Gazan Journalist in Belgium Wants Sinwar Dead

Gazan journalist Ayman Alaloul hates Yahya Sinwar. He blames him for the destruction of Gaza and the horrific humanitarian catastrophe that befell the Gazan people. That does not necessarily mean that Alaloul favours a negotiated peace with Israel of any form. It does not necessarily mean that he does not consider ALL of Israel to be occupied and, therefore, that Jews have no right to sovereignty anywhere.

I was moved by the depth of Alaloul’s pain. I do believe we can hold both of these together — feel the pain of an individual who is not lying to me — he does not say that he wants peace with Israel, for example, together with knowing he may not want peace with Israel — without that necessarily meaning he wants to kill us all. I hope he doesn’t. However, when I began this introduction, I was still under the influence of his later posts and it was only when I had fully compiled this collection and actually read the posts he put up between Oct 7th to Oct 15th, that I got a totally different impression. I think it is instructive, interesting, and disturbing to follow the trend of Alaloul’s posts over time.

Before actually writing this article, I had invited Alaloul to a conversation with me because the man aroused my curiousity and I appreciated his dark humour, showcased in this article. I sensed that we could have an interesting and respectful conversation. He did not respond. Unfortunately, that also means I could not clarify whether or not my translations of his posts are all accurate (I had a problem with one or two of them) nor whether or not I grasped the meaning behind them. In any case, let me show you what I have put together. I hope that my having only an elementary understanding of Arabic does not mean that I am misrepresenting Alaloul in this article, one of the reasons I wanted to talk with him in person. If he, or any other Arabic-speaker, wants to correct my translations, they are invited to do so.

(28 September 2024: Note that many of the posts I pasted here are no longer available. I do not know if they were deleted or if they were made private. For some of them, I had already typed out the text so that is still available to readers here.)

First, two posts using the same photo of Yahya Sinwar, one a month before Oct 7th and one over a month afterward. I think the photos speak for themselves even without the text messages added.

9 September

The literal meaning of the proverb
(He destroyed it and sat on its ruins)

المعنى الحرفي للمثل القائل
(خربها وقعد على تلها) pic.twitter.com/9s7wwDBPpk

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) September 9, 2023

10 November

[Text under the image] I go out to them now so they can rest… and people will rest
We must consider you as our Christian brothers consider Jesus Christ, peace be upon Him

* * * * *

Now let us look at two posts uploaded before the Oct 7th pogrom that changed Middle East history. The first, from a month before the attack tells of dissatisfaction with the rule of Hamas. That is not unheard of as there have been periodic demonstrations against Hamas, as recently as July this past summer.

10 September

As long as the government and its supporters are arrogant and you do not see that there is a problem… it will never be solved

طول ما الحكومة وأنصارها بيكابروا ومش شايفين انه في مشكلة .. عمرها ما بتنحل

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) September 9, 2023

The second decries the fact that Gazans have nowhere to go because nobody wants them. Alaloul made a cynical-funny post that I put into an article accompanying this one.

6 Oct

[Text under the photo] The young man, Ali Imad Matar, from the Gaza Strip, died by drowning in the Greek Sea while trying to immigrate to Europe.

And now the day of the pogrom, the day the war began.

7 October

This is the prophecy of Faiz Abu Shamalah

Who is Faiz Abu Shamalah? I could find only one article about him in English from 2015. In response to a huge funeral procession for the bodies of five terrorists returned to Hebron and the outbreak of violence against IDF soldiers, he wrote that Hebron shows the will of the people to oppose the Oslo Accords and the Balfour Declaration.

I cannot see the time of day this was posted, but the bombing of Gaza did not begin at least until late in the day. Therefore, is this post favourable toward Abu Shamalah’s “prophecy”? Was Alaloul in favour of the attack, not expecting the extent of Israel’s response, until he saw the destruction it wrought upon the Strip?

It appears he might have been all for it because in other posts on Oct 7th, he wrote: “Allah is the Greatest, Praise be to Allah,” said he is packing his bags and coming to report in the field (it appears he stayed in Belgium), gave a “V” for victory sign and then wrote: “We are sorry, Faiz” and told people who couldn’t fight to at least go donate blood. I don’t know what he is apologizing to Abu Shamalah about.

9 October

Abu Ubaida is supposed to place the hostages in areas threatened by bombing
This will make them [Israel] kill them in front of the international community

For the next week, Alaloul writes about things being difficult, about going to donate blood, about trusting in Allah, losing Internet connections, bombing Rafah crossing. Notice that there is nothing about the atrocities committed against Israel: the massacre, the rapes, the beheadings, the abductions, except saying that the hostages may be held in places that will force Israel to kill them herself.

