By: Mervat Mohsen
The Middle East landscape changed on Saturday, October 7th 2023, when Palestinian faction Hamas waged a three-pronged attack into the heart of Israel, killing hundreds of Israelis and kidnapped around one hundred others. The international media naturally rose to the occasion, in efforts to point fingers and condemn the surprise assault by the Palestinian military wing, Hamas, but not a condemnation of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip whose inhabitants live in an open prison since 2007.
“First and foremost, Western media must really abandon this framework that has gotten us to where we are today… the loss of civilian lives is tragic on all sides.” Hossam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian Mission to the United Kingdom told veteran television journalist Christian Amanpour.
Zomlot an official who endeared himself to Western media because of his logical demeanor, was responding to the seasoned US journalist in an interview, one of many he gave, and in which he systematically was asked to condemn Hamas before running the interview.
The media, as confused as most of the people tuning in, frantically tried to make head or tail of the barrage of Hamas rockets that fell deep into Israel and turned to Zomlot whose experienced assessment made him a welcome guest.
“Entire residential compounds (inside Gaza) are being wiped out, this is a war crime committed by Israel.” Zomlot informed Amanpour as he gauged international response while the journalist seemed more interested in a condemnation of Hamas to kickstart the interview.
Calm but with a mild show of exasperation, Hossam Zomlot demanded of Amanpour to address the facts on the ground and the systematic oppression of Palestinians before pushing for a condemnation.
Zomlot, brushed aside Amanpour’s question about the timing of the Hamas assault, simply saying “I don’t know.” He said it was more important to address the root causes which began with the Naqba in 1948, when Palestinians were wiped out where seventy five percent of them now live as refugees away from their rightful lands.
Zomlot told the veteran journalist that she asked the wrong questions by insisting he start off by condemning the Hamas attacks which he did but so did he condemn the killing of all civilians on both sides.
Zomlot called on the world community to look at the fundamental problem of the Palestinians that led to the surprise assault which he claimed that Israel very much expected.
Israel, said Zomlot, should have done one thing, to “roll back its occupation.” He decried the “blindness and deafness” of the world community to the beleaguered state of Gaza, an open prison since 2007 and which triggered the Hamas assault.
While the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) upheld calls to recognize Israel, the latter, explained Zomlot, continued its policy of “apartheid” and “racism”, seizing the land of Palestinians, killing and assaulting its people on almost a daily basis but the world was not interested.
When Amanpour questioned the allegiance of the PLO to the Hamas organization, Zomlot countered that both factions had their “political differences” but they “united by our suffering “ and a common goal to end occupation.
Zomlot pleaded with the international community on the talk show with Amanpour, which went viral, to address the plight of the Palestinians. In the meantime, Israel pounded civilians in Gaza, wiping villages and killing thousands. The Western media however including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres were more interested in the condemnation of the militant group attack rather than the plight of the Gazans, most now unable to return to reclaim their birthright in Palestinian territories.
Egyptian politician Hossam Badrawy wrote an article in which he cautiously addressed Egyptian feelings about the Hamas assault on the morning after celebrations marking the golden jubilee of the 1973 October war when Egypt reclaimed its own Sinai Peninsula. In an article titled, “Support, Suspicions and Worries”, Badrawy said he could not avoid supporting Hamas in its retaliatory war with Israel to fend off oppression and what comes with it, but he expressed fears about Hamas’ political agenda to entrap Egypt to give a home to displaced Gazans in Northern Sinai.
Politician Badrawy recollected January 25th and the role of the military Palestinian wing in instigating unrest.
Meanwhile as if handing what’s left of Palestine on a silver platter, Israel has used the Hamas assault to retaliate violently and relentlessly showing a very bleak outlook for the future of the Palestinians.