How would you describe an organization with a 30-year track record of war crimes, horrific massacres, and domestic human rights abuses?
“Resistance movement” is not the term any self-respecting news outlet should use in reference to Hamas, but an article by Britain’s Daily Mail has described the genocidal Islamist organization precisely thus.
Published on February 19, the article, a bizarre story about a Palestinian on hunger strike in Britain after immigration officials refused to accept his claimed date of birth, included the following passage (emphasis added):
They have heard how he was born in Gaza, in the Occupied Palestinian territories, and that when he was young he had been ‘severely mistreated’ by resistance movement Hamas for refusing to act as a suicide bomber.”
Whether one agrees with the practice or not, it’s a fact that the vast majority of news outlets nowadays avoid the term “terrorism,” and instead employ the more neutral and descriptive word, “militant” to describe organizations such as Hamas and Al Qaeda. Had that term been used, this critique would never have been written.
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Instead, the wholly unacceptable “resistance movement” totally whitewashes Hamas’ true nature: It’s a brutal, antisemitic terror organization that glorifies not just killing Israeli soldiers or Israeli civilians, but the killing of Jews.
Related Reading: The Hamas Charter — A Manifesto for Destroying Israel
For this reason, Hamas has been designated as a terror organization by the United States, the EU, and the UK. The only outlets referring to it as a “resistance movement” are extremist and partisan propaganda sites.
Immediately upon discovering this description on the Daily Mail website, HonestReporting reached out to the writer, Lydia Catling, via Twitter to make clear that the description is unacceptable.
Hamas is an organization with a modus operandi of firing rockets at civilians, stabbing bystanders, shooting up coffee shops and blowing up buses, and with a charter that calls for the killing of Jews.
Resistance movement is a wholly inappropriate term, @lydiacjourno. pic.twitter.com/NEfLoAaK8Y
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) February 20, 2021
Related Reading: Focus on Hamas — A Brutal Terror Organization
Personal failure but collective responsibility
Upon further investigation, it appears that, per the author’s Twitter bio, the piece was written by a “Trainee Reporter,” In which case, a few things should be clear: while this description remains egregious, HonestReporting has absolutely no desire to derail the career of a young trainee. We hope that a correction will swiftly be made and that the writer suffers no consequence beyond learning the important lesson of writing with greater precision.
Equally, however, while a trainee reporter is liable to make mistakes, the Daily Mail is one of the most widely-read websites in the world, and has significant resources at its disposal. Copy editors should catch this kind of language, and therefore the media outlet must be held responsible for the end product: an article published on the Daily Mail website that mischaracterizes a murderous terror organization.
After all, the Daily Mail would never allow a writer, no matter how inexperienced, to refer to the IRA as a “resistance movement.” The same must apply for Hamas.
HonestReporting has contacted the Daily Mail and urged it to correct the article. We will update accordingly.
Update: On 23 February, the Daily Mail amended the piece to more professionally describe Hamas. The relevant section now reads: “he had been ‘severely mistreated’ by the militant group Hamas for refusing to act as a suicide bomber.”
