“But Hamas! ” The following is an excerpt from The New York Times’ bestseller, Genocide Bad: Notes on Palestine, Jewish History, and Collective Liberation, by Sim Kern.When you say “Genocide bad,” Zionists will counter, “But Hamas [did something terrible].” “But Hamas” comments try to derail you from talking about Israeli violence by asking you to first address the violence of the Palestinian resistance. Comments might sound like, “Do you condemn Hamas?” or “But Hamas started this!” They may share facts, such as, “Hamas abducted children,” lies such as, “Hamas beheaded babies,” or—trickiest of all—partial truths, like, “Hamas calls for a genocide of Jews in its charter.” As I’m writing this chapter, Israel has just invaded Lebanon, and this familiar refrain on cable news networks has shifted to, “But Hezbollah!” If Israel continues expanding its regional war, Hasbarists will continue responding to any criticism of Israel by asking you to first condemn any local populations daring to take up arms and resist their own extermination. It’s up to you whether you want to get derailed here. Because sometimes we do need to talk about Hamas. We need to talk about the important distinction between violence that comes from imperial colonizers versus violence that comes from Indigenous people defending their homes. Though if you start down that road, you’re going to have to define what you mean by “colonizers” and “Indigenous,” and you’ll get drawn into debating the meaning of Indigeneity.[1] But notice—you were trying to say “Genocide bad,” and now they’ve got you arguing semantics! We also need to contradict blatant lies about the Palestinian resistance, like the “Hamas beheaded babies” story. It’s important to clarify that, no, they did not. That story proved to be false. Israelis are the only military force that have actually beheaded babies over the past year, babies like Ahmad Al-Najr, eighteen months old, whose head was severed from his body in the bombing of a Rafah tent encampment on May 26, 2024. The video of Ahmad’s father, shaking his headless child’s body, wailing in agony as people burned alive in the holocaust of tents behind him, was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, even after a year of this digitally broadcasted genocide.
So Israel beheads babies, not Hamas. Remember: every accusation, a confession.
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