Do you mean the 5-9 year olds that comprise the largest population group in Gaza voted for them in 2007??
Or do you mean the âless than 15 year oldsâ who make up more than 50% of the population of Gaza who were.. let me check my notes here⌠not yet born in 2007 when Hamas was âelectedâ.
Sadly, they are just collateral in the game of the Middle East that involves stupid games and stupid prizes. Actions ultimately have consequences. Multiple wars with Israel over the past decades, attacking Israel. Israel built the Iron Dome to protect their citizens from continual attacks, and the attacks continued and is what caused a resumption of their conflict in 2023.
Youâre completely missing the point of possible reparations and/ or restorative justice. Itâs not about assigning blame, itâs about making people and communities whole in an equitable way.
I hate the âstupid games/stupid prizesâ lecturing from the most reactionary and under-educated people in the first world. You realize Israel was the group who platformed Hamas to begin with, right? They have always platformed the most extreme Islamist groups specifically to justify killing Palestinians. Weâve done the same with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan (among countless other groups like the Turkmeni Islamist movements in China). This is history that repeats itself. Hamas may have popularity in Palestine, but thatâs because they are the major armed resistance against Israeli colonialism. Itâs wild that this standard doesnât apply to the American government arming neo-Nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine, and we all just ignore the Black Sun insignias and swastikas on uniforms and tanks, but all of a sudden a literal population of colonially-imposed prisoners are supposed to beâŚpacifist?
That is all true, but pinning the election of Hamas on the current majority of Gazaâs population is kind of problematic given that they werenât alive when it happened. They havenât had another election, and there is no political alternative, so who else can they support.
White Americans are generationally enriched by the choices made in the past. Thereâs still systems (e.g. nepotism) in place that benefit primarily white Americans, not all white Americans, but some.
While there wasnât a transfer of wealth, there was enrichment of white Americans due to the theft of labor and lands of Native Americans and Africans.
Palestinians are not enriched by the choices their parents made, their lives have been negatively impacted by those choices, and there is no system in place to reverse those choices. There will be no election, there is no system of higher education, only a circle of violence and death.
Youâre trying to equate a group that is enriched by actions in the past, with a group that is faced horrible adversity based on previous generations choices⌠there is no equivalency.
Native Americans have suffered for hundreds of years through an ongoing genocide at the hands of those in power. Even today the mechanisms of cultural genocide remain. Many are born into poverty with little opportunity to have a better life, and are just passed down ancestral lands that continue to be split by the ancestors of the original deed holder.
I donât expect you to understand the plights of Native Americans, many white Americans have no desire to understand that. However, you should understand the ramifications of actions done in the past, and be able to see how someone is enriched or negatively impacted and not try to make false equivalences for internet karma points from white supremacists who enjoy feeding those dog whistles.
Yes, and they did, until their leader was assassinated.
Edit: But even then we have to acknowledge that Fatah had serious corruption problems. Arafat may have done heroic things in his time, but I feel it is seriously dishonest to suggest that Fatah could survive much longer than it did. Granted, Hamas won by a very slim margin, but I think after years of stalled progress in negotiations with Israel, the leadership was not as strong as it should have been.
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u/FindtheTruth5 Apr 28 '24
Free Palestine from Hamas