Monday, July 31, 2023

The Populist Palestinian Reckoning

 Palestinian demonstrators chant slogans during a protest against the territory's chronic power outages and difficult living conditions along the streets of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, July 30, 2023. Several thousand people briefly took to the streets across the Gaza Strip chanting "what a shame" and in one place burning Hamas flags, before police moved in and broke up the protests. (AP Photo)

Palestinians living in Gaza are burning tires

and throwing rocks in protest, not against their

usual target but toward registering their deep

discontent with a tyrannical rule that Hamas

has ensnared them with to represent a living

arsenal of hatred and violence against Jews in

Israel they have been incited to blame for their

misfortunes, a diversion from identifying and

revolting against a rule that has diminished 

their lives and their livelihoods, a blame-device

as old as history itself used and abused by

historical governments mismanaging the

affairs of state while persuading their citizens

the fault lies with Jews. The old blood libel

to instill hate flies in the face of the reality of their

children used as pawns, taught the rudiments of

guerrilla warfare, sent to the front lines of the

conflict Hamas keeps alive even as their children

face death as they attack the targeted soldiers

of the Jewish state. Deprived of their young

and of the basic civic amenities of civilized

life apportioned to supporters of the rulers

they despise, they gather to express their outrage

against a government whose sole mandate is

the destruction of a neighbouring state, the

well-being of its own population irrelevant.



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