Hypocrites in Israel back Gazans’ anti-Hamas protests while squashing chances of success

An anti-Hamas protest in Beit Lahia, 27 March 2025

Jack Khoury writes in Haaretz on 27 March 2025:

The euphoria gripping the media and part of the Israeli public following the anti-Hamas protest in Gaza merely confirms Israel’s hypocrisy. It suddenly turns out that not all Gazans support Hamas and not all of them are expendable.

Free and democratic Israel newly discovered that even in Gaza there are those who dare to speak out and protest.

So Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ask Gazans to expel Hamas, the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman shared videos of the protest and leading news channels and websites highlighted the newest developments.

“Will Hamas’ rule come to an end?,” “Is the increased military pressure and tightening of the siege seeping through?,” “Is the revolution on the way?,” the news studios pondered.

It is important to emphasize that the protests and anger in the Gaza Strip are justified. No sane person is capable of withstanding continuous bombing, destruction and indiscriminate death for 17 months and remain indifferent. No father or mother is willing to experience such a disaster and remain silent. Taking to the streets and calling for an end to the war and killing is legitimate and human.

The outcry against Hamas, the ruling force in Gaza since 2007, is understandable and necessary. A group choosing to launch the nefarious attack on October 7 must first and foremost be accountable to its people, before international law and the consequences stemming from Israel’s response.

Israel’s desire for revenge does not stop in Gaza. What’s being done in the West Bank refugee camps by Israel’s destruction machine, under the pretext of fighting terrorism – including Hamas – is not that different from what is happening in Gaza.  Everything is labeled a response to October 7, including the repeated strikes on the civilian population and attacks by Israeli settlers.

Arab Israeli society is also taking blows and realizes that the democratic space is narrowing – from freedom of expression to freedom to vote. Everything goes on the grounds of Israel’s national security.

Hamas will certainly consider the protest against them, and in fact any criticism, as part of a conspiracy by many in the Palestinian and Arab world to overthrow it and the axis of resistance. This will also be the pretext for the expected repression of the protest should it expand, including the use of weapons against the civilians.

Regardless of the repression and aggressiveness, in the end every protest, even in Gaza, needs a horizon to succeed – something that certainly cannot be provided by Israel, under its current rule.

Without hope, everything will falter and dissipate. Israel – and perhaps even the Palestinian Authority and some Arab countries – expect the clan leaders in Gaza to take to the streets every day, intensify the protests, and overthrow Hamas.

But if the brutal Hamas regime does fall, what does Israel expect? What do Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir expect?

For Palestinians to open the gates to a new occupation.

Israel is not offering anything except control over the lives of Gazans through administration and security coordination, exactly according to the West Bank model. And if the Gazans don’t want that, they can voluntarily emigrate to Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland.  It should be noted that not only Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are adopting this approach.

The ostensible alternative, from Naftali Bennett to MK Benny Gantz and MK Yair Lapid, are not offering the Palestinians a horizon should they decide to rise up and topple Hamas and even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. At best, they’re offering them an Arab or Egyptian mandate or dysfunctional autonomy. Every other position deviates from the Israeli consensus and is labeled leftist turpitude.

Israel could really help the protest were it to declare that, after the Hamas era, there will be hope and an ability to change the future. But the demand to overthrow Hamas in order to legitimize a restoration of the occupation will only weaken those who gathered the courage and took to Gaza’s ruined streets. Because those going into the streets are seeking to live with dignity – neither under the rule of Hamas’, nor under Israel’s boot.

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