Friday, January 23, 2009

A Strange Silence

Hamas has been very busy since Israeli forces left Gaza. Not with trying to help the Palestinians who are now homeless, but rather, with turning on any fellow Palestinians who support rival group Fatah.


Yet strangely, as Hamas swiftly executes, maims and tortures numerous Palestinians, the world falls silent.

Where are all the rallies and protests?

Where are all the celebs who only last week, were marching through London declaring 'We're all Hamas now' and simultaneously labelling Israel as 'evil' for its actions in Gaza...?

And where are all the news stories with their images of dead Palestinians who have been killed by Hamas?


Where have they all gone?

It seems that Palestinians murdering Palestinians is, well, rather boring. Not nearly as newsworthy as when Israelis regretfully kill Palestinians while trying to defeat Hamas. Talk about a double standard.

And we're not talking about a few random murders by Hamas. No. Hamas has murdered dozens of Fatah members in the Gaza Strip for merely violating the Hamas-imposed house arrest. Palestinian daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida the atrocities, which also included shooting people in the legs, has created a backlash in the West Bank.

Popular Palestinian singer, Jamal Najar, has condemned Hamas as "gangs of anarchic security forces," describing how Hamas murdered his cousin right in front of his children for simply stepping outside. [PA TV (Fatah)]

The following are excerpts from the article in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida and the transcript of the words of Jamal Najar:

Headline: "Reports of persecutions and liquidation of Fatah members by Hamas members evoke anxiety and condemnation in the West Bank."

Reports mentioning liquidations of Fatah members in the Gaza Strip by members of Hamas evoked popular condemnation which was added yesterday to the erupting anger, which influenced the level of popular activities carried out in solidarity with the Gaza residents in the towns Ramallah and El-Bira.

The reports from Gaza pointed out the death of dozens of Fatah members caused by Hamas members. A prominent leader stated that isolated random incidents of murder have occurred, but ruled out that this is a case of organized persecution.

Wafa A-Najar, Gaza resident who lives in the town El-Bira, said that her father was killed the day before yesterday and nine of her family members were injured by shooting by Hamas, among them were three small children and two young people in critical condition...

According to the family's story, a squad belonging to Hamas came to her family's house in [the] Sheikh Radwan [neighborhood] in Gaza and shot at the legs of young Badran A-Najar, claiming that he was violating the house arrest which was imposed on him, at the time when he was sitting with his cousins in front of the house...

A prominent leader in the Fatah movement in the Gaza Strip, Ibrahim Abu A-Naja, ruled out that this is a case of persecution by some organization, which aims at Fatah, however he pointed out that "a number of isolated incidents [of murder]" had occurred, as has been reported by the Israeli media...

Abu A-Naja called for Hamas to halt any step which provides Israel the opportunity to attack us...

Groups within the Fatah movement in the West Bank estimated that more than a hundred of its people in the Gaza Strip had been exposed to persecution, shooting, and liquidation."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (Fatah), Jan. 9, 2009]

Jamal Najar, popular Palestinian singer:
"I express my condolences to my cousins, some of them were killed yesterday by the gangs of the anarchic [Hamas] security forces in the Gaza Strip... The father was killed right in front of his children, because he didn't stay at home, after they placed him under house arrest, he and everyone who belongs to Fatah."
[PA TV (Fatah) Jan. 6, 2009]

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