Among the groups that have supported the rapes, beheadings, burning alive, mass murder and kidnappings of Jews by Hamas have been some that purport to speak for gays, Jews, feminists and progressives. If any of these groups were actually to travel to Gaza, they would be murdered by Hamas.
Hamas has no tolerance for gays, Jews, feminists or progressives. Indeed, among the people beheaded, raped, murdered and kidnapped were gays, Jews who support Palestinians, feminists, progressives and non-Jews. None of that matters to Hamas. If you are a Jew or an Israeli or just happen to be in the way, you are a target of their barbarity.
Why do so many people from groups that Hamas seeks to destroy support that racist organization? The answer is clear: these bigots hate Jews and their nation-state. This has nothing to do with support for the Palestinian people, who are horribly oppressed by Hamas. If they really wanted to support the Palestinian people, they would be demonstrating for Palestinian freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom not to be used as a human shield, due process, equal justice under law, and especially freedom from the corrupt and repressive governance of their own leaders, some now safe from the devastation they began from their five-star hotels in Qatar. Nor does it reflect support for stateless, oppressed or occupied national groups in general. These selective bigots are silent about the stateless Kurds , the oppressed Uyghurs and other groups that deserve their support. They only focus on the Palestinians because they are allegedly oppressed by Jews. It is hatred of Jews, not love of the Palestinians or other groups that motivates these bigots.
Let us remember that these shows of support for the terrorist group Hamas began before Israel had even responded to the Hamas barbarity. They were shows of support for what Hamas did to innocent Jews: rapes, beheadings, mass murder, kidnapping and torture too unspeakable to show. It was the victimization of Jews that stimulated these displays of antisemitism. There were few criticisms of Hamas for what it did. The most ferocious demonization was against Israel for what it is: the nation-state of the Jewish people. Never mind that there are many Arab and Muslim states. As is typical of bullies, victimizing Jews came when Israel was at its weakest and most vulnerable, still grieving the loss of so many innocent civilians.
Among the most hypocritical supporters of Hamas are "Gays for Gaza." Rainbow flags and posters identifying the protesters as gay were rampant at anti-Israel demonstrations calling for the end of that nation. In Gaza, such signs are illegal. Anyone displaying them would be killed, as was Hamas commander Mahmoud Ishtiwi, who was caught having sex with another man, and promptly tortured and killed.
Gay men in Gaza seek asylum In Israel. The city of Tel Aviv is among the most accepting of gays in the world. But none of this matters to the gay bigots: they put their hatred of Jews above their concern for gay Palestinians.
Even worse is the misnamed group, Jewish Voice for Peace, which has long served as a front for Hamas and other anti-Israel terrorist groups. It claims to be anti-Zionist, opposing the existence of Israel, but many of its members and supporters are overtly antisemitic.
If its Jewish members (many are not Jews, despite its name) sought to protest in Gaza, they would be murdered or kidnapped. Hamas, like the Nazis, does not distinguish among Jews based on their politics, as evidenced by the fact that some of the Jews killed on October 7 were critical of the Israeli government and perhaps even of Zionism. But that did not matter to the rapists and beheaders of Hamas. To them a Jew is a Jew, regardless of whether they belong to Jewish Voice for Peace or Likud.
Then there are the feminists, progressives and labor unions that support the Hamas brutality and oppose the existence of Israel.
Hamas is the among the world's most anti-feminist group. It subjugates women to the whims of their husbands and fathers, and tolerates, if not encourages, wife-beating and "honor killing" women who supposedly dishonor their families.
Hamas imprisons progressive critics and does not permit independent labor unions. Its members exploit workers, and use child laborers and child soldiers. But not a word of criticism from the bigots who are willing to give Hamas a pass on their fascism as long as they murder Jews. If this is not antisemitism, I don't know what is.
Yes, Jews, too, can be antisemites. So can gays, feminists, progressives, socialists and others on the hard left. Hitler was a vegetarian. Some leading Nazis were gay. Gertrude Stein, a Nazi collaborator, was gay and a Jew. Many university students and faculty, not only in Germany but at Harvard, Yale, Georgetown and other American universities, supported Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Today's Nazis are Hamas. Today's enablers of Nazism are the students and others who support Hamas. History will judge them the way history has judged Nazi collaborators.
Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute, and is also the host of "The Dershow" podcast.
Nancy Swartz