Do lots of people support Hamas?

I would think it because when the Hamas attack first made the news, with details of atrocities emerging and before the Israeli military action started people where I live were out waving Palestinian Flags and wearing the Palestinian scarves (not usually seen in this are)

Does the 2 state solution mean they stop trying to get rid of hamas? Because if it does then I can totally understand. It's been tried for years and palastine don't want it either

@elprup I don't think it will happen while the present Israeli govt is in power either, hate to break it to you. So many officials want to wipe out every Palestinian, as per their genocidal narrative, and have already stated they want all the land for themselves etc. And sadly they treat the Palestinians as second class citizens, without human rights, and fail to adequately punish settler violence towards them, fail to prevent the stealing of their land and more

Reading what you wrote- I took that to make reference to the Palestinian people as freedom fighters. 😬 I wouldn't ever describe Hamas as freedom fighters and would hope that others wouldn't either.

It won’t happen while Israel illegal occupy the West Bank either. The illegal settlers are terrorists as well, and some would say so is the IDF.

This!

They were out on the streets celebrating the 7th October attacks before Israel had even retaliated, so yes there are many who support Hamas. People on these marches chant 'from the river to the sea' which is a call to wipe out the state of Israel, as Hamas would like to do.
If people on these marches just want peace why are they not condemning Hamas for their disgusting attacks on 7th October and the constant firing of rockets? Why are they not demanding the release of the hostages? Why do they not blame Hamas for breaking the ceasefire?

@elprup have a look on the Middle East Conflict boards. Plenty of threads over there to help you learn people's opinions, as well as resources links and lots of bunfighting too 😄

Did you go to the West Bank? Very very different there.

As a complete outsider to both Israel and Palestine I was very surprised to witness this. I saw no hate , no discrimination towards anyone when we last went to telaviv ( last year ) . I meet both Israeli and Palestinians living in Israeli as well as catholics and they where friends , they study together, they visited each others homes . I think many who never visited Israel or Palestine must think of South Africa and apartheid but it’s so far from that .

@miniegg3 let's face it, Israeli govt have been putting out genocidal statements all over the shop. They've also declined to move ahead with a feasible two state solution.

No, they hate Israel. And a ceasefire will do nothing but give hamas a chance to rebuild and do the same all over again

I also think the conflation of Palestinian civilians with Hamas by certain posters, or even trying to prove that a percentage of them do support Hamas, is a way of excusing what is going on and saying it is somehow justified.

Palestinian civilians have been treated appallingly for decades in an apartheid like situation. They have no human rights, no real freedom, no security or safety, and presently things are horrific. When you oppress a whole people for decades, as a reaction to this, controversial groups and support for such groups will grow. Does this mean they should all be flattened to the ground? Absolutely not. Does it making flattening Palestine any more legal? Absolutely not.

Conflating Palestinians with Hamas is also a way of trying to silence and shut down support for Palestinians. Look at the way the pro ceasefire marches were demonised. Yes a couple of incidents at the massive one recently but as a fraction of the percentage of people there, 0.0004% or something cause issues, the rest of the hundreds of thousands marching without incident for peace.

I think only a very small percentage of the people going on the protests actively support Hamas.

A very large number of people are (understandably) distressed by the civilian deaths, lack a proper grasp of the situation and are swayed by the very effective Hamas propaganda on the behalf of "the Palestinians". Without the critical thinking or perspective necessary to identify the fact that their support for "the Palestinians" in effect hands a huge propaganda win to Hamas.

Unfortunately large parts of the far left are captured by the Hamas propaganda. (For the record I'm also distressed by civilian deaths and increasingly critical of the behaviour of the Israeli military but I think there's a huge amount of very naive people who see things in very black and white terms.

@OuiOuiKitty This is nonsense. Have you ever been to Israel or spoken to an Israeli? If that were true why would Palestinians living in Israel have the right to vote, the right to form political parties, the right to speak out against the government, the right to access the justice system etc? You maybe need to look at what echo chamber you’re getting your news from.

Exactly! It's all blame Israel, no-one seems to condem hamas for its actions.

I've even read on here people saying that they are oppressed and therefore it's no wonder they do what they do, or likening them to freedom fighters. Disgraceful

Some of the people marching in our city wore badges and held placards showing paragliders. They may be useful idiots, or they may truly support the hamas ideology.

Why do all the Israeli propaganda people come on all at once at this time. Are you all huddling behind one laptop? I find it strange...

Hardly anyone supports the actions of Hammas. I think the main disagreements are about how Israel responds to Hammas. I do not think many people out there are saying Hammas are justified in what they do.

I do think however some people believe that Israel in effect created Hammas because an organisation that extreme was always going to appear in a situation like that.

I venture that hardly any one thinks it's OK that civilians are dying

i don’t get it either , it’s like when people blame Israel for no good or fuel when Hamas has plenty if food and plenty of fuel to support his people underground and launch hundreds of rockets a day . Blame Hamas and those who support him .
To be fair it’s a bit like women in Palestine , despite some being influencers most are very restricted in what they can do . I work with an amazing Palestinian woman who left Gaza when Hamas was already in power , her aunt brought her over after a visit and she refused to return as a teenager and ended up dating here since 2008 and has studied has a career and got married had kids etc . I didn’t what to ask about all this but asked her if her family was safe and was surprised she has minimum contact with them . She went on to tell em she is one of 9 and she is “ disposable “ as many others children . As she has spend so many years in the west she also realised the idea of martyrdom is completely wrong and despises the idea even more now she has children . She also told me families receive money for any children that die or get arrested in connection with the IDF or Israel , many depend on those monthly payments . In her own worlds I find it all awful and sad , but Palestine needs education outside radicalism or the children will never stand a chance .
She also said women have little rights or choice on what is allowed in their life’s and with Hamas in power things only got worse .
Its very sad to see those poor kids dying but part of me can’t help but wonder why people have so many children when they have so little to give to them .
i have been to Palestine a few years ago and a few times to Israel , so I’ve been following closely

They must do, I was on Oxford Street on the day off the first march and days after Hamas’ massacre. People on the stalls were shouting ‘support our glorious freedom fighters’ and nobody batted an eyelid, not even the police standing next to them. Lots of people were taking badges and signing their petitions though. I felt absolutely sick at how horrific it was.