The Egyptian media and Hamas

It should come as little surprise that media organisations, state and privately owned, which slavishly follow the line of a violent military coup, should also be hostile to Hamas in Gaza. The man the coup deposed, Mohamed Morsi, is currently being tried for “espionage with Hamas” among other fabricated charges.

But this media campaign against Hamas started well before the Israeli army attack on Gaza. Long before Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was anointed as president, the Muslim Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organisation, and Hamas shortly afterwards.

The demonisation of Hamas was an integral part of the rewriting of history that accompanied the coup. Hamas was accused of opening the prisons during the 18 day revolution of 25 January, 2011, spreading chaos, killing protesters in Tahrir Square and Egyptian soldiers in Sinai in August the next year - all this of course without a shred of evidence.

The real reason for the hatred is that Hamas is seen in Egypt as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood even though the two are parallel entities of the same Islamist strand.

As soon as Israel started the bombing campaign, the media in Egypt were primed to blame Hamas. But many went even further.

Ahmed Moussa, the anchor of Sada el-Balad, a private Egyptian channel, called upon the Egyptian army to hit Hamas. Tawfik Okasha, owner of the Fareen channel, saluted the "Israeli army, people and leaders" and took off his shoes in scorn of Hamas and Gaza. Azza Samy, deputy editor of the state owned Al-Ahram daily, wrote on her twitter account "Thanks to you Netanyahu, May God send many of your likes to crush Hamas, agents of the Muslim Brotherhood"

Israeli media celebrated the unprecedented applaud and support of not only the Egyptian media, but also the support of the Egyptian government.

Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry blamed Hamas for the casualties that were expected to fall on the eve of the Israeli ground offensive. 

Anshel Pfeffer, a writer with Israeli daily Haaretz, wrote on his twitter account:

"Incredible that #Israel is going into #Gaza and the greatest Arab state #Egypt is not saying a word of criticism, just blaming #Hamas”

Most of the Egyptian media campaign was before Hamas rejected the so-called Egyptian ceasefire initiative which turned out to be one dictated to them by Israel and Tony Blair. The wrath of the Egyptian media only increased because rejection prevented Sisi from presenting himself as a new regional leader. There is nothing he would like better than to play the role Morsi had achieved in securing the ceasefire deal in November 2012.

Attempts to restart those negotiations have been fraught. According to Hamas leaders, Egypt has invited Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Sunday for consultation over this initiative in Cairo. They said that Hamas declined the invitation since the initiative remains the same. The Egyptian foreign ministry denied it.

On Saturday, a spokesman of the Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza complained about what he called "media aggression waged by most Egyptian media against our nation and our cause at the same time of Israeli aggression including lies and incitement" 

He said that this campaign "represents a shame mark for those who sold their conscience and minds to the Israeli occupation." 

The spokesman asked the Egyptian authorities to rein in the "Egyptian media aggression" which is justifying the "crimes of the Israeli occupation."  

The Egyptian authorities are not going to heed or respond to the spokesman's call. The Egyptian media has been acting more royal than the king since the coup, and has been acting as one of its arms. 

The Egyptian authority after the coup has been very confused and contradictory when it comes to internal as well as regional and international policies, and its media is no different.

- Nadia Abou El-Magd is a political analyst. She has covered Egypt and the Middle East for 25 years, mainly working with AP. She has also worked for AlJazeera English in Cairo, alongside various English and Arabic publications. Since August 2013, she has been working as a political & media analyst with AlJazeera Mubasher Misr (Egypt) 

Photo: Egyptian talk show host Tawfiq Okasha attends his trial on charge of calling for the murder of President Mohamed Morsi, on 1 September, 2012 in Cairo 

This views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.