week aggression on the Gaza Strip, almost all Arabic-language TV stations, newspapers and websites were united in condemning ongoing Israeli slaughter of innocent Palestinians. Strong newspaper editorials and opinion pages signaled an unwavering support to the Palestinian people who had been under massive aerial as well as ground assault from the Israeli war machine which had targeted nearly everything in the Gaza Strip. Signs of solidarity with the Palestinians were evidently mirrored in the unprecedented political and humanitarian support Gaza victims received during and after the Israeli war on them. Just days after Israel's decision to unilaterally declare the end to its military aggression on the Gaza city, several newspapers, media outlets and several web forums have circulated a list of around 30 Arab commentators, analysts and well-known columnists who have, allegedly, sided with Israel by adopting the Israeli view regarding the root causes of the conflict and Hamas' responsibility in the tragic loss of lives. The list, largely dubbed as the Shame List, was released and widely circulated after a website affiliated to the Israeli foreign ministry republished scattered articles written by key Arab commentators during and after the Israeli assault on Gaza. Members of the list are accused of tacitly justifying the Israeli aggression against Gaza when they criticized Hamas of advancing a pro-Iranian agenda by refusing to extend truce with Israel and to stop rocket launching at Israel. Some of those names had been strongly outspoken critics of Hamas' militarism and its relation to certain regional powers, namely Syria and Iran. The disclosure of this list coincided with an ongoing Israeli web-based campaign which sought to disrupt and influence the huge international sympathy for the Palestinian victims and their families. By shedding light on these articles, moreover, Israel is telling its people that there is a division, a sharp one, in the Arab world regarding the ongoing events in the occupied Palestinian territories in which criticism of Palestinian factions in Gaza is accumulating. The Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Ofir Gendeleman, has told the BBC that his government wants to convey to the Israeli public, in which one million of them speak Arabic, that there are several opinions and counter-opinions along the Arab political spectrum regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict. He denies that any cooperation has been established between his ministry's and those writers adding that his ministry objective has been to “let people who love peace be heard and read in Israel.” Some writers vehemently denied the existence of any twisted position regarding who is to blame in the recent Israeli massacre in the Gaza Strip. Tareq Al Humaid, the editor-in-chief of London-based Asharq Al Awsat and a member of the so-called shame list, told the BBC that his criticism of Hamas does not mean that he backed the Israeli aggression a month ago. The republication of his articles, he added, through the Israeli foreign ministry website would not stop him from criticizing Hamas and its policy in Gaza. However, critics of Hamas during the recent spate of aggression against the Palestinians have missed certain crucial facts. First, during the past 20 years of peace negotiations between both sides, Israel has continued to steal the Palestinian land, build more settlements in an occupied territory and turn Gaza into a big concentration camp in which food, medicine and water were supplied through lifeline tunnels. Second, the Palestinian negotiators made painful concessions in order to catch the illusionary peace, but in vain, simply because the Israelis are well aware that once peace is achieved, it would result in deep and bitter divisions in the Israeli political fabric. If Hamas had made a mistake by breaking the truce, then what might have those critics been saying about the West Bank and the Golan Heights where no single bullet was fired with no sign looming on the horizon that they may be returned back to Syria and to the future Palestinian state. Both two “calm fronts” pose no security threat to Israel.. Worse, Israel has built new settlements, expanded the existing ones and created a separation wall that shattered any hope of peace. So Gazans, being locked up in such densely populated area, have the right to live a decent life where their children go to schools without fear of being bombarded. Although some pieces of writing that appeared in several Arab newspapers had been highly critical of Hamas' provocative actions before and during the war, some of these writings were shockingly disgusting, particularly the one which encouraged the Israeli army to “look for Hamas terrorists and uproot them, in the same way that Hezbollah was humiliatingly defeated in 2006.” Such highly controversial opinions have gone too far in cruelty and irresponsibility when they laid the blame for what happened squarely on the Palestinians without even hinting that Israel, too, has its share in the conflict. Freedom of speech means responsibility at the end. – The author can be reached at: [email protected] __
