As the Israel-Hamas war grinds through its second week, there is increasing pressure from the international community on Israel not to invade Gaza. Perfectly understandable, given the enormity of the impending human tragedy in that densely populated strip of land. But we rarely ask why there isn’t a commensurate, even comparable, pressure upon Hamas to release itsIsraeli hostages. Wouldn’t such a release be a goodwill gesture on their part if they really wanted to save Gazans?
But the truth, so horrifying that we often do not think of it, is that the real hostages of Hamas are not the 200 or so Israelis that they captured in their raid on October 7. The real hostages are possibly the more than 2 million Gaza residents themselves. Once a terror group like Hamas takes over a city or part of a country or even an entire nation, what they do is eliminate rivals so that the whole population becomes captive to them and their hate-filled ideology.
The irony is that some of these groups, Hamas now and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in the past, actually enjoyed popular support despite their avowedly violent ideology and cult of death. It is this popular support that needs to be called into question. But far from it, there are sections among all free societies which continue to support their cause. In other words, Hamas’s hostages include an even larger international community.
With the escalation of the crisis in the Middle East, most international organisations—including the United Nations and the European Union, not to mention the leading powers of the world including the United States, China and Russia—have repeatedly called for an end to the hostilities and a ceasefire. They have urged Israel to exercise restraint and avoid civilian casualties, while condemning Hamas for firing rockets at Israeli cities and towns. But what about the issue of the hostages? Why is Hamas not being asked not just by the global community, but also by their supporters—including Iran, Turkey, Qatar, even China or Russia—immediately to release their Israeli hostages?
The issue of the hostages is not a new one. Many of those captured by Hamas in the past have disappeared without a trace. The families of these hostages have been campaigning for their release for years, appealing to the Israeli government, the international community and even to Hamas itself. They have held protests, vigils, petitions and rallies. They have met with world leaders, diplomats and human rights activists. They have asked for humanitarian gestures, prisoner swaps or indirect negotiations. But nothing has worked. Hamas has refused to release the hostages or even to provide proof of life or allow visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Hamas has also demanded unrealistic conditions for any exchange, such as the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of murder and terrorism. Why is Hamas holding on to the hostages so tightly? The answer is obvious. Hamas sees the hostages as a bargaining chip, especially given how highly Israel values the life of each citizen. It is Hamas’s leverage against Israel. Hamas also uses the hostages as a propaganda tool, a way to show its defiance and resistance to Israel.
But an answer that cuts closer to the bone is that Hamas simply does not care. Not just about the hostages or their families. In reality they hate Israelis and Jews in general. As their savage slaughter of innocents on October 7 shows, they have scant regard for human, let alone enemy, lives. Some Israelis, in turn, do not consider the Hamas fighters as human beings. “They are worse than animals,” one Israeli friend said to me. Sadly, the civilians on both sides have become little more than collateral damage in this ongoing conflict.
Whatever the reason, there is no justification for holding innocent people hostage and denying them their basic human rights. This is a violation of international law and humanitarian norms. It is also a moral outrage and a stain on humanity’s conscience. The international community should use its influence and pressure Hamas to release the hostages immediately and unconditionally. It should show solidarity and compassion with the families of the hostages. Is this actually happening in an adequate measure? I think not.
Instead, concern and sympathy for the plight of the civilians in Gaza, who bear the brunt of the conflict, is expressed over and over again on various platforms. Even the United States has urged Israel to act with proportionality and caution, and to avoid harming innocent people and infrastructure. Fine. But have they gone so far as to consider the residents of Gaza as Hamas’s biggest group of hostages? It is Hamas which continues to use its own population as human shields, forbidding evacuation from the war zone.
Instead of investing in water, electricity, sanitation, infrastructure, schools, colleges and hospitals, Hamas has been investing in terror and war. Building underground tunnels, buying arms and ammunition, accumulating rockets—all the while crushing dissent, eliminating opponents and fanning the flames of anti-Israeli rage. In a territory where they have control, power and a good deal of sympathy money, Hamas could have opted for a more wholesome and peaceful approach to Israel, accepting the latter’s right to exist. Instead, their charter clearly states that they do not recognise Israel’s right to exist. Their very radicalism, which helped them edge out Fatah, their predecessor, has precipitated enormous suffering on those very people who “elected” them to power.
That is why we must stop legitimising terrorists and professedly violent groups or ideologies. Those protesting the world over in support of Hamas, especially the refugees who have been given a second chance all over the free and prosperous West, should introspect where their hatred of Israel is taking their own community members back home in the Middle East. The religious beliefs and history of hatred of some of these extremists have brought untold horrors not only upon their enemies but on themselves, their own kith, kin and clan.It is time the world stopped making excuses for them. It is time we prevented them from taking us hostage.
(Views are personal)
Makarand R Paranjape
Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru University
(Tweets @MakrandParanspe)