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Palestinians Largely Support Oct. 7 Massacre, Deny Hamas Guilty of War Crimes: Poll
A Palestinian boy reacts next to a burning Israeli vehicle that Palestinian gunmen brought to Gaza after they infiltrated areas of southern Israel, in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
The vast majority of Palestinians support Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel and do not think the terror group has committed war crimes during its ongoing war with the Jewish state, according to a new poll.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found in its latest pubic opinion poll of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank that a striking 72 percent of respondents said Hamas made a “correct” decision to launch its onslaught against Israel.
During the invasion, Hamas terrorists murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 240 others as hostages, taking them back to Gaza. Hamas’ brutality during the pogrom — which included documented cases of rampant rape and other sexual violence, torture, and beheadings — shocked the world.
Despite the gruesome violence, however, only 10 percent of Palestinians think that Hamas has committed war crimes during the current war, according to the poll. When asked if the terror group, which rules Gaza, was guilty of atrocities “such as the killing of women and children in their homes,” just 16 percent of respondents in Gaza and 1 percent in the West Bank said yes.
Meanwhile, the research found that 95 percent of Palestinians believe Israel has committed war crimes during the ongoing war in Gaza.
Since the outbreak of the war on Oct. 7, US President Joe Biden and other international partners have been pushing for the renewal of peace talks, with the goal of taking steps toward a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Part of this plan, as Biden administration officials have indicated, would see a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority, which currently governs the West Bank, also take charge in Gaza.
However, 64 percent of Palestinians oppose the PA being a party to any peace talks to determine the future of Gaza, and only 7 percent back a PA led by current President Mahmoud Abbas taking charge of the Palestinian enclave. Even without Abbas in charge, only 16 percent of respondents said they want a PA government taking power.
Conversely — and despite Israeli, American, and European statements that Hamas will have no part in post-war Gaza governance — 60 percent of Palestinians are in favor of the terror group retaining power, the poll found. Specifically, 75 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank expressed support for Hamas retaining control, compared to only 38% in Gaza.
Beyond the immediate region, the poll’s findings show that 87 percent of Palestinians think that the response to the war of the US and other major Western powers, such as the UK, France, and Germany, “show disregard to international humanitarian law.”
Furthermore, 70 percent of respondents said that Western declarations in support of a two-state solution are “not serious.” On that same topic, most Palestinians are opposed to a two-state solution themselves, the poll found, with 34% in favor and 64% opposed. Indeed, a strong majority of Palestinians — 63 percent — said “armed struggle” against Israel is the best way forward to “end occupation and establish an independent state” — an increase of ten percentage points compared to three months ago.
Throughout most of the survey, support for Hamas and its objectives were much higher among Palestinians in the West Bank than in Gaza. For example, when it comes to the overall favorability of Hamas’ rule in Gaza, 85 percent of West Bank Palestinians expressed “satisfaction with the role of Hamas,” compared to just 52 percent of Gazans.
Another disparity between West Bank and Gaza Palestinians can be seen in the support for Hamas leadership, such as Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the terror group’s political bureau who is currently living in Qatar. In a hypothetical election between Abbas and Haniyeh, the latter would easily win in the West Bank, 82 percent to 10 percent, the poll found. In Gaza, Haniyeh would still trounce Abbas, but by a smaller margin: 71 percent to 24 percent. However, overall voter turnout would be only 53 percent.
According to the polling, Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Abbas’ Fatah political faction, would defeat both men in a hypothetical election and is “the most popular Palestinian figure.”
The newly released poll, which was conducted from Nov. 22-Dec. 2, included a sample size of 1231 adults, of whom 750 were interviewed face to face in the West Bank and 481 in the Gaza Strip in 121 randomly selected locations.
