Pro-Hamas activists trying to ‘out-Palestine Palestinians’ amid terror group’s ‘normalisation’

A prominent Gazan writer has decried the ‘normalisation’ of terror group Hamas across Western societies and how university campuses had become ‘infected’ by hard-left activists trying to ‘out-Palestine Palestinians’.

Hamas fighters secure an area in Gaza City on Saturday during the transfer of hostages to the Red Cross. Picture: AFP

A prominent Gazan writer has decried the “normalisation” of terror group Hamas across Western societies – comparing pro-Palestine protests lauding the militants akin to waving the al-Qa’ida flag after 9/11 – and how university campuses had become “infected”, propelled by hard-left activists trying to “out-Palestine Palestinians”.

Political analyst and writer Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a resident senior fellow at US think tank the Atlantic Council, has emerged in the past 16 months as a prominent voice in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

While lamenting Israel’s devastation of the enclave, the Palestinian-American, whose family is from Gaza and who spent much of his childhood there, has consistently criticised Hamas’s role in its destruction, saying he was “extraordinarily disturbed” at the normalisation of the terror group and the left’s appropriation of it as legitimate “resistance”.

“I have been appalled by the qualitative and quantitative degradation of the Palestinian national project, and the infestation of the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for statehood, dignity and self-determination, by this normalisation of Hamas,” Mr Alkhatib told The Australian from his Washington DC home.

“(Hamas) is a terrorist Islamist organisation that may not be like for like with the Islamic State, (but) there is a certain core element of Hamas that is indistinguishable from ISIS.

“It would be akin to if after 9/11 people were out in the streets promoting Osama bin Laden and al-Qa’ida as freedom fighters.”

Mr Alkhatib’s criticism comes after a year in which terrorist flags were openly waved in Australian state capitals, Hamas death symbols tagged on MPs’ offices, and anti-Semitic attacks targeted the Jewish community.

And it follows rampant anti-Semitism at Australian universities, with University of Melbourne academic Marcia Langton accusing bosses of failing to call police when criminal activity occurred and allowing “anti-Semitic protagonists” to hijack campuses.

Political analyst and writer Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a resident senior fellow at US think tank the Atlantic Council.

“The right to resist has been translated to that you can kill, rape, pillage, kidnap and invade with no boundaries,” Mr Alkhatib said.

Anthony Albanese on Monday reiterated that Hamas could play no role in a future Palestinian state, of which the Australian government’s recognition would be partly contingent on the group’s dissolution and a move that would not happen before the federal election.

Mr Alkhatib – a strong voice against Israel’s Gaza occupation and who has lost about 30 family members in the Strip during the war – blamed an “organised campaign to infect” campuses, student groups, demonstrations and certain media outlets to “embrace” Hamas as the only “defender of the Palestinian people”.

“Never mind the fact that Hamas triggered this whole catastrophe and then hid underground, leaving Palestinians to their own fate,” Mr Alkhatib said.

He criticised the Netanyahu government and its military response in Gaza, but also “grifters” who sought to attach themselves to a cause.

“You have people who have become ‘spokespeople’ for the Palestinian movement … who have used intellectual gymnastics to obscure Hamas,” Mr Alkhatib said.

“ ‘I will criticise Hamas, but I’m not going to tell the Palestinians how to resist’ – it’s the biggest fraudulent, leftist academic pseudo-intellectual talking point.

“Non-Palestinians trying to ‘out-Palestinian actual Palestinians’ is a very dangerous dynamic that has emerged.”

Reflecting on Australia’s grappling with the conflict’s domestic ramifications, Mr Alkhatib said there must be “consequences” for anti-Semites and those who espoused the terror group, and a stronger counter-narrative pushed by political, educational and community leaders.

“Try pulling that shit (supporting terror groups, anti-Semitic attacks) off in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates, or some other Muslim countries,” he said.

“There needs to be a counter-narrative that holds multiple truths, (which) is not pro-Palestine or pro-Israel in the dogmatic way.”

Red Cross staff sign a document with a Hamas fighter in Gaza City as they prepare to receive four Israeli hostages on Saturday. Picture: AFP

The normalisation of Hamas in the vocal pro-Palestine movement, Mr Alkhatib said, had drowned out moderate Muslim voices.

“It prevented them from coming out and saying: ‘I’m not down with Hamas, I’m upset with Israeli policies and what they’re doing, I’m furious at Netanyahu, but I’m not okay with anti-Semitism and nor am I happy with (Hamas) taking women and children as hostages’,” he said.

“And moderates are never going to be in the numerical majority. It’s far more intriguing to talk about turning the world upside down.”

Of scenes in Gaza across the past two weekends, when Hamas fighters handed over the first Israeli hostages, Mr Alkhatib criticised the group’s projection of victory.

“Hamas was attempting to sell a victory to Gazans, who don’t feel victorious but utter anger for what they’ve been through,” he said.

“I feel bad for the people of Gaza, who – due to ignorance and a lack of alternatives – are still cheering on the very group who has brought this (war) upon them.

“And I’m far more empathetic to those people, because they’re isolated. I’m a lot less charitable to the idiots in the West who should know better and who don’t have the risk that Gazans face.”

Mr Alkhatib said it would be years before a feasible alternative to Hamas could emerge, comparing it to the political vacuum in a place such as North Korea, and noting how other war-torn regions had taken bigger strides to stability and statehood.

“Despite billions of dollars and our own United Nations agency, Gaza is further away from stability and statehood,” he said.

“We’re approaching the 20-year anniversary of the withdrawal of Israeli settlements. What is there to show for billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives wasted? Absolutely nothing.”