Extract from Eureka Street
- Home
- Vol 36 No 2
- Why Palestinian peace activists receive threats
- John Aziz
- 12 February 2026
I was greatly saddened when I heard the story of Lama Dalloul, a Palestinian peace activist from Gaza:
I transcribed this video (originally from Builders of the Middle East) in case you want to read it, rather than listen to it.
Lama says:
I’m Palestinian. I’m an activist, and I love animals. For the past two years, I fought to find a way out. Some people called it betrayal, but I was simply looking for a better, safer future. I spent my whole life in Gaza, growing up there, I saw people lose their job, their security, their future, just for saying what they thought.
Then October 7 happened and changed everything… Not only was I living in fear of bombardment or attacks, but I was also seeing injustice every day. I couldn’t be part of that silence. So I turned to TikTok and started documenting my life, the war, the fear. It was my way to escape reality.
I also spoke about peace, about not choosing hate, although I got some support, it didn’t take long before I started getting hateful DMs, comments and even threats of my life.
And I honestly got scared I had to leave behind my family, my friends, my country, even my cats…
I believe that the people of Gaza shouldn’t have to live in fear just to speak their truth. I believe that the people of Gaza deserve dignity and freedom.
I have my own experiences of this phenomenon, too.
After October 7th, when I started talking about my belief in peace and coexistence, I immediately received an outpouring of support from some people. I remain grateful for that. But there were also vast quantities of anger, condemnation and — yes — threats, accusations of treachery, accusations that I am a traitor, or a Mossad agent, or some other nonsense.
At first, I found it bewildering. Peace and coexistence are not extremist positions. They are really quite a logical position. Neither side is going to disappear. Israelis and Palestinians must learn to share this land together. However long that takes.
'Once you’ve been recast as an enemy or a traitor, there’s less need to engage with your words. The focus shifts to punishing you for speaking, to try and push you down. They will lie, misinterpret, distort, try to hack into your social media accounts, threaten your family, anything.'
So why let grief curdle into dehumanisation, hate, and the perpetuation or worsening of conflict?
Dehumanisation and hate are poisonous. They are brain-rotting. They convince people to commit themselves to causes of destruction and death. They convince people to commit unspeakable acts of barbarity.
Why continue with this miserable reality? When peace comes, things get better. Economies grow. Cities flourish. Trade soars. People gain back the time and space to complete their education, get a job, start a family without worrying about bombs dropping on their heads, or having to evacuate. You get a post-war boom. You get a chance for normality.
And yet for some people, peace is treated as an intolerable idea.
It took me a while to realise that threats are rarely about what you actually said (or even the twisted misrepresentations that people misinterpreted you to say). They’re about what your existence represents. When you insist that Israelis and Palestinians are both human, that both deserve safety, that neither side has a monopoly on pain or innocence, you disrupt the core story where one side is wholly innocent, and the other wholly guilty. And if someone’s identity has become welded to that story then your ideas feel like an attack.
Once you’ve been recast as an enemy or a traitor, there’s less need to engage with your words. The focus shifts to punishing you for speaking, to try and push you down. They will lie, misinterpret, distort, try to hack into your social media accounts, threaten your family, anything.
There is also a darker truth: peace threatens power.
In every long conflict, there are individuals and groups — some organised, some informal — who benefit from permanent hostility. They benefit socially, because common hatreds are used as a kind of group identity. They benefit psychologically, because hatred offers certainty and direction. And sometimes they benefit materially or politically, because outrage is an engine that can be harnessed for money.
In other words, there are a lot of groups making a lot of money, and gaining a lot of power from perpetuating the conflict. Not least Hamas, who have made billions from siphoning aid, and acting like a protection racket.
A person speaking about coexistence is a problem for that nefarious ecosystem. A person speaking about coexistence threatens those who are getting rich from war, and from dehumanising propaganda.
The internet intensifies all of this. It amplifies the worst impulses. It allows people to perform righteousness for applause, to attack strangers with little or no consequence. Political causes — especially deeply divisive and entrenched ones — are used by bullies and trolls as an excuse to be extravagantly mean in ways that they would not otherwise be able to get away with.
But I refuse to back down. I refuse to bend or apologise. As I said, neither side is going to disappear. There is no solution without a resolution.
No matter how long it takes to get there, the ideologies of endless conquest and counterpunching will be consigned to the scrap heap of history.
This piece originally apprared on John Aziz's substack here and was used with permission.
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