While The Echo article ‘Fighting for survival in Israel – Gaza conflict’ manages to capture some of the key points in this ongoing tragedy, it falls abysmally short in its portrayal of Hamas, and contradicts the political nature and values of many people who live in this area, who subscribe to progressive leaning politics.
Hamas are political fundamentalist Islamists, who are undemocratic and whose objectives do not align with achieving a genuine democratic independent free Palestinian state, but a theocratic state governed by Sharia law.
‘Hamas just has one ‘no’ – no to the existence of Israel’: Osama Hamdan, Hamas Political Bureau member, 11 October 2023.
After Hamas took power in Gaza their police began to harass women who were walking on the streets and beaches with unrelated men. Women were stopped from using male hairdressers and were prevented from smoking in public.
In 2018 Hamas stopped a ballet school opening and banned the launch of a women’s television station. In 2021 a Hamas court decreed that women would need the permission of a male guardian to travel. In 2022 street music was banned.
Under Hamas, education is segregated and women are expected to wear the hijab in educational and legal settings. Male teachers are prevented from teaching girls.
World Bank data (2023) suggested that only 18 per cent of women in the Palestinian Territories are in work (and the big majority of those were in the West Bank). There is no law against violence against women within marriage. Divorce and inheritance law discriminate against women.
This issue is a stark reminder that it does mean that ‘your enemy’s enemy is not your friend’. Hamas in this case, represents a dreadful departure towards authoritarian Palestinian government.
This unprecedented war needs to be won by both Israeli and Palestinian people – like the Arab/Israeli movement ‘Standing Together’ – demanding a just and equitable peace for both Israeli and Palestinians.
This, like anywhere, where the need to defeat regressive and reactionary ideas and politics taking hold, can only be achieved by mass mobilisation, building critical mass, and progressive collective action with political struggle.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
