CNN Whitewashes Hamas

A feature about Hamas posted on the CNN website yesterday whitewashes the terrorist group by suggesting the group’s charter has been replaced or amended, by ignoring the group’s anti-Semitism, and by cherry-picking and misrepresenting statements made by the organization.

The piece, “Q&A: What is Hamas?” by Bryony Jones, inexplicably refers to Hamas’s founding charter in the past tense, clearly suggesting that it is obsolete, and implies that Hamas leader Khaled Meshal “supports” a two state solution:

What are its aims?

Its original manifesto advocated the destruction of the state of Israel, and called for the raising of “the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine.”

Current Hamas president Khaled Meshaal has previously said the group would support a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders (prior to the Six-Day War, during which Israeli troops occupied Gaza), with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Again later, CNN states that “the founding charter of Hamas, published in 1988, called for jihad….”

So it would seem, according to the article, that Hamas’s new manifesto does not call for the destruction of Israel. Except there is no new manifesto. Hamas has not renounced or amended its founding charter. If some apologists for the group have sought to cast the charter as a relic from the past, though, one can understand why. The document is replete with vile anti-Semitism — something CNN’s feature outrageously conceals. The charter calls on Muslims to “fight the Jews and kill them,” blames Jews for the two world wars, and approvingly cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous anti-Semitic forgery.

Nor is Hamas’s anti-Semitism limited to its charter. Hamas officials on Hamas television continue to call for the destruction of the Jews, its representatives deny the Holocaust, and indoctrinates Palestinian children to hate.

Finally, Jones’ claim notwithstanding, Hamas makes clear that it does not “support” a Palestinian state that would exist alongside Israel. Last May, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said, “We must live up to our motto … which says, we will not recognize Israel.” He previously said that “we will never, we will never, we will never recognize Israel.” Mahmoud Zahar recently asserted that “the expulsion will come, Allah willing, from Palestine, from the entire territory of Palestine,” that the Jews “have no place among us…and no future among the nations,” and that they are “about to disappear.” And Meshal, whom CNN cites as supporting a Palestinian state that does not include Israel, told the Al Hayat newspaper that “Hamas’ position is clear and it is non-recognition [of Israel].” When asked specifically if Hamas “will not oppose” a decision leading to a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders that recognizes Israel, he responded, “That is not what I said.”