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Why.Be
29.02.2024
Europeans often have a wavering memory when it comes to their own guerrilla and partisan warfare movements, which played significant roles in shaping their sovereign Europe of today. European armed-resistance groups are highly honoured and remembered when westerners recall their fights for justice. However, they are quickly forgotten when preaching other nations about peace, creating a consensus that guerrilla tactics are synonymous with terrorism. And resistance is only through means of cardboard signs, watermelons and lullabies.
In the midst of whats happening today in Gaza, the Red Sea and Europe’s complicity in another genocide, reminding Europeans of their not-so-long-ago liberating armed-resistance groups might reshape their deceptive perception of Hamas and “terrorism.“
French women fighting in the lines of the French Resistance in Paris against the occupying Nazi troops that marched Paris at the time during World War II.
Josip Broz Tito leader of the Yugoslav Partisans that contributed in liberating Yugoslavia during Wold War II
Italian La Resistenza fighters during 1943-1945 fighting the Germans and the fascist German puppet the Italian Social Republic. The Italian resistance has its roots back to the 1920‘s.
[Photo: Keystone/Getty Images]
A picture of a andartes and andartisses (male and female partisan fighters for The Greek Resistance against Nazi Germany 1944.
Irish Republic Army (IRA) guerrilla fighter during a conflict known as The Troubles in the 70‘s before achieving an inclusive and peaceful political environment.
[Courtesy Colman Doyle Collection. National Library of Ireland.]
3,300 Kilometers from Europe‘s capital — Brussels, is where morality turns over 180 degrees — Gaza.
2,200 kilometers from Kyiv today is where the same hero‘s cape becomes a villains mask.
The masked boogyman of the west, Abou Obeida. Leader of Al-Qassam, Hamas‘s Guerilla movement. One of Palestine's several Guerillas such as; Palestine Islamic Jihad Movement (PIJ), Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.
[Photo:(Reuters)]
No matter how hard the West tries to portray the masked hero and resistance leader as a villain, our people won't succumb to their propaganda. Even Europeans and Americans advocating for a ceasefire and a free Palestine might be surprised by the widespread celebration of Abu Obaida in the streets of the East. But they shouldn’t be surprised when they soon see stickers and drawings of this celebrated leader alongside Che Guevara's merchandise in global streets.
It's noteworthy to mention that not only do Europeans condemn groups resisting their neocolonialism and genocides while commending their own Guerillas and partisan movements, they also tend to over-glorify them. Regarding the French Resistance for instance, experts argue that, despite their commendable efforts against German Nazi troops, their actual impact might be overly praised. The disparity between the glorification of European armed resistances and the condemnation of groups like AL-Qassam (Hamas), Nasr-Allah, or the Houthis today as well as the Che Guevara and Mandelas of yesterday, underlines European hypocrisy.