As Palestine is openly genocided — as its children, hospitals, food, and water are destroyed — people are expected to condemn Hamas. Hamas, the force defending Palestine. The force fighting the colonizers in open battle, while Empire hides behind jets and computer screens. Why on Earth would I condemn Hamas? Do you think I write about anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism for clout?

I support Hamas. I hope they win. More power to them.

Why I Don’t Condemn

The western media just says the word ‘Hamas’, says nothing at all about them, and expects its racially conditioned audience to just bark along. They just say the world ‘Hamas’ and we’re expected to be scared because it’s Muslim sounding. I have been told to fear Muslims my entire adult life, while imperial troops kill, rape, torture, and steal ‘because’. I refuse to believe that bullshit anymore. Muslim people living in the land of the prophet are not the problem. The godless colonizers trying to steal their resources underneath are. Hamas being an Islamic organization is not something to be scared of. Islam is good. It’s a plus.

For an illustration of how dumb and desperate the demonization has got, just look at the Israeli IOF spokesman pointing to a wall calendar and saying it’s a terrorism schedule. All the paper says is the week in Arabic. That’s how stupid they think you are. Even after this was obviously debunked, the CNN still ran the vile propaganda against hospitals, because, again, that’s how stupid they think you are. I, for one, refuse to be led round like a Pavlovian dog, salivating for blood over the same racist refrain, over and over. I’ve heard this one before, haven’t you? It’s the sound of millions of people screaming out in terror, and a massive media machine trying to silence them forever.

I also refuse to condemn Hamas because of their October 7th attack on Israel. That’s like condemning the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion. You shouldn’t and I won’t. I’m with the people in the concentration camp, not the guards. The Al Aqsa Flood was a military hit against an occupying army and the Palestinians — and only the Palestinians — have a right to self-defense. The Al Aqsa Flood was a disciplined attack, killing many military personnel and zero babies. No physical proof of rape has been offered at all, because it didn’t happen. Hamas did take hostages to exchange for the thousands held by Israel, which is certainly scary, but that’s war. Israel, in its wild response, has actually killed those hostages just as it killed its own civilians on October 7th, bombing its own positions and strafing everyone out of pure cowardice and incompetence. I don’t condemn the Al Aqsa Flood. It was a righteous hit on the most evil colony of the most evil Empire ever. I’m with the rebels, not the Death Star.

I especially reject the demand to condemn Hamas, based on the source. The Western media, which has backed every imperial war forever, has no place lecturing anyone on ethics. They’re openly inciting genocide against Palestinians right now and should be shut down. These privatized propaganda outlets are no neutral arbiters of truth. They are professional liars, part and parcel of the imperial war machine. They, too, are on the wrong side of genocide. Inciting it and selling advertising atop. They have all the screens in the world and can’t find a mirror. Hence, when it comes to all the demands to ‘condemn Hamas’, consider the source. Europeans and Americans (who I collectively call White Empire) want to invade every country and spread weapons across the globe, and then act like the natives are the problem for resisting. What patent nonsense. The Empire is lucky that the colonized and abused do not actually want revenge, that we simply want to be left alone.

People ask ‘what would happen without imperial control’ and the answer is ‘fuck off.’ None of your business. Whatever’s going wrong, the worst people in the world aren’t helping. They should just go home and ruin their own countries. The global majority is right to push them off, and Palestinians are the bravest of us all, with their backs against the wall, and no other choice. They have the right to fight to free themselves, by any means necessary. Including armed resistance. The empire is evil and, most important, weak, so now is the time for revolt.

Why I Support

Not condemning, however, is not the same as supporting. I support Hamas because through action and through words, they have shown themselves reasonable. I support them because they are defending the Palestinian people against an open genocide (which did not start on October 7th) and are fighting the entire White Empire, on behalf of all of us.

