Throngs of Gazan civilians cheered the ghoulish site of Hamas parading the bloodied bodies of dead Jews through the streets.

By Morton A. Klein

(OCTOBER 25, 2023 / FEDERALIST) At least 10 times since Oct. 7, President Biden has stated that the Muslim Arab terrorist group Hamas, “does not represent the Palestinian people,” or variations such as “the vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas,” and “Hamas does not represent the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.” Top Biden administration officials have repeated the same phrases.

But the Biden administration’s repeated statement isn’t true. In fact, Hamas overwhelmingly represents the Palestinian people.

First, the Palestinians elected Hamas’ “Change and Reform” party in 2006 (the most recent legislative election), giving Hamas an overwhelming 74 seats. The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Fatah only won 45 seats. Parties representing other terror groups, e.g., PFLP’s “Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa” party, each won two to four seats. PA dictator Mahmoud Abbas has not held elections for the past 17 years to avoid losing again to Hamas. And last year, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians rallied in the streets to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Hamas.

Moreover, Hamas terror attacks on Israelis increase Palestinian support for Hamas. For example, Palestinian support for Hamas increased dramatically after Hamas launched 4,500 rockets at Israel in May 2021.

Second, Gazan civilians actively participated in, aided, abetted, and celebrated the Oct. 7 massacre.

“Ordinary” Gazan civilian workers in Israel (thousands of whom were allowed into Israel due to the Biden administration’s pressure) collected detailed intelligence on every home and citizen in southern Israeli towns and drew maps for Hamas to easily locate Jewish nurseries and families to murder and kidnap.

Then, after the first wave of Hamas terrorists slaughtered more than 1,400 Jews, huge waves of “ordinary” Gazan civilians, armed with knives and screaming “Allahu Akbar,” flooded into southern Israel, and joined in the Hamas massacres and kidnappings. Mobs of Gazan civilians killed and gang-raped innocent Jews, chopped off innocent Jews’ heads, took hostages, entered and burned down massacred Jews’ homes, and ransacked and looted everything in sight — televisions, automobiles, jewelry, children’s bicycles, etc.

Israeli Telegram Channel South First Responders reported: “The assault on Southern Israel was not carried out exclusively by Hamas. It began with the entry of hundreds of heavily armed terrorists and was followed by waves of Gazans who looted the communities.” The mayor of the regional council encompassing most of the Gaza border explained: “The second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave.”

Throngs of Gazan civilians then cheered the ghoulish site of Hamas parading bloodied, captured, and dead Jews’ bodies through the streets. Gazans beat the Jews as they passed by.

Overjoyed Palestinian Arabs in Judea/Samaria (the “West Bank”) also cheered the massacre, dancing in the streets. Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Palestinian Arabs routinely joyously celebrate when Arab terrorists murder Jewish children.

Third, if Hamas really didn’t represent the Palestinian people, there would have been at least some uprising against Hamas. (Look at Iran!) But no one in Gaza or the Palestinian Authority rose up or spoke out against Hamas’ atrocities. No one showed an ounce of humanity toward the slaughtered Jewish families and babies.

Fourth, numerous polls demonstrate that Palestinian Arabs in Judea/Samaria and Gaza overwhelmingly support Hamas’ “aspiration” to murder Israelis.

When the Palestinian Center for Polling and Survey Research in Ramallah’s (PCPSR) June 2023 poll asked: “What has been the most positive thing or the best thing that has happened to the Palestinian people since the Nakba?” (Israel’s rebirth 75 years ago), virtually every single “positive or best thing” that Palestinians and Gazans cited involved forming terror groups and murdering Jews.

The largest percentage (38 percent in Gaza; 24 percent of all Palestinians) said that the “single positive or best thing” was the Islamic movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s establishment and participation in “armed struggle” (killing Jews); 21 percent said that the “single positive and best thing” was the first and second intifadas (the terror wars in which Palestinian Arabs murdered or maimed 10,000 Jews in suicide bombings, etc.); and 18 percent said the PLO’s (terror organization) establishment.

The same June 2023 poll found that 79 percent of Gazans (71 percent of all Palestinian Arabs) favored forming even more armed terror groups, e.g., Lion’s Den and Jenin Battalion. These armed groups include Hamas, Fatah, and PIJ terrorists, and carried out numerous deadly terror attacks against Jews over the past year.  

Further, 80 percent of Palestinian Arabs oppose surrendering armed groups’ members and weapons to the PA; and 86 percent (falsely) said the PA does not even have the right to arrest armed terror groups’ members to prevent attacks against Israel.

The PCPSR March 2023 poll found that 71 percent of Palestinian Arabs supported Palestinian terrorists shooting to death two Israeli brothers who simply drove by on a road near Huwara.

The PCPSR September 2019 poll found that 80.3 percent of Gazans, and 61 percent of all Palestinian Arabs supported the bombing tactic that murdered 17-year-old Israeli Rina Shnerb and seriously wounded Rina’s father and brother. PFLP Arab terrorists (who were working for European governments) planted an IED near a popular spring in Samaria and remotely detonated the IED when they saw Rina’s family hiking there.

Thus, when Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh praised Rina Shnerb’s murder as a “heroic act,” and when the murderer’s mother said that her “greatest achievement was giving birth to a hero,” they spoke for the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Arabs.

And the PCPSR December 2015 poll (taken during the deadly “knife intifada”) found that 85 percent of Gazans (and 67 percent of all Palestinian Arabs) supported stabbing attacks on Israelis.

Unfortunately, Hamas does indeed represent the overwhelming mass of Palestinian Arabs and their genocidal aspirations.

Morton A. Klein is national president of the Zionist Organization of America and is widely regarded as one of the leading Jewish activists in the United States.

This op-ed was originally published in The Federalist and can be viewed here.