Hamas Terrorist is a Hero for Fawning BBC

[Teddy Bear]

Reading this BBC article today Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visits Gaza. You'd think that the person being lauded in the article was a Nobel prize winner instead of a foul terrorist, although the BBC do make sure to put the line in near the bottom, almost as an aside: 'Israel, the US and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist organisation'.

Skipped over almost as something to celebrate is the statement by Meshaal that "I consider this moment my third birth, and I pray to God that my fourth birth will be the moment when all of Palestine is liberated." One could almost overlook that he's referring to the elimination of Israel and the death of its citizens, the BBC certainly does.

In the side-piece by Yolande Knell she writes, clearly caught up in the 'celebrations':'We stood on a street corner with a welcoming committee waving green flags as the Hamas leader drove by in a convoy.'

Was she waving flags as well, or just standing by the group that was. I know what the BBC will claim if challenged, but the double entendre is no accident methinks.

Contrast this relationship with Hamas terrorists by the BBC with this one described by BBC Watch of interviewer Eddie Mair doing his best to disrespect Israel's EU ambassador.

Here's the rest of the BBC article to judge for yourselves if you think that the BBC are really describing an arch terrorist.

Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visits Gaza

The political leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, has called his first visit to the Gaza Strip his "third birth".

He said his previous two "births" were the day he survived an assassination attempt by Israeli agents in Jordan in 1997, and his actual birth in 1956.

Mr Meshaal had not set foot in the Palestinian territories for decades.

His visit follows a ceasefire that ended days of violence between Israel and Hamas. The Islamist militant group has governed Gaza since 2007.

Mr Meshaal entered Gaza from Egypt at the Rafah border crossing, touching his head to the ground in celebration. Officials there said his wife had arrived late on Thursday.

In a statement to the media, he said: "I consider this moment my third birth, and I pray to God that my fourth birth will be the moment when all of Palestine is liberated."

"Gaza is always in my heart," he said.

Yolande Knell
BBC News, Gaza
Posters of Khaled Meshaal can be seen all over the Gaza Strip, but until today he had never seen it himself. We stood on a street corner with a welcoming committee waving green flags as the Hamas leader drove by in a convoy. Armed men in balaclavas carrying guns and rockets kept the crowds back.

This is an intensely important personal trip for Mr Meshaal but it is also politically significant. It is often suggested that the external leadership of Hamas is sidelined by the officials who govern its stronghold in Gaza. By coming here just after negotiating last month's ceasefire with Israel through Egyptian mediators, Mr Meshaal is taking his share in what he describes as the "victory" over Israel.

It is also a chance to complete the secretive internal Hamas leadership process and plot strategy going forwards. At a mass rally on Saturday, Mr Meshaal is expected to refer to the need for reconciliation with his political rivals in the Fatah faction headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. Finally he's expected to lay out plans concerning Israel.

Just after arriving in Gaza, Mr Meshaal inspected the charred remains of the car in which military commander Ahmed Jabari was killed in an Israeli strike last month.

He later visited Jabari's home, and that of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

Jabari's death marked the start of an eight-day Israeli offensive which Israel said was aimed at halting militant rocket attacks. Some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that Mr Meshaal's visit was "a fruit of the victory of the resistance over the occupation".

In the past, Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak never allowed him to use the Rafah border crossing to come here, and it was seen as too risky in terms of his personal security.

An Israeli official told the BBC that no guarantees for Mr Meshaal's safety in Gaza had been requested and none had been given.

"Hamas is Hamas, it doesn't matter who heads it," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. "It's position is known - violence as the only tool to promote its racist and extremist ideology."

Israel, the US and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist organisation.

Leader in exile
Mr Meshaal also visited relatives of the Dalou family, 10 of whom were killed along with two neighbours in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on 18 November.

Earlier, Human Rights Watch urged Israel to provide a full account of the incident, saying the man whom Israel said it had targeted, Mohammed Jamal al-Dalou, was a low-ranking police officer.

The Israeli military said the Dalou home had been a hideout for a senior "terror operative", and that civilians were never a target.

For the centrepiece of his three-day tour, Mr Meshaal is scheduled to address a rally on Saturday in Gaza City, where a stage has been set up with a replica of a type of rocket Hamas has fired into Israel.

