One of the most famous works of the sculptor Auguste Rodin was “The Burghers of Calais.” The sculpture makes reference to a partially confirmed story in British and French history. In 1346, the English king Edward III laid siege to the port city of Calais, hoping to establish a beachhead for his forces, but also to draw the French king into open battle and defeat him. The English allowed the women and children to leave Calais, but the French king never showed up to fight, and so the resulting siege lasted almost a year.
In August 1347, the men of Calais, starved almost to death, surrendered. Edward insisted the six most prominent leaders of the city come forth with nooses around their necks and hand over the keys of the city, whereupon they would be executed. Edward’s wife, French by birth, begged for their lives, supposedly successfully (though this is the unconfirmed part of the story). Rodin’s famous sculpture shows the six emaciated men as they emerge from the city, each man’s face expressing a different approach to the defeat— fearful, stoic, defiant, resigned. Though they believed they themselves were going to their deaths, they knew their fellow citizens would be saved by their sacrifice.
Rodin created this work in the 1890s to show that there can be honor in defeat, as there had been 20 years earlier when the Germans defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War. Though Rodin did not know it at the time, the sculpture would take on a special resonance for France during both world wars.
This powerful sculpture came to my mind this past week as the UN headquarters in New York City was filled with rhetoric about the conflict in Gaza by a variety of world leaders at its 80th opening session. What I found remarkable was that every mention of Hamas, even by those countries opposed to Israel’s actions in Gaza, condemned that organization.
Equally remarkable, Hamas’s only major arms supplier, Iran, did not mention the group at all during its president’s remarks at the UN. The Palestinian Authority, which rules in the West Bank, demanded Hamas lay down its arms and release all hostages, and denied it any role in Gaza’s future. Last month, the Arab League, in an unprecedented joint declaration, made the same demand: Hamas must go.
If nothing else is converging with regard to Gaza, one thing is: Hamas is anathema; it must surrender. The current U.S.-Israeli proposal gives Hamas its final chance, saying, “Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty. Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries.” Its leaders — whoever is left after serial targeted assassinations by Israel — must walk out of Gaza just as the burghers of Calais did so long ago.
In addition to the atrocities planned and executed by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas has acted as a malignant parasite on the people of Gaza ever since George W. Bush naively engineered its rule in Gaza. Hamas took funds meant to support the people of Gaza and used them to build an entire underground Gaza in which Hamas leaders hid themselves in relative safety while the people of Gaza were left to fend for themselves. Former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh noted, “even if Hamas was prepared to protect its members in the tunnels ... it had taken no consideration for the [Gaza] citizens.”
Hamas has also stolen food aid meant for the people of Gaza, and then sold it back to its own people at exorbitant prices. Hamas has even refused to let the people of Gaza escape to safety in the south, blocking and even shooting those who try to flee with their families.
More and more, Gazans are willing to say that Hamas has done them no favors. As one woman in Gaza expressed it during an anti-Hamas protest, “We have lost our homes, our loved ones, our hope and our future. Enough is enough. We call on Hamas to stop this and leave us. We don’t know when this will end, but we want peace and democracy.” A Gazan man stated, “We’re persecuted by both sides. Israel bombs us without mercy, and Hamas doesn’t care if we die.”
Hamas has taken to killing those Gazans who stand up against it as a warning to others, such as Oday al-Rabi, who was abducted and beaten to death for protesting against Hamas. In addition, as recently as last month, Hamas has asserted it will never lay down its arms until there is a united Palestinian state with its capital at Jerusalem, and has celebrated the recent recognition of Palestine by the U.K., Canada, Australia, France and other nations as “one of the fruits of October 7th.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, is clear: Israel will destroy Hamas whatever the cost. As he spoke to the UN this past week, he stated, “The final remnants of Hamas are holed up in Gaza City. They vow to repeat the atrocities of October 7th again and again and again, no matter how diminished their forces. That is why Israel must finish the job, and that is why we want to do so as fast as possible. ... We’re wiping out the terror regime of Hamas and ensuring that its savagery will never threaten Israel again. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what any self-respecting government would do.”
Current plans for a post-Hamas Gaza include a limited-time rule by a “technocratic committee” overseen by a Board of Peace, with an Arab regional stabilization force from Jordan and Egypt. The question now is whether Hamas will accede to this agreement, in effect acquiescing to the end of its power in Gaza.
There is no nation on Earth, with the possible exception of Iran (and even Iran now seems diffident), that wants to see Hamas continue to have any power or influence in Gaza. If Hamas leaders were honorable men, they would follow the example of the burghers of Calais. It is time to surrender unconditionally for the sake of the people of Gaza. Now.