How the West paved the way for today’s tragedy in Gaza
JVL Introduction
The vilification and attempts to marginalise Hamas have contributed to the tragedy in Gaza today. When, in 2006, it tried the electoral route and won, this result was considered unacceptable to those western powers – especially the USA – claiming to support democracy (unless it does not produce the “desired” result.) “This is a story of Western manipulation that provoked a Palestinian civil war, set the scene for Israel’s devastating blockade of Gaza, and forced Hamas away from seeing the ballot box as a route to political change.” (my emph LL)
Why, for example, doesn’t the media consider why Hamas got so much support in January 2006? What might have happened if the West had accepted the result? Mandy Turner provides the facts as well as thoughtful reflections on yet another aspect of western culpability.
LL
This article was originally published by New Arab on Thu 5 Feb 2026. Read the original here.
How Western policy in Gaza paved the way for 7 October attacks
On 25 January 2006, an election took place in the occupied Palestinian territory. When the results were announced, it sent shockwaves throughout the Middle East and beyond. Hamas had won, receiving 76 of the 132 seats. Twenty years after Hamas’ election victory in the OPT, Mandy Turner reflects on the consequences of Western sanctions and the civil war that it provoked.
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Absolutely. The West’s proscribing of both Hamas’ military and civil wing ensured Israel being able to kill and bomb Gaza and any resistance as terrorists, and gave it the excuse to annihilate Gaza and all its people by branding them all, even babies, as a terror entity. That proscribing ensured the impossibility of negotiating a proper peace, and seeing it as a war against terror, rather than a people with the right to resist a brutal occupation. This shameful branding is a perfect example of settler colonialism, used in all cases of people fighting for freedom, as with the ANC in Apartheid South Africa. The proscribing of Hamas must be revoked and the branding of Israel as a terror entity applied. Terror has been the basis of Israel’s foundation since the beginning of Zionism. Read Tom Suarez’ brilliant book “State of Terror”.