Do pro-Palestinian protesters aim to help Palestinians?
The latest Global Sumud Flotilla debacle, following a weekend of Nakba Day protests, raises important questions about the aims of the pro-Palestine international.
While Gaza flotilla events usually follow a mundane routine of interception, brief detention, and swift deportation, the cohort of sailing enthusiasts intercepted earlier this week were subjected to unusually cruel treatment normally reserved for Palestinian security detainees in Israeli prisons: they had their hands tied behind their backs and were forced to crouch on the ground. Meanwhile, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir taunted them, waving an Israeli flag. This humiliating episode was recorded and circulated on social media by Ben-Gvir himself, as well as Transportation Minister Miri Regev, and was so clearly malicious and deeply stupid that both Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued statements condemning it, with the former saying that Ben-Gvir “knowingly caused harm to Israel with this disgraceful display” and the latter saying that “the way that Minister Ben Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms.”
Israeli journalists and left-wing politicians were quick to point out the hypocrisy of these statements. Ben-Gvir – a convicted criminal who has overseen soaring murder rates and promoted a racist death penalty law – had been appointed by Netanyahu, and Sa’ar himself had helped cement the coalition and represented it as Foreign Minister. From overseeing October 7 to committing mass atrocities in Gaza to supporting settler violence, among many other things, Ben-Gvir’s treatment of foolish but harmless activists with pointless and public cruelty may not be in line with Israel’s values, but is firmly in line with the values of the current government.
But this is not new. The feeble statements by the Israeli government do little to mitigate overwhelming evidence of how much the coalition supports widespread cruelty and violence, both in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories. Ben-Gvir, Sa’ar, Netanyahu, as well as a host of other horrible officials regularly advocate for cruelty and violence towards Palestinians, Arabs, anti-government protesters, Israel’s judiciary, and anyone they deem an enemy of their agenda. Now, foreign activists – or, in the words of government ministers, “terrorists” – have also been targeted.
But, still, one wonders what the point of the sail-to-Gaza spectacle is. The Global Sumud Flotilla claims that it “aims to break Israel’s illegal siege and deliver life-saving humanitarian aid… and also to establish a sustained civilian presence.” First of all, the flotilla boats are very small; they are unlikely to carry significant amounts of aid. More importantly, the activists knew they would be caught and detained, as others had been before them. They knew they would not be allowed to reach Gaza, and would probably be subjected to derision or humiliating treatment, as others had been in the past.
So why do it? One reason could be to somehow further tarnish Israel’s reputation by exposing mistreatment of detained foreign activists. But, in this respect, they were one-upped by the National Security Minister himself, who revels in his coalition’s unabashed cruelty. At this point, there is little to expose. Another reason could be that the flotilla aims to shed light on the suffering caused by Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Yet, arguably, there is a lot of attention paid to conditions in Gaza, much more than pretty much any conflict zone in recent years, including the ongoing Russo-Ukraine war. Much less attention is paid to why Israel maintains, and continues to justify, a strict and often inhumane blockade: Hamas, which remains powerful and active despite the two-year Gaza war.
Hamas is a cruel Islamic militia which in its 1988 covenant enshrines the principle of eternal jihad against Zionists, normalizing and justifying violence against Jews and Israelis. It committed unspeakable atrocities on October 7, 2023, and continues to use violence to oppress Palestinians in Gaza. There is no questioning that the blockade causes immense suffering to Palestinians, similar to how Western sanctions cause suffering for Iranians, or Afghanis. But so long as there is a militant Hamas in Gaza, there will be a blockade.
But the international left does not bother to mention Hamas’ contribution to Palestinian suffering, or condemn it. Instead, it glorifies anti-Israel militias: according to the Anti-Defamation League, in the Nakba Day protests across the United States over the weekend, participants chanted “death to Zionists,” flew Hamas, Hezbollah and PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) flags, and raised signs and even wore shorts praising the October 7 Hamas massacre. The New York City Nakba Day protest featured a giant Hezbollah flag. Both Hamas and Hezbollah receive extensive funding from the Iranian regime, with the explicit aim of destroying Israel – not helping Palestinians. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah have any stated interest in ensuring basic rights or dignified living conditions for the Palestinian people. This is not their goal. Their goal is, well, “death to Zionists.”
The promulgation of these groups, alongside pointless publicity stunts like the flotilla, begs the question of what so-called pro-Palestinian activists aim to do: help Palestinians, or support the campaign of violent militias to kill Israelis, or Jews, and destroy Israel? The two are vastly different. There is no question that the current Israeli government is vile. Many Israelis agree with this, and much of the documentation of settler violence and other atrocities is carried out by Israeli human rights organizations. But to support Hamas and Hezbollah, and ignore the contribution of such militias to the conflict and the suffering it causes, is to spit in the face of these organizations and admit that eliminating Israel is more important than ensuring Palestinians – or anyone else in the region – can live a dignified life. What good does that do?
