II: Palestinian Arabs crying out in rage over the abduction and murder of Israel's babies
Let us look at five pro-peace activists.
In a previous article, I went into detail regarding the response of recognized Palestinian ex-pat and pro-peace activist, Hamza Howidy. Here I show the responses of Bassem Eid, Azis Abu Sarah, Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, John Aziz, and Ihab Hassan, all calling themselves Palestinians.
I was curious about their responses to the horrific murders of Shiri Bibas and her two sons. The boys were strangled to death by bare hands. I don’t know how anyone can do that to a person, never mind to babies. So what do these five pro-peace activists say about that on their X profiles?
Bassem Eid (42.5K followers) defines himself as “Palestinian peace activist and the founder of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group” and he adds: #BDSisBS. I had coffee with Eid in Jerusalem years ago, and I am sure of his sincerely. Case in point: he established his own human rights group when the established group he had been working for refused to deal with the human rights violations committed on the part of the Palestinian Authority he brought to their attention.
What did Eid say about the Bibas murders?
To my Palestinian brothers and sisters watching Hamas hand over the bodies of Israeli hostages: recognize the sacrifices Israel is making to return its hostages, dead and alive, and realize that your government would never do the same for you.
If you dream of a life where you are valued, the first step is to free yourself from the Hamas terror regime, which will sacrifice every last one of you for its antisemitic, genocidal cause.
This, of course, drew a mixed bag of responses. Some led to a debate about Islam, some to appreciation and support for Bassem from Jews and non-Jews alike. Others to support of Israel and others to comments that the Palestinian Arabs were beyond salvation.
Here was a sad exchange: one person with a Jewish name thanked Bassem for being “…one of the handful of self-defined Palestinians online that hold humane non-genocidal views.”
That drew a response saying, “If Jews thank you, it’s proof you are a servant of Satan.”
Aziz Abu Sarah (12.6K followers) defines himself as “Palestinian American, peacemaker, author, cultural educator, NatGeo Explorer, TED Fellow Co-founder of InterAct International & Mejdi tours. The latter apparently began with the Dual Narrative Tour, possibly like the one I took in Hebron about which I should have written but did not. Maybe I should go on another one and this time write it up. In any case, Abu Sarah is recognized by many as a pro-peace Palestinian.
What did Aziz post about the horrific murder of the Bibas boys and their mother?
First he writes:
It doesn’t matter your nationality or religion—you can’t hear a father mourning his children and not be heartbroken.
The children should never have been kidnapped! They should have been returned immediately with their parents.
It’s a crime when a child is killed.
If he had left it at this, you might have thought that here is a Palestinian who unequivocally condemns the abduction and murder. But then, he shares a post put up by Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (who says is is “Pursuing a new Zionism against occupation and for human rights”).
Ben-Ephraim wrote:
Think of how angry and filled with hatred you were when you found out the Bibas children had been murdered. That is how Palestinians feel about the thousands of children killed in this war and previous wars If we want to stop the hatred, we have to stop bloodshed.
Yup — bothsidesism that actually refuses to stand against evil.
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (63.5K followers) defines himself thus: “Proud American; native Gazan; pro-Palestine, pro-Peace, anti-Hamas, anti-occupation, Realign for Palestine; Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. The Washington Institute has him on staff as a Middle East Analyst, expert on Palestinians. He is recognized by many Israelis as a pro-peace activist.
He does not devote a separate post to the Bibas family, but he writes about them within a criticism of the pro-Palestinian movement:
For over a year, I warned time and again about the dangers of the neo “pro-Palestine” movement, which, in the aftermath of October 7, has devolved in alarmingly extreme and detrimental ways. I was hounded even by friends and allies, who kept asking why I “felt it was my job to demonize the pro-Palestine movement.” It was shocking how so many journalists, activists, academics, advocates, and observers didn’t see the obvious, the five-alarm fire that was threatening the very future of Palestinian advocacy in the diaspora. The rot and decay within this so-called movement was unlike anything I had ever seen before – and I used to be involved in it ten years ago.
