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Even After What We Know About Hostages, There's Still Been Some Terrible Takes on Hamas

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  November 28, 2023 6:15 PM

Following the October 7 terrorist attack that Hamas perpetrated against Israel, it took over a month for the first round of approximately 240 hostages to be released. Since late last week, they have been released in batches, many of them women, children, and the elderly. In exchange, Israel has released Palestinian criminals. From what we know about the just-recently released hostages, undoubtedly traumatized, we know that they were mistreated, not just by Hamas, but by Gaza civilians as well. Regardless, there is no reason to praise Hamas, especially when they were already in the wrong for the murders, rapes, torture, and kidnapping that they carried out. And yet people have still found a way to do so.

Over the weekend, Maree Campbell, who, among other accomplishments is the co-founder of The Curated Edit, made several posts portraying Hamas and the situation for hostages in a positive light, pointing to a supposed "mutual respect." Still another one uses the image of this young woman who had been in shock, to speak to how it's apparently "Israeli propaganda" that she was treated poorly.

When Campbell's post about Mia Regev, who had been shot by Hamas before being taken hostage along with her brother, was hit with a Community Notes, she doubled down.

Depsite acknowledging that "I’m not a facial expression expert," Campbell went on to claim that "judging by the look in her eyes and the expression on her face, I’d say that is a look of appreciation and thanks."

"Might it be that she is saying thanks for being treated unexpectedly well whilst in captivity?," her post even wondered, throwing a thinking emoji in there. For what it's worth, Regev's facial expression doesn't exactly look like one of "appreciation and thanks," but one of shock and fatigue.

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The folks who put together Community Notes have certainly been busy lately. Even world leaders aren't immune. As Matt covered, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar referred to the release of one such young hostage, 9-year-old Emily Hand, as one where an "innocent child who was lost has now been found and returned, and we breathe a massive sigh of relief." He also restricted replies. In addition to being hit with context reminding that Emily was "abducted by terrorists," Conor McGregor added some further context of his own.

And yet even after being hit with context from Community Notes, Campbell still keeps doubling down. A Monday post of hers likens the Hamas terrorist organization to elected governments.

Several of her posts in recent days also call out "Zionist propgaganda" and express support for Palestinians. That post above doubling down on her take Mia Regev didn't have it so bad called on users to not only give the Community Notes a down vote, but had another message as well. "Together, let’s beat the Zionists who are trying to game the system and harass us into silence," the post also read. 

For someone who acknowledges that she's "not a facial expression expert," Campbell keeps offering such terrible takes based on a mere facial expression. Although Campbell's post claimed that Musk "doesn't look convinced by Zionist propaganda," Musk's facial expression doesn't look like much of anything specific. It was clearly a candid photo.

Musk had been invited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also photographed, to tour a kibbutz that had been attacked by Hamas on October 7.

What Musk himself has actually posted in response to others posting about his trip suggest a very different take, though.

Again, we know that these hostages were unfortunately not treated well, as Sarah covered over the weekend. Among the mistreatment inflicted on hostages included children being forced to watch footage from the attacks that Hamas carried out that day. If they cried while in captivity, a gun was pointed at them to keep them quiet. As an adult who has seen footage myself--and less than 10 percent of it, in fact--it's unfathomable to think that children and/or those personally vicitmized by the October 7 attack would be further subject to having to relive such atrocities.

The terror didn't end once the hostages were finally released, though. As Katie has covered, including just earlier on Tuesday, Palestinian civilians even tried to kill some of the hostages upon their release. Polling shows that those in the West Bank and Gaza strip actually support Hamas, which makes this despicable display no less terrible, but also not all that surprising.

Campbell wasn't the only media figure with such a god awful take. Leah covered how although BBC editor Jeremy Bowen admitted he "got that wrong" when it comes to details in his reporting last month that an Israeli rocket hit a hospital in Gaza. In reality, it was a misfired terrorist rocket that hit the hospital. Bowen still claimed that "I don’t regret one thing in my reporting."

At our sister site of RedState, Bonchie has covered the incredibly awful takes from Sky News, from on-air interviews to posts from their editors.