Hamas media war targets Israelis and Palestinians

GAZA CITY — The music video opens with Palestinian Hamas fighters in fatigues building, transporting and then firing rockets at Israel — but the triumphant lyrics are being sung in Hebrew, not Arabic.

“We prepare a generation of warriors who cling to death like the enemy clings to life,” the words run, with Arabic subtitles.

“A [nation] state of weakness and illusion can’t hold out during wars,” it continues, referring to Israel.

“They fall apart like spider webs when they meet knights.”

The five-minute video is part of a slick propaganda programme designed by Hamas and its armed Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades wing.

It can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiUWgWjL24U&feature=youtu.be.

The programme is intended both to rally divided domestic Palestinian opinion behind the group during its current conflict with Israel, but also to address the Israeli public directly.

The music video, titled “Shake Israel’s Security”, is a Hebrew remake of a song that the group released in Arabic in 2012, during its last conflict with Israel.

It appears to be the first time that Hamas has released a song in Hebrew, but it builds on a broader strategy of delivering its own message to Israelis.

The Qassam Brigades maintains a Hebrew-language version of its Twitter feed, which lay dormant in recent months, but was reactivated as the latest round of violence began on July 7.

And Hamas’ Al Aqsa television regularly displays a Hebrew translation of the Koranic verse that inspired the name of its current military campaign — which loosely translated means a field devoured of all its crops.

Underneath it lists the rockets it is firing at Israel, as though challenging Israelis to guess what is coming: M75, R160, J80, S55?

A long-honed strategy 

Saleh Masharqa, a lecturer at Bir Zeit University who writes for the Palestinian Al Hayat newspaper, said Hamas had built its Israel-focused propaganda strategy over more than a decade.

“It’s a strategy that they have learned from Hizbollah,” he said, referring to the Lebanese Shiite group.

“As Hizbollah built a team to produce and translate Hebrew, the Hamas movement has done the same.”

Those efforts have resulted in highly fluent productions, like the video, incorporating both Israeli slang and military terms.

“When the Israeli people hear this they are hearing something new and they are hearing Hamas’s message directly from them,” said Masharqa.

The message is a mixture of threats intended to create fear and attempts to turn Israelis against their government.

It also mirrors Israel’s media operations, which include military spokesperson Twitter accounts in multiple languages — including Arabic and video footage intended to illustrate the “targeted” nature of air strikes.

The Israeli army even distributed lollipops in part of the West Bank recently, offering “a little sweetness” to counteract the “bitterness Hamas has brought to your lives”.

Hearts and minds

Hamas’ message to the Palestinians, on the other hand, is a bid to appeal to a fractured polity in which many bitterly oppose the group.

Its television station Al Aqsa intersperses breaking news with footage of its fighters firing weapons and rockets, and Israelis cowering by the side of the road.

During news broadcasts, a graphic of a rocket soars from the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, landing in a small blast that creates a glow near the anchor’s right arm.

With news of fresh outgoing rocket fire, a map spins onto the screen, with red arrows showing the rocket’s trajectory and the distance from Gaza.

Hamas also maintains multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts to provide breaking updates on its view of the progressing conflict.

“For the first time, the Qassam Brigades has fired at the Zionist Ben Gurion airport with four M75 rockets,” it proclaimed on Friday.

Often the reports appear at odds with reality, with multiple claims of Israeli deaths “acknowledged by Israeli media” that are nowhere to be found on news sites outside Gaza.

But Hamas also relies on more subtle messaging, including appealing to religious sentiment in the naming of its operations and remaking secular nationalist Palestinian anthems to promote their forces.

One song popularised in the late 1970s, before Hamas was founded — “I’m coming for you my enemy, I’m coming” — has now been repurposed by the group, and set to images of its fighters firing and reloading guns.

“These are songs that all Palestinians know,” Masharqa said.

“In my childhood we heard these songs and Hamas now is using them to rally a national spirit from people and gain acceptance.”