Western anti-Israel activists have increasingly come out in support of Hamas’s extrajudicial executions of Gazan dissidents in the wake of a ceasefire with Israel, casting those slain as traitors in a narrative that often calls for revenge for the death of pro-Hamas influencer Saleh Al-Jafarawi.
In the wake of the Friday ceasefire and partial withdrawal of Israeli troops from portions of Gaza, Hamas has mobilized forces to crack down on dissidents and opposition within.
Clashes have erupted between Doghmush clan militiamen and Hamas operatives, with deaths on both sides. The terrorist organization has fought with factions of the Gazan clan before, such as in 2008. Now, Hamas is branding them and others as “collaborators” to justify executions.
Videos have circulated on Palestinian media of bound and kneeling men being shot dead in public execution ceremonies.
Gaza journalist Motasem A. Dalloul echoed Hamas’s assertions that these individuals were collaborators, but in a Tuesday X/Twitter post, he leveled a wide variety of charges against it, including stealing aid, attacking aid seekers, monopolizing goods, damaging medical aid, blackmail, kidnapping terrorists, and destabilizing the “internal front.”
The killings have received backing on social media, including from notable anti-Israel figures. UK National Health Service doctor, Rahmeh Aladwan, remarked that “every single one” of the “collaborators must face justice.”
Former MMA fighter Jake Shields approved of Hamas’s actions because “these people betrayed their nation and the penalty for treason is death.”
The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which is sanctioned by the US, Canada, and Israel for acting as a proxy of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, expressed its approval of the executions in a Sunday X post.
Activists have justified the executions by comparing them to the extrajudicial killing of collaborators with Nazi Germany during World War II.
Free Gaza Movement activist Greta Berlin said that those executed had stolen food and water and killed other Palestinians while working for Israel as “traitors.” She implied that their punishment was comparable to what the French and Dutch did to Nazi collaborators.
'Snitches get stitches, or a bullet to the head'
Commentator Scott Ritter also said on X on Tuesday that “the French and Dutch did the same thing to Nazi collaborators. Snitches get stitches, or a bullet to the head.”
Activist Benjamin Rubenstein wrote on X on Sunday that those criticizing the executions of “Israeli collaborators” were hypocrites because Jewish Warsaw Ghetto fighters killed collaborators and informants during their uprising.
“Betrayal in the face of genocide? Bullet to the head. History doesn’t lie, but Zionists do,” said Rubinstein. “Never again means never again – for Palestinians too.”
Journalist Richard Medhurst also compared the executions to actions taken during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as by the French resistance and the IRA.
“Historically, when you are under foreign military occupation, the price for collaborating with the enemy is death,” said Medhurst. “Gaza is no different. It is not nice or pretty, but it’s a universally understood law, in very extreme and unfortunate conditions created by the foreign occupation.”
Conjointly, many activists have tied these killings of alleged collaborators to Jafarawi’s death. A Palestinian influencer also known on social media as “Mr. FAFO (F**k around, find out) due to skits in which he posed as a martyr or victim of supposed IDF belligerence, Jafarawi was reportedly killed during one of his clashes with a Doghmush clan member.
Activists have claimed that Jafarawi was eliminated on Israel’s behest. TikTok influencer Guy Christensen asserted on Sunday that the Gaza man was murdered by “an Israel-backed gang” as part of a broader attack on journalists by Israel. The Palestinian Youth Movement also said on Instagram on Sunday that Jafarawi was “targeted and assassinated” by “Israel-backed gangs.”
“Jafarawi’s assassination is a calculated effort by Israel to extinguish the last embers of truth still burning in Gaza, and to inflict collective punishment against Palestinian journalists for choosing to risk their lives and broadcast the genocide to the outside world,” the PYM wrote.
The National Students for Justice in Palestine organization perpetuated this narrative that Jafarawi was killed by Israel through collaborators, encouraging “the fight against Zionism in all its manifestations – from the IOF [IDF] to its collaborators.”
“Between exploiting Gaza’s youth for money using desperately needed aid, to the killing of their own people in service of Zionism, collaborators have no place in a liberated future,” the NSJP said in a Sunday Instagram post. “Death to the occupation. Death to Zionism. Death to all collaborators.”
Palestinians deviating from this narrative have been and are being cast as collaborators. For example, the Instagram account pertaining to Arabs of Conquest said that Gazan photojournalist Motaz Azaiza had incited violence against Jafarawi and other Hamas supporters by describing the clashes between Hamas and clan militias as “a civil war and internal fighting.”
Muslim leaders associated with Arabs of Conquest said that Azaiza’s actions were “traitorous” because they created divisions, removed Israeli culpability, and played into narratives that Gaza was chaotic and incapable of self-governance.
“Those who incite against the resistance in Gaza, whether bombs still fall or not, are active agents of division, serving our enemies with every word,” said the Instagram account.
“And let it be clear: Anyone who defends these mouthpieces shares in their betrayal, carrying the same stain of collaboration and disgrace. Motaz and his dogs have the blood of Saleh on their hands,” it continued.
The Sameer Project added in a comment on Arabs of Conquest’s post that anyone who was part of Fatah was a Zionist collaborator.
Without significant pushback from pro-Palestinian supporters, Hamas is unlikely to stop its crackdowns. Instead, it has received the global legitimacy it needs to continue with its extrajudicial executions.