The Tartan

Across the many conversations I have had with students, professors, and
administrators about Palestine, certain rhetorical strategies tend to stand out. It has struck my attention the gymnastics employed in justifying Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, even when I, or others, have laid bare the reasons to consider it genocide. As we witness the indiscriminate killings and massacres; the cutting off of food supplies, water, and electricity; and the weaponization of mass starvation, is there a good reason to justify continuing Israel’s war?

That good reason, we are told, is the deposition of Hamas. This, essentially, is the last pillar behind reluctant support for Israel’s war, even as the civilian casualties and humanitarian toll continue to mount. Hamas is evil, Hamas are terrorists, Hamas are demonic savages, and Hamas is coming to kill and rape Israelis. Hamas needs to be wiped out, eliminated, and exterminated. Sometimes, the rhetoric about removing Hamas seems eerily similar to the genocidal language that has spilled over into targeting Palestinians. Indeed, all of the above phrases have been used equally to refer to Hamas and Palestinians more broadly.

Also cited to support Israel’s war, and to legitimize the killing of Palestinian civilians, is the notion that many Palestinians support Hamas and even its actions on Oct. 7, 2023. This stands as an uncomfortable fact for some Western Palestine supporters, while for Zionists it is proof of widespread civilian complicity. Are Palestinians really so monstrous as to support the evil Hamas? This narrative is used by Israel to justify killing civilians.

Caricaturing members of Hamas as evil, inhuman terrorist animals enables Israel to justify its genocide. The label of terrorism, however, is disputed. The United States designates Hamas as a terrorist group while the United Nations does not. Scholars frequently debate how to designate Hamas. Western scholars are more likely to apply the terrorism designation (and even then, sometimes only to the Al-Qassam Brigades, its armed services). Several scholars, however, consider Hamas in terms of its role as a governing entity, firstly, and a social movement dedicated to the liberation of Palestine,
secondly.

Members of the Global South have ridiculed Western governments for weaponizing the term “terrorism” as a means of blanket delegitimization. In South Africa, for example, the African National Congress was labeled a terrorist organization in its struggle against apartheid. Now South Africa has been smeared as a Hamas supporter while pursuing a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

Most importantly, the standard of terrorism is not applied equally. The Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) and its settler allies commit regular acts of terrorism in the West Bank. America repeatedly attempted in the late 2000s to overthrow a democratically elected Hamas government, and Israel tries to assassinate Hamas’ leaders constantly. If Hamas were to help overthrow Israel’s government, it would be considered terrorism. If Hamas were to assassinate Netanyahu, Smotrich, Ben-Gvir, and the other most extreme members of the Israeli government, it would be called terrorism. For America and Israel to
target leaders of Hamas, though, is deemed a “counter-terrorism” operation.

We are almost called to ask: Who are the real terrorists? Hamas’s Al-Qassam
Brigades committed undeniable war crimes on Oct. 7, 2023, for which there is no apology. Meanwhile, the IDF has committed crimes against humanity for decades in its military occupation of the West Bank, as well as numerous war crimes, including mass starvation, in the current war on Gaza, with far graver consequences. The IDF and its settler allies terrorize Palestinians on a regular basis. They also invade homes of Palestinians, especially those with no connection to armed resistance, as a purposeful tactic of spreading fear and
intimidation. They take thousands of hostages, place them in Israeli prisons, and beat and torture them. If systematically demolishing homes, abducting children, and torturing hostages is not deemed terrorism, it is hard to say what is.

Nonetheless, Israel continues its war in Gaza, and many Americans, bombarded
with propaganda to delegitimize Hamas, fall prey to the rhetorical efforts of the Israeli government. If the propaganda is not corrected, there will be consequences to our foreign policy — the Biden Administration wants the Palestinian Authority (PA) to become the governing body in the occupied territories. Like many government decisions, this is a mixture of malice and ignorance. The PA is an American-backed entity with no popular support and no right to govern Palestine.

Besides the delegitimization of Hamas, there are more propaganda points in service to unconditional support for Israel. Common American myths include that the phrase “From the River to the Sea” is necessarily a call for violence and that the history of Palestine is merely a “conflict” between two equally responsible groups. The university has endorsed all these notions, too. President Jahanian sent an email condemning “From the River to the Sea,” while the Deeper Conversations series has featured several events that freeze us in the “both sides” perspective. Carnegie Mellon can do better.

I imagine that many readers will feel resistance to these ideas. The demonization of Hamas is deeply rooted in the American subconscious. Readers may be offended to hear the IDF called a terrorist organization, and they may be shocked to read about its regular terrorizing actions. Critical thinking, however, requires that we dramatically reframe our thinking to see perspectives we could not formerly. Here, I will present are some more transformations that are intentionally provocative; these are reversals of common rhetorical points said about Israel, but applied to Palestine. These transformations may not be accurate, they do not reflect actual elements of the discourse, and I do not endorse them. Nonetheless, these reframings help us investigate the original statements:

• Palestine has a right to defend itself. We have to free Israelis from Israel, and release the over 10,000 Palestinian hostages held by IDF terrorists.
• Seeking the dissolution of Hamas is Islamophobic.
• Hamas must keep fighting in order to stop IDF terrorists from gaining control over Gaza.
• In a time when Palestine faces an existential threat by ISIS-level terrorists, none of the Western world recognizes Palestine’s right to defend itself.

Making the effort to be as inclusive, multi-sided, and neutral as possible requires us to challenge established orthodoxies. Interrogating the narrative can help us seek justice, too. We must condemn the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians, the military occupation of the West Bank, and the siege of the Gaza Strip. Likewise, we must condemn the war crimes Hamas committed on Oct. 7. We must not condone killing Palestinian civilians for supporting Hamas, though, just as we do not condone killing Israeli civilians for backing Netanyahu, Likud, or the IDF.

The war should end with the release of all hostages, Palestinian and Israeli, and an acknowledgement that Hamas is the governing entity of the Gaza Strip. The
United States and Israel must stop attempting to overturn Palestinian popular will expressed through democratic elections, as was attempted in 2006. Hamas and the IDF should stop terrorizing. Atrocities committed by one party never justify those by another — this applies to both the IDF and Hamas. The military occupation of the West Bank must end, and the decades-long siege on the Gaza Strip must come down. These are basics. In the long term, we also need a political vision for peace, harmony, and liberation. In the short term, we can educate ourselves and avoid misinformation.

On April 1, the university’s Deeper Conversation series will present an event on
misinformation. I hope the speaker covers the widespread propaganda about Hamas, protest phrases like “From the River to the Sea,” and the supposed two-sided nature of the whole subject. Misinformation is often part of a grand strategy, not isolated incidents of mistaken reporting. Carnegie Mellon, like many other American entities, has participated in advancing the dominant pro-Israel narratives. Dr. Zeve Sanderson, the speaker, has a chance to rectify them.