The recent wave of protests in Gaza against Hamas has laid bare a glaring hypocrisy among many so-called pro-Palestinian activists in the West. While thousands of Gazans, including the tragically murdered 22-year-old Oday Nasser Al Rabay, have risked their lives to decry the terrorist group’s oppressive rule, the silence from groups like National Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace is deafening. Experts like David May from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies argue this isn’t mere oversight—it’s evidence that the movement’s loudest voices aren’t truly invested in Palestinian welfare. When Hamas can’t be scapegoated and Israel isn’t the villain, their outrage evaporates, revealing a cause more rooted in anti-Israel animus than genuine solidarity.

This disconnect isn’t just a curiosity; it’s a betrayal of the very people these activists claim to champion. Gazans are fed up—marching against an Iran-backed regime that’s dragged them into endless wars, tortured dissenters, and left them to rot under rubble. Yet, the Western “pro-Palestine” crowd, so quick to clog streets and campuses with chants, can’t muster a whisper for these brave souls. Jason Isaacson of the American Jewish Committee sees it as a pattern: ignoring Hamas’s atrocities to keep the anti-Israel narrative pure. The death of Rabay—brutalized and dumped by Hamas—should be a clarion call, but instead, it’s met with shrugs from those who’d rather clutch their simplistic oppressor-oppressed playbook than face the messy truth.

There’s a lesson here for anyone paying attention: the Palestinian struggle deserves better than being a prop for ideological agendas. Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Gazan-born critic of both Hamas and Netanyahu, nails it—shame on the activists, academics, and leftists who’ve abandoned Gaza’s protesters to prop up a terrorist group’s image. The silence isn’t just complicity; it’s a signal that many in this movement care more about hating Israel than helping Palestinians. If they truly stood for justice, they’d amplify these anti-Hamas voices, not mute them. Until then, their protests ring hollow, a chorus of selective indignation that drowns out the real cries for freedom.