When searching for "Hamas" on Google, the world's unlimited information source, the first description that appears is "Palestinian militant group." To be frank, "not to be confused with Hummus" is the first result that comes up, and I truly don't know which result is worse. Absurdly, it requires some deep digging to locate Hamas' true definition – an Islamic terrorist organization.
Don't take my word for it – proof exists throughout the incredible, accessible wonder that is the internet. Quite ironically, Hamas puts no effort into hiding their actions or their blood-thirsty ideology, yet for some reason, the world's media is consciously blind to it.
Reuters and The Associated Press, the largest, renowned news agencies in the world, stick to the good-old "militant group" definition, with none other than the American New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico, NBC News (who slightly diversified and mentioned it is an Islamist militant group) and the British BBC and The Guardian, while ABC News refers to it as a "movement."
Video: World media, wake up: There is no grey area when it comes to terrorism.
Here is a small tip provided to you as public service – start at the root. You can never go wrong with an official document courtesy of the organization's leaders themselves, meaning – look for Hamas' charter. True, Hamas stands for "Islamic Resistance Movement" in Arabic, but a quick peek at their "pièce de résistance" should make you question the "heroic" way the terrorist organization chose to define itself.
The 1988 Hamas charter reads, "Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors." In the 2017 revised version, Hamas' "rebranding" if you will, the noble organization states it rejects any alternative to a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea" – doesn't leave much room for the Israeli Jews, Arabs, Druze, Bedouins and Samarians, does it?
If you think these were just mere words, the Israeli graveyards can tell you otherwise. This "movement" has an impressive repertoire of deadly attacks, ever since the 80s. The 1st Intifada – with an Israeli death toll of 165 people; the 2nd Intifada - characterized by a thought-out "military campaign" targeting innocent Israeli civilians with daily suicide attacks on buses, restaurants, and clubs; kidnapping children (the 2014 Gush Etzion abduction and murder of 3 teenagers) and the trail of blood dates to this very day, with constant stabbing or shooting attacks carried out almost on a daily basis.
You probably wonder, which word describes this kind of violent, merciless leadership? You guessed it – the word you are missing is terrorism. There is no way around it. It's a factual matter, and Hamas being democratically elected does not grant it a free pass to be defined otherwise. Was 9/11 carried out by al-Qaida militants or terrorists? Would you describe the Taliban merely as an "Islamic movement"? Terrorists are terrorists, it doesn't "depend on the context." Any other definition is not only unjust, but immoral – legitimizing Hamas makes you an integral part of the problem.
We see the repercussions worldwide in the form of mass pro-Hamas volatile demonstrations, with participating protestors supporting the "militant group's" cause as legitimate political leadership. We see media outlets mention unverified numbers of casualties in Gaza – withholding the fact that the data came from a health ministry run by a terrorist organization, numbers even the UN has questioned in a recent report – while in the same sentence addressing the 250 hostages Hamas and Gazan collaborators abducted during their invasion of Israeli territory on Oct. 7, which led to the war in the first place. It took Israel months to declare an official death toll number due to the level to which the bodies were mutilated, yet the terrorist organization provides figures immediately and they are reported.
This ongoing conflict will be recorded in history books as one of the darkest times worldwide. It's complex, painful, and unbelievably cruel. So many are affected daily by its consequences. Therefore, our duty is clear – depicting the truth.
