Slop.

I believe them, actually. This is the same country which has children singing and cheering about the ongoing genocide in explicit terms, the same country which has them and their war criminal, settler families making mocking videos portraying starvation, r*pe, the slaughter of babies, etc. They know what they are doing, while obviously culpability is different for children they absolutely are supporters and even participants even if they are also victims of being groomed to be monstrous racists and criminals in their own right.

And the truth is, Isntreal is not unique in this regard. The Nazis may have had the good sense to do things behind closed doors (somewhat?) but the history and ongoing reality of other settler states (and to my understanding at least to some extent with the Nazis) shows that the process of dehumanization- of teaching settlers to dehumanize their victims, to engage in the same crimes as the rest of society so as to create "bonds" (bonding over committing atrocities), is a foundational part of the structure of fascism, settlerism, and imperialism.

Look at the Anglo settler-states' histories, and it's not that far back- a few decades/half a century really- where entire families and communities would get together for a lynching, even take postcards. People would play carnival games where they would attempt to commit bodily harm against black people. Games like "cowboys and 'Indians'" are declining but absolutely part of this fabric, and the casual racism prevalent across schools in the west is part of this as well. Go further back in the history of the US (but still, not actually that far back) and you will find communities getting together to capture, torture, and brutally murder runaway slaves in public hangings, quarterings, maulings by dogs, etc. A rite of "manhood" in the imperial societies would be joining in the slaughter of various "colored" peoples, whether it be the "Indian wars" and countless little encroachments/massacres in the US and elsewhere, or joining the western regimes' colonial infrastructure. (And an expectation of colonial "womanhood" would be weaponizing it against "uppity" minorities and sometimes/oftentimes even inciting violence and countless atrocities). You can see how it was part of the culture of western Europe, how it was glorified and celebrated as the "manly and adult" thing to do, to go gun down Africans, Asians, other indigenous peoples with guns and artillery whose range was far beyond that of their victims, or with machine guns against in the most extreme circumstances, indigenous resistance armed with swords and spears- but once the Europeans experienced how it was to have the other side shoot back- and be white- the facade of "glory and valor" faced the reality of what it had been all along.

The legacy still continues as well, you can see it in the glorification of war in the US (and in truth, still across the west, but of course we brand it with slogans like "freedom and democracy" that have no connection to the reality of our actions and policies abroad). The most prevalent introduction to "middle-eastern," Arabic, and Islamic culture (though in truth the religion does not matter, if anything we particularly brutalize and overthrow secular societies and back those who slaughter ethnic and religious minorities) in the west in our modern times, is as the generic "terrorist" to be killed over and over again in FPSes like CoD or (insert western semi-realistic FPS series here that isn't set in WW2, or alternatively fighting "evil Russkies/generic east Europeans"). Or to be killed by the "war heroes" in our movies who show their heroism by going to foreign countries filmed in sepia tones, to label anyone resisting this foreign invasion as a "terrorist" and to kill, more and more. And the US celebrates this at most of its sporting events, it celebrates it in its schools, it celebrates it in its portrayal across mass media, etc, etc.

I could go on and on more and- well, yeah this drew a ramble out of me. But no, I believe it. This is a settler-society that is still in the "early" phases (ie. the "slaughter the Palestinians and all other traces of indigeneity until you've established a secure lebensraum and a overwhelmingly dominant volk demographic where you can start slaughtering native peoples and "manifesting" your destiny elsewhere and tone down society for better optics at home" phase). The kids know what they are doing, they've been taught all their lives thus far to celebrate it, to embrace it, because otherwise the system of sustaining and reproducing future generations of such a monstrous abberation of a society starts to break down in some degree, the "foundational mythos" starts to break down (you can see across the west attempts to whitewash and rehabilitate their bloodstained history, etc etc). Many of those kids could watch Palestinians (or the other generic brown hordes) be mowed down, unarmed, in their schools and hospitals and homes, whether from afar or up front in graphic detail and they've been taught this is good, this is "beautiful" (mind you as noted that I consider them victims as well as perpetrators with vastly diminished culpability as mentioned earlier). And even those they live amongst, they are taught to look down on them, to beat and bully them and to treat them as untermensch, because this is what settler society is (and that reality, that legacy but also the ongoing systemic and cultural racisms, if somewhat diluted with time or whitewashed over for polite company, holds true across the west)

The kid knew what they were seeing. Same as how most kids would probably connect the dots, if they saw movies and other media portraying the struggle from the other side, with Arabs, Asians, Africans, or whoever it might be being portrayed defending their homeland and being inspired to pick up arms and fight for their countries against marauding "generic white invaders in the military fatigues typical of US/NATO (but also the west in general)." Kids are smarter than most people assume (or more precisely in this case and many- it takes years of indoctrination which has to cover all the bases, for them to "learn" all the liberal, imperial, chauvinist hypocrisy, willful ignorance, and lack of self-awareness).