As the war in Gaza rumbles on, our TV screens continue to project into our homes the images of devastation in densely populated areas, especially in Gaza City, depicting the horror of modern urban warfare in great detail.
Asymmetry
On the other hand, repeated images of groups of Israeli tanks often appear, visually suggesting a marked imbalance, even without commentary. Asymmetry is obvious, isn’t it? And, implied, Israel is the ‘obvious’ aggressor.
The ‘poor’ Palestinians are thus presented as victims of Israel alone. Those who control our media are well aware of how to use images, and all who are trained to work in presenting news are well aware of the crucial importance of context. Yet all too often the soundbites and images are contextless and thus misleading.
Those who control our media are well aware of how to use images, and all who are trained to work in presenting news are well aware of the crucial importance of context.
Similar asymmetry even appears in a UN press-briefing note on October 17th, a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, wrote: “We urge the Israeli forces to avoid targeting civilians and civilian objects or conducting area bombardments, indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.”1 There was no sign of any appeal to, or criticism of Hamas, Fatah, or Palestinian Jihad, who initiate the military actions against Israel, or indeed the Palestinian Government.2
Context
So, back to context. Here’s Professor Mike Schmitt (Professor of International Law at the University of Reading): “There is no ‘right’ on the part of a non-State group or individuals to use force except when unlawful violence is being used against them directly and immediately, as in a specific case of acts of ethnic cleansing that are underway. At the time of Hamas’s attack, Israel was not employing unlawful violence directly against any individual in Gaza. Nor were Hamas’ actions crafted to directly defend against any particular unlawful acts of violence.
Hamas had no international law right to launch Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, while Israel was entirely within its rights to mount Operation Swords of Iron. … Hamas is conducting its own campaign in a non-international armed conflict (NIAC) against Israel, especially after it forcibly expelled Fatah from Gaza in 2007 (Fatah is the most significant political/military element of the Palestinian Authority, which represents the Palestinian people in fora like the United Nations).”3
Hamas wants to use Israeli casualties to induce overreactions, and Palestinian casualties to inflame the Arab world (and beyond) against Israel.
According to Professor Charles J Dunlap, Executive Director, Centre on Law, Ethics and National Security, at Duke University in North Carolina, “Quite simply, the main feature of Hamas’ strategy is to exploit civilian casualties…on both sides. Hamas wants to use Israeli casualties to induce overreactions, and Palestinian casualties to inflame the Arab world (and beyond) against Israel.”4
And Jim Dubik, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War, in Washington DC, maintains, “The sad reality is that Hamas planned and conducted the attack with a ferocity and barbarism that they knew would trigger a significantly intense and violent Israeli reply — one that would stop any peace or normalization process in its tracks, and one that, by their own design and intent, will result in an inordinate number of civilian casualties.”5 Such crucial contextual details are conspicuously absent from the so-called impartiality of the BBC.
Islamism
For any student of the Palestinian situation of the Middle East, it should be clear that Islamism is a fundamental problem, a problem scandalously ignored by the ITV interview on Monday of London-based Latifa Abouchakra (a hijab-wearing Iranian). This woman had previously posted on YouTube a message saying, “WATCH: What you need to know about the audacious #AlAqsaStorm operation by Palestinian freedom fighters.”
Such crucial contextual details are conspicuously absent from the so-called impartiality of the BBC.
On the day Hamas terrorists launched their incursion on southern Israel she declared, “Nothing will ever be able to take back this moment. This moment of triumph, this moment of resistance, this moment of surprise, this moment of humiliation on behalf of the Zionist entity. Nothing ever.” Thankfully, ITV has apologised, acknowledging, "We recognise that better due diligence should have taken place before she was featured.”6
The role of militant Islamism rarely appears in our media, yet in reality it is inescapable. Even the title of the Hamas attack, ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ is a glaring indication. In just one example from 2003, eight young Palestinian footballers killed 34 Israelis and injured dozens more in a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks over the course of eight weeks. In March 2005, Dr Anne Speckhard travelled to Palestine in a bid to understand how Hamas secretly radicalised these young men, turning them into the “Jihad Mosque XI”. She reports,
“Our interview is with Ziad al-Fahudi, the father of Fadi Ziad Al-Fahudi, a young man who joined nine other members of his fifteen-man Jihad Mosque soccer team, in executing suicide attacks inside Israel proper and upon Israeli settlements in the Hebron area…. One of [al-Fahudi’s] boys is proudly holding up the family’s baby girl, no more than 18 months old, for me to see. Our translator points out she is sporting a green Hamas headband that proclaims in Arabic lettering: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”.7 I am reminded of the Arab children whose parents dress them in fake suicide vests when taking them to participate in demonstrations.
It is true that the people of Gaza and the West Bank are victims – in particular, victims of pernicious anti-Semitic Islamism. There is as yet no sign that the truth will appear on our screens. Just as we are exhorted in God’s Word to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Ps.122), we are also exhorted by Jude to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jud 3:4).
There can be no doubt that there is a spiritual battle within the present upheaval and that our prayers are part of that battle.
That faith includes the utter centrality of truth and requires our commitment to it. There can be no doubt that there is a spiritual battle within the present upheaval and that our prayers are part of that battle. In our prayers perhaps we should be praying that ordinary Palestinians would realise that they are cruelly exploited, and that lies be exposed for what they are. What about praying that our media will be impacted by truth … that we be given wisdom to hold them to account?
Moreover, we should recognise that this faith includes God’s ancient promises, for example: “I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them, says the LORD your God” (Amos 9:15) and “Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations. Their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned, I will pardon. The LORD dwells in Zion” (Joel 3:20-21).
Israel’s entitlement is clear – may the Lord haste the day of fulfilment.
Endnotes
1.Latest: Occupied Palestinian Territory/Israel | OHCHR 17 Oct 2023; accessed 23 Oct 2023
2. According to the EU’s Committee of the Regions, “Palestine is a parliamentary democracy, based on political pluralism, and is a multiparty system. Palestine does not have a formal constitution. The President of the National Palestinian Authority (PA) is elected by universal, direct suffrage for a 4-year period. The President holds executive powers, shared with the Council of Ministers in charge of enforcing decisions of the Legislative Council.” CoR - Palestine Introduction (europa.eu) accessed 24 Oct 2023.
3. Five ideas to counter Hamas’ lawfare strategy…and why – Lawfire (duke.edu) 15 Oct 2023; accessed 23 Oct
4. op. cit.
5. op. cit.
6. https://www.thejc.com/news/news/itv-apologises-for-interview-with-reporter-who-had-called-hamas-attack-a-homecoming 24 Oct 2023, accessed same day
7. The inside story of a Hamas suicide bomber | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site 23 Dec. 2015; accessed 24 Oct 2023 (Dr Speckhard is Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University in the School of Medicine and Director of the International Centre for the Study of Violent Extremism). OK to murder Israeli civilians because they are all “criminals” - Hamas’ message in TV series | PMW Analysis (palwatch.org) 16 Oct 2020; accessed 25 Oct 2023.
