This Palestinian from Gaza Has No Time for Campus Protesters

Michael Higgins
National Post, May 7, 2024
 
“They have undercover Hamas members to report about anyone who criticizes Hamas or speaks against them. You don’t know if you are talking to a Hamas guy or not. You start talking against Hamas and you find yourself arrested the next day,” said Howidy.”
 
Hamza Howidy has one word for the students at alleged pro-Palestinian protests rocking campuses across North America: hypocrites.
“I don’t see a single pro-Palestinian protester demanding Hamas surrender,” said Howidy, a Palestinian from Gaza who was twice arrested and tortured by Hamas.
“I think that’s part of their hypocrisy because I believe that what motivates many of them is their deep hatred for the Jews and their antisemitism.”
Howidy, 27, accused protesters of being ignorant of the crimes Hamas has committed in Gaza and of the suffering and torture the de facto government inflicts on Palestinians in the region.
Students are demonstrating on several Canadian campuses including the University of Toronto, McGill, UBC, and in the U.S. at Columbia, UCLA, Pennsylvania and other universities.
But Howidy has no time for the students at the so-called pro-Palestinian rallies who, he says, should be putting the focus on Hamas.
“We suffer with Hamas. (They) are responsible for our suffering. And there will never be a future for us under their control, even if Israel just disappeared, we still suffer under Hamas,” he said in an interview last week.
Howidy has lived most of his life under Hamas. He was still a child when Hamas was elected in Gaza, ousting the Fatah party and killing many in a brief civil war in 2007.
“I was a child when Fatah was the government of Gaza, but I remember what my family used to say about Fatah and the corruption among Fatah members and that’s exactly why people elected Hamas in 2006.
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