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Hamas leader salutes U.S. student protests

https://www.workers.org/?p=78230

The following statement was issued by Hamas Political Bureau member Izzat Al-Rishq on April 24, 2024, on the Resistance News Network. The U.S. administration led by President Biden is violating individual rights and the right to free expression, arresting university students and faculty members f

Hamas leader salutes U.S. student protests

The Biden administration, complicit in the brutal war on our Palestinian people, does not want to acknowledge that it faces a U.S. public that has discovered the truth about the Nazi entity and has sided with human values, deciding to stand on the right side of history. Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders, and their suppression today means a costly electoral bill that the Biden administration will pay sooner or later.

20 comments

Mzuark

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Eh. I'm not really comfortable with that.

cfgaussian

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Doesn't really matter what you're comfortable with. The fact is that the Al Qassam brigades are the main force of resistance against the genocide in Gaza.

xkyfal18

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Exactly!

Ocommie63

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True!!!

Aru

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It's because the Islamophobia of the past 40 or something years has built an infrastructure that demonizes any Muslim affiliated group, and people automatically assume the worst of Hamas even though they know nothing about them, this is why it was so easy for them to lie about the 40 beheaded babies and the rape and whatever else the Hasbara said, but to comfort you, Hamas is as progressive as most third world center-parties, it doesn't do anti-communist action, they've said they're willing to participate in a parliamentary democracy.

You can read the 2017 charter https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hamas-2017-document-full They're not leftists or secularists, but they're not ISIS, hell they're not even Saudi Arabia

queermunist

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Think of it this way: Palestinians are able to see Americans aren't all mindlessly supporting genocide. Hamas is important, regardless of what you think of them. What they say has weight among Palestinians, and it's important that they know we are on their people's side.

Octagon9561

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Fighting against colonizers = terrorism. 🤡

GaryLeChat

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Why?

Mzuark

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Public declarations by Hamas feeds the liberal machine. I would hate for legitimate anti genocide protests to get hit with the terrorism stick.

bennieandthez

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If the protests have fangs, they will be hit with the terrorism label regardless.

amemorablename

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So anti-imperialists groups shouldn't voice solidarity with each other because imperialists will vilify them by association? That sounds effectively like what you're saying, whether you mean it that way or not. The reality is that opposing the occupation of Palestine will already get you the terrorist label by association in the eyes of some. The imperialist news machine does not play by rules of fairness as to whether it's justified to vilify you yet. Certainly there's analysis and experimentation to be had in how to go about educating where needed and maintaining the support of the masses, but if you are always viewing it as fear of being viewed as dangerous opposition, you have already ceded ground to the idea that the genocidal imperialist machine has the authority to legitimately and honestly name what you are doing, to speak for you.

AOCapitulator

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Think about how many uncomfortable things you have learned to just ignore or brush off, compared to this.

amemorablename

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Why? Edit: just realized somebody already asked. Do want to know though. These things are important, we can't be being vague about important matters of solidarity.

GaryLeChat

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If I had to guess, the original commenter is probably concerned that somehow this will give the US state more reason to crack down on the demonstrations.

As if them simply existing isn't enough reason but I'll wait for Muzark to weigh in if they ever do.

Mzuark

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That part. More propaganda fodder just makes things harder.

cfgaussian

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Capitulating to the anti-Palestinian propaganda narrative that Hamas is not a legitimate resistance group is what actually makes things harder. You think that by disavowing Hamas you will become more "acceptable"? They will still accuse you of being a terrorist sympathizer and an anti-semite for standing with Palestinians either way, but now you have legitimized their narrative that armed resistance is illegitimate and criminal. You have given up ground to the enemy and given them a victory in the naive hope of increasing your mainstream "respectability". Do this enough times and you end up an opportunist who has betrayed everything they claimed to stand for for the sake of liberal brownie points.

queermunist

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US state doesn't need a reason to crack down, it can just lie.

ComradePupIvy

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what do you mean "Can just lie" they ARE lieing about it.

porcupine

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this is just victim blaming. the US isn't engineering the extermination of Palestine because Palestinians didn't choose the correct PR strategy for their own survival.

xkyfal18

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optics is irrelevant in this context imo