RUTHFULLY YOURS

An overwhelming majority of the Palestinians (87%) believe that the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas did not commit atrocities against Israeli civilians, including women and children, on October 7, 2023, according to a public opinion poll conducted in early May by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

When asked if Hamas had committed the atrocities seen in the videos shown by international media displaying the acts committed by Hamas members against Israelis in their homes on that day, these Palestinians said the group did not commit such atrocities, while only 9% said it did.

The poll, conducted in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, shows that many Palestinians are living in denial, and trying to protect themselves from a truth that is apparently too painful for them to accept: that many Palestinians support terrorism and that most of the victims of the October 7 massacre were innocent civilians.

This, despite the fact that many of the Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7, murdering 1,200 people and injuring thousands, used GoPro cameras and cellphones to document the attack. Many of the crimes were also documented by Israeli security cameras, car dashboard cameras, traffic cameras and first responders.

During the attack, a Hamas terrorist used an Israeli woman’s cellphone to call his parents: “Father, I just killed 10 Jews, their blood is in my hands, thank God. Tell mom, your son is killing Jews.”

CNN reported on October 26, 2023:

“At least a half-dozen of the [Hamas] militants who breached the Gaza border and attacked Israeli communities had cameras strapped to their bodies, in an apparent attempt to collect propaganda material during the incursion….

“The videos, some of which have been posted to social media, provide a harrowing first-person view of the Hamas fighters’ final hours of life, and the death and destruction they caused during their unprecedented assault. They show the slaughter of civilians, indiscriminate shooting in Israeli communities, and the taking of hostages — clear evidence of war crimes that undermines Hamas’ claims that its fighters did not enter Israel with the intent of killing civilians.”

A few weeks after October 7, 2023, a poll published by the same center showed that 72% of the Palestinian public believe that Hamas’s decision to launch the attack was “correct.” The poll, in addition, showed that support for Hamas has more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months earlier. In the Gaza Strip, support for Hamas increased from 38% before the October 7 massacre to 42%.

The latest poll also shows that an overwhelming majority of the Palestinians (85% in the West Bank and 64% in the Gaza Strip) oppose disarming Hamas to stop the war with Israel. When asked whether they support or oppose the eviction of some Hamas military leaders from the Gaza Strip as a condition for stopping the war, 65% said they oppose it, while 31% expressed support for their removal. When asked which political party they support, the largest percentage (32%) said they prefer Hamas, followed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction (21%). Thirty-four percent said they do not support any of them or do not know.

If new PA parliamentary elections were held today, 43% of the Palestinians said they would vote for Hamas, 28% for Fatah, eight percent for third parties, and 19% have not decided yet. The last parliamentary elections, held in 2006, resulted in a Hamas victory. A year later, Hamas staged a violent coup against the PA and seized full control of the Gaza Strip.

The results of the recent poll show that most Palestinians are not only in living in denial regarding the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, but that they continue to support a terror group that has brought death and destruction on tens of thousands of the residents of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians who are saying that they are unaware of Hamas’s October 7 atrocities against Israelis are either engaged in self-deception or influenced by Hamas’s venomous propaganda machine, including the Qatar-owned Al-Jazeera TV network, which has long been serving as the terror group’s unofficial mouthpiece. Notably, according to several polls, Al-Jazeera is the most watched TV station in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Sadly, the Palestinians’ widespread support for Hamas, especially in the aftermath of the October 7 carnage, shows that many continue to support the group’s terrorism and call for the destruction of Israel. Their strong support is the direct result of decades of universal Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews. The incitement finds expression in schools, the media, mosques, even in crossword puzzles, as well as the rhetoric of Palestinian leaders and officials.

This ever-present incitement is why it is hard to find Palestinians who are prepared to condemn, let alone acknowledge, the October 7 atrocities against Israelis. This incitement is also why it would not be a good idea to hold general elections in the PA: it is clear – according to the polls – that the Palestinians still do not consider it a mistake they made when, in 2006, most of them voted for Hamas.

If, according to the polls, most Palestinians are saying that they want Hamas to keep its weapons and remain in power in the Gaza Strip, it means they want the terror group to carry out more atrocities against Israel and Jews. If the Palestinians are saying that they prefer Hamas over any other Palestinian party, it means that they do not support any peaceful settlement with Israel. It means that the Palestinians want to see Israel obliterated and replaced by an Islamist state, armed and funded by Iran and its other terror proxies, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

One can only hope that the Trump administration and other international parties will read the results of the Palestinian polls to get a better understanding of what many Palestinians really want: to murder as many Jews as possible and displace Israel.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.