We deserve honesty in media coverage of Palestine-Israel

The recent visit to South Africa of the high-level Hamas delegation headed by Khaled Meshaal gave the reading public an opportunity to assess and understand the movement’s view of the Middle East conflict. Senior IOL journalists Janet Smith and Shannon Ebrahim did exactly that with their coverage, which was a refreshing change; the mainstream media coverage and predictable reaction from the anti-Palestinian lobby was to be expected, because the Zionists believe that their narrative about conditions on the ground is the only version in town. Unfortunately for them, there are two sides to every story and it is about time that we heard the other side of this particular story.

Critics of the Hamas visit seldom mention the most important factor at play in the Palestine-Israel conflict; the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. The violence of near-permanent siege, physical dispossession, daily humiliation at military checkpoints, the painful separation of families, food and water shortages, repeated closures of businesses and schools, travel bans, home demolitions, the uprooting of trees, the omnipresence of armed soldiers and settlers at every corner; few of these everyday facts of Palestinian life under occupation actually make the news headlines. Only the reaction of Palestinians who say enough is enough merits coverage in the mainstream media. It is the order of things, the preferred status quo, that which does not disturb the quiet of the opulent middle class in the high-tech suburbs of Tel-Aviv, the raucous parading of Jewish bigots in Al Quds and Hebron, the windsurfing of beachgoers at Eilat, and the camping of IDF retirees on the Red Sea that is newsworthy.

From time to time, unsubstantiated reports concocted by officials and representatives of the propaganda machine funded by the Israelis would have us believe that the Zionist entity has made numerous attempts to protect the “status quo” in Jerusalem and the occupied territories. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The ultimate aim of these dishonourable and mendacious propagandists is to discredit not only Hamas but also the entire Islamic camp, in Palestine and elsewhere across the Arab and Muslim world. What else can be said of “intellectuals” and “writers” who claim that Palestinians who fight for their honour, freedom and basic human rights are “terrorists” while the settler-killers who came from Eastern Europe and the US to steal and colonise Palestinian land represent the forces of freedom, justice and enlightenment?

The goals and tactics of these hypocrites have not really changed much over the years. They spread lies, rumours and occasional half-truths in order to weaken the ranks of the resistance movements in Palestine, including Hamas. The reason for this is very simple; the hypocrites do not want a resolution to the Middle East’s longest-running problem. Israel needs an existential threat, which gives its government the licence to continue the Zionist agenda of creating Greater Israel (“Eretz Israel”) from the Mediterranean Sea to the River Jordan and beyond, even up to the Euphrates.

The West, including the UN and the EU, have wasted precious years sponsoring peace talks doomed to fail. They were advised and exhorted repeatedly to be vigilant and cautious about Israeli tactics, but to no avail. As expected, the outcome of these encounters found expression in the continued expansion of the Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Notwithstanding treacherous conspiracies devised by its enemies, Hamas is likely to be around for a long time to come. Since 2006, when the Islamic movement won the Palestinian legislative elections, defeating the US-backed Fatah, America and its puppet regimes and allies in the Arab world have used every conceivable means to undermine and weaken Hamas.

Israel has tried to decapitate the group by imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip to pressure the people to rise up against their elected de facto government. It has launched a series of brutal offensives against the Palestinians in Gaza, killing and maiming thousands of innocent men, women and children, and destroying homes, schools, mosques and infrastructure in the process. Entire families have been exterminated as one Israeli official vowed to inflict a holocaust on the virtually helpless and unprotected civilians in the coastal enclave.

Despite such murderous Israeli efforts, the Palestinian Islamic movement is still able to command the support of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. It is true that life in the Occupied Territories is difficult and suffering is everywhere, but it is also true that the Palestinians don’t blame Hamas for their predicament. After all, it is Israel, not Hamas, which maintains the criminal collective punishment of the blockade; it is Israeli bombs which rain down on the territory. The Palestinians will not play into Israel’s hands by sitting on the receiving end of its savagery and then blaming Hamas for their suffering. I believe without hesitation that the Palestinians trust Hamas, and that it is no exaggeration to describe the movement’s continued existence as miraculous.

Notwithstanding the loss of many top leaders at the hands of Israeli terrorism, including wheelchair-bound Shaikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantisi, the movement is rooted in Islam, not around the charisma of any one individual.

Following the showdown with Fatah in 2007, many western news agencies promoted the lie that Hamas carried out a coup against the “legitimacy” of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, ignoring the fact that Hamas was itself the government, having won the elections in the previous year. Unfortunately, the media continues to repeat the same deception, passing over the fact that the US and Israel funded a faction within Fatah to overthrow the democratically-elected government of Hamas, a move which backfired and has damaged Ramallah’s legitimacy ever since.

The world deserves honesty in the media coverage of Palestine-Israel; we rarely get it. Indeed, the word “honesty” doesn’t seem to exist in the lexicon of the pro-Israel lobby and its pet media outlets in South Africa and beyond.

Ibrahim Vawda is a Senior Researcher at the Media Review Network, South Africa.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.