Is Palestinian Support for Hamas Crumbling? What Some Say Privately About Their Terrorist Overlords

Dale Hurd
11-10-2023

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Public protests against Hamas are rare in Gaza.  A clip from the BBC on social media showed a woman in Gaza cursing "the dogs of Hamas" for her suffering before someone can be seen covering her mouth.  

 
There are Palestinians in Gaza who don't support Hamas, but polls have shown that most in fact do. Or, at least they did, before Hamas brought misery and death to their doors.

A project called "Whispered in Gaza" interviews Palestinians secretly and claims that most do not support Hamas, but says Palestinians are afraid of being killed if they speak out publicly.   

In one video, a Palestinian woman says off camera, "If you're a Gazan citizen who opposes war and says 'I don't want war,' you're branded a traitor."

Corey Gil-Shuster, a Canadian Israeli, has also been interviewing Palestinians for his YouTube channel, the "Ask Project" for more than 10 years. 

Shuster told us every Palestinian he's interviewed on camera has backed Hamas. But he also wonders if they were all telling the truth. 

"I assume that in a lot of the videos, people are answering me thinking, 'What is the best thing to say that I will be safe?'" Shuster said. "Do they actually believe it if they say harsh things like, 'Yes, we should kill the Jews. We need to expel the Jews.' I'm sure, to a certain extent. But it's hard to know how much of that extremism is forefront in who they are and how much is just public pressure. It's impossible to know. And privately with a few, and a very few, have I heard them say, 'Yes, we have, we have done a lot of damage to ourselves.' They tell me this privately. They won't say it publicly. It's considered treasonous. They could be killed for it."

However, Shuster also does not think most Palestinians are secretly peace-loving. He interviewed one Palestinian who was in favor of destroying Tel Aviv with a nuclear bomb. 

And polls have shown solid support for Hamas, not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is in charge.  

Shuster says, "The Palestinian Authority is seen as weaklings. They're considered puppets of the Israelis, according to almost all Palestinians – and at least Hamas and Islamic Jihad fight the Israelis. And most Palestinians want there to be resistance. They want there to be violent resistance against the Israelis."
 
Samer Mohammad grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Now a Christian living in the U.S., Samer says that he, like other Palestinians, was brainwashed to hate Israel, and believes the chief problem is Islam. 
 
"Every Palestinian has a goal and his goal is to die for Allah. His goal is to die for Palestine. If you don't have anything to lose, if you are poor, and everything is darkness, this is the problem." 

"We need to tell them about the Messiah, about Yeshua," Samer said.
 
Unfortunately, Shuster's extensive interviews with Palestinians have shown him that most support Hamas because they hate Jews and want them to die, and he said he's not optimistic that that will change anytime soon.  

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About The Author

Dale
Hurd

Since joining CBN News, Dale has reported extensively from Western Europe, as well as China, Russia, and Central and South America. Dale also covered China's opening to capitalism in the early 1990s, as well as the Yugoslav Civil War. CBN News awarded him its Command Performance Award for his reporting from Moscow and Sarajevo. Since 9/11, Dale has reported extensively on various aspects of the global war on terror in the United States and Europe. Follow Dale on Twitter @dalehurd and "like" him at Facebook.com/DaleHurdNews.
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