The Inevitable Propaganda of the Rescue of a Muslim Hostage

The story of his rescue was somewhat unique - his was the first rescue from the complex tunnel system running through Gaza underground. Abandoned by his captors while in the tunnels, al-Qadi said he heard Hebrew and called out. IDF forces arrived to rescue him shortly thereafter.

Al-Qadi's rescue is first and foremost a cause for celebration. Another hostage is freed, another family is reunited. For one more person and his loved ones, the nightmare of almost one full year is over.

Unfortunately, those who wished to use the rescue and al-Qadi himself as a prop to cynically "score points" for their preferred biased narrative wasted no time.

Those committed to Hasbara, to never criticizing Israel, jumped at the opportunity to erase al-Qadi as the person, and instead put the focus on the state for treating all its citizens equally and equitably.

And those for whom Israel will always be illegitimate were giddy to report that al-Qadi reportedly told the press "I am Palestinian, not Israeli..."

Of course, both these narratives relied on a twisting of facts and omitting of details to make a point that not only isn't accurate but also de-centers the humanity of an innocent victim in order to center the storyteller's bias.

Much of the Bedouin village to which al-Qadi will return, Khirbat Karkur, is slated for demolition by the Israeli government.

Demolitions of Bedouin villages in the Negev have long been one of the ways the Israeli government has forced Palestinian communities to leave their land, which is also part of the reason that many Bedouin were injured or killed on October 7. By not recognizing these Bedouin villages, the Israeli government does not provide or allow for the building of bomb shelters, which left residents uniquely vulnerable to rocket attacks.

To ignore this part of al-Qadi's identity serves only to prop up a narrative that whitewashes the injustice of the state at the expense of the individual.

This is also true about the quote attributed to al-Qadi about his Palestinian identity. The quote was first reported on Israel's Channel 14 news, largely seen as a biased mouthpiece for Netanyahu and the right-wing.

What al-Qadi actually said was "It doesn't matter if we're talking about a Palestinian or an Israeli, I want all Palestinians and all Jews to return home."

The network altered the translation of the quote in order to use it against al-Qadi, and claim that he was ungrateful to his IDF rescuers and to the hostage release efforts of the state. 

In certain pro-Palestinian circles, the quote was used to prove al-Qadi's rejection of Israeli identity and indeed, the entirety of the state. 

Once again, the individual and his story were lost for the sake of a broader culture war.

Even in his short conversation with Netanyahu from his hospital bed, al-Qadi at once affectionately referred to the prime minister as "Abu-Yair" (Father of Yair) while also stressing the need for a hostage deal, and that "there are more people waiting."

(It should also be noted that it was only a week before al-Qadi's rescue that six deceased hostages were recovered and their bodies brought back to Israel, and none of those families received phone calls from Netanyahu.)

The complexities of the State of Israel were perhaps most glaring in the details of the rescue of Farhan al-Qadi, as was the predictable manipulation of the story to advance the narrative of everyone with a particular agenda. 

"It's complicated" is often used as an excuse to disconnect from Israel's most pressing issues, or to shut down any criticism of it, but it's not wrong to claim that it's complicated. Given that, what we should do is embrace the complexity, grapple with all pieces of it, and work toward a solution that encompasses it all, because that is the only solution that will truly be just and honourable.

Every element of the manipulated story is true in some way - it is true that Israeli military forces rescued a Muslim hostage, it is true that he was treated by Jewish doctors, it is true that he holds multiple identities - an Israeli citizen, a Palestinian, an Arab, Muslim, Bedouin and that it is for him and him only to decide how to identify within a state in which he is a minority. It is true that he was friendly with a prime minister largely believed to be abandoning the hostages and who leads a government fast-tracking demolitions in Bedouin villages, it is true that his and his family's repeated pleas for Netanyahu to work harder for a hostage deal are minimized in Israeli media. 

When so many truths can exist in the story of one person, when so many conflicting narratives need to be upheld to understand the full picture, it can feel overwhelming. But it is precisely by grappling with it all, by not turning away from any element of the story, even and especially the elements that challenge our biases, that we can see reality for what it truly is and work to shape it into what we wish it to be.

As we inch ever closer toward a year since the brutal Hamas terror attacks of October 7, and a war in Gaza that has taken far too many innocent lives, all we can do is hold the complexity closer. Struggle with it harder. And know that in the face of many giving up because of this complexity, we will actually choose to fight harder, stand stronger, and choose not a single storyline, but the totality of the narrative.

In morning liturgy, we say "Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam Pokeach Ivrim" - Blessed are You, God, Sovereign of the Universe, Who opens the eyes of the blind.

With these words, we commit to seeing the deeper truths about our identity, our community, our society. We commit to embracing complexity and seeing what is difficult to see. And we commit to doing it every day, and being grateful for it.