Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a relative of Gazans who were injured and killed in the ongoing war, spoke against ongoing violence between Israel and Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activism in the West in an opinion piece published by the Free Press on Wednesday.
Alkhatib wrote of flying to Egypt to help his brother’s family escape the war and of an Israeli airstrike wounding many of his paternal uncles and cousins. Two of his relatives were reportedly killed in the strike.
Despite the personal loss, Alhatib wrote against the perpetual cycle of violence and the pro-Palestinian activism which failed to center the lives of Palestinian civilians in their actions.
“Whenever I share this story, people assume I must be consumed with rage, eager to get revenge on those responsible. I must despise all Israelis and consider them my sworn enemies,” Alkhatib wrote. “Despite my deep frustration and resentment with the Israeli government’s action and the ongoing war in Gaza, I don’t. If anything, I’m more critical of some pro-Palestinian activists, many of whom are making things worse, putting the people they claim to defend in increasing danger.
“In fact, I’d argue that some aren’t all that interested in the well-being of Palestinians.”
After leaving Gaza at 15 years old, he applied for political asylum in the United States. On the same day as his interview, June 14, 2007, Hamas ejected the Palestinian Authority from the Gaza Strip and began its violent reign. With his new life in the US, Alkhatib recalled how he involved himself with Palestinian activism and wrote of how he was “Initially, I was enamored. I volunteered with them. I marched with them. I gave them money. I attended dozens of rallies, went to countless university events, and participated in educational conferences and advocacy campaigns, including the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.“
Despite having met individuals well-versed on the complexities of the conflict, Alkhatib said he “met a lot of idealists who were too stubborn to realize that their all-or-nothing belief system, by which all Zionists are bad and all Palestinians are angels, isn’t just self-defeating but does an active disservice to the very people they claimed to champion.”
Alkhatib wrote of how some activists rejected him, considering him “a traitor” for escaping the conflict and prioritizing his personal safety. “They told me I should move back to Gaza to defend the land for my people. I should resist the Zionist plot to empty Gaza of all Palestinian inhabitants. Never mind that returning there would only put my life in danger; if I truly cared, they told me, I would be on the front lines, fighting to destroy our common enemy,” he wrote. “It’s easy to lecture about the virtues of holding the land when you live in a city where it’s unlikely a bomb will ever fall from the sky to kill you and everybody you love. It’s the romantic idealism of somebody who’s never had to bury a cousin or an uncle or a best friend.”
In one particular incident, Alkhatib was chastized at a San Fransisco rally for condemning Hamas launching rockets at Israeli civilian populations to a reporter. “Never talk about the rockets,” the rally organizer reportedly told him “You always pivot. If they ask you about Hamas, bring it back to the Israeli occupation.”
Despite explaining his personal connection to the conflict, Alkhatib said the organizer insisted “It doesn’t matter. Stay on message.”
Balancing multiple truths
In another example, Alkhatib spoke of how pro-Palestinian activists in the US stood against plans for an internationally run, Israeli-approved airfield in Gaza in 2015, despite it being widely supported by Palestinian civilians.
He wrote that while it would not end the conflict, the airport might have allowed “people the option to go in and out of Gaza and provide some freedom of movement for Palestinians trapped by the blockade in the Strip.”
“They opposed my efforts, because cooperation would just make Israel ‘look good, if only parts of the blockade are addressed and not all of it,” he wrote. “That wasn’t acceptable to them, even if the Palestinian people stood to benefit. Some believed that with freedom of movement, many Gazans would choose to leave, thereby fulfilling the “Zionist plot” to empty the Strip of its inhabitants, essentially arguing that imprisoned Gazans were better for the greater cause.”
“What kind of a cause relies on forcing its people to stay in perpetual misery so that Western activists can have an easier time condemning their adversaries?” he asked.
Speaking of activism post-October 7, when Hamas launched a massive attack on southern Israel and killed over 1200 people, Alkhatib said that “things got much worse.”
He claimed that not only did activists fail to condemn Hamas’s acts, they dismissed them. The activists claimed that Hamas’s terrorism had been “exaggerated, or outright invented” and told him to focus on pro-Palestinian matters.
“It often feels like Palestinians have become pawns for activists, our plight making it easier to criticize Israel. But it’s my family in the crosshairs. My brother and surviving family members are still over there, along with many people I grew up with. This is personal to me,” he explained.
Alkhatib said that he remained in support of Palestinian statehood but that he was also “ in favor of peace and pragmatism” and “vehemently opposed to everything Hamas represents and all of their vile acts against the Israeli people.”
Alkhatib also said he believed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a war criminal, responsible for the civilian deaths incurred in Israel’s war against Hamas.
“Balancing these multiple truths is not something many activists seem capable of doing,” he wrote. “They’re genuinely unwilling to acknowledge that the goal should be coexistence. To achieve true peace and anything approaching a realistic solution, we need to talk to each other as equals.”
He concluded the piece by writing “I know how hard it is not to get caught up in the emotions surrounding this conflict. I can’t stop thinking about my thirty-one dead relatives. I wake up every morning worried about my brother, family, and people, and I tense up every time the phone rings. But it’s precisely those losses and fears that make me want to find another way and not be driven solely by emotions and reactivity. I want to do something realistic, to look toward a better future when we finally break the repeating cycle of incitement, vengeance, anger, and hatred.”