Hamas' charter calls for killing Jews.

In 2017, Hamas issued a new Charter explicitly framing its struggle as anti-colonial. The document states that the "conflict is with the Zionist project," and that Hamas "does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine." Yet mainstream discourse continues to fixate on the 1988 charter because it better serves the demonization of Palestinian resistance.

The 2017 Charter also states that Islam "provides an umbrella for the followers of other creeds and religions who can practice their beliefs in security and safety." It explicitly rejects "all forms of religious, ethnic or sectarian extremism and bigotry." These explicit statements are routinely ignored in order to sustain the myth that Palestinian resistance is driven by hatred of Jews rather than opposition to colonization.

Israel defines itself as the "Jewish state," grants exclusive rights on that basis, and claims to represent Jews worldwide. This is not merely rhetorical. Palestinian life under colonial rule is shaped by Israeli Jewish soldiers and settlers enforcing dispossession and genocide. Yet when Palestinians resist those directly oppressing them, they are accused of fighting Jews rather than resisting colonial domination. Palestinians cannot be held responsible for how Israel instrumentalizes Jewish identity. The demand that Palestinians, while living under genocide, constantly prove that their resistance is not antisemitic ultimately serves to shield Israel from accountability.

The fixation on Hamas' charter functions to erase material colonial reality. Palestinians are endlessly interrogated over words, while Israel's genocidal intent is not merely rhetorical but live-streamed, militarily funded, and shielded from accountability by the world's most powerful governments.

Liberation movements throughout history have been reduced to their rhetoric in order to delegitimize anti-colonial struggle. The ANC in South Africa, the FLN in Algeria, and other resistance movements were portrayed as irrational extremists. Hamas is treated similarly: isolated from the colonial conditions that produced it and presented as evidence that Palestinians are inherently violent rather than a people resisting colonial domination.