I. Intro
Hamas does not speak for or act for all Palestinians. We must not connect the two. Because if we do – what does this say about our perceptions of Palestinians?
In the past week, we have seen shocking evidence of horrifying acts committed by Hamas against innocent people in Israel. It has killed, raped or kidnapped people from at least 17 countries – Israel, United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Thailand, Nepal, Philippines, Germany, Austria, Italy, Cambodia, China, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, Ireland, and Tanzania.
We have seen evidence of rape, torture, bestial murder even of babies, and since then a continued attack by Hamas missiles against Israel. We have seen celebrations on the streets of Gaza as the tortured bodies of victims of Hamas violence were paraded on the streets of a territory that has no even been “occupied” by Israel for 17 years. Hamas is not interested in peace, it is not interested in liberation of Palestinians, it is not interested in human rights or humanity itself. It is only interested in death and destruction.
Let us remind ourselves that in the year 2000, a two-state solution was possible. Israel was ready to return 100% of Gaza and 92% of the West Bank – territories, by the way, that were “occupied” by Israel only as the result of defensive wars by Israel against the aggressions of their neighbors. Yassir Arafat, then leader of the PLO, refused and chose terrorism. Gaza was liberated in 2005 anyway by Israel as a sign of peace, to no avail.
The Gaza blockade was put up because Hamas, which had won the elections in Gaza and has ruled there since 2007, refusing further elections. Their leader, Ismail Haniyeh, has defended Al Qaeda, Iran, called for the bombing of Israel, and now resides in Qatar while “encouraging” his people to stay put and die in Gaza. Hamas has always seen the suffering of its own people as its primary “soft power” weapon, and it needs to see Palestinians suffer to recruit more of them to their corrupt cause.
Egypt is enforcing the blockade also, knowing full well that the problem is not with Israel but with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Historically, there has never been a Palestinian state. There were people living there – Jews, Christians, Muslims – for centuries, governed by a succession of empires – mainly the Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, British empires – until the Jewish people were able to restore the state taken from them by the Romans finally. They, the indigenous people of the area, were able to restore parts of their land, and restore a state where after centuries of pogroms and diaspora, and after the Holocaust, they would finally again have a home. Were there other people living there as well? Yes. Every single state in the world sits on territory that historically may have belonged to someone else. This may not be just, but it is still true.
This land has belonged to many people, thus the UN divided it up accordingly between Jews and Arabs. Immediately, Israel was attacked by several neighbors – which explains the need of Israel to defend itself. I wish it was different, but that is what it is. I don’t agree with everything the Israeli government does – neither do most Israelis. But this does not refute Israel’s claim to the land, and Israel’s right to defend itself. Had Arab nations not attacked, there would have been no need for the so-called “occupation.”
Israel is not a colonial state, it is not a settler state, it is the original home of the Jewish people with a history going back at least 3000 years.
There are plenty of problems we could talk about, but this is not the time. Whatever you or I may think about the so-called occupation – which is the result of Israel defending itself against attackers – has nothing to do with what is happening now. This is about Hamas and maybe also Hezbollah.
Hamas claims to be Islamic, but yet they promote and commit outrageous violence against both Jews and Palestinians – and bystanders. But how Islamic is Hamas?
II. Islam
Islam is not violent in itself. It is not antisemitic in itself. Jews and Christians have been considered people of the book, which means they have been seen as protected minorities – which is not a perfect status, but certainly they are not “unbelievers.”
In Islam, there shall not be compulsion in religion, according to Surah 2:256, and Surah 109:6 says “Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.” Surah 2:62 specifically says that “Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians1—whoever ˹truly˺ believes in Allah and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.”
Surah 5:32 says that “Whosoever killed a person … it shall be as if he had killed all mankind.” This is crystal-clear. The infamous passage in Surah 9:5, which says “kill the idolaters wherever you find them and take them prisoners, and beleaguer them” is frequently misunderstood. It is a historical passage, and Surah 9 is the only Surah that does not begin with the Basmala. The fact that all other Surahs begin with that – “Bismilla al Rahman al Rahim / in the name of Allah, the Gracious and Merciful”– sets Surah 9 apart as not something describing behavior condoned by God, but as mere historical description of the time in which the Prophet, peace be upon him, was persecuted. Ignoring that context is deliberately misleading and a trick in which fundamentalists and islamophobes work hand in hand. In fact, violence is contrary to the spirit of Islam – you submit to God, and thus to God’s justice, and do not mete out retribution yourself. Also, the above quote continues “But if they repent and observe Prayer and pay the Zakat, then leave their way free. Surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful.” This is obviously not the spirit of vengeance and warfare.
Hamas ignores all of this and follows a caricature of Islam. They do this not for the sake of Palestine – otherwise, they would behave differently, creating great damage to the people of Israel, but also of Gaza and the West Bank.
III. Acts of Hamas
It is Hamas who has started a war against Israel, not the other way around. Hamas has weaponized Gaza, killed innocent Palestinians and Israelis. Hamas is deliberately hiding its weapons and infrastructure within civilian areas. Hamas is dedicated to the elimination of Israelis, of Jews, of dissident Palestinians.
