Demonizing Hamas Gives Israel Impunity
As Israel loses the battle for American public opinion, its defenders keep reaching for a decades-old Hamas charter. Demonizing Palestinian resistance has become the scaffolding that shields Israel from accountability.
Rev. J. Mark Davidson
9/17/20264 min read
Reputable polls (Gallup and Pew Research, 2026) continue to document a significant shift in public opinion regarding Israel and Palestine. Unfavorable views of Israel now stand at 60% of American adults, with higher percentages among voters between 18 and 34, and among Democrats and Independents especially. Accompanying this trend is a noticeable increase in sympathy with the Palestinian cause. This loss of “narrative control” has alarmed Israelis and their supporters. We have seen a predictable uptick in state-directed propaganda from the government of Israel to attempt to reverse these shifts. IDF soldiers are posting on social media, and speaking at U.S. universities, spreading lies about October 7th. Much of this propaganda centers on “Hamas’ terrorism” and “Jew hatred.” The argument is that since Israel was confronted with such a monstrous adversary, it had “no choice” but to obliterate Gaza. Civilian casualties? Killing over 75,000 Palestinians, three-quarters of whom were women and children (estimates are vastly higher)? They say this is “a regrettable fact of war,” and could not be avoided. A peacemaker I know, who has devoted the last three years of his life to telling the truth about the genocide in Gaza and working for an end to the violence, was baselessly accused of “supporting terrorism” and wanting “Jews killed.” The accuser cited “Hamas’ charter” as supposed evidence. Below, I offer factual information to counter these fabrications, and put Palestinian resistance in perspective.
There are 2 Hamas charters. One in 1988 and the other in 2017. The one in 1988 was written early in the Hamas resistance movement by one man. He was a teacher in a Gaza refugee camp, aggrieved from multiple personal losses, who took it upon himself to pen a manifesto. Its language failed to distinguish between Jews and Israel. The first Hamas charter does indeed indicate animus toward "Jews". The second charter in 2017, however, was a more considered document, and more reflective of the opinions and motivations of the entire resistance movement. It was the result of a collaboration among several highly educated Palestinian thinkers, notably Khaled Mashal, its principal author. In this revised charter, the thinking was more nuanced, and the language was more precise. Hamas clarified that its problem was not with Jews, but with "the Zionist entity," and the oppression, ethnic cleansing, occupation, and death the state of Israel inflicts on the Palestinian people. In the more recent 2017 charter, Hamas drew a clear distinction between the state of Israel and individual Jews. While its criticisms of Israel were as sharp and pointed as ever, language threatening "Jews" as individuals was entirely dropped from the document. It is disingenuous for critics of Hamas to keep quoting a 40-yr. old document that Hamas has made abundantly clear no longer speaks for them. Movements evolve over time. Their opinions change. They revise their charters to express these changes. When quoting Hamas, it's only honest and fair to use their own most recent statements, especially when they intentionally dissociate their movement from antisemitism, something that should be supported. If readers want to dig deeper, I recommend the British journalist, Helena Cobban's, book, "Understanding Hamas." She interviewed several Norwegian and Arab journalists and political scientists who studied the Hamas movement and earned the trust of its leaders over several decades. The book cuts through propaganda and disinformation. It’s a highly informative study, and I learned much from it.
Let me clarify that one can be critical of Hamas, as I am, and also appropriately name the October 7th attack as a war crime, as I do, without resorting to demonizing Palestinian resistance. Personally, I am an advocate of nonviolent social change for moral and spiritual reasons. It honors the sacredness of the human opponent and preserves the possibility of their transformation in ways that violent armed resistance simply does not. I also advocate nonviolent social change for practical reasons. It has been shown in history to be more effective at achieving lasting social change than armed resistance (see “Why Nonviolent Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict” by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, 2019). That said, the Palestinian people have faced a century of unimaginable violence, dispossession, displacement, and humiliation at the hands of the Israelis. The vast majority of Palestinians have resisted nonviolently, only to see their oppression worsen decade after decade. So, when some members of the Palestinian community conclude, as Hamas has, that they see no alternative but armed resistance, I hold my tongue. It is not my place to stand in judgment. The great apostle of nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi himself, said that those who cannot protect themselves or their nearest and dearest by nonviolently facing death “may and ought to do so by violently dealing with the oppressor.” He clarified that “where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.” Additionally, under international law, militarily-occupied people are guaranteed the right to armed resistance (provided it is directed at soldiers of the occupying force, not non-combatants). In other words, there are strong foundations for supporting both nonviolent and violent Palestinian resistance to Israeli oppression, and resisting the demonization of Hamas.
The demonization of Hamas is objectionable in and of itself. But, more significantly, it operates as a justification for Israeli genocide. As long as Israel and its supplicants in western media outlets succeed at portraying Hamas as “terrorists,” as nihilistic monsters bent on destroying Jews, it will have a convenient punching bag – a permanent scapegoat - that deflects attention from its own far more destructive actions. Everything Israel has done and is doing is portrayed as a “counterterrorism campaign,” rather than a systematic attempt to crush Palestinian resistance and permanently establish Israeli dominance in Palestine. And as long as that justification keeps working, Israel will not be held accountable for their crimes. In other words, Hamas demonization and Israeli impunity are two sides of the same coin. If we are interested in Israel and the United States and other western governments being held accountable for the genocide in Gaza – and every person who does not want to live in a lawless “might-makes-right” world should be interested in that outcome – then we must first disable the scaffolding that justifies genocide. The demonization of Palestinian resistance is a key plank in that scaffolding. It must be dismantled.