by Bassam TawilJuly 27, 2014
"We
know that Hamas uses human shields. But why would you report this when you are
sitting in the middle of the Gaza Strip, surrounded by Hamas gunmen?" —
Reporter covering the war, who asked not to be identified.
Besides
the human shields story there is another item that the international media
choose to ignore: the extrajudicial execution of Palestinian
"collaborators" during the last two weeks. The executions were
reportedly carried out in the most brutal manner. Hamas has also been shooting suspected
"collaborators" in the legs to prevent them from moving around.
It is
the media that is helping Hamas get away with war crimes.
Hamas
and its Palestinian and Western propagandists continue to insist that the
Islamist movement does not use civilians in the Gaza Strip as human shields
during war. But the truth is that Hamas itself has admitted that it does use
innocent civilians as human shields, to increase the number of casualties and
defame Israel in the eyes of the international community.
This
admission, however, has, of course, gone unnoticed by most Western journalists
and analysts reporting on the war in the Gaza Strip. Many Western journalists
in the Gaza Strip choose to ignore the fact that Hamas is forcing civilians to
serve as human shields. They also seem to ignore the fact that senior Hamas
officials and militiamen have found shelter among civilians and in hospitals,
especially Gaza City's Shifa Hospital. Is it really a coincidence that Hamas
spokesmen gave interviews to the Arab and Western media from the premises of
Shifa Hospital? Why hasn't anyone even noted it as odd?
Of
course, the Hamas spokesmen, to attract the attention of the media, pretend
that they are visiting the wounded in the hospital, but in reality, these Hamas
spokesmen have been staying inside the hospital, bearing in mind -- even
certain -- that Israel would not target such a sensitive site.
What is
disturbing is that foreign journalists did not bother (or dare) to ask any of
the Hamas leaders and self-proclaimed spokesmen whether they were hiding inside
the hospital, regardless of what the answer would doubtless be. They apparently
did not even ask themselves this question.
One
foreign journalist explained that asking such a question would have
"endangered my life." Another admitted over coffee that he and his
colleagues were too scared to report news that would anger Hamas and other
radical groups.
"We
know that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields," the reporter, who
asked not to be identified, said. "But why would you report this when you
are sitting in the middle of the Gaza Strip, surrounded by Hamas gunmen?"
On July
22, Hamas and Palestinian "resistance" groups issued a warning to
residents of the Gaza Strip to remain indoors after 11pm. The warning, which
was also ignored by most journalists, was published on
several Hamas-affiliated web sites.
So here
is Hamas, literally imposing a curfew on the residents of the Gaza Strip, in
the hope that they will be killed or wounded by Israel. But this, as far as the
international media is concerned, is a story that is obviously not worth
reporting.
More
evidence of Hamas's use of civilians as human shields surfaced on July 10. The
Hamas-run Ministry of Interior published a statement on
its Arabic web site asking residents not to heed Israeli calls to leave their
homes so they would not be harmed by the IDF.
This
warning, of course, did not appear on the ministry's English language website. It seems,
unsurprisingly, that Hamas does not want the world to know its leaders, from
luxury hotel suites in Qatar and elsewhere, are using civilians as human
shields.
Although
almost all the foreign journalists covering the conflict in the Gaza Strip have
Arabic-speaking "fixers," none of these "fixers" deemed it
necessary to alert their foreign colleagues to the Hamas warning. Some Western
reporters who later learned about the warning preferred to look the other way.
After all, who wants to get into trouble with Hamas, particularly when its
leaders and fighters are extremely nervous and busy moving from one hiding
place to another?
Besides
the human shields story, there is another item that the international media
also choose to ignore: the extrajudicial execution of Palestinian
"collaborators" during the past two weeks.
Palestinian
sources have confirmed that Hamas has executed at least 13 Palestinians on
suspicion of "collaboration" with Israel. None of the suspects was
brought to trial, and the executions were reportedly carried out in the most brutal
manner, with torture that included severe beating and breaking arms and legs.
This photo
from October 2013 shows a gallows constructed by Hamas in Gaza,
prepared for
an execution. (Image source: Gaza Interior Ministry)
According
to the sources, Hamas has also been shooting suspected
"collaborators" in the legs to prevent them from moving around. Many
others, including Fatah activists, have been placed under house arrest by
Hamas.
This is
not a story that Hamas wants the international media to report about. Not even
one of the foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip mentioned the brutal killings
in their dispatches. Maybe they feared they would lose "access" and
be reassigned to Nowhereville.
Hamas
has also been successful in stopping the international media from reporting on
Hamas casualties. The only victims the journalists are allowed to report about
from the Gaza Strip are the civilians. Have you seen any
photos or reports in the international media about any Hamas gunmen? Of course
not, no one has. The official story is that they do not exist.
Foreign
journalists working in the Gaza Strip have complied with Hamas's demands and
continue to avoid stories or photos that expose the Islamist movement's cynical
exploitation of innocent civilians during the war. The media has once again
taken sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this one, it is the media
that is helping Hamas get away with war crimes.
Bassam
Tawil is a journalist based in the Middle East.
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