For Gaza, for Hamas, for Discussion

 

The young man in the photo above is called Abdullah Al-Yazouri. He is the news at the moment because he was the presenter of  the BBC documentary " Gaza: How To Survive A War Zone". I have watched the programme, and have to say that, for a 13-year old boy, he did a good job. The programme focused upon several Gazans and their struggles for survival in the midst of the war. There was a young boy who lived in a hospital, helping with patients. There was a young woman who was bringing up her newborn child in a draughty tent. The programme depicted the plight of Palestinians suffering from Israeli bombing, as well as the pressure on ordinary Gazans to change location when directed by the Israeli army. What I did not know was the fact that Abdullah is the son of a Hamas leader - Dr Ayman al-Yazouri, the deputy minister for agriculture. According to other reports, he is the grandson of a Hamas founder member.

The investigative reporter who discovered this, David Collier, has said;  

'The naivety, stupidity and arrogance of our media has long been apparent. It has allowed Palestinian propagandists to turn our legacy channels into foolish outlets blindly spouting Hamas lies 24/7.'

By "our media", Collier means the BBC, and the backlash against the BBC has been one of increasing fury. Danny Cohen, the ex- BBC director said: 

'The BBC appears to have given an hour of prime-time coverage to the son of a senior member of the Hamas terrorist group. Either they were not aware of the terrorist links because they did not carry out the most basic journalistic checks or the BBC did know and misled audiences about the family's deep involvement with terrorism.'

Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has expressed her disquiet, saying that she will raise the matter with BBC management:  "particularly around the way in which they sourced the people who were featured in the programme".

 

The former Tory Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has joined the chorus, saying: 

"I’m the Home Secretary that prescribed (sic) Hamas, so I don’t need to add much more to that at all," Dame Priti told Nick Ferrari of LBC on Thursday."And I think the BBC has been under a great deal of scrutiny over their reluctance, let’s put it this way. Their reluctance to call Hamas a terrorist organisation - which is exactly what they are."

The BBC has responded, some might think feebly, by saying that they had not been informed of the family connection by the independent producers. The Beeb has apologised for the omission, and has been forced to issue a statement, saying: 

"We followed all of our usual compliance procedures in the making of this film, but we had not been informed of this information by the independent producers when we complied and then broadcast the finished film... a powerful child's eye view of the devastating consequences of the war in Gaza which we believe is an invaluable testament ... and we must meet our commitment to transparency."

Despite calls to ban the film, the BBC has refused to axe the programme, adding a cautionary information message.* See Footnote below.

Personally speaking, I agree that the Beeb should have done their homework, but I think they are right not to delete the programme. I would have watched it, even had I known of  Abdullah's parentage, though it would have forewarned me that there was a propaganda purpose to the film. Unlike the BBC, I have no hesitation in describing Hamas as a terror organisation, and I hope that previous posts of mine on this topic make that clear. It was obvious that the programme was intended as an emotionally persuading piece of work, with its depiction of casualties, destruction and indiscriminate bombing seen through the eyes of children. But this is standard practice for propagandists, as Britannica says:  

"Propagandists have a specified goal or set of goals. To achieve these, they deliberately select facts, arguments, and displays of symbols and present them in ways they think will have the most effect. To maximize effect, they may omit or distort pertinent facts ..."

And it didn't take much to see that this film fitted the bill admirably. No mention was made of the Hamas incursion of 7/10/23, nor were the atrocities of Hamas or the Israeli hostages. Cleverly, one Gazan was shown who did make a brief criticism of Hamas. It was a nod to impartiality and I hope the person interviewed didn't suffer for it afterwards. Yet, the overall impression was of a beleaguered, united people standing firm in the face of aggression. 

I saw nothing to cause me to revise my view that Hamas are to blame for the present war by their murderous invasion of Israeli territory. I agree that the the Israeli campaign is excessive and indiscriminate, but, I say again, Hamas knew this would happen and wanted it to happen, as I have expounded elsewhere. My concern here is that the BBC has played into the hands of its critics (much as the Israelis have played into the hands of Hamas) and there will be further attacks on its status, which is happening now, over this issue.

* Footnote, 21/2/25: The programme has been deleted from BBC iPlayer as of today.

 

Happy Faceless Men : Survival is Success?

