Hamas's Western Apologists Have Become Hamas Enthusiasts. As a Gazan, I'm Horrified | Opinion

When I was 18, I attended a rally in support of Gaza in San Francisco during one of the wars between Israel and Hamas. I was soon identified by a news reporter as someone from Gaza whose entire family is still there, who asked me what I thought of rockets being fired at Israeli towns and cities. I said that I oppose indiscriminate violence against civilians everywhere and do not support Hamas, its ideology, or its actions. Soon after, an activist pulled me aside and fiercely scolded me, saying that I should never talk about the rockets and instead immediately "pivot" to the suffering of Gazans and Israel's role in what is happening.

This has historically been the way with Hamas apologists who disguise themselves as pro-Palestine activists. They have a pathological aversion to discussing the faults, problems, mistakes, and grave errors of Palestinian political groups, factions, and leadership that have plagued the Palestinian national project with countless setbacks. So the strategy was to pivot the conversation away from the group's actions and focus on Israel's reactions, the occupation, and the plight of civilians. They marginalized the significance of Hamas as a contributing factor in the overall degradation of Gazans' living conditions and erased how the group's choices and actions brought war, death, and destruction upon its people. A few explicitly told me not to "air our people's dirty laundry" and that it would be better to maintain a "veneer of unity" and keep the focus on Israel.

I was always troubled by such recommendations. Rife with inauthenticity, they also marginalized me, an actual Gazan, inexplicably demanding that I conform to the opinions and beliefs of privileged Western activists detached from what people in Gaza actually feel about Hamas and other Palestinian groups and leaders.

Yet Hamas' Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, has bred a far more disturbing form of Hamas apologia. Instead of their usual distracting methods, this time you had people actually gleefully endorsing Oct. 7 as a form of legitimate armed resistance to occupation. Others attempted to "contextualize" the attack by pointing out the conditions in Gaza and the overall injustices experienced by Palestinians. Still others tried to downplay the atrocities themselves—either their horrific nature or the numbers involved.

This Hamas apologia is new. Something has fundamentally changed. Many Hamas apologists have upgraded, becoming actual enthusiasts. They are now less interested in using verbal gymnastics and manipulation and have become eager to show affection, empathy, admiration, and reverence for the group's tactics, methods, and strategies.

Artistic and illustrative renderings of paragliders, bulldozers, and motorcycles made Hamas "cool" and hip, a sexy "symbol" of the underdog and underprivileged fighting back. These images were shared on social media, with thousands adding those pictures to their profiles, names, or bio lines.

These Hamas enthusiasts have now been emboldened by widespread protests and an unprecedented global outcry against Israel's military operation in Gaza.

Of course, as someone whose family is dodging bombs and collapsing buildings, I detest the targeting of hospitals and schools, the systematic destruction of entire neighborhoods, and the ensuing mass deaths.

Yet Hamas enthusiasts cloak their immorality in "intellectual" arguments for how international law grants the oppressed a blank check to commit any act they deem suitable to fight back and are entitled to use "all means necessary" to liberate themselves. They have an inhumane disregard for the over 200 Israeli hostages and murdered civilians.

Hamas enthusiasts obfuscate the fact that no Gazans were being killed on Oct. 6 and that their beloved resistance group could have made different choices, which would have resulted in the loosening of the blockade and the unification of Gaza with the West Bank, improving the odds of obtaining a Palestinian state and ending the occupation.

Most dangerously, Hamas enthusiasts erode support for the just and urgent cause of the Palestinian people, who have endured the consequences of a decades-long Israeli occupation, an embarrassingly incompetent Palestinian political class and leadership, and a largely indifferent Arab and international community. They further entrench an unhelpful narrative that refuses to work with Jewish and Israeli perspectives and grievances, worsening the impasse that is so chronically characteristic of the Israel and Palestine conflict.

And those of us willing to tell the truth are branded a "traitor to your own people," a "white wanna-be" sellout and an "apologist to your oppressor," as I experienced first hand thanks to the writing I've done since October explaining the destructive role of Hamas.

They shamelessly hurl these insults at me, whose 57-year-old uncle and 13-year-old niece were killed in Israeli bombings that destroyed my family's home and entire neighborhood. They didn't display an ounce of sympathy for the fact that most of my immediate and extended family are homeless and that half of them have been injured by IDF fire; my grandmother lost her home, and two cousins are paralyzed for life. They skip over the fact that I hold the Israeli government and IDF directly responsible for the senseless killings of my family and thousands of Gazans, who are paying the price for a massacre that they didn't commit.

It shouldn't be difficult to explicitly and unequivocally condemn the abduction of children and women, even if Israel imprisons Palestinian women and children, often through unjust processes and procedures. It isn't that hard to realize that Hamas paraded hostages as it released them, creating deceptively edited footage showing its supposed humanity, despite having violently captured these women and children and killed their loved ones on Oct. 7.

Praising terrorists who committed horrendous atrocities because they high fived their captives as they let them go is indicative of moral bankruptcy and decay.

There are millions of well-intentioned, sincere, humanitarian, ethical, considerate, tolerant, well-spoken, and peace-seeking pro-Palestine activists who are not Hamas enthusiasts or even apologists. But they need to distance themselves from the increasingly normalized fringe activists who are spreading throughout the pro-Palestine community like wildfire.

We should teach our youth how to exercise impulse control, restraint, and verbal and physical non-violence whenever they participate in protests. We should avoid incendiary rhetoric, slogans, and imagery that only serve as emotional outlets that deliberately or inadvertently cross the line from anti-Israel anti-Zionism to antisemitism.

We should accept that Palestinians' fate is inexorably linked with Israelis' and that millions of Jews will forever be part of the land—even as we oppose settler violence and colonialism, push back on anti-Arab bigotry by mainstream Israeli figures, and engage in non-violent efforts to unify Palestinians and work toward having a prosperous and sovereign state of their own.

Hamas has been an utter disaster for the Palestinian national project. It has set my people back by 30 years. I am pleading with all pro-Palestine activists and those who are horrified by the sheer death and destruction that the people of Gaza are experiencing: We are at an inflection point of no return. We must separate our peoples' legitimate struggle for life, freedom, liberty, and self-determination from the violent, corrupt, exclusionary, chauvinist, immoral, and detrimental ideology and practices of Hamas.

Hamas enthusiasts are dangerous and must not be allowed to infect the righteous and just cause of the Palestinian people.

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a U.S. citizen from Gaza, is a Middle East political analyst. He has a master's degree in intelligence studies from American Military University. He has written and contributed extensively to publications on Gaza's affairs in U.S., Israeli, Jewish and Arab outlets.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.