British Propaganda on the airstrikes in Gaza

By Maxim Nikolenko.

On July 14, Israeli Defense Forces conducted a series of air strikes in Gaza.

It was the “hardest blow to Hamas since 2014 Gaza war,” reads the headline of an article published by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In the piece, the British taxpayer will learn that the raids were intending to target Hamas positions. Among the targets was a place in Northern Gaza, the Hamas training camp located “in the al-Shati refugee camp,” as the article reported.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, praised the bombing with a claim that “the IDF have struck Hamas with the hardest blow since Operation Protective Edge,” an indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip in 2014. Lasting for seven weeks, that operation left over 2000 people dead. Most of the victims were civilians.

The contemporary action by the Israeli forces was also not without fatalities. It is worth quoting the BBC article, again. In the hardest blow to Hamas since the Operation Protective Edge, it says, “two people were killed and 12 injured.” From the description, it is impossible to distinguish whether the victims were civilians or Hamas combatants.

The BBC, moreover, published no footage depicting the aftermath of the attack. One can only watch an aerial view of the sites targeted from the footage released by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

If one is curious enough to find the footage from the ground, he will have to go into a forbidden territory, for instance, by searching for the video on Ruptly. Belonging to the Russia Today (RT), this news agency specializes in videos on demand. While watching its report, released hours after the attack on Northern Gaza, one finds the scene of chaos and destruction. The targeted site is a building, an empty building under construction.

Since the target was located in the al-Shati refugee camp, the two people killed were conspicuously civilians. Their names are Amir al-Nimra and Luay Kahil. The first victim is 15 and the second is 16, respectively. These teenagers were killed by shrapnel from the air strike that targeting the neighborhood of Katiba. The main target – empty building under construction – is located on Katiba Square, a popular space for families and children to gather. While reported by an independent online news portal the Middle East Eye, these details were not mentioned in the BBC article.

But it is worth us to return back to the article. The BBC reports that the Israeli raid was launched after Hamas fired dozens of missiles into its territory. Hama’s attack comes “amid an escalation of violence in the region in recent months.”

Since March 30, thousands of Gazans have taken part in the Great March of Return protests near the Israeli border, demanding their right to travel into the territories from which the Palestinian population was violently expelled between 1947 and 1949. Even more urgent is their demand for Israel to lift the atrocious blockade, imposed on Gaza after its residents elected Hamas to power in 2006. The blockade vastly limits the supply of electricity, food, and construction materials, firmly locking the population in what is nothing other than an open-air prison. To top it off, this prison is occasionally bombed with missiles and rockets.

There was an indeed escalation of violence since the protests started in March. To be precise, the violence is directed against the Palestinian demonstrators, as 139 of them died under Israeli fire. At the border, the IDF is using live ammunition against civilian demonstrators, a crime against humanity. Admittedly, the article mentions nothing about the IDF use of live ammunition at the protests. Thus, the reader will never know how “more than 130 Palestinians were killed and 15,000 others injured by Israeli forces…”

What the reader will know, nonetheless, is how the Palestinian protesters have turned “kites and balloons” into a weapon to attack Israeli territories beyond the fence. He will learn it from the video produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 2 minutes and 27 seconds, he learns that Gazans are lighting up the rope of a kite so it causes fire after landing on the Israeli side of the border. One also learns about the financial damage this act inflicts upon the Israeli communities.

Apart from the BBC, American press also reported about violent Gazans sending kites to cause fires in Israel.

If one reads the Israeli news outlet Haaretz, for instance, he will learn that Gazan civilians/terrorists are waging the “First Kite War.” Hence, live ammunition is needed to contain them. In fact, in June, the IDF launched air strikes on Gaza in response to the ‘Kite War’. The article claims that this move was followed by Hamas firing missiles into Israel.

It is worth taking a moment to examine whether the BBC and Haaretz are correct in their portrayal of the protests, as such a narrative vividly servers to justify the conduct of Israeli forces. A detailed summary of the border manifestations was published by the Human Rights Watch on June 13. The vast majority of the protesters is unarmed, while some threw rocks and Molotov cocktails. A witness also confirmed to Human Rights Watch that the kites were launched at the border. There was also an instance on May 14 when “four armed men fired at Israeli soldiers during a protest in northern Gaza.” On that day, dozens of Palestinians were massacred by the army soldiers.

From March 30 till July 14 the IDF side had two of its soldiers wounded.

Those Palestinians killed and injured were not necessarily committing provocative actions (throwing rocks, burning tires, etc). Speaking to the Human Rights Watch, an injured civil defense worker, Mohammad Meqdad, described the scene he witnessed before being shot on May 14.

“My face was toward the fence. I was able to see soldiers on hills of sand and those hills were higher [on May 14] than they were on previous protest days. On each of the hills, there were about 10 soldiers. There were guys closer to the fence who were burning tires, chanting for Jerusalem, and throwing stones, but others were shot who were much farther away. The last people I evacuated before I was shot were three women, all in their late 20s, who were shot in the neck or in the head. They had been carrying flags and chanting, they were in a group of women that was about 150 meters from the fence, behind a group of men who were closer than they were to the fence. I evacuated one, and then another got shot, and then the other, over 5 or 10 minutes. One of them died immediately, but I don’t know what happened to the other two.”

It is also impossible to validate that Hamas has intentionally used civilians as a human shield to attack Israeli soldiers. In fact, the report states that Hamas has warned individuals from using live ammunition at the protests, as such an act would provoke a violent response.

Now it is time to return to an event that propelled Israel to launch its attacks on Saturday. As I mentioned earlier, Hamas was blamed for firing scores of projectiles over the border. Why would they launch those rockets? Well, the reasons for it are plenty. Perhaps, because civilian protesters continue to die every week from the bullets of IDF soldiers at the border. It could also have been a political message to the main diplomatic and military ally of Israel – Washington. The Trump administration is preparing what has been portrayed as a peace plan for the region, or the “deal of the century”, as it is also called. This plan will further validate Israel colonization of the West Bank, while its framework seems to mention nothing about Gaza. Hence the Strip will remain under blockade, while its residents will be forced to tolerate their living conditions with missiles and live ammunition.

Any change to the status quo is unacceptable.

Returning to the British Broadcasting Corporation, its article ends with a hint as to why Israel refuses to make any changes in its policy. The reader will learn that “Hamas, an Islamist militant group, does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and there has been violence and wars between the two sides for many years.”

Indeed, there have been two major wars between Gaza and Israel (in 2008-09 and 2014). In both conflicts, the IDF has indiscriminately bombed the Strip, destroying its infrastructure and killing hundreds of civilians. The conclusion that Hamas refuses to recognize “Israel’s right to exist” is, nonetheless, a lie. One can read the numerous works of an acclaimed professor and linguist, Noam Chomsky, on this subject; a few chapters from his book Who Rules the World, for instance.

There, ample evidence reiterate what has been obvious for years: Hamas, same as most Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, are prepared to recognize Israel as part of a two-state solution, a deal that would establish a sovereign Palestinian state under the framework of 1967 borders.

If Israel wants to achieve peace, the negotiations for a framework of two sovereign countries would be a step in the right direction.

As for the BBC, if it sees itself as a reputable news source, then it is worthwhile for it to move away from the wisdom of being an obedient echo chamber for the doctrines of those in power.