FREE PALESTINE? YES, LET’S!

If Palestine became independent tomorrow, it would be one of the least free places on earth. Do activists care? No. Because this isn’t really about Palestinians.

Two of the emptiest words in the English language.

The phrase “Free Palestine” is everywhere these days. Screamed at people wearing kippas, spray-painted on surfaces worldwide, chanted by marching millions.

It is the political equivalent of “thoughts and prayers” after a school shooting. “Free Palestine” are two of the emptiest words in the English language. Because, even if Palestine became independent tomorrow, it would be anything but “free.”

This, of course, is of no concern to the people who have made “Free Palestine” their verbal tic. For the most part, the self-righteous “pro-Palestinians” don’t care about Palestinians at all. Their activism is merely an outlet for their hatred of Israel, a hatred that is a manifestation of a whole complex of socio-psychological disorders, ranging from projections of individual and collective dysfunctions to plain old Jew-hatred.

As I keep saying, though (hopefully you read my regular avalanche of words) antisemitism and its relationship to anti-Zionism are not as simple as “I hate Jews, therefore I hate Israel.” This phenomenon is slightly more nuanced. It is a confirmation bias, in which people hear accusations against Israel that comport with deeply held, often unconscious assumptions about Jews, so that people conclude that, if Jews are ABC, then Israel is probably XYZ.

Put simply, the world’s obsession with the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has almost nothing to do with our attitudes to Palestinians and everything to do with our attitudes toward Jews.

That, though, is secondary to the larger problem with the “Free Palestine” routine.

Unless an independent Palestine evolves into something radically different than the future the “Free Palestine” movement seems destined to create, history will view Western associations with this cause as a stain on words like human rights, freedom and justice. Every scrap of evidence is that a “free Palestine” would be one of the least free places on earth.

By hitching their activist wagons to this wayward horse, the legitimacy of Western activists will be forever polluted. The motivations — ignorance, ill-will, ideology — are less relevant than the impacts of their actions. They are on the wrong side of history.

If they really believed what they say they believe — if they were genuinely pro-Palestinian — they would reserve at least a fraction of the energy and outrage they heave at Israel and refocus it on Palestinian leaders and the society they have created. 

They would demand that Hamas and Fatah renounce violence and dedicate themselves to peaceful coexistence.

They would demand improved economic conditions for Palestinians, which not only includes ending the panoramic corruption that defines Palestinian governments, but also includes engaging with — not boycotting — the greatest economic powerhouse in the region, which is right on Palestine’s doorstep. That’s why too many Palestinians live in poverty — even as they receive more humanitarian aid per capita than any other group on the planet.

They would demand that the incessant landslide of cash from Western countries and the UN to Palestine be reassessed until we can be assured that it will actually make it to the people it is supposed to be helping and not spent on “education” that teaches hatred and on weapons that kill civilians or used to incentivize terrorists and warlords like those who perpetrated October 7.

They would demand an end to the institutionalized child abuse taking place in Palestine. They would insist that Palestinian kids receive an education uncontaminated by genocidal and suicidal incitement and stop being raised to kill and be killed through an unimaginable cycle of incitement and the exploitation of child combatants.

They would demand that Palestine stop glorifying “martyrs” who kill Jews and stop encouraging the next generation to emulate them.

They would punish, instead of rewarding, the “pay to slay” system of pensions and payouts to terrorists and their survivors who are injured or killed perpetrating attacks on Jewish civilians.

They would demand that women in Palestine be granted the same rights that women enjoy in Canada or Israel. They would end their nearly complete silence on this colossal issue, and acknowledge that a “free Palestine” would be among the world’s least free places for women. Until Palestinian leaders and Palestinian society demonstrate that an independent Palestine would be a place of equality for women, no one who calls themselves a feminist, a progressive or a decent human being has any place being a part of that cause.

They would demand an end to the oppression of homosexuality and the “honor” killings of LGBTQ+ people in Palestine.

They would condemn the limits on expression, political activism and academic inquiry in Palestine.

Instead of taking all (or any) of these steps that are necessary for any hope of Palestinian peace, freedom and self-determination, Western activists do the opposite, pretending that they are helping Palestinians, even as they drive them further from peace, freedom and self-determination with their every word and deed.

Until Western activists stop tacitly or overtly supporting the corruption, oppression, violence and terrorism that is endemic in both the Fatah regime in the West Bank and the Hamas dystopia in Gaza, their chanting of “Free Palestine” is a disgraceful and empty phrase.

Imagine an independent Palestine that reflects the values of the regimes that oppress Palestinians. It would likely be somewhere on the freedom scale between Iran and North Korea. And this is the cause Western activists have adopted so unanimously that it eclipses consideration of every other conflict and disaster around the globe? 

What a waste of resources! 

If that dystopic “Free Palestine” emerged tomorrow, Western activists would deserve to hang their heads in shame for helping to create a society that makes life worse for Palestinians than it is today, not better.

Nice job freeing Palestine.

The irony is that, by this point, 20-odd years into this cycle, maybe it’s not even Fatah or Hamas who deserve the most blame for these horrors. One is an explicitly terrorist group, the other is corrupt from top to bottom — what do we expect from them?

If we’re looking to place blame, put it on the people who have rewarded and encouraged this behavior for two decades and counting. Tell Western activists to look in a mirror.

With friends like them, Palestinians really don’t need enemies.