Who Cares About the Anti-Hamas Protests in Gaza?
By Jonathan Feldstein
Over three to four consecutive days this past week, Gaza has witnessed an unprecedented wave of demonstrations by what appears to be average Gazan civilians against Hamas, the Islamist terror group that has ruled the enclave since 2007. Estimates differ about how many have been involved each day or cumulatively, but it appears that thousands of Palestinians have taken to the streets, chanting slogans and brandishing handmade signs like “Hamas does not represent me”, and “The people demand the toppling of Hamas”. There is no denying that with Hamas’ terrorist mafia-like grip on Gaza, protesters may be risking their lives to oppose a regime known for its brutal suppression of dissent, or anything seen controverting its strict, jihadi Islamic ideology.
“The family of murdered Oday Nasser Al Rabay, 22, said that he was found dumped in front of his family home over the weekend in the Gaza Strip, after he participated in demonstrations against Hamas. According to his relatives, he was kidnapped, tortured, and then executed by members of the Islamist movement.”
Rabay’s funeral on Saturday attracted scores of people who marched and chanted “Hamas out!” Since the demonstrations began, this is being seen as the first murder in retaliation by an angered Hamas.
Occurring amidst an ongoing war and renewed Israeli military combat, these protests, signal a potential turning point in Palestinian “resistance” – not against Israel (as Hamas and other Iranian backed proxies as well as many Western narratives often frame it), but against Hamas itself. However, the interpretation of these events – the protests and Hamas’ ferocious retribution – reveal a stark contrast in narratives, from the lack of Western media attention to the selective outrage of “pro-Palestinian” activists only demonstrating against Israel, and not Hamas – the real culprits who are threatening and inflicting death and destruction on their own people. All this transpires in the context of social and ideological undercurrents reflected in polls and actions showing wide support among Palestinian Arabs for Hamas’ brutal October 7, 2023, attack, massacre and kidnappings.
Hamas’s first official response to these protests, as reported, exemplifies what appears to be desperation and weakness. The group accused Israel of orchestrating the demonstrations, labeling them an “incitement campaign” against the “resistance.” It has cautiously acknowledged the protesters’ frustrations, attributing them to war-induced suffering rather than genuine anti-Hamas sentiment, while subtly threatening dissenters through its “resistance security” apparatus’ internal civil control of its broader terror operations. This rhetoric underscores Hamas’s precarious position: it lacks the infrastructure to jail or systematically suppress such large-scale unrest, yet it could not afford – one would have thought – to lose face by cracking down violently on its own people. The murder of Oday Nasser Al Rabay and reports of a further brutal crackdown on protectors now negates that assumption. It’s being reported in Ynet.news.com that residents in the enclave are saying that at least six Palestinian protest organizers have now been executed by Hamas, while others have been publicly beaten.
Confronted with a situation it was unprepared for, Hamas seeks to redirect the narrative, urging protesters to focus their anger solely on Israel – a strategy that aligns with its historical deflection tactics but seems increasingly untenable as Gazans have begun to equate Hamas with the war’s devastation.
Opinions have been expressed surmising that Hamas’ apparent recent willingness to enter into another ceasefire that will see the release of more of the 59 hostages still in their captivity is to afford the terrorist group the opportunity to focus on suppressing the protesters instead of being hamstrung fighting Israel. This assumption is not without merit.
Contrastingly, the Western media’s response – or lack thereof – has been glaring. While visual evidence of the unprecedented wave of thousands protesting across Gaza, mainstream media outlets have downplayed the scale – reporting of mere “hundreds” of demonstrators – or the potential significance of the population beginning to rise up against Hamas. This downplay of facts is a manipulation of the news, reflecting a media complicity to not deviate from the entrenched Hamas narrative that the terrorist organisation is the legitimate voice of Gazan “resistance”. Outlets like Al Jazeera, widely criticized as a mouthpiece for Hamas, have been accused of ignoring or distorting these events to protect the group’s image. The absence of robust press coverage not only obscures the courage of Gazan protesters but also perpetuates a one-dimensional portrayal of the conflict, sidelining the internal Palestinian Arab dynamics at play. News outlets like Al Jazeera intentionally inhibit the strengthening of widespread dissent.
This selective media attention impacts the “pro-Palestinian” movement in the West, particularly evident in protests and campus activism. In Washington, D.C., and on U.S. college campuses, demonstrators continue to chant anti-Israel slogans, oblivious to the Gazans risking their lives to oppose Hamas. Receiving filtered news, they adhere to the strict ‘party line’ of not confusing the narrative that it is Israel – not Hamas – that is evil.
This reveals the dishonesty of a media more invested in an anti-Israel agenda than in supporting the genuine well-being of the Palestinians, especially when protests target an Islamist group responsible for decades of oppression. Signs in Gaza reading “Hamas is a terrorist” and pleas for peace, go unacknowledged by the alleged “pro-Palestinian” activists, who appear to prioritize ideological hatred of Israel over the actual well-being of Gazans.
Yet the hopeful signs must be tempered by sobering realities. Banners proclaiming, “Hamas does not represent me” and chants demanding an end to the terror group’s rule suggest a burgeoning resistance within Gaza, seeking liberation from Hamas’s grip. However, this shift may be more strategic rather than ideological. Polls conducted since October 7, 2023, consistently show over 80% of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the “West Bank” (Judea and Samaria) approving of the Hamas massacre, which saw Gazan civilians along with Hamas terrorists participate in murder, rape, and looting alongside the terror group.
Eyewitness accounts and footage reveal Gazan civilians cheering as hostages were paraded through the streets, and many hostages later reported being held captive in civilian homes. Seventeen months later, as Israel cuts humanitarian aid to try influence the speedy freeing of hostages as time is running out, these protests may reflect concerns of survival rather than a rejection of the underlying genocidal anti-Israel ideology with which they have been indoctrinated for generations.
Amid the protests, one needs to avoid a naive misinterpretation of the protests as progress. While opposing Hamas’s tyranny may be real, there is no evidence to suggest that average Gazans have had a change of heart or that they no longer remain committed to the destruction of Israel. In this view, the protests are less a moral evolution than a self-serving reaction to Hamas’s failures, with the same “butchers and rapists” now facing the rubble of their own making. This perspective casts the demonstrations in a tactical pivot, not a renunciation of the hatred that fueled the massacre. It underscores that the true solution for peace in Gaza must be a wholesale ideological change. There is no evidence of this – as yet – in any of the protests.
There’s a contradiction that must be laid bare between those who see a glimmer of hope in Gazan protesting against Hamas and those who see only enduring enmity despite the protests to rescue Gazans from Hamas. The lack of press coverage and the disingenuousness of “pro-Palestinian” activists complicates these events. What remains clear is that Gazans are speaking, risking their lives to demand change.
Whether the world listens, and how it interprets these events, will shape the discourse around this unprecedented moment in history, and impact the future.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
I found this insightful….thank you.