After 10/7, the “movement” refused to acknowledge the criminality of hostage-taking & killing innocent Israeli civilians, condemn Hamas’s actions including against Gazans, call for the terror group to step down, or engage in pragmatic activism and targeted demands for specific outcomes that actually help Palestinians. Now, the “activists” are tone-deaf to the disaster that Gazans face after Hamas’s shameful and embarrassing display of barbarism with the Bibas & Lifshitz bodies’ return fiasco, doubling and tripling down on their fascism, evil rhetoric, lack of basic intelligence, and demonstratively ineffective speech and language that further demonize Palestinians. [emphasis added]
Not only the display of barbarism with the return of the bodies, but the savagery of the abduction and murders themselves.
I critiqued Alkhatib’s vision of peace on 30 Sept 24 (here). And while I stand by what I wrote, he does seem to be mostly clear about his determination that in order for peace to be possible, the pro-Palestinian movement has to accept at least that Hamas has no role at all in Gaza. As many commenters on his posts point out, however, he does not confront the fact that it appears that there are few to no innocent civilians in Gaza — there are just lots of Hamasniks who did not wear a uniform when invading Israel on Oct 7th and who do not wear a uniform when applauding the humiliation of Israeli hostages, dead and alive.
John Aziz (51.8K followers) defines himself as “British-Palestinian. Peace advocate, analyst, futurist.” I have begun following him and he is consistently anti-Hamas and anti-Fatach (PLO), consistently adamantly opposed to them.
In addition to reposting Alkhatib’s post I referred to above, Aziz wrote on his X account:
Anyone who murdered a baby with their bare hands is sadistic, evil, and should be condemned by everyone on all sides.
Every Palestinian should condemn the people who did this.
No two sides to this. Good.
Ihab Hassan (34.7K followers) describes himself as: “Palestinian Christian | Human rights activist | Master's in Human Rights.” Originally from Ramallah (that was originally a Christian city, by the way), I do not know where he lives now. A small number of X accounts are “accusing” him of having received a grant from the Christian Zionist Philos Project, perhaps toward his masters degree.
On 18 Feb 25, Hassan posted this on his profile. It reads:
The bodies of the Bibas family will be returned by Hamas tomorrow. Nothing justifies Hamas’ crimes—kidnapping civilians, including innocent children, and holding them hostage is a blatant war crime. Stop making excuses for this horrific act.
He also decried calling them, and other civilian Israeli hostages, “prisoners” as some pro-Hamas writers have.
And, in a post from 3 March 25, illustrated with this image,
Hassan writes:
The Bibas family memorial at the University of Michigan was vandalized in an act of sheer depravity. Someone spray-painted "Free Palestine" and scrawled a swastika on the face of a murdered Jewish baby—a baby who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists along with his mother and little brother and killed in Hamas captivity.
This was not just an act of vandalism—it was a vile display of antisemitic hatred, exploiting both the Palestinian struggle and the suffering of innocent victims.
If these vandals truly cared about Palestinian lives and the children of Gaza, as they claim, they wouldn’t defile a memorial—they would honor all victims of this tragedy, including the Bibas family, and call for an end to the suffering of innocent people.
But they don’t, because their concern isn’t genuine. Their outrage has nothing to do with justice; it’s hypocritical, empty, and fueled by a relentless drive to spread more hate.
This is a clear stand against evil.
While he is unequivocal in his opposition to Hamas, there is much on his profile regarding Judea and Samaria and the Jews living there that I find “problematic” to put it mildly. When I will have the chance, I hope to do some investigations of his claims regarding “settler violence” and I will publish the results when I can.
I don’t imagine that anyone could call themselves pro-peace and be okay with the murder of the Bibas boys and their mother, nor be okay about the (deceased and living) hostage handover ceremonies, as some of the above people specifically did condemn. And that is as much as I am prepared to say about these individuals at this point.
I look forward to your critique of the “settler violence” claims which I sense are overblown.
I have had contact with Bassem Eid now for many years, in fact mention him in a couple of past articles.