In his first address to the nation since assuming office on June 30, Prime Minister Yair Lapid raised the plight of Israelis being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “We won’t be quiet and won’t rest until our sons are returned: Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul of blessed memory, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed,” said Lapid, echoing the inaugural speech of his predecessor Naftali Bennett. The now-deputy PM last year had called the return of the two Israeli captives and the remains of two IDF soldiers a “sacred duty.”
Al-Sayed, a mentally ill Bedouin Israeli from the Negev village of Hura, has been held illegally by Gaza’s terror rulers for 2,633 days after voluntarily crossing into the coastal enclave seven years ago. In violation of humanitarian law, Hamas has provided Jerusalem with scant information on the condition of the Israeli civilian, nor has it allowed visits by organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Avera Mengistu, a young Ethiopian-born Jew struggling with schizophrenia, was similarly captured by Hamas after climbing the border fence separating the Jewish state and the Gaza Strip on September 7, 2014. His family has not heard from him ever since.
At the same time, Hamas cynically uses the bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, killed by the terror group during the 2014 Gaza war, as bargaining chips to secure the release of Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel.
The United States, the European Parliament, the United Nations and various other international organizations have repeatedly spoken up about Hamas’ overt war crimes.
Yet the media, who all too often highlight the predicament of Palestinians in Israeli jails, have seemingly forgotten all about Hisham al-Sayed, Avera Mengistu, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
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On June 27, 2022, Hamas’ Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, designated a terrorist group by most Western countries, issued an unusual statement on the “condition of one of the Israeli prisoners,” claiming their hostage suffered a “medical deterioration.” The next day, Hamas published footage of Hisham Al-Sayed hooked up to an oxygen mask, the first sign of life since his disappearance in 2015.
“Distributing a video of a sick person is a heinous and desperate act,” Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said in response to the developments. “Hamas holds two mentally ill, sick and suffering civilians, in violation of all international laws and regulations.”
International media, however, have refused to grasp the severity of Hamas’ crimes. Indeed, over the past 12 months, a sample of 18 leading US news organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, ran only four articles that made mention of Hisham Al-Sayed — all in the past week.
Hamas releases video showing Bedouin Hisham Al-Sayed wearing an oxygen mask. The group says his condition has deteriorated, I would gather that being held by a terror group for several years that is to be expected… pic.twitter.com/dTpSXkN7wR
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) June 28, 2022
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Meanwhile, journalists at these publications did not mention the fate of Avera Mengistu, Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin even once between July 4, 2021, and July 4 of this year. This, even as they published 1,662 reports about the conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip over the same period.
The exclusion of Al-Sayed, Mengistu, Shaul and Goldin from the media coverage is particularly egregious given the attention journalists have dedicated to stories of suspected and convicted Palestinian terrorists in Israeli incarceration.
Take, for example, the case of Hisham Abu Hawash. According to the Israeli Security Agency, Abu Hawash — a member of the US-designated Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group — was arrested in October 2020 due to “involvement in terror activity.”
Nevertheless, throughout his 141-day hunger strike, news outlets printed numerous articles calling attention to his condition (see for instance here, here and here).
Over the course of 12 months, major US publications disseminated some 120 reports about Palestinians in Israeli jails.
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By Israeli law, prisoners and detainees are guaranteed conditions that do not harm their health or dignity — rights that Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu have been denied for years. The Physicians for Human Rights NGO has reportedly tried to arrange a doctor’s visit to both, but was unsuccessful in its attempts.
Yet the media, in their apparent quest to promote a “blame Israel first” narrative, obsessively focus on the Jewish state’s purported mistreatment of Palestinians. In doing so, they are giving Hamas a free pass to commit further war crimes.
And the freedom of Al-Sayed and Mengistu, as well as the return of the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, becomes an ever-distant hope.
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