And you know who I also don’t condemn?
The IRA
The Viet Minh
John Brown
Haitian slaves who revolted
Native American fighters
Black Panthers
National Liberation Front (Algeria)
Nelson Mandela
The 26th of July Movement
Every one of them were called “terrorists” or something equivalent at some point. Now think about who’s on the opposite of this list. Apartied South Africa, slavers, settlers, Zionists, the US government… There is only one moral and just side to be on and it’s not even a discussion.
FYI, it makes a lot more sense to ditch the “terrorism” framing. Paraphrasing a news mega poster, the jet plane pilot bombing civilians is never called a terrorist, it’s a definition exclusively used against insurgent resistance.
Are Hamas a militant Islamic fundamentalist group? Now that’s true, and that’s worth having reservations about personally endorsing. However, at this point in time, the united front of Palestinian resistance is unified in support of armed struggle against occupation (a tactic that is, incidentally, legal under international law), and Hamas is part of that front.
Nobody is required to endorse all tactics and ideologies found within the Palestinian resistance. A way to frame it that may bring you peace is that the only way to gain ultimate freedom for their people is with violence. As you yourself recognize, the path of negotiation (Oslo) and peaceful protests (the Marches of Return) have only led to further encroachment and oppression.
So while it is tough to see innocents caught in the crossfire, there’s no such thing as halfway liberation. There is only the boot on the neck of the Palestinians, until there is enough combined force to lift it off
Thank you for putting it that way. Your words really helped ease my mind a bit about this situation.