He is also expected to discuss reconciliation moves with the Fatah movement, which Hamas removed from Gaza by force in 2007 after winning elections there. Fatah now rules parts of the West Bank.

In 2011, Mr Meshaal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - the Fatah leader - endorsed an Egyptian plan to reconcile the rival factions.

Although attempts to forge a Palestinian government of national unity have since stalled, Mr Meshaal told Reuters news agency ahead of his Gaza visit that "there is a new mood that allows us to achieve reconciliation".

Barring a brief visit to the West Bank in 1975, Mr Meshaal had not visited the Palestinian territories since his family left in 1967.

He survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997 only after the King Hussein demanded an antidote to poison used by Israeli agents.

Mr Meshaal became Hamas's political leader in exile in 2004 when Sheikh Yassin was assassinated by Israel.

He ran operations from Damascus until February this year, when the unrest there prompted another move. He now bases himself in Qatar and Egypt.

Hamas was created in 1987 after the beginning of the first intifada - or Palestinian uprising - against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

Under its charter, Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel. But the group has also offered a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territories it occupied in 1967.

[Teddy Bear]

The BBC continue their love fest with Hamas and its leader today with the story of a rally in Gaza attended by 'tens of thousands'.



So enamoured are the BBC by this story they not only include it on their Mid-East main page, but also their Home Page and Have Your Say main pages.

While no doubt the next articles we get will tell us AGAIN of the 'poor Palestinians', this period portrays them as the victorious underdogs.

To understand what's glaringly missing in the BBC report I'll contrast it with one from AP.

Here's the BBC's

Thousands gather in Gaza for Hamas rally and Meshaal speech

Tens of thousands of people have gathered to attend a rally in the Gaza Strip to mark the 25th anniversary of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal gave a fiery speech during his first ever visit to the territory.

He said he would never recognise Israel, and insisted Palestinians would never cede any part of their land.

Mr Meshaal's visit follows a ceasefire that ended days of violence between Israel and Hamas last month.

Later he is expected to unveil a strategy for Hamas and talk of reconciliation with its rival, Fatah.

Hamas removed Fatah from Gaza by force in 2007 after winning elections there. Fatah governs parts of the West Bank.

'Made in Gaza'
The BBC's Yolande Knell in Gaza City says the event is intended to send a message that, after 25 years, Hamas is a force to be reckoned with.

It enjoys support in Gaza and feels it is gaining regional political influence after the Arab uprisings brought new Islamist governments to power, she adds.

Tens of thousands of Gazans have made their way to the rally at the al-Qatiba complex west of Gaza City to hear the speech by Mr Meshaal.

Ahead of that, a masked spokesman for Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, told the crowd: "We will cut the hand that extends in aggression against our people and leaders."

As long as Palestine is ours and Palestine is the land of Arabism and Islam, we can never recognise the legitimacy of Israel's occupation of it," he told supporters.

"There is no legitimacy for occupation. Hence, there is no legitimacy for Israel, however long time lasts."

In 2011, Mr Meshaal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - the Fatah leader - endorsed an Egyptian plan to reconcile the rival factions and our correspondent says there may be announcements of significant steps to move the process forward.

But she says it is unlikely such a rally will hear any signs of moderation in the strategy towards Israel.

The centrepiece of Saturday's rally in Gaza City is a huge replica of a type of rocket Hamas militants fired at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the conflict with Israel last month. It has Made in Gaza written on it.

Some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed in the eight-day engagement and Hamas has presented Saturday's event as a victory rally.

Ahmed Shaheen, attending the rally with his children, told Reuters: "This is a day of victory. The presence of Khaled Meshaal is a sign of this victory."

Huge portraits of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Ahmed Jabari, the military commander assassinated in an Israeli strike on 14 November, framed the stage.

Israel says its operation was successful in killing Jabari and significantly reducing the militants' stockpile of rockets.

Israel, the US and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist organisation.

In terms of the Hamas leadership, Mr Meshaal said in January he did not wish to stand again as political chief and the future make-up at the top remains unclear.

