EU turnabout
By
Amr El- Choubaki
The EU decision to brand Hamas as a terror group is deplorable. Not only has Europe toed the line of the US and Israel on the matter; it has turned its back on its own history. It was Europe's valiant resistance against the Nazis in France and elsewhere that set the moral and political tone for all people living under occupation.
To denounce Hamas is to acquiesce to a colonialist point of view, one that regards the lives of Palestinians as being less valuable than the lives of Israelis. Those who see Hamas as a terrorist group are the same people who view Sharon as a leader in the fight against terror. The fact is that occupation, as the chief editor of Le Monde Diplomatique once noted, is the ultimate form of terror. In Palestine occupation forces are engaged in target assassinations, expulsions, and home destruction. This is the reality with which the Palestinians have to cope.
There is one condition under which the EU would be right to denounce Hamas: if the Palestinians had a real opportunity for political and peaceful struggle, away from the horrors of occupation. Willful violence for ethnic or political motives must be condemned, whether the victims are Jews or Arabs. But what is happening in Palestine is truly extraordinary. The horrors to which the Palestinians are continually subjected supply thousands of Palestinians with a motive to engage in suicide attacks. To denounce as terrorists a people denied justice and hope is to side with their oppressors.
This week's Soapbox speaker is a political analyst at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
