If you listen to Netanyahu, Israeli settlers and militants, and U.S. Republican politicians, sympathizing with Palestinians makes you “pro-Hamas.” That’s bullshit.
Like most people, I think the Oct. 7 attacks were a reprehensible act of terrorism. I’m no fan of anti-Israel protests that include flag-burnings and offensive graffiti (see video here), and I don’t see how that will win support for the Palestinian cause. It’s stupid.
There is a legitimate Palestinian cause. It’s not Hamas, or terror attacks, or eliminating Israel, which the U.S. is committed to support. It’s the Palestinian civilians who just want to be left alone and live in peace.
They can’t, because they’re a conquered and occupied people. They’re mistreated, driven off their farms and out of their homes, and subjected to arbitrary arrests and violence. No people will put up with that peacefully forever. There can be no Middle East peace unless this changes.
A peaceful solution of the Israel/Palestine conflict is in the best interests of Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike. The problem is neither Netanyahu’s government nor Hamas militants want peace.
As bad as the Oct. 7 attacks were, Palestinians, not Israelis, have borne the brunt of the violence Hamas unleashed with those attacks. Israel lost over 1,400 lives, but Palestinians have lost over 39,000 lives, many of them elderly, women, and children.
Homes, hospitals, and schools have been deliberately targeted. Doctors, nurses, aid workers, and journalists have been killed. Gazans have been told to move to “safe zones,” then bombed and shelled in those places. There are reports of Palestinian captives being tortured in custody.
Israeli anger is understandable. The Oct. 7 attacks were atrocious. But that created no license to commit atrocities or war crimes, or to wreak vengeance against innocent civilians.
Here in America, conservatives tell us to hate all Palestinians. I refuse. Palestinians are human beings, and peaceful Palestinians have a right to live. I don’t believe in stripping them of basic human rights because of who they are, or because of what Hamas does. Moreover, Israel isn’t innocent either.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib (photo above) is a doctor who works for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and Gaza. He’s a healer, not a monster, as conservative haters make Palestinians out to be. His medical facilities in Gaza keep having to move, he sees a lot of casualties from IDF attacks, and says 60% of them are women and children. He says (read story here),
“We managed to evacuate a patient from Gaza City, a woman in her mid-20s. She was pregnant. She had an explosive injury from an airstrike on her home. She lost her husband, her kids, her leg was amputated, and she lost her baby as well.”
Who would wish that on anyone? We’re now in a political campaign, and Republicans will try to demonize Kamala Harris and other Democratic candidates for wanting this to end. Don’t bite or take that bait.
This isn’t about choosing between Israel or terrorism, as they’d have you believe. You can be for Israel, against Hamas and terrorism, and for humanity. Netanyahu and Republicans won’t take you there. They stand for more killing and violence. Many Israelis don’t support this. A succession of U.S. presidents have worked toward a two-state solution as the best hope of bringing peace to the Middle East. Treating Palestinians as non-humans will not, and is immoral.