🤥 Do you condemn Hamas?

Palestinian resistance, including the rise of Hamas, has root causes and all actions must be viewed in context. Condemnation is not the right framework – do not equate the occupied with its occupier. There is no symmetry, and it does not serve justice. This point only detracts from the real issue: the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine.

We condemn the targeting and loss of ALL innocent lives on ALL sides. We demand that international law and human rights be applied consistently to all people. We condemn the illegal occupation of Palestine.

Most people cannot tolerate any situation where civilians are put in danger. But, unfortunately living in danger under brutal oppression for over half a century is the everyday reality of Palestinians. Yet it barely makes a blip in the West and their media’s radars. The real question is, why aren’t you condemning Israeli violence?

This is just another symptom of decades of reflexive Islamophobia snapping back into shape. Islamophobia and racism are the only logical explanations as to why Hamas’ attack is the source of endless demands to condemn it, while the mounting retaliatory atrocities of Israel require no such display.

There is an extreme obsession in demanding a neat line separating the “good guys” from the “bad guys”. Nothing in life is that simple. Context is far more important than opinion in this case. The actions of Hamas must be viewed in the context of the ongoing displacement, military occupation and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population.