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The Israeli government’s racist policies that discriminate against Christians and Muslims make a mockery of the issue of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

All this week, American politicians have been releasing statements expressing empathy and anger over the reports that six Israeli hostages were found dead. The death of the Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, is certainly an outrageous act of terrorism and a tragedy. There was absolutely no justification for the violent attack that took place.

However, there are few similar expressions of empathy or sorrow from American politicians or the biased mainstream US news media for the hostages and victims of violence who are not Israeli.

Israel has been taking civilian Palestinian hostages since it was founded in 1948. Many of these Palestinian hostages have been held in Israeli prisons for years, their detention renewed every six months, without ever being charged.

Do you want data on the Israeli hostages? Visit most politicians’ websites or do a Google search of the mainstream news media, which keeps extensive records for public viewing. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former President Donald Trump, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and a slew of other politicians — including those at the state and local level — have put out statements on the Israeli hostages and condemned Hamas. It is not so much about the hostages as it is about reinforcing their political standing. 

Many of these Palestinian hostages have been held in Israeli prisons for years without ever being charged

Ray Hanania

For example, Fox News reported that former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan the organization’s secretary-general for not explicitly condemning Hamas in his statement following the discovery of the bodies of the hostages.

However, if you want to learn about the Palestinian hostages, there are very few sources of information. According to B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, more than 3,340 Palestinians were being held without charge in administrative detention at the end of June. They are without attorneys and any hope of a trial.

Those 3,340 Palestinians are hostages, too. 

The difference is simple. When Israel grabs a mother, grandfather or child out of their home in the middle of the night and whisks them away to a camp in the Negev desert, the US media generally does not report it because it is so commonplace.

Israel is extremely secretive about the practice and the detainees it holds in its “Gulag archipelago,” so we do not even know all of their names. Relatives are rarely given information or permitted to see them.

The Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike, are kept in secretive confinement, no different to the Jewish Israelis who are being held by Hamas in Gaza.

In 2020, the Israeli prison system stopped providing information to B’Tselem on the Palestinian hostages and the mainstream news media rarely makes inquiries. Since then, the number of Palestinians taken hostage by Israel has increased at least tenfold.

As a consequence, the Palestinian prisoners are left to rot, denied their rights and ignored due to an intentional Israeli government policy of ambiguity and secrecy.

Few in the US care about the Palestinian hostages because pro-Israeli politicians and the news media generally do not talk about them.

The Palestinian prisoners are left to rot, denied their rights and ignored due to the Israeli government’s secrecy

Ray Hanania

There is no political advantage in advocating for Palestinian hostages, as there is for Israeli hostages. Reporters do not publish the names, ages or pictures of the Palestinian hostages, nor do they provide details of their lives, as they do for the Israeli hostages. The media does not provide a platform for the families of the Palestinian hostages to plead for their release or lament their suffering and death, as they do for the Israeli hostages. The families of Palestinian hostages are not invited to the Democratic or Republican conventions to boost public knowledge of their plight, unlike the families of the Israeli hostages.

In America, the issue of the Israeli hostages is used to manipulate and fuel public anger, which is then exploited for selfish political gain.

According to Justice for All, a not-for-profit organization that monitors abuses against all people, regardless of their race, religion or origin: “Since 2000, ten to twelve thousand Palestinian children have been arbitrarily detained in the Israeli military detention system, mostly on charges of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers, a charge punishable by up to 20 years in prison. These children are denied fair trials and fundamental rights, kept for years in pretrial or administrative detention, and sometimes released after years of arbitrary incarceration.”

But the American politicians who have expressed sympathy for the Israeli hostages do not express sympathy for the Palestinian hostages.

Israel controls the media coverage of the Gaza conflict, so we do not know the real truth about the war, the Israeli hostages and the violence of Oct. 7. Israel’s government suppresses the media coverage in the most extreme manner. Since Oct. 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 111 Palestinian journalists.

Aggravating the American hypocrisy is the absolute lack of concern or empathy for the continuing violence against Palestinians in Gaza. There is no doubt that Israel has used excessive violence in Gaza as a form of collective punishment against all Palestinians. It has not just targeted Hamas. The devastation in the Strip compounds the suffering that American politicians and the mainstream news media have largely marginalized.

I pray for all of the hostages, not just the Israelis. And anyone who prays only for the Israelis while having no empathy or concern for the Palestinians is complicit in the entire hostage tragedy.

• Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist. He can be reached on his personal website at www.Hanania.com. X: @RayHanania