BBC: Why Whitewash Hamas When You Can Just Blame It All On Israel

In a new report, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) said 161 Palestinians, of whom 41 were civilians, were killed during fighting between June 7 and June 14 in which Hamas Islamists took control of the territory from secular Fatah.

"The two sides perpetrated grave breaches of the provisions of international law concerning internal armed conflicts, including extra-judicial and wilful killings and shooting at combatants and civilians after capturing them," the PCHR said.
Reuters, "Hamas and Fatah killed innocents in Gaza war-report" October 9, 2007

At least the BBC does not blame the Hamas violations of international law Israel (at least not in so many words)--it just ignores them altogether. Still, this deliberate manipulation is not to be believed as the BBC blames everything that is wrong with Hamas on Israel:

'Failed' democratic experiment
At the same time, though, there remains a continuing lack of unity amongst the Palestinian leadership.

A week ago, Mr Abbas and his Fatah party called for overdue presidential and parliamentary elections to take place by September this year. Hamas immediately rejected the proposal, saying political reconciliation was needed first.

President Abbas then backtracked and said elections couldn't take place without Hamas.

And so it goes on - back and forth, tit-for-tat.

Hamas perhaps has reason to be wary of a fresh vote. The party won the last elections in 2006, widely regarded to be free and fair. But the international community and Israel refused to accept the result.

The result was the bitter and sometimes violent split between Hamas and Fatah.

It was a democratic experiment in the Middle East that didn't work.

Some recent opinion polls show that the main issue of concern for Palestinians is that the two factions end their feud.

So far, the leaders don't seem to be listening.

And it is this division that' remains at the heart of the legitimacy problem for the Palestinian leadership.[emphasis added]

So let's get this straight:

• "the international community and Israel refused to accept the result"--not the whole international community, to be sure. Those that did not based themselves on the fact that Hamas is a terrorist group that targets civilians.
  
  
• "The result was the bitter and sometimes violent split between Hamas and Fatah"--just how we get from not being recognized to political infighting is not made clear. Also ignored is the fact that this split was in fact a bloody coup, which violated international law--but everyone knows that Israel is the only one who ever does that.
  
  
• "It was a democratic experiment in the Middle East that didn't work." The BBC gives no indication of anything Hamas did that would qualify as "democratic"--or did Gazans have a say in Hamas firing rockets on Israeli citizens, leading to Israel's Operation Cast Lead? (since the BBC blames Israel for all that is wrong with Hamas, can we at least hold Hamas responsible for that?)
  
  
• "And it is this division that remains at the heart of the legitimacy problem for the Palestinian leadership"--so by extension, the legitimacy of the Palestinian leadership, apparently of both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, is to be laid that the doorstep of Israel (where, I might add, things are getting awfully crowded)

The terrorist group Hamas is fortunate to have such good friends at the BBC.

Technorati Tag: BBC and Media Bias and Hamas.