Image: Hani Alsahaer, Anadolu Agency

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İLKE Agenda organised a seminar titled "Gaza 2023: A Glimpse into the Future of Palestine", moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ebubekir Ceylan, speakers Dr. Azzam Tamimi, Assoc. Prof. Dr Abdallah Marouf and Sami Hamdi discussed the details of the Aqsa Flood and the future of the situation in Gaza.

Israel and the Western media are trying to portray Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Netanyahu is also quite careful to use the name of Hamas, together with other terrorist organisations like ISIS. Could you give us some information on Hamas? What is Hamas, and what are the main motivations behind this organisation?

Azzam Tamimi: It is not unusual for the West to designate groups or individuals they disagree with or dislike as terrorists. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan agreed among themselves in the 1980s that Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) were terrorists and that Nelson Mandela would never be allowed to set foot on British soil. But eventually, Nelson Mandela became a hero and was given a head of state reception when he came to London. So, it doesn't really matter. We shouldn't be intimidated by what Western powers call us or how they describe us.

To answer the question of portrayal and the history of it, Hamas was born out of the Ikhwan al-Muslimin of Palestine (Muslim Brotherhood of Palestine). This happened at the same time that the Palestinian uprising known as the Intifada erupted in December 1987. Prior to this and probably since after the Nakba of 1948, during which the Muslim Brotherhood sent volunteers to fight for Palestine, the Muslim Brotherhood, generally and especially in Palestine, adopted the policy of focusing on education, social welfare, spiritual betterment, believing that the issue of Palestine was well beyond them and liberating Palestine is really a project for the Ummah and requires the return of the Ummah to its glorious days. Therefore, to pave the way for that, you needed to reform the individual, the family and society. But by 1987, the situation was getting so bad in the occupied territories, both the West Bank and Gaza, that the grassroots within the Brotherhood were pressuring the leadership to adopt a more proactive position and participate in the jihad because some other Palestinian factions had already been participating in the resistance, especially Islamic Jihad, which was created by a number of dissenting members of the Muslim Brotherhood like Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda. So, on the 9th of December 1987, the leadership of Hamas in Gaza met and decided to create the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, which is the acronym for the Arabic name of the movement, Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah.

What Hamas stands for is what the entire Ummah stands for. Palestine is part of the Ummah. It was usurped by the invaders; a colonial outpost was illegitimately created on Earth. Its people were dispossessed and have been struggling for their rights; thus, Hamas wants to liberate the whole of Palestine. Because Hamas doesn't believe that Zionism has a right to be anywhere in the Muslim world, and it should be made clear here that in subsequent years, Hamas came up with a clearer agenda or information about itself. Then, initially, it started with a charter that was published in 1988, and it wasn't really that good because it relied on conspiracy theory and global Jewish conspiracy to explain the conflict, an idea which was quite widespread within Islamic and Arab nationalist circles at the time. But later on, as we saw in the document that was released in 2017, Hamas clearly distinguishes between Zionism and Judaism, between the Zionists and the Jews. Now, it clearly says that we have no problem with the Jews. We have only a problem with those who invaded us, attacked us, and took our homes from us.

We are talking, in fact, about a movement whose leaders were politically elected in 2006 and became prime minister, and for the last 17 years, Hamas [is the political authority] in Gaza. So, the main motivation for the Hamas movement is to make Al-Aqsa free, isn’t it?

Azzam Tamimi: Al-Aqsa, of course, is important because it has a special position in the deen of Islam and the Muslim psyche, but [the motivation of Hamas is] not just Al-Aqsa, [it fights for the liberation of] the whole of Palestine. But also, in reference to the 2006 election it was an important turning point in the struggle because it exposed the hypocrisy of the Western world openly and clearly. They wanted democracy, but they didn't want the result that democracy produced. Thus, Hamas was met with three conditions that were formulated by the former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert and then adopted by the United States of America, which turned them into an international demand in the name of the quartet of the US, the UN, Russia and the European Union. Those three conditions are: Firstly, they wouldn't talk to Hamas or recognise its win in the election until first it recognised Israel's right to exist; second, until it renounced violence and disarmed; and third, until it accepted all the treaties and agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) like the Oslo Agreement and its various subsidiaries.

