‘My fear is that we cling to a self-defeating narrative'

Boston Globe

26-05-2025

He argues that Hamas has acted as a 'useful idiot' to President Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and far-right government, 'handing them the perfect excuse to pursue their long-held goal of crushing any hope for Palestinian unity or statehood.' He feels the Israeli government's tactics have become increasingly extreme, amounting to collective punishment and the systematic destruction of civilian life. The war, he argues, is being used as a pretext for ethnic cleansing. Yet he also calls for dialogue with open-minded Zionists.
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What sets Alkhatib apart is not just his blunt honesty but also his insistence that Palestinians must reclaim their agency, governance, and future. In this interview, he speaks about missed opportunities, generational trauma, and why Gaza's liberation depends as much on internal reckoning as it does on international solidarity.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Lisinski:
You grew up in Gaza and eventually ended up in the United States. What was your path to US citizenship like?
Alkhatib:
When I was 11 [in 2001] I was caught in an Israeli airstrike that almost killed me, took the lives of two of my friends, and left me with permanent hearing loss in my left ear. That moment pushed me to realize I had to leave Gaza. Four years later, I got out through a high school exchange program in the United States. I lived with a host family, and it was there — meeting Jewish and Israeli people as equals in a deeply human setting — that my worldview began to shift. It was life-changing.
In 2006, when I tried to return to Gaza through Egypt, I wasn't allowed back in because of the Hamas abduction of [Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit, so the border from Egypt to Gaza had closed. With help from friends — including a Holocaust survivor and my host mother — I returned to the United States, applied for asylum, and later became a citizen. My family — my mother, two brothers, and two sisters — remained in Gaza. My father passed away five years ago.
Q.
What did your daily life look like before things became unbearable, especially before the incident that killed your friends?
A.
There was a desire to live and to persevere. Our family emphasized academic achievement as a way to stand out and resist despair. Our routine revolved around school, family, summer breaks, and whatever recreation we could find. We were accustomed to the anomalies of life under occupation. Gaza had two main checkpoints, Netzarim and Gush Katif. Even those alone disrupted life for everyone. The population growth was already intense back then —
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For me, learning English was key. I worked on it through video games, personal development courses, and scholarships. It was a tool I knew I needed.
Q.
You had mentioned your family was politically neutral. What does that mean?
A.
In Gaza, political affiliation — whether with Hamas, Fatah, or smaller groups — is often tied to material benefits: access to scholarships, food parcels, aid. All parties operate that way. Hamas was more strategic: They built sustainable infrastructure. Fatah tried to buy loyalty with one-off aid. But my family didn't believe in that.
My mother fiercely protected us from being recruited into militancy. She resisted mosque recruiters, charities, anyone trying to brainwash us into Hamas or Islamic Jihad. My father, a religious and politically aware man, never affiliated with any group. He taught us to learn something about everything, but don't let anyone use you. Be curious, but be cautious.
Q.
Let me ask you about your project, Realign For Palestine. You started it to challenge what you saw as dangerous moral and political support for Hamas. What was the catalyst?
A.
It's an attempt to turn what has been a passion project into a professional operation that builds on my ethos: rejection of violence, rejection of Hamas. It's also about challenging the rhetoric that's been coming out of the so-called pro-Palestinian movement since Oct. 7, 2023 — especially the adoption of Hamas's framing of the attacks as heroic or necessary, when in fact they were a disaster: immoral, ineffective, and totally avoidable.
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What's alarming is that so many people refuse to unequivocally say that Oct. 7 was a moral catastrophe. There's always a qualifier. We need to start from a place of moral clarity: taking hostages, especially civilians, is inexcusable. Only then can we talk about occupation, Gaza, and everything else. I want this to be accessible. I'm focused on young, grass-roots voices for now. Later, we'll bring in more policy professionals. This is a long-term effort.
Q.
What are your goals for the campaign?
A.
