Hamas

Hamas

By Vijay Prashad
August 8, 2014

My pro Palestinian stance is very simple.

Incredibly easy and without doubt or inner conflict because of this.

You encage two million people into 140 square miles.

You are surprised when the people create tunnels to smuggle goods,
to resist.

You bomb hospitals, you bomb schools, you bomb water plants, you
bomb sewers – and you want us to feel sorry for you.

You have politicians who say they want to kill all Gazans, academics
who call for rape as war’s weapon.

And you are silent?

Where are you?

Your arms have killed hundreds, injured thousands, displaced tens
of thousands.

You clap, you cheer.

You weep when your soldiers fall.

On which side of the border should my tears fall?

On the side of the bombers or the side of the bombed?

Your morality is challenged, your ethics on fire.

All you can say, in bad faith, is Hamas, Hamas, Hamas.

You kill a child. Hamas.

You bomb a school. Hamas.

You bomb a UN building. Hamas.

You bomb a disability center. Hamas. Hamas. Hamas.

For you Hamas has become a full-stop, an exclamation point, a
digression, a shaggy dog, a golden ring, a do-not-go-to-jail card.

Who are you that you take shelter in five letters – Hamas – when
entire families are wiped out in your name?

What you bomb is not Hamas.

It is Palestine.

Not a dream, but a people.

Not a refugee camp, but a country alive in its peoples’ hearts."

— Vijay Prashad