The recent Al-Aqsa Flood operation was a serious surprise to the Israeli people. And what are the main features of this recent attack by Hamas? Also, what is the point that distinguishes this operation from the previous operations?

Sami Hamdi: One week before this attack happened, Netanyahu was standing in the United Nations holding up a map that had erased Palestine completely from the region. And in the same breath, he was saying that normalisation of ties with Saudi Arabia would be the greatest deal since the end of the Cold War. Because they realise that normalisation with Saudi Arabia means the complete Arab abandonment of Palestine, they will know exactly what to do. Netanyahu was putting the picture of him sitting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan everywhere, taunting the Palestinians with this meeting that took place the first time the Turkish president had met with Benjamin Netanyahu. UAE's ambassador, Yousef Al Otaiba, was telling a think tank that they had failed to secure any concessions for the Palestinians and, that normalisation had failed in this regard, and that now it was for the other states that will normalise to talk about Palestinians. Then, Netanyahu went back to Tel Aviv from the United Nations, absolutely convinced that the Palestinian cause was dying and no longer had power; it would only be a matter of time before he could annex the West Bank and defeat the Palestinians because everybody was talking about the chapter in which the Palestinians no longer had any agency. This is why it's significant, the fact that the greatest attack on Israel, or rather, the most potent attack on Israel, comes at a time in which everybody believed the Palestinians to be at their weakest. This was the first time since 1948 that the Palestinians had temporarily taken back land from the Israelis when they entered into those settlements, and that's why Netanyahu declared war because it was the most potent attack on Israel since 1973 and perhaps even 1948. Remember, in 1973, the Egyptians broke the defensive line in Sinai, and the Syrians broke the defensive line in the Golan Heights, but they didn't penetrate Israel proper. But in this Flood, they managed to penetrate Israel proper; that’s why it's unprecedented and so significant. The questions that are being asked by the Israelis and by the Americans is, “How did the Palestinians manage to achieve that when they were supposed to be weak and dying and no longer having a cause to protect?” 

There are question marks as to whether the Palestinians themselves knew that they would be able to enter as much as they did into Israel proper. There are suggestions that the plan was simply to take hostages and then trade those hostages for Palestinians who are arbitrarily detained. But when the Palestinians entered and retook some of their territories, they were surprised that they didn't find the Israeli army. So, there was a sort of confusion: Do we go forward, or do we go back? In other words, it surprised many people and even the Palestinians themselves, the extent to which they were able to penetrate Israel proper. The reason that Netanyahu is pounding Gaza so hard, the reason why he's starting to attack the West Bank, and the reason why Blinken, who is ideologically very aligned with the Israelis, is against any ceasefire, and the reason they're so adamant that there shouldn't be a ceasefire is because what they're terrified of is not Gaza itself, but the fact that the whole world now sees a renewed spirit in the Palestinian cause.

Last week, there was despair and depression about the Palestinian cause, but today, you can see on social media that the world is roaring the name of Palestine and about the Palestinian cause so much that it makes the mainstream media apologise for their poor coverage. The reason they're apologising is because of the pressure from social media and that public opinion is shifting; that is what Netanyahu is trying to bomb in Gaza. He's trying to make an example of Gaza because what he's worried about is that if the war ends here, everybody will say it is Netanyahu who failed, and it is Netanyahu who brought the greatest threat to Israel, as we see the Israeli polls that Netanyahu no longer has control of the narrative, that Israel no longer looks like the moral army, that the Palestinians now look human, that the Palestinians now are women, children and men who want lives as well, and they want their rights. Netanyahu is terrified that no matter how much he's bombing Gaza, public opinion still won't lean in his favour.

