My opinion article for @TheNationalNews: Israel’s war has killed 31 members of my family, yet it’s vital to speak out against Hamas: To realize peace, the pro-Palestine movement must not buy into the militants’ self-serving, nihilistic narrative.
thenationalnews.com/opinion/commen… 1🧵The scale of needless death and destruction in Gaza – along with Israeli military and settler violence in the West Bank, which preceded October 7 – has enraged the global conscience and pro-Palestine advocates and activists, and rightly so.

My latest piece with the Forward: The left must stop apologizing for Hamas.

I describe the group's conduct in Gaza, its greed, values & how it is a major obstacle to Palestinian freedom, effective resistance & progress. Please read before commenting 📖

forward.com/opinion/588680… 🧵"Morally, politically and strategically, the group’s actions are horrible enough to warrant organic and self-initiated critique and criticism."

My latest piece in @Newsweek: The Origin of Hamas's Human Shields Strategy in Gaza, describing the evolution of a practice started by one of the group's leaders, Nizar Rayan, & its destructive consequences for Gaza's civilian population & infrastructure. newsweek.com/origin-hamass-… 🧵Excerpts: Multiple things are true simultaneously: The Israeli military kills civilians in its pursuit of militants and subsequently attempts to absolve itself of moral and operational responsibility by blaming Hamas's use of Gazans as human shields. And Hamas absolutely disregards the safety and well-being of Gazans by deliberately and nefariously placing its infrastructure and armaments among civilians and crowded neighborhoods and cities throughout the Gaza Strip.

The group gives itself the right to be anywhere it deems necessary in Gaza because the interests of the "resistance" far outweigh any harm done to innocent civilians in pursuit of the supposed "greater good" and the "liberation of Palestine."

Hamas's immoral decision to normalize the self-described "human shields" strategy has not only been incredibly destructive for Gaza's civilian population. It has also proved ineffective as the IDF loosened its rules of engagement to allow for more risky and deadly strikes on Hamas targets.

What began as Nizar Rayan's human shields strategy to protect militants' houses from Israeli bombing has sadly and ironically ended up with Hamas turning innocent and uninvolved Gaza civilians into its own "collateral damage."

So if millions of $$ in UNRWA funding were just cut, can we instead please get the @WFP, @Refugees and other @UN agencies to do dispersed food airdrops throughout Gaza to address the hunger/starvation crisis & allow aid to reach desperate Gazans being failed by centralized distribution?

forward.com/opinion/575411…

🧵My article with the Times of Israel: "While I am under no illusions that dialogue alone will change the circumstances and conditions on the ground in Israel or Palestine, the devolution of the discourse around this conflict requires a return to basics."
blogs.timesofisrael.com/as-a-gazan-i-s… 🧵Simplistic and reductionist slogans and arguments by both sides regularly fail to capture nuanced and balanced views that account for complex intricacies and details. Dialogue and engagement between Palestinians and Jews/Israelis are desperately needed first steps to establish human-to-human connections and inject grassroots fuel for a different future.

🧵Gaza should have become a model for what a prosperous, developed Palestinian state would look like. It was Hamas's choices that prompted Israel's blockade on the territory and took the Strip down a dark path of recurring cycles of wars & stalemate.
haaretz.com/opinion/2024-0… 🧵Gaza should have been a beacon of Palestinian prosperity, development, & stability. A prosperous, peaceful, and well-managed Gaza would have been easier to compel Israel into making concessions in the West Bank when it came to settlements and expanding Palestinian sovereignty.

🧵My brother's children in Gaza, esp. baby Maria, are visibly hungry & malnourished. All four of the kids have lost considerable weight over the past two months. Daily scenes of thousands of people & children lining up for food show how widespread hunger/famine is in the Strip. 🧵There is a tremendous amount of shame that is experienced when going through hunger. Despite having better access to the humanitarian community, my brother, like most Gazans, faces unprecedented conditions & shortages that the IDF's war is directly & indisputably causing.

🧵1/17 I just listened to a live Twitter discussion in Arabic hosted by multiple Palestinian dissidents & activists, many from #Gaza, titled: "Gazan perspectives trample the opinions of Twitter Mujahideen." They tore into #Hamas & offered opinions on the war in Gaza. Key points: 2/17 Psychopathic factions within Hamas, led by Sinwar & al-Deif, launched the Oct. 7 attack thinking that Iran, Shia militias & Hezbollah would launch a full-on regional war against Israel/its allies. Instead, the group was left to fend for itself; its backers gave faint support

A sad & painful 🧵1/ Let there be no doubt: the #IDF is guilty of a heinous war crime when it unjustifiably bombed my family's home in Rafah, southern #Gaza, & killed over 30 people, including 9 children. There were no armed clashes, ground troops, or verified presence of #Hamas. 2/ When will the pain end? Can the suffering ever stop? Half of my family are dead / they're gone. Everyone on both my dad's and mom's sides are homeless. Both homes I grew up in have vanished from IDF airstrikes. The pain is excruciating & deep. It hurts every hour and all day.

🧵Hamas the great saboteur: (1/12) It's a fact that #Hamas' violence & terror sabotaged Oslo in the 1990s, created societal pressure that put Yasser Arafat in a tough position & forced his hands during the 2000 Camp David Summit, & sought to ruin the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. (2/12) The group militarized the Second Intifada, which was supposed to create popular grassroots resistance against occupation to strengthen Arafat's negotiating position. Hamas was a god-sent gift to Anti-peace Israeli parties & leaders, including Bibi Netanyahu & Ariel Sharon.

Hamas' Western Apologists Have Become Hamas Enthusiasts. As a Gazan, I'm Horrified (). My opinion article with Newsweek discussing the danger of #Hamas apologists & enthusiasts on the pro-Palestine movement & how they ignore its disastrous impact on #Gaza.t.ly/c6ayf When I was 18, I attended a rally in support of Gaza in San Francisco during one of the wars between Israel and Hamas. I was soon identified by a news reporter as someone from Gaza whose entire family is still there, who asked me what I thought of rockets being fired at Israeli towns and cities. I said that I oppose indiscriminate violence against civilians everywhere and do not support Hamas, its ideology, or its actions. Soon after, an activist pulled me aside and fiercely scolded me, saying that I should never talk about the rockets and instead immediately "pivot" to the suffering of Gazans and Israel's role in what is happening.

Hamas is deeply unpopular in Gaza. The way Israel is waging war will ensure their survival ()

My latest opinion piece with the The Forward, I lay out numerous examples for how/why Hamas is unpopular in Gaza and how it has disregarded its peoples' wellbeing as it embarks on suicidal adventures, while scrutinizing the Israeli military's response and how the current operation is not eradicating Hamas, but instead, is severely harming civilians, all while expending Israel's political capital obtained after the Oct. 7 attacks.t.ly/feVrp
"Instead of carrying out a targeted, low-intensity, long-term operation that could sustainably reduce Hamas’s military capabilities and create conditions to introduce a new administration in Gaza, the massive bombardment and destruction throughout the Strip have set the scene for what will be one of the most complicated predicaments that Israel has ever found itself in: Ambitious, difficult-to-achieve tactical and strategic goals, continued occupation of a ruined Gaza, and most importantly, a highly resentful and deeply antagonistic Palestinian population that will be even more hostile to Israel and more likely to embrace violence as a strategy."