Voice of America (VOA) on December 3 republished an article by Agence France-Presse (AFP) that blamed the Israeli blockade — without bothering to note Egypt’s participation in it — for the dire state of people with disabilities in the Gaza Strip. But by confusing correlation with causation, the author seemingly deems it unnecessary to hold Hamas accountable for the daily horrors it inflicts on residents of the Palestinian enclave, and also fails to stress that the blockade is the result of the terror group’s ongoing commitment to destroying the Jewish state.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Hamas Depicted as Gaza’s Absentee Landlord
The piece, In Gaza, Life ‘Extraordinarily Difficult’ for the Disabled, Watchdog Says, begins with this paragraph:
People with disabilities lead an “extraordinarily difficult” life in the Gaza Strip because of the Israeli blockade and the lack of assistance from ruling Hamas, Human Rights Watch said Thursday on World Disability Day.
Note how Israel is portrayed as the primary cause of the misery experienced by Gazans with disabilities, whereas Hamas is painted as unwilling, if not totally helpless, to lend a helping hand to those it subjugates with an iron fist. Moreover, the article provides no background information about the terror organization, nor does it explain in detail why the blockade was in the first place implemented “to contain” Hamas:
According to HRW, people with disabilities suffer particularly from the blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 to contain the armed Islamist movement Hamas, its enemy in power in the enclave.
Perhaps it would have been appropriate to mention that the naval blockade on Gaza was imposed following the interception of two arms shipments allegedly originating in Iran. That is, the theocracy whose supreme leader regularly calls for the eradication of the “cancerous tumor” (i.e. Israel).
Meanwhile, there is no reference to Israel’s 2005 decision to uproot 8,000 citizens — men, women and children — from their homes in Gaza and also withdraw militarily from the territory. The controversial move was intended to give the Palestinians an opportunity to begin building the prerequisite institutions and infrastructure for independence.
Yet, peace has remained elusive. Instead, the Jewish state has received only rocket fire.
Related Reading: The Gaza Blockade – An Explainer
Zero Dissent: The Other Human Rights Report on Gaza
The article goes on to quote Emina Cerimovic, an HRW researcher specializing in rights for those with disabilities:
The Israeli blockade alongside the failure of Hamas authorities to address the lack of accessibility across Gaza and widespread stigma, contributes to making life in Gaza extraordinarily difficult for many people with disabilities.
Besides the disturbing attempt to draw a moral equivalence between the only democracy in the Middle East and a terror group, Hamas’ documented record of abusing Gaza’s most vulnerable residents is glossed over as a technical failure related to accessibility issues. The fact that Hamas has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the militarization and not the modernization of the Strip is totally ignored.
Yet the consequences of Hamas prioritizing war over welfare have been dire. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics has revealed that disabled children in Gaza suffer from discrimination and degrading treatment. One of its reports showed that 37.6 percent of children with disabilities who are 15 or older had never been enrolled in a school, leading to a 53.1 percent illiteracy rate among the cohort. In addition, 27.1 percent of all disabled individuals in Gaza who had the chance to receive an education at some point dropped out.
Effectively, if you’re born different, there is no school in Hamastan.
Are VOA, AFP Tone-Deaf When It Comes to World Disability Day?
But these facts run contrary to the narrative of Israel as bad guy that Human Rights Watch has cultivated and disseminated. The reality of life in Gaza, beyond the incessant attacks against Israel, is that the terror group threatens and even tortures critics in order to deter them from protesting against their authoritarian regime. Indeed, there is no hiding that Hamas has systematically violated the human rights of Gazans in an appalling manner.
Related Reading: Focus on Hamas: A Brutal Terror Organization
Yet Voice of America and AFP chose to not add a couple of paragraphs of relevant context. Namely, that so long as Hamas remains in power, there is almost no chance for moderate Palestinian forces in Gaza to coalesce into a movement that could potentially introduce reforms to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.
On United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the event around which this piece was written, this is the message that should have been conveyed.
A message of hope.
Featured Image: SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images; Palestinians take part in a “Great March of Return” demonstration on the Gaza-Israel border via Shutterstock.
