What do regular Palestinians want?
The uncomfortable truth is that a large percentage of Palestinians, tragically, have been indoctrinated to the point that destroying Israel—not achieving peace or prosperity—is their primary goal.
Myth: The Oct 7 attacks in no way represent the noble and peaceful aspirations of the Palestinian people.
Truth: A large percentage of Palestinians, tragically, have been indoctrinated to the point that destroying Israel—not achieving peace or prosperity—is their primary goal.
Even though Hamas was democratically elected in 2006, many Westerners think that Hamas could not possibly represent the desires of ordinary Palestinians. In truth, a new Nov 14 poll shows 63.6% of Gaza adults and 83.1% of West Bank adults support Hamas’ Oct 7 attack on Israel.
The Nov 14 data shows that most Palestinians (74.7% overall) support “a Palestinian state from the river to the sea”—which requires Israel’s destruction—over “two-state solution for two peoples” or a “one-state solution for two peoples”.
The Nov 14 findings—that most Palestinians endorse Hamas and their end-Israel agenda—are not a fluke wartime result. A June 2023 poll, conducted by a different organization during a ceasefire, shows that if the 2006 election were to be repeated, Hamas would win again in Gaza
Evidence that ordinary Palestinian civilians endorse the end-Israel agenda, and violence against Israelis more broadly, dates years back. A Dec 2014 poll found that 76.1% of Gaza adults either “certainly support” or “support” armed attacks against Israeli civilians in Israel.
Overall, post-2000 survey data from both overseas and Palestinian sources paint an undeniable picture of anti-Israel sentiment. Most Palestinians believe:
Israelis have no rights to Israel (WINEP)
Judaism is inherently violent (Pew)
Suicide-bombing Israelis is not “terrorism” (PSR)
Clear evidence that Gazans endorse Hamas’ end-Israel agenda is the fact that Gazans elected Hamas in 2006. Though Hamas (or “Change and Reform”) ran on an electoral platform of anti-corruption, their commitment to annihilating Israel and its Jewish population was well-known.
What Palestinians admit anonymously in polls and voting booths, they express openly in public. To celebrate Oct 7, Palestinian civilians cheered, shared candy, and fired guns. As Hamas fighters paraded an Israeli woman’s bloody body through Gaza, screaming civilians spit on her.
A Hamas member calling home on Oct 7 said, “I’m calling you from a Jew’s phone. I just killed her and her husband with my own hands! I killed 10 with my own hands! Dad, open WhatsApp and see how many I killed!” His civilian father replied, with pride, “Oh my son, God bless you!”
Much like the Germans who voted for the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in 1933, the Palestinians who voted for Hamas in 2006—and the Palestinians who continue to enable Hamas, whether actively or tacitly—bear responsibility for their government’s anti-Jewish atrocities.
How can it be that so many in Gaza endorse Hamas?
Building on the widespread Jew-hating Jihadist movement in the region, Hamas’ “education” system indoctrinates Gazans that no goal is greater than destroying Israel and all things Jewish.
In Gaza, cartoons for toddlers feature fuzzy animals who praise martyrdom and Jew-killing. Upon graduation, kindergarteners perform military-style drills enacting Israel’s destruction. Elementary schoolers burn US flags at summer camp, and play a game called “Stab the Jew”.
Gazan children have been recorded saying things such as: “I hate the Jews and I am ready to drive [a car] over them”, “Stabbing and running over Jews brings dignity to the Palestinians”, “I am prepared to be a suicide bomber”, and “I will fight for ISIS, the Islamic State.”
When Gaza boys are teens, they attend Hamas-organized, Iranian-funded military training camps, where it is cemented that martyrdom is the ultimate honor. By the time they are young adults, most Gazans are full-blown supporters of Hamas and believers in their end-Israel agenda.
As one would expect, there are Palestinians who overcome the anti-Israel brainwashing and genuinely seek a better life. But there are not enough of them, and Hamas makes them pay. In 2019, when people held up “We want to live” signs in Gaza, Hamas broke their limbs with clubs.
There are some—but not many—in Gaza who act against Hamas and survive. Mosab Yousef, the son of Hamas’ founder, became a spy for Israel after witnessing Hamas members brutally torture hundreds of Palestinians for threads of suspected connection with Israel. Yousef is a true hero.
The fact that there are so few people left alive in Gaza who condemn Hamas is perhaps the most tragic aspect of this entire conflict. More than half of Gaza civilians are children, and are certainly not to blame for holding the Hamas ideology. Nevertheless, most of them hold it.