Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 marked the beginning of a fresh round of conflict between Israel and Palestine. But it also raises the question of how we should assess Hamas’s terrible crime and whether and how it can be put into context compared with other war crimes committed by other parties.
Many people believe that we should not “relativise” it (or any other terrible terrorist action). But comparing horrific acts and putting then into context allows us both to understand them and to arrive at a reasonable ethical judgment.
This seems to be the view also of the author and peace activist David Grossman, who made the following comparison: “The occupation is a crime, but to shoot hundreds of civilians – children and parents, elderly and sick in cold blood – that is a worse crime. Even in the hierarchy of evil, there is a ‘ranking’.”