Hamas is not some perfect organization, and they’re not necessarily the government for me, but that’s the point, isn’t it? The point is not government for me, it’s governance for the Palestinians. I support Hamas because I support the Palestinian right to exist on their own land, which is what Hamas is fighting for. They are a liberation organization, and they have to have an Army. Last time there was a non-violent protest, Israel just mowed the people down, taking specially glee in aiming for the kneecaps, to disable people forever. Like so many revolutionaries, Hamas has been pushed into taking up the gun, to defend themselves. Who am I to tell them to put it down? If an occupier was doing what Israel does to your family, what would you do? I certainly won’t support the cause and condemn the fighting. How useless and contemptible. As Saffouri01 said, “whoever is in solidarity with our corpses but not our rockets, is a hypocrite and not one of us.”

The Hamas Charter

If you read anything about Hamas, they are by far the reasonable parties compared to Israel and America. People say ‘read the Hamas charter!’ and so I have. Read it for yourself. It’s eminently reasonable. I will highlight a few sections here.

Palestine is stolen land

Palestine is the cause of a people who have been let down by a world that fails to secure their rights and restore to them what has been usurped from them, a people whose land continues to suffer one of the worst types of occupation in this world.

Palestine is a land that was seized by a racist, anti-human and colonial Zionist project that was founded on a false promise (the Balfour Declaration), on recognition of a usurping entity and on imposing a fait accompli by force.

Palestine symbolises the resistance that shall continue until liberation is accomplished, until the return is fulfilled and until a fully sovereign state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.

What is wrong here? This is all true. Palestine was seized as a racist, colonial project, as the Zionists that did it openly admitted. As David Ben Gurion, the founder of Israel said:

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and stolen their country. Why would they accept that?” — David Ben-Gurion, founder the Israeli state [Excerpt from “The Jewish Paradox” by Nahum Goldman (January 1, 1978)]

Perhaps one could say that it’s now too late, and that by this logic America, Canada, and Australia are all stolen and should be given back, and the Europe should be made to pay. To that I say, don’t threaten me with a good time. One day, inshallah. One day all colonizers will fall, and the land will return to those that defend it and keep it from harm. As the charter says, “Hamas also condemns all forms of colonialism, occupation, discrimination, oppression and aggression in the world.” I agree with that all.

Palestine is not an ‘Islamist’ state

It’s weird that Palestine, surrounded by religious states, is supposed to be some bastion of diversity, but Hamas actually upholds that value. They say:

The Palestinian people are one people, made up of all Palestinians, inside and outside of Palestine, irrespective of their religion, culture or political affiliation.

In practice, Christians have served as representatives in the one Hamas government. Hamas centers their movement around that divine inspiration, but doesn’t impose it. As the charter says:

By virtue of its justly balanced middle way and moderate spirit, Islam — for Hamas — provides a comprehensive way of life and an order that is fit for purpose at all times and in all places. Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. It provides an umbrella for the followers of other creeds and religions who can practice their beliefs in security and safety. Hamas also believes that Palestine has always been and will always be a model of coexistence, tolerance and civilizational innovation.

If this is Islamism, it’s the Islam of the Prophet’s (pbuh) days, and of most of Muslim history. Islamism without the scare quotes, because it’s not scary at all. This sort of Islam is a force for great good and is to be admired.

Hamas is not going to kill the Jews

Hamas has no actual beef with the Jews but with Zionism. As they say, antisemitism is western guilt, weaponized and imposed on a people that had nothing to do with it. As the charter says:

16. Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.

17. Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, anti-Semitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage. The Zionist movement, which was able with the help of Western powers to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine.

This is also absolutely correct. The White Empire attempts to dump all of its Holocaust guilt on Palestine, which had fuck-all to do with it. The imposition of Israel is classic divide and conquer, setting one population against another, while actually looking down on both of them. Americans openly refer to Israel as their ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ because that’s all they are to them. It’s just a colonial weapon, holding up a gas station.

I especially agree with the Hamas statement that “The Zionist movement, which was able with the help of Western powers to occupy Palestine, is the most dangerous form of settlement occupation which has already disappeared from much of the world and must disappear from Palestine.” To me, it is absolutely craven to support decolonization in the abstract and then to reject it where it’s actually being fought for, in Palestine.

