Articles & Op-Eds

When I was 18, I attended a rally in support of Gaza in San Francisco during one of the wars between Israel and Hamas. I was soon identified by a news reporter as someone from Gaza whose entire family is still there, who asked me what I thought of rockets being fired at Israeli towns and cities.

Two peoples with past traumas and an intertwined fate: Why coexistence, justice and peace are the only way forward. Without warning, an Israeli air strike destroyed the five-story house in central Gaza City where I grew up last Friday. Almost 30 immediate and extended family members were inside.

I grew up in Gaza. Now I’m trying to expose Hamas as a disaster for the Palestinian people.

Ever since Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel and Israel's response in Gaza, there have been mass calls for a ceasefire coming from the Left, who have been pressuring President Biden to force Israel to give up its military operation to eradicate Hamas. On the flip side, Israel and its supporters have insisted that they must complete the mission and put an end to the terrorist regime.

Since the start of the current war between Israel and Hamas, Hamas has committed countless atrocities against its own people in Gaza. This was true even before the war. Yet somehow, despite the fact that Hamas has effectively kidnapped the Gaza strip and all its inhabitants and routinely terrorizes them, these crimes are never reported by Arabic media or western media, nor by global human rights organizations, all of which tend to portray Hamas as a legitimate resistance group who are trying to "liberate" the Palestinians.

Over the last two decades, Western activists have only made things worse for my people.

Protests are spreading across the United States at college campuses, where university students are gathering in the name of Palestinian rights and occupying campus spaces with tents. Sadly, not everyone who purports to support Palestinians is truly interested in safeguarding our rights.

I’m worried about the suffering of civilians right now—and the lack of a plan for a better future.