RUTHFULLY YOURS

On June 18, the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera TV network (in Arabic) broadcast another “exclusive” video of a speech by Abu Obaida, the masked spokesman of the Iran-backed Palestinian terror group Hamas.

This is the group that started the current war in the Gaza Strip, when thousands of its members invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, murdering 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals and wounding thousands. Another 251 Israelis and foreign nationals were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 50 are still held captive. At least 20 of those hostages are believed to be alive.

It did not come as a surprise that the video of the Hamas spokesman was first broadcast on Al-Jazeera. Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, Al-Jazeera has been openly serving as the unofficial mouthpiece of Hamas and its military wing, Izaddin al-Qassam.

Even before the war, Hamas’s political and military leaders often chose Al-Jazeera to spread their propaganda and call for jihad (holy war) against Israel. They did not choose Al-Jazeera because it is renowned for its high journalistic and ethical standards. Hamas (and other Islamist terror groups) love Al-Jazeera because, since its founding in 1996, the television empire has been serving as the semi-official mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood organization. Notably, Hamas serves as the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestinian branch.”

Hamas knows it can trust Al-Jazeera: the two share the same radical Islamist ideology that calls for the elimination of Israel and replacing it with an Islamist terror state.

The “exclusive” video of the Hamas spokesman was not the first of its kind. The same spokesman has been sending his recorded videos to Al-Jazeera for many years. In his speeches, Abu Obaida makes it appear as if his terror group is winning the war and all is needed is more patience before Israel surrenders.

In addition to the speeches and statements of Hamas leaders, Al-Jazeera has also been broadcasting “exclusive” footage of attacks purportedly carried out by Hamas against Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip. The propaganda videos, filmed by the terrorists themselves, aim to boost the morale of the Palestinians by creating the false impression that the Israeli army is weak and vulnerable. Such videos are now appearing on Al-Jazeera almost on a weekly basis.

Hamas does not need its own television station. It has Al-Jazeera, one of the most influential and wealthiest TV networks in the Arab world. This is what happens when most of the funding comes from Qatar, which has used its ties with Islamist groups, especially Muslim Brotherhood, as soft power to boost its regional and global influence.

Hamas leaders leading comfortably lives in Qatar have always enjoyed welcome access to Al-Jazeera. The terror group’s leaders in the Gaza Strip have always given Al-Jazeera free and exclusive access to secret meetings. Earlier this year, an Al-Jazeera documentary on Hamas military commanders during the war included exclusive footage and interviews with the masterminds of the October 7 massacres: Mohammed Deif, Yahya Sinwar, and Izz al-Din al-Haddad.

Al-Jazeera, in addition, sent its correspondent Mustafa Ashour to visit one of Hamas’s tunnels, where many of the Israeli hostages were – and are still – held.

No other television station has been given such a privilege by the terror group.

Al-Jazeera, for its part, has been extremely protective of its friends in Hamas. The television station does not allow any criticism of Hamas or Qatar. When a Palestinian dares to criticize Hamas during a live interview, Al-Jazeera quickly cuts off the interview.

During one interview, Al-Jazeera asked a wounded Palestinian man to give his eyewitness testimony. The man said: “What’s happening is criminal! Why is the resistance [Hamas] hiding among is? Why don’t they go to hell and hide there? They are not resistance!” The Al-Jazeera reporter immediately cut him off.

Last year, Israeli security forces disclosed intelligence information and numerous documents found in the Gaza Strip that confirm the military affiliation of six Al-Jazeera journalists with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second-largest terror group in the coastal territory. They are: Anas Jamal al-Sharif, Alaa Abdul Aziz Salama, Hossam Basel Shabat, Ashraf Sami Saraj, Ismail Farid Abu Omar and Talal Mahmoud Aruki.

One does not have to be an expert in journalism or the Middle East to understand that Al-Jazeera is nothing but a terrorist organization masquerading as a media outlet. A number of Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain understand the dangers of Al-Jazeera.

That is why they have shut the offices of Al-Jazeera, blocked its websites and demanded that Qatar curb the television station. Even the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas, seems to know about Al-Jazeera’s connections to its rivals in Hamas. Earlier this year, the PA suspended Al-Jazeera’s broadcasting in the West Bank for “misleading reports” that “provoke strife and interfere in Palestinian internal affairs.”

Why do some Americans and Westerners still consider Al-Jazeera a credible and professional media station if so many Arabs view it as an organ of Islamist terrorists and Jihadis? Al-Jazeera’s affiliation with Islamist groups and terrorists also causes harm to the reputation of all media outlets and journalists. It is time to designate Al-Jazeera as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Bassam Tawil is a Musim Arab based in the Midde East.