'Third birth'
Mr Meshaal entered Gaza from Egypt at the Rafah border crossing on Friday, touching his head to the ground in celebration. The streets of Gaza City were decorated with Palestinian and Hamas flags.

Correspondents say he was clearly aware of the desire among Palestinians for an end to the divisions that have weakened their cause.

Standing in the ruins of a house destroyed in an Israeli air strike, he said: "With God's will... reconciliation will be achieved. National unity is at hand."

Apart from a brief visit to the West Bank in 1975, Mr Meshaal had not visited the Palestinian territories since his family left in 1967.

He survived an Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997 only after King Hussein demanded an antidote to poison used by Israeli agents.

An Israeli official told the BBC that no guarantees for Mr Meshaal's safety in Gaza had been requested and none had been given.

Before I post the article by AP, just consider these statements:

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal gave a fiery speech during his first ever visit to the territory. He said he would never recognise Israel, and insisted Palestinians would never cede any part of their land.

and

...a masked spokesman for Hamas's military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, told the crowd: "We will cut the hand that extends in aggression against our people and leaders."
As long as Palestine is ours and Palestine is the land of Arabism and Islam, we can never recognise the legitimacy of Israel's occupation of it," he told supporters.
"There is no legitimacy for occupation. Hence, there is no legitimacy for Israel, however long time lasts."

[/i]

So given the intransigence that this statement portrays, what must be the logical outcome? Would it be fair to assume that an Israeli response to these statements should be sought? Not for the way the BBC want to run it.

They do however highlight the reason why there will be more deadly and bloody conflicts, but the next time they bemoan the fact of the civilian casualties used by Hamas as a human shield, remember this sentence:
Some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed in the eight-day engagement and Hamas has presented Saturday's event as a victory rally.

The BBC certainly want it to be seen as such.

Here's what AP have to say about it, certainly we get a much better degree of balance.

Hamas chief's Gaza visit poses challenge to Israel

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The image of Hamas' long-exiled chief triumphantly walking around the Gaza Strip, flashing victory signs beside Islamic militant leaders Friday, illustrates how the group's defiance of Israel is forcing a change in Palestinian politics.

Buoyed by the rise of fellow Islamists in Egypt, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal and his allies are confronting Israel with the specter of a change in the balance of power between the two rival Palestinian factions — Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah.
Mashaal, 56, who left the West Bank as a child and now leads Hamas from the Gulf state of Qatar, broke into tears Friday as he arrived in the Gaza Strip for his first-ever visit.

Once on Gazan soil after crossing the border from Egypt, he prostrated himself in a gesture of thanks, He then recited a traditional Islamic prayer and kissed the ground.

Thousands of supporters lined the streets as Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh drove by, waving and flashing victory signs.
Mashaal's visit would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago. He would have been an easy target for Israel. Fifteen years ago, Mashaal was nearly assassinated in Jordan by Israeli agents who squirted a deadly poison in his ear, narrowly escaping after the U.S. forced Benjamin Netanyahu, then serving his first term as Israel's prime minister, to provide the antidote.

On Friday, Mashaal referred to the assassination attempt by "the foolish Netanyahu," saying, "God was stronger than him and his conspiracy."
But a Nov. 21 cease-fire agreement, negotiated by Egypt, has forced Israel to leave Hamas leaders alone and negotiate, albeit indirectly, with the Islamic militant group sworn to its destruction.

It appears unlikely that Hamas would ever agree to sit down for peace talks with Israel. The U.S. and European Union have joined Israel in listing Hamas as a terror organization because of its history of attacks aimed at civilians, including suicide bombings inside buses, restaurants and other public places.

But with Israel's relations at an all-time low with Abbas, the Jewish state might be faced with a tough choice.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, frozen since 2008, seem to have collapsed altogether. Abbas's recent success at the U.N., where he won recognition of a de facto state, angered the Israeli government, which insists Palestinian statehood should be reached through a peace agreement and talks.

Mashaal's visit came just two weeks ago after the bloodiest round of Israel-Gaza violence in four years.

