Taking on Hamas
Well, well, well.
Only a week after I wrote about Gaza as a detestable spot on Earth, we now are hearing that some Palestinians are publicly challenging Hamas and accusing (rightly) the terror group of terrorizing the people.
They must read Israel Watch. KIDDING!
In all seriousness though, it is a brave thing that they have done, creating a social media site that highlights the horrible offenses of Hamas, a group formed in 1987.
(Not surprisingly, Hamas claims that the Palestinian Authority and Israel were behind the campaign.)
“The anti-Hamas campaign, titled ‘They Hijacked Gaza,’ came following a report by the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which said that ‘about 1.5 million of the Gaza Strip’s total population of 2.3 million have become impoverished due to the Israeli blockade and restrictions imposed since 2006.’”
Think of that! What is really going on is that 2005 is the key year. The Israeli pullout from Gaza, under the direction of Ariel Sharon, left the Palestinian population vulnerable to Hamas, which moved in quickly and gained control via terror and thuggery. I would imagine it’s more than 1.5 million that have become impoverished. And remember, when Israel left the Strip, Palestinian thugs destroyed all the marvelous agricultural infrastructure developed over decades, not to mention other business interests.
Since 2005, poverty in the Gaza Strip has risen from 40 percent to a staggering 69 percent by last year. These anti-Hamas forces in Gaza have created their social media campaign in part to shed a light on the real culprits; they reject the idea that Israel has caused the problems. They point to the Hamas alliance with Iran and Iranian-backed terrorists.
The dissidents if you will point out that it isn’t Israel that imposes heavy taxes and other restrictions on the Palestinian population. Further, 60,000 young Palestinians have managed to get away and immigrate.
Hamas is killing its own people.
As with all totalitarian regimes, Hamas resorts to physical violence to suppress such critics, the latest one coming in 2019, when people were beaten or jailed for protesting. This is what’s really going on in the Gaza Strip.
According to the Jerusalem Post:
“Freelance photojournalist and activist Walid Mahmoud commented, ‘The Islamic movement [Hamas] has failed to manage the crises in Gaza. It has failed to create any solution for the residents of Gaza, and this is something no sane person can deny. Shouldn’t that resident be given the right to speak out and talk about his/her experience under Islamic rule?
“Bisan Issam, another Gaza resident, tweeted, ‘Fifteen years ago, two million people were kidnapped on the land of the Gaza Strip by the [Hamas] gang of Change and Reform [Hamas’s parliamentary electoral list in 2006]. The lives and dreams of an entire generation were lost, crushed by despair and lack of resourcefulness. They are now ready to endanger their lives to escape the constant death in Gaza.’”
What a poignant cry from people that have been imprisoned by their own leadership for more than 50 years. Although the situations are different, it reminds me of the global protests over government overreach.
Maybe in the short-term, there’s hope for us all, for those that love freedom.