CGTN Europe spoke to Dr Andrew Sanders, Senior lecturer in Politics, De Montfort University.
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00:00We've seen the largest political protest against the militant group Hamas. Is this a turning point?
00:08Yes, thank you for having me on. Yes, I think this is a very significant moment in the history
00:13of Gaza. Obviously, typically, we have not seen significant large-scale protests against Hamas,
00:21although it is important to note that throughout the recent conflict, we have seen evidence of
00:28some smaller-scale protests. Largely, those have been directed against the war in general.
00:35What we're hearing from the most recent protests is that there may be some evidence that people
00:40are actually protesting Hamas. That represents a fairly significant change, although, again,
00:46I would caution before making too many assumptions because reports are divided at the moment. But
00:53the scale of the protest has been growing, and I think that's an important point to emphasize
00:57right now. Is there a realistic alternative to Hamas in Gaza? That's a really significant
01:06question because Hamas have been in power since the takeover in 2007, and so we don't really know.
01:13The political opposition there has not been a typical, what we would understand as a democracy.
01:21We don't see the opportunities for opposition to emerge, and essentially, the people of Gaza
01:28have only had the option of Hamas. So that's a really big question, and I certainly think that
01:35the Western powers who are engaged in the peace talks, particularly those who would be slightly
01:43more on the Palestinian side, would certainly be looking at that option as we hopefully move
01:49towards the conclusion of this chapter of conflict. You say that the international community
01:54is looking on, but what do you think these protests, what do you think it means for Israel?
02:01Yes, well, reading some of the sources from Israel, again, some of the moderate sources are
02:05cautioning the Israeli government before assuming too much. Obviously, we saw protests in Israel
02:10this week as well. There is a fairly significant opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu, and people are
02:18protesting what they perceive to be some wrongdoing in terms of continuing conflict and
02:24not really pushing for the key outcome at the moment, which has been the release of hostages.
02:29So I think that there's certainly cause for cautious optimism on both sides. I would say that
02:36from the perspective of Israel, there's perhaps an opportunity to try to fully encourage some
02:43kind of political opposition to Hamas to emerge, but will there be trust for that opposition,
02:48particularly if they have the endorsement of Israel? I would certainly be somewhat
02:53pessimistic about that occurring, but certainly some opportunities there.
02:58Andrew Sanders, thank you very much. Andrew Sanders,
03:01senior lecturer in politics at De Montfort University.