Wading into international affairs when we sit on our little island in the middle of the Atlantic is a dangerous game. However, events in Israel and the Gaza Strip cannot be simply ignored, especially when there appears to be a one-sided narrative that is creeping into social media and by commentators in this newspaper. In this instance, I am compelled to respond to the piece penned by Social Justice Bermuda that creates a misleading narrative about what is happening right now 5,500 miles away — mostly because of the incendiary language used by SJB in expressing its opinion.

The SJB statement accused the Israeli Government of being “outright fascists” who have advocated for “genocide” of the Palestinian people. Using the word “genocide” is deliberately inflammatory. Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin first coined the word in 1944, which he developed partly in response to the Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people. He later led the campaign to have genocide recognised as an international crime. Given the annihilation of European Jews in the Holocaust, the use of the word “genocide” to describe a bombing campaign to destroy Hamas is patently wrong.

Equally, the term “fascist” is ridiculous to use to describe the Netanyahu-led new national unity government. I would accept the term “nationalist” to describe the government before forming the national unity government, but not fascist. A fascist is a follower of a political philosophy characterised by authoritarian views with zero tolerance for opposing opinions. Any follower of Israeli political life will know that Israel is far from a totalitarian regime. The narrative of SJB is dangerously close to creating the imagery of Binyamin Netanyahu as Hitler and the Israeli electorate and Israeli Defence Forces as goose-stepping Waffen-SS troops.

Ironically, SJB further stated that it had “strong concerns about the media sharing unverified and inflammatory stories”. Is it just me who sees the irony here? SJB calling the media inflammatory, yet its own statement creates images of the Israeli Government to that of Nazis through the use of the terms “genocide”, “fascists”, “atrocities” and “war crimes”? Does SJB have equally strong concerns that Hamas hides in the shadows of hospital buildings while firing rockets supplied by Iran into Israel? Or that Hamas has diverted thousands of tonnes of building materials meant for housing the population to build miles and miles of underground tunnels to infiltrate Israel, and murder and pillage innocent civilians instead?

The weasel line that SJB does not “in any way condone the action of October 7” is pathetic. SJB saying that global events do not “happen in a vacuum” — echoing United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres — is the phraseology of cowards and reeks of an excuse for the actions of Hamas. On October 7, 2023, armed Hamas terrorists covertly entered kibbutzim and butchered almost everyone in their path with unprecedented savagery. Babies, both born and unborn, were beheaded, women raped, and children and the elderly burnt alive in a methodical fashion reminiscent of Rwandan Hutus cutting down Tutsis. Many of those that survived were kidnapped, and are now used as human shields. Not even the blind can pretend it did not happen. These are facts that have been independently verified.

Let me remind you of something that SJB has failed to mention to its readers. Hamas’s charter calls for establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and rejects all agreements made between the Palestine Liberation Organisation — which before 2007 governed Gaza — and Israel. In other words, its entire ethos is the destruction of the state of Israel, whether certain territories are considered occupied by Israel or not. Hamas is funded by Iran, which, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, severed all diplomatic and commercial ties with Israel, and whose theocratic government does not recognise the legitimacy of Israel as a state.

The European Union, Britain and the United States have designated Hamas a terrorist organisation. Any glorification or attempt to justify Hamas’s actions and activities must be met with outrage. Hamas cares little for the people that it governs who are suffering the most from its terrorist activities. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been diverted from humanitarian projects to allow Hamas to continue its campaign to destroy Israel. SJB says that “...the people of Palestine have the continuous right to resist the occupation and to self-defence by any and all means” — this sounds like a justification of the Hamas atrocities to me!

What is equally pathetic is the SJB assertion that “there is a direct line between the Israeli apartheid regime and the ongoing police brutality epidemic in the United States”. What absolute and complete nonsense. Not only is the Israeli state not practising apartheid, but in no way can there be a link to what the Israeli security issues are to that of police brutality in the US. Who actually writes this claptrap as if it is factual?

We in Bermuda will not solve the problems in Israel. I do not condone war, and I am equally upset by the pictures of dead Gazans, as I am Israelis. I wish the parties could find a solution, as I am sure SJB does, too. However, making blanket calls such as “...the return of Shebaa Farms to Lebanon and Golan Heights to Syria” demonstrates a certain ignorance of historical facts and is desperately oversimplified.

It is equally oversimplified to suggest that Google, Caterpillar and Axa are “complicit in the occupation, war crimes and maintenance of apartheid in Palestine”. If I were SJB, I would be worried about being sued for libel. I do not see any of those companies on trade sanction lists and SJB should be very careful before accusing such entities of being complicit in breaking international law.

I believe we can all agree that the fires of anger burning in Israel and Gaza have the potential to grow far larger than anyone can imagine. Cool heads must prevail. Francis Bacon said: “In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior.” I hope that is remembered each day by the IDF in its quest to rid the Gaza Strip of Hamas. There is a fine line between justice and revenge.

• Michael Fahy was the Government Senate Leader and Cabinet minister in the One Bermuda Alliance government from 2012 to 2017. Thoughts or comments to opedfahy@gmail.com