Hamas is occupying Gaza and oppressing Palestinians. Gaza is well-funded by benefactors from around the world, including the European Union. Gaza could be a thriving mediterranean paradise if it were not for the sadism of Hamas. Israel just recently moved ahead seeking more border transparency and economic development in Gaza. Hamas has sabotaged all of this, stolen money from the people, using it for weapons and terror tunnels and letting the people in Gaza live in rubble and pain. Israel is not the cause for the suffering of the people in Gaza, Hamas is – probably because it is a working business model. Again, remember, the so-called blockade is also upheld by Egypt. Something is going on here that has nothing to do with Israel.
Hamas celebrates a thuggish cult of death.
It does not allow democracy.
It does not allow equal women’s rights.
It does not allow equal rights for LGBTQ people.
It does not allow freedom of speech, of assembly, of religion, of any democratic rights.
Hamas is not a liberation movement, it is a movement celebrating death and oppression. It does not care about people, about land, only about death. Hamas leaders knew that murdering and raping and kidnapping innocent people – babies, children, women, men –, in effect creating the largest mass killing of Jews since the Holocaust, and declaring war on Israel, would not benefit Gaza.
Hamas does not care about Palestinian rights. It does not care about life. Hamas terrorists reportedly decapitated babies. They killed left-wing youth in a kibbutz. They forced relatives to watch their loved one’s death over the victim’s cell phone. This is terrorism, not liberation. This is fascism, not left-wing revolution. This is sadism, not a desire to regain land. This is barbarism, pure and simple. And it discredits the cause of Palestinians instead of helping it. And it is deeply, deeply antisemitic and against any understanding of a shared humanity.
Hamas and some other radical Palestinian activists deny the right of the state of Israel to exist. Some even actively deny the existence of the historical claim of Jewish people to the state of Israel – they deny history, even the existence of the original Temple that was destroyed by the Romans. Hamas denies the very indigeneity of Jews in Israel, denies the right of return of the Jewish diaspora, while claiming the same rights for itself. This is not a position rooted in reality, and it cannot be a position productive for peace and reconciliation.
This was not a spontaneous eruption of anger. This was deliberate, precise, sadistic, internationally coordinated probably with Iran and Russia, and part of a plan to destabilize not just the world order but also to destroy any notion of human rights, democracy, justice and peace. When people talk about “multilateral world order” they mean exactly that: a world no longer having to agree with the principles of human rights and human dignity – lorded over by the cartel of anti-human dictatorships.
Furthermore, Hamas itself is not Islamic. To see Hamas as a representation of Islam is in itself Islamophobic, because it follows the worst perceptions of Islam and distorts the truth of Islam – see above.
If you are a leftist and believe Hamas is with you, please consider the facts and not some romantic revolutionary fantasy.
IV. The Antisemitism of Hamas
Where does the antisemitic philosophy of Hamas originate from? I propose one possibility that is widely known but oftentimes not talked about enough.
Hamas is a successor branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which in the 1930s developed strong ties to Nazi Germany and imported its anti-Semitism.
Amin al-Husseini, then Mufti of Jerusalem,met withHitler andRibbentrop in 1941, stating “The Arabs were Germany’s natural friends because they had the same enemies… namely the English, the Jews, and the Communists.” In 1943, Husseini said:
“It is the duty of Muhammadans [Muslims] in general and Arabs in particular to … drive all Jews from Arab and Muhammadan countries… . Germany is also struggling against the common foe who oppressed Arabs and Muhammadans in their different countries. It has very clearly recognized the Jews for what they are and resolved to find a definitive solution [endgültige Lösung] for the Jewish danger that will eliminate the scourge that Jews represent in the world.” (Achcar, Gilbert (2010b). The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives., p. 157.)
Hamas, as the successor if this way of thinking, has rejected any cooperation with Israel. Egypt as well has recognized that the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are enemies of peace – which is why the Morsi government was toppled by the Egyptian military in 2013 (Morsi himself was not a stranger to hateful anti-semitic rhetoric).
The problem is not with Israel. The problem is Hamas, is antisemitism, is the abuse and distortion of Islam for political reasons that align with clearly fascistic values.
V. Conclusion
Israel was attacked. The world was attacked. Hamas terrorists have killed, raped, kidnapped people from at least 17 countries. Hamas is antisemitic, anti-human, anti-life. Hamas declared war. Israel has every right to respond as it needs, as every other nation would.
This is not the time to lecture Israel. This is the time to stand in solidarity with Israel and Jewish people everywhere against Hamas and movements like it.
To say anything else would be antisemitic, and actually, also Islamophobic.
Hamas began this war. It can stop this war anytime. Release the hostages. Release the perpetrators. Capitulate. For the sake of peace, for Palestine, for Israel, for humanity.
In conclusion: Calls for murder, rape, kidnapping, ethnic cleansing and genocide are simply wrong, no matter the circumstances.
I continue to believe that peace and cooperation between Israel and Palestine is possible. But violence, and the type of hate spread by Hamas, will not bring us to that point.
Erratic Attempts 