We are frequently reminded that the iconic Jewish publication, The Forward, although solely online nowadays, continues to produce noteworthy reading. For example, “What Mahmoud Khalil says about Gaza and Israel in ‘The Encampments’ documentary.” Khalil (pictured above in a photo from the film’s publicity page) has become a center of global attention, both as a negotiator & spokesperson for the anti-Israel protests at Columbia, and for being detained and threatened with deportation for having done so.
This review article neither attacks nor defends him, but does point out a flaw in the film, the same kind of flaw that pervades pro-Palestinian activism:
The Encampments fits into a growing canon of documentary films about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the American discourse about the conflict that focus exclusively on one side of it.
While the documentary often references Oct. 7 as a date things changed on campus, it never mentions what happened that day. It never mentions Hamas, or explores why Israel launched the war in Gaza the students are protesting.
Yet, in his non-polemical way, the reviewer also makes one sympathize with Khalil as a human being whose background is steeped in suffering and displacement:
Khalil lends historical context to the documentary as a Palestinian refugee himself. His grandparents, he says, lived near Tiberias, where they peacefully shared farmland with their Jewish neighbors. In April 1948, after Israeli forces burned a nearby village, he says, they fled 40 miles on foot. His grandmother gave birth on the way.
“My father was born in a tent,” he says.
According to the reviewer, the film portrays Khalil as “conciliatory, not antagonistic.” He responds to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on the concern of Jewish students for their safety with words that could be uttered by a liberal Zionist:
“I would say that the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinians and the Jewish people are intertwined, they go hand in hand,” Khalil responds. “Antisemitism and any force of racism has no place on this campus and in this movement.”
Still, there’s apparently no reflection in the film on how Israeli Jews should feel about the violent threats posed by Hamas and those other Palestinian groups that embrace “armed struggle” and/or reject “normalization.”
Palestinian Anti-Hamas Protests
In the meantime, the situation for over two million people in the Gaza Strip continues to spiral downward, as Israel has renewed its relentless attacks after a nearly two-month ceasefire. In recent days, it’s widely documented that masses of Gazans — thousands, apparently — have rallied openly against Hamas and for peace. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib grew up in Gaza, but has made a life for himself in the US. He frequently writes against Hamas for its authoritarian rule and violent ideology, and against people on the left who don’t seem to understand that Hamas is an obstacle to Palestinian freedom and self-determination.
In his latest piece in The Forward, “Think every Palestinian in Gaza is Hamas? This week’s protests prove you’re wrong,” Alkhatib marvels at the courage of the protesters and how far the demonstrations have spread:
These protests, unprecedented in the 18 years in which Hamas has controlled the strip, confirm what I and numerous other Palestinians have said for a long time: The majority of Palestinians in Gaza loathe the terror group, and want to see an end to its dictatorial rule over the strip. …
The breaking point appears to have been the recent collapse of the ceasefire …. New IDF evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza — many of whom had only just returned to what remained of their homes… — and the renewal of ferocious airstrikes that have killed hundreds were simply too much to bear. …
From a policy point of view, these anti-Hamas protests should give Arab countries more latitude to call on Hamas to step down and turn over control of Gaza — the only path forward that might save what can still be saved …
And Israel should realize that Palestinians … have no real way of overthrowing the terror group with their bare hands. Instead, the people of Gaza can do what neither Israel nor any other party can, which is delegitimize Hamas, and expose the terror group to the entire world for what it is: a violent, despicable entity that doesn’t care for its people’s well-being. …
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