Even when you look at the disaster that is unfolding in Gaza, it doesn't actually suggest that the Palestinian cause is in retreat. If anything, it suggests that the Palestinian cause has advanced. Yet, that's not necessarily because of the military operation but because of the shift in public opinion, the narrative that's been brought about, and ordinary Palestinians mobilising on social media to show the world what's happening.

Remember, Israel is telling the world what's happening, but the Palestinians are showing the world what's happening.

And that's why Israel had to spread fake news about 40 beheaded babies because it was concerned that people were seeing what was [really] happening. It’s also worth noting that the Palestinians have broken through the glass ceiling with regard to media and the narrative. All over the world, we've seen thousands of people take to the streets expressing public anger so much so that if you open Washington Post, you'll see that when Blinken went to Tel Aviv to show support for Israel, he changed his mind in Tel Aviv and decided to visit the Arab states. But the Washington Post reports that he visited them to ask for help, to tamp down on public anger and opinion. It means that Blinken and Netanyahu discussed the change in public opinion as a crisis that needs to be rectified in the war room when they sat in Tel Aviv. Israel is more worried that it has lost this battle about public opinion than it is about what's going to happen in Gaza. Israel believes that even if it flattened Gaza, it cannot regain its grip over the narrative. Thus, this is the turning point that historians will look back on this moment and say this is the moment when the world started turning against Israel and began to lend its voice and support to the Palestinians.

To summarise, the importance of the Al-Aqsa Flood is that it produced the greatest security threat to Israel since 1948, at a time in which the Palestinians were supposed to be at their weakest, and it forced a global shift in public opinion that is so dangerous for the Israelis that Netanyahu is pleading with social media to limit the spread of Palestinian content, to shadowban Palestinian accounts, to take down Palestinian content. Because Netanyahu believes if he loses his narrative war, the world will see the Palestinians as human beings and not as savages; this is what Israel is terrified of and trying to prevent, and regardless of what happens in Gaza, the Palestinians have already won.

Could you also give us some brief information on the techniques and technical equipment Hamas used in this operation? 

Sami Hamdi: It is worth noting that the military capabilities of Hamas and other Palestinian factions that also participated in this operation are still very much inferior to the Israelis. The reason they managed to surprise [Israeli forces] was that they managed to launch the rockets to occupy the Iron Dome, took out some of the surveillance equipment and then paraglided across to make sure that they could not be seen. They also use some of the tunnels that they had dug in order to be able to go undetected. Israel has a tunnel monitoring device, but it appears that the Palestinians dug deeper than the devices are able to contact as well. Having said that, the reason why I don't focus too much on the military capability is because it's clear that Israel has been able to push them back. Nevertheless, if you look at the trajectory of the military capabilities, there's a very clear incline. However, the focus on Al Aqsa and the military operations shows that, one, Israel is not invincible; two, its technology is not undefeatable; and three, it shows that regardless of the regional developments that are taking place suggesting that the Palestinian cause is dying, the Palestinians still have agency and believe in their right for liberation. They still believe that they should fight for their land and have recourse to justice, and also, they are beginning to convince the world that they have a point.

For the last three weeks, we have all watched the events unfolding in Gaza and Palestine; in fact, there are some conflicts in the West Bank as well. There have been frequent references by Israeli politicians and army commanders to the Torah, to Talmudic tradition, etcetera. So, in this context, should we perceive the ongoing conflict as a war of religions or, considering the open support of the Western countries, can we talk about another crusade in Jerusalem or Palestine?

