Black Lives Matter and Palestinian Lives Matter. But for Hamas Palestinian Deaths Matter Much More.
Black lives matter. Full stop! The BLM movement is an important movement dealing with critical concrete issues facing African Americans today.
Palestinian lives also matter! Every Palestinian person deserves a safe life. Every Palestinian deserves to live the best life possible. The Palestinians deserve to have a country where they can live in dignity as first class citizens. The life of every Palestinian man, woman, child, and person matters very much!
Israeli oppression, occupation, and discrimination must stop! I fully believe it.
Do we agree?
Let’s now consider Palestinian deaths. Deaths from Israeli bombs, death from Israeli bullets, or even deaths from assassinations. Do these Palestinian deaths matter?
I argue that to Palestinian organizations such as Hamas, the deaths are worth much more than the lives.
Each such Palestinian death is a bonus point for Hamas, Jihad, or other extreme Palestinian movements. When these organizations engage in “battle” with Israel they actually strive for Palestinian deaths. It is part of their strategy!
They shoot rockets (randomly at Israeli civilians) directly out of heavily populated areas. They hide weapons and militants in heavily populated areas. They send young teenagers to battle (and in previous years as suicide bombers). They don’t take any effort to protect the population. And finally, they have a gloried name for each such death: Shahid.
For Hamas, every additional Shahid drives two key outcomes:
- More hatred within the Palestinians towards the Israelis.
- More international support for the Palestinian cause.
As I said, Palestinian Deaths Matter.
Going back to the noble BLM movement, remember that it is about lives. It is about people trying to live safely, equitably and fairly. Don’t the Palestinians also deserve such a movement? It certainly is not Hamas and it isn’t even the Palestinian Authority.
The sad fact is that as a nation, the Palestinians have repeatedly chosen death over life. They have repeatedly chosen to try and gain their sovereignty by extravagant means at the expense of the well-being, safety, and respect of their population. They have repeatedly invested resources into death machines instead of quality of life.
I believe that the Palestinian struggle is legitimate and true. But until they start to put “lives” as a priority, I believe that we’ll simply continue to see more of the same.