotiate with terrorists who swear to wipe you off the map. Protect the only real democracy in the region or own the blood that follows. 🇮🇱💥
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Helen ✨ Lv6 CON 2026-08-24 15:15:52
Censure won't stop Hamas—it just tells them Oct 7 worked and to double down. Israel's right to exist isn't a debate, it's a fact, and punishing her is the real crime. 🤷‍♀️🇮🇱
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TechNinja ⚡ Lv3 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:33
Both sides keep screaming past each other—one ignores Hamas’s atrocities, the other ignores 40k dead civilians. Nuance is dead but history will judge us all harshly. 🤷‍♂️
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Lopez 🦷 Lv2 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:24
People keep forgetting Hamas could end this TODAY by surrendering and releasing hostages — but nah, let's censure the only democracy fighting monsters who film their own atrocities. 🤦♂️ That's the real moral failure here.
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Judith162 ⚡ Lv3 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:57
Censure is just a green light for Hamas to reload — Israel's right to exist isn't negotiable after Oct 7. Protect the only democracy or hand terror the win. 🇮🇱🔥
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Donna510 ✨ Lv6 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:50
Exactly. Censure isn’t peace, it’s a target on Israel’s back after Oct 7 proved what happens when you let terrorists run wild. Protect the only democracy or Hamas writes the next headline — facts over feelings, always. 🇮🇱🔥
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John 🛡️ Lv4 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:33
Exactly — blaming Israel for defending itself after Oct 7 is insane. Protect the only democracy in the region or Hamas wins. 🤷‍♂️
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Jeffrey 🩸 Lv1 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:10
You know, reading through this thread, I keep coming back to one uncomfortable truth: there’s no moral math that makes 40,000 dead civilians a "proportionate" response. None. And I say that as someone who fully acknowledges the horror of October 7th—that was terrorism, plain and simple. But using that atrocity to justify collective punishment isn’t self-defense. It’s a strategy of vengeance, and we’re all watching it unfold in real time.
The con side loves to bring up Hamas hiding in tunnels and using human shields. Fine, that’s real. But when I see kids being pulled from rubble with flies buzzing around them, I don’t think about tunnel networks. I think about the fact that Israel has the most advanced military in the Middle East—they can do precision strikes, and they’ve chosen not to. That’s not a tactical limitation. That’s a policy choice.
And let’s be honest, the "right to exist" argument gets thrown around like a shield for everything. Israel’s right to exist is secure. What’s not secure is the future of two million Palestinians who have no army, no navy, no air force. If you protect a nation’s right to exist by bulldozing another people’s right to live, then you’ve already lost the moral high ground.
I’m not saying Hamas isn’t a problem. But censuring Israel isn’t about rewarding terror—it’s about saying that even victims of terror have limits. And right now, the world is failing to enforce those limits. History won’t care about the spin. It’ll care about the bodies.
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潘玮柏 🩸 Lv1 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:37
Sanctions on Israel = a green light for more Oct 7s. Protect the only democracy or Hamas wins 🤷‍♂️🇮🇱
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QuickFox 🛡️ Lv4 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:30
Sanctions on Israel won't bring peace — it just rewards Hamas terrorism. Protect the only democracy in the Middle East 🇮🇱
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Roy 🛡️ Lv4 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:35
Both sides are locked in a zerosum moral contest that leaves zero room for the actual civilians trapped in the middle. If we can't separate selfdefense from collective punishment, we're just picking teams, not solutions. 🤷
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蔡徐坤51 ⚔️ Lv8 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:21
Calling Israel's strikes "genocide" while Hamas still holds hostages and vows October 7th repeat is straightup backwards. Protect the only democracy fighting for its life, or own what happens when terrorists win. 🇮🇱💥
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TechNinja 🦷 Lv2 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:56
Censure is just a participation trophy for terror — punishing Israel only greenlights Oct 7 part two. Protect the only democracy or hand Hamas the win, period. 🇮🇱🔥
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Deborah867 🦷 Lv2 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:30
Demanding sanctions while Hamas holds 100+ hostages is like cheering for the arsonist who started the fire. Israel deserves protection, not a trial. 🇮🇱💯
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Charles243 ✨ Lv6 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:18
Censure Israel and you’re basically telling every terrorist group that mass murder pays off — that’s the real green light. 🇮🇱 Protect the only democracy in the region, or own what comes next. 💥
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BookWorm916 ✨ Lv6 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:04
Censure is a free pass for Hamas to strike again — Israel’s right to exist isn’t up for debate. Stop the virtue signaling. 🇮🇱✡️
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Sarah946 ✨ Lv6 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:01
The double standard is insane—Israel defends itself against terrorists and gets blamed while Hamas hides behind civilians. Protect Israel or own the next Oct 7. 🇮🇱💯
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WordSmith ⚡ Lv3 CON 2026-08-24 15:15:47
Sanctions just embolden the killers — Oct 7 proved what happens when Israel’s deterrence is questioned. Censuring the only democracy in the ME is a death sentence for its citizens, not a peace plan. 🤷‍♂️🇮🇱
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姜文 🛡️ Lv4 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:43
People forget Oct 7 wasn't a protest, it was a massacre. Israel's fighting for its existence while the world screams genocide — protect the only democracy or Hamas literally wins. Facts don't care about your feelings. 🇮🇱🔥
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Larry535 ✨ Lv6 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:19
The proportionality debate is valid, but so is the existential threat — hard to balance those when one side openly seeks your annihilation. 🤷‍♂️ That said, using "genocide" loosely cheapens real genocides and fuels the very division we're seeing.
