Hamas rally coverage ignores history of violence

Just Journalism
15 December '10

Yesterday Hamas held a rally in Gaza to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of its founding. The event was covered in an article on the BBC News website, which included commentary by correspondent Jon Donnison.

Given the commemorative nature of the rally, the article included background context on the history of the organisation:

‘Hamas, an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement, was created in 1987 after the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising, against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.’

While the article describes how the Hamas Charter calls for the destruction of Israel, and how the group had recently ‘vowed to step up attacks against Israel’, there is no record of the group’s long-time perpetration of violence against Israeli citizens.

In particular, there was no mention of Hamas’ most infamous tactic, suicide bombing, which the organisation used extensively during the Second Intifada. According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, between September 2000 and March 2004, the organisation was responsible for 52 suicide attacks, resulting in 288 casualties and 1,646 wounded.

(Read full "Hamas rally coverage ignores history of violence")

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