Exposing the true face of Hamas

1. We the undersigned believe that preaching violence and death is immoral and should be condemned by all, regardless of faith, nationality or creed. We believe it is important to inform the public about individuals, movements or governments who advocate murder and genocide.

2. We believe it is the BBC duty to inform the public about individuals, movements or governments who adopt genocidal agendas and to emphasise this whenever reporting on these individuals or movements.

3. We feel it is imperative to bring to the public attention the complete agenda of the Hamas movement (also known as the Islamic Resistance Movement) and that of its leaders. The Hamas Covenant, co-founder of the Hamas, and the Hamas Prime Minister have all called for the global elimination of the Jewish people and have celebrated the mass murder of thousands of western civilians.

4. It is clear that current media coverage of Hamas, its leaders and their ideology hides these facts from the public and therefore denies the public the right to form an educated opinion about Hamas and its goals of global genocide. This is vital to understanding the context of the situation in that region and therefore very relevant to its coverage.

5. The BBC in particular fails to provide this information:

• The BBC profile of Mr. Al-Zahhar, the Hamas leader in the Gaza strip, fails to mention the fact he advocates a global genocide (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4653706.stm).

• The goals and aspirations of Hamas, as stated in its covenant, are not listed in the BBC profile of Hamas (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1654510.stm).

• The Hamas prime minister said that “We condemn the assassination of a Muslim and Arab warrior [Osama Bin Laden] and we pray to God that his soul rests in peace.”, yet there is mention of this on the BBC News website.

6. We therefore demand of the BBC, that it discloses all relevant information about Hamas and its leaders’ opinion, and call upon to the British media to provide full and complete coverage of the Hamas movement.


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BACKGROUND
Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, has ruled the Gaza strip since 2007. Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by the United States (1) , the European Union (2) and Canada (3) .

The Hamas covenant calls for the global genocide of Jews (4) , as stated in article Seven:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."

Mr. Mahmoud Al-Zahhar is the former Hamas Foreign Minister and co-founder of Hamas in Gaza. In November 2010, Mr Al-Zahhar dedicated no less than five minutes to explain to thousands of Hamas supporters that the Jews are to be blamed for their persecution in Europe. He went into fine details and exclaimed that the Hamas is “no less honourable than the people who expelled and annihilated the Jews” and that the Palestinians will follow the example of the anti-Semites of Europe. He ended his message with promising that “... you [the Jews] are heading for annihilation” (5)

In response to the killing of Osama Bin-Laden, the Hamas prime minister of the Gaza strip, Ismail Haniya, said: “We condemn the assassination of a Muslim and Arab warrior and we pray to God that his soul rests in peace.” (6)

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(1) http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20050511025028/http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/45394.htm
(2) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003E0651:EN:HTML
(3) http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/ns/le/cle-eng.aspx#Hamas
(4) Yale University Law library, Avalon Project - http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp
(5) http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2676.htm
(6) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8488479/Osama-bin-Laden-dead-Hamas-condemns-killing-of-bin-Laden.html