Abdallah Marouf: It’s a very interesting issue to note within this context that we're seeing, especially when we saw religious fanatics speaking about the issue of religion in particular and penetrating religion in the whole context that we are seeing. It's not limited to supporters of Israel from the precipitation of the Jewish faith because, at the beginning of the whole events, we have noticed some content that some similar contexts actually in when Senator Lindsey Graham mentioned clearly that it is a religious war, and that is actually quite alarming in. A rabbi called Yaron Reuven spoke clearly in this context and mentioned that you have to kill every single one and tried to legitimise this atrocity by the Israelis and connect it to the Jewish religion. However, this is a very important issue because we can see at the same time that a lot of religious bodies within the Jewish faith around the world, especially in the United States, are actually trying to show to the whole world that they are pro-Palestinians and these actions are not done in the name of Judaism as a religion. At the same time, some of the religious groups from the Christian part as well try to differentiate the whole thing between Zionism and Christianity with regard to the notion of supporting Israel here in this context. However, some of the religiously motivated fanatics in the world of today are trying to use religion as a tool to assist Israel within this context and to gather as many of the right-wing supporters in the West as possible. This is very dangerous because it's not an issue related to the Book of Isaiah or the Talmud. It's actually how it is being interpreted, according to some of these representatives of this act. Thus, it's quite important for us to understand that from a Palestinian and Muslim point of view, it is not about religion, and it should not be about religion. It's not actually about a religious war between Judaism and Islam or between Christianity and Islam. Instead, we are witnessing an atrocity that has been caused by an occupation force that occupied the country, derived the people of this country outside, displaced these people from their homelands, committed genocide, and continues committing genocide as well, and ethnic cleansing since 1948 until today. Now, they are trying and threatening to commit the same ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Jerusalem in addition to Gaza. So, this should not be about religion. At the same time, the groups who support Israel from more of a religious point of view are trying to derive the whole conflict into a religious conflict because it fuels it easily, and it makes it easier for them to gather more supporters of this cause. 

In particular, this is related directly to the issue of the Third Temple. Because at the beginning of the whole events, when Hamas declared the operation, one of the most important reasons for that operation was the Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it has been done by a very small minority of the Israelis but at the same time ultra-Orthodox and ultra fanatic groups that are called the Canaanites. These groups are the ones who believe that to let the Messiah come for the first time, the world has to go into a religious war. So, that is what makes this assumption very dangerous in this context because they are trying to drag the whole world with them into what they believe as that war will bring peace to the world. Also, this is not something that the Israeli government does not believe in, and we can see from the last speech of Benjamin Netanyahu that he either believes in this context or is trying to use it for his own benefit. 

It's not actually about a religious war between Judaism and Islam or between Christianity and Islam. Instead, we are witnessing an atrocity that has been caused by an occupation force that occupied the country, derived the people of this country outside, displaced these people from their homelands, committed genocide, and continues committing genocide as well, and ethnic cleansing since 1948 until today. 

At the same time, while Gaza is being bombed by the Israelis, I would like to draw attention here to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is not being covered at all in the news. That was one of the main aspects of the beginning of this war. Al-Aqsa Mosque is now closed completely against Muslims; they are not allowed into Al-Aqsa mosque, and even during the Jummah prayer, Muslims under 70 years old are not allowed inside Al-Aqsa Mosque. At the same time, the fanatic groups of the Canaanites and the ultra-right-wing groups are allowed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque every single day. Also, they are allowed not only to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque but are encouraged by the Israeli government to perform prayers in order to assist the Israeli army in this war. This is very important and dangerous at the same time because it takes the case again to the religious part and a religious sensitivity that is very delicate. It might actually trigger a war that is beyond our imagination because we are not speaking here about the Palestinians and the Israelis or the Arabs and the Israelis; we are speaking about the whole Muslims, about 2 billion Muslims who believe in the sensitivity of this mosque. Moreover, some of these [fanatic] groups are trying to promote attacks inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to “harm Hamas”, according to one of their advertisements. Thus, this conflict cannot be taken out from the sensitive nature of that land of Palestine, of Jerusalem in particular. At the same time, it should not be believed in as a war between two or three religions. It is actually a conflict and war that is being built upon the idea of ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by an occupier. Also, at the same time, it is touching one of the most sensitive parts of the whole world, which is Jerusalem in particular, that could trigger a lot of emotions around the world. It is something that the whole world and the leaders of the world need to understand and to stop Israel from playing this dangerous game. This dangerous game has already been played from the beginning by Lindsey Graham and some of the fanatic rabbis of these fanatic groups as well, and now it is being played by Benjamin Netanyahu himself, which takes us to a whole new area of conflict. 

