Real friends of Palestinians

From a letter I sent to a local newspaper:

Re: Editorial: Palestinian Anarchy

The editorial accuses Palestinians of wanting to turn themselves into pariahs for electing Hamas. What Palestinians have actually done has been to exercise their democratic right to choose the government that they feel best represents their interests. I don’t recall The Star accusing Americans of wanting to turn themselves into pariahs by electing and then re-electing someone like George W. Bush.

As further evidence that Palestinians enjoy the pariah status, you claim that their brief detention of 11 foreign aid workers after Israel’s criminal raid on the Jericho prison proves they don’t favour their friends over their foes. Thus implying, apparently, that Hamas is their foe.

Incidentally, had a representative of an international organization been held hostage by a hypothetical Canadian militant group (as, in a sense, actually happened with the FLQ abduction of James Cross in 1970), would The Star have accused all Canadians of wanting to turn themselves into pariahs, and not knowing their friends from their enemies?

The Palestinian people’s friends are those who understand their plight. That includes many of those same foreign workers, such as the released Canadian detainee Adam Budzanowski, who are working among them, and who understand the risks that they take by working among a highly oppressed and abandoned nation. That is why Mr Budzanowski has decided to remain in Palestine to continue his work.

Hamas is also a friend of the Palestinian people, because it understands that without justice there will be no peace. To Palestinians, Hamas represents exactly that justice. Hamas represents the demand for full withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories. Nothing less, and nothing more. No other influential group within Palestine, and no Western nation, is willing to make that demand an absolute condition for peace.

• My other posts on related topics:
The silver lining... Sweet fruits of deception
Wiped out...
"Democracy in Action"
New Age Zionists
Myth and Myth-take (with Update)
Unity, progress, and purpose