Hamas is not-totalitarian

The ignorant western perception is that everyone else is totalitarian, and only they are free. Meanwhile, in the US and UK (among others), they have two parties, both of them genocidal. America’s choices this election are Hitler and 99% Hitler. Most of the western population actually supports a ceasefire, but you wouldn’t know from their politicians, who are bought and paid for. Contrast this to the dreaded Hamas:

28. Hamas believes in, and adheres to, managing its Palestinian relations on the basis of pluralism, democracy, national partnership, acceptance of the other and the adoption of dialogue. The aim is to bolster the unity of ranks and joint action for the purpose of accomplishing national goals and fulfilling the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

30. Hamas stresses the necessity of building Palestinian national institutions on sound democratic principles, foremost among them are free and fair elections. Such process should be on the basis of national partnership and in accordance with a clear programme and a clear strategy that adhere to the rights, including the right of resistance, and which fulfil the aspirations of the Palestinian people.

Hamas has won the last elections held in Gaza, before the US, Israel, and the comprador PA got hissy and shut that concept down. By their own charter they are committed to democratic institutions, though I personally don’t think this even necessary. Just do the right thing for your people. But I digress. As you can see, Hamas is often more liberal than I am.

Hamas can compromise

One interesting and somewhat labored passage is about the acceptance of Israel. Hamas both says “There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity” and yet also recognizes compromise. They continue:

20. Hamas believes that no part of the land of Palestine shall be compromised or conceded, irrespective of the causes, the circumstances and the pressures and no matter how long the occupation lasts. Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.

Now, I actually think this goes too far, but at the time it was politically wise. They’re not giving up on the right belief in a completely free Palestine, but they were willing to compromise.

At this point — given the second Nakba and open genocidal violence of Israel — I do not think a two-state solution is possible. Israel can no more be lived with than the Nazi regime or apartheid South Africa. Israel attacks all its neighbors, genocides the natives, and is an affront to humanity everywhere. It (the state) simply has to go. But that’s my opinion which, as you can see, is more ‘extreme’ than even the Hamas Charter.

Decolonization Now

It’s crazy, to me, that decolonization is as controversial and often illegal as it ever was. The colonial powers will acknowledge they’re on stolen land… but never give it back. If you dare resist, they’ll genocide you again. To understand how corrupt the calls to condemn Hamas are, again just look at the source. This is what westerners don’t understand. The ‘world’ doesn’t condemn Hamas, just your twisted part of it.

The countries that ‘recognize’ Hamas as a ‘terrorist’ organization are the worst countries on Earth. They actually need to STFU and sit the rest of the century out. These are countries that almost completely genocided the native populations (Canada, Australia, America), the countries that started colonization (Europe), and places that are effectively occupied (Egypt, Japan). These people are the terror, they have no place designating anyone else as a problem. This is the White Empire doing what White Empire does, designating every slave rebellion and anti-colonial movement as ‘savage’, and unleashing industrial savagery in response. Fuck all these people. I condemn them.

While Empire makes everything about abstractions like violence vs. non-violence, what what they are really fighting for is their monopoly of violence over the globe. Not enough people question what American troops are doing in Syria, or Iraq, or Qatar, or Egypt, or Japan, or Korea, or the over 700 bases they occupy.

The fact is that this foreign Empire has no right to self-defense in Syria, Iraq, Palestine or anywhere else, a fact well established under international law. Only the mythical ‘rules-based order’ says their tyrannical rule must never be questioned, and certainly never resisted. But question you should. And resist we must do. At the least, if you’re not doing it, don’t condemn the people that do.

Consider what that means, in practice. You condemn the genocide, and the people fighting against it, leading to what exactly? The genocide continues, with your thoughts and prayers attached? What bullshit. That’s why I support Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and everyone resisting the White Empire. Imperialism is not something I just write about, it’s something which actively hurts my people and people all over the world. The natives are restless and if that makes you restless, then good. I refuse to condemn Hamas. I support the resistance, with Hamas right on the vanguard. More power to them. May the wretched White Empire choke on the indomitable spirit of Palestine and finally, finally, fall.