My Take | The Hamas-Israel war is a fight to the death between terrorism and genocide
- Besides hate and bloodlust, both forms of organised violence against an enemy’s population can be perfectly rational means or methods to achieve a political goal
It has been painful to watch as hosts of Anglo-American news channels have been prefacing their programmes inevitably by asking a Palestinian official or pro-Palestinian activist: “Do you condemn Hamas?” The question is inane, but the usual reluctance of the interlocutor to condemn is also embarrassing and counterproductive.
The journalist host is likely already predisposed to think Hamas is nothing but a terrorist group while the one being interviewed or questioned probably thinks it is a legitimate national liberation movement.
The reality, of course, is that Hamas is both. In fact, the most successful national liberation movements from the past century almost always resorted to terrorism, including Zionist militant groups fighting for the establishment of the state of Israel. Gandhi’s successful leadership through peace may have been a rare exception but some Indian nationalists who fought British imperialism did advocate – and commit – violence.
Meanwhile, to borrow a conceptual phrase from Canadian journalist Naomi Klein, in the “mirror world” of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, what happens on one side always finds an analogue on the other. Just because Israel is a democratic state doesn’t mean it is not a colonialising state. As the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe put it recently, the country has been a settler-colonial project and the current war is its inevitable outcome.
And yes, Israel is fighting in existential self-defence of its Jewish state identity and international legitimacy. But that doesn’t mean it is not also planning and committing genocide by going scorched earth on Gaza.
Indeed, many Israeli civilian and military leaders are increasingly open about goals that can only be described as genocidal. This does not mean they are evil people – though they could be – but rather they see the logical conclusion to an existential conflict that, rightly or wrongly, can only be resolved by the extensive if not complete displacement of the Palestinian people from the occupied territories.