A Jewish American comedian who traveled to the West Bank to ask Palestinians for their views on Hamas claims men there threatened to kill him.
Zach Sage Fox has gone viral after sharing his interviews with Palestinians in Ramallah, many of whom expressed support for Hamas despite their atrocities on October 7.
Since that brutal attack, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, Israel has killed nearly 40,000 people in Gaza with its military operations.
Speaking to Israeli media, Zach shared his experience while in Ramallah.
First, he was asked if he wore his Star of David necklace in the city: « The one thing I was told ahead of time was to not say I was Jewish and to have no Jewish symbols. I didn’t even wear any jewelry. »
He was then asked what he thought the Palestinians might say before he made the trip. He added that a group of men threatened to kill him if he did not delete his footage.
Zach said: « I didn’t think everyone was going to be a huge Hamas fan. I thought it was going to be more mixed. I was aware that violence was a part of the culture but I didn’t think it would escalate as quickly as it did.
« The craziest thing was that we only got a handful of interviews in when a bunch of Palestinian men cornered us and started getting very angry…they told us we had to delete all of our footage or they would kill us.
« My cameraman was really scared….once they told me these guys were serious, I did delete some of the footage so we could escape.
« I think there was one person. The most moderate person was a Palestinian-American but even he was saying ‘we have to look at the bigger picture, Hamas isn’t the problem.’
« Maybe he wasn’t in love with Hamas but he obviously still had respect and admiration for Hamas. »
Despite Zach’s claims that everyone he spoke to was supportive of Hamas, recent polling shows support for the group in Palestine has dropped.
The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found in March that support for Hamas as a political party has fallen to 34 percent in Gaza and the West Bank.
In December 2023, they researchers found that 44 percent of Palestinians supported Hamas. By March 2024, this dropped to 35 percent.
Despite the drop, the poll still found that 70 percent of Palestinians said they were “satisfied” with Hamas’ war performance.
Khalil Shikak, founder of The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, said: “Generally speaking, when there is greater exposure to violence by Palestinians the immediate reaction — that is temporary but is immediate — is the rise in support for violence. This is true in every single survey we have done. »
He added that “this current poll was conducted under very different conditions » given the “endless human suffering » that is ongoing in Gaza.
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