By Michael J. Abramowitz, President, Freedom House
As we reach the end of the first month in the current fighting between Israel and Hamas, I wanted to share some thoughts on the conflict, which started with the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The coordinated terrorist attack on October 7 has since turned into a full-scale war within a densely populated area.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have died, including more than 4,000 children, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. More than 200 Israeli and foreign hostages are being held by Hamas, which continues to shell Israel with rockets.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most intractable political problems in the world, and its corrosive effects have helped to perpetuate oppression and authoritarian rule across the Middle East, which remains the least free region covered by our annual Freedom in the World report.
Resolving it will require a shared recognition that all people deserve to live in freedom, and that over the long term only a sustained investment in democracy—a governance system designed to protect human rights and reconcile competing interests—can ultimately deliver peace.
To properly assess what has happened in the last month, and what needs to happen next, it is necessary to hold in mind several parallel truths: Hamas’s attack on Israel was a brutal act of terrorism, and the latest addition to a centuries-old legacy of antisemitic violence. The murder of children, the elderly, and other innocent people at the hands of a group committed to killing Jews and eradicating the state of Israel is unacceptable and unjustified, regardless of circumstance.
Especially shocking has been the escalation of naked antisemitism around the world in the aftermath of the attack—and the complete lack of empathy in some quarters for Jewish suffering. Given the history of the Jewish people, it is hard to overstate the trauma experienced by Israelis in recent weeks.
The Palestinian people are equally deserving of the full protection of their human rights and physical security. Many have been living under Israeli occupation, with corrupt leadership, and they too have faced callous responses to their suffering and experienced historical trauma. We must clearly distinguish between Hamas and the Palestinian people.
Hamas has imposed a repressive authoritarian rule on the people of Gaza, gaining a toehold through a single round of legislative elections in 2006, then securing its power in 2007 through a short, vicious conflict with its main Palestinian rival. No elections of any kind have been held in Gaza for 17 years.
Israel is a democracy and a sovereign state, and like every state it has the right and obligation to defend itself from those who aim to destroy it. The responsibility is especially great given Israel’s founding purpose, to serve as a place of refuge for the Jewish people from persistent antisemitism and violence.
In defending itself, Israel cannot legally target civilians or civilian infrastructure, and it must do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties. Nor can it engage in collective punishment of Palestinians. Adherence to the Geneva Conventions is not only required under international law, but is in the direct interest of Israel and other democratic states, as military experts and leading scholars on the subject have long explained.
It is no easy feat to prosecute a war against an enemy that hides fighters and weaponry among civilians, but at this point in the conflict, it is obvious that much greater urgency and action is required to protect innocent Palestinian lives. The Israeli government must permit food, medicine and other life-saving supplies to flow on a much greater scale, commensurate with the enormous and critical humanitarian needs. For its part, Hamas must immediately release the remaining hostages and remove any restrictions on the free movement of Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers.
The renewed fighting underscores the need for a much more determined peace initiative, with the explicit goal of a robust Palestinian democratic state—one whose leaders have the electoral legitimacy to make and enforce laws and treaties, and where an independent judiciary can protect the rights and liberties of all residents, holding the authorities accountable for abuse.
This is the only sort of neighbor with which Israel will share lasting peace and security and where Palestinian civilians can feel protected. Hope is not without cause: history shows that some of the biggest breakthroughs for peace in the Middle East have followed bouts of extreme violence.
Indeed, the latest crisis highlights the glaring failures associated with democracy efforts across the Middle East in the wake of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Authoritarian responses to the Arab Spring movement in 2011 contributed to dramatic backsliding.
Palestinians were left with growing oppression and worsening living conditions, while Israel expanded settlements in the West Bank. Israelis were left with unstable autocracies or hostile militant groups on all sides—and in recent years growing domestic threats to their own democratic institutions.
This outcome is not an indictment of democracy itself, but a sign that the spread of democracy—and the human rights and freedoms it protects—will be heavily contested. Durable progress will require far more serious exertions by the region’s citizens, their governments, and democratic societies around the world. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians will reap the benefits of peace without strong, unwavering democratic leadership that is committed to respecting the rights and dignity of all people.
