Monday, July 24, 2023
Elder of Ziyon
The protesters reject the disastrous conditions that the Gaza Strip is going through, and demand as good a life as the children of Hamas leaders enjoy.
Here's one that was posted on TikTok this week although I don't know when it occurred:
There are actually two stories here. One is that there are demonstrations like these altogether, and the other is that the media roundly ignores them.
Hashtags accompanying videos of last night's demo say "Where is Al Jazeera?" nearly as often as they say the slogan of the demonstrations, "We want to live."
Earlier this month, the leaders of the protests issued a list of demands to Hamas to improve their lives.
The word "Israel" is not mentioned - they blame Hamas and Hamas alone for their predicament.
They are demanding more hours of electricity, timely payment of Gaza government salaries, and for Hamas to stop taking out "taxes" on the money Qatar sends to Gazans (as well as an increase.)
If the demands aren't met, the protesters plan a huge set of demonstrations this coming Sunday, July 30.
So why are these issues not being covered by the media, including Arabic media?
One major reason is that there is an unwritten rule: unless problems can be blamed on Israel, they must not be publicized. And even ordinary Palestinians have internalized this rule when they speak to reporters on the record.
When they are assured anonymity, they are much freer to criticize their leaders, but most reporters aren't even interested in asking the right questions. The international media has its own narrative to uphold, and that one coincides with that of the PA and Hamas - always blame Israel and Israel alone.
Yes, there is censorship from Hamas and the PA, and they routinely will insult their political opponents on their own media so we know about their own infighting. But popular protests like these do not benefit the PA, because they have their own critics and protesters, and the optics of showing Palestinians protest against their own leaders is problematic for both sides.
These sorts of things only get any traction when they are too big to ignore.
This Sunday's protests will probably not bother Hamas - they will repress them and try to keep them quiet. But any Middle East media that ignores those protests are clearly not media that can be trusted to report anything accurately.
Which is essentially all the media in the region.
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