There is a semi-organized campaign on social media to blame Hamas for the current war on Gaza. It is being widely said that Hamas is the one which destroyed the Gaza Strip, and that what it did on October 7, 2023, was an ill-considered adventure which led to all this thorough destruction. The proponents of this argument or this blame avoid directing any criticism at the Israeli occupation, which is in fact destroying the Gaza Strip. Instead of reaching an agreement to end this war and return its (Palestinian) prisoners, many of them have already died. In psychology, there is a disease called “Stockholm Complex” or “Stockholm Syndrome.” This psychological disorder is a state of the victim’s sympathy with the executioner, or the kidnapped person with the kidnapper, or the victim with the aggressor. Those afflicted with this disease – according to psychologists – are victims. But they are busy justifying the perpetrator.
The campaign to condemn Hamas and exonerate the (Israeli) occupation cannot be spontaneous, but rather organized and studied, and there is much evidence that it is fabricated and planned. There is much evidence of this argument being fabricated and planned, particularly since hundreds or thousands of social media accounts which have adopted this approach and spread this language were originally opened after October 7. Most of them were made at the beginning of this year 2024. It makes it likely that they are an “electronic army” working for a party concerned with promoting this approach and interested in turning public opinion in this direction, whether in Gaza or in the Arab region.
There is nothing wrong with discussing the allegations made against Hamas. This requires focussing on the following facts:
First: Any reading of the Palestine issue that it began on October 7, 2023, will end in distorted, flawed, and incorrect conclusions. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not begin in October 2023, but rather has been going on since 1948. It is a conflict which cannot be divided either temporally or geographically, as the Israelis’ attacks are continuing for more than seventy years. These assaults are old, and are not limited to Gaza, but extend to the West Bank, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and other countries.
Second: The Gaza Strip has been under a tight and comprehensive Israeli siege since 2007. This siege did not end despite successive wars. Because of this siege, the Gaza Strip has turned into the largest prison in the world, and perhaps in human history. Poverty and hunger rates have reached terrifying levels, and neither the Palestinians, nor the Arabs, nor the world powers have been able to end this siege in years.
Third: The political process between the Palestinians and the Israelis has been stalled for years. It has become clear that the occupation no longer has any ability to reach a settlement. The last meeting held between the Palestinian Authority and Israelis was in 2014. The problem is that the Israelis, during these ten years, have been boycotting President Mahmoud Abbas, besieging Gaza, and at the same time devouring the lands of the West Bank and changing the facts on the ground in occupied Jerusalem. The bottomline is that the one who is destroying the Gaza Strip today is the occupation (Israel) alone. It is waging a large-scale war of extermination, which was slow before October 7, and today it has accelerated it.
[by Mohammad Ayesh in Al Quds Al Araby]
Compiled and translated by Faizul Haque