Hamas is a violent terrorist organization. In Hebrew, the word chamas means “violence,” “cruelty,” or “injustice.” Since 2007, when Hamas seized control of Gaza through force, Hamas has been the de facto governing authority in the strip. Everything in Gaza is effectively controlled by Hamas, from hospitals and schools to human lives. Hamas has been torturing its own people, though most of them never asked to be under the authority of a jihadist terrorist group.
What do we mean by torture? Based on thousands of hours of sickening footage uncovered on a Hamas computer in Jabalia, Hamas perpetrated criminal acts that would shock and appall any sane human being. In one film, a man is chained with both arms and one leg to the ceiling and must attempt to balance on one leg. His captors also brutally choke him. Other victims are beaten with rods on the soles of their feet, causing them to writhe in agony. According to one Israeli intelligence officer, Hamas “has been known to melt plastic over skin, electric cables on [people’s bodies].” He added, “Some are electrocuted on electricity pylons or dragged on a chain from a vehicle until they die.”
What starts in blood ends in blood. When Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, it threw people linked to its rival, Fatah, which means “conquest,” off of the tops of buildings. After taking over, Hamas imposed a harsh version of Islamic law, similar to the Taliban. The LGBT community is treated with extraordinary viciousness under this regime. One victim, identified only as Abdul, talked of his treatment at Hamas’s hands: “They put me in a tiny room. They wouldn’t let me sleep or go to the bathroom inside. There was no food. … Every few years, they would arrest me and torture me in the same way. They made me swear on the Koran that I won’t be gay again.” Yet, in some ways, Abdul, who eventually escaped Gaza for freedom via the Egyptian border, was lucky. Others, such as Mahmoud Ishtiwi, have been executed by the group for their homosexuality.
When people behave so cruelly toward their coreligionists, how do you imagine they treat their perceived enemies? Hamas’s founding charter calls for the violent destruction of Israel to be replaced with a jihadi theocratic state. On Oct. 7, 2023, it launched a cross-border invasion of southern Israel, slaughtering over 1,200 in a single day, and dragged over 250 civilians, including 12 Americans, screaming back to Gaza as hostages. Hamas committed unimaginable acts of sexual violence against women, including the elderly and children: not only rape but obscene acts of genital mutilation and torture.
Of course, it is the innocent people of Gaza who have to deal with the consequences of Hamas’s actions. Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas until his recent demise, called Palestinian casualties “necessary sacrifices” that “infuse life into the veins of this nation, prompting it to rise to its glory and honor.” Hamas forces Gaza residents to act as human shields, including by conducting military activities from within schools, hospitals, mosques, and churches.
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Although it is challenging to get reliable information from a territory controlled by a bloodthirsty terrorist group, surveys show that Hamas is less popular in Gaza than in the West Bank, most of whose Palestinian population is controlled by Fatah. Just as those who suffered under Marxist rule are sometimes said to have been vaccinated against communism, there is a population of anti-theocratic Palestinians in Gaza who can be worked with to rebuild Gaza the day their wicked masters are gone.
Hamas has got to go. War to the death is a terrible philosophy for both one’s neighbors and the innocents being governed under such a policy. No new day will dawn in Gaza until the day that the nightmarish oppression of Hamas is banished to the dust heap of history. Israelis, Palestinians, and the international community must work together to speed that day along.
Bassem Eid is a Palestinian human rights activist. He lives in the West Bank.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
