Hamas: We Are ‘Leading’ the ‘Great Return March’

Hamas, the U.S.-designated terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, has admitted that they are leading the violent demonstrations that have taken place every Friday at the Israel-Gaza border since late March 2018. Some news outlets, however, have portrayed the demonstrations as an organic and “non-violent protest,” effectively minimizing the involvement of the terror group.

As CAMERA has highlighted, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and other terrorist organizations have interspersed operatives among thousands of Palestinian civilians who have gathered at the border. Some were armed with firearms, explosives, and other weapons and sought, under the cover of human shields, to illegally cross into Israel (“Hamas Uses Human Shields and The Washington Post,” The Daily Caller, April 4, 2018).

The other objective of the so-called “Great Return March” has been to incur civilian casualties, with terrorists using mirrors and burning tires to obscure the vision of Israeli snipers targeting terror leaders in the crowd. Hamas and others have hoped that they can score a propaganda victory against the Jewish state. And the media seems determined to help.

Many major media outlets have ignored the fact that most Palestinians killed in the demonstrations have been linked to terror groups. According to a April 26, 2018 report by the Meir Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, as many as eighty percent of Palestinians killed were associated with terrorist groups—including some who presented themselves as journalists.

The Washington Post has been a particularly prominent offender. Long after it was revealed that many of those slain were terrorists—and long after Hamas acknowledged that it had several operatives killed at the border—The Post has continued to publish reports omitting this crucial information. For example, a May 8, 2018 dispatch claimed “Israeli troops have fatally shot dozens of protesters on the border during a six-week-long ‘March of Return’ against the loss of Palestinian land (“U.S. Embassy Opening in Jerusalem is modest but highly symbolic”).” The paper did not note that most of those “fatally shot” were terrorists. Further, Hamas leaders have repeatedly stated—including during the recent operations at the border—that they consider all of Israel to be “Palestinian land.” Indeed, their charter and insignias say as much.

In fact, terrorist groups have orchestrated the “protests”—many of which have featured Nazi imagery, such as “kite bombs” with swastikas painted on them, and calls for genocide of Jews (“Palestinian Nazi Flags and Hamas Talking Points,” JNS, April 26, 2018). And they’ve been clear about why.

In a May 9, 2018 speech, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar called for the next week of protests to be “decisive” and stated: “We are supporting, even leading, them (“Hamas leader: Next week’s border protests will be ‘decisive,’” The Times of Israel).”

In remarks prior to the launch of the “Great Return March” strategy, Sinwar called for marchers to “eat the livers” of Israelis. This was also ignored by The Post, which, ostrich-like, has continued to file dispatches about “protests” supposedly over “the loss of Palestinian land.”