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Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh
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Hamas media prank exposed

Terrorism research center says group diffusing discrepant statements to Arab, Western media

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh over the weekend warned Israel, the United States and the European Union when he said “we will eat thyme and grass and won’t be humiliated,” but reports have it that the Hamas leader intends on delivering a placated speech in the near future.

 

A study conducted by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies revealed discrepancies between Hamas’s comments to Voice of Palestine Radio and to CBS.

 

The study said: “In an attempt to bridge the essential gaps between its ideology and charter, which rejects Israel’s existence and support terror, and the demands of the international community, the Hamas government has followed a strategy with the media based on vagueness and redundancy.”

 

“In the frame of this strategy, leader voice different messages, sometimes contradictory, on core issues on the agenda, to different audiences,” the report read.

 

“To western media organizations Hamas officials are trying to blur or hide extreme positions and to broadcast softened messages suited for western audiences. But to the Arab media in general and the Palestinian among them in particular, a militant and uncompromising image is being exhibited,” the report said.

 

The study pointed to Haniyeh as standing out from other Hamas leaders in refuting statements attributed to him on western media.

 

Terror or peace?

 

In an interview with Voice of Palestine, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu-Zahri made no effort to hide the group’s strategy. Asked to explain the group’s opposing statements to western and Arab media, Zahri said, “It is natural to make different statements to different audiences, each of which has its own style, but Hamas’ basic principles are unchanged and we abide by them.”

 

The report said Hamas made differing statements on different issues depending on the audience.

Regarding terror attacks, which Hamas refers to as resistance, the group’s politburo Khaled Mashaal said on March 28 that “the resistance is an option that the Palestinian people chose to reclaim its national rights, the right of return, self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

 

On the same day Haniyeh told the Palestinian parliament that “the group’s manifesto combines resistance and political action…the government’s principles will come out of the resistance’s womb.”

 

On April 1, Zahri told Voice of Palestine Radio that “Hamas adhered to resistance in all its aspects, including terror attacks.”

 

But when the audience changes so do the tone and the message. “Hamas will never think of violence. Hamas is aspires for peace and calm based on justice and equality. Whatever will be offered to the Palestinian Authority on the political arena will be weighed and discussed. Hamas will devise a mechanism to manage negotiations,” Haniyeh told CBS on March 17.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.15.06, 12:03
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