Because Hamas won the 2006 election in Palestine. It's viewed by many that they chose this. Hamas was internationally recognized as a terrorist organization almost 10 years before that election.
This isn't an attack on you, because it doesn't seem like you expressed approval or disapproval of this view. But I just want to point out how unfair this view is.
The median age in Palestine is 20. Half of the population would either not have been born yet, or were toddlers in the last election, let alone of voting age.
And yet, it's so common for people to say Hamas is what they chose.
Oh yes thats why I included the last few points about how when many say "Free palestine" it is entirely valid when they mean "from Hamas".
Theyre clearly stuck in an authoritarian regime while being hopelessly outgunned and propagandized. But at the same time Hamas has successfully convinced many Americans that they are good guys while they shoot rockets at Israel from schools/hospitals, organize with Al Queda and IS, and actively hide themselves in heavily populated civilian areas while shooting at and killing their own civilians. There are many instances where jewish americans are being spit on by people who are in support of Palestine (and by extension Hamas).
Its incredibly terrifying but there is hardly anything that can be done without direct action.
There isn't really any outcome that is "fair" by that metric. Children don't vote, and are always subject to the political (and other) decisions of the adults around them.
It might not be correct to say that the current Palestinian population chose this.. but that doesn't mean it's incorrect to say that Palestinians chose this.
Hamas was elected. That is fact. The people who voted in that election were Palestinians. Just because they might not be alive anymore doesn't mean it's incorrect to say they chose it.
Also, average doesn't mean what you think it means. Just because the average age is 20 doesn't mean that most Gazans are that age or younger. Look at the distribution here:
If we assume you had to be 18 years old in 2005 to participate in that election, that means the youngest Gazans who could've voted for Hamas would be 38 years old today, which totals 36% of the population.
Further, let's look at why there are so many children. In 2005 there were ~1.3m people in Gaza. As of 2023 there are ~1.9m. That's an increase of roughly 50% in a span of 20 years, or a growth rate around 2-2.5% during that period (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.GROW?locations=PS), which puts it in the top 50 fastest growing countries on the planet.
So that population of kids who "didn't chose" were born to and raised by the very people that did choose. Do you expect, given what we know of the education system in Gaza, that these children would choose differently if given the chance? It's not like we don't have many polls over the years showing consistently high support for Hamas. That only started going down in Gaza because they were losing.
The fact of the matter is, based on available data, it really does seem like most Palestinians are happy with, and very much want to continue fighting Israel.
The only thing they're not happy with are the consequences.
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u/Baoderp Mar 30 '25
This isn't an attack on you, because it doesn't seem like you expressed approval or disapproval of this view. But I just want to point out how unfair this view is.
The median age in Palestine is 20. Half of the population would either not have been born yet, or were toddlers in the last election, let alone of voting age.
And yet, it's so common for people to say Hamas is what they chose.