In a June 1 opinion piece (“The same room, a different groom”) at MassLive, a Massachusetts digital news outlet, Abedrabu Abu Alyan tells a tragic love story about three Gazans named only as “Amera,” “Hasan,” and “Yaser.” Abu Alyan’s purpose in telling the story, which he tells us he personally witnessed unfold, is to “share it in the hope that others might better understand the human reality behind life in Gaza.”
But, in truth, it is the details Abu Alyan omits that would truly elucidate the reality of the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip. That’s because at least one of those involved in the “love story” isn’t a passive victim: he’s a hardcore, unrepentant member of an internationally designated terrorist organization.
The story goes as follows. Amera and Hasan were set to marry, and Abu Alyan himself attended a banquet celebrating their marriage contract. But then, on “the first day of the war,” Hasan and members of his family were killed in an airstrike. Fast forward a bit, and Hasan’s brother Yaser – who was released from an Israeli prison – marries Amera instead.
At no point does Abu Alyan explain why “Yaser” was in prison. Nor does he provide identifying information for any of the three main actors in the story beyond their first name, their relationship with one another, and the amount of time Yaser served in prison (18 years out of a 27-year sentence).
Yasser Muhammad Abu Daqqa.
CAMERA did a bit of digging, however, and there is one person who perfectly matches the profile of “Yaser” in Abu Alyan’s tale: Yasser Muhammad Abu Daqqa.
How do we know?
The facts all line up. As with Abu Alyan’s “Yaser” character, Yasser’s family was killed on the first day of the war, including a brother named Hassan. As with the “Yaser” of Abu Alyan’s story, Yasser was sentenced to 27 years in prison but served only 18 or 19 of those years before being released as part of a hostage deal.
So who is this Yasser, and why is his identity so notable?
Because Yasser is an unrepentant hardcore terrorist belonging to the internationally designated terrorist organization (and Iranian proxy group) Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which, according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, is “committed to destroying Israel and establishing an Islamist Palestinian state.” More specifically, to the PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades, the “armed wing” of the organization.
Yasser was in an Israeli prison because, in August 2006, he attempted to carry out an attack on Israel alongside another PIJ terrorist operative, Mu’tasim Salman Qudaih. Yasser was wounded and captured by Israeli forces who intercepted their attack while his “comrade” Qudaih was killed. Such was the significance of the incident that senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was set to attend Qudaih’s funeral. However, prior to Haniyeh’s arrival, a firefight broke out between rival Fatah and Hamas faction members in attendance, resulting in the death of a 14-year-old child and the wounding of four others.
That Yasser was an armed PIJ terrorist attempting an attack is undisputed. The terrorist organization itself claims both Yasser and Mu’tasim. Even according to the database of B’Tselem, which is regularly caught classifying terrorists as civilians, Qudaih (listed under “Mu’tasem Salman Fares Qdeih”) was killed “during an exchange of gunfire with soldiers near the border with Israel.” After his arrest, Yasser was convicted on multiple charges, including possession of a weapon, firing a weapon, membership in a terrorist organization, and attempted murder. He was originally given a 30-year sentence, which was later reduced to 27 years.
Yasser Muhammad Abu Daqqa (center), with a Palestinian Islamic Jihad flag above his head and a masked Al-Quds Brigade operative in front.
Notably, his affiliation with PIJ did not cease with his arrest. He can still be found sporting the attire of PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades.
That Abu Alyan knows Yasser personally and asked him for permission to share his story, all while omitting this crucial information, says enough about his integrity.
But MassLive has a responsibility toward its audience. The outlet allowed itself to be used by Abu Alyan to spread what can only be described as a propaganda puff piece. The professed purpose of the article is to shape the audience’s perception of “the human reality behind life in Gaza.” In doing so, Abu Alyan depicts Israel as denying Yasser “happiness in a peaceful world,” while omitting Yasser’s own violent contribution to the absence of a “peaceful world.”
Anti-Israel propagandists regularly seek to blame the destruction and “human reality” in Gaza solely on Israel. In doing so, they omit the other side of the equation. They omit the reality faced by Israelis. They ignore the decades of unyielding terror attacks carried out by terrorists like Yasser in which thousands of innocent Israelis have been butchered. They skip over or excuse the murder, rape, and kidnapping of over 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.
Media consumers should be able to form their own conclusions based on facts accurately relayed to them. Instead, MassLive and Abu Alyan are attempting to form conclusions for their audience by hiding the facts from them.
June 18 Update:
On June 15, MassLive published a letter by CAMERA’s David Litman revealing that Yasser was an unrepentant hardcore terrorist belonging to Islamic Jihad followed by a letter from Abu Alyn defending his piece as a “human story.”