Hamas, Israel and the Truths Unsaid

 

The man in the photo above is named Moussa Abu Marzouk. He is a senior Hamas official who was interviewed by the BBC on or around the 6th of this month. Questioned about Hamas atrocities on October 7th, he made the astounding claim that Hamas fighters on October 7th did not kill women and children. Even in a world of alternative facts, I am sure that most people would find this incredible. As the BBC says: 

"Challenged by the BBC about the attack of 7 October, Mr Marzouk claimed that Mohamed el-Deif, the leader of Hamas's Qassam Brigades military wing, had ordered his men to spare civilians.
"El-Deif clearly told his fighters 'don't kill a woman, don't kill a child and don't kill an old man'," he said."

As we know, there is an abundance of evidence to prove this denial to be absurd beyond measure. There are eyewitness accounts that are horrific in their details. There is CCTV evidence and footage from Hamas body cameras that are equally horrific to watch, all collected and collated by the cream of international  media. People unfamiliar with the mind workings of terrorists and their apologists will possibly attribute Mr Marzouk's statements to psychotic ramblings, a self-deluding personality disorder, or simple mendacity. But of course, there is another explanation, to which we shall return later.

What we must note here is the fact that Mr Marzouk's mendacity went largely unnoticed. The reason for this, of course, was Israel's invasion of Gaza and the huge civilian death toll. This is perfectly understandable. As Amnesty International (AI) secretary-general, Agnes Callamard said in October:

“In their stated intent to use all means to destroy Hamas, Israeli forces have shown a shocking disregard for civilian lives. They have pulverized street after street of residential buildings killing civilians on a mass scale and destroying essential infrastructure, while new restrictions mean Gaza is fast running out of water, medicine, fuel and electricity. Testimonies from eyewitness and survivors highlighted, again and again, how Israeli attacks decimated Palestinian families, causing such destruction that surviving relatives have little but rubble to remember their loved ones by,”

To be fair to Agnes Callamard , AI has condemned the Hamas atrocities. As an AI member of long standing, I am glad to see that. However, the ferocious Israeli military campaign of vengeance has killed over ten times as many Palestinians as were Israelis slain on October 7th. If Hamas is to be believed, 11, 500+ have perished. Add to this the destruction of buildings, hospitals, families and the suffering of the displaced, there would appear to be a perfect storm of reasons to ignore what one lying old terrorist said to the BBC. Surely, it may be asked, it is more important to protest against Israel's crimes, march in support of the Palestinians and demand a cease fire?

I haven't marched, although many AI members I know have done.  I do support calls for a cease fire, but condemn the picketing of Labour MPs who support the Starmer line. I believe that a cease fire is urgently needed, but it must be observed by both sides. As for marching, I would never consider marching in the company of neo-Nazis, Hamas acolytes and supporters of the Iranian government. They are a small minority of the marchers, but I know they are there. Several years ago, Iranian dissenters on a Gaza march were attacked by sympathisers of the Iranian regime. I have every sympathy for the need for a cease fire, but I doubt that either of the combatants would take any serious notice of either of our main political parties, should they call for one. I fully support the right of pro-Palestinians to demonstrate, but I won't be joining them.

There is a moral issue to be faced here, even though it's never discussed. The irrefutable fact is that it was Hamas who started the present war; had they not launched their murderous attacks on October 7th, there would have been no Israeli incursion into Gaza. The Israeli response has been ferocious and excessive, but Hamas must have known this would happen. It is my view that it was part of their strategy to lure the Israelis into a military and political morass, and that is exactly what has happened. In other words, Israel has walked into a Hamas trap, as Jonathan Freedland warned in The Guardian of October 20. The ultimate blame lies with Hamas, but the scale of Israeli retribution means that Hamas atrocities are becoming of secondary relevance to the international community.

Which brings me back to the words of Moussa Abu Marzouk. Not only do Hamas deny their outrages of October 7th, they also deny that the Holocaust against Europe's Jews happened. They joined the ranks of Holocaust deniers in a press release in 2000. The Washington Institute said at the time:

 "Many of Hamas's pamphlets have included severe anti-Semitic expressions not just against Israelis or Zionists, but against the Jews in general, with such phrases such as "sons of pigs and monkeys" being the most common. The official organ of the movement, the monthly London-based Filastin al-Muslimah, frequently presents anti-Jewish arguments, usually on a religious basis. But until this recent press release, Hamas had not denied the Holocaust, except perhaps in the leaflets issued by some of its local groups..."

Following a Holocaust Conference in Stockholm, Hamas declared in an online press release:

"The invention of these grand illusions of an alleged crime that never occurred, ignoring the millions of dead European victims of Nazism during the war, clearly reveals the racist Zionist face, which believes in the superiority of the Jewish race over the rest of the nations."

But it's not just Hamas. In August this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made a speech to the Fatah revolutionary Council which drew condemnation from many quarters. He said, among other things:

"They say that Hitler killed the Jews for being Jews, and that Europe hated the Jews because they were Jews. No. It was clearly explained that they fought them because of their social role and not their religion," Mr Abbas says at one point.
Later, he specifies that he was referring to the role of Jews involving "usury, money and so on".

I can find no justification for these statements. Whatever Israel has done, neo-Nazi propaganda is neo-Nazi propaganda and lies are lies. Mr Marzouk appears to be influenced by the "Big Lie" idea of the Nazis. As Josef Goebbels is supposed to have said:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it".

Moussa Abu Marzouk appears to be trying to emulate Dr Goebbels. I wish him no success.

Moussa Abu Marzouk is practising a faked sincere smile. He has a lot to learn.