Gaza protests and the vanishing orchestra

In recent weeks, demonstrations have erupted in Gaza. Scenes of people marching through rubble in protest took many by surprise. They started in Beit Lahia in the north of the strip, and then spread to Deir al Balah and Nuseirat in the center, and Khan Younis in the south.

The protests are certainly directed at the war and Israel, but, strikingly, there is also open anti-Hamas sentiment. “We are oppressed by the occupation army (Israel) and we are oppressed by Hamas,” one protester told CNN. “Hamas launched the October 7 operation, and today we are paying the price,” he added. One man in Beit Lahia said, “[Hamas’s] rule has destroyed us, killed us, and ruined our lives.” A crowd chanted, “out, Hamas, get out.” In several locations, people held anti-Hamas placards, such as “Hamas does not represent us.”

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Whether these protests can sustain and build momentum remains to be seen. However this situation develops, it is already a significant event. And yet, so many of the voices that never miss an opportunity to weigh in on Palestinian suffering have collapsed into silence on the matter.

Mehdi Hasan for instance, who speaks on TV and posts multiple times a day on X, had no comment on the protest. When Al Jazeera – usually among the first outlets to report on events in Gaza – could no longer ignore the situation, it mentioned the demonstrations, but avoided giving attention to the explicit anti-Hamas expressions. On the third day, coverage of the protests could not be found on their website’s homepage.

Some of the most vocal student-activist anti-Israel and ostensibly pro-Palestinian groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Within Our Lifetime, and Students for Justice in Palestine, retreated into silence on the topic. Code Pink, the feminist movement, who in January tried to link the LA fires to Israel, said nothing. Such was also the case for Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, and others. Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, had no comment.

The chorus of voices on social media who claim to advocate for Palestinian liberation has suddenly become the vanishing orchestra. JonnyUtd, for example, a toxic British anti-Israel influencer, was mute. When I asked for his comment, he replied, “Palestinians are allowed to support who they wish, it’s none of my business…” – despite the fact that 90% of his online content concerns Palestine. These examples represent a larger dynamic – one that repeatedly calls into question the notion that everyone who claims to be ‘pro-Palestinian’ is advocating in the interest of Palestinians.

Any honest observer – regardless of one’s views on Israel – should understand that Hamas has been disastrous for the Palestinian liberation cause. As Susie Linfield wrote after October 7, “The dire state of the Palestinian movement today suggests that there is an inverse relationship between the use of terror and the achievement of freedom.” Yet despite claiming to advocate for the well-being of Palestinians, many have failed to express support for those protesting against Hamas, one of the primary agents of Palestinian suffering and unfreedom.

This silence suggests that for many, it’s more about opposing Israel and supporting the ‘resistance’ narrative embodied in Hamas, even when it might directly clash with the well-being of Palestinians. This is nothing new. Hamza Howidy, for example, is an anti-Hamas Gazan among many who have encountered this dissonance.

In a 2024 Newsweek op-ed he argued that atrocities Hamas commits against Gazans are underreported in the West. “If their heart bleeds for Gaza, why are they not outraged at all of the violence that Gazans face – including the violence of Hamas?,” he wrote. Following its publication, Howidy, unsurprisingly, was labeled a “traitor,” a “kaffir,” a “genocidal Zionist,” a “Jew.” As in the case of the ongoing protests, the ‘solidarity’ of many evaporates when Palestinians express views that don’t align with the deeply ingrained fiction that all Palestinians see Hamas as their rightful champion.

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This is particularly evident among Western activists, who often treat Palestinians as a monolith – a people with a uniform mindset, eternally and exclusively defined by their opposition to Israel. The notion that some Palestinians might oppose Hamas, or that they might want a leadership that doesn’t drag them into one bloody catastrophe after another is too uncomfortable to process. Because once you acknowledge the (correct) claim – made by many Palestinians – that Hamas is detrimental to their future, then you need to start asking hard questions. About why people keep cheering on a group that shoots protesters in the street, tortures dissidents, and uses its own civilian population as a human shield. About why phrases like “silence is violence” and “listen to marginalized voices” don’t always apply. The holes in the grand narrative become visible.

As the Gazan-American activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib put it, “Take good notice of…who is with the people of Gaza VS. who is with a narrow narrative that merely uses the people of Gaza… all while undermining [their] interests…”

A tenet of social justice is “Your silence is deafening.” In the case of the protests in the Gaza Strip, this axiom holds true. Ostensible pro-Palestinian voices who stay silent are broadcasting a loud message indeed. It suggests that their advocacy and activism does not necessarily align with Palestinian well-being under certain conditions. But if there is ever to be real progress toward a better shared future for Israelis and Palestinians, it won’t come from the set of anti-Israel advocates who see Palestinians as nothing more than symbols in their ideological battles. It will come from Palestinians on the ground, in cooperation with their regional neighbors, including Israel. And it will come from those who value Palestinian lives more than they value a narrative.