Hamas perceives it came out on top in the fighting because it managed to hold its own despite heavy Israeli airstrikes. It succeeded in maintaining an almost constant barrage of rocket attacks on Israeli cities, with some exploding in the Jewish heartland for the first time near Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Millions of Israelis were in range of the Palestinian attacks.
Eight days of fighting ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that stipulated Israel would stop targeting militants. That, along with unprecedented support from Egypt, allowed Mashaal to make the visit without fear.

As a result of that truce, Israel, which officially shuns Hamas as a terrorist group because of suicide bombings and other attacks against civilians, is now conducting indirect talks with Hamas through Egypt.

In a sign of how touchy Israel is on the issue, Danny Danon, a lawmaker from Netanyahu's Likud party, denied that indirect talks were taking place.
"We speak with Hamas in the only language they understand which is weapons," Danon said.
"Gaza is heating up as a greenhouse for terrorism and I have no doubt that Mashaal did not come to promote peace but rather to promote violence against Israel," he said.

Hamas has received a boost from the rise of its parent movement, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, following Arab Spring revolts — especially in Egypt.

Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak barely tolerated Hamas. He cooperated with Israel on a blockade of Gaza after 2007, when Hamas seized control of the territory in bloody street battles from Abbas' Fatah faction.
Since then Palestinians have been split, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Fatah ruling parts of the West Bank.

Israel, which is reluctantly coming to terms with the recent shifting Palestinian power balance, mostly kept silent on Mashaal's 48-hour visit to Gaza. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israel did not differentiate among various Hamas leaders. "Hamas is Hamas is Hamas," said the spokesman, Yigal Palmor.

Thousands of masked Hamas militants deployed throughout Gaza to protect Mashaal's convoy, with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and anti-aircraft weaponry in tow.

During Friday's visit, which was timed for the 25th anniversary of Hamas' founding, Mashaal also paid homage at the house of the group's spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who was paralyzed in a childhood accident and killed by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter on March 22, 2004.
The assassination came at a time of heavy Israeli-Palestinian fighting, with Israeli military operations against Palestinians militants and a wave of Hamas suicide bombings in Israel.

"The resistance was launched from this humble house, Yassin the giant of Jihad operated from here. We pledge to continue his path," Mashaal said.

See the difference?

[Teddy Bear]

BBC Watch also produces their observations on this coverage by the BBC.

Enthusiastic BBC coverage of Hamas ‘birthday’ rally

As BBC audiences could hardly fail to notice, the broadcaster is all agog at the visit of Khaled Masha’al to the Gaza Strip for the occasion of events marking the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the terror organization Hamas – brought forward from the actual date of its establishment in order to coincide with the anniversary of the beginning of the first Intifada on December 9th.

So, whilst Syria slaughters and Egypt writhes, the BBC News website’s home page has for two consecutive days been running the Khaled Masha’al/Hamas rally story as its lead item, with a level of enthusiasm nearing that usually reserved for a Royal visit.



Of course, whilst it may well be roughly a quarter of a century since the world first became familiar with the acronym ‘Hamas’, the terror group’s parent organisation – the Muslim Brotherhood – was already active in the region several decades beforehand. In 1935 Abed A-Rahman al Bana – the brother of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder – visited Haj Amin al Husseini and the Brotherhood was active during the riots of 1936. Between 1945 and 1947, tens of branches of the Muslim Brotherhood were set up in what was still Mandate Palestine and members of Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood were among the belligerents in the War of Independence. In 1965 numerous Muslim Brotherhood activists in the Gaza Strip were arrested after the discovery of the plot against Nasser.

So what of the BBC’s decidedly enthusiastic coverage of the ‘birthday’ of a terror organisation? Well, on December 7th we had numerous items relating to Khaled Masha’al’s arrival in the Gaza Strip, including sanitized profiles of the man himself and of Hamas, together with an article entitled “Palestinian Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visits Gaza” which yet again repeated the erroneous notion that the recent round of violence between terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip and Israel commenced with the targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari.

“Jabari’s death marked the start of an eight-day Israeli offensive which Israel said was aimed at halting militant rocket attacks. Some 170 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.”

The same article includes a side-bar with descriptions of the scene by Yolande Knell of the BBC Jerusalem Bureau.

