New demands from pro-Hamas student groups reveal leaders’ focus on safety, wealth
July 23, 2024
The students camping out at colleges for Gaza think that Hamas is a legitimate government, or at least the representatives of the Gazan people. But an interesting document just surfaced that includes some of the demands being made by Hamas in the peace talks:
To translate, the varied insistences are that there is a demand for monetary compensation. That the Hamas leaders should all be given guarantees of safety. That those same leaders currently in Gaza should be given safe passage to Turkey. The return of any funds confiscated. Finally, they should all be allowed to have foreign bank accounts again.
Note that that last one doesn’t have anything to do with Israel at all. We all – the United States – don’t allow Hamas to have a bank account because Hamas are terrorists, and we don’t allow terrorists to have bank accounts. This is true of the individuals concerned as well as the organization itself.
So, a price for the ending of this war is that they all get to go to Istanbul and be safe with their money. Which isn’t quite the sort of negotiating stance we expect from freedom fighters interested only in the rights of their people now, is it?
The truth is that the very senior figures of Hamas have accumulated fortunes and they stay safe out in the Gulf. This is the next level of the organisation hoping to get theirs.
If Hamas actually were that righteous organization the campus students think it is then they’d never have started this war of course. But here’s that further evidence – Hamas does what is good for Hamas, not what is good for Palestine, Gaza or Palestinians.