Did you know that there are actually three Gazas?
The one Hamas wants you to believe exists, the one Hamas wants Gazans to believe exists,
and the real Gaza.
Let’s look at each in turn.
Hamas is a terrorist group, designated as such across the globe- a genocidal organisation
intent on the destruction not just of the State of Israel but of all Jews everywhere.
Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron fist since it brutally sized control in 2007.
Since then, it has systematically exploited humanitarian assistance, stealing materials
designated for civilian residents, for use in its campaign of terror.
It’s hard to tell what life is really like in Gaza because Hamas controls all information
coming out of the Strip.
The story that Hamas wants you to believe:
is the falsehood that an Israeli blockade renders Gaza an open-air prison, a notion
readily perpetuated by media keen to sensationalise this story.
No prison could store 20,000 rockets, having already indiscriminately fired 15,000.
Notably, these rockets are fired only at Israel, though both Israel and Egypt maintain a security
blockade.
Israel’s blockade of all weapons and materials used for terrorism is legitimate under international
law, and a necessary consequence of Hamas’ decision to turn the Strip into a launchpad
for terror.
The narrative portrayed by sensationalist media simply doesn’t fit the facts:
800 supply trucks enter the Gaza Strip from Israel every day, conveying food, medical
equipment, fuel, building materials and more.
Despite being under no obligation to do so, Israel permits around 1,000 Gazans to cross
into its territory every day, including for treatment in Israeli hospitals.
It’s important to remember that before Hamas’ reign of terror, tens of thousands would cross
the border daily.
In 2018 Forbes ranked Hamas the world’s third wealthiest terror organization with
an estimated annual income of 700 million US dollars.
Only Hezbollah and the Taliban outrank them in wealth.
With these huge sums, Gaza should have become a modern, metropolitan marvel.
But it clearly isn’t- so where does all this money go?
Unfortunately, straight into the pockets of the corrupt terrorist regime.
The former long-time Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (who lives a life of luxury in Qatar) and
his deputy Mousa Abu Marzuk (based in Egypt) are estimated to have accumulated a personal
wealth of 2.5 billion dollars each, generously donated by the international community.
International aid also funds the group’s many terror projects.
Hamas has spent up to 90 million US dollars in order to build around 50 terror tunnels.
It has poured at least 600,000 tons of concrete into the ground in order to construct a terrorist
infrastructure known as ‘lower Gaza’.
The purpose of these tunnels?
To allow armed Hamas terrorists to infiltrate Israeli territory in order to kill and kidnap
Israelis, some of whom live just 800 meters from the border.
And cross-border tunnels were used for exactly this purpose in the capture of Gilad Shalit
in 2006 and in Gaza in 2014 to kidnap the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.
Their families are still waiting for their remains to be returned.
2.
But the story of Gaza found in most media is very different to the story that Hamas
propagates to its own people.
Hamas has not held an election since it came to power and threw its Fatah opposition members
from Gaza’s rooftops twelve years ago.
This Hamas campaign video (for an election that was never held) shows Gaza’s hotels,
swimming pools, shopping malls, and healthy, happy residents thanking Hamas for establishing
a paradise.
Hamas sells one fabrication to the West in order to maintain the flow of international
aid, and the opposite story to the Palestinians.
3.
So what’s the reality in Gaza?
The following is what Hamas doesn’t want you to know:
In March 2019, there was a rare outburst of public dissent.
The Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, cut funds to Gaza in an attempt to exert
political pressure on Hamas.
In response, Hamas increased taxes in the Strip so much that some basic foods trebled
in price.
Thousands took to the streets of Gaza, calling for an end to Hamas’ abuse and an improvement
to the poor living conditions it has cultivated.
Activists were beaten and crowds dispersed with live ammunition.
It is difficult to know the true extent of the uprising because there is no freedom of
press in Gaza.
Hamas brutally silences journalists attempting to report on its oppression of Palestinians.
Hundreds of people, including journalists attempting to document the protests, suffered
arbitrary arrest and torture.
It took four days before the Gazans could be beaten into submission by their own rulers.
Unfortunately for the people of Gaza, these protests did not get much media attention,
because they don’t fit Hamas’ propaganda model, to which international news outlets
have become accustomed.
If you choose to fall for Hamas’s propaganda, you will have to decide whether to accept
their fabricated stories of destitution or their videos depicting Gaza as a “Middle
Eastern Riviera”.
The truth is in fact much more sinister.
Don’t be fooled by Hamas’ attempts to cover up its oppression of Palestinians in
Gaza.
I'm Kiki Hausdorff and you're watching J-TV.