If there is one thing that has put the worldwide “pro-Palestinian” marches in context, it must be the protests in Gaza against Hamas that happened last week. The irony is almost unbearable.
As Western students dress up as Hamas terrorists and shout for “intifada” while living thousands of miles from the conflict in the safety and comfort of elite universities or on the streets of London, the very people they’re allegedly marching for have literally put their lives on the line to stand up against Hamas and against the violent “resistance” (read: jihadism) that has done precisely nothing other than cause the destruction of their homes and the deaths and maiming of themselves and their loved ones.
Much has understandably been said about US President Donald Trump’s policy to round up and deport non-American-citizens from the US for protesting against Israel and how it contravenes their fundamental and constitutionally enshrined, democratic right to freedom of speech (and if all they did was protest, it absolutely does), but outside Middle Eastern and Jewish media almost no attention has been paid to what was arguably the most significant protest movement happening on Earth and the real dangers that come with it.
Though, considering how months of protests by the Iranian people against the tyrannical Islamic Republic for its subhuman treatment of women (with tragically fatal results) was met with almost total indifference by the “free Palestine” lot, this is perhaps rather less than surprising.
These anti-Hamas protests were and are hugely significant for a number of reasons. First and perhaps most crucially, for all the tragedy that surrounds them they actually offer a sliver of hope for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbours. Not because these Gazans suddenly started loving Israel and her people — between decades of indoctrination and living through such a brutal war, that would be a real ask — but because they have seen, first hand, both what Hamas really represents and how Jihadism and violent resistance is a literal dead end when it comes to securing a better future for themselves and their families.
‘At all costs’
This stands in stark contrast to the “Free Palestine” crowd, who are so engulfed by ideology that they never stop for a second to consider what that ideology actually represents, whether it’s actually effective at helping the Palestinian people, and whether it’s truly what actual Palestinians want. I mean yes, obviously Palestinians want a “free Palestine”, but perhaps — just perhaps — what they want above all is to have the chance to live the sort of lives that most of us take for granted. Perhaps, while well-meaning but ill-informed college kids call for (usually violent) resistance at all costs, actual Palestinians have experienced first-hand what “at all costs” really means.
It doesn’t particularly matter what your politics are or which “side” you’re on in that whole messy situation. It doesn’t matter whether you, as an American or South African or Arab, are pro-Israel, pro-Palestine or pro-both. It doesn’t even matter whether you think Palestinians have the “right” to resist or not; whether the whole land belongs to them, or part of it or none of it. If you actually give even the slightest damn about actual Palestinian lives, what you would truly want would be to give them a chance at a future where they can do just that: live. Surely, their actual lives matter more than ideological grandstanding?
In a similar vein, I have little time for US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, both because of its lack of feasibility and the moral repugnance of the forced ethnic cleaning intrinsic to it (especially for the sake of a real estate deal), but it’s hard to ignore the moral hypocrisy of decrying the forced relocation of a populace while also cheering on the refusal of individual Palestinians the right the leave voluntarily.
Any other war on the scale of this conflict would see countless refugees flooding neighbouring — and even not-so-neighbouring — countries, but there has been almost none of that during this war. Palestinian Arabs have largely been denied entry into other Arab countries, both during war and in times of “peace”, the reason given by these countries being that they don’t want to help Israel “ethnically cleanse” the Palestinians — a reason that is fully endorsed by “pro-Palestinian” Westerners, who also see such voluntary immigration as a betrayal of the “cause”.
But again, is the prevention of Palestinians who want to voluntarily leave and build better lives for themselves, even at the cost of abandoning their family homes, about serving actual Palestinians or is it about an ideology that may well not be supported by the actual people involved? For what it’s worth, most reports on the matter seem to show exactly what you would expect: many Palestinians won’t abandon their land for anything, but there are also many that want nothing more than a chance to start over.
No more war
Which brings us back to these monumental protests. Not because they’re about immigration or even being granted temporary leave, but because they’re about thousands of Gazans telling us what they actually want, and the rest of the world not really giving a damn. Through these protests thousands of actual people of Gaza have been saying, at the very least, no to more war, but frequently also no to the ideology of Hamas, no to violence, and no to “at all costs”.
If only at least some of their “allies” would actually listen. Especially because unlike the many anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel itself and the anti-Israel protests in the rest of the Western world, the price for standing up and protesting in Hamas-run Gaza is nothing short of torture and an undoubtedly extremely painful death.
The truth is that listening to Palestinians and actually trying to improve their lot has never really been of much interest to the rest of the world. Whether it’s ignoring the indoctrinated Palestinian civilians when they openly support Hamas or ignoring those Palestinians that bravely stand up against their radical Islamist rulers, much, if not most, of the pro-Palestinian movement isn’t actually about the Palestinians as people — certainly not as people with any sort of agency. It’s about turning them into the ultimate victims to use against Israel and the West.
The anti-Zionist movement has its roots in Soviet Russia, after all, and still comprises mostly anti-Western countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and far-left, anti-Western movements like the Democratic Socialists of America, with well-meaning liberals who actually do care about Palestinian lives but don’t understand the full context of the situation being dragged along in their wake.
Only in the light of such an insidious ideology would a people that live in their own state with their own leadership — as 140-plus countries insist they are — not only still be considered refugees by the UN, but have a refugee agency dedicated exclusively to them. Only in the light of this ideology do we understand why Palestinians are constantly infantilised and their leaders constantly absolved of all blame for even their most heinous acts.
If the Palestinians are to have any hope for a real future, this has to stop.
• Preskovsky is a freelance journalist.
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