No, Gazans Can’t Rise Up Against Hamas
The terror group maintains a monopoly on power over the strip and controls its economy.
No voice, no vote, no freedom.
Photographer: Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
“They could have risen up, they could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’état.” Israeli President Isaac Herzog ought to know better than to have said that. But those who don’t — those who had no call to pay attention to Palestinian politics until a month ago — might be forgiven for asking why Hamas has never faced a serious uprising from within their Gazan redoubt in the 17 years it has ruled the strip.
That it has not allows some, in Israel and elsewhere, to suggest that the majority of the 2.3 million Palestinians who are confined to the 139 square miles of Gaza must approve of the terrorist group’s actions, including the horrific attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. To follow this line of reasoning is to conclude that all Gazans are complicit in terror. “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog told reporters a few days after the attack. “This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true.