Now that the West has decided to work with a Palestinian “unity” government, Hamas is being mentioned often in the media. In order to briefly tell readers who Hamas is, most articles include a short description.
Typical are:
“…backed by the Islamist militant group Hamas,which the United States and Israel have branded a terrorist organization.” (Washington Post)
“…Hamas, a militant Islamic group that hasn’t recognized Israel...” (CNN)
“…backed by Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization.” (LA Times)
Yet even given the need for brevity that is an accepted requirement of modern day journalism, do these short descriptions convey the most accurate information about the group? Is the refusal of Hamas to recognize Israel the most important fact to tell readers about the group? Or by specifying only that Israel (and in the Washington Post article the U.S.) believes it to be a terrorist organization, are the media implying that the nature of the group is unclear? Is the group more a “militant” group that one responsible for terror?
Read the rest of this post at Yarden Frankl’s blog on the Israel National News site.