The post Palestinians Largely Support Oct. 7 Massacre, Deny Hamas Guilty of War Crimes: Poll first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai
Around 200 people gathered for a pro-Israel demonstration at University of Toronto’s downtown campus at King’s College Circle—which was the site of one of Canada’s largest pro-Palestinian encampments during May […]
The post A pro-Israel rally at the University of Toronto was headlined by Columbia University professor Shai Davidai appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters
A statue of George Washington tied with a Palestinian flag and a keffiyeh inside a pro-Hamas encampment is pictured at George Washington University in Washington, DC, US, May 2, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Craig Hudson
The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.
“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week. “Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”
It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”
DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.
Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”
The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.
“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”
The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.
Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.
“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”
The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Not Welcome’: New Pro-Hamas Campaign Aims to Abolish Hillel Campus Chapters first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza
Former US President Donald Trump is seen at a campaign event in South Carolina. Photo: Reuters/Sam Wolfe
The “Muslims for Trump” organization has officially launched initiatives to help elect Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to the White House, arguing that he would be more likely to end the war in Gaza than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
In a statement released on Monday, the group said it will focus on recruiting Muslim voters in key battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina. The organization both praised Trump for his supposed “peace-focused” approach to ending the war in Gaza and condemned Harris for helping facilitate a so-called “genocide.”
“After meeting with President Trump, it was clear to me he is the right leader for Muslims to get behind,” Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Muslims for Trump and former co-chair of the “Abandon Harris Movement,” said in a statement.
Chowdhury added that during his discussions with Trump, the former president vowed to “ending the escalation of wars and bringing peace to war-torn regions.” In contrast to Trump’s promise to stop the “bloodshed” in Gaza, he claimed, Harris has “recklessly pushed us toward World War III.”
Chowdhury, a self-described “peace advocate,” urged the Muslim community not to fall victim to supposed “misinformation” campaigns by the media and Democrats that paint the former president as hostile to immigrants. He claimed that the former president’s focus is on “ending war, not dividing families through false immigration claims.”
Samra Luqman, chair of the Michigan chapter of Muslims for Trump, underscored the need to punish the Biden administration for what he described as supporting a “genocide” in Gaza.
“The goal of this election is to hold the Biden administration accountable for a genocide. No amount of fear mongering or scare tactics will persuade my community into forgiving the mutilation, live-burning, and genocide of over 200,000 people,” he said.
According to data produced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, roughly 40,000 people have died in Gaza since the war began last October. Israel has said that its forces have killed about 20,000 Hamas terrorists during its military campaign.
Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication.
On the organization Muslims for Trump’s official website, it claims that the Abraham Accords, a series of historic, Trump administration-brokered normalization agreements between Israel and several countries in the Arab world, helped stabilize the Middle East. It also says that had Trump not lost the 2020 presidential race, the so-called “genocide” could have been prevented.
“Under Trump’s leadership, the Abraham Accords were brokered, fostering peaceful relations between Israel and several Arab countries. Supporters might argue that Trump’s diplomacy prioritized peace and stability in the Middle East, reducing the likelihood of large-scale conflicts like genocide,” the group wrote.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump has repeatedly touted his support for the Jewish state during his singular term in office. Trump has boasted about his administration’s work in fostering the Abraham Accords, promising to resume efforts to strengthen them if he were to win November’s US presidential election.
Harsh US sanctions levied on Iran under Trump crippled the Iranian economy and led its foreign exchange reserves to plummet. Trump and his Republican supporters in the US Congress have criticized the Biden administration for renewing billions of dollars in US sanctions waivers, which had the effect of unlocking frozen funds and allowing the country to access previously inaccessible hard currency.
Trump also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria, and also moved the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, recognizing the city as the Jewish state’s capital.
Despite Harris’s repeated efforts to woo Muslim voters, polling data indicates that the demographic has made a dramatic swing away from the Democratic Party. Polling data from the Arab American Institute reveals that Trump slightly edges Harris among Muslim voters by a margin of 42 to 41 percent. A report from the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Green Party candidate Jill Stein leads Harris and Trump with Muslim voters in the key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona.
The post ‘Muslim for Trump’ Launches Initiatives in Key Battleground States, Says Candidate Will Bring ‘Peace’ to Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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