What does “Pro-Israel” or “Pro-Palestine” even mean anymore? These labels get thrown around constantly, but when you actually dig into them, they often hide more than they reveal.
For my part, I have no issue with supporting Palestinian rights, dignity, or the aspiration for a better life. If being pro-Palestine meant simply supporting human rights for Palestinians, I’d be right there. But what’s being defended under that label today goes far beyond that.
In many cases, it involves defending or excusing the leadership in Gaza - Hamas - a group whose stated aim is the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews, to be replaced with a theocratic Islamic state that offers no civil rights to anyone, including Palestinians.
That’s not an interpretation. It’s written into their charter and confirmed by their actions - decades of suicide bombings, rocket attacks, the massacre of civilians, and the systematic indoctrination of children into a culture of hatred and martyrdom.
They don’t want peace. They want total victory, and their version of "victory" is the obliteration of a sovereign nation-state that includes Jews, Muslims, Christians, and over two million Arab citizens.
So yes, I am very much against that.
And I’m baffled by the number of people in the West who seem to have either romanticised that vision or are deliberately looking away from it.
Then there’s another kind of "Pro-Palestine" argument that exists in fantasy land - the idea of a single, binational state where everyone has equal rights, all refugees return, and everything just works out peacefully. But every poll conducted over the last twenty years, as well as every word from almost any person you speak to directly involved, tells us that this is not what the majority of Palestinians actually want.
Most do not support a Western-style liberal democracy where Jews and Arabs live side by side in peace. I am getting a bit long in the tooth but I remember the Gaza election really well because I am Egyptian by birth and it felt really important to me. I think there was some fairly moderate groups running in it, and I am not talking about New Labour or anything but more like groups that basically thought normalising relations with Israel was a good idea so people could move forward and thrive and all those groups collectively didn't even get 3% of the vote!
This isn't my opinion - this is well-documented, consistent data. So the idea that a democratic one-state solution with equal rights for all is the logical or likely outcome is a complete fiction. I am honestly not sure if that is borne of wishful thinking, western projection or just a desire to destroy Israel dressed up as something nicer - maybe a combo of all!
That leaves one version of being pro-Palestine that actually makes moral and political sense to me. It’s the version where you oppose a regime that brutalises its own people, where you don’t excuse or ignore when children are taught racism, where you reject the glorification of stabbing and martyrdom, where you don’t pretend it’s acceptable to fire rockets from hospitals or hide weapons in schools, or to pay salaries to those who’ve murdered civilians. It’s the version where you believe a future Palestinian state should be a place of civil rights, democracy, education, and peace, not a dystopia run by corrupt, violent ideologues. And that should be a universal standard, not a controversial statement.
I am sitting around waiting for the "Pro Palestine" movement to say this, but the air rings with silence.
And yes, when I compare that vision to the state of Israel- despite all of its flaws, complexities, and mistakes - I still see a functioning, diverse democracy. A place where Jews, Arabs, Druze, Christians, and others live, argue, vote, work, protest, serve in parliament, and build lives. Israel hasn’t always gotten everything right, but I’ve never doubted that the majority of Israelis want peace, stability, and a future where they and their neighbours can just get on with living.
So if I have to choose between a flawed democracy trying to survive and a violent theocracy trying to destroy it, I know where I stand. That might get me called “pro-Israel,” but I think it just makes me pro-reality, pro-human rights, and pro-peace. In an ideal world I would really like to see ALL countries have that.
This conflict has really shone a light on how lost we all are!