Palestinian leaders have brought a nakba to their people
As soon as the war ends, the Palestinians' first priority should be to replace the horrific leaders who have been dragging them from one catastrophe to another.
Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas (right), and Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh (left) (Photo by Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
Nearly four months after Hamas waged war on Israel, Palestinians and other Arabs are finally speaking out against the Iran-backed terror group, holding it responsible for bringing a new nakba (catastrophe) on the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Despite the criticism, many Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continue to support Hamas and would likely vote for it if there were an election.
Hamas sought to bring a nakba to Israel when its terrorists in the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering, beheading, raping, mutilating and burning alive some 1,200 Israeli men, women, and children.
Instead, Hamas, whose leaders are either hiding in tunnels throughout the Gaza Strip or in villas and five-star hotels in Qatar and the Middle East, ended up bringing a true nakba on the Palestinians.
"Gazans want peace, our kids want to go back to schools," said a Palestinian man from the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Speaking during a demonstration by Palestinians against the war and the lack of food and medicine, the man asked:
According to reports from the Gaza Strip, Hamas militiamen have been trying for the last few days to prevent Palestinians from taking to the streets to protest against the terror group.
Videos circulating on social media show Hamas policemen and members of the group's armed wing, Izaddin al-Qassam, responding with gunfire to the protests, held under the banner of "We want to live!"
"We don't want [Israeli] hostages," said another Palestinian man during one of the anti-Hamas protests in the northern Gaza Strip. He was referring to the more than 240 Israeli men, women and children kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre, of whom more than 130 are still being held hostage today. The man added:
On February 20, Algerian political analyst Anwar Malek published an open letter to Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal "who are living in their palaces in Doha, Qatar." Malek wrote:
Saudi social media influencer Abdullah Ghanem al-Qahtani emphasized that removing Hamas from the Palestinian scene has become a necessity that would give the Palestinians new hope for a better life. He called for considering the idea of placing Hamas's "wealthy" leaders under house arrest for the purpose of creating a good opportunity in which the Palestinian internal house will be rearranged.
Ahmed al-Fifi, another Saudi social media influencer, scoffed at Hamas's recurring claims that its terrorists have achieved "victory" in the war with Israel.
What is astonishing is that while a growing number of Palestinians and Arabs have begun to criticize Hamas and hold it responsible for bringing disaster upon the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) are refusing to utter a word against Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies. PA President Mahmoud Abbas has refrained from condemning Hamas for their atrocities it committed against Israelis on October 7.
Instead of distancing themselves from Hamas, Palestinian Authority leaders continue to talk about achieving "unity" with the terror group. "We are ready to engage [Hamas]," said PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. "If Hamas is not, then that is a different story. We need Palestinian unity." Asked about making common cause with a group that carried out atrocities against Israelis, Shtayyeh indicated that the world needs to forget the massacre that took place on October 7. "One should not continue focusing on October 7," he said.
Earlier, the same Shtayyeh and other senior Palestinian officials defended Hamas by arguing that the terror group is an integral part of Palestinian society and politics. "Hamas is part of the Palestinian political map, and if Israel claims that it will eliminate [Hamas], this will not happen, and it is unacceptable to us," Shtayyeh said in a speech at the 21st edition of the Doha Forum in Qatar, in December 2023.
If anything, the statements of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority show that they do not care about the thousands of Palestinians who have been killed and wounded as a result of Hamas's foolish decision to wage war on Israel.
For the past three decades, Palestinian leaders have failed their people on an epic level.
If PA leaders continue to see Hamas as a legitimate and acceptable partner for a unity government, this does not bode well for the future of the Palestinians, especially those living in the Gaza Strip. It means that the Palestinians will continue to be ruled by terror groups whose main goal is to eliminate Israel regardless of the price the Palestinians pay. The Palestinian Authority is saying that it wants Hamas to be part of any future government and lead the Palestinians toward further violence, bloodshed, and catastrophe.
As soon as the war ends, the Palestinians' first priority should be to replace the horrific leaders who have been dragging them from one nakba to another.
It started in Jordan, where the PLO tried to create a state-within-a-state in the late 1960s, created a nakba there, then moved to Lebanon, which the Palestinian armed groups used as a launching pad to attack Israel before they were expelled from the country in 1982 for creating yet another nakba there.
For the past three decades, Palestinian leaders have failed their people on an epic level. Instead of improving their lives, they have been radicalizing them against Israel and encouraging them to launch uprisings in the West Bank and mini-wars in the Gaza Strip that have resulted in thousands of Palestinian casualties. Unless the Palestinians rid themselves of these despots, they will continue to pay with their lives and the lives of their children.
LATEST
