Anyone who opposes Israel’s genocidal wars is smeared as a Hamas sympathizer. I got my first taste of this myself in 2009 when I visited then-Massachusetts Senator John Kerry’s office in Washington, DC to lobby against US support for Israel’s “Cast Lead” operation, which was a smaller version of today’s genocidal war on Gaza. I was asked, and I quote, “What, do you support Hamas?”
I concluded at the time that the Senator, who had just replaced Joe Biden as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, was an evil bastard incapable of understanding that opposing war crimes and disproportionate force was not at all the same as supporting terror — which by the way he seemed to define extremely narrowly since Israel wasn’t included.
When Kerry eventually became Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, the evil bastard hypothesis was confirmed, though I then understood that Kerry’s understanding of terrorism would never include his own government’s drones, assassinations, black sites, black ops, wars of choice, regime change, or support for proxy regimes that also used terror and repression. Kerry, like most American politicians, is a disappointing creature of empire not unlike his many simulacra at the DNC convention this week.
With thanks to Mehdi Hasan, who was hounded from MSNBC for his outspoken views on Palestine, here’s a list of a few others who have gotten the same treatment. It turns out you don’t have to argue for human rights or against genocide to get on this not-at-all exclusive list; you simply have to have a momentary lapse of conscience or exhibit involuntary shock at how depraved imperialism and capitalism are.
Amnesty International, AOC, Bella Hadid, Ben & Jerry’s, Bernie Sanders, Billy Eilish, Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Church, Children in Gaza, Chuck Schumer, College students, Cori Bush, Elizabeth Warren, EU Foreign Affairs chief, Gary Lineker, Harvard, Hostages’ families, Human Rights Watch, Ice-skating young people, IfNotNow, Jake Tapper, Jewish professors, Jewish Voice For Peace (JVP), Joe Biden, John Cusack, John Oliver, Jonathan Glazer, José Andrés, Kamala Harris, Keir Starmer, Kenneth Roth, Mayor of London, Ms. Rachel, Norman Finkelstein, Oxford University Press, Pramila Jayapal, South Africa, Spain, State Department, Susan Sarandon, United Nations, UN humanitarian chief, UNRWA, UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine, World Health Organization, and Zara Larsson.
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