Hamas represents an “existential risk to the very existence of the Palestinian people” a leading Gazan-American writer and advocate for co-existence with Israel has warned.
Speaking at a Realign For Palestine (RFP) event hosted by the Atlantic Council, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib added:”Hamas has been a useful idiot to the far-right in Israel to just make our people vulnerable such that we are even talking about their potential expulsion on a regular basis.
“Hamas’s base was weaponised as a useful idiot to keep the Palestinaians politically divided, to keep the Palestinians away from realising the two-state solution.”
Alkhatib added:”That’s not blaming Israel for all of our problems. That is simply saying Hamas was very valuable for some of the extremists in Israel. That alone should delegitimize Hamas, that alone should make it worthy of contempt, worthy of being completely rejected.”
Realign For Palestine (RFP) is a first-of-its-kind project that elevates pragmatic Palestinian voices committed to nonviolence, coexistence, and a two-nation solution.
It aims to redefine pro-Palestine advocacy by amplifying Palestinian voices that reject armed resistance narratives and extremist ideologies in favor of constructive solutions that lead to a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
Appearing at last Friday’s event alongside Alkhatib, was Kamal Mashharawi, a 25 year-old who had worked for his family’s solar company in Gaza City, before managing to escape the region as Israel responded to Hamas attacks of October 7 2023.
Also determined to advocate for peaceful resolution to the deadly conflict, the pair both agreed that pro-Palestinian activism elsewhere in globe often had a damaging effect on those it was seeking to help, particularly through support for Hamas and calls for “armed resistence” as the only way forwards.
Speaking at the event in America, Mashharawi said:”Basically a lot of these people are either born here or born outside of Palestine.
“They have never seen how armed resistance never served any mission in the entire world.
“I think most major conflicts in the entire world were solved by diplomacy and negotiation – in Northern Ireland .. South Africa and other places in the world.”
He bemoaned the fact that instead, pro-Palestine activists outside of Gaza and the West Bank had been “not only supporting armed resistance, but also promoting radical and extremist ideologies that don’t actually serve the Palestinian cause.
“And a lot of it is based on misinformation and a lot of misunderstanding of what the Palestinian conflict is about.”
He added:”Having armed resistance in the form of Hamas or other groups, is basically destroying all the goals that we have.”
Alkhatib also noted:”The further away you go from Gaza and the West Bank, the more likely you will see support for the ideology of armed resistance….
“If you don’t have to deal with the consequences of life under Hamas it’s easy to be pro-resistance.”
Moderating the well-received event Merissa Khurma, who previously served as director of the Office of Jordan’s Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein, noted a recently published poll of Palestinians in Gaza that saw support for Hamas as low as six per cent of the population.
Alkhatib grew up in Gaza City, having left in 2005 as an exchange student to the United States. He has lost 32 family members in the current Israel-Gaza war, but has continued to advocate for co-existence.
Last December he appeared at a Jewish News backed event in London, in conversation with our columnist Josh Glancy at JW3.
