Dominating the news headlines this week on the Israel-Hamas war have been the calls for a ceasefire and for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza (aka Hamas’s hands), to end the suffering of Gazan civilians. Somewhere in the middle of these headlines are images and interviews of several Israeli hostages – out of the 222 – released by the Hamas terrorists, albeit with provisions of monetary compensation. These headlines resonate strongly in the West where every human life is sacred and suffering must be avoided at all costs.

Given this sentiment, it is hard to believe that there are hundreds of thousands of people across Europe, the UK, America, and Australia, that continue to show their support for Hamas’ atrocities committed in the name of the Palestinian cause. For these people, this was not murder, this was not suffering – this was a justified attack against Israelis, the Jews, as punishment for their ‘occupation and oppression’ of the Palestinian people.

This then begs the question that I for one have been asking myself over and over since October 7:

• How many years of oppression does it take for someone to celebrate the raping of women?
• How many years of oppression does it take for someone to celebrate the torturing of babies?
• How many years of oppression does it take for someone to celebrate the murder of children in front of their parents?

Hamas terrorists wore GoPros whilst conducting the most heinous attacks on unsuspecting civilians. They filmed the attacks on families in their homes, youngsters at a music festival, grandmothers in their kitchens, children in their bedrooms, they even filmed attacks on civilians who sought safety in bomb shelters. They filmed it so that it could be publicised to the world how great they are at killing their targets. This is what is being celebrated in the West at these rallies and by the virtue-signalling progressive media. It almost seems that the world has completely turned upside down when the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, validated their claims by stating that ‘…the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.’ According to this logic, occupation justifies the murdering of civilians in their homes and this occupation needs to be between 56 to 75 years depending on the source.

If these sympathisers want to make this about occupation and oppression, let’s talk about occupation and oppression. Babylonian captivity, Seleucid Hellenization, Roman persecution, the Granada massacre, the Crusades, Edict of Expulsion, the Alhambra Decree, dhimmitude under the Ottomans, pogroms of Europe and Russia, the Holocaust. This is a small, condensed list of the oppression, persecution, blood libels, expulsions, massacres, and genocide the Jewish people have experienced over the course of some 2,500 years. Yet, Israelis are not celebrating this war. Jews are not celebrating the rape and torture of innocents. Instead, Israelis and Jews are coming together calling for hostages to be released – each and every one of them important to the community. Here in Australia, United Israel demonstrations have been held to show solidarity where the Israeli national anthem and the Australian national anthem are sung. Israel’s Knesset formed a unity government where opposition leaders have come together to combat the very real existential threat of Islamic Jihad. Israelis value life and do not celebrate war and murder.

It is a shame that pro-Palestinian rallies have been labelled as such since they are from pro-Palestinian. Bassem Eid, a notable Palestinian human rights activist based in Jerusalem, has staunchly come out criticising Hamas over the years and calling for Palestinians to not believe the misinformation and lies of their despotic rulers in Gaza. Several Palestinian-Israeli activists have condemned the Hamas ruling elite who for 17 years have funnelled money from humanitarian aid into their own pockets and have perpetuated a cycle of hatred and violence within their own population. The education system in Gaza is riddled with anti-Zionism, hatred of Israel, and most of all Jew hatred all right under the nose of the United Nations.

Antonio Guterres is right when he says Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. It happened with mass funding from the UN, NGOs, and other Arab League sympathisers who support an oppressor vs oppressed mentality, whilst missing the real ideological differences between Islamic extremism and Western values.

Again, dear pro-Palestinian protestors and Hamas sympathisers in the West, how many years of oppression does it take to celebrate Hamas atrocities on its own people?