May Their Memory Be a Blessing

You may not know it, but Hamas didn't just kidnap and murder Jews on October 7th

Posters demanding the release of the hostages (Getty Images)

On October 7^th 2023 Youssef Alziadna and three of his children Hamza, Bilal and Aisha, were kidnapped into Gaza by Hamas terrorists.

Youssef was employed in the cowsheds of Kibbutz Holit, close to Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip. In an ill-fated turn of events, Aisha had chosen to accompany her father and brothers to work that day.

The Alziadna family are part of Israel’s Bedouin community. Today, all the Bedouin living, not only in Israel but across the Middle East, are Arabic-speaking Muslims, though the Bedouins’ rich culture and tradition stretches back long before the advent of Islam in the 7^th Century CE.

The attack that day on Israel by Hamas and its supporters was not only on Jews. Although Islamist Antisemitism – hatred of Jews is a core aspect of Hamas ideology, the terrorists who entered Israel that day also murdered and kidnapped those that they knew full well were not Jewish, including those they identified as Arab and Muslim.

I have spoken and written at length regarding the efforts by many to universally portray Palestinians as having no agency or responsibility, with even Hamas members cast in the role of unreserved victims, a symbol of resistance against Western imperialism. According to this narrative, Israelis are all-powerful, fully responsible, and a physical embodiment of white Western oppression. A legitimate target.

But where do people like the Alziadnas and millions like them fit into this reductionist, pre-ordained analysis?

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