In February 2012 the BBC News website reported that “Hamas political leaders leave Syria for Egypt and Qatar”.
“The political leadership of the Palestinian Islamist group, Hamas, has moved from Syria to Egypt and Qatar. […]
On Friday, the head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, declared his support for Syrian people against President Bashar al-Assad.
“I salute all people of the Arab Spring, or Islamic winter, and I salute the heroic people of Syria who are striving for freedom, democracy and reform,” Ismail Haniya told worshippers at a mosque in Cairo. […]
The remarks reflected the deepening split between Hamas and Mr Assad.”
Over a decade on, the BBC has to date shown no interest whatsoever in reporting a reversal of Hamas’ position and a related trip by senior representatives of the terrorist organisation to the Syrian capital last week.
“A Hamas delegation arrived in Damascus Wednesday for talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in the first such visit since the Palestinian terror organization severed ties with Syria a decade ago. […]
It [the visit] also comes after Hamas announced it wanted to normalize its relations with Damascus, citing “rapid regional and international developments surrounding our cause and our nation.”
Analysts said that was a reference to the growing number of Arab governments that have normalized ties with Hamas’s arch-enemy Israel in recent years. […]
The thaw between Hamas and Damascus was brokered by Tehran and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, a senior Hamas source said.”
Also present at the meeting between Assad and Hamas leaders was the leader of the Iranian backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Unsurprisingly, that visit and its wider implications have not gone down well in Washington.
Remarks made by another Palestinian leader during a foreign trip several days earlier also prompted a negative reaction from the US administration.
‘”We don’t trust America and you know our position. We don’t trust it, we don’t rely on it, and under no circumstances can we accept that America is the sole party in resolving a problem,” Abbas told Putin at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Kazakhstan. […]
Abbas said he was “completely satisfied” with Russia’s position towards the Palestinian people.
“Russia stands by justice and international law and that is enough for us,” he said.
“When you say you stand by international legitimacy, this is enough for me and that is what I want. Therefore, we are happy and satisfied with the Russian position.”’
As reported by many media outlets at the time – though not the BBC – the White House responded to those remarks:
‘“We were deeply disappointed to hear President Abbas’s remarks,” a White House spokesperson said, taking particular issue with Abbas’s decision to voice them while sitting alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin days after Moscow announced the annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. […]
“Putin is a far cry from the type of international partner needed to constructively address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” the White House spokesperson said. “Russia does NOT stand for justice and international law.”’
Particularly given the “growing Russia-Iran ties” which the BBC recently told its audiences “pose new dangers”, one might have expected that the leader of one Palestinian faction cosying up to the country using Iranian drones to attack civilians in Ukraine and leaders of another collaborating with a ‘normalisation’ arranged by the producer of those weapons would have prompted at least some coverage.
While visitors to the BBC News website are repeatedly told that “news you can trust is news you can use”, such selective omissions clearly undermine that promotional claim.
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Yes keep everyone in the dark BBC the fact that the leaders of Hamas have been meeting with otherArab leaders (despite their previous denouncement of them) to try and extract more money and support from them. They are effectively just street beggars who use terrorism as their cap on the floor aided and abetted by the dark cloak and silence of the BBC. #defundthebbc