Supporting Palestinians has turned into normalizing terrorism – opinion

Western civilization characterizes itself by its values. Today’s democracies, as enshrined in America’s founding documents, stand for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Justice is promised to all people, and equality is the standard that all people can expect from their government and society. 

Western values abhor terrorism, rape, and kidnappings. The West opposes violence to achieve political aims. It stands against hate, racism, and antisemitism. It stands for liberalism and freedom. Civilized countries support other democracies.

International support for Palestinian statehood reaches back as far as the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan. It was a cause that world leaders and American presidents on both sides of the aisle advocated. Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump all supported a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli prime ministers from Ehud Barak to Ehud Olmert all advocated a two-state solution that would create an independent Palestinian state on historically Jewish land. These leaders and advocates have yearned for Palestinians to experience the freedom others around the world enjoyed.

The international community always drew a clear line between advocating for a Palestinian state and supporting Palestinian terrorism. In his famous Rose Garden speech advocating for such a state, former US president George W. Bush said: 

Palestininans never rejected terrorism

“My vision is two states, living side by side in peace and security. There is simply no way to achieve that peace until all parties fight terror. Yet, at this critical moment, if all parties will break with the past and set out on a new path, we can overcome the darkness with the light of hope. Peace requires a new and different Palestinian leadership, so that a Palestinian state can be born. 

“I call on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror,” the president said. “I call upon them to build a practicing democracy, based on tolerance and liberty. If the Palestinian people actively pursue these goals, America and the world will actively support their efforts. If the Palestinian people meet these goals, they will be able to reach agreement with Israel and Egypt and Jordan on security and other arrangements for independence.” Bush hung his support of a Palestinian state on a Palestinian rejection of terrorism.

But Palestinians never rejected terrorism, and therefore, they never achieved a state. The Palestinian Authority, a governing body created with world support when it pledged to oppose and actively stop terrorism from its people, has failed miserably and has instead actively supported and incentivized Palestinian terrorism. Its dreadful “pay to slay” program cynically masquerades stipends for Palestinian terrorists as welfare payments. It has yet to condemn the October 7 terror attacks, and many of its leading officials publicly praised them. The PA has become another piece of the Middle East terror infrastructure.

The line that separated support for Palestinian statehood from supporting Palestinian terrorism has become so blurred that it is almost impossible to perceive. In statements of world leaders, in demonstrations worldwide and by Palestinian activists, support for a Palestinian state has become synonymous with support for Palestinian terrorism.

While most Palestinian supporters in the Western world won’t directly say they support Palestinian terrorism or the October 7 attacks, they use words that effectively mean the same thing to Palestinian ears. In demonstrations around the world, Hezbollah and Hamas flags are proudly raised, and chants for the death of Jews and supporting resistance by any means are regularly heard on the streets of Western cities. 

These messages telegraph the intent of the demonstrators to end the State of Israel through the violent murder of millions of Jews. It wasn’t surprising to see Palestinians and their supporters begin displaying Nazi swastikas at rallies in New York City all the way south to Palestinian-owned businesses in Florida.

In an equally insidious support of terrorism disguised as support for Palestinians, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cried on the House floor as she and her colleagues voted against and wouldn’t support American funding for the Iron Dome system. A purely defensive system, the only destruction Iron Dome brings is to Palestinian rockets fired at Israeli civilian communities. 

By voting against a system that defends innocent Israelis from Palestinian terrorists trying to kill them, Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” were effectively demonstrating support for the Palestinian terrorists trying to murder innocent Jews by rocket fire. While screaming “Death to Israel! Death to the Jews!” would’ve made the congresswoman’s intentions more obvious, her vote and tears were sufficient to understand her terror supporting position.

When did the shift happen?

When did supporting Palestinian statehood become a front for advocating for terrorism and genocidal acts against Jews? When did Western cities allow their streets to become centers of antisemitism and rallies for Palestinian terrorism? How has kidnapping and rape not become something so abhorrent that anyone who stands for it is shunned – as opposed to being allowed to march down city streets screaming for more of it!?

It is clear that Palestinians and their advocates support the October 7 attacks. The world watched across college campuses and major cities as people celebrated the Simchat Torah massacre and called for more! A year ago, the world watched in horror as Palestinians not associated with terror organizations participated in the attacks against Israeli women and children, held Israeli hostages, and cheered as dead Israelis were driven through the streets and spit on their corpses.

The Palestinian national movement transformed from one for Palestinian statehood to violence against Israel on Oct 7. Many will argue it was always a violent movement – and two intifadas, tens of thousands of terrorist attacks against Israelis, and fifty thousand rockets would support that argument. There were always radicalized Palestinians who were terrorists, but the Western supporters never justified and supported Palestinian terrorism. Today that has changed.

The world needs to reject Palestinian violence. Myriam Charabaty, an Arab political analyst, claimed that “Justice demands us to stand with the Resistance. The Resistance was born of the people and remains a popular choice among all the oppressed peoples of this region. Our moral duty is to engage the enemy by all means available to us, not just in words and chants.” Everyone needs to recognize that her claim and others like it must be rejected instead of published.

The Palestinian statehood movement has been converted from advocating for a Palestinian state to normalizing Hamas and its terrorism. 

When Palestinian civilians participate in terror and are defended and protected as innocent victims; when Al-Jazeera journalists keep hostages and their death is criticized as attacking a free press; and when Palestinians rape and the response is to call the victims liars, we must recognize that radicalized Palestinian society and its violence have become the problem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, where she lives with her husband and six children.