Wednesday, October 25, 2:00 PM EDT

Join Jim to discuss this week's column, Debunking “All Palestinians are Hamas” (portions of the article below; link to full article at bottom)

There have been too many comments from Israeli political, military, and religious leaders suggesting that all Palestinians are legitimate targets because they support Hamas or that they voted for them and are, therefore, guilty of that group’s many crimes.

The President of Israel said: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It's absolutely not true.” 

An Israeli Knesset member said: “The Children of Gaza brought it upon themselves.”

And the Minister of Defense described the current war this way: “We are fighting human animals.”

Statements of this kind, in which an entire group of people are demonized or seen as responsible for the actions of a few, are sheer bigotry. This is the very same racism that when applied to other groups (like Jews, Blacks, or Native Americans) has led to pogroms, persecution, or genocide…

…   Because we frequently poll across Palestine and Israel, we have data that can debunk that characterization. In our last poll in Gaza (July, 2023) only 11% identified themselves as Hamas supporters—as opposed to 32% who said they were with Fatah. Eleven percent hardly constitutes “all Palestinians…”

… justifying killing innocent Palestinian civilians because “all Palestinians are Hamas” and therefore responsible for their actions is both racist and unsupported by facts. By the way, it is the same despicable “logic” used who by those who justify killing innocent Israelis because of the hideous actions of their government and military.

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Read the full column: Debunking “All Palestinians are Hamas” (aaiusa.org)