First, I want to inject new, pragmatic narratives into the broader pro-Palestine discourse. I want to build genuine engagement across communities, including within Israeli and Jewish spaces, and promote values like radical pragmatism, nonviolence, recognition of multiple truths, and a 'two-nation' solution — beyond the rigid two-state model. Realign For Palestine seeks to reframe peace as strength, not surrender, and is crafting innovative policy ideas for Gaza's reconstruction, governance, and reintegration — unbound by reliance on the Palestinian Authority.
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Q.
You've criticized college activism and Western pro-Palestinian movements. What are the key issues there?
A.
There's a huge disconnect. Many Western activists have adopted slogans like 'From the river to the sea' and embraced rhetoric that either explicitly or implicitly glorifies Hamas. Some students tell me not to humanize Gazans by saying they're not all Hamas — because, in their view, being Hamas is something to be proud of. I've heard people say, 'So what if they are all Hamas?' It's deeply disturbing.
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Q.
You like to use the phrase 'useful idiots in the West.'
I believe there's been a tragic squandering of historic opportunities to build real support for the Palestinian cause — opportunities that require acknowledging Israel's permanence as a nuclear state and rejecting the illusion of isolating it out of existence. Israelis and Zionists must be part of any viable solution. Recognizing both their humanity and the crimes of Hamas doesn't weaken our position — it strengthens it morally. Too often, some allies, especially in Western or progressive spaces, excuse any Palestinian actions as inevitable byproducts of occupation. That mindset, rooted in the bigotry of low expectations, is ultimately dehumanizing and racist.
Q.
Do you believe that Palestinians and their politics are at least partly responsible for not having a state of their own?
A.
Yes, I do believe we share some responsibility. Without blaming the victim, we must acknowledge our failures and missed opportunities — in 1947, post-1948, during Arab control of Gaza and the West Bank, Oslo, Camp David in 2000, and again in 2008. We made poor choices, empowered the wrong actors, and rejected viable plans — not because they were flawed, but because we weren't ready for the responsibility of self-governance. There's a damaging mix of cultural machoism and a victimhood mindset that holds us back. If we don't shift our internal narrative, we risk losing what little remains — to Israel's far-right and to our own dysfunction — while still clinging to outdated rhetoric from 1948 or 1967.
Q.
Some people dangerously argue that Palestinians are not a distinct people but are instead 'southern Lebanese' or 'southern Syrians.' What do you make of that argument?
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A.
I think it's a juvenile, ahistorical, and frankly dangerous argument. National identities evolve. Palestinian identity has become more pronounced under colonial rule, under the British Mandate, under Israeli occupation, and through our diaspora experience. That identity is real, whether it existed 150 years ago in the same way or not.
Q.
When you think about a livable future for both Palestinians and Israelis, who do you want leading the Palestinian people?
A.
I want to see a new generation of young professionals and politically neutral technocrats lead, after decades of corruption and mismanagement. The billions funneled to the PA and Hamas could have built multiple functioning states. We don't need more ideology — we need transparent, competent leadership. I still believe in a two-nation solution, but governance must come before sovereignty; there's no point in statehood if it only leads to failure or violence.
Q.
You've advocated for opening Gaza's airspace and sea. What's your vision?
A.
Yes, I'm working on a proposal to open Gaza up to the Gulf region — less dependence on Israel and Egypt. Imagine a rail corridor or energy hub connecting Gaza to Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, and Qatar. It could become a hub for trade, energy export, and innovation — not a warehouse of aid dependency. The future has to be regional.
Q.
What is your greatest fear — and greatest hope — for Palestinians over the next five years?
A.
My fear is that we cling to a self-defeating narrative and fail to adapt. The region is moving on. The PA is collapsing. UNRWA may not survive. We don't have many options left, and many still act like we're negotiating from strength.
My hope lies in a generational shift. I hear from so many people privately — especially in Gaza — who say, 'Thank you for saying what we can't.' There's a genuine, revolutionary desire for change in Gaza right now. If we harness that, we could finally break from the cycles of dysfunction.