Status Updates From Once Upon a Country: A Pale...

As strange as it sounds, this group, which eventually morphed into Hamas, was initially opposed to violent confrontations with Israel. Salvation in their pious thinking, would come about only after we all went back to the unsullied Islamic way of life.

In Palestinian tradition, the individual isn’t really an individual. If you steal something, or are gen accused of doing so, you and your entire tribe become culpable. The wronged family or tribe has the right of revenge against any member of your tribe or family. What prevents revenge and bloodshed is a form of conflict resolution - the two sides set up a Sulha.

Morally speaking, it was a case of out of sight, out of mind. Their humanism never had to face us.