This Fight Is Not About Israel And Palestine; It Is About Hamas – Ambassador Freeman

The recent terror attack on Israel, likened to Pearl Harbour and 911 attacks on U.S, killing about 800 Israelis on first day, by Hamas shook the world to its core. Israel is always seen as being pre-emptive. What went wrong?

 They killed babies, they killed old people, they burned people alive. And it’s taking us a long time to know how many people were killed because some of the bodies were in such a bad shape, we didn’t even know if it was one body or two people. We had bits of limbs we had to find. Some people had legs missing, arms missing heads missing. So, it took a long time to even know how many people have been massacred. Now we know that it was 1400 people on that first day, and 200 were kidnapped by Hamas as well and taken into Gaza. And as for your question about what went wrong, it’s a question we would need to answer. There’s no question that there would be an inquiry afterwards. We would have a look at what happened and we would draw our conclusions but that would have to be after this war and after we’ve done what we need to do to Hamas to stop them from ever being able to do this again.

 The Palestinians and Israelis are of the same heritage. Why can’t both live together in peace as brothers and sisters? Can you give us a little background on this?

 This is not about Israel and Palestine, it’s not about Jews and Muslims. This is about Hamas. It’s very important to make that distinction because I know that there are a lot of people around the world who are trying to turn this into a Jewish-Muslim issue or Christian-Muslim issue, Israel-Palestine issue, but that’s not the issue. The issue is really Hamas. This is a radical terror organisation. When the world said we need to destroy ISIS, or when Nigeria says we have to fight Boko Haram, no one is saying this is a fight against Muslims. It’s a fight against a terror organisation. And this is what this is about. A fight against the most barbaric, evil terror organisation. And as you say, if we want peace in the future, then Hamas can have no part of that. Hamas constitution calls for the death of Israel, death of every Jew around the world. They don’t accept any prospect of peace. So, if people genuinely want to see peace, then our best opportunity and our best hope, are that Hamas aren’t around.

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We’ve heard people say that a group infiltrated Palestine years back and formed Hamas to help Palestinians fight for Gaza. What is your take on this?

 Firstly, and the most important thing is that there is never a justification for what we saw Hamas do. Hamas came into Israel, and I’ve got horrific stories. We know that they tied children’s hands behind their backs and then burnt them alive. We are talking about killing babies in front of their parents and making them watch. We are talking about mutilating bodies and raping women. All these sorts of things and I haven’t given you the gruesome details. However bad that that sounds, it isn’t even slightly the most gruesome details. There’s never a justification for any of that. But there’s more than that. In 1993, Israel signed the Oslo Accord and the first people to object were the Hamas when they started launching terrorist attacks. Israel offered a Camp David in 2000, we offered a complete withdrawal from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, even the division of Jerusalem, and the Palestinians rejected it. Israel left Gaza in 2005. There’s not been an Israeli soldier or an Israeli settler in Gaza since 2005. And in 2007, Hamas took over and started firing rockets and carrying out attacks. So, let’s have a little bit of context here that Israel has made various opportunities and various offers and tried many times to sit with the Palestinians but this is not about it. Every time Hamas has rejected, Hamas has said there can never be peace with Israel, Israel must be destroyed.

 The number of casualties is increasing on both sides as the war continues, with women and children bearing the brunt. What does Israel intend to do to lessen the impact on those caught up in a war they have no part in?

 We’ve done a number of things and we’ve done everything to minimise casualties. We don’t want any innocent civilians injured or any civilians caught up. We’ve told and warned them to go South. We have said please go South; we had given them three days already to start moving south. We are providing water in the South; we have just announced today (18 Oct. 2023) that we would be providing humanitarian aid in the south of the country. So, there’s a place for them to go so that we can do what we need to do in the north of the Gaza Strip and that’s very important that we do want to avoid that. And you always have to understand that Hamas are holding human shields and they are holding their civilian population hostage and stopping them from moving south and stopping them from leaving because as strange as those sounds, Hamas wants many casualties. The greater the casualties, the better for them because that’s what they play on. They play on the death of civilians in Israel and Palestine because that is what they want to do.

 Presently, Israel’s retaliation is causing a stir around the world. We’ve seen attacks on Jewish establishments in countries like the United Kingdom. What is your message to Israelis around the world and perpetrators of such attacks?

 You can never justify antisemitism. I know that Jews will be protected by the countries they live in. You mentioned the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom government has been very strong and is against antisemitism towards Jewish communities and we are very thankful for that. And for Israelis around the world our government issues guidelines of what they should do and where they should be and that differs from country to country.