Many people, even Muslims, criticised and asked the question, “Didn't Hamas know that the result of this attack would be a devastating war for the people of Gaza?” What would you say on this point? 

Azzam Tamimi: We can only assume that whoever planned and ordered this attack on the 7th of October did take into consideration that this was likely to be followed by such madness on the part of the Israelis, especially that the Israelis are superior in their capabilities and that they enjoy the full and unconditional support of the superpowers of the world, the United States of America and its allies in Europe. But Palestinians have been under occupation for 75 years, and Gaza has been under siege for 17 years. Land usurpation in the West Bank, attacks on Al Aqsa and harassment of Palestinians continue. Around 5000 to 6000 Palestinians are in detention, and the world seems to have forgotten about them. So, something needed to be done to rock the boat, and so long as you live under occupation in a manner that is denying you your basic human rights, you're really left with very limited options. Some people say, “We could have avoided all of this by remaining content with the status quo!” but the status quo is ugly. Nobody in the world would agree to live for so many years under such humiliating circumstances.

We all talk about the liberation of Palestine, so how is the liberation of Palestine going to happen if the people are not willing to make sacrifices? This is a very hefty price, a huge sacrifice, but you cannot change the status quo by just wishing, by sitting in front of a TV set and weeping over Palestine and Masjid al-Aqsa. There has to be action, and that action can be very costly.

There is an ongoing military buildup in the region. Israel is preparing for total warfare, or genocide, as one may call it. On the other hand, Netanyahu also implied the creation of a new Middle East. In this regard, do you think that Israel will occupy Gaza completely, or will there be a territorial change in the map of the region?

Azzam Tamimi: Netanyahu is not changing the map of the region; instead, he is resisting those who want to restore the proper map of the region. However, there are three possible scenarios: The first scenario is for the Israelis to fail despite all the losses they incurred on the Palestinians. They probably try an invasion, and that invasion would fail. The first scenario is that all of this is likely to fail, and everything will go back to the status quo. The intermediaries, regional or international, coming in with initiatives. Then, there will be some sort of a cease-fire, which, again, would be violated by the Israelis as they did hundreds of times before. The second scenario is for this conflict to expand beyond Gaza. Lebanon, Iran or other regions would be involved, which would likely lead to a regional war if not to a third World War because even China would be severely affected by an attack on Iran and by the stoppage of oil supplies since it relies entirely on Iranian oil. However, the Americans and the Europeans have been shuttling here and there, trying to prevent this scenario. The third scenario, which some people might consider to be a worst case scenario, is the de-population of Gaza and the defeat of the resistance. But even if that happens, so what? We had the first Nakba, and we had the second Nakba, and we had the third Nakba, and we will probably have a fourth Nakba. If this scenario happens, there will be another eruption, and it might trigger a global change. I'm very optimistic that some of us will see that global change in favour of a tilt in the balance of power that will serve the project of liberating Palestine.

The Western world stopped talking about a two-state solution. What’s the role that the neighbouring Islamic countries or the Muslim communities, in general, might assume?

Sami Hamdi: When we read Israeli commentary on what's happening, there isn’t any sentence that suggests any concern about the positions of the Muslim countries. There's no concern that these countries will do anything in terms of substance in favour of the Palestinians against the Israelis. There's only one country whose foreign policy in the region is quite destructive: Iran. The only concern that the Israelis have is that the Iranians will deploy their proxies and that their proxies might fire missiles and cross the border, which is why the Americans have sent some carrier ships. Also, it’s one of the reasons why Israel is concerned about the prospect of a ground invasion. Because it fears that if it goes into a ground invasion with an army that hasn't really seen combat, that is used to police duties and breaking the bones of little children, or beating up elderly people or shooting unarmed teenagers. They're worried that such an army is going to struggle in Gaza and that they're going to be bogged down, and when they're bogged down, Hezbollah will cross over or start firing missiles from the Iranian proxies in Syria will start firing missiles. There are suggestions that the Houthis have tried to fire missiles and that Saudi took down the missiles on behalf of the Israelis. 

