Clearly, this is a new talking point that the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as CAIR attack dog Hussam Ayloush just said the same thing. It’s a specious argument that might impress the ignorant but dissolves upon a moment’s thought. In the first place, Israel is not an occupying power. There has not been a single Israeli in Gaza since 2005. In his talk about a “siege,” Awad doesn’t address the fact that Egypt, as well as Israel, has its border with Gaza closed. And the idea that an occupying power has no right to self-defense is absurd. Did the Allies have no right to self-defense in Germany or Japan after World War II?

“CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad at AMP Convention: I Was Happy to See the People of Gaza Break the Siege on October 7; They Were Victorious; the People of Gaza Have the Right to Self-Defense – Israel Does Not,” MEMRI, November 24, 2023:

Nihad Awad, the executive director of CAIR spoke at the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago on November 24, 2023, saying that he was happy to see the people of Gaza “break the siege” on October 7. He said that the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, while Israel does not have this right. Awad continued to say that people who feel bad for the people of Gaza “don’t understand the equation,” because the Gazans were victorious. Video from the convention was posted on the YouTube channel of AMP. Another participant in the panel session titled “Gaza in Context” was Osama Abu Irshaid, national director of AMP.

Awad caught a bit of heat for that, and so is trying to explain it away. He needn’t even bother. He is riding the crest of the zeitgeist, and will suffer no ill effects from applauding mass murder.

“CAIR Director Stands by Celebration of October 7 Attack, Claims He Was Praising ‘Everyday Palestinians,’” by Ari Blaff, National Review, December 7, 2023:

Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an influential Muslim-American lobbying group, is standing by remarks he made during a conference in late November justifying the atrocities committed by Palestinian terror groups after they invaded southern Israel.

“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in,” Awad said to audience applause at the American Muslims for Palestine’s annual gathering. “And, yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, have the right to defend themselves. And, yes, Israel, as an occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense,” he continued without referencing Hamas.

Reached for comment after the video was publicized by the Middle East Media Research Institute on Thursday morning, Awad said his remarks had been taken out of context and claimed he was not referring to the Hamas terrorists who slaughtered more than 1,000 Israelis on October 7.

“The average Palestinians who briefly walked out of Gaza and set foot on their ethnically cleansed land in a symbolic act of defiance against the blockade and stopped there without engaging in violence were within their rights under international law; the extremists who went on to attack civilians in southern Israel were not, Targeting civilians is unacceptable, no matter whether they are Israeli or Palestinian or any other nationality,” Awad told National Review in an exclusive statement….

“What I actually said while discussing international law: Ukrainians, Palestinians and other occupied people have the right to defend themselves and escape occupation by just and legal means, but targeting civilians is never an acceptable means of doing so, which is why I have again and again condemned the violence against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7th and past Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings, all the way back to the 1990s—just as I have condemned the decades of violence against Palestinian civilians,” Awad added.

However, the statements Awad cited as evidence of CAIR’s supposed evenhanded condemnation of Israeli and Palestinian human-rights violations do not include explicit criticisms of Hamas terrorism and are instead mostly dedicated to scolding Israel….

Article posted with permission from Robert Spencer