The Palestine Committee Trøndelag continues to hold weekly demonstrations in Trondheim, and on Saturday they paid tribute to Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who is said to have been the mastermind behind the terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 – the largest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. – Thank you for the strong commemoration today for Palestinian resistance. We remember Yahya Sinwar and the many Palestinian resistance heroes and martyrs,” writes the Palestine Committee on Facebook.

The brain behind 7 October

Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s supreme leader and the mastermind of the 7 October 2023 attack that sparked the longest, deadliest and most devastating war in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. He was 61 years old, the Associated Press wrote when the Hamas leader was killed in October 2024. Not the only terrorist taken out of Israel, but one of the most important.</p

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Sinwar was not only behind the 7 October terror. In 1989, he was sentenced to four life sentences in Israel for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he considered collaborators. Sinwar spent 22 years in prison before being released along with 1,026 others in a prisoner exchange in 2011 for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. During his imprisonment, Sinwar continued to coordinate Hamas’s military activities against the land of the Jews.

Palestinian Committee coup the commemorations

This is not the first time that the Palestine Committee has marked itself with what many perceive as a negative sign. The second anniversary of the massacre against Israel in 2023, in which at least 1,200 people were killed, 250 were taken hostage and thousands were wounded, was cancelled by Gaza activists in Trondheim, Bergen and Oslo. Politician and Gaza activist Roald Arentz, leader of the Red Party in Trondheim City Council, was among those who reacted strongly when the plans became known.

The memorial day for 7 October was occupied by Gaza activists

Honouring a terrorist named as the mastermind of the 7 October massacre is still taking it one step further. Even die-hard Gaza activists are reacting to the statement, which they have posted on Facebook with photos from Saturday’s demonstration in Trondheim city centre. There they also write a little about US “aggression and threats” against countries such as Venezuela, Iran, China, Colombia and Iraq, but they are most concerned with “Zionism”.

From the river to the sea

“What is happening in Palestine is colonisation. The Palestinian people therefore have the right to resist by all means to liberate their land from the river to the sea”, writes Palestinakomiteen Trøndelag.

Freedom from the river to the sea means the annihilation of Israel and the Jews’ only country. The demonstration in honour of Yahya Sinwar was led by Bassam Hussein, among others. He is a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), originally from Gaza, and a key figure in Gaza activism in Trondheim and Trøndelag.

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Not all activists support Hamas

«No. I do not support this. I’m not praising Sinwar. I do not support Hamas. Hamas under Sinwar’s leadership has committed one of the worst terrorist acts since 9/11. I think it’s a shame that the Palestine Committee Trøndelag promotes such attitudes. Yes, there are Palestinian resistance heroes worth honouring. Sinwar is not one of them,” writes Svein in the comments section, who himself has the logo of the Palestine Committee as his profile picture. He also reminds us that the Palestine Committee in Trøndelag has over a thousand members and that hardly everyone agrees that massacring innocent women and children is legitimate resistance or self-defence.

Thomas, who has a Palestinian flag on his profile picture, agrees with the criticism.
<“Has it been decided that you support Hamas? “If so, I think this needs to be addressed in the organisation. This is unacceptable,” he writes.

Official position says the Palestinian Committee

The Palestine Committee has responded to Svein’s criticism. They make it abundantly clear that the tribute to Sinwar was not to be misunderstood:

I just want to inform you that this is the official position of the Palestine Committee Trøndelag. We support the right to resistance, including armed resistance, for the Palestinian people. We support full liberation for all of Palestine. This has also been formalised and adopted at our meetings,” the committee writes in response to the criticism.

A priest and Gaza activist has responded to Svein’s criticism with a Like, while another priest and Gaza activist is among the 97 who have so far responded to Sinwar’s tribute with a Like or Heart.

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