When it comes to the regional powers, I think that more indications from them suggest that they want to keep good ties with the Israelis and that they just want this situation to go away. Even when you look at the diplomatic initiatives and compare it to [Western leaders going to Tel Aviv], there aren’t any Muslim leaders who do that in a show of force that we are here, and we will not allow Israel to depopulate Gaza or the like. This is what makes what's happening even more spectacular for the Palestinians and even more worrying for Netanyahu in that Israel is worried that despite these countries not doing anything, the Palestinians still did something. It's the Palestinians who are the heroes of this story in causing this shift, sadly, on their own. When you look at the other countries, the message being sent to Israel from these countries is, “Netanyahu, we'd like you to stop. We still want to be friends. We don't want to ruin this relationship.” But no real action is being taken when you compare it to what [Western figures are] doing. In terms of the regional positions, they are still very slow, but Palestinians are forcing them to start moving and forcing them to take action. The extent to which they do is unclear, but certainly, any change in the Israeli position or any backing down on the part of the Israelis will not be because of the Muslim nations who haven't moved in a very effective way. It will be because of public opinion that will force the regimes that are trying to keep good ties to say, “Look, now I'm worried about big protests [all around the World]. I don't want to be seen on the wrong side of history. Let me mobilise instead.” It's a heartbreaking answer, but at the same time, when we see the gains that the Palestinians have made, despite the horrible scenes before us, Palestinians have shown that they still have agency and power, that they're still strong, and that they alone are able to bring about all these regional changes and force a change in regional positions.

The Western world is blind to the brutal terrorism of Israel and its human rights violations, the destruction of the hospitals and the killings of civilians. [Yet many protests were organised in the universities, some cancelled, etc.] In this regard, [how should we understand and analyse] the response and the reaction of the academics and faculties in Western universities?

Abdallah Marouf: Firstly, we should note that the mass majority of the people do not understand what is happening there because usually, the power of the media in the West is quite significant that it controls what the people see and hear. However, the most important difference that we are facing and witnessing these days is the evolution of social communication and social society. On platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, people actually see what their governments do not want them to see. This is why, for example, Israel had a mutual agreement with META. So, this is quite new in our world today because nobody heard about the atrocities that were committed against the Palestinians in 1948 or 1967 because the media did not speak about it, and the people did not have their own platforms at that time to speak to each other, to show what is happening. Yet today, ordinary people do not believe the governments when they tell them. We have people who are being followed by millions of people who can hear and listen and know that the governments are lying to them, and the mainstream media is lying to them as well in the West. It's not as expected, but it is a massive change in the whole game. The people who understand the main problem and the justice or the just cause of Palestine, especially in academia, need to use these new tools in order to get to the people who do not understand or know what is exactly happening around the world. So, they need to use it for the benefit of spreading the justice of Palestine. Because it's not only a war that is being fought on the ground in Gaza, or West Bank, Jerusalem or any other territory. It is a war that is being fought [on the ground] and online, everywhere, to the extent that Israel is now investing millions of dollars in this cause. Yet, we do not need to do that because we have justice around us, which is why many people are volunteering for this. Israel understands the problem that is actually that it is facing in this context; this is why they are trying now to silence any influencer or any person who speaks the truth. 

