Palestinians speak out on Hamas, say Gaza held hostage by terror group

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OTTAWA — Hamas did more than just kidnap Israelis on Oct. 7, they’re also holding over 2 million Gazans hostage.

That’s the message everyday Palestinians are working hard to spread, thanks to testimonies from a small number of brave Gazans tired of living under Hamas’ brutal rule.

“(Israeli PM Benjamin) Netanyahu said if Hamas leaves, they would stop the war — but (Hamas) doesn’t care,” said Kareem, a Palestinian lawyer, told the Toronto Sun in an interview this week.

“They want to survive on our blood and our bodies, and they only care about their interests and the interests of their relatives.”

Kareem, who spoke on condition his last name not be used, is among the growing number of Gaza residents speaking out against Hamas — who see the terror group and de facto ruler of Gaza as a means of oppression, and not the liberation organization far-left activists and several media outlets paint them to be.

“(Hamas) was a political movement that had secular supporters, but during the war, that declined dramatically — to the extent that people in Gaza cannot even accept Hamas as a political movement,” he said.

“We don’t want Hamas in Gaza at all.”

Established nearly four decades ago, Hamas defeated the ruling Fatah party in the 2006 parliamentary elections. The terror group took complete control a year later in a series of bloody clashes, prompting Egypt to close its borders with Gaza, cutting off the only access to the outside Arab world.

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“Hamas did not, over the course of its rule, benefit Palestinians at all,” Kareem said.

Support for Palestinians here in Canada is dominated by far-left and/or anti-Israel activists who publicly glorify Hamas and call for Israel’s destruction.

Those people, Kareem said, have the blood of innocent Palestinians on their hands.

“This protest movement in the West is counter-productive, they’re not helping the Palestinian people,” he said.

“They are emboldening the oppressors of the Palestinian people.”

These activists, along with well-meaning Canadians, are falling victim to misinformation spread by Hamas-friendly media outlets, said Kareem, who added: “Many in the West are fooled by the propaganda machine carried primarily by al Jazeera, the only media that can work freely inside Gaza.”

He noted that while Al Jazeera portrays Hamas as a liberation movement, it never highlights the suffering Palestinians endure as a result of the group’s rule.

Western news agencies are also complicit, with numerous news wires and Canadian media outlets unapologetically parroting information released by the Hamas-controlled “Gaza health ministry.”

Those who dare speak out, Kareem said, face harassment, torture and even death.

“They would be kidnapped, tortured, blackmailed, accused of being Mossad agents, in many cases they’ve broken legs of people, and kill and execute people publicly,” he said.

“This is what it means to be against Hamas in Gaza.”

Everyday Palestinians, he said, won’t be free until Hamas is eliminated.

“We and the Israelis, we think the same — if Hamas stays in power, in two years they’ll be able to rebuild themselves and carry on similar to what they did on Oct. 7,” Kareem said.

“In Gaza we have two occupations — Israel and Hamas. Hamas didn’t only take Israeli hostages, they also took two 2 million Gazans. We’re suffering on a daily basis, we are going through starvation, and nobody’s paying attention to our misery.

“We are starving, we are dying, we are even going in the streets to protest Hamas — even though this will endanger our life.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume