SBS: Whitewashing genocidal terrorists

By chance, I managed to watch the SBS documentary on Tuesday night called Hamas: Behind the Mask.

SBS has a fairly atrocious record when it comes to screening documentaries on the Arab-Israeli conflict, with something like 18 out of 19 documentaries in 2000 being strongly anti-Israel.

This Hamas documentary, although chilling at times, left me with an impression that they were still whitewashing the genocidal terrorist group by not showing how they indoctrinate children and praise mass murdering terrorists who slaughter civilians. Another clue was how the film-makers attempted to cover up Hamas' commitment to terrorism, indoctrination of children, violent anti-semitism, promise of future attacks, to smuggling weapons, to bomb-making, to using nuclear weapons on Israel, and perpetual warfare with no hope of recognising the state of Israel.

There was a scene where the reporter describes how 5 Palestinian children were killed by shrapnel in a strawberry field. Curiously, nothing further was added to this description. Now I've spent a good effort using google to find any description of such an incident. I'll give a thank-you to any dilligent readers out there who can find a news report of any such event. Until then, the only thing to take out of the documentary is that a Palestinian mother cried to a camera about children being killed by shrapnel.

Check here for some criticisms of the documentary:

• The narrator speaks baldly of a shift: "Hamas is in the process of rewriting its original covenant. They no longer speak of liberating every inch of Palestine, at least not now." This claim is not accurate. Isolated Hamas individuals have recently raised the possibility of rewriting the covenant, but no official action has been taken. Principal spokespeople still insist that Jewish sovereign existence is anathema to Hamas. The filmmakers acknowledge that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, based in Damascus, "vows that armed resistance will remain an option."