At the La Sapienza University in Rome, the Gaza activist talked about his struggle against Hamas. A member of the Bidna Naish movement, which emerged to demand greater economic fairness and fresh elections, he was arrested twice, in 2019 and 2023. Now in voluntary exile in Europe, he speaks out against the repression by the Islamist movement and calls on the international community to support moderate Palestinian voices, far from Iranian-style extremism.

Rome (AsiaNews) – Gaza without Hamas would be "a step forward vis-à-vis the international community, a sort of moderate model, delinked from Iran, from which to start thinking about the future of the Palestinian question,” said Hamza Howidy, 28, an anti-Hamas Palestinian born and raised in Gaza, who went into voluntary exile in Germany a month before 7 October 2023.  AsiaNews met him at a conference in Rome’s La Sapienza University, Europe’s largest in terms of students.

He has been jailed twice for his activism with Bidna Naish (Arabic for "We want to live"), a dissident youth movement created in the Palestinian territory in 2019, which calls for greater economic opportunities and the removal of Hamas from power.

He was detained a first time in 2019, "for the sole crime of holding a leaflet in my hands,” he said at the meeting "What future for Gaza?" promoted by the newspaper L'Europeista and Radio Radicale, with historian Alessandra Tarquini and journalist Sharon Nizza.

“We want to make it clear that Palestine is not Hamas and that Hamas is not Palestine," said student Filippo Rigonat, organiser of the public event with Howidy.

"The identification of the conflict and the Palestinian cause with terrorism on the one hand", and "with the State of Israel, are incorrect, untruthful things. The Gaza Strip is more than Hamas," he added.

The Bidna Naish movement is "the engine of the recent protests in the Strip", the organisers said. Yesterday hundreds of Gazans took part in a mass protest in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, calling for an immediate end to Israeli violence and to Hamas' power over the fate of Palestinians in the territory, as well as the lifting of Israel's embargo, which has not allowed humanitarian aid to enter since 2 March.

After the collapse of the ceasefire, with the resumption of Israeli raids, the protest that took place on 25 March made headlines, we people chanting slogans like “out, out, out, Hamas out”.

On that occasion, the Islamist group reacted by dispersing the crowd, and arresting several participants. But opposition to Hamas has existed long before 7 October 2023, even if it has often remained “hidden” and not made front-page news due to repression, even deadly.

Howidy’s story testifies to how structured and spontaneous opposition movements to Hamas are more common than usually thought.

“I was born in Gaza City in 1997, an area full of conflict and complexity,” he explained. “I was an ordinary person trying to live my own life.” Then, in 2007, came the civil war between Hamas and Fatah. Hamza said that, as a child, he witnessed “Palestinians killing Palestinians,” with “people thrown from rooftops, or being dragged by cars into the streets.”

With the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, "society has become autocratic," he noted. “An operation of Islamist indoctrination began, with propaganda and extremism. I too was attracted to it. But I had a liberal family that took me in another direction.”

In 2015, he began studying at the Islamic University of Gaza, where Hamas leaders train. Howidy's first arrest came in 2019.

“That year I had to graduate (as an accountant) and I realised that if I was not a member of Hamas I would have had serious difficulties finding a suitable job or living a normal life. Slowly I began to understand Hamas’s role," he said.

As a result, he was involved by a friend in the first protest by the Bidna Naish movement. “The demands were simple: to ensure that everyone had access to economic benefits that were reserved only for the elite affiliated with Hamas, and new elections, which had not been held in Palestine since 2007, to find an alternative to the Islamist party.” The latter request was not expressed publicly for fear of retaliation. “We hid behind the slogan 'We want to live'. We knew what could happen.”

Hamza Howidy's family managed to free him from prison. “Once I was free, I was shocked because no one in the world had spoken about these demonstrations and these human rights violations,” he said. “No news was filtering out of Palestine.”

In June 2023, he participated in a new protest, this time as an organiser. “For them, I was no longer a naïve participant, but a habitual offender who had already been convicted," he explained. He was arrested again. "The treatment was barbaric."

In August 2023, his family, who are now in Egypt, were able to free him a second time, bribing officers. On this occasion, Howidy noticed that the international media were not reporting the protests.

"I decided to leave the Strip not because I don't love my country, but because I lost hope in change. I decided to go to Europe."

When Hamza Howidy was already out, he heard the news of the 7 October massacre. “I knew it would be a disaster for the Gaza Strip," he said. “I decided to speak out to condemn violence, no matter if it is Hamas or Israel who commits it. And also because two million Palestinians were beginning to be described as terrorists.”

Answering questions from those present at the meeting, Hamza Howidy turned to Italian students. "We must not look at this conflict in a Manichean way,” he said. “It is important that the protest does not align itself with Hamas and, in the pro-Israel camp, that not all Palestinians be seen as terrorists. Moderate voices must have the opportunity to express themselves.”

The Palestinian dissident then talked about his fellow activists in Bidna Naish who were arrested, tortured and killed by Hamas. “These stories are the answer to those who wonder why Palestinians don’t have the courage to rebel against Hamas. There are major consequences for those who try.”

As for the future of Gaza, he said that neither Trump's Palestinian relocation plan nor the Israeli occupation can be taken into consideration. “If Gaza is to be rebuilt without Hamas, Palestinian hands must do it; not a group that invests in the construction of tunnels and punishes dissent.”

• palestine
• gaza
• israel
• hamas
• dissidents
• hamza howidy
• bidna naish