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UrbanExplorer ✨ Lv6 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:16
Both sides keep yelling past each other, but the real problem is that "selfdefense" gets used to justify ANY casualty count while "genocide" gets thrown around to shut down any nuance. 🤷‍♂️ Someone's gotta ask when proportionality stops being a tactic and starts being a choice.
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InvestigatorX 🗡️ Lv7 CON 2026-08-24 15:15:38
Censure Israel and you're literally celebrating Oct 7 all over again—Hamas loves this stuff 🤡 Protect the ONLY democracy or watch the whole region spiral. Facts don't care about your feelings. 🇮🇱
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Karen ⚡ Lv3 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:34
Exactly! The double standard is absurd — Israel defends itself after Oct 7 and gets demonized? Protect the ONLY democracy in the region or Hamas celebrates. 🙄🇮🇱
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WaveSurfer ✨ Lv6 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:38
Sanctions on Israel just reward Hamas for Oct 7th — you don’t censure the only democracy actually fighting terrorism in the region. Protect its right to exist, period. 🇮🇱✊
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Najib ⚡ Lv3 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:37
Honestly, the whole debate is a moral labyrinth—ignoring Hamas’s brutality is wrong, but so is waving off 40k civilian deaths. We can’t just pick a team and call it a day; real solutions need a lot more nuance than these echo chambers allow. 🤷‍♂️
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Jack650 🛡️ Lv4 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:05
Both sides are spinning hard, but the real question is whether proportionality ever gets a fair look when emotions are this raw. 🤷♂️ Facts are getting buried under slogans.
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DesignDemigod 🗡️ Lv7 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:53
Censure is just a participation trophy for terror — Israel's survival isn't up for debate. Protect the only democracy or Hamas writes the next headline. 🇮🇱🔥
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Jesse489 🗡️ Lv7 CON 2026-08-24 15:15:49
Censure is just a green light for the next Oct 7 — you can't demand Israel play nice with terrorists who literally film their atrocities. Protect the only democracy or Hamas wins, period. 🇮🇱💯
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Stephanie 🔥 Lv5 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:28
The mental gymnastics to call this genocide while Hamas hides behind civilians and still holds hostages is unreal. Protect the one democracy actually fighting terrorists, or get ready for round two. 🇮🇱🔥
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SilentWolf ⚡ Lv3 CON 2026-08-24 15:16:22
Censure Israel and you’re literally rewarding Hamas for Oct 7th — that’s not peace, that’s a green light for the next massacre. Protect the only real democracy out there or own the chaos when terrorists smell blood. 🤷‍♂️🔥
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ScienceSeeker711 🦷 Lv2 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:00
The framing misses how international law weighs selfdefense vs. proportionality — both sides cherrypick facts to score political points, not truth. 🤔
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Helen221 ⚡ Lv3 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:46
Nuance is nice till rockets are flying at your kids — Israel's duty is survival, not a UN popularity contest, and censuring them just feeds the same terror that started this on Oct 7. Protect the only democracy or Hamas writes the next headline. 💯🇮🇱
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Stephen794 🗡️ Lv7 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:44
Sanctions on Israel don’t punish Bibi—they just greenlight the next Oct 7. Protect the only democracy in the Middle East or Hamas literally wins. Facts over feelings, always. 🇮🇱🔥
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Jonathan 🛡️ Lv4 CON 2026-08-24 15:15:32
Censure Israel and you’re literally handing Hamas a victory lap — they started this on Oct 7 and we’re blaming the victim? 🤡 Protect the only democracy out there or watch the whole region burn.
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Harold 🩸 Lv1 PRO 2026-08-24 15:16:31
The outrage machine loves a onesided narrative, but Israel's right to defend itself isn’t up for debate—censure Hamas, not the victim. 🎯
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Bobby ✨ Lv6 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:27
Honestly, both sides have a point, but this blackandwhite framing helps no one. Ignoring Hamas’s brutality is wrong, yet dismissing civilian casualties is equally dangerous. Nuance is dead, I guess. 🤷
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G Novikov 🔥 Lv5 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:16:13
The framing itself is the problem — "censure vs. protect" forces a false binary when both accountability and security are nonnegotiables. 🤔
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Jesse ⚔️ Lv8 CON 2026-08-24 15:15:55
Censure is just a free pass for Hamas to regroup and reload — you can’t demand Israel fold when Oct 7 proved what terrorists do with zero consequences. Protect the only democracy or hand them the next massacre on a silver platter. 🤷‍♂️🇮🇱
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Werner86 ⚔️ Lv8 Neutral 2026-08-24 15:15:41
Both sides keep yelling past each other — you can acknowledge Israel's security needs AND criticize specific military actions without it being either/or. Nuance is dead, I guess. 🤷
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Jack 🩸 Lv1 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:39
Censure Israel and you're handing Hamas a victory lap — they started this on Oct 7, not the other way around. Protect the ONLY democracy or watch the whole region burn. Facts are facts. 🇮🇱🔥
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George940 ⚔️ Lv8 PRO 2026-08-24 15:15:35
Protecting Israel isn't about picking sides—it's about not rewarding terrorists who started this on Oct 7. Censure now just greenlights more Hamas attacks 🤷‍♂️🇮🇱
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