The old maxim “see no evil, hear no evil” seems to be the unwritten rule when it comes to the media’s approach to the Palestinian leadership’s perpetual hatred of the Jewish people and their country.
On January 5, 2023, the United Arab Emirates embassy in Washington confirmed reports that Abu Dhabi plans to include Holocaust education in primary and secondary school curricula. “Memorializing the victims of the Holocaust is crucial,” the tweet quoted Ali Al Nuaimi, one of the brokers of the 2020 Abraham Accords, as saying.
Indeed, some 2.5 years after the UAE became the first Gulf nation to formally recognize the Jewish state, the US-brokered normalization deals with several Arab countries continue to promote tolerance and coexistence in the Middle East.
Holocaust denial still runs rampant in many parts of the Muslim world, and the UAE’s bold decision was instantly applauded by Israeli and American officials. “Holocaust education is an imperative for humanity and too many countries, for too long, continue to downplay the Shoah for political reasons,” commented US Antisemitism Envoy Deborah Lipstadt, using the Hebrew term for the systematic murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany during WWII.
Pleased to see this important step by the United Arab Emirates. Holocaust education is an imperative for humanity and too many countries, for too long, continue to downplay the Shoah for political reasons. I commend the UAE for this step and expect others to follow suit soon. https://t.co/2r8qGp3lSp
— Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) January 6, 2023
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However, in the eyes of Gaza’s Hamas rulers, the mere suggestion that Arab children should learn about the atrocities committed against Europe’s Jewish population was enough to elicit blind rage. Putting the word ‘Holocaust’ in scare quotes, a spokesman for the US and EU-designated terrorist organization on January 10 issued a strongly-worded statement rebuking the Emirates’ historic move:
We condemn and denounce the UAE embassy’s announcement in Washington that its country has included materials on the ‘Holocaust’ in its educational curricula, and we consider that support for the Zionist narrative and a form of cultural normalization.”
At the same time, Hamas’ Hazem Qassem also accused the government in Jerusalem of acting “with the racist logic of Nazism against our people, our sanctities, our land, and our Arab Palestinian identity” — a nauseating comparison that would be considered antisemitic under the widely-adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition.
Yet while prominent media outlets around the world, including CNN, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Independent, The Daily Mail, The Toronto Star and The New Zealand Herald, all covered the UAE’s praiseworthy initiative last week, the shocking response from the Gaza Strip has been met with silence from the international press.
Terror group in #Gaza condemns the #UAE for including #Holocaust education in the school curriculum.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed the move was a form of accepting the Zionist narrative.
Why do the media downplay #Palestinian accountability? pic.twitter.com/ZP3EuQ9mvZ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) January 11, 2023
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In fact, a data analysis by HonestReporting reveals that none of the widely-read English-language publications and press agencies ran follow-up pieces about Hamas’ condemnation, even as plenty of Israeli and Jewish news sites reported on Hazem Qassem’s remarks (see, for example, here, here and here).
Sounds like a clear case of very selective reporting.
Accordingly, news consumers are left uninformed about Hamas’ long history of Holocaust denial and distortion. Notably, in 2009, the terror group denounced the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over allegations that the refugee agency was planning to add a chapter on the Nazi genocide of the Jews to textbooks used in Gaza schools.
In a subsequent letter to UNRWA, the coastal enclave’s leading extremist movement called the Holocaust a “lie invented by the Zionists,” adding: “Regardless of the controversy, we oppose forcing the issue of the so-called Holocaust onto the syllabus, because it aims to reinforce acceptance of the occupation of Palestinian land.”
In accordance with its antisemitic founding charter, Hamas’ foremost goal is to “obliterate” the only Jewish state and “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of [British Mandatory] Palestine.” Sadly, journalists have repeatedly tried to conceal Hamas’ anti-Jewish aims.
In October 2021, HonestReporting caught the Associated Press trying to whitewash what it called a “workshop” by Hamas about “the management of natural resources” in the Gaza Strip. While the author of the piece noted the Islamist group’s intention to “liberate” all of present-day Israel, he stopped short of elaborating on the part of the meeting that focused on murdering, expelling and prosecuting millions of Jewish Israelis.
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But the media’s refusal to call a spade a spade and take a stance against official Palestinian antisemitism extends far beyond the Hamas terror organization.
During an August 16, 2022, press conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Jewish state of committing “50 holocausts” against Palestinians. It goes without saying that the assertion that Israel has perpetrated “holocausts” is not only wrong, but also trivializes the unique and horrific crimes by Hitler’s Germany.
Still, in their reports on the Berlin press briefing, international wire services opted to bury the lede and only mention the Palestinian leader’s comments in passing, with Reuters initially omitting the “50 holocausts” statement altogether. Meanwhile, the majority of global news organizations either reprinted the wire agency articles or neglected to cover the incident at all.
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Following a visit to Berlin’s Holocaust monument in October 2020, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan stressed “the importance of human values such as coexistence, tolerance and accepting the other… as well as respect for all creeds and faiths.”
“A whole group of humanity fell victim to those calling for extremism and hatred,” the top diplomat wrote in the Holocaust memorial’s visitors’ book.
Uncritical news organizations fixated on pushing false anti-Israel narratives have willingly turned a blind eye to Hamas’ Judeophobic goals. In doing so, they contribute to the growth of antisemitic hatred worldwide.
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Featured Image: Majdi Fathi via TPS
