Pro-Hamas Arabic media still insisting that captured Israeli Arab is a "soldier"

On Tuesday, Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades published a video showing Hisham al-Sayed, one of two Israeli men being held by the terror group in the Gaza Strip, hooked up to an oxygen mask.

Al-Sayed is a Bedouin with mental health problems - but Hamas insists that he is an Israeli soldier. 

Much of the anti-Israel Arabic media is happily parroting the claim, since it would look really bad for Hamas to have kidnapped a mentally ill Arab civilian whom their allies in the human rights community call "Palestinian."

According to Abu Ali Express, as soon as Hamas released this video Palestinians on social media started making fun of Hamas. They had been led to believe that Hamas had captured a Jewish Israeli soldier, and al-Sayed obviously is neither Jewish nor a soldier. They wondered about the timing of trying to pressure Israel to make a prisoner swap when the government is in limbo, they sarcastically asked whether he was on a hunger strike or whether his family could visit - showing the difference between Arabs in Israeli prisons and this Arab in Hamas custody.

Yet some are doubling down, still insisting that al-Sayed is a soldier. A Nablus academic is upset at the pushback, saying, "The cheap media underestimates the achievement of the Palestinian resistance and depicts it as murderous monsters who hold a mentally ill person for political purposes, even though the prisoner is a combat soldier!!"

One popular tweet reproduces his wallet showing a bus card for the Metropoline Public Transportation, claiming that the bus line really only transports soldiers and no ordinary Israeli citizen holds such a pass. (It isn't true.) 

Tellingly, Al Jazeera Arabic calls him a soldier as well. (I cannot find coverage of this in AJ English.)

Hamas' narrative falls apart when people see that they are holding an Arab hostage. 

---

---

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!