BY YUVAL NOAH HARARI
ESSAY
AVIV KUTZ, A MEMBER OF KIBBUTZ Kfar Aza, was a childhood friend of a very close friend of mine. Aviv and his wife Livnat and their three children have lived in Kfar Aza for years. Although the Kutz family endured many Hamas rocket and mortar attacks on their kibbutz, parents and children continued to hope for peace. Every year the Kutz family organized a kite-flying festival, meant to create a small peaceful space in the war zone. Colorful kites—some displaying peace messages—were flown near the border fence with Gaza. Livnat’s sister, who participated in the festival in previous years, said that “the idea is to fly the kites near the fence, to show Gaza that we only want to live in peace.” This year’s kite festival was planned for Oct. 7. A few hours before it began, Hamas terrorists invaded and occupied the kibbutz. All five members of the Kutz family were slaughtered.
The mind boggles at such atrocities. Why do human beings do such things? What did Hamas hope to achieve? Unlike conventional warfare that aims to capture territory, Hamas’ terrorism is a form of psychological warfare that aims to spread terror and sow seeds of hatred in the minds of millions—Israelis, Palestinians, and other people throughout the world.
Hamas is different from other Palestinian organizations like the PLO, and should not be equated with the whole Palestinian people. Since its foundation, Hamas has adamantly refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and has done everything in its power to ruin every chance for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Israel and the Arab world. The immediate background to the current cycle of violence is the peace treaties signed between Israel and several Gulf states, and the hoped-for peace treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia. This treaty was expected not only to normalize relations between Israel and most of the Arab world, but also to somewhat alleviate the suffering of millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, and to restart the Israeli-PalestinianP peace process. Nothing alarms Hamas more than the possibility of peace. This is why it launched its attack—and this is why it murdered the Kutz family and more than a thousand other Israeli civilians. What Hamas has done is a crime against humanity in the deepest sense of the term. A crime against humanity isn’t just about killing humans. It is about destroying our trust in humanity.
HAMAS’ CRIMES CANNOT be justified by blaming them on past Israeli conduc
