March 28, 2008

Hamas on 4

On the UK's Channel 4 tonight there is a documentary presented by Sam Kiley called Unreported World in Gaza. Sam Kiley is a curious character from my point of view. He has strong zionist leanings and yet he resigned from Rupert Murdoch's Times on the principle that it was too pro-Israel.

I've taken this detour before but here goes.
Sam Kiley actually left the Times when he
pulled off a little scoop by tracking, interviewing and photographing the unit in the Israeli army which killed Mohammed al-Durrah, the 12-year-old boy whose death was captured on film and became the iconic image of the conflict, I was asked to file the piece without mentioning the dead kid.
Now where was I? Ah yes, now Sam Kiley is in Gaza for Channel 4.
Kiley reveals that, far from collapsing in the face of the political, economic and military pressure Hamas survives - and may even be gaining in strength. The US, the UK, European Union and Israel's government have refused to negotiate with a movement they label "terrorist". But a majority of Israelis, 64 per cent, think they are wrong. As Yusef, the Hamas spokesman says: "you negotiate with your enemies - not your friends".

But as the team leave, amid rising levels of violence, the voices of moderation and the advocates of peace are increasingly drowned out in the growing clamour for war.
Worth watching, I'd say.

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