Whatever your sympathies on the Gaza situation, please stop using this as a justification for anything, because it’s not true.
most recent election in Palestine: 17 years ago in 2006
age of suffrage: 18
∴ minimum age now to have voted then: 17+18 = 35
Palestinian population: ~5 million (Gaza plus West Bank, per CIA World Factbook)
…of which, people under 35: ~3 million
∴ ~ 60% of current Palestinians could not possibly have voted for Hamas
And
in the last election, 44.45% voted for Hamas (who were then using the name “Change and Reform”)
turnout was 75% (per Palestine’s Central Elections Commission)
∴ 34% of voters voted for Hamas
ASSUMING that vote share was equal by age, AND that the age breakdown was similar in 2006, THEN 13% of the current population voted for Hamas
∴ 87% did not vote for Hamas
(Feel free to share this.)
I really hate even engaging with this argument because it almost gives it legitimacy. Israelis voted in a genocidal government - that doesn’t mean that they could be genocided.
When the Nazi government was voted into Germany and started their genocide if France in retaliation had decided to genocide all Germans that wouldn’t be acceptable either.
It doesn’t matter who voted for what, it doesn’t matter who was old enough at the time. What matters is that it is Never Ever acceptable to mass kill families, children, civilians, destroy infrastructure and carpet bomb homes.
Let’s stop engaging with these manufacturing consent arguments and start calling them out for what they are: justifications for genocide.
this is a good point, well made.
My thinking was: factual rebuttals are faster than ethical rebuttals. “They voted for Hamas!” “No, that’s false.” There’s no comeback to that.
Ethical rebuttals are a better way, because they help people learn how to be a better person. But they’re difficult and some people mentally filter them out, automatically.
(The Germans didn’t vote in the Nazis either, by the way.)
ALT