2023-10-16 12:32:11
The tone is calm but the remarks virulent. “What is happening in Gaza is genocide. There is no other word. And we can’t do anything. Hamas hitting Israel? It is very good. We have the right to defend ourselves. Palestinians are attacked everywhere and all the time, in Gaza, in Jenin, in Nablus… Ukraine defended itself. Afghanistan too. Why not Palestine? The Hamas operation [le 7 octobre] was a great moment. For the first time, the resistance managed to break the siege. We have been suffering for seventy-five years. Now it’s the Israelis’ turn.”, says Shatha Abou Srour. The young woman with a pale complexion, almost as pale as her white veil, who wears a denim jacket and sports shoes, came with two friends to Ramallah to demonstrate against the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Sunday October 15.
Demonstration of Palestinians in support of Gazans and Hamas, in Ramallah (West Bank), October 15, 2023. VIRGINIA NGUYEN HOANG FOR “THE WORLD”
These three nurses show no compassion for the Israeli civilians killed by Hamas on October 7 in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, and of whom new victims are discovered every day, 1,400 to date. Around them, a hundred people parade in the rain, cheering Mohammed Deif, commander of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas. Demonstrators were more numerous on Friday, a day of prayer, but the Palestinian Authority is working to limit rallies in support of Hamas throughout the West Bank.
Shatha comes from a refugee camp in Bethlehem. Her grandmother is from Beit Nattif, a Palestinian village near Hebron, emptied and then completely destroyed in 1948 by Israeli forces in retaliation for the massacre of a convoy coming to supply a Jewish colony. The grandmother, 80 years old today, fled at 5 years old. His granddaughter represents the third generation of a never-ending conflict, where two enemies live side by side, each harboring hatred for the other. Shatha gets her information from Telegram, because she considers other sources biased. As many, she doubts the massacre of Israelis. Only sees that of the Palestinians of Gaza.
“Everyone wore green, in homage to Hamas”
From Jenin to Ramallah via Nablus, the Palestinians met applaud the attack of October 7. “The next day, everyone wore green, in homage to Hamas. As a Palestinian and a liberal, I have a problem with Hamas, but they are not my enemies. When Israel bombs us, no one moves, but when Palestine attacks Israelis, Blinken [le secrétaire d’Etat américain] disembarks »says Mustafa Sheta, director of the Freedom Theater, an institution in the Jenin refugee camp.
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