Also, academics need to be at the forefront of this issue. The academics have the tools, have the real story; because influencers are actually people who are just well known, and that's it, and some of them, out of love of this cause, might harm [the case], without knowing or noticing. So, it is actually the duty of the academy, in particular, to be in front of the leading party regarding this issue and to tell the truth. For example, the myth that the Palestinians sold their land is a propaganda of the Israelis that has gone viral. It is the duty of academics to counter these arguments and myths, to speak the truth, and to tell the numbers and speak to other people in their own languages. The Israelis are doing the same, actually; they are trying to mobilise all their efforts in any language by all means, including academics, in order to stand behind their propaganda. So, it's quite important for every single academic who believes in a cause, which is just, to tell the truth with the numbers, names and information. Because the information is the main weapon that Israel is so afraid of since it exposes the Israeli propaganda that is trying to impose a code in our world today by force; either the force of money or by threatening the world. It is our duty to do so as an academic. I have my own duty to tell my students to get to tell the truth that they learned and tell it to the world. Because every single student has their own website or [social media] account. I hope that we can spread the word as quickly as this war is going in order to let justice prevail and let the people know the true face of Israeli brutality that we can see in Gaza today.

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Concluding Remarks

Continue what you're doing, continue talking about Palestine, and continue raising awareness because there is a battle that is being fought on the airwaves and in the narratives.

Sami Hamdi: What has made the change this time around is not the mobilisation of governments; it's the mobilisation of ordinary people, raising their voices on social media, propagating hashtag Palestine, overwhelming the algorithms of social media, and delivering that information to people who have never received that information before, or who have before only receiving sanitised information that was propagated by Israel and its allies. The algorithm promotes that content and that content reaches places where it never reached before. And it's forcing a shift in public opinion in areas where we would never have imagined it would shift. It's important for everyone [supporting Palestine] to understand that in everything that is happening, they have been the ones who have forced the change. They are the reason that Israel is sitting with social media to try to limit the reach of pro-Palestinian content. It's the shift in public opinion that has Israel panicking, and it is happening because of the very people who many of them might be thinking that they are insignificant or that they don't have a role to play or that they can't do much. Everybody has had a role to play in this. Everybody who's tweeted or shared or even just liked a tweet or liked to post has affected the algorithm that has promoted the post; therefore, they have contributed to the shift in public opinion. 

Hence, continue what you're doing, continue talking about Palestine, and continue raising awareness because there is a battle that is being fought on the airwaves and in the narratives. No matter how this latest chapter ends in this clash between the Palestinians and the occupying forces of Israel, Israel will never again be able to restore its monopoly over the narrative, and that's not because of Muslim governments; that's because of ordinary people who believed or who tried to do what they could do, even if it was just a tweet or a retweet. It’s very important to highlight here that what Israel has been concerned about the most and where it's really hurting and lost the most is in the public opinion. And that's because of ordinary people; even if they feel insignificant, it is hugely significant in the overarching scheme.

Abdallah Marouf: I would like to emphasise that it's not only about what is happening in Gaza. We need to remember at the beginning and the end that this war did not actually start on the 7th of October. What happened on the 7th of October was part of a series of events that started since the Nakba in Palestine. So, go and educate yourself and understand what the Palestinian cause is all about. You must always understand that it's quite important for you to look at the whole picture to understand the aspects happening in front of you and not be cut off from the whole sequence of the events that happened throughout history in Palestine. It's a just cause; it is a cause of people who were displaced and ethnically cleansed from their homeland. Thus, anyone who stands with the Palestinian cause today is on the right side of history today and tomorrow.

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To watch the program: https://bit.ly/3u14HkJ 

Speakers

Azzam Tamimi

Azzam Tamimi is a British-Palestinian academic and political activist. He is currently the Chairman of Alhiwar TV Channel and is its Editor-in-chief.

Sami Hamdi

Sami Hamdi is the Managing Director of the International Interest, a global risk and intelligence company.

Abdallah Ma’rouf Omar

Abdallah Ma’rouf Omar, a prominent figure in the field of Quds Studies, holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Islamic Studies at 29 Mayıs University.

Moderator: Ebubekir Ceylan

Ebubekir Ceylan, an expert in Middle Eastern studies, holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Islamic Studies at 29 Mayıs University.