Opinion

It is time for Arabs to stop blaming Hamas for the genocide in Gaza. Blame yourselves, instead


August 15, 2024 


Lifeless bodies of Palestinians who lost their lives after the Israeli attacks on Maghazi refugee camp, lay on the ground of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital mortuary prior to burial in Deir al Balah, Gaza on August 14, 2024 [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]

by Dr Mustafa Fetouri
MFetouri


The overwhelming majority of ordinary Arabs and Muslims support and sympathise with the Palestinian people. They usually express this support and show such sympathy through their use of words in referring to Hamas and other resistance groups fighting Israel. They commonly call them heroes, courageous men and, when they want to elevate them into a higher and more holy status, they borrow the Quranic description of such people, calling them Mujahedeen.

In doing so, the common man still feels the pain and suffering inflicted by Israel on the people in Gaza. Millions of Arabs are traumatised because of the murdering of children and women in the ten months’ war.

However, this is not the case with the few who consider themselves to know better and who are always trying to go deeper in analysing the Israeli war on Gaza, while attempting to make their point. They usually end up grounding their analysis in one of the imaginary ‘conspiracy theories’ flying around from the day Hamas launched its incursion into Israel. Such pundits tend to propagate their own governments’ position in a more fashionable manner.

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The governments of Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco did not even condemn the Israeli genocide in clear statements and, when they did, like Bahrain, they condemned Hamas before equating it with Israel. Their elite supporters went further and accused Hamas of being in conspiracy with Qatar or some other imaginary country to bring havoc and destruction on Gaza and the entire Palestinian Territories. Ask them to back up their views and they would go on ranting about many things, but not the subject at hand.

Almost all of them refer to the fact that Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation and this, to them, is enough to make it evil by default. This kind of cheap talk contradicts two things: firstly, even if it is true that the Brotherhood is evil, no one can deny their role in fighting colonial powers, starting in Egypt itself where the Movement once flourished. Secondly; Hamas, being Islamic-based ideology, is totally different from traditional other branches of the Brotherhood, simply because its very existence and legitimacy stems from the fact that it is fighting Occupation. Hamas fighters are not fighting for power and the privileges it brings. All of them know too well that they are being hunted down and they could die at any time, just like their top leader, the late Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran last month. From Yahya Sinwar, all the way to the last fighter in Jabalya, they believe death is round the corner but the cause is so worthy that they cannot flee the fight.

Others blame Hamas and Islamic Jihad for being allies to Iran. They point out that Iran is Shia and Hamas is nothing but a Tehran proxy—the most disgusting term to use to describe Hamas. They justify such outrage by saying that Iran is using Hamas and Islamic Jihad to further its ambitious agenda in dominating the mostly Sunni Arab world. But they forget the simple fact: Hamas and Islamic Jihad would welcome any support they can get from anywhere. As liberation movements, they do not have the luxury of choosing their allies, as long as such allies agree with them on the principle: liberation and freedom for Palestine.

Furthermore, and in a religious context, Jihad does not have any prerequisites other than fighting colonialism, in this case. Nowhere in the Quran has it said that you have to be a Shia or Sunni to be accepted as Mujahid, simply because true Islam does not recognise the sectarian version of Islam revised and being presented to Muslims by the West. Such ideas are meaningless talk that cannot stand up to scrutiny.

If being Shia means fighting apartheid colonial Israel, I am sure the majority of Palestinians and Arabs, including myself, would not hesitate in announcing their allegiance to the Shia! Being a Shia does not mean you are Iranian or supporter of Iran or being its proxy.

Other analysts and political gurus raise the issue of timing by asking if it would not be better if Hamas had accumulated more power before launching its incursion into Israel. The question appears an honest one but, in fact, it is far from it. It implies that, if Hamas had delayed its attack, it might have become more powerful to prevent the amount of losses and destruction in Gaza. But this kind of discussion ignores the simple fact that timing of any operation against the Occupation is a complicated issue and only the people on the ground can decide the best moment to go ahead. Also, operational timing is determined by, among other factors, what the ultimate goal is of launching an attack.

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7 October came to prevent the unprecedented wave of selling what remained of Palestine by some Arab and Muslim states for nothing. Normalisation of ties between countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel was almost a done deal and had to be stopped or, at least, delayed. The Saudi Kingdom is not any other country and having ties with Israel would have been much more detrimental to the Palestinians than, say, Libya doing the same. If the Oslo Accords made Palestinian Territories mere disputed Territories, as the late Palestinian thinker, Edward Said, once said, then having the Israeli embassy in Riyadh would make the entire Palestinian people a mere misfortuned nation roaming the planet, begging for handouts.

Finally, many advocates of defeatism blame Hamas for the huge price being paid by the Palestinians. This is the most outrageous and silliest of all arguments to make against Hamas. It is outrageous because it ignores the entire human history in fighting colonialism and it completely overlooks the Palestinian fighting history. Even in the regional Arab context, such an argument is fictitious, to say the least. Some 1.5 million Algerians were killed before colonial France was defeated in 1962, some 132 years after it colonised Algeria. Almost three quarters of Libyans, 83,000, were killed at the hands of Italian colonialists during nearly three decades of Italian occupation. In the wider world, Vietnam would serve as a perfect example here. Between 970,000 and three million people, including civilians, lost their lives before Vietnam became an independent country. I am not calling for the killing of more Palestinians, but freedom has price to be paid.

If anyone is to be blamed, it is the 22 Arab countries who are watching helplessly. Palestine is part of the Arab League and a signatory to the Arab Joint Defence Treaty of 1950, obliging other members to come to its defence. So where are they?

Indeed, the price is huge and the death rate is almost impossible to even comprehend, but this is how it is and there is no other way. The entire world is hurting and sad because of what genocidal Israel is doing in Gaza but what alternatives do Gazans have, other than to stay put and fight back?