🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
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.
Even for people who truly care about Palestinians, it's something of an agonizing choice between living in a state of war or living under a brutal dictatorial terrorist regime. There is no clear or easy answer as to which is best for Palestinians in Gaza.
As a Gazan who wants what's best for my people, it's clear that the plan following Israel's military campaign is as important. Some have suggested coordination between Fatah and Hamas, while others have suggested ceding Gaza entirely to the Palestinian Authority.
To me, it's clear that what's necessary is a new governing body that has a plan for disarming Hamas and for ensuring that the people of Gaza have basic freedoms—and access to information not controlled by Hamas propaganda. This is the only way to ensure that Gazans are liberated not only from Israel's military bombardment but from the savage rule of Hamas.
The truth acknowledged by those of us who actually care about Palestinians—rather than those only pretending to—is that since its inception, Hamas has been one of the primary causes of Palestinian suffering. The group has sabotaged every chance at a peace treaty between Palestinians and Israelis—through the role they played opposing the Oslo Accords or their role in the Second Intifada, in which they terrorized Israeli civilian society, or by criminalizing any attempt to reach reconciliation to end this longstanding conflict and committing crimes against other Palestinian political parties and dissenting Palestinians like myself.
After Hamas launched its civil war against Fatah in Gaza in 2007, many countries attempted to act as intermediaries between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, including Saudi Arabia, which invited Hamas and P.A. leadership to Mekkah, the holiest place for Muslims, and signed a reconciliation agreement. But just a few weeks later, Hamas refused to carry out its side of the agreement, and instead hijacked the Gaza Strip, brutally murdering and torturing any opposition.
Following that, various Arab nations, notably Egypt, Algeria, and Qatar, attempted to broker a reconciliation between Hamas and the P.A., until Hamas attacked the P.A. convoy led by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah as it entered Gaza to reach an agreement in 2018, and Hamas' interior minister, Fathi Hammad, made it clear: "No reconciliation with the secularists," destroying any hope to change the status quo for the Palestinians.
Hamas has not changed its mind. News sources like to talk about Ismael Hanniyeh negotiating, but the schisms within Hamas are clear, and the final decision lies with Hamas' leadership in Gaza and their patrons in Tehran, and the Gaza branch of Hamas has made it clear many times that they will not step down from governing Gaza after the war. When the P.A. sent employees to coordinate aid distribution, Hamas attacked and killed some of them, as they did with other tribal members who attempted to coordinate the entry and distribution of aid with the IDF.
Mustafa Barghouti, who serves as General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, has also called for unity between Hamas and Fatah as the path to freedom, even though both are separately denying Palestinians our freedom. Do those calling for reconciliation not realize that if Hamas joined the P.A. under the PLO umbrella, that would give Hamas more influence in the West Bank, thus imposing a bigger threat to both Palestinian and Israeli society?
But fully supporting Hamas's political opponent, Fatah, also isn't the solution. P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas is unpopular with Arab leaders and is viewed as an impediment to Palestinian progress—as much as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government.
The Palestinian Authority is riddled with corruption and tyranny. The P.A. routinely jails political dissenters, including people who simply post criticism of Abu Mazen on social media. Abu Mazen has exploited the fate of 2.4 million Gazans as a negotiating tool to secure concessions in the West Bank while being too cowardly to make any proposals about dismantling what is left of Hamas or how the P.A. would avoid a Hezbollah scenario in Gaza, in which the P.A. takes on the role of governing the strip while Hamas and other jihadist groups serve as a militia that will eventually lead to another civil war among the Palestinians, or another war with Israel.
The only real option is to hand over control of Gaza for an interim period to a completely rebuilt Palestinian Authority, with the assistance and supervision of the international community. But before assigning that role to the P.A., it must be pressured to submit a proposal to dismantle what remains of Hamas. The P.A. must also commit to putting an end to the so-called "Pay for Slay" program in which the P.A. pays for martyrs, prisoners, and their families. Instead, it must commit to investing this money in welfare programs to put an end to the aid dependency status that has spread throughout Palestinian society.
This new governing body should be controlled by its sponsors to ensure that it will begin to deradicalize Gazan society and supervise the NGOs to execute their tasks without being stopped by Hamas members. And it must ensure that Gazans have access to information that is not controlled by Hamas propaganda.
This is how you truly liberate both Israelis and Palestinians from the threat of Hamas.
What scares the Gazans the most is the thought that the day after the war is ended, the totalitarian and tyrannical regime of Hamas will still have power, and will punish all the dissenters who criticized Hamas for gambling away the lives of the Gaza—as Hamas has promised to do.
Replacing Hamas with another authoritarian regime like Fatah is no answer.
It's crucial to provide protection for people who have publicly dissented and criticized Hamas during this war, and to protect their families and friends. International protection for free voices in Gaza is the only way to a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Freedom of speech, inquiry, assembly, and protest are the rights that come before all other progress. It is these rights which will enable us to promote, develop, and protect peace—through local Gaza communities capable of taking the lead following the interim period of rebuilding Gaza and deciding our own fate in the near future.
The major Palestinian parties will most likely have influence in Gaza following the conflict; thus, safeguards must be put in place to prevent unscrupulous and aggressive power brokers from crushing us and impeding progress.
Hamza Howidy is a Palestinian from Gaza City. He is an accountant and a peace advocate.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