 

If I can be forgiven for exercising artistic license, the picture above shows a faceless and anonymous group of men. We do not know their identities, but they must exist. They are three representations of the secretive planners of Hamas military strategy. They must exist, because Hamas would have been unable to launch their attacks on Israel on October 7th, 2023, without meticulous preparation. This preparation was evident in the way that Hamas fighters were able to breach Israeli defences and inflict severe civilian casualties. It was evident in the taking of hostages and the provocative killing of innocent people. And it was especially significant in the construction of an extensive and elaborate network of tunnels in Gaza, where Hamas fighters could take refuge from Israeli retaliation or military action. On all these counts, I think we can agree that the Hamas planning staff achieved a high degree of success.

The principal criteria for success came from the inevitable Israeli retaliation to the Hamas atrocities of 7/10/23. At the risk of quoting myself, in my blog post of 13/10/23, I said that the Hamas crimes were part of the strategy of provocation: 

"...the provocation by said (guerrilla) movements against their stronger and/or occupying enemies... It involves attacks by the terrorists that sting their enemies into using excess force as retaliation, in order to alienate the civilian population. The retaliation, such as it is, will cause deaths to innocent and uninvolved civilians and thus lead to an increase of support for the guerrillas".

Well, I got that right. The Israeli military response, which has lasted over a year, has inflicted far more casualties upon the Palestinian population of Gaza than Israel suffered on October 7th. As Reuters observed on January 15th:

"Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign in Gaza killed more than 46,600 people, with just over half of identified victims being women, children or older people".

Despite this, a Hamas official told the BBC on January 16th that the fact that Hamas had endured the Israeli onslaught constitutes a victory: 

"Israel promised to eliminate Hamas, but now they are sitting in the same building with Hamas leaders and negotiating with them," a senior Hamas official told me (Rushdi Abualouf) in a phone call before the ceasefire was announced".

Predictably, and like other guerrilla groups before, civilian casualties matter little to Hamas, who are, as some say, a death cult. The unnamed Hamas official said:

"In terms of numbers, Gaza has paid an unimaginable price. But in terms of gains and losses, Israel failed to break the will of the Palestinians, the resistance, or to push the people out of the country."

Oh, well, that's all right then, at least for Hamas. This is because the high Palestinian death toll has brought significant benefits for Hamas and all the militant Palestinian groups. The huge number of civilian deaths has brought widespread international condemnation of Israel, galvanising the already extant anti-Zionist movement worldwide who have added to their numbers considerably. According to Asian Eye, a survey conducted last year found: 

"A majority of Britons surveyed (71%) felt it was fair to label the Israel military force's actions in Gaza as ‘genocide’"

And, as we know, there have been huge demonstrations in support of the Palestinians and calls for the UK to ban arms sales to Israel. There has also been an increase in antisemitism   as well as in Islamophobia. This has the benefit for Hamas of an increase in social tension in a major Israeli ally. But the most tangible strategic benefit for Hamas has been the number of future recruits it can garner from the relatives of the thousands of innocent people who have died in the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. They will have many more recruits for their future attacks on Israel and that must afford the Hamas strategists a great deal of satisfaction. The fact that their attack on 7/10/23 started this whole destructive process and claimed so many lives will not trouble them. By and large, and by their own ruthless standards, they have survived and succeeded.

Which leads to my conclusion. Many years ago, I read a book on guerrilla warfare by Robert Taber: "The War of the Flea". It is largely forgotten now, but was once said to be required reading for US Special Forces officers. Taber was an American Marxist who admired the Cuban Revolution and actually fought with Cuban forces against the CIA-organised Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, 1961. Taber was wounded in the fighting, but recovered to write his panegyric on revolutionary guerrilla warfare. One sentence from the book is relevant here:

"The guerrilla succeeds because he survives"

That quote is highly appropriate to the present Hamas situation. Despite all the suffering and death resulting from the October 7th attack, and despite a protracted Israeli military offensive, Hamas have survived. They are still intact as a fighting force and have paraded triumphantly during their recent release of Israeli hostages. The faceless strategy planners will have learned from the struggle and will doubtless be planning future actions.

Looking at my picture above has suddenly given me a sinister, creepy feeling. I can almost imagine those happy, faceless men quietly laughing to themselves...