And then, the tone changes.

15 October

For the first time i wish i never left gaza
Remote watching is very exhausting and draining
And we have nothing but supplication
May Allah guard and protect you

He begins to mourn what was lost.

18 October

Baptist Hospital before it was bombed

المستشفى المعمداني قبل قصفه pic.twitter.com/JCDdva8C0M

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) October 18, 2023

And then the extent of the devastation to people and property sinks in.

19 October

1948, but in colour

6 November

And when we decided to liberate Palestine
They have occupied Gaza

7 November

pic.twitter.com/iAtPESwIMy

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) November 7, 2023

8 November

When my grandfather told us about the Nakba, I thought he was exaggerating
I put up this picture so my grandchildren wouldn’t call me a liar

9 November

The 13-year-old in Gaza has more experience in wars and battles than Al-Dawiri who has never seen a machine gun

Here is what I could find about al-Dawiri, in an article from 12 November that clearly claims that Israel stands no chance against Hamas.

In this regard, military analyst Major General “Fayez al-Dawiri” believes: the real battle has not yet started, Israeli tanks and soldiers will be simple and easy targets, if the invaders continue to advance into Gaza, the damage and human casualties of this regime will multiply, the battle in Gaza is not comparable to the other regions of the world cannot, because the fighters of Hamas are the children of this region and enjoy the support of the people.

I guess Alaloul does not agree with this assessment of the situation.

10 November

I’m afraid that after all this some of them will look up and say after the war is over.. Did we have victory?

(The last line says something about “my husband/my man” but the verb didn’t make sense.)

12 November

Even the liberation of Jerusalem is not worth all that price

24 November

From the day we first saw Hama$
How many steps have we gone forward????

28 November

It is nice to deal with your enemy with extreme humanity
But you should not treat your countrymen with excessive brutality [This man was killed by Hamas when he demanded his right to aid.]

جميل أن تتعامل مع عدوك بإنسانية مفرطة
ولكن عليك ألا تتعامل مع ابناء بلدك بحيوانية مفرطة pic.twitter.com/cznhT3jABl

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) November 28, 2023

4 December

The occupation would not have done all this if we didn’t do what we did on October 7th
Free services (This is how Googles translates it, but that didn’t make sense to me and I found no other way to translate it.)

4 December

We wanted to free the prisoners, their numbers increased.
And we paid for all of this with our souls and homes
What will happen to the liberation of Jerusalem?

3 December

The people’s preschool is fighting over my pain, Sinwar. (I think I get what he is saying here, even if it isn’t good English.)

I watched the video and, with my elementary Arabic, I heard the man filming it repeatedly say something about “my pain,” “war,” asking where the police are.

الحاضنة الشعبية بتتقاتل ع المي يا سنو ار pic.twitter.com/rJ7Z5gyvsa

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) December 3, 2023

3 December

– If we hadn’t done what we did in October, the enemy would in any case be planning to invade and occupy Gaza
– If we surrender and drop our weapons, the enemy will continue to kill us like this.

They memorize these words in order to defend themselves and to comfort their consciences – for those who died and were buried anonymously – and they carry us well, as if they are always ahead of the enemy by one step or more.

4 December

Can this be? Members of Hama$ steal aid and hurt our young people And our children and women are dying of hunger in the streets?

In the video, you can see men with weapons who seem to have stopped the convoy of humanitarian aid. The men on the hill are throwing stones and shouting at them. Finally, some men and a woman run out toward the convoy.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1731723145768231361

6 December

A voice from Gaza

صوت من غزة pic.twitter.com/c4VuFLAbkE

— أيمن العالول (@aimanalaloul) December 6, 2023

In his report on the Arutz 14 television station, Baruch Yedid tells us that two months ago one would not have heard such open criticism against Sinwar and Mohammed Deif as are uttered in this live interview. The interviewee curses the two with such ferocity that the interviewer is left speechless. Yedid says that civilians are growing emboldened against Hamas.

But, as we see from this article, this collation of Ayman Alaloul’s posts from before Oct 7th, on and around Oct 7th, and then more recently, opposition to Hamas does not imply willingness to live alongside the Jewish sovereign state. We are doing Gazans a favour by killing Sinwar for them. I doubt that will change their minds about us.

Oh well.

Feature Image is a screenshot from his public Facebook page.