Prime
Do you stand with Israel or Palestine?
Mr Musaazi Namiti
What you need to know:
- Hamas is not blameless, of course. It has committed atrocities, but so has Israel.
A little more than 10 years ago, a work-related email that would have shocked many people in some places popped up on my computer screen. It came from one of the managers in the Al Jazeera Doha newsroom, and it was inviting journalists to meet with Khaled Meshaal in the boardroom.
Mr Meshaal, 67, is a former head of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that launched an unprecedented, mind-boggling attack in southern Israel on October 7, hitting military bases, taking scores of hostages and killing more than 1,300 people. (Israel has so far killed at least 2,000 people in Hamas-controlled Gaza.)
In the Doha newsroom, it was/is normal to see prime ministers/presidents, heads of organisations such as Nato, heads of UN agencies, world-famous athletes dropping in for live interviews.
But there was something eerily unusual about Mr Meshaal, who now heads Hamas’s diaspora office in Doha.
He came from an organisation that has been designated as a terror outfit not only by Israel but also by the United States and the European Union.
Herein lies the complex problem that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite what Israel and the wider international community call Hamas, despite what Israel says Hamas does and has done to its people, there are countries that believe the Palestinian militant group needs and deserves support.
That support seems to be unwavering, and it also comes in the form of state protection for Hamas leaders. When Israel declares you an enemy, you are always at great risk of being bumped off. In 2004, Israel killed Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and less than a month after Abdel Aziz Rantisi was named Sheik Yassin’s successor, he too was killed in a helicopter missile strike.
It seems like a miracle that Mr Meshaal, who was living in Syria before relocating to Qatar, has not been assassinated by Israel, and I think Qatar takes the credit for his protection.
In all this, we see the futility of calling a group that is determined to fight for what it calls a just cause a terrorist organisation. Britain/The United Kingdom calls Hamas a terrorist organisation, but its own news organisation, the BBC, does not use this label in reference to Hamas.
Some of the countries Britain has strong ties with, such as Qatar, bankroll Hamas and are not about to stop. And Britain cannot sever ties with them because they support a terrorist organisation.
Hamas is not blameless, of course. It has committed atrocities, but so has Israel. Both are accused of perpetrating war crimes back in 2014 — an issue the International Criminal Court is investigating.
And however bad people feel about the death, destruction and injury Israel has caused in Gaza, the Jewish state has to defend itself against Hamas, which (according to its charter) is committed to the destruction of Israel. It is the height of naivety to expect Israel not to retaliate in a way it deems fit.
As the conflict continues, people often ask: Do you stand with Israel or Palestine? But what really matters is not the side you stand with.
What matters is finding a lasting solution to the conflict. There was Palestine before the world heard of Israel in 1948. That is why many people think a two-state solution — which means Israel and Palestine exist side by side as independent states — is the answer.
But how this can be achieved when Israel presses ahead with settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territory the Palestinians claim, and when Hamas is bent on destroying Israel remains to be seen.
Mr Namiti is a journalist and former Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
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@kazbuk
