Letter to Hamas

My name is Suneil Sharma; I was born in Northern Ireland of Indian parents. My Dad migrated here in 1957, followed by my mum in 1958, and I was born in 1959.

My father was a lefty student steeped in politics, who actively fought for Indian independence under the principle that an independent India should remain unpartitioned and secular. One of his two goals was achieved. As I grew up, he would talk to me about Gandhi and, guess who else, Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian people’s struggle for a state. So, I grew up with a deep empathy for a democratic Palestinian state. My father also had some understanding and empathy for a Jewish state after the horrors of the Holocaust. However, he blames the Brits for cocking this up as they had did in India and Ireland. When I was 16, he mentioned the Nakba and how 750,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced from their homes. My heart lies with the people of Palestine and their right to a Palestinian state, and the last 18 months watching the brutal retribution, genocide, and ethnic cleansing by this Israeli government, without exaggeration, has been a traumatic experience. In addition, this traumatic experience has been exacerbated by the inaction of so-called Israel’s allies, which include the British government, the US and EU and particularly Germany.

Let me move on to say that the massacres of 1200 Israeli citizens committed by you on October 7^th, 2023, were not just inhumane but a war crime. It also showed a lack of political foresight, in that you were unable to foresee the brutality of this Israeli government’s response, or did not care. A government at the time that included Gvir, Smotrich, and the self-serving Netanyahu. You also wrongly believed that these men would give a dam about the hostages, and the hostages would be a powerful bargaining tool; the question I would ask, for exactly what? To any outside observer, it was obvious these guys want only one thing: “From the river to the sea, not a Palestinian will be seen “.

 Ismail Haniyeh, in a speech after October 7^th, said, “Today, the enemy has had a political, military, intelligence, security and moral defeat inflicted upon it, and we shall crown it, with the grace of God”. This is exactly what Gvir and the far-right messianic wing of Netanyahu’s coalition wanted to hear. Again, with a little political foresight, he should have said nothing. In addition, you embraced and garnered support from Iran, a theocratic, authoritarian, and misogynistic regime that kills young women for not wearing the Hijab and executes young men who support them. This relationship has always baffled me. In this case, your enemy’s enemy is clearly not your friend.

 In 2017, Khaled Meshaal, when launching a new document, stated that     Hamas “believes our struggle is against the Zionist occupation and the Zionist enterprise. It’s not a struggle against Jews or Judaism,” I don’t think Haniyeh was listening. In the same document it also stated” Palestinian society is enriched by its prominent personalities, figures, dignitaries, civil society institutions, and youth, students, trade unionists and women’s groups who together work for the achievement of national goals and societal building.” In the very same document, you talk about “sound democratic principles, foremost among them are free and fair elections,” what went wrong?

 The reality is that Israel, as a country, a state or what you call a Zionist enterprise, is here to stay. The centuries of discrimination against Jews, the brutality, and the industrialised killing of six million Jews and the related post Holocaust guilt have ensured this is a sort of 11^th commandment. So, recognising and stating clearly, Israel’s right to exist is no longer a choice for you, but a must. Recognising Israel’s right to exist in addition to releasing the remaining hostages, without conditions, is a no-brainer. This may not impact the current “Reich” governing Israel, but you will now be speaking directly to the Israeli public because only they can stop this genocide and ethnic cleansing.

There is a sense that you fell into Netanyahu’s devious trap, and the price has been paid by tens of thousands being killed, including almost 20,000 children, and has turned Gaza into a dystopian wasteland. Before October 7th, you could only muster support from around 24% of the Gazan voting public. You have held no elections since 2006 but ruled with an iron fist. You and Fatah also fell into the colonial trap of divide and rule, leaving Israel to say that there is no single Palestinian voice to negotiate with, which there wasn’t. That single voice is the most important thing that Palestinians need. On that count alone, you and Fatah have failed your people. What is clear to any observer is that Hamas, as a political voice for Palestinians, is over. It is stating the obvious when I also say your paramilitary status has all but been destroyed, and you are deluded if you believe that you have any leverage over the current or any future Israeli government.

You have also been betrayed by the neighbourhood, made of a mixture of military regimes, autocrats, and absolute monarchies. Many of them signed the Abraham Accords, which completely sidelined the Palestinian question. These so-called Sunni brothers do not want a secular democratic Palestine in the region; if successful, it could kick off another Arab spring. This is the time for Hamas to disappear into the political wilderness and let a new generation of Palestinians speak with one voice, for all Palestinians.

Ehud Olmert’s recent piece in Haaretz has accused the IDF of committing war crimes, calls Netanyahu’s government a criminal gang, describes the war in Gaza as a war of devastation, indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians and now refers to Netanyahu and his thugs as the enemy within. Former Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon has said that Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing. In addition, former deputy head of the IDF, Yair Golan, a left-wing politician was reported to have said that “Israel is on the way to becoming a pariah state, like South Africa was, if we don’t return to acting like a sane country, He went on to say on Israeli public radio, “A sane state does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a hobby, and does not set itself the goal of depopulating the population,”. This is what hope sounds like.

Here is a plan:

1. You and all militant organisations recognise Israel’s right to exist as a nation state, and release all the remaining hostages, giving Israel no excuse to continue the carnage. This will increase the pressure on the Israeli government(Reich), both from ordinary Israelis and the international community, to stop the ethnic cleansing.
2. Then you must agree to a decommissioning process, like the IRA did in Northern Ireland and then disband. I understand that Hamas were born out of decades of frustration, discrimination in an apartheid state, the rise and embrace of the Settler movement by successive Israeli governments and ultimately, the first Intifada. However, this is not capitulation but a recognition that no one, and I mean no one, will negotiate a future for your children or theirs with you.
3. The Israeli electorate must come out into the streets, forcing a new election and elect a new government that understands that the only solution is a two-state solution and has the balls to stand up against the settler movement and not just stop but reverse the encroachment into the occupied territories. As Hamas leave the field, Israelis must, without prevarication, give up their claim to the occupied territories and the international community, particularly all members of the G2O, must no longer prevaricate and recognise Palestine as a state. Maybe this is a time for our Prime Minister to show what he has lacked, leadership.

4. Finally, let a new generation of Palestinian politicians and activists build a coalition with Israelis like Olmert, Yaalon, and Golan and groups like Stand Together, who now all understand that their futures and the futures of coming generations of Israelis and Palestinians are intrinsically intertwined.

Read my blog below, November 2023, one of several on Gaza.

The Tragedy Continues

 As much as I weep for the indiscriminate killing of innocent Palestinian civilians and the destruction of their homes, schools, and hospitals, I also condemn unreservedly Netanyahu’s government’s genocidal behaviour and have compared Netanyahu’s campaign with the Warsaw Ghetto. I also recognise the pain and betrayal of the Palestinian people by the international community from the Nakba onwards. However, the time is now for Israelis and Palestinians to find their own Mandela, Sachs, De Klerk, Tutu, Hume, Trimble, Maguiness, Irvine, Blair, O’Hern and Mitchell.

It is also time for the Israeli nation to wake up and honour those who said, “Never Again.”

Suneil Sharma

13th June 2025

Please read my other blogs on Gaza