“Posters of Khaled Meshaal can be seen all over the Gaza Strip, but until today he had never seen it himself. We stood on a street corner with a welcoming committee waving green flags as the Hamas leader drove by in a convoy. Armed men in balaclavas carrying guns and rockets kept the crowds back.” [……]

“At a mass rally on Saturday, Mr Meshaal is expected to refer to the need for reconciliation with his political rivals in the Fatah faction headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. Finally he’s expected to lay out plans concerning Israel.”

And “lay out plans” Masha’al certainly did – already in his initial speech after his arrival. But there is no mention of that either in this article or in the footage of what the BBC’s Maxine Mawhinney described as Masha’al’s “historic visit” to BBC News viewers.

December 8th saw, among other items, an “In Pictures” feature on the subject as well as an article by Yolande Knell which included footage of her reporting – apparently unperturbed – from the women’s section of the rally in Gaza City. In that article too, Knell failed to relate to Masha’al’s statement the previous day in which his organisation’s intentions were made perfectly clear.

In order to get an inkling of those intentions, one has to watch the video entitled “Hamas leader Meshaal: Gaza ‘always in my heart’ “. Right at the end of the film one hears the translator say:

“Today it’s Gaza, to be followed by Jerusalem and Haifa and Yaffa.” [Yaffo/Jaffa]

Whilst BBC-produced reports quoted the part of Masha’al’s statement at the Friday press conference regarding his various “births”, in none of those reports did BBC journalists bother to expand upon the less poetic parts of Masha’al’s speech in which he said:

“This is my third birth. I was born in 1956, and my second birth was when I survived the assassination attempt initiated by (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” Mashaal told reporters. “But God was stronger than him, and I hope Allah will grant me martyrdom in Gaza.

My fourth birth will be on the day Palestine is liberated. Today it is Gaza and tomorrow it will be Ramallah, then Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa.”

All of those last three cities are of course in Israel. And yet the BBC apparently sees no necessity in informing its audiences of the real meaning of that statement.

The post-rally version of Yolande Knell’s article briefly referred to what she euphemistically termed a “fiery speech” from Masha’al.

“Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal gave a fiery speech during his first ever visit to the territory.

He said he would never recognise Israel, and insisted Palestinians would never cede any part of their land.”

What Masha’al actually said was as follows:

“Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on an inch of the land,” he told a sea of supporters at an open-air rally, the highlight of his three-day stay in Gaza.

“We will never recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation and therefore there is no legitimacy for Israel, no matter how long it will take.”

Masha’al added:

“Jihad and the armed resistance is the only true path to liberation. Azza 812 2

We don’t kill Jews because they are Jews. We kill the Zionists because they are conquerors and we will continue to kill anyone who takes our land and our holy places.

The conqueror is not just the enemy of the Palestinians but the enemy of the entire Arab world. The Zionist plan is a danger to us all.

We will free Jerusalem inch by inch, stone by stone…the right of return is sacred to us and we will not forfeit it.”

The only other reference to the content and tone of the rally came later in Knell’s report:

Azza 812 3“..a masked spokesman for Hamas’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, told the crowd: “We will cut the hand that extends in aggression against our people and leaders.”

As long as Palestine is ours and Palestine is the land of Arabism and Islam, we can never recognise the legitimacy of Israel’s occupation of it,” he told supporters.

“There is no legitimacy for occupation. Hence, there is no legitimacy for Israel, however long time lasts.” “

Rather than a ‘birthday celebration’ this Hamas-organised event was, from start to finish, nothing more than a chilling rally of mass hatred. For some inexplicable reason the profuse and enthusiastic BBC reporting on the subject (do anniversaries of other terrorist organisations enjoy a similarly high profile at the BBC?) placed its focus on the pageantry and related only very superficially to the actual content and tone. Azza 812 6

Thus, BBC audiences can remain cocooned in the studiously generated belief that the main ‘obstacle to peace’ in the Middle East is the planning of potential house-building in a place called E1, rather than a racist terror organization aspiring to wipe a sovereign nation off the face of the earth by violent means.

As long as the BBC continues to shield its viewers and listeners from the clear and honest messages put out repeatedly by Hamas and other terror organisations in the Middle East it cannot be said to be fulfilling its obligation to make “people in the UK aware of international issues”.