Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause
Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause
As a Gazan and as a Palestinian, I want the protesters and the organizers of these protests to know that their hateful speech harms us.
It's unconscionable. But it's not just the antisemitism that has me despairing. It's the hypocrisy. Where were these caring young people when Hamas took over Gaza and slaughtered hundreds of Gazans, or when Hamas held 2 million Gazans captive for more than 17 years? Why didn't they speak out about the fact that Hamas led Gazans into this conflict, which resulted in more than 30,000 dead and 80,000 injured, according to Gazan municipal authorities? Where were they when Hamas's failed missiles claimed the lives of hundreds of Gazans on October 17, or when Hamas murdered young people in order to steal aid and resell it to Gazans at massively inflated prices?
But the protesters aren't interested in peace. Some of the groups have been blocking Palestinian peace activists like me—and I am from Gaza, the very place they claim to care about! Instead of blocking peace activists, they should be inviting us to join these protests and guide them in the right direction—a place without hatred with a focus on calling for the release of the hostages who have been held captive by Hamas for more than 210 days.
You're viewing a single thread.
Assuming this person is genuine, they have a defensible position. Hamas isn't the hero here, they are a villain. We can both want to end senseless killings and want to stop villians.
I don't think it's defensible at all, whether he genuinely believes it or not.
The protesters, overall, have not been protesting in favor of Hamas. They're protesting against Israel. They want to end the killings. Hamas right now is not the one doing the majority of the killing. Not even close. It's only "defensible" if everyone in Gaza is a member of Hamas, even the babies.
And this guy is just full of shit if he's claiming that these campus protesters are stopping Palestinians calling for peace from speaking.
Based on the authors stated history they are coming from a position of strong emotional hate for Hamas, fair enough. I can see why they want to focus here to be on Hamas. I think the author is incorrect in saying that protesting to stop the genocide is helping hamas.
I think you're narrowing what he's saying down to a single point while ignoring all the other ridiculous things he says in the article, such as berating college students for not condemning Hamas 17 years ago.
And there are so many half-thoughts too.
I assumed individuals who initiated these slogans were uninformed about what they were advocating for. I saw the LGBTQ flag frequently flown among people chanting lines from Hamas's charter, and I initially wanted to educate them, to warn them that the group they are honoring would most likely toss them from the top of a building or murder them like they did to Mahmoud Ishtiwi, a Hamas commander accused of homosexuality.
So why didn't he educate and warn them? Who knows. He didn't say.
berating college students for not condemning Hamas 17 years ago
Just like Israel holds all Gazans responsible for electing Hamas, despite the majority of Gazans not being born yet.
How else would they be able to justify killing so many of them?
See, in mid-to-late oct, early November, I was of this same mindset. How can we support Hamas? They’re a far-right fundamentalist group that has a terrible track record. But…as time has gone on, they are just not at the top of my list of things to protest. Because there’s…yknow, a genocide happening? If the people of Gaza turned on Hamas right now, it’d be over for them. They need statehood. Then they can get rid of Hamas. But they need protection from the Israeli onslaught right now. It’s priority one.
This doesn’t make Hamas a good organization with the Palestinian people’s best interest at heart. It just makes them the only port in a storm.
If the natzis allow Palestine statehood then they can't brand resistance as terrorism. Israel and America are headed for an ugly breakup.