Why Is nobody listening to the voice of Gazans?

As the prospect of Middle East peace phases in and out, one has to realize that it’s been a long and nasty 13 years since Hamas ruthlessly took over Gaza in a coup disguised as an election.

The ups and down experienced by Gaza’s citizens have netted not just 2 wars, but economic problem after economic problem. As complaints have risen, a variety of spokespeople have stepped forward. They represent 2 specific types of representations. The first comes from the “Government”, and in all cases such as Jordan, Qatar, and others, these are either Kings or Dictators, or both. The second comes from groups like the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas.

Gaza City (photo credit: OneArmedMan)

What ties these groups together is a series of anomalies, all of which raise two very important questions: “How can they speak for Palestinians?” And, “If not them, then who?”

The Hashemite King of Jordan claims to speak for the Gazans, but how can he when he has a country’s needs to represent? He openly states that he is the sole “moderate” negotiator between the Palestinians and Israel and the West, but under Abdullah’s 20-year reign, what has he negotiated? All he has done is line his pockets at the expense of Palestinians.

The Muslim Brotherhood claims to represent us, but how? As far as we know, this terrorist organization is so destructive that most Islamic countries do not allow them to operate.  They are classified as terrorists.  But apparently their best friend is the King of Jordan because he allows them to operate.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) – the recognized governing body – represents no one except the needs of Abbas and his leaders, who live in luxury both in and out of the country.  They are impudent, and quite frankly, no one pays attention to them. For example, Gaza is being strangled by Hamas, who is supposed to take orders from the PA, yet they don’t.

Hamas is a political party that thrives on dictatorship, crushing the people, and lying to the world.

Now is the perfect time for the Palestinian populace to stand up and follow new leaders, and I propose that an organization be created entitled something like the Palestinian Organization Coalition.

What’s odd here is this: they all support censorship, illegal detainment and yes, Islamic law that opposes secular concepts like support for gay rights and Israel.

The political situation in Gaza has its ups and downs for Hamas and everyone else involved. Sometimes Hamas wins a political victory, other times Israel wins.  Both Qatar and Jordan get political shows on Gaza’s ticket every once in a while.  One thing has been certain and constant, though; Gazans have always been the losers and nobody in this world seems to care what they think.

The authors of this article that you are reading are two Gazans who have fled Hamas’s hell to Europe.  Both of us are computer geeks with good jobs in an EU member states. We have made. We’re living the life now.

But, why would two Gazans choose to run an article in an American conservative website?  The answer is simple: Nobody else cares to even know what Gazans think, let alone what they want.

In other words, when UN officials open their mouths before the microphones of the world’s media to speak about Gazans suffering, they don’t know what they are talking about, nor do they know what we are striving for as human beings.

When Arab dictators bleat about our rights and how Israel is allegedly crushing us, they don’t care for us. In fact, Those very Arab rulers have played the larger part in creating suffering for Gaza.

When European officials talk about the need to help Gazans, it is, in most cases, a sugarcoating of their deeply-established anti-Semitism.

Here, we will tell you what we, Gazans want.

We want Hamas out. We voted for Hamas almost 14 years ago because we had enough of the corrupt Palestinian Authority. Even Christians in Gaza voted for Hamas as the lesser of two evils. Gazans have been historically more liberal and less religious than the rest of the Palestinians. This has been known about us since the British Palestinian Mandate was created.

We thought our lives could improve a little under Hamas. And what did we get? Hamas is more corrupt than the Palestinian Authority thugs. Even worse, Hamas labels you as an infidel if you ever oppose it. At least the PLO would not do that.

And yes, Hamas is not self-governed or self-controlled. It is common knowledge in Gaza is that Hamas is actually the “Palestine Chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood of Jordan.”

In fact, we both find it puzzling that very few people seem to know this. For those who wish to contest our claim, all they have to do to believe us is check a British PhD dissertation by Jordanian scholar Osama Bank Ershied.  It says exactly this.

During the 2014 war, one of the authors of this article was in Gaza and the word in the street was that Hamas was rejecting Israel’s offers for a ceasefire “because they don’t have permission from Amman.”

In other words, Hamas is a puppet managed by Jordan’s King-controlled Muslim Brotherhood, financed by Qatar with money and with weapons from Iran.

Hamas has impoverished us and enriched its leaders. Hamas oppresses us, beats us, tortures us, and kills us every once a while. Hamas’s jihad begins at home.  We are Hamas’s biggest victims.

All the parades you see in support of Hamas are either staged or enforced. They issue orders to school kids to attend those parades under the threat of arresting their parents.

To make it simple: except for 5,000 people who make up the leadership of Hamas and their kids, we can authoritatively confirm to you we Gazans would love to see Israel taking over Gaza again and running it under the “civil administration“ we used to have before the Oslo Accords.

Also, we don’t want the corrupt Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza again. And as much as we love Egypt and President Al Sisi, but we don’t want Egypt either. We want things to return to the days before Oslo.

As for those wondering what our identity and citizenship will be, let’s just say that most Gazans are educated and good readers. We know Jordan’s regime stands on shaky ground. A change in Jordan would result in an extension of Jordanian citizenship to West Bankers and Gaza and then, it would be peace based on facts and reality on the ground as President Trump said when he addressed the UN in September of last year. Also, we are willing to hold Jordanian citizenships and connect administratively  to Jordan, but that will require a change of the status quo in Jordan first.  

We’ve given you the truth that could set all of us free.

Muhammad AlZanati and Muhammad AlBuhaisi are Gaza natives who have fled to Europe.  Both are members of the Palestinian Opposition Coalition, currently under formation