Hamas – the facts

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Hamas is an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement).  Hamas receives $100 million a year from the Iranian government. They and Hamas are both dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Hamas also receives large funding from Qatar - at least $1.8 billion since Hamas seized power in 2007.

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For Hamas, creating an Islamic state in what was Mandatory Palestine is only the first step to the entire world being ruled by its brand of Islam and the annihilation of Jews worldwide. 

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Over many years, al-Aqsa TV in Gaza has broadcast children’s shows inciting hatred of Jews and for children to seek martyrdom. It has in the past claimed that, “killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah”.

The lie that Jews threaten the al-Aqsa mosque has been used to incite violence for the last century; notably the Hebron massacre of 1929, when the entire Jewish population was either murdered or forced into exile. The instigator, Hajj Amin ul-Husseini, later met Hitler to offer the support of Arabs in exterminating the Jews of Mandatory Palestine. It is a blood libel that Hamas has repeatedly used to incite Arabs to violence.

 

Slaughter of the innocents

On 7 October 2023, more Jews were murdered than on any single day since the Holocaust. The death toll is in the region of 1300 and still rising. This includes the murder of at least 40 babies on the kibbutz of Kfar Aza. 260 young people were murdered at a music festival in the Negev. Many were shot in the back as they fled. People, including babies, have been burned alive.

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There are verified accounts of women being raped and soldiers being beheaded by terrorists. On 13 October, an Israeli TV channel reported that terrorists had been told by Hamas to kill as many civilians as possible.

 

Displacement of Civilians from northern Gaza

On 11 October, the IDF ordered the population of northern Gaza to leave their homes and head south of Wadi Gaza.

 

The Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol 1 (1977) states (Article 58)… “The Parties to the conflict shall…  endeavour to remove the civilian population, individual civilians and civilian objects under their control from the vicinity of military objectives.”

 

This doesn’t make it a great idea. Clearly, Hamas needs to have its military capability removed and the people of Gaza need to be freed from its oppression. However, a land invasion would be fraught with danger. Israel needs to be cautious and have regard to the lives of civilians.

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Gaza – the facts

The territory has been Judenrein since Israel forcibly removed Jews in 2005, handing over control to the Palestinian Authority. In 2007, Hamas seized control.   

 

As of December 2021, approximately 10,000 Gazans held permits to work in Israel. Before Hamas took control, this number was much higher. Unemployment in Gaza is around 45%.

 

The population density of 5,500 people/km2  is very high, but much less than Macau, Monaco, Singapore or Hong Kong, all of which have thriving economies. And they don’t rely on people they wish to kill to provide them with food, water or electricity.

 

Holocaust Denial

This is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jews dishonestly invented or exaggerated the actions of Nazi Germany. At its most minor, people understandably do not want to believe the worst.

 

Hate groups in Scotland and elsewhere have, since the beginning of the conflict, copied the methods of Holocaust deniers. They have tried to pretend that the victims at the music festival were ‘caught in crossfire’ and that the stories of rapes, burnings and decapitations are lies. Ghouls and hatemongers claim that unless they “see evidence”.

 

Think about that for a moment. Checking sources is good – that’s why we provide them. But what kind of creep wants to see pictures of charred and mutilated victims?

 

The kind that gets a kick out of knowing the stories are true.

 

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