By Sarah N. Stern, JNS
A 42-page manifesto comes replete with total distortions, historical revisionisms, legal and moral inversions, and gross misrepresentations.
The White House submitted a plan for peace within the Gaza Strip on Sept. 29 that was signed by both the State of Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas. The very first clause says that “Gaza will be a deradicalized, terror-free zone that does not pose a threat to its neighbors.” Included in the 20-point plan, allegedly agreed to by Israel and Hamas, is that “within 72 hours, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned to Israel.”
Another clause states that “once all hostages are returned, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.”
Yet the body of one hostage, Ran Gvili, a police officer in Israel’s Yasam counter-terror unit, butchered on Oct. 7, 2023, still awaits return and a proper burial in Israel. And Hamas has repeatedly and clearly elucidated over and over again that it will never relinquish its weapons.
A document was found this week titled “Our Narrative … Al Aqsa Flood: Two Years of Steadfastness and the Will for Liberation,” authored by the Hamas Media Office.
Without a question, it is replete with total distortions, historical revisionisms, legal and moral inversions, and gross misrepresentations. These misrepresentations serve to justify ongoing violence and perpetuate a narrative that undermines the prospects for genuine reconciliation. The document attempts to recast well-documented events in a manner that aligns with Hamas’s radical ideology, ignoring the complex realities on the ground and the legitimate security concerns faced by Israel and its citizens.
Hamas opens its 42-page manifesto by announcing that “Israel is a Settler-Colonial, Genocidal Entity.” To begin with, Israel has never been a colonial project. Since the fall of Judea, the settler-colonialists weren’t the indigenous Jews to their homeland; rather, they were the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Ottomans and the British.
Returning to one’s homeland does not constitute colonialist occupation. The modern Zionist project is not an imperial project behind which colonial powers stood. It is the rightful claim of the Jewish people to their homeland as the 1947 U.N. Partition Plan stated (U.N. General Assembly Resolution 181). The fact is that, as meager as the map that was then drawn of the Jewish homeland, the Jewish people accepted it, and the Arab states overwhelmingly rejected it.
The Hamas document describes Israel as “genocidal.” Genocide specifically entails “the commitment with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
As opposed to the events of Oct. 7, when Hamas attempted to infiltrate Israel’s south and had plans to conquer Tel Aviv, the Israel Defense Forces has taken several pains not to destroy the entire Palestinian entity within the Gaza Strip.
This includes phoning, texting, dropping leaflets, urging evacuation to safe areas, “roof-knocking” (a procedure involving a non-lethal munition warning occupants to vacate their building), in addition to specified evacuation sites, zones and humanitarian corridors.
The report opens with a gross misrepresentation of the historical record, saying that “The Oct. 7 flood was a legitimate military target.” The wholesale, barbaric slaughter, rape, burning, torture and seemingly endless confinement in the terror tunnels of Gaza of civilians—men, women and children—does not constitute “a legitimate military target” but the premeditated targeting of noncombatants.
The report also states that Israel specifically “targets hospitals, schools and journalists.” But it was known long before Oct. 7 that Hamas deceptively embeds its terrorist and military infrastructure in places where one would suspect the most innocent of civilians to gather, like hospitals, schools, mosques and U.N. facilities. Many of the journalists who have been killed knowingly placed themselves in active combat zones, and many of them had later been identified as members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Furthermore, many terrorists blur the lines between civilians and enemy combatants.
Another absurd claim is made ad nauseum that “Israel practices apartheid.” This systemically overlooks the fact that government members of the Knesset, Supreme Court judges, doctors, military officers and diplomats are Arab. All of the security measures implemented by the IDF and National Security Services are not based on race or religion, but on the nature of the security threat.
This rhetoric confuses the aggressor on Oct. 7 with the victim. It denies the inherent right of self-defense as recognized in Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.
It is essential to recognize that attempts to equate Israel’s security policies with systematic discrimination ignore the region’s broader context and the ongoing threats posed by militant groups. Such comparisons diminish the lived realities of Israelis and Palestinians, reducing a complex conflict to simplistic narratives. By distorting the facts, the Hamas document not only misleads its audience but also obstructs constructive dialogue and mutual understanding that are crucial for any future peace initiatives.
This document not only entirely distorts the truth but also fuels ongoing hostilities by framing acts of terrorism as justified responses. Such narratives hinder efforts toward peace and mutual recognition, further entrenching division and mistrust on both sides. It is essential to challenge these fabrications with factual historical context and a commitment to honest dialogue.
