The death of Yahya Sinwar in October of last year was a revelatory moment in the West. After key campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest mourned Sinwar’s death, celebrated his life, and built verbal monuments to his status as a martyr, there was nothing left to learn about the tentifada protests across America and beyond: The motivations behind these groups were evil.
Because Sinwar was pure evil. There was no other side to him, no complexity to his character or his contributions to life on earth.
Which is why, though it might sound like a silly thing at first, the news of the rising popularity of Yahya as a baby name in the UK is to be lamented.
Obviously “Yahya,” apparently a name for John the Baptist but not a variant itself of “John,” is far from unheard-of as an Arabic name. But it is not exactly a dime a dozen. I suppose it’s impossible to prove a correlation between the increase in babies named Yahya in 2024 and the attacks of Oct. 7 and the ensuing war. But… come on.
The larger point is less about names and more about the fact of an evil man’s beatification. The coming generation of Yahyas is only going to serve as an unavoidable reminder.
But perhaps that reminder won’t be needed anyway. Progressive activists in the West—who will no doubt soon be walking the streets of hipster Brooklyn with their labradoodle puppies named Yahya—don’t beat around the bush.
“The news regarding the great commander has left our hearts heavy and out [sic] chests breathless,” students at the City University of New York published after Sinwar’s elimination. “Today, we mourn the loss and celebrate the martyrdom of the lion of Al Quds, the beloved Commander, President, Fighter, his eminence, Yahya Sinwar…Every kuffiyeh drawn on the neck of a CUNY student is tied to the neck of the great commander who woke up the world from their deep daze.”
The ADL has a list of such elegies here, and it is longer than a CVS receipt.
Earlier in the war Abu Obeida, the Hamas spokesman, became a fixture on signs and even clothing throughout the sea of wannabe Hamasniks on America’s college campuses. That is bad enough, but Obeida-fandom is a bit like having Baghdad Bob on your hoodie; worshiping Sinwar is like building a statue of Saddam Hussein on the quad.
Yahya Sinwar represents something very specific and very old. He is a symbol of genocidal anti-Semitism. He could, if Israel’s haters had any sense, be a symbol of failure to those who actually hope for a better future for Palestinians. He brought death and destruction upon his people, intentionally. Had he lived, he would have pursued his ultimate aim of sacrificing every single Palestinian he could find in order to try and murder every Jew he could find.
But of course, the anti-Israel activist world does not care what happens to Palestinians. To them, individual Palestinians are bullets in a gun pointed at the Jewish state. Sinwar’s lionization is really just a reminder of the world’s obsession with the Jews. It’s an undignified martyrdom, and it’s all he deserves.
