Re: Palestine Solidarity Coalition: Statement on the War in Gaza
Roan V. Wade ’25, Hayden El Rafei ’24 and Ramsey Alsheikh ’26 are welcome to express their opinions about the horrific violence in Israel and Gaza. They are also welcome to criticize Israel, which, like all nations, is not perfect and whose treatment of the Palestinian people is fair game. I — like the writers — support the rights of the Palestinian people to self determination and peace. But in grasping to justify the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and to make Israel the enemy, they intentionally omit even mentioning Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, instead discussing “the recent war between Gaza and Israel.” Israel is not at war with the Palestinian people, nor with the people of Gaza. Israel is at war with Hamas, which is universally declared a terrorist organization and is solely responsible — along with Iran — for the appalling Oct. 7 terrorist attack against the people of Israel.
As the writers should know, Hamas’ charter expressly calls for the death of the Jewish people. Hamas itself is the chief oppressor of the people of Gaza, holding millions of innocent Palestinian people hostage under terrorist rule. Hamas’ conduct is why Israel has been forced to maintain careful control of its border with Gaza. Now, it is Hamas that Israel seeks to eliminate. But Hamas will use the innocent people of Palestine, as well as the hostages that Hamas captured from Israel, as human shields. I won’t quarrel here with the writers’ presentation of history. That would take too many words. But if the writers want to describe the “root cause” of the current violence, they should at least be honest about it and acknowledge that the violence is the sole responsibility of the monstrous conduct — acknowledged by leaders around the civilized world — of the terrorists of Hamas.
Michael Kolis ’87 is a lawyer at Chevron, an oil and gas firm. Letters to the Editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
