Ah, the international choir is at it again! Greta Thunberg clutching her placard, Owen Jones furiously typing tweets of profound moral simplicity, Roger Waters shaking his elderly fists, Jeremy Corbyn lost somewhere between a Marxist utopia and reality, Francesca Albanese pre-typing UN condemnations, and Susan Sarandon attempting relevance once more. Ladies and gentlemen, it's the anti-Israel karaoke night—and the only lyric anyone bothered learning is "genocide."
Let’s clarify something early: if Israel's goal was genocide, it's doing an astonishingly poor job. For a supposed genocidal regime, the Palestinian population has quadrupled since 1948—a fact conveniently ignored by our righteous brigade of activists, probably because arithmetic doesn’t trend well on TikTok.
Welcome to Gaza—Courtesy of Hamas
The Henry Jackson Society’s meticulous report, "Hamas’s Human Shield Strategy in Gaza," offers an uncomfortable reality check for those who prefer virtue-signalling over facts. Here are some painfully inconvenient truths for the activist brigade:
Underground Terror Network: Hamas’s tunnel system isn't just extensive—it's about 500 kilometres long, according to Israeli intelligence cited by the report. That's enough concrete to build hundreds of schools, hospitals, or homes. Instead, these resources are allocated to a subterranean city dedicated solely to war.
Hospitals as Military Bases: Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical centre, doubles as Hamas’s central command. Don’t believe it? The report cites Hamas officials openly admitting tunnels beneath the hospital, essentially transforming medical centres into legitimate military targets.
Schools as Weapons Depots: Hamas habitually uses educational institutions for storing rockets. In 2021, UNRWA found rockets stored at two of its schools, not for the first time, but the international choir conveniently forgot to update their outrage playlist.
Residential Warfare: Rockets are fired from densely populated civilian neighbourhoods, deliberately placing innocent lives at risk. According to the report, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri stated openly, “The fact that people are willing to sacrifice themselves against Israeli warplanes in order to protect their homes... proves our method is successful.” It’s chilling PR, but highly effective when the international chorus chooses not to listen.
Human Shields as Policy: Hamas explicitly and repeatedly endorses using civilians as shields. The report highlights Hamas official Fathi Hammad’s notorious statement: "We desire death as you desire life." Yet Western activists manage to twist this narrative into a bizarre accusation against Israel.
Militant Masquerade: Hamas fighters frequently wear civilian clothing to deliberately blur the lines between combatants and non-combatants. According to the report, this tactic forces Israeli forces into impossible choices, inevitably leading to casualties Hamas can exploit for propaganda.
Rocket Reality: Hamas has fired thousands of rockets from civilian buildings, apartment rooftops, and densely populated areas. As detailed in the report, they routinely set up launch pads in residential zones, knowingly inviting retaliation that endangers Palestinian lives.
The United Nations: Playing Dumb Since 1948
The UN has produced 367 documents about Gaza yet mentions Hamas's systematic human shielding exactly four times. And these mentions? Typically framed as mere allegations made by "Israel." The world's leading international body conveniently loses its fact-checking abilities when evidence implicates Hamas.
The UN’s Gaza playbook simplified:
Hamas embeds fighters among civilians.
Israel strikes military targets.
Civilian casualties inevitably occur.
Blame Israel loudly, frequently, and repetitively.
It’s a successful recipe for perpetual outrage and endless bureaucratic reports, providing job security for UN officials and fresh fuel for Western activists.
Celebrity Activism: Virtue Without Depth
Enter our delightful moralists: Greta, Roger, Owen, Francesca, Jeremy, and Susan. Susan Sarandon remains perpetually confused about geopolitics but certain about her moral superiority. Roger Waters is still bitterly singing the same anti-Israel tunes from his comfortably distant mansion. Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly calls for dialogue—provided it excludes Israelis who might present inconvenient truths. Owen Jones’s understanding of Gaza comes strictly from Twitter outrage and emotional hashtags. Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur, seems skilled only in pre-writing condemnations, facts be damned.
Greta Thunberg, meanwhile, might consider protesting Hamas’s massive environmental damage—500 kilometres of concrete tunnels must surely hurt her climate-sensitive heart. But sadly, activism stops when facts start.
Peter Tatchell's Selective Advocacy: Freeing a Convicted Terrorist
Peter Tatchell, our indefatigable human rights campaigner, has recently championed the cause of Marwan Barghouti, imprisoned since 2002 for orchestrating terrorist attacks that led to multiple Israeli civilian deaths. Tatchell conveniently labels Barghouti—a man convicted by an Israeli civilian court on five counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organisation—as merely a "political prisoner." His simplistic calls to "Free Marwan Barghouti & all Palestinian political prisoners" gloss over Barghouti’s violent history, reducing convicted terrorists to misunderstood freedom fighters.
Tatchell has gone so far as to explicitly call for Barghouti's release, a demand that echoes through his social media feed like a catchy but wildly off-key protest chant. "Free Marwan Barghouti!" he cries, as though Barghouti were a misunderstood artist, not a convicted mass murderer.
Tatchell’s insistence that "both sides would enjoy getting their prisoners back" creates a perverse false equivalence between terrorists imprisoned for lethal attacks and innocent civilians kidnapped and held hostage by Hamas. His moral blindness is staggering yet predictable, encapsulating the flawed logic and selective compassion that typifies certain activist circles.
Curtain Call: The Dark Theatre of Hamas Propaganda
The harsh reality—spelled out plainly in the Henry Jackson Society’s report—is that Hamas exploits civilian suffering strategically. They leverage international outrage precisely because they know the activist West won’t bother to read the fine print. It’s a macabre but effective strategy.
My upcoming documentary, Mother of Hate, examines precisely this phenomenon: propaganda thrives best where truth is willingly ignored. Gaza today is a textbook case: Hamas authors the violence, Western media directs the outrage, and international activists enthusiastically applaud the grotesque spectacle.
Encore, anyone?