On the October 7 attack

Hamas launched a terrorist attack and committed atrocities against civilians on October 7, 2023, murdering over 1100 and abducting around 250 people. Doesn't Israel have a right to go after Hamas?

Our assessment of the October 7 attack is rooted in (1) an evaluation of the evidence and the facts, rather than atrocity propaganda, and (2) a study of the full historical context.

An independent investigation commissioned by the United Nations found what it deemed to be credible evidence of war crimes committed by both the Israeli forces and Hamas militants. However, an analysis of that report published in Mondoweiss found that the report "relies on noncredible witnesses and previously debunked evidence, contains glaring errors in verification and sourcing, takes Israeli government ‘facts’ at face value, and twists definitions of sexual and gender-based violence so as to amplify Israeli rape hasbara. It does all of this in order to pander to Israeli claims of sexual violence and come away with a ‘both sides’ narrative[.]"

We encourage you to read both the UN commission's report as well as the Mondoweiss analysis in reaching your own conclusions. We also recommend reading Hamas' own extended statement in regard to October 7 (courtesy of the Palestine Chronicle).

Based on the lack of evidence, we reject all the lurid allegations against Hamas, such as baby beheadings and mass sexual violence. In regard to the latter, it is significant that the UN report, despite its shortcomings as pointed out by Mondoweiss, notes that one reason the investigation failed to find evidence of rape was the lack of cooperation on the part of Israeli authorities. We do think it likely that Hamas militants (and/or other non-Hamas actors) committed war crimes under international law, such as the killing and abduction of civilians. The above-referenced narrative of Hamas itself contains what amounts to an acknowledgment of this: "Maybe some faults happened during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza."

But even granting arguendo that Hamas committed atrocities on that day, there is still no excuse for the genocidal rampage that has killed over 40,000 people (or 186,000,as estimated a study published by The Lancet in July 2024).

There are two further points to bear in mind:

(1) It is well documented that the Netanyahu government knew about the planned attack a year before it took place, and chose to do nothing by way of defense (see this article from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz).

(2) Once the Israeli military belatedly responded, they killed a substantial number of Israeli civilians and their own soldiers (as reported by Haaretz), either in friendly fire incidents or by deliberate application of the infamous Hannibal Directive. The precise number of people thus killed will probably never be known, but some estimates place the number in the hundreds. A significant number of the hostages taken to Gaza have also been killed by Israeli bombings.

Absent any other credible explanation, and given the subsequent genocidal conduct by Israel and its amply demonstrated willingness to sacrifice Israeli lives, we think it probable that the Netanyahu government intentionally sacrificed its own citizens in order to use the attack as a pretext for its war of annihilation. However, some expert opinion holds that the Israeli government's historic failure to defend its citizens was due to its hubris and incompetence rather than sinister motives.

Finally, there is the larger historical context. The very creation of Israel was based on ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population, which has been subjected to a brutal military occupation and apartheid regime ever since. Some have compared the October 7 attack to the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943, and to the slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Virginia in 1831. The power relations are comparable; there has never been the slightest symmetry in the so-called conflict. The oft-repeated line that Hamas "triggered" this war on October 7, 2023, is ahistorical at best.

Again, we are not apologists for whatever war crimes may have been committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. We do, however, recognize that the ultimate responsibility for the violence in Palestine-Israel lies with Israel. Had there been no slavocracy in the United States, there would have been no slave uprising led by Nat Turner in 1831. Had there not been the ethic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 followed by 75 years of nonstop Israeli oppression of Palestinians, there would have been no October 7 attack.

Hamas conducted mass rape and beheaded babies.

As noted above, no credible evidence has yet been produced to substantiate these lurid allegations. The above-mentioned UN report did not find evidence of systematic rape. As for the beheading of babies, the only verified report of any such decapitation is the one resulting from an Israeli attack on the Rafah refugee camp.

This type of atrocity propaganda is designed to demonise Palestinians and distract from -- or worse, justify -- the real atrocities being committed against them.