Let’s Talk About the H-Word

Recently, someone compared Hamas to the Jedi.

Yes, the Jedi.

The fictional freedom fighters from a galaxy far, far away.

At first, I didn’t know how to respond. I sat there with my heart pounding, my face flushed, and this mix of sadness and anger building in my chest. Not because I can’t handle opinions. But because that comparison felt like a slap in the face to every Palestinian who’s suffered in silence under their rule.

So let me say this clearly:

My family does not support Hamas. We are not pro-Hamas. And we never will be.

Hamas is not resistance. Hamas is not liberation.

They are a violent, oppressive force that has harmed the very people they claim to represent.

They do not fight for the people. They rule over them

My husband grew up in Gaza

He knows what it feels like to be trapped under siege

But he also knows what it means to live under Hamas control — and that is not freedom

There are Palestinians who have been punished for speaking out

Palestinians who have been silenced, imprisoned, or disappeared

Palestinians who are grieving not only from occupation and war, but from internal betrayal

And yet, from the outside, people want to romanticize Hamas

To reduce them to hashtags or misguided symbols of struggle

To paint them as underdogs instead of what they are — a political weapon that devalues Palestinian life just as much as the outside forces that oppress us

Our family believes in justice

We believe in life

We believe in the right of Palestinians to be free — from occupation, from displacement, from apartheid, and from corrupt internal forces like Hamas

So no

We will never post that flag

We will never chant their slogans

And we will never glorify pain as if it is progress

We want something different

We want dignity for our people

We want the right to speak, to think, to live without fear

We want to raise our daughter without needing to choose between silence and survival

So if you want to know who the real heroes are

They’re not wearing masks or holding microphones

They’re the mothers praying over their children in the dark

The families trying to build a life with nothing

The ones who grieve and still hope

The ones who carry heartbreak and don’t let it harden them

This is who we stand with

This is who we fight for

Not a faction

Not a flag

But the people